When March comes to an end and April officially enters the timeline, the not-so-significant spring in the North will end in just January.
Time passes quickly. For the sage and his party, the scene of landing on this land amid the snow is still vivid in their minds, but in the blink of an eye, the end of a season is about to come here.
As the group moves southward and the season delays, the temperature has increasingly remained above 20 degrees since the beginning of April. The light snow encountered in the wetland is like the last struggle of the cold wave - it is still very powerful, covering an area of more than ten kilometers with a force that humans cannot resist, but anyone can see that it is about to wither and give way to warmer days. signs.
The melting of ice and snow is a good thing from the perspective of road conditions. There is no icy and slippery ground, and there is no snow that is difficult to move forward and sink in as soon as you step on it. The road after leaving the wetland for the group becomes easier and easier.
The wolves following behind made many people in the team nervous for about three days, but perhaps hunger made them look for better targets and gave up on the vigilant human team. On the fourth day The moment I walked out of the wetland in the morning, the wolves that had been quietly following me disappeared.
After days of vigil and tense nerves, many people made mistakes on the fourth day when they relaxed after confirming that the wolves were gone.
For the first time in a long time, Ashigaru, who was in charge of cooking, overcooked the rice. Almost half of the entire pot of precious white rice was wasted. Later, two people accidentally cut themselves while maintaining their swords, and one person accidentally hit his foot while carrying firewood.
Anyone who has ever experienced a night vigil knows that in the early morning, when the vigil is about to end, people's spirits will be in the most exhausted and confused state.
The excitement, tension and nervous tension in the first half of the night will make people very sensitive to various details. But when the day is about to light up and subconsciously feel that "everything is almost over, I can rest", the spirit will relax. Come down, and fatigue will come like a tide.
Therefore, most of the people who are experienced enough to be responsible for the night watch will take turns to take short breaks to prevent everyone from letting down their vigilance at the same moment, causing a peaceful night to collapse at the last moment.
But even with such a shift arrangement, considering that the 10 or so ashigaru must also be responsible for the daily living, catering and other chores of more than 30 samurai, they actually don't have much time to rest.
The samurai who kept vigil could sleep an extra hour or two, but the ashigaru could not. Yajiro has good hygiene habits and likes to wash with warm water in the morning, so someone must get up early to boil water. Then the food for the entire team also needs to be prepared. Although Henry and his party and the barbarians can take care of themselves to a certain extent, many items such as cooking utensils and food are still controlled by Ashigaru, so they must borrow them from there, Someone needs to be in charge. From this perspective, 10 people are really not enough.
The ashigaru who made the mistake due to fatigue, although it was indeed excusable, still received a reprimand from the superior samurai. This country's class relations, which are so strict that they cannot be violated, were clearly conveyed to foreigners like Henry through this morning's movement.
Seeing the samurai who usually chatted and laughed with them scolding the ashigaru with stern faces, while the lower-level soldiers could only keep apologizing, Henry and others, who looked at each other, didn't know what to do. How to speak.
People have two sides, and even if you are a close friend, you may still disagree with their actions in some places.
Galeva seemed to have the urge to go up and stop him. After all, he had been tested by the journey and understood the fatigue of vigil, but the Luoan girl held him back.
Leng Touqing's approach is always too direct. Coming from a different cultural background, he will not understand the relationship between samurai and ashigaru. Directly intervening in the Moon Country with the values of the Rigar people will only lead to the other party's opposition. He became dissatisfied and became angry.
"You eat our food and live in our house, but you don't do anything and you still point fingers?" Mira gave him an analogy in a common language that Galeva could understand.
Forcibly intervening to cause dissatisfaction among the samurai was only one of them. Perhaps even more terrible was that if Galeva did this, the Ashigaru would not be grateful for his proactive actions, but would instead hate him.
Because his forcible intervention will only intensify the conflict, and among the values of the Moon Country, the Ashigaru believe that the samurai's behavior is not inappropriate.
This matter has a very complicated inner story, simple and direct. Acting according to the immediate impulse in the heart will only intensify conflicts and make the situation worse. To a certain extent, Mira sees this guy who is obviously older than her. A shadow of my past self.
Young people and children can only see what is in front of them.
They are unable to view everything on a longer time scale. When they are scolded by their parents, they are filled with only the grievance and resentment of the moment, thinking that their parents are too harsh on them.
Therefore, the approach taken is not only too direct, but sometimes even very extreme.
Runaways from home, severing ties, and even parricide are common occurrences in history. But no matter which one it is, most of them will gradually understand it after experiencing a longer period of time, cry bitterly because of regret, and understand that the harsh criticism at the beginning was all for polishing oneself into shape bit by bit.
Only by raising children can we know the kindness of our parents. When elders look at their children, what they see is not the present moment, but ten or twenty years from now.
There is no rush.
Life is very long and very complicated. Sometimes a straightforward approach will be very satisfying, but at other times, you need to use a more precise and direct approach, but to a certain extent, it takes a roundabout way. Achieve what you want.
——Henry walked out.
After fighting together and working together for many days, under the premise of establishing a sense of familiarity, trust, and a harmonious atmosphere, he said that the Yuyi people would help take care of Kazuto's equipment and help with work to alleviate the problem. Ashigaru people's labor pressure this proposal.
It all came together, and after thinking about it, Narumi and Yajiro, although they still couldn't completely let go, finally agreed.
