The reason why Ogata chose to take off his human skin mask before rushing into the shogunate army's camp was to launch a "mental attack" on the shogunate army's generals and soldiers.
Ogata didn't know whether the army currently besieging the Red Moon Fortress was the First Army that he had some "bad memories" with before.
But no matter what, it is worth trying this "mental attack".
Judging from the current situation, Ogata's "mental attack" can be considered a success.
Judging from the reaction of the general in front of him and his scream just now, this army seemed to be the First Army that seemed to have a wonderful connection with him.
However, Ogata was too busy to express his feelings about this "reunion". After breaking through the obstruction of the general who led hundreds of soldiers, Ogata once again tapped the horse's belly lightly with his heel with a moderate force.
Carrot let out a low hiss and followed his master's orders, continuing to rush straight into the depths of the seemingly endless military camp ahead.
…
…
The First Army Camp, the Commander-in-Chief's Camp——
"Send a message to Kasuga and Iimasa, and have them control their respective troops."
Inside the commander-in-chief's camp, Gui Yi was issuing military orders one after another in an orderly manner.
When he learned that the camp was attacked and the attacker seemed to be Ogata Ittosai, Katsura Yoshimasa's mind went blank for a moment.
But since he was entrusted with an important task by Inamori and sent to the First Army to replace Shengtianmu, he must have some abilities.
After his mind went blank for a moment due to various emotions such as surprise, calmness, and fear, he quickly regained his consciousness and composure.
Then, he quickly integrated all the information currently known and issued military orders one after another.
Katsura Yoshimasa was also a very valuable general with experience in warfare in the Edo period, which had lasted for 200 years. Although he only fought against bandits and peasants who dared to revolt.
The "Tianming Famine" that ravaged the country for seven years directly led to a surge in the number of peasant uprisings and bandits.
Many generals, led by Gui Yizheng, accumulated some experience in marching and fighting by suppressing peasant uprisings and bandits caused by famine in Tianming.
Even those who have no experience in fighting and have only read military books know that if the camp is attacked, the most important thing is to ensure that the camp is not in chaos.
If the camp is in chaos, it is very easy for people to kill each other.
So after regaining composure, the first military order Gui Yizheng issued was to send a message to the generals in various places in the camp, asking them to restrain their respective troops and not let them get into chaos.
As long as the military camp is not in chaos, everything will be fine.
After Katsura Yoshimasa gave a series of orders in one breath, a messenger suddenly ran to the commander-in-chief's camp and loudly announced his identity to Katsura Yoshimasa in the camp - he said that he was a messenger sent by Kuroda, and he was here to convey the message to Katsura Yoshimasa on behalf of Kuroda.
After learning that the messenger was sent by Kuroda, Katsura Yoshimasa hurriedly summoned the messenger inside.
As soon as the messenger entered the tent, he immediately reported loudly:
"Sir! Lord Kuroda asked me to tell you that he will lead 150 infantrymen to encircle and suppress the bandits!"
"Did Kuroda lead his troops to encircle and suppress the bandits?" Katsura Yoshimasa raised his eyebrows.
After hesitating for a moment, he nodded gently: "...Alright. Someone has to be responsible for intercepting the thief."
As soon as Gui Yizheng finished his murmur, another messenger rushed into the tent.
This messenger was sent by Gui Yizheng to observe the movements of the bandits in real time, so he had the privilege of entering the camp immediately without notifying them.
"The thieves have reached the area where Lord Konishi's troops are stationed!"
Katsura Yoshimasa naturally knew exactly where Konishi's troops were stationed.
After hearing the messenger's report, Katsura Yizheng's brows furrowed instantly . Then he muttered in a low voice that only he could hear:
"Where is he going..."
Gui Yizheng had been keeping a close eye on the movements of the attacking thieves.
After integrating what he knew so far about the thief's movements, Gui Yizheng instantly discovered something strange - the thief seemed to be rushing straight south.
Neither wantonly destructive nor aggressive.
Just head straight south.
This attitude... is like he's in a hurry to leave...
"How is the battle on the front line now?" Gui Yizheng asked.
"The soldiers are trying their best to stop them." The messenger replied, "But the bandits' horses are too fast, and their skills are... too good. So far, they have not been successfully intercepted..."
"Tsk..." Gui Yizheng's face darkened, "Damn it..."
…
…
Ogata now had no idea where he had rushed to.
I don’t know how far I am from breaking out of the military camp.
His brain is now unable to think about anything other than "fighting". All of his brain's computing power is used to judge the battle and the situation.
This is a battle with the purpose of "leaving here", and the longer it drags on, the more disadvantageous it will be for Ogata.
