What?! Why not abandon the city and leave?! !
Although Magistrate Wang's voice was very low, to County Magistrate Xiahou's ears it sounded like the roar of thunder.
Upon hearing this, Xiahou County Magistrate raised his head in disbelief and stared at County Magistrate Wang for a full three seconds.
"Ahem... Brother Xiahou, what I mean is that the Japanese pirates are numerous and powerful, while we are few and isolated. It is really difficult to compete with them. It is better for us to temporarily avoid the sharp edge, retreat strategically, retreat to advance, and retain the vitality of our Taiping. Now the Japanese pirates have surrounded the east, west, and north gates, and there are only sporadic Japanese pirates at the south gate. While the Japanese pirates are not paying attention, we concentrate our forces and lead the people in the city to retreat from the south gate, and we will surely succeed in one fell swoop." Under the scorching gaze of County Magistrate Xiahou, County Magistrate Wang coughed embarrassedly and defended himself.
"Your Excellency, Your Excellency, you absolutely cannot do this. The Japanese pirates are following a typical tactic of surrounding three gates and leaving one open. They have surrounded the three city gates, the east, the west and the north, and deliberately left the South Gate open to lure us to escape from the South Gate, while the Japanese pirates must have set up an ambush outside the South Gate. You must know that the Japanese pirates are coming from the south. If we escape from the South Gate, it will be like a sheep entering a wolf's mouth, and we will definitely be ambushed by the Japanese pirates. Our Taiping County city wall is tall and big, and it is well-known in Taizhou Prefecture for its integrity and solidity. There is abundant food and grass in the county city, and we can rely on the city wall to hold our ground against the Japanese pirates and keep them out of the city." After listening to Magistrate Wang's explanation, County Magistrate Xiahou could not help but shake his head and urged anxiously.
"Brother Xiahou, what you said makes sense. It was my fault for not thinking it through. Our Taiping City has high walls and sufficient food and grass inside the city. Relying on the city walls to defend against the Japanese pirates outside the city is the best option." After listening to the advice of County Magistrate Xiahou, County Magistrate Wang glanced at the Japanese pirates outside the city, narrowed his eyes slightly, thought for two seconds, and nodded.
"The county magistrate is wise."
Upon hearing this, Xiahou County Magistrate heaved a sigh of relief, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and said with a bow.
Xiahou County Magistrate was named Xiahou Liang, a local from Taiping County. The Xiahou family was a local magistrate, and it was said that his ancestors were descendants of Xiahou Yuan. Xiahou Liang admired the glory of his ancestors, and while reading poetry and books, he also trained his body and practiced martial arts. He was well-known in Taiping County for his ability in both civil and military affairs. At the age of 30, he passed the imperial examination and although he never passed the imperial examination, he became the county magistrate of Taiping County with the recommendation of his family.
Xiahou Liang was a local and had deep feelings for the county. If Magistrate Wang abandoned the city and fled, the people of Taiping County would be leaderless and no one would be in charge of defending against the Japanese pirates, and the people of Taiping County would suffer a great disaster.
Xiahou Liang couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he heard that County Magistrate Wang had given up the idea of abandoning the city and fled, and agreed to use the city walls as a support to defend against the Japanese pirates.
"The Japanese pirates are approaching, and life and death are at stake. Send out an order to gather the young and strong people in the county to go up to the city wall to defend against the Japanese pirates. Xiahou County Magistrate, you will be in charge of defending the East Gate and the North Gate, and I will be in charge of defending the West Gate and the South Gate."
County Magistrate Wang ordered the recruitment of common people, and handed over the defense of the East Gate and North Gate to County Magistrate Xiahou, while he himself defended the West Gate and South Gate.
"Yes, sir. I will not let you down. As long as the city survives and the people live, the people die!" Xiahou County Magistrate vowed.
"Brother Xiahou, you are too kind. Brother Xiahou is a man of both civil and military talents. I can rest assured that you will be in charge of the East Gate and the North Gate."
