Wei Caiwei, Lu Ying and their party sought reinforcements along the way, encountering nothing but scenes of nine out of ten households empty and people’s livelihoods in ruins. Only the wild flowers bloomed vibrantly. To escape the chaos of war, the rural common folk were fleeing inland in droves or seeking refuge in major cities like Yangzhou and Hangzhou.
Whether on the Grand Canal or other tributaries, floating corpses could be seen almost everywhere. Most were wokou, already bloated and unrecognizable in appearance.
No one retrieved the bodies—all waited for these corpses to drift from the canal to the river mouth, into the vast ocean for self-purification.
To avoid contracting plague, Wei Caiwei only permitted everyone to drink boiled rainwater, mountain spring water, or well water from wells without foreign objects, forbidding them from touching river water or even washing their faces with it.
Lu Ying and the others, accustomed to the bustling prosperity of the capital, seeing the originally beautiful Jiangnan region ravaged by wokou in this manner, wished they could join the anti-wokou army and tear apart these troublemaking wokou with their bare hands.
Actually, after Hu Zongxian successively killed the two great pirates Xu Hai and Wang Zhi, the anti-wokou campaign was now nearing its end. Only some fleeing miscellaneous soldiers remained scattered about causing trouble. The rising star in anti-wokou warfare, Qi Jiguang, led his Qi Family Army to almost completely eliminate the wokou in Fujian and Guangdong. The wokou, hearing the name of the Qi Family Army, were terrified and fled all the way to Jiangzhe, bringing disaster to the people there. The Qi Family Army pursued relentlessly step by step, tirelessly hunting them down. In just over a month, they had eliminated more than sixty wokou bands.
The Qi Family Army was too fierce. They killed while pursuing, conducting lightning campaigns one after another, killing then rushing to the next battlefield without rest. This caused Wei Caiwei and her party, following behind, to be unable to catch up, always arriving at empty locations. Each time they came too late, only to see wokou corpses nearly blocking the waterways.
This protracted war, even in its final cleanup phase, was fought with such difficulty, seeming endless. Now was the darkest moment before dawn. At first, when everyone saw bloated floating corpses like fat pigs, they would feel nauseous and vomit. Later they became numb, able to sit in small boats, poling with bamboo poles to carve a waterway through the drifting corpses.
This day, they were late again.
However, Wei Caiwei put treated fish bladders on her fingers and tested the residual warmth on the corpses. “Still warm, not completely cold. The Qi Family Army shouldn’t have gone far.”
“Look here!” Lu Ying pointed to a tributary east of the waterway, where a stream of blood was drifting.
Everyone turned their boat around and went upstream, searching for the source of the blood.
After traveling about two li, the small boat reached the battlefield where the Qi Family Army had fought the wokou.
In the middle of the tributary stood bamboo poles, fishing nets, and boat after boat loaded with stones that could be sunk to block the waterway and prevent wokou from escaping by boat.
Both banks were rape fields that had already begun forming slender rape pods. Hidden in the rape fields were crouching tiger cannons. The bombardment had ceased, and the waterway ahead was full of blasted corpses and ship debris.
This was an ambush circle, waiting for the wokou to flee here, then blocking the waterway and opening fire.
Part of the wokou had been blown to death, their blood dyeing the waterway red. The remaining wokou swam to shore to escape, where they were surrounded and annihilated by the Qi Family Army lying in ambush.
The wokou wielded their Japanese swords fiercely. The Qi Family Army immediately changed formations, using twelve-man mandarin duck formations to cooperatively slaughter the wokou. Both sides were in heated battle.
Lu Ying and the others, from their boat, fired guns at the wokou on shore, supporting the Qi Family Army.
Wei Caiwei, unable to fight, crouched in the black-canopied boat, listening to the thunderous killing sounds outside.
The wokou wore no pants, at most tying a loincloth. Lu Ying paid no attention, and after using up gunpowder and bullets, began drawing her bow and shooting arrows, almost never missing her target.
Lu Ying was like an emotionless archery tool, dropping a row of wokou with swishing sounds.
“Baka!”
“Kill him!”
“Overturn the boat!”
Some wokou jumped into the river, wanting to dive and push the boat. Wei Caiwei, holding a fishing spear, lay prostrate on the boat’s rail, wildly stabbing at the wokou in the water like big white fish.
Under such cruel warfare, no one could remain safely isolated.
Just as Wei Caiwei felt her hands losing strength, this battle was reaching its end. The wokou, seeing they truly couldn’t win and couldn’t escape, some raised their hands in surrender.
The wokou knelt down, weeping bitterly: “Please spare this small one’s life, military lord! This small one is a Daming person. My home was robbed clean by wokou, my family killed completely. This small one truly had no way to live, was forced helplessly to join the wokou. This small one knows wrong now, please spare—”
Lu Ying released an arrow, ending the wokou’s life. She had always been ruthless toward evil, saying coldly: “Wokou killed your whole family, yet you didn’t join the army to avenge your family. Instead you colluded with wokou. You deserve death.”
All the wokou were executed. The gong sounded retreat, and cooks pushed over buckets of food. Three thousand Qi Family Army soldiers ate amidst the corpse piles, resting briefly before rushing to eliminate the next nest of wokou.
They had fought from Fujian and Guangdong all the way to the Jiangzhe region, killing wokou as easily as killing fish. Hu Zongxian was responsible for large-scale “harvesting,” while the Qi Family Army was responsible for “bringing every grain to the granary,” completely cleaning out all these fish that slipped through the net to restore peace to Jiangnan.
Whether foreign real wokou or Daming people pretending to be wokou, only dead wokou were good wokou.
