"Guest?" Xu Fang asked with a puzzled look.
Ayizan nodded: "Yes, it is... the villagers of Siwasi Village..."
"Siwasi Village?" Ogata's pupils shrank slightly.
Siwasi Village - the village where the girl named Lilata who was saved by Ogata now lives...
After capturing the general named Sakaguchi, Ogata pried out the information he wanted to know from Sakaguchi: "Why are you chasing them?", "How did you chase them here?", etc.
So Ogata already knew what happened to Siwasi Village after he, A-Ming and the others left...
Sakaguchi told Ogata clearly that they had done some... very excessive things to the villagers of Siwasi Village, and only then did he ask the villagers about Ogata and his group's whereabouts.
Sakaguchi also explained the methods they used to torture the villagers of Siwasi Village - because they did not have any torture instruments, they used some very primitive and barbaric torture methods.
Punches, kicks, and...broken fingers.
Finger amputation was a well-known form of torture in ancient Japan.
The so-called "finger amputation" does not mean cutting off a person's fingers with a knife.
Instead, he used brute force to pull the fingers off his palm.
The fingers are connected to the heart, so the victims often die from the pain.
According to Sakaguchi, they started by simply beating and kicking the chief of Siwasi Village.
But no matter how they beat or kicked him, the village chief refused to say a word.
So in order to make the village chief speak obediently, Mogami gave the order personally: to cut off the village chief's finger.
After the village chief's second finger was forcibly pulled off, he finally gave in and revealed the whereabouts of Ogata and the others.
"I just met the people from Siwasi village by chance when I was hunting." Ayizan slowly explained to Ogata how he had just met the villagers from Siwasi village by chance.
"When I caught this fat rabbit, I suddenly heard a strange noise coming from the bushes not far away that only humans could make."
“After I used a bow and arrow to force the people hiding in the bushes to come out, I saw the chief of Siwasi village and a middle-aged man I didn’t know standing up from the bushes.”
"The village chief said that he was leading the surviving villagers to flee the village and escape into the mountains, and happened to be fleeing in this direction."
"Most of the young men in their village died, and there were many wounded, so he had to go hunting himself to hunt some fresh meat for the wounded in the village to replenish their bodies."
“And then I ran into him by chance.”
"The village chief said he wanted to meet you. He said he betrayed you, so he wanted to apologize to you in person... So I brought them here. Mr. Majima, do you want to meet them?"
"...Where are the village chief and the others now?" Ogata asked.
"He's outside now." Ai Zan replied.
"Is he here alone?" Ogata asked.
“No.” Ai Zan shook his head. “In addition to the village chief, the little girl named Lilata and her grandmother are also here.”
"It seems that the village chief originally wanted to come to see you alone. But it seems that the little girl Lilata insisted on coming along, so the village chief brought her and her grandmother as well."
"...I understand." Ogata nodded gently, "Ayizan, thank you for bringing them here."
After that, Ogata held Ah-Ming's shoulders and let Ah-Ming lie down again. Ah-Ming was not an ignorant child, so she naturally did not resist to disturb Ogata at this time, and lay down again obediently.
After letting Atachi lie down again, Ogata took out the human skin mask from his arms and put it on skillfully.
Aizen and Yashili looked at Ogata with shock and horror as he was putting a human skin mask on his face.
After seeing Ogata in front of them turn back into the familiar "Mashima Goro", the shock and horror on their faces were so intense that they could not be more intense.
They have been wondering why Ogata's face has changed since yesterday.
But he couldn't find the opportunity to ask, and Ogata never had the time to explain to them.
Until now - Ayizan and Yashili finally knew how Ogata changed his appearance.
After putting on the human skin mask, Ogata gave Ayzan and Yashili a wry smile and said, "I'm sorry, I may have scared you... I will explain to you later what happened to my face."
With that, Ogata emerged from his hunting lodge.
Ai Zan immediately followed Ogata and went out of the hunting lodge with him.
There was no need for Aizan to point out the direction. As soon as he walked out of the hunting lodge, he saw three figures, two big and one small, standing in the southwest direction of the hunting lodge.
These three figures are the chief of Sivasi village, Lilata and her grandmother.
Lilata was now standing behind the village chief, holding the clothes of her grandmother standing next to her in one hand and something that was quite familiar to Ogata in the other hand - the small windmill that Ogata made for him.
