There was some noise in the campground.
It was as if the bandits were back again, bottles and glasses were clinking and laughter was heard one after another, and the aroma of food cooking on the bright bonfire was overflowing. Most people relaxed and ate and drank. Only when you see those people patrolling outside and standing guard on the sentry tower are still determined and sober, and even those who are drinking and having fun still have their weapons beside them and have not taken off their armor, can you realize that they are not the same as the previous gang. Are not the same.
After the results of the interrogation were obtained, Ryunosuke asked his Ronin to start the celebration party.
The 11-year pursuit of the murderer is finally coming to an end. He can finally wash away the stain on his reputation as a warrior and regain his honor.
Many of the accompanying wanderers were sincerely happy for Ryunosuke, and many of them burst into tears. This complex man's tears contain a variety of emotions, not only shed for his master but also for himself.
Because this long time is also full of suffering for these ronin - the samurai's creed requires them to be loyal, but this loyalty is not without sacrifice. Eleven years of living in the open air have turned many of the samurai who were fair-faced young men into dark-skinned uncles with stubbled faces and messy hair. Many of them have left their hometowns and have not been able to get married and settle down, nor can they be filial to their parents and elders.
Time can make a brave man who is invincible become unable to stand without relying on crutches, and it can also make the most determined and loyal person bend down and bow before the person he spurned in the past.
There have been countless such cases in the world of Rigar: tribes that once fought to the death to resist the invaders, but after experiencing a tragic defeat, under the influence of successful cultural education, within two or three generations, people who are loyal to the current rulers will appear. . The older generation still remembers the hatred during the war, and often has a very high sense of hostility and rejection towards the former invader tribes. But this is not the case for the new generation born after the war.
They receive the education of the victors and enjoy the various lives given by the victors as the ruling class, and they can't help but think that they are nobler and superior beings that they should learn to imitate.
This kind of creating polarization and opposition among the tribes they rule and cultivating new people who are inclined to their own stance is a standard colonial practice. The Laman Empire in the past also knew this well - we are digressing.
all in all.
No matter how firm the stance and determination once were - and we should not doubt how unshakable they were when they were established - they will eventually become vulnerable in the face of time.
——Looking at the various emotions displayed by his followers, Ryunosuke fell silent.
In 11 years, the team has gone from a mighty team of hundreds to now with just over a hundred people left.
Most of those who escaped were Ashigaru, while those who remained were mostly samurai. It took him 11 years to understand the reason, because the Ashigaru people are more realistic and don't care so much about honor, something that is illusory and cannot fill their stomachs.
Only those who have enough to eat and drink will care about their spiritual beliefs and etiquette, words and deeds. The reason why warriors can give up the opportunity to start a family and give up a normal life is because the education they received tells them that loyalty is more important than these - but it is also because They have never experienced a life without one meal after another.
There is a difference between a samurai who becomes a ronin and an ashigaru. Although samurai ronin were despised in samurai society, they still had the status and privileges of nobility and could ride horses and wear armor. The privileges and connections still exist, they just fell out of favor for a while, but they are still superior and respected beings.
But the Ashigaru are different. Their status is already delicate. Once they are almost like this, they will be equated with bandits and robbers.
Doing the same thing, but people with different identities will only have different endings. The huge cognitive gap between the ashigaru and the samurai class created an insurmountable gap between them - those escaping ashigaru regarded the samurai who swore to follow Ryunosuke to the death as idiots who did not see reality and could only dream. , and the remaining samurai often cursed these despicable infantrymen for their ignorance of honor, and many even vowed to hunt down these deserters and kill them to wash away their shame after the crusade against Saburo.
And even such voices have gradually become less frequent over the past 11 years, and now they are almost non-existent.
Because of the departure of the Ashigaru, the samurai had to abandon most of their horses. Because their remaining manpower alone cannot sustain an entire pure cavalry force. The only 30 remaining cavalrymen are the best in horse fighting among the troops. They still need mobile troops. Facing the irregular but numerically superior infantry such as the rogue forces that remained in Zhangzhou after Saburo started the uprising, Cavalry has extremely high combat efficiency.
Most of the samurai became mainly engaged in foot fighting, and during this period little by little they learned to cook their own food and build fortifications. Those who stayed put down their status and took up the tasks that were originally undertaken by the ashigaru, while those who couldn't let go left as a matter of course.
Ironically, these people who couldn't bear to leave were often the same samurai who had condemned the ashigaru's evasion and scolded them the most, even claiming to kill them.
For the same reason - the noble dignity of the samurai - they could spit and curse and even plan to kill those deserters, or they could allow themselves to become deserters.
And they won't feel like they're at fault. Some of those who left even swore before leaving that they were going to kill the deserters to wash away their honor, righteously giving their actions the name of righteousness and describing it as a lonely ascetic act of heroism.
This is so.
how.
What a pitifully small layout. Ryunosuke recalled the Lamo people's evaluation of Kazuto samurai, and he felt more and more that all this was so sad. But he won't say it because it's the only thing left to unite this team. dong dong
No status, no reasonable income - the concept of mercenary soldiers heard from the Rigar people is at least those with money and fame - but what about them?
