The boys and girls from the Hayato tribe they encountered were, after all, children born and raised in the nearby mountains. Even though they had lost their way due to fog and heavy rain, after it cleared up, they used the stars and the sun to guide the way and successfully reached the vicinity of the auxiliary road outside - that is, with the scouts Where we meet - we can find our way back home again.
It may be difficult for samurai who come from urban areas to imagine, but children who grow up in the mountains have many excellent wilderness survival skills even at a young age.
Identifying directions is a necessary skill, and you also need to always remember what kind of wild vegetables are available in the surrounding mountains and forests at what time; what kind of traces are left by which animals, which dangers should be avoided, and which ones can be taken risks. Fight for meat.
Even if the dry food they brought was eaten up early, they would not necessarily go hungry—although they would certainly not be able to eat as well as the well-prepared warriors.
In addition to these aspects of knowledge and experience summary, what makes the samurai feel most ashamed is the physical fitness of these children.
The average age of these children is only about ten years old, and even the eldest and tallest are only a little over 1.4 meters. Although they are indeed lightly armed with nothing but knives and short spears, the speed that is comparable to that of a samurai on horseback is still a little bit atrocious. Speechless.
Born and raised here, he has been playing in the mountains since he was a child, and he often helps his parents and elders carry things. The physical fitness he has developed is not inferior to that of a warrior who has been trained for a long time and has enough food. He is even more adaptable to running than an outsider because his body is light and he is familiar with the terrain.
Although Crescent Continent is mountainous, most of the densely populated areas in large Japanese cities still remain on the plains. Even though most samurai have good physical fitness, there is still a gap compared with the native mountain people.
Just walking can be compared to the normal walking speed of a horse. Although the horse can speed up and surpass the Hayato child leading the way, most of the samurai refuse to do so because of their own pride.
It is true that there is a childish desire to compete faster than anyone else, but it is even more tragic for a horseman to speed up with the intention of overtaking others.
Both Hayato and a child were walking, but they were all walking faster than they were on horseback, and they were not even out of breath. The inner struggles of the samurai warriors who were born in Kazuto eventually turned into silence, but this kind of shameless situation was not uncommon in the confrontation between Kazuto and Hayato for thousands of years.
Hayato now occupies the land of Fuso and has a certain degree of autonomy that was not obtained through Kazuto's generosity. Although if this point is brought up, the samurai will inevitably argue that they are given such a privilege because of the high quality of the swords, spears and armor they produce, but if there is no one around and you have a deep enough personal relationship with the samurai, then most likely He would also faintly admit that Kazuto was never able to completely conquer Hayato.
The status and autonomy are equal to those of the old imperial family who were demoted to feudal lords. They are also highly capable of forging weapons and armor, and their practice of martial arts has become popular. Adding up this series of factors, if Xinjing can sit back and relax without any warning against the Hayato tribe, it must be treating the top management of Moon Country as fools.
There is a saying in Rigal that "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" - and from a map perspective, this is exactly what the Xinjing royal family has done.
Fuso is located in the sphere of influence directly under Xinjing, and the surrounding territories are heavily stationed military fortresses. Even the demon clan's fiefdom, Kazuto's strongest combat power and directly under Xinjing, was set up at the entrance of Fuso - you must know that Fuso is a territory backed by a mine.
As the name suggests, new weapons can be given priority to elites, and craftsmen and warriors can have the most direct communication to adjust the armor and weapons they need.
Even many Kazuto samurai and the new generation of Hayato craftsmen believe this statement, but the older generation and Fuso's leadership understand it.
This is a prison.
If there is still a way of saying that geographical supervision can be justified, then look at the competitive spirit of the Aotian family samurai when facing a group of Hayato children - Xinjing has never relaxed in his thinking. .
The statement of Hayato, a martial nation, was not spread by the Hayato clan themselves.
Even after a long period of peace, generations of warriors still grew up under the influence of various past battles.
Only a complete fool would believe that other ethnic groups in the Crescent Continent are praised in textbooks and legends.
The greatest insult to a warrior is to be taught since childhood that "someone is born stronger than you, and you will never be able to surpass them." The competitive spirit aroused in this way can easily turn into hostility. Because the other party has been regarded as an opponent subconsciously, then all that is left is to trigger it if there is some opportunity. The competitive spirit will naturally push Kazuto's warrior class to kill Hayato to prove that he is the greatest warrior on the continent.
