Soon, Kosuke Murata and Takuma Yamanaka joined forces.
At this moment, Yamanaka Takuma looked haggard, his face showing undisguised exhaustion and dejection.
"Kousuke, Saigo Hayato's navy has been defeated by the Yan army at sea, and... not a single one of them survived! They were completely wiped out."
"Our strongest navy is no match for Yan Kingdom at all. Damn it... I..." Yamanaka Takuma said with a pained expression, lamenting.
"That bastard Saigo Jun! He always boasts about his navy, but today he's lost so badly! I knew they couldn't be trusted!" Murata Kosuke cursed through gritted teeth.
"No! Kosuke, the enemy has far too many ships. I saw five or six hundred of them in the harbor, and their firepower is fierce, far exceeding that of our navy. It's not that our navy is too weak."
"And I... am also an incompetent person."
"I failed to defend Kawanishi Port, and so many of my men died. The musketeers are almost wiped out. Now, the only fighting force left in our new army is Sakamoto's unit! But he's still on Iwo Jima!" Murata Takuma's eyes were red with self-reproach.
Murata Kosuke and Yamanaka Takuma had always been on good terms. Seeing him in this state, although he was still furious, he still offered words of comfort:
"It's not your fault! The enemy came suddenly, and there weren't many troops left at the port."
"If His Majesty the Emperor had known that the enemy would reach Chuanxi Port today, he would have dispatched a large force to guard the port and would never have allowed them to land so easily!"
"So what if they have hundreds of warships! How many troops can they possibly send?! Besides me, reinforcements from all directions are on their way. This is all the enemy troops they have come with. Let us handle the rest of the battle!"
At this point, Murata Kosuke gazed into the distance, his expression growing increasingly fierce, and he said angrily:
"The Yan Kingdom is so arrogant! They are utterly outrageous and don't take us seriously at all!"
"After seizing the port, instead of resting, they continue their attack on our interior. Do they really think Japan has no soldiers to use?!"
"How many of them are left?" Murata Kosuke asked Yamanaka Takuma, turning his head to ask.
Yamanaka Takuma immediately replied, "Not many. There are only tens of thousands of soldiers fighting us, but many of them are equipped with firearms, and these firearms are better than ours. That's why we couldn't stop them at Kawanishi Port."
"But after this fierce battle, they are exhausted."
As soon as he finished speaking, Murata Kosuke nodded and said:
"good!"
"Tens of thousands of people, then I can rest assured!"
"Such a small force, no matter how strong, is hardly of any use! The entire army of Japan combined is dozens of times larger than theirs!"
"Hmph, since they've been blinded by greed and dare to come charging straight at us, then let them never leave alive!"
"Takuma, you go back to the Kyoto Imperial Palace first. Leave this place to us! I'm going to slaughter them all!"
As he spoke, Murata Kosuke was about to lead his troops away, but seeing his eagerness, Yamanaka Takuma quickly stopped him.
"Wait, how many troops do you have with you? It seems like you don't have enough..."
Kosuke Murata raised an eyebrow: "I urgently mobilized troops here, and there are currently 80,000 troops on their way! Although it is not a particularly large number, the enemy has already fought a battle at sea, and has also been fighting you in Kawanishi Port for so long."
"The enemy is exhausted while we are strong, and this is our home ground; how can we not win?"
Yamanaka Takuma shook his head repeatedly: "No!"
"You underestimated the enemy's strength! Listen to me, don't rush to engage them, wait for reinforcements to arrive!"
"To defeat the enemy in one fell swoop, we need at least three times their strength!"
"Moreover, once the decision to go to war is made, there is no turning back. We must press on with our momentum, charge straight in, and engage them in close combat. Their ranged firearms are extremely powerful. Only by breaking through their lines can we defeat them!"
Upon hearing this, Murata Kosuke frowned even more deeply, and said in a deep voice:
"I cannot stand by and watch them advance. This is our land, and we cannot let them take an inch of it!"
"Takuma, believe me! I can stop them, you should leave!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Yamanaka Takuma shouted:
"No!"
"We cannot sacrifice ourselves in vain! We must be fully prepared before engaging them in battle!"
"Kousuke, I'm just like you. For the sake of Japan, I don't care about my own life, but we must die with meaning!"
"We must save our lives for the most crucial moment!"
This loud shout startled Murata Kosuke. As fellow conservatives, Yamanaka Takuma was their elder brother, and they had always followed the Yamanaka family's lead.
At this moment, Takuma Yamanaka's words put Kosuke Murata in a difficult position.
But soon, he said in a deep voice, "Alright! Then I'll wait."
"Wait for reinforcements to arrive!"
"But I will never accept the fact that Qiuyuan County has fallen to the Yan Kingdom! If the enemy forces continue their advance and reach this place, I will fight them to the death!"
At this point, Kosuke Murata let out a loud shout:
"Did you all hear that?!"
"Hail!!" The soldiers following beside him roared!
Yamanaka Takuma dismounted and bowed deeply to Murata Kosuke.
"Takuma! My incompetence has led to the fall of Kawanishi Port."
"And now, please protect our Akihara Prefecture! I beg you!!!"
Murata Kosuke immediately dismounted and bowed to him in return:
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com