I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Shimada Kai, his face full of anxiety, picked up two hakama pipes and hurriedly chased after Aoto's retreating figure.

……

……

Akasaka Mikado——

Harada Sanosuke raised his spear high and shouted sharply:

"Fighting on flat ground is no different from fighting on horseback! What? You don't know how to wield a sword after you've dismounted? Defend Akasaka Gate to the death! Don't let a single enemy soldier slip through! Watch closely! This is how you deal with the enemy—"

He drew out the last syllable—the next instant, he flashed into the enemy ranks, wielding his spear with effortless ease!

But then his spear tip transformed into specks of silver light, piercing towards every enemy soldier around him.

In the blink of an eye, all the enemy soldiers who were within the reach of his spear fell to the ground!

*******

*******

Please vote with monthly tickets! Please vote with recommendation tickets! (Leopard crying.jpg)

Chapter 977 The Battle Intensifies, Reinforcements Arrive from the "Hitotsubashi Faction"! [5000]

In terms of individual ability, Harada Sanosuke is far from being comparable to the "Shinsen Three Heroes" (Souji, Nagakura Shinpachi, and Saito Hajime).

But in any case, he was one of the founding members of the Shinsengumi.

In terms of practical experience, few in the new draft group can match him.

Harada Sanosuke personally took to the field and killed several people in one go, which immediately boosted the morale of the entire army!

Tenth Division Vice-Captain Matsubara Tadashi shouted:

"Keep up with the captain!"

The next moment, Matsubara Tadashi set an example by leading more than ten soldiers to form a small "wedge formation" and plunged straight into the enemy ranks, carving out a bloody arc.

Following this, more and more soldiers were inspired by Harada Sanosuke and Matsubara Souji, and they charged forward bravely and fearlessly!

Compared to the rebels, the defending forces had a significant advantage: they controlled the armory of Edo Castle.

Almost all of Edo's armories... or rather, all of them were concentrated in Edo Castle!

The importance of the armory is self-evident.

The reason why the shogunate placed all the major armories in Edo Castle was to prevent rebellion and mutiny.

Good weapons are not easy to obtain, no matter when or where.

Swords and knives, being inexpensive and easy to manufacture, are perhaps relatively easy to obtain.

In pawn shops and knife stores in major cities and towns, you can easily buy a lot of cheap, unnamed knives.

However, heavy weapons such as spears, naginatas, bows and arrows, guns, and armor were not so easy to obtain.

Among them, armor is the rarest and also the most important.

Under the close surveillance of the "Nanki Faction," no matter how hard the "Hitotsubashi Faction" tried, they were unable to obtain a sufficient quantity of armor.

In some ways, "collecting armor" is more difficult than "training suicide soldiers".

Due to limited productivity, armor was extremely difficult to make.

A fine set of armor often takes weeks or even months to make.

Moreover, each set of armor requires a large amount of materials to make.

The movement of large quantities of goods is easy to trace.

If things go wrong, the "Southern School" could use this as a springboard to find fault with them.

Even without a trial, the charge of "secretly manufacturing armor" alone would be enough to plunge the "Hitotsubashi faction" into an abyss of no return!

In the era of cold weapons, "unauthorized manufacture of armor" was a serious crime punishable by death!

For the Hitotsubashi faction, the only way to acquire enough armor to arm the entire army in a short period of time was to attack and seize the armory of Edo Castle!

Whichever side controls the arsenal will possess a large quantity of armor, thus gaining a significant advantage on the battlefield—this alone is enough to elevate the strategic importance of the "arsenal" to the highest level!

The current battle perfectly illustrates the difference between "controlling the arsenal" and "not controlling it".

The garrison was well-equipped with weapons and armor, and everyone was fully armored, including helmets, arm guards, leg guards, and chainmail.

In contrast, only a small portion of the rebels possessed armor.

As for weapons, it goes without saying that the vast majority of people only have an ordinary, unmarked knife.

The difference in equipment between the two sides was so vast it was like heaven and earth.

However, the rebels were not entirely without merit.

Despite their poor equipment, they possessed advantages that the defenders could not match.

Firstly, there was the difference in numbers. Their forces outnumbered the defending troops by a factor of two.

Secondly, they are full of fighting spirit! They are not afraid of death!

What is a "suicide squad"?

