Qiu Yizhi led his troops through the maze-like streets and alleys of Mingzhou Prefecture for half a day before he got behind the Japanese pirates. He found a long bamboo pole used by residents to dry clothes on the side of the street, and found a piece of red cloth, which he hung on the bamboo pole and waved in the air a few times.
This is the secret code agreed upon by Qiu Yizi and Wu Changxi.
When Wu Changxi saw this, he quickly directed his soldiers to strike their shields with their swords to make a loud noise, and shouted slogans while slowly moving towards the front of the Japanese pirates.
When Qiu Yizi heard the noise in front, he knew that Wu Changxi had started to move, so he urged the horse under his crotch and moved forward slowly, looking for the right opportunity to attack the Japanese pirates from behind, in order to kill the leader of the Japanese pirates in one fell swoop. After a successful attack, he would take advantage of the chaos to catch the other Japanese pirates in one fell swoop.
However, the Japanese pirates were unaware of the situation behind them. They only knew that the Han government troops had abandoned the high walls and were taking the initiative to attack them head-on, which made them very happy.
It turned out that this group of Japanese pirates were quite confident in their combat effectiveness in field battles, but what they lacked was the ability to attack solid walls. Especially the Japanese general in red, when he saw the Han army rushing towards him, he was immediately overjoyed. He waved the round fan in his hand, pointed out one-third of his companions, drew the long sword at his waist, and rushed towards the Han army.
Qiu Yizhi was behind the Japanese pirates and saw the situation clearly. He saw that the Japanese pirates only sent out more than a hundred people, and the Japanese general was guarded by many people. It might be difficult to kill them successfully. Fortunately, the number of Japanese pirates he sent out was not large. With the number of Wu Changxi's 500 men, it might be difficult to kill them, but it was not difficult to attract them - as long as the Japanese pirates showed a flaw behind them, he could take advantage of it and win.
But what Qiu Yizi did not expect was that when Wu Changxi's troops saw the Japanese pirates shouting and charging towards them, they became confused before they even came into contact with the enemy - some stopped, some looked around, and some secretly threw away their weapons and took the opportunity to flee in all directions.
Wu Changxi was also a man who understood military tactics. He knew that if he continued like this, the Japanese pirates would charge over and he would be defeated without the protection of his formation.
So he shouted loudly: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid! Line up, line up!"
However, the louder Wu Changxi shouted, the more panicked his soldiers became. In just a moment, the formation was in great chaos, and many soldiers had already thrown away their armor and weapons and fled.
Seeing this, the Japanese pirates who charged first became even more aggressive, and with their Japanese swords in hand they attacked and slashed fiercely into the government army's formation.
The morale of the government troops under Wu Changxi was weakened by the fierce attack of the Japanese pirates. They turned around and retreated to the Mingzhou government office without paying any attention to the orders of the commander-in-chief. Wen Lingjiao and others who were arranged in the government troops had no choice but to be pushed to the front of the Mingzhou government office with the crowd.
However, the gate of the Mingzhou government office was tightly locked from the inside. Not only could the Japanese pirates not enter for a while, but even the government troops could not enter to seek refuge.
When the battle progressed to this point, Wu Changxi saw that his soldiers were already backed against the city gate with no way to escape, so he had to shout out an order: "Everyone listen to my order, killing the enemy means death, and running away also means death. We will fight to the death and we will definitely defeat the Japanese pirates!"
However, the Jiangnan Jiedushi Army under his command had been weak for a long time. After hearing such encouragement, their morale did not improve at all. Few of them dared to turn around and fight the Japanese pirates. Instead, they begged the Mingzhou government to open the door and let them in.
Wu Changxi was about to cry too.
He was so anxious that he cried - he led the soldiers to attack proactively, but it was just a momentary act of bravery, which actually violated the order of the governor Ye. Now that he was defeated without a fight, how could Ye Shengyu open the door to let a defeated general like him in? What's more, the Japanese pirates were right in front of them. Once the gate of the government office was opened, they would definitely follow the defeated soldiers into the government office. The people in the government office were not fools, and under such circumstances, they would not open the door.
