In my dream of returning to the Tang Dynasty, I snatched Wu Zetian from my lap.

The next day.

A terrifying night has passed.

The sea was calmer, but the waves still surged and crashed against the shore.

The sky was overcast, not a ray of light could be seen, and the heavy rain continued to wash over the entire Tsushima Island, the dampness chilling to the bone.

The two enormous treasure ships were towed ashore, wrecked and in a mess. There was no time for repairs, and only a few guards remained on board.

In a dense forest just two hundred meters from the two treasure ships, the entire division built a simple shelter against the mountainside.

Apart from a few men still on duty, the disheveled, muddy, and exhausted royal guards had fallen into a deep sleep!

Landing overnight had exhausted them all; most of them had some bruises and sprains, and a few even had fractures and open wounds.

It can be said that the entire fleet suffered a devastating blow!

They huddled together for warmth in the dense forest and took an emergency rest.

The sound of rain continued. Li Yuanchang leaned against a tree and slept, using a few leaves as an umbrella. An insect landed on his straight nose.

He subconsciously scratched his head, his sleepiness slightly waking up. In that half-dreaming, half-awake state, his ears twitched slightly.

Two breaths later, he suddenly opened his eyes!

This is an instinctive alertness, an extreme sense honed on the battlefield.

He could clearly sense a different sound coming from the woods in the distance. The sound was not like rain hitting the trees, but rather the sound of footsteps treading on mud.

"Your Highness!"

Huang Tu spoke, seemingly aware of the situation.

"Something's wrong! Wake everyone up!" Li Yuanchang shouted.

The royal guards then revived and spread like a plague, waking everyone from their sleep.

In just a few breaths, a scream erupted from the front of the shelter.

"Pirates are coming! Pirates are coming!!" a guard on lookout shouted.

"what?"

The sailors who awoke were immediately gripped by immense fear.

The guards drew their Tang swords and rushed to reinforce the area with lightning speed, their reaction almost without any delay.

When Li Yuanchang arrived at the scene, a large number of pirates, dressed in shabby clothes and covered in filth, had already appeared in the woods, numbering over a hundred and lined up in a row.

They had planned to launch a surprise attack, but were spotted by the sentries inside the tent, and six or seven people were captured alive. The screams were made by the pirates.

The two sides quickly confronted each other in the rainforest, shouting at each other, neither able to understand the other's words, but their weapons were about to clash.

"Your Highness has arrived!"

Someone shouted, and the guards quickly made way.

As soon as Li Yuanchang approached, he smelled an extremely foul stench emanating from the pirates, a stench that even the heavy rain couldn't wash away.

The smell wasn't the stench of sweat, but rather a rotten, fishy smell, emanating from the mouths of these pirates.

Their teeth were either very black or very yellow, and their gaps were filled with all sorts of unknown debris. They looked disgusting and vicious, like true primitive islanders!

Li Yuanchang first calmed his men down and did not make the first move.

The entire fleet has suffered heavy losses and is exhausted; it is no longer suitable for combat unless absolutely necessary.

"Master Ji'an, bring their heads out and speak to me."

Ji'an, covered in mud, immediately began translating.

Once they could communicate, the atmosphere immediately eased.

A tall, thin pirate wearing wooden clogs and with his hair in a bun mumbled something to Li Yuanchang.

"Your Highness, he said to release their people, or we will all die here."

"Tell him that we can release them, but their people cannot approach our base," Li Yuanchang said.

Ji'an translated the entire process; although he was a monk, he seemed more composed than many sailors.

The pirate leader said coldly, "This is our territory. You are just outsiders. You have invaded our habitat and you want us to stay away!"

Li Yuanchang didn't want to cause any more trouble, so he was amiable and even had his men press the knife to the ground a little further.

"We were forced to come here to avoid the storm while we were passing through. We will leave once the extreme weather passes."

"Please forgive me if I have disturbed you."

"Consider this bag of coarse salt a small gift."

As he spoke, Li Yuanchang tossed it over; this time it wasn't much, only seven or eight jin.

But if you put it here, it's already a huge sum of money.

Although seawater can be used to extract salt, it is clear that the native inhabitants of the islands on this side of the East China Sea, who are of Japanese descent, have no idea how to do it.

They could only obtain a little bit of salt from the Tang Dynasty through robbery or long-distance trade, and even that salt wasn't very pure.

The pirate captain took it with one hand, then opened it with a gleam in his eyes. When he saw that it was salt, his eyes lit up. He immediately dipped a finger in it and put it directly into his mouth.

Li Yuanchang almost vomited; his finger was blacker than a fire poker, and his fingernail was full of silt.

Upon tasting it, the pirate leader was overjoyed and stuffed it directly into his clothes.

"This is all the salt we have. You may leave now," Li Yuanchang said.

The pirate leader glanced at Li Yuanchang and his group, his eyes filled with greed, but when he saw the sharp Tang sword, his greed was suppressed by three points.

"This isn't enough salt!"

"We want more food, and your knives too! Give us half!"

Ji'an frowned and translated it.

In the rainforest, the faces of all the guards immediately fell.

Li Yuanchang remained ruthless, refusing to back down, staring intently at the other party: "That's impossible."

"I advise you to quit while you're ahead, or you'll all die here!"

These words immediately heightened tensions between the two sides.

The pirate leader sneered, observing that the people inside the tent were exhausted, and many of them were injured, which emboldened him considerably.

"If you don't give it to us, we can't let you stay here."

"You can go to sea now."

"That bastard!" the guard cursed.

Li Yuanchang's eyes sharpened: "We are the imperial army of the Great Tang Dynasty. You'd better be sensible."

He tried to scare the other side away, believing that avoiding a fight was the best outcome for the entire division.

The pirate leader's eyes darkened: "So what if it's the Tang Dynasty? What right do they have to interfere in our affairs? We've killed people from the Tang Dynasty before!"

"Just hand it over yourself!"

He exerted pressure, and as soon as he finished speaking, the pirates began to stir.

Seeing this situation, Li Yuanchang knew that there was no way to resolve it peacefully; this battle had to be fought no matter what.

He gave his guards a look, and they quickly understood, quietly spreading out in an arc, each gripping their swords tightly, with those in the back holding bows. A faint killing intent began to permeate the air.

"Okay, I'll give it to you."

"But you have to promise to take the things and leave without hurting us." He feigned fear, forcing us to compromise.

The pirate leader was overjoyed, but he was also somewhat wary, otherwise he wouldn't have spoken so politely. According to their rules, they would have simply burned, killed, and looted.

Li Yuanchang took a bag from his subordinate and then handed it out.