On the same day, the government army attacked Kumamoto Castle, but only occupied about half of the city, the Satsuma army and the residents of the city had already built barricades on the streets, and fought fiercely with the government army, the Satsuma samurai divided into small teams, rushed back and forth in the streets and alleys, causing great casualties to the government army, and many places in the city were planted with mines, so that the government army had to pay the price of blood every time they took a step forward.

After the northern, southern, and eastern gates of Kumamoto Castle had fallen, the west gate became the only escape route for the defenders of the castle. The reason why he did not continue to attack the west gate was that Nozu Michiguan and the generals of the city did not understand that the insistence of the Kumamoto defenders was to buy time for the residents of the city to evacuate.

Fearing that Saigo Takamori and other leaders of the Satsuma army would flee among the people, Nozu Michikan tried to intercept these residents who had fled to the sea, but at this time, most of the main force of the government army had entered Kumamoto Castle, and with the attack of Miyazaki Hachiro's Satsuma reinforcements outside the city, the encirclement position outside the city had become fragmented, and Nozu Michikan was powerless to intercept the evacuated residents of the city.

Just when Nozu Michikani was about to draw troops to intercept it, something inexplicable happened to him.

The Satsuma army launched another night attack and recaptured the south gate!

When Nozu Michikani received the news, he immediately abandoned his plan to intercept the retreating residents of Kumamoto and personally organized his troops to recapture the south gate, which he judged to be such a successful night attack. Only Lin Yiqing has no one else. A new organization of special assault teams was dispatched. decided to take this opportunity to completely eliminate Lin Yiqing and his Odd Soldiers. After learning that Lin Yiqing might personally lead the team to fight at the south gate, Shan Shan Youpeng also lost no time in sending a sword drawing team led by Shan Chuan Hao Dazuo to help in the battle, and Dashan Yan also sent reinforcements after learning the news.

But to the surprise of Nozu Michikan and Yama Prefecture Aritomo, they were soon rewarded, and the south gate was empty, only the corpses of the war dead were scattered all over the ground.

After hearing the news, Nozu Michikan personally went to the south gate to check, and Yamakawa Hiroshi reported to him. After he led his army to the South Gate, he did not encounter resistance from the Satsuma Army, and he quickly joined up with the government forces in the vicinity, and had restored the South Gate position.

The corpses that littered the ground - both government and Satsuma - have shown that there was a terrible fierce battle here.

Although he recaptured the South Gate, Nozu Michikan always felt uneasy, he knew that if Lin Yiqing had a strong purpose in the battle, he would definitely not recapture the South Gate after a bloody battle. And abruptly gave up here.

It was the middle of the night, and both sides were exhausted. After about an hour, the gunfire ceased everywhere, and Nozu Michikan immediately ordered the whole army to hold their positions to prevent the enemy from returning in the second half of the night, and he handed over the defense of the place to Hiroshi Yamakawa and returned to his own camp.

At dawn the next day, the government army resumed the offensive, the resistance of the Satsuma army was still very tenacious, although the government army captured several main streets, but the Satsuma army used the houses in the city as a cover, with bombs and jars filled with incendiary materials to attack the government army, the narrow streets and alleys were also buried with mines, the government army fought hard for a long time, suffered heavy casualties but it was difficult to advance, Yamada Xianyi was anxious, ordered to set fire to the house, in order to burn the enemy hiding inside, reduce their own casualties, but what the arsonist did not expect was that the wind helped the fire, Not only did they encircle the city where the Satsuma army was hiding, but they also burned the city that the government army had already occupied, and as a result, the entire city of Kumamoto was ablaze with fire, and many of his own people were burned to death.

The fire burned for seven days and seven nights, and on October 15, a torrential rain gradually extinguished the fire, and Kumamoto Castle was reduced to ashes.

After the fire, Kumamoto Castle had become a dead city, and government forces then searched the rubble, which was filled with smoke and the smell of charred corpses, with no other result than thousands of charred corpses.

