"Sir! Sir! What should we do now?", "Sir! Please give the order!", "Sir! What should we do with the bodies of Master Tianmu and the others?", "Sir..."...
Kuroda's hands, whose palms were torn off by Ogata, have now been simply treated. Both palms have been treated with medicine and wrapped in thick linen cloth.
There were no painkillers in this era, and Kuroda now felt as if his hands were holding a handful of thorns. The pain was so painful that Kuroda grinned.
But compared to the pain in his palms, what troubles Kuroda more now is the "pain" in his head.
Looking at the generals, big and small, who were talking to each other and asking for instructions from him, Kuroda felt that his head was about to explode.
The camp was attacked by Ogata Ittosai - this was already an hour ago.
Kuroda can guarantee that this is definitely the longest hour he has ever spent in his life... It was only an hour, but it felt like a whole day had passed.
Kuroda feels cold sweat all over his body just thinking about the many things that happened in this hour...
In this short period of one hour, Kuroda successively experienced three states: "blank mind", "must up fighting spirit", and "exhausted".
Let’s talk about the blankness in his head first - after seeing Ikutenmu and Tendo being killed by Ogata like chopping melons and vegetables, Kuroda’s head immediately buzzed and became blank.
It is difficult to understand the situation at hand and to think.
At that time, he only made the most instinctive reaction as a living thing - to survive.
He dragged his seriously injured friend Qiuyue and tried his best to escape from Ogata. He loudly ordered the guards who were originally responsible for guarding the commander's tent to stop Ogata and buy him and Qiuyue some time to escape.
and opportunities.
Fortunately - Kasuga, the general Sentenmu had sent to mobilize the troops, finally arrived at the battlefield with archers and iron gunners.
It seems that Ogata Ittosai has no intention of fighting with him and Akizuki who have lost their fighting spirit and fighting ability. After seeing the archers and iron gunners appear, he evacuates without seeing any trace of them again.
Sheng Tianmu was the general of their first army. When Sheng Tianmu was killed, it was almost like the brain of their first army was chopped off directly.
Therefore, after Sheng Tianmu died in battle, their First Army lost a brain responsible for overall planning and command.
Tianmu was born, Tiandao died in battle, Qiuyue was seriously injured, and Kuroda directly became the highest-ranking general in the First Army.
Faced with the leaderless situation after Ing Tenmu's death, Kuroda, after an extremely fierce ideological struggle, decided to bite the bullet, muster up his fighting spirit, sit in the commander's tent, and assume the "temporary command of the First Army"
Heavy responsibility.
After temporarily taking over the position of Ikutamu, Kuroda immediately issued two orders - to send people to Mogami's hiding place, and to organize people to search everywhere
The reason why Ogata Ittousai broke into the camp so suddenly is not difficult to guess - most likely he came for Mogami.
Unfortunately, Kuroda was a step too late in the end.
After the men he sent arrived at Mogami's hiding place, they only saw corpses on the ground, and Mogami's corpse happened to be one of the corpses on the ground...
The bad news wasn't over yet - not long after Kuroda received the bad news that Mogami was dead, he received another piece of bad news: an ashigaru who behaved strangely appeared in the "South Stable".
After the Ashigaru stole a horse from the "South Stable", he immediately rode his horse and fled out of the camp.
The ashigaru behaves strangely, steals horses, and flees outside the camp - these three factors are superimposed, and it is difficult to prevent Kuroda from becoming alert to the ashigaru.
Realizing that this "Ashigaru" was most likely the Kuroda disguised by Ogata, he immediately sent an order to stop the "Ashigaru" who was riding away from the camp.
It's a pity - Kuroda is a step too late...
At that time, order in the camp had not yet been restored, so the transmission of information was extremely inefficient.
When the news that "there is a strange 'Ashigaru' stealing horses and leaving the camp" reached Kuroda's ears, Ogata was already about to leave the camp.
By the time Kuroda issued the interception order, Ogata had already left the camp with both men and horses...
After learning that it was too late and that the "Ashigaru" had left the camp, Kuroda's mood... was difficult to describe in words.
When he thought that this "Ashigaru" was most likely Ogata Ittosai in disguise, and that this "Ashigaru" had escaped from the camp, Kuroda felt that all the blood in his body was rushing to his head...
The matter has come to this, and it can't be helped... Kuroda can only suppress his fatigue, cheer up, and continue to preside over the work.
After that, Kuroda tidied up the order of the camp bit by bit and rummaged through the camp inch by inch, looking for Ogata Ittosai.
However... I searched the entire camp several times, almost turning the entire camp upside down, but still could not find Ogata Ittosai.
Kuroda had to admit this fact - Ogata Ittousai should have left here...
