On the playground inside Ogura Castle, the military parade of the Ozaki Regiment is underway.

More than 400 high-spirited and high-spirited ashigaru all carried flintlock pistols made in the Australian Song Dynasty (some of them were equipped by the Ozaki Army before, and some of them were put together after merging with the Kumamoto Army), lined up in a strict 20*20 phalanx, and walked through the temporary review stand at a uniform speed under the leadership of Ozaki.

The snow-white bayonet shimmered coldly in the sunlight, and the cocktail feathers fixed on the top of the Ashigaru helmet swayed gently in the wind, mixing with the sword light, and there was some smart beauty.

On the review stand, the two Iida who had just arrived here had complicated faces, looking at Ozaki who was walking through the playground with his head up, and his heart was unusually unpleasant.

Such a group of defeated troops who moved from the hard soil fortress under the eastern pestle to fight for hundreds of miles maintained high morale and fighting spirit under the leadership of Ozaki Akiichi, and even after surrendering, they did not lose their duty to be a strong army... And their army of more than 7,000 people could not find any soldiers of such quality.

How this does not put them to shame. If Ozaki had been asked to be the commander-in-chief, perhaps the situation would have been different.

Since Iida and Hosokawa were destined to be sent to Edo after the war, in order to give the mole a boost, Night Stalker and I had to put on a good show in front of the two of them, blowing some cowhide to Ozaki from the front and back of the side.

But to be honest, the playground that can maintain the array and walk more than 100 meters, and can also squat, stand up, take a break, and turn around according to Ozaki's instructions, East Asia can indeed be called a strong army at this time. If it is placed in the Ming Kingdom, it is probably only possible for the family of the Jiangmen in Liaoxi to do it.

After Ozaki led the army to the side of the playground, I asked Fang Hai to wave the flag to signal the end of the parade, and then called Ozaki over.

I made a gentle appearance, and Fang Hai whispered a few words, and Fang Hai deliberately said loudly: "Ozaki Akiichi, I want to ask for your martial arts, I don't know what you think?" ”

The sergeants on duty near the playground immediately translated this sentence into Japanese and spoke it aloud to the onlookers and the inhabitants of the city. So with the playground as the center, the small half of the city was boiling. Thousands of people tried to squeeze into a good vantage point, but they didn't dare to cross the cordon drawn by the soldiers on duty, so they had to crane their necks in the hope of seeing the playground.

This consultation was also previously coordinated. Ozaki immediately agreed loudly, and with the help of the soldiers, he took off his gear and replaced it with a leather protective gear, and then stood in the middle of the playground with a wooden knife in one hand and saluted the review stand.

The night owl patted Fang Hai's shoulder with a smile, looking like he wanted to watch a good show.

A minute later, Fang Hai and Ozaki were on their feet in the middle of the field. Fang Hai, the easterner, wears hazel protective gear; Ozaki, a Westerner, wears dark brown protective gear.

After the two sides saluted each other, Ozaki clenched the scabbard with his left hand, pressed the handle of the knife with his right hand, lowered his body slightly, and his eyes focused on Fang Hai's body, trying to find Fang Hai's weakness.

Although both sides knew that this was an exhibition match, Ozaki still didn't dare to take it lightly - in yesterday's secret exchange, he and Fang Hai fought for more than 20 rounds without winning or losing, and fought until both sides were exhausted, which is really far from comparable to how long Yao was killed before.

After a moment of silence, Fang Hai took the lead in roaring, pulled the wooden knife out of the sheath with his right hand, and then threw away the scabbard, striding with the knife in both hands, every time he landed, it shook a piece of dust, and there was a faint feeling of thunder.

Ozaki gave up on drawing the sword and instead used the scabbard to block Fang Haishi's powerful blow. The violent impact directly shattered the bamboo scabbard, and in the flying fragments, Ozaki held the hilt in his right hand and swung it forward, swinging the blade in a position that was extremely unsuitable for power, and slashed towards Fang Hai's neck.

Fang Hai turned his head sideways almost without any sluggishness, and the wooden knife flew past his right ear, making a soft sound of rubbing on the helmet.

After dodging the slashing blow, Fang Hai lowered his body and was crossed by the wooden knife that reached Ozaki's right side, holding the handle of the knife with both hands and pulling it backwards, and the blade cut against the protective gear on Ozaki's waist.

