Chapter 951: The Sword Master's "Unfinished Business" [Leopard Update 6K7]

Everyone's eyes were focused on Shuten-doji, quietly waiting for his specific instructions.

Shuten-doji thought for a while, and said in a deep voice:

"... Our military strength is already quite tight, and we can't make too many sacrifices."

At this point, he turned his head and shouted to Sukuna:

"Bring up all the 'fireworks'!"

...

...

Akasaka-gomon, Watarugawa-mon --

"The enemy's defeat is obvious! Drive them down!"

After shouting, Tokugawa Iemochi shouted, ignoring the dissuasion of the people around him, raised the sword in his hand, stepped forward, and joined the battle.

The Russian soldiers did not understand Japanese, nor did they know what "Shogun" was.

The soldiers of the special forces were not so ignorant.

They had seen through Tokugawa Iemochi's true identity through his appearance and the series of words he shouted.

"Kill him! He is Tokugawa Iemochi! As long as we kill him, we will win this battle."

"Don't worry about the others! Deal with Tokugawa Iemochi first!"

"Kill! The fall of the shogunate is today!"

A large number of enemy soldiers rushed towards Tokugawa Iemochi from all directions.

Faced with this sudden crisis, Tokugawa Iemochi was not panicked.

While he raised his sword, he calmly scanned the battle situation.

"Damn traitor! Heaven's punishment!"

An enemy soldier roared and rushed towards Tokugawa Iemochi.

The sword raised above his head chopped hard at his head.

Judging from the perspective of swordsmanship, his sword was very good, with sufficient power, straight blade, and accurate control of the spacing.

However, he misjudged one thing: Tokugawa Iemochi has never been a spoiled person!

Although he was the Shogun, he always maintained the habit of exercising and practicing swordsmanship.

Due to his limited talent, he was not a martial arts master with extraordinary skills, but he was definitely not a weak scholar who could not even tie a chicken!

He stared at the enemy's sword path, suddenly raised the sword in his hand, and held it diagonally above his head.

With a clang, the two steel swords hit each other in the air.

Then, the enemy's sword slid to the side along the blade of the sword like a slide.

This move is the most classic force elimination in swordsmanship.

After resolving the enemy's offensive, Tokugawa Iemochi immediately launched a counterattack.

His skills in switching from defense to offense are quite skillful.

In just a blink of an eye, he adjusted the sword in his palm to the upper right section, and then chopped it down neatly!

Puff!

The blade of the sword cut through the enemy's entire body, and blood spurted out.

After shaking a few times, the enemy's body fell to the ground with a "thump".

The general not only joined the battle in person, but also personally chopped down an enemy soldier... The surroundings were cheered again to boost morale.

Although the bravery of Tokugawa Iemochi impressed the soldiers, he was still the supreme commander of the shogunate.

If anything happened to him, it would cause an irreparable and serious blow to the shogunate.

It was too dangerous to be exposed to the enemy's blade for a long time.

So, a group of soldiers cheered up and planned to step forward to protect Tokugawa Iemochi.

However... they all stopped after just a few steps.

It was not that they did not want to support Tokugawa Iemochi, but they realized belatedly that the other party did not need their protection at all - because there was a very reliable bodyguard next to him!

"Be careful! This guy is the 'Sword Saint' Seiichiro Otani!"

"Don't back off! Even if he is the 'Sword Saint', he is already an old man!"

"What is there to fear about an old 'Sword Saint'?"

Several enemy soldiers formed a rough fan shape and surrounded Tokugawa Iemochi.

However, they were very afraid of the old man who was guarding Tokugawa Iemochi, and they hesitated and never crossed the short distance of a few steps.

Although they encouraged and cheered each other, they did not dare to step forward to confront the blade of the "Sword Saint"!

Throughout the ages, the only swordsmen with the title of "Sword Saint" were Nobunaga Kamiizumi and Bokuden Tsukahara in the Warring States Period, Ittosai Ogata 70 years ago, and Seiichiro Otani today.

This kind of rare and powerful person made them nervous and cautious.

Seeing that the enemy soldiers did not dare to step forward, Seiichiro Otani was too lazy to accompany them!

In a flash, he stepped forward and slashed the first man's chest like a flying swallow, then adjusted the blade and slashed the second man to the ground, then turned the action of retracting the blade into an attacking move, and cut the third and fourth men's stomachs in one breath.

