Chapter 26: Dragon Spits Water

  The servants under Wang Pu were all from Datong, these guys were fierce tigers on land but became sick cats at sea, they hadn't been out to sea for two hours when one by one their faces turned pale and they vomited uncontrollably. Fortunately the Korean sailors on the ship were as gentle as sheep, so nothing untoward happened.

  It wasn't until two days had passed that the servants gradually got used to the rocking of the boat and the situation improved somewhat.

  As the distance to Da Ming was getting closer and closer, the family members under his command were overjoyed, but Wang Pu did not dare to relax at all. He deeply knew that the closer he got to success, the more vigilant he had to be! To prevent any accidents, Wang Pu locked up Huang Taiji, Daisan, Bumbutai and Hailanzhu in four small rooms at the bottom of his own ship, and then sent people to monitor them day and night without stopping.

  But something still went wrong.

  That afternoon, the sea was calm and peaceful. Wang Pu was dozing off on the deck when his trusted servant, Wang Xiaoqi, suddenly came running in a fluster to report: "General, Jian Nu's woman refuses to eat."

  "Which Jianshu woman?" Wang Pu frowned and asked.

  Xiao Qi said: "That one called Bu something Bu."

  "Are you talking about Botswana?"

  "It's her, it's been three days already, since she went out to sea, she hasn't eaten a single bite of food."

  "Is this true?" Wang Pu said, "Let's go and take a look."

  Xiao Qi led Wang Pu to the lower hold, opened the cabin door where Bu Mu Batai was being held. The cabin was somewhat dimly lit, with only a single oil lamp casting a faint light. Bu Mu Batai's hands and feet were bound, and he lay helplessly curled up in the corner of the cabin. In front of him was placed a bowl of rice, which had gone cold, but not a single grain had been touched.

  "Help her up."

  Two servants came forward at the call and helped Baochai sit up.

  "Wang Pu asked: 'Why don't you eat anything?'"

  Bumu didn't utter a word, turning her head away. Although she was a Mongolian woman, she had married into Jianzhou at the age of twelve and was deeply influenced by Manchu and Han cultures, proficient in three languages: Manchu, Mongolian, and Chinese.

  "Are you thinking of starving yourself to death?"

  Bu Mu Bu Tai still didn't say a word.

  "Alright." Wang Pu nodded and then said to Xiao Qi and two other servants, "You all go out first."

  Xiao Qi and two housekeepers came out of the cabin, and also brought up the cabin door.

  Wang Pu took two steps forward and squatted down in front of Bumu Bute, gently lifting her chin with his hand. Bumu Bute instinctively turned her head away, unwilling to meet Wang Pu's gaze. Wang Pu smiled blandly and asked, "You really won't eat?"

  Butai Batu remained silent.

  "Good."

  Wang Pu nodded, and suddenly stretched out his hands to grab the collar of Bu Mu Bu Tai's cheongsam dress, tearing it with force. A loud ripping sound was heard, and Bu Mu Bu Tai's cheongsam dress collar was torn apart, revealing a pink bra underneath. Bu Mu Bu Tai let out a sharp cry and quickly covered her chest, exclaiming: "You, what do you want to do?"

  "I don't want to do anything," Wang Pu said with a smile. "I just want you to eat well, if you obediently eat your meals, then nothing will happen, but if you don't eat well, hehe, I'll strip off all your clothes and tie you up on the deck for my brothers to see, and if you still refuse to eat, I'll let them take turns..."

  "No, don't!" Bumubutei shrieked, shaking his head violently. "You're not human, you're a devil, a beast!"

  "Beast? Yes, I am a beast." Wang Pu said calmly, "However, you Mongols are even more beastly. More than 300 years ago when you ruled the Central Plains, how many Han women were ravaged by your Mongolian people? And what about the Jurchen people? A good two hundred million Han people in Liaodong, how many are left now?"

  Bumu Butei shed tears and asked: "So you want to return all the humiliation that the Hans have suffered to the descendants of the Mongols, to the wives and daughters of the Jurchens, right?"

