It's Nanosuke's voice!
The moment Yu Qiuping recognized the voice, he instantly felt at ease.
Honda Tadakatsu was originally here to deliver a letter from Tokugawa Ieyasu to Ame Qiupei, and he stayed at an inn near Bichugo before nightfall. After hearing a loud noise near Takamatsu Castle in Bichu, he was worried about the Momiji Army and rushed overnight.
Come. After seeing the water flowing out continuously, Honda Tadakatsu was already horrified and drove the horse like crazy. By chance, he miraculously met Yu Qiuping here. He patted the horse at the critical moment.
Honda Tadakatsu arrived and used his horse speed to slash the assassin with a dragonfly cut. However, the assassin was not in a hurry and threw Yu Qiuping to the shore. He watched Yu Qiuping roll into the water.
, then turned around to challenge Honda Tadakatsu. He took a few steps, took out a giant ax from behind, leaned over and slashed at Honda Tadakatsu's horse leg, instantly cutting the horse's four legs to pieces.
The bone ground was cut off. Honda Tadakatsu's blow was avoided by his general, but the hood on his head was blown away by the tip of the spear, revealing his full head of black curly hair.
"Your Highness!" Honda Tadakatsu, who jumped off his horse when his horse was struck, tried to go to the shore to pick up Yu Qiuping, who was struggling on the shore. However, the assassin did not give him a chance at all. He chased him with an axe.
Da Zhongsheng had no choice but to quickly get out of the way, and then took a stance, preparing to deal with the assassin in front of him first.
At this moment, Yu Qiuping had completely lost the strength to climb ashore. He could only use his stiff arms to grab a few handfuls of weeds on the shore, trying not to be washed away by the current, and at the same time asked in a voice so soft that it was almost inaudible.
: "Nanosuke... why are you here..."
"Send the message." Honda Tadakatsu simply replied, while staring intently at the opponent in front of him. Although he had countless questions in his heart, why did Yu Qiuping end up like this? Where are the guards? What's going on with the sound of the flood?...But
At this moment, he didn't have a chance to ask a question. Because he felt a pressure for the first time in a long time - from the black assassin in front of him - after Kentaro Tian Shen, Honda Tadakatsu had never met anyone who could match him.
, but the assassin in front of him was obviously that. Facing such an opponent, Honda Tadakatsu was not confident in chatting and fighting at the same time.
The next second, the assassin suddenly took a step forward - not towards Honda Tadakatsu, but towards Yu Qiuping on the shore. Honda Tadakatsu was instantly confused, and he hurriedly took a step forward, and shot away with a sweeping shot.
Blocking the assassin's position, the assassin took advantage of the situation and struck down with his axe. At the moment when the spear and ax met, Honda Tadakatsu only felt that a thousand pounds of force was hitting the tip of the spear, which made him almost unable to hold on with his hasty posture. He had to use all his strength to
After enduring the blow, my arm immediately felt severe pain from muscle strain.
"You are not a samurai." Facing his opponent's shameless duel, Honda Tadakatsu whispered in an almost contemptuous tone. But the assassin ignored this and struck out again without hesitation.
Come up. Honda Tadakatsu opened his stance this time and slashed with a horizontal shot. The moment the spear and ax collided, sparks flew out again. The huge collision sound was deafening and stirred up countless birds in the forest.
"It can't be taken down in a short time." Honda Tadakatsu made a judgment almost instantly. The strength of the assassin in front of him was as strong as his own, and his stature was even a head bigger than him, but he himself was in the same position just now.
The blow strained his arm. After a moment of weighing, Honda Tadakatsu said to Yu Qiuping in Chinese: "Your Highness, you run away first, and I will hold him back."
"Nanosuke... let's go." However, Yu Qiuping's voice was intermittent and weak, "I have... no strength to move. There may be other assassins... in danger..."
After Honda Tadakatsu heard the answer, his eyebrows sank, and he held the Dragonfly Kiri tightly with both hands. He had no choice, he had to kill this assassin here to save Yu Qiuping. He gritted his teeth and lowered his head
After roaring, he strode forward, jumped suddenly, and made a condescending chop with almost his maximum strength. The assassin did not sit still and waited for death. He held the ax with both hands behind the left side of his body, accumulated strength, and stepped forward.
