Chapter 154: Victory

April 28, early morning.

The Rolling Log and Boulder at the mountain pass have been burned to ash.

Li Wenzhong stood before the formation, looked at the thick smoke on the mountain, and smiled.

"Send the order: today we attack with full force!"

"Kill!"

The Ming army launched another attack.

This time, without the Rolling Log and Boulder blocking the way, the advance went much more smoothly.

But the Japanese army still resisted stubbornly.

Arrows rained down; the mountain path was narrow, and the Ming army paid a price for every step forward.

Zhu Yong grew impatient at the sight and begged for battle again.

Li Wenzhong finally nodded and said, "Take a thousand Heavy Armor infantry and break open the breach!"

"Yes!"

Zhu Yong flipped off his horse, lifted the Double Hammers, and led a thousand Heavy Armor infantry charging toward the mountain path.

All one thousand were handpicked Strongmen, clad in plate armor, wielding heavy axes.

"Stay close to me!" Zhu Yong bellowed, leading the charge up the mountain path.

Arrows struck his body, clanging, unable to pierce the plate armor.

The Japanese army, seeing Zhu Yong charge, shrieked in terror, "Demon King! The Demon King is here!"

Zhu Yong ignored them, rushed to the first fence and swung a hammer down.

"Boom!"

The fence shattered.

He burst through the fence, flinging the Double Hammers apart.

The Japanese soldiers blocking the way fell like weeds.

Heavy Armor infantry followed closely, axes hacking, unstoppable.

The first line of defense, broken.

Zhu Yong kept moving, continuing upward.

The second line of defense was an antler formation, with spearmen behind the antlers.

"Smash it open!" Zhu Yong shouted.

Heavy Armor infantry advanced, hacking the antlers with their axes.

The Japanese spears thrust out from the gaps in the antlers, but struck the plate armor, leaving only white marks.

The antlers split, Zhu Yong rushed in, sweeping his Double Hammers horizontally.

The spearmen scattered.

The second line of defense, broken.

The third line of defense consisted of an arrow tower and a trench.

Japanese troops on the arrow tower rained arrows madly, while knife‑and‑axe men lay in ambush in the trench.

Zhu Yong charged straight at the arrow tower.

Arrows fell like rain, but he neither dodged nor evaded, rushed beneath the tower, and hammered a pillar with a hammer.

"Crack!"

The arrow tower shook.

Another hammer swing.

The arrow tower collapsed, the Japanese troops atop fell down, a chorus of screams.

The knife‑and‑axe men burst from the trench, but against Heavy Armor infantry, their weapons were useless.

The third line of defense, broken.

Zhu Yong broke all three lines and surged into the interior of the mountain pass.

The terrain here was slightly open, gathering the main force of the Japanese army.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu stood on high ground, watching Zhu Yong rush in, his face ashen.

"Stop him! Stop the Demon King!" he shouted hoarsely.

The Japanese army surged toward Zhu Yong like a tide.

Zhu Yong grinned, flinging his Double Hammers.

Flesh and blood flew everywhere.

Heavy Armor infantry followed behind, forming a formation and pressing forward.

At the mountain pass, Li Wenzhong saw Zhu Yong had already broken through and ordered the entire army to press forward.

"Kill!"

The Ming army surged up the mountain path like a tide.

The Japanese army, surrounded on all sides, began to rout.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, seeing this, knew the situation was lost.

"Retreat! Fall back to the summit!" he ordered through clenched teeth.

The Japanese army retreated toward the summit.

Zhu Yong wanted to pursue, but Li Wenzhong called him back.

"Do not chase a cornered foe; reorganize the troops, and attack the summit again tomorrow," Li Wenzhong said.

This battle lasted from early morning until the afternoon.

The Ming army seized the mountain pass, annihilated eight thousand enemies, and suffered five hundred casualties themselves.

The first barrier of Mount Hiei was torn open.

……

At the mountain top, Enrei Temple.

Ashikaga Yoshimasa slumped before the Buddha, his expression despondent.

"General, the mountain pass has fallen; the Ming army will surely attack the summit tomorrow…" the old minister said trembling.

"I know…" Ashikaga Yoshimasa murmured.

He knew they could no longer hold it.

The thirty‑thousand‑strong army now numbered only twenty thousand, and morale was low.

The Ming army's Heavy Armor infantry were impervious to sword and spear, essentially immovable.

"General, perhaps… we should surrender…" someone whispered.

"Surrender?"

Ashikaga Yoshimasa gave a wry smile.

"Will the Ming army accept surrender? When Munakata Castle surrendered, all the samurai were executed. When Dazaifu surrendered, eight thousand heads were offered to build the capital's view. If we surrender, can we survive?"

