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The autumn wind in October is already bitingly cold.

The night sky at the border of Satsuma Domain was as black as ink. Thick clouds obscured the stars and the moon. Only sporadic torches on the city walls swayed in the wind, casting flickering shadows.

Zheng Zhilong stood on a hill in the distance, the sea breeze lifting his dark blue cloak. Behind him stood several trusted generals, all holding their breath, their eyes fixed on the sleeping city in front of them.

"Sir, will the people from the West Factory really come?"

Deputy General Chen Hong asked in a low voice, his hand unconsciously pressing on the hilt of his knife: "Are they really willing to take the lead?"

"There is no joking in the army. Since Commander Qiu has said so, he should come. Otherwise, no matter how favored he is, he will still be punished by military law. Our Majesty will not tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes!"

Zheng Zhilong smiled and looked beyond the city wall into the darkness beyond. There, something seemed to be flowing.

"coming."

He suddenly spoke.

As if to confirm his words, dots of dark red appeared in the darkness in the distance, approaching the city wall silently like will-o'-the-wisp. Two hundred figures, dressed in dark red Xichang uniforms, almost blended into the darkness in the night, moving without a sound, like two hundred weightless ghosts.

Qiu Chengyun stood on the top of an ancient pine tree outside the city wall. The pine branches did not bend at all due to his weight. Wearing a scarlet official robe, he looked like a drop of solidified blood in the dark night. The moonlight occasionally penetrated the clouds, illuminating his pale face and his narrow eyes. His fingertips gently stroked the blade of the rapier at his waist, and the corners of his lips slightly raised, revealing a chilling smile.

"kill."

This word, as light as the buzz of a mosquito, exploded like thunder in the ears of the two hundred Western Factory guards. In an instant, two hundred dark red figures jumped up at the same time, and the clanging sounds of rapiers being unsheathed merged into one.

The foot soldiers on the city wall didn't even have time to sound the alarm. A young defender was yawning when he suddenly felt a chill on his neck. Confused, he raised his hand to touch it, but only felt warm liquid gushing out. He wanted to shout, but found that his throat had been pierced and could only make a "gurgling" sound. The moment he fell, he saw his companions falling one after another like wheat being cut. Each of them had a hair-thin wound on their throat or heart, which was so precise that it was chilling.

The Western Factory guards moved incredibly fast. They tapped their toes on the city wall, leaped up like a swallow, and drew deadly arcs with their rapiers in the darkness. Each strike was extremely precise, going straight to the vital points. The bamboo armor of the defenders was like thin paper in front of them, and the rapiers didn't even make a sound when they penetrated.

Zheng Zhilong saw it clearly from a distance, and his pupils shrank slightly. The swordsmanship of those eunuchs from the Western Factory was extremely strange, with tricky angles and unnatural speeds. Their wrists seemed to have no bones, and they could twist at incredible angles, making the swords unpredictable.

"Is this the Exorcist Sword Technique?"

Zheng Zhilong muttered to himself, cold sweat oozing from his palms.

The slaughter on the city walls continued.

A Satsuma samurai finally noticed something was wrong. He drew his sword and roared as he rushed towards the nearest eunuch. However, before he raised his sword halfway, the eunuch had already flashed behind him like a ghost. The thin sword pierced the samurai's back like a poisonous snake and came out from his chest. The samurai looked at the tip of the sword in his chest in disbelief, and there was not a drop of blood on it.

"What a fast sword..." This was his last thought.

Blood silently flowed along the cracks in the city wall, emitting an eerie dark red color under the moonlight. The air was filled with the smell of rusty blood, but strangely there were not many shouts of killing—most of the defenders died without even having the chance to scream.

Qiu Chengyun still stood on the pine branch, watching the massacre with cold eyes. His eyes suddenly turned to a taller building in the city - that was the residence of the garrison commander. The smile on his lips deepened, and his body swayed, floating down from the pine branch more than 20 feet high, landing as lightly as a fallen leaf without stirring up a trace of dust.

Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but gasp when he saw this scene. This kind of light skill is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Qiu Chengyun walked slowly towards the city gate. Wherever he passed, the guards of the Western Factory made way for him. The city gate had been opened, and several guards were guarding on both sides. Their swords were dripping with blood, but their faces were expressionless, like puppets carrying out their mission.

The city was in chaos. The alarm bell was finally sounded, and the scattered defenders hastily organized a defense. However, facing the ghostly movements and lightning-fast swordsmanship of the Western Factory soldiers, their resistance was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

A swordsmanship master from Satsuma, Yagyu Muneaki, led more than a dozen elite warriors to block the middle of the street. He was about fifty years old, with a resolute face, holding an ancient sword in both hands, and his eyes were as sharp as an eagle.

"Who dares to invade our Samoan territory?"

Yagyu Muneaki shouted sharply, his voice echoing in the street.

Qiu Chengyun didn't understand, he just chuckled and didn't stop. His sleeves fluttered as he walked, and he looked like an immortal.

"When working in the West Factory, anyone who is not in the know will be killed without mercy."

