At the end of 1892, Kagoshima Prefecture was a besieged city. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

A month earlier, when Ito Hirobumi had signed a surrender agreement in St. Petersburg, and when the Japanese Imperial Family, led by Meiji, boarded a cruise ship sent by Lu Province to St. Petersburg in Tokyo Bay, the tricolor flag of the Russian Empire was raised in the former Imperial Palace. The 30 million Japanese had to face the fact that they were slaves of the country.

It was also on that day that the noun of Japan as a state disappeared, and only the eastern territory of the Russian Empire, the Viceroyalty of Nicholas, remained in the world, although Japan was "annexed" to Russia as part of Russia, and even the lower house of the Japanese parliament was retained by "En'permission" at the urging of Hirobumi Ito. But it still could not change the fact that Japan was occupied, enslaved.

The vast majority of Japanese people are not able to calmly face the reality of becoming "Russians" like some advocates of the "theory of leaving Asia and joining Europe." In particular, in Kyushu, an area that had not yet been conquered, the Russian troops who came to receive them encountered varying degrees of resistance, and the resistance was most fierce in Kagoshima Prefecture, the former Satsuma Domain.

As early as decades ago, some Westerners commented that the Satsuma army was the most brave and warlike soldier in all of Japan, like the Spartans in the West, and when the Russians came to take over the city, the soldiers and young people who were unwilling to be slaves of the country chose to resist the old feudal lord Shimazu Tadayoshi.

Just as Saigo Takamori chose to oppose the Meiji government, Kagoshima Prefecture's resistance was also too self-sufficient, and when news of the city's resistance reached Tokyo, someone reminded the newly appointed governor of the "prestige" of the Satsuma Army. The general said angrily.

"If the city could not belong to the Russian Empire. Then he will not belong to anyone! ”

This sentence decided the fate of the city. The fleet from the sea bombarded the city with 12-inch naval guns and rapid-fire guns, and the houses made of wood and paper were destroyed and burned under the bombardment of the fleet, and the flames engulfed the entire city, and tens of thousands of people had to abandon their burning homes and withdraw from the city, while many more died in the flames.

The shelling caused a fire that burned for a day and a night, and the city disappeared completely, leaving only a few masonry Western buildings and a few that survived the rescue of the advanced team, which would suffer the bad luck again in the following month, with the Russian shelling destroying every building in the city. In the following month, a division of Lu Guo, the army launched an attack on the city from all directions.

Leaning against the broken window, Zoten looked down into the street, picked up a bottle of sake and took a big sip, watching as the flames burned his life's work—a hotel, a two-story inn, and now a few broken walls remained of the Western-style inn that used to be quite fashionable in the city, including the one he now leaned on.

Despite coming from a noble family, Zoten was not able to adapt to the violence. At the time of the Southwest War, when he was only in his twenties, he was ridiculed by his friends as a coward because he chose to back down. And this time he is the same, he is also regarded as a coward, but what about bravery?

"Even the emperor has surrendered, even if we all die in battle, what can we change?"

The years have dyed Zeng Zuoteng's black hair a little white, and there is a beard on his face that has not been bare for a few days, his stature is not tall but extremely burly, in fact, his knife skills are very good, but he has not touched a knife for many years, he has never felt that he is a coward, he just doesn't want to sacrifice in vain for knowing that it is impossible, he could go to join the Fallen Shogun Army with his friends without hesitation, but he chose to retreat during the Southwest War, as now, Because in his opinion, it was just a waste of death.

"Okay, if it's all dead, when the time comes, the people of Lu will be satisfied, and by that time, Kagoshima will be all Lu people, Japanese, even the Japanese are gone, what are you talking about Japan!"

Muttering in his mouth, Zoten closed his eyes in pain, the war had turned him into an old man who had experienced many vicissitudes, in this war, he had lost two sons - they had died defending Japan, just a month earlier, in the shelling of the Lu Guo fleet, he had lost his wife and his life's work, and then the anger in his heart made his whole person almost crazy, like everyone who fell into madness, he took up arms, like a young man to resist those Lu Guo soldiers, He had killed one soldier after another on the battlefield, but what could he do?

Wiping his forehead with his cigarette-stained hand, Zoten took another big sip of wine, as he had spent all these days, with a Charpos rifle by his side, and a dozen scattered bullet casings next to it.

After drinking a bottle of sake, Zoten stared down the street and saw some children walking through the ruins, and there were several corpses scattered in the streets, which were the corpses of the Lu people. While observing the ruins, he saw a young girl walking through the streets, and the morning sun reflected on her, making her look very beautiful, perhaps because he had drunk so much wine that his vision was a little blurry and dull, but nevertheless, he saw that she was a very beautiful girl.

"Perhaps, she should be killed......"

Muttering to his lips, Zoteng's glazed eyes stared at the girl, and he seemed to be able to think of what those ghostly Lu soldiers would do if they found out about this girl, maybe killing her was doing a good deed...... With this in mind, Zoten picked up the rifle and aimed it at the girl on the street, and when he was about to pull the trigger, he hesitated not to pull the trigger until the girl slowly disappeared from his sight, and he failed to pull the trigger......

Leaning under a cherry blossom tree, which used to be Keiko's favorite thing, she would sit on the grass under the cherry tree and read a book, looking at it for a day, sometimes only eating a few pieces of dim sum, reading has always been Keiko's biggest hobby, as a girl at the Kyoto Doshisha Girls' School, she returned to Kagoshima after the outbreak of the war, at that time, she and her family thought that the war was far away. But now. When the war in all of Japan was over. The war continues here.