At this moment, order in the camp has basically been restored.
At this moment, most of the senior generals in the camp were gathered in the commander's tent, asking Kuroda like headless chickens what to do.
At this moment, facing the anxious faces in front of him, Kuroda felt exhausted.
In the past, Kuroda had only commanded a maximum of 1,000 people.
Commanding an army of 3,000 men and still dealing with this kind of mess - this is beyond the limit of Kuroda's abilities.
Kuroda, who was slumped on the pony, like a man who had lost his soul, listened silently to the "requests for instructions" from the generals in front of him for a while, and then he stammered as his head was about to shut down: "
Anyway, in short, now... Let’s count the casualties and statistics of losses..."
Before Kuroda finished speaking, a male voice with a neither salty nor bland tone suddenly sounded from outside the tent:
"Counting the casualties - that's really the first thing to do right now."
“But in addition to counting casualties, we must also not forget to strengthen vigilance.”
"The actions of 'Executioner Ittosai' have always been unreasonable and difficult to understand."
"Don't ignore the possibility of him suddenly coming back."
As soon as this male voice sounded, everyone in the camp looked shocked, then turned their heads and looked at the tent.
"Sir Laozhong!" Kuroda was the first to exclaim.
Songping Sadaxin folded his hands, lifted the curtain at the entrance of the account, and walked slowly into the account.
All the generals in the camp stood up one after another and saluted Matsudaira Nobunobu.
Matsudaira Sadanobu waved his hand to signal everyone to excuse themselves.
"I already know exactly what happened." Matsudaira Sadanobu slowly lowered his hand that signaled the generals in the camp to abstain from courtesy.
Just now, Matsudaira Sadanobu had learned from other people's mouths everything that happened in the camp in the past hour.
I learned that Sheng Tianmu died in battle.
I learned that I searched everywhere in the camp but couldn't find Ogata Ittosai.
Listening to the bad news one after another, Matsudaira Sadanobu's reaction was very dull.
He didn't even frown, as if Ichitenmu's death in battle and Ogata's escape from Ittosai were not significant events worth mentioning.
After knowing that most of the senior generals in the army gathered at the commander's camp to discuss matters, Matsudaira Sadanobu silently took Tachibana to the commander's camp.
Because Tachibana was not qualified to enter the commander's tent, he was waiting silently outside the tent at this time.
"Calm down, Kuroda-kun." Matsudaira Sadanomo looked at Kuroda with calm eyes, "Don't panic over such a trivial matter."
"You look very unseemly like this."
Listening to Matsudaira Sadanobu's rebuke in a calm tone, a look of embarrassment immediately appeared on Kuroda's face at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"I'm very sorry..." Kuroda whispered, "I made you laugh..."
"There is no need to apologize to me." Matsudaira Sadanobu continued to say in a tone that was neither salty nor light, as if there was no emotion contained in it. "Instead of apologizing to me, it is better to focus on rectifying the army.
"
"Cheer up and come out with the spirit of a Sendai clan warrior."
As for Matsudaira Sadanobu... no, it should be said that his whole person seems to be possessed by magic.
After the generals in the camp saw Matsudaira Sadanobu entering the camp with a calm face and hands folded, they felt that their originally panicked hearts calmed down a little.
There is a feeling of having a backbone.
After Kuroda heard Matsudaira Sadanobu's mild rebuke just now, he first felt ashamed, and then——he mustered up his fighting spirit again.
The reason in my mind that had turned into a "miscellaneous ball of wool" was straightened one by one and arranged into clear parallel lines.
Encouraged by Matsudaira Sadanobu's rebuke, Kuroda quickly recovered and took several deep breaths——
"Haruhi, I leave the job of counting the casualties to you. I not only want to know how many people were killed or injured, but also how much supplies were lost."
"Yokoyama, go to the Second Army in person and tell Lord Inamori everything that happened here."
"Tanimura, you will continue to be responsible for leading people to search around the camp..."
…
Kuroda methodically issued military orders one after another.
The panic and anxiety on the faces of the generals in the camp gradually disappeared as Kuroda issued military orders one by one.
The heavy atmosphere that originally filled the air in the tent slowly faded away.
One of the characteristics of "organization" is that "as long as there are no problems with the leader, many problems can be easily solved."
This feature is particularly evident in the military, which is why there is a saying in ancient China that "a soldier is a raging enemy, and a general is a raging den".
Matsudaira Sadanobu quietly looked at the generals in front of him.
Nodding gently.
…
…
The camp where Atachi and the others are hiding——
Gudong, Gudong...
A large pot stood next to the hunting lodge, and the water in the pot was bubbling.
Ayzan sat next to the cauldron, adjusting the heat.
