Cheng Jiu retrieved the cloth strip with trembling fear. After glancing at it, he began to roar, “Princess, he’s only giving us one ship! He’s only giving us one ship! With just one ship, what will our ten thousand brothers do? And six thousand of our old and weak are still being held in their military camp. Princess, this isn’t what we planned from the start. We shouldn’t have come back, we shouldn’t have come back!”

“That damned Lu Chengqing has harmed us. This is a trap! This is those nobles fighting among themselves, making us the scapegoats. Lu Chengqing couldn’t match Yun Ye in their schemes and was outmaneuvered. How vicious! These bastards are the real pirates. For their own wealth and glory, they played their little tricks, and tens of thousands have lost their lives! Princess, let’s leave. Let’s get far away from them. Let’s go to Tianzhu, to Dashi, and make our fortune there. We’ll never return to these waters again in this lifetime!”

Gaoshan Yangzi took the cloth strip and her brows furrowed slightly. “Throw down the head of Quanzhou’s Chief Clerk. Tell Yun Ye that if he doesn’t agree to fifty ships before nightfall, and doesn’t have the Great Emperor’s rudder removed, we won’t need to negotiate anymore. He can just wait to collect all our corpses. Xiumei, you go this time to show my sincerity.”

When Xiumei saw Yun Ye, her entire body had already been thoroughly searched by Liu Jinbao. Her breasts in particular had been carefully inspected three times before Liu Jinbao reluctantly let Xiumei through. This Japanese woman stood there like a piece of wood, completely unmoved as Liu Jinbao took liberties with her.

“The Princess says that before nightfall today, give us fifty ships and remove the Great Emperor’s rudder. This way we can each go our own way without harming each other. Additionally, to punish your unreasonableness, the Princess ordered me to specifically bring the head of Quanzhou’s Chief Clerk for Your Lordship to inspect!” Xiumei opened the box she had brought and placed it on Yun Ye’s dining table.

Yun Ye glanced at the head in the box and continued eating his meal. After consuming the last grain of rice in his bowl, he rinsed his mouth with tea, poked at the head a few times, and said to Xiumei, “Lu Chengqing is in your hands, isn’t he? Didn’t he tell you that I have no obligation to look after Quanzhou’s military and civilians? I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Sea Circuit, only managing maritime affairs. You launched a surprise attack on the Lingnan Naval Forces—I only want to seek justice. As for Quanzhou’s citizens, I’ll save them if I can. If I can’t, there’s nothing I can do. Go tell Gaoshan Yangzi that I’ll give her ten ships at most. How many people she can take away depends on her ability. The rest I’ll keep to sacrifice to my battle flags. This is my final bottom line. Go, tell Gaoshan Yangzi that my deadline is also before nightfall today.”

“After dark, Feng Ang’s army will arrive. He’s the true master here. Your negotiating opponent will change. I don’t know if Feng Ang is as compassionate about citizens’ lives as I am.”

Xiumei left Yun Ye’s command tent and returned directly to that small building. Feng Ang walked out from the rear tent carrying a rice bowl, sat down in a chair and continued eating. Seeing Yun Ye somewhat dejected, he consoled him, “It’s not that big a deal. Even if this Chief Clerk doesn’t die now, after the fact this old man will still chop off his head. So you plan to enter through the water ditch to launch a surprise attack on those pirates? Your student has already sent out a hundred or so children through the water ditch. Wouldn’t it be better to wait a bit longer? Since that female pirate has doused everyone with lamp oil, a single fire could reduce these citizens to ashes. This is too risky.”

“Pang Yuhai is the academy student who best understands how to organize people—this is absolutely his strong suit. I estimate that by now he should have at least organized a group. An early end is better than a late one. If we drag this out further, those pirates will go mad, and the casualties will definitely be greater. These aren’t just a few people—it’s over ten thousand. Evacuation isn’t something that can be done in a moment. Once chaos erupts, more people will be trampled to death than killed by pirates.”

Feng Ang’s arrival completely overturned the balance of power between Yun Ye and the pirates. At this time, the most formidable force must be concentrated to crush the pirates in one fell swoop and rescue the most people. The water ditch could only admit very few people, but these people had to be the most formidable. Feng Ang believed that in Quanzhou there was no one more formidable than himself, so he prepared to enter through the water ditch and find an opportunity to kill Gaoshan Yangzi. At that time, with the dragons without a head, the pirates would inevitably collapse.

During this period, the shield soldiers had been slowly approaching the small building. The open ground behind the building would be their destination. Protecting the citizens as they escaped outward was their most important task. They had to use their own bodies to form two iron walls and hold out for over an hour—this was an almost impossible task to complete. No one could fight for an hour wearing forty pounds of iron armor while holding a twenty-plus-pound massive shield.

After hearing Xiumei’s report, Gaoshan Yangzi fell into prolonged contemplation. Yun Ye’s intention was extremely vicious. Ten ships could at most take away eight thousand people; the rest would face death. Once this news got out, internal strife would inevitably occur. This news must be sealed.

