The weather in early spring is always as changeable as a child's mood. Although Narumi made a good plan yesterday and the group followed his plan to rest early and started on the road in the early morning, the sky unfortunately turned gloomy at noon.
The weather in the mountains is inherently cloudy and cloudy, and with the sudden change from warm to cold in early spring, the uncertainty is doubled. It was clear in the early morning that the sky was still clear, and the morning star also exuded dazzling golden light through the open space above the bamboo forest. The sun shone brightly during the march for several hours in the morning, and the hot weather made many people roll up their sleeves and wear cloaks. Take off the covering for now.
The warm sunshine, which seemed to last forever, quickly faded away as it approached around 12 noon.
In less than half an hour, as the sun faded and the mountain breeze blew, everyone who had sweated while walking couldn't help but feel chilly. They put back their rolled-up sleeves and put back their cloaks. onto the body.
"God doesn't give me face." One of the three senior warriors, the warrior named Qingtian Qiao with a beard, complained - judging from his surname, he was obviously a relative of the city lord's family. And this was one of the reasons why he was indignant when Henry and others denied Yajiro's martial arts. The young master was not only the master he served, but also a descendant of his own family. Although there is a difference in status, the ties of kinship are there. As an elder, he naturally has emotions such as protecting the children and feeling proud.
Qiao was born in a branch of the Qingtian family. In the Qingtian family that lasted for six generations, only the eldest son could inherit the family business. Therefore, the second and third sons would mostly go out to form a branch family and start their own business. Some of them gradually died out or lost contact, and there were also a few who performed meritorious services and were rewarded with territory by other lords and changed their names. This bearded warrior is the only branch family that still exists today and is closely related to the Qingtian family in Qingzhi Town.
Qiao Qiao's status was only that of a country scholar, the lowest among mounted samurai, only higher than the lower-level Ashigaru and peasants. In addition, the Qingtian family is not very orthodox, so it is understandable that his conversation is not as fastidious as that of decent samurai like Narumi.
But such a low-status person was promoted to a senior samurai directly under the Qingtian family, apparently because of the loyalty caused by blood connection.
The class classification of the Kingdom of the Moon can be roughly divided from bottom to top: farmers, nobles, Chinese, royals and other classes. There is no need to mention farmers among them, but according to the traditional classification, Ashigaru is between farmers and nobles. Including Ashigaru himself, most people in the Moon Country today consider them to be samurai. But if we really want to define the classification accurately, they should be regarded as the accompanying infantry of the samurai.
As professional infantrymen, Ashigaru's status was higher than that of farmers, but they were still not considered nobles.
The gentry naturally refers to the warrior class, which is roughly divided into sergeants and corporals. A corporal is also called a rural scholar. As the literal meaning indicates, he owns a mansion and a small piece of land in rural areas. He could ride a horse, have armor and other weapons, and have a formal status as a warrior, but he was just a rural warrior and a rural noble. In other words, he was not very popular. In the eyes of the sergeant, he was just a simple and naive existence.
In comparison, the sergeant class is the so-called "urban aristocracy". Most of them are from samurai families with a long history, and their mansions are located in key parts of prosperous towns. The family has been passed down for more than twenty generations, and most of the ancestors have produced some famous and brave warriors. They are well-spoken and polite, and they also learn various martial arts from an early age.
The Qingtian family of Qingzhi has prospered after six generations of management, and has been recognized by the new capital to become the leader of Qingzhi Town. As a result, it has climbed from a small countryman to the Hua clan - that is, the lord class of the Moon Country. ranks. Narumi and his sergeants, the nobles in the city who were supposed to be the superiors, in turn became the attendants of the Qingtian family.
From this perspective, the struggle history of the Qingtian family can be regarded as a quite inspiring story. But in the Moon Country, where class divisions are extremely strict, over the past four thousand years, situations like this, where people climbed up step by step through hard work and management, were really rare to the point of being counted on one hand.
All in all, with the exception of the bearded warrior Qingtian Qiao, most of the members of the horse-riding samurai team are actually lower-level countrymen.
As the backbone of senior warriors, it is easy for a sergeant to engage in tasks such as leading a team. Therefore, although Joe was one of the three people promoted as the leader, his personal leadership skills were not very strong.
Although they only traveled together for two days, judging from the details of the team's march, giving orders and yesterday's conflict, it is obvious that this middle-aged man is better at walking with the young lower-level samurai and ashigaru than Narumi and other high-ranking samurai. Closer.
But he did not get too entangled in issues such as his leadership. Qiao, who was tall and thick and did not look like a high-ranking warrior, became an active emotional connection between the three parties after Henry got to know them. The role of atmosphere.
Precisely because he is a warrior who is not like a samurai, foreigners like the barbarians and Henry will not have the sense of distance caused by class origin. Joe's words and deeds were very straightforward, and the way he ran back and forth reminded Henry, Mira, and Sakura of Soujiro, who they had briefly traveled with before.
With the sage's previous actions, some of the barriers had been somewhat dissolved, and with Qiao, a person with a cheerful personality running back and forth, the atmosphere in the team was much more harmonious today, which also made many people who were originally worried about the intensification of conflicts feel relieved.
Although Yajiro, the leader of the group, was still a little stubborn in leading the horseback samurai forward, but because this section of the mountain road was relatively narrow, he did not leave behind the people behind him like before.
In one morning, they traveled to a rocky area that was completely composed of rocks and relatively devoid of vegetation.
This is the unique mountain style of Crescent Continent, as if the rock was carved out with straight lines from top to bottom, and the long and thin outline is like a sharp sword pointing straight into the sky.
