There is magic in the words.

This is not just a magic spell in the narrow sense of the word, but it is closely related to the fundamental understanding of the world by human beings and other beings who also possess language.

How do you know if a cat is a cat and a rock is not?

In the socio-cultural context of common cognition, a simple word can separate something from the vast background—the wild child in the forest, the noisy cicada in summer, and the moment they are "defined" by words, these individuals are separated from the chaos and become independent beings that can be observed and recognized.

So there are names in society, because people want to distinguish themselves from other human beings, so kings and nobles have titles, because they want to do everything possible to make themselves look very different from the ruled.

Everything is done to classify and divide things, to name everything, and to associate every name and combination of words with a particular meaning.

Wish.

Despair.

Justice.

Evil.

Simple phrases are enough to make people hate or boil.

If an unarmed man is called king, even the commoners who outnumber him will bow down to him.

So yes.

There is magic in the words.

Because speech is the way people observe, record, and understand the world. It defines the way people of a group, region, and country understand the world, and in turn, because of its own existence, it becomes a force that restricts and represses—a country cannot be without a king for a day, and the king has no jokes. The person who is called the king needs to show the measure and style to be commensurate with the title, and everyone lives to a greater or lesser extent by the words and evaluations of others—in order to change the low evaluation or to make himself worthy of praise.

Small words, but with endless power.

The phrase "your homeland" touched the hearts of the villagers, and the entire village was able to operate with unprecedented efficiency: going up the mountain to chop firewood, stockpiling incendiary materials, and using saws to harvest bamboo to make weapons, the labor advantage brought by the large number of people was put to good use under the command of experienced ronin, and the war supplies were prepared as much as possible in just a few days.

But the power of words does not only work in the desired ways of some people.

"You're still young, run. ”

Many parents who thought they were old and frail and had children and future farmers packed up overnight to let their teenagers go out and flee. Although Ryunosuke had warned them about the severe punishment of running away from the peasants and the horror of losing their fields and homes, their parents didn't think so much about it when they licked their calves. And in their opinion, it is better than staying and dying.

When the labor force was counted the next morning, looking at the parents who knelt on the ground and let their children escape in the unique way of "sitting down" with the people, although the former prefectural commander's expression was extremely cold, he still did not issue any punishment in the end.

He was in the belief that the combination of reprimands would lead to a further loss of labor and combat effectiveness. But this tolerance gave an opportunity, and over the next two days many people fled, all of them young people who were still alive.

They feel they have a future. Most of the people who have been touched by the idea of protecting their homeland are the elderly who have worked on the land all their lives, and most of the young people have the idea of going out and do not want to fight to the death for their hometown.

When investigating afterwards, the group found that it was the young adults who participated in the battle of the island in the middle of the lake that did not appear when the store manager Masayuki gathered the villagers, and they who had experienced the danger and saw the loss of human life on the front line naturally thought more than the others, so although they fought side by side, these people were the people who were the most dismissive of this statement.

To some extent, perhaps these people saw through the essence of the battle and understood that the entire defense line of the hot spring village was just to buy time.

Although this is almost impossible in terms of their tactical literacy and military knowledge, those who have participated in battles and survived always have a subconscious sensitivity to danger. However, Ryunosuke didn't lie completely, and these people fled and ended up almost all but beggars. In a society of strict class and people, it is almost impossible for a peasant boy to go out and have a bright future.

Hearts are intertwined, and everyone fights for different things.

Ryunosuke is for revenge, the villagers are to protect their homeland, and the reason why Rigal and the Qingtian family, who can be regarded as relatively clean, stay and fight is also very simple - they can't escape.

In the previous encounters, it was clear that the ghouls were in hot pursuit, and if it weren't for Henry's plan to divide the troops and pay heavy sacrifices, even the current strength would not have been saved. It is difficult for a human foot to outrun these dark and twisted monsters just by escaping. And they don't have enough good horses. Rather than running for your life in the unprotected wilderness, you can choose your own battlefield and set traps to fight against your defenses, which will have a better chance of survival.

