Chapter XVII. Cash

Before the words fell, Yu Qiuping heard a loose string sound on the left. Immediately afterwards, the sound of sharp arrows piercing through the air swept across the sea, and in the blink of an eye, I saw that a ponsoe on the mast of the ship on the opposite side was broken, and the sail fell straight to the piercing, and two creeps were struck.

"So far! It's 200 meters! Yu Qiuping was taken aback and turned his head to look to the left.

A blonde boy with a straight figure who is about the same height as Yu Qiuping. Dressed in a sleeveless array of feathers, he was holding a longbow that was almost a man high, and he bent his bow and arrows with a serious expression, only to see his waist twisted, and the bowstring was suddenly pulled to an exaggerated degree. He closed his left eye, his right eye squinting slightly. As soon as the fingers of his right hand were released, another arrow was fired. The sail of another ship was also shot down.

“What a fuck！” Yu Qiuping couldn't help but exclaim. The people around him were all inexplicable, but it was the foreign shooter who glanced at Yu Qiuping in surprise, and continued to turn his head and bend his bow and arrows.

Whizzing.

Two more arrows, and the sails of the other two ships also fell. Frightened, the Hojo Navy looked at the Imagawa Navy with two flags and ushered in a volley of Imagawa Sailors, and the side deck of the ship was immediately planted with a row of feathered arrows. When the Hojo Suijun was terrified, he heard Itami Yasukiyo's loud shout.

"You're going to do this filthy thing on the waterway of my Imagawa! Get out of here! For the sake of the face of the two alliances, they will not be held accountable! He changed his tone and shouted again, "That merchant ship over there, follow us!" ”

After the incident, Yu Qiuping and Itami Yasuqing met the foreign archer just now on the deck. After the foreigner glanced at Yu Qiuping, he turned around and continued to wipe his longbow.

"Doesn't he know Japanese?" Yu Qiuping asked.

"That's not it, he's a foreigner who understands Japanese, just like Momiji." Itami explained, "It's just that he talks to others in a strange way, and it seems that he deliberately doesn't communicate with others, and he is busy practicing archery every day." Shooting hundreds of arrows at the target won't stop. It's annoying that the whole ship has been disturbed by him. ”

"Then he...," Yu Qiuping asked with some confusion, "how did he get to the Imagawa family's ship?" ”

"Oh, this," Itami smiled, "that Western merchant asked me to take care of it." His family seems to be the nobility of some country on the side of Europa, and he offended the king and was executed. After barely escaping, he reached the merchant's ship. The merchant happened to come to Japan to trade, so he entrusted him to my care and asked me to help him settle down. Huh! It shouldn't have been said at the time. ”

"That's right," Yu Qiuping was stunned. He remembered that there was a big difference between the English of the West in Shakespeare's time and the modern English he learned in later generations, and he didn't know if he could still communicate, so he was curious, so he went to ask.

"Sir, I take the liberty of asking. Are you from the UK? Or England, Great Britain? Yu Qiuping asked in Japanese, but the British salutations were made in pure English.

"Oh, yes, my noble knight." The foreigner seemed to understand, and blinked unexpectedly, "You seem to know the language of our Old World. Like you know, a lot of Japanese people simply can't tell the difference between our UK and other countries. ”

"It's just a rough one." Yu Qiuping said with a smile, he is a history student, although European history is not as skilled as Japanese history, but it can be regarded as a lot of knowledge, "Then you were expelled by the bloody Queen Mary because of your belief in Protestantism?" ”

"I am amazed by your knowledge." This time, the Englishman was really taken aback, "Honorable knight, have you ever been to our country before?" ”

"Not really, it's just that my father was there." Yu Qiuping explained, "But don't worry, it is estimated that the successor to the throne will be Her Royal Highness Elizabeth, who will be a generous queen, and will not persecute Protestants seriously." ”

"You really are the most well-informed Japanese I've ever met." He said.

"No, I'm from Mingguo." Yu Qiuping explained.

"Oh! Mingguo? That great nation with wise monarchs. "I'm glad to have met you," the Englishman said, "but I'm about to start practicing the longbow, so I'll have to talk to you next time." The British stopped the conversation and prepared to leave.

"Hey, Lord Charlie, don't leave yet," Itami called out to her, "You can't live on the ship all the time, and I'm going to entrust you to this lord when the ship arrives at Sunfu." ”

"Oh?" Yu Qiuping and Charlie looked up unexpectedly at the same time.