She wanted to seal it, but Yun Ye had no such plan. A loud-voiced soldier repeatedly shouted inward. The content was that they agreed to give ten ships, would release some people, and would settle accounts another day.

What maintained the hierarchy within an organization was nothing more than their degree of closeness to the highest authority. These words immediately caused all the pirates to panic. Some clever ones, while their escape route hadn’t been cut off, dove into the grass and fled into the distance at top speed. They thought that as long as they left this vortex, they would survive, not knowing that the garrison troops from all four prefectures and eight districts were all surging toward Quanzhou. They wouldn’t rest until the ground was turned completely over.

Gaoshan Yangzi sighed mournfully and nodded to Guizhong. Guizhong’s knife immediately slashed across the throats of three pirate leaders who were clamoring the most fiercely. Danger must be controlled within one’s controllable range.

The severed heads quieted the pirates who were about to go mad. But at this moment, a thumb-thick long arrow eerily threaded through a door crack and flew straight at Gaoshan Yangzi’s chest. This arrow was silent and soundless. By the time Gaoshan Yangzi noticed that glint of cold light, though she barely avoided her vital points, her arm was shot clean through by that arrow.

Shouts of attack suddenly arose. Countless shield soldiers charged in. Pang Yuhai shouted loudly, “Gaoshan Yangzi is dead!” This phrase immediately stunned all the pirates who heard it. In that brief moment, the citizens in the square had already stripped off their outer garments and were running desperately toward where the shield soldiers were surging in.

Gaoshan Yangzi swung her left-hand blade, severing that long arrow. Throwing down the long sword in her hand, she grabbed her shoulder and yanked fiercely, pulling the broken arrow from her arm. Drawing out a red silk ribbon, she tightly wrapped it around her arm. Picking up the knife in her hand, her pretty face turned iron-blue as she said through gritted teeth to Guizhong, “Light the fires!”

These words came a bit late. Countless torches had already been thrown down. Guizhong and Cheng Jiu were like two demons—not only did they throw out the torches, they themselves also jumped out.

Feng Ang laughed loudly, his longbow resonating. Each time it sounded, a pirate was shot through by a long arrow. Guizhong and Cheng Jiu, jumping in midair, were greatly alarmed. Seeing Feng Ang grinning fiercely as he shot arrows their way, Cheng Jiu suddenly yanked Guizhong in front of himself. At this moment, no one’s life was more important than his own.

Feng Ang’s long arrow was so powerful and fierce that it not only pierced through Guizhong, but the arrow that emerged from Guizhong’s body then drilled into Cheng Jiu’s lower abdomen. Cheng Jiu roared loudly, using all his strength to push away Guizhong as he himself fell to the ground. After several rolls, he scrambled back into the small building.

The crowd in this large open area had become like headless flies, not knowing where to run. A minor official stepped forward and shouted “Follow me!” In an instant he was pushed down by the panicked crowd. At first he could still cry out twice, but as more and more big feet trampled on his body, gradually he fell silent.

Fierce battle! Fierce battle! The desperate pirates now only wanted to kill. Swathes of people fell, becoming even more terrified. Pang Yuhai helplessly abandoned his command. These panicked crowds were no different from a frightened herd of horses on the grasslands—they had no minds, no thinking, only the instinct to run.

Human strength has its limits. Pang Yuhai watched helplessly as the crowd ran in all directions, unable to do anything. At this moment he finally understood what Teacher Wolf Pack meant by the incomprehensibility of human nature. If they could calm down and run toward the shield soldiers, certainly not so many would suffer. Now, they had not only trampled to death the officials who were guiding them, they had also trampled several shield soldiers who had come to rescue them. Their faces were twisted, drool flowing from the corners of their mouths, their eyes blood-red. Even though there were clearly fire piles ahead, they showed no fear, charging straight through…

Ren Xiong’s Mo Dao kept swinging, the broken corpses of pirates being flung out. His armor was covered entirely with shredded flesh, and a section of intestine even hung from his ox-horn helmet. Lai Chuanfeng had already changed horizontal swords three times. Now in his hands he gripped a flail, and the spiked hammer on the flail could no longer show its spikes. He spun and leaped through the crowd, and with each rotation a pirate’s head was crushed. The pirates’ long swords striking his body could only leave pale white marks.

A large group of pirates ran toward Pang Yuhai’s direction. They too had nowhere good to go, and like those already maddened citizens, they were also running about in all directions. Pang Yuhai casually found a corpse, got some fresh blood to smear on his face, opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue and fell in a corner no one paid attention to. To avoid being injured by stray arrows, he even found a somewhat plump corpse to press on top of himself. This way should be foolproof, right?

The army kept surging in. They attacked the small building but couldn’t find any trace of Gaoshan Yangzi. Not only was Gaoshan Yangzi gone, even her maidservants and some of her closest pirates had also disappeared.

Also missing were the three hundred or so children and women that Pang Yuhai had mentioned, Quanzhou’s important officials, and Lu Chengqing—all had vanished without a trace.

“Search! Find them! They must be found!” Yun Ye, disregarding his subordinates who were still in fierce battle, roared at his guards. The bodies covering the ground gave him an unprecedented sense of defeat.