In the Ming Dynasty, I became invincible simply by extracting memories!

That night, Yu Dayou summoned Shen Lian to the council hall for a private meeting.

In the candlelight, a rare look of weariness appeared on the old general's face. He poured Shen Lian a cup of tea and said, "Mr. Shen, I owe you a favor for what happened today."

"General, you flatter me."

"I'm not exaggerating," Yu Dayou waved his hand. "You said you recovered those seven thousand eight hundred taels of silver from a corrupt official in Shexian County. Shexian is a thousand miles away from here. How could you, a member of the Imperial Guard, concern yourself with the affairs of a county magistrate who embezzled?"

Shen Lian did not hide anything and briefly recounted the story of Magistrate Zhou of Shexian County—how he instructed Dong Laoshi to report him, how he exposed Magistrate Zhou's secrets of embezzlement, fear of his wife, and keeping a mistress in court, how he used the power of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to force him to hand over the embezzled funds, and how he distributed the land to poor villagers.

After listening, Yu Dayou picked up his teacup, took a slow sip, and said, "You are a very cunning person. But your money saved my soldiers. I will remember this favor."

Shen Lian cupped his hands and said, "This humble general only did what he could."

Yu Dayou put down his teacup, looked at Shen Lian with a scrutinizing gaze and a hint of curiosity: "How did you remember the names of those soldiers? Hundreds of them, and you've only been here a few days?"

Shen Lian couldn't tell the truth. He couldn't very well tell Yu Dayou that he had a cheat ability that allowed him to extract memories through skin contact, and that he had casually extracted the memories of dozens of Yu family army soldiers while in the military camp. He could only vaguely say, "Since I came to the army on official business, I must have become familiar with the soldiers in the camp. I learned about it by chance during our conversations. My memory is better than that of ordinary people, and I don't easily forget the people I've met or the things I've heard."

Yu Dayou glanced at him with some skepticism, but didn't press the matter. He stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the soldiers gradually dispersing on the drill ground. His voice was low: "Mr. Shen, the White Lotus Sect spy you mentioned earlier, he confessed to having three accomplices. All three of them infiltrated the army within the last six months through various means. Some impersonated refugees, some impersonated displaced people joining the army, and some even bribed low-ranking officers."

"The White Lotus Sect's infiltration of the military is probably not limited to these three individuals."

"I know." Yu Dayou turned around, his eyes piercing. "So I would like to ask Mr. Shen to do something for me—find out exactly how many people the White Lotus Sect has planted in the Southeast Army, and find out what kind of connection they have with Wu Ping, Zhang Lian, and Xu Chaoguang."

Shen Lian had been waiting for these words. He clasped his hands in a fist and said, "This humble general obeys."

Yu Dayou nodded, walked to the desk, picked up an official document, and handed it to Shen Lian: "This is an urgent report just sent from Chaozhou Prefecture. It has been confirmed that Wu Ping is colluding with Japanese pirates and is gathering troops towards Dachengsuo. If Dachengsuo falls, Chaozhou's gateway will be wide open. I am preparing to lead a thousand soldiers to reinforce Dachengsuo, and you will accompany the army."

"When does the general plan to depart?"

"Tomorrow," Yu Dayou paused, then added, "Mr. Shen, this battle at Dacheng Police Station could be very fierce."

"This humble general is willing to lead the vanguard and kill the Japanese pirates."

On the day the army set off, before dawn, the drill ground was already filled with soldiers fully equipped and ready to go. With limited manpower, apart from the troops left to guard the General's residence as a mobile force, and another part to assist in the defense of Chaozhou Prefecture to reassure the people, Yu Dayou could only personally lead Tang Kekuan and Deng Cheng with a thousand elite troops straight to Dacheng. Shen Lian, along with Yi Dong and Yi Xia, accompanied the army.

The march from the General's headquarters to Dacheng Fortress would take two days and one night. Yu Dayou ordered the troops to travel light, with each person carrying only three days' worth of dry rations and a canteen of water. The artillery wagons and ammunition carts of the firearms battalion were pulled by mules and horses, and they traveled swiftly southeast along the official road.

The scenery along the way made Shen Lian's mood increasingly heavy.