In order to avoid being hit by arrows, Ogata has been driving the radish in irregular curves, moving flexibly to increase the difficulty of the archers' shooting.
Move flexibly to avoid arrows and enemy soldiers at the same time.
Ogata relied on his high mobility to avoid all the enemy soldiers he could.
If it cannot be avoided, then use "physical methods" to solve it.
Those enemy soldiers who could not avoid it were either chopped away by Ogata's sword or knocked away by Radish.
From time to time, Ogata could hear the sound of arrows piercing the air.
However, the arrows shot towards Ogata could only hit the afterimages left by the radish's high-speed movement in vain.
At this moment, Ogata suddenly saw a small cavalry group attacking him from the front.
This small cavalry team consisted of a dozen people. The leader was wearing armor that was much more luxurious than that of an ordinary foot soldier, and the horse he was riding was obviously better than the horses of the other cavalrymen behind him.
Ogata did not know how to judge the rank of a general based on the style of his armor. He only knew that the small cavalry team in front of him was most likely a patrol team that was on guard outside the camp and had been ordered to return to the camp to stop him.
Due to the shortage of high-quality war horses, cavalry was an extremely expensive branch of the military in Japan, so the samurai who could serve as cavalry were not ordinary samurai.
Ogata simply took a look at the cavalry team that appeared in front of him, and he clearly felt that the dozen or so mounted warriors in front of him were far superior to those ordinary foot soldiers in terms of physique and momentum.
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" As the dozen or so cavalrymen rushed straight towards Ogata, the leading general kept shouting loudly.
Hearing this shout, all the soldiers standing between them and Ogata made way of their own accord.
Facing the dozen or so attacking cavalrymen, Ogata narrowed his eyes slightly, then bit the reins that he had been holding in his left hand into his mouth, leaving his left hand free.
Ogata went forward towards the dozen or so cavalrymen without any hesitation.
The carrot under his crotch was the same, with its four hooves constantly crossing and spreading out without any fear or retreat.
When Luobo's horse's head was about to cross the cavalry general's horse's head, the cavalry general gripped the spear in his hand and thrust it at Ogata.
When the gun was about to hit Ogata's chest——
clang!
Ogata used his left hand to pull out the Da Zi Zai from his waist at a speed much faster than the cavalry general's spear and pushed the general's spear away.
The horses' heads crossed each other - the swords flashed.
The horses crossed each other - the cavalry commander slid off his horse, with only a little skin and flesh left on his neck.
Ogata's Daishikten's blade once again drank a handful of hot blood.
The flow of the two swords without self.
The light from the two swords swung covered every cavalryman who crossed paths with him.
Every slash that was launched could hit the vital points of each cavalryman with extreme precision.
The attacks of these cavalrymen were either blocked or avoided.
After completely passing by these dozen cavalrymen, it was like a magic trick. These dozen cavalrymen who were so majestic just now now all slipped off their horses like softened noodles, bleeding.
After breaking through the obstruction of dozens of cavalrymen, Ogata's pupils suddenly shrank.
Then, Ogata's body reacted before his brain did—he jerked to the left.
laugh!
An arrow passed right beside Ogata's right abdomen.
Although it did not hit Ogata, it successfully took away some of his clothes and flesh.
In the "state of no self", Ogata's pain was alleviated, but Ogata could still feel a burning sensation in his left abdomen.
If Ogata had dodged a step slower, the arrow would have penetrated directly into his side.
——We need to speed up...
There was no time to slowly treat the wound, Ogata said to himself, and continued to ride Radish forward.
Ogata could clearly feel that the counterattack power of this military camp was growing stronger and stronger.
Although the military camp has become noisy because of his "visit", it just "looks a little messy" and the order of the camp has not collapsed.
After all, no matter how good Ogata is at fighting, he is only one man and one horse.
No matter how sharp a sword is, it can only cut objects within 3 feet.
The noise and destructive power caused by one person and one horse are always limited, and it is difficult to cause a "camp roar" in a military camp due to panic.
The reason why the order of the military camp did not collapse was not only because Ogata, alone on his horse, could do only so much, but also because this army had been on alert since it arrived at the Red Moon Fortress.
Today is different from the past.
The reason why Ogata was able to win a great victory and escape unscathed when he went to settle accounts with Mogami Yoshihisa last time was largely because the generals and soldiers of the First Army did not expect that they would be attacked.
But now it's different.
After arriving at the Red Moon Fortress, the entire camp remained on alert to prevent the barbarians in the fortress from leaving the city to attack them.
If the camping time had not been too short and defensive fortifications such as fences and shooting platforms had not yet been built, Ogata might have had a hard time figuring out how to break into the military camp.
