"An army, as long as it dares to shed blood, will definitely be able to advance."

Looking at the Oda Army, which was still exhausted and severely attritional, but was still struggling to support, Ozaki ran out of his head for no reason.

"Ozaki-kun," Oda beside him suddenly spoke.

"Huh?"

"Please stand for me," Oda said with some pain that could not be hidden, "If I... For the death of the Great Shogun, please bring my saber back to Edo, bring it to my father, and tell him that Kei did not disappoint him. ”

Ozaki had a moving expression. A grim grin spread across his grim face, and he looked up at the bullet-riddled ramparts, scars from an hour-long assault by Oda's army.

"Oda-kun, please let me go." He turned his head sideways and said to Xiao Tian, "I see Xiao Tianjun's efforts. If it continues, Oda Jun will not escape the fate of being defeated and seppuku. ”

Oda smiled wryly, "Thank you Ozaki-kun for your kindness." He turned around and looked at the two legions of Nakajo and Qiandao, which were a mile away, and sighed deeply, "If it weren't for those two people blindly watching us fight alone, why wouldn't this be like this." ”

This statement is true. Since I replaced the Dongjiang Army and the Wehrmacht in the Void Fortress before the war, and the Saga vassal army that was supplemented was a second-line force, and even the number and equipment were seriously not up to standard, the resistance of the attacking Japanese army was actually far less than they expected. According to the information gathered after the war, Doi Toshimori's psychological expectation for the Void Fortress was to destroy the four army of shoguns, and then the gunners he brought from the Tokugawa main army to cooperate with the Karatsu clan to capture them in one fell swoop - that is, Ozaki and them were simply cannon fodder.

Ozaki turned around calmly as well, looking at the path they had been attacking all the way up. After spending half an hour and more than 80 casualties, this multi-kilometer road was finally shrouded in the banner of the Tang Jin family. The three defensive lines along the way, which had been built up over the past month, were hastily abandoned today. If he hadn't known about the headquarters' plan, he would have felt as seriously uneasy as Kei Oda.

"Ozaki-kun," Oda said, looking at him with some difficulty, "please let me attack again, please press for me." ”

Ozaki breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. He nodded solemnly, stood in front of him with his katana in both hands, and looked motionlessly at the Void Fortress three hundred meters away, like a stone statue.

And on the city wall, how long Yao looked at the Karatsu Domain's army that was waving the banner again and carrying the ladder to start the siege, gritted his teeth and stood up, shouting and urging his subordinates to prepare for battle.

Although nearly 200 people were killed and wounded in the Karatsu Domain, and the corpses of the dead were scattered all over the land in front of the fortress, the more than 500 people he led were already exhausted. From more than seven o'clock in the morning, the team personally led by his own royal family resisted layer by layer on the defensive line outside the fortress. However, at about eight o'clock, the Karatsu Domain, which was attacking like crazy, still arrived at the foot of the fortress and began to attack the city without stopping for a moment.

"All ready! Put it to ten zhang and then fire! ”

How long did Mi Ambition's uneasiness gradually accumulate. Two hours ago, he personally lit a beacon fire to ask for reinforcements, and it stands to reason that in half an hour at most, the rescuers from the base camp of the East Pestle should have arrived, but no one has come until now, only the carrier pigeon of communication brought a letter, saying that the reinforcements were hindered by the ninja troops passing through the forest, and they were trying to get closer, so please be sure to stay in the fortress and wait for help.

... If there are no reinforcements, how long will Yaxiong have the confidence to rely on a battalion of soldiers to support him until the evening, but why are his troops equipped with arquebuses, and even the cannons have been taken away in the previous transformation of Deputy Commander Li himself? So much so that now the entire fortress can only be defended by a few shotguns.

Isn't it because of his own relatives that he and his subordinates were sent here to be killed (Note 1)?

He shook his head violently and threw these disrespectful thoughts out of his head. The Void Fortress is a support point that threatens the right flank of the Karatsu Domain, and if you lose it, you don't know how passive you have to be, if you want to cut the domain... How could that Void Fortress be the price?

As he was thinking, more than 200 musketeers had already arrived at the protruding corner of the fortress with heavy arquebuses (Note 2) and placed their guns between the battlements. The remaining 200 ashigaru stood behind them with another arquebus—the reserve shooter, who normally helped the main shooter to reload and fill in the position when the main shooter was out of combat. Another hundred men were assembled behind the city gates, which on the one hand could protect the gates and on the other hand act as reserves.

Outside the city at this time, the artillery rationed to the four generals was finally dragged to the front line under the protection of the two armies of Nakajo and Kurile. Previously, due to the rough mountain road, the cannon could not pull up the mountain, so the early siege was completely uncovered by artillery (fortunately, the Long Legion in the Void Fortress did not have artillery).

"Fire!"

"All hands assault!"

The first to fire was the Tokugawa family's imitation of the Franc cannon, a breech-loading gun composed of a mother gun and a child gun, which far surpassed the traditional breech gun in terms of rate of fire, and the main disadvantage - the lack of range - did not care at all when the defenders also did not have a cannon.

How long Yao immediately felt the pressure of the artillery. Three Franc cannons pulled up the hill fired rapidly, raining shells onto the walls at a rate of about six rounds per minute.

The gunners of the Karatsu clan (actually Tokugawa gunners brought by Doi Toshimori from Edo) were very skilled, and almost all of the shells were aimed at the upper part of the castle walls. The concrete-poured battlements were so rubble that some of the hapless musketeers couldn't dodge, breaking their arms or ribs by the splashing stones. There are also a few unlucky people who have this catastrophe in their lives, and unfortunately they were directly shattered by the flying iron ball.

The members of the Imperial Family of Yao bent over the city walls and loudly boosted their morale, while repeatedly emphasizing that they must put the Karatsu clan into the battle and must not open fire without permission.

————————————————

Ozaki watched in silence as several shield carts were pushed onto the front line, several heavy mortars covered by the shield carts, pushed by the ashigaru, struggling to advance towards the gates of the Void Fortress.

Now that the artillery fire has hit a stick of incense, Oda Kei has personally tied a white turban and is ready to lead the army to attack. At this time, the merchant samurai, who had been in a panic for several days, seemed to have completely abandoned the fear of death and was ready to defend his honor as a samurai.

"Gentlemen! Martial arts for a long time! Serve the country with loyalty, just today! ”

"Onboard!"

"Onboard!"

Oda led the last two hundred or so Ashigaru to begin the charge. Looking at Oda's back wielding a katana, Ozaki was silent for a while and said to Yamamoto, "Prepare, attack with all your hands, and leave no reserves." ”

Note 1: The family is an old middle house of the Saga domain.

Note 2: At that time, the Saga clan did not enter the Great Song Dynasty ordnance system, and their arquebuses were very varied, and the mainstream was probably the arquebus produced by Tanegashima, which weighed nearly ten kilograms, which was a heavy burden for the Japanese.

The ghost blows the lamp