Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 218: Do we need a reason to kill the Japanese pirates?
When he got close to the battlefield, Zhao Hao, who was still a rookie, began to have some experience.

There is a huge difference between the battlefield and escorting. He thought he had experienced many fighting scenes, but now facing this scene with thousands of arrows flying at him, his palms were still sweaty and he looked very nervous.

Looking at Yue Ling in front, his posture was still upright. He stood proudly in the army formation, overlooking the water, and constantly issuing orders.

Seeing this, Zhao Hao couldn't help but feel awe again.

Looking at the Japanese pirates on the river, they were like dumplings, floating on the waves.

But after all, they were well-trained warriors. Even in desperate situations, they did not panic. Instead, they relied on the boats as cover and moved closer to the shores on both sides in an orderly manner.

Bows and arrows could not cause fatal injuries to the Japanese pirates hiding underwater. Although many of them were injured by the arrows, they were still struggling.

"My Lord, they have support on the shore!"

Zhao Hao suddenly saw another group of people coming out from the north shore, drawing their bows and shooting arrows at the large ship in the middle of the river, and they were shooting oil-soaked rockets.

Seeing that the Japanese pirates were well prepared, Zhao Hao reminded them loudly.

Yue Ling glanced at the shore and shouted, "Just in time! Send another signal!"

This time, a firecracker was lit on the boat, shot straight into the air, and exploded a moment later, echoing on both sides of the river.

Soon after, we saw soldiers holding a large banner with the word "Yue" on it gradually approaching the shore in the distance.

Just after one round of rockets were fired towards the center of the river, the Beijing Camp musketeers behind the Japanese pirates had already opened fire.

Li Dehui swam back from the river with all his might, but when he was dozens of steps away from the shore, he did not dare to go ashore.

After the sound of musketry was heard, Li Dehui's own people who had no time to defend themselves were knocked into the river by the bullets. He saw nothing but darkness before his eyes.

"Tokugawa Teru, what is going on? Aren't we here to ambush the Great Chang An Jing Hou? Why are we the ones being ambushed?"

Another person swam closer and cursed in Li Dehui's ear: "Huisang, you must give an explanation today! For your plan, we have brought 400 people, but now even if there are 4,000 people, we should be passive and unable to fight back. How do you want to explain? Do you have the face to see the head of the family again?"

"Could it be that you have already surrendered to the Han people?!"

Li Dehui was furious and said, "Bullshit! If I surrendered to the Han people, would I swim in the water? How would I know what was going on? No one leaked the plan, so how did Yue Ling know about it?"

Li Dehui then realized that he had been tricked by Yue Ling. This merchant ship had deliberately sailed out without a small escort boat, which was used for him to scuttle it.

The guards that were supposed to be there were posted on the shore in order to strangle them completely.

Li Dehui calmed down and said, "It is useless to investigate who leaked the plan now. If we want to survive, we must break out separately and bring back the news here so that the head of the family can be on guard against Yue Ling."

The power of a musket at close range is much greater than that of a bow and arrow. Moreover, nearly half of their men had abandoned their original armor in order to facilitate movement on the water. They were powerless to resist the armored soldiers of the Beijing camp.

The Japanese pirates who were fleeing in the center of the river and those who were originally waiting on the shore were all driven to the river bank. The area around the reeds became a sitting duck with no way out.

Li Dehui was about to turn over and jump into the water again, but he saw that many small boats, which seemed to be used for lifesaving, were separated from the large ship on the water. They approached the boat they had just used, used it, and approached them towards the shore.

Under attack from all sides, as the leader of this group of Japanese pirates, Li Dehui could only make a decision immediately.

"There is no other way, brothers. We can only break out from the front. Don't forget the glory of our Tokugawa family. Draw your swords against the enemy. Only death in battle, no surrender!"

"The muskets are not that scary. They reloaded the ammunition very close to us. After they fired one shot, they couldn't fire the second shot after we got closer."

Li Dehui encouraged the morale of those around him, and slowly passed it on to more people, who began to hold knives and fearlessly rush towards the musketeers' formation.

The armored soldiers who relied on the shore to support them resisted in front, and for a while they formed a resistance trend.

Li Dehui's understanding of muskets was not biased, but the musket team under Yue Ling's training could completely make up for the deficiency of not being able to reload ammunition quickly according to the formation.

Moreover, this musketeer team was the elite who fought the last battle with the northern barbarians at Zhengyang Gate. Their coordination was flawless, like a precision instrument, reloading ammunition, marching forward in a line, and firing.

After one encounter, the Japanese were defeated.

The situation on the field is still one-sided.

Yue Ling quickly approached the reed marsh in a small boat and led his troops to attack the Japanese pirates from behind.

At this time, the musketeers in the front also engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese pirates' vanguard that broke through.

This group of Japanese pirates were equipped with samurai swords and were all elite warriors from Japan. It was these pirates who had been wreaking havoc in the southeast for a long time and committed many unforgivable crimes.

Even in the 12th year of Yuanqing, a group of Japanese pirates broke through the coastal garrisons, burned, killed, and looted all the way to Nanjing. In that Japanese pirate riot, five or six local officials died, and thousands of officers and soldiers died, while the Japanese pirates themselves were less than a hundred people. This can be said to be a shame for Dachang.

