Although Zhangzhou is not in an important position such as a military town in general, bloody conflicts within its borders are still inevitable.
The reason why things happen constantly despite not being in an important position is simple - when you gather a lot of young and energetic martial arts disciples in the same place and give them women and wine, jealousy and fights will become commonplace.
Although it is not uncommon for things to occasionally escalate to a serious level and cause someone to lose their life, compared to war, such small-scale bloodshed caused by jealousy among young men is nothing more than immature slapstick in Xinjing's eyes. Noisy.
As long as the commotion does not cause the entire territory to fall into chaos and make the people miserable, it is not worth mentioning in the eyes of the higher-ups in Xinjing. Although these children of the samurai family are nobles in the eyes of ordinary people, the most worthless people in this era are the young samurai children.
Originally, the samurai class was a military aristocracy. In order to maintain their combat effectiveness, they quit their jobs. They did not engage in farming or business and devoted themselves to sharpening swords. But now that the world is peaceful, soldiers have no use. Not to mention the limited number of civil service positions, they are basically occupied by ethnic Chinese who occupy important positions. Unless they are relatives who are involved with the ethnic Chinese in charge, they have almost no chance of being appointed by the new capital.
Furthermore, samurai pursue personal honor too much and lack the concept of many things except wielding swords. Most of them can't even cook, let alone manage their territory. Therefore, there is even a saying in the market that "even scholars are more useful than them".
It doesn't matter how he dies because he is of no use. To put it this way, it seems that Xinjing has special discrimination against the samurai class. But this is clearly not the case.
The state simply doesn't care.
This is a unique cultural atmosphere of the Moon Country, which has experienced many disasters. There is no distinction between the untouchables and the nobles in the face of natural and man-made disasters. They are all just one of the casualties caused by disasters. No matter how unique an individual is in his own mind or in the eyes of his relatives and friends, if he dies in a bloody conflict on the street or is robbed and killed with his exposed property, the historian will just write in his notebook "certain year" without changing his expression. "A certain person died in a certain month, a certain number of people died in a certain place".
Human beings are emotional creatures. Once they interact with each other, they will feel sorry when the lives of others pass away.
This kind of emotional expression at the personal level is what the Lamanites criticize as the so-called "narrow personal structure of the warriors" - because the people in power of the country and the collective cannot limit their vision to a narrow level like this, they need to see Looking further afield, everything is seen in the context of a larger picture.
But no matter what, when Narumi and others undoubtedly showed sadness, this was still a very humane scene for foreigners like Henry.
The seriously injured Ashigaru were unable to survive. Being hit by a strong ghost clan with a blunt hardwood object, one of them suffered serious lung injuries. After holding on for a day, at dawn, he finally drowned in his own blood and suffocated to death. The other person died of a high fever caused by a broken bone during the night.
The only person who survived had a broken right arm and two legs. Even if he survived, he would never be able to fight or work again. At his request, Narumi finally asked a pharmacist to prepare a poison that would lead to a peaceful death.
"Sir, please make arrangements for your family." The strong smell of herbs mixed with the familiar fragrance of requiem, and the pale Ashigaru, who was only about 30 years old, left with a peaceful expression after receiving Narumi's answer.
The pharmacists at the hospital looked at the group of people in silence. Bloody conflicts were common in places like Ziyun, where a large number of young and vigorous warriors gathered. Therefore, they had no shortage of experience in dealing with seriously injured people and even the dead, so they were involved in the whole process. Showed calmness and restraint.
It's just that although the drunken warriors in Zhangzhou may not be able to see it, the experienced doctors can identify the uniqueness of this group of people from the details.
Looking at the severely deformed carcass when it was first hurriedly transported, the doctor's experience could tell that what they encountered was not the jealous street fights of young people here.
The smell of requiem covered up the smell of blood and the strong ointment. The chief physician, who was over 50 years old, put the candied fruit into the hot spring tea. Without the candied fruit, he would not have tasted it in such a smoky environment. No taste. He couldn't remember how many years it had been since he had dealt with soldiers like this who had returned from the battlefield seriously.
Street fights among young people can sometimes be very brutal. Although most of them have practiced martial arts when they were young, they have lost all of them in the way of entertainment and entertainment. A fight between one or two people in the name of martial arts disciples is more difficult. The gangsters are not much better.
