In the early morning of June 1, the tenth year of Tensho (1582), at eight o'clock in the morning, on the causeway outside Bitchu Takamatsu Castle, Fukushima Yasunari was patrolling the night with the heavily armed Joban Bei Third Company as usual. The safety of the causeway
Not only was it related to the success of the strategy, it was also related to the safety of countless soldiers of the Red Leaf Army stationed by the long embankment. Naturally, he did not dare to neglect it. After Yin hour, it was the turn of the troops of the first company to change shifts and patrol at night. The first
The company's troops should have been awakened by Naomasa Ii to put on armor at this time. Fukushima Yasunari has been on night patrol with the second company and the third company today. He has not yet slept a wink, and his old body is gradually becoming overwhelmed. But it's time
At about four o'clock in the morning, the sky will be brighter, and it will not be so dangerous. He can also rest assured and take a nap. Although his subordinates told Fukushima Yasunari more than once that there is no need to worry so much, while the vast sea of ​​preparations
Nakataka Matsujo Castle had no ability to leave the city for a sneak attack, but Fukushima Yasunari was still worried. He could only feel relieved when he saw the torches in his men's hands clearly illuminating the long embankment.
"It seems it's time to change shifts." Fukushima Yasunari watched a group of patrol boats from the Hashiba family slowly approaching in the distance. Their shift time was the same as that of Tokiwabi. When the patrol boats arrived
When they docked, it was almost time for him to go down the embankment to rest. Fukushima Yasunari yawned, tried his best to stop his sleepiness, and watched the Hashiba family's patrol boat slowly approach the embankment. He rubbed his hands
With the light of the fire, he looked at the Tokiwabei auxiliary camp under the long embankment and the Hongye Army auxiliary and headquarters camp next to the camp. Tens of thousands of auxiliary soldiers and Yu Qiuping's staff were stationed there, and they were closer to the outside.
At the foot of the Mori River is the camp of ten soldiers of the Red Leaf Army. In the dark night, the maple bird horse prints flying high in the dim light of the fire. For more than 20 years, every time Fukushima Yasunari felt
When he was very tired and helpless, and when he couldn't hold on any longer, he would habitually look at the horse print and imagine the image of Yu Qiuping - this always gave him the strength to continue to persevere again.
.
Yes, I have been following that flag for more than 20 years, and this is probably my last time... I don’t know who the next Captain Tokiwa will be, and how he will look at it.
This side...
"Bang!"
The deafening explosion and the spinning earthquake came almost at the same time, knocking Fukushima Yasunari directly onto the embankment, and his five senses were almost instantly deprived. When he came to his senses, he could only hear the roaring waves in his ears.
Voice.
·
Yu Qiuping realized something was wrong when he just woke up - Yu Qiuping, who had rich experience of being woken up, knew that at this time he must not have slept comfortably until he woke up naturally, but was woken up roughly - so he came
It's definitely not Mori Ranmaru, it's either Morinagako or Asahina Yahei.
He straightened up and found that there was no one in the tent, but he could only hear the loud noises that kept pouring into his ears, like muffled thunder exploding over his head. The bed underneath him was shaking violently, and the ground was shaking violently.
The mountains shake.
"earthquake?"
Yu Qiuping's first reaction was this. Then he jumped up from the bed, staggered a few steps and ran out of the tent. Many staff members also ran out at this moment. The sky was still dark and he couldn't see clearly.
I could only vaguely see the mess of torches on the long embankment, and then I felt a wet feeling under my feet. The wet feeling became more and more intense, almost soaking my calves in the blink of an eye. The cold water made Yu Qiuping wake up instantly.
The long dike burst.
Yu Qiuping saw the terrible disaster through the chaotic torches on the long embankment - the flashing black and white luster in the night was bursting out from the huge gap, towards the unsuspecting camp of the Red Leaf Army. Rolling in. With such a big gap, the water pressure can be so huge - Yu Qiuping can no longer imagine what will happen next. He seems to have seen the wall of water swallowing up the fleeing soldiers like ants, and his own camp will also be like this. It was as fragile as paper and was swept away. Yu Qiuping had seen the power of floods and also understood how weak humans were in front of floods. He didn't know how many of the 50,000 Hongye Army people would die and how many of them could escape. In just these few days, In an instant, the water below him had risen to his knees, and there were faint waves forming, making Yu Qiuping a little unsteady. In less than a quarter of an hour, the entire camp would be completely swallowed up by the flood.
"Send the order!" Yu Qiuping didn't say anything. He pulled all the staff officers, guards, and order soldiers around him in the dark night, and gave them verbal instructions to find horses and rush to each reserve team. He waded through the water and ran quickly to his own. Where the horse seal is. He knew that every second he delayed at this moment, dozens or hundreds more people might die. "The troops moved their camps immediately! Abandoned all baggage and equipment, and retreated across the river at full speed via the bridge on the Shouchuan River! Then move south!"
