Simple things become complex and difficult when multiplied by quantity.
The Padrosi Empire's "Introduction to Infantry" published in 1499 of the Lamanite New Calendar records the relationship between the number of troops and baggage: "For 12,000 infantry, at least 650 heavy carriages should be prepared; for 3,000 Knights should prepare 300 heavy-duty carriages. For a team of 15,000 people, at least 950 heavy-duty carriages are needed to carry supplies. Each knight should carry at least two horses for transfer, and the carriages should be separated by 10 meters. A team of this size is 23 kilometers long from the beginning to the end."
The heavy carriages used by the imperial military are much larger than the two-horse commercial large carriages, and are usually composed of a group of 6 beasts of burden. Heavy carriages of this size need to be separated by 10 meters to ensure safety. With nearly a thousand carriages and more than 10,000 combatants, the marching team itself can stretch more than 20 kilometers in a loose snake formation.
This is an astonishing number. Most people may not have any idea just by looking at the number of people, but the marching front of more than 10,000 people is 20 kilometers, which means that with this formation, the fronts of the teams from two nearby towns have already reached the next one. The end of the town has not yet had time to set off.
Of course, only the powerful Padrosi Empire would have a population of this size as a basic unit. More than 10,000 regular troops are already a national strength for a smaller kingdom. Those battles that often involve tens of thousands of soldiers are often filled with a large number of slaves and recruited peasant soldiers. The actual combat capabilities are simply incomparable with the regular army.
But let’s get back to where we started, and back to the present. The 150-man team led by Ryunosuke was exactly one percent of the 15,000 people mentioned in the Empire's manual, although his composition was slightly different. Of the 150-man team, 100 were ashigaru and the remaining 50 samurai brought 60 horses. There were also a total of 7 carriages including a water wheel. Seven of the 50 samurai were responsible for driving the carriages. This scale is barely enough to maintain the operation of the team itself. Henry and his party, who are temporarily joining at this moment, also bring their own luggage, so overall it is not a big problem.
In more than ten years, the wealth accumulated by Ryunosuke, a former Chinese, was almost gone. From the mouths of his samurai, it can be known that their number was several times that of today.
It's just that some people died in the process of chasing the murderer, while others chose to escape in search of a better life. Eventually it was reduced again and again, leaving only this size.
Nice romance
Time is the most important thing. Chasing clues day and night to find your enemy is not something everyone can accept. Even among the samurai class, where loyalty is the root of their culture, most still yearn for a peaceful and stable life. Living in the open air for a while is acceptable, but doing this day after day for ten years is a great torture to the spirit.
Even Ryunosuke himself is afraid that he no longer knows whether to continue. This is also the reason why he will try to apply information from Henry and others. Perhaps what he was expecting at that time was for the sage to tell him that the rebellion did not happen, and that the so-called Saburo returned to Zhangzhou because of the rebellion was just an unfounded speculation. He could use this sentence to finally give up seeking revenge.
He made insinuations but did not tell directly because he did not know whether Henry and his party were involved with Saburo. After more than ten years of seeking revenge, he had probably been disappointed and betrayed too many times, so before Joshua suggested it, he would rather make up lies than state the facts.
Chasing the murderer wholeheartedly. Partners deserted, family wealth was dispersed, no consideration was given to the future or what to do after everything was over, the only goal was revenge. Like this, he is probably already alone.
You shouldn't talk about deep friendships when you're just a newbie, so acting like you're an old acquaintance and being serious in your words is not what a sage would do. He couldn't control what the other party did, but they were temporarily paired up because they were in the same direction and had someone to take care of each other. Therefore, in general, the two teams still maintained a certain distance and restraint, and did not mix directly.
Ryunosuke's team is all male, and the average age is over 30, making them all in their prime. There are several young women in the team here. When Sakura walked over to talk to Ryunosuke about Saburo, many people looked at her like they were looking at items. This should not be taken lightly.
