I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

The battle continued until nightfall.

Despite the remarkable performance of the thousand-strong united force on the battlefield, displaying great bravery and tenacity, the power of spirit ultimately could not overcome the material disparity.

Under the fierce attack of the Faki coalition, the front line continued to advance eastward, and thousands of men retreated in unison...

Finally... the Faki coalition successfully captured the first trench of the Thousand Hearts before nightfall!

Admittedly, the Faki coalition achieved considerable results, but from a broader perspective, they are far from being considered victorious.

In order to stop the Faki coalition, Toshizo Hijikata dug many trenches and laid out multiple layers of defense before the battle.

Even if they lose the first trench, they still have the second, third, and fourth trenches... In this way, they can launch layer upon layer of resistance.

After losing the first trench, Hijikata Toshizo immediately led his soldiers to retreat and defend the second trench.

In other words, the Faki coalition is still a long way from completely defeating the thousand-man united forces and fully occupying Hachioji!

Incidentally—even after today's battle ended, Sukuna and the others were still unable to defeat Hijikata Toshizo and his group.

Conversely, Hijikata Toshizo and his group were also helpless against Sukuna and his group.

Sukuna and Hijikata Toshizo, and Umibozu and Shimada Kai, both pairs of rivals wanted to kill each other and fought with all their might, but their strengths were so evenly matched that they could not decide a winner.

As for Elodie, she knew very well that she was no match for the bull demon with her own strength, so she kept dodging, neither defeating her opponent nor letting her opponent defeat her.

With her petite frame and agile movements, she was like a light, fluttering butterfly. No matter what the bull demon tried, he couldn't even touch a corner of her clothes, which made him very frustrated.

Of course, there was another reason why Niu Gui couldn't do anything to Elodie: he was wary of her status and dared not kill her.

After listening to the report from the Gyūki, Shuten-dōji frowned slightly and smacked his lips a few times.

"Mael's only daughter is here... This is troublesome..."

Su Nuo interjected:

"Lord Shuten-dōji, do you intend to capture Alice alive?"

Shuten-dōji answered without hesitation:

"Is that even a question? Of course we want it!"

Su Nuo's expression darkened slightly:

"To capture a person alive on a dark and chaotic battlefield... please forgive my bluntness, but this is really asking the impossible."

Umibozu curled his lip:

“Even if she is Mael’s only daughter, she should not be treated leniently. She now belongs to the enemy camp, so let’s just ignore her relationship with Mael and treat her as an enemy general and kill her.”

He had barely finished speaking when he immediately received a sharp look from Shuten-dōji.

“That won’t do. Mael is our ally. If we kill his only daughter, how are we supposed to explain ourselves to him in the future?”

Seeing that Shuten-dōji had put his words to this point, no one dared to have any other opinions and all fell silent to show their obedience.

Shuten-dōji scanned the crowd, then straightened his posture slightly:

"Gentlemen, just now, a kappa lurking in Edo reported that Tokugawa Iemochi did not abandon the castle and flee; on the contrary, he ordered Edo to be defended to the death and personally took command of Edo Castle!"

Upon hearing this, everyone looked astonished and surprised.

Katsura Kogoro murmured:

"A 'siege warfare'..."

Su Nuo twitched the corners of his mouth, a half-smile playing on his lips:

"Although I hate the shogunate, I have to admit that Tokugawa Iemochi is a real man."

Shuten-dōji raised his right palm and made a few gestures in mid-air to signal everyone to be quiet.

After everyone fell silent and their gazes returned to him, Shuten-dōji spoke in a half-joking tone:

"Thinking about it carefully, since we landed in Noo, apart from the successful surprise attack on Nagoya Castle and the attack on Sunpu Castle, everything else has been quite difficult."

"First, King Ni rushed back to the capital with an unexpectedly fast speed."

"Then the thousand men who defended Hachioji were far more resilient than we had imagined."

"Then the young General Sei-i truly displayed the demeanor of a 'General,' not fleeing in disarray, but bravely defending the city."

"It seems we won't be able to easily take over Edo."

"But things have come to this point, and we have no choice but to back down."

At this point, Shuten-dōji suddenly lowered his voice, his tone becoming solemn.

“We were prepared when we decided to unleash the ‘Amazu Spear’.”

"Victory or death!"

Even if the road ahead is full of thorns, we will overcome it!

As Shuten-dōji spoke passionately, the temperature at the scene seemed to rise several degrees.

