Since Taizhou, although they have officially entered the sphere of influence of Xinjing, the group still chooses to take the more remote auxiliary roads instead of the main roads as much as possible.

As the footsteps of people, horses and pack oxen progressed, the distance to Xinjing was relatively slow, but it was also gradually shortened.

The scenery along the road has evolved from bamboo forests and rocks in the time of Aochi to the swamps of the high marshlands, and now it has evolved into a somewhat familiar vegetation of people from Rigal, mainly tall and straight cedar trees, shrubs and many coniferous forests with sparse shrubs and many glades. Coupled with the undulating terrain of the mountains, Mira even thought she was back in the mountains of Avenella.

Geographically, it is still relatively close to the north of Crescent Island. Despite the high temperatures due to the arrival of the hot summer sun, the overall feeling is still comfortable in the current vegetation environment.

The close-fitting and breathable armor is covered with a lightweight cotton and linen sunscreen jacket and a hat with a black veil to prevent the sun from shining too brightly and not being able to see the road clearly. Except for the mosquito problem that is still inevitable in such places due to the rising temperature, walking on paved dirt roads is not a difficult experience.

A considerable part of the history of these simple roads paved with tamped earth is as old as the Moon Country itself. In the past, they were built by villagers raised funds by village elders to facilitate travel, and later villages were connected to villages and towns, and the local transportation system was gradually formed.

This was also the only road available for a long time.

The 4,000-year-old Moon Country was not always rich and powerful, and it also became unbinding on the local government during the years of many disasters. However, in the more than 200 years of modern times when Xinjing was relatively strong, with the approval of the imperial family, the Land Bureau headed by Dr. Land intermittently expanded and repaired the national highway system that is now accessible from north to south.

It's a big project that takes a long time. And even if the outsiders are picky and arrogant as the same ancient civilization, they will only dare to whisper to compare with the infrastructure of the past Lamanite Empire after observation.

Even the arrogant Padrosi don't have the confidence to say that the current empire is on par with the Moon Nation in terms of road infrastructure.

How strong is the national road of people?

- In this mountainous country, most of the national highways between the north and the south are almost at the same elevation.

The term "moving mountains and filling lakes" is the best portrayal of the construction process of this large-scale project in the past two centuries. Through the planning of a professional land doctor, the hollowed out tunnel will fill in the places with height differences.

The foundation is laid, paved with cornerstones and covered with asphalt, and the roads are strong and wear-resistant, and a protective net will be set up above the steep slopes to prevent landslides from hurting pedestrians and roads in this troubled country.

Strictly controlling the altitude, not the leading Dr. of the land, insisted on going his own way, just to save face for the sake of labor and money. In this mountainous country, going uphill and downhill is a common problem for carriages and horses.

If the slope is steep, it will be a very high test for the pack ox pulling the cart, as well as the structure and reins of the vehicle itself. Dangerous situations have always been so common that many local officials will send special personnel to supervise the steep slopes, requiring the vendors to unload the freight and load it several times.

The same problem is also when going downhill, if the load is too large, it is not an accident that a person falls on his back and is seriously injured.

The energy required to go up and down the slopes, the time it takes to delay, and the additional risks it brings, many people prefer to take long detours by water rather than by land before the construction of national highways. However, the land of Crescent Island is mountainous, many towns are located in inland areas, and it takes ten days and half a month to get close to the Yongchuan River Valley, and the number of ships is limited, so the transportation is really inefficient.

The Shinkyo National Highway is the solution to this problem, and many of its sections actually have a long history, but they have been destroyed by a lack of repairs and natural disasters. Today's national highway has been built intermittently by several emperors, and has been connected to the territory of Taizhou. If it is ideal, they will even hope to connect to the domain in the future, but judging by the current situation, it is likely that the construction will be stopped for many years.

All in all, the establishment of the new Jingguo Highway brought many of the existing dirt roads and auxiliary roads in the vicinity under its jurisdiction, and became a complete road system under the management and protection of the Land Bureau. After starting from Taizhou and stepping into the scope of the official national highway, if Henry and his entourage choose to follow the national highway, they can actually shorten the journey a lot.

