They also knew clearly that such a cavalcade would not agree to give them all the ships and cargo so the people could leave, so there was no intention of negotiation at all, and they had made up their minds from the start.

“One, two, three . . . eight, nine, ten!” A pirate quickly counted to ten, but before he could finish, his comrades had actually started.

The freebooters were speaking in dialects, and while yelling words that the people in the Zheng family fleet couldn’t quite understand, they started firing arrows at the big ship. Then they climbed towards the ship.

Their bows and arrows were actually of poor quality and their archery skills were poor, but even so, people on board still needed to avoid them.

“Keep sailing and try to break out!” Zheng Yi shouted

“Young master, they can’t break through. They’ve moved into the river channel,” Lu Da said. 

The river in front had been blocked, as for the back . . . There were too many boats behind them.

Zheng Yi was livid.

In the moonlight, Zheng Yi could see that the small boats near the big boats were filled with people. Those people were greedily watching them. Their eyes were shining in the dark.

“Can we escape?” Zheng Yi asked.

Lu Da paused before saying, “Young master, don’t worry. We’ll be able to protect you as you escape!”

Is this the only way to break free? Zheng Yi’s face was a little ugly, but looking at the huge number of freebooters outside, he had to admit that his ship and cargo might really be lost here.

“Grab food!”

“Kill those traitors!”

“Ten silver for killing a man. Charge!”

 

. . .

 

The pirates shouted, and someone had already climbed onto the boat.

It’s true that most of the people on this side of Guangping did not know how to swim, but swimming could be practiced.

After the drought in Guangping Prefecture, some of them came here to become a freebooter. At first, they only robbed some boats, but later, a very capable person came out. He gathered all the water bandits in this area, so they could rob big boats, and soon, sailing and swimming for them got better and better.

“Young master, you hide behind,” Lu Da said. 

After he let Zheng Yi escape, he would command the battle. Then he found out that someone was already fighting with those pirates.

Zhao Jinge and Jiang Zhen’s men, each with a bamboo pole, stood on the side of the boat. Just as the bandits started to come up, they would poke them with the bamboo pole.

That sharpened end of a bamboo pole was even better to use than a large knife.

As for the bows and arrows that the water bandits shot over . . . some people, from no one knew where, got some tables and chairs and wooden boards, so they could also block their heads, faces, and chest.

They grouped together into groups of three, two with bamboo poles and one with a shield, and actually poked many of the bandits down.

The bandits who fell down let out screams, and after falling, they also blocked their own people. For a time, no one dared to come from that side to climb up.

“Lu Da, learn from them!” Zheng Yi shouted.

Lu Da responded, looking over while feeling suffocated. He suddenly realized that the person commanding the defenders was actually Zhao Jinge. Jiang Zhen was nowhere to be seen! 

He was a little confused, but at this time, there was no time to think about Jiang Zhen anymore. The two sides had officially engaged in a battle.

To those who had seen modern wars, certain aspects of these ancient wars were funny, such as . . . sometimes when one was careless, one might go and cut down one’s companions because one didn’t recognize their own people.

But the war at this time was also cruel.

It didn’t take long for both sides to fight, and both already had casualties. The main ship that Zheng Yi was on hadn’t yet been boarded by the pirates, but the other ships had already been boarded.

A couple of the crew members on the next ship tried to run but ended up being cut down.

In this era of backward medical care, even just being slashed in the arm could be fatal.

As the screams continued to ring out, Jiang Zhen’s eyebrow wrinkled all the more. He pulled the rope on his hand, bringing those who were following him onward.

On the other hand, on several large ships, the battle situation had become increasingly fierce.

There were many of those freebooters who couldn’t survive. They didn’t take their lives seriously, they alreay took many human lives.

Although there were many guards on the main ship, a careless one still allowed pirates to climb up.

Zhao Jinge, seeing this, gripped the bamboo pole and rushed up with the He brothers.

It didn’t really feel like it when he used the bamboo pole to poke those freebooters down the ship before, but now . . .

Zhao Jinge stabbed the bamboo pole in his hand into a pirate and smelled the heavy smell of blood. He felt like vomiting.

He had killed someone . . .

Zhao Jinge had never thought that he would kill people before and was stunned for a moment, but soon, he came to his senses.

He had no idea where Jiang Zhen had gone, and he had to wait for Jiang Zhen to return, and . . . it was either them or him at this point.

Zhao Jinge glanced around and found that many people were as stunned as he was. He said, “All of you, cheer up and kill these people!”

“Kill!” everyone echoed together.

By then, they had no time to think about anything else but to kill all the enemies in front of them.

But there were too many pirates, and there were dozens of people climbing up the main ship.

Zheng Yi looked at those water bandits and finally decided to make a strong decision. “Lu Da, release the boat and send me away.”

“Yes, young master!” Lu Da responded and went to make arrangements.

Zheng Yi was escorted and soon arrived on deck. Then he saw Zhao Jinge and said, “Zhao Jinge, let’s retreat!”

Zheng Yi didn’t know where Jiang Zhen had gone, but he had just seen the bravery of Zhao Jinge and the people he had with him. In addition, Zhao Jinge was a ger, so he wanted him to retreat with him.

Zhao Jinge was stunned and then said, “Master Zheng, I will guard your retreat.”

“Let’s go!” Zheng Yi frowned.

“Master Zheng, I will wait for Jiang Zhen,” Zhao Jinge said. 

He didn’t know where Jiang Zhen had gone, but Jiang Zhen would never run away. In that case, he will wait here for him.

A bamboo pole overturned a pirate, and Zhao Jinge’s face was full of perseverance.

Zheng Yi was startled and suddenly felt a little envious of Jiang Zhen. His wife would never be able to do what Zhao Jinge did.

At that point, there wasn’t much time to delay. Zheng Yi was thinking of ignoring Zhao Jinge and retreating with his men, when suddenly, the pirates’ screams rang out in the distance.

At the same time, the largest pirate ship suddenly caught fire, and the pirates cried more and more miserably.

That was the ship that the pirate leader was on, and before that, there had been someone on that ship driving the freebooters to come and attack the Zheng family’s fleet, but at the moment . . . the main pirate ship was in chaos, and there were people shouting for the boss.

What . . . What’s going on?

Zheng Yi stopped his plan to escape while at the same time, Jiang Zhen tied up the leader of the bandits.

Shoot the men before his horse and capture the leader before the pirates!

Edited by: Faro

 

Support translation: