Chapter 2: I Have Arrived in Japan's Warring States?

  “……”

  “……”

  Li Xiao's current feeling is extremely bad, especially when you wake up from a dream and find that the surroundings are not your familiar bedroom at home, but have been moved to a wild mountain wilderness, with only one pair of shorts left on his body. Especially now, there are six bamboo long guns pointing at the tip of his nose.

  "What are you talking about? Can you say it again?"

  “……”

  Six soldiers, each holding a long gun, were speaking what sounded like the language of that island nation. Thanks to years of watching various TV shows and movies from the island nation, Li Xiao was not unfamiliar with this language.

  It seemed that Li Xiao was stunned, and those soldiers also looked unhappy, one of whom even pretended to stab forward with a gun.

  In a state of panic, Li Xiao hastily retreated with his elbows behind him on the grass, and relying on his subconscious first reaction, he looked up at the sky and shouted loudly.

  Swallowtail butterfly.

  No choice, this is the island country vocabulary that Li Xiao is most familiar with, and at the moment of seeking survival, he naturally shouted out. The sharp cry sounded particularly loud in the vast mountains, and the other side seemed to have not expected Li Xiao to suddenly burst out with such a big voice, and involuntarily took a step back together.

  He was the youngest among them, and yet he suddenly shook his hand, causing the long gun in his hand to slip to the ground.

  Paper tiger, seemingly nothing to be afraid of. Li Xiao still didn't understand the situation, but seeing that the other party was wary of him, he also gained a few points of courage in his heart. Li Xiao hummed and slowly got up from the grass, only to find that the other party's eyes had a hint of fear when looking at him.

  The reason is simple, Li Xiao's line of sight is almost 20 degrees down, looking at the other party with a condescending gaze. Li Xiao is 1.85 meters tall, and has been well-fed since childhood, plus he exercises diligently, giving him a strong and tall body. Under Li Xiao's gaze, the soldiers opposite him are all less than 1.5 meters tall, and both legs have some degree of curvature, resembling the legendary "O-shaped legs".

  Islander!

  Suddenly, this phrase popped up in his mind, and Li Xiao muttered to himself: "It can't be such a coincidence, right? I just cleared Nobunaga's Ambition for the 36th time last night, and now I've crossed over into Japan's Warring States period."

  To confirm his suspicions, Li Xiao made a great effort to size up the several people in front of him, while the other side looked at Li Xiao with a "tiger-like" gaze, and secretly estimated that he was also secretly on guard.

  These soldiers all wore iron helmets wrapped in leather, resembling a large canopy hat with a small white cloth hanging from the back. They were uniformly dressed in bamboo armor, and most of the bamboo strips on the armor were painted red after being wrapped in animal hide, while their feet were bare without socks, wearing only grass shoes.

  This attire is indeed similar to that of Japanese soldiers in the Warring States period depicted in movies, and should be that of a foot soldier.

  “……”

  Suddenly, one of the six soldiers took the lead and shouted loudly, with a somewhat bold tone. Li Xiao, who roughly understood Japanese, heard that they were planning to take advantage of his unarmed state, incite their companions, and come forward to greet him together.

  These companions were intimidated by Li Xiao's tall and powerful physique, and they were also hesitant in their hearts, but at this time, Li Xiao lightly used the tip of his foot to lift the gun, and the bamboo spear fell to the ground, and was caught by Li Xiao.

  With a gun in hand, the momentum was different. Li Xiao waved his hand and drew an arc on the outer circle with the gun tip. With a loud noise, the gun tip shook like the head of a poisonous snake, forcing these soldiers to retreat in panic again.

  Watching the opponent retreat in disarray, Li Xiao did not intend to pursue, this bamboo spear was quite long, estimated to be over four meters, but it was not very strenuous to wield. The outer layer of the bamboo spear was wrapped with bamboo strips, and the inside was solid wood, the surface of the spear was coated with a layer of red lacquer, probably used for waterproofing and anti-corrosion.

  Li Xiao is a proud gamer of Nobunaga's Ambition, where there is an Ashigaru characteristic technology called "Sanjuroku", after researching it the Ashigaru troops' attack power +4, defense power +3.