All in all, maintaining distance and vigilance, the teams on both sides took a break under the bamboo forest. Our Mr. Sage was holding a cup of crude tea, leaning on the thick bamboo and drinking it without a sip, while there were a few rough ronin who were carrying some food and seemed to want to come over to strike up a conversation, and they were almost two meters tall. The moment the big sage's gray-blue eyes met, he turned his head back angrily.
The oiran who was watching all this behind her couldn't help but laugh out loud. Ever since she learned last night that Ryuunosuke's target of revenge was Saburo, she seemed a little silent.
What happened in Swamp Village at that time was a memory she didn't want to think of. After all, women are just vassals of men in Japanese society. Women in Rigar can still hold weapons and become mercenaries, or go into battle as knights and nobles. If you have the ability, it is entirely possible for a heroine to manage a city-state like our Mr. Sage and Miss Margaret, the old friend of the Luoan girl. Although it is more difficult and the proportion is smaller than that of men, they can stand up on their own strength.
But society does not allow it. The highest achievement a woman can achieve is just a doctorate with no knowledge like Aya - but even this is considered evil. Most of the future plans discussed among ladies are to marry into a good enough wealthy family and become a Main room. This is a clear division of labor between men and women in this traditional society, and women should run the house in a gentle manner.
It is virtue for a woman to have no talent. A good woman should have no personal abilities or subjective opinions. She should be just a beautiful vase that satisfies the male's desire to show off and remains quiet, without resisting, talking back, or resisting the authority of the male owner. This is a deep-rooted thought in this four-thousand-year-old country. The Doctor and the Oiran had a fierce collision as soon as they met, precisely because their ways of living were so similar yet so different.
They both want to be independent and buck the trend with their own abilities, but Aya chooses to ignore gender to prove that she can do what men can do, while Sakura uses her gender advantages and men's weaknesses to climb to a high position.
But after all, it is just a pebble thrown in the turbulent torrent.
When there were changes in the vassal territory, the oiran was easily abandoned.
A vassal without self-worth can be regarded as a rare plaything in peaceful times and spent a lot of money to please, but after all it is not a necessity and will be abandoned as soon as it encounters a crisis.
This is a complete denial of human value, and the saddest thing is that this is normal in this country.
They are abnormal and incompatible with the mainstream society of Kazuto, so they can only move forward with the foreign Nanman Ezo and others.
A person and an encounter brought back the sorrows that she had tried her best to forget.
So she remained silent until she saw our sage's silent coercion scare away the ronin who wanted to strike up a conversation, and then she finally burst out laughing.
"Let me tell you, Miss Nanman mercenary." Sakura hugged the Luoan girl from behind who was maintaining the weapon. Mira quickly put down the knife to prevent her from being hurt.
"Huh?" The white-haired girl turned back, her eyes pure and unimpaired, and Sakura looked at her eyes with envy that could not be contaminated.
"Can I take action against your teacher?" She said, and then looked at Mira who was dumbfounded by this sentence and laughed loudly again.
Henry's actions were not based on possessiveness. He did not chase away those who came to chat with him like a jealous boy trying to protect his girlfriend. He just took action to protect his cherished companions. He will not be like those high-ranking men who claim their ownership of female companions to drive others away. He behaves in a low-key manner, but treats others as human beings.
This kind of care is based on respect and cherishment, without purpose or possessiveness.
But it is precisely because of this that the oiran may feel a little lonely. She clung to our white-haired girl and teased her until Lulu and Ling next to her also came over.
Lunch was very simple. I consumed a lot of the yellow rice I bought at Ziyun and it was a bit tiring to eat it all the time. In the middle of summer, having a sip of soup is a lot of comfort. Therefore, what the group ate today was noodles made from flour purchased in exchange from Ryunosuke and others.
With a team of more than a hundred people, the baggage rations for Ryunosuke and his party were as mixed as the shelves of a rice, flour and grain store. Because their supplies are all in small villages and towns, it is often difficult to obtain the same type of food in large quantities at one time in these places, so they only need a little of everything they have.
This mess turned out to be an advantage when exchanging supplies. When the two Ashigaru men who were responsible for cooking the fire found a bag of flour exuding a unique fragrance, they immediately took it from Ryunosuke and his party, who obviously had no interest in it. It's coming.