The good luck of Naoe Touhei saved his life again... Yu Qiuping had this thought in his mind... If the bridge had been demolished at that time, it would really be over now. But the gap is so big and the water is so strong... At this speed, the auxiliary soldiers The entire camp must be flooded, and the soldiers can't escape
It’s good to go out for a little while... I don’t know how many people in the army can swim. I’m afraid none of them can survive...
"Go and ask Tokiwa Bei, what happened now?" In the dark, Yu Qiuping understood that the signal from the horse seal would not be effective for the time being, so he shouted to the messenger, "I will wait here and report back quickly!"
However, as soon as the messenger stepped out of the water with his front foot, Yu Qiuping saw a messenger riding his horse through the water and heading straight for the horse seal. It was Tokiwa Bei's flag!
"Your Highness, the causeway suddenly burst open for some unknown reason, and Mr. Fukushima is organizing to seal the breach!" the messenger shouted to Yu Qiuping from a distance.
"Block the gap?" Yu Qiuping was shocked when he heard this. Standing in the rising water level, he asked at a loss, "The sand and equipment have been moved away long ago. There are no raw materials and tools. How can An Cheng block it?"
Then he stared blankly at the gap in the long embankment...
·
When Fukushima Yasunari came back to his senses, he already realized that he was facing the biggest crisis in his more than 20 years in the army. He was one of the people closest to the gap, and he did not understand how the huge gap came about. , but he understood that he didn't have time to figure it out now. The camp was in a mess at this moment, shouts, cries for help and the sound of water were coming one after another, and the flood was still pouring out at a speed that did not weaken at all, pouring into everything. In the unguarded camp. If the gap is not blocked, the camp of the Red Leaf Army will be completely swallowed up by the gushing flood within a quarter of an hour. The end of the entire army is imminent - no one can escape the flood no matter what. .
The only one with the ability to block the gap now is Tokiwa Bei on the long embankment. All the Hashiba Army's patrol fleet has disappeared, and they must have been washed away. The patrol fleet further away saw the sudden change. It happened, and everyone was so scared that they huddled by the long embankment, and there was definitely no hope.
Fukushima Yasunari strode forward, walked to the gap, confirmed the size of the gap, and then turned around to give orders to his subordinates. When he turned back, he saw company commander Sakai Shita who was stunned and unable to move.
Zhi, and then complained helplessly in his heart: Children have seen too little of the world, and they are indeed unreliable when encountering big storms.
"Take off all your gear and throw it down, immediately!" Yasunari Fukushima yelled and ordered, taking off his own gear and throwing it into the gap. The Tokiwabi soldiers on the long embankment followed the order one after another, and everyone lined up.
They quickly threw the equipment swarm into the gap. However, the only soldiers wearing equipment on the causeway were the 400-man company that happened to be on night watch. The equipment of the remaining companies were in the camp under the causeway, which had been submerged by the flood.
Relying on these 400 tools could not fill the huge gap, but only made the water flow smaller. The surging flood was still swallowing up the camp, knocking down the fleeing auxiliaries in pieces.
Soldiers, the screams and calls for help almost drowned out the sound of the flood. The edge of the water wave has reached the camp of the soldiers. Large numbers of soldiers moved quickly towards the bridge, but there was a faint tendency of being overtaken by the flood. These days in the past
The powerful army that was invincible on the battlefield was powerless in the face of the overwhelming power of nature.
There is no time.
After only a moment of hesitation, Fukushima Yasushige made up his mind. Because he knew that he had no other choice.
"All troops obey the order!" Fukushima Yasunari cleared his throat and ordered to the surrounding Tokiwabi soldiers with a hoarse roar that could match the roar of the flood, "We must block the gap immediately now!"
"Sir?" Sakai Shimozhi immediately looked around after reacting and said in panic, "We have no sand or tools. They have been moved away by the auxiliary soldiers long ago and all their equipment has been thrown away. What should we use to fill the gap?"
As Shimo Sakai spoke, he took out his katana from the scabbard and dug hard into the embankment surface, trying to dig out a piece of soil to fill it in. However, the hard surface did not move at all - how could such a strong embankment collapse?
ah?
"Take your life!" Fukushima Yasunari pointed at the turbulent water in the gap, and ordered sternly without any doubt, "Let's jump from here! Block the gap!"
"Sir?" This time, not only Sakai Shimozhi, but everyone was shocked, "If we jump, we will be swept away immediately!"
"We hold each other, and if we all hold together as a group, we will not be swept away!" Fukushima Yasunari took a step forward without hesitation, and grabbed the two soldiers beside him as he said, "With enough
What can we do? Isn’t it possible that we humans can’t do it?”
"It's useless...sir..." Shimo Sakai dropped the katana with trembling hands, "If you jump, you will still be..."
"If ten is not enough, then twenty; if twenty is not enough, then fifty; if fifty is not enough, then there are one hundred; if one hundred is not enough, then there are one thousand! We often prepare the flesh and blood of fifteen hundred soldiers.