Nozu Michikan thought that Saigo Takamori might have emulated the actions of Eto Shinpei's son Eto Shinsaku and the samurai of Saga Castle who burned the castle together, and all of them were buried in the fire, so he ordered to search for the bodies of Saigo Takamori, Kirino Toshiaki, Hayashi and other Satsuma army leaders in the ruins of the fire, but most of the bodies found were burned beyond recognition by the fire and could not be recognized, and finally the government army had no choice but to give up the search and identification work.

Just as Nozu Michikan was about to write a report on the victory over Kumamoto and send it to Tokyo to report the victory, a piece of news stunned him, Yamaguchi Aritomo and other government generals.

Saigo Takamori, Kirino Toshiaki and Hayashi Yatsei and other backbone of the Satsuma army actually escaped from Kumamoto Castle and appeared on the road south of Kumamoto Castle to Kagoshima, and joined up with the Satsuma army Miyazaki Hachiro's department!

Just after getting the news, Nozu Michikan still couldn't believe it, he immediately sent a reconnaissance team to investigate, and this time the news he got was absolutely true, Saigo Takamori and others not only did not die, but led the army to occupy Hitoyoshi, and as if deliberately demonstrating to the government army, Hitoyoshi's castle head, Satsuma's "Cross Maru" military flag and Saigo Takamori's military flag with a chrysanthemum pattern family coat of arms fluttered in the wind together!

Nozu Michikan only realized at this time that the South Gate was lost that day, not because of Lin Yiqing's false shot, but because he protected Saigo Takamori and others to break through at night!

After receiving the exact news, Nozu Michikan left his brother Nozu Zhenxiong to lead his troops and horses to defend Kumamoto Castle, and sent Oyama Iwa to pursue the Satsuma soldiers and civilians who fled to the west coast of Kumamoto Castle.

However, to everyone's surprise, at dawn on October 18, 9080, when Nozu Michikan led his army to Hitoyoshi, he found that Hitoyoshi had become an empty city, and Saigo Takamori and his cronies samurai, as well as thousands of Satsuma officers and soldiers, had disappeared from Hitoyoshi's valley as if the sea fog had dispersed in the early morning, with the murmuring of Akiran.

The wind is blowing.

In the telescope, the grass on the edge of the river valley began to stir, wave after wave. It's like a water wave.

It was getting dark. Dark clouds hung over the hills. Let people prepare, and suddenly it rains heavily from the sky.

The rain came very quickly, and it was coming. The rain curtain was spread up from the lower reaches of the valley, and in an instant it was accompanied by lightning and thunder, and the huge thunder and dazzling lightning were terrifying. Before anyone could put on their raincoats, they were drenched. The wind on the mountain was blowing incessantly, and people shivered with cold.

But now people don't care about the cold, and many people take the opportunity to drink water quickly. And fill the kettle with various tools to catch water.

The rain was pouring down and it was falling quite violently. Everyone hid in tents, let the wind and rain blow. The wind shook the branches and blades of grass on the ridge, occasionally exposing the Satsuma samurai hiding inside.

Heavy rain fell for more than an hour amid lightning and thunder. After the wind stopped, the raindrops subsided. There was no dry place on the ridge, and there was no dry place on everyone's body. The clouds cleared, and the sun reappeared, hanging high in the westerly sky.

The water on the surface of the ridge was still flowing to a low level, and Lin Yiqing turned his head to see that Hidehiko Minamino and Hidehiko Sato had become soup chickens, especially Hidehiko Sato, who always likes to pretend to be a woman to spy on intelligence. Divide into several locks and stick them on your forehead. It's funny. He couldn't help but want to laugh, but when he saw that Saigo Takamori was also looking at him, he forced back his laughter, gently wiped the rain on his face with his hand, and nodded to Saigo Takamori.

In the rain just now, Lin Yiqing watched the river water in the downstream valley slowly rise and become a little turbid. The muddy water flowing down the hill is particularly yellow and turbid, and it all falls into the river, and the green water becomes a little green bean color.

