Chapter 1331: A Spy in the Fortress?

Banners had already been planted at the landing site. Several Jianzhou Jurchen officers, attended by their guards, donned their cotton armor. Once fully arrayed, they advanced toward the Cloud Mountain Trading Post's fortress under the escort of their guards, halting three hundred paces away and coming no closer.

Zhao Song had already led his troops back into the fortress. The Cloud Mountain Trading Post's staff were all mobilized at this moment; they took up weapons and manned the fortress walls. The moment the main force had fully withdrawn inside, they sealed the main gate shut.

From the founding of Zhao Jin's force until now, every time the Zhao Family Army had gone to war, they had returned in triumph. Officers and soldiers alike had always been brimming with high spirits. But this time, that was gone. It was not exactly lingering shock, yet everyone felt the drained exhaustion of a narrow escape. The Tatar slaves were truly fierce. Faced with the Zhao Family Army's ferocious and valiant charge, not only did they not collapse and scatter, they swiftly organized a counterattack. Without suitable terrain to form a pike square, without enough firelocks to provide firepower, and without cannons to break the enemy apart, this battle had been fought at a brutal cost.

The first company, led by Zhao Song, had twenty-six men killed on the spot and over ten lightly wounded. The remaining companies suffered a total of thirty-five dead and seven lightly wounded. This was not because the rear units failed to fight hard, but because the cramped terrain of the coastal beach meant that, most of the time, only one company could deploy in a line. Zhao Song's first company had always been at the front, and for most of the battle just now, they alone had borne the brunt.

The losses were not limited to the dead and lightly wounded. Seventeen severely wounded men had not returned, and in a battle like this, it was unlikely they ever would.

Zhao Song's face was dark. In the battle just now, the Zhao Family Army had lost nearly an entire company, with casualties reaching one-fifth. The Zhao Family Army had never fought a battle like this. The one stroke of luck was that only six firelock soldiers were killed or wounded, because the pikemen had protected them well.

Luo Chen's face had gone completely black. He was even more agitated than Zhao Song, but his mind was not on the casualties. He simply asked in a low voice, "Company Commander, at least six firelocks and several dozen sets of armor were left out there. If the Tatars take them and copy them, that will be a great calamity for our Zhao Family Army. What do we do? When will reinforcements arrive? Can reinforcements even get here?"

At this, Luo Chen was losing his composure somewhat, his questions coming nonstop. Zhao Song slammed his hand heavily against the parapet and said in a muffled voice, "Lord Jin has said that the foundation of the Zhao Family Army does not lie in firearms and armor. Even if others possess them, they could never surpass Xuzhou. Besides, they might be able to copy a small number of these armor and firearms, but they have no way to mass-produce them. There is no need to worry about this."

With the power of Xuzhou, the empire's center of coal and iron, even the initial manufacture of firearms and armor could not be done in large quantities. It was only after Zhu Xingshu brought hydraulic machinery and the artisans' workshop greatly increased wrought iron output that armor and firearms could be rapidly issued to the entire army. The Jianzhou Jurchens had no way of achieving this.

On the side of Pi Island's port and docks, things had grown considerably quieter. The main Jianzhou Jurchen force that had landed was already advancing north. The thousand or so men left behind stood guard on one side while clearing the battlefield on the other. The Jianzhou Jurchen soldiers had suffered even heavier casualties. The lightly wounded went without saying; the severely wounded merely lay there shrieking and wailing, their breaths growing weaker and weaker.

As for the handling of the severely wounded, the Jianzhou Jurchens had no good method either; they simply granted a quick end. Zhao Song watched with considerable tension, terrified that some Zhao Family Army soldier might be captured alive and then tortured for information. But the battle just now, though small in scale, had been exceptionally savage. No one had held back. With the battlefield only being cleared now after all this time, those who could still be alive were indeed very few.

After the corpses were piled together, the Jurchen detachment left behind moved a little closer to the Cloud Mountain Trading Post's fortress, but still cautiously kept beyond the range of the firelocks.

