"Ah! Lord Soemon has been knocked down!"
"Quick! Go save Lord Soemon!"
"If you have the guts, follow me!"
…
With such a tall and strong body, Soemon is naturally one of the most conspicuous people in the whole venue.
Therefore, naturally, many people witnessed Soemon's defeat at the first moment.
A very few people planned to rescue Soemon - of course, only a very few people.
The total number... is only about 5 or 6.
After seeing Soemon being defeated so quickly, the others just fled even more desperately in the direction where Ogata could no longer be seen.
The five or six people who tried to rush up to rescue Soemon naturally had no ability to save Soemon. As soon as they rushed into Ogata's attack range, they were all easily knocked to the ground by Ogata.
Ogata always welcomes those who dare to approach him.
Kill one if one comes, and kill a pair if a pair comes.
At this moment, this piece of forest truly interprets what "thousands of horses galloping" means.
Although what is galloping now is not "horse" but "people".
Both the musketeers and the Iga ninjas received rigorous training.
The former's instructor was a professional officer hired from the British Army, and the latter, being a ninja, naturally received no shortage of training.
But their performance seemed to be even worse than that of the more than one hundred guards of Matsudaira Gennai.
The guards of Matsudaira Gennai fought to the last .
At this time, the musketeers and Iga ninjas of the Toyotomi army suffered less than 20% casualties and were completely defeated.
From this perspective, it seems that Matsudaira Gennai's guards are more elite, but this account cannot be calculated in this way.
When Ogata was fighting a bloody battle with Matsudaira Gennai's guards, by the middle and late stages of the battle, he was covered in wounds and could not even stand steadily. He looked like he was dying and could fall down at any time. Stimulated by Matsudaira Gennai's huge reward and the brainwashing of Bushido, his guards always had the illusion that "This man is dying! I have a chance to kill him!"
It was this illusion that supported the guards of Matsudaira Gennai to fight to the last man, and only a few escaped.
What kind of situation did the musketeers and Iga ninjas of the Toyotomi army face?
Ogata was holding a living person in his arms, but his movements were still as fast as flying.
While holding a person in one hand and holding a knife in the other, he can kill them like cutting melons and vegetables.
More than 200 people on his side launched rounds of shooting at him, but the bullets were either dodged or deflected by knives.
Up to now, Ogata is unscathed, and several extremely powerful people have appeared to reinforce Ogata. The commanders on his side have almost been killed, and there is no one to command them anymore.
I would like to ask you - after witnessing this situation with your own eyes, what will you still have to fight? What will you still have to fight for?
The hundreds of surviving musketeers and Iga ninjas split into countless groups and fled in different directions.
Ogata did not chase after those who were fleeing.
Firstly, the enemy was divided into so many groups that he couldn't catch up even with the help of Yuan Yi and the others.
Secondly, there is no point in hunting down these minions.
“Hmm…Hmm…”
With both his arms cut off, Soemon fell to his knees with a look of pain on his face.
Ogata has been carefully observing Soemon's injuries.
Red flesh threads slowly emerged from the bowl-sized wounds on Soemon's body and shoulders.
The repair speed of red flesh thread is extremely slow.
After a long time, all the wounds on the body, including those on the shoulders, were healed.
Perhaps due to excessive blood loss, Soemon's face and lips were terribly pale.
Ogata glanced at Soemon's bare shoulders, which no longer had arms hanging on them.
"…It seems that you haven't grown a new pair of arms. The speed at which your wounds heal has become much slower than before. It seems that after giving you enough damage, the speed at which your wounds heal will really become slower and slower."
Just now, when Soemon risked his life to buy time for the musketeers to reorganize their formation, Ogata had already noticed that the healing speed of Soemon's wounds was getting slower and slower.
And now, this has been truly confirmed.
Both his arms were lost, defeat was inevitable - but Soemon's eyes had not completely lost any of their luster.
He raised his head and glared at Ogata fiercely, then suddenly jumped up and jumped towards his large naginata that had fallen beside him.
