The rise of the poor

"Xu Sang, what kind of army is this?! How come there are so many arquebuses? What kind of tactics are these?! Is this place not far from your capital? Did your emperor send his imperial guards here?!"

When Matsuura Shigeyo saw the heavy casualties among his Japanese pirates, he was filled with rage and even wondered if the Ming Dynasty's imperial guards had come to attack.

"Isn't the Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty thousands of miles away?!" Ryūzōji Takakura stared at Xu Hai in utter disbelief.

"These are not the emperor's imperial guards, these are the Zhejiang army, the Zhejiang army under the command of Zhu Ping'an, the governor of Zhejiang!"

Xu Hai gritted his teeth with hatred whenever he mentioned the Zhejiang Army and Zhu Ping'an's name. If Zhu Ping'an were in front of him, he would have devoured him whole.

"This is the Zhejiang army that caused you to fail so many times!" Ryūzōji Takachi and Matsuura Shigeyo had both heard of the deep-seated hatred between Xu Hai and the Zhejiang army. When they first heard about it, they thought Xu Hai had been outmaneuvered, but now that they had seen the Zhejiang army, they realized that Xu Hai hadn't really been outmaneuvered, but rather that the Zhejiang army was just too strange!

So many arquebuses, one for each person, no, that's not right, some of them even had two arquebuses each!

How much silver must these cannons alone cost!

And their armor—everyone was wearing armor, and their armor was so complete, providing full protection from head to toe. How much silver must that armor have cost! Their armor even seemed better than the patriarch's ancestral heirloom armor!

In addition, their armor is incredibly protective!
The Zhejiang army has iron cannons, and so do the Japanese pirates. Just now, some Japanese pirates fired iron cannons at the Zhejiang army.

The Zhejiang army was arranged in such a dense, long formation that even if the Japanese pirates fired with their eyes closed, they could still hit the Zhejiang army!

However, something happened that greatly surprised Ryūzōji Takagi and Matsuura Shigeyo: the Japanese pirates' arquebus hit the Zhejiang army. They saw it with their own eyes. The arquebus fired by the Japanese pirates hit the Zhejiang soldiers in the chest, but the Zhejiang soldiers only swayed slightly and showed pain on their faces, and continued to advance.

The armor worn by the Zhejiang soldiers actually protected them from the bullets from the arquebuses!
Damn!

Why can your armor protect against firearms, but our armor can't?!

Your cannons hit our armor squarely, and we are destroyed; our cannons hit you squarely, and you just flinch?!

Is it because your arquebuses are so powerful, or your armor is so strong, or both?

The Ryūzōji Taktsu and Matsuura Shigeyo are giving me the creeps the more I look at them!
"Facing the enemy head-on, the Zhejiang army's arquebuses are too sharp. We must be fearless and charge into their ranks to engage in close combat in order to turn the tide! I will lead my personal guards to break in!" Matsuura Shigeyo stood up, his hand on his Japanese sword!

"A direct frontal assault would result in too many casualties. If our men are not up to par, we will have a hard time getting to the front of the Zhejiang army!" Longzao Temple's Gao Che shook his head.

"What should we do then?!" Matsuura Shigeyo was extremely anxious. He was furious to see the promising situation ruined by the Zhejiang army!
The city was already within our grasp, with its mountains of gold and silver, countless provisions, and women all ours. It was all ours to keep, but this damned Zhejiang army ruined it all!
Unwilling! Angry! Utterly enraged!

"I'm going to twist off the head of the enemy commander, make it into a sake vessel, and put it in my family's shrine!"

Matsuura Shigeyo gripped his Japanese sword tightly!

"The enemy's formation is like a long snake; breaking it is not difficult. Strike at its vital point and cut it in two! The enemy is doomed!"

Longzao Temple's Gao Che had eyes like a hawk, observing the Zhejiang army's formation as narrow and long as a snake. He drew his Japanese sword and pointed it at the Zhejiang army's vital point.