This is Kazuto's unique Eastern style of sophistication that has thousands of years of history and is subtle and reserved.
The nobles of the small country of Rigar, who thought that conspiracy and politics meant marriages and assassinations, found it difficult to come up with such a plan, and unknowingly had all the pieces in place. Maintain long-term peace by setting up the situation so that one move can affect the whole body.
Like a sudden volcanic disaster in peacetime, like a gorgeous but short-lived crescent cherry blossom.
Just like the cold Northern Riga Sea, there are undercurrents surging under the dark blue invisible sea level, and it suddenly becomes rough without knowing when.
If anything happens, you and I will both die.
Peace is not bought with pure goodwill. Only by holding on to weapons can you sit back and relax.
Our Luoan girl, who is still immature, has not yet been able to catch a glimpse of such a thing. And even among the warriors of the Qingtian family, I am afraid that only a very small number of people can detect the subtle friction between Kazuto and Hayato.
– But let’s get back to where we started.
The line was naturally longer.
Even the samurai on horseback could barely keep up with Hayato's children, especially the ashigaru who were on foot and carrying their luggage.
The sparse formation stretched to three times its original length. The expressions of the senior warriors who turned around frequently changed from frowning and dissatisfied to glaring. But before they had time to curse, the vanguard's horses showed signs of something wrong. ——Then it spread to the entire team of mounted warriors.
"Let's go!" Many of the warriors who had suppressed their anger could no longer maintain their tenderness towards their beloved horses. They yelled and even beat them hard with whips, but the horses just squirmed and refused to move forward.
"Don't panic, this is because the horse has sensed the aura of the evil spirit." Although he had no experience in fighting, he could still infer something from the words of Hayato's child before. Narumi shouted loudly to stop the samurai's actions. The Hayato child in front noticed the movement and stopped. After a while, he came over. However, after taking a look at the samurai, he walked straight to the middle of the team and spoke to Miss Doctor.
Because of this interruption, Henry and his group naturally came to the front of the team from the middle. At the same time, the ashigaru who were lagging behind slowly moved forward.
Approaching the front of the team, the keen Luoan girl sniffed her nose and immediately smelled a strange smell. Although it is difficult to detect it among the beastly scent of the horses and the sweaty smell of the sweaty warriors, the smell similar to rotten eggs can still be distinguished.
"The smell of sulfur?" She looked at the sage, who nodded - maybe there are hot springs nearby, Mira didn't think much about it, because her attention was immediately interrupted by another thing - when Xiaodu When the horned beast came near the horses, the restless horses immediately became calm. The warriors turned their heads to look at the pure white Medea. Many of them had greed in their eyes, but they quickly turned away when they saw Henry.
The leading boy—Ling introduced him as Archie, or at least the transliteration was like this—whispered something to Miss Doctor, and Ling looked at Mira with a slight smile: "He said the little guy is the king of horses." She said. As she said this, the Luoan girl turned her head and looked at Henry with some pride, and then looked at Galeva who was also following behind - but the latter was too busy writing down what just happened in his travel diary and didn't look over, so Got kicked by Mira.
"What's wrong with me?" Leng Touqing's face was filled with grievances, while Miss Doctor looked at the two people's actions and covered her mouth and laughed.
The pack cow that was pulled forward by the ashigaru also encountered a similar thing. After Archie said something to Aya, the doctor turned to Narumi and explained.
"Animals feel the scent of evil spirits and panic. Next, he will light requiem incense and ask us to cover our mouths and noses with a cloth soaked in water, otherwise we may become dizzy." She explained, and Narumi nodded, Ask a warrior to convey this to others.
Archie, the leader of Hayato's children, handles things very maturely and seasonedly for a teenager, which reminds Henry a little of Mira in the past. If he lit it without explaining it beforehand, the samurai would become dizzy and apparently suspicious and even draw their swords and start fighting.
But now that it has been communicated to the entire team, unnecessary misunderstandings can be avoided.
Without further ado, Hayato's children took out some herbs they carried with them, smashed them with the handles of mountain swords, and put them in small pottery bowls they carried with them. Then he took out the flint and fire sickle, sparks flew and ignited them within a moment.