  "Whatever," Wang Pu said coldly. "I'll ask you again, are you going to eat or not?"

  Bù Mù Bù Tài lowered his voice and sobbed, "I'll eat."

  "That's right." Wang Pu reached out again to lift up Buluote's chin, smiling as he said, "Since you've already fallen into my hands, don't think about committing suicide. Even if you did, I'd have someone strip you naked and tie you to the deck, letting my soldiers deal with you. If you don't want to be stripped bare, then listen obediently. The consequences of resisting are very severe, understand?"

  Bù Mù Bù Tài xiāng jiān sǒu dòng, chōu qì bù yǔ.

  English Translation:

  Bo Mu Bo Tai's shoulders heaved with sobs, unable to speak.

  Wang Pu stood up straight and said loudly: "Someone come and feed her."

  Just as they had finished dealing with Bumu Batai, Knife Scar Face rushed down to the lower hold and shouted: "General, a small boat has been spotted on the surface of the sea. The people on board are signaling for our help."

  "Small boat, asking for help?" Wang Pu said in a low voice, "Go, take a look."

  Wang Pu followed the scar-faced man onto the deck and indeed saw a small boat rowing towards them from the south, with two people on board. As they drew closer, Wang Pu gradually made out that they were two Western missionaries.

  Scarface shouted loudly: "General, it seems like two devils."

  By the 17th century, it was not uncommon for Western missionaries to cross the ocean and come to the East to preach. Although Knife Scarface had never seen a foreigner before, he had heard of what they looked like. At this time, the small boat had already rowed to the side of the big ship, and the missionary on the small boat was gesturing with his hands, indicating that they should lower the soft ladder to rescue them onto the ship.

  "General, save him or not?" asked Scarface.

  Wang Pu thought the two missionaries would not pose any threat, so he nodded and said: "Lower the ladder and rescue them."

  Scarface gave the order, and with two houseboys, they threw down a rope ladder. The two Western missionaries were overjoyed and quickly grabbed their luggage from the small boat and climbed up the rope ladder onto the big ship. Once on board, the two foreigners again spoke in a torrent of unintelligible language to Scarface and the two houseboys, leaving Scarface completely bewildered.

  Wang Pu unexpectedly heard that the two Western missionaries were speaking English and stepped forward to ask in English, "Are you from England?"

  Wang Pu's previous life had graduated from a third-rate university, but his English was very fluent.

  "Oh, God, can you speak English?" The two Western missionaries were overjoyed, and the bearded missionary was so excited that he stepped forward to shake Wang Pu's hands, introducing himself: "General, my name is John, and this is my attendant Philip. We were kidnapped by pirates and just escaped yesterday, drifting at sea for a day and night. Fortunately, we met your fleet here."

  "It's indeed fortunate." Wang Pu shrugged and said, "Now you're safe."

  John opened the suitcase he was carrying with him, took out a rifle and solemnly handed it to Wang Pu: "General, in order to thank you for saving my life, I would like to present this latest model of rifle to you."

  Wang Pu's eyes suddenly lit up, and the firearm that John presented was a short-handled musket. What made Wang Pu extremely delighted was that it was also a flintlock musket, with a delicate structure, very light in weight, and had an obvious advantage over the heavy and cumbersome fire lance guns that were widely equipped in the Ming army, because the flintlock musket was not affected by bad weather, while the fire lance gun was not.

  "Thank you very much." Wang Pu took over the fire gun and said, "Your gift is very valuable."

  Wang Pu turned around and said to Knife Scar Face, "Knife Scar Face, take them down to rest, first get them something to eat, also send a few more brothers to keep an eye on them, don't let them run around everywhere."

  "Yes."

  Scarface nodded and made a welcoming gesture with his hand towards the two devils.

  Wang Pu spoke to them in English, and the two foreigners followed Scarface with a smile. Wang Pu played with the short-handled firearm in his hand, as if he had gained a treasure. Although the firearms of the Ming Dynasty were already quite advanced, they still fell far behind those of the Western world at the same time.

