The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 165

Zhou Chu did not rush to attack. Instead, he waited until Inoue Saburo and the group of Japanese pirates entered Suzhou before ordering the Tiger Army to gradually encircle the pirates. This was to prevent the pirates from escaping into the endless marshes if he alerted them.

In that case, it would be very difficult to completely annihilate this group of Japanese pirates. After all, how easy is it to find the Japanese pirates hiding in a hundred miles of water?

This group of Japanese pirates numbered around eight hundred. They were ronin (masterless samurai) specially brought from Japan by the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce and kept in Kunshan, so that they could be used as weapons at any time and ready to take action.

This group of Japanese pirates was far superior to the previous bandits. Their individual combat strength and teamwork surpassed that of the regular army. After entering Suzhou Prefecture, they did not rush to burn, kill, and loot, but went straight to Zhou Chu's residence.

Little did they know that they were already within Zhou Chu's encirclement. At first, the encirclement was quite large, and Inoue Saburo's men did not notice it at all. They did not even send out scouts to explore the surrounding area. After all, in Inoue Saburo's view, all the officials in Suzhou Prefecture were pretending to be blind. They had done this kind of thing many times before, and no one would come to arrest them.

However, as the encirclement grew smaller and smaller, even the slow-witted Saburo Inoue noticed that something was wrong.

"There are people lying in ambush. Prepare to break out."

Saburo Inoue's expression changed.

Upon hearing this, the Japanese pirates drew their swords and prepared for battle.

The Tiger Warriors, numbering over a thousand, quickly and completely surrounded the eight hundred-plus Japanese pirates.

All the Tiger Legion soldiers carried muskets, which were stockpiled by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and were not usually used lightly. For the past month, in addition to their regular training, the Tiger Legion soldiers had mainly focused on musket shooting.

At such close range, with over a thousand men firing a volley of muskets, and the Japanese pirates wearing no armor, they suffered heavy casualties immediately.

Zhou Chu wanted the surprise of the first volley, and he did not intend to have the Tiger Army fire in several alternating volleys, as that would be far less effective than a single volley.

Alternating fire is often used on the battlefield. When facing a large number of enemies, the best approach in this situation is to eliminate the enemy's manpower in the shortest possible time.

This can greatly damage the morale of the enemy.

When leading troops into battle, one must always adapt to local conditions and not be bound by a particular tactic or blindly copy the methods of predecessors.

In just one volley of fire, even though the Japanese pirates dodged left and right, more than 300 of them were killed or wounded.

"kill."

Zhou Chu drew his embroidered spring knife and gave instructions.

Zhou Chu then took out the battle flag and began to command the various squads of the Tiger Legion to effectively infiltrate and encircle the enemy, maximizing the contact area between the Tiger Legion and the Japanese pirates. Meanwhile, the Japanese pirates huddled together, and only a small number of them were able to actually make contact and fight with the Tiger Legion.

In this way, the fighting power of the Japanese pirates can be greatly limited, and the fighting power of the Tiger Army can be maximized.

"Go if you want. They can't break out, so I'm not in danger."

Zhou Chu looked at Shen Lian, who was eager to try, and said.

Upon hearing this, Shen Lian could no longer restrain himself. Like a tiger entering a pack of wolves, he joined forces with the Tiger Warriors to charge into the ranks of the Japanese pirates.

Shen Lian often trained with the Tiger Legion, so he was extremely familiar with how the Tiger Legion's battle formation operated and would not cause any trouble.

The attack caught the enemy off guard, and the superior numbers led to a siege. The two sides were not on the same level in terms of soldier quality, battle formation, and command. In addition, it was street fighting, so the Japanese pirates could not make any use of their advantages and were quickly annihilated, leaving only Inoue Saburo and a few other pirates.

"Dispose of these Japanese pirates' corpses."