Before Ogata rushed into the bandits, Jincheng was actually in a mood to watch a joke.
He was also a swordsman, so he naturally knew how difficult it was to fight against many enemies alone.
Facing these 12 bandits, even if they are all of mediocre strength, the numbers are there. If we don't use some tactics and strategies, there will definitely be some casualties even if we wipe them all out.
So when Jincheng heard Ogata talk about his plan of "drawing the sword and rushing forward directly", his only thought was that this guy was an idiot.
Later, when Jincheng saw Ogata really rushing forward alone, his evaluation of Ogata became "a reckless idiot with courage but no strategy."
How did such a fool get such a beautiful wife?
Under the influence of this mood of watching a joke, Jincheng developed a somewhat gloating attitude and was mentally prepared to see the brave but reckless Ogata being hacked to death.
However... I did see the scene of someone being hacked to death.
It was just the bandits being hacked to death.
No…using “random knife” may not be accurate.
Ogata's precise swing of the sword was full of beauty. The sword in his hand could always take the shortest route and accurately hit the bandits' vital points, killing them one by one with one blow.
The scene in front of him was so different from the scene he had imagined in his mind that Jin Cheng's expression became the most exaggerated, and his eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets.
Ogata charged straight into the bandits like a tiger charging into a flock of sheep.
How can a sheep possibly fight back against a tiger?
After fighting with this group of bandits, Ogata discovered that these people were not in very healthy health.
It was quite far away just now, so I couldn't see it clearly.
Now that he had gotten closer, Ogata realized that the mental state of these bandits in front of him was not much better than that of the villagers.
They all have sallow complexions, and some even have sunken cheeks.
It looked like he hadn't had a proper meal in a long time.
And their movements were indeed very much like those of people who had not had a proper meal in a long time - their steps were loose and weak.
Their swordsmanship was not very good to begin with, and coupled with their weak bodies, their already weak combat effectiveness became even weaker.
The weapon used by "Bandit 3" is the Odachi.
The Odachi is a relatively rare weapon, and there are very few samurai who specialize in the Odachi.
Of all the samurai Ogata had met before, Makimura was the only one who used the Ōdachi as his regular weapon.
The amazing length of the Odachi makes it extremely impressive to wield it, regardless of whether one is proficient in it or not.
But if you are not proficient in the Odachi, you can only fool those who don't understand swordsmanship.
To Ogata, the "Bandit 3" in front of him was a terrible user of the Odachi and was no match for Makimura.
Rather, it could be said that the skinny "Bandit 3" was not suitable for using a weapon like the Odachi, which was extremely long and required a lot of arm strength.
"Bandit 3" was not strong enough to even lift the large sword quickly and steadily.
A flash of cold light.
Before "Bandit 3" could fully raise the large sword in his hand, the Daishakuten in Ogata's hand turned into a cold light and cut the throat of "Bandit 3" horizontally.
[Ding! Use Sakakibara Ittoryu·Ryubi to kill the enemy.]
[Gain 60 personal experience points, and 60 swordsmanship "Sakakibara Ittoryu" experience points]
[Current personal level: Lv35 (20/5400)]
[Sakakibara Ittoryu Level: 12th Stage (3805/9000)]
[Ding! Experience value is full, personal level is upgraded by 1, and 1 skill point is obtained]
[Currently remaining skill points: 4 points]
From the experience points given by the system, we can also see that the strength of this "Bandit 3" is really weak - after killing him, the personal level and Sakakibara Ittoryu only get 60 experience points each.
When you defeat the "Ten Swords of Hosho" in Hosho Dojo, you will gain about 50 experience points.
However, no matter how small a mosquito is, it still counts. After killing "Bandit 3", Ogata's personal level, which had already reached the critical point for upgrading, was finally upgraded to level 35, and he gained 1 skill point.
Including the 1 skill point saved after the battle with Shiranui, and the 2 points gained from upgrading the level of Shiranui-style ninjutsu at the Hosho Sword Hall a few days ago, Ogata now has a total of 4 skill points.
Should we say he is worthy of being a bandit?
After Ogata knocked down the guy who looked like a small leader with one move and killed their three companions in a row, the remaining people instantly lost their will to fight.
About 10 seconds ago, when they saw Ogata rushing towards them alone, they were still very proud, thinking that they had 12 people on their side and were not at all afraid of this samurai who dared to rush towards them alone with a sword.
