Mount & Blade: Warband in the Sengoku period of Japan

Chen Daoyuan was exhausted. His mental energy was overexerted due to tension and confusion, and his physical strength also declined far more than expected.

Touching the cold, hard armor plates on his body, Chen Daoyuan tried to relax, but the tall, dense primeval forest around him made him increasingly uneasy.

"What on earth did I do with this?"

Chen Daoyuan's memory was still from last night. As a veteran of the knife and armor communities, he had simply attended a local gathering of enthusiasts on the weekend.

At the party, everyone showed off their latest hot items, then put on their favorite replica armor, took some cool photos, posted them on social media, and finally had a big meal together around the barbecue grill. Everything was just so ordinary.

After the event, Chen Daoyuan, who couldn't hold his liquor, drank a bit too much and ended up staying overnight at the home of the host, old Silvio, sleeping in the basement of the Italian old man's backyard, which he used as a study and collection room.

Then, when Chen Daoyuan woke up and climbed out of the sofa bed in the basement, he opened the door and found that the familiar backyard of Silvio's house was no longer outside, but a lush primeval forest.

There was no cell phone signal at all, and he couldn't even make a 911 emergency call. The same thing happened when he took it outside to the basement. This made Chen Daoyuan certain that he had probably... maybe... possibly... transmigrated.

Although as a Chinese American, Chen Daoyuan didn't have many chances of being hit by a lucky charm in the United States, there were Frye Liner, Peterbilt, Kenworth, and World Trade Center everywhere on the roads. If he were to time travel, he should at least have some sense of ceremony. What kind of nonsense is this?

Then, despite his reluctance, Chen Daoyuan made thorough preparations before leaving the basement and cautiously began exploring the forest.

There was nothing he could do. The basement contained many of Old Silvio's precious collections, but there was no food or water. Chen Daoyuan rummaged around for a long time and only found a piece of chocolate.

Hopefully there's an In-n-Out in the woods... If not, McDonald's will do.

For safety reasons, Chen Daoyuan used the most precious set of armor that old Silvio had collected, which was the suit of armor he was wearing.

Influenced by Chen Daoyuan, his small circle generally had a greater enthusiasm for Chinese armor, and Silvio was no exception. This wealthy retired old man, at Chen Daoyuan's urging, the two of them designed and raised funds to specially order this set of Song Dynasty infantry armor from a domestic manufacturer.

However, Chen Daoyuan and Silvio are both cyberpunk restorationists, and the material of this armor is not stainless steel or aluminum alloy. The outer layer of lamellar armor is boron carbide lamellar plates woven from TC21 titanium alloy wire, the middle layer is chainmail made of TC21, and only the innermost layer is the inner armor made of traditional raw silk material.

Therefore, although it was a bit irrational to move around in the mountains wearing three layers of heavy armor, for safety's sake, Chen Daoyuan resolutely armed himself with this armor before carrying a Song-style four-sided greatsword into the forest.

However, after walking downhill for about three kilometers north along the mountain slope, Chen Daoyuan regretted it.

Boron carbide and titanium alloys are much lighter than steel, but this suit of armor still weighs 20 kilograms. Even though Chen Daoyuan is 187 centimeters tall and weighs 91 kilograms, and has only been discharged from the US military for a little over a year, his physical fitness from daily weightlifting is still quite good... After walking so far, he is almost exhausted.

Fortunately, the forest was relatively quiet, and he didn't encounter any wild animals, bio-zombies, alien patrols, or Cthulhu monsters... After drinking his fill by a clear stream in the forest, Chen Daoyuan continued to tumble and crawl down the mountain.

After walking for about half an hour, Chen Daoyuan finally reached the edge of the woodland.

Then he saw the farmland and villages below the mountain... However, the scene before him did not bring Chen Daoyuan joy, but instead made him feel cold.

The farmland below the mountain was very crude and primitive dry land, without the clear field ridges and furrows that Chen Daoyuan was more familiar with. The villages in the distance were all unique houses with thick thatched roofs and earthen walls... Chen Daoyuan recognized those simple and rustic thatched roofs; they were clearly traditional Japanese "thatched houses".

