From a dozen or so caves on the western cliff, the garrison pushed out twenty giant bronze cauldrons, glowing red-hot.
Dozens of Japanese soldiers wearing face towels soaked in vinegar carried in wooden buckets and poured buckets of sea snake bile and rotten entrails into boiling copper cauldrons.
A burst of foul-smelling white smoke rose up, instantly turning into a purplish-black poisonous fog.
Using the wind blowing from the valley towards the sea, this purplish-black poisonous smoke pressed down along the cliff face, instantly enveloping the entire Ghost Cry Shoal sea surface.
Two seabirds that were passing by had just plunged into the toxic fumes when their wings flapped twice, feathers fell out, and they fell straight into the sea.
The hundreds of Satsuma suicide squad members still hanging on ropes halfway up the mountain fared even worse. After inhaling a puff of the poisonous smoke, they dropped their hammers and frantically scratched their throats, tearing the flesh from their necks.
With screams, he let go from the rope dozens of meters high and crashed onto the rocks below, smashing into piles of mangled flesh.
The toxic smoke rolled across the sea and seeped into the gaps in the iron sheds of the catamaran floating fortress.
In a corner of the deck, several Goryeo auxiliary soldiers responsible for operating the waterwheel took a drag of purple smoke.
Black blood flowed from his eyes and nostrils at the same time, and he collapsed onto the wooden board with a thud, kicking his limbs wildly.
"Poisonous! Hold your breath!"
Gu Moran turned around, ripped off the black cloak from his shoulder, dipped it into the nearby wooden tub of fresh water, and wrung it out until it was half-dry.
He strode up to Kim Seon-a and Zhen Meili and wrapped their heads directly in his wet cloak.
Kim Seon-a's white silk dress was already thin, and when wrapped in this heavy, soaking wet cloak, half of her body was wet, and the full outline of her chest clung directly to Gu Moran's body through the wet cloth.
Zhen Meili was whimpering as she was covered in soot, her two small hands, covered in black ash, flailing wildly and accidentally pressing against Gu Moran's waist and abdomen.
Gu Moran ignored the soft, sticky touch on his body, held his breath, and pulled the two women by the waist towards the middle cabin.
As soon as he retreated to the stairwell, he saw wisps of purplish-black toxic smoke seeping into the lower deck through the deck ventilation holes.
Kim Seon-a said softly, "Your Highness, let me go, look at my Protective Barrier!"
She slipped out of Gu Moran's arms, made a hand seal, and the White Tiger Barrier spread out to protect them.
A figure flashed at the bottom wooden ladder entrance, and Meng Jiuning and Shen Ling'er rushed out together.
Meng Jiuning was still wearing the Dali silver-embroidered short shirt that she hadn't buttoned up properly from last night.
She rushed to the side of the convulsing Goryeo auxiliary soldier, looked him over, and then turned to shout at Shen Ling'er:
"It's sea snake venom mixed with dead man's corpse oil!"
A damp cloth won't stop it; this stuff can seep into your pores. You need to neutralize it with realgar and the ash of Gelsemium elegans!
Without saying a word, Shen Ling'er lifted her skirt and ran back to the medicine shed next to her, struggling to carry out two large jars of strong quicklime and realgar powder that were originally used to prepare wound medicine.
She had just placed the jar on the deck when blood seeped through the white gauze on her wrist. Looking at the thick, purplish-black fog outside, she stamped her feet in frustration.
"The toxic smoke has sealed off the entire canyon. With our limited manpower, we can't even throw water into the air!"
Meng Jiuning stared at the two jars of medicinal powder, steeled her heart, raised her right index finger and put it in her mouth, then bit down hard with her back teeth.
Fresh blood trickled down her pale fingertips.
She walked to the medicine jar, dripped the blood, now resistant to all poisons, into the realgar and lime powder, grabbed a wooden stick and stirred it haphazardly a couple of times, then turned and shouted at Zhen Meili, who was still wrapped in a damp cloak:
" Little Lizi! Stuff this jar into your big iron pipe and blast it towards the area with the densest toxic smoke, using the heat of the gunpowder to blast the ashes apart!"
Zhen Meili ripped off the wet cloak covering her face and wiped the water from her forehead.
Her eyes lit up, and she led two craftsmen, their faces flushed with anger, to the front of the deck. They used iron bars to pry open the cannon covers of the three short-barreled mortars, stuffing the Subduing Fire Thunder packets with their iron shells removed at the bottom, and then tightly pressing them down with realgar and lime powder mixed with Meng Jiuning's blood.
"Plug my ears!"
Zhen Meili grabbed a tinderbox and smeared it on the fuses of the three mortars.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three muffled thuds caused the entire ironclad ship to sink half a foot underwater.
Three large plumes of golden powder shot into the sky through the firing ports of the sloping roof, exploding into a dust cloud hundreds of feet wide in the air above Ghost Cry Shoal.
The heat from the gunpowder pushed the scalding realgar and quicklime to scatter in all directions, and a sizzling sound of boiling oil being poured onto the snow echoed in mid-air.
The purplish-black toxic fumes that were originally pressing down on the sea surface quickly contracted and swirled upon contact with this golden dust, turning into a black, foul-smelling rain that poured into the sea.
The air above the sea became visibly clearer.
Gu Moran released his large hand from Kim Seon-a's mouth and nose, his fingertips brushing against her cheeks, which were flushed from lack of oxygen, and chuckled softly in her ear:
"Your Highness is quite flexible; who was it that dug their fingernails into my flesh just now?"
Kim Seon-a- ah glanced down at her white silk dress, which was soaked and clung to her body. Her ears burned red, and she turned her head away, not daring to say anything.
On the west side of the watchtower,
When Shimazu Yoshihiro saw that the invincible Eight-Forked Miasma had been blasted away by the three cannons of the Great Yan people, his face turned frighteningly gloomy. Just as he raised the command flag to order the musketeers to fire, he suddenly felt a heat on his face.
The intense heat waves from those three cannon shots, combined with the midday sun, caused the air at the bottom of the narrow valley to heat up rapidly and rise.
The mountain winds that were blowing towards the sea stopped, and the air currents in the valley began to rise up along the steep cliffs on both sides!
On the bow deck, Gu Moran watched the rising medicinal powder and wisps of smoke, then walked to the elm stake and kicked the unconscious Kuki Yoshitaka in the stomach.
Kuki Yoshitaka groaned and woke up. Gu Moran grabbed his hair, forcing him to turn his head to look at the poisoned, rotting corpses of Satsuma soldiers on the rocks by the shore.
"Open your dog eyes and see clearly, this is how your Shimazu Clan treats its own people!"
Using the lives of Satsuma warriors to fill the hole for me? Shimazu Yoshihiro is far more ruthless than I am!
Kuki Yoshitaka stared at the dark purple corpses of his comrades scattered on the ground, his lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a single word.
Gu Moran released his grip, turned around, and shouted an order towards the deck:
"Order the crossbowmen! Wrap all the arrows in rags soaked in poison, then douse them with hot oil, and aim at the bronze cauldron in the cave on the western cliff. Fire a concentrated barrage at me!"