Warriors who dare to die are called death squads!

These two thousand assassins are a secret legion that the "One Bridge Faction" has gradually built up in recent years, and the origins of its members are very complex.

Some of them were previously orphans who had no one to rely on and didn't even have a name.

Some of them were originally just ordinary farmers.

Some of them were once low-ranking samurai whose families had fallen on hard times.

They were either starving and freezing, about to die in the streets; or their families had suffered a major upheaval, leaving them unable to save their dying parents, wives, and children; or they had suffered a great injustice, with no one to stand up for them.

It was the "One Bridge School" that adopted them and provided them with shelter and food.

It was the "Hitotsubashi faction" that extended a helping hand to them.

It was the "One Bridge School" that gave them the opportunity to stand tall and be respectable people.

They are where they are today because of the kindness they received from the "Hitotsubashi faction"!

They could never repay such an immense kindness.

All they have is their lives!

Because of a lack of education and frequent brainwashing by the "Hitotsubashi faction," they only remember two words in their limited minds: "loyalty" and "repaying kindness."

In fact, they only had a vague understanding of "why they were attacking Edo Castle".

They did not understand what this action meant, nor did they know what would happen after killing Aoto and Tokugawa Iemochi.

They were convinced of only one thing: I must repay their kindness! I will use my life to repay the kindness of the "Hitotsubashi School"!

Indeed, the Shinsengumi had a strong sense of unity, and countless soldiers regarded Aoto as their idol.

However, "respect and worship" cannot be compared with "repaying kindness with one's life".

Many in the Shinsengumi admired Seito, but very few were truly willing to die for him.

This has nothing to do with morale or training level; it's purely human nature.

Furthermore, the Shinsengumi soldiers had not yet fully recovered from their fatigue.

The intense fighting, including the "Second Battle of Sekigahara" and the "Reinforcements for Kanto," followed by the defeat of the "Fazian Allied Forces," had already exhausted them.

They had just finished a fierce battle and hadn't even had a chance to catch their breath before they had to fight again... To be honest, they all felt extremely exhausted and were already quite weary of war.

One side shouted, "Suppress the chaos and conquer the bandits!" and "Suppress the rebels!"

The other side shouted, "The enemy is in Edo Castle!" and "Conquer the Tachibana rebels!"

One side has a material advantage.

The other side has the advantage in terms of mental strength.

The two opposing forces fought to the death, staining the land of Akasaka Mikado with layer upon layer of bloodshed.

Aoto anticipated that the Hitotsubashi faction would target Akasaka Mikado as their main attack target, so he deployed his main force there in advance.

In fact, such things are not difficult to predict.

The other gates of the "Thirty-six Gates" were all intact. Without siege equipment, it would be extremely difficult to breach these tall and ingeniously designed gates. Only the Akasaka Gate was wide open.

In this situation, even a fool would know where to focus the attack.

Therefore, Qing Deng deployed only a minimal number of troops at the other gates of the "Thirty-Six Gates" as a precaution.

Although the battle had only just begun, the scene was already incredibly bloody and horrific.

One blade after another slashed at the opponent in front of them.

Pieces of limbs and remains fell to the ground.

The Shinsengumi members here were surrounded and attacked, and before they could even launch a counterattack, they were hacked to death.

The assassins there, imitating Harada Sanosuke, plunged headlong into the chaotic army, but whether due to insufficient strength or bad luck, they were beheaded before they could even display their skills.

The members of the 7th and 10th Divisions were not skilled in foot combat. Their intense fatigue and persistent war-weariness made their movements sluggish.

Even so, their strong discipline remains!

As long as discipline remains, combat effectiveness will endure!

They advanced and retreated with strategy, flexibly changing their formations and ranks according to the battlefield situation, defusing one crisis after another and repelling one attack after another.

The "suicide squad" on the other side should not be underestimated either.

The Shinsengumi's tenacious resistance did not discourage them.

"Don't panic! Our opponents are the Shinsengumi! This level of difficulty was already within our expectations, wasn't it?"

"Our forces are superior to theirs! Don't fight alone!"

"Attack that guy wielding the spear! He's Harada Sanosuke, the captain of the 10th Division of the Shinsengumi! Kill him now!"

Fluid movements, calm demeanor... it's easy to see that these assassins must have undergone rigorous training.