Turn back time not long ago

Osaka, in a forest in the suburbs

Kara, Kara...

In the woods, a large rock suddenly shook unnaturally.

If a passerby were here now and saw this stone that suddenly moved on its own, he would be scared out of his wits and mistakenly think it was haunted.

But in fact, the reason why this stone "moves on its own" is simply because someone is pushing the big stone under it.

With a "click" sound, the big stone was pushed upward through a gap.

A pair of sharp eyes looked around along this gap.

After confirming that there was no danger outside, the owner of these eyes, a slightly shorter warrior, pushed the big stone above his head away.

It turns out that there is a secret passage underneath the big stone, and this big stone is used to cover this secret passage...

The short warrior pushed aside the stone blocking the secret passage, jumped out of the secret passage with a neat posture, and then shouted into the secret passage:

"It's safe outside, come out quickly."

After the words fell, everyone headed by Matsudaira Sadanobu filed out of the secret passage.

"It should be safe if you escape here..." Masajun Hota, the representative of Osaka Castle, looked at Osaka Castle in the distance with a pale face.

Building secret passages has been very popular in the Warring States Period more than 200 years ago. Even now, 200 years later, the Edo shogunate is still keen on building secret passages for escape in various important places.

.

Osaka Castle is a fortress that the shogunate spent a lot of money to build, so there is no shortage of things like secret passages.

After learning that an enemy with overwhelming numerical superiority was attacking Osaka Castle and that Osaka Castle would fall soon, Hota Masajun immediately led Matsudaira Sadanobu and some of his guards into a secret passage in Osaka Castle that could lead directly to the outskirts of Osaka.

The whole process of leaving Osaka Castle along the secret passage was a thrilling one.

After walking this long secret road and arriving at the outskirts of Osaka, Hota Masajun finally felt relieved.

While Hota Masahiro was looking at the Osaka Castle they had just escaped from, Matsudaira Sadanobu was also looking at this towering fortress. Then, he looked at the Osaka city where fires were currently appearing everywhere.

"...Mashun Hotta." He said, "How did you become the Osaka Castle representative? The rebellious ministers and traitors just dragged artillery to bombard Osaka Castle with such arrogance, but you didn't even have any relevant information before the incident happened.

Not detected."

Matsudaira Sadanobu's tone was very calm, as if he was talking about trivial matters.

But after he finished speaking, Hota Masajun immediately felt as if he had heard the harshest and most vicious criticism in the world. His face suddenly turned pale and he broke out in a cold sweat.

"Please, please forgive me, Mr. Laozhong..." Hota Masajun was so frightened that his mind went blank, and he fell to his knees, his body shaking at an exaggerated frequency.

Matsudaira Sadanobu ignored Hotta Masajun who knelt down to apologize.

He turned his head again and looked at Osaka and Osaka Castle in the distance.

There was a gleam of thought in his eyes.

At this time, his nickname, Tachibana, said to him in a deep voice:

"Sir Lao Zhong, although we are now on the outskirts of Osaka, I feel that this place is still not absolutely safe."

"How about we immediately go to the military camp located northeast of Osaka and meet up with the 500 generals who are currently gathered in that military camp?"

"With those 500 generals as our support, our safety will be greatly guaranteed."

"...Yeah." As soon as Tachibana finished speaking, Matsudaira Sadanobu nodded gently, "That's what I meant."

"However, we can't just leave without doing anything."

"We now need to collect enemy intelligence as quickly as possible."

"At the very least, we need to know who is attacking Osaka."

After saying that, he turned to look at the four guards beside him.

"Kawai, Fujita, Niimi, and Saeki. The four of you are now entering Osaka and gathering as much information about the enemy as possible. Remember to protect yourself and join us at the military camp outside Osaka northeast before dawn."

The four people selected by Matsudaira Sadanobu were his four personal guards. Not only were they highly skilled, they were also extremely loyal to Matsudaira Sadanobu.

As soon as Matsudaira Sadanobu's order was given, the four people immediately responded "yes" in unison without saying a word, and then turned around and ran towards Osaka without any hesitation.