The light of the sun has lost its viciousness just now, and now it is very gentle, and it is probably impossible to give it a little more strength. After all, the sun is thinning, and evening is coming.

The wind blew and everyone felt the cold.

Lin Yiqing looked around, listening attentively to possible enemy movements, but there was nothing. The river valley in front of it is still green, and no one does not think that this is a beautiful place if it has not experienced the baptism of war.

The sun was sinking further and further to the west, and the clouds were black again, but in clusters, trimmed with gold, adding to the beauty of a majestic and bleak dusk.

This is the jungle of Minami-Kyushu, and it is the unique beauty of the jungle of Kagoshima Prefecture.

A leaf was still shining with a round and full rain dew, hanging not far in front of Lin Yiqing, hanging in the air.

Maybe a gust of wind will come and it will fall. Lin Yiqing looked at it and became a little dumbfounded.

There was an extraordinarily clear dew on the tip of that leaf, no smoke and no blood, as if it was the most holy thing in the world. The raindrops are shining with the light of the setting sun, and in its dazzling and transparent shining, there is a kind of fantasy beauty.

Lin Yiqing kept watching blankly. There is no war at this moment, it should be said that there is no war at dusk this time. He looked intently, and there was an indescribable persistence on his face.

It's a rare silence on the battlefield, and it's even rarer to appreciate the beauty of nature with such devotion.

He was so serious that he had forgotten when and where he was. He lay on the ridge, raised his head like a curious child, and gradually regained a kind of concentration and fascination on his sculptural pale face.

Both Eisuke Minamino and Hidehiko Sato were attracted to him, and both looked at the confluence of his gaze.

It was just a drop of dew, a very common thing after rain in the mountain jungle. But at this moment, why did this dew drop bring him so much attraction? The two of them looked at him, couldn't bear to disturb him, and didn't say anything, so they continued to observe the direction of the target.

This kind of fascination and concentration at this time is something he has never experienced in his life. Perhaps he himself did not know that he was so attracted to something simple, and it was probably just that he was searching for something in the depths of his soul in the battlefield, and now he had sustenance.

Dewdrops, he likes such crystal clear things.

It was as if a dense foggy dusk had appeared in front of his eyes, with a lot of humidity and bad light, and a man rushed out of the tunnel...... The shells were exploding, flashing brightly and flickering, and the smoke was filling...... There was no one, and in the mixture of fog and smoke, he could see only the round and crystalline dew condensed on the unburned grass on the edge of the trench......

What kind of beauty was that, something in the battlefield that made him feel desolate and miserable......

At this time, the sound of the explosion like thunder had already gone to heaven with the arrival of dusk, and it could no longer shock people, and the billowing smoke over the river valley was also washed away by the torrential rain. No longer becomes dust particles. Diffuse in the air. The mountains are rolling at dusk. The majestic dark clouds on the western horizon are getting thicker and thicker, and the clouds and peaks are connected, standing abruptly and erect. The afterglow of the setting sun was unusually brilliant on the edge of the clouds, indicating a kind of post-war generosity.

Now he was looking through that drop of rain and dew at that generosity, and from that he saw his former age of eighteen, the grandeur of eighteen.

Yes, he was eighteen years old then. At the age of eighteen, in the jungle of life and death in the southern Xinjiang of the motherland. What kind of age is that in the canyon ditch?

Before his eighteenth birthday, he left his hometown and embarked on a journey to the mountainous jungle of the southern country, shouldering the national mission, facing the rain of bullets, rushing through the smoke of gunpowder, walking into the preset trap of death again and again, and bravely escaping from the grip of death's hand again and again. In the process of life and death struggle with the enemy again and again. What did he gain and what did he lose?

He couldn't tell himself.

Maybe he lost nothing. Life is still his own, his hands and feet are sound, his pride and bravery, his sincerity and his blood, have not been lost. But when he first took up arms to destroy the enemy, his life was no longer his own. Who does he belong to? And his youth, with a childish face, can't hide the inner maturity, who can understand it?