This time, the Japanese pirates directly dispatched 400 people, which can be said to be a sign of their great importance to Yue Ling.

They really treated him as a great enemy. Yue Ling did not need to hold back, and with the emotions of his past and present lives mixed in, Yue Ling would not leave a single one of these pirates alive, and would not even accept their surrender.

"Don't underestimate the hand-to-hand combat of the Japanese pirates. Use long weapons to fight the enemy and try not to get close. Soldiers, listen to my orders, line up with your backs to the water, and follow me to charge into the enemy camp!"

Yue Ling picked up a 10-foot-long lance, swung it in the water, and jumped to the shore first.

Zhao Hao followed closely behind, guarding Yue Ling.

At this moment, his blood was boiling and his face turned red.

"A real man should be like this! Killing enemies on the battlefield, defending the country, escorting convoys, etc., it's a useless job!"

Just when Zhao Hao was distracted for a moment, he saw Yue Ling holding his lance on his back and rushing into the enemy camp first.

When Yue Ling was fighting against many enemies alone, Zhao Hao intuitively felt how powerful Yue Ling was and why he could so shake his second uncle that he couldn't hold the hilt of the sword.

Yue Ling was like a god on earth, wielding his lance and knocking down three or five people with one strike.

The short-handled samurai sword was simply not enough to get close to the opponent, and even when he tried to block with the sword horizontally, he was hit hard by Yue Ling's powerful blow, and both the man and the sword were knocked away.

Wherever Yue Ling pointed his spear, all the Japanese retreated.

Originally, I thought that since Yue Ling was the only one in the battle, it would be a good opportunity to kill him, but in a blink of an eye, more than a dozen Japanese were injured.

"Who is this and why is he so brave?"

"This is Anjing Hou Yue Ling. Retreat quickly. The key right now is to break through the front, not to stabilize the rear. Charge forward quickly!"

The Japanese rushed forward, and Yue Ling chased after him. After catching up with him, he pierced his back with a gun, leaving only a transparent bloody hole.

Zhao Hao opened his mouth in astonishment, as if he could fit the goose egg in it.

If he had not seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed that what was sung in the story was true, that the Marquis really single-handedly carved a gap in the Japanese army's formation.

"Is this the Marquis's full strength?"

The soldiers from the Beijing camp behind him quickly caught up. They were already accustomed to Yue Ling's brave performance. Some of them even stopped and patted Zhao Hao on the shoulder.

"Little brother, don't just stand there, protect the Marquis, don't let him get hit by a sneak attack."

"Okay, I'll go right away."

……

Cangzhou Prefecture, Huang Family Residence,

Outside the city, there was chaos and fighting, but inside the city, everything was still in order. The head of the Huang family waited anxiously in the hall, waiting for the good news that the ambush and killing of Yue Ling was successful.

As long as Yue Ling dies, not only will the Xue family lose support and be unable to expand commercially, but the heinous crimes committed by the Huang family will also be submerged in the long river of history, and no one will be able to hold them accountable. Huang Wenhua can then rest assured.

Although he was nervous at the moment, he looked calm and composed, and still believed that he was completely confident of ambushing and killing Yue Ling today.

Yue Ling was definitely not good at naval battles. When he fought against the Northern Barbarians, he always chased them all the way to the Lugou River.

The Japanese pirates make their living by plundering at sea. How can Yue Ling defend themselves against them?

Huang Wenhua was in the hall, hugging his concubine and sipping tea, when a housekeeper quickly walked in and reported to him: "Master, the city is under martial law now, and there are soldiers at every alley. Moreover, the four city gates are strictly checked for entry and exit. Today's construction has been stopped, and the people in the city don't know what happened, so they just hide in their homes and don't go out."

Huang Wenhua's big hand climbed up the peak of the concubine and touched it with satisfaction. He smiled at the butler who lowered his head and pretended to be calm and said, "It's normal. Yue Ling is of course cautious. Now that he has left the city, in order to prevent someone in the city from taking the opportunity to cause chaos, he must have soldiers guarding everywhere."

"But little did they know that our target was him. The Japanese pirates were extremely powerful, often defeating the larger force with a smaller one. The Dachang army fought with several times the number of troops, but still could not gain an advantage. And today, most of the soldiers are in the city, and Yue Ling has fewer guards around him, which really increases our chances of winning by 10%."

The housekeeper considered and said, "Master, the security outside our mansion is also very strict. It is even difficult for our people to go out. This...should we be careful and guard against it? If things fail, Master can also find a chance to escape."

Huang Wenhua glared and said, "Where can you run to? It's impossible for this to fail. Yue Ling didn't get any news beforehand, so how could it fail? You just do your job honestly, don't be a pawn."

"Yes……"

The butler had no choice but to accept it and left the hall.

Huang Wenhua, who was originally nervous, actually felt a little calmer after some self-praising.

With a fierce light flashing in his eyes, Huang Wenhua thought to himself: "Yes, that's the trend. If I can cut off my Huang family's financial resources, I can also cut off your life and death! This day next year will be your death sacrifice!"

(End of this chapter)