Charlie's full name is Thompson Charlie. He is 18 years old. is an English longbowman. No wonder he has such superb marksmanship. His family was a Puritan family, and as a result, he came into conflict with Queen Mary, who was a Catholic. Queen Mary bloodily slaughtered thousands of Puritans in the territory, and Charles's entire family was killed in the massacre. He was the only one who escaped alone, and with the help of a few of his father's friends, escaped on a Dutch merchant ship, that is, the merchant ship of the friend of Itami Kangqing.

When Itami Kangqing just handed over Charlie to himself, Yu Qiuping had some resistance. After all, he felt that Itami Kangqing had a kind of meaning of throwing the pot to his good buddy. But he realizes that this Charlie, like himself, has lost all his family and is a wanderer. Sympathetic, Yu Qiuhei agreed to arrange him in his shop and sleep in the place where Kondo Yasuso had been.

This Charlie also encountered a situation similar to crossing, even worse than Yu Qiuping. At least Yu Qiuping's relatives did not die. But this Charlie doesn't seem to be too sentimental. He was focused on his bow and arrow, like a master of Zen practice, with nothing outside of his mind. In addition to eating and sleeping together every day, Yu Qiuping hardly sees his people. And he doesn't seem to want to communicate too much with others, which affects his own archery practice. He seems to have a savings of his own, so he doesn't need Yu Qiuping's funding.

What kind of obsession can make a person so obsessed with archery? Yu Qiuping was puzzled.

After arriving at Junfu City, the first thing Yu Qiuping did was to go to the market outside Junfu City to prepare to buy chickens for those slaves. In the context of the meat ban these days, the price of chickens cannot be considered too expensive, and there are not many people who sell them. But it's still a lot of money, and it's not something ordinary people can afford. At this moment, Yu Qiuping is facing the problem of money.

"Two hundred and thirty-two, a total of one hundred and sixteen chickens, each chicken is about 80 yuan, oh my God, 9 yuan."

Yu Qiuping worked hard to settle accounts, and now he only has less than 3 savings at home.

"This young man, to buy or not to buy?" The uncle who sold the chickens urged.

"Uncle, these chickens, can you help me keep them first." Yu Qiuping said annoyedly, "I don't have enough money. ”

"Then wait until sunset, and go back to the city to get it." Uncle said.

"This..."Yu Qiuping smiled awkwardly, "I guess I'm going to borrow money from a friend, so..."

"What chickens do you buy if you don't have money, and you have to buy more than a hundred?" The uncle sneered, "Forget it, I still dare to do business!" With that, he made a gesture to leave.

"Don't, uncle!" Yu Qiuping hurriedly stopped him, "There are not many people selling chickens these days, and I don't know how long it will take to get more than a hundred chickens when you leave." ”

"Count you kid knowing the goods," the uncle successfully raised the price, and smiled, "Wait for you for two days, and remember to pay me 10 yuan when the time comes." ”

"This..."The profiteer sitting on the ground in front of him made Yu Qiuping a little angry. But when I thought of myself, since I had promised to buy a chicken for those poor families at that time, I had to grit my teeth and agree. What you promise, you must do.

Yu Qiuping hurried back to the city. I wanted to go to Asahina Taehyung to borrow money. When I arrived at Asahina's house, I found that Asahina Taehyung was still in Yuanjiang and had not returned. The dozens of Yu Qiuping's entourage also stopped at Yuanjiang. Yu Qiuping had no choice but to go home.

"Thompson..."During dinner, Yu Qiuping said with some hesitation, "I don't know, do you have any extra money on you..."

"Yes." Charlie replied very cheerfully, "Excuse me, sir, do you have any urgent matters?" ”

"That's right." Yu Qiuping honestly admitted, "I'm in Sanhe, that is, on the east side. Got acquainted with more than two hundred poor slaves, well, about the same thing as you Western slaves. Their family was very poor, and I promised them to buy half a chicken for each family out of kindness, but now I don't have enough money..."

"This is something that every caring knight and nobleman should do," Charlie said approvingly, "I have four taels of silver here, and it should be counted as four taels of silver here with you, and if Mr. Momiji is in a hurry, please take it first." With that, he simply took out a few ingots of silver from the package.

"You... Thank you so much. Yu Qiuping was speechless for a while, he didn't expect this Englishman who had known each other for a long time to be so generous, "Don't you keep a little?" ”

"No, I don't spend much every day." Charlie said, "How to use money is a compulsory lesson that every noble knight should learn. My father taught me from a young age that money is for those who need it. ”

"Thank you so much, I will definitely return it to you in the future," Yu Qiuping graciously accepted the ingots of silver.

"I trust the assurance made by a man of integrity, toast to your chivalry!" Charlie raised the water glass in his hand, touched it with Yu Qiuping, and drank it all.

