Hearing this, Qiu Yizi said sternly, "What a time it is, and you're crying! Do you still look like a man? If you just listen to my command, you may still have a chance to survive. If you still want to be afraid of death and retreat like before, you will only die!"
Wu Changxi also chimed in, "Listen, Lord Qiu is a master at using troops. Several of you participated in the battle in Shanyin County. Who could have hurt him in the slightest? If you want to stay alive, follow Lord Qiu's orders!"
Qiu Yizi saw that the panic expressions on the soldiers' faces had slightly dissipated. He knew that the situation was urgent and it was not the time to be humble, so he nodded and admitted: "Yes, I am Qiu Yizi from Shanyin County. Everyone listen carefully, the southwest corner is the weak point of the Japanese pirates' formation. Everyone follow us closely, break out of the encirclement in one fell swoop, and then evacuate from the streets in small groups. Do you understand?"
The soldiers all said, "I understand."
Qiu Yizhi added: "In this operation, there can be no hesitation. You must move forward without even looking back. If you hesitate for a moment, you will be surrounded by the Japanese pirates. Do you understand?"
The soldiers agreed again: "Got it."
Qiu Yizi then felt slightly relieved, and asked Yuchi Jiming to take the lead, with him following closely behind. His eight personal soldiers protected Lin Shuhan, Wen Lingjiao and the other two, while Wu Changxi personally led the charge and followed behind with his soldiers.
The formation was set, Qiu Yizi shouted "Charge!" and pointed to an alley in the southwest direction, ordering Yuchi Jiming to charge over there.
The group of Japanese pirates who had just been besieging Wu Changxi were caught off guard by Qiu Yizi's sudden attack and did not react to Qiu Yizi's actions.
However, the red-armored Japanese general behind them could see it clearly. He waved the bright red round fan in his hand like a ball of flame and shouted a lot of words in a hoarse voice.
After hearing the order, the Japanese pirates immediately surrounded the direction where Qiu Yizi and others were charging.
If Qiu Yizhi had only commanded these eight soldiers, he would have already escaped when the Japanese pirates hesitated. However, he not only had to take care of Lin Shuhan and others who were powerless, but also had to lead the weak Mingzhou government troops to break through. His speed of advance was greatly slowed down - the Japanese pirates actually arrived first and blocked him first.
Yuchi Jiming reacted quickly, took out a handful of copper coins from his pocket, and threw them at the heads of the Japanese pirates in front of him. This trick had always worked for Yuchi Jiming, and this time was no exception. The copper coins flew out like locusts, knocking down five or six Japanese pirates in a blink of an eye, weakening the human wall they were blocking.
Qiu Yizhi saw the opportunity and rushed into the Japanese pirates without hesitation. He killed a Japanese pirate on the spot with the extremely sharp sword in his hand. When his personal soldiers saw this, their morale was even higher. They also protected the gaps behind them and fought with the Japanese pirates.
Seeing his soldiers killing enthusiastically, Qiu Yizhi realized that their goal was not to annihilate the pirates, but to protect Lin Shuhan, Wen Lingjiao and others to get out of Mingzhou City before making a long-term plan. So he shouted loudly: "Don't fight too much, charge forward quickly and break through the pirates' defense line!"
His personal soldiers responded and then quickened their pace. They broke through the blockade of the Japanese pirates in front of them and killed their way into an alley.
Qiu Yizi took a breath and looked around, seeing that his eight personal soldiers as well as Lin Shuhan, Wen Lingjiao and He'er were all safe and sound, he felt relieved. However, when he turned around, he saw that the more than 300 soldiers led by Wu Changxi were surrounded by more than a hundred Japanese pirates, and the casualties were increasing.
It turned out that the Jiangnan Dao Jiedu Army under Wu Changxi was not strong in combat and had been defeated by the Japanese pirates before. They were afraid and could not keep up with the speed of Qiu Yizhi's troops. The Japanese pirates only knew that this group of people was a Han army and did not know the difference. When they saw a dozen people breaking out, they did not care at all and surrounded the large group of people and wanted to kill them all.
Qiu Yizhi sighed and wanted to leave immediately, not wanting to rejoin the enemy. However, the people surrounded were also Han soldiers, especially the leader Wu Changxi, who had been very kind to him, and he could not watch him die at the hands of the Japanese pirates.
So he pondered for a long time, shook his head, and looked up at Lin Shuhan and others and said, "Mr. Lin, Miss Wen, you are safe now, but Wu Changxi has done me a favor, and he is still surrounded. If I abandon him, I am afraid that I will be morally dishonest. I will turn around and rescue him. You have nothing to do with this matter, so don't take the risk."
He turned to Yuchi Jiming and said, "Jiming, you protect Mr. Lin, Miss Wen and others, and rush back to Shanyin County without stopping. After settling down, return to the capital immediately. Tell your father about this matter as soon as possible, and he will naturally deal with it. Tell him that the Japanese pirates are not easy to deal with, and you must not underestimate the enemy. Do you understand?"
Yuchi Jiming heard Qiu Yizi's words, which were almost his last words, and hurriedly asked, "Uncle, what are you talking about? You go back to save people or kill the enemy, but if you lose my guard, can you come back?"
Qiu Yizi smiled bitterly and thought: The Japanese pirates are powerful, there are more than a hundred of them in front of us, and the red-armored Japanese general has nearly two hundred men under his command. If they all attack, with the addition of you, Yuchi Jiming, it will only kill a few more people, and there will be no other benefit - my attack this time is more like a suicide rather than a rescue.
So Qiu Yi looked at Yuchi Jiming seriously and said, "I am your uncle, just listen to me and don't worry about anything else."
After that, Qiu Yizhi summoned up his courage and shouted to his soldiers: "Brothers, follow me forward..."
Before Qiu Yi finished speaking, Lin Shuhan grabbed him and said, "Of course we must uphold justice, but we must also know how to follow the rules. If something happens to you, you may even lose your life. What justice can you talk about? I advise you not to take any risks!"
Wen Lingjiao, who was standing by, also reached out and held Qiu Yizi back: "Mr. Lin is right. You should retreat first, recuperate, regroup, and come back to avenge the general. Isn't that also a way of repaying a favor?"
Qiu Yizi saw Wen Lingjiao's pair of almond-shaped eyes and two frowns, which were full of affection. She was almost convinced by her, but when she turned around, she saw that Wu Changxi's soldiers were getting fewer and fewer, and the speed of his spear swinging was gradually slowing down. Seeing that he was about to collapse, she hurriedly said to Wen Lingjiao: "I understand Miss Wen's reasoning, but..."
"Alas!" Qiu Yizi suddenly sighed, "If I had brought a few powerful crossbows with me from Shanyin County before I came out, I could have fired them now and disrupted the Japanese pirates' formation. Maybe General Wu could have escaped in the chaos. Anyway, this is God's will!"
After saying that, Qiu Yizhi flicked his sleeves lightly, shaking off Wen Lingjiao's pair of jade hands, but he didn't dare to look into Wen Lingjiao's eyes again, and rushed into the crowd of Japanese pirates without looking back. When the eight personal soldiers around him saw this, they hurriedly followed him, guarding him on both sides, and rushed into the enemy camp together.
Since landing in Mingzhou, this group of Japanese pirates have been burning, killing and looting all the way, and have never failed. Take just now for example, they only used a few hundred people to defeat more than 500 Jiangnan government troops. Therefore, when this group of Japanese pirates was in high spirits, they just wanted to kill all the government troops in front of them as soon as possible, and then wait for an opportunity to break through the gate of the government office and plunder inside - how could they think of protecting the gap behind them
Qiu Yizi took advantage of this and rushed into the encirclement of the Japanese pirates again when they were unprepared.
Among them, Wu Changxi was waving a spear and killing people in a daze, when he suddenly saw Qiu Yizi coming back. It seemed that he had strength in his hands again. While continuing to kill the enemies, he asked, "Lord Qiu, why are you back again?" He sounded so surprised that he almost cried.
Qiu Yizhi also waved his sword to block several Japanese swords and replied: "I am here to rescue you! Don't say anything, just follow me and break out!"
Wu Changxi replied while killing the enemy: "But some of my brothers are injured. How can we all rush out at once?"
Qiu Yizhi said: "Who cares about so many things now? Let's get away as many as possible. If we hesitate any longer, the Japanese pirates will come soon, and we will all die here. Isn't it too late?"
It's too late!
The situation changed drastically in just a few words between Qiu Yizi and Wu Changxi.
It turned out that the red-armored Japanese general saw the dozen people who had escaped earlier come back, and he felt that there was something strange about them. After careful observation, he found that their uniforms and weapons were different from those of the large group of government troops, and their morale and combat effectiveness were far superior to those of ordinary government troops.
The Japanese general was also a man who was quite knowledgeable about military strategy. He knew that this group of people was difficult to deal with. Even if they could annihilate them with only the hundred or so people who had gone out earlier, they would inevitably suffer great losses. So the red-armored Japanese general waved his round fan, stood up himself, drew the Japanese sword from his waist, and led the remaining nearly 200 Japanese pirates into the battlefield.
As a result, not only did the individual combat effectiveness of the Japanese pirates far exceed that of the government troops, but they were also not inferior in numbers. Qiu Yizi and others were immediately surrounded in the center of the city, barely able to save their lives, let alone move out even a single step.
However, the encirclement of the Japanese pirates was getting tighter and tighter. The two or three foot long Japanese swords in their hands kept flashing in front of him. Qiu Yizi was almost cut in the skin and bones several times. Many of the personal soldiers who were protecting him were already wounded, and most of the rest of the government troops had already been killed as they had poor martial arts skills.
Seeing another Japanese sword coming down from the air, Qiu Yizi quickly raised the Western Region sword in his hand to block it. The sword in his hand was extremely sharp. If it were an ordinary sword, it would have been cut into two pieces long ago. Even with the toughness of the Japanese sword, a very deep gap was cut on the blade.
The Japanese pirate who was wielding the sword was stunned when he saw this. Qiu Yizi seized the opportunity and stepped forward and slashed at him, cutting off his hands that were tightly holding the sword. He rolled on the ground in pain, with blood flowing all over the floor.
Qiu Yi succeeded in one strike, and was very proud of it. She turned her head to look at Wu Changxi, but saw that the spear in his hand had been broken. He was holding half of it in each hand, and he didn't care about any moves. He just hit a Japanese pirate in the face. The Japanese pirate was short and had no power to defend himself from the rain of attacks from above. Soon, he showed a flaw, and Wu Changxi caught him and stabbed him in the chest with the half of the spear with a sharp tip.
Qiu Yizhi saw this and couldn't help shouting "good", but unexpectedly, a Japanese pirate on each side chopped down with a long sword. Qiu Yizhi was shocked and hurriedly dodged to one side to avoid the attack while holding up his sword to block the Japanese sword from the other side.
The two Japanese pirates missed their first attack, so they stood up and thrust their swords at Qiu Yi's chest and abdomen.
Qiu Yizi had no way to avoid it, so she had to retreat backwards. However, after taking two steps back, she bumped into someone from behind and could no longer retreat. She was in a situation where she had no way to avoid it.
Qiu Yizhi sighed secretly: "It's over—" (To be continued)