After only 10 seconds, the expressions of the 8 surviving bandits changed 180 degrees. They looked at Ogata with horror, then turned around and ran away without caring about anything.
Ogata was not surprised by the bandits' sudden escape.
To put it bluntly, bandits are just a bunch of rabble who can only fight when the wind is in their favor, and they are not elite troops who have fought many battles.
If these bandits fought to the death, Ogata would find it strange.
This gang of evil bandits must not be allowed to leave.
It would cause a lot of trouble if they were allowed to return to their base and tell the rest of their gang that the villagers of this village had asked for the help of the samurai.
Seeing the bandits fleeing, Xu Fang immediately picked up his knife and chased after them.
How could these unsteady bandits possibly escape from Xu Fang, whose agility value has reached 18 points?
With just one powerful step, Ogata caught up with the nearest bandit.
Sakakibara Ittoryu·Toribashi!
The Great Shitian transformed into a stream of light and pierced the bandit's heart from the back.
At this time, Huosaka and others finally caught up.
Ogata's heroic performance just now gave Higasaka and others a great shock, but now there are still enemies to be dealt with, so they can only suppress the shock in their hearts for the time being.
In fact, it doesn’t matter if Hizaka and the others don’t rush up to help - anyway, with Ogata’s current speed, he can easily kill these fleeing bandits one by one.
Ogata was like a beast chasing its prey.
Ogata ran, leaped, and slashed.
The bandits fled, screamed, and died.
There was also a bandit who still had some blood in his veins. He gritted his teeth, knowing that he could not escape. He stopped, clenched his weapon, turned around, and attacked Ogata while roaring.
Although courage is commendable, it cannot make up for the gap in strength.
Ogata rushed straight towards the bandit who was gathering his courage and preparing to launch a fatal attack.
Perhaps he was too nervous, or perhaps he simply lacked the strength - this bandit made a mistake that many people would make in battle: he failed to calculate the distance between himself and the enemy.
Ogata considered himself a man who had been in many battles. According to Ogata's calculations, the number of people who had been defeated or died by his sword because of "miscalculating the distance between the enemy and ourselves" was countless.
Either they don't even realize they have stepped into the enemy's attack range, or they judge the timing of the enemy entering their attack range too early or too late, causing their attacks to fail.
This bandit belonged to the latter category—he swung his knife too early.
Before Ogata even entered his attack range, he yelled in panic and swung his sword at Ogata.
Because he swung the knife too early, it only cut the air an inch away from Ogata's nose.
Ogata passed by him.
At the same time as he passed by him, Ogata's Daishakuten also "passed by" him.
The moment his body and knife brushed past the bandit, blood mist spurted out from the bandit's chest.
The bandit fell.
The system sound prompting the gain of experience points sounds.
…
…
He was the only bandit who had the courage to confront Ogata.
The remaining people were trying their best to escape, even using their hands.
Eventually, the fleeing bandits were caught up one by one and then beheaded.
Of course, they were basically killed by the extremely fast Ogata.
Hizaka and his companions, who finally arrived after the bandits began to flee, only picked up two heads.
Huo Ban and Jin Cheng each dealt with a fleeing bandit.
After Ogata killed the last bandit who didn't even dare to turn his head, this brief encounter was officially declared over.
Ogata killed 9 of the 12 bandits and captured 1 alive. Hizaka and Kinjo killed 1 each.
Ogata took out a piece of paper, wiped the blood and fat off the blade, and then sheathed the knife.
As soon as the Great Shakuten was sheathed, Hizaka and the others, all with their eyes wide open, quickly came to Ogata.
Ogata's heroic performance of rushing into the enemy camp at an extremely fast speed and defeating the 12 bandits with one blow greatly shocked Hizaka and others.
Nowadays, martial arts are in decline and many warriors don’t even know how to hold a sword.
This was the first time that Hizaka and his friends saw a samurai who could fight 12 alone.
Even Tsuchiya, who was a man of few words and expression, showed a look of shock.
"Mashima." Hizaka, who is usually very lively, had an exaggerated expression, "I didn't expect you to be a swordsman..."
Mizuno, who was standing next to Hizaka, also showed an expression of shock that was no less exaggerated than that of his master.
"Mashima-kun." Jincheng, who had just criticized Ogata's so-called plan as "nonsense ", now looked at Ogata in front of him with a look of surprise, "Who are you?"
"A ronin who travels the world without a fixed place to live." Ogata smiled and patted the sword at his left waist.
