After April comes to an end, while all parts of the country have officially begun to welcome the arrival of summer, the weather in the Northern Territory is still relatively cool.
The townspeople of Qingzhi Town, where the bamboo ware making and trading industry is prosperous, work at sunrise and rest at sundown. The bamboo ware trade, which can be sold as far as Xinjing, makes the lives of most local people happy and prosperous. This small town, which occupies the key point of waterway transportation, is uniquely located. Even if it does not produce and sell bambooware, it can actually develop very well just by developing commercial transportation due to its general geographical location as a trade gateway on the north-south waterway.
The current head of the Chinese Qingtian family in Qingzhi Town is a well-known capable person in the neighborhood. He single-handedly developed the entire town to its present scale, and his excellent vision was the initial basis.
The Qingtian family's history of prosperity is almost a textbook example of "success theory" in the eyes of nearby small farmers, but anyone with a little bit of brains should understand that this is a success that is almost impossible to replicate.
Moreover, the operation of several generations has not been completely smooth. When the current owner took over, the prospects of the town were not optimistic.
As the gateway to the north-south waterway, Qingzhi Town has had commercial exchanges throughout the ages. As the local Chinese, they have the right to levy tariffs on passenger and cargo ships, and the past few administrations have been able to do so with ease.
But the situation in the North was special after all, and the relationship between the lord who had been demoted from the royal family to a vassal and Xinjing was not always harmonious.
Profit-seeking businessmen are often very sensitive to such rumors. If the wind direction changes slightly, the flow of cargo ships will often drop significantly.
When the current head of the family took over twenty-six years ago, it happened to be a tense situation: the Southern Barbarians from afar were preparing to make a move, and the so-called pure white church's foreign sects had been wandering around trying to expand their followers - Xinjing There are other things to worry about, and the feudal kings will naturally not turn a blind eye to this.
He couldn't worry about national affairs, so he could only work hard to cultivate his own one-third of an acre of land. By integrating the scattered small handmade bamboo industry that existed in the local area, investing the Qingtian family's own wealth to expand the scale of production, building various convenient facilities, and encouraging people to engage in this industry, he created the backbone of Qingzhi Town. In this way, even if other merchants stop passing by due to various changes, the trees will not fall and the hozens will not scatter.
Having a unique advantage of one's own is far more reliable than simply relying on external forces whose reliability is unknown. And the management over the years has turned Qingzhi into a well-known and prosperous territory.
Thriving is probably the most appropriate word to describe this small town.
As the highest authority in such a territory, the morning at Qingtian Mansion starts at about five o'clock.
In summer, the sunshine hours are long and the sky always gets bright early. The roosters kept outside began to crow when the sky gradually turned from blue to light blue. As the sound sounded, the servants got up one after another and began to make preparations sleepily.
In a prosperous big family, even the number of servants will show its arrogance.
A group of 16 people are responsible for setting up the fire and cooking, washing the rice, chopping firewood, taking out the pickled radishes and cutting them into beautiful small pieces and putting them on the plate.
After a simple wash, the servant began to work on the master's breakfast without even eating.
Because the mistress has the habit of bathing early in the morning, someone needs to be specially prepared to boil the hot water. If the water temperature is too high or too low, it will cause trouble. In addition, water is also very particular: water lifted directly from the river has the fishy smell of the river, which always makes the mistress frown and look unhappy. Especially after it is heated, even if it looks clear, there will always be a pungent smell.
The servants can use this kind of water for themselves, but if they use it for the adults to bathe, wash, or even make meals, the noble adults will lose their appetite and ruin their good mood for the day.
Therefore, the daily water for the Qingtian family and even the distinguished guests living in the mansion and the high-ranking samurai responsible for guarding the courtyard had to be brought down from the mountain. The one with the fragrance of bamboo is the best.
Someone was specially guarding the spring. They brought it back a day in advance in good wooden barrels and transported it from the land of Fuso. They were placed in a huge black pottery water tank made of local magnetic black mud and covered with an oak lid. , quietly settling overnight.
The spring water, which has a clear and sweet taste when you drink it directly, will have a refreshing taste after being treated in this way.
The white rice is washed and soaked in this way, and then slowly cooked over firewood. Once the rice is boiled, it will be overflowing with aroma. Even if they can only wait for the masters to finish eating the rice dumplings and leftovers, the servants still look forward to this meal every day, which is more hearty than the yellow and hard brown rice outside.