"Tamaki, Miyagawa. You two go to Kyoto immediately and tell the Kyoto Governor Shiai Ohta about our situation, and ask him to organize the army immediately, do a good job in the defense of Kyoto, and be ready to lead the army south to support Osaka at any time.

preparation."

"Yes!"*2

"Mizuguchi, Sanpin, and Souma." Matsudaira Sadanobu named three more people. "The three of you are responsible for returning to Edo and informing Wakatani of our situation so that they can immediately start war mobilization and strengthen Edo.

The city is on alert to prevent Edo from making the same mistake as Osaka tonight."

[Note: Posted by Ruonian: In the shogunate, the senior official whose official position is second only to Lao Zhong is responsible for assisting Lao Zhong in handling national affairs]

"Yes!"*3

After arranging this series of tasks, Matsudaira Sadanobu turned around and faced the northeast of Osaka, facing the direction where the 500 generals were stationed.

"The rest of you follow me."

…

…

time back to now

The military camp of 500 generals, inside the commander's tent

At this moment, the general-level figures headed by Ba Chang gathered in the coach's tent.

The person sitting on the main seat of the big tent was none other than Sadanobu Matsudaira.

Tachibana sat next to Matsudaira Sadanobu and told Baba and others about their encounter in Osaka tonight for Matsudaira Sadanobu.

After learning that Osaka and Osaka Castle were actually attacked, and that this group of unidentified enemies had an astonishing number of firearms, including artillery, Baba and the others immediately opened their mouths, looking completely dumbfounded.

"Um, could it be that the people of the Satsuma and Choshu clans rebelled?" Baba raised his hand and wiped the cold sweat on his head.

The only enemies that Battlefield could think of that had a large number of firearms were the Satsuma Domain and the Choshu Domain, which had sufficient reasons to raise armies.

The Western vassals headed by Satsuma Domain and Choshu Domain were forced to surrender to the Edo shogunate two hundred years ago due to despotic power. It is not surprising that they would rebel anytime.

However, as soon as Baba raised his conjecture, Matsudaira Sadanobu mercilessly refuted:

"If the Satsuma Clan, Choshu Clan and other vassals rebelled, we would not be able to get any information in advance."

"That's right..." Ba Chang muttered.

The horse farm is a very typical military commander who is used to living a peaceful life, and his senses are numbed by the peaceful life, and he has no ability to deal with emergencies.

He was completely frightened by the shocking news of "Osaka attack", and he blankly asked Matsudaira Sadanobu:

"Then... Mr. Lao Zhong, what should we do now?"

Matsudaira Sadanobu glanced at Baba who asked such a stupid question with a displeased look, and said:

"Now let's wait for the guards I sent to collect intelligence to come back, and then make a plan after collecting enough intelligence."

As soon as Matsudaira Sadanobu finished speaking, the curtain at the entrance of the coach's tent was suddenly opened.

"Lao Naka-sama." The person who opened the curtain and entered the tent was one of Matsudaira Sadanobu's personal guards. "Kawago is back."

Kawai Matsudaira Sadanobu remembered that this person was one of the people he had just sent to Osaka to spy on intelligence.

"Kawai is back? Is he the only one back?" Matsudaira Sadanobu frowned slightly.

"Yes!"

"...Let him come here quickly."

"Yes." The guard who came to report the news retreated outside the tent.

Then, not long after, he returned to Matsudaira Sadanobu with Kawai, who couldn't hide his tiredness on his face.

"Sir Laozhong..." Kawai knelt down and saluted, and weakly said hello to Matsudaira in a tired voice.

"Are you injured?" Matsudaira Sadanobu asked first.

"I'm fine...but...everyone else has unfortunately died..."

"What on earth happened?"

Kawaii reported to Matsudaira Sadanobu the whole process of their entry into Osaka to inquire about the news.

After the four of them entered Osaka under the orders of Matsudaira Sadanobu, they immediately carried out the mission of spying on intelligence conscientiously.

At first, their "infiltration into Osaka" went smoothly and they never encountered any enemies.

Until... they came to Osaka Port by chance...

After they arrived at Osaka Port, they heard a strange "woo-woo" sound.

Before they could react, they saw cannonballs falling...

Two of them were blown to pieces on the spot, and the other was seriously injured. Only Kawai was lucky enough to escape the explosion.
To be continued...