"Ronin?" Jin Cheng's look of astonishment became even more intense. "With your swordsmanship, all the feudal states will be eager to invite you to be their swordsmanship instructor, right? You won't have to worry about food and drink."
"Could it be that you volunteered to continue being a ronin in order to train as a warrior?"
When he said this, Jincheng's eyes sparkled.
In this era, one of the main ways out for samurai with superb martial arts skills... or the best way out, is to become martial arts instructors in various feudal states.
Tsukahara Bokuden, Kamiizumi Nobunaga, Miyamoto Musashi, Sasaki Kojiro... These famous swordsmen in history all served as swordsmanship instructors to daimyos.
In the Edo period, when class stratification was extremely serious and mobility between classes was almost impossible, if the samurai wanted to rise in social class through their own efforts, besides establishing themselves as great meritorious officials, they could only hone their swordsmanship.
Let the feudal lord or the lords of other feudal domains take a liking to my swordsmanship and then invite me to be their swordsmanship instructor.
Many warriors relied on their excellent swordsmanship to advance their social class - unfortunately, there were very few people who could do so.
Just as Jincheng said just now, based on Ogata's superb swordsmanship, there will definitely be a lot of feudal states vying to invite Ogata to be their swordsmanship teacher, so he won't have to worry about food and drink.
He clearly had the conditions to live a life without wandering, but he still remained a ronin traveling around the world. Jincheng, who had a somewhat poor imagination, could only think of one possibility, which was that Ogata was a great swordsman with great ambitions who still insisted on practicing as a warrior.
Of course, Ogata couldn't tell them the real reason why he was still a ronin.
Seeing Jincheng handing out a step, Xu Fang went down the step.
"Yes." Ogata nodded, "I am still practicing as a warrior and continuing to hone my swordsmanship."
Hearing Ogata's words, Hizaka and the others were all startled.
To be able to possess such advanced swordsmanship at such a young age, he must be a genius with both talent and hard work.
A tall figure slowly emerged in the minds of Huo Ban and others.
At the same time, I also imagined the story behind Ogata - Ogata might have been a samurai of a certain domain, and a famous and talented swordsman in the domain.
He could have relied on his swordsmanship to lead a life of ease and respect by countless people.
But Ogata is a man who is extremely passionate about swords.
In order to improve his swordsmanship, he gave up the fame, wealth and status that countless people dream of, and resolutely traveled around the world to hone his swordsmanship.
What kind of spirit is this?
This is a true warrior!
Hizaka and the others all had the same thought at the same time - this is a true swordsman!
The way Hizaka and the others looked at Ogata changed unconsciously.
Originally, they all looked at Ogata as an equal.
And now, they all looked at Ogata with respect, as if they were looking at some highly respected senior.
The look of respect in Jincheng's eyes was the strongest.
The only thing he was good at and interested in was swordsmanship.
Because of his love for swordsmanship, he gave up the job his father had arranged for him to guard the homes of other samurai families, and traveled around the world with a sword in hand to hone his swordsmanship.
For Jincheng, Ogata is simply his role model!
Jincheng's face now looks so fiery, just like a very devout believer.
Hizaka is the most lively one, and her thoughts are the most jumping.
He not only imagined Ogata's story, but also Atachi's story.
Anyone with eyes can see that Atachi cannot be a peasant girl. Her temperament is more like that of a samurai family's child.
Why would a daughter of a samurai family marry a talented swordsman and willingly accompany him through a hard life of wandering?
Hizaka made up a story in her mind - Ogata and A-machi both spoke with the same Kansai accent, and it was very likely that they were both from the same feudal province.
The two fell in love with each other. When Ogata decided to become a warrior in order to hone his swordsmanship, Atachi followed Ogata without complaint and left the domain. She gave up her carefree life and wandered around with Ogata.
With her powerful imagination, Hizaka not only developed respect for Ogata, but also for Atachi.
Ogata naturally noticed that the way Higasaka and the others looked at him had changed.
Staring blankly at Hizaka and the others in front of him, Ogata couldn't help but secretly thought in his heart:
——Did they misunderstand something…?
"Master Samurai!"
At this time, the village chief and others also led the strong men in the village and ran to Ogata and others.
The village chief and his men also witnessed Ogata's fight just now.
The village chief and his men don't know swordsmanship as well as Hirasaka and his men, nor do they understand what it means to fight one against 12 like Hirasaka and his men.