At this time, Ashley suddenly emerged from the hunting cabin nearby.
As soon as Ashley came out, Ayizan immediately stopped what he was doing to control the fire and asked urgently to Ashley:
"How is it? How is Miss Atachi doing now?"
"Except that my body is still a little hot, everything is fine..." Ashley sighed softly.
"It's normal to have a fever." Ayizan comforted, "According to my experience, after suffering such a serious injury, it's normal to have a slight fever. As long as the wound is not inflamed or suppurative, it will be fine."
Since Ogata suddenly left last night, Aizan and Ashiri have been taking care of Atachi in accordance with Ogata's instructions.
Although it was called taking care of them, the two of them actually did nothing.
A-Ting has been sleeping and hasn't woken up yet, so all Aizan and Ashley can do is wipe the sweat off A-Ting's body.
In order to avoid suspicion, Ahili did all the work of wiping Ah Machi's sweat, while Aizan was only responsible for menial tasks such as carrying water and cooking.
Ashley raised her head and glanced at the sky, with a somewhat sad look on her face: "It's almost noon... Why hasn't Mr. Majima come back yet... He should... not have any accidents... What the hell is he doing?
Where did you go……"
"...Don't think so much." Aizan said softly, "Mr. Majima, he might be back later. It's almost noon now, it's time to prepare lunch."
After saying that, Ayizan stood up.
"Ashley, this pot of hot water is almost ready. Please put out the fire."
"Yeah." Ashley nodded, "Be careful on the road."
Ayizan picked up his bow and arrow and went into the woods nearby.
After Ayzan left, Ahili followed Ayzan's instructions, moved the firewood under the pot, stamped it out, and then sat beside the pot, staring at the boiling water in the pot, in a daze.
Last night, Ashley almost didn't sleep a wink all night, and had been taking close care of Ating.
Now that he is free, Ashley can only feel the fatigue rising like a tide... His eyelids are starting to get heavier and heavier...
Just when Ashley was about to sit down and take a nap, a strange sound suddenly came from behind her.
Ashley was no stranger to this strange sound. She heard it every day during this period - it was the sound of horse hooves.
The sound of horse hooves had just reached Ashley's ears, and the sleepiness that had nearly taken over his body immediately disappeared.
As if there were springs in her butt, she jumped up from the ground, grabbed her own bow and arrow next to her, then pretended to confront a bear or wolf, and turned her head to look in the direction of the sound of horse hooves.
——At the end of the line of sight, there is a man and a horse.
The man on the horse was half lying on the horse, steering the horse under his crotch and slowly leaning towards Ashley.
Looking at this man and horse, the expression on Ashley's face changed dramatically.
The expression on her face froze at first.
Then, the frozen expression quickly turned into one of surprise.
As a look of surprise appeared on her face, Ashley immediately lifted her alert state.
"Mr. Majima! (Ainu language)"
This man and horse were Ogata and Radish, whom Ashley was familiar with.
Ashley threw away the bow and arrow in her hand and hurried towards Ogata.
"Mr. Majima! You are finally back! Really, where have you been...ah! Mr. Majima! What's going on with the blood on your body? (Ainu language)"
It was far away just now, so Ashley couldn't see it clearly.
After getting closer, Ashley realized that Ogata's current appearance was quite scary.
The clothes were spattered with blood and stains of various colors - these bloodstains and stains accounted for nearly 50% of Ogata's clothes.
"Mr. Majima, how come your clothes...are like this...? Are you okay? You look very tired...(Ainu language)"
Of course Ogata couldn't understand the Ainu language Ashiri spoke.
But based on Ashley's expression and tone, he could roughly guess that Ashley was caring about him.
Ogata smiled at Ashley, and then said intermittently using the only Ainu words he knew: "I'm fine. (Ainu)"
"How is she doing now? Is she sleeping? Where is Aizhan? Why didn't she see him?"
Ashley couldn't understand Ogata's Japanese, but she heard the two names "Amachi" and "Aizan" from what Ogata just said.
Ashley pointed to the hunting cabin not far away, then closed her eyes, folded her hands behind her head, and made a "sleeping" gesture.
Then Ashley pointed to the woods nearby, and then made the gesture of drawing a bow and shooting an arrow.
After understanding Ashley's "sign language", Ogata let out a sigh of relief as if he was relieved.
"Are you still sleeping... That's good... If she sees my bloody 'human-killing' posture, she will definitely be scolded..."
After saying that, Ogata lowered his head and glanced at the bloodstained and stained clothes on his body, subconsciously showing a helpless expression.
…
…
"Okay! Caught!"
Ayzan held a rabbit upside down by its hind legs and lifted it up.
As soon as the rabbit started to struggle, Ayzan quickly grabbed its head with one hand and crushed the rabbit's head to pieces.
