Whether in Rigar or in Crescent Continent, elite warriors are inseparable from the spirit of hard work and a correct and self-disciplined attitude.
It is true that there are many conditions required to cultivate such people. Without sufficient external resources such as material resources, time, and teachers, it is difficult to transform a tough and wear-resistant spirit into actual combat effectiveness.
While it is important, so are other conditions.
A person who only knows how to roar may be able to scare away wild beasts or win a street fight with his fierceness and unyielding tenacity, but when he encounters a sufficiently professional warrior, after realizing that he does not have actual combat experience and professional skills, he only needs to be more cautious. If you use your own advantages to attack, you can easily win.
People are always willing to believe that people who are worse than themselves are always inferior to them in some way. This is a kind of self-deception in order to maintain self-esteem. Thinking that the other person is only better than you in some aspects and inferior to yourself in some areas is more protective of your self-confidence than admitting that others have all-round advantages.
This is also the source of most of the sayings about "incompetent upper class", "incompetent nobles" and "dandy children" - this kind of voice is very rare in Crescent Continent due to its specific social environment, but it can be heard in almost every country in the entire Rigal continent. Similar stories are sung among the people.
Although most people understand that if the ruling nobles are really rotten to the core, then the country will definitely not be able to maintain order for a long time. But such rumors and slanders are still everywhere, precisely because the people at the bottom have to find something to balance their hearts - "Hey! Those big shots may have better food, better clothes, more money, and live in big mansions than us. , but at least their descendants are useless, while our children are full of vitality and have a bright future!"
Ironically, the more convinced people are of this kind of self-deception and the inability to face reality, the less likely they are to obtain the bright future woven in the lies.
"Qiang——"
Anyone can see that the long-waisted knife that has been carefully maintained all year round has a unique Moon Country flavor called "Kirsen" in front of it because of its mirror polished surface that reflects the midday sun.
The heat caused a large amount of sweat to ooze out from the samurai's shaved head, wetting about one-third of the sweat towel tied on his forehead.
But he didn't dare to be careless at all, even though Henry standing opposite was holding only a thin bamboo stick in his hand.
There is no doubt that the warriors of the Qingtian family are excellent, and this excellence is in all aspects.
The samurai culture passed down by Kazuto society for thousands of years does not allow the cowardly and weak among this class. They are supposed to be the elite of society, so the children of the Wu family train for more than eight hours a day from the age of eight.
This kind of hard training not only cultivates professional skills, but also eliminates those who are not determined enough to persevere. Precisely because of the long-term peace with human society, they need to start training more and more, using strict standards to cultivate beings with enough self-discipline and will not easily loosen their will.
But this kind of self-discipline and tenacity can sometimes become an obstacle to progress.
Top combat professionals are not infallible, they are still human after all. Anyone who has delved into a certain craft to a certain depth will inevitably fall into a thinking puzzle where he cannot listen to criticism from others. This is human nature.
Henry's harsh criticism in front of him made the atmosphere in the team tense.
Fortunately, the embarrassment only lasted a day.
In addition to the popularity brought by the sage's own abilities, the reason is largely because the warriors do not need to wait for him, a stranger, to tell them how far they have deviated from actual combat.
Critics in society, exchanges among samurai, and even the disdain for samurai by bandits who consider themselves to have more practical combat experience. There are even some people among the people who feel that they are better than samurai after practicing some three-legged cat kung fu. .
In this country that has been unified and peaceful for four thousand years, they lack actual combat opportunities to prove their strength, so it is very normal for them to breed such remarks.
The terrible thing is that driven by the pressure of this kind of speech and the confusion of enlightenment within the samurai group, they finally chose the form closest to actual combat in the category of immortality-competition-to show themselves.
Due to the limited environment, there is no place where you can truly display your martial arts. This is a status quo that is difficult to change.
However, both within the group, the Chinese above and even the people at the bottom have pressure and criticism on their class. They cannot accept it. The warriors who want to find something to prove themselves eventually move out in public. The practice of jousting.
From a real sword with a sharp edge to a wooden stick, this change in weapons seems to be a portrayal of the samurai class itself - there is a helplessness that has nowhere to prove itself, but cannot put the sarcasm to rest, and finally becomes nondescript. .
I don't know when, they started to use high rankings in martial arts competitions as the basis for judging whether they can fight; I don't know when, the attacks that should be used to cut off the opponent with sharp blades have become counted as long as they hit and score.
