Although it was still early noon, Kazuto's samurai unloaded the wooden boxes containing luggage from the pack oxen, found a relatively flat open space in the bamboo forest, and started to set up camp as if they planned to do so. appearance.
"The road ahead is a mountain road. It is narrow and difficult to navigate and there are bandits. It cannot be completed in half a day. If we spend the night there, many of us will probably be kidnapped or have our throats cut." Carrying some cooking utensils. Narumi, who came here to lend Henry's hand to the Yi people, explained this. Even though what he said was really dangerous, his tone was calm as if it wasn't a big deal.
"We are setting up camp now and will rest until the early morning this evening. We will set off as soon as the morning star rises. If we keep walking from now on, we can pass through this mountainous area tomorrow evening." The answer he gave was in line with common sense, so the doctor who listened to the lecture The young lady nodded, and then returned to Henry and the others. After relaying the information, Lulu conveyed it to the Yi people.
Even if the tense atmosphere between the two parties was temporarily suppressed by their respective leaders, it did not disappear. Narumi and Temulun both agreed that it would be more appropriate for them to keep their distance for the time being. This makes the message have to be passed from person to person. Although it seems a bit stupid, it is indeed the best choice at the moment.
The more troublesome thing is that Henry and his party have become the middlemen and are responsible for running around.
Strictly speaking, there were three parties present: Yajiro and Narumi's side were the Kazuto samurai nobles, while Temulun led the fleeing barbarian tribe. The remaining Henry and others who came from afar, as well as Kazuto's doctor lady and courtesan who did not belong to the Qingtian family, and Lulu, who was from the Yi tribe but not a member of the Temulun tribe, were considered third parties.
Although the interests of both sides are currently the same, considering that the poaching behavior of the missionaries triggered Xinjing's hostility towards ethnic minorities and foreigners, which led to the plight of the barbarians, and Kazuto was the one who carried out the persecution, the barbarians It is obvious that the tribesmen cannot be truly friendly with both parties. And even if it were the remaining two parties, as an uninvited guest from outside, Yajiro didn't have much favorable impressions of Henry and his party. So we really have to figure out who among the three parties is in conflict with whom. If we have to talk about it, I'm afraid they are all involved, but they are still in a state of cooperation.
The relationship between the three members of this team is unequal. This is the most unhealthy situation when it comes to long-distance traveling together.
This is something that even a stupid young man like Galeva understands. In order to prove his worth traveling with Henry and Mira, he always tried his best to find work. And our Mr. Sage and the Luoan girl, who have had a lot of experience as mercenaries and have cooperated with many people, cannot possibly understand this truth.
A good team always has a reasonable allocation of personnel work. Scouts have their own scouts' work; leaders have their own leaders' work; and logistics have their own logistics work. Performing their own duties not only allows the team to operate efficiently, preventing combatants from being overtired and losing combat effectiveness due to unreasonable work distribution, but it also helps maintain a good mentality among team members.
For example, a mercenary will not ask the financial owner to pick up a sword and fight together. Because the other party paid money, and they paid labor.
The so-called extremely unhealthy state of this hundred-man brigade at the moment refers to the fact that all tasks actually fall on the same group of people - the samurai.
The Yi people do not have much fighting power. Although there are some young and middle-aged men, there are more women and children, so self-defense is very worrying. Although Henry and Mira have some fighting ability, they are only two people. Galeva can barely count as half, and Lulu, Aya and Sakura combined can also count as half. Naturally, they cannot compete with more than 30 people fully armed. Also with horses compared to human warriors.
Therefore, the task of guarding is the responsibility of the warriors.
Furthermore, Ms. Doctor is from Xinjing, which is far away from here, and her characteristics as a scholar mean that she is destined to stay at home more often. Although the oiran is from the swamp village, he spends a lot of time in his comfort zone - these two are a stay-at-home team. As for our Mr. Sage and his entourage, they are from Rigar, and the barbarians try not to associate with the Japanese, so they are naturally outside the scope of discussion.
In other words, the work of guides is also performed by the warriors of the Qingtian family.
They served as guards and guides. In addition, even the food and clothing used along the way were provided by the city lord Qingtian.
All Henry, the foreigners, and the men, women, and children of the Yi tribe had to do was to follow them under the protection of the warriors, and then they would still provide them with food.
All the work was done by the noble warrior masters, but they, the southern barbarians and the barbarian hunters from the north, were freeloaders.
No matter how you think about this situation, it doesn't feel right.
Therefore, it was expected that the Ashigaru people would react violently. Although the conflict lasted only half a day, it was more due to different cultural backgrounds. But if the journey continues and Henry and the others and the Yi people don't find something to prove their worth, the warriors will inevitably become increasingly dissatisfied due to the imbalance in their hearts.
Although Kazuto's culture is extremely restrained so they will not show this emotion easily. But even if we don't consider cooperation in critical situations, just starting from the experience of this journey together, not intensifying conflicts and finding ways to resolve dissatisfaction is what we should do instead of getting angry.
