Beginning with the Ubume Bird

The heavy rain poured down in the dark night, and Li Rusong gritted his teeth in hatred.

Luo Shangzhi’s Shenji Camp, Wu Weizhong’s Ji Town Soldiers, and even the Liaodong Town troops under the command of Zu Chengxun had already converged in front of the Datong River. Thousands of Ming Army soldiers were searching in a net-like pattern to capture and kill the remaining Japanese pirates. With his rich military experience, Li Rusong roughly estimated that more than six thousand Japanese pirates were annihilated before and after the battle at the Datong River. Added to the several thousand killed previously in Pyongyang, Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s First Army Corps was essentially wiped out. The Ming Army’s casualties were just over three thousand, most of which occurred during the earlier siege.

“Even if we can’t catch up with Konishi, this battle has certainly demonstrated the might of our Celestial Empire,” he said.

Li Rusong pondered for a moment then asked, “What about the reinforcements for the Japanese pirates mentioned by that Chief Flag Officer named Li Yan from the Right Army? Have there been any updates?”

“We’ve sent out seven scouting teams; none have sent back any reports yet,” someone respectfully said.

It was widely said that Li Rusong was a cunning and seasoned general, a famous commander of the time. However, what the general didn’t say was that after the battle of Pyongyang, it was the Shenji Camp from the capital, as well as the Ji Town and Baoding fort soldiers, who genuinely started to admire and accept this Commander-in-chief from Shanxi.

“Old General Wu, do you have any news?” Li Rusong asked.

Wu Weizhong shook his head with a smile and said, “Unless the Japanese pirates can fly, it’s impossible.”

Li Rusong nodded but still sighed, “The roads are slippery with the night rain in the mountainous terrain of Joseon. We’re carrying a lot of gunpowder and weaponry that’s been dampened by the rain, so it’s really not suitable to pursue. If He Yan can’t catch up to Konishi, then it must be that the fate of the Japanese leader is not yet at its end.”

“Speaking of which, He Yan took four thousand cavalry to chase Konishi, but now not a single person has come back with a report?” asked Li Rubo from the side.

“The Chief Flag Officer under my command, who has the surname Li, hasn’t come back either. He’s been leading those native Joseon Wild Gods with such a formidable presence,” Zu Chengxun interjected.

“Marching in the rain… it’s unavoidable…”

“Wait.” Just as Luo Shangzhi was about to speak, Li Rusong suddenly interrupted him.

“You said seven scouting teams have been sent, and not a single one has returned?” Li Rusong’s tiger-like eyes fixed on the junior officer who had just spoken.

“Yes.”

Li Rusong pondered for a good while, rested his arm on the desk, and then said, “Since we can’t pursue Konishi in this heavy rain, there’s no need to wait any longer. The army will set out immediately and return to Pyongyang.”

Before the people in the camp could ask questions, a disturbance suddenly arose outside the camp. Angry shouts, pained moans, and chaotic clamor all melded together, creating quite a commotion.

It felt like a bowl of cold water tossed into boiling oil, explosively splattering all at once.

Zu Chengxun lifted the camp curtain, shouting angrily, “Who the hell…” His voice choked as if something was lodged in his throat, and he impulsively drew his long sword, but couldn’t help stepping back as if he had seen something shocking.

In front of the tent stood a stern-eyed woman in a leather jacket with her long hair flowing. Soaked from head to toe, a steady stream of rainwater dripped down her white chin. On her back, she carried a man in thick patterned armor with pale lips, closed eyes, and blood trickling down from his hand. His body was riddled with dense shrapnel fragments, and he had a bloodied, gaping wound on his back.

“Save the Lord of the Banner first! Save the Lord of the Banner first!” Diao Xiayan’s hoarse voice and cracked palms grasped a medic by the collar, his wounds bleeding continuously due to his agitated emotions.

Wang Sheng was silent, holding a short arrow in his hand, his temple throbbing with pain from the arrow that had lodged straight into his left eye.

Niutou Chantanner sat with his head bowed to the side, his body covered with countless knife wounds and arrows.

Nine-Winged Sudu had one wing cruelly severed, with a gruesome trail of blood running from his shoulder across his chest to the root of his thigh. Now, he lay lifelessly on the back of Jin Yanwa, who himself was covered in wounds.

Deng Tianxiong fell in battle.

“What happened?” Li Rusong stepped out of the crowd and asked loudly.

Wang Sheng swallowed and was just about to speak.

Suddenly, a battered cavalryman rushed in, the blood-stained horse hooves creating a ruckus, and the lead rider collapsed in front of Li Rusong.

