The most deadly aspect of the wars of that era was the outdated and malicious means of transmitting information. Once the commander was misled by the wrong information, it would lead to a very tragic outcome.
So Kuki Yoshitaka decisively suffered a tragic fate. He still did not know the Zong Consortium's 1,000-man army had already collapsed without a fight. He had no choice but to defend a small hill and use a small stockade to form a defensive formation. When Luo Shangzhi caught up to them, he ordered the southern soldiers and the Wolf Soldiers to surround the hill. Then he led the assault team to attack, but they were shot down by the concentrated firepower of the Japanese pirates.
Only then did Luo Shangzhi remember he did not bring his shield carriages with him. The iron cannons of the Japanese pirates were quite difficult to deal with. After sending the southern soldiers to attack them, both sides suffered losses. However, the Japanese army occupied the higher ground, and the Ming Army who were attacking from the rear were forced to retreat.
While Luo Shangzhi was getting anxious, the artillery carriages arrived. More than a dozen artillery carriages were pushed over. Luo Shangzhi was overjoyed and immediately ordered the artillery carriages to bombard the hill. The artillery shells exploded on the hill, sending lead flying and gravel flying everywhere. The Japanese pirates suffered heavy casualties. After a few rounds of firing, there was no more sound from the hill. The large flag seemed to have been blown up as well.
The southern soldiers and the Wolf Soldiers cautiously went up the hill to investigate the battlefield. They discovered a well-dressed middle-aged Japanese general had been blown up into two. The upper half of his body was holding onto the broken flagpole, while the lower half was nowhere to be found.
Since they did not know who this person was, Luo Shangzhi decided to cut off his head and bring it back to Monk Xuan Su to identify it. Then he ordered the troops to continue advancing in the direction where the Japanese pirates had escaped. Not long after, they discovered a large settlement. There were even some people dressed as Japanese pirates who had not escaped in a panic. They did not seem to be on guard either, so they were probably the local residents.
Luo Shangzhi glanced at the wolf soldiers who had just been dealt a heavy blow. He knew that they weren't satisfied, especially with the fact that they had beheaded them. After thinking for a moment, he summoned the leader of the wolf soldiers and tacitly allowed the wolf soldiers to slaughter these Wokou commoners. The severed heads would be counted as the heads of the Wokou pirates. They could loot them, but they were not allowed to destroy the farmlands or burn down the houses.
When the Wolf Soldiers received permission, they were overjoyed. They howled and pounced forward, scaring the chaotic Japanese pirates out of their wits and causing them to scatter in all directions. The former peaceful settlement had instantly turned into hell.
Seeing this scene, the corner of Luo Shangzhi's eyes twitched. He sighed and led his Southern Army directly to the rather large building complex not far away.
Fortunately, the Wolf Soldiers did not destroy this building complex. Luo Shangzhi discovered that this complex was obviously the residence of the local tyrants. Although it was a mess, it did not look like the soldiers had been here. The people inside were packing up and preparing to escape. When they saw the Ming Army rushing in, they were instantly scared out of their wits and screamed in horror.
Luo Shangzhi decisively ordered the men to kill the women. All the treasures in the house could be taken, but the building itself could not be destroyed, and they were not allowed to set it on fire. The Southern Army was overjoyed and immediately rushed forward to begin the most primitive bestial destruction. Luo Shangzhi walked through this building complex and felt that this slightly simple and unadorned building was somewhat familiar.
When he thought about it again, the Japanese pirates were also the underlings of the Tang Empire in the past. It was not strange that the building complex had some Tang style to it, right?
He turned a deaf ear to the screams of the men and the wails of the women. He only admired this building with a strange sense of beauty.
Occasionally, he encountered one or two soldiers who intended to rape the Japanese maids in this house. Luo Shangzhi just stepped forward and fiercely stomped on them, telling them to take them somewhere else. He did not criticize the behavior of these beasts — the army needed to vent.
As the commander of the navy and the commander of this operation, Chen Lin was too embarrassed to go ashore and fight for credit with his subordinates. He thought that there would probably be fish that escaped the net and escaped in the direction of the Japanese mainland. Moreover, the fish that escaped the net would definitely have a higher status. Therefore, he led a part of the fleet to the back of Tsushima Island.