The results of all human actions are caused by the goals they pursue.
When the goal becomes to score as many hits as possible without killing the opponent to win, the original skills used to kill the enemy in battle on the battlefield will inevitably become out of shape.
Some people realize this and think that it is not good to blindly promote martial arts competitions. There have been voices within the samurai group since the promotion of martial arts competitions.
But the reality is that Crescent Continent's long-term peaceful environment lacks real large-scale actual combat. At best, those who opposed could only scream contempt. As the competition progressed, they were eventually beaten to the point where they were called sour grapes. It was precisely because they could not achieve a high ranking in the competition that they mocked the competition as not being a real battle. .
A united will makes a city, and a united voice unites gold.
When the entire country adopts this as the mainstream, the opposing voices are always weak and weak, and will be easily extinguished.
So the warriors of Qingtian were lucky.
They rarely experienced a small-scale life and death conflict, and it was just right.
There is probably one all over the world now.
The most professional killer stood before them.
"Please tell me!!" The fat middle-aged man shouted loudly, then took a step forward with the force of an iron hoof, and then slashed towards Henry with an extremely standard downward slash.
His attacks are standard and fast, using Kazuto's typical method of distanced and then sprinting to attack. This method is fierce and difficult to dodge for novices who are not good at judging the distance of the attack. Even if one attack misses, as long as the first move succeeds in making the opponent panic, he can then use subsequent consecutive attacks to hit the opponent until he is unable to parry, and finally break through the defense and kill him.
"Wha—" The attack that he narrowed down and swung down in less than a second was a perfect blow in the eyes of others, but it was still easily evaded by the sage.
His eyes were like the precise square in the hands of Rigar's draftsman, accurately judging the range of the attack from the opponent's stride range and height and arm length - and then, as always, Henry only avoided the attack within the just right range. Without retreating too far, he quickly counterattacked before the opponent could further close the distance.
"Hey!" He swung his hand and stabbed the warrior in the eye like a Padrosi using a swift sword. Even though he was holding only a thin bamboo stick, it still frightened the middle-aged warrior so much that he subconsciously closed his eyes and turned his head back. Crazy pull and successive regressions.
"Okay, stop!" Old Qiao, who was in charge of the referee next to him, roared, while Narumi frowned, Ogami sighed slightly, and Yajiro kicked away a small stone in dissatisfaction.
"I'm so sorry!" The middle-aged samurai trembled in shock and held his hands several times before taking the sword back, sweating profusely, and bowed to a few people to apologize.
"Go down, Nobukatsu-sama." Narumi nodded to the other party, and the dejected middle-aged samurai walked over and joined several other dejected samurai.
"Whoosh-" Henry waved the thin bamboo in his hand, and Mira yawned next to her. Because things were boring, she had already started chatting with several other women.
The remaining missionaries in Rigar's group were still watching the interaction between the sage and the warriors, and occasionally recorded something under Alfonso's instructions, seemingly intending to learn from the sage's approach and establish a good relationship with the warriors.
Also taking notes was Galeva, and the doctor next to him would come over to take a look from time to time and say something to him in Lamani.
This is really a strange scene. Foreigners and locals who have come all the way from Suomir are communicating with each other with gusto in the language of a country to which they do not belong - although regarding this matter of belonging, Padre Alfonso and others will probably There are quite a few criticisms, but it is obvious that Galeva’s inner belonging is to the Kingdom of Thousand Lakes in the north, not to the empire.
We have gone too far - the sage stayed to wait for Narumi and others, as the leaders of the samurai group, to make a conclusion. With the years he had experienced, he could no longer be a person who gave orders. After all, those people are the subordinates of Narumi, Yajiro and others. No matter how good he is as an outsider, he still needs to give enough respect to others to continue to cooperate.
The warriors sought knowledge rather than contempt. They recovered from the sharp criticism within a day and even decided to test more of their flaws with real swords and guns. Naturally, they wanted to prove Henry's statement wrong. Not willing to give in, but the courage to take this step is already very scarce.
When more people face a situation that may destroy what they have always believed in, they will choose to avoid and procrastinate rather than face it and verify it.
So you have to give them time and don’t push too hard.
Kazuto society is famous for its politeness, but the other side of politeness is a sense of distance.
After all, Henry Meyer is just an outsider in this land. This country has many complex national conditions, and the deviation in the understanding of actual combat among the warrior class he came into contact with is just one of them.