National highways that are smooth and easy to walk and carve mountains and lakes in search of the shortest route take only slightly longer than the waterway. However, if the destination is not along the Yongchuan River, if you add up the time to travel by land after landing, it will be shorter to take the national highway.

Naturally, there will be no shortage of users of such convenient infrastructure, especially in the summer when everything is in full swing, when there is an endless stream of tourists, vendors, and Chinese and samurai traveling. And it is precisely because of this situation that the group needs to avoid it as much as possible.

The threat of potential rebels is only one of them, and there are also Henry and other Rigal visitors in their ranks. Although the attitude of the Japanese society towards Nanban visitors is generally quite tolerant, anything can change when there are more people. Strangers pass by on the national highway day and night, and even if you cover your face with a black gauze hat all day, it will eventually arouse suspicion or accidentally show your stuffing.

However, it is not wise to break away from the convenient national highway system, and the final option for the group is to go on the auxiliary road next to the national highway.

Originally, the auxiliary road was a dirt road built between towns and villages, but when the national highway was built, it was necessary to transport materials such as stones, so it was also repaired and leveled to a certain extent.

After the completion of the national highway, it was further expanded and maintained as a road connecting the national highway with villages and towns, and as an auxiliary route that could relieve pressure and divert traffic when the national highway was overcrowded.

The auxiliary road is the best route to take outside of the national highway in the land of the moon, and it is also the only road in the mountainous country that can be walked by ox carts other than the national highway.

If you need to take a detour through the mountains and forests, you will also pass through many villages, and the pace of the auxiliary roads is slower than that of the national highway, and the solid mud and lush woods on both sides feel more like an outing than a rush. This slower pace relaxes the body and mind, and to a certain extent, it can be regarded as diluting the hostility of the ashigaru class that had previously reformulated the training plan because of Henry's suggestion.

Like a troubadour, he wrote down the events in general and noticed the dissatisfaction of the ashigaru, and in private expressed his disbelief.

Now, with the company of their journeys day and night, he has come to hold the words and practices of the sages as supreme as anyone else could not avoid doing them.

Henry's relatively correct answers to most questions are only one of the reasons, and his calm personality always creates an atmosphere in which others around him inevitably start to rely on the sages for answers.

Our Luoan girl is not among them.

However, the sage himself did not advocate this practice, because for the younger generation, enshrined his words and practices as the only truth, would only lead to the loss of their ability to make independent decisions. That's why, as Mira grows, he intervenes less and less in her thoughts, only speaking at certain critical moments.

Despite being immature, despite stumbling, as long as you are still on the right track, you don't have to point fingers at everything like a parent who takes care of his chicks.

Forcibly indoctrination of one's own mind that this is the only right thing to do is often the arrogance of young people who are overconfident in their knowledge.

If Henry Mayer has learned anything from more than 200 years of life, it is that the human will is free, and the more he wants to be strictly controlled in all aspects, the more likely he is to embark on the path of rebellion.

The over-protection of intervening in the lives of younger generations is not so much because the world is too dangerous, but rather because the elders themselves lack self-confidence and security, as well as the trust they should have in their juniors.

He believed that these children would eventually find their own way, even if it was different from his.

None of them are perfect, but neither is he himself.

They all have their own shining points, what they insist on and believe in. All such people need is opportunity, just insight that makes them think. They can come up with their own answers, maybe in a different direction, but because of this, they can bury more possibilities for the future.

The people and events that I encountered along the way from an encounter on an unknown slope in Avenella on the west coast of Rigal many years ago are still happening in Crescent Island today.

The world would still turn without Henry.

It's just not going to be the same as the world with him.

- But then again, the Ashigaru class doesn't have the same high level of near-worship trust in sages as Kaleva. Therefore, when he, an outsider, proposed a plan that led to more hard training, the first emotion that ashigaru had was resistance and rejection.

