The national highway in Zhangzhou leads directly to Pingshan County. After learning more information, the group should theoretically avoid this area. However, it was still quite a distance to the county seat, so after detouring from the auxiliary road, the vast team was walking on the stable national highway in a short period of time.
Roads that have been cultivated for many years extend in all directions. If you look down from above, excluding the lush summer vegetation on the surface, the national highway paved with blue-white stone slabs and the nearby earth-yellow auxiliary roads look like withered pines and cypresses——
The thick main road is straight and the auxiliary roads on both sides are like branches of trees, extending in all directions to connect nearby villages and settlements.
But this straight and smooth experience gradually begins to disappear as you go further south.
At the beginning of the construction of the national highway in Xinjing, the land doctors responsible for local planning were full of confidence and planned to make a road as short and vertical as possible, regardless of manpower and material resources, digging mountains and filling lakes. What made this idealism crumble for a time was the silt and miasma of the soil in the southern part of Zhangzhou.
Even paving a road in Zhangzhou, which is full of mud, requires a lot of consideration - it is not advisable to build a road directly on the swamp, because if it rains, it will be flooded and you will not be able to see the stone slabs. If you lose your way, you will fall into the mud. If you defecate, you will die.
So either take a detour or raise it overhead. The land doctor who was in charge in the past chose the latter, faced the difficulties, raised the roadbed with pillars, and named it "Tiandao". After obtaining the approval of the new capital, the Chinese people in Zhangzhou gathered manpower and material resources to complete this major project. In more than ten years, it became a world-famous sight. It was even included in the famous book of the Moon Kingdom, "Tiangong Kaiwu", and became a masterpiece. A local attraction that Zhangzhou people are proud of.
However, this glory did not last long. Due to the excessive swampy areas, Tiandao used a large number of wooden supports to save costs. Although great efforts were made to prevent corrosion and apply large-scale paint to increase the support life, it still only lasted for less than ten years before being corroded by the poisonous miasma.
The big project that cost people and money eventually became a flash in the pan. The doctor responsible for the planning of this section of the national highway was hidden and no longer held an important position. Even though the materials and engineering plans used were approved by Beijing, the local government was ultimately responsible.
Xinjing must maintain its authority and cannot make mistakes. There were no errors or omissions in the approved plan or the materials used. Problems must have occurred because local officials cut corners and manipulated materials. Whether this was true or just to maintain face and treat Zhangzhou Chinese as scapegoats is unknown. However, after this incident, Zhangzhou became even more proud. It is well known that Xinjing does not take it seriously.
After all, the useless province was unable to turn over, and a large section of the collapsed wreckage of the Heavenly Dao now stood on the distant horizon, as if silently mocking the stupidity and ignorance of mankind in trying to conquer nature.
Walking on the winding new national highway built close to the foot of the mountain, Henry and others saw this scene when they looked east.
June is coming to an end and July is about to enter, with sunny heat waves licking the surface of the earth one after another. The soil on the surface of the swamp on the lower east side of the foothills has been dried and cracked by the heat, but once you step on hard ground, you will sink into the mud up to your thighs.
The vegetation near the still-dry waterway is lush and lush, and the evaporating water vapor distorts the view under the action of the heat wave. From this distance, the reeds looked like twisted monsters. Even though it was broad daylight, it made people's skin crawl.
Below is the home of poisonous insects and beasts. Crescent Continent's unique species of crocodiles lie lazily on the shore in groups of twos and threes. There is also a part of the body that is tilted and hidden in the turbid green water, with only the upper half of the flat head and the eyes protruding above exposed. It is disguised as dead wood to observe whether there are any wild animals or humans coming to drink from the shore.
Kazuto's local language calls crocodiles "dragons", and they are considered to be a subspecies of Crescent Island dragon. Rigal scholars, who are home to dragons, believe that crocodiles are more closely related to dragons than dragon lizards.
Even the legendary dragons in Crescent Continent are considered by the Rigal people to be closer to snakes, and are different creatures from the more animal-like Rigal dragons.
It's just that the characteristics are similar, so similar expressions are used in the translated texts in the two places. Just as the coat that people in Rigar love to wear is also called coat in translation and language, it looks like the same thing in terms of words, and the function and positioning are also the same. However, the Rigal fashion that emphasizes the curves of the human body is very different from the loose Japanese clothing. These details are difficult to express through words alone.
