On the watchtower of the " Nihon Maru," Kuki Yoshitaka looked at the twenty fast ships flying the Inukami family flag, heard the familiar Satsuma accent, and saw the tall barrels of gunpowder piled on the decks of the fast ships. His eyes lit up.
"The gunpowder ships of the Great Yan people? The Great Yan really possess such a devastating weapon?!"
Kuki Yoshitaka slammed his iron-bone fan against the railing.
"God bless our Great Wa!"
Although those fire bombs that couldn't even pierce cowhide were weak, if twenty ships were gathered together, they would be enough to flatten Incheon Port!
"Pass down the order: the lead Atakebune ships, release their two iron hooks and make way for these twenty gunpowder ships!"
As the command flag was waved, the first few large ships in the chained barges slowly moved to the sides, revealing a gap ten zhang wide.
The sea breeze grew stronger and stronger, and the twenty fast boats, with the wind and current at their backs, rushed into the waters twenty paces in front of the linked ship formation in the blink of an eye.
The Japanese soldiers on the front row of the Atakebune had even thrown down the ropes to catch them.
Corporal Satsuma, standing at the bow of the first fast boat, looked at the iron-clad hull so close at hand, and a ferocious smile suddenly spread across his face.
He drew his short knife from his waist and slashed the sail ropes overhead. He grabbed the torch hidden in the earthenware pot at his feet and threw it into the hold, which was filled with burning oil.
"For a thousand catties of rice! I'll burn you noble lords alive!"
Corporal Satsuma let out a howl, turned around, and plunged into the sea.
The Satsuma assassins on the other nineteen speedboats followed suit, throwing down their torches and jumping into the sea, desperately diving underwater.
boom!
Flames, two zhang high, simultaneously shot up from the hold of the twenty fast boats. With the help of the southwest wind, they instantly transformed into twenty fire dragons, crashing headlong into the gap created by the Atakebune.
The specially made barbed iron hooks on the bow of the speedboat, propelled by the impact, pierced firmly into the wet cowhide and thick wooden planks of the Ataka-boat's outer layer, and could not be shaken off no matter how hard it tried.
Immediately afterwards, the six hundred Heavy Subduing Fire Thunder buried in the lower deck were detonated by the intense fire.
Rumble!
A series of deafening explosions reverberated across Incheon Bay, sending massive shockwaves churning up the surrounding waters for dozens of meters.
The ten large Atakebune ships at the very front were torn to shreds from the inside, along with their iron and wooden planks. Hundreds of Wa musketeers standing on the deck were blown into the air before they could even scream.
Thousands of pounds of scalding hot oil spilled onto the sea surface from the shattered ship planks, sticking to the remaining connected Ataka-fune hulls.
The fire is fueled by the wind, and the wind fuels the fire's power.
"Cut the chains! Turn back the ship! Turn back the ship now!"
Kuki Yoshitaka was thrown onto the deck by the blast wave. He got up and looked at the raging fire, and was terrified.
But the thick iron chains there had long been nailed to the ship's side with large iron nails, and the Wa samurai and ronin on board were choking on the thick smoke, their eyes watering.
He wielded his katana and desperately hacked at the scorching iron chain. The blade chipped and sparks flew everywhere, but the chain remained unmoved.
The eighty massive Atakebune ships, locked together, had now become eighty iron coffins linked together.
The fire spread wildly along the wide planks laid between the ships, and in less than a quarter of an hour, the three-mile-wide sea was completely engulfed in flames.
Hundreds upon hundreds of Wa samurai, their bodies ablaze, cried out and jumped into the sea, despite wearing heavy armor weighing dozens of kilograms.
As soon as it entered the water, it sank to the bottom of the sea with a thud, leaving only a string of bloody bubbles on the surface.
On the shore, Gu Moran drew the Sea-Calming Sword from his waist and pulled Kim Seon-a onto the Great Yan that Zhen Meili had modified.
He stood high at the bow of the ship, his long sword pointing forward:
"Beat the drums and set sail!"
The time has come to kick a man when he's down!
By my decree, whoever brings back the head of a Japanese general will be rewarded with fifty taels of silver, and whoever brings back the head of Kuki Yoshitaka will be rewarded with a thousand taels of gold!