Now, his lips were like dried fish, open and motionless. He looked at it with such a daze, and he didn't know what he longed for. What are you looking for?

The wind blew, and it became especially cold on the ridge.

Flashing, silent.

It wasn't lightning, it was the raindrops in front of him.

Beauty, especially natural beauty, seems too fragile and always fades away. Just like human life, those healthy and brave sacrificed comrades-in-arms, at the age of eighteen or nineteen, in the rain of bullets on the front line, are so unshot.

And now, I have traveled to this era and have new comrades-in-arms, but they are also like my comrades-in-arms in the original time and space, and many of them are there

The dew finally disappeared with the wind in the trembling of the leaves, fell, disappeared in an instant, and was invisible. Lin Yiqing could see God, and with the falling beads, there was a light of nostalgia for life in his eyes.

He seemed to feel sorry. The crystal clear raindrops were falling, but he saw that although it was dusk, the bushes and leaves on the ridge had become a kind of vitality that did not correspond to the season after being beaten by the wind and rain.

"That dew drop is really beautiful!" At this time, Saigo Takamori smiled and said softly when he returned to reality and no longer wandered.

Lin Yiqing also smiled.

He understood that at this moment, it was probably only Takamori Saigo who understood what he was doing.

After returning to reality from the fugue, he now heard the remaining raindrops dripping intermittently from the leaves of the shrubs that lurked throughout the mountains, making a lonely and monotonous sound.

He exhaled softly, then shifted his body.

At dusk, the surroundings are so quiet, except for raindrops, there seems to be no natural sound between heaven and earth. This is at the forefront, and there is no artificial noise at the moment, as if friend or foe have disappeared.

Everyone was silent, lying motionless in the sound of raindrops, feeling this tranquility, a terrible tranquility.

Will there be a storm tonight? And the deadly shells, the groans of tragic death, the roars of decisive battles?

No one knew that everyone, including Saigo Takamori, could only wait in this terrible tranquility.

Lin Yiqing looked around, beside him was the strange team he had set up with his own hands, what kind of group of young people was this? They are not very old, generally around 20 years old, young, strong, loyal, heroic, selfless, brave...... In this war, many of the strange soldiers he brought to the front line were young people, and everyone regarded life and death as nothing.

Since the start of the war, so much time has passed, and the offensive and defensive positions and the slaughter of each other have been staged scene after scene. tired, bleeding, wounded, sacrificed...... Among the survivors of the battle, they are no longer afraid, and the cruelty of killing the enemy has gradually distorted the nature of human goodness, and all that is thought of is how to make the other party die and pay for their lives.

Kill, kill...... For blood, bones, dead bodies...... People are numb.

Now, even on the way to escape, whether it is attacking or defending, the desire to kill the enemy and survive is always so strong!

The wait is impatient and stressful. In this unbearable and stressful waiting, some special people need to find a little spiritual comfort to release, while others can only remain silent and endure the torment.

Lin Yiqing sighed softly, and now he seemed to have a kind of relief in his heart. Due to the drop in temperature, his whole body was soaked, and his body and mind were not only unbearable and nervous, but as fresh and free as after the rain hit the leaves.

For him, everything in Japan is coming to an end.

What he needs to do now is to bring these strange soldiers who follow him, those battle-hardened generals of the Satsuma army led by Saigo Takamori Kirino Toshiaki, and these Satsuma samurai who have fought all the way here to take them out of Kyushu Island safely.

He still remembers how he tried his best to persuade Saigo Takamori to dispel the idea of dying with the city and break through with him. (To be continued......)

PS: A man is dying of starvation in the desert, when he picks up the magic lamp.

Magic lamp: "I can only fulfill one wish of yours, say it quickly, I'm in a hurry."

Person: "I want a wife......"

The magic lamp immediately conjured up a beautiful woman, and then said disdainfully: "I'm dying of hunger and greedy for beauty!" Pathetic!" After saying that, he disappeared.

Person: "...... Cake. ”

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