Chapter 1620: Besiege the City, Strike the Reinforcements

Seeing the enemy retreating and their formation already beginning to loosen, the Great Han army also ceased their musket bombardment, reformed into the square formations they had just been in, and then continued advancing under the officers' orders.

Their pace was the same as before, not fast, but each step seemed to trample upon the heart, filling men with terror.

As one side advanced and the other retreated, the Great Han army's speed never changed, but the domain soldiers retreated faster and faster. Soon, some could no longer endure the pressure brought by that wall of red flame opposite them and turned to flee.

The samurai within the formation tried desperately to stop them at first, even cutting down a few who led the flight, but their efforts quickly lost effect. As the Great Han formation pressed forward step by step, fear of the Great Han army finally overwhelmed fear of the domain's samurai. These men lost all will to resist and almost simultaneously began running to the rear.

The sight of over a thousand men routing backward was horrifying. The samurai now had no way to suppress them; many were even swept along and fled together with them.

"Bastards... bastards..." Watching from the rear, Fukuoka Domain Lord Kuroda Tadayuki blazed with fury, brandishing his wakizashi and cursing furiously. No one knew whether he was cursing his own death-fearing domain soldiers or the Great Han army.

Yet even he had no way to suppress these fleeing domain soldiers now. He had to accept the fact that his main force, once it clashed with the Great Han, had also shattered at a single touch. His main force now numbered only a few hundred men. Where should he go from here?

"My Lord, we should leave this place and go to Nagasaki. This place can no longer be held." A loyal chief retainer drew close to his side and said, "Things having come to this, staking everything on one more battle is meaningless — it would be like throwing eggs against a rock. While we still have some troops, we must retreat quickly! These troops are useless here, but once we reach the Elder, they will have value. And... my Lord, think about it — if our domain soldiers are all spent, how will you face the Elder then?!"

Though the retainer did not say it outright, Kuroda Tadayuki immediately understood his meaning. Since this place clearly could not be held, it was better to take as many subordinates as possible. Before the Elder, troops meant status. If his soldiers were all spent here, how would a lone man without followers ever be taken seriously by the Elder?

Besides, what meaning was there in staying? He himself was afraid too — afraid of that moving red wall before him. He found himself utterly helpless.

He made up his mind at once, then urgently spurred his mount to turn around.

"Go! We go!" At his command, the domain samurai around him also wheeled their horses around and rapidly withdrew from the battlefield.

In that moment, a sudden clarity flashed through Kuroda Tadayuki's heart: all the glory and splendor his family had accumulated through the Warring States era had, in this instant, been utterly wiped away.

What would the men of the Warring States generation think, seeing today's crushing defeat? The thought flickered past, and he dared not dwell on it any longer. He only focused on raising his horsewhip and desperately urging his mount forward.

The domain lord's flight became the final mark of the domain army's collapse. Everyone scrambled over one another to flee, all will to resist gone. A few even knelt on the ground, begging the enemy for mercy.

At this moment, seeing that the reinforcing enemy formation had once again been routed, the Great Han army immediately shifted formation and launched a fresh charge. The soldiers with long spears rushed forward at top speed, preparing to pursue the enemy — though their numbers were far fewer than the enemy's.

When they saw the red-coated Han soldiers charging, the already fleeing domain soldiers panicked even more. They ran faster and faster. Countless men collided with one another in their carelessness, then shouted and cursed at each other. Some were even knocked down and lay on the ground, trampled over by countless feet, letting out piercing groans.

The Great Han spearmen soon charged into their formation, then pursued the tail of the enemy ranks. Those lying on the ground or too slow to flee were killed one after another. The others had no heart to resist; instead, they ran forward with all their might, scrambling with their former comrades for a chance to escape.

On the high ground of the Great Han's original position, the senior officers of the Han army at Hakata Bay had watched the entire brief assault and its results through their telescopes.

"That was an easy victory indeed!" Wang Changguo could not help exclaiming. "I never imagined the shogunate troops behind the wall would be so incapable of fighting!"

Though he had originally been quite confident in the Great Han officers and soldiers, he had always felt the opposing domain soldiers should have been able to put up some resistance — after all, they had the advantage in numbers. He had not expected the Great Han army to pierce through the enemy's defensive line so easily, turning a positional battle into a rout.

"It was within expectations all along. How could these Japanese shogunate troops possibly be a match for our Great Han's battle-hardened elite? With just a slight shock, they were bound to break." Regiment Commander Bi Su answered with a smile, still holding his telescope. "So you see, Marshal Zhao's earlier deployment was a bit too conservative. We clearly could have routed them on both paths."

"Then how does the Regiment Commander plan to proceed now?" Wang Changguo asked in a low voice.

