The Hidden Fortress

Two peasants, Tahei and Matashichi, reveal through conversation that they had intended to fight alongside the Yamana clan, but turned up too late, were taken for soldiers of the defeated Akizuki clan, and forced to bury the dead. The peasants are then dispatched, taking a single ryō, to find gold marked with the crescent of the Akzuki clan. They are later joined by a farmer’s daughter, whom they acquire from a slave-trader. Eventually, they are captured by Yamana soldiers close to the Hayakawa border and held prisoner to be executed.