Chapter 1332: After Learning the News

Zhao Song's face drained of color the moment he heard that voice, and the face of every man inside the fortress changed with it.

"The Tatars have already crossed the mountain — now it's a two-pronged pincer. Dongjiang Garrison has been routed. No — Dongjiang Garrison has been annihilated!"

Even without seeing it firsthand, Zhao Song and his subordinates could picture the scene: just as they were throwing everything into holding off the enemy to the north, enemy troops appeared behind them. This clamor wasn't even the sound of battle — the moment the Dongjiang Garrison soldiers saw the Jianzhou Jurchens appear at their backs, the whole situation collapsed completely.

Zhao Song strode swiftly down from the wall, went straight up to the bewildered Zheng Xiao'er, and asked urgently, "Pidao is finished now, and Dongjiang Garrison is finished too. If you want to stay alive, the only way is to fight the Tatars to the death. Do you want to save more common folk? Do you want to fight the Tatars? Then get out there and gather people in — stick close to my position, and you'll still have a chance to fight!"

The words came out jumbled and disjointed, but Zheng Xiao'er understood the meaning. His expression, however, showed hesitation. Resigning himself to death a moment ago was one thing, but now that he was in a temporarily safe place, going back out on a near-certain-death mission was something he couldn't quite steel himself to do.

"I'll take men and go with you. Lad, if you don't want your fellow villagers to die, if you don't want them slaving like beasts of burden for the Tatars, then come out with me!" Zhao Song's face had turned utterly ferocious as he spoke.

Zheng Xiao'er was stunned for a beat, then caught on. He dropped straight to his knees and said, "This humble one is willing to go out with you, sir!"

"Battalion Commander — whether your surname is Zhao or not, you cannot go out! This is the rule of our Zhao Family Army. If the commanding officer leaves this position, who takes charge and gives orders? Damn it, this is military law too!" Luo Chen bellowed.

Zhao Song shot Luo Chen a glare, then turned to the company standing by on alert and said, "Third Company, fifty men, follow this lad to round up able-bodied men. Bring back as many as you can. Anyone who blocks your gathering, or anyone you gather who refuses to follow orders — kill them on the spot!"

After the order was given, for a moment there was no response. Normally when an order was issued, the men receiving it would answer at once, but now there was hesitation. Zhao Song first froze, then flew into a rage and roared down at them, "One fight and you've lost your nerve? Fine, you lot huddle inside — I'll go out myself!"

Just as he finished roaring, the Third Company commander snapped out of it too, his face flushing deep red as he shouted back, "Rest assured, Battalion Commander! Your subordinate will take five squads and carry this out at once!"

"Our First Company fights and bleeds at the front, and you lot cowering in the rear are scared? Have the dogs eaten your guts?" someone from the First Company drawled with dripping sarcasm. Every man in the Third Company went red to the ears — that moment of hesitation was impossible to explain away.

"Third Company isn't afraid to die! The men of Xuzhou aren't afraid to die!" The Third Company commander looked ready to explode.

"Good that you're not afraid to die. Getting the job done is what matters. Not being afraid to die doesn't mean I'm sending you to your deaths — if you spot Tatars, get back here fast. Living men are useful." Zhao Song added in a low, gruff warning.

Despite that warning, Zhao Song's expression remained extremely grim. He understood the reason for that moment of hesitation. The Zhao Family Army had fought tough battles before, but never one this brutal. From top to bottom, the Zhao Family Army had believed they were invincible, that they held overwhelming superiority, and they'd always had the wind at their backs. Faced with a setback like this, they couldn't quite recover their bearings for a moment.

But there was no time to dwell on it now. Over a thousand Jianzhou Jurchen soldiers were still watching from not far away. Zhao Song had to lead the rest of the battalion out to provide cover — otherwise, those fifty men wouldn't be able to accomplish a thing.

"Haul the Nest of Wasps out — hold the cannon fire until my order!" He gave his instructions before departing. The fortress gates swung open again, and Zhao Song led several companies back out.

Although the Jianzhou Jurchen troops opposite outnumbered them more than two to one, the fight just now had left a deep impression on them. Seeing this strange force take the field again, every one of them was on extreme edge. The Jianzhou Jurchen soldiers were no strangers to bitter combat either, but the thought of losing a batch of men to gunfire before they could even close in made them all inwardly uneasy.

The Eight Banners soldiers below might hesitate, but the company commander left in charge and the platoon commanders under him dared not waver. If military law was enforced, heads would roll, and their families would be enslaved too. They had to advance no matter what, and so they too began slowly pressing forward.

The Jurchen troops left behind noticed three two-wheeled carts being pushed to the front. The carts had box-like bodies, resembling the Ming army's Nest of Wasps, but instead of rockets, they held only rows of tubes. Behind these three carts, the Xuzhou arquebusiers were already in position, drawn up in neat, orderly ranks.

By this point, the Jianzhou Jurchen troops had still not stepped into the dock area. Though their grasp of the Zhao Family Army's tactics was still hazy, anyone with battlefield experience could see that this stretch of ground was flat and wide open — perfectly suited to the Zhao Family Army's way of fighting.

To move fast, the fifty men of the Third Company wore only breastplates and helmets, advancing light. Together with Zheng Xiao'er, they ran swiftly toward the island's interior, while the force led by Zhao Song held its ground.

When the Jianzhou Jurchens saw that only fifty men had run out, they did not pursue. Fifty men couldn't change the course of the battle — on the northern shore, tens of thousands were locked in slaughter. They simply maintained their standoff with Zhao Song and his men.

