The name of the great swordsman begins in Okehazama.

Having captured the enemy's commander-in-chief, he wouldn't even grant him a small share of his stipend. Shinsuke thought Nobunaga was a bit stingy.

"Snapped!"

A whip struck his shoulder.

Shinsuke was wearing armor, so the whip didn't hurt him. But as a modern person who had just transmigrated, he naturally felt it was an insult. With his current skills, he could easily defeat Nobunaga now. But if that blade struck, he would probably have nowhere to go.

Nobunaga lay on the horse, burying his head in observing Shinsuke's expression, and felt that the boy's stubbornness seemed familiar.

"If you think the reward isn't enough, go and beg me for another general!"

"Fine, I'll take it!"

Shinsuke mounted his horse and took his katana back from Koheita.

Upon seeing this, Fujikichiro rebuked him, "How dare you! How dare you contradict your lord!"

Nobunaga waved his hand, "Let him be! That kid is just as stubborn as Inuchiyo."

Inuchiyo refers to Maeda Toshiie, who was originally the head of the Akame shu (a type of ronin). He killed Nobunaga's half-brother, Aichi Juami, in front of Nobunaga because he could not bear the insults. This seriously challenged Nobunaga's authority. Only thanks to the intercession of important retainers such as Shibata Katsuie was he exiled as a ronin. A year has passed since this incident.

When Fujikichiro saw Nobunaga bring up Maeda Toshiie, he immediately spoke highly of the valiant general.

"My lord, just now, Sasa Masatsugu was engaged in a fierce battle with Okabe Motonobu in Narumi. It was Toshiie who took over the remnants and continued to cover our flank..."

Nobunaga simply said "Okay," and then began to lead his troops back. He planned to return to Kiyosu Castle first to display Yoshimoto's head.

……

Shinsuke spurred his horse along the outskirts of the battlefield, searching for any sign of the enemy general. Fallen Imagawa foot soldiers and broken banners were scattered everywhere.

Whenever he saw a flag embroidered with the "Red Bird" or "Two-Piercing Two" pattern, he would bend down, pick it up with his katana, and haphazardly tie the blood-soaked cloth to the back of his saddle.

He wiped the rain off his face and was about to urge his horse back to Narumi to see if there were any traces of the enemy at the place where Sasa Masaji had died.

"Who goes there!" Before the shout could even finish, a red-handled spear was already piercing his face.

Shinsuke instinctively dodged to the side, yanking the reins with his left hand. As the warhorse reared up with a neigh, he deflected the attack with a swift stroke of his sword.

This was a young samurai in his early twenties, covered in faded light green trousers, with messy hair plastered to his pale forehead.

Using his memories from his past life, he immediately knew the other person's identity.

"Master Maeda..."

The young samurai's attack abruptly halted. He stared at the bundle of Imagawa banners behind Shinsuke's saddle, his Adam's apple bobbing violently: "So it's the Mori..."

He had clearly forgotten Shinsuke's name.

"My name is Shinsuke Mori!"

"These things have no merit...and they're not even horse seals (which can be understood as the main camp flag)!" Maeda Toshiie said with a disdainful look, putting away his spear. Three human heads were tied to the rump of his horse.

"It has its own uses... Don't get in my way of doing good!"

"I'm also worried that I won't have enough merit to return to the Oda clan. Do you have some kind of plan?"

"Before Okabe Motonobu retreats back to Narumi Castle, let's give him a big gift." Shinsuke spurred his horse and prepared to leave.

Toshiie's pupils suddenly lit up. "You brat... you want to impersonate Imagawa's army and launch a surprise attack?"

"So, are you going or not? I'll say it first: the general's head is mine, and the rest are yours."

Raindrops pelted the two men's armor with a dense, crisp sound. In the distance, the long, ethereal sound of conch shells signaling the retreat of the Oda army drifted in.

Li Jia suddenly mounted his chestnut horse, called to the soldiers lying in ambush around him, and decisively said, "I know a way, follow me!"

……

In less than half an hour, they arrived at Minghai City, one mile south.