He roared the same way when he hit the ground, stamped on the ground hard, and struck a cross blow with the greatest strength. This time, the sound of metal collision could almost shatter the eardrums, and the concussive feeling spread throughout the body. Honda Tadakatsu felt
My hands couldn't stop feeling numb.
Even if I try my best, my strength is still the same.
Honda Tadakatsu took a deep breath,
Then he once again made a gesture to leap high and strike across the body. The assassin also took the same stance as before. Who would have thought that Honda Tadakatsu would grab the ground with his toes and kick forward at the moment when his heels left the ground, and at the same time, he would quickly
Change the position of holding the gun with both hands, raise the dragonfly cut behind the head to charge up, then stab it forward with the tail, and just turn the full force slash into a spear tail thrust in the electric light and flint.
The assassin was caught off guard and hurriedly turned around to dodge. He barely missed the shot and almost stumbled. The half-charged ax in his hand was hurriedly swung out and missed.
"Not as fast as me." After Honda Tadakatsu discovered the weakness of the big assassin in front of him, he immediately twisted his ankles and knees at an unimaginable speed the moment he landed, turned over and made another sweep. The assassin hurriedly raised his ax to parry, and was
Honda Tadakatsu was so shocked that he even took a few steps back with his axe. Seeing an opportunity, Honda Tadakatsu stepped forward and stabbed quickly. This time, the assassin reacted differently. After letting the blow go, he fiercely
He bowed to the ground, then lowered his shoulders, raised his elbows, and pushed forward, pushing him back several steps with his big body, which was nearly a circle larger than Honda Tadakatsu.
Honda Tadakatsu took a deep breath and smelled the smell of blood in his throat. The assassin in front of him was a head taller than Yu Qiuping and Honda Tadakatsu himself. He was almost like a little giant. Even without weapons,
The collision force of its limbs is equally terrifying.
Just when Honda Tadakatsu was thinking about how to defeat the assassin in front of him, Yu Qiuping on the shore suddenly said softly and intermittently in a voice as thin as a mosquito: "Nanosuke... let's go... I can't hold on anymore.
"
Honda Tadakatsu, who was shocked when he heard this, hurriedly looked at Yu Qiuping and found that the latter had let go of the cluster of weeds on the bank he had been holding, and was washed away by the current, sinking into the water. Honda Tadakatsu
Seeing this, Sheng hurriedly came to the shore in two strides, jumped suddenly in the direction where Yu Qiuping was washed away by the water, and fell into the water with a splash. Then, he grabbed Yu Qiuping tightly.
"Idiot..." After Yu Qiuping felt himself being pulled out of the water, he cursed in a low voice, "You can't swim... are you going to die by jumping down?"
"This is the duty of a samurai." Honda Tadakatsu whispered, and he pulled Yu Qiuping out of the water without any explanation. Only then did Yu Qiuping realize that Honda Tadakatsu had used a weapon that was very similar to the one used by Morinagako just now.
Using this posture, he inserted the dragonfly into the gap of a small reef in the middle of the river, using his amazing arm strength to support the weight of Yu Qiuping and himself.
"I have no strength at all... You can't swim either. We are stuck here waiting to die... The man on the shore called for help... We are finished." Yu Qiuping took a breath for a while after saying a word.
But his mind was still very clear. However, before he could continue speaking, Honda Tadakatsu's body suddenly moved violently and blocked Yu Qiuping's face. Immediately afterwards, the sound of iron cannons rang out from the shore.
——And the sticky sound of bullets being shot hard into flesh.
Yu Qiuping felt that the blood all over his body instantly sank into the soles of his feet, his mind went blank, and his body could not feel any temperature or sensation. After being stunned for a moment, he did not dare to look but had to slowly turn his head to look at Honda Tadakatsu.
The chest in front of him... He was wearing a light gray warrior uniform. Red blood was slowly printed on his left chest, and blood was also lying on the corner of his mouth.
Before Yu Qiuping could react, Honda Tadakatsu roared, and while coughing up blood on Yu Qiuping's face, he suddenly pulled out the dragonfly cut that he had inserted into the crack of the reef, and fiercely hit the assassin on the shore.
Throw it away. The assassin holding a flintlock gun that he didn't know where it came from was about to fire a second shot, but he lost his aim because of the sudden javelin. The projectile hit the rocks and shattered, losing its fixed point.
