The way the sage approached the teahouse owner was the same as when he hooked up with the Qingtian family in Qingzhi, and the reason why he was able to make such a judgment was naturally based on his own in-depth understanding of such things.
There is a saying in the mercenary community in Rigar that messing with a famous mercenary group is like swatting a bee that has landed on you - it seems harmless, but in reality it is a disaster. What you see in front of you is just a buzzing bee, but behind it represents the combat power of an entire hive.
To a certain extent, this saying refers to the mutually beneficial relationship between the listed mercenaries and the mercenary guild. On the other hand, it also refers to the huge network of relationships and connections that the team will have after becoming famous.
This is the same when replacing the elite regular armies of each country.
The combatants on the front line are indeed like social celebrities, especially those who have become famous and have unique titles. Troubadours sang about them, and history also recorded them. Their names or nicknames were often mentioned in the military and even by relevant combat professionals in various places.
But only people in the industry can understand that for these people to succeed, their own combat ability only accounts for less than 40% of the weight.
Does being good with a sword or an ax make you a first-rate adventurer?
This answer is obviously wrong.
The lone wolf who does everything by himself thinks that he is an aloof and invincible swordsman who can solve all problems by himself. Most of them will eventually die in an unknown corner.
There is no one trick that is popular all over the world, and the same is true for equipment. Dealing with different targets requires the use of different equipment and team configurations, and how you obtain information related to the target is a problem.
Whose information is reliable and trustworthy - how can you judge the opponent's weapons, equipment and number of people based on just a few words? When and where will they pass?
Even when dealing with monsters, the level of difficulty varies greatly depending on size, age, and previous experience fighting other adventurers.
The more detailed the information, the better, and it must not only be accurate, but also fast, otherwise the opportunity will be taken away by others. In addition, you also need to know where to get the most reliable high-quality equipment - no one wants the crossbow in their hand to suddenly "click" and the string breaks at a critical moment, or the arrow is shot out due to the arrow. It was not installed properly and fell off before hitting the target.
Yes, extremely capable adventurers or military elites may be able to avert danger and remain calm when encountering unexpected situations to turn the tide - this is often the reason why they become famous.
But if you ask any such person, they will answer you:
“Trying to avoid getting into situations that require miracles is how experts behave.”
60% relies on advance planning, entrusting intelligence personnel to investigate clearly, and obtaining suitable equipment from reliable equipment providers. Everything is clear and everyone involved knows everything. Make sure the action is carried out step by step or even be rehearsed in advance. The remaining 40% is the action itself.
"The Beauty of the Sun and the Moon"
Fast, accurate, and stable. Be fully prepared every time to ensure a high success rate for the mission, instead of just rushing in and adapting to the situation without knowing anything. This is the difference between experts and amateurs - and given that the troops of the Miko and the Ghost Tribe are It's the Knife of Xinjing. It's natural that they have secret bases in big cities and are responsible for monitoring situations and reporting them in a timely manner.
Characters like the teahouse owner secretly provide intelligence and logistical support to the shrine maidens. Because there is a person who knows the local trends thoroughly, they can detect various crises in time and deal with them decisively.
The great witch knew this and gave it to Henry to guard. Although she only said verbally that no one would be embarrassed if she took this to Xinjing, in fact, this kind of identification also marked the sage's ability to a certain extent. Use the resources they have - of course, provided he knows how to use them.
The culture of Moon Country, which has been civilized for thousands of years, is reserved and conservative. Even swordsmanship teachers often require students to "enlighten" themselves when teaching. They will not explain everything to you from the way of exerting force to the stance like the swordsmen of Rigar, but they will often just point out that your "stance is wrong" without telling you what is the correct way, so as to select those who A student with outstanding talent and sharp attention.
I don’t know whether to go into details, but since it is given to you, it means you can use it, but whether you can use it and how much you can use it depends on you.
From the point of view of the straight-forward Luoan girls, this approach is simply awkward and uncomfortable. You have to guess everything without saying anything, so I can't explain everything clearly to you.
But fortunately, our Mr. Sage is very comfortable with handling this kind of thing. The teahouse owner silently accepted the request after confirming his identity. This tacit understanding was actually a good thing for the group.
Solve the problem quietly without asking about the content. Ignorance is a kind of protection for the teahouse owner and his daughter. He is just a connector in the network, and like everyone else, he is only responsible for a small part of his own. In this way, even if someone catches him and wants to inquire about the information, they will not be able to learn the whole story from him alone.
It is difficult to wipe out such a deep and mature underground network. Although they are very reassuring when they serve as our own assistants, on the other hand, the people who can use such a network are not just witches.
The information finally revealed by the assassin leader is very ambiguous. It cannot be determined whether it is beneficial or not. How to use this information depends on the individual.
"He's a person with white hair, just like your lady here."
As a being who carries out orders, the leader of the assassin team, who was born in the Hayabusa clan and is known for his martial arts, only met the person responsible for giving him the bounty.
He has white hair, but he is not very old.
Luoan people.
He spoke a standard Japanese language with no accent, covered his whole body with clothes, and wore a hat to stay quietly behind the intermediary. The assassin leader happened to glance up, but he didn't leave much of an impression.
What kind of role does that Luoan person represent? Is he a member of the nobles who intends to rebel? Or--
It is common sense in their profession not to ask about things that should not be asked. During the short task handover process, the assassin leader did not make any eye contact or direct communication with him.
Who he is and what his status is cannot be known from just a few descriptions. Therefore, the next thing the sage asked was a more important question: Why did the group's whereabouts become exposed?
Although he can more or less guess something.
The heavily armed warriors of the Qingtian family were not too eye-catching all the way from the feudal domain to Taizhou. However, after arriving in a place like Zhangzhou, they seemed to be laughed at when they started fighting in the afternoon. They were as conspicuous as a group of guys coming out of ancient comic strips.
