prosperous age

The mountains were covered with a thin layer of snow, and without the moonlight, the whole world seemed to be shrouded in a deep blue curtain.

The distant mountains were faintly visible in the night, their outlines blurred by the darkness to the point of being almost indistinguishable. The trees on the mountains were covered in silver, and their branches were laden with glistening icicles.

At the foot of the mountain, a vast cluster of wooden houses built against the mountainside is covered in white, with only occasional glimpses of darkness.

In the distance, tiny sparks moved across the snow; those were soldiers on night patrol, carrying torches as they patrolled along the wooden fence.

This is Japan's largest gunpowder depot. Although it is temporary, the soldiers guarding it all know that not even a spark can be allowed to appear within the barracks area.

Therefore, they could only build two rows of wooden fences, one to firmly surround the warehouse, and the other to enclose their camp.

The area between the two rows of wooden fences is the area they can patrol at night.

In addition to sending soldiers to guard the barracks during the day, the area is cleared out at night to prevent accidents caused by the lighting.

As another patrol of soldiers on the inner circle passed a row of wooden fences, a white mass in the distance began to move, laboriously inching towards the fences.

If you get closer, even closer, you might see that it is actually a person crawling on a wooden plank, moving forward with difficulty, seemingly worried about leaving a mark.

The white figure approached, and after a series of quick movements, several wooden planks were moved left and right, revealing a small gap.

As the figure quickly disappeared inside, another group of white figures rapidly converged on the snow not far away, and soon one after another entered the area.

The last person to enter quickly restored the wooden planks on the fence, then disappeared, leaving only a white expanse on the ground.

In the distance, another patrol of soldiers, carrying torches, approached this way, and the sound of their chatter could be faintly heard.

If they had moved even a little slower, the firelight would have illuminated the area.

The heavily guarded camp gates were already tightly closed. Three rows of cavalry were placed outside the gates, and on each side was a huge brazier with a raging fire still burning. The crackling sound of wood breaking could be heard.

Inside the camp gate, voices could still be heard from above. It was two soldiers on night watch in a wooden watchtower, laughing and talking loudly, dispelling the chill of the night and their sleepiness.

At the foot of the mountain, in a grove of trees, a dozen men huddled together in a pit. They didn't speak, nor did they light a fire for warmth. They just huddled together, waiting for their leader's orders.

Finally, human voices broke the silence of the night.

"The time has come, mount your horse."

As the voice rang out, the men, who had been as still as statues, slowly stood up one by one, silently beginning to move their frozen limbs.

Afterwards, many people took out something from their pockets and put it in their mouths, then grabbed a handful of snow and put it directly into their mouths, chewing it in big mouthfuls, and started walking behind the woods.

There, a group of warhorses were tied to tree trunks, just like their masters had been, the horses huddled together for warmth.

The men untied the reins of their warhorses, grabbed handfuls of horse feed from their saddlebags, then removed the bridles from the horses' mouths and stuffed the feed into their mouths.

After feeding the horses a few times, someone began to remove the blankets covering them and started leading them slowly around the area.

Although the forest provides shelter from the wind and snow, neither humans nor horses can withstand spending too much time in the wild. They need to move their limbs and restore blood flow to their bodies.

Once everyone had finished their activities, the leader looked up at the gray sky and said to everyone, "Everyone, check the tinder."

As soon as he finished speaking, a dozen men reached into their robes in unison, pulled out bamboo tubes, and opened them to check if the embers were still burning.

To ensure everything went smoothly, each of these people carried more than one tinderbox to ensure they had a source of fire to ignite the rockets planted on Ma'anshan.

After that, the leader kept giving orders, instructing them to check the bowstrings of the muskets.

Clearly, this is a well-trained small team carrying out a special mission.

This is the most secretive force within the Embroidered Uniform Guard: the Action Team, a group of assassins tasked with special missions such as assassination and escort.

Their equipment was the best among all the Ming army. Those selected were not only skilled in archery and horsemanship and had extraordinary skills, but most importantly, they had to have a heart of stone, devoid of emotion, and be killing machines that only knew how to complete orders.

Once all preparations were complete, the leader said, "Let's go. According to plan, we must kill the Japanese at the camp gate and then launch rockets into the camp."

Their mission was to create chaos and provide cover for their comrades in the camp to carry out their tasks.