They only knew that Ogata was strong, very strong, a very tough samurai.
Unlike Hizaka and the others who showed respect, the village chief and the others thought that they had found a treasure after seeing how strong Ogata was.
Successfully found a warrior with very high strength.
This feeling of having found a treasure made the village chief and others look at Ogata with eager eyes.
But the fire in their eyes was not the same emotion as the fire in Hizaka's eyes.
"Village chief, you've come just in time," Ogata said. "Tell the young men in the village to bury the bodies of these bandits. Remember to bury them away from water sources and bury them deep."
"Although it's winter now and the bodies will rot slowly, it's still better to get rid of them as soon as possible. If you delay too long, it might lead to an epidemic."
"Then—please prepare an empty house for us."
Ogata nodded at the small bandit leader who was knocked unconscious by him using Shiranui-ryu Jutsu not far away.
"We need a secluded place to properly extract information from him."
…
…
The village chief quickly arranged a secluded empty house for Ogata and others.
After Ogata and his men dragged the unconscious bandit leader into the house, they silently waited for him to wake up.
There was a faint musty smell in the empty house, and Ogata hated this smell, so he sat outside the house with a knife in his arms, breathing the cool and fresh air outside, silently waiting for the little leader to wake up.
After Ogata single-handedly defeated the 12 bandits who came to extort money from them, he clearly felt that the atmosphere in the village had changed.
The original atmosphere of the village... to put it in another way, was like a taut "string".
Maybe it was because he felt safe after seeing Ogata's powerful strength, or maybe it was because he felt that these samurai who had the courage to fight the bandits were trustworthy, so the taut "string" now relaxed a little.
Ogata sat outside to breathe in the fresh air, and Atachi naturally accompanied him.
Taking advantage of the little free time now, Ogata opened his personal system interface to check the experience points he had just gained.
[Current personal level: Lv35 (580/5400)
Sakakibara Ittoryu Level: 12th dan (4155/9000)
Wuwo's ​​dual swordsmanship level: 11th stage (3690/12000)
Shiranui-ryu Ninjutsu Level: 7th stage (4000/4500)]
Although killing an opponent, especially one who is extremely hostile to you, will earn you more experience points.
But because the strength of the bandits just now was extremely weak, in terms of individual levels, on average, the experience points that each bandit gave Ogata were less than 100 points.
After checking his personal system interface, Ogata was thinking about whether to take out the "Ezo Common Language Teaching Guide" to learn the Ezo language, when he suddenly felt the light beside him dim.
Turn around and look.
He saw a young warrior with a tense expression walking towards him quickly.
This young warrior was none other than Hizaka's apprentice - Mizuno.
Mizuno quickly ran to Ogata and stared at him.
He opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something.
But every time he opened his mouth, he would immediately close it again, looking as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.
Although he was timid, his eyes were fixed on Ogata with a fiery look in them.
"What's wrong?" Ogata asked. "Just say whatever you want to say. There's no need to be nervous or scared."
Mizuno is the second most talkative person after Tsuchiya.
All Ogata knew about Mizuno was that he was Hizaka's apprentice, and that he was a rather reserved and shy person.
It is because I am reserved and shy that I speak so little.
Mizuno is now standing in front of Ogata, looking like he wants to say something but is hesitant. It must be the restraint and nervousness that are at work again.
After hearing Ogata's encouragement, Mizuno seemed to be encouraged as well.
After taking a deep breath, Mizuno spoke to Ogata word by word:
"You... your swordsmanship is amazing. I admire you so much."
After quickly saying these words, Mizuno quickly left Ogata and returned to the house at the back where the bandit leader was imprisoned.
After hearing what Mizuno said just now, Obe was stunned for a moment.
After watching Mizuno leave, Atachi, who was standing by, smiled and said to Ogata:
"It's just a compliment on your swordsmanship. Why do you make it sound like you're expressing your feelings to someone you like?"
Ogata smiled and shrugged: "Maybe you are too shy. You are embarrassed to talk to me in public just now."
Just as Ogata was about to continue to look at the clouds in the sky leisurely with Atachi, Hizaka's voice suddenly came from behind:
"Hey! Master Majima! The prisoner is awake!"
Ogata raised his eyebrows, picked up the sword in his arms and stood up.
"Are you awake? You woke up pretty quickly. By the way, why are you talking so strangely?"
