BeachMangled bodies laid all over the ground as blood seeped into the sand. The sound of people being killed had already stopped. The most prominent sound that could be heard came from the ten warships who chased after the remaining pirate boats. There were also the faint sounds of pirates who cried and shouted.
At this point, Pei Zi Yun had already appeared after he finished washing his face. It started to drizzle again as the tides began to swell. Wave after wave crashed onto the beach.
"Your Excellency, what should we do now?" Chen Pu and Cai Yuan Zhen walked over, their faces were filled with elation.
"Your Excellency Luo, now that the enemy pirates have been vanquished, my safety is no longer of concern. Everyone is getting busy now. Lead several men and sort out the surviving pirates. Those who have endured severe injuries should be killed out of mercy. Also, take the head of the lead pirate as a sign of our victory."
"Those pirates whose wounds aren’t severe should be taken to the interrogation chambers. Find out who their section leaders are and their relevant responsibilities. We shall hand the more senior members to the Governor."
The Governor had deployed his own soldier who was a seventh ranked official. At this point, he bowed and replied, "Yes, I shall do as you command."
"Captain Cai, your job shall be to continue leading the captives and civilians. The captives should be tasked with moving corpses, while the civilians should start to cook rice and meat for our nourishment."
"Likewise, soldiers should take turns between resting and being on duty. Do not neglect the need for rest."
"Yes!" Cai Yuan Zhen acknowledged loudly.
"Your Excellency Chen, you have many duties to do as well. Round up the senior commanding pirates to hand over to the Governor. You also have to handle the aspect of rewards, and determine which soldiers among our ranks performed well in battle. They shall be rewarded accordingly."
The few of them all shouted out words of acknowledgement. At this point, there were several rows of captive pirates who kneeled on the ground. They were all divided into rows of five. A soldier then stepped towards a group, the nearest captive was a mess of blood and gore. As soon as the soldier approached, he spat on the ground and shouted angrily, "Bulls.h.i.t Imperial Court, you won’t get any answers from me."
The soldiers who heard this were enraged by his behavior while the lead soldier maintained a stoic and calm expression. Without even batting an eyelid, the lead soldier spoke, "Kill him."
At once, this pirate’s expression fell. Even before he could speak another word, a long sword pierced his body as he fell to the ground. Blood seeped out from the fatal wound and formed a puddle on the ground.
"Will you speak?" The soldier turned to the next captive, who hesitated. Once again, the lead soldier ordered, "Kill him too!"
"Pu!" This time, someone swung his blade sideways and decapitated the pirate in a single stroke.
Before the soldier had a chance to ask for the third time, the next pirate trembled in fear as he shouted in between sobs, "I’ll speak, I’ll speak, spare me!"
Pei Zi Yun laughed as he watched the situation. They made quick progress.
The statistics came to them during midday.
"There were 450 beheaded pirates, 170 pirate leaders had been given up by the captives after interrogation. As for normal bandits who joined them, along with common deckhands, there were 526 of them.
"Something important to note is that we’ve killed Fang Zhi and Fang Tong."
"It’s a pity that Fang Ji managed to escape."
"It’s also important that we record the number of pirates who got away."
"We also found fifty horses, twenty-one camels and eight cows."
When Pei Zi Yun heard this, he hurriedly called for the Free Cloud Sect disciples and ordered them, "Help heal these soldiers. When you’re done, you shall handle the normal captives. These captives are normal people without their leaders. Most of them understand sea trade and how to operate boats. They can be useful."
"We need people on the island, and they can be our forced labor. You shall be in charge of these men. If you see any evil vices or bad habits, don’t hesitate to kill them."
"When I return, I shall send someone to take over for you. We have a shortage of people within the sect’s stronghold. Once you are done with the exchange, you are to return back to Free Cloud Sect immediately."
"Understood!" The few of them hurriedly acknowledged.
