After leaving the east gate, Prefect Shang went to the north gate and northwest gate. He did the same thing as he did at the east gate, reminding the soldiers guarding the city to be careful of the Japanese pirates who pretended to be defeated to lure the enemy, and not to leave the city to pursue the pirates.
The soldiers at the north gate and northwest gate felt similar to General Wang about Prefect Shang's reminder. They felt equally uncomfortable, as if the victory they had achieved with blood and sweat was being despised.
In these two battles to defend the city, we shed blood and tears, fought with real swords and guns, and finally fought back the Japanese pirates with untold hardships.
Why does Zhu Ping'an's victory mean that he has a talent, but our victory means that the Japanese pirates are faking their defeat? !
We are veterans of the battlefield, our walls are high and our moats are deep, but are we not as good as the bandits who have only been pacified for a few months and the peasants who have just put down their hoes? !
Aren’t you too partial, sir
"Don't worry, sir. I will guard the city carefully and not give the Japanese pirates any chance to take advantage." The soldiers responded with mixed emotions.
The next day, the last darkness before dawn, was dark and cold, with a biting wind and filled with gloomy fog.
A carrier pigeon flew to the Zhejiang Army camp in the fog, with a letter box tied to the pigeon's leg. The soldier who had been waiting in the pigeon house for a long time immediately took the letter box from the pigeon's leg and trotted all the way to report to Zhu Ping'an.
Zhu Ping'an opened the secret letter and read through it quickly.
This is Liu Mu's handwriting.
Through the secret letter, Zhu Ping'an learned about what happened to Liu Mu, Liu Dadao and others after they went out, as well as the information they had obtained.
After they broke out of the camp yesterday, they were chased and intercepted by several Japanese pirates. Relying on the fast speed of the cavalry, they fought and retreated. After paying the price of five people being slightly injured, they finally got rid of the pursuit and interception of the Japanese pirates. After escaping from the pursuit and interception of the Japanese pirates, Liu Mu and Liu Dadao and his men split into two groups. Liu Mu led his men to monitor the Japanese pirates, while Liu Dadao led his men to search for the people of Xingcun in the wild.
The area within a ten-mile radius around was raided several times by the Japanese pirates. Those who did not hide well were captured by the pirates. Those who hid well were not easy to find. Some of the surviving people were afraid of being caught by the pirates, so they hid in more remote places.
Liu Dadao led his rangers to search for a long time before finding two households of surviving civilians who were hiding well before yesterday evening.
One surviving family knew nothing about anything. They had been hiding in a cellar in the woods and knew nothing about what was happening in the outside world. They only knew that the Japanese pirates had searched the woods many times and almost discovered the cellar where they were hiding, but fortunately they were not found in the end.
Another family hid in the reeds by the river. They saw a lot in the reeds. The Japanese pirates captured many hiding people and tied their hands with ropes. The team stretched for more than a hundred meters, and there were probably hundreds of people. They vaguely heard what the Japanese pirates said, saying that the captured people were lucky, and their leader had instructed not to kill indiscriminately, but to allow them to join the Japanese pirates and live a good life.
Liu Dadao led his men to search for surviving civilians ten miles away. They found many families ten miles away, some of whom had escaped from within ten miles. They all said that they saw the Japanese pirates arresting people, as many as several hundred people.
Liu Mu led his men to monitor the Japanese pirate camps outside the east gate, north gate and northwest gate of Suzhou City. The distance was too far to see the situation in the camps clearly, and if they took the risk of getting too close, they would be exposed and were almost blocked by the Japanese pirates.
In order to find out the situation in the Japanese pirate camp, Liu Mu took the risk and led his men to ambush a 20-man Japanese pirate search team in a woods. In order to avoid making too much noise and attracting other Japanese pirates, Liu Mu and his men did not dare to use muskets, but used bows and arrows and bayonets. Fortunately, they were prepared and their cotton armor had strong protection. They first fired a round of arrows and then used bayonets. After paying the price of two people seriously injured and three people slightly injured, they wiped out the entire Japanese pirate team.
Liu Mu selected nineteen men from his rangers, and asked them to change into the pirates' clothes together with him, and sneak into the Japanese pirate camp at the east gate under the cover of night.
The Japanese pirates had no military discipline at all. The one standing guard at the camp gate simply asked us why we didn't capture any civilians.
Liu Mu replied that they were unlucky and had plowed the land for three feet but failed to find the hiding people, so they had to return empty-handed.
The Japanese pirates at the camp gate just laughed and said, "You won't have a good meal. Those who capture civilians can eat meat and drink wine to their heart's content. Those who don't capture civilians can only eat bran and vegetables."
Liu Mu pretended to be dejected and led his men into the Japanese pirate camp.
The Japanese pirates were a mixed bag, with a chaotic mix of people. In addition to the real Japanese, there were also many Ming people who joined the pirates, including frustrated scholars, failed businessmen, street scoundrels, wild monks who did not abide by the rules and regulations, and desperate people, etc.
Moreover, even if they are real Japanese, they look very similar to the Ming people. Except for their hairstyle, accent, and being slightly shorter, they are almost exactly the same as the Ming people.
It was also because of this that many Japanese pirates disguised themselves as soldiers or civilians and sneaked into the cities to be attacked in advance, killing people, setting fires and causing destruction, or launching surprise attacks with internal and external support. This trick was used time and again by the Japanese pirates and it always worked.
Of course, it was easy for the Japanese pirates to disguise themselves as Ming people, and it was also easy for the Ming people to disguise themselves as Japanese pirates. Liu Mu and his men successfully sneaked into the Japanese pirates camp.
The Japanese pirates' camp was even more chaotic, with tents scattered here and there in a disorderly manner. The Japanese pirates had no discipline and gathered in groups of three or five.
After Liu Mu and his men infiltrated the Japanese pirate camp, he felt that as long as he did not hang around the tents of the Japanese pirates' high-ranking officials casually, there would be no risk of being exposed.
Whenever the Japanese pirates asked why they had never seen him before, Liu Mu always made the excuse that he had just come to Tuo Lin's old nest some time ago.
Fortunately, since the great Japanese chieftain Hojo Michisan was killed in a bombing when he attacked the Zhejiang army's position yesterday, the Japanese pirates under his command were divided up among Xu Hai, Ma Ye and Chen Dong. There were many new faces of the Japanese pirates under Xu Hai, and the twenty new faces of Liu Mu and his group were not noticeable at all and were mistaken for the Japanese pirates under Hojo Michisan who were divided up.
Newcomers are always bullied, especially Liu Mu and his men, who had not yet captured civilians from the wild. As soon as they entered the camp, a small Japanese pirate leader captured some strong men and asked them to guard the newly captured civilians and keep watch at night.
This was just like a pillow given to someone when he was sleepy. Liu Mu certainly wouldn't refuse, but he had an expression of being unhappy yet unable to resist.
Liu Mu and his men guarded the captured civilians for a whole night, so naturally they found out everything.
The Japanese pirates captured these civilians, shaved their heads into real Japanese hairstyles, changed their clothes into Japanese clothes, and even trained them urgently for several hours, with the aim of getting them to participate in the siege early the next morning.
Liu Mu found an opportunity to chat with the Japanese pirates who were also on guard duty, and after some indirect guidance, he finally found out the truth.
These captured civilians were sent to die. They were said to be attacking the city, but in fact they were sent to die.
More than 800 civilians who were captured earlier were almost all killed in the two sieges this morning and evening.
As for why the common people were sent to die, the low-level Japanese pirates who were guarding them had no idea. They only knew that it was the order of Xu Hai and other Japanese chieftains.