He entered the game unflustered, ten thousand thunder bombs scared the Wa raiders witless

Gu Moran withdrew his hand, rubbed the lingering fragrance on his fingertips with his thumb, and looked up at the dark Hanseong tower two miles away. On the city wall, he could vaguely see the figures of women and children being forced onto the battlements by Japanese soldiers with knives, and their cries carried on the wind.

"Blowing up the city gate is something only a reckless person would do. Not only would it waste gunpowder, but it would also cost me my money to repair it."

Gu Moran cleared his throat, took the water pouch from the guard, took a big gulp of water to moisten his throat, and spurred his horse forward a couple of steps.

"Those dozen or so deserters from the Satsuma Domain that we released should have already laid the groundwork in the city, and Park Roejang's act should be almost over."

The rest of the work is none of your concern, soldiers!

Outside the north gate of Hanseong, the stagnant water in the moat reeked of a fishy stench.

The Japanese archers on the city wall drew their bamboo bows with a creaking sound, and a volley of arrows rained down upon them.

The twenty Goryeo auxiliary soldiers at the forefront had nowhere to hide. Bamboo arrows pierced their necks and chests, and they screamed as they fell into the mud of the moat, their blood flowing down the riverbank.

Park Roejang lay prone under the shaft of the first grain cart, three bamboo arrows embedded in a sack less than two inches above his head, the arrow fletching still buzzing and trembling.

Instead of shrinking back, he uncapped the tinderbox in his arms, leaned half his body out from behind the wheel, and shouted at the top of his lungs towards the city wall:

" Inukami Jusaburo! If I don't see you within half an hour, I'll burn all these dozens of cartloads of new wheat to ashes right now!"

Behind the crenellations of the city gate tower, Inukami Jusaburo leaned out, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

He squinted and scanned the woods two miles away three or four times, but there wasn't a single bird to be seen.

After confirming there were no Great Yan, he tilted his head slightly towards the warrior beside him.

A bamboo basket, suspended by a thick hemp rope, was lowered from the city wall and swayed as it landed on the drawbridge on the opposite bank of the moat.

A Japanese junior officer lay prone on the crenellation and shouted down:

My family said that only you are allowed to sit on the basket!

The remaining Goryeo all threw their swords on the ground and retreated a mile. Anyone who dared to take even half a step forward would be shot to death with arrows!

Park Roejang spat out the mud in his mouth, blew out the tinderbox, and stuffed it back into his pocket.

He patted the shoulders of several Goryeo veterans behind him, signaling them to do as he was told, then lifted the hem of his robe and stepped into the bamboo basket.

The winch on the city wall creaked and groaned as it slid the bamboo basket up the rough brickwork of the wall.

As soon as the basket tipped over the crenellations and landed on the blue bricks of the city gate, Park Roejang had just stepped out with one leg when four gleaming Japanese swords were already at his neck, the blades pressing against his flesh, leaving four red marks.

Inukami Jusaburo stood three steps away, slowly wiping the blade of his sword with a piece of deerskin in his hand, without even lifting his eyelids.

" Lord Bak, the other day in the dark room, you were determined to chop off my head with a knife."

"What? Not only did you wash your neck and deliver it to my door today, but you also threw in thirty cartloads of wheat as a bonus?"

Park Roejang pressed his neck against the blade by half an inch, and beads of blood seeped out from the cut.

He ripped open the front of his shirt, revealing a knife wound on his shoulder that hadn't fully healed. The movement was so violent that the scabbed wound burst open, and bright red blood flowed down his chest.

"I was blind!"

Park Roejang pounded his chest, tears and snot streaming down his face, his voice cracking and trembling.

"I originally thought Great Yan was a celestial empire, and that I had invited a savior from Dengzhou, but instead I invited a jackal who eats people without spitting out the bones!"

