Whether in Rigal or Crescent, elite warriors are inseparable from hard work and self-discipline.

It is true that there are many conditions required to train such people, and without sufficient external resources such as material resources, time, and teachers, it is difficult to transform the spirit of tenacity and wear-resistance into actual combat effectiveness.

While it's important, so are the other conditions.

A roarer may be able to scare off a beast or win a street brawl with his ferocity and unyielding tenacity, but a warrior who is professional enough to realize that he does not have the experience and skills to be cautious and fight to his advantage.

People are always willing to believe that people who are better than themselves are always inferior to themselves, which is a kind of self-deception in order to maintain self-esteem. Thinking that the other person is only more prominent than you in some aspects, and that you are inferior to yourself in some aspects, is more able to protect your self-confidence than admitting that others have all-round advantages.

This is also the source of most of the statements about "incompetent high society", "incompetent aristocrats", "squirting children" and the like - this kind of voice is very rare in Crescent Island due to its specific social environment, but similar stories are sung among the people in almost every country of the continent of Rigal.

Although most people understand that if the ruling aristocracy is really rotten to the bone, then the country will not be able to maintain order for long. But this kind of rumor is still everywhere, precisely because the people at the bottom always have to find something to balance their hearts - "Hey, those big people may be better fed and dressed better than us, and they live in a mansion with ten thousand taels of money, but at least their descendants and sons are all wastewood, and our children are full of vitality and have a bright future!"

Ironically, the more convinced of this self-deception and inability to face reality, the more they will not be able to obtain the bright future in the woven lies.

"Qiang—"

Anyone can see that the long-waisted knife, which has been carefully maintained all year round, has a unique flavor of the Moon Country in front of it, and the place called "Kirizen" reflects the midday sun because of its mirror polishing.

The heat caused a large patch of sweat to ooze from the top of the samurai's bald head, wetting about a third of the sweat towel tied to his forehead.

But he didn't dare to be careless, even though Henry, who was standing opposite, was holding only a thin bamboo stick in his hand.

There is no doubt that the samurai of the Aota family are excellent, and this excellence is all-round.

The samurai culture that has been passed down for thousands of years in Japanese society does not allow for the existence of cowardly and weak people among this class. They were supposed to be the elite of society, so the children of the samurai trained for more than eight hours a day from the age of eight.

This kind of hard training not only develops professional skills, but also excludes those who are not strong enough to persevere. It is precisely because of the long-term peace with the people and society that they need to train more and more, and cultivate enough self-discipline with strict standards to not easily loosen their will.

But this self-discipline and tenacity can sometimes be an obstacle to progress.

Top combat professionals are not infallible, they are human after all. It is human nature that anyone who has studied a certain skill to a certain depth will inevitably fall into the puzzle of thinking that cannot listen to the criticism of others.

Henry's sharp and harsh criticism in front of him froze the atmosphere in the team.

Thankfully, the embarrassment only lasted one day.

In addition to the popularity of the sage's own abilities, a large part of the reason is that the samurai don't really need to wait for him, a stranger, to tell them how far they have deviated from actual combat.

With the critics in the society, the internal communication of the samurai, and even the contempt for the samurai by the bandits who think they have more actual combat experience, and even some people feel that they can fight better than the samurai after practicing a little three-legged cat kung fu.

In this country of 4,000 years of unity and peace, they lack the opportunity to prove their strength in actual combat, so it is very normal for such remarks to breed.

Sadly, it was precisely under the pressure of this rhetoric and the confusion of the preaching within the samurai clan that they finally chose the closest form to actual combat within the realm of the undead - the martial arts - to present themselves.

Limited by the environment, there is a lack of places where you can really display your martial arts. This is a status quo that is difficult to change.

However, whether it is within the group, the Chinese at the top, and even the people at the bottom, there is pressure and criticism from their class, and the samurai who can't accept it, and they want to find something to prove themselves, and finally move out of the practice of competing in public.

The change from a sharp sword to a wooden club is a reflection of the samurai class itself—a helplessness that has nowhere to prove itself, but which cannot make the sarcasm rest, and finally becomes nondescript.

At some point, they began to use a high ranking in the tournament as a basis for judging whether they could fight, and at some point, the attack that was supposed to cut through the opponent with a sharp blade became counted as long as they hit the score.