Yagyu Muneaki didn't understand, but he could see the contempt in Qiu Chengyun's eyes. He was immediately furious, and his sword drew a silver arc in the air: "Arrogant! Watch out for the sword!"

More than ten warriors launched an attack at the same time, and the sword lights were like a net, covering Qiu Chengyun.

Zheng Zhilong had quietly approached the city wall at this time and witnessed this scene. He held his breath and wanted to see how the Western Factory Admiral would deal with the siege of the famous swordsman of Satsuma.

Qiu Chengyun did not dodge or evade the incoming knife. Just as the blade was about to reach him, his figure suddenly blurred. Zheng Zhilong only felt a flash before his eyes, and Qiu Chengyun had passed through the knife net like a ghost and appeared behind Yagyu Muneaki.

Yagyu Muneaki's movements suddenly froze, a thin red line appeared on his neck, and then blood spurted out. His eyes were full of disbelief, and he slowly knelt on the ground.

Behind him, the dozen or so warriors seemed to be frozen in place, and then fell down one after another. Each of them had an almost invisible wound on a vital part of his body.

Qiu Chengyun's rapier had returned to its sheath without him noticing, as if it had never been unsheathed. He gently brushed off the nonexistent dust on his sleeves and continued walking forward.

Zheng Zhilong's heart was beating violently. He thought he was good at martial arts, but he didn't see clearly how Qiu Chengyun attacked. The speed of the sword was so fast that it was beyond the limit of the naked eye.

"Is this... the realm of the Great Mastery of the Exorcist Sword Technique?"

Zheng Zhilong murmured and swallowed subconsciously.

Inside the city, the massacre continued.

The Western Factory guards spread out and cleaned up every corner in an orderly manner. They acted like precise killing machines, with no unnecessary movements, no emotional fluctuations, only efficient killing.

A young foot soldier hid in a corner, trembling all over. He watched helplessly as his companion was stabbed in the throat by a eunuch from the Western Factory. The eunuch turned his head and looked at his hiding place, his eyes as cold as ice. The foot soldier closed his eyes in despair, waiting for death to come.

However, the expected pain did not come. He opened his eyes and found that the eunuch had turned away, seemingly disdaining a trivial soldier like him.

What the foot soldiers didn't know was that the West Factory had a clear goal in this trip - evidence of the secret exchanges between Satsuma and Tokugawa Ieyasu, as well as a secret letter from the lord of the domain, Shimazu Iehisa, who secretly supported the pirates against the Ming Dynasty. The lives of ordinary soldiers were not worth mentioning in their eyes.

Qiu Chengyun walked straight to the guard's mansion in the center of the city. The door was closed, and dozens of elite warriors were waiting in full battle array. They held long spears in their hands and formed a dense array, with the cold and shining spear tips pointed at the lone West Factory admiral. "Shoot!"

At a command from the top of the wall, dozens of arrows flew through the air.

Qiu Chengyun looked up, a hint of ridicule flashed in his eyes. His figure suddenly became illusory, and the arrows passed through his afterimage, all missing. The next second, he appeared in front of the gun array.

"kill!"

The warriors roared and thrust their spears.

Qiu Chengyun's figure blurred again, like a wisp of red smoke passing through the forest of guns. The sound of the rapier being unsheathed was so slight that it was almost inaudible, but each sword took away a life. His movements were as graceful as dancing, but with a deadly beauty.

Zheng Zhilong finally couldn't hold back any longer, and used his lightness skills to leap onto the city wall to observe this one-sided battle up close.

Qiu Chengyun's swordsmanship has reached perfection. Each sword strikes directly at the flaws in the enemy's moves, and he strikes first and causes the greatest damage with the smallest movement. What's more terrifying is that Qiu Chengyun seems to be able to predict every move of the enemy, and can always dodge and counterattack at the moment before the attack comes.

In less than half an hour, the resistance in front of the general's house was completely crushed. Qiu Chengyun pushed open the door of the house, and heard a few screams from inside, and then it returned to silence.

When Qiu Chengyun appeared again, he had a lacquered wooden box in his hand. He nodded with satisfaction and waved his hand gently. A Western Factory soldier immediately blew a bone flute, the sound was sharp and piercing, piercing the night sky.

Upon hearing the signal, the Western Factory personnel scattered throughout the city immediately stopped killing and quickly gathered at the city gate. Their mission had been completed, and there was no need to waste any more time.

Zheng Zhilong looked at the two hundred Western Factory soldiers lined up neatly, with almost no blood on their bodies, and they moved silently. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would hardly believe that it was this group of people who had just massacred the entire border city.

Qiu Chengyun walked slowly towards where Zheng Zhilong was and looked up at the naval commander standing on the city wall.

"Master Zheng, have you seen enough?"

Qiu Chengyun's voice was somewhat teasing.

Zheng Zhilong was shocked. He thought he was hiding well, but he was still discovered. He took a deep breath, jumped off the wall, and landed several feet in front of Qiu Chengyun.

"Admiral Qiu is very skilled."

Zheng Zhilong clasped his fists and said, with a tone of sincere admiration.

