The sky was dusky yellow, the setting sun blood-red.
Beneath the sunlight, three hundred Wokou ships lay quietly off the coast along Xiangshan and Fenghua in Ningbo Prefecture.
A large vanguard of ronin had landed at Xifeng Ridge!
A densely packed mass of more than twenty thousand heads surged toward Ninghai County, roaring like tigers!
On the surface, the Wokou consisted of two groups: pirates from the Southeast and ronin from Eastern Japan. They produced nothing and had to plunder to survive.
Great Ming possessed vast lands and abundant resources. Moreover, the Yan Faction held great power in the Southeast, corrupt officials were everywhere, corruption ran rampant, and the army lacked fighting strength. Beneath a glittering exterior lay rot. In their eyes, it was a fat prize. Women, money... whatever they wanted, they could find it here!
But alongside the corrupt officials were loyal ministers and capable generals, such as Hu Zongxian, Yu Dayou, and Qi Jiguang.
With these three commanding the Southeast and greatly boosting military morale, how could mere pirates and ronin possibly withstand Great Ming's government troops?
The main reason the campaigns had dragged on without victory-and had even suffered more defeats than victories before Qi Jiguang-was that several forces behind Wang Zhi and his associates were secretly fanning the flames.
Ronin and pirates were no great threat. The government troops' true opponents were the elite soldiers concealed among the Wokou!
One such force was the well-equipped, well-trained soldiers of the Matsuura Domain from Eastern Japan, who possessed large quantities of top-tier firearms. Masquerading as Wokou, they plundered Great Ming's supplies and secretly shipped them back to Eastern Japan to help their homeland grow rapidly, plotting to dominate the Warring States period!
Their daimyo was Matsuura Takanobu, also Wang Zhi's greatest partner.
Eastern Japan's martial sects, such