Ogata chose to temporarily put the wound on his side behind him, shook off the blood on the blade of the Daijizai sword, and put the sword back into its sheath.
——How far is it from the camp?
Ogata looked up into the distance - there was still a seemingly endless camp in the distance...
The scene before him made Ogata's heart sink.
But... as his heart sank, a series of conversations suddenly emerged in Ogata's mind.
【Do you believe in miracles? 】
[…I believe it.]
This was the conversation he had with A-Ming just when he said goodbye to her.
Ogata gritted his teeth and continued to hold the reins and sword tightly in his hands.
At this moment, if someone carefully observed Ogata's eyes, he would definitely find that Ogata's pupils had undergone some... strange changes.
In Ogata's eyes, there was a new light flickering, completely different from the "state of no self".
…
…
After swinging his sword again and knocking down several infantrymen who blocked his way, Ogata finally saw... the scene he had always wanted to see.
He saw that there were no more tents in sight not far away.
We are about to break out of this military camp!
Seeing success just around the corner, Ogata's spirits were lifted.
But the spirit that had just been lifted was suppressed by the sudden change that occurred before his eyes.
Suddenly, a large number of infantrymen armed with spears rushed out from the left and right sides in front.
These infantrymen advanced at a rapid gallop, with an irregular order.
They appeared from the left and right sides in front of Ogata at an extremely fast speed, and then quickly formed a half-moon formation.
Forming a half-moon formation, these infantrymen held their spears flat with the tips pointing directly at Ogata.
At the same time, behind this crescent-shaped formation, there are a large number of archers, and these archers have pulled their bows into a full moon.
If he ran into this gun array, he would definitely die - no matter how powerful Luobo was, he could not crash into the gun array.
So Ogata immediately pulled the reins and urged Radish to stop.
As Ogata looked at the gun array that suddenly appeared in front of him with a gloomy face, a loud shout suddenly rang out:
"Advance slowly! Stab the enemy!"
Ogata looked in the direction of the shout and discovered that it was someone who looked familiar.
This man was wearing black and red armor, riding a warhorse that was only slightly shorter than Radish. He stood behind the spear formation, looking at Ogata with eyes mixed with a bit of fear.
This person is Kuroda.
Looking at Ogata, whose body was now half-red with blood, Kuroda couldn't help but swallow his saliva:
——It’s really Ogata Ittosai…
When Ogata launched an attack on their camp, Kuroda happened to be resting in his tent.
Not long after learning that someone had attacked the camp, Kuroda soon learned that many people had witnessed that the attacker seemed to be Ogata Ittosai.
When he first heard the news, the first thought that came to Kuroda's mind was actually to escape.
The last battle with Ogata left an indelible shadow on Kuroda.
However, despite his fear, inspired by the "glory of the samurai", Kuroda finally chose to stand up.
Kuroda mobilized what troops he could quickly mobilize - 150 infantrymen.
Like Katsura Yoshimasa, he closely followed Ogata's movements, and like Katsura Yoshimasa, he discovered that Ogata's way of moving was a bit strange, and he was rushing straight south.
Although he did not know why Ogata chose this way of advancing, Kuroda boldly chose to predict where Ogata would be based on this way of advancing, and then deployed his troops there in advance, waiting for Ogata to fall into the trap.
And Kuroda made the right bet.
He bet correctly on where Ogata would end up.
His deployment was not in vain.
Kuroda, who had cast an extremely strong psychological shadow on Ogata, now had no other desires.
I just want Ogata in front of me to die quickly.
As long as Ogata in front of him was still breathing, he would only feel uneasy.
So Kuroda didn't say a word and immediately ordered an attack .
Hundreds of spearmen trotted towards Ogata.
Ogata glanced at the gun array in front of him with a serious expression.
--hateful……
Ogata, who seldom used foul language, secretly said "damn" in his heart at this rare moment.
He was about to rush out of the tent, but a large number of enemy soldiers appeared halfway and were obviously ambushed in advance... This quick contrast made Ogata's face turn ugly.
This crescent-shaped spear formation not only has spearmen, but also archers - if we turn around and look for another way now, it won't be that easy...
Since there's no way to escape, there's only one option left.
"Come on."
After saying this in a calm tone, Ogata put the reins in his left hand back into his mouth.
But at this moment - just as Ogata's left hand was about to pull out the Daijizai from his waist, the pupils of his eyes suddenly shrank because he was frightened by the scene in front of him.
The scene before Ogata's eyes suddenly changed.
He suddenly couldn't see normal people anymore.
He suddenly saw clearly the movement of the muscles and the flow of blood of the soldiers in front of him...