At the second watch, dense dark clouds obscured the moonlight and starry sky, making the night particularly dark at this time. There was silence in the barracks, but the feasts in Umino Castle were still brightly lit and all night long.

Suddenly, the loud conch masterpiece instantly startled Xiao Pingtai and his fellow villagers who had already fallen down.

Instinctively, their bodies bounced off the floor, quickly put on their clothes, tied up their leather bags, and helped each other to tie their bamboo armor and hats, and carry their spears until they broke out of the tent and plunged into the queue to which they belonged. Xiao Pingtai quickly joined the formation according to the previous training, and only then did he take a breath, although he was a little anxious in his heart, he was not panicked.

Without him, as part of the training, this night assembly had already been practiced eight or nine times. As usual, the latest column to complete the assembly will be sent to tomorrow morning, and after the captain will be whipped ten times in public, everyone will disband and return to the camp, but the scene in front of him makes Heita shake his mind.

The instructors on weekdays, who are said to be the subordinates of His Highness Kai, are piling boxes of complete sets of equipment in the open space in the center, helping each other to put on their drapes. During the weekday training, I saw the team of knights from afar, and they were also pulling the war horses, and some of them had already begun to get on their horses. In front of the military formation, in several large open boxes, a large pile of Yongle Tongbao was shining with golden light.

Xiaoping wanted to ask his well-informed companion about something, but was stopped by the other party. The next moment, more hooves sounded, and there was the sound of iron plates on the armor clashing, and five or six majestic warriors in their own ornate and intricate armor galloped around a young general, and they could stop their horses in front of the battle.

"His Royal Highness Shinano Mamoru (Umino Totsuna), how is the situation in the city?"

"Your Royal Highness Jingzhen can rest assured, you have added enough accessories to today's wine and meat as you ordered, and the leaders of all clans will not be able to get up at all without a day and a half."

"Hakusai (Tono Hakusai, the leader of the ninja people), Saku and Suwa, what's the situation?"

"Back to Your Highness, the two counties are unguarded and everything is normal, even if they start to mobilize urgently from now on, it will take two hours to assemble and dispatch."

"Kuro (Nagasaka Nobumasa), Masakatsu (Itami Masakat), how are the military horses ready?"

"Big brother, the gun array and the cavalry are ready to be drawn at any time!"

"Your Highness, in the name of escorting the caravan, the merchant security guards are stationed ten miles outside Shiga Castle to monitor the movements in the city in real time!"

Xiao Pingtai saw the young general talking with the entourage for a while, and then he beat his horse and came towards the army, and his heart sank.

Although he replaced his father, who died last month, and was conscripted as a peasant soldier for the first time, the chaotic Kanto region has long been exposed to the cruelty of war. I don't know that at this moment, I have to go out at night and fight the enemy. In case he has a mistake, can Pao Ze bring himself back to Ueno's hometown for burial as promised, how should the old mother and young brother at home live, and will the spring flower who has been secretly in love for many years next door feel sorry for herself?

Thoughts flashed through his mind, disrupting his thoughts. The young general at the head had already opened his mouth and said loudly:

"Lord Feng Kanto, go on an expedition immediately and crusade against the unsubordinate!"

"As the saying goes, being a soldier eats food and takes a salary to work hard. These days, you are full of food, and before you go out of the battle, you will be rewarded with your life money, and it is time to gamble your life to repay the kindness of the ruler! ”

"There are only three chapters of military law tonight, no orders and no retreat, no people are injured, no heads are taken, military merits are captured and counted after the war, and violators will be beheaded without forgiveness!"

"Remember, the place of battle, the place of corpses. If you die, you live, and if you are lucky, you die."

"The whole army is attacking, and the target is Shiga Castle!"

……

Shiga Castle is an important stronghold in Kita-Saku-gun, close to the border with Ueno, and the castle lord Kasawara Kiyoshige is also a rare fierce general, and has a lot of connections with the Murakami clan who dominates the four war-like counties of Kita-Shinano, which can be said to be a major problem for Keizada's pacification of Saku-gun.

In the original history, this castle was the last nail pulled out by Takeda Shingen when he unified Saku-gun. At the time of Fang Shi, Takeda Shingen, with Ganli Hutai and Itagaki Nobukata as his generals, killed more than 3,000 people of the Ueno Uesugi army who came to help, piled up the heads into floating slaughter, and cut off the water source in the city, and finally broke the will of the defenders and broke the city.

And now, Jingzhen took the 3,000 Uesugi army that was supposed to be reinforcements to attack this city in the starry night, which is also a rare fate.

Around the third watch, Koheita was also coerced by the front and back, left and right, side by side, and advanced to Shiga Castle with the rolling army.

