There are more than 700 samurai under the Qingtian family. Considering the size of the town, this number is a bit stretched, but it is a very appropriate and low-key number that will not attract unnecessary attention.
The Moon Country is a highly centralized country. Despite this, if everything is to be controlled personally, the size of Xinjing's management staff will be too large, which will eventually lead to a strong bureaucracy in Dayue Pavilion and make it unresponsive and slow to respond to problems.
For the Crescent Island indigenous people, who have many volcanoes and are prone to natural disasters, maintaining a small and flexible leadership class can ensure a quick response when a crisis strikes.
The distance between the north and the south of the Moon Kingdom is far away. The Crescent Continent, which is as long and narrow as a crescent moon, is mountainous and rugged. The road from the south to the north where Xinjing is located has nine twists and turns. If a disaster occurs in the north and the decision-making power is firmly controlled by Xinjing, by the time the news is passed to Xinjing layer by layer, and the instructions are passed back layer by layer, most of the dust will have settled and someone can do it. The only thing left is to collect the corpses.
By delegating power to local governments, even the mayor of a town can have a certain degree of decision-making power. Not only can he respond more quickly when dealing with crises, he can also respond more accurately to emergencies. Because this was a decision made by people on the ground based on on-site conditions at the time, rather than the top leader thousands of miles away having to cross the river by feeling his way through letters with limited information capacity.
On the other side of the ocean, there is a saying in Rigal, where there are many countries and kings and nobles are also getting a lot of money. There is a saying: "Power is like fine wine. The more you drink, the more you want to have."
It is a common behavior for those in high positions to indulge in the sense of superiority brought by being in power and refuse to delegate their power. And the previous emperors of the Moon Kingdom were not isolated from this group. Although neither foreign enemies nor civil strife have truly shaken the country, famine or various other disasters caused by the emperor's wrong decisions have left a heavy and disgraceful mark on the history of more than 4,000 years. of a sum.
All in all, today's Beijing can be regarded as making greater concessions in decentralization of power. Local noble families and warriors could have a certain degree of autonomy and decision-making power. Although they are still under state control, many warriors under the nobles can be commanded by the nobles themselves without orders from Xinjing to mobilize troops.
The wisdom accumulated over more than four thousand years can also be seen here.
The military power devolved by Xinjing is limited. Unless there is an emergency, local wealthy families must obtain consent to mobilize troops exceeding a certain scale. The simplest way to prevent private soldiers from rebelling is to control the output of armor and other equipment.
Crescent Continent is mountainous, but there are not many high-quality minerals. The production areas of the best armor and swords are located in the deep south, and the circulation of this aspect is controlled, so the local rebels with only inferior equipment are not worth mentioning. This is the reason why the rebels that were instigated by missionaries failed. , one of the fundamental points lies in this.
As for warriors who have one or more sets of heirloom armor, and because of the ideas they have been instilled in since childhood, they often have a high degree of respect for the royal family who are the descendants of the Great Moon God. Even if the master orders rebellion, they will not More people would rather die than make a choice.
——In the class of warrior servants, their spiritual beliefs make them extremely loyal in their hearts.
——As for the civilian small farmers, if the lord forces them to rebel, they will strictly control their weapons and armor without training. A ragtag group of people armed only with wooden sticks, bamboo spears, and civilians in civilian clothes would flee with bloodshed and tears as long as the archers set up their formation and let out a hail of arrows.
This is the further information Henry and others learned about all aspects of Moon Country society as they continued to communicate with Qingtian and the samurai leader Narumi after dinner.
They had already understood some of these things in a partial way before, but here they had a thorough and systematic understanding through the mouths of the real local people in power.
This series of information is directly related to their subsequent process, which is that the size of the samurai team led by Narumi that Qingtian can mobilize cannot be particularly large. At most twenty or thirty warriors were mobilized, plus a dozen followers responsible for logistics and care. Together with these people, including the men, women, old and young, and Henry and others from the Yi refugee group led by Temulun, the team suddenly expanded to nearly a hundred people.
With such a large number of people, it is impossible to keep a low profile, so they directly choose to show off with a high profile. The warriors were equipped with armors and weapons, mounted horses, and guarded the young master. They traveled on the main road in the name of the heirs of nobles traveling, so that most people's doubts could be dispelled.
The detailed plan discussion lasted for several hours. After everyone else, including the young master and our Luoan girl, went to sleep, the discussion between Henry and Qingtian did not stop, but moved to the tea room. .
The candles were replenished twice, and the tea was replenished. After a series of matters and links that needed attention were carefully finalized, the two said goodbye and then returned to their respective resting places.
It rained continuously all night.
The stars are passing by, and the time of the night passes so quickly.
Early the next morning, shortly after dawn, the warriors and servants all acted according to the order and began to prepare for the long journey.
A night of drizzle caused a lot of water to accumulate on the dirt floor in the courtyard. Because the small pond where the koi was kept overflowed, a small fish accidentally swam out and was writhing on the ground. When Mira woke up and walked out of the dormitory with Ling, she happened to see a servant grabbing it and throwing it back into the pond.
The tiled eaves were still dripping raindrops, but the intervals were slightly longer, because the rain had stopped for more than an hour, and these were just the drops that had not been dropped cleanly.