As he jumped high, he tilted his head back hard.
He planned to kill himself by banging his head hard against the blade of the naginata.
Soemon's plan was brilliant.
But the success of his plan depends on whether he can be faster than Ogata's reaction speed.
Can Soemon's speed be faster than Ogata's current reaction speed?
Isn't this question obvious...
Bang!
As soon as Soemon jumped up, Ogata kicked him hard in the stomach, kicking him several steps away. His huge body finally fell to the ground.
“Ahhh…”
Before Soemon could utter a few syllables of his scream, Ofang darted up to him, raised his hand and struck him hard on the neck, causing Soemon to swallow the scream, then his eyes rolled back and he fainted.
After dealing with Soemon, Ogata looked to his left and right.
The surroundings, which had been noisy since the battle began, have finally quieted down.
Most of the surviving musketeers and Iga ninjas have now fled.
"Ayi!"
"Master Ittosai!"
"Ogata-kun!"
"Brother Ogata!"
At this moment, a variety of shouts came into Ogata's ears from the side of him.
Too many things happened tonight.
At this moment, after going through so much hardship, he finally saw these familiar faces. The feeling made Ogata feel mixed.
"No one of you is hurt, right?" He asked loudly to Ating and others who were running towards him.
Ogata knew clearly in his heart that the series of events he had experienced tonight were far from being able to come to a satisfactory end.
But after seeing the people running towards him quickly, Ogata's face showed an uncontrollable smile of relief.
…
…
“Hoo…! Hoo…! Hoo…!”
"Hey, where are we now?"
"Who knows! Anyway, the farther you run, the better!"
The three Iga ninjas looked back at the battlefield they had just escaped from, where there was almost no sound anymore, and fled hastily to the southwest.
One of them accidentally fell to the ground because he ran too fast. He was covered in mud and blood was flowing from his nostrils, but he just casually wiped the bleeding nostrils and continued to run forward, not even daring to stop to brush off the dust on his body.
The physical strength of the three of them was almost the same, so they were exhausted at almost the same time.
The three of them held onto the big tree next to them in an ungraceful manner, opened their mouths wide, and breathed in the fresh air around them vigorously.
It took them a long time to finally regulate their breathing and finally get their mouths open enough to speak again.
"Escaping to...ha...here...ha...should be enough...ha...right..."
"They have all escaped... ha... so far... ha... that Shura... shouldn't have chased us all the way... ha... just to... ha... kill the three of us... ha... "
"Hah... sit down and rest for a while..." Someone leaned against the tree behind him without any image and sat on the ground, "I am now... I am not even an inch..."
"What are you three doing here?"
A sound that reminded people of ice and snow in the severe winter suddenly sounded above the heads of the three people.
The three people who were resting against the tree were all struck by lightning. Their bodies stiffened and their eyes widened.
They hurriedly raised their heads to follow the sound - in the leaves of a big tree above their heads, stood an old man who, to them, the Iga ninjas... was perhaps the most familiar old man in the world.
"Master Yoshihisa!"*3
The three people, their cheeks turning pale, knelt down hurriedly and bowed to the old man standing on the tree.
The old man standing on the tree at this moment was Yoshihisa, who was almost defeated by Genichi not long ago and escaped from Ryushui Temple by luck.
After escaping from Ryuusui Temple, Yoshihisa first managed to gather the remaining ninjas who had escaped from Ryuusui Temple, and sent these ninjas to convey the order "Ryuusui Temple has been occupied, stay on standby and be alert" to the 9th, 12th, 13th, and 15th groups currently scattered throughout Osaka. He then personally rushed to the northwest of Osaka, intending to meet up with the army led by Soemon.
By then, with the support of a large army, we can be calm and relaxed whether we try to retake Longshui Temple or just keep our troops in place and wait and see what happens.
But who would have thought - after arriving at the northwest of Osaka, the army did not find him, but instead found three subordinates who were fleeing in panic.
An ominous premonition emerged from the bottom of Yoshihisa's heart.
Yoshihisa misstepped and jumped down from the tree, landing steadily in front of the three ninjas whose breathing had become even more rapid than when they had just stopped to rest.
"What happened?" Yoshihisa asked sternly.
The fear of Yoshihisa is ingrained in every Iga ninja's bones.
As soon as Yoshihisa finished speaking, the three ninjas hurriedly told Yoshihisa everything they had witnessed and experienced, without leaving out anything.
From the time they discovered Ogata's trace, all the way to how they were defeated by Ogata, who was still unconscious the moment before, but became like a martial god possessed the next moment.
After listening to the stories of these three ninjas, Yoshihisa's expression immediately became...it is extremely difficult to describe with a single word.
If you pour a basin of hot water on his face, it will immediately turn into ice water, and the water stains remaining on his cheeks will turn into ice chips - this is Yoshihisa's current face and expression.
"So... you're saying that the army has been completely defeated by Ogata Ittosai?"
The three ninjas nodded in agreement.
"What about Soemon?!" Yoshihisa's voice rose several tones in one breath. "Where is Soemon now?"
"I, I didn't see where Soemon-sama went..."
"I only saw Lord Soemon fleeing to the northeast... As for what happened to him afterwards... I don't know..."
Two of them stammered like this.
Only one person hesitated for a while and said:
"I... saw Soemon-sama..."
"He was caught up by Shura..."
"Shura defeated Lord Soemon easily."
"Souemon-sama's arms were cut off by Shura..."
"As for what happened afterwards... I don't know..."
The three of them fled from the battlefield, an act of desertion that could never be justified.
As for how to deal with those who desert in the face of battle, Iga-no-Sato has always had a very complete set of punishment methods.
Feeling guilty, they kept their heads down from beginning to end, not daring to look up at Yoshihisa.
All they could hear was… from just now on, there had been a “squeaking” sound of palms being grasped tightly, and a “cracking” sound of finger joints rubbing against each other…
These sounds, like heavy hammers, struck their hearts, causing their heartbeats to speed up uncontrollably and cold sweat to break out uncontrollably from their skin all over their bodies.
One of them even trembled slightly out of fear...
But just when they were ready to be severely punished by Jijiu——
"…Please raise your heads."
The sound of grasping palms and the sound of bones rubbing against each other stopped at this moment.
The three people looked at each other in astonishment.
"I told you all to raise your heads!" Jijiu's voice suddenly rose.
“Yes, yes!”*3
The three people looked up and saw a face looking down at them with an expressionless face.
"You deserted the battlefield, you should be severely punished."
Yoshihisa's tone was neither fast nor slow, neither high nor low.
"However, it was the misjudgment of the enemy's strength that led to the deterioration of the battle situation, not because you were not brave enough."
"Therefore, your escape is excusable."
"So I won't give you a heavy punishment. I'll change the heavy punishment to a light one. As for the specific punishment, we'll talk about it later."
With just a few simple words from Yoshihisa, the three people's faces changed from cloudy to sunny, as if by magic.
Before the three of them could express their thanks loudly, they heard Jijiu continue:
"Hurry up and stand up. I have a new task for you now."
"Come with me to find and gather all the remaining soldiers."
"We'll gather as many people as we can."
After hearing what Ji Jiu said, someone was stunned, and then couldn't help but ask back:
"Master Jiku, are we... going to fight back and fight Shura again?"
As soon as these words fell, the bodies of the other two people trembled slightly.
"……No."
Jiku sighed heavily.
"The musket troops suffered heavy casualties. If they continue to fight with Ogata Ittosai... they have little chance of winning."
"The entire army will withdraw from Osaka first and retreat to Koyasan to join up with Lord Toyotomi and the army Lord Toyotomi has deployed in Koyasan!"
"We will discuss this matter after we meet with Lord Toyotomi!"