Chen Daoyuan didn't have time to think it through. Seeing people working in the fields, he quickened his pace and rushed down the hillside, shouting greetings as he went: "Hey! Hello!..."

However, as the distance closed and the figures in the field finally noticed Chen Daoyuan, the short figures did not give him a friendly response. Instead, they all screamed, dropped their weapons, and turned to run back into the village.

Chen Daoyuan stopped at the edge of the field... This was too strange. In a fleeting glance, he had already seen the appearance of the fleeing villagers. They were obviously Asian people of yellow race. However, they were all very short and thin, and the clothes they wore were also very strange. Not only were they tattered, but they also seemed to be some kind of crudely made "robe".

With the uniquely shaped thatched roofs of the village in the distance, Chen Daoyuan had some wild and unconventional guesses in his mind.

Did he suddenly find himself in Japan? But... even if the Japanese agricultural cooperatives are completely unethical, the remote mountain villages of Japan shouldn't be this primitive... A strange thought swirled in his mind, and Chen Daoyuan bent down to examine the crops in the field... He didn't recognize any of them.

Chen Daoyuan was by no means a complete idiot who couldn't distinguish between grains. He could recognize some common crops. The sparse seedlings in the dry field in front of him were definitely not any common crop. They looked a bit like rice... but whose rice plants grow so thin and slender?

These things, whether rice or barnyard grass, were clearly not edible. Chen Daoyuan could only continue walking along the path through the fields towards the village.

After walking for another ten minutes, when they were about three or four hundred meters away from the village, a group of people suddenly emerged from the village.

Chen Daoyuan was stunned again. The group consisted of about a dozen people, with the leader riding on a thin horse that wasn't very tall. He was wearing a set of... Japanese-style "great armor".

Behind the knight was a group of foot soldiers dressed in makeshift clothes and each carrying a bamboo pole.

As soon as Chen Daoyuan saw the group of people, the knights also noticed him. The knight stopped his horse, seemingly scrutinizing Chen Daoyuan, before slowly spurring his horse away from the group and approaching him.

Chen Daoyuan stood still, watching the knight approach. He sensed that the knight seemed to have ill intentions, and his posture on horseback clearly indicated a charging intent...

Sure enough, when the distance between the two sides closed to about a hundred meters, the knight suddenly drew his Japanese sword from his waist, shouted a slogan like "Charge!", spurred his horse, and accelerated towards Chen Daoyuan.

Chen Daoyuan narrowed his eyes, watching the knight charge. This man's equipment was far less splendid and gorgeous than in movies and games. The black armor looked old even from this distance, and it only had breastplate and shoulder armor. The helmet on his head did not have the most eye-catching shovel-shaped decoration of Japanese armor. It looked like a small bowl placed on his head...

Although the opponent's horse was small and thin, the distance of the charge was still fleeting. The blade of the Japanese sword in the rider's hand reflected a dazzling light in the sun, and the man and the horse rushed to Chen Daoyuan's side in the blink of an eye.

Chen Daoyuan instinctively took a small step to the side to dodge the warhorse's head-on charge. Then the warrior swung his sword down, slashing at Chen Daoyuan's shoulder.

With a muffled "clang," the samurai's katana snapped in two.

The breaking of his sword caused the knight on horseback to be stunned for a moment, but in the next instant, he permanently lost the right to be stunned.

Chen Daoyuan was no pushover either. His lifelong combat training had made his muscle memory react faster than his brain. In the instant he was attacked, his hands gripped his longsword and he swung it back with a twisting motion.

Although Chen Daoyuan had already passed his warhorse when he swung his sword, his height and long arms still allowed him to swing his heavy sword, which was half his height, at a sufficient attack distance.

A strange, tingling tremor came from the tip of the sword. Chen Daoyuan looked up and saw the warrior's body flying off the saddle and the terrible wound on his back from which blood was gushing out.

As he watched his opponent's armored body disappear into the dust kicked up by the horse's hooves, Chen Daoyuan, as if possessed, opened his mouth and shouted, "Shame on the enemy! I'll go strip him naked!"