  This is of course the data in the game, and in fact Sanjuroku refers to this type of bamboo spear. In Japan's Warring States period, "ken" was used to describe length, similar to meters and "jo" units, one ken being 1.6 meters, three ken being 4.8 meters, and the length of this spear is roughly around two and a half ken.

  Three pike formations are not something that every soldier can handle, requiring sufficient arm strength. Historically, the famous Macedonian Empire infantry phalanx had soldiers equipped with long spears generally over five meters in length.

  In the Warring States period, ordinary soldiers were equipped with bamboo-made long spears, mostly within the range of 1.5 to 2 meters, and if the spear was longer, it would be easy for the opponent to cut off.

  Li Xiao was very active when he was a kid, so his parents sent him to a sports school for a while. He played with a group of friends and coincidentally, there was an old cadre in the courtyard who was from Cangzhou and had inherited martial arts skills. His family had a large gun made of white pear wood, which he used to kill a puppet soldier during the Anti-Japanese War when he served as a militia in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border region.

  Then Li Xiao also asked him to learn a skill when he was young, especially since Li Xiao's arm strength is not weak, so this "two-and-a-half gun" dance is particularly smooth and comes with a strong wind. The several people opposite are already stunned. It's no wonder they're surprised, the islanders in the past were not tall, and their arms and legs were short. A 1.5-meter-tall person naturally finds it difficult to dance with guns, while Li Xiao is effortlessly in control, looking majestic and powerful in their eyes like a god descending from heaven.

  Just then, from the eastern mountain valley, a series of horseshoes suddenly sounded from afar. Li Xiao turned his head to see a cavalry rushing towards this place at an angle, and what jumped into his eyes was a dazzling red color.

  In an instant, these dozen or so red-clad cavalrymen with small flags on their backs flew to Li Xiao's front, stopping in unison and letting out a long breath, then standing silently in place, showing that each of the horsemen was extremely skilled in horsemanship.

  At this time, the several soldiers who were frightened by Li Xiao earlier hastily picked up their long guns and retreated to the back of these dozen cavalrymen.

  The group of cavalrymen was led by a middle-aged man with a dignified demeanor, seemingly a commander. The other party rode on horseback, looked him up and down, and showed a look of surprise on his face, apparently also because of Li Xiao's appearance. He asked in a low voice: "Who are you?"

  Li Xiao slightly raised his head, restoring the angle of his gaze. If what was in front of him was from the Warring States period, then the Eastern horses of Japan at that time were not as tall and large as they looked now. So even if the opponent was riding a horse, he wasn't much taller than Li Xiao.

  Suddenly Li Xiao's line of sight slightly rose, his pupils contracted slightly.

  Japanese Sengoku warriors are quite distinctive, somewhat similar to the martial artists in Peking Opera. On the stage of Peking Opera, behind the back of a military general, there are always four flags inserted, with grass dragons, riverbanks or dragon patterns drawn on them. This design is probably for aesthetic considerations.

  In Japan, almost every soldier also had a flag on their back, but they didn't call it a靠旗 (relying flag), instead they called it a旗指物 (flag indicator). The 旗指物 usually only had one or two sides and was inserted into the circular tube on the back of the armor. The patterns on the 旗指物 often represented the soldier's family crest, the emblem of their faction, or the special flag of the commanding general, which could be used to identify friend from foe during battle.

  What surprised Li Xiao was that he clearly saw the flag behind the opponent's cavalry, with a pattern of a golden diamond shape, cut along each edge into four small diamonds, like an alternate form of the Chinese character "田".

  "Four-sided diamond."

  Li Xiao was shocked and muttered to himself, anyone who knew a little about Japan's Warring States period would know what this crest meant. And the dozen or so red-clad, red-armored men in front of him, weren't they the famous Red Armor Cavalry of this era?

  The cavalry commander's face was also strange, and he was surprised after hearing Li Xiao's low shout. His subordinates all had suspicious expressions on their faces, but they all drew their waist swords.

  However, the general stretched out his hand and stopped his subordinate's action, asking: "Are you a Ming national?"