Isn't it enough to fill this gap?" Fukushima Yasunari roared decisively, and at the same time ordered in an unprecedented stern tone, "Everyone! Immediately! Hug us with you.
Together!"
Seeing that his subordinates were still hesitant, Fukushima Yasunari shouted at the top of his lungs again: "I know what you are afraid of! I just want you to die with me! This order is an order to die! But our Tokiwa Bisei
After more than 20 years in the army, are there still few orders to die? Whether it is charging, breaking up the rear, or ascending the city, have any of the dead brothers ever been afraid? Tsukiwabei's reputation in the past 20 years is that we are not afraid of death.
They were beaten by people! If you don’t jump now, the tens of thousands of brothers below and His Majesty Hongye will be drowned by the flood! Sacrifice for the life of the entire army. Which Tokiwabei soldier will disobey this order on the battlefield?
"
"All the troops obey orders! Don't embarrass Tokiwa Bei! We are His Highness's earliest reserve team, His Highness's strongest reserve team, and the strongest reserve team in the world! From the day we formed the army more than 20 years ago to now, we have
Nothing has changed! Now is the time to prove all this!"
Under Fukushima Yasunari's roar, the expressions of the Tokiwabei soldiers gradually calmed down, and there were no more complaints, no more questions, no more hesitations. The crowd that had just been thrown into chaos due to the sudden incident, in the blink of an eye
They turned back into the iron army that frightened martial artists all over the world on the battlefield. They quickly moved forward without saying a word and hugged their companions, executing orders silently, as if they were executing a fatal mission under the hail of enemy bullets.
Undoubtedly, the replacement order was as resolute. Each of them had executed such an order countless times. Dozens of armored soldiers standing at the front and Fukushima Yasunari quickly hugged each other, their arms entangled and pulled each other,
Then they moved together to the gap.
"Everyone, hold on tight, we won't let go! After jumping down, the people on the side will hold on to the wall tightly! Don't let go!" Yasunari Fukushima gave the last instruction, then took a deep breath and shouted, "
Three! Two! One! Jump!”
Following Fukushima Yasunari's order, dozens of Tokiwabei soldiers in civilian clothes jumped out of the gap without hesitation and fell headlong into the flood, causing a huge splash.
Although in the noisy environment, except for the people around Fukushima Yasunari, the rest of the people could not hear what Fukushima Yasunari said. But what Fukushima Yasunari was doing, the Jobanbei soldiers on both sides of the gap were all confused.
It was clearly seen. No one wavered, no one cried, everyone just imitated Fukushima Yasunari's actions immediately, because they were already used to seeing all this - watching their companions die heroically to protect everyone.
, watching his comrades die in front of everyone for victory, watching his comrades carry out the death-like replacement order without wavering - these actions that are unbelievable in the eyes of other armies, to Tokiwa Bei are twenty.
This is something I have taken for granted over the years.
"Rear row, make up!" Sakai Shimozhi shouted the familiar command without hesitation, as if they were just filling up the fallen comrades in the front row during the charge of the battle formation, leading dozens of soldiers who gathered over
They also jumped into the water together. At the last moment before falling into the water, Shimo Sakai shouted with all his strength: "For Tokiwa Bei!"
Ii Naomasa, who rushed to the gap from the other side, witnessed all this. He did not hesitate to join dozens of other soldiers who were preparing to jump, and jumped into the black torrent together, shouting: "For your majesty, Momiji"
!”
"Back row, fill in!"
"For Fukushima-sama!" Another group of Tokiwabi soldiers jumped down.
"Back row, fill in!"
"For Tokiwa Bei!"
"Back row, fill in!"
"For His Highness Hongye!"
"Back row, fill in!"
"For Fukushima-sama!"
…
One after another, one group after another, groups of Tokiwa soldiers jumped down the gap quickly, and behind them, groups of Tokiwa soldiers quickly filled up, formed a group, and jumped down again! There were countless people on the long embankment on both sides of the gap.
Tokiwabei's soldiers carried out the suicidal orders without hesitation, just to be worthy of their numbers and worthy of the red leaves above their heads. The sound of splashing water and loud shouts complemented each other, but the sound of the flood gradually became quieter. When the last team of Tokiwabibei
When the soldiers jumped into the water, nearly half of the gap had been miraculously blocked.
And on the entire battlefield, countless people took advantage of the gradually brightening sky and stared dumbfounded at Tokiwabei's actions and the mountain maple flag standing on the long embankment.
"The strongest red leaf army in the world, the strongest red leaf army, Tokiwa Bei. Well deserved."
Not far away, on the upper reaches of the Ashimori River, an old man watched with conviction as the groups of soldiers who looked back on death physically blocked the flood from the breach, and couldn't help but admire them.
"It's not just 'Mount Tai collapsed in front of us but the color remains unchanged...', this is 'Mountain Tai collapsed in front of us but we are holding on to it.'"
Chapter completed!