"Lord! Let's go!"

"No! I won't leave! How can I abandon the inheritance of my ancestors? Let me go! Let me go!"

"Lord! If you don't leave, it will be too late!"

…

The feudal lords of Kotori Domain scrambled to pick up their feudal lord and fled down the mountain via a small path.

Behind them - the majestic Gaoche City, nearly 600 meters above sea level - is now tightly enveloped in thick smoke.

"Win!", "Gaotori City is ours!"...Such shouts came to their ears one after another.

Listening to these cheers and looking at the traitor flags fluttering in the wind on the castle tower in the distance, the emperors and ministers of the high domain all had eyes that were about to burst and their teeth were grinding together.

However...at this moment, all they can do is to run away in a hurry, and they can only look up and sigh.

Generally speaking, facing the Tenchu ​​Group's troops approaching the city, the resistance of the emperors and ministers of Gaotori Domain was not unreasonable.

Although the incident happened suddenly, they still tried their best to mobilize the army and strengthen their defense.

However...the corruption of the army caused by the comfortable life of letting horses go to Nanshan and storing swords and guns in storage is, after all, an unavoidable problem for most feudal regimes.

The weakness of the military power of the vassals has always been obvious to all.

Of course, the shogunate has nothing to do with this.

The shogunate used various methods to torment the vassals through systems such as pilgrimage and interrogation, resulting in widespread poverty among the vassals.

People with high debts are everywhere.

Although the financial situation of the Takatori domain is not at a level where it is difficult to find fault, it is not ideal either.

Just by paying salaries to the samurai in the domain, the kings and ministers of the Kotori domain will have one head and two heads. Where will there be spare money to train troops and maintain equipment?

Therefore... one can imagine the military preparedness of Takatori Domain.

Although there is still a certain amount of guns stored in its warehouse, they have all deteriorated due to lack of maintenance.

The completion rate is only 34 out of 10.

In fact, regardless of troop strength, equipment, or even the most basic chain of command on the battlefield, Gao Qijun did a terrible job!

The so-called "battlefield chain of command" does not stipulate who will listen to you and who will listen to whom, and who will be responsible for commanding you. You will command him and that's it.

When the battle begins and the troops rush to the battlefield, how do the generals sitting in their own formations effectively issue orders to the front line?

When there are changes on the front line, how do junior officers quickly report the situation to the commander-in-chief at the rear?

When information exchanges are too frequent, how to ensure that information transmission channels can always remain smooth.

This is a university question, and it is also a big problem.

There are no shortcuts. You have to trial and error over and over again, pay "tuition fees" continuously, and accumulate experience step by step.

Counting on improvising will never work.

Based on Gao Qijun's long-awaited training level... it's not difficult to imagine how they will perform against the Tianzhu team.

Facts have proved that it is true - as soon as the war started, the ever-changing battlefield situation and intelligence changes instantly broke the Gao Qijun's chain of command!

If the intelligence is not transmitted in place, the soldiers cannot find the generals, the generals cannot find the soldiers, and 100% of the strength will not be used at 50%.

It is true that there are many martial arts masters who are proficient in swordsmanship and spearmanship among the Gaoqi army.

However, unless it is a "humanoid Gundam" like Aoto and Souji, throwing ordinary warriors into a bloody and cruel battlefield is like pouring one or two drops of oil into the sea - it will be diluted in an instant.

No trace left.

Moreover, when it comes to the number of martial arts masters, the Tianzhu Group, which has already gathered a large number of troops, is still higher than the Gao Qijun.

In addition to the geographical advantage, there is no place where we are not at a disadvantage... Can we win with high military security?

In this way, the Takatori Army, which was sitting on one of the few fortified cities in Japan, was attacked by the Tenchu ​​Group in turns, and only resisted for 2 hours before losing the city.

The kings and ministers of Takatori Domain fought desperately to escape, and finally saved their lives.

The soldiers of the Tenchu ​​Group were like a flood, occupying every corner of Gaotori Castle.

They raised their voices and cheered, excited to obtain this solid and reliable rear fortress.

