The human world is very vast.
From the islands covered with permafrost in the far north to the arid wastelands in the far south, there is almost no land in the huge Rigal continent that has not been touched by short-lived species.
The huge gap in mutual understanding caused by the gap in racial life span is far beyond the imagination of either party - humans cannot understand that elves and other races remember the past as if it just happened yesterday, so they believe that long-lived species They are all old-fashioned, stubborn and vindictive; and the long-lived species often cannot keep up with the changes of the human era. They still remember the classical countries that claimed to be the center of the world in a remote corner thousands of years ago. They think that humans still use bronzes to control more subtle things. Nothing is known about metal smelting.
The short lifespan and high birth rate mean that human generations and new ideological trends are changing at an extremely fast speed. As fast as a giant dragon takes a nap, a town has already been established in the place where the wasteland was at the foot of the mountain; if it takes another nap, I'm afraid these people have already tried to dig into the dragon's nest to obtain the secret treasure.
But despite this, being human does not always mean being open and enterprising.
The sword was unsheathed and the bow was tense.
The miko who was covering the wound on her arm was protected behind her, while Sakura and Master Ken ran over holding the medicine box. Henry lowered his sword, while the ghost warriors and Qingtian family warriors stood beside him.
The scattered thick and intercepted arrows fell to the ground, and the neatly cut arrow feathers were shiny and smooth, reflecting the blue sky and flying clouds - the arrows came from all directions, so even the sage could only stop them. most.
Fortunately, the injured miko only suffered a scratch. Although the wound was horrific and blood was gushing out, it only affected the flesh.
The cause of the incident is very simple: a group of people heading inland encountered the local patrolling samurai even though they tried to avoid it by taking secret routes after martial law was imposed on the territory around Jeju.
Although they were not happy to see the next development of the matter, it was also expected.
Suspicion, anger, hatred.
The Kazuto language with the accent of the feudal region has many dialect words and old dead words that are no longer used in the prefectures, and the pronunciation order is often different. It may not be obvious in the area close to the north, but here, the origin of the Qingtian family and his entourage is completely exposed once he opens his mouth.
A combination of feudal warriors, civilians, and strangers. When they met these Wanzhou warriors, they immediately became tense. The witches and ghosts running out to try to explain the situation did not improve the situation. After all, they were too rare existences. Most people only knew their names but had never seen them with their own eyes. And now the situation is miserable. It was one thing when the armor was brightly decorated with the crest of the Imperial Family of Xinjing. Now, with this dusty appearance, he wanted to dispel the opponent's preconceptions. Obviously, he overestimated the flexibility of the samurai.
The name "Traitor!" was involuntarily given to him, and then the group of 10 samurai and more than a hundred ashigaru launched a direct attack. Some of them had even lurked on both sides of the road earlier with bows and arrows. Obviously, I didn't intend to give them a chance to defend themselves from the beginning.
Judging a book by its appearance is a direct conclusion. Domineering, arrogant, and unreasonable—but this is exactly the power that the local nobles of Crescent Continent or any country should have.
They are witnesses, judges, and executioners. Whether the person they face is guilty or not depends entirely on their own opinion. This is the power given to them by the Xinjing royal family, and in this world.
No power is immune from abuse.
The samurai's decision to seal the coffin without authorization was supported by the "disrespectful petition" law, which resulted in more serious abuse of power and large-scale lynchings than nobles in other countries in this land. Only under the scrutiny of those with higher authority will they reflect and be cautious in their words and deeds, and this kind of existence is obviously lacking in Henry and his party in the current environment.
In other words, due to the vassal's occupation of Jeju and the inherent aristocratic system and power gap between the vassal and the directly-governed states, even if there is indeed someone with a higher status among them, these people may not admit it.
The traitorous Chinese are also traitors and there is no need to bow down to them.
Typical samurai who have always been accustomed to abusing their power will not think deeply or think that they are wrong. They are so stubborn and ignorant. At the same time, they behave badly because of the traditional samurai culture that advocates honor and education. Very impulsive.
The combination of the two means that although they have only met for a few minutes, they can no longer avoid the ending of a sword fight.
The warriors and shrine maidens of the Qingtian family were still in distress and at a loss as to how to explain themselves, but the Rigar mercenaries and ghost warriors had decisively spread out in a fan shape to surround the protected persons. .
Henry drew his sword while running, and the moment they took action, the warriors on the opposite side ordered to shoot arrows as if they had found a "legitimate reason" to launch an attack.
Although the shooting of bows and arrows is faster than that of crossbows and does not require charging and winding, the fact that they can be fired at the moment of order also means that they have already sent people to prepare when they are still trying to communicate.