Heaven and earth are like ink, and the outline of the city is particularly dark and deep in the night, and only a glimmer of light can be found in the rows of torches on the city wall.

Seeing that there were still more than 100 steps away from the outermost Sannomaru, more than a dozen black shadows had jumped out of the military formation in advance, and they lightly threw flying claws and ropes and began to climb, and then wiped down the defenders of the city one by one.

The whole set of movements of those black shadows was smooth and smooth, and there was no trace of stepping on the snow, and Xiaoping was too attentive to watch, and he could barely keep up with the shaking of his body. If it weren't for the knowledgeable veterans who quietly told him that he was a ninja, Koheita would even classify them as spooky creatures, and maybe he would have nightmares for a few days.

Sannomaru, Ninomaru......

In this way, the ninja assassinated all the way, opening two portals in turn, causing the army to quietly take Honmaru. Just when everything was running smoothly, the unexpected happened!

"Ahh Yes......! ”

Xu is killing several people in a row is not strong, Xu is one-hit killing skills are not pure, and a ninja actually misses, causing the dying guard on the Honmaru to let out a terrible scream.

Suddenly, although the guilty ninja ended the unlucky ghost's life with a single blow and opened the Honmaru Castle Gate with his companions, the raid was exposed. There was a quick uproar and chaos from the castle tower, and several samurai in full armor rushed out, and the lights were lit up in various parts of the castle.

However, the Jingzhen army had already infiltrated the hinterland, and Kasawara Kiyoshige realized that it was too late, and the fate of the city was difficult to save.

"Everyone! Rush forward with me! The ninjas are behind, light a fire and burn the city! Jing Zhen yelled and gave an order, pulled out the famous gun "Komatsu Akira" (note 1) newly given by the Umino clan, and rushed forward.

"Yes!" "Yes!" Jingzhen's order was quickly executed. Military generals such as Nobumasa Nagasaka and Takamatsu Yokota followed, followed by the 300 guns of Jingzhen's own family, and then the 3,000 ashigaru of the Uesugi clan. In the midst of the uproar, the ninjas also took advantage of the chaos to start setting fire to the back, and the red light of the fire illuminated the entire camp.

The mess of scratching, screaming, shouting, and scolding, the city's counterattack was belated. With the three gates lost and the wooden castle tower set on fire, the defenders, unwilling to be defeated, had no choice but to line up in front of them to resist the charge of the guns.

More than a dozen brave warriors screamed and pounced, and a few of them staggered, apparently relying on the momentum of the wine. The spear formation of the previous Jing Zhen family just silently stabbed and pushed again and again, and a few blood columns suddenly burst out of the bodies of this group of people, and then fell to the ground softly. The next two rows of people were stunned for a moment, and immediately got the same fate.

The veterans under the command of Jing Zhen pushed the first wave of attacks unscathed, greatly inspiring the three thousand ashigaru of the Uesugi clan's new training, including Koheita, and they squeezed forward, making the gun array in front of them thicker and denser, and more lethal.

In the face of such a ruthless killing method, the second and final wave of nearly 200 people who had finally gathered began to push and shove, competing to squeeze in the middle of the crowd, while the people on the periphery were like onions, and were soon peeled off two layers by the gun.

The shouts of killing in the city became more and more intense, the fire continued to spread all over the city, and the standing gun arrays and prepared ashigaru were constantly harvesting. The defenders finally lost the ability and the will to resist completely. They screamed meaninglessly, scurrying aimlessly, their terrified faces reflected in the firelight. For them, this is the end of the world.

Kohei saw that behind the scattered enemy, two or three samurai who looked like generals closed their eyes, sat on the ground in a dejected manner, pulled out their ribs, and then stabbed down suddenly, and the first person turned his head and stepped into the flames behind him, accompanied by a loud bang, and the castle tower collapsed......

Half an hour later, the battle had subsided.

"Big brother, the battlefield has been checked, and the castle general Kasahara Kiyoshige killed his wife and set himself on fire in the castle tower, and the wreckage has been confirmed. The next noble warrior was captured by us, seven were captured, thirteen were captured, and dozens of women and children were captured, what should be done? ”

"Men who have reached the age of twenty are all beheaded, and women, children, old and young are ordered to return to their mothers on their own" Jingzhen hardened her heart, and saw that Nagasaka Nobumasa was puzzled by the killing order for herself to change the norm, so Jingzhen explained:

"The Kasawara clan has too much influence in this place, and it must be eliminated. In recent years, Saku-gun will be the most important direct leader of the family to support the follow-up. Therefore, there should not be too many independent and influential people of the wealthy clan who can interfere with the integration of this place. ”

"Now that this place has been leveled, while the night is still dark and the people are not tired, we will continue to act, and the target is the inner mountain city of the Oi clan!"