"Blessed by Hachiman Bodhisattva! Gold Shipwright, have the sails and ropes of the ocean boat been stored? The most important thing is the sail..."
"Sir! The younger one has already put away the sails and ropes. As long as it doesn't get too much water or ice, the sail won't break!..."
"Well, that's good!... The sea is frozen and frozen. We have to stay at the Deer Camp here for the winter this year. The shelter boat will stay on this river... It won't freeze and crack, right? Especially the boat that was damaged before. head…"
"Sir, the bow of the ship has been repaired. There won't be any big problems. Of course, if the ship can be towed ashore, it is naturally the safest... Well, if the ship is too heavy and there are not enough people to tug it, it will not be possible to stay on the glacier. Okay. It's best to clear out all the cargo in the cabin and make the frozen part shallower... Then every few days, tug the boat around to prevent the ice from getting too thick..."
"Well... Hachiman Daibodhisattva bless you! Kinbuneji, let's do as you say! When spring comes next year, whether we can successfully return to the warm Katsuyamakan or fall into the endless Kusatsu abyss depends on you. , Let’s rely on this ship!…”
"Sir! I understand, little one!..."
The Fawn Moss River meanders, shining with the white light of ice floes, trickling into the Arctic Sea in the northwest. Before you know it, November is already halfway through. In the north of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the freeze along the coast is gradually deepening, and the coast is also covered with half-calf-deep snow. There is a vast expanse of white everywhere, and it is really clean when you look at it.
"Huh! Bodhisattva's blessing! The long and terrible winter in the Far North is coming!..."
Watanabe Masumi, a monk soldier, exhaled a white breath and stood on the third deck of the ocean-covering ship, looking around the cold white world. In the distance is the white Arctic Sea, and nearby is the white land. The southeastern skyline is dominated by undulating and towering white mountains.
I heard from the local Shikabe that some kind of "Yamabe" lived in the mountains to the south. It is said that the tribe is also a reindeer and fishing tribe, but it is timid and timid and never dares to conflict with the "powerful Deer Moss River Tribe". The "powerful Lutai River Tribe" lives by the Dalutai River more than two hundred miles away in the south. The Big Deer Moss River is a real big river, surrounded by lush short grass and moss, and it's not even frozen yet!
Thinking of the envious and longing tone of the local deer tribe when they mentioned the Dalu Moss River, Watanabe Masumi shook his head, his heart full of vigilance.
In this wild and ferocious extreme north, to be able to occupy the riverside territory with lush water and grass, it must be a powerful tribe that can be counted within hundreds or thousands of miles! This so-called deer moss river tribe might be able to pull out two hundred strong hunters in one breath...
But now there are only twenty-one people on the ship, seven of them are Korean sailors and shipwrights with no fighting ability, six wounded people who were shot, and only eight samurai who can really fight. With the strength of the fleet, if they really come into contact with these powerful tribes, they may be eaten up and wiped out in one go!
"Damn it! I really wish that the evil-eating King Fudo would throw out ropes to restrain those ferocious and cruel barbarians, wave his sword, and cut off the heads of those man-eating evil spirits!... Damn it! Cut off your heads!..."
Thinking of the Chukotka hunters who raided the fleet, Masumi Watanabe gritted his teeth and cursed weakly. He couldn't help but press his left hand on his injured right shoulder, feeling the bone-chilling pain, just like when he was injured!
Although almost a month had passed since the raid on that day, it was still like a nightmare, entangled in the mind of monk soldier Watanabe Masumi. Half of the crew who followed him ashore to camp and collect water for cooking had almost no time to prepare. They were shot down one by one by the hunters from the tent driving sleds and holding powerful bows, and were shot to death on the snowy field. !
"Damn! Damn Zhang Yi! If I hadn't been hit by an arrow in the shoulder!..."
Watanabe Masumi, the monk soldier, pressed his injured shoulder and cursed angrily, feeling a palpitation that was almost close to death!
Those ferocious hunters with weathered faces and few words didn't say a word of nonsense at all. They rushed close and shot extremely accurate bone arrows!
The few Korean sailors who were fetching water at the outermost edge were shot through the throat and died on the edge of the cold river without even making a sound. As the leader of the monk soldiers wearing a cassock, he was also severely attacked by the opponent. Two bone arrows were shot directly at his throat and cheeks, with terrifying accuracy!
At that moment of life and death, he only had time to rely on his instinctive reaction from years of fighting. He instantly bent his knees and turned sideways, blocking two arrows with his shoulders. And the force of those two bone arrows actually shot through his shoulder armor even though they were dozens of meters apart. The two arrows penetrated an inch deep into his flesh, making him unable to hold the naginata in his hand immediately...
"Damn it! My naginata! That's a top-grade weapon personally given to me by the elders of the Wonderful Court!..."
Thinking of the naginata lost on the snowy field, the monk warrior Watanabe Masumi pursed his lips, a bit of shame appeared on his face, and he could no longer curse.