Although the distance was quite far, Ogata could still see clearly that the village chief's left hand, which was hanging naturally, was wrapped in a thick hemostatic cloth. The brown cloth was stained dark black by the blood, and there were no ring finger and little finger on the palm.
Although Lilata and her grandmother who stood beside him did not have physical defects like the village chief, their skin exposed outside the clothes was all bruised and purple, and Lilata's grandmother's face was swollen as if she had been punched.
Looking at the miserable state of Lilata and the others, Ogata couldn't help but pursed his lips, then quickly walked towards the three people.
"Mashima-san..." After Ogata walked up to him, the village chief took the lead and said to Ogata in a hoarse voice, "I... I'm really sorry for you... (Ainu language)"
Ayizan, who came with Ogata, stood behind Ogata and translated for him.
The village chief kept saying sorry to Ogata, apologizing for betraying his kindness and telling them that the Japanese army was approaching.
The village chief, unaware that Ogata and his men had been attacked by the shogunate's army, apologized and warned them to leave quickly to avoid being found by the army.
Ogata glanced at the village chief's left palm, where two fingers had been pulled off by brute force, and sighed silently.
"Village chief, you don't need to apologize to us." Ogata smiled and said, "This is not your fault. The ones who are wrong are those in the army."
"Thank you for your reminder. We will leave here immediately afterwards."
"...Mashima-san... (Ainu language)"
At this time, a childish voice sounded.
It was Lilata's voice.
Ogata lowered his eyes to look at Lilata who was tightly holding the small windmill he had made.
It was not until then that Ogata discovered that the small windmill was damaged and a blade was missing.
Lilata raised her head high and looked directly at Ogata.
His face was full of grievance.
"I'm sorry... I almost betrayed you... (Ainu)"
"This child insisted on coming with the village chief to apologize to you..." Lilata's grandmother said softly, "In the past two days, this child has been blaming himself for almost betraying you... (Ainu language)"
"You almost betrayed us?" Ogata asked, "What do you mean?"
"The child said that she was beaten by four soldiers and it hurt so much that she planned to reveal your whereabouts to get relief..."
Lilata's grandmother wiped her tears as she spoke.
"When she was about to tell us where you were, the soldiers left."
"Even though he didn't tell the soldiers about your whereabouts, the child still blamed himself for the past two days... He said he was so shameless that he almost betrayed his savior... (Ainu language)"
Ogata listened quietly.
After listening to Ayizan's translation, Ogata lowered his eyes again and looked at Lilata, who now had her head lowered and dared not look Ogata in the eye.
Ogata just looked at Lilata quietly.
Until a moment later——
"... Lilata, thank you. You held on for so long for me."
Ogata gave a small smile and knelt on one knee, bringing himself to eye level with Lilata.
"You are not shameless at all. You are very brave. Facing such brutal torture, you were able to hold out for so long. When I was your age, I might not be as brave as you."
After saying that, Ogata extended his hand to Lilata who was looking at him with surprise.
"Come, lend me the windmill."
Lilata looked at Ogata in front of her, then looked at the windmill in her hand, and then slowly handed the windmill to Ogata.
Ogata took the windmill handed to him by Lilata, and then picked up a leaf on the ground next to him .
Ogata flipped the pages deftly with his ten fingers.
Just like magic, in the blink of an eye, Ogata repaired Lilata .
"Here." Ogata handed the windmill back to Lilata.
Lilata took the little windmill back in a daze.
Looking at the repaired windmill in her hand, Lilata was stunned at first.
Then, all the pent-up emotions burst out, and she cried and said "thank you" to Ogata.
"Village chief, you guys should quickly hide in the mountains." Ogata smiled at Lilata and stood up. "Village chief, Lilata...you guys should take care of yourselves."
"Yes." The village chief was also shedding tears at this time, "Thank you, Mr. Majima... You should take care of yourself too..."
…
…
Ogata and Ayizan stood there, watching Lilata and the others leave.
After he could no longer see Lilata and the others, Ogata let out a long sigh, and then said to Aizen beside him:
"Ayi Zan, after we have lunch and take a short rest, let's leave here."
"Won't you rest a little longer?" Ayizan asked back.
