In a chaotic battle, one pirate could handle two government soldiers. When the government soldiers recovered from their initial confusion, the war gradually became favorable to them.

Captains and officers were all striving to gather their men. They first swept clear one ship, then began sweeping the second. When Gao Sanyang’s feet stepped onto solid ground, the battle in the harbor had already become one-sided. The red-eyed government soldiers didn’t even spare the pirates who had already died in battle—they wouldn’t stop until heads were severed.

Cheng Jiu closed his eyes. If his fleet had been able to charge into the harbor at the most advantageous moment, the one suffering defeat at this time would only be the Lingnan Navy. A low horn sound came from the sea surface. The government soldiers knew their reinforcements had arrived and fought with even more vigor, while the pirates finally began their great rout.

Lu Chengqing received good treatment, lying on a stretcher carried by two pirates. Although the entire person looked like a rag doll thrown onto a garbage heap, his constantly opening and closing eyes showed that at this time he was still stubbornly alive.

Quanzhou was a large city. The key defensive target of the one thousand garrison troops was the harbor. After learning that the Deputy Magistrate had been attacked, the Prefect’s first reaction was to request the garrison troops to attack.

The so-called garrison troops were soldiers in wartime and farmers when there was no war. The last time Quanzhou encountered warfare was still a matter from a hundred years ago. When the Great Tang was founded, the flames of war didn’t even reach Quanzhou. The Prefect at that time was very wise—he only changed the king’s flag on the city walls and made the fierce Great Tang warriors stop outside the city.

If these one thousand garrison troops were Guanzhong garrison troops, the Prefect would consider not defense but offense. Unfortunately, this was the south, which had been without war for a hundred years. When fierce pirates swarmed in, the officer drew his horizontal blade and charged up shouting, fighting fiercely with the pirates. Until he died in battle, he was fighting alone.

Quanzhou became a paradise for pirates—burning, killing, and plundering. As for rape, they really wanted to do it, but Gao Sanyang didn’t give them this time. She needed to corral all the Quanzhou people together. These people were the only support she and these pirates had to survive—she absolutely dared not lose them.

“Princess, doing this is useless. Great Tang law stipulates that the military is not subject to coercion. If the commander is captured, the deputy general takes over. If the deputy general is captured, the captain takes over. Even if you capture all the officers, the centurion commanders will automatically become the commander. Coercion is useless against them, much less when we’re facing the extremely vicious Yun Ye.”

Cheng Jiu, Onizuka, and other large and small pirate leaders were all deeply worried. Only Gao Sanyang appeared extremely calm, laughing charmingly as she said, “That’s why I had you capture all the common people. The Tang Emperor said that the common people are water and the ruler is the boat. I want to see whether they’ll actually show concern for these lives. Onizuka, we captured a lot of fire oil. Pour this fire oil on these common people. Dawn has broken—Yun Ye should be coming soon.”

When the battle in the harbor ceased, dawn had also broken. The flames on the warships were also extinguished one by one by the officers and soldiers. Countless corpses floated on the sea surface along with wood fragments. The gunpowder on those warships that had failed to provide timely rescue was ignited, so the ships had also become fragments. Some warships didn’t self-combust but were lit by desperate captains themselves, so wood fragments spread in thick layers on the sea surface.

Quanzhou Harbor, which yesterday had still been a forest of masts and sails, now became a scene of devastation. Some unmanned pirate ships were still smoking, dyeing the sky gray.

The Great Emperor pushed aside the wreckage of ruined ships and slowly sailed into Quanzhou Harbor. Yun Ye stood on the deck playing with his fingers, looking at the miserable scene before him—broken ships, broken people, broken harbor. Liu Renyuan’s tiger eyes contained tears. Dongyu, Ren Xiong, and all the people on the Great Emperor stood solemnly on the deck, looking at the broken and tattered Lingnan Navy before them. Was this that fleet invincible under heaven? The surviving Lingnan Navy officers and soldiers, seeing the character “Yun” on the great banner, prostrated themselves in the ruins and wept bitterly.

Damn it, at least thirty percent of the people were gone. Even more miserable than the last time attacking Goguryeo to retrieve remains. The stone in Yun Ye’s heart finally fell. Such losses were already much better than he had anticipated. These people were still brave in battle.

A small boat was lowered from the Great Emperor. Yun Ye descended into the small boat and turned back to instruct Pang Yuhai, Li Yifu, and Yumin, who were crying streams of tears, “Re-register the Lingnan Navy. This evening I want to see the damage situation.”

Lu Chengqing’s deputy general surprisingly hadn’t managed to die. Missing one arm, he knelt on a ship’s deck awaiting Yun Ye’s judgment. Kneeling with him were also sixteen Five Bureaus Administrators, as well as about a hundred large and small officers.

Yun Ye boarded the ship very carefully, as if worried his new boots would be soiled by charcoal ash. He even took out a handkerchief to beat the dust from his shoe surface. Raising his eyes to look at these people on the deck, he walked to the deputy general’s side and said quietly, “How are you still alive? Where’s Lu Chengqing? Is he also alive?” Having finished speaking, he looked at the floating corpses in the sea and muttered, “How is it that those who should have died haven’t died, and those who shouldn’t have died have all died?”