The result of all human actions is the result of the purpose he pursues.

When the goal becomes to score as many points as possible without killing the opponent, the skills that were originally used to kill the enemy on the battlefield will inevitably become out of shape.

Some people recognized this and thought that it was not good to blindly promote martial arts competitions, and that there had been a strong presence within the samurai group since the beginning of the promotion of martial arts.

But the reality is that the long-term peaceful environment of Crescent Island lacks real large-scale actual combat. At best, those who oppose it can only shout and despise, and with the development of the competition, they are even beaten to the point that they can't eat grapes and say that grapes are sour - it is precisely because they cannot achieve a high ranking in the competition that they ridicule those who are not in actual combat.

Unite as one, all mouths are golden.

When the whole country is dominated by this, the opposition is always humble and weak, and it is easy to extinguish it.

So the samurai of Aota were lucky.

They rarely experienced a small-scale life-and-death conflict, and it was just right.

There is one that is probably all over the world today.

The most professional killers stood in front of them.

"Excuse me!!" the chubby middle-aged man shouted, and then took a step forward with the momentum of stepping through the iron hoof, and then slashed towards Henry with an incomparably standard downward slash.

His striking criteria are swift and he uses the typical technique of sprinting and attacking with a distance, which is ferocious and difficult to dodge for novices who are not good at judging the distance. Even if you miss a hit, as long as you succeed in making the opponent panic with the first hand, you can use the next continuous attacks to hit the opponent until the opponent can't parry, and finally break the defense and kill.

"Huh-" The attack that narrowed the distance and swung it in less than a second, a blow that seemed perfect to others was still easily dodged by the sage.

His eyes were like a precise ruler in the hand of Rigal's cartographer, and he accurately judged the range of his opponent's stride and height and arm length - and then, as always, Henry only avoided the attack within just the right range and did not retreat too far, and then quickly counterattacked before the opponent could close the distance further.

"Huh!" he stabbed the warrior in the eye like a Padrossi man wielding a swift sword, and even though he was holding only a thin bamboo strip, he still frightened the middle-aged warrior into subconsciously closing his eyes and pulling his whole head back and retreating one after another.

"Okay, stop!" Old Joe, who was in charge of being the referee next to him, roared, while Narumi frowned, Okami sighed slightly, and Yajiro kicked a small stone away in dissatisfaction.

"I'm really sorry!" the middle-aged samurai trembled in shock, and his hands were collected several times before he withdrew his sword, and bowed profusely to several people in apology.

"Go down, Lord Shinkatsu. Narumi nodded at the other, and the dejected middle-aged samurai walked over and joined several other dejected samurai.

"Woo-" Henry waved the thin bamboo in his hand, and Mira yawned beside her, as she had already started small talk with the rest of the women because things were boring.

The remaining missionaries of Rigal's party were still watching the interaction between the sages and the samurai, occasionally writing down something at Alfonso's behest, as if intending to learn from the sages' practices and get on good terms with the samurai.

Also taking notes was Kaleva, and the Miss Doctor next to her would come to look at him from time to time and say something to him in Lamani.

It was a strange sight, and the strangers and natives from Suomir were communicating with relish, in the language of the country to which they did not belong—although there would have been some criticism about the matter of belonging, it was all too clear that Galeva belonged to the land of a thousand lakes in the north and not to the empire.

We're at a distance - the sage stopped waiting for Narumi and the others, the leader of the samurai group, to give a summary, and with the years he has experienced, he can no longer be a person who despises his commands. After all, those people are subordinates of Narumi and Yajiro and others, and no matter how good he is at outsiders, he needs to give enough respect to the head snake of the land in order to continue to cooperate.

The samurai sought knowledge rather than contempt, and within a day they recovered from the sharp criticism and even went one step further and decided to challenge themselves with real swords and guns to prove more of their own flaws, which naturally included the reluctance to prove Henry's statement wrong, but the courage to take this step was already scarce.

More people will choose to avoid and procrastinate in situations that may destroy what they have always believed in rather than face it out.

So you have to give them time, and you can't push it too hard.

Waren society is known for being polite, but the other side of politeness is the sense of distance.

