Chapter 1340: Day Twenty-One

A crow flapped its wings and took flight. The weather had already turned cold, and food was not so easy to find. The crops in the fields had all been harvested clean, with nothing left behind. In the past, the crow would have flown to a town or village, where there was garbage to pick through. But this place, Goryeo, was too impoverished—even edible refuse was scarce. In earlier times, the crow would have flown west, or risked heading south.

But now there was no need. The crow knew of a food source nearby. That place was full of food, full of flesh and blood. The only drawback was that one could not feed in peace. After just a few pecks, someone would drive you away...

Around the Yunshan Trading Post fortress on Pi Island, it was very quiet. The outermost low wall of earth and timber was already battered beyond recognition. A few dozen paces further in, a wall had been roughly thrown up using mud and corpses, rising to the height of a man.

Moving further inside, broken walls stood scattered here and there. At first glance, they seemed the result of destruction, but a closer look revealed they were deliberately placed. If the enemy broke through the outermost low wall and charged in, the defenders would not immediately collapse; instead, they would rely on these low wall fortifications to continue blocking and inflicting casualties.

Further in still, there was another wall. This one was slightly taller and fully intact, with a trench outside it. Further inside were a jumble of shacks. Some could hardly even be called shacks—they were cobbled together from wrecked warehouses or whatever refuse lay outside.

At the very center stood the fortress's stone walls. Compared to the shabbiness of the outer rings, the stone walls of the fortress were still intact, but they no longer bore their former cleanliness. The wall faces were scarred with the marks of blades and arrows, and stained with blood that had already turned black.

The bloodstains were not only on the wall faces. Every inch of ground, from the fortress to the defensive positions, had been soaked in blood, turning an unnatural purplish-black hue.

Outside that low wall piled from corpses and earth, charred black bodies lay strewn in every direction. The positions inside the wall were somewhat better. But on the sea beyond the fortress, many corpses floated scattered and adrift. Seabirds swooped down to peck at them, sea fish gnawed—a sight too horrible to behold. One could not even tell they had once been human bodies.

Besides the floating corpses, there were also the wrecked remains of seagoing vessels resting against the shore. People were continuously hauling the broken ship timbers out of the water and piling them on the bank.

Between the perimeter wall of the fortress positions and the main enemy force lay a gap of over four hundred paces. This stretch of over four hundred paces held nothing but corpses. It was very quiet. No one probed, no one formed ranks. Everyone was quietly busy with their own tasks. Cooking smoke rose from both camps—more from the Jianzhou Jurchens' side, less from the Yunshan Trading Post fortress's side.

On the Yunshan Trading Post side, what stewed in the great cauldrons were fish and crabs. The broth was milky white, its aroma assailing the nostrils. The cook, his face full of disgust, ladled out a bowl. It held a good amount of fish meat. He handed it to a nearby soldier. The soldier, nauseated to the point of retching, waved his hand and said, "How much human flesh has this thing eaten? I won't eat people!"

Before the words had even faded, someone struck him hard across the back with a spear shaft. Zhao Song's hoarse voice followed: "If you don't eat this, where will you get the strength to fight the Tartars? If you won't eat fish, do you mean to go eat people instead?"

The soldier glanced at the sea surface where corpses were floating, his features twisting as if they would knot together. Yet still, gritting his teeth, he gulped down the fish soup in large mouthfuls.

Zhao Song walked up to the great cauldron and also accepted a bowl of fish soup. Smelling that fresh, savory aroma, he only felt his stomach churn, a nausea rising from his very core. But he clenched his jaw and still drank it down in big gulps, carefully chewing the fish meat.

These fish, shrimp, and crabs were all caught from the seas right beside the fortress. There had never been such bountiful catches before; now they had suddenly become plentiful. Everyone knew in their hearts the reason—it was connected to the corpses floating in the sea.