Injuries caused by chops that are not clean enough, thrusts that are not powerful enough, and sharp weapons that are driven by drunkenness and emotion are often messy. Sometimes several wounds overlap each other, and upon examination it is eventually discovered that none of them are critical.
It’s just a flesh wound that makes a fuss and screams for father and mother. What’s even more ridiculous is that such a guy will use the scar as a feat to brag about, and the overlap of the routines is surprisingly high - basically claiming to have saved someone from a bandit when they encountered injustice on the road. Bullying woman.
He laughed loudly to show his prowess, and amidst the flattering words of the wandering girls on the side, he drank one glass of wine after another and gave away all his only belongings.
Then suddenly one day, with the support of his companions, he turned pale, vomited and urinated incontinently, shouting "Doctor, I don't want to die", but in the end he still turned into a cold corpse due to excessive injuries.
Warriors like this are the most common in Zhangzhou.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him, a true samurai.
Having experienced the baptism of the battlefield, he has a clear understanding of life and death. Don't be pampered, don't be arrogant, and don't underestimate your enemies. People like this have been working in Ziyun for more than thirty years.
He hadn't seen any of them.
Only in the distant past when I was still a trainee doctor did I meet such a person in Xinjing.
What exactly have they been through, he won't ask unless he takes the initiative to mention it. A medical practitioner treats illnesses and saves people; other than that, there is nothing else he can do.
It's just that I have some premonitions.
Perhaps there will be more and more such people in the future.
Then what will this land look like by then? These little boys who indulge in drinking and sex every day, and regard the impulsive street fights of young people as proof of honor and courage, will their hands and feet become cold and difficult to move when they actually pick up big guns and big bows?
Can their slender limbs, indulged in wine and sex, still be able to withstand the heavy armor?
How much blood will be shed and for whom.
However, as a doctor, he could only sip the overly sweet spring tea that ordinary people drink, and sigh silently in his heart.
Walking out of the smoke-filled medical center, most of the group looked a little heavy. Although the person could not be saved, the doctors tried their best, so they still paid a lot of money. In addition, considering the needs for future travel, Narumi asked the medical clinic for some simple and portable plasters to treat sprains, heatstroke, or small cuts.
In addition, they also contacted the person in charge of the funeral and the master mason who carved the tombstone. Thanks to Ziyun's constant conflict with the dead, both the medical center and the coffin shop were quite developed.
Singing and dancing, having fun, and then fighting and dying on the roadside because of boring things. Even without the several conflicts between the young samurai yesterday, the Qingtian family samurai and his entourage, who were born in the feudal lord and grew up under traditional education, still instinctively felt disgusted with this kind of place.
After all, samurai are people who pursue glory and have certain ambitions. In their eyes, the martial arts disciples who indulge in pleasure and forget their duties are simply scum that they want to kill with their swords.
But that's where the irony ends.
Ziyun has a population of tens of thousands, and people like this account for at least eighty or ninety thousand.
And Ziyun is only the smallest city in Zhangzhou, and the number of people in the entire territory will be even higher.
--in other words.
Samurai like the Qingtian family and his party are in the minority here.
He thinks he abides by the orthodox samurai spirit, but is ridiculed as a countryman who doesn't know how to adapt. He thinks that martial arts should be self-restrained and never forget to practice every day, but there is no stage in the world to show off their skills.
They believe that they should pursue honor and stick to principles, but they did something treacherous and deceived the villagers only two or three days ago.
There are many reasons. They are for the sake of the overall situation, and they are helping the miko and her party.
But the young warriors in Zhangzhou who were indulged in wine and sex also had their own "helpless reasons."
Where do you have the qualifications to spurn and despise yourself?
"Huh——" In unison, all the warriors of the Qingtian family, including Yajiro, let out a long sigh.
The young master can now more or less understand the reason why his father wanted him to come out. If he had not left Qingzhi, he would probably have been that arrogant young man all his life, thinking that he only needed to defeat all the samurai in the family with a wooden sword to prove himself.
He was naturally born as a samurai, and naturally accepted these values and became a typical Kazuto samurai who only judged heroes based on his martial arts.