  Although it wasn't quite standard, Li Xiao had roughly made out that it was a Chinese sentence. Li Xiao looked at the other party and nodded slightly, asking: "That's right, I am from Mingguo."

  The middle-aged commander listened with a thoughtful expression, one hand grasping the reins and the other pinching his short beard, then sternly shouted a few words in Japanese to his subordinates before dismounting and saying: "Your identity, I dare not hastily conclude, let us go to the tea house at the horse grounds."

  "Ma Chang Xin Fang?"

  This sentence flew back and forth in Li Xiao's mind, playing the countless times he had read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "The Biography of Taizu of Song". He naturally knew who this person was. Ma Chao Xinfang, a fierce general who had gone through more than 40 battles without being injured.

  Li Xiao's mind was racing, and since he was in a foreign country, he needed to find a place to settle down first. As the saying goes, "A hero is not afraid of difficulties, but a hungry stomach is hard to fill." He himself was penniless and naked, so he had to prioritize filling his empty stomach and putting on some clothes before doing anything else.

  "After that, Li Xiao clasped his hands together and spoke with the courtesy of a Ming national: 'I am Li Xiao, indeed a subject of the Ming nation. Having fallen on hard times, I beg for your hospitality and vow to repay this great kindness in the future.'"

  Seeing Li Xiao's sincere request, Ma Chang did not smile and only said lightly: "These must be reported to the master first before discussing."

  Master?

  Li Xiao didn't need to guess, he had already thought of the lord of the horse stable, who was none other than Takeda Shingen, known as the "Number One Military Strategist of the Warring States" and the "Tiger of Kai". Of course, there were also many people who looked down on Takeda Shingen, often referring to him as "the monkey from the mountains of Kai" or "the country bumpkin from Kai".

  Takeda Shingen's real name was Harunobu, and his Buddhist name after becoming a monk was Shingen. He is commonly known as Takeda Shingen.

  This scarlet armor, and the flag with the "Four Diamonds" crest, these people before us are none other than the retainers of Takeda Shingen, the Takeda army, known as Japan's strongest military force during the Warring States period.

  Li Xiao carefully sized up the famous general of the Takeda family in front of him, who was originally not named Baba Nobuharu, but later changed his name himself. In addition, Takeda Shingen also gave him the name Shinshun. The opponent may have a slightly better physique as a high-ranking military commander, and is slightly taller than others, with a sturdy build, probably around 1.6 meters tall.

  However, the appearance and Shingen's gaze in the CG are quite different. Not only is he not as majestic, but also his beard and hair are half white. The armor on him is very exquisite. As the great general of the Takeda family, Baba Nobuharu did not wear a small flag-like object on his back like his soldiers, but instead wore a "jinbaori" (a type of shoulder cape) over his armor. Wearing this red-edged purple jinbaori made it easy to identify him as the enemy general at a glance.

  In the midst of the Takeda family's prominent vassals, Baba Nobuharu was renowned for his straightforward and bold remonstrations, as well as his stubborn temperament. When Baba Nobuharu became obstinate, he would sometimes publicly reprimand Lord Takeda Shingen, putting him in an awkward position; however, this man's loyalty to the Takeda family was beyond doubt.

  At the Battle of Nagashino, where the Takeda clan's military fortunes were destroyed, the Takeda army was defeated and Nobutada volunteered to act as the rear guard. He waited until news arrived that his lord had safely withdrawn from the battlefield before turning his horse around and charging back into the Oda lines with about 20-30 of his retainers, where he died in battle.

  Before long, the cavalry that Masaie had sent to report back to the south returned. Masaie asked aloud, "To what place has our lord's main army now advanced?"

  The cavalryman, with one hand on the grass and one knee bent in a kneeling position, replied respectfully: "My lord's main camp is just nearby in the mountain valley, where he has just finished meeting with the messenger from the Xiongnu tribe. My lord says please invite this guest from Ming country to come and have a conversation."

  Ma Changxin listened and said: "Understood, thank you for your hard work."

  That cavalryman let out a loud whoop, bowed his head heavily once, then stood up, retreated three steps, turned around and remounted.