Whether they are ready at this time, or anything else, is none of their business.

As long as things go according to plan and they don't make any mistakes, it's none of their business.

Their mission was simply to shoot a few Japanese soldiers and then set fire to anything they could see nearby.

Murder is perhaps the thing they are most familiar with.

Liu Shouyou deployed elite members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to Japan. He not only searched for all short and clever people in the army, but also deployed two action teams to ensure the safety of intelligence transmission in Japan, responsible for transmitting intelligence and carrying out necessary assassination missions.

However, Japan was in chaos at the time, and their two special forces teams had no room to maneuver, so they could only split up to escort various intelligence missions.

This was the first time this team had received an important mission, and one that was particularly tricky and troublesome.

Hiding your tracks in the wild for two days during a snowstorm is definitely not an easy task; you might end up as an ice sculpture.

Soon, more than a dozen people mounted their horses and quickly headed towards the Japanese pirate camp.

Behind them, the last two men were leading extra horses, which were used to transport supplies and for those who escaped from the camp to ride. Instead of following them toward the camp gate, they were quickly moving toward another designated rendezvous area.

At this time, the warhorses were put back on their bridles to prevent them from neighing, and their legs were also wrapped in fur to prevent the nails from making noise and to keep their legs warm.

All around was silent, devoid of any sign of life except for the dark shadows moving across the snow.

"Cool Friend Massemdes".

"Haha, Machisam."

On the watchtower, two Japanese men on night duty were still talking loudly, cursing the bitterly cold winter night.

However, their pleasant conversation soon ended as they vaguely heard some noise.

Gradually, the two soldiers who had been squatting on the watchtower, warming themselves by the small brazier, slowly stood up and looked out of the camp.

Although the team had covered the horses' hooves, the sound of more than a dozen warhorses galloping towards them still carried far in the quiet night, and was naturally heard by the two sentries.

Although they couldn't be sure what had happened, they cautiously ended their conversation, stood up, and looked outside.

Finally, the dark shadows in the distance approached, and a dozen or so dark things surged toward them like a gust of wind.

Two screams rang out. They didn't think about what the dark thing was. There are legends of mandrills in Japan. At this moment, they thought that what they saw was the mandrill coming down from the mountain to eat people, as the legends say.

However, their screams soon stopped as a sentry was struck by two arrows in the chest, flew over the watchtower railing, and fell outside the wooden fence.

The other sentry was also struck by three arrows in the arm, but fortunately they were not fatal, allowing him to quickly crouch down and let out a bloodcurdling scream, "Takshi!"

"Clap clap clap."

Just as he crouched down and hid behind the wooden railing, thinking he was safe, the sound of cannons firing rang out from outside the camp. Several bullets flew directly towards his hiding place, then the shouting stopped, and the sentry was riddled with bullets and beyond dead.

The commotion naturally alerted the Japanese soldiers in the barracks behind. The awakened soldiers sat on their beds and began to fumble for their equipment, putting it on first. Meanwhile, the night patrol rushed towards the camp gate with torches in hand.

Soon, a small team of about ten people rushed to the vicinity under the torchlight. Although the wooden fence blocked their view, the firelight revealed their position.

"clap clap"

Another burst of intense musket fire rang out, and several members of the charging Japanese pirates fell to the ground with screams.

Outside the camp gate, several ignited rockets had already been launched into the camp area, with three rockets successfully landing on the roof of the barracks.

Although there was a thin layer of snow on the roof, the rocket's arrowhead was coated with grease, making it not so easy to extinguish.

As the snow melted in the flames, the fire quickly reached the wooden beams of the house.

Amidst shouts and curses, more than ten Japanese soldiers, not yet fully dressed, rushed out of the two rooms.

They lived in makeshift barracks made of wood, which were poorly insulated and filled with dry grass.

If even a single spark falls, the barracks will instantly burst into flames.

In this environment, even if they hadn't received warm clothes, they had no choice but to run out to avoid being burned to death inside the house.

Instead of rushing directly to the camp gate, they quickly hid behind the house, peering at the gate and calling out. At this moment, the tightly closed gate seemed to be their only support.

Fortunately, the camp gate did not seem to have been opened; it remained tightly closed, and large flames were burning on it.

That was the action team smashing several earthenware jars directly at the camp gate. The tung oil contained in the jars was ignited by a rocket nailed to the camp gate, creating the flames.

