The weather in early spring is always as changeable as a child's mood, and although Narumi had planned well yesterday and the group followed his plan to rest early, he set off in the early hours of the morning, but by noon the sky was unfortunatelyly gloomy.

The weather in the mountains is already cloudy and sunny, and the uncertainty of early spring is doubled. In the early hours of the morning, the sky was still clear, and the morning star through the clearing above the bamboo forest also emitted a dazzling golden light, and the sun was shining on the road for several hours in the morning, and the heat caused many people to roll up their sleeves and take off their cloaks and other shelters for the time being.

The warm sunshine, which seemed to last forever, quickly faded around 12 noon.

In less than half an hour, as the sun faded and the mountain breeze blew, everyone who was sweating during the walk couldn't help but feel cold, and put back the sleeves that had been rolled up, and the cloak was covered back on their bodies.

"God doesn't give face. One of the three high-ranking samurai, the bearded samurai named Aota Jo complained—from his surname, he was clearly a relative of the castle lord's family. And this is one of the reasons why he was indignant when Henry and others denied Yajiro's martial arts before, the little young master is not only the master he serves, but also the descendants of his own relatives. Although the status is different, but the relationship between relatives is placed, and as an elder, he naturally has emotions such as child care and pride.

Qiao was born in a split family of the Qingtian family, and only the eldest son of the Qingtian family, which lasted for six generations, could inherit the family business in each generation, so most of the second sons and third sons went out to form a separate family and break out on their own. Some of them gradually died out or lost contact, and a few of them were rewarded by other lords and changed their names and surnames. And this bearded samurai is the only family that still exists today, and has a close connection with the Qingtian family in Qingzhi Town.

Aotian Qiao's status was only that of a countryman, and he was the lowest among the samurai on horseback, only higher than the lower rank Ashigaru and the peasant people. In addition, with the fact that the Qingtian family is not very orthodox, it is understandable that his conversation is relatively not as elaborate as that of decent samurai like Narumi.

And such a low-status person was promoted to a high-ranking samurai directly under the Qingtian family, and it was obviously because of the loyalty caused by the blood connection.

The class division of the Moon Country can be roughly divided into classes from bottom to top: peasants, scholars, Chinese, and royalty. Needless to say, the peasants are traditionally divided between the peasants and the warriors, including the ashigaru himself, and most of the people of the Tsuki no Kuni today think that they are also samurai. But if you really want to define it accurately, they should be considered the infantry of the samurai's retinue.

As a professional infantryman, the ashigaru status was higher than that of the peasants, but it was still not considered a nobleman.

The warriors naturally referred to the samurai class, which was roughly divided into sergeants and corporals. The corporal, also known as the villager, literally indicates, has ownership of a mansion and a small plot of land in a rural village. He can ride a horse, he can have armor and other weapons and official samurai status, but he is only a samurai in the countryside, a nobleman in the countryside, in other words, he is not very popular, and in the eyes of the sergeant, he is a simple existence.

In contrast, the sergeant class is the so-called "city aristocracy". Most of them came from a long samurai lineage, and their homes were located in key parts of the bustling town. The family has been in the family for more than 20 generations, and most of the ancestors have also produced some famous brave warriors. They are well-mannered, etiquette is in place, and they also learn all kinds of martial arts from a young age.

The Qingtian family of Aochi prospered after six generations of business, and gained the approval of Shinkyo to become the ruler of Aochi Town, so he climbed from a small village to the rank of the lord class of the Chinese clan, that is, the land of the moon. And Narumi, who was supposed to be high, these sergeants, these nobles in the city, in turn, became the attendants of the Qingtian family.

From this level, the history of the struggle of the Qingtian family is quite an inspirational story. However, in the country of the moon, where the class division is extremely strict, more than 4,000 years have passed, and it is really rare to climb up step by step through struggle and management.

All in all, with the exception of the bearded samurai Aotian Qiao, the vast majority of the members of the samurai on horseback were actually lower-level villagers.

As a high-ranking samurai in the backbone, it is very easy for the sergeant to work as a team leader. As a result, although Joe was one of the three people who were promoted to lead the leader, he was actually not very strong in his personal leadership skills.

Although they had only been marching together for two days, judging from the details of the procession's march, orders, and yesterday's conflict, it was clear that this middle-aged man was closer to the younger junior samurai and ashigaru than Narumi and other high-ranking samurai.

But he didn't dwell too much on issues like his leadership, and Joe, who was not like a high-ranking samurai, became a character who livened up the atmosphere through the emotional connection between the three parties through Henry's lack of acquaintance with them.

It is precisely because he is a samurai who does not resemble a samurai that he does not have that sense of distance caused by class origin for foreigners like Yiren and Henry. Joe's words and actions are very straightforward, and the way he runs back and forth also reminds Henry, Mira, and Sakura of Sojiro who had traveled together for a short time before.

With the sage's previous actions somewhat dissolving some of the barriers, coupled with Qiao, a person with a hearty personality, running back and forth, the atmosphere of the team is much more harmonious today, and it also makes many people who were originally worried about the intensification of the conflict breathe a sigh of relief.

Although Yajiro, the leader of the team, was still a little stubborn in leading the samurai on horseback and only knew how to move forward, because of the narrowness of this mountain road, there were no people who would leave behind him like before.

In the morning, they made their way to a rocky terrain with a relatively little vegetation on the rocks.

