A few white clouds leisurely blocked the afternoon sun, casting a large shadow that kept changing shapes on the hillside. The breeze made the thin grass on the hillside sway its waist, as if cheering that a large amount of new fertilizer was about to arrive.
Nourish your own tribe.
The warriors lined up in a row, standing under the cool shadow, stepping on the soft grass, looking at the quiet village in the canyon at the foot of the mountain, enjoying this rare beauty in the world with intoxicated expressions.
"What a beautiful village!" Gorobei exclaimed.
"I don't want to die in this damn place!" Kikuchiyo said mercilessly across the crowd.
Suddenly, the peaceful atmosphere of Shizara was completely destroyed. Hayashida Heihachi looked disgusted: "No one asked you to come!"
The two farmers leading the way ran to the village first and shouted excitedly: "The samurai are coming! The samurai are coming!" Unlike the expected welcome along the streets, no one appeared in the empty village.
All the busy villagers in the past have disappeared, and only the occasional glances from the cracks in the windows prove that this is not an empty village, but they have just hid in the house for unknown reasons.
"Master Samurai is here, where are you? Why don't you come out to greet him?!" Liji shouted hoarsely.
We finally have hope of saving the village, but what happened to everyone? Before setting off, we were all expecting the samurai to arrive as soon as possible? What happened?
Different from the doubts of the other samurai, Rikichi shouted, and Kikuchiyo followed with a "haha", seeming to have a considerable degree of prediction of what was happening.
"What a grand welcome," Hayashida Heihachi said sarcastically.
"What exactly is going on?" Kan Bingwei asked.
There were villagers in every house peeking at their group of warriors, but no one came out to greet them! [Could it be that bandits happened to attack? No, because there are no traces of battle on the ground, no horse hoof prints, no horse dung.
No messy footsteps..."]
Liji couldn't answer the question, so he could only run around, shouting over and over again, "The samurai is coming! The samurai is coming! What's wrong with you?!"
Amidst Kikuchiyo's continuous laughter, Mosuke, who had returned to the village early to report the news, ran over in a panic and told how Manzo was worried that the women in the village would be harmed by samurai, and how he cut his daughter Shino's hair short so that she could marry a man.
Tell everything clearly one by one.
Li Ji fell to the ground, filled with despair.
"Get up and take us to daddy's house" came the impatient voice of Kazuyo Sorayama.
Kan Bingwei said: "Dad? The elder of the village?"
Kazuyo Sorayama nodded: "This village is full of idiots, only dad is sensible."
Hayashida Heihachi was a little disinterested: "As soon as I entered the village, I had to meet the elders... It was really grand..."
Kanbei thought for a moment and said, "Let's go and meet this dad."
In the waterwheel room, Kazuyo Sorayama, Kanbei, and Shichiroji sat opposite his father, while the other samurai did not sit down.
Kuzo stood behind Kazuo Sorayama with his arms folded, Hayashida Heihachi walked around the window, Shichiroji leaned against the pillar and looked out the window silently, Katsushiro held a grass stem in his hand and lowered his head silently, Kikuchiyo did not
He appeared in the house and didn't know where he went.
The room was eerily quiet. Even the experienced father had no way to solve this problem. He could only smile bitterly and slowly said: "It's funny to say it... farmers are always worried... they hope it will rain but they are afraid of it.
They hope the wind will blow but are afraid of it... In short, they are afraid of everything... What happened today is actually the same."
"But...what are the villagers afraid of us?"
Kanbei, a veteran who has experienced countless wars, was at a loss for the first time because he did not understand the reason for the peasants' behavior. If he was afraid of samurai, why bother to invite samurai?
"Then how should we help farmers?" Kan Bingwei said to himself.
He still had one sentence he didn't say: Do you think that helping you kill the bandits is just seven of us warriors, rushing to resist when more than thirty bandits rush towards you on horseback?
It’s such a rough road!
How can we, with our bare bodies and only a sword, fight against the cavalry who are heavily armed and even have muskets?
Without more than 5 times the number of infantry on the battlefield, there is no way to fight against the cavalry.
Kanbei's plan is to gather the young men in the village, train them a little, use the terrain of the village to deal with the bandits, kill some of the bandits first, and then engage in a decisive battle!