Being ostracized by mainstream society, even civilians keep a distance from them, fear and hate them. Although some villages will trade supplies with them, that's all. Without money, they won't recognize people.
There is no status, no belonging, and no income except robbing bandits. However, the behavior of plundering bandits, no matter how many gorgeous words are used to beautify it, is against the spirit of the warrior, so most of his subordinates also refused to do so. Their noble integrity made Ryunosuke very proud, but integrity could not fill his stomach, and 11 years was enough for him to almost consume all the wealth he had accumulated.
So this team of 100 people is his all and last strength.
So when he asked Henry and the others, he was circumstantial and did not speak frankly, except for the influence of the ambiguous and implicit expressions created by human culture.
Perhaps he was also expecting the tall foreigner, the outsider who was sure to be uninvolved, to tell him a negative answer.
He smoked cigarettes one after another, frowning and looking at the celebrating men in the camp.
Saburo has 600 subordinates, and this only counts his core strength.
During the 11 years when he gradually consumed the financial and manpower in his hands, that man built his own huge power by relying on his cunning and wisdom. When something unexpected happened in the domain, he took a whole fleet of sailing ships and fled south. He took away his own property, his partners' property, and the people who were willing to follow him. As such a huge force moved south, many people became vassals and planned to use the banner to do good things.
The 80-man rogue unit that was annihilated was one of them. According to the ninja, after arriving in Zhangzhou, Saburo also absorbed some stragglers who had been involved in the past into his own ranks - it was from these people that he He learned that Ryunosuke was still hunting him. It's just that the staffing of this part of the vassal is chaotic, so there is no specific number.
But conservative estimates suggest that Saburo's troops deep in the swamp probably numbered a thousand.
10 times as much as them.
This number greatly exceeded Ryunosuke's imagination. Even if the members were all untrained infantrymen, the size of a thousand people was enough to make him frown. According to information obtained through various communications, Saburo should have at least 200 feudal ronin troops and dozens of ninjas under his command.
Although the training and equipment of these ronin from the feudal territory were slightly weaker than those from the Xinjing-controlled prefecture, most of them had done some shady and dirty work for Saburo, so it was not easy for them to be timid on the battlefield. And with these veterans as the backbone to suppress, the morale of the entire army can be greatly improved.
He was confident that he could defeat the 300-man motley army head-on with his well-trained and well-equipped ronin. The melee fighters are on the front line, the archers perform long-range attacks on the flanks, and the elite heavy-armed ronin cavalry, which combines half-bows and large guns with both long-range strike capabilities and melee impact capabilities, charge from behind and can be easily taken away.
With a scale of 500 people, they must switch from offense to defense. Find favorable terrain and use fortifications and traps to weaken the enemy's strength. Try to use pre-built fortifications, traps and long-range strikes to reduce the opponent's number and plunge them into chaos before the head-on battle. Strive to divide and conquer and defeat them one by one.
In a head-to-head conflict with such a gap in military strength, although excellent training and equipment can play a role, it will be minimal due to the absolute disadvantage of military strength. Therefore, external forces must be used as much as possible.
The scale of 1,000 people, even taking into account the efficiency of mobilization and the fact that some people were temporary defectors and were not loyal to Saburo, this was a terrible number. And - judging from the performance of this rogue camp that has been knocked out, Saburo clearly understands how to use such cannon fodder personnel.
The arrows are not unlimited. Although the warrior who draws the bow shoots from a relatively safe place, it will also consume physical energy. Fortifications can be knocked down, even if trenches are dug and filled with spikes, as long as there are enough people and the heart is cold enough, they can be filled with corpses.
Low-life local gangsters can become useful cannon fodder if given enough alcohol to numb them and the promise of rewards—perhaps coupled with some intimidation of force.
The warriors' arrows were exhausted, and the fortifications were destroyed or filled with corpses. They will become slightly tired and lose their long-range strike capabilities, but Saburo's own real main force will still be intact, and his 600-man force is still enough to win on the frontal battlefield. Even if Ryunosuke had a cavalry unit, they would not be able to perform at their best in terrain like the swamp.
Horses cannot charge through the mud, and the reeds block the line of sight, allowing the low infantry to easily surround the cavalry. The advantages of mobility and impact only exist in the first battle when one's side ambushes the opponent, and considering the number of archers and the number of vassal troops that will be thrown out as cannon fodder, the cavalry will most likely need to be added in the early stage. During combat, arrows and combat stamina cannot be retained.
This is a dead end.
Saburo's overwhelming force advantage made the conservative combat plan left here hopeless.
Although they still have the advantage of asymmetric intelligence between the enemy and ourselves, and through interrogation and torture, they already know Saburo's general personnel configuration and strength, but Saburo knows nothing about their arrival - thinking of this, Ryunosuke He clicked the pipe in his hand and put out the tobacco.
The man who gained this advantage for himself may have the answer.
He quietly left his camp and walked towards the island in the middle of the lake.