This is the unique mountain style of Crescent Island, as if the carved rock is carved from top to bottom, and the slender silhouette is like a sharp sword pointing straight to the sky.

Because the mountain is very steep and mainly rocky, it is difficult to accumulate soil on it, and it is not easy for natural vegetation to grow.

The difficulty of the mountain road was something that Kaleva, who was born from Suomir, and our Luoan girl, who had traveled a lot, thought they knew something, but after coming to the Land of the Moon and coming to this journey, they knew it further.

The widening of the weathered and peeling natural walkway and the stone tunnels are so narrow that only one horse can walk at a time, and the pack ox dragging the box even has to unload the things first to avoid the overly wide horizontal wooden beams from hitting the mountain wall and falling into the abyss.

When the ashigaru arrived here, they could only unload the carrying wood, and the box was still hanging on it, and the two of them carried one head and carried it by man.

Although there was enough manpower, it was more or less hard, and the team's progress was slowed down again and again.

And in this case, as we mentioned at the beginning, it was a coincidence that it began to get dark.

The reason why Narumi proposed to set off in the early morning and walk this part of the road in a day was understandable to the group after they actually arrived. Such a difficult road is not even a foothold, and it is also said to be entrenched by bandits. A team of more than 100 people can be regarded as less than half of the combat effectiveness, and if it is attacked by people in front and rear in such narrow terrain, then even if it can win its own side, it will suffer heavy casualties.

In the distance, a few goats on the rock wall saw someone coming, and nimbly stepped on the narrow foothold and fled elsewhere. Looking at the mountains on the left and the solid walls on the right, with nowhere to cover, Mira couldn't help but shudder when someone was ambushing the mountain with a bow and arrows and facing a rain of arrows on this side.

"No, I can't keep going. "It was getting darker and darker, and the visibility was falling so much that it looked like evening was coming, and the rain was clearly coming. Narumi in front of him turned around and shouted, "Let's rest in the cave in front of us!" The voice echoed between the mountains and forests, and Henry and the others passed the news to the rear of the team in turn.

A narrow walkway carved out of the mountain wall leads to a wide cave in front of it, and judging by the smooth surface and the stalactites around it, it is likely the result of the combined efforts of rain and wind for thousands of years. And it was large enough to hold a hundred people and the accompanying cattle and horses.

The cave is located at the node of the road, and the ancients of the Land of Half Moon deliberately carved a mountain road towards this side back then. There are some artificial traces of stone chisels inside, and there are some faded vermilion plaque characters on the innermost cave wall, and broken old pottery that has been left for I don't know how many years.

"Let's make some fire, it's not our intention, but we'll at least have to wait here until the rain stops. Narumi said this, and then the next second the sky outside was as bright as day, and after a short while, the thunder of "boom boom" sounded.

The cave located at the node of the mountain road is in the shape of a pocket, and the left side of the "bag mouth" part is the road where the group came, and at this time, the old and young men and women of the people behind the palace also walked in one after another. On the right was a wider road, the one they had expected to walk straight on.

"If we go beyond this section for a while, we will be able to walk a wider and easier way. "People are not as good as heaven, and if the plan didn't work, Narumi couldn't help but sigh. But he remained calm, and because the ashigaru men were very tired from carrying things, he instructed Joe, the bearded samurai, to lead some samurai on horseback and start guarding the flanks.

The torrential rain poured down after everyone had entered the cave, and the rain instantly turned the gray-white rocks into a dark gray and shiny. In the morning, the ground, which was still very dry, emitted a pungent smell due to the arrival of rain, and the rain that hit the rock wall scattered in all directions to form a mist, which together with the raindrops that kept falling, creating a refreshing scene.

"Boom—click—" Through the opening ahead, some of the bushes on the opposite hill wall swayed wildly in the wind and rain. The girl who was stunned by the little unicorn was then shivered by the cold wind that poured in with water vapor, and the sage behind her reached out and picked up the hood that was hanging on her back and put it on her head: "Go inside." Said so.

After a few clicks, clicks, Sparks lit the palm fluff for starting the fire, and the firewood from the box was built, but they didn't make the campfire too big.

Firewood supplies were hard to find in the rocky mountains, which were collected yesterday, and the verdant, water-rich bamboo was terrible for the fire, so yesterday Ashigaru and his party had to walk a little farther to gather enough firewood.

It's a good thing to be prepared, but they don't know how long it will rain this time, so they should be cautious and don't run out of firewood early.

Joe led a dozen warriors in armor near the entrance to the cave, and they snapped the large bow between their legs and put on the string, and then tied a wooden quiver tied to their waist with a white cloth belt. With the help of the rock pillars at the entrance of the cave as cover, watch the road on the left and right sides to prevent bandits.

"The rain is so heavy, and the mountain path is narrow and slippery, even bandits won't come out, right?" the orange flame lit up, and Priest Alfonso asked Narumi as he sorted out his outfit and his subordinates.

"Don't underestimate their ferocity, these guys made up of landless ronin have so far claimed the lives of many careless merchants and even samurai. Narumi shook his head and said, and Alfonso muttered for a while, only nodding his head, unable to say anything.

"Whew-" The warm bonfire was lit in two piles, and the hundred-man brigade was divided into several parts to do their own thing, while the heavy rain on the periphery poured down, accompanied by a few thunders from time to time.