As expected, Chen Lin successfully commanded the fleet to sink three Japanese pirates' ships that attempted to resist. The remaining three Japanese ships that were desperately trying to escape were captured by him. Under Chen Lin's order, the Ming Army used the jumping ship tactic to capture these three ships. It should be said that they were lucky. Zong Yicheng, who was preparing to escape back to report, was captured by him. Zong Yicheng wanted to save his life, so after he revealed his identity, Chen Lin directly ordered him to be beheaded.
Your head is the most useful to me.
This surprise attack lasted for a day and a half. By noon the next day, the entire Tsushima Island had been swept. Due to the excellent performance of the wolf soldiers, there was not even one out of ten islanders left. Chen Lin was still a little depressed about this.
This was because Xiao Ruxun's order was to capture as many young men and women as possible. The old and weak could be killed, but the young men and women had to be kept. Now, there were less than two thousand young men and women, not to mention the captured Japanese pirates and soldiers.
Five thousand soldiers were not enough for the three thousand wolf soldiers and three thousand southern soldiers. Therefore, the generals, intentionally or unintentionally, tacitly allowed them to slaughter the islanders. As for the rest of the navy, they only had a few mouthfuls of soup and accumulated a little experience. They did not gain much from this. This made some of the navy officers and soldiers a little dissatisfied, and their desire to fight became stronger.
According to the accounts of the captured Japanese pirates who could speak Mandarin, there were originally the commander-in-chief of the Japanese pirates on Tsushima Island, Kuki Yoshitaka, and Vice-Admiral Takaku Tendo. There were about 4,000 people on the island. There was also the Zong family that had occupied the island for hundreds of years and 20 generations. They also had more than 1,000 soldiers. It was the family that had been completely destroyed by Luo Shangzhi and the wolf soldiers.
One of the captured Japanese pirates was Zong Yizhi's youngest son. According to him, several of his brothers and cousins had died in the infighting. The rest had all died in the surprise attack by the Ming Army. He was probably the only one alive.
Chen Lin curled her lips in dissatisfaction. She thought to herself, 'You bastards didn't even leave one for me.' In the end, she did not expect Luo Shangzhi to bring out a group of about 70 good-looking women with a smile. In an instant, the men of the Ming Army were envious.
Luo Shangzhi offered one that he thought was quite beautiful to Chen Lin. Chen Lin gulped and pretended to be reserved on the surface. Of course, she still accepted it in the end. Not only Chen Lin, but Lee Shunchen was also given one. Other than Deng Zilong, who quickly expressed that he did not need one, the rest of the high-ranking officers were given one that was acceptable. The rest, of course, belonged to all the marines.
Xiao Ruxun strictly forbade the soldiers from bringing in camp prostitutes. He also forbade them from kidnapping Korean women without permission. When a few of the soldiers did so, several Korean officials cried and kowtowed in front of him, asking him to uphold justice. Xiao Ruxun was furious. Those few soldiers were beheaded by Xiao Ruxun.
Although the army did not dare to make a move on Korean women, Xiao Ruxun did not forbid the kidnapping of Japanese women. He also said several times, overtly and covertly, that if they could catch Japanese women, he would do anything to them. However, they could not find any Japanese women on the battlefield. Therefore, the Ming Army could only use high-intensity battles to vent their body's anger.
More than a month of continuous fighting was indeed very tiring. Their bodies were temporarily under control, but in the end, it could not last long. They had not seen it before, but now, at this moment, there were more than 70 delicate Japanese women standing in front of them. How could you ask these strong men to be like Liu Xia Hui? How was that possible?
With the tacit consent and encouragement of Chen Lin and the other generals, the Ming Army's navy began to "clean up the battlefield" with the excuse of cleaning up the battlefield for half a day. At the same time, Chen Lin sent a few unlucky people who had drawn lots to Daegu to report the news to Xiao Ruxun. She told Xiao Ruxun that Tsushima Island had been successfully conquered. The navy was temporarily docked in Tsushima Harbor. She asked Xiao Ruxun for instructions on the next step of the battle plan.
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