Five years ago, Hu Zongxian used amnesty to divide Xu Hai’s pirate group, and Xu Hai committed suicide.

Three years ago, Hu Zongxian used the same method to offer amnesty to another pirate leader, Wang Zhi. Wang Zhi followed Xu Hai’s path – after accepting amnesty and receiving official rank, he returned home in glory to honor his ancestors. Getting carried away with success, he too ended up beheaded.

With the death of the two great pirate leaders, their main forces and pirate strongholds were destroyed. No third pirate with the charisma and cohesive power of Xu Hai or Wang Zhi emerged to make any real impact. The remaining Japanese pirates scattered and fled for their lives. To avoid official pursuit, they dispersed into small groups – at most five hundred, at least sixty-some people – scattering like birds and beasts while robbing along the way, even penetrating deep inland to raid Jiangxi Province!

The pirates had broken into fragments, spreading from the coastal areas throughout the entire body. The Ming was like a great bear attacked by a swarm after knocking over a beehive – though one swipe of its paws could kill many, its body was also stung everywhere by bees.

Anti-pirate warfare changed from large-scale battles to guerrilla warfare blooming everywhere.

The Ming had enjoyed peace for too long. Especially inland garrison troops who only knew farming and military colonies were powerless against the fierce pirates who lived by the blade – situations even arose where sixty-four pirates could break through and loot an entire city.

Anti-pirate army leader Hu Zongxian busily rushed around “putting out fires.” Though victory reports came continuously, there were simply too many small pirate gangs, and Hu Zongxian’s anti-pirate army couldn’t cover everything.

Meanwhile, another great anti-pirate general, Yu Dayou, had been impeached and imprisoned. Though Lu Bing later used one thousand taels of gold to bribe Yan Shifan and save his life, he was exiled to the northwest for military service. Yu Dayou later invented the wheelbarrow to fight Mongol cavalry and achieved great merit, restoring his original position. But when Zhang Lian rebelled in Guangdong, establishing the Flying Dragon Kingdom, Emperor Jiajing sent Yu Dayou to suppress the rebels, temporarily losing this capable general from the anti-pirate army.

Fortunately, Heaven had not abandoned the Ming. A third famous anti-pirate general, Qi Jiguang, appeared. Qi Jiguang initially fought northern pirates in Dengzhou, Jimo and other places in Shandong, gaining rich experience. Later, when Yu Dayou was imprisoned and the southwest urgently needed generals, Qi Jiguang came south to recruit troops in places with fierce local customs like Jinhua and Yiwu, establishing the Qi Family Army to specifically hunt down pirate gangs everywhere with considerable success.

The Qi Family Army’s ferocity earned them the title of pirate hunters. Pirates initially resisted stubbornly, but later simply fled upon seeing Qi Family Army banners rather than fight. The Qi Family Army pursued relentlessly, herding the pirates like ducks to one place for complete annihilation.

This time, several pirate groups were chased by the Qi Family Army to the outskirts of Xinghua City.

To avoid the Qi Family Army, the pirates began attacking the city, wanting to enter and hide from the army’s encirclement. Xinghua County’s military and civilians united as one, and even passing merchants voluntarily climbed the city walls to resist the pirates.

Even Wei Caiwei, a traveling physician, joined the anti-pirate army, serving as a military doctor treating wounded soldiers and civilians.

Outside, cannon fire and gunshots shook the heavens. Wei Caiwei had never experienced such warfare. In the tent, she used iron tongs to dig bloody bullets from wounded soldiers’ bodies, surrounded by various screams as if trapped in hell.

Wei Caiwei devoted herself to treating the wounded, trying to forget about Wang Daxia and others fighting pirates on the city walls, silently praying none would appear in her tent.

After an unknown time, while Wei Caiwei was suturing a wounded soldier, she heard someone outside shout: “The pirates have retreated! The Qi Family Army has arrived!”

Xinghua City erupted in cheers, opening the gates as civilians went out to bring food to the Qi Family Army. Smelling the fragrant food, Wei Caiwei realized she was drenched in sweat and so hungry she could barely stand.

Though the battle had ended, wounded kept arriving – those with minor injuries who had stayed in the fight finally put down their weapons and came for treatment.