After all, Henry Mayer was only an outsider to this land, and the country had many complex conditions, and the samurai class he came into contact with was only one of the deviations in their perception of actual combat.

This is not Rigal, there are no mercenary unions. Their task remained the same, escorting the missionaries to the south, although they still had the task of handing over the list to Xinjing, because it was not known which nobles were credible, and the list had to be passed down by Miss Doctor to the high academicians of the Great Academy.

The intellectuals, who are outside the political and military circles, have direct access to the imperial family but have no other real power, are the least at risk in a country where the crisis of rebellion is currently buried.

The journey will be long and arduous, and the most optimistic estimate is that it will probably not be until the end of autumn to reach Shinkyo, and this is still with the full support of the samurai of the Qingtian family.

Unlike Rigal, the mercenary union, which has its tentacles everywhere, can provide logistical support. If you fall out with the samurai in the helpless Crescent Continent, a group of unpopular outsiders walk the land of the Moon Country with weapons.

If the risk is not mentioned, the supply of materials will be a big problem.

It is never easy for the Yiren who are true hunters, let alone the missionaries who are useless except for the tenacity of their faith.

Mutual respect is the premise of any friendship or least friendly cooperation.

- Yajiro spoke before Narumi spoke.

"Lack of courage. The little young master opened his mouth to criticize, but after being as arrogant as ever, he paused rarely and continued: "Me too." ”

"As the son of a samurai family, you need to be prepared to lose a glance and an arm, and still fight. ”

"How can you retreat for fear of being hurt? When he said this, he subconsciously covered his arm whose wounds had healed, as if to criticize the samurai who had been defeated by Henry's skill to the point of cowardice, and seemed to be talking about himself.

"That's what the young master said. Lao Qiao nodded and picked up his words, and then the great god spoke: "The day before yesterday, I used a bow and arrow to fight against the bandits, I thought that was already a consideration of the martial arts so far, but sure enough, there is still a big difference between the battle that opens up the distance and the intersection of the white blade." ”

Narumi remained silent as he looked at Henry.

"Your way of fighting is biased towards bows, and that's the right thing to do. The sage began to explain at the behest of the actual leader of the samurai group.

"Courage is important, but most of the bravery of the puppet will end up lying in a pool of blood. He pointed to his eyes.

"If you lose an eye, you lose half of your vision. ”

"This means that you can't detect the enemy on this side in time, and you're more likely to get hurt on this side. ”

He pointed to his hand again: "If you lose an arm, you will lose strength, you will be defeated in the battle with the enemy, or you will not be able to push away the weight that weighs on you." ”

"If you lose your legs and feet, you won't even be able to walk, let alone move in battle. ”

"The human heart supplies blood all over the body, from here. He slashed from his chest to the sides of his neck: "Two main blood vessels supply your head. ”

"Oh my God, this is forbidden necromancer knowledge. The young missionary covered his ears and did not listen, while Alfonso, who was next to him, continued his account with a solemn expression.

"The other two are together with your arm, all the way to the fingertips. The sage gestured to his abdomen again: "The thickest blood vessel is here, the soft abdomen without rib protection, which is the supply of the heart to the entire lower body. ”

"These blood vessels are just below the skin, and they are only a few centimeters deeper, and if you are fat, they may be a little deeper. The sage shrugged his shoulders, then gestured with his fingers: "This is Rigal's unit, if you don't understand, it's about this little distance." ”

"In other words, as soon as a sharp object hits one of these places, even just a little bit, you'll start bleeding like crazy and die very quickly. ”

The sage's words made many people who understood shiver and touched various parts of their bodies.

"Then there are the organs, which also die very quickly after trauma. ”

"If you are shot in the chest by an arrow or pierced by a sword, you will not be able to breathe if your lungs are traumatized – which means that you can't even shout for help to remind your companions, you can only open your mouth in vain but not breathe in air, because your lungs will be filled with your own blood, and eventually they will come out of your mouth and nose by coughing. ”

"So. After everyone had succeeded in a cold sweat, Henry raised another finger.

"If you don't know what to do and just rush at a rain of arrows or an array of spears like a fool, you're going to die like a fool. ”

"Uhh

"What. The white-haired girl with an arrogant tone walked over, but there was still no meaning in her words to give her teacher face.