The silence of the night had been broken, and the shouts of the Japanese soldiers could be heard continuously from the barracks behind.

They weren't attacked, but they knew what had happened from the shouts of their comrades outside.

Someone is attacking them.

Finally, squads of neatly dressed soldiers rushed out of the barracks and charged toward the camp gate.

What greeted them was a hail of arrows.

Then, the screams grew louder, like water droplets dripping from boiling oil, creating even greater chaos.

The action team stood quietly outside the camp gate, seemingly trying to keep warm by the burning gate.

However, whenever a group of soldiers rushed towards the camp gate, a dozen or so team members would immediately draw their bows and fire two or three volleys of arrows in the direction of the sound to prevent the enemy from getting close to the camp gate.

The Japanese pirate sentries at the camp gate had been shot dead, and no one knew how many enemies were outside the camp gate. All the Japanese soldiers who had arrived began to assemble.

The arquebusiers stood in the first two rows, and under the light of the torches, they began to load ammunition.

"Spread out and take cover."

The captain, peering through the crack in the wooden door, saw the Japanese soldiers arrayed in the distance and decisively gave the order.

The team members who had initially gathered outside the camp gate turned their horses and moved to the sides, leaving the area outside the camp gate completely empty.

In the camp, following a series of commands from the Japanese soldiers, the soldiers who had already formed ranks, carrying their arquebuses, began to jog in rows toward the camp gate.

Upon observing this, the team leader immediately drew his bow and fired another arrow into the camp.

Just as the arrows soared into the air, the other team members beside him also drew their bows and nocked their arrows, hurling them towards the camp.

"bang bang bang"

The dense sound of cannon fire, accompanied by the screams of arrows being shot from the cannons, rang out, and the wooden camp gate was instantly riddled with bullet holes.

The Japanese muskets had larger calibers than the Ming Dynasty's matchlock muskets. Although this limited their range, their armor-piercing power was indeed many times greater within their effective range.

The seemingly sturdy wooden door was riddled with holes by the combined force of the two gunners.

"Chichichi"

Another volley of arrows flew up from both sides of the camp gate, heading straight for the retreating arquebusiers, accompanied by several screams.

"Fire three rounds quickly, then we'll retreat."

The captain suddenly shouted, then drew his bow again and fired the arrow rapidly into the Japanese camp from the same angle. After that, he turned his horse around and rode away.

The wooden camp gate was burning even more fiercely at this time. Many planks, pierced by cannonballs, could no longer hold on and began to break. The raging fire on the camp gate illuminated their retreat route.

At that moment, on the west side of the empty camp, several figures rushed out of the warehouse in a panic and sped back the way they had come.

The soldiers on night patrol have already rushed toward the camp gate, and there are no patrolling soldiers near the wooden fences on the east and west sides.

Regardless of whether they were exposed or whether there were guards watching the warehouse, the group rushed out frantically.

Only by rushing out of the camp as soon as possible could they have a chance to survive. The camp would soon be overturned by the blast wave, and there would be no point in them staying any longer; on the contrary, they would be more likely to lose their lives.

Yes, they were the short-statured Ming soldiers carefully selected from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, who were then given a short training course and taught some basic Japanese before being sent here to join the Oda clan's army as wandering farmers.

In the armies of other daimyo, there were many people like them.

No one knows exactly how many people Liu Shouyou sent to Japan; perhaps only the old man in Kyoto knows the details.

After all, these people all need him to coordinate and command them, and to issue orders.

"General, the attackers have escaped."

At the camp gate, the Japanese troops could not leave the camp to pursue, partly because it was nighttime and they were worried that there might be ambushes all around.

Secondly, the raging fire at the camp gate blocked the Japanese troops from rushing out of the camp.

"Immediately dispatch troops to guard the fence and prevent enemy troops from breaking in."

Seeing that most of the soldiers in the camp had gathered here, the Japanese general guarding the camp suddenly felt something was wrong.

The incident happened so suddenly that he hadn't recovered yet.

At this moment, he finally remembered his task.

The attack on the camp and the deaths of a few people are not important; what matters is the supplies in the warehouse behind them.

Squads of soldiers were deployed to the inner circle, with guards every three steps and sentries every five steps, to protect the warehouse tightly.

"Boom!" (End of Chapter)