Choi Seong-min's laughter caught in her throat, and her eyes bulged out towards the iron gate.
Gu Moran slowly stepped over the iron gate threshold, holding a handkerchief in his hand to wipe the bloodstains from the Sea-Calming Sword.
Behind him, Pu Yunshan dragged in like a dead dog, pulling on a thick hemp rope.
The other end of the rope was tied to Inukami Jusaburo Juro, who had no teeth, a broken right leg, and was covered in mud and blood.
Pu Yunshan loosened his grip and threw Inukami Jusaburo at Choi Seong-min's feet.
Gu Moran walked to Kim Seon-a's side, glanced at the torn gauze dress on her left shoulder and her exposed fair shoulder, and his brow twitched.
He took off his dry cloak and wrapped her up completely from head to toe, then casually pulled her into his arms.
He glanced down at Inukami Jusaburo, then looked up at Choi Seong-min, who stood on the pillar looking like he'd seen a ghost. He cleared his throat and patted the hilt of his sword.
"Come on, Cui Taibao, who did you just say was blown to ashes?"
"I'm a little hard of hearing, so why don't we sit down and have a proper chat, starting from your ancestors for eighteen generations?"
" Gu Moran, don't be so arrogant. You think you can win for a while, but you can win forever?"
Calculating the time, the main naval force of the Great Wa that came to their aid...
We've already surrounded Incheon Port, you're all doomed!
"Hahaha... Pfft!"
Choi Seong-min, lying on the pillar, coughed up his last mouthful of blood. Before he could finish speaking, he breathed his last.
Gu Moran turned around, grabbed the riding crop hanging on the shelf, and shouted towards the door:
"Prepare the horses! Leave three thousand infantrymen to guard Hanseong, the rest of the cavalry will accompany me to Incheon tonight!"
Kim Seon-a, wrapped in a large black cloak, followed behind.
Gu Moran mounted his horse, bent down, stretched out his right arm, grabbed her slender waist, and lifted her onto the horse in front of him.
Kim Seon-a's back was pressed against his hard breastplate, her cheeks were burning, and her hands gripped the horse's mane tightly.
"Your Highness, before Choi Seong-min died, he said that the main force of the Wa navy had gone to Incheon. Is it too late for us to get there now?"
Whether it's too late or not depends on whether that kid Xue Huan is smart enough.
Gu Moran the horse's flanks with his legs, wrapped his left hand around her soft waist to pull the reins, and rested his chin on the top of her head.
"Hold on tight, don't fall."
Three thousand iron cavalrymen galloped wildly along the official road for two hours.
At the beginning of the Yin hour, we arrived at the high slope outside Incheon Port.
Gu Moran reined in his warhorse and looked out over the bay.
The sea was a dark mass of ships, their lanterns illuminating the flags on their bows—all the white tiger flags of the Goryeo navy.
Outside the port, three of Great Yan's sentry ships had broken in two, with half of their sterns still above the water, slowly sinking.
Two miles off the coast, a large warship, three zhang tall, led the way.
Wa Admiral Kuki Yoshitaka, dressed in a black lacquered tunic, stood atop the iron-clad ram of his flagship, the " Nihon Maru," and pointed a metal-framed fan into the bay:
"Pass down the order!"
All eighty Atakebune ships lowered their anchors and locked their bows and sterns with thick iron chains!
Lay down a three-inch-thick, wide wooden plank!
The messenger behind him waved the military flag.
The clanging sound of iron chains echoed across the sea.
Eighty massive Ataka-ships were lined up end to end, their sides touching, and thousands of Wa sailors carried wide wooden planks between the two ships, nailing them shut with large iron nails.
In just a quarter of an hour, a floating city linked by iron chains, spanning three miles of sea, took shape at the mouth of the bay.
The Great Yan on the shore fired dozens of small Subduing Fire Thunder with ballistae, which struck the front row of Atate ships, exploding into bursts of fire.
But when the flames died down, the floating city on the sea didn't even sway, and continued to steadily advance towards the port.
A series of hurried footsteps came from down the slope.
Xue Huan, the deputy general left to guard Incheon, stumbled up the hill. His old wound on his left shoulder reopened, and half of his armor was soaked in blood. When he reached his horse, he knelt down in the mud with a thud.
"Your Highness! This humble servant deserves to die!"
