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“General Ye.”
Then, he looked at the merchants glancing around the harbor and asked, “What are these people doing?”
Before Ye Qingyun could speak, Liang Dahai added, “These are refuge-catchers from Qingzhou Province. They all want to take this opportunity to capture some refuge in Goryeo and bring them back.”
This refuge-catching plan was originally proposed by him. His original intention was to have Liang Dahai come to Goryeo to participate in refuge-catching, but the current situation clearly surprised him.
Seeing Yue Yun’s confused expression, Liang Dahai explained to Yue Yun about Xiao Ming’s allowing private refuge-catching, and Yue Yun then understood.
“What a pity. Now, the price of a young, strong slave in Qingzhou Province is at least around thirty taels of silver. If a slave-catching ship captures just a hundred people at a time, the profit upon return would be three thousand taels,” Yue Yun said thoughtfully.
Liang Dahai nodded, “Even so, supply cannot meet demand. Now, it’s not just merchants and nobles in Qingzhou Province who keep slaves; it’s said that wealthy common people have also started keeping slaves to cultivate land. Perhaps it’s for this reason that His Majesty has allowed private refuge-catching this time.”
Ye Qingyun then looked at those refuge-catchers. Each of them wore armor and held gleaming weapons, looking like a small army.
Slave-catching was a dangerous job, so many merchants would hire ruthless individuals to do it, and they only needed to provide the ships and weapons.
While talking about the slave, the group walked towards Haigucheng.
At Haigucheng harbor, Yue Yun and Ye Qingyun exchanged military salutes.
Looking at the soldiers disembarking from the merchant ship, Yue Yun let out a heavy sigh. He said, “General Ye, the barbarian army is estimated to arrive this afternoon. Whether Haigucheng can be held depends on you.”
“Rest assured, General Yue. I have an imperial decree to do my utmost to defend Haigucheng,” Ye Qingyun said.
Hearing this, Yue Yun’s expression relaxed.
Upon entering the city, Yue Yun introduced Haigucheng and the current situation in Goryeo to Ye Qingyun.
“It’s this Beishan again! He truly haunts us. It’s a shame that cannon in Jizhou didn’t kill him,” Ye Qingyun said regretfully.
“Indeed! This Beishan harbors the deepest hatred for the Great Yu Empire. Now, to exact his revenge, he’ll do anything,” Yue Yun said. “There’s a man in Haigucheng named Li Cheng-jae. He told us that the reason for the truce between the barbarians and Japan this time is that Beshan wanted Japan’s matchlock gun technology.”
“Li Cheng-jae is that Goryeo man who surrendered to you?” Ye Qingyun asked. He had also read a lot of intelligence before coming.
Yue Yun nodded, “That’s right, it’s him. His father holds an important position in Ryukyo City, so what he said should be true.”
“It’s shocking that the secret guards didn’t know anything about such an important matter. It seems even the secret guards have their limitations,” Ye Qingyun said with a wry smile, shaking his head.
“It would be truly terrifying if they knew everything,” Yue Yun said, seeing things very clearly.
Ye Qingyun chuckled. He said, “So what if the barbarians have matchlock guns? I’ve encountered them on the battlefield before. Prince Yan, Prince Zhao, and Prince Liang all had firearm armies, and they were still beaten so badly they scrambled for cover. Moreover, this time we also brought some heavy smoothbore guns that the military workshop just manufactured to Haigucheng.”
Yue Yun showed an interested expression. Now, both the army and navy were very sensitive to new equipment, as the war advantages brought by weapons made them stronger with each battle.
He couldn’t help but say eagerly, “Let me see what this heavy smoothbore gun is!”
Ye Qingyun was like a mischievous child eager to show off. He led Yue Yun outside, then called a soldier and had him bring over a heavy smoothbore gun.
Soon, two soldiers ran towards them. One soldier carried a massive flintlock gun, while the other carried a wooden box.
The two stopped in front of Yue Yun. At this point, Ye Qingyun said to Yue Yun, “This is the heavy smoothbore gun. For this battle, His Majesty personally allocated one hundred of these heavy smoothbore guns from the military workshop.”
Yue Yun’s gaze was blank. In his opinion, what was before him was an enlarged flintlock gun. However, besides being large, the heavy smoothbore gun had one other difference: a support in the middle.
The heavy smoothbore gun could rotate up, down, left, and right using this support, allowing it to strike in any direction.
“What about its power?” Yue Yun sighed in admiration.
“Its power is greater than that of a smoothbore gun. It’s excellent for dealing with both cavalry and infantry. Setting this thing up on the city walls and at the city gates is enough to cause heavy casualties to the enemy,” Ye Qingyun said confidently.
As the two were speaking, a scout suddenly came to report, saying to Yue Yun, “General, the barbarian vanguard has reached Haigucheng. They are currently waiting for the follow-up troops to arrive.”
Upon hearing this, Yue Yun and Ye Qingyun exchanged glances, their expressions becoming more solemn.
At this moment, Ye Qingyun said to Yue Yun, “General Yue, leave the defense of the city to us. This time, I will make Beishan leave his life here.”
With that, Ye Qingyun, without looking back, led his soldiers to the North Gate. Upon reaching the city wall, he took out his telescope and looked at the surroundings of Haigucheng. A sense of relief immediately washed over him.
Haigucheng faced the sea on one side, and on its east and west, mountains overlapped. The barbarians could only launch a frontal assault to capture Haigucheng.
Discovering this characteristic of Haigucheng, he decisively deployed his soldiers and weapons on the North City wall. At the same time, he transported the heavy smoothbore guns and field cannons onto the city wall.
While Ye Qingyun was making preparations, the barbarian army gradually arrived at Haigucheng. The vast barbarian army stretched across the land like a long black dragon.
By evening, the entire barbarian army seemed to have arrived. At this time, Ye Qingyun had also completed his war preparations, waiting only for the barbarians to attack the city.
“This time, the barbarians have brought many cannons. It seems they are preparing to use our methods to open the city gate.”
Under the dim light of dusk, Yue Yun saw the cannons within the barbarian army. There were a hundred of these cannons, which immediately put pressure on him.
For cannons, the city gate was essentially useless. Once the city gate was breached, the barbarians would drive their slave soldiers into the city and defeat them with their numerical advantage.
So, after some hesitation, he said to Yue Yun, “You immediately have Li Cheng-jae find some sand to fill bags and pile them up at the city gate. As for how to pile them, I will send someone to personally tell him.”
Yue Yun’s face was grim. Ye Qingyun’s expression made him understand that this battle would not be easy. He nodded and personally went down the city wall to find Li Cheng-jae.
At sea, he was much stronger than Yue Yun, but when it came to defending a city, he had to listen to this battle-hardened veteran. He only hoped that he could hold Haigucheng.