Despite this, they still waited until Henry and his party took action before ordering the arrows to be released. It was the legitimate and righteous part of the stubborn warrior tradition that caused trouble.
But this is still full of cunning accumulated by Kazuto's four thousand years of civilization.
The atmosphere was already tense. They took an aggressive stance from the beginning, and the subsequent exchanges were rude and unsophisticated.
Putting on a threatening posture, forcing the other party to take action first or pretending to take action first, and all subsequent actions are "self-defense and counterattack".
It's honorable, they didn't make a sneak attack.
Nor did they ambush an unarmed enemy, following ancient traditions of honor.
These people are shameful traitors and rebels who should be killed. No matter what the identities of the people among them are, they have already made an attack on themselves.
In this way, even if it turns out that the killing was wrong later, it can be covered by an unfortunate accident.
Stubborn and arrogant, but also cunning and cunning.
It’s just that they did choose the wrong opponent.
The Qingtian family and his entourage had no idea how exaggerated the fighting power of the ghost clan was before they fought against Teruyuki, and she was the only one at the time. Now they have 11 ghost warriors. Even if their armors and weapons are damaged a lot, the combat effectiveness of these amazing beings is still far beyond imagination.
But what surprised the Wanzhou warriors even more was probably the stranger standing at the front who was no less tall than the ghosts.
The arrows, which were purely a sneak attack and were aimed at the unsuspecting miko who were planning to explain their peace talks, should have caused several casualties.
But he was only one person, sprinting forward, drawing out his sword and performing a chaotic and swift sword dance like a fluttering steel butterfly. Most of them were intercepted.
They were a little panicked, and they were a little uneasy in their hearts and questioned their own actions. Therefore, the samurai troops were frightened in the battle, and in order to erase the thoughts in their hearts that they were "not brave enough and not honorable", they loudly shouted at the ashigaru to raise their spears and move forward.
The numbers still had an overwhelming advantage, and the somewhat messy but still astonishing pace of the advance restored their morale.
The ghosts planned to attack forward, but Henry stopped Teruzuki with one hand.
The latter lowered her head and looked at the sage's hand on her lower abdomen. Although she was one size smaller, she recalled how she felt when she trained with her grandfather in her childhood when the other party corrected her stance.
An unmatched power, like the ancient tree in my hometown that is said to have roots that connect the entire world.
The ghosts are indeed stubborn, but they also obey the strong.
"The warriors move forward, draw their bows and shoot arrows, and use the carriage as a cover to retreat. The ghosts cover the witches and other non-combatants." It was a brief order, and everyone in the team was used to him, a stranger, giving orders.
"Sure enough, he is a traitor!" Such a scene made the opponent's conclusion more solid. The Wanzhou warriors loudly urged the ashigaru to move forward, but he stopped on his horse. Under the loud scolding of their superiors, the walking ashigaru accelerated their running speed, and their already unsightly formation was further confused. After the group withdrew under the cover of the carriage, the body of the carriage was still moved by the ghost warriors under the command of Henry. It moves into an inverted "eight-character" structure.
"Hide, coward!" Wanzhou warriors shouted loudly from behind, but they had no intention of driving their horses forward.
The carriage blocked the field of vision, and Wanzhou's archers lost the ability to aim directly at the target. They fired several times blindly, but the arrows failed to cause any effective damage, and they didn't know what to do. Just stay in the woods.
After sorting out, the heavily armored Qingtian family warriors appeared in the narrow chokepoint area formed by tilted carriages. Also in the area was the stunned Qing holding a large shield.
"Crush them!" Wanzhou's samurai leader shouted loudly. The small number of people in front of hundreds of ashigaru seemed to be easily defeated, but before they could rush in front, several arrows were fired from the back of the carriage.
The heavy arrow of "Grab, snatch, snatch—" knocked down several people. The ashigaru in the dense formation were disrupted and their morale dropped. The people in the front row also slowed down and tried to dodge. This move slowed them down. The speed of the charge coupled with the chaotic formation meant that there was not much bonus from running when they hit the Aota family samurai who had used the terrain created by the horse-drawn carriage to gain a small and powerful position.
The huge number of people failed to play an effective role in the face of the artificial choke point. Many people were blocked by the carriage and had no effective instructions, so they were helpless and could only be squeezed here and there by their companions.
The samurai's more elite individual combat power was used to accurately kill ashigaru with every blow. People on the Wanzhou side kept falling, but because of the number of people, they seemed to be advancing little by little.