"Observe more what the teacher does, you idiot." Mira gave Leng Tou Qing, who was in a daze watching the sage's actions, an elbow kick, while many other people in the team who noticed all this were also thinking carefully. After that, I couldn't help but glance at Henry again and again.
There are no unrelated things in this world, but even so, what kind of mentality and eyes are needed to always accurately combine all the clues and choose the right path?
experience gap.
When you take this step, you are already prepared for what will happen next.
Because everything has been laid out in the early stage, only when you take this step will you give others the feeling that everything is natural and natural. But this is not a matter of course - if he does not have enough strength to make the warriors agree; if he does not choose to use skills to stop, but allows his anger to suppress the warriors with force and severely injure them; if he is not fighting with the bandits. In the battle between them, I unreservedly believe that Narumi will provide support and give enough respect to these samurai who have been trained for a long time but lack actual combat experience.
If he was just a foreigner who was filled with anger and was arrogant because of his superior martial arts, he would not have the intention to cooperate with the warriors, let alone let the barbarian hunters cooperate with him.
A person's power is limited after all.
What is the concept of "sage"? Looking at Henry's back, Miss Doctor suddenly understood. Narumi, who had always been thoughtful, also felt that he understood in an instant.
As ordinary people, more people may not be able to understand what he is doing at the moment. It is like ordinary people who know nothing about a person who repairs complex machinery. He does not stand in front of the machine, but runs to the side to fiddle with other unrelated things. It's like running away to catch fish without doing your job.
You won’t understand what the other person is doing, but when all his seemingly unrelated things are gradually completed and finally put together, you will be surprised -
He was actually just doing the same thing all the time.
Attentively, adjust, guide.
Make everything develop in a good direction.
Talented people, keen people, see these details and are impressed by them.
And even more people who don't have this ability and lack the experience to detect what he wants will be unknowingly attracted to him and follow that figure.
Because they were vaguely aware of the fact that everything was always developing according to this person's words.
The few people who noticed all this had a lot of thoughts, some sighed and suddenly realized, and some felt vaguely that they saw hope.
There are also.
Alerted.
————
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Time continued to pass slowly, and in the blink of an eye, a week and a half of April had passed.
The repeated journey did not encounter any major troubles, and as the supplies prepared were used up, the group's baggage became lighter, and the forward speed further increased.
On the afternoon of April 13, when the hot weather arrived for the first time and the temperature reached 30 degrees Celsius under the scorching sun, they finally walked through this uninhabited road and arrived at the group in the central and western part of Crescent Continent. The territory between mountains: Taizhou.
The political system of the Moon Country, because it had reached a new territory, was also introduced to Henry and others through the mouths of the samurai and the doctor.
The starting point of the group was that the territories in the north close to Yi Di were called the "Three Northern Domains", and the vassal lords were branches of the Moon Kingdom's royal family. The vassal king gave the surname "Gen" to express his noble and orthodox royal bloodline. However, due to a series of reasons, he was demoted to a minister, without the right to inherit the royal family's orthodox inheritance, and was demoted to the level of vassal king.
To put it in layman's terms, the loser in the internal competition within the royal family was thrown to the north and given the title of prince. Although it is still more noble than the average Chinese, it is obviously Sent to the frontier.
The nobles in the North were basically thrown away together with the members of the royal family who once served. Therefore, from this point of view, the North will have the intention to rebel, and Xinjing may have expected it.
The vassal territory will have a certain degree of autonomy, because the area is far away and cannot be controlled; on the other hand, since it is an orthodox branch of the royal family, it must also be granted certain privileges.
So from the most traditional concept, the vassal territory is actually the frontier of Crescent Continent. And Taizhou, where they finally arrived after walking on the mountain road for so long, is the northernmost part of Xinjing's sphere of influence.
The managers of Taizhou are not the royal family, but the Chinese people who are second only to the ministers in the central power circle. Their official position is called Zhou Mu.
This is an important position that ordinary nobles can hold and is limited to important ministers in the court. As a leader of local officials, his personal life may be more satisfying than that in the fiercely competitive palace.
There are a total of 17 states in the Moon Kingdom, and the 17 state pastors are the most important local governors in the country. In addition to these, there are three vassals with certain autonomy, as well as four royal areas including Honshu, Fuso and other important areas. Its territorial scope and overall national strength are indeed enough to rival the Padrosi Empire. A powerful presence in head-on confrontation.
When the travel-worn group arrived in the bright sun, it was the Qingming Festival, the ancestor worship festival in the Moon Country.
During this festival, which begins on the 10th, workers, peasants and soldiers will be given a week-long holiday in many places across the country. At this time, citizens can go on spring outings with their families and go to weed the graves of their ancestors to pay homage.
Unlike the spring festivals that Henry, Mira, and Sakura had experienced in the small mountain villages at the foot of the mountain, which were only limited to places close to the shrine, this festival is a nationwide festival stipulated by the laws of the Moon Kingdom, and it is almost a labor day. It is the only day of the year when the people at the bottom can have fun and have fun.
So when they came to the northern part of Taizhou, what they encountered was a scene of people of all ages carrying their families and luggage heading towards the mountains in the opposite direction of the group.
A linen backpack, a basket made of rattan and bamboo, and a straw hat to protect the sun were connected to each other. Riding on the horse, I looked back and pulled out a long, straw-yellow line of people. However, they all invariably made way for the samurai. .
Like the sunshine that begins to grow stronger in late spring, the group heading south begins to see it after winter subsides.
It is a vibrant and vibrant side of this country.
. m.