Using such spring water and using various dried flower petals for bathing is the secret of the mistress still having girlish skin even though she is nearly forty years old.
There was an endless stream of servants running around, busy with their own affairs. When they woke up and had been busy for about half an hour, the lower-level samurai and ashigaru who were responsible for guarding the home woke up respectively.
The samurai's day begins with tidying up their appearance. Even if the lower-level samurai can only use clothes made of cotton and linen, they are criticized for being meticulous.
The Kingdom of the Moon is generally very humid, and if it is not maintained daily, it is common for weapons to rust.
A knife tan made of brass will easily turn green and black if it is not wiped daily, and rust spots on the blade, which is usually polished like a steel mirror, will be very obvious. Checking your sidearms and other details like a ritual every morning is a required course for both country warriors and high-ranking warriors.
The days of ashigaru and other armed followers were not as leisurely and elegant as those of samurai.
Not only do they need to maintain their own equipment and weapons, they also need to be responsible for cleaning and taking care of the armor of the samurai masters.
Although the armor of the Moon Kingdom is coated with lacquer and does not rust as easily as the polished plate armor favored by the Rigar people, it is not completely immune to the influence of the environment.
If the storage environment is not good, the paint film will fall off due to moisture corrosion, or rust will bulge from underneath the paint like acne on a person's face. Therefore, wiping off the dust on the surface and keeping the environment dry is what Ashigaru people must do.
The Qingtian family has abundant financial resources, so most senior samurai will have several sets of armor to adapt to different situations. Even ordinary warriors mostly have two sets of armor.
Except for the set that is placed in one's own home as a display of martial prowess, most of the others will be stored in the armory known as the weapon room.
After the Ashigaru woke up and sorted and maintained their belongings, they would enter the weapon room one after another and begin to maintain and clean up the equipment of the senior samurai one by one.
Their burden is heavy.
Your equipment must be spotless and free from rust, and you must also keep the armor of the samurai masters. No matter which side can make a problem, if there is a problem, you will be beaten and punished.
And perhaps the saddest thing of all is the fact that these days will never end.
After the servants had been busy for more than an hour, the ashigaru finished maintaining their own equipment and began to enter the weapon room to maintain the samurai's equipment. The low-level samurai elegantly and gracefully arranged their appearance, wiped their weapons, and took out paper and pen to start writing. While they were writing poems, the Qingtian City Lord and his family, as well as the senior warriors and retainers, finally woke up.
At this time, the sky was completely bright, and the clear summer sky around 6:30 was shining on the earth. Although the temperature did not change much, it silently announced the passage of time to people.
A lot of time has passed since the uninvited guests from a foreign country arrived and Yajiro set out with them in the name of training.
Generally speaking, Qingtian Town seems to have no reaction to this, and the townspeople continue to live their lives. Although the wife sometimes sighs and worries about her distant children, it is not serious enough to affect the situation at home.
With the servants and entourage having already woken up and made sufficient preparations in advance, the lord's family spent the morning in an orderly and ordinary way.
After washing or bathing and changing clothes under the service of the maid, the breakfast served is hot and fragrant. The process of eating by the Kazuto nobles is always quiet and orderly. It lacks the loud shouting of the Rigar nobles for big fish and meat. They seem to be paying attention to restraining themselves even for breakfast, not to make too loud noises, even if they chew They all kept their mouths shut.
Unless there are special circumstances, such as a banquet to celebrate something, there will probably be no conversation during the dinner.
Just quietly and carefully savoring the simple but delicious breakfast.
The rice is soaked in mountain spring water and slowly cooked over firewood, and served with golden pickled radish cut into small pieces. The crisp texture and rich flavor are refreshing.
A bowl of rice and radish can be eaten quickly, and it ends with a bowl of hot soup. Almost no one will leave any leftovers.
But this leisurely time can only go so far. The Qingtian family is the head of a town after all, and they have so many things to live and manage every day.
Even if they have been in business for many years, there are still some businessmen who think the tariffs are too high and refuse to pay or even cause trouble; a certain bamboo craftsman has invaded the territory of another family and cut down others privately, intending to keep it for a while to grow. A certain businessman purchased a batch of bamboo but refused to pay for it.
Bandits appeared somewhere, and who planned to report something to the lord.
The prosperous town needs to deal with countless things every day, and there are countless things that suddenly happen. Even if others have sorted it out, the final decision on many things still needs to be made by Qingtian himself.