"Okay! Let's go on like this!" In the eyes of the Wanzhou warriors who were watching from a distance, this scene seemed to be a sign of victory. They pushed through the choke point formed by the carriage little by little, and passed through the terrain that instantly became open. The formation of the Ashigaru spread out like a mushroom - but this was actually intentional.
The Qingtian family's party maintained good physical fitness, they were not injured, and they were fully prepared for fighting and retreating with Galeva's large shield as the center point.
This is Henry's tactic.
There are more than a hundred people in Wanzhou Ashigaru. After all, the carriage is not a huge and insurmountable natural barrier like the canyon. As long as they divide their troops and attack from other directions, the disadvantage of their own lack of troops will be infinitely magnified.
So they must contain some of the troops.
The narrow entrance restricted the ashigaru who could enter at the same time. Although the carriage was being pushed away little by little due to the crowds of people, the crossing was expanding, but the short time gained was enough.
"Bang!!!!"
The huge physiques of the ghost warriors who lack armor are easy targets for bows and arrows, but after the cover of the carriage, they can use them freely.
The defense line composed of the Rigar mercenaries and the Qingda family and their entourage immediately became evenly matched with the forty Ashigaru who entered the defense line after the four ghost warriors joined it. The powerful ghost clan could kill one with every blow. The ashigaru were killed or knocked into the air and several people were injured.
And their impact on morale was far greater than the actual damage. This unmatched power made the Ashigaru who were not even well-trained completely lose their confidence. The people in the front row tried to escape backwards, but were squeezed tightly by the people behind them. They grabbed the tarpaulin, cried and yelled, trying to climb onto the carriage to escape. The chaos spread to the rear, and they even wanted to continue under the urging of the nobles. The advancing Ashigaru put them in a dilemma.
"What's going on?! Those ghosts are not wearing armor, shooting arrows, shooting arrows, where are the archers!" The Wanzhou nobles who shouted loudly did not notice the difference in the number of ghosts because their vision was blocked.
Only 4 of the 11 ghost warriors were in the carriage array. The remaining seven people led by Teruyue ran into the forest.
Their strong physical ability allows the ghost tribe to run wildly in a short period of time at a speed comparable to that of war horses. The Wanzhou archers hiding in the woods have never been able to fight.
The moment a ghost woman with long hair and muscular muscles walked out of the forest carrying an archer with a broken neck, all the Wanzhou warriors were stunned, as if they had fallen into an ice cellar.
But she didn't look at them. After casually throwing the archer's body on the ground, the seven ghost warriors who had arranged their formation moved their bodies, and then turned to the Ashigaru troops who were attacking the carriage.
——This is an uncommon tactic in Crescent Continent.
The warriors are basically horse archers, and the Crescent Island people are better at harassing and slowly advancing on the frontal front.
This is more common for shock cavalry such as knights from the far west, and is Rigar's standard tactic.
It's called the Sledgehammer and the Anvil.
——Infantry is an anvil, holding up the opponent's infantry line and making it difficult for the opponent to advance.
The heavily armored knights, who have greater individual mass, stronger impact and faster speed, will detour around and get behind or to the side of their opponents.
Like a sledgehammer slamming down, cooperate with your own infantry to knock down the opponent caught in the middle.
Shape into patties.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaby, however." The Wanzhou Ashigaru launched a charge.
"Bang!!!" The human body flew out as easily as a rag doll, attacked from both sides by violent and invincible ghosts.
The Ashigaru people collapsed in an instant. Even if there were more than 80 people left, who wanted to be the next person to die.
Throwing away their armor, they shouted loudly to evacuate.
Zhaoyue turned back and looked at the Wanzhou warriors. If they attacked at this time, they would actually be quite a threat to the ghost warriors who had their backs turned to them.
But these people were stunned.
Glory can only be written if you survive. The Ashigaru people would not regret dying. If their death can gain them the glory of victory, then it doesn't matter how many people die.
But when it comes to your own life, warriors.
Not so courageously moving forward.
"Withdraw, withdraw!!" The Wanzhou warriors, who shouted loudly and grabbed the reins of their horses and turned around and whipped their whips wildly, became the last weight in the battle. Seeing that all their lords had fled, the Ashigaru naturally gave up. Any psychological burden.
Leaving behind their dead companions and discarding their armor, they scattered and fled into the surrounding forest.
The group of people panted and did not pursue it.
"That's true." Narumi said, his tone was urgent but because of his good upbringing, he was unable to curse out his words.
After breathing a big sigh of relief, the great miko looked at her companion who was injured but fortunately not serious, and looked up at the sky.
"If only I had more power."