Ashikaga Yoshimasa's heart was already in utter turmoil.

The hall was deathly silent.

Master Zundao suddenly spoke, "General, the humble monk has a plan."

"Master, please speak."

"Tomorrow is the decisive battle; monk soldiers will lead the charge. Monk soldiers fear no death and can disrupt the Ming army's formation. The general leads the main force to follow up with a flanking kill; there may be a sliver of hope," Zundao said.

Ashikaga Yoshimasa's eyes brightened, but then dimmed as he said, "Even if we disrupt the formation, that Zhu Yong… who can stop him?"

Master Zundao clasped his hands and said, "Amitabha, the humble monk is willing to lead three hundred Death Soldiers to entangle the Demon King; as long as we can bind him for a moment or two, the general will have a chance."

"Master…" Ashikaga Yoshimasa was moved.

He knew this was a suicide mission.

"To protect the Buddhist realm, die in the right place," Zundao said calmly.

Ashikaga Yoshimasa remained silent for a long while, then gritted his teeth and said, "Fine! Tomorrow's decisive battle—if we do not win, we die!"

……

April 29, dawn.

At the summit of Mount Hiei, the two armies faced off.

Zhu Yong stood before the Ming army formation, watching the opposing Wa Country troops.

Today's Wa Country army was somewhat different.

At the front were three thousand monk soldiers, clad in monastic robes, wielding ritual knives, their eyes fanatical.

"Cousin, those monks…" Zhu Yong said.

"Monk soldiers are the most fierce, death‑unafraid troops of the Wa Country; be careful, these people fear no death," Li Wenzhong said.

"Even if they fear no death, they must die," Zhu Yong said naively.

Horn Sound rose.

Monk soldiers began to charge.

They shouted not, charging in silence, their gazes wild as beasts.

"Fire arrows!" Li Wenzhong ordered.

Arrow Rain fell, a large number of monk soldiers fell, but those behind kept charging.

They surged into the Ming formation, hacking with ritual knives, caring little for life or death.

The Ming army's formation began to loosen.

At that moment, a group of monk soldiers broke out, rushing straight at Zhu Yong.

Leading them was Master Zundao, who wielded a Zen staff, with three hundred Death Soldiers behind him.

"Demon King! Today the humble monk will defeat you!" Zundao shouted.

Zhu Yong grinned, "Come, then!"

He rushed forward, swinging a hammer at Zundao.

Zundao's Zen staff blocked.

"Clang!"

The Zen staff bent, Zundao's knuckle split, and he stepped back three paces.

But he did not retreat; instead he surged forward again.

Three hundred Death Soldiers surrounded Zhu Yong, attacking heedlessly.

Zhu Yong swung his Double Hammers, the Death Soldiers fell like cut wheat.

But these men truly feared no death; for each one that fell, two more took its place, tightly entangling Zhu Yong.

From afar, Ashikaga Yoshimasa saw Zhu Yong being entangled and rejoiced greatly.

"All troops, charge!"

The Wa Country main force began to charge.

Li Wenzhong sneered, "Trifling tricks."

He waved his banner and said, "Change formation!"

The Ming formation shifted, Heavy Armor infantry moved to the front, Flintlock Gunmen positioned behind.

The Wa Country troops surged forward, colliding with the Heavy Armor front line like waves smashing against reefs, shattering.

Flintlock Guns fired in unison, and the Wa Country troops fell in clusters.

Zu Li Yi Man's complexion turned ghastly.

He hadn't expected that even without Zhu Yong, the Ming army would still be so formidable.

Meanwhile, Zhu Yong had already dealt with those three hundred Death Soldiers.

Master Zun Dao lay in a pool of blood, his meditation staff broken into two pieces.

Zhu Yong was drenched in blood, but it was all enemy blood.

He looked toward Zu Li Yi Man's direction, grinned, and charged forward.

Zu Li Yi Man, seeing this, felt his soul scatter.

"Retreat! Withdraw!"

The Wa Country troops completely collapsed, fleeing down the mountain.

The Ming army pursued and slaughtered.

This battle raged from dawn until dusk.

The Wa Country lost fifteen thousand dead in battle, three thousand were captured, and the rest scattered.

Zu Li Yi Man, under the protection of Imperial Troops, fled to Kyoto.

Mount Hiei fell.

Kyoto's final barrier was shattered.

Li Wenzhong stood on the summit, watching the distant Kyoto city walls, his expression calm.

"Send the order: rest for three days; after three days, the troops will march on Kyoto."

On the twenty‑ninth day of the fourth month of the seventh year of Hongwu, the decisive battle of Omi Province took place, and the Ming army achieved a great victory.

The Wa Country's Northern Court hangs by a thread.