An hour after the 1st Army camp was attacked——

"Sir! Sir! What should we do now?", "Sir! Please give the order!", "Sir! What should we do with the bodies of Master Tianmu and the others?", "Sir..."...

Kuroda's hands, whose palms were torn off by Ogata, have now been simply treated. Both palms have been treated with medicine and wrapped in thick linen cloth.

There were no painkillers in this era, and Kuroda now felt as if his hands were holding a handful of thorns. The pain was so painful that Kuroda grinned.

But compared to the pain in his palms, what troubles Kuroda more now is the "pain" in his head.

Looking at the generals, big and small, who were talking to each other and asking for instructions from him, Kuroda felt that his head was about to explode.

The camp was attacked by Ogata Ittosai - this was already an hour ago.

Kuroda can guarantee that this is definitely the longest hour he has ever spent in his life... It was only an hour, but it felt like a whole day had passed.

Kuroda feels cold sweat all over his body just thinking about the many things that happened in this hour...

In this short period of one hour, Kuroda successively experienced three states: "blank mind", "must up fighting spirit", and "exhausted".

Let’s talk about the blankness in his head first - after seeing Ikutenmu and Tendo being killed by Ogata like chopping melons and vegetables, Kuroda’s head immediately buzzed and became blank.

It is difficult to understand the situation at hand and to think.

At that time, he only made the most instinctive reaction as a living thing - to survive.

He dragged his seriously injured friend Qiuyue and tried his best to escape from Ogata. He loudly ordered the guards who were originally responsible for guarding the commander's tent to stop Ogata and buy him and Qiuyue some time to escape.

and opportunities.

Fortunately - Kasuga, the general Sentenmu had sent to mobilize the troops, finally arrived at the battlefield with archers and iron gunners.

It seems that Ogata Ittosai has no intention of fighting with him and Akizuki who have lost their fighting spirit and fighting ability. After seeing the archers and iron gunners appear, he evacuates without seeing any trace of them again.

Sheng Tianmu was the general of their first army. When Sheng Tianmu was killed, it was almost like the brain of their first army was chopped off directly.

Therefore, after Sheng Tianmu died in battle, their First Army lost a brain responsible for overall planning and command.

Tianmu was born, Tiandao died in battle, Qiuyue was seriously injured, and Kuroda directly became the highest-ranking general in the First Army.

Faced with the leaderless situation after Ing Tenmu's death, Kuroda, after an extremely fierce ideological struggle, decided to bite the bullet, muster up his fighting spirit, sit in the commander's tent, and assume the "temporary command of the First Army"

Heavy responsibility.

After temporarily taking over the position of Ikutamu, Kuroda immediately issued two orders - to send people to Mogami's hiding place, and to organize people to search everywhere

The reason why Ogata Ittousai broke into the camp so suddenly is not difficult to guess - most likely he came for Mogami.

Unfortunately, Kuroda was a step too late in the end.

After the men he sent arrived at Mogami's hiding place, they only saw corpses on the ground, and Mogami's corpse happened to be one of the corpses on the ground...

The bad news wasn't over yet - not long after Kuroda received the bad news that Mogami was dead, he received another piece of bad news: an ashigaru who behaved strangely appeared in the "South Stable".

After the Ashigaru stole a horse from the "South Stable", he immediately rode his horse and fled out of the camp.

The ashigaru behaves strangely, steals horses, and flees outside the camp - these three factors are superimposed, and it is difficult to prevent Kuroda from becoming alert to the ashigaru.

Realizing that this "Ashigaru" was most likely the Kuroda disguised by Ogata, he immediately sent an order to stop the "Ashigaru" who was riding away from the camp.

It's a pity - Kuroda is a step too late...

At that time, order in the camp had not yet been restored, so the transmission of information was extremely inefficient.

When the news that "there is a strange 'Ashigaru' stealing horses and leaving the camp" reached Kuroda's ears, Ogata was already about to leave the camp.

By the time Kuroda issued the interception order, Ogata had already left the camp with both men and horses...

After learning that it was too late and that the "Ashigaru" had left the camp, Kuroda's mood... was difficult to describe in words.

When he thought that this "Ashigaru" was most likely Ogata Ittosai in disguise, and that this "Ashigaru" had escaped from the camp, Kuroda felt that all the blood in his body was rushing to his head...

The matter has come to this, and it can't be helped... Kuroda can only suppress his fatigue, cheer up, and continue to preside over the work.

After that, Kuroda tidied up the order of the camp bit by bit and rummaged through the camp inch by inch, looking for Ogata Ittosai.