Finally, he stepped back to the side of Tokugawa Iemochi.

His blade was so fast that the enemy soldiers couldn't even react, let alone block or dodge. Some of them didn't even know that they had been chopped.

Elodie didn't know Seiichiro Otani and Kiyone Kubota, she had only heard of their names.

The reason why Seiichiro Otani was honored as the "Sword Saint" was largely because he made outstanding contributions to Japanese swordsmanship.

His greatest contribution was to unify the length of bamboo swords.

Before that, because of the low average height, swordsmen generally couldn't use long swords, so for a long time, the 73cm bamboo sword was the mainstream of Japanese swordsmanship.

It was not until the sudden appearance of the "Seven-foot Peerless" Oishi Shin that this "mainstream" was shaken.

Oishi Shin, who was seven feet tall (2.1 meters) and held a five-foot three-inch long sword (1.6 meters), was invincible throughout Edo, and countless strong men were defeated by his sword.

Affected by this, long swords became popular in the swordsmanship world for a while, and the idea of ​​"the longer the sword, the better" became an unquestionable truth.

Swordsmen rushed to pick up long swords, fearing that their swords would be half an inch shorter than others, regardless of whether they could use such a long sword.

Seiichiro Otani could not stand this trend, so he used a short sword (73cm) that had been abandoned at the time to knock Oishi Shin to the ground despite the height difference of dozens of centimeters.

After defeating Oishi Shin, Seiichiro Otani made a major reform of Japanese swordsmanship with this record and his own prestige, unifying the length of bamboo swords to the current 4 feet (1.2 meters), completely ending the fallacy of "the longer the sword, the better".

From then on, the bamboo swords of all schools were of the same length, and no longer blindly pursued long swords.

Seiichiro Otani's feat of unifying the length of bamboo swords can be said to have laid the foundation for the current Japanese swordsmanship.

If there was no such a prestigious master to integrate everyone's ideas, I'm afraid that everyone would still be arguing about the best length of the bamboo sword to this day.

Of course, the main reason why he was awarded the title of "Sword Saint" was his unparalleled strength!

There are all kinds of anecdotes about how Seiichiro Otani overwhelmed the heroes, and it would take a day and a night to tell them all.

In short, before he was old and weak, Seiichiro Otani was always synonymous with "invincible"!

With him guarding by Tokugawa Iemochi's side, no matter how the enemy soldiers approached or how desperately they attacked, they could not get close to Tokugawa Iemochi.

From the overall effect, Tokugawa Iemochi's brave charge played a role that cannot be underestimated.

The head of the Shogun... As long as you cut it off, the battle will be won - this huge temptation made the soldiers of the Qibingtai unable to keep their sanity.

They rushed to Tokugawa Iemochi, regardless of everything else.

Leaving their positions without permission... This would make their formation messy and shaky!

Elodie seized this opportunity and shouted "Follow me", squeezing out the remaining strength in her body, intensifying her offensive, trying to drive the enemy out of the imperial gate in one go!

To make a vivid analogy... the enemy was like swinging a fist to defeat Tokugawa Iemochi, the fist was raised, but the vulnerable ribs were exposed - Elodie took the opportunity to throw a heavy punch, hitting the empty ribs!

Her attack immediately had an immediate effect.

With the high morale that seemed to be assisted by God, the soldiers swarmed up and fought and rushed fearlessly.

The enemy retreated step by step, with heavy casualties.

Those who were still alive hurriedly retreated back to the ground along the way they came - the long ladders.

The enemy on the ferry gate retreated like a tide.

The defenders took advantage of the situation and killed those who didn't have time to escape, and then cut off and overturned the long ladders.

At this point, there were no more enemy soldiers on the ferry gate.

"The enemy retreated! We won!"

"We defended the Akasaka Gate!"

"Wuwuwuwuwuwuwuwuwu..."

Facing this victory that was finally achieved after countless hardships, many people cried with joy.

Elodie panted and adjusted her physical and mental state in a hurry, while looking around blankly.

Just now, she was desperate because she had no idea what to do.

Unexpectedly, after only a dozen minutes, the situation on the battlefield had reversed dramatically!

The Shogun and the Odaikoku led the expedition in person; the arrival of the "Sword Saint"... These unexpected reinforcements helped them survive the most difficult period.

