Chapter 912 - 757: Obedient in Word, Defiant in Heart

Old Ears watched Zheng Jiye being dragged away, sucking his teeth, unsure of what to say.

He looked at the elderly and the young in the Anti-Japanese Army, angrily shouting, "How did this Anti-Japanese Army come to be, why aren’t there any normal people? A dignified leader of a thousand households led by 200 old, weak, sick, and disabled people, even worse than the pirates, how much false pay have they consumed? They deserve to die!"

Chen Ji sighed, "If you’re really angry, you can just kill Zheng Jiye directly; no need to find an excuse."

Old Ears grumbled, "Can a little old man like me reason with him?"

He was about to say something else when he turned and saw Chen Ji moving bricks to build fortifications.

At this time, Jiang Chai, freeing up his hands after releasing Zheng Jiye, loudly commanded at the South City Gate, "Ah Xi, take the ones under fourteen to find wheelbarrows; Zhou Chang, take those over fifty to move stone mortars and mills; Li Si, take those over sixty to pry open the street’s blue bricks and bring them here; the rest of you, come with me to knock down the rammed earth wall and brick walls, load them on the wheelbarrows and bring them here, quickly, move it!"

Yuan Xi and others led the Anti-Japanese Army to act separately, and Zheng Jiye watched the previously chaotic 200-strong Anti-Japanese Army suddenly become orderly, each performing their duties, feeling a bit unfamiliar with the sight.

He nervously asked, "What should I do?"

Jiang Chai glanced at him, "You’re the leader of a thousand households, just command us."

Zheng Jiye turned his head to look around, finding no one beside him.

Jiang Chai thought for a moment, "You should also go build fortifications."

Zheng Jiye held back for a while, "Alright."

In less than ten minutes, the Anti-Japanese Army had knocked down walls, pried up bricks, and Jiang Chai and others led them in gathering everything that could be used to build fortifications, even dismantling household stoves.

The four-foot-high fortifications were built at the South City Gate, tightly blocking the path.

But it wasn’t over yet. Jiang Chai shouted to Yuan Xi and Li Si, "Take people up the city walls, don’t let the pirates outside set up ladders and come in again."

"Okay," Yuan Xi and Li Si led their men away.

Only then did Jiang Chai dare to lean against the fortification and catch his breath.

Before he could catch his breath, the pirates in the city had already retreated toward the south of the city with the help of a whistle, trapping them in the middle.

Jiang Chai, hearing footsteps outside the fortification, immediately lay down on it, quietly observing the firelight and dense fog outside, and asked Zheng Jiye, "Are there any reinforcements near Jingjiang County?"

Zheng Jiye hesitated, "There should be, Guangling County is very close, there’s a hundred and eighty local soldiers there."

Jiang Chai cursed under his breath, "This damned thing is also called reinforcements? It took us a whole day to come from Guangling to Jingjiang; by the time they get here, you’ll be long dead!"

Zheng Jiye helplessly said, "That’s the closest."

"Is there a beacon tower?"

"No."

Jiang Chai asked in a concentrated tone, "How many archers do the pirates have, what weight of bows do they use, and how far can they shoot?"

"Among over three hundred pirates, probably about a dozen or two are archers," Zheng Jiye hesitated, pointing to a distant alley, "they can shoot that far."

This response dumbfounded Jiang Chai, "What do you mean ’that far’? Your damned Anti-Japanese Army can’t even report numbers; a sixty-pound bow, 180 steps for volley, 30 steps for armor piercing, 80 steps to kill the enemy, what does ’that far’ mean? If you were my soldier, I’d enforce military law on you first!"

Zheng Jiye turned to point at the remnants of the weak soldiers behind him, grumbling, "Do we look like we have bows?"

Jiang Chai opened his mouth but couldn’t find words.

Zhou Chang crouched over, "How come you’re not even Innate, did you buy your rank?"

Zheng Jiye snapped, "You think becoming an Innate Official is like picking cabbages? I was originally farming at home, but I heard that if one person joins the Anti-Japanese Army, the whole family can be exempted from summer tax and autumn grain, so I came. It was originally my brother’s turn, but he’s better at farming than me, so he switched with me."

Zhou Chang looked at the other Anti-Japanese Army members, "Did the others come for the same reason, to be exempted from summer tax and autumn grain?"

Zheng Jiye retorted, "What else? Who else would come to fight the pirates?"

Jiang Chai sighed, "Fortunately, these pirates aren’t any serious, elite troops."

As he spoke, he glanced unintentionally at Chen Ji, seeing him covered in dust; as a godfather, he wasn’t doing any less heavy labor than others.

But being good at manual work isn’t much of a skill.

Jiang Chai sneaked another look at Old Ears beside Chen Ji, nudging Zhou Chang with his elbow, "What makes him strong? Why was he noticed by them?"

Zhou Chang glanced at him, "You’re not convinced?"

Jiang Chai stubbornly retorted, "Why should I be convinced?"

Zhou Chang puzzled, "Weren’t you the one leading the call for the godfather earlier? Calling godfather and offering swords, I thought you’d changed your character."

"What do you know, I’m respecting the one beside him," Jiang Chai stubbornly muttered under his breath, "outward respect for strategies, only people without skills care about face; losing face isn’t losing a piece of your flesh. But he hasn’t made me wholeheartedly submit, he’s just benefiting from the Sword Seed Path. If I trained on the Sword Seed Path, I’d be better than him."

