Thinking of this, Qiu Yizhi went against his usual practice of defending first and then attacking, waiting for the enemy's action before responding. Without hesitation, he ordered the crossbowmen who had been hiding behind the sacks piled on the dock to continuously shoot at the groups of Japanese pirates.
The Japanese pirates certainly had no way to resist the crossbow arrows, and were shot dead by the crossbows led by Qiu Yizhi's troops, more than a hundred of them in the blink of an eye.
Originally, Qiu Yizhi could have wiped out all the pirates without bloodshed by just shooting continuously. But he was anxious to find Yin Chengliang and Yin Tai, and there was no reason for him to tangle with these pirates on the dock, so he shouted, "All soldiers, listen to my order, attack forward, kill all the pirates, and leave no one alive!"
The two hundred militiamen under Qiu Yi's command were originally trained for the purpose of resisting the Japanese pirates. They had fought against the Japanese pirates countless times, but had never lost a single man or horse. They had long lost any fear of the Japanese in their hearts.
When they heard Qiu Yizi's order to kill the Japanese pirates themselves, it was as if they had received a simple order. They were all eager to try, and without the need for anyone to give them orders, they consciously arranged their formations. Then, under the cover of the powerful crossbows behind them, they used the giant shields and heavy armor of the "Dangshiying" in front of them to clear the way and quickly approached the Japanese pirates.
All the Japanese pirates who had fought against Qiu Yizi's group of militiamen from Shanyin County before had been killed without exception. Now, none of these Japanese pirates had ever heard of their names, and they just thought they were ordinary Jiangnan Jiedushi troops. Seeing their opponents gradually approaching, they also shouted and cursed, and rushed forward with Japanese swords in their hands.
Unfortunately, although they were brave, they had no knowledge of tactics. Facing Qiu Yi's soldiers with superb martial arts and sophisticated tactics, they seemed to have a huge amount of strength but nowhere to vent it. In a short period of time, they killed nearly two hundred people without hurting their opponents at all.
Wu Changxi, who was watching the battle beside Qiu Yizhi, had been defeated by the Japanese pirates many times before, and lost ** brothers when he rushed into the dock. He was originally quite afraid of the more than 1,000 Japanese pirates in front of him, so he did not dare to volunteer to fight.
But now he saw Qiu Yizhi's soldiers fighting the Japanese pirates, as if they were adults beating children, and there was no suspense, so he was encouraged. He took a half step forward, bowed and said to Qiu Yizhi: "Sir, now is not the time to delay. How about we deal with these Japanese pirates in front of us, and you go to find the Yin family father and son quickly?"
Qiu Yizhi thought about it for a moment and realized that this was indeed a good idea. He looked at the battle situation on the other side and said, "Alright. Then please ask General Wu to lead his troops to cut in from the enemy's flank and engage the enemy, and our army will then withdraw from the battle one by one. However, the Japanese swords in the hands of the Japanese pirates are long and sharp. General Wu, remember to stabilize the formation and use the shield in your hand more often. Don't fight the Japanese pirates alone with your courage."
After hearing this, Wu Changxi nodded solemnly and said, "Thank you for your guidance, sir!" After that, he picked up his spear, led more than 500 soldiers under his command, made a big circle through the gaps between the goods piled at the dock, and then rushed towards the flank of the Japanese pirates.
The Japanese pirates seemed to be in a very awkward situation when dealing with the Shanyin County militia in front of them. They were attacked on the flank by a fresh force of the enemy and were unable to resist. They could only hold on with their bravery. Under the attack from both sides, most of them were killed in a short while.
Qiu Yizhi saw that there were only 500 to 600 Japanese pirates left and Wu Changxi's troops were no longer outnumbered, so he ordered his men to slowly withdraw from the battle. These militias were training vigorously and were quite puzzled by Qiu Yizhi's order, but as the saying goes, orders must be obeyed, so they had to slowly withdraw from the battle and line up beside Qiu Yizhi.
Qiu Yizhi saw that Wu Changxi's troops were a little afraid of the Japanese pirates at first, but later they became more and more adept at fighting. Now they were fearless and had the upper hand, so he was very relieved and ignored him. He turned around and saw the ships parked near Mingzhou Port. There were at least 70 or 80 ships. He only knew that Yin Chengliang and his son were hiding in one of the ships, but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack to search for the two men from inside.
So Qiu Yizi ordered his subordinate "Iron Head Jiao" to call a few dock coolies to ask them about the whereabouts of Yin Chengliang and others.
Who would have thought that these coolies had never even heard of the names of Yin Chengliang and Yin Tai, and were even more clueless as to their whereabouts.
Qiu Yizhi saw that the sun was already at the zenith and was gradually moving westward. He was anxious and suddenly came up with an idea. He called the "Black-necked Toad" and said, "Hey! 'Toad', you must open your voice and curse at me. Curse loudly and with all your might. Use any foul language you want!"
The Black-necked Toad was overjoyed to hear such a strange order. He asked with a smile on his face, "I am an expert in this, but I don't know who you want to scold, sir?"
Qiu Yizi thought again: Among the father and son of the Yin family, Yin Chengliang is shrewd and cunning, and a few insults may not make him angry; but Yin Tai is a playboy who has been very conceited since childhood. Pointing at his sore spots and scolding him will most likely provoke him.
So Qiu Yizhi ordered: "Yin Tai. Yin Chengliang's son. This man has many ideas but few skills. He once wanted to rob Miss Wu Ruofei and even tried to murder me. I beat him to Japan. He is my great enemy, so go ahead and scold him!"