Looking at the fat rabbit in his hand, Ayzan showed a satisfied expression and looked up and down.
But - very suddenly, Ayizan frowned suddenly.
Then, Ayzan threw away the fat rabbit in his hand very quickly, then rolled on the ground and rolled behind a big stone not far away. Then he stringed the bow and aimed the arrow at the not far away place.
A large area of dense bushes, nearly half the height of a person.
"Come out." Ayzan said solemnly, "If you don't come out, I will shoot."
As an "old hunter", Ayizan, although his body and bones are no longer as good as before, his eyesight, hearing and other abilities that he has honed over decades of hunting will not deteriorate so easily.
Just now, Ayizan heard a strange noise in the bushes not far away.
With rich hunting experience, he instantly recognized that this was not a noise that animals could make.
Upon hearing Ayzan's naked threat, the bush fell silent at first.
Then there was a rustling sound.
Two figures slowly stood up from the bushes.
Looking at the two people emerging from the bushes, Ayzan's pupils shrank slightly: "Are you——?!"
…
…
Red Moon Fortress——
The wooden walls of the Red Moon Fortress are guarded by people standing on them at all times.
Be wary of irrelevant people - especially curious children. When they climb the city wall, they are also wary of outsiders approaching their homes.
At a corner of the city wall outside the Red Moon Fortress, several young men holding bows scanned the outside meticulously, looking carefully to see if any outsiders were approaching.
At this time, a young man suddenly pointed outside and shouted:
"Look! Someone is approaching this way on a dog sled!"
As soon as the young man finished shouting, the people around him looked in the direction pointed by the young man - and saw a dog sled approaching them at an extremely fast speed.
Unidentified people were approaching on a dog sled - the news spread rapidly throughout the city walls.
Everyone on the city wall was waiting quietly for the sled to approach so that they could see who it was, and at the same time, they were also silently preparing to fight at any time.
The sleigh is very fast.
After a while, everyone on the city wall saw clearly the appearance of the person riding on the sleigh - it was Kazuto.
A very old Kazuto with gray hair and beard.
Just when everyone on the city wall was wondering "Why would there be such an old Kazuto coming here on a sleigh?", they heard the old Kazuto on the sleigh speaking very standard Ainu language towards the city wall.
they shouted:
"Please don't worry! I don't have any ill intentions!"
"Please go and tell Chanup! Just tell him: Tang Shen is here!"
This old Kazuto's voice was very loud, and even though he was almost 200 meters away, everyone on the city wall could still clearly hear this old Kazuto's shout.
Listening to the old man's shouting, everyone on the city wall looked at each other.
…
…
"It's really difficult..."
Chanup was sitting cross-legged in his home, smoking a cigarette vigorously, closing his eyes and thinking hard.
As the manager of the Red Moon Fortress, there are many trivial matters that Chanup has to deal with every day.
Just like now - now a very troublesome trivial matter has befallen Chanup.
There was a young man who married a wife four years ago and gave birth to a son successfully. However, after the son grew up, the young man felt that the son did not look like him...
The young man had numerous heated arguments with his wife and his wife's natal family over the question "Is this my biological son?"
Because the quarrel was so intense and the impact was so great, Chanup had to step forward to resolve the matter.
Now Chanup is thinking hard about how to deal with this matter.
But at this moment - a burly man opened the door curtain and quickly entered Chanup's home.
As soon as he entered Chanup's home, the sturdy man immediately said to Chanup:
"Chanup. Something happened... that should be considered an emergency."
"What's the matter?" Chanup put down the pipe in his hand and looked at the burly man in front of him.
"There was an elderly Kazuto who just approached us on a dog sled."
"A very old Kazuto?" Chanup frowned slightly.
"Well, yes. After the old man got close, he said to the people guarding the city wall: 'Please go tell Chanup and tell him: Tang Shen is here.'"
It's like magic.
After hearing the name "Soup God", the expression on Chanup's face suddenly changed like magic.
What was originally just a slight frown turned into a deep frown after hearing the name "Tang Shen". Because the brows were so tightly furrowed, the eyes narrowed and became so thin that they seemed to disappear.
.
"Lord Chanup, who is that person? Is he your friend?" the sturdy man asked.
Chanupu did not immediately answer the big man's question.
He just picked up the pipe, silently took another puff, and then said slowly:
"...let him come in and bring him to me."
"Eh?"
"I said: Let him come in and bring him to me."
******
******
It’s almost 1 o’clock in the morning before the update is released... I’m guilty, I’m guilty...
In order to apologize, let me share some trivia with you!
The author of "I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan" (also known as: Ittousai) Sou Yume Minoru's favorite animal is a bear.