Qiu Chengyun smiled slightly, but the smile did not reach his eyes: "Master Zheng, thank you for your praise. Didn't we agree to come here tomorrow morning to take over? Admiral Zheng is worried about me?"

Zheng Zhilong was startled, but said calmly: "I am just worried that the Western Factory will go deep into the enemy territory alone. If necessary, the navy is ready to be deployed at any time."

Qiu Chengyun took a step back, smiling: "Thank you very much, Mr. Zheng, for your kindness."

The two looked at each other for a moment and laughed at the same time.

In the distance, the eastern sky was already turning pale. Qiu Chengyun looked up at the sky and said softly, "It's almost dawn, Lord Zheng, please go back. There are still some in the West Factory, and there is work to be done."

Zheng Zhilong nodded and bowed to say goodbye. When he walked out of the city gate, a strange sound suddenly came from behind him. Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but look back, and saw Qiu Chengyun standing at the highest point of the city wall, with his hands in a seal and muttering something. Two hundred Western Factory guards formed a strange formation, with their thin swords pointing to the sky, and a strange red light flashing from the sword tips.

Suddenly, blood began to flow out from the wounds on all the bodies, gathering towards the center of the formation. Qiu Chengyun opened his arms, and the blood flowed into his body as if attracted. His face looked even paler in the morning light, but his eyes were flashing with a strange red light.

Zheng Zhilong was horrified and hurriedly quickened his pace to leave. He finally understood why Qiu Chengyun was able to master the Exorcism Sword Technique in just a few years - he was probably practicing not only the Exorcism Sword Technique, but the legendary "Sunflower Manual"!
...............

In October, the autumn wind is chilly and killing.

As the Western Depot broke through the border city in a night raid, Zheng Zhilong officially took over the ruined fortress. The blood on the wall had not yet dried, and the air was still filled with the smell of rust. This border fortress, which had just been soaked in blood, was now echoing with the hammering sounds of Ming army craftsmen repairing the fortifications.

Zheng Zhilong stood on the top of the city wall, overlooking the city that had just fallen, and began to plan the next step of the march.

"Pass the order down. The entire army will rest for a day and continue advancing tomorrow."

Deputy General Chen Hong clasped his fists and accepted the order, then asked, "Sir, what should we do with these prisoners? What about the civilians in the city?"

Zheng Zhilong looked stern and said calmly: "All samurai and foot soldiers who resist will be escorted to the rear and handed over to the mine for supervision. Among the civilians, young and strong men will be recruited to build fortifications, and women, children, the elderly and the weak... will be gathered together for the time being and must not be allowed to roam around."

Chen Hong hesitated slightly: "Sir, if we force the conscription, I am afraid it will cause a civil uprising..."

Zheng Zhilong sneered: "Civil uprising? If they have the courage to resist, the Western Factory will suppress it. Don't forget, we have the Ming Dynasty behind us. Your Majesty wants the whole of Japan, not the people's hearts in a mere city."

Chen Hong's heart trembled. Without saying anything more, he quickly went down to make arrangements.

Zheng Zhilong narrowed his eyes and looked at the fleet masts looming in the distance. He suddenly turned to Zhao Wu, the commander of his personal guards, and said in a deep voice:
"Order the commanders of each camp to come to the meeting room immediately."

Half an hour later, more than a dozen armored generals gathered in the makeshift military tent. Zheng Zhilong used the tip of his saber to point at the sheepskin sea map on the table, and knocked heavily on the position of Kagoshima Bay:
"General Li, I want you to complete three blockades within one day."

Li Kui, the deputy admiral of the navy, immediately knelt on one knee and clasped his fists: "I have mobilized 20 Fuzhou ships and 40 Cangshan ships, divided into three teams for defense. The first team consists of six Fuzhou ships, equipped with 12 red cannons, to block the Sakurajima waterway; the second team consists of 30 Cangshan ships, each equipped with six bowl-mouth guns, forming a goose-shaped formation to block the entrance to the bay; the third team is a patrol team, with 10 speedboats patrolling the 10-mile waters along the coast day and night."

"not enough."

Zheng Zhilong took out an ivory token from his bosom and threw it on the table: "Move ten Tiger-Dented gunboats to join the first team, and add two Portuguese cannons to each ship. Tell Doctor Zhao to transfer fifteen more large ships with 2,000 tons of cargo, load five hundred boxes of rockets and three hundred barrels of kerosene, and they must arrive within five days."

The generals in the tent were all shocked when they heard this. Military officer Wang Yue couldn't help but whispered, "Sir, a blockade of this scale might alarm other vassals in Kyushu..."

"This is the effect we want."

Zheng Zhilong sneered and suddenly pointed his finger at several fishing villages marked on the map: "Light beacons in these places every night and send small boats disguised as merchant ships to go in and out. If Shimazu Iehisa wants to ask for help, let him lure all the naval forces of the various feudal domains to die."

After saying that, he turned to look at Li Kui, a cold light flashed in his eyes: "Remember, if you let any ship go, you will be beheaded."

(End of this chapter)