…

…

Tenchu ​​Group President Yoshimura Tontaro rode a tall horse and slowly passed through the gate of Takatori Castle, closely surrounded by his comrades.

I saw a conspicuous flag on the tree next to him.

It has to be said that the methods and achievements of the Tenchu ​​Group in publicity mobilization and public opinion building are indeed worthy of praise.

They made a banner with the chrysanthemum family crest that represents the royal family embroidered on it. There was also a line of large characters embroidered under the family crest: Seven Lives of Thieves Destroyed by the Empress of Heaven.

Obviously, this is adapted from Kusunoki Masashige's oath to serve the country for seven lives in the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

And this is the flag currently being erected next to Yoshimura Torataro.

Even though he has never seen the Emperor in person, he still assumes the posture of an Imperial Guard or a Habayashi Guard...

However, their banner did have quite an effect.

Some idiots who have studied Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and Mito Studies to their heart's content were moved to tears when they saw this flag.

A large number of so-called lofty ideals were inspired by this flag and came one after another to defect to the Tianzhu Group.

"Lord Yoshimura, we succeeded!"

A samurai who was neither fat nor thin, about thirty years old, lightly knocked on the horse's belly, sped up, walked side by side with Yoshimura Torataro, and said this with excitement.

This person's name is Matsumoto Kuido, a Bizen person...or rather a former Bizen person.

He had already left the feudal vassal and was expelled from the vassal state. He is now a "free man", also commonly known as a ronin.

As soon as Matsumoto Kuitou finished speaking, another person who was also closely following Yoshimura Torataro echoed:

"Mr. Yoshimura! This battle went much smoother than we expected! We finally have a base we can rely on!"

This man's name is Tetsushi Fujimoto. Not only is he old (48 years old), but he is not even a samurai, he is just a big manor from Tosa.

The so-called village house is the smallest unit of grassroots management of the Tosa Domain and is the top manager of the rural organization.

The villagers are selected by the county executive from prestigious families in the village, but in fact many villagers have held this position for generations.

To put it simply, the villagers are the gentry.

Yoshimura Tointaro, Matsumoto Kuido, and Fujimoto Teishi—the above three people form the top command of the Tenchu ​​group.

Relying on the bravery of a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers, and the advantage of taking a preemptive strike, they took Gojo Town in just one night, and then quickly attacked Takatori Castle.

After capturing Gojo Town on August 18, the flag was planted in the castle tower of Takatori Castle just two days later (on the 20th).

Such a fierce offensive and such a fierce attack speed can be said to be "the autumn wind sweeps away the fallen leaves"!

To be honest, the smooth development of the situation completely exceeded the expectations of Yoshimura Tontaro and others.

Yoshimura Tontaro smiled at the corner of his mouth, raised his chin slightly, and his face was full of unstoppable pride.

The battle situation was so smooth that he couldn't help but start to fantasize - he would sweep the world like Minamoto Yoshitsune! He would win the battle and capture the attack, and annihilate the shogunate like a devastation! He became a great hero who reshaped the country and was deeply loved by future generations.

People's admiration!

When he thought of this, the corners of his mouth almost turned up to his ears.

Just as he was secretly imagining, this person who was lustful... Suddenly, a fast horse rode straight towards him!

"Lord Yoshimura! Lord Yoshimura!"

As soon as Yoshimura Tortaro looked over, the messenger arrived in front of him.

The messenger panted and handed over the letter in his hand - it was said to be a letter, but in fact it was just a 3-inch square piece of tissue paper rolled into a tube.

Yoshimura Tontaro frowned lightly, took it casually, and slowly unfolded it - with just one glance, the smile at the corner of his mouth froze, his complexion suddenly changed, and his pupils shrank to the size of pinholes.

Matsumoto Kuitang on the side saw this and couldn't help but ask:

"Mr. Yoshimura, what's wrong?"

Yoshimura Tontaro lowered his face and squeezed out the words through clenched teeth:

"Something happened...!"

…

…

It's night——

Takatori Castle, Castle Tower——

"What?! The Emperor declared us rebels?!"

"What's going on?!"

"Why did we become rebels?!"

A louder exclamation and roar dominated the inside and outside of the castle tower.
To be continued...