This is not Rigal, there is no mercenary union. Their mission has not changed, it is still to escort the missionaries and their entourage to the south, although now they also have the task of handing over the list to Xinjing - because they don't know which nobles are trustworthy, this list must be in the hands of the doctor. It was passed on to senior academicians of the Grand Academy.
The intellectual class, which is outside the political and military circles and has direct authority to speak to the royal family but has no other real power, is the group of people least at risk in this country that is currently facing a crisis of rebellion.
This journey will be long and arduous. The most optimistic estimate is that it will probably take late autumn to reach Xinjing, and this is with the full support of the Qingtian family warriors.
Unlike the mercenary union, which has tentacles extending everywhere in the world of Rigal, it can provide logistical support. In the helpless Crescent Continent, if they had a falling out with the samurai, they were a group of unpopular outsiders walking on the land of the Moon Kingdom carrying weapons.
Risks aside, material supplies will be a big problem.
You can't say that you can completely avoid the crowds and travel over the mountains to live by unreliable hunting and gathering in the mountains, right? This kind of life has never been easy even for the Yi people who are true hunters, let alone the missionaries who have nothing to say but the tenacity brought by their firm faith.
Mutual respect is the prerequisite for any friendship or at least friendly cooperation.
——Yajiro spoke before Narumi.
"Lack of courage." The young master opened his mouth to criticize, but after showing his usual arrogance, he paused for a rare moment and added: "Me too."
"As a son of the martial arts family, you need to be prepared to lose an eye or an arm, but still fight endlessly."
"How can you shrink back because you are afraid of getting hurt?" When he said this, he subconsciously covered his healed arm, as if he was criticizing the few warriors who were defeated by Henry's skill and cowardice, and seemed to be criticizing them. Talking about myself.
"That's what the young master said." Old Qiao nodded and continued what he said, and the great master spoke next: "The day before yesterday, I used bows and arrows to fight against the bandits. I thought that was a test of my martial arts so far, but as expected, There is still a big difference between a distanced battle and a hand-to-hand encounter.”
Narumi remained silent, and he looked at Henry.
"Your fighting method is biased toward using bows, and this is also the correct approach." The sage began to explain under the instruction of the actual leader of the samurai group.
"Courage is important, but most of the bravery of ordinary people will end up lying in a pool of blood." He pointed to his eyes.
“Losing an eye, you lose half your vision.”
"This means that you cannot detect the enemy situation on this side in time, and you will be more vulnerable to injury on this side."
He pointed to his hand again: "If you lose an arm, you will lose your strength. You will lose in wrestling with the enemy, or you will be unable to push away the heavy objects that are pressing on you."
"Without your legs and feet, you won't even be able to walk, let alone move around in battle."
"The human heart supplies blood to the whole body, from here." He scratched from the chest to the sides of the neck: "The two main blood vessels supply your head."
"Oh my God, this is forbidden Necromancer knowledge." The young missionary covered his ears not to listen, while Alfonso next to him continued to record with a solemn expression.
"The other two are connected to the arm facing you, all the way to the fingertips." The sage gestured to his abdomen again: "The thickest blood vessel is here, the soft abdomen without rib protection, it is the heart leading to the entire lower body. supply.”
"These blood vessels are just below the skin, and the deeper ones are only a few centimeters. If you are fat, it may be a little deeper." The sage shrugged, and then compared it with his fingers: "This is Rigar's unit, don't you think If you understand, it’s about this little distance.”
"That is to say, as long as a sharp object hits these places, even if it only penetrates a little bit, you will start to bleed crazily and die quickly."
The sage's words made many people who understood shudder and touch various parts of their bodies.
"Secondly, there are organs. Important organs will also die quickly after suffering trauma."
“If you are shot in the chest by an arrow or pierced by a sword, the trauma to your lungs will cause you to be unable to breathe - which means that you can’t even scream for help to alert your companions, but you can only open your mouth in vain but can’t suck in. The air, as your lungs fill up with your own blood, eventually comes pouring out of your mouth and nose through coughing."
"So." After making everyone break into a cold sweat, Henry raised another finger.
"If you don't know what to do and just charge into a hail of arrows or an array of spears like a fool, you will definitely die like a fool."
"Huh-" He turned his head and squeaked towards the girl from Luo An, who rolled her eyes and walked over.