“Marquis Yun, the Grand General has fallen into enemy hands. Please, Marquis Yun, extend aid. As for this subordinate, I’ll go die now.” The deputy general kowtowed three times, drew out a hand knife, and without thinking stabbed it into his own temple. He was a military general who knew what was the fastest way to die.

Yun Ye paid no attention to the suicidal deputy general. He patted the shoulder of a Five Bureaus Administrator and said, “You hold supervisory duties. You tell me—what kind of punishment do you think you should accept to be worthy of the brothers floating in the sea?”

“I know choosing this moment to enforce military discipline isn’t a good time. This is sending victory to that woman for nothing. But I’m worried that those brothers who died unjustly in the sea harbor resentment. Have you heard their miserable howls?”

The Five Bureaus Administrator’s face was deathly pale. After hesitating for a long time, he finally said, “I cannot survive, but the authority to punish this subordinate is not in your hands, Marquis Yun. I need to be escorted to the capital to await His Majesty’s disposition.”

With a clang, Yun Ye drew the horizontal blade from his waist and swung it full circle, chopping into the Five Bureaus Administrator’s neck. The Five Bureaus Administrator’s blood splattered all over Yun Ye’s head and face. He threw away the blood-stained horizontal blade and roared at those large and small military officers kneeling on the deck, “This is the ever-victorious Lingnan Navy? Who told you that you could arrange people onto ships at will? Who told you ships could accept external food? Who told you that after entering port, warships could be arranged so densely?”

“Huh? Tell me, when were the Lingnan Navy’s rules changed? Who told you the Grand General had the authority to alter naval regulations? Now, you tell me—who can bear responsibility for such a huge mess?”

“Lu Chengqing? Or this Five Bureaus Administrator Duan Chunfang whom I chopped to death? Or you idiots? Gao Sanyang is right now on shore, having captured over ten thousand people and planning to bargain with me. You tell me—should I agree or not agree?”

“Damn it, at this time you talk to me about authority to punish. When military discipline was being corrupted, where did you go? Let me tell you—I won’t just chop you to death, I won’t even spare your family members.”

“The past few years treated you all too well. One by one using your assholes as eyes. Now look—one woman leading a nest of pirates has ruined you into what? With such dogshit combat strength, can I still count on you to punish the Wa lands? Looking for the main culprit? Why the hell didn’t you all die in battle? When I write it in the War Ministry’s records it would look better too!”

“Do you know what I came here to do? I came to save your dog lives. I ran over ten thousand li in two months because I was worried. Hurrying fast and slow, I was still a step late. The lives of these brothers in the sea can never be saved back.”

Yun Ye could no longer bear the pain in his heart. Tears gushed like a fountain. Those large and small generals and officers also wailed loudly, continuously banging their heads on the deck. The dead were all brother comrades-in-arms. Just because of their momentary negligence, habitually following the chaotic orders from above, they had caused today’s disaster.

After crying for a while, Yun Ye stopped. Knocking on the ship’s hull, he ordered, “Select five thousand with strong combat strength to follow me ashore. The remaining people begin salvaging the brothers’ corpses. Make sure not to miss a single one.”

Establishing authority must not go too far. Killing the two leaders was enough. Most of the remaining people had been running ships with him since the time he started out—he really couldn’t bring himself to kill them.

Gao Sanyang was still on shore. This ghost woman had surprisingly figured out his thinking this time. She hadn’t charged headfirst at the Great Emperor but had chosen to go ashore to seize hostages. Yun Ye very much hoped this woman’s brain had broken and she would spare the common people, using officials to threaten him. If that were the case, he would unhesitatingly order an attack. No matter how many people died, he had to finish off this ghost woman.

Now she had seized ordinary people—this was tricky. If it were other generals, such a situation would be easy to handle. Just order an attack, then report the casualties of common people as war losses. At that time, naturally the government office would come forward with compensation—it had nothing to do with oneself. As long as the pirates could be eliminated, it would be a great merit.

Yun Ye asked himself eight times and got negative answers each time. He couldn’t do it. The current situation could only be taken one step at a time. This time the trouble was huge. What the hell were the Quanzhou garrison troops doing? After things ended, he’d go settle accounts with those bastards. Right now the urgent task was to first rescue the people. The time also couldn’t be long—the longer time dragged on, the more troublesome it would be.

Gao Sanyang sat in a tall building facing the street. The terrain here was very good with an open view. Behind her was Quanzhou’s prosperous marketplace—a good place where she could attack when advancing and defend when retreating.

She had seen Yun Ye’s great banner from far away. The only one who liked to use wave banners at sea was Yun Ye. When she saw countless small boats docking one after another, and the armored soldiers on the boats were already forming up, she took a long breath. Now had arrived the time to test whether Yun Ye was a pure general or not.

The pirates all eagerly watched Gao Sanyang. Their fear of Yun Ye had penetrated deep into their bones. Any fool knew what the result of surrendering before Yun Ye would be. To say nothing else, the ship’s hull of the Great Emperor that had just entered port was already hung full of pirates who were still alive. These people would definitely be sent by Yun Ye to Crab Island—they didn’t have the slightest doubt about this.