My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 352: The Ming Garrison Was Not Panic at All
The rising sun slowly rose from the sea, revealing a pale sky. When the first ray of sunlight shone on the earth, it was not greeted by the laughter and joy of the people of Shannan as in the past, but by bursts of mournful cries.

After the pirates left, they left the city in ruins, with houses burned down by fire and mutilated corpses scattered everywhere.

With broken limbs and blood everywhere, the once prosperous seaside city has now turned into a cruel hell on earth.

The survivors looked at everything in front of them in dismay, and they no longer had the strength to even grieve. Their voices had long been hoarse from crying, and their tears had all run out.

They lost their homes and families, they lost everything and were left with only endless fear.

However, the disaster was not over, it was just the beginning.

The pirates burned, killed and looted all the way north. They killed anyone they saw, robbed any money they saw, and burned anything they couldn't take away. Countless houses and ships were destroyed at their hands.

They raped and plundered, not even sparing children. Countless women were raped to death by them, and even after they died, they did not spare their corpses.

They killed and looted without scruples, letting loose the demons in their hearts. Ichiro Oshima and the hundreds of pirates under him took this madness to the extreme.

They had been enduring on Gudajia Island for more than half a year, and they had been waiting for this day. The order brought by Chen Zuyi was like opening a forbidden door, allowing them to vent their long-suppressed emotions.

After the fall of Tamashiro, Osato, Tomi and other city governors were attacked one after another. Although some gentry organized militiamen and fishermen to resist, they were a group of civilians who did not even have decent weapons. They usually either farmed or fished. Facing the ferocious pirates, they had almost no ability to resist.

When they met the pirates, they were so scared that their legs went limp. How could they have the courage to face these bloodthirsty maniacs?

When the news of the pirate raid reached the royal capital Shuri, King Seungchadu of Sannan slowly organized his army.

However, these troops were not used to eliminate pirates, but to defend the royal city Shuri.

Sannan is a small island country located in the southwest corner of the Ryukyu Island. It is the weakest of the three Ryukyu Kingdoms and has no standing army at all.

Apart from the royal guards stationed in Shuri, the only forces in the country were the spontaneously organized secret forces among the people.

The palace guards totaled less than a hundred people, and the interloper troops numbered only a few thousand.

With such a small amount of military force, it is usually difficult to deal with scattered Japanese pirates. Now that they are facing such a large-scale pirate attack, using such a small amount of troops to deal with Chen Zuyi's pirates is like an egg hitting a stone.

The only thing Chengchadu had to do was to defend the royal city and wait for rescue from Zhongshan Kingdom.

Just as Chengchadu was anxiously waiting for rescue, he did not expect that the pirates actually bypassed Shuri and went directly north into Zhongshan Kingdom!
Just as Songpa and Ichiro Oshima continued to move northward, sweeping the area along the way, Liang Daoren also came to Ie Island by boat, met up with the pirates on the island, and issued Chen Zuyi's orders.

The island sent spies to infiltrate Beigu City, and once they discovered that the Ming army was coming south to provide support, they immediately launched an attack on Beigu City.

Ie Island is larger than Gudajia Island and has more abundant fresh water. There are also thousands of pirates resident on it. Together with the people brought by Liang Daoren, the number of pirates reaches as many as two thousand.

In Liang Daoren's opinion, two thousand men were more than enough to deal with five hundred Ming troops, not to mention that this was a sneak attack when the Ming army's base camp was empty, which was no problem at all!
After capturing the Ming army camp, they would go south and join forces with Songpa and Ichiro Oshima to attack the Ming army coming to their aid from the north and south ends, and wipe out the Ming army in one fell swoop. By then, they would be invincible on the Ryukyu Island!
If the Ming Dynasty still wants to do business with Ryukyu and Japan, it will have to depend on their mood.

As for whether this would anger the Ming Dynasty and prompt it to send troops to Ryukyu, Liang Daoren was not worried at all. How many troops could the Ming Dynasty send to Ryukyu at one time?

That would be the maximum if they could have thousands of people. No matter how many people are brought here, can't they just kill them all?
Songpa and Ichiro Oshima led the pirates, bypassing Shuri and heading straight into Zhongshan Kingdom. Zhongshan Kingdom was much richer than Shannan Kingdom. Looking at the wealth they plundered along the way, which was dozens or hundreds of times more than what they had earned from robbing merchant ships in the past, Ichiro Oshima was almost going crazy with joy.

At this time, in the Ming army garrison base camp in Beigu City, the news of the pirate invasion of Ryukyu had already reached the ears of Qianhu Zhang Zuoqian.

In fact, before the pirates landed in Ryukyu, he had learned from the Jinyiwei from the Ming Dynasty that Chen Zuyi's pirate gang might invade Ryukyu.

Therefore, he made preparations early in the morning. The musket battalion under his command had more than 500 people. It was one of the earliest musket battalions formed when the Ming Dynasty was equipped with needle-fired rifles.

Of course, now all the needle-shot guns have been replaced with semi-automatic rifles, and there is sufficient ammunition, as many as 300,000 rounds.

Zhang Zuoqian had calculated that without any supplies, the 300,000 rounds of ammunition and a few hundred semi-automatic rifles would be enough to roam freely on the main island of Ryukyu.

He led this musket battalion, experienced the Northern Expedition, fought against the Yuan army in the desert, and defeated Li Jilian's troops in the jungles of Annan. He was full of combat experience.

Before becoming the commander of the Musket Battalion, Zhang Zuoqian had already fought in many battles with Xu Da.

Originally, he was just a centurion under Xu Da. Before entering Ryukyu, although he still led a musket battalion of only 500 people, his official rank was promoted from centurion to thousand.

As a middle-level military officer who had participated in the Northern and Southern Expeditions and had rich combat experience, he was well aware of the importance of intelligence. After arriving in Ryukyu and stationed in Chatan Castle, he sent out his scouts to conduct a detailed investigation of the surrounding area.

Ie Island, northwest of Chatan City, is the key target of investigation. Chen Zuyi's pirate gang is entrenched there, and he knew about it at the first time.

He was not surprised at all that the pirate gang had now come from Shannan to Zhongshan Kingdom. According to the scouts' investigation, the pirate gang entrenched in Ie Island seemed to be ready to move as well.

Being experienced, he quickly made a judgment that this group of pirates must have more than just looting the island, and there must be a bigger conspiracy behind it.

The reason why troops have not been sent out yet is to wait for the attitude of the King of Zhongshan Kingdom. Because according to the agreement between Ming Dynasty and Zhongshan Kingdom, Ming Dynasty garrison troops can only take action at the request of the king.

In Zhang Zuoqian's opinion, this agreement was only made to satisfy the King of Zhongshan's fantasy that the Ming army was also under his command and control.

However, Zhang Zuoqian was not vague about the necessary preparations. After all, with thousands of pirates acting like mad dogs, let alone Zhongshan Kingdom, even if the three Ryukyu Kingdoms were tied together, they would not be enough to deal with them.

Otherwise, there would be no place for pirates and Japanese pirates to hide in the Ryukyu Islands.

Furthermore, the greater the losses in Ryukyu, the more important the Ming Dynasty’s garrison becomes, isn’t it?

(End of this chapter)