Turning his body quickly, Ozaki turned in a circle in the direction of the blade cutting, taking advantage of the situation to swing the knife away from Fang Hai and widen the distance again.

After standing still, Ozaki looked down at his waist, where the flour on the wooden knife had left a shallow white mark. If it is in actual combat, this knife will not really hurt yourself.

So Ozaki bowed slightly towards Fang Hai, and a new confrontation unfolded again.

At this moment, the audience outside the stadium was already silent, all their bodies and minds were attracted by the tense and fierce battle, and even the soldiers standing on the sidelines to maintain order subconsciously clenched their fists, wishing that the person fighting on the field was themselves.

I glanced at the two Iida who were frowning and staring at the field, and knew that Fang Hai's performance had achieved its goal.

In fact, judging from yesterday's rehearsal, Fang Hai and Ozaki's martial arts are similar. Ozaki won't say much, Ito's disciple of the sword, the sword technique on the battle formation has also been trained in actual combat, and the sword drawing technique with one hand is invincible. When he was still practicing in Edo Castle, he was faintly known as the first person of the Ito-ryu younger generation. After training on the battlefield, the strength will inevitably rise again.

However, Fang Haineng and Ozaki are evenly matched, which is indeed beyond our expectations. As a standard elite soldier who has lived in a military academy since elementary school, Fang Hai, who was only 24 years old at the time, was a month younger than Ozaki. Perhaps this can fully prove that the use of scientific means to train people with ordinary physique can also practice the technical and tactical level that the classical era requires intensive cultivation to achieve.

Well, Fang Hai was able to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant without military exploits, which also represented his extraordinary, but he didn't have the opportunity to show it in the past.

However, if he fights to the death, Ozaki will still lose, because Fang Hai has too much advantage in terms of height, arm length and weight.

After watching it for a while, I didn't have the heart to look at it again, because Gain's drill yesterday had already shown the skills of the two, and now it was just a step-by-step performance. As I was distracted, a staff officer walked briskly, squeezed a few people behind him to his side, and patted me gently.

I turned my head to look at him, let the night owl watch, and followed the staff officer out of the crowd and towards the newly established military garrison in the city.

"There is news from Liaodong that Jiannu has made a move."

The staff officer followed me and said in a hurried voice, handing me a letter as he spoke: "The news that has just arrived was sent from Lushun to Nagasaki, and then forwarded to Kokura. ”

I nodded, took the letter, and read it quickly.

The letter was dated May 7 and was signed to Zhang Fengyuan, head of the Army Advisory Group. The letter said that since the end of April, spies engaged in intelligence work in the hinterland of Jiannu have begun to send back messages that "the upper nobility of Jiannu is holding meetings with high frequency, and mobilization orders are being issued to various Niolu, and it is suspected that a large-scale military operation will be carried out." And on May 6, the scouts in southern Liaoning discovered that the Jiannu who surrounded and suppressed them had changed from Yu Ding to armored people, and Bayala appeared.

At the end of the letter, Zhang Fengyuan said that he would send letters to Taiwan and Japan in succession, hoping to attract our attention.

"What did Chief of Staff Chen say?" I asked the staff officer.

"The Chief of Staff has arrived at the station with the letter, and should be in the conference room now."

Soon, I met Chen Jisheng in front of the gate of the station. At this time, Chen Jisheng's face was gloomy, revealing an irritable atmosphere. When he saw me, he immediately stepped forward: "Comrade Li, Jiannu must make a move on Dongjiang Town." ”

Seeing that I was a little curious, he said quickly: "Every time Jiannu uses troops, he must first eliminate spies lurking in the city and stand by, and shield the battlefield with elite soldiers. Our army is highly disciplined, and Jiannu must not be allowed to infiltrate the city, but we must definitely press our tentacles back to the south of Jinzhou. ”

"Besides, Jiannu Bayala is a strong army in the world, and the Jurchen clan is only a few thousand people, so it is impossible to use it on a battlefield that is not the main direction of attack."

I smiled, put my arm around his shoulders and walked towards the conference room: "Lieutenant Colonel Chen doesn't need to worry. Since our army dared to devote its troops to the Japanese battlefield, it naturally had a perfect strategy for southern Liaoning. No matter how fierce Jiannu is, it is impossible to pose a threat to the Lushun area. ”