Magistrate Wang patted County Magistrate Xiahou on the shoulder and smiled gently.
Under the leadership of Magistrate Wang and County Magistrate Xiahou, Taiping County City summoned the people to guard the four gates to guard against the Japanese pirates.
"kill!"
"Kill! Kill!"
The Japanese pirates outside the city roared ferociously, raised their Japanese swords and other weapons, and approached Taiping County with murderous intent.
Seeing the murderous and ferocious-looking Japanese pirates, Magistrate Wang on the city wall couldn't help but step back half a step. The yamen runners, soldiers and civilians on the city wall had never experienced such a scene before. They were all frightened so much that their faces turned pale and their legs were shaking.
Cowardly bastard!
When the Japanese pirate leader Heihachiro saw the performance of County Magistrate Wang and the others on the city wall, he curled his lips in disdain and repeated his old tricks. With a wave of his hand, one hundred Japanese pirates under his command came out of the formation, suppressing more than one hundred civilians.
"What are the Japanese pirates trying to do?!"
Everyone on the city wall stared with wide eyes, whispered to each other, and talked a lot, not knowing what the Japanese pirates were going to do.
But soon, in the next second, they knew what the Japanese pirates were going to do.
The ferocious Japanese pirates pushed more than a hundred civilians behind the battle line. Under the command of Heihachiro, they raised their swords and slashed, blood spurted out, and heads fell to the ground. The Japanese pirates smiled grimly, bent down to pick up the heads, shook them on the city wall, and then ran around Taiping County with the bloody heads in their hands.
Running around with human heads in their hands! ! ! ! The barbarity and cruelty of the Japanese pirates were fully demonstrated through this action.
Although they had never seen the Qin Dynasty's fierce army that conquered the six kingdoms with human heads hanging around their waists, the sight of the Japanese pirates running around with human heads in their hands was extremely horrifying to everyone on the Taiping County wall. Everyone was terrified! Magistrate Wang couldn't help but take two steps back, his legs so weak that he could hardly stand.
"Shoot! Shoot! Shoot these beasts to death!"
When County Magistrate Xiahou saw the Japanese pirates carrying human heads and running around to demonstrate, and noticed that the people on the city were so frightened that their legs were weak, he could not help but give a loud order to aim bows and arrows at the Japanese pirates to strike down their arrogance.
County Magistrate Xiahou is well aware of the importance of morale and cannot allow the Japanese pirates to undermine the morale of the people in the city!
However, most of the archers on the city wall were civilians under the jurisdiction of the barracks. They were usually poorly trained, especially in the tactical skills of archery, which consumes a lot of energy. They were especially frightened by the Japanese pirates running around with human heads in their hands. Their archery skills, which were not very good to begin with, were greatly reduced.
“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!”
One after another, weak bows and arrows were shot at the Japanese pirates, but their accuracy and power were not good enough to be praised.
"Hahaha, the women in the city haven't eaten yet."
The Japanese pirates who were running around demonstrating with human heads in their hands were all elite soldiers who had experienced many battles. They easily avoided the arrows shot from the city walls, and basically no Japanese pirates were injured. Not only that, many Japanese pirates demonstrated how to catch arrows with their bare hands, holding a human head in one hand and grasping the arrows in the other.
Not only that, the Japanese pirates used their own tactics to return the favor. The Japanese pirates who caught the arrow with their bare hands tied the head to their waist, took out the longbow from their back, put the feather arrow on the bowstring, drew the bow like a full moon, and the arrow flew towards the city wall like lightning.
"ah!"
Several screams were heard on the city wall, and several people on the wall fell down. The Japanese pirates' arrows almost never missed their targets.
Seeing the Japanese pirates' shocking performance, the people in Taiping County were stunned and terrified.
How can we resist such powerful Japanese pirates!
Upon seeing this, County Magistrate Wang couldn't help but take two steps back, with his back pressed against the parapet of the city wall.