However... I searched the entire camp several times, almost turning the entire camp upside down, but still could not find Ogata Ittosai.

Kuroda had to admit this fact - Ogata Ittousai should have left here...

At this moment, order in the camp has basically been restored.

At this moment, most of the senior generals in the camp were gathered in the commander's tent, asking Kuroda like headless chickens what to do.

At this moment, facing the anxious faces in front of him, Kuroda felt exhausted.

In the past, Kuroda had only commanded a maximum of 1,000 people.

Commanding an army of 3,000 men and still dealing with this kind of mess - this is beyond the limit of Kuroda's abilities.

Kuroda, who was slumped on the pony, like a man who had lost his soul, listened silently to the "requests for instructions" from the generals in front of him for a while, and then he stammered as his head was about to shut down: "

Anyway, in short, now... Let’s count the casualties and statistics of losses..."

Before Kuroda finished speaking, a male voice with a neither salty nor bland tone suddenly sounded from outside the tent:

"Counting the casualties - that's really the first thing to do right now."

“But in addition to counting casualties, we must also not forget to strengthen vigilance.”

"The actions of 'Executioner Ittosai' have always been unreasonable and difficult to understand."

"Don't ignore the possibility of him suddenly coming back."

As soon as this male voice sounded, everyone in the camp looked shocked, then turned their heads and looked at the tent.

"Sir Laozhong!" Kuroda was the first to exclaim.

Songping Sadaxin folded his hands, lifted the curtain at the entrance of the account, and walked slowly into the account.

All the generals in the camp stood up one after another and saluted Matsudaira Nobunobu.

Matsudaira Sadanobu waved his hand to signal everyone to excuse themselves.

"I already know exactly what happened." Matsudaira Sadanobu slowly lowered his hand that signaled the generals in the camp to abstain from courtesy.

Just now, Matsudaira Sadanobu had learned from other people's mouths everything that happened in the camp in the past hour.

I learned that Sheng Tianmu died in battle.

I learned that I searched everywhere in the camp but couldn't find Ogata Ittosai.

Listening to the bad news one after another, Matsudaira Sadanobu's reaction was very dull.

He didn't even frown, as if Ichitenmu's death in battle and Ogata's escape from Ittosai were not significant events worth mentioning.

After knowing that most of the senior generals in the army gathered at the commander's camp to discuss matters, Matsudaira Sadanobu silently took Tachibana to the commander's camp.

Because Tachibana was not qualified to enter the commander's tent, he was waiting silently outside the tent at this time.

"Calm down, Kuroda-kun." Matsudaira Sadanomo looked at Kuroda with calm eyes, "Don't panic over such a trivial matter."

"You look very unseemly like this."

Listening to Matsudaira Sadanobu's rebuke in a calm tone, a look of embarrassment immediately appeared on Kuroda's face at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"I'm very sorry..." Kuroda whispered, "I made you laugh..."

"There is no need to apologize to me." Matsudaira Sadanobu continued to say in a tone that was neither salty nor light, as if there was no emotion contained in it. "Instead of apologizing to me, it is better to focus on rectifying the army.

"

"Cheer up and come out with the spirit of a Sendai clan warrior."

As for Matsudaira Sadanobu... no, it should be said that his whole person seems to be possessed by magic.

After the generals in the camp saw Matsudaira Sadanobu entering the camp with a calm face and hands folded, they felt that their originally panicked hearts calmed down a little.

There is a feeling of having a backbone.

After Kuroda heard Matsudaira Sadanobu's mild rebuke just now, he first felt ashamed, and then——he mustered up his fighting spirit again.

The reason in my mind that had turned into a "miscellaneous ball of wool" was straightened one by one and arranged into clear parallel lines.

Encouraged by Matsudaira Sadanobu's rebuke, Kuroda quickly recovered and took several deep breaths——

"Haruhi, I leave the job of counting the casualties to you. I not only want to know how many people were killed or injured, but also how much supplies were lost."

"Yokoyama, go to the Second Army in person and tell Lord Inamori everything that happened here."

"Tanimura, you will continue to be responsible for leading people to search around the camp..."

…

Kuroda methodically issued military orders one after another.

The panic and anxiety on the faces of the generals in the camp gradually disappeared as Kuroda issued military orders one by one.

The heavy atmosphere that originally filled the air in the tent slowly faded away.

One of the characteristics of "organization" is that "as long as there are no problems with the leader, many problems can be easily solved."

This feature is particularly evident in the military, which is why there is a saying in ancient China that "a soldier is a raging enemy, and a general is a raging den".

Matsudaira Sadanobu quietly looked at the generals in front of him.
To be continued...