Honda Tadakatsu and Yu Qiupei were instantly surrounded by the water and rushed into the flood.
Yu Qiuping drifted far away in a daze, and choked a few more mouths of water. When he came back to his senses, he found that he was fixed again. Honda Tadakatsu held a rock in the middle of the river with his left hand, and died with his right hand.
He held on to Yu Qiuping, who was almost washed away. His left hand had been cut by the sharp rocks so much that blood flowed out and even the bones were exposed, but he had no intention of letting go. And his chest, back, and corners of his mouth were all trickling.
Oozing blood...
Yu Qiuping no longer dared to think about it anymore, and his spirit was on the verge of collapse.
"Your Highness..." Honda Tadashi
Sheng's voice sounded again. Even though the tough man was extremely weak at the moment, he still gritted his teeth and maintained a tough tone, "Do you still have the strength to swim?"
"...I'm sorry..." Yu Qiuping looked at the passing life of the guard captain who he had followed loyally all the way, and could not say anything except "I'm sorry". He had followed him for twenty-four years, a total of twenty-four years.
Years ago, from that immature child to now the father of several children, he went through countless battles and battles, and finally returned to the Tokugawa family... finally fulfilled his father's dream... finally lived a good life... It has only been a few days.
ah…
"The gun hit the left chest... I'm almost dead... I can't hold on much longer." Blood foam continued to appear at the corner of Honda Tadakatsu's mouth, and his words became intermittent, "You still have a little strength... Just a little will be enough."
"What do you want to do?" Yu Qiuping's voice trembled so much that he could no longer speak.
"Right breast pocket, rib..." Tadakatsu Honda simply spat out a few words, but Yu Qiuping, who had been with him day and night for many years, could still understand what he wanted to say. Yu Qiuping used his last strength to stretch out his hand under the impact of the water flow.
, took out the ribs in Honda Tadakatsu's arms, pulled out the scabbard, and handed it to Honda Tadakatsu. Honda Tadakatsu leaned his neck forward and bit the ribs with his blood-covered teeth.
Then he neighed almost like a trapped animal, his left arm slowly bent with astonishing strength, pulling Honda Tadakatsu and Yu Qiuping held by his right hand to move upstream at the same time in the rushing water.
At a distance of forearm length, he brought his head to the left side.
At that moment, Honda Tadakatsu turned his head fiercely, took the rib in his mouth and stabbed his left hand that was holding the rock. The rib penetrated the palm and was deeply nailed into the rock. At the next moment, Honda Tadakatsu
He collapsed instantly, as if he had lost all strength, and his left and right arms also lost their strength at the same time. But the left hand, which was nailed to the rock, still pulled Honda Tadakatsu and Yu Qiupei, who was holding his arm, so that they would not be washed away by the flood.
.
Even if he turns into a cold corpse, as long as his body is nailed to the rocks, he can still hold Yu Qiuping in the flood...even if it can only be held for a short while. When Yu Qiuping loses his strength, he
It will still be washed away.
Yu Qiuping felt that tears were pouring out, almost draining all the water from his body, and also draining Honda Tadakatsu of his last life.
"You...still have...strength..."
Honda Tadakatsu highlighted a few ambiguous syllables intermittently, but Yu Qiuping could understand what he was saying. He looked at Honda Tadakatsu's lips, but Honda Tadakatsu was speechless.
Slowly moving his black eyeballs downward, he looked in the direction of his left chest. Yu Qiuping stretched out his hand tremblingly and struggled, groping feebly in Honda Tadakatsu's left chest, and only touched a piece of paper...
Yu Qiuping's mood suddenly collapsed. He could no longer cry and just opened his mouth, unable to make any sound.
He slowly pulled out the piece of paper, which was the paper red leaf that Yu Qiuping folded for Honda Tadakatsu twenty-four years ago. It had faded, but was dyed red again by Honda Tadakatsu's blood. Yu Qiuping
Qiupei can still remember how stubborn that boy was when he insisted that he was a retainer of the Matsudaira family and refused to bring paper red leaves and admit that he was a retainer of Ua Qiupei.
Honda Tadakatsu slowly lowered his head and signaled Yu Qiuping to bring the paper red leaves that were twenty-four years late to his head.
Yu Qiuping tremblingly pinned the paper red leaf into Honda Tadakatsu's bun and watched it hang down listlessly.
To be continued...