A large number of people were killed.

More than half of the houses were burned into coke.

The rice fields were trampled into muddy and rotten.

The bandits took all the young girls and the last little property left in the village with their energy to dig three feet into the ground.

Millets hidden in the cellar; pickled radishes placed on the beams of the house; old cows that should have "lived their youth"...

A group of bandits from the crowd of horses hugged the screaming women, returned home with a lot of loads, and laughed proudly.

This is the origin of the scene that Qing Deng saw...

Seeing that the shogunate army was coming, the villagers who had packed up the rice fields stopped their work.

The crusade army was about to pass through the ridges that stretched between two rice fields.

The ridges are high in the terrain, so the villagers in the rice fields must straighten their waists and raise their faces to see the appearance of the soldiers.

I sensed that many people were looking at Qingdeng, their heads turned and they looked to their left side - they happened to be facing each other with a little girl who should be under 8 years old.

I saw that almost no piece of flesh on the little girl was clean, either there was a piece of mud here or there was a piece of dirt there. From head to toe, there was only a pair of black black eyes that were bright - what a pity, these very beautiful eyes were now shining with half-happy and half-worry eyes.

Qingdeng glanced around and found that all the villagers in Daohe Village were all in the same shape, without exception - covered in dirt, their clothes were so dirty that they could not see the original color, their faces were covered with gullies that had been hit by wind and rain for many years, and their expressions were tucked. When they looked at Qingdeng and others, they revealed a complex emotion composed of "joy" and "worry".

After facing Qingdeng's eyes, some people even changed their faces immediately, showing a panic expression, and hurriedly lowered their heads, not daring to look at Qingdeng even half a glance.

In this era of underdeveloped information exchange, for farmers in this small mountain village, the samurai in the city...especially the samurai in Edo, are basically no different from the aliens coming from aliens.

The "Aliens" are here... The villagers are nervous and frightened about this, which is normal.

After passing through the rugged ridges, Qingdeng soon saw the dirty road covered with dust and feces, the low thatched huts, and the charred ruins burned by the fire...

Looking up, there was a gray color...

It seemed as if a thick dark cloud covered the village.

There is a river that crosses the middle of the village, shining under the sunlight - this is the only bright color in Daohe Village now.

The river connects the rice fields in the south and the mountains in the north, dividing the rice and village into neat east and west halves. The "East Half Village" and the "West Half Village" are connected by only a few simple wooden bridges.

The villagers drooped their heads and shoulders, their faces were dull, and their every move was like walking corpses. Their bodies exuded the same breath as the mud they were trampled on: wet, muddy, dirty, weak and weak... The river water also seemed cold and cold due to their temperament.

There are no bustling streets and alleys that Qingdeng is familiar with.

There is no prosperous scene familiar to Qingdeng here.

This place and Edo... are like two worlds.

What I see at this moment is "reality"... Qingdeng thought.

Poverty, dirty, backward, often bullied by evil forces such as bandits and ronin - this is the truest Japanese appearance of this era

The prosperous Edo is just an exception in this country.

At this time, a chilly autumn wind suddenly swept through the mountains and forests in the distance. The weeds scattered all over the village were neatly bent. A large slurry of feces mixed with the stench, the smell of sweat, and the astonishing stinking of ruins scattered under the guidance of this autumn wind, reminding Qingdeng and all travelers who pass through this place - this is a sad place that has experienced countless winds and rains and has experienced the changes of the world.

...

...

It's night—

My grandson gathered together and held a military meeting to discuss the next action in the house of the village head of Daohe Village.

"The base of Xiangma people is located at the highest point of Xiangma Mountain."

Because there are no cushions in the village chief's house, the group will only sit on the floor at will. With my grandson as the center, it forms an oval circle. On the floor in the center of the circle, a simple map made of charcoal is laid.

"Although the terrain of Xiangma Mountain is not high, the terrain is very complex, with thousands of valleys and rocks, and there are mountain walls that are difficult to climb or undeveloped primeval forests everywhere."

In the rice and village, which are so poor that they can eat and drink, it is impossible for them to have luxurious things like candles. The villagers can provide Qingdeng and others with only some crude lamp oil with extremely poor lighting effects.

Fortunately, the crusade army itself has some candles so it will not be in the dilemma of holding meetings in the dark.

In order to make the group general see the map more clearly, when my grandson explained the map, he pointed at the lines drawn on the picture with one hand and grabbed the candle with the other hand. The slightly shaking lantern seedlings moved synchronously with the hand pointing to the map.

"If you want to go to the base of Sumazhong, you can only pass a mountain road adjacent to Daohe Village."

As soon as my grandson finished speaking, Ren Saburo Mizushima beside him immediately frowned.

“Is there no other mountaineering road?”

"No more. I have asked the villagers of Daohe Village who have lived here for generations. If you want to climb a mountain, there is only one way to walk."

While answering, my grandson stretched out his index finger with his right hand and poked a thick and long black line drawn on the map.

In an instant, the atmosphere spread around the group became slightly more delicate.

There is only one mountaineering road... This means that when they launch an offensive against the base of the Mazur, they don’t have many offensive choices left for them.

"Ha..." Nobuyi Kaorama smiled bitterly, "What an excellent barrier..."

"The bandits have been operating on Xiangma Mountain for many years."

My grandson continued.

"They not only built their camps into a solid foundation, but also set up two levels on this only mountaineering road. If they want to attack the base of Xiangmazhong, they must first try to remove these two levels."

After saying that, my grandson raised his head.

"Do you have anything to ask or add it?"

The group generals looked at each other.

The situation was clear - the number of troops and equipment of the siege army were better than those of the Suma people. However, the opposite side occupied the advantage of the mountain and defending it.

"Tsk..." Tadasuke Kanazawa hugged his hands on his chest and murmured softly, "This battle is not easy to fight..."

"Sir Samurai!"

At this time, an old man sitting in a corner of the room knelt down on the ground with a "thump". While giving Qingdeng and others a great gift to the ground, he said heart-wrenchingly in a tone with a little crying voice:

"You must get rid of those villains who killed thousands of swords!"

This old man is the village chief of Inawa Village: Fujigoro.

Perhaps he saw Qingdeng and others with serious expressions, so he felt panicked, thinking that the siege army would give up.

Fujigoro's accent was very heavy, and it took a lot of effort for Aoden and others to barely understand what he was saying.

"Mr. Fujigoro." My grandson smiled slightly, "Don't worry. Since we are here, we don't plan to go back empty-handedly. We will not be able to get along with the Shangguans if we don't take the bandits' heads back to Edo."

When Fujigoro heard my grandson say this, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief and joy.

"Although the Suma people are not easy to deal with, they don't have to be too afraid of them." My grandson said, "Next, I plan to organize scouts and reconnaissance the terrain of Suma Mountain, and send people to contact the Suma people and try to persuade them to surrender."

"At the same time, we actively prepare for war. Once the negotiations break down... we will fight to the death with them in the mountains and forests!"

"Do you have anything to add?"

Reconnaissance of the terrain, trying to persuade surrender, actively preparing for war, and the three are carried out simultaneously... Now, there is no better combat plan than this.

The group members looked at me, I looked at you, and then nodded vigorously.

...

...

In the next few days, the solemn atmosphere of the war was approaching shrouded over Daohe Village.

Although the villagers of Daohe Village had firmly assured the siege that there were no other roads to enter the mountain, my grandson still sent a large number of people to reconnaissance the terrain of Xiangma Mountain and whether there were other available mountain roads.

During this period, my grandson sent several eloquent and eloquent people to contact and communicate with the bandits on the mountain.

The leader of the Soma clan was named Yokokura Kiyokosuke.

From the name, I know that it is a ronin who has to become a bandit because of his down-and-out life.

Faced with the arrival of the siege army, the Suma people took a stance to defend the mountain.

The camps built on the top of the mountain and the two levels set on the mountain road can be heard every day.

Every night, the torches sway, and countless bandits swayed back and forth on the watchtower.

However, the next performance of Yokokura Kiyokosuke showed that his mentality was not so calm and he would rather die than surrender.

On the surface, he showed a tough attitude of "We will fight to the end, come and attack if you have the courage", but when the envoy sent by my grandson went up the mountain under the banner of "negotiation", Kiyokokuraki immediately opened the door and welcomed the envoys with great enthusiasm.

It can be seen that Yokokura Kiyokosuke obviously heard that the thief changed his reputation and was unwilling to fight against the thief who had outstanding military achievements.

In the past few days, Kiyokokura actively exchanged views with the messengers. He patted his chest generously and said: As long as I can agree to the conditions I offered, I will immediately instruct my subordinates to put down their weapons!

If the crowd of Xiangma can surrender voluntarily, it is naturally the best.

However... Yokokura Kiyokosuke's request for surrender was really ridiculous. I don't know if he should say he was too confident or he didn't know himself.

Simply put, he wanted to be Song Jiang from Liangshanpo - he asked the Edo Shogunate to recruit him and his men as samurai with formal establishment.

When everyone, including Aoden, was happy when they received the surrender conditions proposed by Keinosuke Yokokura.

The society under the Edo Shogunate ruled the most important thing is hierarchy, rank, and blood.

You are a bandit, and you still want to be recruited as a samurai with a formal organization? Are you kidding?
To be continued...