Although the goals and ideas are different, now is not the time to think about these differences. Rather than that, it is better to spend your energy thinking about how to respond to the impending crisis.

The sage informed the others on the second day of his return to the hot spring village, and entered the swamp alone with a hemp rope, before dragging a ghoul back with a swagger. He deliberately walked on the main road so that all the villagers could witness this scene, which could be regarded as completely silencing those who were still doubting the existence of the monster.

The ghoul, who is clearly different from animals and humans, was killed in a single blow, but Henry didn't just bring it back for fun and deterrence.

He gathered the others together on the hillside to get away from the village's cottage - the owner of the village, unsurprisingly on the run with the young people, and given Ryunosuke's actions, the townsman most likely ran to his superiors to punish the ronin who had seized power.

But the former prefectural magistrates didn't care about this problem, because they had to survive before they could be punished.

The ghoul body spread out on the table was still warm because it had just died, and the Doctor who was good at biology was helping Miss.

A clean, carefully sharpened hunting knife slashed through the ghoul's two collarbones and down the middle to the groin. The blood mixed with the black liquid spilled out, and the internal organs that still emitted heat made the throats of several samurai who were also standing a little farther away to watch, but they controlled themselves with great willpower and still watched.

Even Mira and Aya stopped their movements and breathed palely, only Henry, skillfully and unsightly, reached out to break open the ribs from the incision, and then examined the internal organs in turn.

"It's basically the same as people. The sage was quick to come to this conclusion, and the warriors were amusemented not to ask him why he knew that he was the same as man.

"The only difference is this. "He used a knife to cut a clump of soft tissue that looked like a sea urchin from the seaside and human delicacies – it grew next to the heart.

"This is the core of the ghoul, the equivalent of the mana pool of humans, and this is also the source of the mutation. It is also the root of its extraordinary vitality and physical ability. The sage said, and although most of them did not understand it, the samurai still keenly grasped the message that Henry was trying to convey - "That is, this is a weakness?"

"Well, and that's not all. Before the sage could finish speaking, Mira and Aya on the other side leaned in after forcibly suppressing the feeling of churning in their stomachs, and Miss Doctor immediately noticed something that was clearly not naturally growing on the ghoul's severed ribs: "Here." She pointed up, and people followed hers.

"The ribs have widened and there are signs of closure at the edges. "The ribs of the ghoul on the left side near the core are clearly distinguished from the right side, it is not a bone like a human, and the rounded edges are beginning to show signs of fusion, which is clearly an evolution of enhanced protection.

"Well, that's not exactly weakness protection. Because these are defective products. Henry's words brought back memories of the ghouls that had appeared near the swamp village and were much weaker than they had been seen in Rigal, and were smaller and easier to kill.

"It's more than that. The sage reached down, took out the stomach pouch, and cut it open with a knife.

The sour smell immediately filled the room, and a few people finally couldn't help but turn their heads and run out, but Aya was interested at this time: "Is it half of the food that has been digested?"

"That's right. Henry nodded: "Fully transformed ghouls are creatures that are detached from the usual human cognition, they barely need to eat, and only rely on the magic provided by the core to function efficiently. ”

He looked at the samurai of the Aota family and Ryunosuke: "It's equivalent to an army that doesn't need logistical supplies." ”

When this concept was thrown out, the expressions of those present who knew something about military affairs changed. Supplies needed for an army of a few hundred men had to be prepared, and a force of thousands or even tens of thousands of troops would have non-combat attrition before the war began without a dedicated quartermaster. The so-called home field advantage of many battles in history is actually just that if you can withstand the supply lines, you can rely on supplies to fight a war of attrition on your own territory, and you will often end up wearing down invaders from afar.

But what kind of concept would a force be if it did not need logistical supplies in the usual sense?

This means they can travel at high speeds without being dragged down by the weight of supplies, it means they can traverse barren mountains and snowy terrain where supplies can't be found - and in terms of the conditions in which ghouls are born, dead corpses can be converted directly into combat power rather than as food.