The soldiers on the Cloud Mountain Trading Post fortress wall had already loaded the two light cannons. The "Nest of Fire," assembled from over a dozen firelocks, had also been dragged up. Seeing that the Jianzhou Jurchen soldiers were exactly within cannon range, someone was about to light the fuse and fire.

"Switch the cannonballs to grapeshot. Hold fire until I give the order!" Zhao Song said in a muffled voice.

The clamor and shouting coming from the northern shore grew louder and louder. Hearing this sound, the face of every person inside the fortress was extremely grim.

Pi Island's Dongjiang Garrison boasted a population of tens of thousands, with nearly twenty thousand able-bodied young men. The Jianzhou Jurchens currently on the island numbered only a few thousand, and they had even left a thousand behind to keep an eye on the Cloud Mountain Trading Post's fortress. Yet Zhao Song knew very well that these three or four thousand Jianzhou Jurchen troops were more than enough to utterly rout the entire Dongjiang Garrison.

The soldiers and civilians of the Dongjiang Garrison indeed harbored a bone-deep hatred for the Jianzhou Eight Banners and wished to stay and fight to the death for revenge. But they had, after all, fled all the way here from the Liao Garrison. The sea surrounding Pi Island was their shelter. It was precisely because they were isolated out at sea that they could feel at ease. Now that the Jianzhou Jurchens had landed, that shelter was gone. Their army's morale would likely collapse immediately.

"Company Commander, you take the men and leave by ship first. Our two ships can at least carry two companies away. Go back and request reinforcements." Fear had already appeared on Luo Chen's face, but the words he spoke were still surprising.

A bitter smile appeared on Zhao Song's face. He said in a muffled voice, "Old Luo, I know you mean well for me, thinking that since I am a member of the Zhao family, you must preserve my life at all costs. But you still don't know Lord Jin's temperament. If I were the first to leave, I would certainly face military law. As the commanding officer, fleeing in the face of battle means losing my head for sure. For others, there might be extenuating circumstances, but for a member of the Zhao family, it is not allowed."

"Company Commander, if this goes on, we're finished. Once the Dongjiang Garrison is crushed, the Tatars will drive the captives from Pi Island to attack us. No matter how well-fortified our position here is, it can't hold against thousands or tens of thousands charging at us. What do we do? Company Commander, Old Luo here already has a son. At your age, wealth and honor still lie ahead of you. You can't end it here!" Luo Chen spoke with genuine urgency.

This time, there was no smile on Zhao Song's face. He only said with resolution, "There is no Zhao Family Army soldier who flees in the face of battle."

Luo Chen was just about to speak when he heard an angry shout from inside the fortress, followed by a commotion. Both Luo Chen and Zhao Song were greatly alarmed. Could something be wrong inside the fortress as well?

"Seize him!" "A spy!"

The commotion was quickly quelled. An outsider had been caught inside the fortress. No matter how orderly the retreat, it was impossible to account for everything. When they returned, everyone was still in shock. Now that they had recovered, in such a small circle composed entirely of people from the Xuzhou system, discovering an outsider was easy.

"Company Commander, this man calls himself Zheng Xiao'er. He claims to be a commoner of the Dongjiang Garrison, assigned to stand guard on the eastern shore. He says he took advantage of the chaos just now to flee inside with us," a squad leader came over to report.

The faces of Zhao Song, Luo Chen, and the reporting squad leader all looked grim. The fighting outside had been so desperate, the losses so great, and yet a Pi Island commoner had managed to slip in during the chaos.

"Lord Jin is truly wise! No wonder Lord Jin insisted that even the hired help at the Pi Island trading post must be of Xuzhou origin," Luo Chen remarked with a sigh.