At this moment, Elodie deeply realized what "the battlefield changes in an instant" meant.

The enemy soldiers retreated... Logically, this is a good thing.

Even if they only retreated temporarily, they could get a moment of respite to adjust their status.

However... facing this scene, Elodie did not feel happy or relaxed.

Counting the previous battle of Hachioji, she had fought two battles with the French coalition.

Elodie had a clear understanding of how difficult this group of powerful enemies was.

Their cunning mind and rich means made every joy she had now mixed with an ominous premonition.

Somehow, at this moment, she suddenly recalled the scenes when the Goryeo Gate was about to fall.

The enemy also retreated...

The enemy also stopped attacking...

It was as if God was teasing her on purpose. At the moment when her heart beat an uneasy rhythm——

Gulululululu...!

Suddenly, there was a rapid sound of wheels turning from far to near outside the imperial gate!

In an instant, Elodie's pupils suddenly shrank into pinholes.

She ran to the edge of the Imperial Gate in two steps and looked out—12 large carts were rushing towards them!

All the scenes were the same as before.

Each cart was loaded with wooden barrels... Perhaps they were too lazy to hide it—in fact, there was no need to hide it anymore, Elodie and the others knew what these wooden barrels were—so these carts were no longer covered with straw mats.

Looking at this convoy that was even larger than before, Elodie suddenly felt a chill spreading from the bottom of her heart to her limbs and bones, and then rushed straight to the top of her head!

The next moment, as if it was a conditioned reflex, she shouted at the top of her voice:

"Quick! Stop them! Those are bombs! Don't let these bombs get close to the Imperial Gate!"

After hearing the word "bomb", the faces of Tokugawa Iemochi, Tenshoin, Otani Seiichiro and others changed immediately.

They immediately understood that these wooden barrels were the main culprit that turned Akasaka Mikado's Goryeo Gate into a pile of ruins.

The enemy still had so many bombs... From this point of view, they really spent a lot of money and worked hard to capture Edo.

Kondo Shusuke yelled:

"Damn! How many bombs do they have?!"

Different from just now, this time, Elodie and the others have two sharp archers.

In the blink of an eye, Tenzouin and Kubota Kiyone stepped forward without any explanation at the same time, drawing their bows and arrows to snipe at the enemy soldiers who were pushing the vehicles.

Their archery skills are indeed superb.

Even though there was a long distance between them, and even if the enemy soldiers hid most of their bodies behind the vehicle, they were still able to hit the target with perfect accuracy!

Arrows shot out in the air.

One enemy soldier fell to the ground and died.

However... there are too many enemy soldiers!

Each cart must be pushed by at least 4 enemy soldiers.

Even if Tenzouin and Kubota Kiyone pull out the sparks from the bowstrings in their hands, it will be a drop in the bucket.

Although other soldiers picked up muskets, bows and arrows and stepped forward to support them, their bow skills (gun skills) were far inferior to those of Tenjoin and Kubota Kiyone, and they were unable to accurately shoot the enemy soldiers. In the end, they only formed an "atmosphere team" role.

At this time, a new unexpected situation occurred.

Tianzhangyuan released new arrows and shot down another enemy soldier.

As the enemy soldier fell forward, he accidentally hit the vehicle in front of him.

The car shook a few times, and several barrels on the car rolled down.

After these wooden barrels fell to the ground, they immediately bounced several inches high and made crisp sounds of "dong" and "dong".

Anyone with some common sense knows that a full wooden barrel will not bounce so high, nor will it make such a crisp sound.

Tianzhangyuan immediately understood what was going on, and his expression became particularly ugly:

"Some of the carts were not loaded with bombs!"

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere suddenly filled with shock and annoyance.

The enemy's tricks are obvious.

They deliberately brought a bunch of carts without bombs to confuse Elodie and others and make their defense more difficult!

Blessings never come in pairs, misfortunes never come alone... Suddenly, a certain sergeant suddenly screamed:

"A new vehicle has appeared!"

I saw 12 more large trolleys arriving at the end of the street directly opposite the royal gate!

Elodie never believed that the enemy had so many bombs.

The vast majority of these vehicles must have contained only empty barrels.

Only a few of the cars actually contain bombs.

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Their manpower is already severely understaffed.