Wei Caiwei hastily downed a bowl of congee and continued treating the lightly wounded.

“Dr. He, quick, come look at my husband!” A familiar voice called out – it was Wang Daxia. No, Lu Ying was in trouble!

Wei Caiwei turned to see Ding Wu supporting Lu Ying, whose face was covered in blood.

Ding Wu looked deeply worried while Lu Ying, blood covering her face, still comforted everyone: “It’s nothing, won’t kill me – just surface wounds.”

Lu Ying’s left cheek had been grazed by a stray bullet, leaving a gash from the left cheekbone to the ear with flesh curling up.

Wei Caiwei quickly washed her hands and cleaned and sutured Lu Ying’s wound, taking over twenty stitches. The left side of her face looked like a black centipede crawling across it – her appearance was ruined.

Ding Wu asked, “Will it scar?”

Wei Caiwei nodded. “I have medicine for healing and reducing scars that will lessen the scarring. However, complete elimination is impossible – with powder and rouge covering it, it shouldn’t be noticeable.”

Lu Ying said, “It’s fine. Having scars is better – my family won’t keep pressuring me to marry.”

Ding Wu looked at Lu Ying’s injured face with great heartache, clenching his fists. “It’s all my fault…”

When everyone was fiercely battling pirates on the city walls, the White Lotus Sect’s flower brother had taken advantage of the chaos to turn his gun on Ding Wu!

Ding Wu was firing at pirates from the wall top while Lu Ying, having fired one shot, crouched down to reload gunpowder and bullets when she saw the flower brother about to fire his hidden shot.

With no time to finish loading or warn Ding Wu, Lu Ying leaped up and knocked down the flower brother. The gunshot rang out, hitting the city wall, while Lu Ying’s face was grazed by a pirate’s stray bullet as she jumped, scarring her.

Lu Ying endured the pain to capture the flower brother alive – they couldn’t kill him, or they’d never catch the big fish Tie Niu of the White Lotus Sect.

Meanwhile, Wang Daxia was dragging the flower brother to a rapeseed field, using Wei Caiwei’s bullet-extracting tongs to torture him, demanding to know why he had fired at Ding Wu.

After forcibly pulling out his fourth tooth with iron tongs, the flower brother finally confessed.

It turned out White Lotus Sect leader Zhao Quan was dissatisfied with Ding Wu having Third Madam as backing, feeling that sooner or later Ding Wu would seize the leader position. So he pretended to agree to Ding Wu coming south to collect treasures for Third Madam while secretly ordering his trusted aide to find an opportunity during the chaos to kill Ding Wu, then frame the real pirates.

Wang Daxia slapped him. “No wonder when the merchant ship encountered the pirate ambush last night, everyone wanted to retreat to Xinghua City, but only you insisted on going forward. You know those pirates, don’t you? Even the ambush was set up through your secret collusion with them. The pirate who used explosive boats to ram our ship last night was Tie Niu, wasn’t it?”

The flower brother vehemently denied it.

Wang Daxia pulled out four more teeth, blood spattering on the golden rapeseed flowers. The flower brother finally admitted through bloody lips: “Yes, it was him – the one with the topknot, long sword at his waist, wearing no pants. That’s Tie Niu, a fake pirate! These past years he’s used capital and firearms given by the sect leader for maritime smuggling and robbery, selling goods through stores like the Ten Thousand Goods Trading House – it’s the sect leader’s biggest income source.”

“When I was at Yangzhou Port, I secretly contacted his subordinates, telling them the sect leader wanted to borrow a blade to eliminate the thorn in his side Ding Wu, and that the Shunfeng merchant ship carried valuable cargo like ginseng, deer antler, and antiques. When the big ship reached the Zhenjiang section, they set an ambush to lure the merchant ship into the trap, attacking from shore with cannons. Then I would coordinate from inside while they robbed the cargo before the ship sank and killed Ding Wu. With pirates everywhere, even if Third Madam suspected Ding Wu’s cause of death, she’d have no evidence.”

“But none of us expected that antique dealer Manager Zhang aboard the Shunfeng was an expert familiar with pirates. He saw through our ambush and had the captain return to Xinghua County port. He also exposed the explosive boats, making you fire at the ships. Both our plans failed.”

