Section 123: The Smell of Blood and Gunpowder (2)
Zhangzhou's territory is small, which is not a bad thing to a certain extent, and it is not difficult to find a doctor and medicine, especially if there is no shortage of money.
After quickly finding the infirmary and relocating the wounded, the rest began to look for a hotel where they could rest.
By the standards of the Padrosi people, there are only two settlements in Zhangzhou that can be called "cities", so the population and various resources are basically concentrated here.
The group walked from the national highway and took the main road, so the city at the end of the journey was naturally a large town located in the north of Zhangzhou. The name of this place is Ziyun, and the reason for this can be known about three hours after the group arrived.
Zhangzhou is located at the end of the northern mountain range and the beginning of the central mountain range of the rugged Crescent Island continent, that is, a territory that is wide open to the east and west, and there is no natural danger such as a mountain range.
If you only listen to such descriptions, most of the scenes that come to mind will be the vast and fertile plains that stretch as far as the eye can see. This is not the case, although it is low, there are still many mountains nearby, but the altitude is relatively low and very scattered. In addition, a large area of land in the territory of Zhangzhou is similar to that near the swamp village of the domain, and is in the lowland, so the soil is only soft and rotten soil, which is difficult to cultivate.
The water content is not as pleasant as that of the plains, but it is not so much that it can be used as a river to navigate. The soft soil is not only difficult for people and livestock to walk, but also lacks nutrients and cannot be cultivated, and often has miasma. There are only a few poisonous insects that can live here, and it is really not a place that ordinary people want to go.
Most of the arable land in Zhangzhou is located on the mountains, because it is located at the end of the mountain range, and the mountains here are only a few hundred meters away.
Because of the small amount of arable land, the establishment of a large military camp here would necessitate bringing supplies from elsewhere. Therefore, Xinjing weighed again and again, and chose to garrison Taizhou as the northern pass, while the loopholes on the east and west sides of Zhangzhou were indirectly defended by the Moon Country Fleet cruising on the sea.
It's a pity to discard it. It is only natural that people in such an underappreciated territory have evolved into such a casual and indifferent personality. And if there is anything wonderful in such a place, it is probably only a moment of dusk - the time when people call it the time of the demon, the purple glow rising from the miasma on the distant horizon of the earth.
As the long summer sunshine came to an end, the group of people who had settled out to find a place to have dinner met such a scene.
According to Dr. Doctor, the official result of the Daishoin study was that the miasma of the swamp mixed with the water vapor rising at the high temperature, and at the end of the day in the evening, the temperature dropped and the water vapor condensed to the point where it could refract sunlight, resulting in this wonderful scene.
The sky was filled with the presence of Suomir's aurora, and the end of the skyline was purple, and even the clouds that were still floating in mid-air were dyed with this color.
Local legend has it that the first people who came here took the name Ziyun after seeing this scene after a long time to pass through the miasma, but the credibility of this theory is questionable, considering that the official town was named after Xinjing.
But no matter what, this scene is indeed enough to comfort the hearts of hard-working travelers.
As the sun sets, the children come home panting and dirty. Noisy presumptuousness is the prerogative of children, and Mira watched them disappear to the other end of the alley, followed by the sound of her mother's scolding.
The drunkard, similar to the samurai he had met a few hours earlier, followed in the footsteps of the children, and in Ziyun it seemed that even men in their thirties and fifties were still childlike, swaying and muttering muttered muttered muttered inexplicable words.
This scene is obviously commonplace, and most people ignore it, only because of the extreme proximity of the woman passing by next to her, when one of the drunk men knelt on the ground and began to vomit, she covered her mouth with the reserved and unique female expression of the Japanese woman, and frowned and showed embarrassment.
"Hahaha. The drunkard's colleague laughed loudly, several times older than next year, but behaved like a child, without any mature appearance.
"Huh?" Henry turned his head as he felt his gaze, and Mira looked at her teacher, and even though she had heard the sages talk about her past, it was hard for Miss Loan to imagine that this calm Henry Mayer had ever had a time full of teenage immaturity like these people.
"What?" Even the sage didn't always know what his disciple was thinking, he just thought she was lonely, and reached out and rubbed her much longer gray hair.
"Wow, Snow Maiden!" the drunks who approached after vomiting saw the group, one of them shouting at Mira, and then laughed drunkenly with the others.
The wind blew, and our white-haired girl, whose hair was already slim, was flying, and for the first time in a long time, she walked unabashedly on the streets of the Moon Country.
Although the body is slender, it still looks flexible and healthy due to exercise. Because it's because of the daughter's body, how to exercise it won't be as thick as a man. Although Mira herself complained about her lack of strength, the rest of the women in the group seemed to her to be odd with her hard muscles.
As the years passed, the round face that had been around when we met at Acasta has now taken on a soft line. The more she grows, the more the Luoan bloodline is perfectly presented in her. The bridge of the nose is neither as high as the northerners of Rigal as it is almost flush with the forehead, nor as low as here and there. It is just the right height like a mixture of East and West, with unobtrusive lines, and under the full forehead are slender pale eyelashes, and only the eyes that are as bright as ever can still be seen to have a bit of the appearance of the immature little maid back then.
After the fall of the country, the men of the Luo'an were excellent fighting slaves, while the women were often bought as handmaidens by wealthy merchants or minor nobles, apparently due to their appearance.