From Suomir's stunned point of view, it was clear that the military instruction provided by the most professional warrior he had ever known in his life would benefit the ashigaru for life. However, Kaleva does not fully understand the unique history and national conditions of the Moon Country, so this view is still biased.

Peace with people has lasted for thousands of years.

Although there were also degenerate aristocrats who took advantage of the fire to rob and form bandit groups during the period of great disasters in history, the last large-scale struggle that swept half the country is also a distant forgotten history.

The samurai class, which is more sensitive and has more contact with the gossip of high society, may have a certain sense of crisis. At least for people from the frontier like the Aochi samurai, their sense of smell on the battlefield has not been completely lost, and although they have become sluggish and out of shape, all they need is actual combat to polish it.

But Ashigaru is different.

Perennial peace solidifies the class, and in the case of only skirmishes, it is natural that there can be no such thing as a reward for meritorious service. The samurai took Ashigaru's service for granted—in the words of the Wajin people, "raising a soldier for a thousand days—and in that case, there was no need for additional rewards.

There is no hope of class promotion, and the next generation of Ashigaru's sons is still Ashigaru. Taking the risk of killing the enemy does not get any substantial reward, and the honor that the samurai value is not as important to Ashigaru as it is to fill the stomach of the family.

Coupled with the fact that they had been in the dark of the battlefield by a long period of peace, the fear of the unknown, combined with the lack of substantial reward, made them perhaps the least likely class in the country to go to war.

I don't know how to win, and if I win, I won't get a reward, but if I lose, I will die.

Life is already very sad, and this money is just enough to support the family, and there are so many things to do every day.

After all the factors, I hope that the status quo will not change, and that I can live one day at a time, which naturally has become the common idea of this kind of soldier class that should be the largest base in the country of the moon.

So they reject anything related to actual combat, even though perhaps some people subconsciously know that this practice is beneficial to them. But similar saber-rattling training is extremely aggressive, as if to suggest that the days ahead are fraught with danger, and many people treat them with hostility because they don't want it to come.

This sentiment is actually not entirely unresolvable.

In Rigal, the sage could mingle with these people with his vast experience and down-to-earth expression. It is not difficult for him to have a good relationship with low-level soldiers and mercenaries, and he can easily change the minds of these people with the temptation of emotion and money.

But this is in the Land of the Moon, and these people are also under the hands of the samurai and not free mercenaries. Not to mention the xenophobic atmosphere in the Land of the Moon, it will be more difficult for these ashigaru to build a good relationship than a mercenary, and this kind of behavior like digging into the wall will definitely anger the samurai who hold real power, which is obviously not the right way to go.

Henry's chosen approach was sufficient for the time being to achieve the desired result.

Under the strict Japanese social class system, even if the ashigaru people were dissatisfied, the samurai would still rush to their deaths.

Therefore, their rejection and hostility are only directed at him, an outsider, and they do not dare to face their immediate superiors at all.

The training that should be done, as long as the samurai commanded it, the ashigaru people would still do it.

As for whether the level of training and the daily work that needs to be done add up to make Ashigaru exhausted, so that dissatisfaction gradually accumulates, resulting in low morale and resentment, this still needs to be controlled by the leader Narumi and others.

After all, the sage is just an outsider, and if he intervenes in everything and shows them how to do it, he will end up hating the samurai and Ashigaru together.

Narumi was a brilliant leader, and only the likes of Edward of Avenella and Constantine of Paderrossi have been matched by the likes of Narumi so far. He may not have been as sharp as those who were targeted, but he would have noticed the subtle friction in the team.

All the sage needs to do is wait for him to seek answers and give advice based on his experience.

Don't rush everything and speak at the right time.

The path stretched forward little by little, and after a gentle but long climb to the top, a mist spread from the forest and the ramp below to encircle them.

The weather in the mountains is still fickle in the summer, and the sun is shining in the morning, but it is a little chilly with the arrival of the fog.

"The rain is coming, and we'd better set up camp now. The samurai leader in front of him took a look at the surroundings and gave the same order.