Knock knock knock!
The sound of war drums shook the heavens and the earth.
All the Great Yan warships in the harbor raised their sails and formed an assault formation to break out of the breakwater.
The improved repeating crossbow mounted on the bow, carrying small Subduing Fire Thunder, was positioned close to the edge of the inferno, bombarding the decks of the struggling Japanese ship one by one.
Pu Yunshan and Tuoba Mang each stood at the bow of a fast boat, holding two-zhang-long barbed iron hooks. They targeted Wa samurai who surfaced on the sea, hooking them by the neck and dragging them up, then swiftly beheading them with a swift stroke of their swords.
In the very center of the inferno, the three-zhang-tall mainmast of the flagship " Nihon Maru " had been burned through at the base by the fire, and with a loud crack, it crashed down with its sails ablaze.
Kuki Yoshitaka, who was running around on the deck, couldn't dodge in time. His left leg was crushed solidly under the thick mast, and his bones shattered into pieces on the spot.
He lay on the scorching deck, looking at the annihilated fleet around him, and then at the Great Yan who were scaling the gangplanks and charging onto the ships. He was utterly despairing.
With trembling right hand, he drew the knife from his waist, removed the armor plates from his abdomen, and prepared to cut into his own lower abdomen.
A whooshing sound suddenly arose.
A streak of cold light shot from the bow of the warship beside them, and with a soft thud, pierced precisely through Kuki Yoshitaka's right wrist, the one holding the sword.
The powerful force drove his hand deep into the thick plank of the ship below.
Murong Xue leaped from the five-foot-high ship's railing, her long boots slamming heavily onto Kuki Yoshitaka's chest. She bent down, drew her spear, and pressed the tip against his throat.
"Want to die? Did you even ask my lord?"
You'll live, you dog! In a few days, you'll be going to Kyushu Island to guide me!
The fire burned until noon.
Of the eighty mainstay ships of the Wa navy, the Atakebune, sixty-three were burned; the remaining seventeen, which were on the periphery, were captured by the Great Yan navy after their chains were severed.
More than 14,000 Japanese pirates were beheaded or drowned.
The entire Incheon Bay was dyed dark red, and the sea was covered with charred ship planks and corpses. The main force of the Japanese pirates along the Goryeo coast was thus eradicated.
In the afternoon,
The fire gradually died down, leaving only billowing black smoke.
Gu Moran stood on the bow of the " Nihon Maru," which was blackened by smoke, when footsteps came from behind the deck.
Kim Seon-a walked step by step to the bow of the ship.
Looking at the wreckage covering the sea, she stopped two steps in front of Gu Moran, reached into her robes, and pulled out a roll of bright yellow silk from her warm chest.
The silk still carried the warmth and fragrance of her body. It was the " Memorial of Submission of the Entire Nation " that King Kim Tae-heung of Goryeo wrote himself after he awoke in the rear camp and learned of the great victories in Hanseong and Incheon.
Kim Seon-a presented the letter of surrender to Gu Moran with both hands.
Gu Moran smiled and extended his right hand to receive it.
Just as her fingertips touched the edge of the silk, Kim Seon-a suddenly clenched her fingers, gripping the other corner of the silk tightly and refusing to let go.
Gu Moran raised an eyebrow and looked at her following the silk ribbon.
Kim Seon-a raised her face, which was still breathtakingly beautiful despite being covered in cigarette ash, and stared intently at Gu Moran.
Her fingers crumpled the bright yellow silk into wrinkles.
" Seon-a gave the prince all of Goryeo's military power, the port of Incheon, and this letter of national submission from the entire nation."
But just now, General Lin found a secret letter from the capital in a hidden compartment in the cabin of Kuki Yoshitaka's ship. It was stamped with the Nine Phoenix Golden Seal of your Empress of the Great Yan Palace.
The letter instructed Kuki Yoshitaka to ensure the prince and the Goryeo royal family were both destroyed in Incheon Bay...?
Seeing the probing and tension in her eyes, Gu Moran not only didn't let go, but instead pulled the silk handkerchief forward, drawing her directly into his arms.
He casually wrapped his left arm around her slender waist, leaned down to her ear, and smiled slightly.