Then Archie walked ahead carrying the requiem in a small pottery bowl to lead the way. The livestock and some people who had not yet put on their headscarves shook their heads unconsciously when they smelled the smell. Hayato's children pulled up the tulle around their necks, and the samurai, Ashigaru, and Henry's group followed suit.
The so-called requiem seems to contain some kind of calming ingredient. It may be made by burning pain-relieving herbs. No matter what, although the war horses and pack oxen became a little sluggish as a result, they finally did not stop moving forward out of fear.
The road continued on, sometimes up and sometimes down.
Hayato, who was escaping from taxes, was self-aware after all. Their village was far away from the auxiliary road. The group started from the mountain road and walked for most of the afternoon. It was not until noon that they saw rising smoke in a ravine.
This site selection is extremely clever. The mountain covers the traces of cooking smoke and cannot be seen without entering.
The leading Hayato child stepped on the burning requiem when he walked near the village. A woman happened to be walking by the entrance of the village holding a wooden basin. When she noticed Archie standing in front of her, she dropped the wooden basin. Pen shouted and rushed over to hug him.
Although the language is not common, the mother's worry can also be understood from her actions and face.
The noisy voices attracted the attention of more adults, ranging in age from 20s to 30s, but almost all of them were women. These Falcon people walked out of the houses in the village one after another, but their joy did not stay on their faces for long - because these people noticed that they were following Archie.
Heavily armed warriors.
This was an expected development, and Yajiro, Rigar and his entourage, as well as the senior samurai leaders who came forward, were not surprised by this.
The only one who was somewhat shocked was Miss Doctor.
The expressions ranged from relieved that the children were back safe and sound, to doting with some reproach. The moment he saw the warriors, he suddenly turned pale. His eyes were evasive, fearful and he didn't know what to do. Then it naturally turned into blame.
Some of the Hayato women who heard the voices behind them sighed, and some pointed at the leader Archie and cursed something loudly and aggressively at a very high speed. Although only the doctor lady present could understand Hayato's language, anyone could guess that the curse words were mostly related to accusations of taking their children away to take risks and attracting the Kazuto samurai back.
The woman who was obviously Archie's mother first appeared to protect him, but eventually turned around and began to accuse her own child.
The boy with his head lowered said nothing, and finally couldn't help but start to defend himself.
What started out as a quiet rebuttal turned into a loud argument. You don't need to understand to understand that he is explaining that he brought back the samurai in order to defeat evil spirits. But my mother obviously didn't buy it.
The argument became more and more intense until it finally ended with a loud slap in the face.
The other women were still chattering, and several waved their hands to ask their children not to stay with Archie and go back quickly.
Archie's mother froze on the spot, while he covered his face and stood there for a long time, then turned around and ran into the dense forest without looking back.
"Archie, Archie!" his mother continued to shout loudly, and the other children, leaderless and leaderless, returned to their mothers' arms.
"————" The women looked at the warrior with hostility and fear, and then quickly returned to their respective houses in the village.
The "click" sound of closing the door and locking the doorbolt was heard one after another, and Archie's mother walked back step by step, picked up the wooden basin, and started walking towards the interior of the village with her head hanging.
"..." The warriors who came all the way were speechless. Although to be fair, they agreed to come to fight against evil spirits more to prove their martial arts skills than to save the villagers, but this experience is so real. Speechless.
"Sure enough, it will turn out like this. The fleeing farmers have worked so hard to find the gathering place. It is difficult to get here without the locals to guide them. Under such circumstances, a child of the same tribe attracted a group of people. A warrior in uniform." The great god sighed and said.
"Look on the bright side, at least we didn't get shot by bows and arrows, hahaha." Old Qiao tried to make a joke to liven up the atmosphere, but no one answered except for himself, who laughed a few times.
"We will camp outside tonight." The cold-faced young master Yajiro said this and turned around to walk towards the ashigaru behind him. The doctor, who had been stunned for a long time, responded: "I have to go find him."
"I'll go with you." Mira nodded and said this, then looked at the sage - the latter nodded, so she kicked the rough-skinned Galeva again.
"The Rebirth of Financial Giants"
"Follow me, idiot."
"Huh?" Leng Tou Qing was obviously half a beat too slow again.
"If I have to hold someone back, I may not be able to hold him down."
