A few days ago, Aoto asked and discussed with Kondo, Chokata, and the others about the strategies they used during their "Red and White Battle" with the Little Chiba Sword Dojo.

The Little Chiba Sword Dojo gathered elites, with a much richer talent pool than Shiwei Hall.

In contrast, at Shiwei Hall, the only combat strengths they could brag about were Kondo Isami, Chokata Toshisuke, Hijikata Toshizo, and Inoue Genzaburō.

Chokata, possessing extraordinary swordsmanship talent, was the strongest swordsman at Shiwei Hall, so he naturally received the grandest reception from Little Chiba Sword Dojo. For a long time, Little Chiba Sword Dojo has always sent their two strongest members, Chiba Shigetarou and Sazanoko, to keep an eye on Chokata.

Although Chokata was strong, he couldn’t break through the siege of the Chiba siblings, who were also far ahead of their peers in both swordsmanship talent and skill, in a short time.

While the strongest Chokata was held back by the Chiba siblings, the others seized the time to attack the rest of the Shiwei Hall members, knocking down all the remaining swordsmen of Shiwei Hall.

Once most of Shiwei Hall’s swordsmen were knocked down, no matter how strong Chokata was, it was too late to turn the tide.

Little Chiba Sword Dojo always used this "Tianji’s Horse Racing" type of strategy to deal with Shiwei Hall, without exception.

Faced with Little Chiba Dojo’s "Tianji’s Horse Racing," the only countermeasure Shiwei Hall could muster was to attack recklessly.

Because the average strength of the apprentices was inferior to that of the Little Chiba Sword Dojo, simply defending wasn’t enough to withstand Little Chiba’s fierce attack, so they might as well abandon defense and fight desperately!

Everyone rushes up, entangling themselves with Little Chiba Sword Dojo’s people.

Only by launching a fierce attack with all they had did they stand a slim chance of victory—the only two battles that Shiwei Hall won against Little Chiba Sword Dojo were won this way.

After explaining to Aoto how they used to face Little Chiba Sword Dojo, Kondo and Chokata jokingly asked Aoto for advice.

They asked Aoto, who had commanded a major victory over two hundred "radical anti-foreigner faction" rioters on that snowy night, whether he could come up with any way to defeat Little Chiba Sword Dojo at the "Plum Blossom Festival" other than desperate attacks.

Aoto pondered sincerely and earnestly.

But he couldn’t come up with anything.

The average strength of Shiwei Hall’s apprentices was indeed far beneath Little Chiba Sword Dojo; with the same number of participants on both sides, Aoto couldn’t think of any better way for Shiwei Hall to conquer Little Chiba.

However.

Just now.

After he and Chokata heard that conversation among the six contestants from Little Chiba Sword Dojo, waves of frustration and displeasure surged uncontrollably from Aoto’s heart.

Aoto had just suppressed the displeasure sparked by the remarks from the four middle-aged men in the audience.

Before this feeling of displeasure completely dissipated, he heard others... and it was the contestants from Little Chiba insulting them, Shiwei Hall...

Although he knew these people were speaking plain truths, Aoto just felt very frustrated.

Prior to this, Aoto never dreamed of defeating the Little Chiba Sword Dojo, who had been dominating them at the "Plum Blossom Festival." He only planned to join Kondo and Chokata in doing their best in the competition.

However, after hearing the passersby and those harsh words from the contestants of Little Chiba Sword Dojo, a thought flashed in the mind of the angered Aoto—

Was there truly no strategy... to defeat Little Chiba Sword Dojo and make these people from then on look at Shiwei Hall with newfound respect?

The moment this thought crossed Aoto’s mind, he suddenly felt: waves of ideas and thoughts suddenly and unexpectedly emerged from his mind one by one— 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The Little Chiba Sword Dojo always dispatched the Chiba siblings to keep an eye on Chokata; judging from what those six said earlier, a considerable number of Little Chiba’s contestants certainly looked down on Shiwei Hall...

These thoughts and ideas continued to fly and merge.

In the end, they wove into a specific strategy.

A strategy with the opportunity to defeat Little Chiba Dojo.

"Grand General?" Chokata stared blankly at Aoto, "What... what’s wrong? Why do you suddenly want to be the Grand General?"

If the ceramic bowl on the forehead of one side’s Grand General was broken, no matter how many contestants they had left, it meant they were defeated.

Therefore, whether it was Shiwei Hall or Little Chiba Sword Dojo, they both had the weaker participant as the Grand General, leaving him in the safest rear area or dispatching a part of the team to protect him heavily.

When Shiwei Hall previously used the "desperate attack" strategy against Little Chiba Sword Dojo’s "Tianji’s Horse Racing," they also let a weaker individual be the Grand General and protected him at the center of the team during the all-out attack.

So generally speaking, the Grand General was the most pointless and most unemployed person on the battlefield; while other companions fought bravely, he could only stay at the rear or be heavily protected, unable to engage freely against the opponent.

The Grand General, whom no one else wanted to be, Aoto wanted to be... Chokata blinked hard in puzzlement at Aoto again.

"Time is tight," Aoto said in a deep voice, "So I’ll say it as concisely as possible..."

...

...

Yudashima Tenman Temple, the competition site, "VIP seats"—