In this adverse situation, there is also the distraction of identifying which vehicles are safe and which vehicles are dangerous...

At this time, although no one said it clearly, they all had the same thought in their hearts: The Watura Gate is in danger!

At this critical moment, Tokugawa Iemo suddenly spoke out:

"Retreat! Abandon Watura Gate!"

Upon hearing this, everyone turned their heads and cast surprised glances at each other.

Tokugawa Iemo recited Takeda Shingen's famous lines quickly without pause:

"'People are the city, people are the walls, and people are the borders'!"

"Wherever people are, there is hope!"

"Abandon the imperial gate! Retreat immediately!"

Give up the Wataru Gate... This gate is the last gate of the Akasaka Imperial Gate.

This move is tantamount to giving up Akasaka Mikado completely!

In this way, there will be a big hole in the defense line of "Thirty-Six Views" that is difficult to fill!

However, no one dared to disobey the order given by General Zhengyi himself.

The soldiers retreated hurriedly, ran down the imperial gate quickly and without chaos, and moved to a safe area.

Tokugawa Iemo did not leave with the soldiers, but stayed behind.

He insisted that the others leave first, and he was not willing to leave until the soldiers had withdrawn.

The people who also stayed behind at the Imperial Gate include Elodie, Kondo Shusuke, Otani Seiichiro and other leaders.

Tenzouin and Kubota Kiyone stood still and continued to shoot at the enemy soldiers pushing carts, trying to slow down the advancing speed of the convoy.

At this moment, the sense of time on both sides became strange.

Only ten minutes had passed, but it seemed as long as ten hours.

Finally... under the gaze of countless eyes, the trolleys arrived directly under the Watari Gate.

At the same time, all the defenders on the imperial gate had withdrawn.

The only people who have not left yet are Tokugawa Iemo, Elodie and others!

"Your Highness! Let's go!"

Male Tan Seiichiro shouted, and then escorted Tokugawa Iemo back.

As he began to evacuate, Tokugawa Iemo turned to Tianzhangin and shouted:

"Mother! Come with me!"

Seeing that the evacuation work was in the final stage, Tenzouin and Kubota Kiyone finally put away their bows and left the shooting position.

Elodie and Kondo Shusuke followed closely behind.

Just as they were hurriedly retreating... outside the royal gate, Shuten Doji once again raised the Japanese bow in his hand.

The arrows mounted on the bow burned brightly.

With quick eyesight and quick hands, he adjusted the position of the arrow cluster, aimed at the barrels of gunpowder, and drew the bow like a full moon.

Then, he softly recited another slogan that the Japanese often shout when setting off fireworks:

"Key~house~(ka~gi~ya~)"

The next moment, the power accumulated in his arms suddenly bounced away.

Whoosh!

The rocket flew out and hit a powder keg.

For a moment... the moment the burning arrow cluster sank deeply into the barrel——

Boom! ! !

Mushroom-shaped fire clouds rose into the sky!

The explosion at this moment was even better than before!

The surging flames swept through most of the Duolu Gate in the blink of an eye!

At the moment when the explosion occurred, Elodie and his party had just left the imperial gate.

Although he walked out of the imperial gate, he was not completely out of the explosion range.

In fact, they only had to take a few more steps to reach safety.

If Tokugawa Iemo had ordered the retreat earlier...

If the convoy's approach speed were slower...

If Shuten-douji had released his arrow a little slower...

Unfortunately, none of these "what ifs" happened.

No one can know what the right decision is.

The only thing people can do is to do their best and accept the results calmly.

In an instant, a strong impact carried thick smoke and dust, and rolled towards Elodie and others.

Along with the attack, there were countless broken bricks and tiles.

"Lie down!"

In a hurry, Elodie heard the shout of male Tan Seiichiro.

Before she could think about it, she dived forward and fell to the ground.

The shock wave coming from behind was like a passing hurricane, almost blowing her away.

While holding her head with both hands to protect her head, she clenched her silver teeth and endured the severe pain that nearly tore her eardrums.

…

…

"...Ugh...! Ahem!"

She coughed out the smoke she accidentally inhaled.

Similar scenes, similar feelings, similar pain... everything is so similar.

Elodie almost thought that she had experienced the legendary time travel and returned to a few minutes ago.

Elodie shook her head vigorously, as if to get rid of the pain and dizziness in her mind.