Ogata shook his head: "There is no time to rest... We must find a doctor to treat A-Machi as soon as possible."
"Mashima-san, didn't you already treat Miss Atachi?"
"That can't be considered treatment," Ogata said. "It can only be considered a simple emergency treatment. With injuries like Ah-Ming's, she must be treated by a professional doctor as soon as possible. Otherwise, Ah-Ming's injuries are likely to worsen."
"A doctor?... Then there's a place nearby where we can go and there might be a doctor..."
"Yeah." Ogata nodded with a wry smile, "The only place we can go that might have a doctor is Heye Zhe... Now we have to speed up as much as possible and get back to Heye Zhe as soon as possible."
After saying that, Ogata sighed softly: "I hope He Yezhe has a doctor of sufficient level..."
…
…
3 days later——
"…The above is the loss of our army."
"...Thank you for your hard work." Inamori, who was sitting in the first seat, nodded to the general who was just responsible for reporting the casualties, "Please take a seat."
The general also bowed slightly to Inamori in return and sat back in his seat.
"It's really tragic..." Inamori crossed his arms and said softly, "The enemy who attacked was only one person, and you, with an army of 3,000, were beaten like this."
As soon as Inamori finished speaking, the generals of the First Army, led by Kuroda and Akizuki in the tent, all showed shame and embarrassment on their faces and lowered their heads.
If there was a hole here, many people present would probably crawl directly into the hole.
After these days of treatment, Qiuyue's body has recovered to the point where she can barely sit in her seat and participate in military meetings.
After the camp was attacked, Kuroda, who temporarily took over the command, immediately dispatched trusted generals to the camp of the Second Army, the main force following their First Army, to report to their commander-in-chief Inamori about the "attack" that was bound to shock Inamori.
And in fact it was true - when Inamori heard the news, his jaw almost dropped.
After sending someone to deliver a message to Inamori, Kuroda led the First Army to stay where it was, waiting for Inamori's instructions and orders.
After learning that the First Army had encountered this major incident that could be called a "huge scandal", Inamori immediately conveyed the order of a "forced march" to his Second Army, which had 5,000 troops.
In just three days, the Second Army caught up with the First Army which was on standby and joined forces with it.
After joining the First Army, Inamori wanted to go see the fallen Shōtenmoku.
But because too much time had passed and Shengtianmu's body had already been buried, Inamori had no choice but to give up.
After the plan of "giving a glimpse to Sheng Tianmu" was abandoned, Inamori immediately summoned all the generals of the 1st and 2nd Armies to hold a military meeting.
Because the participants would include all the generals of the First Army and the Second Army, the meeting would be very large, and the generals would fill their tents.
Sitting in the main seats were naturally Inamori and Matsudaira Sadanobu.
Just now, Inamori was listening to the damage suffered by the First Army after being attacked by Ogata Ittosai.
The death toll was 74, and 168 were injured, varying degrees of seriousness or disability - the vast majority of the casualties were not killed or injured by Ogata, but were caused by their own people in the chaotic order.
The property losses were not particularly serious, only some tents and facilities were burned, while the baggage was intact.
The loss of generals was particularly severe.
A total of three generals were killed in the battle, and all of them were high-ranking generals in the army.
The general of the First Army, Sheng Tianmu, was killed in the battle.
The other two of the "Seven Spears of Senju" - Tendō and Mogami - were also killed in action.
Of the "Five Guns" that participated in this battle, only Akizuki and Kuroda are left. And these two remaining guns are both injured...
If the First Army had been attacked by a surprise attack by Ainu people numbering more than a thousand, Inamori could still accept the heavy casualties.
However...it wasn't the thousands of troops that brought such heavy losses to the First Army ...
At first, when he learned that the camp was attacked by a samurai, Inamori thought he might have heard it wrong.
Then – something magical happened.
Later, when he learned that the samurai who attacked the First Army camp was Ogata Yoshisei, Inamori suddenly had magical thoughts like "So that's why, I understand" and "No wonder there were so many casualties"...
"Ah..." Inamori let out a long sigh, "I never expected... that Ogata Ittosai would be in this Ezo land..."
"And we have angered him without even realizing it..."
“Damn it…”
Based on the currently known information, we can further figure out the reasons why Ogata Ittosai broke into the First Army's camp.