The "Black-necked Toad" nodded while listening, but said with a playful smile: "Sir, I also learned a few words from Mr. Lin, so I am a scholar after all. Mr. Lin taught us that the first thing to do when dealing with people is to keep our mouths clean, that is, not to speak nonsense..."
"Bullshit! Stop pretending to be so high-handed. Normally, you are the one with the loudest voice and the most nonsense. Now you are pretending to be a scholar? Stop talking nonsense and start scolding me. Believe it or not, I will dig out your tongue!" Qiu Yizi spoke a little rudely in a hurry.
The "Black-necked Toad" was actually aroused by his scolding. He cleared his throat, opened his bloody mouth and started yelling and cursing.
He was originally born a bandit, and he did not have much self-cultivation in his bones. It was only because of the discipline of Qiu Yizi and Lin Shuhan that he restrained his temper a little. Today, when he heard Qiu Yizi's order for him to scold his opponent, all the rudeness in his heart immediately burst out like a broken dam, and all kinds of obscene words came out of his mouth.
But after he had been shouting and cursing for a long time, Yin Chengliang and Yin Tai, father and son, still did not speak up.
Qiu Yizi was anxious and said hurriedly, "'Toad', you are such a stubborn person. Don't just stand there, start to curse until the whole dock, the whole Mingzhou city, and the whole world know what kind of person Yin Tai is!"
The "Black-necked Toad" listened to the order and nodded, but he did not stop. He cursed at each boat. He was out of words and could only repeat one sentence: "Yin Tai, you son of a bitch, a coward!"
The coastline of Mingzhou Harbor is thousands of steps long. It was like a "black-necked toad" yelling and cursing all the way. Even a throat made of cast iron would be worn out. The voice gradually became lower and lower. Finally, he coughed twice and said to Qiu Yizi almost beggingly: "My lord, I really can't yell anymore. Can you let me rest for a while and give me some water to drink?"
Qiu Yizi looked back and saw that Wu Changxi had already defeated all the Japanese pirates, and was now guarding the gap in the cofferdam and treating the wounded. He knew that the situation was now under his control, but he was not sure how long he could keep it under control. Perhaps the enemy would attack at the next moment and trap him in a jar.
So he took off the water bag hanging next to his saddle and threw it to the "Black-necked Toad": "How can you rest on the battlefield? When you finish drinking, hurry up and shout again!"
Qiu Yi's water bag was filled with the tea that Wen Lingjiao had prepared personally before he left the group. In addition to the clear and good tea, she also added some mint and honey, which had the effect of moistening the throat and relieving heat.
Once the lips of the "Black-necked Toad" touched such nectar, it could not let go. It gulped down most of the water bag, then handed the water bag back to Qiu Yizi with both hands. It then spat out half of the thick phlegm accumulated in its throat, and started shouting and cursing again, its voice much louder than before.
However, swearing does require skill. The "Black-necked Toad" has limited knowledge, and by now, all the dirty words accumulated in the first half of his life have been squandered, and only some "plain and simple" swear words such as "Yin Tai, fuck your mother!" are left.
"Black-necked Toad" kept repeating this sentence, feeling that his cursing was too monotonous and was afraid that Qiu Yizi would blame him. However, when he saw that Qiu Yizi did not comment and had no intention of punishing him, he felt relieved and simply continued to curse without thinking.
Unexpectedly, it was this "simple" curse that worked.
Black-necked Toad was cursing loudly when he heard someone on a boat shout, "Have you cursed enough?"
Qiu Yizi looked in the direction of the sound and saw a head popping up from the side of the boat. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was not Yin Tai, but his father Yin Chengliang.
It turned out that Yin Chengliang had a very harmonious relationship with his wife. Although he had a sexual habit, he had never had an affair with other women. Even after his wife died early, he, as a local lord who had served as the governor of Jiangnan for ten years, did not remarry or take a concubine. As a result, he had no children except the incompetent Yin Tai.
Therefore, after the "Black-necked Toad" repeatedly insulted Yin Chengliang's deceased wife, Yin Chengliang finally couldn't hold back his anger, popped his head out of the cabin, and started cursing at the people under the boat.
When Qiu Yizi saw him come out, she breathed a sigh of relief and clasped her fists towards the boat and said, "Lord Yin, we haven't seen each other for a long time. You seem to be in good health. It's really cause for celebration!" Yin Chengliang had previously escaped death by pretending to commit suicide by taking poison, so Qiu Yizi's words contained a lot of irony.
Yin Chengliang seemed not to have heard it, and was very upset about the insults from the "black-necked toad" before, and replied: "Humph! Are you trying to piss me off to death by yelling and cursing like this on the dock? Do you still have any dignity left in the court?"
When Qiu Yizhi heard that Yin Chengliang was now a rebel leader and had colluded with the Japanese pirates, and he had the nerve to bring up the four words "imperial majesty", he was quite disapproving and sneered: "I don't understand this. Isn't Lord Yin an enemy of the imperial court? The worse the imperial court is, the happier you are, aren't you?"
Yin Chengliang had been a loyal and filial minister of the Han Dynasty all his life, but suddenly he became a traitor. Faced with such a psychological gap, he had already prepared a set of self-consistent rhetoric for himself. He just said: "Who said that I am an enemy of the court? It's just that there is a tyrant and treacherous minister in the court. I want to work with the Prince of Lingnan to quell the rebellion and restore the original face of the Han Dynasty."
"But I don't know who the tyrant ruler and treacherous minister that Lord Yin was referring to is?" Qiu Yizi asked.