The farmland on both sides of the official road was largely deserted, with rice stubble peeking out from among the weeds, and waist-high wormwood growing on the field ridges. Nine out of ten villages along the way were empty; some village entrances had white banners hanging, and some houses still bore the charred marks of fire. Occasionally, a few old people and children could be seen squatting under dilapidated eaves, their eyes blankly watching the marching troops.

"The Japanese pirates came here last month." Tang Kekuan rode his horse beside Shen Lian. "Three villages were massacred, more than a thousand men, women, and children were killed, and less than two hundred survived. The pirates kidnapped the able-bodied men to work as laborers on their ships, the young women were kidnapped to be prostitutes, and the old people and children... sigh."

He couldn't continue.

Shen Lian's fingers tightened slightly around the reins. He had read countless historical records about Japanese pirates in his later life and knew of the devastation caused by the pirate raids along the southeastern coast during the Jiajing era—from the thirty-first to the forty-third year of Jiajing's reign, the pirates invaded more than two hundred times, breaching dozens of cities and massacring hundreds of thousands of civilians. But those numbers written on paper were completely different from seeing with one's own eyes the charred walls, the barren farmland, and the empty gazes.

The following evening, the army arrived ten miles outside Dachengsuo. Scouts sent by Dengcheng reported that Wu Ping's main fleet had reached the waters off Dachengsuo and was preparing to land. The vanguard of the Japanese pirates, numbering about five hundred, had landed on the northern beach and, together with a group of Wu Ping's men, were cutting down trees to hastily construct siege equipment.

Yu Dayou made a decisive decision: the entire army should enter the city overnight.

When Shen Lian first saw the Great City, his heart sank.

This thousand-household fortress, originally built in the 27th year of the Hongwu reign (1389), is situated on the Dongli Peninsula at the border of Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Surrounded by the sea on three sides and facing the land on one side, its terrain is extremely strategic. The city wall has a circumference of nearly three li and a height of about two zhang, constructed of bluestone slabs with neatly arranged crenellations. According to the regulations during the Hongwu reign, the fortress should have a garrison of over 1,200 men, with 30% dedicated to farming and 70% to defending the city. It was one of the most important coastal defense fortresses in Chaozhou Prefecture.

But in the city before them, the crenellations of the city wall had collapsed in more than a dozen places, hastily filled with adobe bricks and wooden planks; the tiles on the city gate tower were sparse, revealing the rotten beams underneath; a few soldiers stood sparsely on the city wall, their swords and spears rusted, their uniforms patched, their eyes showing no killing intent, only exhaustion and numbness.

"This is Dacheng Fortress?" Deng Cheng reined in his horse, his face filled with disbelief. "This wretched place can hold off the Japanese pirates?"

Yu Dayou's face was also grim. He dismounted and strode into the city gate. The centurion guarding the city hurriedly came forward, knelt on one knee, and said in a trembling voice, "This humble general, Gu Cheng, centurion of the Great City Garrison, greets General Yu!"

"Stand up and speak." Yu Dayou's gaze swept across the city wall. "Where is Commander Wang Riqiu? How many people are left in the city?"

Gu Cheng stammered, "Reporting to the General, the 1,225 soldiers assigned to Dacheng Garrison are actually... actually 372 Banner soldiers, of whom less than 200 are capable of fighting. The commander has already gone to Chaozhou Prefecture overnight to fetch reinforcements."

"What?!" Deng Cheng grabbed Gu Cheng by the collar, almost lifting him up. "You have 1,225 men, and you only have 372 left? Just over 300? Where are the rest? Do you know that Dacheng is the gateway to Chaozhou? Do you know that the Japanese pirates have already landed on the northern mudflats? What kind of company commander are you? And that damn chiliarch, what kind of reinforcements did you bring?!"

Gu Cheng, his face contorted with grief, trembled violently. "General Deng... General Deng, this humble general... this humble general has no other choice! The pay is eight months overdue. The brothers can't even get enough to eat with coarse rice mixed with sand. We urgently requested more pay, but it all disappeared without a trace! The brothers couldn't take it anymore, they... they ran away. Some even heard that the Japanese pirates were coming and fled with their families overnight. Others were... were transferred away. The transfer order said it was a temporary secondment, but once they were transferred, they never came back."