The air was very fresh after washing all night, but a little cold. The weak doctor sneezed immediately next to the Luoan girl because she took a breath of cold air. She felt a little embarrassed, and her nose turned red and her ears also turned red.
"Wear more." She said to Miss Doctor, who nodded and returned to the still warm room. A servant holding a bundle of firewood walked by outside. Mira listened to him and another person next to him complaining about something. Because she was still not completely proficient in this language, she couldn't fully understand it, but she could probably understand it. The person responsible for cutting the wood before complaining failed to collect it and the pile became soaked with water.
The house raised off the ground by brackets is similar to the Yi people's house where they lived before. It also has a brick flue underneath. Servants were also responsible for lighting the fire at night, so that the floor where everyone slept was always warm, even if they stepped on it with bare feet.
In the northern part of early spring, it was still a bit chilly in the morning and night. In order to heat the entire mansion, a lot of firewood had to be chopped and a lot of firewood was consumed every day. This is why the servant holding the firewood complained. The soaked firewood burned with choking smoke. Whether it was burned directly or dried before use, it always added a lot of trouble. , which may even delay the rhythm of the morning and affect the Lord’s schedule today.
The missing of one link will cause a series of chain reactions. It's just that they naturally have some countermeasures. Even if there are minor loopholes, the overall situation will not be messed up.
The words return to their original place.
He changed into his own clothes and added a layer of warm jacket. This extremely complex team, composed of Barbarians, Lamanites, Roanites, Suomirites, and Kazuto's Dr. Xingyong and Oiran, had a brief breakfast and also joined in packing. among the ranks.
Although Qingtian detained the group of people on the boat for a while, they did not treat them as prisoners. In addition to ignoring Alfonso's request for an audience, he equipped everyone, including the barbarians, with simple but useful clothing and clothing. This purchase of thirty or forty people is obviously not worth mentioning to the wealthy city lord. At first glance, the barbarians who put on brand new clothes are not much different from ordinary Japanese civilians, and their original Clothes and equipment were packed in simple bags and stored.
After breakfast, more than a hundred people who were about to go out gathered in front of the gate of the backyard. The young master Yajiro changed into the clothes for going out. He wore a large dark blue brocade and aristocratic clothes with white cranes embroidered on them, and he put on the outer cover. A thermal sleeveless vest with golden embroidery on the cuffs, and a decorative belt near the belly.
When Henry and others came over, the mayor's wife was whispering something and helping Yajiro organize his clothes - this behavior seemed to have been going on for a long time, because Mira noticed it immediately The young master's brows were furrowed, as if he was dissatisfied with his mother's behavior.
Fortunately or unfortunately, when the sage came over, the city lord's wife immediately straightened her face, and gave another warning, and then shouted to Narumi in a loud voice that was obviously deliberately intended for them to hear: "Ming Hai Hai! My son must not be harmed at all. Traveling with such a naughty southern barbarian foreign country, I don’t know what that person is thinking!"
"As ordered, madam." The samurai leader replied while adjusting the saddle, and the castle lord's wife finally let go of Yajiro, turned around and walked away.
"Oh." The Luoan girl looked at her teacher and raised her eyebrows with an arrogant look on her face.
"..." And Henry shrugged, deliberately messing up her white hair that she had just combed in the morning.
"The teacher is a terrible adult."
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Even with advance preparation, it still took more than half an hour to organize the trip.
Only high-ranking samurai can ride horses, and even lower-status samurai can walk. Therefore, there were only about thirty horses, and among them, one of them stood out in temperament, had snow-white fur, and was tall but still young in terms of age. After sensing the arrival of the Luoan girl, he quickly broke away. The samurai hand holding the reins ran towards her.
"Long time no see." The little unicorn rubbed the white-haired girl affectionately. It had been a while since the horns on its head had grown longer, but when Mira touched the side of its face, she frowned and looked at that When the horn was too obvious, the little fellow who was connected shook his head, and then the horn disappeared from everyone's eyes.
"Wow." As a rare magical beast, it will naturally master magic when it grows to a certain level. The little guy's behavior gave Mira a big surprise, and the warriors who knew that it was a good horse after the arrival of Galeva and his party also showed a little jealousy after noticing the appearance of the rightful owner. A little bit of regret.
Even if the baggage for a hundred people can be replenished at the stations along the way, sufficient preparations still need to be made. Because of the numerous mountain roads, donkey carts with larger load capacity but higher requirements on road conditions are not suitable for long-distance travel. And because of the noble status of horses and their use for hauling goods, more hard-working pack oxen were used.
A total of 10 strong pack oxen were placed on supports made of two bent logs and cloth cushions, followed by heavy supplies and various items needed on the road. It was inside the cabinet and hung on it.
The servants and ashigaru who were responsible for pulling led the pack oxen that kept barking "Momo", while the samurai got on their horses after preparations. The barbarians took out some items needed for travel, such as wooden sticks for walking, and Henry and others could only walk. After getting back the equipment that had been collected in the warehouse, put it on again, and put it on the outside again. After putting on covering and warm clothing.
The vast team put on various hats or helmets one after another.
It was only then that the first ray of sunshine in the morning finally broke through the clouds.
The young master Yajiro was at the front of the team. He tightened the long sword on his waist and turned back to look at the mansion, but neither the city lord Qingtian nor his mother came out again.
"Let's go." He turned his head and looked in the direction of the door, and then gave the order.
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