Hearing that Junichiro Noma had summoned the shogunate officers and soldiers on the city walls in the name of Tokugawa Tadanaga, the remnants of Toyotomi such as Mori Katsuya and Sanada Daisuke fell into a moment of stagnation. However, they quickly returned to normal, and at this moment, it was not the time to argue with the Akito behind them about whether they were Tokugawa Tadanaga's subordinates.

Sannomaru's walls were tall and steep on the outer side, but only two people tall on the inner side, and there were no stone breastworks to resist the fire of the iron cannons below. After all, this wall was built to ward off foreign invasions, not to defend against the defenders of Honmaru and Ninomaru.

Under the repeated fire of the iron gunners commanded by Li Wulang, the officers and soldiers of the city head, who had already gained the upper hand, immediately collapsed. After hearing the shouts of his boss Junichiro Noma, the remaining officers and soldiers stationed on the west gate of Sannomaru quickly chose to surrender.

For these shogunate officers and soldiers who dared to resist, Li Goro disarmed them, temporarily imprisoned them in the temple, and found doctors to treat the wounded officers and soldiers, so that their emotions calmed down.

By this time, Li Wulang had understood the reason why the previous samurai had left the inner city one after another. After hearing the news that there seemed to be no one in charge of the overall situation in Honmaru, which led to the disbandment of Ninomaru's army, Li Chenfang, who hurriedly led people to the west gate of Sannomaru, immediately ordered an attack on Otemon to the west of Ninomaru.

After assisting these subordinates of His Highness Tadanaga in capturing the west gate of Sannomaru, Junichiro Noma felt that it was difficult to turn back, and whether or not His Highness Tadanaga could expel the three generations of generals from power in the future, only by capturing Osaka Castle first could he ensure that his family in the castle would not be liquidated after the defeat.

Driven by a sense of crisis, Junichiro Noma's mind became active, and he suggested to the young and amiable Li Chenfang that it would be better for him to take those samurai costumes in shogunate armor to deceive the defenders of Otemon to open the door, and then the team took advantage of Otemon to launch a surprise attack, maybe they could capture Otemon at the lowest cost.

Li Chenfang stood on the wall of Sannomaru and looked at the scale of the wall and the width of the moat with a telescope, and decided to adopt Junichiro Noma's strategy. If you can't deceive the big gate, I'm afraid you won't be able to attack Ninomaru before nightfall. Give the enemy forces in the inner castle a night to prepare, and perhaps the adventure of capturing Osaka Castle will end here.

There was still about an hour before it got dark, and the rays of the setting sun on the castle tower were already shining gold. After Li Chenfang made up his mind, he asked Junichiro Noma, Mori Katsuie, and Sanada Daisuke to flee towards Otemon with the selected 42 samurai, and Li Goro chased after them with two squadrons and four volunteer squadrons at a distance of more than 300 meters behind them.

Li Chenfang himself followed behind Li Wulang with a squadron and five volunteer squadrons. Another squadron and two volunteer squadrons protected Mizuno Nobuko and guarded the west gate of Sannomaru. Li Chenfang also sent someone to Zheng Xiang, asking him to transfer the surplus volunteers from various towns in the city to Sannomaru, control the passages between Sannomaru and Ninomaru, and seize control of the entire Sannomaru.

When Junichiro Noma and the others fled to the wooden bridge in front of Otemon, Otemon was only halfway closed. Obviously, these samurai who grew up in peacetime have not adapted to the atmosphere of war at all, and by this time they have not completely closed the gates, and they are still hesitating about something.

Seeing the Otemen guard who was about to close the door, Junichiro Noma at the front of the team subconsciously called out the other party's name and asked him to wait for his own people. The guard who closed the door recognized Junichiro Noma and immediately stopped what he was doing, beckoning the other party to run into the door quickly.

Mori Katsuya and Sanada Daisuke, who were following Junichiro Noma, suddenly overtook Junichiro Noma as they approached the gate, and the fit hit half of the moving gate. The two guards standing behind the door were caught off guard and were knocked out by the door.

The doorman, who had just greeted Junichiro Noma, suddenly scolded the two of them angrily, "What are you doing? Knocking the door open like this is to allow the rioters behind you to rush in? ”

Junichiro Noma immediately took his hand and walked quickly into the Otemon, and hurriedly apologized: "They want the brothers in the back to enter as soon as possible, you opened the door so small, how could my subordinates have time to enter the door, there are not only chaotic people outside, but also the subordinates of His Highness Da Nayan." ”

The guards who were about to step forward to close the door were suddenly frightened, and they all turned their heads to look at Junichiro Noma and asked, "Noma Palace, what do you mean that there are subordinates of His Highness Da Nayan outside?" ”

Junichiro Noma continued to walk forward, leading the Otemon guards away from the gate slightly, and continued to distract the guards, "Don't you know yet? His Royal Highness Da Nayan raised an army and said that he wanted the general to return the great government to the lord of the Great Imperial Palace..."

Mori Katsuya and Daisuke Sanada, who had smashed open half of the gate, apologized to the guards who had fallen and asked the subordinates who had entered the door to help close the heavy gate. The men who rushed into Otemon shouted yes as they slowly pushed the guards away from the door.