If Ogata heard correctly, Higasaka seemed to have called him "Mashima-sama" just now, and that sentence was spoken using honorifics.
Hearing Ogata's question, Hizaka showed his most common expression - a grin:
"I admire you so much, Majima-sama! It would be really rude if I continued to address you in the same manner and tone as before."
"Come on, Master Majima, let's try that scumbag together!"
…
…
The review process was extremely easy.
Huosaka simply swung his sandbag-sized fist and punched the bandit leader twice in the face, and then he confessed everything he knew.
From this we can see that this man's will is quite weak and he surrendered after only two punches.
However, it was within Ogata's expectations that this man would surrender so quickly.
Those who would rather die than surrender basically have strong beliefs.
What kind of faith can a mere bandit have?
Perhaps there really are bandits who would rather die than betray their companions for the sake of loyalty, but such people can really be described as one in a million.
Ogata and others first asked the name of the bandit leader.
After learning that the small leader's surname was Ono, he then asked for more important information such as where their base was and what weapons they had.
According to Ohno, they were a group of bandits who had recently gathered and moved here. All of their members were masterless ronin, totaling 42 people.
They currently live somewhere in the mountains. It takes more than an hour to walk from here to their base.
The only weapons they have are the swords that each member has at his waist, and there is no such thing as armor.
Although with their numbers and combat power, it would be extremely easy to rob this small village with a population of less than a hundred.
But their leader also understood the concept of "sustainable development" and knew that if all the things in the village were looted, only a few villagers would be able to survive the winter.
Their leaders were unwilling to do such a thing as killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
So he sent Ono and his men to negotiate with the village today, and asked them to let them go if they only handed over half of their food, property or women.
Leave some seeds for them so that they can continue to grab them in the future.
What Ono had said to the village chief before, "As long as they hand over their money or women, he will not harass them again," was just pure nonsense.
According to their plan, after "borrowing" half of the money, food or women from the village, they would continue to "borrow" later.
"Without bows, cannons, armor, spears and other troublesome things..." Hizaka scratched her hair, "That would be much easier."
"It's not the Warring States period now. It's not that easy to get equipment like armor and spears." Jin Cheng said calmly, "It's normal for bandits not to have these things. It would be strange if they did."
During the turbulent Warring States period two hundred years ago, weapons were truly everywhere.
You can pick up a large number of weapons and equipment by going to any battlefield.
Some people even make a living by picking up weapons and equipment left on the battlefield and selling them.
During the Warring States Period, not only were the bandits generally well-equipped, but even the farmers often stockpiled very sophisticated equipment.
In order to protect themselves, farmers in the Warring States Period often picked up some weapons and equipment.
Whether for the safety of the village, or simply to retaliate against the warriors who made them uneasy, they chose to take risks, kill lone warriors passing through their village, and then strip them of their equipment.
Because there were too many weapons and equipment in the hands of the people, Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued the "Sword Hunting Order" shortly after unifying the country, and confiscated all the weapons and equipment in the hands of the people.
After saying that, Jin Cheng crossed his arms, pondered for a moment, and said in a deep voice:
"42 people... We have killed 12 of them, leaving 30... Even without those troublesome weapons, there are still a lot of people..."
After hesitating for a moment, Jincheng suddenly turned his head to look at Ogata and asked him with an extremely respectful attitude:
"Mashima-sama, what do you have in mind?"
Being suddenly called out made Ogata raise his eyebrows unconsciously.
Ogata just happens to have a plan now.
Since he was called, Xu Fang simply cleared his throat and said slowly:
"We have now annihilated this group of people who came to 'borrow' money and food."
"The team's failure to return will surely arouse their suspicion."
"So I just happen to have a plan now."
"Let's just fight it quickly and decisively."
"Draw your sword, go straight to Huanglong, attack their stronghold, kill the enemy as soon as you see them, and wipe out this group of bandits - this is my plan."
"What do you think?"
Things like fan filters exist in every era.
If Jincheng had heard Ogata's plan before Ohno and others attacked, he would have only sneered.
And now after knowing that Ogata is a great swordsman, under the influence of this fan filter, when Jincheng heard Ogata's plan, he only felt that - he is worthy of being a swordsman, he is bold and heroic!
The fire in Jincheng's eyes burned even more fiercely.
Bathed in Jincheng's fiery gaze, Ogata couldn't help but droop the corners of his mouth, thinking to himself:
——Is my plan so popular…?