The day before the First Army was attacked, Mogami injured a young woman and was about to take her away for interrogation.
Then… Ogata Ittosai arrived and defeated Mogami’s troops. As soon as Mogami fled back to the camp, Ogata Ittosai chased him, then forced his way into the camp and killed Mogami with one sword.
By integrating all this information, we can infer that Ogata Ittosai is out for revenge.
Inamori guessed that the young woman must be an extremely important person to Ogata Ittosai, otherwise Ogata Ittosai would not do such a crazy thing as "breaking into the camp alone".
From a legal point of view - Ogata's behavior of coming to seek revenge is completely legal and encouraged.
In order to maintain its rule, the Edo Shogunate vigorously promoted the distorted "Bushido".
One of the core principles of "Bushido" in the Edo period is to value "honor" more than "life".
"Revenge" is an important act to maintain one's own reputation and even the meaning of existence, so a very strange "revenge culture" developed in the Edo period.
In the Edo period, "not avenging a grudge" was considered despised by everyone. The society was filled with the atmosphere of "revenge for a grudge". If you did not seek revenge for a grudge, you would be disliked and despised by the people around you.
If a samurai does not retaliate, he will be punished by being deprived of the right to inherit the family property.
There are also various rules about how to take revenge. For example, you can ask someone to help you take revenge, but if you want to kill your enemy, you must do it yourself.
For example: repeated revenge is prohibited, which means that you cannot retaliate against those who have successfully taken revenge.
Another example: the honor of revenge is affirmed, but revenge will still be punished. That is to say, after you succeed in revenge, people will praise you, but you will still be punished for "murder".
It is precisely because of this strange culture of hatred that when Ogata committed the crime of patriarch murder that shocked the whole country a year and a half ago, many people still praised and respected him.
Therefore, according to this weird "revenge culture", Ogata's behavior of rushing into the camp to seek revenge is worthy of recognition and praise...
If it was another person's army that was attacked by Ogata Ittosai, then Inamori might have praised Ogata Ittosai and respected his courage.
But the problem is - the troops that were attacked were his troops...
"Coach!"
At this time, a general shouted loudly.
This general was the commander of the Second Army, and he was probably in his early 20s. This general, who was at the prime of his youth, made an impassioned speech.
"We can't just let this go!"
The young general was about to say something else, but Inamori raised his hand first, indicating that he didn't need to say anything more.
Inamori could guess what the young general wanted to say - he was simply trying to tell him how unforgivable Ogata Ittosai's behavior of trespassing into their camp was, and then asking Inamori to send troops to pursue Ogata Ittosai.
"Everyone, please be patient."
Inamori said in a calm tone.
"I can understand your feelings."
"I am heartbroken and in tears after this happened."
"But we must not lose the big picture for the sake of a small thing. We should not delay important things for the sake of Ogata Ittosai."
"Why are we mobilizing an army of 10,000 this time?"
"It's to pacify the Red Moon Fortress."
"Instead of coming after Ogata Ittosai."
“We should not put the cart before the horse now.”
"We should now focus on completing the important task of 'subduing the Red Moon Fortress'."
As soon as Inamori finished speaking, Matsudaira Sadanobu, who was sitting next to Inamori, suddenly said:
"Inamori is right."
"We cannot let the suppression of Red Moon Fortress be delayed because of a mere Ogata Ittosai."
The commander-in-chief of the army and the shogunate elders both spoke and expressed the same opinion - the oppression was enormous.
However, faced with this huge pressure, some young officers who were still young and fearless still stiffened their necks and said:
"But... Commander, are you just going to ignore Ogata Ittosai?"
"Of course not." Inamori said without hesitation, "I just said that we can't let Ogata Ittosai ruin our important plans."
"We will continue to advance towards the Red Moon Fortress according to the plan."
"But starting today, increase the number of scouts by two times... no, three times!"
"Let all scouts beware of all young men along the way."
There was a cold light flashing in Inamori's eyes.
"It would be best if we could find traces of Ogata Ittosai on the way to the Red Moon Fortress."
"If we can't find it, it doesn't matter."
"After we defeat the Red Moon Fortress, we will think carefully about how to deal with Ogata Ittosai who is currently hiding in Ezo."
The cold light in Inamori's eyes was so strong at this moment that it seemed as if it could cut someone's skin when he looked at that person.