Originally, for Keiko, who was born in the old scholar clan, her life was already doomed, after graduating from the girls' school, she would marry the right family, and many women, including her mother, got married and pregnant, and had children, this is the fate of women. For Keiko, who is hungry for knowledge, this is not the life she wants, but now, this life that seems so simple has become out of reach.

At this time, with her back to the charred cherry tree, Keiko stood in a cherry blossom forest, but most of the cherry blossom trees were scorched, and she quietly watched a little boy crying on the grave of his parents, and the boy's crying made her miss the ruined home that had been destroyed by the fire, and the family who had died in the fire. She knows both her former home and her parents. For her, it's just a part of the past, and it's only in her dreams that she sees it again.

Take a deep breath. Keiko closed her eyes and rested her head against the tree, the bark of which had been scorched by the flames of the cannonballs.

She heard the branches breaking, but they were very tired and motionless, and she stood there silently, waiting for the next footsteps to tell her what she needed to know, and he held his breath and looked over the dirt road to see the boy piling dirt on his parents' graves, and perhaps, for the boy, this was the only thing he could do.

At this moment, Keiko felt a hint of danger, it was the sound of the wind blowing with the dusk, it was the sound of footsteps, she opened her eyes and immediately looked to the right, and the next moment, she saw the muzzle of the rifle, and the Lu Guobing with the gun, this soldier was tall and thin, his face was full of beard, his military uniform was more suitable for a strong person to wear, but it would be loosely worn on her body.

“…… ￥#%￥―%……―”

In a burst of Lu Guo's words, Keiko saw Lu Guobing signal him with a gun to raise his hand and lean back against the tree, Keiko carefully retreated step by step, while praying in her heart that the boy would not call her, and tried to cover the boy with her body to prevent the Lu people from seeing him.

The Luguo soldier shuffled a few steps forward, his leather boots kicking up some dust, staring intently at Keiko, his hairy face showing a smile that made Keiko's heart panic, revealing brown teeth, even from a long distance, Keiko could smell the stench

He said something Keiko didn't understand, and then lowered his gun, and then his muzzle stopped under Keiko's dress. He laughed as he searched Keiko's body with his gun to see if there was a weapon, and slowly rubbed the gun around his waist, then against the sides of his neck, then from his lips down to his hips, and then to his ankles.

Keiko swallowed nervously at the threat of the gun, although she was afraid, she was also stubbornly staring at the soldier, and when he put the gun on her inner thigh and began to move slowly upward, she did not flinch, and even nodded and smiled at the soldier, and lowered her arm slightly to the low edge of the blue tartan skirt, and then her fingers gently brushed over the long hair that obscured her face.

Keiko didn't even know what she was doing, she was just clumsily imitating the merchant girls she had ever seen, and her temptation had apparently worked, the soldier was seduced by her to lower his gun, his eyes wide open and approaching him, still holding the gun in one hand, but caressing her face and neck with the other, she licked her dry lips with her tongue, and placed the other hand on his, raising the tips of his fingers.

“―*……*―……%”

The soldier gasped excitedly, even speaking in the only Japanese he had just learned.

"Beauty......

At the same time, they came to Keiko's face, their lips were only a few inches away, the rifle had fallen at his feet, and the soldier's foul-smelling breath was already blowing on the girl's face and neck.

Suddenly, a hand stained with dust wrapped around the girl Hatsutaka through the blue tartan, squeezing them through the flannel, and he even pushed the girl to the tree with all his arms, hugging the back and waist of the newly acquired Japanese prey.

Keiko put one arm around the soldier's shoulders and protected herself with one leg, and she moved her free hand down to her waist, where there was a sharp short knife, which her grandmother gave her when she was on her way to Kyoto, according to which a woman always needed a knife to protect herself, either to kill a man who wanted to violate her or to commit suicide.

She clutched the handle of the knife and quietly pulled out the short knife, while avoiding the foul stinking lips of the Lu Guoren as much as possible, just when the Lu Guobing seemed to be tired of the game, grabbed her chin fiercely and pressed her lips over, she stabbed the knife hard.

Keiko saw that Lu Guobing had a left rib, and stabbed the tip of the short knife deeply into the soft place of the soldier's left chest and lower ribs, she stabbed it hard, so that the knife stopped in it for a few seconds, at this moment, Lu Guo's soldiers' eyes full of ** widened, wide, full of fear, and the look in his eyes began to spread.

"Hereby ......"

Again, Keiko stabbed upwards again as she drew her dagger and stabbed upwards under her ribs, exerting a force she had never had before for a girl her age.

Keiko, who had seen the anatomical drawing, knew that the point of her knife was the heart, and in the successive stabbing blows, the soldier's head slipped from the side of her face to his neck, and his body softened and did not move, not even a trace of struggle.

Finally, Keiko pushed the knife hard again, and then pulled the knife out, and then watched the Lu Guo soldier fall at her feet, face down and die.

Standing there, Keiko felt like she was covered in sweat despite the biting cold, and she gasped slowly and violently, the blood of the soldiers of the Lu Kingdom stained her dress red, and the knife was still in his hand, and the blood flowed down her fingers before dripping all the way to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, Keiko saw the five or six-year-old boy looking at her, then walking towards her with wide open arms, and then hugging her, hugging her tightly, as if trying to comfort her. Keiko also hugged the boy and put her face next to the top of his head, and stayed like this for a while, tears quietly panting and sliding down her face.

"We're getting out of here!"

Keiko said to the boy that she didn't even know the boy before, but now she felt that she should take care of him.

"Hmm!"

The boy nodded, as if remembering something, picked up the rifle on the ground, handed it to the big sister, and the two of them walked together, one arm and her blood-stained hand, and they walked down the hill, leaving the charred cherry blossom forest. (To be continued.) )