Her hair, which had been cut short to facilitate the battle, grew longer during the journey, not only for her, but also for our Sage. He has always been cut short and his hair is now long enough to tie a short ponytail at the back of his head, and with a short beard that has not been shaved for a while, he looks five or six years older than before.
Henry himself laughed at himself, and he could finally show some changes in the years, but the vicissitudes of this indifferent discourse could only be known by Mira and Caleva, who traveled together and knew him well.
All in all - the group from Rigal has finally taken off their hats. Even if it's temporary, they can catch their breath without worrying about attracting too much attention. Although the appearance of the stranger is still very eye-catching, in such a casual territory, no one will spend much energy on dealing with others.
To a certain extent, the people of Zhangzhou have the spirit of Padrosi's class selfishness.
Decompression is necessary for everyone, especially after going through so much. The samurai needed to relax, and the group from Rigal took the opportunity to breathe. But no matter what he thought at first, after seeing the drunk man all over the street, Narumi, who changed into a light suit, said with a wry smile: "Let's go find a house without alcohol, just drink tea." ”
People who buy drunk people on the street are not occasional for Ziyun, but a daily routine. Wajin's sake is made from rice, and it seems a bit heartless to consume a lot of food to make sake when there are many people around who can only eat potatoes and chestnut rice every day, but if you look closely, you can see that most of these people are high-class people who are richly dressed. The most important ones were also made cotton clothes, which were obviously either the children of wealthy merchants or nobles of the village rank.
This is also another unique point of Zhangzhou's territory - the ratio of nobles to commoners here is close to 4 to 6.
There was a reason why the aristocracy, as the upper class, had gathered here in such large numbers to live in a state of confusion - because there was no war, and there was no population reduction for the heirs of the samurai. The over-inflated samurai class population stretched the allocable resources to the limit. The eldest son can inherit the family business, but how to solve the second son and the third son. It is necessary to prevent them from competing for power and engaging in infighting, and they cannot really let their own children die like this, and the final conclusion is naturally to leave them in a place where "there is no big mess and no big danger".
It's like a penal colony, and it's like a place for retirement. Young but hopeless children of the aristocracy gather here, without pursuit, without goal, without a future, but simply indulging in drunken pleasures, using these simple sensual stimuli to satisfy the emptiness of their ambitions that cannot be realized.
Lined with flower streets and taverns, this land of chicken ribs is like a refuge for the decadent who have tacitly allowed their existence, and considering the geographical factors, once the conflict between the north and the south and the Taizhou defense line is broken, these abandoned sons of the martial arts may still be able to fulfill their last loyalty to Xinjing.
Of course, it is also doubtful whether they can still hold a sword and draw a bow after being corrupted by women and alcohol, and who are gorgeously dressed and mock the samurai of the Qingtian family from the domain.
Self-willed depravity is like a mad dog with an infectious disease, and it will do no good to provoke them. After all, the group still needs to keep a low profile, so Narumi decides to go to the teahouse instead of the tavern, but if you don't want to find something, things will still come to you.
"What are you talking about!!!" the drunken and shrill young male voice rang out the moment the group stepped out of the corner of the alley.
At first glance, several young Zhangzhou warriors in gorgeous clothes but messy were stopped at the door of the brightly lit teahouse, and when the group came, they were arguing with the guards of the teahouse, and because of their identity, the middle-aged civilian guards looked very embarrassed.
This group of young and vigorous warriors had slender limbs, fair skin, thin arms and legs, and they looked like civil officials instead of martial arts practitioners. However, he actually carried a knife on his waist - although it was also ornately decorated, not like a combat product.
The clothes they wore were partly made of expensive fabrics that glittered with gold, and were commonly used by the children of the samurai family, as was the fabric used by the children of the samurai family.
can afford such a fabric and the short knife on his waist, and his status is obviously at least the same as that of Narumi and the others, but his words and deeds are not at all the appearance of a samurai in the city. However, in a few words, from the words "let me see Miss Aju" and "Do lowly people like you look down on us", the newcomers can already deduce a rough idea.
Looking at the appearance of many of them with blue noses and swollen faces, and the pink delicacy still stained on their clothes, most of them were in the flower street for a certain Oiran and another group of young nobles who had a conflict and lost, and then on the way back to the residence, I don't know why I was going to find a middle-aged man who was going to watch the teahouse to vent his anger.
Without the honor and self-discipline of a samurai, even a person like the young master Yajiro, who is usually a little willful, seems to be really unbearable. And this group of people stopped at the door of the teahouse to make trouble so that they could not go in to eat, and when they were hesitating, one of them looked at this side, and then turned their heads and said something to their companions, and they looked over together.
"Come on. Henry sighed, and the unknown Luoan girl glanced at her teacher, and then turned her head to look at herself and Aya, Sakura, and Lulu behind her because of the sudden realization of the eyes of her other male teammates.
"Huh?" said the Roan Maiden, in the same voice as Kaleva.
Although the light has gradually dimmed after dusk, the women in the team with different backgrounds and styles are still very eye-catching. Even Miss Doctor's indigo hair proves that her pure noble blood is not something that a mere samurai can relate to, and these people who have lost their ability to judge under the influence of alcohol obviously can't recognize it.
The drunken young Zhangzhou warriors approached. "Ahh
"......" Aya and Sakura both shrank behind Mira, and the girl Luoan, who had finally realized the situation after a slow beat, rolled her eyes at her teacher.
"Can you beat them?"
asked.