Chapter 1133: A Hidden Gambit Revealed
Cao Bianjiao and Ma Futa were both formidable generals. The moment they clashed, their movements became a blur, a dazzling flurry of blows that left onlookers breathless, unable to track the action.
Spear glints danced across the air, as the two figures twisted and turned across the sandy beach.
After a dozen or so thrusts and parries, Ma Futa finally conceded defeat. He found Cao Bianjiao's spear work impossibly agile and endlessly adaptive, overwhelming him with a flurry of attacks. His heart pounding with panic, he feigned an opening, then spun and bolted.
Cao Bianjiao snarled, "Damn it, running away when you can't win?"
He took a long stride, intent on pursuit, but Ma Futa had already leaped into a small boat and was frantically paddling towards the open sea.
Cao Bianjiao, however, had no intention of boarding a boat. He glanced left, then right, and a thought suddenly sparked in his mind. Reaching into his robes, he pulled out a hand grenade. He lit the fuse, aimed it squarely at Ma Futa's boat, and with a powerful swing, hurled it.
Ma Futa had just narrowly escaped, silently congratulating himself on his speed, when he heard a distinct "thump." Something had landed in his boat and was now rolling around.
Ma Futa looked down. "Ah, that strange black ball!" he shrieked.
"BOOM!"
"Qing forces are attacking the Left Harbor!" the Vice Commander of Laizhou, Jin Riguan, bellowed. "I'll go hold them off."
"The Qing have also landed at the Right Harbor," Shen Shikui announced. "I'll intercept them. The Main Harbor is in your hands, General Cao."
Cao Wenzhao nodded firmly. "Understood!"
Suddenly, all the harbors on Pi Island erupted in the fierce flames of battle.
The Qing forces attacked again and again, yet they couldn't establish a foothold on the beach. A growing unease began to stir within them.
Someone cried out, "Where is the sneak attack squad led by Aobai and Zhun Ta? Why haven't they disrupted the Ming army from behind?"
"And what about Gūsan Ejen Samushika's elite infantry regiment? By now, they should have already stormed Pi Island!"
"Why?"
The Commander-in-chief, Ajige, was also somewhat bewildered. "Why are these two armies completely unresponsive?"
As he stood there, perplexed, Gūsan Ejen Samushika's flagship appeared before him. Samushika, his face a mask of utter misery, cried out, "Our flanking forces encountered a mystical ship at sea and were utterly decimated... barely anyone made it back."
Ajige was profoundly shaken by this revelation.
"You returned, but Aobai and Zhun Ta are still missing," Ajige noted, his voice strained. "Could it be that they've already...?" A chilling premonition seized him.
Just as this thought crossed his mind, a moderately sized fleet emerged on the horizon. On the bow of the lead ship stood two youths, one of whom held aloft a severed head. The distance was too great, and the light too poor, to make out the features of the head.
The youth, gripping a tin megaphone, let out a booming laugh that echoed across the water, aimed at the unenthusiastic Han and Joseon soldiers. "Behold, the head of Aobai, the Manchu vanguard general!"
At that proclamation, the Han and Joseon soldiers were instantly terrified.
On the Joseon side, the Peaceful Province Army Commander Liu Lin, without a moment's hesitation, bellowed, "The Qing army is defeated! Retreat now!"
Fifty Joseon warships immediately began to falter.
They had always been quite timid to begin with, so their slightly more panicked retreat wasn't overtly conspicuous.
Meanwhile, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, and Shang Kexi, those three notorious turncoats, had been rather half-hearted in their assault on Pi Island, merely going through the motions. Now, they finally had their excuse. They seized their chance to flee and began their retreat.
With the Joseon and Han soldiers pulling back, only the Qing forces remained on the front lines, making further engagement impossible.
The Qing soldiers' naval combat capabilities were, frankly, pathetic.
Without the Joseon navy to bolster their efforts, they stood no chance.
Under the circumstances, there was no way to stubbornly continue the assault.
Ajige could only give the order: "Recall the troops!"
The Qing soldiers who hadn't yet reached the island breathed a collective sigh of relief and hastily fell back.
Those who had already landed, however, found themselves in a desperate plight. They sprinted, taking two steps at a time, towards the shore to board their ships, with Ming forces relentlessly hacking and shooting at their backs, and the Guanning Iron Cavalry raining down hand grenades.
The Qing soldiers' retreat was chaotic, their deaths gruesome.
Before long, the beach was littered with their dead.
After what felt like an eternity, a colossal cheer finally erupted across Pi Island: "We won! We won!"
"The Qing have retreated!"
"Haha, we've won!"
"Pi Island is safe!"
"Long live Dongjiang Command!"
"Dongjiang! Dongjiang!"
The shouts of victory pierced the very clouds.
On the mainland side, Ajige wore a grim expression as he gathered his shattered forces. What he found astonished him: Aobai and Zhun Ta's entire detachment had been annihilated; not a single man had returned.
Gūsan Ejen Samushika, though he had managed to escape, reported that his ten thousand elite troops had suffered nearly fifty percent casualties.
Furthermore, Ma Futa, the formidable general leading the assault on the Main Harbor, was dead, and the Qing forces under his command had also suffered catastrophic losses. In this single engagement, the Qing army had lost nearly ten thousand men—a devastating blow to their power.
The old saying went: "Jurchens under ten thousand are not to be feared; ten thousand Jurchens are invincible." But what happened when ten thousand Jurchens were lost?
The thought was chilling.
Ajige felt utterly numb with dread. "We cannot attack this island again. If we persist, our nation will be doomed! Return quickly to the capital and inform the Emperor."
On Pi Island, the cheers of victory continued unabated.
Shen Shikui strode towards Cao Wenzhao and Jin Riguan, performing a deep bow. "Pi Island was saved this day thanks entirely to the valiant efforts of you two generals. Ha! That Chen Hongfan, who deserted mid-battle, would surely die of regret if he knew we'd won. His deserved military merits have vanished, and he'll be branded a deserter. Rest assured, I will vehemently impeach him before the Emperor."
"Haha, no need to impeach him, he's already dead!" Cao Bianjiao announced, stepping forward with a booming laugh. "Chen Hongfan was intercepted by Qing forces while fleeing and was killed at sea."
Shen Shikui blinked. "Oh? Is that so? How does Young General Cao know this?"
Cao Bianjiao pointed to the group behind him – Shi Lang, Zheng Sen, and Yao Xingjuan – and chuckled, "They're the ones who brought the news from the sea."
Shen Shikui observed the trio: one adult and two children. He naturally bowed towards Yao Xingjuan. "General, if I may ask, what is your distinguished name?"
Yao Xingjuan chuckled slyly. "My name is Yao Xingjuan, and I am a sea merchant."
"What? A sea merchant?" Shen Shikui, having spent his life on the island, knew full well what that term implied. "Isn't that just a polite name for a pirate?"
Still, a pirate who helped you fight was, in his book, a good pirate.
Shen Shikui said cheerfully, "General Yao, we truly owe you our thanks. You routed the Manchu flanking forces at sea and killed their formidable generals, Aobai and Zhun Ta. Without your intervention, if those flanking units had emerged from behind while the Qing attacked our Main Harbor, our army would have been in dire peril."
He then turned to Cao Wenzhao, adding, "No wonder, General Cao, you remained silent when I suggested guarding against a Manchu flanking maneuver a few days ago. It turns out you had already arranged such a brilliant gambit at sea."
Comments