Not long after, Zhang Wuji's regular breathing sound reached Zhou Zhiruo's ears.
Zhou Zhiruo was also a little helpless. If she didn't have important things to do tomorrow, she would be willing to let Zhang Wuji do something. But now, he fell asleep while she was still feeling uncomfortable.
…
Four hours later.
Ever since Zhang Wuji led his army to hunt down Tokugawa Hideyoshi, he has rarely been able to sleep for such a long time.
However, Zhang Wuji did this deliberately tonight. He needed to let his soldiers have a good rest, and he also needed to let his woman have a good rest.
Zhou Zhiruo had been awake for a while, but she lay motionless in Zhang Wuji's arms until Yu Fei lifted a corner of the carriage curtain. Zhou Zhiruo, whose clothes were disheveled, still made a gesture to keep quiet.
However, it was this slight movement that made Zhang Wuji slowly wake up: "What time is it?"
Yu Fei felt helpless when he saw that he had disturbed his man's rest, but he still quickly replied: "It should be dawn after breakfast."
Zhang Wuji straightened up, stretched, and glanced at Zhou Zhiruo beside him: "Zhiruo, can you dress more appropriately? Aren't you trying to seduce me?"
Zhou Zhiruo's eyes widened immediately: "Zhang Wuji, you are shameless. It's obviously all your fault, but you insist on putting the blame on me. You, you are going too far."
…
After breakfast, Zhang Wuji's army continued to march. As he expected, Yang Xiao's scouts did not come to report the situation, which meant that nothing had happened. If nothing had happened, it meant that they were still more than 30 miles away from Tokugawa Hideyoshi. At this distance, they could have a decisive battle this afternoon.
Therefore, just march normally. When it is noon, it is time to eat. After eating and drinking enough, take a good rest for an hour, and then continue with the march.
…
Looking at Tokugawa Hideyoshi, he really found a place for his army to fight to the death. His soldiers ate and drank to their heart's content last night and had a full meal with all their might.
However, the soldiers under his command were not all fools. They seemed to be able to sense that something terrible was about to happen.
They guessed that Tokugawa Hideyoshi might want a decisive battle, but given the current situation, even an ordinary soldier knew very well that they couldn't win this battle. And if they couldn't win, why would they deploy their troops here? Were they seeking their own deaths?
Therefore, last night, after Tokugawa Hideyoshi's soldiers had eaten and drunk their fill, many deserters appeared again.
Fortunately, there are some useful people in this army. Those people were soldiers brought by Tokugawa Hideyoshi when he was still a guerrilla general. Those people are specifically responsible for killing deserters.
Under the bloody suppression, Tokugawa Hideyoshi's army finally survived last night.
As for this morning, Tokugawa Hideyoshi made sure that his soldiers were well fed and watered, and almost all the little food they had was eaten up.
He knew that Zhang Wuji was coming soon, so military reserves and such were no longer important, because he himself did not believe that he could win this battle at all.
Just as he and Takeda Nobuo had discussed before, these frightened soldiers had to be thrown out anyway. Instead of letting them run away, it would be more cost-effective to let five or six of them fight off one Ming army soldier.
…
After another two hours, Zhang Wuji's army finally came into sight of the Japanese camp from afar.
The Japanese no longer fled, and just as Zhang Wuji had expected, he had his army put on armor and prepare for battle, taking a final rest and eating something four or five miles away from the Japanese camp.
Looking at the Ming army's camp, Tokugawa Hideyoshi wanted to rush forward directly, but if he did so, he would only lose even more miserably. What's more, there was a cavalry team of more than a thousand people watching covetously.
That cavalry team was the one that had caused them so much trouble a few days ago. Now its number has been reduced to about a thousand.
Inside the Ming army camp, Zhang Wuji called Yang Xiao to his side and addressed him respectfully as Uncle Yang, just like he did at the beginning on Guangmingding.
"Uncle Yang, looking at the Japanese army formation and the surrounding terrain, they obviously want to fight to the death. Since the war with the Japanese began, Uncle Yang has not captured any general. Tokugawa Hideyoshi's head is yours."
Yang Xiao was very flattered to be called Uncle Yang: "Your Majesty, without you, Yang Xiao would be at most a wandering knight. Your Majesty is of noble status, so you can no longer call me uncle."
Zhang Wuji smiled and said: "Since you are not allowed to call me uncle, then I can only call you father-in-law."
After hearing this, Yang Xiao felt even more ashamed: "It is a blessing for the Yang family that my daughter has been favored by Your Majesty. Yang Xiao dare not even bear the responsibility of being my father-in-law."
Zhang Wuji said: "Whether you are responsible or not, you are still my father-in-law. However, let's not talk about this for now. The Japanese army formation is dense and neat. It is obvious that they want to fight hard."
"But I'm just joking. If I had to guess, I'd say it was Tokugawa Hideyoshi who didn't even want his last 20,000 soldiers."
"Since he wants to be defeated, I will naturally oblige him. One hour later, Uncle Yang will command 5,000 heavily armored soldiers to charge and lead you to break through the Japanese formation. Then I will lead the rest of the heavily armored soldiers to follow closely. As for the rest of our cavalry, we will keep them to round up the remaining enemies."
"This battle must be a complete success. After chopping off Tokugawa Hideyoshi's head, my father-in-law will lead the cavalry, carrying Tokugawa's head, and return to Tokyo first."
Zhang Wuji's words touched Yang Xiao's heart. Now that things had come to this, how could Yang Xiao not respond?
…
There had been a murderous atmosphere in Tokugawa Hideyoshi's camp since someone knew when it started. For him personally, he might have been looking forward to this moment for a long time.
Since he started fighting with the Ming army, there has never been a situation where the two armies were lined up in an orderly manner and fought to the death. But today, this situation finally came. It was a pity that it came a little late, and the soldiers under his command had all lost their courage.
But even so, he still felt a little heroic. There were 20,000 people on the opposite side, while there were more than 20,000 people on his side. In terms of numbers, he was not at a disadvantage.
Of course, thinking that he wasn't at a disadvantage at the moment was just Tokugawa's self-consolation. What else could he do? Was he just dwelling on the incompetence of his own soldiers?
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