At the end of March in the fifth year of the Jian'an Era, as Qin Tian arrived in Dongzhi, war suddenly erupted across the southern islands.
Under Qin Tian's orders, three thousand naval troops launched an assault on the territory of the Nanyue tribes.
That day, Xu Sheng and Lü Dai led more than two thousand soldiers ashore on Haitan Island and engaged the Nanyue tribes in battle.
At that time, the Nanyue tribes were enjoying their "spoils of war." By their customs, after a victory, shamans had to conduct sacrifices.
Much like in the Shang Dynasty, they used people as sacrificial offerings and distributed them among the warriors who had gone to battle for them to eat.
They then selected those with handsome sideburns and beards, flayed the skin from their faces, caged it in bamboo frames, and beat drums and danced in worship before it.
Most of those captured by these people were Yue commoners from Dongzhi. At the sight, they were terrified beyond measure, and weeping filled the entire tribe.
Just then, Xu Sheng led more than a thousand men into the tribal settlement on the island.
Faced with the sudden arrival of enemy troops, the Nanyue tribes were greatly alarmed and hurriedly fought back with their homemade weapons.
Yet these Nanyue people were uncivilized, and most held nothing more than bronze weapons and bamboo spears.
Other than hurling stone shot and injuring several men, they caused virtually no damage to the Jiangdong forces.
In merely half an hour, Xu Sheng had ended the battle and crushed the tribes on Haitan Island.
In this battle, they defeated more than a thousand Nanyue soldiers at the cost of over seventy casualties among their own troops.
Xu Sheng and Lü Dai had originally hesitated over whether to carry out