Even so, Kanbei has no confidence that he can survive. Let alone killing the enemy head-on, then where is killing the enemy? It is suicide!
Dad lowered his head sadly, completely losing his usual wisdom. This seemed to be a dead end with no solution!
"Bang bang bang bang! Bang bang bang bang bang!" A rapid banging sound came from the village. The father immediately raised his head in horror. The four farmers in the house were like headless flies scurrying around, and Yu Ping murmured.
Said: "It's over, it's over, the bandits are coming!"
There was a huge uproar in the village, and the villagers who had been hiding in the house rushed out, shouting: "Help! The bandits are coming...Samurai...Where is the Samurai Sir...Samurai Sir...Help!"
Before the warriors in the house could react, Kazuyo Sorayama had already stepped out of the house and took a quick look. According to his keen intuition, he found no trace of any bandits around him.
Moreover, apart from the noisy cries of the villagers, there was no sound of horse hooves. This phenomenon is very abnormal. [Did the bandits come over? Impossible!]
Kazuyo Sorayama did not stop and wait for the other warriors. While thinking, he ran towards the village square where he came from, where the villagers gradually gathered.
When Jiuzang ran out of the house, he could only see the back of Kazuyo Sorayama in the distance. This speed far beyond his current limit made him realize in frustration: not only the gap in realm, but also in terms of absolute physical fitness,
The gap with the empty mountain is even greater.
The villagers fled like headless flies. Sorayama Kazuyo and the samurai behind him were surrounded by a group of villagers shouting "Help! Samurai-sama!"
Although they have not seen other samurai, almost all the villagers have seen this noble Lord Sorayama Kazuha, and of course they usually stay away from him.
But at this critical moment, the fear of bandits instantly overshadowed the fear of Kazuyo Sorayama's identity. Everyone wanted to get as close to him as possible! The samurai were also so crowded by the frightened crowd that they could hardly move.
Kazuyo Sorayama frowned, and pulled out the long captain's light with a "swipe". The cold momentum immediately cleared the surrounding crowd. He raised the long sword high, walked up to the high platform in the square step by step, and said in a hoarse voice: "No.
Panic."
The crowd below seemed to be frightened by this reassuring voice and gradually calmed down. Kanbei and other samurai took the opportunity to get rid of the villagers' entanglements and quickly jumped onto the high platform.
"Quiet! Calm down, don't panic!" Kanbei shouted loudly, "Tell me which direction the bandits are coming from!"
"In the mountains... not... on the road..." The farmers below gave garbled answers, but no one could be sure where the bandits came from.
Kanbei kept looking around, but like a leaf in an empty mountain, he couldn't find any trace of the bandits.
"Come out if you see the bandits!" When no one responded, Kan Bingwei shouted angrily: "No one saw the bandits? Who knocked on the wooden board to call the police?!"
"It's me!" Kikuchiyo held the mallet and struck vigorously "bang bang bang".
Kikuchiyo jumped off the stage while knocking, walked up to the farmers, and made mocking faces.
"Why are you crying? Don't worry, the bandits won't come!" Kikuchiyo said with a look of disgust.
"Assholes! Where were you when we entered the village? Huh? As soon as you heard the alarm, you shouted 'Samurai-sama, Samurai-sama', jumping and shouting, kneeling and worshiping, you are really groveling! You deserve this, you mud-legged people!
"
After speaking, he stuck out his tongue at the warriors on the stage, looking quite proud.
The warriors laughed loudly. It was obvious that the warriors were quite good at killing enemies, but how to deal with these peasants, including Kanbei, was obviously not up to their standards.
The existence of Kikuchiyo perfectly complements this point. Just like what Kikuchiyo did this time, it perfectly broke the barrier between farmers and samurai.
For this war, it can be said that Kikuchiyo's role is not weaker than that of any samurai, or even higher.
The father walked up to Kikuchiyo with a hunched back and a cane. Kikuchiyo pointed at the father with a mallet and said: "What, uncle, are you not convinced?" "No, that's fine!"
Dad answered with joy.
Kikuchiyo looked back at the samurai proudly. Hayashida Heihachi smiled and said: "It seems that he is of some use after all. Although we have gathered seven samurai, you are the eighth!"
All the warriors laughed happily again. Only Ichiyo Sorayama was shocked!