Shioka Kazuha still maintained the posture of taking a step forward to the right, his body bent like a big bow, and holding the hilt of the knife with both hands and swinging the knife upward. Shigang Yiyu's eyes followed the tip of the knife, looking at the sky with flying snow powder, and suddenly a touch of silence flashed in his eyes, and then he let out a long breath.

Shioka Kazuha froze in place like this, and then after a long time, he slowly withdrew his gaze and saw that on his right shoulder, the remnants of the spear head were inserted into his shoulder, and the blood oozed out of the wound and flowed little by little.

Shioka Kazuha shook his wrist and put the sword back into its sheath, stood up straight again, stuck the katana in his hand in the snowdrift, and then crossed his knees and sat directly in the snow.

"I lost." Shioka Kazuha lowered his head and put his hands on his knees.

Li Xiao immediately breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Shigang Yiyu say this, let go of his right hand, and gave up his plan to pull out the ribs from his waist and fight again. The katana needs to be held with both hands, and Shigang Kazuha's right shoulder can't be forced, and it is estimated that he will not be able to use such a fast swordsmanship in the next battle, so he will admit defeat.

"Promise, win a fluke in the next, thank you for your advice." Li Xiao shook his fists slightly with the unique etiquette of Chinese.

Shigang Yiyu glanced at Li Xiao, then pulled out the ribs from his waist, and said: "Since you have been defeated, you have to accept the fate of the warrior, please trouble Your Excellency to be my misguide." ”

After Shioka Kazuha finished speaking, he took out a piece of white silk from his clothes, used it to wrap the blade part of the ribs, and then lifted his clothes, exposing his abdomen. This posture is clearly to commit suicide by seppuku.

"Wait." Li Xiao opened his mouth to stop.

Shigang glanced at Li Xiao and said: "Seppuku suicide is the honor of a martial artist, so you don't have to persuade me, forget it, anyway, you Ming people won't understand." ”

Li Xiao glanced at Dao Shengmeng, but Dao Shengmeng shook his head, saying that he could not do anything about this matter.

Shigang Yiyu looked straight ahead, and said with a solemn attitude: "The reason why I committed suicide is not because I can't afford to lose, nor is it regret and humiliation. Death is a kind of awareness of one's own life, you know? ”

Is this the so-called samurai spirit?

At that time, the so-called samurai spirit had not yet been nurtured by the Edo shogunate, and there was a large-scale brainwashing of militarism after the Meiji era, but the general values of the samurai at that time had begun to take shape, and the spirit of the samurai at that time, in addition to the idea of loyalty, was that as a warrior, he had to see through life and death, not afraid of death, not remembering death, not hesitating to die, and not caring about death.

This is out of reaction to Confucianism, for example, Confucianism has a saying, the monarch has a mistake, and the ministers do not listen to the three advices, so they run away. The samurai spirit is different, and it is cowardly behavior to escape in the eyes of the samurai, and the same example is in the words of the samurai spirit, that is, the king has a fault, the minister does not listen to the three admonitions, and the minister dies.

For example, Oda Nobunaga's teacher, Masahide Hirate, after advising Oda Nobunaga not to, seppuku died.

Hirate Masahide's death admonition, saying that he has done his best, even if he continues to persuade, it is impossible to make Oda Nobunaga change, so he has fulfilled his responsibilities and has no regrets about dying, not because of his disappointment with Oda Nobunaga, or his own death to wake up Oda Nobunaga's cheer.

This point is in conflict with Li Xiao's concept, I remember that in the American drama "Pacific Theater", when a large number of soldiers were cornered, they launched wave after wave of suicidal group charges, and then were suddenly attacked by American GIs with machine guns like shooting turkeys.

This can probably be regarded as a way to express that you are powerless against the battle situation, and then use your own way of dying in exchange for an awareness of death.

Just when Shigang Yiyu was about to start seppuku, Li Xiao raised his ribs and stopped his move to cut himself.

Li Xiao slowly asked: "May I ask Mr. Shigang Yiyu, what is the purpose of learning swords and competing with others all your life, is it to learn how to kill people with swords and learn how to kill people?" ”

Hearing Li Xiao say this, Shigang Yiyu was suddenly annoyed, and said loudly: "Of course not, I don't deny that the sword is a murder weapon, and the sword is a killing method, but the process of learning the sword lies in the inner training, and the ultimate goal is to use the way of the sword to pass through heaven and man." This is the true pursuit of every martial artist to learn swords. ”

Li Xiao shook his head after hearing this, and said: "Since this is the case, I am very disappointed in you, then before you cut your stomach, please ask yourself if your heart has been refined and strong enough, or you have already reached the realm of using the way of the sword to reach the way of heaven and man?" ”

Shioka Kazuha was stunned for a moment, then said with a long sigh: "No, it is precisely because I have lost on the path of kendo that I will leave my unfinished kendo to you to complete." ”

Damn, Li Xiao scolded in his heart, as if in a novel he had read before, in the duel of Yanliu Island forty years later, after Miyamoto Musashi defeated Sasaki Kojiro, Sasaki Kojiro also told Miyamoto Musashi this before he died.

What please, please come and go, so that the two are not rivals in a life-and-death duel, but as if they are a pair of friends.

"Wrong," Li Xiao shouted loudly, "Your unfinished business can only be completed by yourself, where is there any reason to hand it over to others." I'm from Mingguo, and I don't know what you mean by myself, but we know what it means to be unforgiving, and what it means to fail to succeed, oh no, yes...... Success is always born in failure. If you give up your pursuit of kendo because of a failure, and look for death to escape, on the contrary, this is a kind of cowardice, and it is irresponsible for your own pursuit. ”

"Failure is success, success?" Shioka Kazuha couldn't stop chewing on this sentence over and over again.

"It's not failure it's success, it's that success is always born in failure." Li Xiao corrected Shigang Yiyu loudly, he was bitter this time, and took his experience of picking up girls to teach Mentor Gang Yiyu, thinking about how unforgiving he was chasing girls before, what is a small setback.

Didn't you say that you can use the way of the sword to understand the way of the sword, and Li Xiao can also use the way of the sword with the way of the people.

After hearing Li Xiao say this, Shigang Yiyu thought for a long time, and finally seemed to have made up his mind, his eyes glowed, he stood up firmly, rearranged his clothes, pulled out the gun on his shoulder, and bandaged the wound with the white silk cloth wrapped in the blade of the rib chacha.

"Master Li Xiao, you are right, as a martial artist, you should not be short-sighted, and you should not give up lightly before the goal is achieved." Shigang Kazuha said this lightly, and the confidence that disappeared just now seemed to have returned to him all of a sudden.

"Well, very well, Shioka-sama, how are you going to pursue kendo next? It's lonely on the way to pursue kendo alone, and there is no one to support you, so it's better for everyone to go together, anyway, everyone has the same pursuit, right? "Well, Li Xiaofang just said such a lot of fair and honest words, and at this moment, he finally showed his fox tail.

Shi Gang Yiyu was stunned for a moment, and turned his head to look at Li Xiao. Li Xiao nodded to him with an affirmative expression.

Promise me, Li Xiao's eyes revealed these four words.

Shigang Yiyu smiled slightly, nodded and said, "Okay, I will implore Lord Li Xiao in the future to take care of me." ”