It's a bone-chilling cold, understandably felt. The efficiency with which they can expand their forces, the speed at which they can march, and the places where they can march are far beyond the reach of humans. Once this power is maturely mastered, the old nobles and even the fortress territories that have spent decades expanding their armies and accumulating forces will be overwhelmed by the overwhelming monsters before they can react.

"Thankfully, these things are still defective, and they still need to rely on food. Heng used the tip of the knife to pick open the stomach contents, and the indigestible black hair that was immediately revealed was clearly from a human: "With that in mind, Saburo should have fewer troops than we thought. ”

"It is possible that he led his troops away from the vicinity of the sailboat, and it was probably not just to capture the rogues we had led away. "The dissection of the ghoul provided a lot of important information for the group, and although some of the information had been speculated by Henry before, it was only now completely confirmed.

That is to say, a war of attrition is not good for him. Ryunosuke took a puff of his cigarette and exhaled to dispel the fishy smell in the air with the smell of tobacco. Although Henry's revelation of information about ghouls is chilling, Saburo's half-finished work is somewhat reassuring.

"Yes, but the fundamental problem now is that even taking into account internal attrition, this force is still very large. ”

"And. The sage said word for word: "Because you will feel hungry, you may have attacked earlier." ”

"He doesn't necessarily attack after he's captured all the rogues and gathered enough troops. Henry said this, and then, as if confirming his words, a ronin who was on guard on the other side of the village suddenly ran over.

"Grown-ups, yes, somebody's coming. "He didn't express it very well, so it was unclear whether it was the arrival of the enemy or the arrival of reinforcements from Pingshan County. But when they made their way to the makeshift defensive line outside the village, it came to light - it was the rogue.

There are about seventy or eighty of them, and they are basically all in a trance and mentally exhausted.

Most of the rogues who had been lured to scatter in all directions by the enemy's strategy had been hunted by their companions who had turned into monsters, and fled to the hot spring village in a panic, but at this moment they were stopped on the newly established defensive line.

They clamored to come in, but the villagers refused to let them in. Fighting these people before they go to war with the ghouls is a useless drain on your strength, but letting these rogues into the village is also a recipe for trouble.

The samurai of the Aota family, who still had some kindness, chose to remain silent, but Ryunosuke was not such a person.

"Tell them that we need to check to make sure there are no monsters. Build another line of defense in front and give them some supplies. "The former prefectural commander is well aware of the sacrifices that need to be made to achieve his goals, and he will not let these people into the village, but he will not go to war with them.

Having already learned from Henry's investigation that Saburo would attack at any time, it was naturally not true to say that it would take time to check.

He wouldn't let them in, and the idea that the rogues would buy it, coupled with the sweetness of the supplies given to them, was just an excuse to keep these people out in peace. In the 11 years of ronin life, he has seen a lot of rogues who have climbed up to him under the pretense of being a fox and a fake tiger, and he doesn't think that these people will be touched by any rhetoric or anything like that, and they can't be willing to die for him.

So to make good use of this power, you can only put them in a position where they have to fight for themselves.

The samurai of the Aota family watched all this in silence, and the cold-bloodedness and decisiveness necessary to be a commander were to a certain extent contrary to the virtues and tenets of the samurai. But this is the most efficient and realistic way to do it.

The strategy is still the same as it was at the beginning - the decapitation tactic of Saburo.

Ghouls are almost exclusively subordinate to the owner of primordial magic, as that is a figurative projection of the magic itself. By how Saburo and the people of the domain managed to drive these weakened versions of the ghouls as mortals, they possessed a powerful power that could exponentially expand in a short period of time, but also created a weakness that was even more serious than that of traditional armies - heavy dependence on the leader.

The traditional beheading of a general in the army is enough to cause a serious loss of morale, but as long as there is a cadre of mid-level and low-level officers and non-commissioned officers, the army can still maintain a certain combat effectiveness.

But ghouls are just beasts.

They are twisted beasts that have evolved into "the way creatures should be" tainted by magic. They do not conform to the social structure, the military system, and act only on instinct.

So once the leader who controls the whole situation on his own is killed, they will collapse in an instant.

The complete defense line built by the hot spring village is just to buy time and cover for the elite team to kill Saburo and distract from it.