"But... in this case..." This time it was another person who couldn't help but say, "Won't our 'Osaka Spring Campaign and Suppression Operation' tonight... fail?"
"We failed halfway," Yoshihisa corrected. "We have perfectly accomplished our goal in the Osaka Spring Campaign, which was to completely paralyze the administrative capacity of the Osaka Prefecture."
"It's just that the counterattack operation failed."
"It's not your turn to worry about this kind of things."
"I will explain it to Lord Toyotomi later."
"Stop talking nonsense here, stand up quickly and follow me to gather the remaining soldiers."
“Yes, yes!”*3
…
…
Osaka, the Buddhist temple where A-machi, Genichi and others had been hiding before—
"How is it? Is the sackcloth still tied too tight?" Azhu gently pulled the sackcloth wrapped around Shimada's leg wound.
Just now, Shimada told Azhu that the sackcloth on his legs was tied a little too tight, and asked Azhu to help him tie it again.
"Well... much better, thank you." Shimada gave Azhu a grateful look, then gently moved his body to a more comfortable lying position.
After helping Shimada tie the linen bandage on his legs again, Azuki turned his head to look at Asai, who was holding his side which was burned by the fire wave from the explosion with one hand, while leaning against the window with the other hand, constantly peeking at Asai outside the window.
"How are things?" Azhu asked, "Are Miss A-Ming and the others back?"
In a slightly weak voice, Asai answered directly and concisely, "No."
"Ah... my waist hurts..."
At this moment, an old groan sounded from Azhu's side.
"Master Feng...would you like me to rub your waist?"
“No need…” Fengma was lying on his side next to Azhu in a weird posture, “This is an old problem of mine… As long as I lie down for a while, it won’t hurt… Ah… It hurts so much…”
"If it still hurts, just call me. I'll rub your waist for you and it should feel better."
"Well, thank you... Azhu, you are such a good child..."
"No need to say that. After all, apart from these, there is nothing else I can do..."
After laughing dryly for a few times, Ah Zhu's attention was suddenly drawn to a conversation next to him -
"Miss Chu Guang, I'm so sorry..."
"What's wrong? Apologizing to me all of a sudden?"
"When you decided to blow up Jijiu and the others, wasn't the task you gave me to stay outside the Ryusui Temple and be ready to pick you up at any time..."
"Well, then what?"
"Then I kept waiting for you outside Longshui Temple, but you never came out... I thought at the time that something had happened to you..."
"You guessed right, something happened to me."
"Then I thought: I might as well rush in and find you. But I only had the courage to dream, not the courage to put it into practice... I kept shouting in my heart that I wanted to rush in and find you, but my feet couldn't move... I kept hesitating like this until I heard a strange sound in the temple, and then I finally mustered up the courage to enter the temple..."
"Haha, it doesn't matter. I am already very touched by your desire to save me. And, look - didn't you finally muster up the courage to come to Longshui Temple to find me? You are already braver than many people."
Azhu turned his head to look at the subjects of this conversation - a man and a woman huddled in the corner.
The man and woman were none other than Hatsumitsu and Shibata.
Shibata hung his head in frustration.
Hatsumitsu, on the other hand, had a gentle smile on his face and patted Shibata's head gently, as if he was comforting a puppy.
Looking at this man and woman... or to be more precise, looking at Chu Guang, Azhu immediately revealed... an expression of extreme hesitation.
After looking at Chu Guang for a few times, Azhu hurriedly looked away.
But then, he couldn't help but look up at Chu Guang.
After repeating this several times, she seemed to have made up her mind. She gritted her teeth, stood up suddenly, and strode to Chu Guang.
“Um, that…”
Azuki's voice was trembling.
Her tone was filled with a complex mix of excitement, nervousness, etc.
"Excuse me...are you Ajiu?"
Azhu's words were a rhetorical question.
"You are Ajiu, right?"
Immediately following the rhetorical question, there was a loud shout that seemed to release the emotions that had been pent up in the body for many years.