"The Tatars aren't in a hurry. They must be thinking, once the main forces from both sides link up, they'll swallow us whole then!" Zhao Song said, his face grim.

Once he'd confirmed that the fifty-one men sent out wouldn't be overtaken, Zhao Song led his troops in a slow withdrawal back into the fortress. The Jianzhou Jurchen troops left on guard there also showed good sense and returned to their original position — they still had quite a few boats to watch over.

Zhao Song assigned men specifically to keep watch on the approach route, then stood on the fortress watchtower observing the docks. Fort Yunxing had been built precisely to secure the Zhao Family Army's presence on Pidao, but no one had expected danger to come so quickly. The fortress therefore had another critical function: controlling Pidao's docks.

For Xuzhou's commercial strategy and long-term maritime ambitions, the existence of Pidao's harbor was extremely important. This fortress was meant to keep a firm grip on the harbor and docks — even the caliber of the fortress's cannons had been chosen with this in mind.

"Old Luo, everything stored on the docks, everything piled up there — we've got it all in the ledgers, right? Bring the ledgers over, let me take a look." Zhao Song said to the deeply worried Luo Chen.

The Zhao Family Army soldier sent to deliver the news to the northern-shore battlefield had arrived long ago. When he got there, what he saw was countless rafts paddling over from the mainland.

Although this Zhao Family Army soldier knew that Dongjiang Garrison was far stronger than the Jurchens, the scene before him told him their odds of victory were slim.

The Jianzhou Jurchens had thrown everything they had onto the rafts, while Dongjiang Garrison had no more than two thousand men manning boats and steering vessels. The Jianzhou Jurchens even held the numerical advantage. Dongjiang Garrison had few decent ships. More crucially, Dongjiang Garrison's official troops only held the advantage at sea — once those Jianzhou Jurchens made landfall at any cost and formed up for battle, Pidao's soldiers simply couldn't hold them off.

There were plenty of refugees and common folk scattered across Pidao, but in this time of looming battle, they had all been organized — either to transport supplies and military provisions, or to stand by as reserves. They were forbidden to leave their assigned areas or enter the battlefield without permission.

The Zhao Family Army soldier who'd come to deliver the report, along with the Dongjiang Garrison men on duty there, understood the gravity of the situation. They didn't shout out the news that the Jianzhou Jurchens had landed on the other side; instead, they requested a direct audience with Mao Wenlong to report it.

Messengers running back from the eastern shore, the southern shore, and the high ground to deliver warnings were likely more than just one group, but the Zhao Family Army had reacted the fastest and arrived here the earliest.

The Dongjiang Garrison commanders, who were anxiously watching the battle unfolding at sea, immediately received the messenger. They reluctantly complied with his request to dismiss the attendants. By now, several other waves of messengers had already arrived — even without hearing anything yet, the Dongjiang Garrison commanders were beginning to have grim suspicions.

"... The Tatars who landed on the southeast side number at least four thousand — five thousand is possible too..."

"... My battalion commander has already led troops out to block them. He requests that Commander-in-Chief Mao send reinforcements there to drive the Tatars back..."

The bodyguards and attendants had been dismissed, but Chen Jisheng, Li Jiucheng, and the other core figures of Dongjiang Garrison were still present. When they heard this news, every face drained of color. Mao Wenlong's body swayed — he staggered a step before steadying himself. He did not speak at once, but instead looked out toward the sea, where the battle had already begun.

The naval engagement was not repeating the pattern of the previous days. The Jianzhou Jurchens setting out from the land had a very clear objective: make landfall as fast as possible, regardless of losses. The rafts were divided into several groups — some to tie up the fleet, some held in reserve, and the rest making straight for Pidao.

By the most pessimistic estimate of losses, in the end perhaps only two thousand or so Jurchen soldiers would make it onto the island. But everyone knew that if those two thousand Eight Banners troops got ashore and established a foothold, Dongjiang Garrison would have to commit everything it had just to drive them back.

And with the enemy attacking on such a broad front, Dongjiang Garrison's own fleet was stretched too thin to cope. More rafts were slipping through. The ten seagoing ships held in reserve near the shore were already preparing to set sail and join the fight, while the Dongjiang Garrison troops on land stood in tight formation ready to meet the attack. It looked as though they could hold — but all of this was only true if the attack came from one direction alone.

"Old Chen — just as we agreed before — take everyone and get on the ships. Go now!" Mao Wenlong drew a deep breath and gave the order in a heavy voice.

Hearing Mao Wenlong's words, Chen Jisheng and Li Jiucheng first froze, then turned solemn. Mao Wenlong didn't let them speak, just continued, "Call up the men we settled on beforehand and get on board right now. Don't go back for your women — the way things stand, we can't worry about these fleeting affairs!"

The several Zhao Family Army soldiers who'd come to report were somewhat baffled, and the Dongjiang Garrison men who'd accompanied them were no better off. They couldn't make sense of Mao Wenlong's response at all. Shouldn't he be deploying troops to set up a blocking force, or sending men to reinforce the Zhao Family Army? What were these baffling words about?

Chen Jisheng and Li Jiucheng's faces had already turned extremely grim. Given their rank, they should have been at the front, each commanding their own battalion and overseeing the fight. They'd been summoned here for orders precisely because the entire Jurchen army was attacking — and instead, this was what they heard.

Grim as their faces were, they exchanged glances, then each looked at Mao Wenlong, and both turned and left. Dongjiang Garrison Vice General Chen Jisheng took a few steps, then looked back and said, "Commander Mao, you'd better come quickly too!"

Thank you, everyone.