Whether it was Chen Daoyuan's shout or the sight of the samurai falling from his horse, the dozen or so foot soldiers who were still running and charging more than a hundred meters away all stopped in their tracks. After a pause of a breath or two, the foot soldiers burst into a heart-wrenching scream, turned around and dropped the bamboo poles in their hands, and fled frantically towards the village behind them at a speed at least twice as fast as when they were charging...

Chen Daoyuan had no time to pay attention to the group of foot soldiers. He stood there for a moment, took a deep breath, wiped the cold sweat from his palms on the smooth, cool lamellar armor, and slowly walked to the rider who had fallen from his horse.

The tip of the four-edged heavy sword smoothly sliced ​​through the samurai's armor, easily severing part of his spine. Such an injury clearly had no risk of recovery; acute iron poisoning sent him to the other side of the Sanzu River in a restless sleep.

Chen Daoyuan only felt slightly disgusted by the appearance of the deceased. Although he had not participated in any combat during his service, he had experienced war zone deployments and witnessed some tragic scenes, so his physiological threshold was always higher than that of the average person.

As for the psychological aspect, firstly, he was Chinese, or at least of Chinese descent. He felt no guilt whatsoever about killing someone so obviously a Japanese samurai. Secondly, he had served in the US military and spent several months at a US military base in Japan… He didn't even bow to the American officer but instead drew his sword; he truly deserved to die.

Having fought and died, Chen Daoyuan simply began to search the corpse.

The armor on the warrior was worthless to Chen Daoyuan. It was dirty, old, and had a faint smell of mutton. The workmanship was also extremely crude, and Chen Daoyuan had already cut a large gash in the back.

Chen Daoyuan studied the structure of the armor for a while, then drew his everyday knife, an M4 from Lion Steel. With a blade made of M390 powder steel, he easily drew a turtle on the breastplate, which was thicker than the iron plate on the back of the armor. It seemed that if he had swung his sword head-on, the result wouldn't have been much different.

The broken katana was exquisitely crafted. Chen Daoyuan used a small knife to disassemble the hilt, revealing a string of inscriptions on the exposed tang. Chen Daoyuan narrowed his eyes and read the Chinese characters: "Bizen Osafune Kiyomitsu?"

This is actually the legendary Bizen Osafune... Chen Daoyuan checked the armor plates on his shoulder again. He had felt the impact of the horse's attack just now. If the armor plates had been shattered, that would have been a real pain.

Fortunately, Chen Daoyuan's meticulous design, which took nearly a year to complete, withstood the test. The titanium alloy wires that wove the armor plates not only served to connect them but also formed a specially reinforced overall shock-absorbing structure. This cut only left a shallow metallic coating mark on the armor plates, which Chen Daoyuan easily wiped clean and restored to its original shine.

Continuing to loot the corpse, Chen Daoyuan soon unearthed several valuable spoils:

In the cloth bag hanging from the samurai's waist were three plum rice balls carefully wrapped in bamboo leaves... Although the rice looked strange, and might not be very hygienic, and lacked balanced nutrition, Chen Daoyuan's dinner was sorted out for the day.

In addition, Chen Daoyuan also found a notebook-like document in this cloth bag... After a quick flip through it, the text, which was mainly in Chinese characters, was not difficult for Chen Daoyuan to read. The content seemed to be the work diary of the rice ball guy in front of him.

He put it away and took it back to study... Based on the current situation, Chen Daoyuan initially judged that the place where he and that unlucky basement landed was most likely ancient Japan, but he couldn't determine which era of Japan it was for the time being, given his limited knowledge of Japanese history. This notebook in his hand might give him the answer.

Finally, Chen Daoyuan glanced at the skinny horse that hadn't run far after being startled and was wandering in the nearby farmland... After hesitating for a moment, he decided to take it away. Although it might expose his whereabouts, Chen Daoyuan knew the value of a horse and it was definitely worth taking the risk.

Let's go back to that wretched basement first, analyze where he was dumped, and then make our next move.

With three rice balls in his pocket and leading his horse, Chen Daoyuan left the nearby village, where every house was closed and the place was eerily silent, and walked back to the mountain forest along the same route.