The samurai from high-level backgrounds didn't know what it was, but the ashigaru at the bottom could recognize it at a glance - it was flour mixed with soybean meal.
The total population of the Crescent Continent was more than 70 million last year. Although this continent is long and narrow, its total area is not small. The Zhangzhou that the group arrived at after walking for so long was actually only the central and northern parts, and the central part was still not reached, let alone the most prosperous south.
With such a large population and a lack of large plains to raise livestock, meat is relatively scarce in this country. We have already mentioned before. Therefore, the way most people obtain protein, besides fish in rivers, lakes and seas, is soybeans that can be grown.
Dried tofu and miso made from beans are one of the sources, but the cheapest one is probably flour mixed with soybean meal.
Soybeans are the basic crop that supports the entire Crescent Continent civilization. To some extent, they are even more important than rice and millet. It is rich in oil and various nutrients. In addition to human and animal consumption, another important function is to extract oil.
Stir-frying with cooking oil is a cooking method that many people can't resist, and the broken dregs left after soybean oil extraction is still very rich in protein. The cheapest and most easily available raw material is a rice and flour additive commonly used by the people at the bottom. After putting it into a cloth bag and beating it into a finer powder with a wooden stick, adding flour can make pasta rich in protein.
The ashigaru in charge of cooking put dried kombu bought in Shiun into the soup. This kind of seaweed grown along the coast is common in many places except in the inland areas. After being dried, kombu, which has a high salt content and has the umami flavor of kelp, becomes portable table salt that can be stored for a long time. After all, refined salt is not easy to buy, and it is easy to get damp or lost. Therefore, we bring this high-salt dried kelp, and then cut it into small pieces with a knife when needed and put it into a soup pot to stew. The overflowing salty and umami flavor can turn decay into magic.
While the kombu soup was simmering, the outstanding chefs wetted and kneaded the flour with the aroma of beans. They spent a long time beating, rolling and kneading back and forth to make the taste authentic and even. After finishing all this, one of them took out a thin kitchen knife and cut it at a very high speed, cutting the flat dough into noodles of similar size - and at the same time, he pinched a small amount of flour with his fingers and sprinkled it on the dough to avoid kneading it. The noodles stick to each other.
This series of operations attracted many people around to watch, and as the aroma of kombu soup simmered over a high fire gradually filled the air, everyone who was originally feeling tired due to the heat began to swallow their saliva subconsciously.
Boil the soup and cut the bottom of the noodles. The clear golden soup is translucent, and the umami flavor and salt incorporated into it are enough to replenish what is lost through sweating in the scorching summer heat. The noodles that have been simmered in the soup are plump and elastic. Although there are not many seasonings and additives, it is precisely because of this lightness that people can appetite in the hot summer.
The outstanding chefs worked together to prepare rations for a whole bunch of people in less than half an hour. They were exhausted from walking all morning in the hot summer weather, but they ate soup noodles in the coolness of the bamboo forest at noon.
A hearty meal can fully heal people. If they are in a bad mood and tired from traveling, as long as they remember to eat on time, they can always keep going.
However, some people were happy and some were sad. Henry was eating delicious noodle soup here, and Ryunosuke's samurai, who was nibbling dry biscuits and drinking wine, were very satisfied, but now they suddenly felt that they were not interested.
The team of more than 100 people has sufficient supplies, but unfortunately they do not have an excellent chef in charge of food.
Including this bag of soybean meal flour, all the rice noodles Ryunosuke and his team kneaded into dough in twos and threes and then baked them over the fire into biscuits and drank them with wine. Before, they could tolerate the rough texture, but now they have made a lot of comparisons. People's psychology is not good anymore.
In more than 10 years of chasing the murderer, all the people in the team who were slightly pursuing him have left. To be able to cook well, you must have some basic pursuits, but how can such a person endure living in the open air day after day? Only those who can endure such a rough life without restraint can continue to accompany Ryunosuke, but such a person obviously cannot know how to make a fire and cook.
The slightly complicated mood eventually turned into action. During this lunch, many of Ryunosukeka's samurai drank more wine than usual.