From the moment the Jianzhou Jurchen troops landed on Pi Island, routed the Dongjiang Garrison, and then besieged the Yunshan Trading Post fortress, twenty-one days had now passed. Facing the assaults of over ten thousand Eight Banners soldiers and nearly twenty thousand Pi Island captives, the Zhao Family Army's Pi Island soldiers' battalion and the four thousand able-bodied young men they had taken in had held out until now.

In the attack and defense across this uneven island terrain, numerical superiority could not be fully exploited. Even with a thousand or ten thousand men, you could only fight on a few paths. A road of a given width could only accommodate so many men. When it came to face-to-face combat, at times like this, the Zhao Family Army's firearms proved immensely useful.

After the Pi Island captives, who had never experienced Xuzhou firearms, were bombarded by arquebuses and cannons, no matter how desperate they were, no matter how ruthless the overseer troops behind them were, there was no stopping their rout. This even sparked several mutinies, throwing the Jianzhou Jurchen overseers behind them into utter disarray.

Later, they began felling trees to make large wooden shields and advanced under their cover. They also conscripted the Dongjiang Garrison captives on the spot to serve as overseer troops. Yet the effect remained poor. If the wooden shields were too heavy, they could not be carried. If too light, they could block arquebus fire, but within a hundred paces they were useless against cannons. A two-pound cannonball could easily smash through a wooden shield, sending splinters flying to wound and kill. At closer range, even a nest-of-bees volley gun could punch through such protection—after all, the firepower was simply too dense.

Even if they endured the cannons and nest-of-bees guns by sheer grit and charged to the front, the large wooden shields could block the front but not the flanking fire from the corners of the defensive positions. The only outcome was rout.

But by this stage of the fight, the Yunshan Trading Post fortress already had to ration its firepower. Though ammunition was ample, killing the same number of enemies now cost far more than when they had no large shields. Yet the Jianzhou Jurchens and their captives did not know this. In this battle, not only did Dongjiang Garrison captives flee directly into the fortress, but the conscripted local overseer troops even clashed directly in open combat with the Jianzhou Jurchen soldiers, giving them a massive headache.

Still, the Jianzhou Jurchens did not retreat. The will of both the chief commander and the deputy commander was resolute, so the fighting had to continue like this. No matter how much the captives fought among themselves or mutinied, they could not change the overall situation in the end. They were still driven forward like this, expending the Yunshan Trading Post's ammunition, draining the stamina of the soldiers and able-bodied young men, and constantly whittling away the lives of the defenders. The Jianzhou Jurchen side could afford such losses, after all; this side could not accompany them in this war of attrition.

Compared to the deep anxiety of the Zhao Family Army on Pi Island, the nobles of the Jianzhou Jurchens were equally unwilling to continue. They had captured so many captives, originally solid wealth and benefits—slaves to farm their land, herd their livestock, fell their trees, and raise their fish. Yet they were being wasted here on Pi Island. Moreover, the Jurchens of each Niru had already suffered considerable losses. Replenishing these would truly not be easy. The Great Khan's own Two Yellow Banners could be supplemented with Wild Jurchens; the Plain Red Banner was not high in the pecking order.

Some company commanders had discussed the matter in private and sent word to Liaoyang. This Donggo Hohori was already a has-been, a man on his way to death. Why drag everyone through this bitter struggle? The Fourth Beile, Hong Taiji, was wise and considerate of everyone's hardships. He would surely order this ungrateful Donggo clan to withdraw. That Bushan, currently in the limelight, would likely be frozen out as well.

Unexpectedly, the reply came swiftly. Along with the reply came three thousand Jurchen soldiers of the Bordered Blue Banner. The Fourth Beile Hong Taiji's meaning was very clear: keep fighting. They must thoroughly clear out the remnants on Pi Island and ensure there was no threat whatsoever to their flank.

Once matters reached this stage, no one dared voice any complaints or doubts. The Bordered Blue Banner was under Amin's command. To be able to mobilize this force belonging to Šurhaci's line meant that the Great Khan Nurhaci himself must have intervened.