"What are you doing?" The white-haired girl with an arrogant tone came over, but her words still did not mean to give face to her teacher.
"Hit you." As soon as the sage finished speaking, the bamboo in his hand was swiped towards her. With his height and attack distance, Mira couldn't avoid it in time, so the Luoan girl turned around on her heels.
"Bang!" The front side of the light breastplate given by Yajiro that had the best defense was turned around by her. While blocking the attack with her body at an angle, Mira also raised her arm to clamp the bamboo in Henry's hand.
"What are you doing!?" The Luoan girl was a little angry this time, but the sage shrugged and deliberately messed up her hair.
"Did you see it?" He turned around and spread his hands towards Yajiro and the others.
"When an attack is unavoidable, choose a plan that will cause the least damage. And always think about how to abolish the opponent's ability to attack - disarming is of course the easiest. When the opponent's attack fails to achieve the desired effect That’s when you fight back.”
"Teacher is such a terrible adult." Mira, who had thrown away the bamboo, stepped on Henry several times, but still stood behind him.
"Armor is not something you wear for passive defense. In close combat, it is also your offensive method."
"Be familiar with the weaknesses of your armor, and wear the armor for training in simulated life-and-death situations. This is the answer you want." He looked at Narumi, who had been silent, and the latter waited for a long time after hearing this. Then he breathed out a sigh of relief.
"There are many things that need to be mastered." Narumi's summary sounded a bit dry compared to Henry's words.
"The long-term competition has limited our thinking. We only focus on scoring points. We don't know when or where people will die."
"Of course, the heart and head are weaknesses, everyone knows this." The great god next to him smiled.
"An attack is powerful, and a weapon is heavy. Different parts of the armor can block different attacks. If all the soldiers were like the Southern Barbarian Swordsman, calm and knowing themselves and their enemies, indeed, they would be able to Become a truly elite master." Narumi concluded again, and then looked at Yajiro.
"Yeah." The young master just hummed.
"This road is not easy to walk." Lao Qiao, who was closer to the lower-level samurai, had something to say. The samurai should forget about it and let the ashigaru who have been working for a long time master the human body through practical training after being busy. Weaknesses and the pros and cons of armor and weapons will obviously be a lot of pressure.
"The way of the martial arts is not full of thorns!" But his voice was drowned out by the senior warriors behind him.
"This is not a path for cowards." "Yes, yes, only tigers and wolves can survive!" The sage's words and today's further demonstration further washed away the scars that were previously revealed, to a certain extent. , he ignited their enthusiasm, and as a foreign warrior from Rigar who had experienced many conflicts, he pointed out a way for these confused warriors who wanted to prove themselves.
This approach successfully won Henry a deeper respect from the warriors, and if the training can continue after changing his thinking, these people of the Qingtian family will become rare soldiers who are truly good at actual combat in the Moon Country. Such a partner will be more trustworthy for them on the road to danger and rebirth.
But the beneficial aspects are not all.
"Wow, you're looking over here with a fierce look, teacher." The sensitive Luoan girl muttered after glancing at the Ashigaru.
"Well, yes." The sage looked back. Due to pressure and Henry's own intimidation, those people looked away, but a little hatred could still be felt.
If simply changing the training policy could change the entire class of warrior warriors in the Moon Country, then it would not be Henry Meyer's turn to do this for a foreigner.
The samurai have a lot of ashigaru under their command. They need to do menial and tiring work when the senior samurai are jealous and prove themselves, and they also need to be the vanguard and do the most dangerous things during the battle.
The last thing they want to do with a low salary all their lives is for anything to change, because change often means more work and danger.
This is destined by the unshakable social structure of this country.
Senior samurai would blame them for not seeking advancement and call them cowards. But if hard work doesn’t lead to success, who wants to do more with that little salary?
Henry's statement ignited the enthusiasm of the senior samurai, but also aroused dissatisfaction with him among the lower-level Ashigaru.
But when even the voice of the warrior Lao Qiao was drowned out, it was not easy for him as an outsider to change this situation.
The samurai's disdain for the ashigaru will not change. They always think that their subordinates are lazy and lack the spirit of the samurai family. But they also subconsciously ignored the status gap between the two parties and the fact that the other party stood guard against the autumn wind while they were drinking and admiring the moon.
With just a few words, it is still difficult to move the wheels accumulated in this country's long history.
Even if he is Henry.