If he notices that the people below are fooling around or taking bribes, and are vague in the reports they turn in, he must send a trustworthy person to get to the bottom of things and find out which ones need to be punished and clean up, so as to ensure that all the people in the whole town are guilty of taking advantage of the public. People who eat are doing practical things.
Just like an old farmer who takes care of a vegetable field, he not only waters and fertilizes, but also always pays attention to clearing away pests in time.
He established the current Qingzhi Town with his own ability, and maintained the operation of the entire town with his own ability.
It’s not that I haven’t thought about cultivating reliable enough help, it’s just that the class relations in this country are so solid that they are almost unshakable. Although they give the people below unconditional obedience to him, they also lose the motivation to fight on it. .
People near and far know the Qingtian family's history of prosperity, and many people keep saying that they want to become the next Qingtian.
But when the opportunity is really presented to them, few people have the courage to actually launch a challenge in the face of the entangled, solid and unshakable upper class.
The vast majority of people will shrink back, saying "what's wrong with being ordinary" and continue to live their original lives.
This is probably the limitation of this country.
Every time he encounters a similar situation, Qingtian will have such thoughts in his heart.
Be a monk for a day and ring the bell for a day.
Don't ask for merit but seek no faults. Just do your own thing. Even if you see the rest of the things, even if it is just a little effort, you will not care.
Even things that are within the scope of duties are often messed up by someone.
Everyone seems to be insensitive and slow to the things around them.
Although these people all live in the same place, they all live in their own little worlds.
"Duty."
"Duty."
When I stopped writing, it was already noon. After finishing all the paperwork, Qingtian shook his head and sighed.
"It seems that as long as everyone sticks to their duties, everything that happened will not exist and the world will still be beautiful."
"Alas -" he sighed.
"Crack-" and the sound of armor clashing sounded outside the door.
"My lord, it's time for the banquet."
The old warrior with gray beard and hair, wearing light armor, said this.
His face is somewhat similar to Qingtian, but he looks more like Qingtian Qiao who is no longer here.
"Uncle, you really don't have to be like this." The city lord did not show his identity, but said to him in a very sincere tone.
"Not only me, but Ling Hai as well." The old warrior stepped aside, and outside were a group of fully armed warriors. There were not many of them, but judging from their aura, they were all experienced veterans with average age. They are all a bit high.
"You guys." Qingtian sighed again.
"They are all old guys who died without regrets. They have nothing to worry about. Your Majesty, don't worry."
The solemn-looking warriors all wore light and practical armor, with the ropes tied tightly and their weapons hung securely.
"It seems I can't defeat you uncles anymore, haha -" He turned around and looked at the empty room. The attendants had already given orders in advance to take a holiday.
"Then let's go!" The city lord, who had already put on his rich clothes, stood up. No one was there to help him put on his shoes for a long time. Because of the loose clothes, he couldn't put them on for a long time.
"Let me get down-"
"What are you doing?"
Twenty or so men all looked to the other side.
The lady, who was dressed for going out, looked at Qingtian with an angry look on her face.
"Oops, the secret is revealed." The city lord scratched his head and laughed in apology like a little boy.
"Can't you even put on your shoes if I'm not here? Really, why did I marry such a useless man?" The angry lady seemed to have run back all the way. Her face was red and her hair was messed up. , and the clothes stick to the body because of sweating.
"Want to leave me alone?"
"Don't even think about it."
While teaching the city lord a lesson, the lady knelt down and helped him put on his luxurious cloth boots bit by bit.
"Can't you just let me be selfish for a while?"
"cannot."
"I really married an incredible wife."
"of course."
The silent old warriors watched the city lord and his wife bickering. After the city lord put on her shoes with the help of his wife, he reached out his hand to help her tidy up her hair.
"Yajiro will definitely get angry if he finds out."
"I can never forgive you for entrusting him to the ignorant Nanman."
"But I also understand that this is the only option."
"Let's go." Qingtian smiled slightly.
"Go to the banquet."
"Yes." The warriors responded in unison.
————
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In the year 1531 of the Laman New Calendar, at the end of April 4164 in the Lunar Calendar, Henry and others, who had already entered the south, were making preparations for the next step forward, but most of the team members had no idea about it.
Qingzhi Town completed a power exchange.
The people in the town were vaguely aware that something was happening, but since it had no immediate impact on their lives, most people chose to keep to themselves.
Something that had been brewing for a long time began to quietly work.
The entire system of the Kingdom of the Moon has been running self-consistently for a long time.
This is where the disconnect begins.
.