The man leading the troops was also very explicit. The Ming realm was now in turmoil, the Northern Metropolitan Region was empty, and troops were constantly being drawn from Liaoxi to return and reinforce the capital. Moreover, according to reports from spies in Liaoxi, the Wu and Zu families there were all in a state of panic. The Great Khan and the several Beiles had conferred and planned to seize this opportunity to completely sweep through Liaoxi and march into the passes.

To march into the passes and scheme against the Ming realm, they absolutely had to concentrate all their strength and could not afford any hidden worries. The Pi Island Dongjiang Garrison had brought far too much trouble to the Great Jin in recent years. As long as the Dongjiang remnants remained on Pi Island, there was a risk that the Han people of Liaodong could be incited to revolt. Then they would be unable to concentrate their full strength.

Mao Wenlong of the Dongjiang Garrison was a hidden danger. These death-defying Xuzhou men were also a hidden danger. They had to be eradicated for good.

Upon hearing the plan to march into the passes and scheme against the Ming realm, the morale of the Jianzhou Jurchen troops was ignited. Advancing west from the bitter cold of the White Mountains and Black Waters, they had conquered the Ming's Liao Garrison and reaped riches beyond anything they had ever dared imagine. They had seized so much fertile land and submissive population. The prosperity within the passes surpassed that of the Liao Garrison a hundredfold. If they marched there, how much wealth and rank would each man gain? How many benefits?

Everyone also understood the cause and effect. Only by thoroughly sweeping Pi Island clean would they have the chance to follow the army on the western expedition against the Great Ming. Otherwise, there would surely be punishments for everyone to endure. Then they might as well go all out and fight!

In the face of the now-serious Jianzhou troops, Goryeo's neutrality was a joke. Centered on Goryeo's Tieshan Commandery, the impoverished Goryeo scraped together provisions and supplies to "comfort the army," and also imposed a blockade on the Zhao Family Army's seagoing vessels.

But the coastline was long and winding, and it was impossible for the Jianzhou Jurchens to penetrate too deeply. Those two seagoing vessels not only delivered supplies but even brought a batch of weapons. Without these resupplies, they could never have held out until now.

However, the Jianzhou Jurchens would not overlook this obvious vulnerability. Even though they were not skilled in naval warfare, when those two ships docked to unload cargo for the second time, they surrounded the area with over twenty large vessels. And they did not attempt any boarding combat; they simply piled up firewood and kindling, set them ablaze, and mutually destroyed the ships, cutting off this external source of supplies and news. After that, it became a slow war of attrition.

No matter how ample the ammunition, counting the nest-of-bees guns, it was only enough for fewer than three hundred arquebuses and two light cannons. Under the constant assaults, it was quickly exhausted.

What surprised the Jianzhou Jurchens was that these Xuzhou men's arquebusiers not only knew how to fire their weapons, but were also quite capable when it came to hand-to-hand combat with long weapons and naked blades. Moreover, the Pi Island able-bodied young men taken in by the Yunshan Trading Post were also growing quickly, becoming more and more proficient in stabbing with long spears and performing passable drills with wooden guns and the like.

In the end, the captives became unusable. Even though many were still alive, the moment they were driven forward, it would trigger a mutiny. They would even fight desperately to kill their way back midway, or once inside, they would immediately try to surrender and become a strength for the other side. After all, charging in meant only a dead end, something no one was willing to accept.

If they were unwilling to fight, then the Jianzhou Jurchen soldiers would go themselves, fighting face to face. But once on the battlefield, the officers and soldiers of the Jianzhou Jurchens all found the fighting a massive headache. In the past, when clashing with Ming troops, they often only needed to hold for a brief moment before sweeping through like a crushing force, destroying everything. But now, the opponent's tenacity was not the slightest bit inferior; they fought to the death and would not retreat.

Don't worry, it won't break off. Thank you, everyone.