The next day, before leaving, Katsuhisa politely rejected Gamo Kenxiu's offer.

Kamo Hyunxiu's face gradually changed, he was kind enough to marry his daughter to you who had nothing, but he still refused, no matter how good his temper was, he would not have a good face, after all, as a martial artist, this is completely a slap in the face.

Tsuru Chiyo saw that his father's face was not very good, and he was afraid of causing unnecessary conflicts, so he hurriedly smiled:

"I guess Katsuhisa-sama must have his own troubles! Maybe it's just that the fate with my sister has not arrived. ”

Gamo Hyunxiu thought that his daughter was so beautiful, you didn't want it, and his face was even worse:

"Do you think that the daughter of the Gamo family is not worthy of Katsuhisa-sama?"

"Absolutely not! If Shiro was the lord of a country or a city at this time, then Shiro would not hesitate to marry Ah Jing, but now Shiro himself is difficult to protect, and he has also promised his retainers to return to Izumo to fight to the death with Maori, and life and death are unpredictable; Shiro really couldn't bear to delay Ah Jing's life. ”

Katsuhisa bowed to Kamo Xianxiu with a sincere face:

"Shiro once swore in front of King Fudo Ming that he would not marry a wife until he recaptured Mt. Tsukiyama Tomita Castle, this is Shiro's determination, and I hope that Lord Gamo will forgive me!"

Gamo Kenxiu's face gradually improved when he heard this, he had always admired loyal and brave people, and Katsuhisa's words seemed to suit his appetite, and he sighed:

"It's the Gamo family that doesn't have the blessing to make Shiro a son-in-law!"

In order to express his apology, Katsuhisa bowed to Gamo Kenshu as if he were an elder.

Only one door away, Gamo sat sideways in it; Her father had already told her about marrying Katsuhisa, and she had no opinion, and her fate as the daughter of a samurai family left her without the right to choose her husband;

Since it is the same for all adults to serve, it is better to agree directly to her father, and besides, her impression of Katsuhisa is not bad; When she heard Katsuhisa's refusal, although she didn't have any expression on her face, her hands tightly grasped the corners of her clothes.

……

Niko Katsuhisa and his entourage bid farewell to the Gamo family, and there were a few more people in the group, that is, Tsuruchiyo, who had gone to Gifu as hostages, two famous Gamo family samurai, and three servants, and they began to enter Inoujo-gun of Omi Province north.

After a morning's journey, they stopped near a village to repair, and Kanosuke led people to the village's stream to fetch water.

Two thatched huts reached the stream, but the whole village was too quiet, and there was no one to be seen in the densely populated houses.

Shikanosuke held his saber tightly, this strange atmosphere made him extra alert, and Shikanosuke glanced at Nakano Yabei and Ohara Kojiro; The two drew their knives and walked up to the wooden bridge, cautiously walking towards the center of the village.

Shikanosuke ordered the others to bring the water back quickly, and told Katsuhisa to be careful, and then he also drew his saber and led the other two to join Nakano.

Nakano Yabei saw that there was still no one around, but there were obvious signs of fighting in the village, and he smelled a hint of danger, did the villagers hide, or did they suffer a military disaster?

At this moment, an arrow suddenly hit Yabei's chest, and he watched in disbelief as the arrow in his chest slowly fell.

"Yabei! Enemy attack! Enemy attack! ”

Kojiro Ohara hurriedly dragged Yabei back and shouted repeatedly.

When Kanosuke heard the sound, he hurriedly rushed over, and Kojiro, who was dragging Yabei with difficulty at this time, was also hit by an arrow in the shoulder, and he fell to the ground so angry that he scolded:

"A despicable villain who can only shoot dark arrows! Have the guts to come out! ”

As soon as the words fell, an arrow was fired, and it cleanly pierced Kojiro's neck, and he lay on the ground with angry eyes, his mouth was still muttering and vomiting blood, and his eyes were full of unwillingness.