But nothing in the world is logical, and their approach is not the only one. Even if it is correct, he can no longer give a positive answer with his head held high like before.
Values have been shaken, but that may not be all bad.
Because his horizons have broadened, when he makes choices now, he is not as impulsive as in the past. He is calmer, like the southern barbarian who defeated him countless times.
After going out, the young master finally realized how naive he was in the past.
Like other samurai since he was sensible, he could now understand how great his father was, who had despised him in his heart as a disgrace to the cowardly samurai family.
There are dozens of his own family members, and after combining with the barbarians, the team is nearly a hundred. But even if the team is now reduced to a dozen people due to separation, escape, and death in battle, the daily management is still beyond Yajiro's ability.
A dou of rice measured per person is called 5 kilograms by the Nanman people. Such a portion would cost about half a tael, or 500 wen, which would be half a tael in Kazuto's silver coins.
One tael of silver coins is enough to buy a little more than two buckets of rice, which is barely enough to feed a family of three for a month. And if it is quadrupled, that is, a team of 12 people will only have enough food for three to five days.
If the low-level merchants are more diligent, they can earn about one or two and a half pieces of silver in a month, which is enough to feed a family of three if they buy all rice. But people can't just eat one kind of food. Firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, etc. all cost money, and people also have the habit of saving money in case of unexpected events.
Therefore, most of them prefer to choose chestnuts that only cost about 50 Wen per bucket, and reduce their monthly living expenses to less than 400 Wen, so that they can survive for a long time.
He had never worried about money. It was not until he met the poor people in Taizhou and experienced all kinds of things that Yajiro truly realized how rich his life was.
A piece of kimono costs 3 taels of silver, a plain sword costs 3 to 4 taels of silver, and a set of ordinary samurai gear costs one and a half gold coins - that is, 15 taels of silver.
There are more than 700 samurai in the Qingtian family. Even if about 500 of them are lower-class ashigaru with low salary and simple equipment, maintaining such an army still requires a lot of money.
How did the father earn all this money? How to maintain the balance of the territory, and how to ensure that these warriors who are theoretically supporting Xinjing are loyal enough to themselves.
He didn't know, he didn't even know how much money the team of more than a dozen people needed to consume every day to continue their operations. These matters were all borne by Narumi and others. He was just a young master who longed to become a samurai, and he had never worried or thought about any issues related to this.
The vision is narrow and the pattern is small.
If he hadn't emerged from Qingzhi, if he hadn't met through this series of karma, I'm afraid he would have grown up to be just like the Zhangzhou warriors here, with an empty mind and only pursuing personal things.
If you think about it this way, maybe you are favored by the gods.
The reliable elders have an outstanding spirit, and beside them are outstanding scholars from Xinjing, as well as experienced swordsmen from the foreign lands of the Southern Barbarians.
Is it based on self-esteem that I cannot become like these Zhangzhou warriors, or is it because I have witnessed death and separation and the helplessness of crushing idealism and gained some insights? We have no way of knowing at the moment.
All that can be known is that after arriving at Ziyun City in the north of Zhangzhou, the young man matured slightly.
"Hey, don't be in a daze." The unceremonious words with an accent sounded, and then he felt that his hand was being held arrogantly - this was an experience he had never had before.
"Let's go, let's go have lunch."
The white-haired stranger said this with a smile.
There is no need for restraint or etiquette, and she intervenes in her own world equally and even a little roughly. She is obviously a woman, but she is enough to fight alongside herself.
This was also an experience he had never had before, growing up in a closed society where women appeared to be reserved and as men's support and assistants.
If so, if you have friends.
Maybe this is what it feels like?
What should that feel like.
What would it be like if you were born in Nanman, were childhood sweethearts with her, and grew up together under the guidance of that tall man?
What does the wind in their hometown smell like?
The young master, whose hand was held by Mira, ran towards Henry and others, looking at the backs of those in front of him, thinking so.
The world is so big, and there are still so many unknown things. One day, I would like to set foot on the vast ocean and visit Nanman just like they did when they came to Crescent Continent.
But for now, that's it.
The messy thoughts were finally forgotten. Now he just wanted to be with these companions, forget those sad things, and have a good meal.
keep going.