"Continue the pursuit, of course, and smash them thoroughly. Should we give them a chance to catch their breath and regroup to cause our army trouble?" Bi Su answered without hesitation. "We should pursue now, rout this enemy force completely, and prepare for the coming operations."

"But that would differ from Marshal Zhao's earlier deployment, wouldn't it?" Wang Changguo was still somewhat hesitant. "Besides, if we leave too few troops here, that might not be good either."

"Marshal Zhao's deployment is only a general plan; it was never meant to bind us absolutely. As Regiment Commander, as the highest commander here, I inherently have the authority to adapt our strategy to local conditions. How can we rigidly adhere to convention and sit idly by, letting the chance for battle slip away? If we hadn't probed them today, how could we have shattered these shogunate troops in one stroke?" Bi Su disagreed. "As for this place, the Advisor need not worry. You've seen the shogunate troops' strength yourself — it truly leaves much to be desired. As long as we can leave a few hundred men here, with the gunboats supporting us, holding this place is no problem at all. Right now, they should be living in constant terror of our army's edge — why would we need to worry about them raiding us? With us here, this place is as solid as Mount Tai. I wager they wouldn't dare!"

Wang Changguo thought in silence for a moment. He did indeed feel Bi Su's reasoning was sound. Most crucially, he, like Bi Su, was wholeheartedly determined to have the Liaodong Army earn more merit — even if it meant taking on additional tasks.

"Still, let's not let the men go too far. That way, if Marshal Zhao suddenly summons us, we can quickly assemble and send reinforcements." In the end, he said in a low voice.

Bi Su naturally understood the implication, so he nodded readily. "That goes without saying. How could we make things difficult for Marshal Zhao? The pursuing soldiers will all be kept under restraint, ready to withdraw on command at any moment. We will never delay the greater mission!"

If no request for reinforcements came, he intended to let these soldiers sweep the area freely.

"Good, then let's do it this way." Wang Changguo no longer insisted on his own view. "I only hope our officers and soldiers can continue to advance bravely, making the enemy howl like ghosts and wail like wolves, and bring honor to Marshal Zhao and Grand Marshal Chen."

Once the two highest commanders reached a tacit agreement, Bi Su immediately summoned his orderlies and relayed the opinion they had just discussed to them.

"Go quickly. Tell them not to stop. From now on, charge boldly and strike with deadly force — scatter their very souls! No one is to withdraw without my order. We absolutely cannot let this domain force regroup and cause trouble for Marshal Zhao's side again!"

"Yes, sir!" The orderly saluted at once, then turned and left the high ground. Together with several other orderlies, they mounted their horses and galloped swiftly toward the Great Han army in the distance.

After the officers received the pursuit order, the Great Han soldiers, already worked up into high spirits, let out cheers almost simultaneously. Then they immediately adjusted themselves and continued pursuing the domain soldiers who had scattered in all directions.

"What a pity the cavalry hasn't been brought up yet..." Watching his soldiers advance and pursue the domain troops, Bi Su suddenly sighed. "Otherwise, this whole route could have been a harvest, saving us so much trouble."

"The Regiment Commander is right, but there will be a time for the cavalry to harvest sooner or later, won't there? Hahahaha." Wang Changguo burst into loud laughter.

Just as the Great Han army at Hakata Bay forcibly broke through the Fukuoka domain army and routed their resistance, the Great Han army at Nagasaki had also successfully landed outside Nagasaki city early that morning. With the aid of naval gunfire, they had dispersed the shogunate army's harassment and sent over a thousand troops ashore.

Like the deployment at Hakata Bay, the troops landing today also came from the same regiment. They were all troops under Regiment Commander Ma Tongji — the current Provisional Third Regiment of the Japan Expeditionary Army.

Ma Tongji was still very young. Though his skin was somewhat swarthy from years of campaigning abroad, he was lean and robust, with sharply defined features, and was considered one of the handsome men in the army.

Moreover, because he was the eldest son of a noble lord, he had always enjoyed the reliance and trust of his superiors. Coupled with his own determination to excel, he had earned merit continuously over his years of military service and was quickly promoted to the rank of Regiment Commander. Having enjoyed such smooth success since youth, he had naturally developed an arrogant and fierce temperament. And under such a regiment commander, his regiment also considered itself supremely superior, having fought from the north all the way to the south without ever meeting a match — the finest elite of the dynasty.

Nagasaki was the main attack direction for the Great Han army this time, and their regiment was the first to be deployed there. They had all cheered at this, feeling it was recognition from above, and were wholeheartedly determined to display their might before their fellow troops and Marshal Zhao.

