The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

The latest update is now live and awaits your interpretation.

Inoue Yagoro was still on horseback when he saw that his cavalry could not overpower him. His lips trembled, and he pulled on the reins, trying to retreat, but Yarha had already seen him.

Yarha handed his short axe to his left hand and ran towards him. Inoue Yagoro gritted his teeth, knowing he couldn't outrun him, so he spurred his horse, raised his sword, and charged at him head-on.

The Japanese horse galloped away, its hooves flying. Ten paces, five paces, three paces away—Yarha dodged to the side, his right hand wielding a heavy sword that swept upwards from below, the back of the blade striking the horse's chin, the tip piercing through the horse's neck and exiting, drawing out a spurt of blood.

The Japanese horse neighed and reared up, throwing Inoue Yagoro off its back and onto the ground. His katana flew out and landed three steps away. As he got up to pick up the sword, a short axe was already pressed against his neck.

Inoue Yagoro knelt on the ground, looking up at the tall, blood-covered barbarian in front of him. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, perhaps "the dignity of a samurai," or perhaps "please grant me death," but Yarha did not give him the chance.

"A monkey riding a donkey," Yarha said in Chinese, then swung his axe down.

In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the three hundred cavalrymen were wiped out. The corpses of horses and riders littered the dirt road, wounded horses lay on the ground whimpering, and wounded cavalrymen crawled among the piles of corpses. Jurchen hunters frantically finished off the fallen on the battlefield.

Kuroda Hikaru, mounted on his horse, watched his cavalrymen lie on the ground like a swarm of crushed ants. His katana was still raised in mid-air, its tip pointing towards nothing.

He slowly lowered the knife and placed it on his knee. The blood at the corner of his mouth had dried, his lips were trembling, and he looked as if he had suddenly aged more than ten years.

Kuroda Matabei, covered in blood, ran to his horse and cried, "Uncle! Go! Head south! To Kumamoto! I'll cover the rear—" Before he could finish speaking, an arrow flew from behind and pierced his neck from the side, the shaft passing through his throat and emerging from the left side.

His eyes widened, his hands gripped the arrow shaft, blood spurting from between his fingers, and he stumbled forward, falling to the ground beneath Kuroda Mitsuyuki's horse's hooves.

Kuroda Mitsuyuki looked down at his nephew, the youngest retainer of the Kuroda family, who had insisted on leading the arquebusiers as the vanguard when they set off. His face twitched violently a few times before he suddenly burst into laughter.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Get down here right now!"

Having just dealt with Kuroda Mitsuyuki's personal guards, Yarha didn't care whether you were a daimyo or not. He grabbed Kuroda Mitsuyuki by the collar with one hand and threw him off his horse, slamming him hard to the ground.

Yarha was quite strong. Kuroda Mitsuyuki was panting on the ground for a while before he slowly sat up, supporting himself on his arms.

He looked up at Yarha, then at the corpses scattered all around him and the still-burning wildfire, tucked his disheveled hair back, and spoke in a hoarse voice.

He spoke Mandarin with a heavy accent, his speech was halting and intermittent, but he pronounced each word with great effort.

"I... Kuroda Mitsuyuki. Lord of the Fukuoka Domain..." He pointed to his chest, then to the short sword at Yarha's waist. "I lost. Please... let me... die like a samurai. Seppuku... you, use this sword... to cut off my head."

After he finished speaking, he knelt down, placed his hands on his knees, and lowered his head to await a reply.

Yarha looked down at the old Japanese man kneeling in the mud. Although his face was covered in blood and foam, he remained upright in his kneeling posture. He had been defeated but did not run away or beg for mercy. He was asking for his belly to be cut open so that he could be beheaded.

"You old rascal, you're not bad." Yarha hung the short axe on his waist, drew the spare short knife from his waist, wiped the blood off the blade, and stood behind Kuroda Mitsuyuki.

Kuroda Mitsuyuki removed his full breastplate, revealing his gaunt belly. He then drew his wakizashi, wrapped the tip of the blade with his white belt, and held it against the left side of his stomach before looking at Yarha.

Thank you for your respect!

After Kuroda Mitsuyuki finished speaking, he took a deep breath, and with a sudden slash of his wrist, the blade cut from left to right. He groaned and bent forward, barely managing to stay upright. Blood gushed from the cut on his stomach, flowing down his belt and dripping into the soil.

"Do it." He squeezed out the two words through gritted teeth, his face already turning purplish-blue, clearly in great pain!

Yarha shook his head upon hearing this, gripped the knife with both hands and raised it above his head. The blade traced an arc in the firelight as it fell, and Kuroda Mitsuyuki's head rolled into the mud. His body knelt for a moment before collapsing forward with a thud.

Yarha wiped the blood off the dagger onto the corpse's clothes, tucked it back into his waistband, and glanced down at Kuroda Mitsuyuki's head.

"He's at least a man."

"You've got guts!"

Yarha looked around at the battlefield strewn with corpses, bent down and picked up Kuroda Mitsuyuki's head, holding it by his gray hair.

"When you enter the city, take everything useful with you: grain, ironware, gunpowder—carry everything you can carry."

Upon hearing the news of the robbery, the Jurchen hunters felt their strength return and quickly rushed into Kuroda Castle.

The town is now deserted, with only a few skinny dogs squatting in the alley with their tails between their legs, trembling.

Fortunately, they left in a hurry and couldn't take a lot of gold, silver, and grain with them, or even a lot of livestock, which soon became the army's midnight snack.

After a great battle, the Jurchens won, but they also lost nearly a hundred men. Some were killed by muskets, while others were shot in the face by high-ranking warriors with arrows.

It must be said that these warriors were indeed quite skilled in archery and swordsmanship in their pursuit of advancement.

An hour later, everything of value in Kuroda Castle was moved to the open space at the town entrance and piled up like a small mountain.

Yarha stuck Kuroda Mitsuyuki's head onto a bamboo pole and slammed it into the ground. He sat down beside the grain pile, took a bite of the roast duck offered by his subordinate, and the old hunter squatted down next to him, gnawing on a roast chicken. "What's next?" the old hunter asked. "We've already made our presence known. Kuroda Mitsuyuki's five thousand soldiers have perished here, and the other feudal lords of Kyushu will soon find out. In three to five days, or at most ten days, they will definitely muster an even larger army to surround us."

"I know," Yarha said, chewing on a piece of duck meat.

"What ideas do you have?" the old hunter asked again.

Yarha stood up, stuffed the rest of the bread into his mouth, walked to the center of the open space, and drew a circle in the mud with his foot. He picked up a stone from the side and threw it into the circle: "Let's go take Fukuoka Castle."

The old hunter's hand, holding the cake, froze in mid-air: "You think you can just take it over like that? That's the main castle of the Fukuoka Domain, with stone walls and a castle tower, not some town without walls like this."

"Let me finish." Yarha knelt down in front of the old hunter. "The five thousand soldiers that Kuroda Mitsuyuki brought were the entire wealth of the Fukuoka Domain. They've all been left here. Now, Fukuoka Castle is just a bunch of old, weak, and disabled people left. There's not even anyone who can command them!"

The old hunter was silent for a moment, then said, "Even if we take the city, what's next?"

"We won't have to run anymore," Yarha said. "Fukuoka Castle has stone walls, a castle tower, and granaries. If we occupy that castle, we won't have to fight them in the open fields."