He lunged forward half a step, and four Japanese swords pressed down simultaneously, slicing into the flesh of his neck. He didn't even utter a sound, but glared at Inukami Jusaburo with bloodshot eyes and roared:

"That Gu Moran wasn't here to save Goryeo at all!"

He had a full ten thousand Subduing Fire Thunder on his ship!

Ten thousand!

His deployment on the south bank today is to draw your main force there so he can have gunpowder dumped into the moat of Hanseong, thus destroying the entire Hanseong, including the 20,000 Goryeo people and the ancestral temples of the Goryeo royal family.

And your more than 20,000 Great Wa soldiers—bomb them all into the sky in one go!

Inukami Jusaburo stopped wiping his knife.

His left eyelid twitched violently twice, his mind filled with the sea of fire that had overturned three feet of earth in front of the Great Yan army's formation, and his eardrums were still ringing.

Ten thousand.

If that number were truly accurate, let alone the few feet thick brick walls of Hanseong, even moving the entire Northern Peak Mountain would level it to the ground.

But after staring at Park Roejang for a while, he suddenly chuckled.

How could that be? It must be a scam!

With a backhand slash, he cut open the sack of wheat that had just been hoisted up by a pulley.

The bright yellow raw wheat grains gushed out and spilled all over the ground.

Inukami Jusaburo bent down, grabbed a handful of raw wheat with its hard husk and awns, walked over, grabbed Park Roejang's chin, pried open his mouth, and roughly stuffed the whole handful of raw wheat grains into Park Roejang's mouth.

"Eat."

Inukami Jusaburo tightly covered Park Roejang's mouth with his hand, the tip of the knife pressed against his stomach.

" The Great Yan people are masters of poison. Swallow this handful of wheat, and I'll listen to your next story."

The prickly awns of wheat stuck into the back of his tongue and the inside of his mouth, causing Park Roejang's cheeks to puff out so much that he couldn't produce a single drop of saliva.

His eyes bulged out, his cheeks clenched so hard they made a grinding sound, and he used his back teeth to chew the dry, hard wheat grains until they were crushed. He stiffened his neck and swallowed the blood and foam that had been spurted out of his mouth.

The chaff scraped against his esophagus, causing him to convulse in pain and cough up two mouthfuls of bloody bits of wheat residue.

Taking advantage of the moment he bent over to cough, he reached his right hand under his left boot and pried out half of a white tiger jade pendant stained with dark red blood from the lining of the sole. He then tremblingly held it up to Inukami Jusaburo's eyes.

"General, please look... This is what my Princess Kim Seon-a- ah always carries with her..."

Park Roejang's throat was hoarse from the strain of the wheat awns; every word he uttered was accompanied by a hissing sound like a broken bellows.

"At the Dengzhou Grand Camp, that beast Gu Moran disregarded the alliance and forcibly took the princess's body in her tent!"

The princess, filled with shame and indignation, bit her tongue and handed me this half of the jade pendant, ordering me to risk my life to deliver grain into the city!

Inukami Jusaburo snatched the half of the jade pendant and held it up to the sunlight to examine it.

The jade is warm and lustrous, and it is carved with the Eastern Peak pattern unique to the Goryeo royal family. There are also dried and blackened bloodstains stuck to the broken edge, so it is indeed an old object from the palace.

"The eldest princess asked me to pass on a message to the general..."

Park Roejang lay on the ground, his forehead pressed tightly against the Inukami Jusaburo's straw sandals.

"As long as the Great General can help her cut off Gu Moran's dog head and wash away this humiliation, she is willing to swear a blood oath as the Goryeo Prince of Goryeo to join forces with the Great Wa to counterattack Great Yan."

After the deed is done, the entire Liaodong region will be divided equally between Goryeo and Great Wa!

[Thanks to: Old Dragon Horse for the expert certification, Evues for the showman, Daodan for the inspiration capsule, White Bear for the update urging talisman, Zhao Gou, Yibei, Fool for the likes, Youyu for the milk tea, Tanuki for the flowers, and everyone else for their love and support!]