Thinking of this, Wu Changxi sighed and thought: It's all my fault for being impulsive at the moment, which has put me in this desperate situation. Now the situation is really as I said, "Killing the enemy means death, and running away means death." I might as well fight to my heart's content, and then die together with the Japanese pirates. At least I will die fighting bravely, and I will have a reputation after death, so that I won't implicate my parents, wife and children.
So Wu Changxi held a spear in his hand, let out a long roar, and rushed into the Japanese pirates' formation.
As the saying goes, "an inch longer, an inch stronger." The Japanese swords in the hands of the Japanese pirates were several inches longer than the official swords equipped by the Han army, so they had a great advantage in close combat. However, the spear in Wu Changxi's hand was several times longer than the Japanese sword, and he was really good at martial arts, so he stabbed down several Japanese pirates as soon as he got close to the enemy.
However, he was outnumbered after all, and in the blink of an eye, he was surrounded by countless Japanese pirates. He also received serious knife wounds on his back and legs. He was at the point where he had to fight to the death like a trapped beast.
At the same time, Qiu Yizi became more and more panicked when he saw that the government troops on the front were defeated so easily. He knew that if he hesitated any longer, Wen Lingjiao, Lin Shuhan and He'er, who were under the protection of the government troops on the front, would also surely become victims of the sword.
He looked up and saw that the red-armored Japanese general was guarded by three layers of Japanese pirates inside and outside. He knew that his original plan to capture the enemy leader had failed. Now he had no choice but to rush back to the front and rescue Wen Lingjiao, Lin Shuhan and others. As for whether he could repel the Japanese pirates, it was impossible to talk about it now.
So Qiu Yizhi spotted a weak link in the Japanese pirates' formation, made some arrangements with his personal soldiers, and then led the way into an alley. Thanks to the winding paths in Mingzhou City, Qiu Yizhi's cavalry detours did not attract the Japanese pirates' attention at all, and easily arrived only fifty or sixty steps behind the Japanese pirates.
Qiu Yizi secretly thanked his luck that his actions were not discovered by the Japanese pirates. He whispered a few words to his personal soldiers and then took the lead and rushed straight behind the Japanese pirates.
Japan is an island country with a very narrow territory. There is no pasture for raising horses. The mountain horses produced are very thin and weak, and cannot be used in field battles. Therefore, Japan does not have any decent cavalry tactics, and similarly, it lacks tactics to restrain cavalry raids.
Therefore, Qiu Yizi's elite cavalry, without any effort, broke through the weak rear of the Japanese pirates, killed their way through the enemy formation, and came behind the Japanese pirates who were besieging Wu Changxi.
According to common sense, to annihilate the Japanese pirates in front of him, Qiu Yi should continue to attack without stopping with the advantage of cavalry, and use the impact of horses to inflict maximum damage to the Japanese pirates who are not protected by heavy armor and spears. If a charge cannot annihilate or defeat the enemy, then he should distance himself and reorganize the charge, repeating this many times until the opponent is completely crushed and defeated.
However, although Qiu Yizhi understood the reason, he could not follow the law - because in addition to the Japanese pirates, there were also government soldiers, and Wen Lingjiao, Lin Shuhan and others were mixed in the government army. If he launched a charge, it would not only cause heavy casualties to the Japanese pirates, but it was also very likely that the impact would not be dissipated, which would harm innocent people and put Lin Shuhan, Wen Lingjiao and others in danger. For now, the only way was to fight the Japanese pirates on foot and try to kill them, and perhaps rescue Lin Shuhan and Wen Lingjiao.