Sea
A single boat floated along the sea, with half of its sail burnt off. A trail of smoke could be seen coming from the boat. Several pirates were huddled together as Fang Ji lay down on the deck, unconscious. Seeing their Second Leader in such a state, they were all extremely downcast.
"d.a.m.n it, which one of you here knows how to heal? Think of a way to save our Second Leader." A pirate shouted out.
At this point, another replied, "How should we save him? Who here knows anything about healing? Our Big Leader and Third Leader didn’t manage to survive. Where shall we go from here?"
The ferocious pirate clutched his sword tightly as he stuck it into the wooden deck, "We have to plot our revenge. If not, our brothers would’ve died in vain."
"Yesterday, the old man even said he wanted to kidnap several women and bring them back to the islands to reproduce for us. Today, we were slaughtered by the officials. It’s such a horrid situation."
"Should Second Leader die, I shall kill all of you." Just as they all quarreled among themselves, a man of around thirty years old spoke up.
The quarreling pirates were shocked by this and were evidently afraid.
This was the second leader’s personal bodyguard. Many years ago, he was picked up by the second leader himself. Since then, he had always remained beside the second leader. Everyone knew his fighting skills were unmatched among them, he was also extremely cruel and vile. He glanced down upon them, clearly agitated, causing the rest of the pirates to shudder in fear.
Before long, none of the bandits dared to make a sound. The atmosphere was extremely tense.
A cook whose body was tattered with scars stepped forward, "Leader, I know a little about the healing ways."
Hearing these words, everyone finally relaxed. Just as the cook was about to step forward to examine the second leader, Fang Ji gasped before he woke up. As soon as he came around, everyone surrounded him.
Fang Ji had struggled to get up before his guard stepped forward to hold him, "Second Leader, don’t move. You should rest well."
Fang Ji ignored him and stood up as he cast a glance around the boat. There weren’t many pirates who remained, as he continued to observe his surroundings. He stared hard into the eyes of the men around, as if trying to gather more information from their eyes.
He then asked, "What happened to Big Brother and Third Brother?"
Having heard these words, everyone’s face turned pale and didn’t reply. Fang Ji then understood, "Big Brother and Third Brother are both dead huh."
"Second Leader, that’s correct." Someone replied him with a tone that made everyone feel sad.
Seeing everyone in such low spirits, Fang Ji whispered, "Is this all that’s left of us?"
n.o.body around spoke. After a long time, the guard then replied, "Second Leader, this is all that remains."
"How many do we have on this boat?"
"We have around twenty men."
"Pei Zi Yun, you and I cannot live under the same sky." Fang Ji gritted his teeth as he shouted out, his entire body became tense. This caused several wounds to split open once more. His guard hurriedly stepped forward, "Leader, don’t be angry anymore. Your health is most important."
"What should we do now?" A pirate asked.
Fang Ji shook once more before he regained his senses and looked at everyone. All of a sudden, he broke out in laughter, "No, we don’t just have one boat. We have another three in j.a.pan’s Tsushima Islands."
"Besides, we have many goods hidden there, more than enough to provide for a hundred men."
As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere on the boat simmered down considerably again. Fang Ji then spoke, "As for revenge, we don’t have the strength now. But we can borrow blades of others!"
"Who would you call for help?" A pirate stepped forward to ask.
"Ji Bei Hou and the Navy Admiral Chen Ping!" Fang Ji gritted his teeth before asking, "Do we still have any Daoists around?"
"We do have one, but he’s severely wounded and in the cabin. I’m afraid he will die very soon."
"Take me there. We must do everything we can to ensure he doesn"t die. We need to send a message and we need him to do it."
Ji Bei Hou’s Mansion
The sky had turned dark, and it had rained for nearly two full hours. At this point, the weather started to calm down.
The clouds were extremely thick and hung very low. At this point, a man ran from the alley into the mansion despite the rain. As soon as he saw the soldiers who guarded the mansion, he flashed a tile and strode in.
