Chapter 377: Memories of Pirates

"Boom boom boom..."

Twelve cannons spewed out flames and white smoke three hundred meters away.

The shells left afterimages and hit the city wall of Jinghai County, raising a cloud of dust.

However, in the first round of shooting, the shells fell around the city gate and did not hit the city gate.

At the moment the cannons sounded, the soldiers of the royal palace on the city wall immediately squatted down to avoid it.

This scene was seen by the pirates outside the city, and they pointed at the city wall and laughed wantonly.

It seemed that they were proud of the intimidating effect of their own artillery on the enemy.

Yamada Ichino held the hilt of his sword.

He was a Japanese ronin, his father was, and his grandfather was too.

This sword was passed down from generation to generation to his hands.

Once, his grandfather worked for a Japanese lord.

But since the Japanese lord Watanabe Kishi defeated other lords in the national war thirty years ago and established the shogunate rule.

These ronin who worked exclusively for the lords were no longer needed and lost their source of livelihood.

Ronin began to seek a way out.

Some served as guards for sea traders, and some entered the mountains and forests to become bandits.

But more people chose to become pirates.

Ten years ago, he met Heishan while drinking at Yokosu Port in Japan.

At that time, Heishan and the island owner Lu Zheng were appreciated by the shogun Matsuura Nobu and invited to settle in Japan.

He even gave him Wufeng Island, not far from the southwest coast of Japan, as a base for sea trade.

It was learned that Lu Zheng was also a big pirate on the sea while engaged in sea trade.

And he had been recruiting desperate people to join his fleet in Goryeo, Japan, and Dasong.

He chose to join his army and become Heishan's deputy because he had no place to live.

After all, for the Japanese ronin, their life is killing.

There is no difference between being a feudal lord before and being the owner of Wufeng Island now.

What's more, deep in his heart, what he longs for is this kind of unrestrained, plundering and killing barbaric life.

Going home to farm honestly is more uncomfortable than killing him.

"Brothers, draw your swords, and kill as much as you want later!" Yamada Ichino drew out his long sword and waved it, his face twisted.

When they were looting the southeast coast of Dasong, they even disdained to use matchlock guns and cannons.

Among the pirates of Wufeng Island, Dasong people and Japanese people accounted for 40%, and 20% were Koreans.

Infected with the habits of Japanese wanderers, the pirates of Wufeng Island were fearless and fierce.

They dared to rush over to fight naked against the army that came from Dasong to encircle and suppress.

Every time they were beaten, the Dasong army ran away in panic.

The southeast coast has thus become their paradise, and no one dared to provoke them.

Otherwise, they would face the next more fierce looting.

But they didn't expect that their Wufeng Island would suffer such humiliation in Yanzhou, a barren place that had no interest in looting.

The King of Yan not only killed their people, but also hung their bodies on the coast to humiliate them.

How could they bear this? They had to retaliate with crazy revenge.

"Fire the cannons accurately, a bunch of rubbish." Yamada Ichino looked back angrily again.

As soon as the city gate was smashed, he led his men to rush into the fight.

This is the time to show the glory of Wufeng Island.

On the city wall.

Bai Shang watched the pirates' every move, and the corners of his mouth rose.

The last time he fought with the pirates, he found that these pirates were indeed a bit tough.

But what he likes most is to fight hard battles.

"It seems that they want to defeat us with swords. They are really a bunch of arrogant people. Do they think we are the Dasong Imperial Army or the army of the powerful tribes?" Bai Shang sneered.

As his voice fell, another round of cannons sounded.

Then he heard the sound of several wood breaking.

The east gate was hit by pirates.

"Don't fight back, wait for them to rush over." Bai Shang was calm.

He participated in the autumn hunting battle and defeated the Yuan family soldiers with the King of Yan.

He also fought Xiliang in Jinzhou, although he can't say that he has experienced hundreds of battles.

But the current attack of the pirates is nothing but child's play for him.

He had heard of the pirates' bad reputation and knew how fierce they were.

But these desperate criminals also had fatal flaws.

That is, they were good at fighting individually, but because of their domineering and aggressive personalities, their discipline was always lax.

Continuing to observe the pirates quietly, in addition to the cannons, he also saw muskets on the pirates.

However, this musket was somewhat different from their flintlock rifles.

If he remembered correctly, it looked the same as the matchlock rifle that the King of Yan had talked about in the military school.

"Cannons, muskets, it seems that the King of Yan did not lie to us, and the times have changed." Bai Shang murmured.

Times have changed, this is what the King of Yan said when he mocked Lu Chang in the military school.

The implication is that we can no longer stay in the old habit of relying only on swords to fight, and we must seriously study how to use firearms to kill the enemy.

"Boom boom boom..." The pirates' cannons kept roaring.

An hour later, the riddled East Gate finally couldn't stand the bombardment and collapsed.

"Kill!"

The moment the city gate fell, the pirates screamed wildly.

Some pirates even tore off their shirts, bare-chested, raised their long swords, and rushed towards the city gate.

When the pirates were bombarding, Bai Shang had already led the soldiers to move the cannons on other city walls to the east gate.

Since Chang Wei did not pay much attention to the pirates, the cannons he allocated to him were not heavy city defense cannons, but field cannons with shells weighing 12 kilograms.

These cannons were easy to move on the spacious city walls.

"Grapeshot!" Bai Shang ordered at this time.

The pirates did not rush in in a swarm.

It was just that the first row of more than 300 people dispersed and rushed towards the city gate.

At the same time, the pirates holding muskets also dispersed and advanced, approaching the city wall, intending to use muskets to suppress the defenders on the city wall.

"These pirates are interesting." Bai Shang murmured.

Obviously, they know how to avoid heavy losses under artillery fire.

"Boom boom boom..."

The sound of artillery sounded, this time it was the artillery of the royal palace.

Thirty-six artillery loaded with grapeshot sprayed raindrops of marbles at the pirates.

The pirates who were hit screamed immediately.

However, due to the dispersed formation of the pirates, only dozens of pirates were killed or injured in one round of artillery fire.

The remaining pirates were still rushing towards the city wall.

He immediately ordered the captain guarding the city gate to prepare.

The soldiers holding flintlocks there had finished their formation.

The heavy infantry squatted in front of the flintlock soldiers.

As long as the pirates passed the city gate, they would pour fire on them.

"Humph! Let me see what you can do." Bai Shang narrowed his eyes.

This was his first encounter with an army that also had matchlock guns and artillery.

For him, this was a great opportunity to gain experience.

After all, Dasong was currently popularizing firearms, and even Beidi was developing artillery.

In the future, they would face more such opponents.

The war had begun.

At the same time, the cavalry sent by Bai Shang was galloping towards Yancheng.

He traveled overnight and arrived in Yancheng the next day, delivering the news of the pirates' attack to Zhao Xu.

"Pirates!"

At the Yancheng North Artillery Training Ground, Zhao Xu and Chang Wei were observing the effect of the artillery after cutting.

He frowned when he got the news.