The head of the gatekeeper who was talking to Junichiro Noma suddenly felt that something was wrong, and his men were all squeezed out by the samurai who had fled into Otemon, and he looked back to see that not only did the gate not begin to close, but even the door leaf that had been fixed was opened. The group leader immediately scolded angrily: "What are you doing? Someone..."

Junichiro Noma put the short knife in his hand on his neck, cutting off the group leader's calling move, and then said to him: "I have pledged allegiance to His Royal Highness Tadashi, and I think of our friends, I don't want to take your life, let your subordinates drop their weapons, don't do any stubborn actions." ”

The group leader was a little shocked and said, "Noma, are you crazy? What strength does Da Nayan have to compete with the shogun who mastered Edo? Even if you can take Osaka Castle, Lord Abe Shoji is stationed in the area of Bichu with tens of thousands of troops, as long as the adults return to Osaka, will you be able to defend this castle? ”

Junichiro Noma used a little force in his hand, and the short knife suddenly cut the skin on the neck of the group leader, making him stop. Only then did he say viciously: "I don't know if you can defend this city, but do you really want to die for the general today?" Now that the outside has been controlled by His Royal Highness Tadashi's people, and the Otemen has been opened by us, who else can you count on? Is it the acting official who hasn't shown up until now, or is it Lord Abe Shoji, who is far away? ”

The head of the group looked at his subordinates who were forced into the corner by the samurai who rushed through the door, and after a moment of silence, he said, "I will not betray the shogunate, but I will not be an enemy of the Great Nayan, I will let them lay down their weapons, can you guarantee our safety?" ”

Junichiro Noma put away the knife in his hand and said to him, "As long as you let your subordinates lay down their weapons, I will have someone send you back to your own home, and this battle has nothing to do with you." ”

The leader reached out and touched his neck, and after a moment of silence, he unfastened his armor and threw it on the ground, turning to his subordinates who were confronting these samurai, and shouted, "They are the team of His Highness Tadashiga, and they are all vassals of the Tokugawa family like us. I don't plan to use my weapons against my own family until the shogunate gives an order, but if you think the same way as I do, lay down your arms and go home with me..."

Under the leadership of this group leader, more than two dozen samurai laid down their weapons and let Mori Katsuya and Sanada Daisuke lead the people to open the Otemon Gate. Although there were still thirty or forty samurai on the Otemon Gate, after learning that the Otemon Gate had been opened, they immediately had no intention of stationing on the gatehouse.

Some chose to lay down their weapons and go home, while others retreated to Ninomaru's arrow tower. There are a total of four passages between Ninomaru and Sannomaru, the Kyobashi Pass in the northwest, the Oteemon Gate in the west, the Tamasoma in the southeast, and the Aoya Gate in the northeast. Honmaru and Ninomaru have only two passages, Sakuramon to the south and Rkurakubashi to the north.

The Honmaru is like an island floating in the middle of a lake, and there are high stone walls around the island, so there is no way to cross the wide moat and enter the Honmaru except for the two passages in the north and south. However, the moat on the north side is the widest, and the bridge of paradise is extremely narrow, and the north side of the bridge is sandwiched between two moats, making it difficult for troops to attack, so there is actually only one road that can attack Honmaru, and that is Sakuramon on the south side.

However, there are three arrow towers blocking the road between Otemon and Sakuramon, and the remaining soldiers in Ninomaru who did not flee home are relocated to these three arrow towers. After easily attacking Sannomaru and Ninomaru, the confident crowd planned to attack Sakuramon in one go, but they were quickly repelled by the muskets in the three arrow towers on the side of the road.

The Mori Katsuya and others, who had left behind more than 20 corpses and returned, couldn't help but grab the captives who had surrendered by Otemon and asked angrily. It turned out that just before they rushed into Otemon, Honmaru finally gave the order, opened the * warehouse and weapons depot, took out * and the iron cannon and handed it to the defenders everywhere. And Honmaru also ordered all the remaining soldiers of Ninomaru to be transferred to several arrow towers in front of Sakuramon.

Li Chenfang, who rushed to Otemon, took the iron cannons issued to the Otemen guards, and before these guards had time to wipe off the grease on the iron cannons for maintenance, Junichiro Noma had already arrived, so these iron cannons became trophies for Junichiro Noma and others without firing a shot.

Li Chenfang carefully observed these iron cannons, and found someone to test the power of a few shots, and found that these Guoyou 6 thin barrels, which were about one meter long, had a caliber of about 16 millimeters, and the accuracy was the highest within 30 meters, and the accuracy dropped sharply when they exceeded 50 meters. The Japanese did not use a good product, but a barrel powder type purchased from the Dutch, which had much less explosive power than the granular type*, and had quite a lot of impurities, and it was necessary to thoroughly clean the chamber once after three shots.

After Li Chenfang inquired about the direction of the * warehouse and the weapons storehouse, he said to Li Wulang: "Send a volunteer squadron to go to the samurai mansion of Sannomaru to tear down some gates and come back, thick furniture is fine, fix it on the trolley, use it as a shield cart and push it closer to the edge of the arrow tower, and then use these * barrels to directly blow open the gate of the arrow tower."

I took a squadron and three squadrons of volunteers to occupy the * warehouse and weapons depot first, and equipped these volunteers who had no weapons first..."