Half an hour ago, fog rose over the sea, and those sons of bitches approached, flying the white tiger flag of the Goryeo navy.
The subordinate general couldn't distinguish friend from foe and didn't dare order the arrows to be fired. By the time he realized that the people standing at the bow were Japanese, the three outer sentry boats had already been rammed and sunk by them!
Xue Huan wiped the blood from his face, his voice cracking:
"Your Highness, the enemy commander is Kuki Yoshitaka. That old scoundrel has won dozens of naval battles. He's too cunning!"
The eighty Atate-ships were all covered with three-inch-thick wet cowhide, and wrought iron plates were nailed inside.
Our ballistae and small Subduing Fire Thunder only left black marks on the cowhide; they couldn't even blast open the ship's planks!
If they manage to reach the shore and ram us, all our ships returning to Dengzhou will be doomed!
On horseback, Kim Seon-a looked at the massive wooden mountain looming closer and closer on the sea, her body swaying slightly, her back pressing even closer to Gu Moran's chest.
Gu Moran freed his right hand and slowly adjusted the collar of her cloak, his fingers then gently pressing against the warm hollow of her collarbone.
"What's the panic? Big ships have their own ways of dying."
He took out a monocular telescope from his saddlebag, held it to his right eye, and scanned the sea.
Through the telescope lens, the Japanese soldiers standing on the wide wooden planks were all dressed in heavy bamboo and wooden armor, carrying three-foot-long nodachi (Japanese long swords), and were marching forward in a square formation.
On the contrary, the oarsmen on both sides of the boat were clumsy, and several oars were still fighting in the water.
Gu Moran put down the binoculars and chuckled:
" Kuki Yoshitaka knows how to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses."
His group of Wa ronin were all landlubbers; they couldn't even stand steadily in the wind and waves, let alone maneuver a boat or shoot arrows.
He chained the eighty ships together to form a flat area so that they could board and fight like they would on land.
However, this iron chain connecting the boats also blocked their own escape route.
On a rock at the bottom of the slope, Zhen Meili was squatting, a blade of grass clenched in her mouth.
She put her right index finger in her mouth, moistened it with saliva, raised it high above her head, closed her eyes, and felt it for a moment. Then she jumped off the rocks and ran over.
"Your Highness, I know what you're planning, but we can't launch fire ships now!"
Right now, it's a northwesterly wind blowing, and it's true that the wind is blowing from behind us into the sea. But the tide is coming in at sea, and the sea breeze is swirling against the land wind. If the fire ships go out, they'll definitely be pushed back and burn our docks!
"Oh? You know about this? Then tell me, when can we burn it?"
Gu Moran asked.
"We'll have to wait until Chen Shi (7-9 AM)!"
Zhen Meili held up three fingers.
"At the beginning of Chen Shi (7-9 AM), the tide recedes, and the southeast wind on the sea will turn into a southwest wind. At that time, the wind force is the strongest, and it will blow directly into their ships along the bay entrance!"
It's only the hour of Yin (3-5 AM) now, we still have to endure at least another hour!
As soon as he finished speaking, a deep, resonant sound of a bull horn echoed across the sea.
Kuki Yoshitaka had clearly calculated the wind gap during this one-hour interval.
He stood below the watchtower and swung his iron-framed fan forward:
"Row at full speed! Before the tide recedes, ram into Incheon Pier within half an hour!"
With oars on both sides of the eighty Atakebune working simultaneously, the massive chain of ships pushed through the waves, and they were less than five hundred paces away from Incheon Pier.
At the very front of the ship, two thousand Wa archers had already begun to draw their bows, forming a line under the torchlight, giving the Great Yan army no time to wait for the wind.
"One hour..."
Gu Moran narrowed his eyes, pinched Kim Seon-a's soft waist with his fingers, turned his head and waved to Pu Yunshan behind him.
"Go, drag the corpses of Inukami Jusaburo and Choi Seong-min out of the prison cart, strip them naked, and hang them on the lighthouse beam at the very front of the dock."
Now summon those surrendered Satsuma infantrymen, line them up, and have them curse me in Japanese. Whoever shouts the loudest gets to eat meat!
Pu Yunshan grinned. "Yes, sir!"
In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, two pale, fleshy bodies were found hanging upside down from the crossbeam of the three-zhang-tall stone lighthouse at the very front of the dock, their ankles bound by thick hemp ropes.