Seeing this, Kanosuke immediately stopped, he knew that there were people with excellent archery skills on the other side, Yabei and Kojiro were not saved, and he hurriedly stopped the two of Ono and Kobayashi who wanted to save them.

Ohno Heibei looked at the tragic situation of his companions, and shouted angrily at Kanosuke:

"We said we were going to go back to Izumo together, how could we leave them, how could we lose our lives in such a place."

"Hurry back, even if you go up, you will only be shot, and you will lose your life in vain, I will definitely avenge their revenge, evacuate first."

Just as the three of them were retreating to the wooden bridge, more than a dozen people suddenly rushed out of the surrounding wooden houses and cut off Shikanosuke and their retreat.

Then a number of people rushed out from all around the village, some armed with knives or knives, some with sickles or large guns; They also wore different clothes, some wore short coats with samurai pockets, some wore iron chest guards or belly rolls, and many of them also shaved their heads like samurai, but all of them looked fierce and abnormal.

The three of them were back to back, putting on a defensive posture, looking at these people who were approaching with a tiger's eye, Shikanosuke guessed that these people were definitely not villagers here, his eyes were fierce, and he swung his knife sideways and slashed over one of the people who tried to sneak attack him.

The three of them moved towards the wooden bridge while fighting, and Shikanosuke, with his extraordinary martial arts, beheaded three people in a row, forcing the others to tremble and not dare to step forward; But it was clear that the enemy didn't want to let them go, and a man with a rattan bow appeared in the center of the village, shouting and directing these men to block Kanosuke and them.

In the chaos, Kobayashi Shisuke, who was a little worse in swordsmanship, was stabbed in the waist by a spear and knocked to the ground, just when several enemies wanted to stab him to death, Shikanosuke, who had already lost his saber and grabbed a large body gun, was like a tiger, and he held the bottom of the big body gun with one hand for a month and a half to sweep those people back; He also slit the throat of the person in front of him; Ohno Heibei took the opportunity to pull Kobayashi Shisuke up.

In the melee, the samurai preferred to use a spear with a wider attack range, because it has a wide attack range, can shoot, stab, or sweep, and is the weapon of choice when the enemy is outnumbered; Shikanosuke, who has a big gun in his hand, is like a divine helper, injuring and repelling several people one after another, forcing the enemy to retreat one after another.

"Don't go back, go up together, kill him."

The enemy in the person holding the rattan bow in the scolding,Attack the three groups of Ka no Suke again,Although the Ka no Suke is brave,But the enemy number is too many,After killing and wounding several people in succession,Physical strength obviously began to decline,Two fists are hard to defeat the four hands are also gradually on the defensive。

Kanosuke saw a wooden house beside him, and he shouted at Heibei and Shisuke:

"Follow me."

The deer directly used the attack distance of the spear to force back several people, he kicked open the door of the house and the three rushed in, and began to use the house to defend.

"Ahhh......h

A burst of female screams rang out, and Kanosuke and the others came back to their senses to see that there were more than a dozen young women tied up with ropes in the room; Seeing this scene, Shikanosuke finally determined that those outside should be bandits.

"They're in there!"

"Can't let them go, burn down this house."

"Huh? There were women we snatched inside. ”

"Hmph, you can grab it again when the woman is gone, kill these samurai first."

Inside the house, Kanosuke heard that the other party was going to set fire, and his heart was not good, he looked at the women who were huddled together and trembling, and said through gritted teeth:

"These animals, rush out, and they must not be allowed to burn down their houses."

Just as Kanosuke and the others were about to rush out to fight to the death, a sound of horses' hooves sounded.

The screams outside were endless, and Shikanosuke and the others saw that it was the lord Katsuhisa who had brought people to support; They were all overjoyed, except for the injured Kobayashi Shisuke, Shikanosuke and Heibei rushed out without hesitation, and the time for revenge had come.

Niko Katsuhisa brandished a long naginata knife and hacked two people to death one after another, and Asano Nagamasa and Sugihara Ietsu were not to be outdone and desperately broke up the formation of these bandits.

The many samurai of the Nizi family angrily pursued and killed the bandits who fled in all directions, and under the impact of more than twenty skilled samurai, they were completely a rabble, and the morale of the nearly fifty bandits collapsed instantly.

The bandit leader with the rattan bow was still resisting, and he was still cursing this group of samurai in his heart, "Bastard! We've all hid and let you go, so we don't have to worry about it.

He gritted his teeth and was about to shoot a second arrow after shooting an arrow at a nun samurai, when suddenly a spear flew and knocked him away, he slid back a few steps and then disappeared, Shikanosuke ran forward and drew his spear and spat on the man's corpse.

This scene stunned Asano Nagamasa, and said secretly: What a terrible power, this guy ......

The battle ended with the angry roars of the warriors of the Niko family.

After the war, everyone began to clean up the battlefield, and a total of 32 bandits died and 5 were captured alive, which should have been about a dozen; Three people were killed in the battle of the Niko family, namely: Nakano Yabei, Ohara Kojiro, and Wada Hidetsuna, all of whom died from the dark arrow; Hurt one person: Kobayashi Shisuke.

The villagers who were imprisoned by the bandits were also released, and they didn't seem to be thanking Niko Katsuhisa and the others for the rest of their lives, but gathered together and looked at Niko Katsuhisa and other samurai vigilantly, as if in their eyes, Katsuhisa and other samurai were more terrible than those bandits.

Maki Yoichi looked at the indifferent people, angry at the death of his companions, and he yelled at the villagers:

"We saved you, don't you have the slightest gratitude?"

The people only retreated tremblingly, and no one spoke.

At this time, I don't know which villager opened his mouth and shouted:

"Those bandits used to be samurai, isn't it because you samurai fought and killed that the world became like this?"

"Bastard! Who said that, get out! ”

Maki Yoshi and many of the retainers of the Nunko were furious, and they drew their swords one after another, saving these people and being treated like enemies, and they wanted to kill these ungrateful things.

The young man who had just spoken among the villagers hid in the crowd with his head bowed, too frightened to squeak again.

"Enough!"

Katsuhisa roared angrily to stop Maki Yoichi and the others, and he didn't have the slightest joy of victory, even if he killed all 50 bandits, it wouldn't be worth the lives of Yabei Guard.

"Everyone cleaned up the battlefield and withdrew from the village, taking Yabei, Kojiro, and Hidetsuna with them."

"Yes!"

At this time, Katsuhisa felt extremely uncomfortable, every time he lost one person, he would lose one point to rejuvenate the power of the Niko family, he didn't expect that he just wanted to go to Gifu, and he actually lost three retainers on the way.

The five thieves who were captured cried and begged for mercy, and his subordinates asked him if he had all been cut down, and Katsuhisa shook his head:

"Throw them to the villagers!"

"Oh!"

When the thieves heard Katsuhisa say this, they wept bitterly with fear, the villagers used to be meek under their butcher's knives, but it was based on their own strength, and now handing them over to the villagers was even more uncomfortable than killing them directly, and it would torture them to death.

Katsuhisa felt someone behind him as he walked, and when he turned his head, he saw a dirty boy who was not afraid of him like the other villagers.

"Thank you."

The boy bowed to Katsuhisa in gratitude, Katsuhisa chuckled, he turned around and squatted down to wipe the dirt from the boy's face and smiled:

"You're safe now, go find your parents! Don't run around. ”

"I was separated from my mother."

Katsuhisa was a little surprised, isn't this kid from this village? Then he tried to ask:

"What about your father?"

The boy just shook his head, and his stomach growled.

Katsuhisa looked at the poor boy with his head down, got up and took his hand and said softly:

"Let's go! I'll take you to eat. ”

"Hmm."

The boy obediently held Katsuhisa's hand tightly, as if he was afraid of being alone.

"What's your name?"

"Ji... Kinosuke. ”