Who would have thought Luo Longwen was actually their great savior! They almost fell into the hands of the fake pirate Tie Niu.

However, neither the flower brother nor Tie Niu had expected that Luo Longwen’s cargo wasn’t antiques but five thousand taels of gold.

After last night’s failed operation, today during the city wall defense presented a rare opportunity, so the flower brother fired at Ding Wu, pretending to be hit by pirates, not expecting to be discovered by the accompanying Master Ximen.

Wang Daxia raised his fist. “How many men does Tie Niu’s pirate gang have now? How many guns? Where do they operate?”

The flower brother, having lost eight teeth, was thoroughly frightened and confessed without being beaten: “Initially only over two hundred death warriors. The sect leader gave Tie Niu over five hundred guns and more than ten thousand silver taels of capital. But after several years of struggle, Tie Niu should have at least one or two thousand men with at least double the firearms.”

“I’ve always been in northern Fengcheng, only knowing this through correspondence between the sect leader and Tie Niu. I’m unclear about specific numbers and weapons. The sect leader sent me this time for two reasons: first, to borrow a blade to kill Ding Wu; second, because Tie Niu’s grown powerful in recent years – the mountains are high and the sect leader far away, so he’s become insubordinate, with many discrepancies in his reported accounts. I was to investigate Tie Niu’s true assets.”

Profit moves hearts – even the White Lotus Sect wasn’t monolithic.

Wang Daxia’s identity was already exposed, so he simply knocked out the flower brother, stuffed him in a sack, and carried him to a civilian house Lu Ying had temporarily rented in Xinghua City for continued interrogation.

Outside Xinghua City, the Qi Family Army was chasing scattered fleeing pirates. In the military chaos, merchants dared not depart immediately, first taking shelter in Xinghua City to avoid the warfare. Only after the Qi Family Army achieved great victory and the canal was safe could they continue their journey.

Having shared the same boat for a month, Luo Longwen had become familiar with Lu Ying, Ding Wu and others. He rented a neighboring house, moving his gold there as well. With his gout, he couldn’t stay long on the damp ship. With the warfare’s end uncertain, it was better to move ashore first.

Wei Caiwei treated the wounded, then came to give Luo Longwen acupuncture, went to Xinghua County’s pharmacy to fill prescriptions, and provided attentive care – her and Wang Daxia’s “elopement” still depended on Luo Longwen’s abilities.

Lu Ying, bearing facial injuries, continued discussing how to deal with White Lotus Sect’s Tie Niu: “…We few certainly can’t defeat them. Now it seems we can’t count on local garrison troops – sixty-four pirates can defeat them. We must borrow the Qi Family Army’s strength. Tomorrow we’ll leave the city to find where the Qi Family Army is. Once we locate General Qi Jiguang, eliminating pirates means eliminating the White Lotus Sect.”

Wang Daxia nodded. “Dr. Wei stays behind – to watch Luo Longwen.” It was too dangerous outside.

Everyone agreed on the plan and returned to rest.

At midnight, outside Xinghua City.

A group of eight horsemen arrived at the city, flying the banner of anti-pirate general Liu Xian and wearing Ming army uniforms, carrying Liu Xian’s written orders.

The eight were pulled from their horses by hidden pirates using trip ropes and all killed. Fake pirate Tie Niu ordered his men to strip the soldiers’ clothing and put it on themselves, using helmets to hide their topknots while disguising as Ming troops heading for Xinghua City.

At the city gates, Tie Niu shouted loudly: “General Liu Xian orders us eight to reinforce Xinghua City! Quickly open the gates!”

He then placed the written orders in a basket lowered on ropes.

The city wall guards examined Liu Xian’s orders and tiger seal, verified them as authentic, then ordered the drawbridge over the moat lowered to admit the eight men.

After Tie Niu rode in, he immediately cut the ropes controlling the drawbridge and killed the gate guards, firing red flares into the sky. Hidden pirates swarmed forth, rushing through the gate via the drawbridge. Xinghua City had fallen.

Wei Caiwei was awakened at midnight by commotion: “Pirates are coming!”

Author’s Note: A fierce battle begins – excited hand-rubbing time.

Historically, Xinghua City was indeed captured by pirates this way. Zhou hasn’t exaggerated at all.