Therefore, Qiu Yi thought about it for a whole moment, and finally made up his mind. He led his personal soldiers and Yuchi Jiming to dismount, and whispered something in the ear of his mount. The Ferghana horse was very human, and led the other horses to retreat quickly to the side, with tears in his eyes, looking at his master from afar.
Seeing this, Qiu Yizi sighed inwardly, then took a deep breath and shouted: "Brothers, kill all the Japanese pirates today!" As soon as he finished speaking, he drew out the black Western Region sword from his waist and rushed towards the Japanese pirates on foot.
When Yuchi Jiming and others behind him saw this, they also hurriedly took up their weapons and rushed towards the Japanese pirates.
Qiu Yizhi's shout had already attracted the attention of the Japanese pirates. Many of them left Wu Changxi alone and turned around, only to be surprised to see a group of people appearing behind them, and one of them was rushing towards them with a knife in hand.
However, there were only less than ten people in this group, which was not enough to prove their superiority in numbers and the sharpness of their Japanese swords, so they inevitably felt disrespectful.
However, these Japanese pirates did not know that the troops charging towards them were the elite among the elite of the Han Dynasty - not only were they highly skilled in martial arts and full of fighting spirit, but they had also fought against the Japanese pirates countless times and had long lost the slightest fear of them.
Yuchi Jiming arrived first after starting later, and with his superb lightness skills, he ran in front of Qiu Yizi, holding the short knife given to her by Wen Lingjiao in his backhand, and easily pushed away the long knives in the hands of several Japanese pirates. He used some agile and nimble body skills to turn around a few times and cut off the necks of three Japanese pirates.
These Japanese pirates had never expected that the little girl who rushed in first had such skills. Before they could react, Qiu Yizi had already led the other eight personal soldiers to attack them.
These personal soldiers were all instructed by Yuchi Lianghong, the best martial artist in the Central Plains, and were quite familiar with the martial arts of the Japanese pirates. They were armed with sharp blades that were tributed by the Bohai Kingdom. Therefore, in terms of individual combat capability, they were superior to the Japanese pirates. At the same time, compared with the scattered Japanese pirates, they had a unified command, knew how to cooperate and protect each other, and could give full play to their individual combat effectiveness.
For these reasons, although Qiu Yizhi led less than ten people, each of them was as good as ten. After a fierce charge, they were able to meet Lin Shuhan and Wen Lingjiao.
Qiu Yizhi saw that although Lin Shuhan, Wen Lingjiao and He'er were in a state of disgrace after the incident, they were not injured, so he felt relieved. When the Japanese pirates temporarily retreated, he said, "Mr. Lin, Miss Wen, it's all my fault for being reckless. This put you in danger. Let me apologize first."
Wen Lingjiao still maintained her usual gentle temperament in the face of danger, and said calmly: "Yesterday, the young master suffered because of me, and today I am in danger because of the young master, so we are even now, right..."
When Lin Shuhan heard that Wen Lingjiao was still calculating favors at this critical moment, he interrupted her: "Why do you have to do this, sir? Miss Wen, there is no need to be discouraged! We are not at the end of our rope yet. We should find a way to break through the siege of the Japanese pirates, which is the serious matter!"
Lin Shuhan's words really reminded Qiu Yizi that with his existing military strength, it would be a fantasy to kill all the Japanese pirates in front of him; but if he wanted to escape unscathed, it was not a difficult task.
So Qiu Yizhi hurriedly took a few steps forward, walked to the side of Wu Changxi, who was already exhausted from fighting, and said to him: "General Wu, it is all my fault for acting rashly, which has put you and your soldiers in this dilemma..."
Wu Changxi hurriedly said: "Master Qiu, there is no need to blame yourself. A real man would rather die in front of the battlefield than behind it. Being able to perish together with the Japanese pirates is also a good destination..."
Before he finished speaking, he heard a soldier beside him scolding: "If you want to die, then die. I don't want to die yet, so don't drag me down with you! I have a mother to support at home!" As he said that, he actually burst into tears. (To be continued)