"I'll cut it at its vital point!" Matsuura Shigeyo said menacingly, drawing his katana. "Although the enemy's firearms are sharp, they take time to reload. Their tactics seem to make the firearms fire continuously, but after each wave of fire, there is always a gap of several breaths, and after four waves of fire, there is a long interval! As long as we are fearless and don't lose a hundred or eighty men, we can still rush to the front line. Once we reach the front line, the enemy is doomed!"

"No!" Xu Hai reached out and pressed down on Matsuura Shigeyo's arm, looked at Matsuura Shigeyo, and shook his head.

"What's wrong, Mr. Xu?! Do you think I can't do it?!" Matsuura Shigeyo glared angrily and said unhappily.

“I thought so too. I led my troops to charge the Zhejiang army’s firearms formation several times, but all of them failed!” Xu Hai shook his head and pointed to the Japanese pirates who had stopped in their tracks in fear. “Not everyone can face firearms without retreating. Look at them, they are now terrified by the Zhejiang army’s firearms.”

"Please forgive me for what I'm about to say. Just because Xu Sang can't do it doesn't mean I, Matsuura Shigeyo, can't. My six hundred personal guards are all fearless! I will lead them to break through the formation. Xu Sang can wait until I break through and then lead his army to attack!"

Matsuura Shigeyo looked arrogant and confident, believing that with his sword and his Japanese troops, they would surely break through the Zhejiang army's formation.

"The Zhejiang army opposite us numbers only about three thousand men. If we concentrate our elite troops to charge and our main force follows up, defeating them will not be difficult!"

Ryūzōji Kōsha also shared the same sentiment.

"General Matsuura, General Ryūzōji, and Zhu Ping'an, the commander of the Zhejiang army, are the most treacherous and cunning. The Zhejiang army under his command is not just three thousand!"

Xu Hai reminded the two of this.

"Not three thousand?! Then how many soldiers does he have under his command in the Zhejiang army?!" Matsuura Shigeyo and Ryuzoji Takakura asked.

"He commands over ten thousand Zhejiang troops! According to intelligence, Zhu Ping'an arrived in Jiaxing ten days ago with six thousand Zhejiang troops! Right now, we only have three thousand Zhejiang troops in front of us. Where are the remaining three thousand?!"

Xu Hai looked around and felt that there were at least three thousand Zhejiang soldiers hiding somewhere, like venomous snakes, waiting to deliver a fatal blow.

"Xu Sang! Don't worry about that anymore. Whether it's three thousand or six thousand, the enemy is attacking us. If we don't charge now, it'll be too late!"

Matsuura Shigeyo pointed his Japanese sword at the Zhejiang army and said that the Zhejiang army's formation was relentlessly attacking their central army.

“Your Ming Dynasty has an old saying: ‘To catch a thief, first catch the king!’ The Zhejiang army is coming for us!” Gao Che of Longzao Temple saw through the Zhejiang army’s intentions.

"Xu Sang, if we don't charge now, it will be too late! Although we have captured the city gate of Songjiang Prefecture, the city wall is still under the control of the Ming army. If we are forced to the city by the enemy, and attacked from both above and below, we will be in danger!" Songpu Shigeyo pointed to the Zhejiang army's wave-like formation and urged Xu Hai to make a quick decision.

"Dry!"

Xu Hai closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them and made up his mind. After all, he had been on the battlefield for decades and was not lacking in decisiveness.

"Good! This is Xu Sang! I will lead six hundred personal guards to strike at his vital point!" Matsuura Shigeyo raised his Japanese sword.

Xu Hai revealed a set of white teeth and said grimly, "To deal with the Zhejiang army, simply attacking their weak point isn't enough! After several defeats against them, I've discovered that a direct frontal assault on their long, serpentine formation requires piling up corpses to even reach them. Only the most ruthless and fearless can achieve this! However, humans aren't plants; they are inherently afraid of death. Expecting your soldiers to be fearless is too difficult. I've racked my brains and come up with a way to break their formation: a multi-pronged attack! The Zhejiang army wants to concentrate their firepower in a long, serpentine formation, right? Then we must thwart that. We must attack their formation from all sides, preventing them from forming a long, serpentine formation and concentrating their firepower. I believe that will break their formation!" (End of Chapter)