There was no such thing as being forced helplessly. Having chosen to turn the butcher’s knife on their own compatriots, even those who had once been victims of violence, not resisting violence but instead robbing and killing those weaker than themselves, were not worthy of sympathy or forgiveness. All must pay the price in blood.
Lu Ying and the others also received a bucket of rice and a bucket of cooked fish.
Thinking that these days even live fish might have eaten something, Wei Caiwei didn’t want fish and only accepted dry rice and steamed preserved vegetables. After hastily swallowing a few mouthfuls of rice, Lu Ying revealed her Jinyiwei identity and the troop deployment order written by Commander Zhu Xixiao, asking the Qi Family Army about the whereabouts of their leader Qi Jiguang.
Qi Jiguang was gnawing on rice while pointing at a map with chopsticks, discussing with his subordinates the cleanup of wokou at the next location.
Lu Ying explained their purpose. Wei Caiwei also provided intelligence about King Ming’s serious illness, requesting the Qi Family Army to recapture Xinghua City.
Qi Jiguang repeatedly verified Lu Ying’s credentials and the Jinyiwei’s military deployment order requesting support against the White Lotus Sect, remaining half-believing and half-doubting—he certainly wouldn’t forget how Xinghua City had fallen. Eight wokou killed Daming military officers, changed clothes, took military orders, and tricked open the gates of Xinghua City.
Wei Caiwei, worried about Wang Daxia and Ding Wu in the city, said urgently: “We truly are Jinyiwei people. If not, how could we fully support your Qi Family Army on the boat? We used up every last bullet without holding back anything.”
Qi Jiguang said: “It’s not that I don’t believe you, but there are too many suspicious points in your story. For instance, how could a man disguise himself as a woman and bewitch King Ming into confusion without him discovering his male identity? Nearly dying, yet still not realizing he was poisoned? What he administered wasn’t poison but aphrodisiac soup, right? Could there really be such an extraordinary man in the world?”
Wei Caiwei said: “This matter is absolutely true. When General Qi meets him in person, you’ll understand.”
Qi Jiguang didn’t believe it.
Lu Ying pointed to herself and asked Qi Jiguang: “Does General Qi think I’m a man or woman?”
Qi Jiguang recalled Lu Ying’s unerring archery support from the boat and, seeing the scar from her cheekbone to ear on her right face that added several parts fierce aura, said: “You’re naturally a man.”
Lu Ying immediately untied a red scarf from her neck, spread her arms, and said to Wei Caiwei: “Remove my armor.”
Wei Caiwei helped unfasten the leather armor. Because she wore hard armor, Lu Ying hadn’t bound her chest. Having just fought a satisfying battle, her undergarment was soaked and clung to her body, revealing her woman’s form.
Lu Ying’s years of martial arts practice and chest-binding had caused her breasts to shrink like fried poached eggs, but a woman’s chest was still different from a man’s chest. Combined with her lack of an Adam’s apple, her female identity was undoubtable.
Lu Ying said to the dumbstruck Qi Jiguang: “Actually, I’m a woman. Women can be valiant warriors, so naturally men can also be devastatingly beautiful. I shed blood and sweat, he sacrifices his appearance—we’re both serving Daming.”
Qi Jiguang quickly handed Lu Ying a battle robe to cover her body and turned his head, facing away from her: “I apologize. Though you helped me in this battle, attacking Xinghua City is a matter of great importance. King Ming has over ten thousand wokou. The Qi Family Army only has three thousand. If, as you say, King Ming’s subordinates also have over five hundred fine firearms stolen from Wang Gong Factory, we cannot act rashly. I need to confirm your identities before considering this matter.”
With Qi Jiguang being so resolute, everyone had no choice but to follow him, helping to surround wokou along the way while trying to persuade him.
It wasn’t until the next battle, when Lu Ying and the others faced wokou in direct combat, wielding weapons in fierce fighting, that Qi Jiguang saw their combat techniques seemed familiar—they were taught by the famous anti-wokou general Yu Dayou. Only then did he become seventy percent convinced.
Lu Ying executed a return spear thrust, skewering two wokou together and nailing them dead to a tree. Such fierce valor impressed even Qi Jiguang, who admired her inwardly—truly not inferior to men. But why had he never heard Yu Dayou mention taking such a formidable female disciple?
Lu Ying and the others won Qi Jiguang’s respect through their abilities. Qi Jiguang said: “General Yu is in Guangdong suppressing the Flying Dragon Nation. Give me a token or a few words, and I’ll have scouts send an urgent 800-li message to General Yu. When General Yu confirms your identities, then I can trust you. I have three thousand soldiers under my command—I must be responsible for them.”
Lu Ying paused and said: “General, just write in the letter: a girl called Yingying asks him, her father used one thousand taels of gold to bribe Yan Shifan and saved his life—when does he plan to repay the money?”
Qi Jiguang wrote the letter and sent it urgently to Guangdong.
In Guangdong, Yu Dayou had just quelled the rebellion of the Flying Dragon Nation. Flying Dragon Nation’s ruler Zhang Lian was forced to lead troops across the seas, crossing the ocean to occupy Sanfoqi Island (present-day Sumatra), where he reestablished the Flying Dragon Nation and declared himself emperor.
Yu Dayou had just achieved new merit and barely had time to catch his breath when he received Qi Jiguang’s letter, asking whether he had taken a particularly fierce female disciple, and the female disciple was asking when he would repay one thousand taels of gold for saving his life.
Yu Dayou immediately knew it was Lu Ying! From the letter, she appeared to be injured too. He quickly mustered troops and rushed overnight toward Xinghua City to help his benefactor’s daughter, joining the Qi Family Army to attack the city.
Author’s Note: The Death Quartet plus the two great anti-wokou generals known as Yu Dragon and Qi Tiger—this is a royal flush combination!