“Lord Governor, a large number of Japanese troops have attacked our left flank, bearing the battle flags of Ukita Hideie and Kobayakawa Takakage. There are no less than eight thousand of them. And behind us, Fukushima Masanori and Mori Terumoto are leading more than six thousand men close at hand,” the rider reported.

“Where did they come from?” Wu Weizhong shouted, unable to contain his anger and stepping forward.

“Besides that…”

The rider’s voice choked up, “General Shen Heyan and Konishi’s remnants entangled in a fierce fight, and unfortunately, he was killed in battle.”

“Who did you say?”

Li Rubo’s eyes reddened, his gaze almost piercing the rider in front of him.

“Zizhen!”

Li Rusong roared, interrupting his grief-stricken younger brother.

“A clay pot lingers by the well and must someday break, a general on the battlefield cannot escape death.”

His voice was calm, even somewhat cruel. Li Rusong’s eyes were fixed intently on Wang Sheng’s face, sensing that the news this young soldier brought might be even worse.

“How did your unit fare?”

“As we pursued Konishi…” Wang Sheng gasped for breath, “suddenly we encountered a large force of Japanese troops, led by the Third Army commander Hidetada Masasuke, including troops from Tokugawa Family’s Honda Tadakatsu, the eldest son of Liusheng Zongyan’s Liusheng Chang, Uesugi Kageshige, Tachibana Muneshige, an allied army of five families, at least ten thousand strong.”

With each name Wang Sheng uttered, the expressions of those present darkened. By the time he spoke of the ten thousand strong, everyone was shaking their heads in disbelief, and Luo Shangzhi was especially disturbed, murmuring, “This is beyond warfare…”

Li Rusong’s expression was as still as water as he calmly said to Wang Sheng:

“You’ve all worked hard, and it’s no small feat to have returned safely.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Lord Governor…”

Wang Sheng opened his mouth, intending to say more, but seeing Li Rusong’s dismissive gesture, he found himself speechless.

Li Rusong patted Wang Sheng on the shoulder and turned to return to camp, aware that Wang Sheng had more to say, but at this moment, with the situation as precarious as a pile of eggs, he had no desire to listen further.

“Hey.”

Yu Shu’s soft call was distinctly audible, drawing everyone’s attention toward her.

“Thud~”

A round head was tossed by Yu Shu onto the ground, rolling a couple of times.

Yu Shu pointed at Wang Sheng with her index finger, then with her thumb over her shoulder.

“Konishi Yukinaga’s head, they’ve brought it back.”

The head rolled on the ground, its eyes wide open from the torrential rain, filled with an unwillingness, like a person who grasps at a life-saving straw only to drown in the end. With a moon-shaped shaven crown and hair in black and white, it was indeed Konishi Yukinaga.

“Didn’t you say you were attacked by a large army? How did you still…”

Li Rusong raised his eyebrow.

“Li Yan and his troops from Liaodong Town General Flag…”

Yu Shu cut off Li Rusong’s questioning with a dispassionate tone.

“They plunged into the enemy ranks, charging less than a hundred meters in front of the allied forces of the five families, spearing through the First Army commander Konishi Yukinaga with the Han Sword, decapitating him, and then fighting chaotically, with great casualties among their troops.”

She turned around, facing the Li Yan Troop, exhausted and wounded, some even on the brink of death.

She spoke deliberately, causing shocked expressions and continuous murmurs of discussions among the crowd.

“On the side of the allied forces of the five families, the Red Guards Army was annihilated, the Third Army commander Hidetada Masasuke was killed in battle, Uesugi Kageshige fled the battlefield without his horse, General Tachibana Muneshige was lightly wounded, General Liusheng Chang had his right arm chopped off by Deng Tianxiong from Li Yan’s troops, Li Yan himself dueled with Honda Tadakatsu on horseback. Within two exchanges, his iron spear was destroyed, and he was gravely injured, he fought for his life with Fire Thunder, striking Honda directly, leaving him in an unknown state of life or death. Wang Liang’s Cavalry handled the rearguard, and the entire army was wiped out.”

Yu Shu’s eyes blankly surveyed Li Rusong.

“Lord Governor, now that we are faced with enemies on both sides, it is a matter of life and death. How we will decide rests with you.”

Thunder boomed suddenly, and the people in the encampment fell into silence.

“Ah~”

Li Yan, on Yu Shu’s back in his final moments, let out a pained scream, envisioning the scene where his comrades-in-arms were beheaded, their bodies torn apart, anguish pounding in his heart like a mallet. His killing intent was so palpable it was as if he had bitten down until his teeth shattered.

“Dragonfly Cutter!”

The Dragonfly Cutter, Honda Tadakatsu’s beloved spear, one of the three great famous spears of Japan, so named because it could sever a flying dragonfly when simply stood upright.