There is snow under your feet, there is snow all around, and everything within your field of vision is snow.

Looking up, there are mountains nearby and mountains in the distance.

The Ou area is indeed a mountainous place, and you can see continuous mountains wherever you go.

Mountains of different shapes and forms are all covered with white snow. Under the sunlight, they reflect silver light. If you have never seen snow before, you may be very excited when you first see the snow scene. But there are many things like snow scene.

That's it. Ever since entering the Ou area, Ogata was tired of seeing the snowy scenery.

While letting Ono lead the way, Ogata and others continued to scrape more information from him, mainly asking for some details about their group of bandits.

According to Ohno, their leader is named Seiichiro Koizumi. He has superb swordsmanship and was once a low-level samurai of a certain domain.

After the "Tianmei Famine" broke out, in order to reduce the financial burden, the feudal government stripped some of the samurai's jobs and demoted them to ronin.

Their leader, Koizumi, happened to be one of the demoted members and was forced to leave the feudal country where he grew up and find a way to find his own way out.

Due to class attributes and other reasons, there are many jobs that do not recruit samurai at all.

Therefore, after becoming a wanderer, there were too few jobs to find, so no matter what I did, I could not escape the plight of poverty and poverty.

About six months ago, he finally decided to take the risk and become a bandit.

He gathered some ronin who were also poor and almost unable to survive, and together they went to be road bullies and rob passers-by of their money.

The companions that Koizumi gathered basically had the same experience as him. After the "Tianming Famine" broke out, they were ruthlessly abandoned by the feudal government to which they were originally loyal.

It was at that time that Ohno joined Koizumi's staff.

Ohno's previous experience was almost exactly the same as Koizumi's.

Ohno was once a low-level samurai in a certain vassal state, and then after the great famine that spread across the country, he was ruthlessly abandoned by the vassal government in order to reduce financial pressure and became a ronin.

After becoming a ronin, he tried hard to make a living, but because there were so few jobs, he gradually fell into a dilemma where he was about to starve to death.

After Koizumi found him and invited him to join him as a Roadhog, Ohno nodded without hesitation in order to survive.

So something very ironic happened:

When he was still a serious samurai, he worked hard to serve the public, but he could only receive a death salary that might not change for the rest of his life. When disaster struck, he was regarded as a burden by the feudal government and was ruthlessly discarded like garbage.

After becoming a ronin, he did not give up hope and still worked hard to make a living. However, since many jobs did not recruit samurai at all, it was difficult to change the dilemma of poverty.

After breaking the rules and deciding to be a bad person, life immediately got better.

By showing the sword on your waist and saying a few threats, you can steal money and food from passers-by.

If you are lucky, you can grab a beautiful woman and be happy for a while.

At the beginning, there were only a few people under Koizumi.

There are so many wandering ronin in the Ou area now, and there is no shortage of fresh blood. As long as you can prove that you can lead everyone to live a prosperous life, there will be a large number of people willing to follow you and put their heads in their belts.

superior.

As a result, the number of people gradually increased, and gradually developed to a scale of more than 40 people now.

After growing in scale, Koizumi was no longer satisfied with being a road bully who only robbed passers-by of their money.

He decided to do something big and rob the village.

So they chose this small village with a total population of less than 100.

This was their first time to rob a village, and they encountered a tough challenge unexpectedly...

After Ohno finished telling the history of the establishment and development of their group of bandits, he sneered, and then said to Ogata and others who were walking behind him:

"Since you will be hired by farmers, you should all be wanderers with no fixed abode and no food left to eat, right?"

Ohno's words were full of certainty in his tone, as if he already knew what the answer would be.

"So what?" Huosaka replied.

As soon as Huosaka finished speaking, Ohno shrugged and then sneered:

"It's nothing, I just think you guys are weird. Why are you helping the farmers in that village?"

"I know that the village is very poor, and it will definitely not be able to get any generous remuneration."

"Do you choose to fight against dozens of bandits just for such a small reward? Don't you think you are stupid?"

"Why don't you become a thief like us? It's so fun to be a thief."

"Heh." Jincheng laughed sarcastically, "What? Are you proud of being a thief?"

"I am indeed very proud." Ohno's shoulders shook a few times because he was smiling, "When I was a well-behaved samurai, I served the public wholeheartedly, but I could only receive a meager salary."

"When disaster strikes, they are ruthlessly abandoned."

After Tsuchiya heard Ohno's words, his lips pursed uncontrollably.

It's like...recalling some bad memories.

"After becoming a thief, my life has become much smoother than before."

"In today's world where being an evil person is more rewarding than being a good person, why shouldn't I feel proud?"

"I have always been proud of myself as a free thief."

Speaking of this, Ohno turned his head and looked at Ogata behind him.

"Hey, let me tell you, haven't you ever thought about becoming thieves together?"

Ohno looked at Ogata with burning eyes.

"Your swordsmanship is so superb. As long as you wave your arms, there will definitely be many ronin willing to respond to you and follow you to become bandits."

"With your swordsmanship, whether it's robbing a village or robbing passers-by of their money, it will definitely be easy."

"You can live a much more generous and comfortable life than you do now..."

Before Ohno finished speaking, Oufang turned his sharp eyes like swords to him.

"Shut up."

Ogata said in a calm tone.

"I have no interest in being a thief."

"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll cut your tongue out."

Ogata's gaze was so sharp that Ohno felt as if he had been stabbed.

After shrinking his neck out of fear, Ohno did not dare to say any more and quickly turned his head back, not daring to look at Ogata again.

While turning his head back, Ohno curled his lips, and a trace of resentment appeared in his eyes.

…

…

When it was close to 5 o'clock in the afternoon, Ogata and others saw smoke rising from a hill in the distance.

Looking at the rising smoke, Ogata whispered:

"Looks like we've arrived..."

After getting closer to the bandits' stronghold, Ogata asked Omachi to climb a nearby tree to scout the bandits' stronghold from a distance.

With his amazing eyesight, Atachi is simply a "walking telescope".

After climbing onto a nearby tree that was high enough, A-Machi reported to the people under the tree what she could see with her eyes.

"There are people on guard duty, but there are not many of them. All I can see are only five guard posts."

"Mashima-sama." Jincheng asked, "Would you like to get closer?"

Invisibly, everyone has regarded Ogata as their backbone.

"...Let's get closer." Ogata pondered for a while and said, "There is a forest ahead, let's hide there and wait for dark."

…

…

It's winter now and it gets dark quickly.

After Ogata and others hid in the woods and ate some dry food to replenish their physical strength, the sky began to gradually darken.

After the sky completely darkened, Ogata and Omachi looked at each other, and then nodded at the same time.

"Atachi, let's go."

"Um."

"Mashima-sama," Kasaka said seriously, "I wish you and your Majesty good luck."

The rest of the people also sent their blessings to Ogata and A-Machi.

After Okinawa and the others nodded in response, Oubon waved to Omachi beside him, then lowered his body weight, half-crouched, and walked towards the darkness in front of him at an neither fast nor slow pace.

go.

Soon, the figures of Ogata and Atachi were swallowed up by the darkness and completely disappeared from the sight of Higasaka and others.
To be continued...