Yu Dayou bent down and helped Gu Cheng up. He patted the dust off Gu Cheng's battle coat, "Eight months without pay, and you still managed to lead over three hundred men to defend this city, preventing it from becoming a Japanese pirate camp. Gu Cheng, you've lived up to this coat. As for the pay owed to you, after this battle, I, the commander, will personally go to Chaozhou Prefecture to collect it for you!"

"Commander Yu!...I'm so sorry!" Gu Cheng's eyes reddened, and he couldn't stop the tears of grievance.

"Damn it, this mess! Those corrupt officials in Chaozhou Prefecture who only know how to embezzle salaries should all be dragged up to this city wall and made to face the Japanese pirates' knives with their heads!" Deng Cheng couldn't suppress the resentment and anger that had been building up for who knows how long, and he burst out with profanity.

Tang Kekuan stepped forward to offer words of comfort, but his expression remained grave as he asked, "General Gu, how much grain is left in the city?"

Gu Cheng's face fell again: "The grain reserves... are less than a month's supply. A batch of military rations was supposed to arrive last month, but the Japanese pirates were looting along the coast, and the grain ships dared not approach the sea. The three hundred or so people in the city, plus the thousand men brought by General Yu, have enough grain reserves to last at most ten days."

"Ten days..." Tang Kekuan and Yu Dayou exchanged a glance, their faces ashen. The Japanese pirates' siege would last anywhere from ten days to a month. Ten days' worth of food supplies was far too tight.

Yu Dayou looked at Gu Cheng nervously, "What about the firearms in the city?"

Gu Cheng's face had turned pale: "There were originally eight breech-loading cannons, twelve mortars, and fifty arquebuses on the city wall. But... but the gunpowder is damp and unusable, and the cannon barrels are severely corroded. I have tested them, and only three of the eight breech-loading cannons can fire, and less than twenty of the arquebuses are usable."

Deng Cheng slammed his fist into the city wall, causing bits of earth to fall down in a flurry.

Shen Lian walked up to a breech-loading cannon, squatted down, and examined it closely. The cannon was made of cast iron, its surface covered in rust, and there was a noticeable crack along the muzzle rim—if this cannon were fired, the probability of it exploding was greater than the probability of hitting the enemy. He then picked up a packet of gunpowder, opened it, and saw that the gunpowder inside had clumped together, turned black, and emitted a musty smell.

"What year was this gunpowder made?" Shen Lian asked.

Gu Cheng stammered, "It seems...it seems to have been put into storage in the thirty-fifth year of the Jiajing reign."

Five years. The gunpowder, stored for five years, had become damp and clumped together; its active ingredients had long since evaporated. A projectile fired with this gunpowder probably couldn't even penetrate a wooden board.

Yu Dayou stood atop the city wall, gazing silently at the distant sea. The sea breeze whipped his beard and battle robes, making them flutter. "How far is Wu Ping's main fleet from here?"

Tang Kekuan replied, "The scouts report that the main force of the Japanese pirate fleet has already passed Nan'ao and is less than a hundred li from Dacheng. At the latest, they will be at the city gates the day after tomorrow."

the day after tomorrow.

One thousand three hundred and seventy-two soldiers faced thousands of Japanese pirates.

Yu Dayou turned around, his gaze sweeping over the faces of Deng Cheng, Tang Kekuan, Shen Lian, and the others, and said in a deep voice, "Dacheng is the gateway to Chaozhou. Once it falls, the Japanese pirates can advance unimpeded, and Chaozhou, Jieyang, and Huizhou will all be indefensible. There is no turning back in this battle."

Everyone knows what this means.

Shen Lian descended from the city wall and walked around it. His fingers traced the battering crenellations, weathered and worn, and the gaps hastily filled with adobe bricks, silently calculating the wall's weak points. The southeast corner of the wall leaned noticeably outward, its foundation seemingly soaked by rain; the hinges of the north gate were loose, and most of the iron nails on the door panels were rusted away; the drainage ditches on the city wall were clogged with silt, preventing rainwater from draining out and causing it to flow back into the wall, accelerating its decay.

This city is like an old man in his twilight years, riddled with problems.