People from different cultural backgrounds, even if they communicate in the same language, often still need to dance around to explain what they mean. Even so, the amount of information that can be conveyed is still limited, and the missing parts were filled in by later generations using imagination and written as travel notes. This article, which is composed of a few truths, errors and omissions, and the author's imagination, has become the only way for people who have never been to this land to understand knowledge. As time goes by, people from the empire on the other side of the ocean have questions about the moon. This is a scene in which many things in China are deeply misunderstood.
Some things can only be understood after seeing them with your own eyes - just like the area where the group of people are now. Before you arrived, you had only heard descriptions of miasma everywhere and swamps. Maybe you thought of the fields and small ponds near your home, but in fact, the miasma here in Zhangzhou is endless, radiating under the hot sunshine. Pungent smell.
There is a saying among the people that Zhangzhou used to be written as Miaszhou, which means the state of miasma, but it was changed to Wenzhang because it was not elegant enough.
The rolling heat wave is mixed with the stench of the volatile breath in the swamp. Animal carcasses and rotting plants buried in the mud give off a unique odor, but in addition, there is a salty smell similar to sea water. .
According to Ryunosuke and others' explanation, many places in the swamps here are filled with salt water. In the past, some people made a living by purifying salt and alkali from it, but after all, the water in the swamp was turbid and dirty, and the salt that was boiled and sifted after hard work always had a strange smell and made people sick, so the government eventually ordered them not to do it.
Of course, the more important reason is that the salt used as daily necessities is owned by the government, and it is illegal to make and sell it privately. Most of these people secretly cook the salt because they cannot buy it and there is demand, and sell the excess to other villages.
The ronin troop of more than a hundred people walked on the road like a plague, and the merchants traveling around were afraid to avoid it. Even other traveling samurai kept their distance as much as possible and did not intend to approach and talk.
In the Kingdom of the Moon, where social classes are strict, the existence of ronin, who was once a samurai and now has no profession, is a subtle thing. Because they still belong to the aristocratic class and can own weapons and equipment, local officials cannot deport or imprison them like homeless people, but they do not have legitimate occupations but suffer ostracism and hostility to a certain extent.
It's like a good student meets a bad boy. He can't afford to offend him but can't beat him. He avoids it as much as possible. On another level, he achieves the low-key and undisturbed situation that Henry and others need.
The boring march, coupled with the summer heat and the stench of the swamp, made the day feel like a year. Physically, I had walked for a whole morning. When I was mentally exhausted and ready to rest, I found that it was not yet 10 am.
It was still early for lunch, and the weather was hot and the smell of fishy smell filled the mouth and nose. Even though they consumed a lot, the group had no appetite.
If you have never marched in the summer heat, you will not understand how uncomfortable it is.
Kazuto men and children like to wear a kind of clothing called Jinbei in summer. The fabric used in this kind of clothing is light and loose cotton and linen. Not only is it extremely breathable, but the elbow-length sleeves and torso are connected with ropes instead of sewing. When paired with shorts that are no longer than knee-length, they have excellent heat dissipation. .
When the weather is particularly hot, some farmers will not even wear Jinbei shorts, but only wear a base layer called a loincloth. They cover their crotch with the hem of their top and leave both legs exposed, which can be said to be extremely cool.
But serious warriors cannot do this. Even in summer, they still have to wear two layers of clothing to maintain their dignity. It's even more troublesome when wearing armor. As a lining, wear a top with long sleeves and long trousers, and then wear the armor on the outside. Even if you are not exposed to direct sunlight, you can still sweat within half an hour.
Crescent Continent's armor likes to be painted, and compared to Rigar's polished armor, it does heat up relatively slowly when exposed to the sun. In addition, the metal area they use is smaller, not a whole piece of plate, but small pieces or long strips of metal sewn on the cloth. The overall resistance to hot and dry environments is higher than that of the Rigal type.
But even so, the long march was enough to make one dizzy and exhausted. Because armament is not only about temperature but also about weight. The sum of the two will only make people more tired.
The lowest walking ashigaru under Ryuunosuke's command is a complete basic configuration. The limb protective gear is a pair of calf gauntlets made of three simple iron plates sewn on cloth, and the same simple painted iron bars are sewn with the fabric. Simple long cage hand. These two parts add up to a weight of about 2 kilograms. The thighs are not protected, plus a thin breastplate weighing about 5 kilograms. The drooping grass folds - what Rigar calls skirt armor - protect the crotch and thighs. In the upper section, wearing a 1.5 kilogram iron armor, the weight of the entire equipment is actually only within 10 kilograms.