"Hit you. As soon as the sage's words fell, the bamboo in his hand was drawn towards her, and with his height and attack distance, Mira couldn't avoid it in time, so the Luo An girl turned on her heels.

"Smack!" the light cuirass best-defended front given by Yajiro was turned around by her, and she blocked the attack diagonally with her body, while Mira raised her arm to clamp the bamboo in Henry's hand.

"What are you doing!?" the girl was a little angry this time, and the sage shrugged her shoulders and deliberately ruffled her hair.

"See?" he turned and spread his hands at Yajiro and the others.

"When an attack is unavoidable, choose a plan that takes the least damage. And always think about how to dismantle the opponent's attack ability - disarming is of course the easiest, and when the opponent's attack fails to achieve his desired effect, that's when you counterattack. ”

"The teacher is such a terrible adult. Mira, who had lost the bamboo, stepped on Henry several times, but still stood behind him.

"Armor isn't something to wear on your body for passive defense, it's also your offensive tactic in melee combat. ”

"Familiarize yourself with the weaknesses of your armor and wear it for training to simulate life-and-death situations, here's the answer you want. He looked at Narumi, who had been silent, and the latter had waited a long time before breathing a sigh of relief.

"There will be a lot of things to master. Narumi's summary sounded a little dry compared to Henry's words.

"For a long time, the competition has limited our thinking, and we who only focus on scoring do not know when and where we will die. ”

"Of course, the heart and the head are weaknesses, and this is something that everyone knows. The great god next to him smiled.

"There is a difference between the power of the attack, and the weight of the weapon. The different parts of the armor can block the attack is also different, if the soldiers are all like the swordsman lady of the Southern Barbarians, calm and knowing themselves and the enemy, indeed, they can become a real elite division. Narumi summed up again, and then looked at Yajiro again.

"Hmm. The little master just snorted.

"This road is not easy to walk. "Lao Qiao, who is closer to the lower-level samurai, has something to say, the samurai forget it, it will obviously be a lot of pressure to let the ashigaru who has been working for a long time on weekdays master the weaknesses of the human body and the advantages and disadvantages of armor and weapons in addition to the busy training close to the actual combat.

"The way of the martial artist has never been full of thorns!" but his voice was drowned out by the high-ranking samurai behind him.

"This is not the path that cowards can take. "Yes, yes, only tigers and wolves can survive!" the sage's words and today's further demonstrations washed away the scars that had been uncovered even further, and in a way, he ignited their enthusiasm and pointed the way for these bewildered warriors who wanted to prove themselves in the body of the battle-hardened warriors of Rigal.

This success earned Henry a deeper respect from the samurai, and if the training continued, these people from the Aota family would become one of the few soldiers who were truly good at actual combat in the Land of the Moon. Such a partner would be more trustworthy for them on their next journey back from danger.

But the benefits are not all.

"Wow, look at this side viciously, teacher. The sensitive Roan girl muttered quietly after glancing at Ashigaru.

"Well, yes. The sage looked back, and under pressure and Henry's own deterrence, they looked away, but a little hatred was still palpable.

If simply changing the training policy can change the warrior class of the entire Moon Country, then it will not be his turn to do this, Henry Mayer, a foreigner.

The samurai had a lot of ashigaru under their command, and they had to do the menial work when the high-ranking samurai were jealous to prove themselves, and they did the most dangerous things when they were fighting as a striker.

The last thing they want is for anything to change, because change often means more work and danger.

This is what the unshakable social fabric of the country is destined for.

The high samurai would reproach them for not striving for progress and scold them for being cowards. But if you can't get ahead with your hard work, who wants to do more with that little salary.

Henry's statement ignited the enthusiasm of the high-ranking samurai, but also aroused the resentment of the lower-ranking ashigaru.

But with the voice of Lao Qiao, who was a samurai, drowned out, he wanted to change the status quo, but it was not easy to say.

The samurai's disdain for Ashigaru will not change, and they always think that their subordinates are lazy and lack the spirit of a samurai. But they also subconsciously ignored the difference in status between the two sides and the fact that the other party stood guard against the autumn wind when they drank and admired the moon.

It is still difficult to pry the wheels of this country's long history with just a few words.

Even if he was Henry.