Someone seemed to be singing within the yard. As he p.r.i.c.ked his ears to listen, the melodic voice of a woman became clearer to him. She sang a different version of -Let’s Drink Up-. which had been remade into a play. He took wider strides and turned into the corridor before he crossed several fences and arrived outside a room.
Although it was just a room, there were a pair of soldiers standing guard outside. Once again, he displayed his tile and was allowed inside.
Shen Zhi was frowning, writing, and a.n.a.lyzing a report. He then heard someone at the door, "Mr Shen, there’s some news from Ace Monastery."
He sounded very anxious as he spoke.
"Ace Monastery? Isn’t that linked with those sea pirates?" Shen Zhi paused in shock as he revealed a nervous expression. With some slight hesitation, he thought, "Could something big have happened?"
He then hurriedly called out, "Enter."
The person who waited outside the opened the door as and bowed before he delivered the report.
As Shen Zhi received the report, he could several symbols on the envelope, "Urgent affairs?"
Since using the Dao to communicate was prohibited in places where the Imperial Qi was extremely strong, messages were relayed to and from a monastery further away from the city. At this point, he ripped open the report and took a look. As he read, his heart hammered in his chest as sweat formed across his forehead.
When Shen Zhi had finished reading it once, he didn’t seem very content and he read it once more. He then mumbled, "Three days. All it took was three days of battle, and the pirate islands had all been attacked and captured. Only twenty people managed to escape."
He was tremendously astonished as the details of the report. Within three days, Pei Zi Yun managed to achieve victory over an army of pirates, three thousand men strong, using only one thousand soldiers?
There were at least three thousand pirates, probably more plundering the seas. Even if the navy soldiers were all extremely capable, to defeat the pirates at sea with three times less men in three days, was too surprising.
Shen Zhi hurriedly walked out of the room and moved through the corridors. Once he entered, he could see Ji Bei Hou facing the bookshelf. The smell of incense was particular strong as the entire room was filled with smoke. Shen Zhi bowed down, "Master Hou!"
Ji Bei Hou was surprised to see him and replied, "Please sit. Serve us both tea. Why have you come for me?"
Shen Zhi hurriedly replied, "We have an urgent message!"
As he spoke, he handed the report over to Ji Bei Hou, who read it immediately. After understanding the details, Ji Bei Hou trembled, before he paused and paced around the room. "d.a.m.n it. d.a.m.n it. Ruining my affairs again. I cannot stand it."
He then asked, "Shen Zhi, what ideas do you have?"
When Shen Zhi heard this, he mumbled, "Master Hou, we must not admit our relations with the pirates. We have to think of a way to handle Pei Zi Yun."
"Now, we don’t have any methods up our sleeves. But we can contact King Lu’s people. I think King Lu wouldn’t like that Pei Zi Yun is succeeding in his endeavors. Also, we have Dark Altar Sect, who’s now an ally with King Lu."
"You’re right. I’ve thought it through as well. There’s still someone." Ji Bei Hou relaxed as he sat down to take a sip of tea. He then replied, "There are somethings about the report which I don’t understand. Why did they mention Chen Ping? Ah! At last, I’ve realized why."
"Oh, please explain Master Hou." Shen Zhi asked.
Ji Bei Hou gave a cold laugh, "Pei Zi Yun killed the Navy Admiral Chen Ping’s brother-in-law before he left for sea. He then single handedly led an expedition out without informing Chen Ping. How do you think he will feel about Pei Zi Yun?"
Hearing these words, Shen Zhi paused to reply, "We can exploit this situation. If he killed his brother-in-law, it was probably a personal affair. However, leading the navy out without the permission of Admiral Chen would mean he overstepped his boundaries, and would probably undermine Admiral Chen’s livelihood."
"At this point, if anyone hates Pei Zi Yun the most, it’s him."
Ji Bei Hou nodded his head and was about to reply when someone outside announced, "Master Hou, someone wishes to meet you."
He then handed the note over. Shen Zhi retrieved the note before he spoke, "Looks like King Lu’s men have been paying attention to this affair as well and have heard the news. They’ve sent someone here."