Everyone present—including Katsura Kogoro, who was always wary of Shuten-dōji—was influenced by his words, their gazes becoming firm and their expressions becoming spirited.

Suddenly, Shuten-dōji stood up abruptly, his voice rising with his posture, and he shouted in a commanding tone:

"Starting today, break through to the Eighth Prince level within five days!"

……

……

Let's go back to the present—

Sekigahara, Nangong Mountain, the main camp of the Special Forces—

Shinsaku Takasugi lowered his head to read the letter in his hand.

The more he read the letter, the deeper his brow furrowed.

This letter was written by Shuten-dōji.

On the first night of the Battle of Hachioji, Shuten-dōji personally wrote this letter, sealed it before the ink had dried, and sent it by fast horse to Sekigahara.

Today, this letter has finally reached Takasugi Shinsaku's hands.

The letter first gave a general description of the first day of the Battle of Hachioji, and then made a request to Takasugi Shinsaku at the end: the resistance of the thousand men was very strong, and the Faki Allied Forces would take much longer than expected to completely break through Hachioji. Therefore, it was hoped that Takasugi Shinsaku could hold off the Shinsengumi for a few more days.

After reading Shuten-dōji's letter, Takasugi Shinsaku threw the letter into the fire pit next to him with a dark face. Then, he succinctly relayed the latest situation of the battle of Hachiōji and Shuten-dōji's orders to everyone in the tent.

After hearing this, everyone was filled with righteous indignation:

"This is absolutely outrageous!"

"That Shuten-dōji always looked so confident, I thought he was really something! But look what happened? He was stopped by a mere thousand people united!"

"Alright! They're our ally after all! Let's stop criticizing them! Let's focus our energy on the battle at hand!"

"They actually want us to hold off the Shinsengumi for a few more days? What a joke! Judging from the current situation, it's questionable whether we can even survive until tomorrow!"

Hesitation, tension, fear... all sorts of negative emotions permeated the scene.

Their attitude towards Shuten-dōji's order to "delay the Shinsengumi for a few more days" was surprisingly unanimous—it was an impossible task!

Just as the Faki coalition underestimated the unity of a thousand men, so too have you all underestimated the Shinsengumi!

They were confident that with the strength of the Kiheitai and the advantageous terrain of Nangong Mountain, they could easily hold off the Shinsengumi for 3 to 5 days.

They never expected that the Shinsengumi would push the front line over the halfway point of Nangong Mountain in just one day!

The rapid fall of the "high walls" in the southern battlefield dealt them a tremendous blow.

Judging from the Shinsengumi's pace of advance, they'll reach the summit tomorrow! They'll reach the main camp!

As someone just said, whether they can even survive until tomorrow is a question, let alone talk about "delaying the Shinsengumi for a few more days".

Anxiety leads to panic, and panic leads to blame-shifting.

It's unclear who started it, but gradually, shouts of rebukes began to rise from the scene:

"Damn it! What's going on with that 'high wall'? Wasn't it supposed to hold off the Shinsengumi for at least two days? How come it only lasted two hours?!"

"We have too few troops!"

"Too few troops? We've deployed a full 300 men at the 'high wall,' which is a fifth of our total force. That's more than enough!"

"If 300 people are considered too few, then what about the 40 men under my command?"

"We've done everything we could! It's all that Niou's fault, he's not even human!"

"You're so scared by just one Tachibana Aoto? Then let's not fight! Let's just surrender to Tachibana Aoto!"

"You've never even met Ju Qingdeng, so stop making sarcastic remarks!"

The operational meetings gradually turned into arguments and blame-shifting sessions...

Seeing this, the strategist Ōmura Masujirō gradually frowned, his face showing impatience.

Just as he opened his mouth, about to stop everyone, Takasugi Shinsaku, who was standing next to him, spoke first:

"Quiet down!"

Instantly, the scene became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"...Omura-kun, bring out the 'Decisive Battle Yoko!' Let's fight the Shinsengumi!"

*******

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Chapter 932 The "Biological Squad" of the Bakumatsu Period! [4500]

These words immediately caused a subtle change in the atmosphere.

A series of bewildered and surprised gazes wandered in mid-air.

The decisive battle... Everyone present had some understanding of this thing—which was why they showed such fear and trepidation.

Ōmura Masujirō's expression changed slightly, and his pupils contracted slightly: