"Damn it! There are so many women!" Kikuchiyo stared at the women harvesting rice with bright eyes, "Heping! Heping! Where are you hiding them? Bastards."
Seeing that the farmer was laughing and not answering, Kikuchiyo pushed Yohei on the forehead and ran towards a young and beautiful woman.
"Hey, give me the sickle." Kikuchiyo sent his nodachi to the panicked woman's arms, and at the same time snatched her sickle: "I'll cut twice as many for you, but you have to be nice to me."
He suddenly touched the woman's arm, and in the shy and frightened eyes of the woman, he jumped and cut the rice.
It has to be said that the strong Kikuchiyo is indeed a good hand at farm work. Her speed is more than twice as fast as that of the young woman, and she seems to have more energy to spare.
Maybe it was because of the busy farming season, or maybe Kanbei let Liji's warning take effect. In short, although the young women who were hiding somewhere had their hair cut short, they all returned to the village to participate in the harvest activity.
Hayashida Heihachi said with a smile: "Rikichi, you see, couples are the most productive when they work together, and you should find one as soon as possible." Rikichi's body stiffened while he was working, and he walked away with the sickle without looking back, as if
He was very angry at Hayashida Heihachi's ridicule. "Hey! Why are you angry? I just...hey!" Seeing Rikichi walking away, Hayashida Heihachi said to Katsushiro who was standing aside: "You asked Rikichi to come back, why are you so busy and you go away?"
Katsushiro responded and called out to Rikichi loudly and chased after him. However, what he didn't notice was that Shino was watching him with a look of attachment in the rice fields. It wasn't until his father Manzo called him several times that he reluctantly returned to work in the fields.
.
The village that had been noisy all day seemed particularly quiet at night. It was still very late at night, and the Kanbei who was lying in his clothes sat up and put on his coat, pushed the Gorobei next to him and whispered: "Go out and patrol." Look.
Looking at Katsushiro who was still sleeping soundly, Gorobei asked: "Should we wake him up?" "Don't wake him, he is young, let him sleep." Kanbei said softly.
"Where should we inspect first?" "Look at the easiest places to attack first," Kanbei said with a smile.
The bonfire burned cracklingly, and Kikuchiyo's snores rose and fell regularly. It seemed that he didn't care about this place that should have been guarded. Kanbei frowned, took away the sword tied by Kikuchiyo, and quietly walked around.
Behind Kikuchiyo, he picked up a stone and threw it into the river.
There was a splash and the loud sound of water splashing was particularly clear in the quiet night. Kikuchiyo jumped up and shouted in the direction of the sound: "Who! Who is there? Get out!"
He reached out to pick up his broadsword, but after searching around, he found that his weapon had disappeared. Knowing that something was wrong, Kikuchiyo did not run away, but pulled out a wooden stick by the campfire to guard against the upcoming attack.
attack.
Kanbei suddenly said: "Kikuchiyo." Kikuchiyo was about to attack when he saw that it was Kanbei and Gorobei. He was relieved, but he saw that it was in Kanbei's hand.
Holding his own knife, he couldn't help but feel ashamed and frustrated.
"Fortunately it's us! If it were a bandit, you would have been dead." Kanbei threw the knife back into Kikuchiyo's arms, and the two turned and left in silence. Kikuchiyo suddenly sat on his knees next to the bonfire, breathing heavily.
, couldn't calm down for a long time.
The harvest that lasted for three days was finally over. The farmers worked together to dig a large ditch between the rice fields and the river. When the water was put in, a knee-deep water area immediately formed. The side close to the village was filled with sharpened bamboos, densely packed.
, which is daunting.
Kanbingwei took a bamboo branch and inserted it into the water. When he saw the depth of the submersion, he said with satisfaction: "Hey! This way the bandits will not be able to attack on horseback, but we must prevent them from wading into the water to make a sneak attack."
The west side, which is most likely to be the main direction of attack by bandits, was also built and improved by farmers led by Shichiroji. The long and high wooden fence was covered with canes cut from the mountains, and the ground outside the wooden fence was also covered with canes.
Bamboo spears and horses were used, and a trench half a man's height was dug a few steps away from the wooden fence, and the muskets and bows and arrows that had been used to avoid the bandits were used.
It has to be said that Shichiroji is very experienced. Even if the bandits use Kanbei's strategy to attack here with all their strength, they will definitely suffer heavy losses.
The village's defenses have been completely deployed, but no bandits have come to attack. The farmers even started threshing rice leisurely. A farmer secretly glanced in the direction of the samurai and couldn't help complaining: "Why haven't the bandits come yet?"
"It's not worth it if you don't come. Hire a warrior to come and eat for nothing!" "Fool! Isn't it better that the bandits don't come?" another farmer scolded.
In the distance, farmers and samurai were watching the old and thin horse trained by Kikuchiyo. Kikuchiyo circled around the horse and said, "Huh, is this a horse? It's not as big as a dog."
Hayashida Heihachi smiled and joked: "Yeah, why are you riding Yuhei's horse? It's not as tall as you. If you break the horse's leg, Yuhei will cry!"
Kikuchiyo pushed away Hayashida Heihachi who was blocking him, and quickly jumped onto the horse. It was obviously impossible for farmers to install a saddle and stirrups on this old horse, but Kikuchiyo still rode quite smoothly and shouted: "Even if
Even a skinny horse can turn into a good horse if I ride it! Drive it!"
He held the horse's belly between his legs and galloped along the field ridge. "Not bad!" Seeing Kikuchiyo's riding skills like this, Hayashida Heihachi couldn't help but praise.
You know, even samurai in this era, most cannot ride into battle. The cost of equipping a cavalry can recruit 5 samurai, or 50 ashigaru. War horses are strategic resources comparable to muskets. So in this era, people will ride horses.
There are not many warriors in the world, and those who can perform martial arts on horses are even rarer.
Before everyone could cheer, Kikuchiyo was thrown off his horse, limping and chasing the horse with a loud roar. It seemed that his riding skills were not that good. The warriors and farmers laughed.
, even Jiuzang, who always had a straight face, was amused by Kikuchiyo's actions and couldn't stop laughing.
Kanbei, Shichiroji and Sorayama Kazuha were still inspecting the village's defenses. Seeing everyone laughing happily, Gorobei couldn't help but smile: "Ah, everyone seems to be very happy. After harvesting the rice, the bandits haven't come yet.
Said he might not come."
Kazuyo Sorayama couldn't make a judgment, so he looked at Kanbei and wanted to hear his opinion.
Kanbei was not as optimistic as everyone else. He shook his head melancholy and said: "I hope so too... but thinking this way is actually the most dangerous! Tell everyone to return to their posts." "Hi!" Gorobei responded.
At this time, the flowers in the back mountain were blooming even more brilliantly. Katsushiro and Shino were lying side by side in the flowers, their love so strong that they couldn't melt away. Shino straightened up and said to himself: "I really want to be born into a samurai family."
"The life of a farmer is so miserable. I'm so happy. I'm really ashamed." Katsushiro didn't understand what Shino meant. He simply wanted to comfort his lover.
"No, I mean you are a samurai and I am a farmer, so we..." Katsushiro was at a loss and hurriedly stood up and looked at Shino for explanation.
Before he spoke, Shino looked at Katsushiro's handsome face enthusiastically and said, "But it doesn't matter! No matter what happens to him in the future!" As he said that, he slowly closed his eyes, and his lips got closer and closer to Katsushiro. Katsushiro was attracted by Shino
His actions made him pale in panic, and his body couldn't help but avoid Shino's kiss.
Shino, who dared to take action, did not get the response she imagined from her lover. She opened her eyes and lay down on the ground in disappointment. She couldn't help but feel sad. She covered her face and cried: "Coward! A noble warrior..."
Suddenly, a horse neighed, interrupting their sorrow. Katsushiro couldn't help but become nervous. Shino suddenly stood up, hugged Katsushiro's arm, and looked at the young samurai in panic. Katsushiro mustered up his courage and patted Shino's arm.
Holding the samurai swords at their waists tightly with their hands, the two of them slowly walked towards the direction where the horse's neighing sound came from.
At some point, three strong war horses were tied up in the forest. Judging from the appearance of their saddles, they definitely did not get lost accidentally or were rested by passers-by.
"Bandit!" The thought flashed into their minds and they looked at each other in panic. They carefully looked around and saw that no trace of the bandit was found. Then they felt relieved, and then Shino took Katsushiro away.
Xiao Lu rushed back to the village to report this vital information to the warriors. The bandits were finally here!