After all, the samurai were confined to Qingzhi Town for too long.
Things have changed every decade. For the states and territories under the direct jurisdiction of Xinjing, such warriors dressed up in full military uniforms are now so rare that they attract crowds of people just walking on the street.
Even our wise man could not have predicted this, after all, it had been a long time since he last visited here.
There is a lack of communication among warriors from all over the country. The only form of contact is the national martial arts competition, but in that case everyone only wears light wooden swords. In particular, the vassal territory was not actually under the direct jurisdiction of Xinjing, and there was no communication or information generation. As a result, they did not even know that the samurai in each state had almost given up their armor.
The training of large bows and large spears has almost been abandoned, and warriors in most areas from Zhangzhou to the south now only practice sword skills, because swordsmanship is the top priority of the national martial arts competition.
There were many warriors who couldn't even ride a horse, so they relied on manpower to carry the sedan when going out.
This series of information is what Henry needs to inquire about. The customs are different, and the Kingdom of the Moon is too huge. Many of the habits of the vassal will inevitably make them look extremely conspicuous after they go south, and this is what the group needs to avoid.
Because it was dark under the lamp, the group didn't think it was a big problem before. They thought they were all samurai and could smoothly blend in with the local samurai in Zhangzhou. But now it seems that he was a little careless.
Trade-offs must be made. After discussing with Narumi, the sage came here to contact the only person who might still be trustworthy in Zhangzhou, the teahouse owner who was independent of the Ziyun government and was a secret stronghold of the elite troops directly under Xinjing.
A dozen pairs of armors are expensive, especially many of them are luxurious samurai armors. Even the wealthy Qingtian family warriors are reluctant to just dig holes and bury them in the wilderness, so it is ideal to find secret channels to clean them up and use them as operational funds.
After taking off the eye-catching armor, they wanted to change it to a close-fitting and concealed style. Then the ashigaru's big guns and the samurai's big bows and many other things had to be discarded. Although many people were extremely reluctant to give up, and also expressed doubts about the shrinkage of combat effectiveness after abandoning the main weapon and high-defense full-body armor, after careful discussion, it turned out that for them, concealment is still better than combat effectiveness.
Now there are less than 20 people left in the group, and not all of them are combatants. If they attract more people's attention because of their main weapons such as full-body armor and large bows and spears that cannot be hidden, even if they are fully armed, they will be completely unable to deal with the endless stream of attackers.
He hid in the city, discarded these equipment and blended in with the local samurai, becoming "the inconspicuous martial arts disciples who can be seen everywhere." This method of disturbing the eyes and ears and making it much more difficult for intelligence personnel who are interested in targeting a group of people to identify them is far more sophisticated than physical armor defense.
No matter how good the armor is, there will be gaps and weaknesses; no matter how exquisite the night watch soldiers' shift arrangements and careful road planning are, it is better to blend into the crowd from the beginning, so as not to be noticed and not targeted by the enemy.
All in all, all in all. The owner of the teahouse was entrusted to secretly dispose of the heavy armor and large bows and guns that were inconvenient for movement. Many of the armor maintenance tools and boxes for storing armor could also be discarded. The group, whose baggage weight had been reduced by almost 40%, was redressing collectively. After that, he was as light as a swallow.
Even the heavy-duty pack oxen and ox-carts can be further reduced, and the entire team has become much more capable and lighter than before entering Ziyun.
Except for some people such as Narumi who still retained their close-fitting armor, others who did not have a second set of light armor replaced them with leather bellybands coated with lacquer. This Japanese-style armor is a short breastplate that is fixed at the back and only protects the front chest and side waist. The soft armor made only of thick cowhide has very average defense and can even be broken by a sword. Therefore, in order to enhance the defense, the leather armor needs to be coated with multiple layers of lacquer.
Apply a layer of paint, then apply it again after the paint shell dries, repeating five or six times until it reaches a certain thickness. The hard paint shell can effectively enhance the leather armor's resistance to sharp objects, and compared to metal armor, it still has the advantages of being close-fitting, quiet and lightweight.
The protective ability and defensive area are naturally not comparable to those of metal armor, but right now, what the group needs is more concealment than direct protection.
It took two or three days to make corrections. When they received the leather belly, many warriors cast envious glances at Henry's Brigand floor armor. The outstanding skills of Rigar dwarf craftsmen allow the plate armor to be made extremely close to the body. Although it still makes a slight metallic sound when moving, the surface looks like it is just clothing, but underneath the fabric is layered like fish scales with no holes. The plate armor made of armor pieces is really a design that perfectly combines concealment and protective capabilities.
It's not like Kazuto didn't have similar designs, but the production of armor made purely from tortoise shell gold was very time-consuming. They didn't have much time at the moment, so they changed hotels the next day to avoid being attacked again, but there was still the possibility of being targeted.
There are also reasons for choosing leather armor. Even if the soft armor is second-hand and ready-made, it can still fit the body if it is tied tightly with a rope. This is a characteristic that metal armor does not have.
Wearing light clothing inside, socks and straw sandals underneath. He wears soft leather armor coated with lacquer over his underwear, and on top of that he wears a samurai's gorgeous coat. Afterwards, they carried tachi and short swords on their waists, and put black hats on their heads. Except that their skin was not so white, their limbs were not so slender, and they did not smell of wine or urine. At first glance, they looked the same as the local Zhangzhou warriors. It is already the same.
Mixing into the crowd will not attract too much unnecessary attention, and passers-by in a hurry will not pay too much attention even if they meet.
Hiding in the woods and becoming ordinary is the best way to defend yourself.
Time passed by, and after staying in Ziyun for less than a week, the group changed drastically and experienced a lot of things.
Started the journey again.