But Shen Lian also knew that complaining wouldn't solve anything. He approached Yu Dayou and proposed three emergency plans: First, reinforce the southeast corner of the wall overnight, using wooden stakes and earth and stones to build a retaining wall on the outside; second, melt down all the ironware that could be found in the city—iron pots, plowshares, farm tools—and cast them into iron caltrops and simple cannonballs; third, disassemble the damp gunpowder and dry it over a low fire in an iron pot. Although the power would be greatly reduced, it was still better than being completely unusable.

After listening, Yu Dayou glanced at Shen Lian and said only one word: "Approved."

That night, the great city was sleepless.

Soldiers, torches in hand, busied themselves on the city walls. Wooden stakes were driven one after another into the foundation at the southeast corner, and basket after basket of earth and stones were added to the retaining wall. In the city's blacksmith shops, the furnaces burned all night, the bellows hissing and the hammers clanging, melting iron pots, hoes, door knockers, and weights brought by the people into a furnace of molten iron, which was then cast into fist-sized iron caltrops. Meanwhile, women gathered in the City God Temple, using iron pots to dry damp gunpowder over a low fire—the fire couldn't be too big, or the gunpowder would catch fire; it couldn't be too small, or the moisture wouldn't evaporate. Their eyes were red from the sulfur, but no one stopped working.

Shen Lian was also on the city wall. He took off his Imperial Guard robes, changed into a short-sleeved shirt, and joined the soldiers in carrying wooden stakes and moving earth and stones. His hands quickly developed blisters, which burst and scabbed over. Yi Dong watched from the side, feeling sorry for him, and tried several times to help him, but Shen Lian stopped her each time.

"You're a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, not a laborer," Yi Dong whispered.

"There are no Imperial Guards here, only people guarding the city." Shen Lian said without looking up.

Yi Dong remained silent for a moment, then squatted down and silently helped him move the soil and stones.

As dawn broke, the retaining wall at the southeast corner was finally erected. A dozen or so thick wooden stakes were driven deep into the ground, and the outer side was filled with earth and stones, forming a temporary supporting wall. Although it was not as sturdy as a proper city wall, at least it wouldn't collapse at the slightest touch.

Tang Kekuan's side had also cast over three hundred iron caltrops, which were densely laid out on the mudflats north and east of Lincheng. The women dried over a dozen bags of gunpowder; although its power was only thirty or forty percent of that of new gunpowder, it was enough to load the cannons into the breech-loading cannons and at least fire the shells.

Yu Dayou stood atop the city wall, gazing silently at the distant sea. The sea breeze whipped his beard and battle robes, making them flutter loudly.

Tang Kekuan walked to his side and whispered, "Commander Yu, the scouts report that Wu Ping's main fleet has anchored and is preparing to land. Wu Ping's men, about 500, are camped on the northern mudflats, while his main force of about 1,500 are waiting on the sea. Lin Guoxian's Japanese pirates, about 1,500, are waiting on the eastern sea. Siege equipment—eight ladders, two battering rams, and six cannons—has been transported ashore."

Yu Dayou nodded, his gaze never leaving the sea: "Wu Ping's troop deployment is indeed methodical. We can advance to attack the city, and retreat to the sea, using the Japanese soldiers as the vanguard while the main force follows to ambush us. When we are slightly exhausted, out of ammunition and food, we can take the city in one fell swoop."

"General Yu, I have a plan," Tang Kekuan said in a low voice. "The Japanese pirates have come from afar, and their supplies rely entirely on ships. If we could send a surprise force to burn their supply ships tonight—"

"No," Yu Dayou interrupted him. "Wu Ping's army is cautious, and the grain ships will definitely be heavily guarded. Our forces are already stretched thin, and we cannot risk further losses by dividing our troops."

Tang Kekuan sighed and stopped talking.

Shen Lian walked up to the city wall and stood beside Yu Dayou. In the morning light, the Japanese pirate fleet was clearly visible on the sea—dozens of ships of various sizes, masts standing tall, flags fluttering. On the largest ship in the very center, a large black flag flew, with a huge "Wu" character embroidered in gold thread. The banner fluttered slowly in the sea breeze, each flutter seeming to silently proclaim the death of this fortified city.

"Commander Yu, General Tang's plan is not without reason, and I also have something to say."

"Speaking!"