Zhou Chang sighed, "No wonder Yuan Xingzhi hits you the most!"

The next moment, the sound of a breaking wind roared through, and Jiang Chai pressed Zhou Chang’s head down and shouted: "Be careful, the Wokou crossbowmen are here!"

All the Anti-Japanese Army quickly crouched down, and a dozen arrows flew over the barricade, thump-thump-thumping as they nailed into the South City Gate.

Jiang Chai risked himself by poking half his head out to look, and saw the Wokou holding large bows six or seven feet long, but they were not as powerful as the Han Family crossbows.

Jiang Chai glanced at it, and quietly judged: "Thirty-five-pound bow, used for twenty to thirty steps ambush."

He looked back at the arrows nailed into the city gate and added: "It’s not armor-piercing."

Zhou Chang thought for two breaths: "You hold them at the front, I’ll cover the rear for leaks, make sure we delay until Yuan Xing arrives to take over the battle."

Zheng Jiye listened carefully, only feeling that there was an indescribable force emanating from these people, a force even the elite of the Jinling Central Army Governor’s Mansion did not possess.

...

...

Outside the barricade, each Wokou used hemp ropes to lead a string of civilians to the South City Gate, including women and children. The Wokou also carried large bags of goods on their shoulders, it contained grain and gold and silver.

The only armored Japanese Chief hid in the dense fog, coldly watching the barricade.

With the barricade in place, the Wokou lost their crossbow advantage, their charge would be impeded, and the captured people and gold and silver could not be taken across.

If unnecessary, the Wokou should have avoided the barricade and continued to use their crossbow advantage to kill, but they had to open the South City Gate.

The Japanese Chief turned his head to look at the merging Wokou next to him, saying a few words in Japanese loudly, the Wokou looked at each other hesitantly.

The Japanese Chief angrily cursed a few more times, and the Wokou gritted their teeth, immediately dropping the captured women and children, and gold and silver, drawing their swords and rushing the barricade.

At first, the Anti-Japanese Army could hold them off, but within thirty minutes, they showed signs of defeat, retreating step by step as the Wokou entered the barricade.

Jiang Chai picked up his Japanese Sword and chopped down a Wokou who leaped into the barricade.

Another Wokou jumped onto the barricade, but before he could leap into it, Jiang Chai thrust his sword obliquely into his abdomen, then pushed him outside the barricade.

At that moment, a Wokou servant suddenly leapt onto the barricade from the flank, raising his Wild Great Sword and slashing down.

Jiang Chai’s face changed, he raised his hand for a blocking strike, but he forgot the Wild Great Sword was already gifted to Chen Ji; the sword in his hand was just an ordinary Japanese Sword.

With a clang, the Japanese Sword broke with the sound, the sword light of the Tachi shining toward his face.

At the moment Jiang Chai’s heart turned to ash, a slanting sword light came and severed the servant’s legs at the knees, the servant’s blade grazing Jiang Chai dangerously as it fell.

Jiang Chai looked in shock, only to see Chen Ji pick up the Tachi from the ground and toss it to him: "Use this one."

Saying that, Chen Ji tossed the Tachi in his hand to Zhou Chang: "You use this one."

Jiang Chai said with uncertainty: "Then what do you use?"

Chen Ji glanced at him without responding, silently charging toward another area.

Jiang Chai resisted the Wokou while glancing sideways at Chen Ji.

Only to see Chen Ji, empty-handed, rush to another place to face a servant holding a Tachi.

The servant struck down with the blade, Chen Ji clapped his hands together in front, miraculously clamping the Tachi still.

Chen Ji shook his hands, and a mighty force transmitted from the blade to the handle. The servant’s hand went numb from the shock, involuntarily releasing the handle, and the next moment he realized, the Tachi had fallen into Chen Ji’s hands.

The sword in Chen Ji’s hand rotated, and in the blink of an eye, the Wokou’s head fell to the ground.

Jiang Chai watched this scene with a contraction of his pupils: "Shaking Mountain? Isn’t this Yuan Xingzhi’s specialty?"

A Wokou approached Chen Ji from behind, Chen Ji drew his sword and swung backward, twisting his body in a spin that made the blade scrape against the Japanese Sword, creating a trail of sparks, sticking the Wokou’s blade to his as if absorbing the opponent’s sword into his own blade.

"Stone Fire."

Seeing Chen Ji as formidable, several Wokou immediately surrounded him, but Chen Ji’s sword moved with his body, and in an instant, all four Wokou around him had their throats cut.

Jiang Chai and Zhou Chang fought back-to-back, and Jiang Chai whispered: "Xing Yuan... how does he know Yuan Xingzhi’s specialty, was he in the Martial Arts Hall too?"

Zhou Chang cursed: "Still thinking about this now? Where’s Yuan Xing, damn it, why hasn’t he come yet."

Jiang Chai murmured: "Capture the ringleader first, Yuan Xing is the Right Martial Guard Commander, he knows what to do. Wait for it, he hasn’t come yet means it’s not yet time."

Outside the barricade, the Japanese Chief saw the Anti-Japanese Army’s defenses collapsing, immediately grabbed his Tachi and stepped out from the fog, pressing toward the barricade together with several confidants beside him.

But at that moment, Yuan Xing led the strong young forces of the Anti-Japanese Army from a slanting point: "Finally, Grandpa has found you!"

...

There’s another Chapter tonight, everyone can read it tomorrow morning.