So the moment they landed, they wanted to advance boldly and aggressively straight into the interior. It was only because Zhao Song issued a strict order to restrain them that they obediently waited at the landing site for an entire morning, allowing the landing force to build up its strength.

To avoid confusion in command, Zhao Song did not go ashore himself but remained aboard the Songshan to continue directing the naval and land forces. After a morning of reinforcement, the landing force had finally placed nearly all of Ma Tongji's regiment on the front line and occupied a large stretch of coastline.

The shogunate troops in the surrounding area had been dispersed, and a small battery had also been captured by them.

Furthermore, through the efforts of the transport ships and the soldiers on shore, multiple cannons of various types had also been transported ashore, further bolstering the landing force's strength.

Zhao Song and Ma Tongji had both been hoping all along that a shogunate force would rush out from Nagasaki or the interior to engage them, but during their landing, apart from sporadic harassment, there had been no movement from either direction — as if nothing had happened at all.

This eerie silence slightly disappointed Zhao Song. Standing at the bow, he had been observing the landing troops and the movements at Nagasaki city through his telescope the entire time, and had unconsciously furrowed his brow.

After last night's bombardment and fire, the appearance of Nagasaki port was now utterly different from before. The civilian dwellings along the coast had been largely destroyed. Those buildings — Japanese-style, Western-style, even Chinese-style — and the town walls accumulated by the residents over decades, had all collapsed under the fierce shelling and been buried indiscriminately in the flames of war. As far as the eye could see, there were only broken walls and rubble. The fire had even spread into the city and still had not been extinguished. If Zhou Pu were on this ship, he would surely be utterly shocked by the current state of Nagasaki port.

Some parts of these ruins blasted out by cannonballs were still burning, emitting green or black smoke that rose into the sky, turning the heavens gray and making the temperature seem to drop considerably.

Standing at the bow, Zhao Song's nose could constantly catch the acrid, burnt stench wafting from Nagasaki port on the wind. This nauseating smell would make an ordinary person sick, but Zhao Song seemed completely oblivious to it.

"Marshal Zhao, the enemy remains immobile. What should we do next?" Li Huanghe of the Japan Expeditionary Army's Provisional Second Regiment asked in a low voice beside him.

Like Ma Tongji, he was also one of the rising stars in the Great Han army, and likewise the eldest son of a noble lord, destined to inherit a title in the future. Thus, he too had always enjoyed the trust and favor of his superiors. However, compared to Ma Tongji, his temperament was far more restrained. He treated others with greater humility and gentleness, rarely quarreled with anyone, and was better liked within the army than Ma Tongji.

Precisely because of his disposition, Zhao Song considered him more mindful of the bigger picture and the greater good, so he assigned the task of landing and attacking first to Ma Tongji, to avoid conflicts breaking out between the various units and destabilizing internal morale. To Zhao Song's great relief, Li Huanghe seemed to understand his intention and showed no dissatisfaction with this arrangement. According to reports from the advisor Zhao Song had placed in the Second Regiment, some officers within the Second Regiment were unhappy with Zhao Song's "neglect" of their regiment and collectively demanded that Regiment Commander Li Huanghe petition Zhao Song for battle and apply pressure, so that the Second Regiment could take on a more important role — and Li Huanghe had flatly refused all these demands. He said that Marshal Zhao was already under great pressure and could not be troubled further, and he asked everyone to trust Marshal Zhao, who would never let them be wronged.

Li Huanghe's stance further deepened Zhao Song's appreciation for him, so recently Zhao Song had been much more amiable toward him. Of course, within the army, hierarchy and rank were paramount, and Zhao Song would never relax the distinction between superior and subordinate.

"It's a good thing that the enemy is cowed." Zhao Song answered with a steady gaze, betraying none of his inner anxiety. "Their immobility makes it easier for us to deploy and advance. What a fine thing! Regiment Commander Li, have your troops prepare as well. I'll send you ashore in the afternoon."

Seeing that the enemy could produce no new tricks, Zhao Song set his mind at ease and prepared to commit the regiment he had been holding in reserve as well — though, of course, due to the Great Han fleet's limited transport capacity, Li Huanghe currently had only half a regiment; the remaining troops were still in Busan awaiting transport.

"Excellent! Thank you, Marshal Zhao!" After his initial surprise, Li Huanghe was overjoyed. "This subordinate will go notify his troops to prepare at once."

"As for the troops already ashore, have them advance northward into the interior. However, do not enter Nagasaki city. First, cut off Nagasaki's communications with the outside world." Zhao Song continued to supplement his orders. "After you land, advance westward. You must drive away the shogunate forces massed around Nagasaki and leave Nagasaki isolated and without aid. Is that understood?"

"Aye!" Li Huanghe straightened his back and puffed out his chest, accepting the order.