Facing the attack from the hunters of the tent, the five warriors of the Oyezaki clan immediately picked up their spears, stepped on the snow up to their ankles, howled and shouted, and rushed towards the enemy dozens of meters away. As a result, those ferocious and cruel barbarians did not engage in close combat with the warriors. They just commanded the sled dogs flexibly, kept retreating, and maintained a shooting distance of 20 to 30 meters. One by one, they shot down the armored warriors of the Oyizaki clan in the thick snow...
Seeing such a one-sided massacre and the bloody flowers on the snow, the monk soldier Watanabe Masumi felt a chill all over his body. After all, he was once a general of the Shao Er family. He had seen the Ouchi clan's Yabusame cavalry and knew how powerful this method of warfare was. With the opponent's precise and powerful shooting skills, although there are only twenty sled hunters, they are not at all able to compete with the strength of the fleet! …
Therefore, at this edge of life and death, he decisively dropped the long naginata that he could not hold, turned around and ran towards the ocean-covering boat on the shore, just like he had decisively escaped from the battlefield with the Ouchi clan...
In that raid on the tent, in less than a quarter of an hour, only twenty sleigh hunters shot and killed five Oyezaki warriors and four Korean sailors. Of the fifteen sailors who landed ashore, including Watanabe Masumi himself, six escaped, each with arrow wounds. And if it weren't for the fact that Murakami Yoshitsugi, the ship's leader, had always been cautious and kept half of the crew on board the ship, they might not have had time to raise the sails and sail away from the dangerous coast where murderous intent suddenly arose! …
"Ah! This is...the great lord of disaster relief, the Lotus Lady in White Clothes Guanyin!"
On the highest deck, Watanabe Masumi, a monk soldier, had ups and downs in his thoughts and couldn't help but lower his head. Then, he opened his eyes wide and stared at the wooden sign carved piously by the gold shipwright, and quickly recognized the image of Guanyin in white.
This white-robed Avalokitesvara who rescues those in distress in Goryeo Buddhism is the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara enshrined in Yeonhwawangwon, Myowon Court. And in the so-called Thirty-three Halls of King Lianhua Temple, there are eleven faces of Avalokitesvara with Thousand Arms and Thousand Eyes, and the twenty-eight tribes of Thousand Arms and Thousand Eyes under Avalokitesvara!
Well, to put it simply and irresponsibly, Guanyin in White is the main Buddhist god in the faith of Masumi Watanabe!
"The Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara of Great Compassion!..."
Looking at the wooden plaque of Guanyin, the monk Watanabe Masumi stood in silence for a long time. At this moment, he once again remembered his last look back at the shore after escaping onto the ocean boat.
The tent hunters wore open wing armor and controlled the howling dogs, just like the tengu in the snowy fields of the far north. They chased the ocean boat until the boat sailed away from the shore, then they stopped angrily and let out a few howls of disappointment.
Then they dragged all the bodies of the dead warriors and sailors onto the sleds, and took away everything in the camp, not even a single plank of wood was left behind. After everything was cleared up, they drove the wolf-like dogs again and disappeared like the wind...
The account department came and went in a hurry, everything seemed to be just an illusion of the wind and snow, except that one-third of the crew was missing. The ocean-covering boat, with its sails fully hoisted, fled the coast in panic. The bow of the boat was even hit by a rock on the shore, and it took more than half a month to repair it. As for the fate of the corpses of the crew members, in the view of Masumi Watanabe, they were either eaten by the "Tengu" on the snowy plains, or were eaten by the Tengu's wolf dogs, and they may fall into the animal path underground!
"The Great Compassionate Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara! May the warriors and sailors who fell into the Santu River and were eaten by evil spirits be saved by your merciful incarnation, King Yangjusha Horsehead, and be freed from the animal realm!..."
The monk Watanabe Masumi closed his eyes, lowered his head, turned the sandalwood beads in his hand, and counted twenty-eight times, which corresponded to the twenty-eight tribes of Guanyin. Then, he shook his head, put the 28 sandalwood beads into the hands of the kneeling gold shipbuilder, and patted him on the shoulder.
"Golden Shipwright, you are now the only shipwright in the fleet, the only one who can repair ships and sails!"
"grown ups?"
"The Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara, who is so compassionate, can only save us after death... But in this snowstorm and suffering in this life, we can only rely on everyone in the fleet and ourselves!..."
"Huh?...Sir?..."
"Get up, stop kowtowing. Come off the boat with me!"
"ah?"
"That guy Murakami exchanged some venison with the local tribe. So many people died, so there is plenty of food in the boat... We are going to stew venison porridge!"
"Deer...venison porridge?...呲呲, Gudu..."
"Well, you come with us. Let's have porridge together!"
"Ah! Ah, this...sir..."
Looking at the surprised and cowering gold shipwright, the monk soldier Watanabe Masumi grinned and gave a rare smile. Then, he pointed to the low camp on the shore, pointed to the weak bonfire in the middle, and jumped off the ship in two steps.
Behind him, the shipbuilder Jin Shanshu was stunned for a moment, and quickly took the Buddhist beads and the Guanyin wooden tablet into his arms and wrapped them up carefully. Then, while climbing the rope on the side of the ship and chasing the back of Masumi Watanabe, he yelled the last sentence.
"Sir! I listen to you!... Bodhisattva will definitely bless us!~~"