Compared with a full set of samurai armor of about 20 kilograms, it is nearly half the weight, but the ashigaru are no better than the samurai and do not have horses to transport everything. This also includes some daily necessities.
The standard unit of food for long-distance marches in the Moon Country is based on 50 days. Ashigaru needs to carry 3 days of rations by himself, and the rest is stored in large packages in the baggage.
The main part of the rations for these three days is roasted and dehydrated dry food such as rice and noodles, so it is not too heavy. The real trouble is fresh water resources.
The bamboo water bottle or gourd that Kazuto likes to use can hold about 0.7 liters by Rigal standards. Of course, because these handmade products actually vary in size, generally speaking, an ashigaru will bring two water bottles. The total of nearly 1.5 liters of water is enough to support a half-day march. If you save a little, it can last a whole day.
It is not difficult for an ashigaru who has been exercising all year round to walk dozens of miles in a day. As long as he is familiar with the terrain and knows where to supplement, it is actually not a big problem. However, when consumption increases greatly in summer, the originally simple problem will be magnified. The 1.5 liters of water carried by an individual soldier will be consumed in less than half a day.
Henry and his party were also in this predicament before. Excessive consumption and unfamiliarity with the terrain and lack of route planning eventually led to the ending of A Yong and the three of them.
——The solution adopted by Ryuunosuke and his party was to directly convert a carriage into a waterwheel. The specially customized large bamboo water tank was made by skilled craftsmen. It was processed with a plane until the extremely straight edges were perfectly joined, and then it was finished with metal The outer hoop is tightened. This large water storage tank, which is thin and does not leak very much, is actually a mobile water tank used by people for firefighting. Because earthquakes and mudslides occur frequently in most places, most of the houses used by people to facilitate search and rescue are made of thin wooden structures combined with paper. become.
This kind of structure is easy to lift for search and rescue after a disaster, and the damage to residents when it collapses is lighter than that of a heavy stone structure, but it is easy to catch fire in midsummer.
If one of the connected wooden houses caught fire, it would easily burn down the entire city, so fire prevention personnel ordered water tanks of various specifications. It is usually mounted on a light and flexible wheelbarrow and can be pulled quickly back and forth between streets. It can carry more fresh water than a human-portable wooden bucket.
The water tank specially customized by Ryunosuke is larger than the one used for firefighting, and is almost the same length-to-width ratio as a large four-wheeled carriage. But usually this water tank is not full. Because even easy-to-travel national roads often have bumpy uphill and downhill slopes, a water tank full of water is an extremely heavy burden on the axles and horses pulling the cart, and due to the excessive weight, it will also be very bumpy when going downhill. Big risk.
However, even so many such water trucks have greatly improved the continuous combat capabilities of Ryunosuke and his party, and Henry and his party who were temporarily traveling with them also benefited from this, and were able to obtain sufficient fresh water to supply Ayong and the three people lying in bed to avoid dehydration. shock.
The disadvantage of this is naturally that their poor mobility prevents them from leaving the flat national highway, but after all, the number of people is there. Small-scale groups can still travel lightly, but if more than a hundred people don't have enough supplies, it will only be a matter of time before they become bandits and rely on robbing homes to survive.
The hot summer and the smelly heat wave of the swamp made everyone basically exhausted. After 10 o'clock, they walked a long distance again, but their walking speed became slower and slower. There was a sergeant like Lieutenant Ryunosuke in front of them who distributed some paste in small wooden cans.
This paste, made from extracts of several refreshing herbs such as peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil and camphor, and mixed with beeswax, is a common dizziness drug in Japanese society. Henry and his party also made purchases before leaving Ziyun.
Apply it on both sides of the forehead and the position called the "temple", as well as the position on the upper lip called the "Renzhong point". Take a deep breath, and the cool and spicy breath will clear your mind and clear away the effects of the heat. of dizziness.
This temporarily relieved the heat, and after walking for about 40 minutes, at nearly 12 noon, the group took a rest near the abandoned mountain foot station on the roadside.
When they arrived, the other travelers who had been enjoying the shade under the nearby bamboo forest quickly packed up their things and distanced themselves. A small number of those who were slower to react also moved away after realizing that the samurai had no family name and were no ronin.
This situation made Henry and his party raise their eyebrows, and the people under Ryuunosuke, who had long been used to it, began to set up pots and pans to prepare lunch.
Obviously, they were used to it.
