Japan's Warring States Period: The Rise of the Wakasa Tiger

Chapter 182 The dust has settled
That night, with the help of Minamiki Toshimi and Fukuda Hirayori, two other leaders of the Kokuminshu from the Suga clan also joined the plan. After everyone reached an agreement, they sent the answer to Arimoto Sanori who was waiting outside the city through ninja.

On the fourth day of March, according to the plan, the Takeda army once again used the Portuguese cannon to lead the way and fiercely bombarded the earthen wall on the south side of Ninomaru. Several sections of the city wall collapsed one after another, and the defenders in the city suffered heavy casualties. At noon, under the cover of the archers, the Takeda army launched a general attack on Ninomaru from the southern foot of Kameyama.

Around 2:00 p.m., Oniwa Masaaki took the lead in attacking Ninomaru, and with the cooperation of the surrounding samurai, he captured the Ninomaru commander, Kusakari Nobunaga, the uncle of Kusakari Hirotsugu. About an hour later, the Takeda army had basically completed the occupation of most of Ninomaru, and the remaining Kusakari army was gradually surrounded near the Ote Gate of Honmaru. Seeing this, Kusakari Hirotsugu immediately ordered the gatekeepers to open the gate and let the fleeing soldiers into the city.

At this time, it was getting dark and the scene was chaotic. Seeing this, Minami Toshimi and others immediately began to implement their plan.

First, Minamiki Toshimi ordered the soldiers of the Suga clan scattered throughout the city to set fire to houses and warehouses to create chaos, thereby dispersing the strength of the defenders in the city.

At the same time, while Kusakari Hirotsugu's attention was drawn to Ote Gate, Fukuda Hiroyori and his men led their soldiers to the eastern Kante Gate, approaching the gate-guarding samurai and foot soldiers under the pretext of changing guards, disarming or killing them all by surprise, and quickly gained control of the Kante Gate.

Afterwards, Fukuda Hirayori ordered his men to place three torches above the hand-grip gate, signaling to the Takeda army on the mountainside that the plan had been completed and they could enter the city at any time. Upon seeing this, Sakakibara Nagamasa, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately led 800 troops to the top of the mountain.

Looking at the open city gate, Sakakibara Nagamasa smiled with satisfaction, and then led his troops into the main castle of Yodoyama Castle. Under the guidance of the Suga family, he began to slaughter the defenders scattered throughout the city.

"The Takeda army is entering the city! The Takeda army is entering the city!" In a short while, the news of the Takeda army's entry into the city reached Kusakari Hiratsugu's ears.

At this time, Kusakari Hirotsugu, who was only concerned about the battle situation near Otemon, was hiding behind the earthen wall on the south side of Honmaru, nervously commanding the defeated soldiers to enter the city in an orderly manner so as not to give the Takeda army a chance to enter the city.

However, when he heard that the Takeda army had already entered the Honmaru, his tense nerves broke like a guitar string, and he staggered twice like a deflated ball and collapsed to the ground.

"Really, are they really breaking in?!" Kusakari Hengji asked the envoy who came to report the battle situation in a panic.

The messenger's face was covered in blood, and his armor was blackened by the smoke and ashes. The battle hat on his head was also missing. He half-knelt in front of Kusakari Hirotsugu with a terrified look on his face and stammered:

"My lord, the enemy has indeed entered the main castle, and now both the hand gates have been lost. Lord Xiaosong is leading his soldiers to fight the enemy desperately. He asked me to bring a message to you, my lord, hoping that you can hurry up and break out. If you are late, he may not be able to hold on."

"Both the two hand-held gates have been lost... then what's the point of me guarding this Ote gate?!" Kusakari Hengji sucked in a breath of cold air and muttered to himself with a distracted look in his eyes.

"My lord, our best plan now is to concentrate our forces and rush out of Ote Gate, only then will we have a chance of survival." The Kusakari samurai beside him urged him to break out quickly.

"Is there still a chance..." Kusakari Hengji looked at the flames rising from the Honmaru behind him, and his heart was already in despair. At this moment, he had lost the motivation and courage to break out. "Even if I can escape, what can I do? Now the mountains and plains are full of Takeda troops. There is no way I can escape, right?"

"My lord, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, we must do our best. The foundation of the Kusakari clan for more than 200 years cannot be destroyed like this." Those warriors kowtowed to Kusakari Kōtsugu and advised him to lead the remaining soldiers to break through and preserve the name of the Kusakari clan. Facing everyone's strong persuasion, thinking that even in this situation, Komatsu Katsutoyo was still fighting against the Takeda army, Kusakari Kōtsugu couldn't help but blame himself: "Yes, they didn't give up. As the head of the Kusakari clan, how can I give up on myself?!"

Thinking of this, he finally managed to stand up, took a deep breath, and solemnly said to the soldiers around him: "The survival of my Kusakari clan is in your hands. Anyone who can still fight, follow me out of the city. Even if you die, you must let those guys from Wakasa see how powerful my Kusakari warriors are!"

"Ha! We obey your orders and swear to protect our master till death!"

Seeing that Kusakari Kōtsugu had regained his fighting spirit, the morale of the samurai surrounding him also improved. They formed an assault formation with Kusakari Kōtsugu and his legitimate son Kusakari Shigetsugu as the center. While the Ote Gate and the surrounding area were still in their hands, they rushed into the Ninomaru from the Honmaru, and together with the remaining remnants in the Ninomaru, launched a counterattack against the Takeda army, which had not yet established an unstable foothold.

Faced with the Kusakari army that came out in a line and fought desperately, Onitsuka Masaaki was not willing to be outdone. He immediately organized his troops to build a defense line, vowing to block the Kusakari army in Ninomaru and never give them a chance to escape.

At this time in the Honmaru, with the cooperation of the Suga clan, the Takeda army led by Sakakibara Nagamasa successfully captured several important strongholds including the palace, and in the battle to attack the warehouse, they killed the seriously injured Komatsu Katsutoyo, and basically wiped out all the Kusakari troops in the Honmaru except the Otemon area.

The battle lasted until around 6pm. As night fell, the Takeda army showed no intention of retreating. They followed Yamagata Morinobu's request and had to completely wipe out the Kusakari clan tonight and never let those guys see the next day's sunrise alive.

Faced with the Takeda army fighting all night long, Kusakari Kōtsugu, who had been unable to break through their defense line, had no other choice but to growl in frustration and scream at his soldiers to continue their attack.

Not only that, at this time Sakakibara Nagamasa had also led his army to capture Otemon. As a result, the remaining 300-odd Kusakari troops were trapped in Ninomaru, and had no way to advance or retreat, struggling to resist the two-pronged attack of the Takeda army.

"Ah!" With a scream, Kusakari Shigetsugu fell to his knees in pain. Everyone looked closely and saw that a stray arrow had hit his left eye. Blood was dripping down the arrow onto the ground. As his father, Kusakari Kotsugu was helpless and could only watch him wail in pain.

"It's almost over, there's no hope." Kusakari Hengji stood there in a daze, as if he had lost his soul, muttering to himself.

"Stop!" Seeing the warriors around him falling one after another and his own legitimate son struggling in pain on the ground, Kusakari Hirotsugu finally made the decision that should have been made long ago - surrender.

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Xiongzai has been very busy recently, and the updates have been a bit irregular. Please forgive me. Some friends said that some chapters are of low quality, which makes me feel very embarrassed. I am very sorry that I cannot guarantee that every chapter will be presented to everyone with high quality.

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(End of this chapter)