Even the most junior staff of the Pi Island Cloud Mountain Trading Post were from Xuzhou, or were non-Liaodong people who had spent more than four years in the refugee farmsteads. With such backgrounds, the possibility of infiltration by Pi Island affiliates or Jianzhou Jurchen spies was completely cut off. It was the same now. In the chaos of war, this Zheng Xiao'er had been discovered in just the time it takes to burn a stick of incense.

"This humble one is also willing to fight the Tatars to the death! Give me a weapon, I am willing to fight to the death!" Zheng Xiao'er, who had been seized below, shouted loudly.

Although the soldiers and staff inside the trading post fortress were annoyed, they did not treat him roughly. After all, everyone shared a common enemy. Moreover, under questioning, it turned out that this Zheng Xiao'er had dared to charge the Jurchen army formation at the risk of his own life earlier. That courage was admirable.

Once he understood the situation, Zhao Song paid no more attention to it. Instead, he frowned and looked north, even though the mountains and highlands blocked his view of the situation there.

"Old Luo, the men we sent to deliver messages still haven't returned, and the Dongjiang Garrison hasn't sent anyone to help. Has something happened?" Zhao Song asked in a deep voice.

Without waiting for Luo Chen to answer, Zhao Song gritted his teeth and supplied the answer himself: "Is that Mao Wenlong afraid of affecting army morale, wanting to repel the force on the northern shore before dealing with the one coming from the east? Did he simply detain our men?"

"Company Commander, I know a thing or two about government troops. They might have just run away directly. As for whether they're scheming something else, I don't know. These military officers of the Great Ming are no good at fighting, but each one has more schemes than the next!" Luo Chen's expression was equally grim.

From the moment Zhao Song led the companies to block the Jianzhou troops' landing, apart from those Pi Island young men on the shore who disregarded their own lives, not a single person had come from the northern shore. Even the men they had sent over there had vanished without a trace.

Zhao Song muttered a curse, then turned and shouted down, "Start the fires and cook! The hard days are still ahead of us!"

Someone below loudly acknowledged the order. Everyone's face was grim, but after long training and accustomed to following rules, they all knew what needed to be done at this moment. The squad leaders, company commanders, and soldiers were now left only with the grief of mourning their fallen comrades, but not with despair or hopelessness.

That Zheng Xiao'er was placed in a corner. No one paid any attention to him, barehanded and in tattered clothes. Unexpectedly, a trading post staff member brought him a flatbread. There was still some morning meat broth left, and a bowl of that was ladled out for him too. When the warm food was brought before him, Zheng Xiao'er's eyes widened, his face full of utter disbelief.

Commoners not part of the Dongjiang Garrison could not even get their fill of bran and husks, yet here there were grain flatbreads and meat broth. Had these people from Xuzhou descended from the heavens? Zheng Xiao'er was stunned for a moment, then burst into tears. The staff member who gave him the food was baffled, thinking he had done something wrong.

The scene stirred emotion, but many of the Zhao Family Army soldiers and Cloud Mountain Trading Post personnel who had come to Pi Island were of refugee origin themselves. They had seen far more horrific hellscapes, so seeing this did not cause any ripples in their hearts. The staff member, however, seeing Zheng Xiao'er wolfing down the food while crying, could not help but say, "Eat slowly, there's more here. Don't choke yourself."

From the moment the Cloud Mountain Trading Post's Pi Island fortress was established, it had been stocked with sufficient supplies. The entire complement of personnel could hold out on these supplies for two months. Within that time, reinforcements would surely arrive.

Many people, reminded by this statement of the ample stores within the fortress, found their expressions relaxing somewhat. The atmosphere inside the fortress eased slightly.

But this ease was quickly shattered by the sounds coming from the north. Suddenly, it was as if a great wind had arisen from that direction, but with a moment's discernment, one could tell it was the shouting of countless thousands. The birds on Pi Island's mountains were startled into flight by this wave of sound. They had already been disturbed once by the passing Jianzhou Jurchen troops, and now they took flight again. The soldiers on watch atop the fortress wall could even see small animals fleeing from the woods.

Thank you, everyone.