  Because the Western world was in turmoil at that time, the lords of various countries were all thinking about improving their weapons and equipment, while the Ming Dynasty had been peaceful for a long time, not only did they not think about improving their weapons and equipment, but also thought of ways to abolish martial arts, even the once powerful navy that dominated the ocean disappeared.

  Wang Pu was playing with his fire gun when Zhen Youcai suddenly pointed north and shouted, "General, look! A dragon, a dragon spitting water!"

  "Uh-huh."

  Wang Pu heard that Zhen Youcai's voice was trembling, and his heart skipped a beat. He turned back to see that the northern horizon had already risen with large patches of dark clouds, which were sweeping towards this side at an astonishing speed. What was most surprising was that there was a column of water that spanned across the sky and the sea surface, rotating and twisting as it rolled forward.

  The Korean sailors on the deck got up, one by one showing a terrified expression, kneeling down on the deck and worshiping towards the sky. Even many Ming soldiers knelt down on the deck and kept kowtowing. For people of this era, such an eerie natural phenomenon had already exceeded their cognitive range.

  Wang Pu certainly knew that this was not a dragon spitting water, but a tornado.

  Wang Pu knew that this tornado was actually more terrifying than a dragon, it could uproot thousand-year-old trees, tear the sturdiest houses to pieces, and the stirred-up gusts of wind could easily capsize ships weighing thousands of tons! They were the most difficult super killers for humans to resist in this world.

  In less than a moment, the sea surface gradually rose with waves, and the sails hanging from the mast were also gradually filled, driving the big ship to sail south at extreme speed. The high-speed rotating tornado was approaching at an astonishing speed, and the seawater was churning like boiling water. The big ship also started shaking violently, as if it might capsize at any time.

  The last large ship was soon caught up by the swirling column of water, which mercilessly mowed down the middle of the ship like Death's scythe. The sturdy ship disintegrated in an instant and shattered into countless fragments in the hurricane. More than 200 Ming soldiers, over 100 Korean sailors, and all the miscellaneous objects on board were sent flying into the sky.

  Another large ship also capsized in the hurricane and was immediately swallowed up by the surging waves, all the Ming soldiers on board, as well as Korean sailors, were buried at sea.

  "Oh no!" Wang Pu instinctively took two steps back and then shouted loudly, "Quickly, quickly hide under the deck!"

  The Ming soldiers hesitated for a moment, and then retreated to the lower deck one after another. However, those Korean sailors remained kneeling on the deck, knocking their heads incessantly. Wang Pu turned around, grabbed Jeon Yu-ji with one hand, and rushed into the cabin at the fastest speed. As for those Korean sailors, he couldn't care about them anymore.

  "Hmm..."

  Just as Wang Pu rushed into the cabin, a violent gust of wind swept across the deck, and the Korean sailors who were on the deck, bowing their heads in worship, were blown up like leaves, spinning, howling, and rolling away to a distance. Everything that was originally placed on the deck flew up, dancing in the air.

  "Crack, boom!"

  Wang Pu looked out through the hatch on top of his head, and saw that the main mast, which was as thick as a man's embrace, had been broken in two at the waist. The broken section, along with the sail on the mast, rotated higher and higher, gradually disappearing into the dark cloud layer. Just when it seemed like the ship was about to capsize, it began to stabilize instead.

  After a while, the dark clouds dispersed, and the sun reappeared. The sea surface became calm again, and the terrifying scene just now seemed like a nightmare that had vanished after waking up. But this was not a dream at all, because three large ships were left with only one, and more than 500 elite family guards disappeared along with the big ship.

  The only fortunate thing is that, because Wang Kuo's flagship was the largest of the three ships in terms of tonnage, the large amount of wealth plundered from Korea and Shengjing, as well as the Manchu captives including Huang Taiji and Daisan, were all on this big ship. However, out of the over 1,000 households that followed Wang Kuo out of the pass initially, less than 300 people remained now.

  ……

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