Shinsuke led them on a run for several miles, and now everyone could project a sense of defeat without needing any acting skills.

They were covered in mud, carrying tattered "Red Bird" flags, and some even used long spears as walking sticks. Every step they took was a desperate stumble.

"Lower your head a little more! Imagine how your lord looked when he was beheaded!"

Toshiie hadn't seen Shinsuke for a year, and he never expected him to speak so arrogantly. However, as a samurai, he had no right to rebuke him.

He wiped the rain from his cheeks with his fingers, his eyes fixed on the Imagawa army on the road.

"Okabe's scouts just went over; he's probably heading back to the city now."

"Let's go, onto the main road!"

Toshiie chuckled softly, unable to help but admire Shinsuke's boldness.

He suddenly pulled a rice ball wrapped in a paper bag from his pocket, broke it in half, and handed it to Shinsuke: "During this year of exile, I learned three things—how to identify wild vegetables, how to use mud to cover the glint of a knife, and..." He took a bite of the rice ball, "...you can't chop people when you're hungry."

Shinsuke took the half-cold rice ball and remembered the rice ball he heated up at the convenience store before he transmigrated.

The condition of this is really terrible.

Why are you making that face?

"It's nothing!"

The rain gradually subsided, and large groups of people could be seen outside the rain curtain. Through the sound of the rain, one could hear the neighing of warhorses and the shouts of foot soldiers.

Clearly, Okabe Motonobu had received news of the defeat and was preparing to enter the castle to defend it.

"Look." Li Jia suddenly pointed ahead with the gun barrel.

A force of about five hundred Imagawa soldiers was joining the main road from a side road, with a general riding a black deer-haired warhorse in the center of the group. The man wore a shovel-shaped helmet and a red-lacquered Buddhist tunic.

The head of his horse was hanging from its neck, and the battle flag wrapped around the head bore the crest of the Sasa family, indicating that he was Okabe Motonobu, the garrison commander of Narumi Castle.

The two men exchanged a glance, dismounted simultaneously, and led their horses toward Okabe Motonobu. The "trapped soldiers" behind them received the signal, and their cries suddenly intensified.

"Halt!" The vanguard foot soldiers of the Imagawa army raised their spears. "Which team are you from?!"

"We are Lord Matsui's men!" Shinsuke cried out in a deliberately hoarse voice, "Our lord's entire family is dead!"

Maeda Toshiie also cried out, but he felt a little awkward about it.

Okabe Motonobu's personal guards stepped forward and, seeing the two men leading horses, assumed they were of high status. They then led the two men to within ten paces of Okabe Motonobu.

Perhaps because the two were crying so bitterly, the guards then remembered to confiscate their weapons.

"Weapons! Put the weapons aside!" he urged.

"I'll let you go, I'll let your grandma go!"

Before the guards could even understand what those words meant, Shinsuke drew his sword and killed them. Toshiie didn't hesitate either; his crimson-handled spear shot out like a red snake, slaying several men in succession.

The people brought by Li Jia were almost all his relatives and followers. Seeing this, they did not back down and engaged in a fierce battle with the front group.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

Okabe Motonobu roared, "It's Oda's harassment! Don't linger, retreat to the castle!"

Shinsuke saw that Okabe Motonobu was about to run away, so he raised the Soza Samonji.

"I killed Yoshimoto, and instead of avenging your lord, you try to run away?"

Okabe Motonobu paused for a moment, then turned around and immediately recognized the sword. Historically, he had exchanged Yoshimoto's body with Nobunaga before abandoning Narumi Castle and leaving. Such a loyal and courageous man would naturally not turn a blind eye to the murderer of his master.

This veteran general of Imagawa dismounted, spear in hand, his eyes gleaming as if he wanted to devour Shinsuke alive.

"State your name, unknown samurai."

"Shinsuke Mori".

"Maeda Toshiie."

I'll challenge you to a one-on-one fight. What's your name?

Shinsuke rolled his eyes at Toshiie. "Hold those thugs off for me."