Crash la la la... Countless dust sprinkled on its head fell down.

After she regained some consciousness, she began to check her whole body - fortunately, all the parts were still there, not a single one was missing.

Unfortunately, the "buzzing" that finally slowed down returned to his eardrums.

This time it was even more serious. Not only did a honeycomb grow deep in the ear, but it also repeatedly produced pinprick-like stings.

After feeling that there was no bleeding in her ears, she was shocked: It hurt so much, but there was no bleeding?

Just when she put her hands on the ground and was about to stand up, she suddenly heard a voice beside her that made her feel very uneasy:

"Cough, cough, cough, cough...!"

A cough mixed with the sound of water... Elodie's face changed color, she turned her head in a panic and looked at Kondo Shusuke beside her.

"Mr. Kondo, what's wrong with you?"

I saw Kondo Shusuke lying on the ground with a face full of pain, and the clothes on his back were stained with blood. The area of ​​​​the blood stain was expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Kondo Shusuke grinned and tried to pretend to be calm and calm:

"Just now...I was lying down a little slower...a stone brick hit my back without any bias..."

"Apparently, my luck is not good this time..."

"What a pity... If I were 10 years younger, I would definitely be able to avoid this stone..."

When Elodie heard this, her expression changed several times.

She doesn't understand medicine.

However, she understood that vomiting a lot of blood meant she had suffered serious internal injuries!

Just when his mind was paralyzed by intense panic, an old male voice from not far away answered Kondo Shusuke's words:

"Hahaha... I feel the same way... If I were 10 years younger, I would never end up in such a world..."

Elodie looked around, and her already pale face suddenly became even more ugly.

The speaker is Kubota Kiyone.

He was also injured, and the injury was much more serious than Kondo Shusuke!

His right leg was bloody and bloody, and a stone as big as a fist lay beside his leg.

It is not difficult to imagine that, like Kondo Shusuke, he must have been hit in the thigh by a flying stone brick because he was lying down a little slower!

"Are you all okay?"

Tianzhangyuan's voice brought Elodie's mind back to reality.

Elodie turned to look at Tianzhang Courtyard - she was not injured, but her body was covered in dust, the ribbon binding her hair had fallen off, and three thousand blue hairs were hanging down.

"General! Are you okay?"

The voice of Otani Seiichiro made everyone nervous.

They all turned their eyes to confirm Tokugawa Iemo's current situation.

At this moment, the male Tan Seiichiro was supporting him and wiping the blood on his forehead solemnly.

Tokugawa Iemo opened his eyes with all his strength, touched his forehead, and whispered:

"I'm fine...just...I was scratched by a stone...a little dizzy..."

After confirming that Tokugawa Iemo was still alive, Tenzouin and others let out a sigh of relief.

However, he is now in a "half-awake" state.

Although he was not unconscious, his consciousness was blurred and he could not even speak a complete sentence.

No one died so close to the center of the explosion. Only Tokugawa Iemo, Kubota Kiyone and Kondo Shusuke were injured... Such a result can be considered very lucky.

"General, please hold on, the enemy is about to come."

After that, Seiichiro Tanani put one of Tokugawa Iemo's arms on his shoulders and helped him stand up.

As soon as he finished saying "The enemy is about to kill" with his front foot, there was a dense sound of footsteps coming from his back foot——

Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap!

Dull and dense footsteps approached them.

The man Tan Seiichiro followed the sound and looked - a large group of enemy troops broke into his sight.

There were many enemies, at least three hundred people... They must have wanted to complete their victory in one battle, so they sent all the troops they could use.

Among this vast group of enemies, Tan Seiichiro keenly discovered a conspicuous guy.

This man wears a large armor from the Heian period, has a scholarly temperament, and has handsome features like a Kabuki actor.

Although it is just a personal intuition, Otani Seiichiro is very sure: this person is the enemy's general!

His eyes were firmly fixed on Shuten Doji, and his eyelids slowly lowered, his eyes sparkling with light.

"...His Royal Highness Tianzhangyuan, please take the General to the rear."

As he spoke, he handed Tokugawa Iemo on his shoulder to Tenzouin without any explanation.

"I still have unfinished business."

Choking, rang, rang, rang… the words fell and the sword appeared!

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"Unfinished business" - this sentence is so cool.