Because the mountain is very steep and mainly composed of rock formations, it is difficult to accumulate soil on it and it is not easy for natural vegetation to grow.
The mountain road is difficult. Galeva, who was born as a Suomir, and our Luoan girl, who has traveled a lot, both thought they knew something about it. But after coming to the Moon Kingdom and traveling on this journey, they had another idea. further knowledge.
This section of the mountain road, which is made up of a widened and peeled natural walkway and a stone-cut tunnel, is so narrow that it can only accommodate one horse at a time. The pack oxen dragging the boxes even had to unload their things at this section to avoid being too wide. The wooden beam he carried on his back hit the mountain wall, and he lost his footing and fell into the abyss.
When the Ashigaru people got here, they could only take off the carrying wood and hang the box on it. The two of them carried one end and carried it manually.
Although there were enough manpower, it was more or less laborious, and the team's progress was repeatedly slowed down.
And under such circumstances, as we mentioned at the beginning, by coincidence, the sky started to get dark.
The reason why Narumi suggested setting out in the early morning to complete this section of the road in one day was understood by the group after they actually arrived. On the one hand, there are not many places to stay on such a difficult road, and it is said that the area is occupied by bandits. Less than half of the team of more than a hundred people can be regarded as combat effectiveness. If they are attacked from both sides in such a narrow terrain, even if they can win, their own side will suffer heavy casualties.
Several goats on the rock wall in the distance saw someone coming, and nimbly stepped on the narrow foothold and fled elsewhere. Looking at the surrounding mountains on the left and the solid mountain walls on the right with no cover, Mira imagined that someone was ambushing on the mountain with a bow and arrow and facing a shower of arrows here, and she couldn't help but shudder.
"No, we can't continue walking." The sky was getting darker and darker, and the visibility dropped drastically. It seemed as if evening was coming. The rain was obviously coming fiercely. Narumi in front turned around and shouted: "We will rest in the cave ahead for a while!" The voice echoed in the mountains and forests, and Henry and others passed the news to the back of the team in turn.
The narrow walkway dug along the mountain wall connected to a wide cave in front. Judging from the smooth surface and the surrounding stalactites, it was probably the result of the combined efforts of rainwater and wind over thousands of years. And its size is enough to accommodate a hundred people and the accompanying cattle and horses.
The cave is located at the node of the road, and most of the ancients of the Moon Country deliberately dug the mountain road here. You can see some artificial traces of stone chisels inside. There are also some square characters with faded red paint on the innermost cave wall, and broken old pottery that has been there for who knows how many years.
"Let's light some fires. Although it's not our intention, we at least need to wait here until the rain stops." Narumi said this, and the next second the sky outside was as bright as day, and after a while, The thunder of "boom, boom, boom" rang out.
The cave located at the node of the mountain road is in the shape of a pocket. The left side of the "mouth of the pocket" is the way the group came. At this time, the Yi people, young and old, and men from behind also walked in one after another. On the right side is a wider road, which is the mountain road they originally expected to walk directly on.
"Originally, if we go beyond this section and walk for a while, we can reach a wider and easier road." God is not as good as man, and Narumi couldn't help but sigh when the plan failed to work. But he still remained calm, because the ashigaru people were very tired from carrying things manually, so he asked the bearded warrior Qiao on the side to lead some knights on horseback to start guarding on both sides.
The heavy rain poured down after everyone entered the cave. The heavy rain instantly turned the gray-white rocks into dark gray and shiny. The ground that was originally very dry after a morning of sunshine gave off a pungent smell due to the arrival of rain. The rain that hit the rock wall spread out to form mist, which together with the raindrops that kept falling formed a breathtaking scenery. A refreshing sight.
"Boom - click -" Looking through the front opening, some shrubs on the opposite mountain wall were swaying wildly in the strong wind and heavy rain. The Luoan girl who was holding the little unicorn and staring at it was immediately shivered by the cold wind that poured in with water vapor. The sage behind her reached out and picked up the hood hanging down her back and put it on. On the head: "Go inside." He said this.
After a few "click, click" sounds, sparks ignited the palm fluff used to ignite the fire, and then the firewood taken out of the box was set up, but they did not make the bonfire too big.
It is difficult to find firewood supplies on the mountain covered with rock formations. These were collected yesterday. The green and moisture-rich bamboo is a terrible material for fires, so yesterday the Ashigaru group had to walk relatively farther to collect enough firewood. .
It's a good thing to be prepared, but they don't know how long this rain will last, so they'd better be cautious and don't run out of firewood early.
Qiao led a dozen warriors in armor to guard near the entrance of the cave. They stuck the large bows they carried with their loose strings between their legs, bent them, and stringed them, and then used wooden arrows tied with white cloth belts. The tube is tied around the waist at the waist. Use the rock pillars at the entrance of the cave as cover and watch the comings from both sides to guard against bandits.
"It's raining so hard, and the mountain road is narrow and slippery. Even mountain bandits won't come out, right?" The orange fire lit up, and Priest Alfonso asked Narumi, who was checking his luggage and subordinates. .
"Don't underestimate their ferocity. These guys, composed of landless rogues, have taken the lives of many careless businessmen and even samurai so far." Narumi shook his head and said, and Alfonso pondered for a while, only Neng nodded, unable to say anything.
"Hoo--" Two warm bonfires were lit, and the hundred-man brigade was divided into several parts to do their own things, while heavy rain poured down outside, accompanied by a few thunders from time to time.