From a personal point of view, if someone gives you a cold look, you don't have to swallow it. But the reason why experts are experts is that they can distinguish between public and private matters. Even if you can't get along on a personal level, for the sake of the overall interests of the team, you must show professionalism, overcome conflicts at the personal level, and achieve efficient cooperation and win-win results.
This is also the reason why the sage would tolerate the unreasonable troubles of the Laman scholars and his group before, but finally chose to part ways. If it is just an individual's unreasonable behavior, then as professional adventurers and professional mercenaries, they must show their due qualities to treat the work of guards and tolerate this kind of behavior. But the scholar mentor Luo Lan had other evil intentions. This evil intention would risk involving them in the whirlpool. The sage judged this and chose to cut off the contact.
It's just that even he, Henry Meyer, has no way of predicting the future.
Luo Lan only "intended" to involve them, but left him behind. The group of people who wanted to avoid this trouble ran into rebels and monsters, and were chased by thousands of warriors. . In comparison, maybe Luo Lan and others who were left behind found a small boat or something and arrived in the big city safely.
What is coming will eventually come, no matter how hard you try to avoid it.
Just like the fable about the "man who takes shelter from the rain" in the classical era of Rigal, you think you only need to wait until the tree you are sheltering from the rain now gets soaked and replaced with another one, but the impact of this rain is far wider than you think. Think bigger.
Human vision is limited. Even if the long years our sage has lived have given him far more knowledge than ordinary people, and a broader perspective and time scale when looking at problems, what he can do is only It's just a matter of choosing the most likely option based on what we know so far.
Henry could not fabricate unknown things out of thin air, nor could he guarantee that the things he foresaw would be absolutely correct every time.
No matter what, like a trick of fate, they are now in a whirlpool.
Returning to the original point, while some ashigaru were setting up the camp, the lunch that had been prepared earlier had begun to steam and was almost ready to eat.
Among the samurai led by Yajiro, the only ones with higher status were Narumi and two others. All three of them wore gorgeous armor. Like Rigar's wealthy knight, Narumi clearly had more than one suit of armor as a high-ranking samurai. He did not use the light folding armor that he had previously worn while standing guard inside the mansion. He wore a sea blue and dark green armor that was bright and luxurious. He also wore an exquisite sleeveless vest, which was similar to what the knights of Rigar would wear. The burqa not only protects the armor from being eroded by moisture in the environment, but the embroidered or dyed family patterns on it are also a form of identification.
This kind of clothing can only be used by superior warriors. Although the armors of the remaining warriors who also ride horses are also very exquisite, it can be seen that they are obviously inferior in color and workmanship.
These samurai selected by Qingtian are very loyal. Because the number cannot be too large, sometimes the ashigaru are too busy and the mounted samurai have to send people to help. Therefore, in addition to a dozen experienced warriors, there are also some young people, most of whom are talented people who have just been promoted from the servant class. The warrior class in the Kingdom of the Moon also has a custom similar to that of Rigal knight attendants. Young warriors will follow their elders and be responsible for carrying armor and weapons until they meet the conditions before they can obtain their own horses and become official warriors.
Of course, although they mainly fought on foot during the attendant stage, these young samurai were not low-level figures like Ashigaru. They also came from a higher aristocratic class, but their qualifications were relatively low so they could only fight on foot.
An Ashigaru will be an Ashigaru for the rest of his life, and this will never change.
All in all, after adding water from a nearby stream to the large forged black iron pot hanging on the pack oxen, the samurai put in the main component of their lunch - japonica rice.
Although rice also exists in Rigal, in the Moon Country, this is the real staple food for most Kazu people.
The winding Yongchuan River and its tributary system provide the perfect environment for rice cultivation. Thanks to the wealth of Qingzhi Town and the convenience of water transportation, even if Qingzhi itself does not produce rice, people here can still live in it more regularly. Eat rice.
Naturally, most of the poor people still feed on the potatoes that can be cultivated and grown in the north, but since the warriors who are accustomed to eating rice are going to travel, the rations they carry will definitely be prepared rice grains.
Because it was not easy to make a fire in the wild environment, and the stove was not as efficient as a specially built brick stove, in order to make the big pot of lunch mature faster, they did not hesitate to increase the baggage and also brought a stone mortar for pounding rice. Sprinkle rice grains into it and mash it, then add it to a large pot and cook. When the soup becomes thinner and the rice grains begin to mature and swell, add some sun-dried spices and a little salt.
The broken rice porridge prepared in this way, combined with pickled dried radish in a small clay pot, formed a simple Chinese meal for the samurai.
"..." Mira finally couldn't hold back the words she had been holding back since last night's banquet:
"I can't get used to the food from the Moon Country."
"Why do they all like to eat light food so much!"
I'm used to Rigar's bacon, barbecue, and cheese sausages, and I've tried them from both Kazuto samurai and Yiren, but they all tasted bland.
Our white-haired girl is always optimistic.
Finally, I couldn't help but start to worry about the future.
"I probably would if I ate this whole time."
She turned her head and looked at Lulu, who was enjoying her meal next to her, and Miss Doctor, who was blowing air because she was afraid of the heat, and said seriously:
"He's going to die."
"No way." The sage shrugged.
. m.