In the afternoon of the next day, Yu Qiuping ran to Keju Field again and found the uncle in the backyard.

"Eh, it's been a long time since I've seen you, Yuqiu," the uncle laughed, "I've heard that you and Asahina went to Mikawa?" ”

"Eh, uncle, how do you know?" Yu Qiuping asked in some surprise.

"Haha, businessmen, naturally I know more people, and the road is wide." The uncle explained, "I also heard that you encountered someone from the Oda family? ”

"That's right." Yu Qiuping's face suddenly darkened, and the sad memories that had been buried in his heart also rolled in. "And. Because of my cowardice," Yu Qiuping sighed, "my good friend died to protect me. ”

"I was... Seeing that he didn't strangle to death, he didn't even have the courage to swing the knife," Yu Qiuping said a little decadently, "Uncle, you say, am I very useless and timid." ”

"But I've heard that you bravely rushed out and saved the life of Prince Asahina," the uncle said, "and the head of the Asahina family plans to thank you personally." ”

"At that time," Yu Qiuping almost blurted out, "I was just impulsive... In hindsight, I was scared. Still cowardly. ”

"Haha, no one is not afraid of death," the uncle stroked his palm and laughed, "The so-called decisive charge on the battlefield, the righteousness of the samurai before his death, and the righteousness calmly, are actually what you call a momentary impulse." ”

"When people are swayed by emotions, rational thinking is suppressed, and the fear of death is diluted," the uncle explained, "Even if a samurai with a strong will pulls him back to calm down before he goes to justice, and then makes him think about whether he wants to go to justice for ten days, I am afraid that he will change his mind." ”

"It's just that a mature warrior can briefly mobilize his emotions in battle, so as to fight better." The uncle smiled, "It's already remarkable that you can bravely rush forward on the first battle, don't be presumptuous." You must know that many recruits go to the battlefield for the first time, but they are all vomiting. It's good that you didn't throw up. ”

"Thank you for your relief, I've listened to a lot of comfort from others in the past few days, and yours is still the most useful." Yu Qiuping smiled bitterly, "This time, I actually want to ask you to borrow some money, I don't know if it's convenient?" ”

"How much do you want to ask. There's nothing inconvenient," the uncle waved his hand heartily, "It's just that you're borrowing money, what are you going to do?" ”

"I saw more than two hundred slave soldiers in Mikawa Kariya Castle, and they were working hard. I was frugal and raised chickens for a year, and I wanted to send them home to my family to replenish my body and taste the meat, but they were all taken away by the prison army and eaten by the prince of Asahina. Yu Qiuping said as he spoke, thinking of the weak appearance of the men who stood up to the sky, and couldn't help but have a sour nose, "I promised them to help each family buy half a chicken, but I haven't bought chickens before." I didn't know I wanted so much money at the time, but now I don't have enough money..."

"This is a good thing with immeasurable merit," the uncle agreed without hesitation, "Aoping, give it to him..."

"How much money are you missing, Yuqiu." Uncle asked.

"It's still 3 runs." Yu Qiuping nodded and replied.

"Then get him 4 guan, it is estimated that there may be a shortage of herbs at home, you can buy some too." Uncle said generously.

"Thank you, I will definitely pay you back in the future."

"I believe that Yu Qiuping, who has done what we say, will definitely pay back the money, but you can pay it back if you don't pay it back," the uncle stared at Yu Qiuping and said, "Because you have a valuable quality, compassion." That's the compassion that comes from within, as human beings, who feel empathy for those who are suffering. It's a quality that can't be bought for a thousand dollars, and I don't want you to lose this precious quality because of lack of money. ”

"I'm going to Yuanjiang in a few days, maybe I won't come to Keju, and I'll Keju together when I come back." Uncle said with a smile at the end.

Between the pharmacies and the market, Yu Qiuping, who had been busy all day, finally bought all the things. It took him nearly three days to distribute the food and medicine he bought to various families. Actually, it's not that hard to find them. The difficult thing is to get out of the homes of these enthusiastic people who were moved to tears, and they have to stay with Yuqiuping for a meal anyway. Yu Qiuping has eaten more than 40 meals in the past three days. His stomach was full, but he still did his best to show that everyone was very hospitable.

Five days of travel, very tiring and hard, and a huge debt. But when he saw those weathered old people in tears, when he saw those innocent and lively children smiling and eating chicken, and thinking that those hard-working slaves finally no longer had to worry about the family's livelihood, Yu Qiuping suddenly felt that everything he had done was worth it.

At least, I did my best to help some people and alleviate the suffering caused by the troubled times.