There is a saying among Rigal's seasoned adventurers:

"All the stunned young people think they know about war, especially those who have never participated in it. ”

It sounds like a common mutual disdain between the older and the newer generations – just as the new generation of soldiers and adventurers would dismiss the whimsical ideas of the less experienced juniors.

But as we've said before, any bias or rumor is always grounded in facts.

- Word of the war in the hot spring village spreads.

With the large Rigalese-style horse-drawn carriage as the main means of transportation, the journey of the group was actually much longer than originally thought. The large four-wheeled carriages of the empire had superior carrying capacity, but they demanded a high degree of road demand. Although they provided shelter from the wind and rain and had a very high load capacity, they were confined to the national highway and could not easily leave.

Therefore, when the relatively slow group walked into the southwestern border of Zhangzhou, they were a little surprised, and after thinking about it, they easily found that almost everyone here was discussing the war in the hot spring village.

And not surprisingly, most people have a very low opinion of the performance of humans in the battle.

The group with a rather complicated composition settled in the teahouse at the entrance of the town, and since the carriage had to be placed, it was Henry and other Rigal who took the first step in the door. Although there are many foreign faces, the people here do not pay much attention because they are close to the central part of the country. Maybe it will become a new topic after they leave, but for now these people are more interested in talking about the war in the hot spring village that is a foregone conclusion.

The middle-aged man, who had been drunk in broad daylight, spoke bitterly about the tragic sacrifices in a tone that he had personally experienced, and talked about what he would do if he were there, as if as long as he was there, none of this would have happened. And there are young people next to him who echo and express doubts, believing that it is the poor fighting qualities of those farmers and ronins that have caused the tragedy in the hot spring village.

"After all, what kind of demons are, but they are just beasts. ”

"Exaggeration, exaggeration, loser always likes to portray the other party as too strong. As soon as I entered, similar remarks kept coming. There are always a lot of people coming and going at the border, but they don't have any luggage with them and are dressed more like locals. But now it's the busy farming season, and the people who spend their time at the teahouse during the day are mostly idle people who enjoy listening to stories.

The more boring your life is, the more you like to chew your tongue and discuss all kinds of rumors and gossip.

When the samurai of the Qingtian family with the family crest finished handling the affairs, many people glanced over and paid more attention to them than Rigar and his party, who were first. Obviously, these people care more about the noble lord than the stranger. But he was just afraid of being offended, so he temporarily silenced him, and after a while, he saw that Yajiro and the others ignored them and continued to discuss.

As someone who had personally experienced the war, Mira and the rest of the group were originally a little curious about what these people were discussing, but the more she listened to the beautiful little eyebrows, the more they wrinkled together.

"As long as you are brave, there is nothing that cannot be done together. ”

"It must be the ronin who escaped!"

The battle was fought with samurai, although the Qingtian family and his party left before the people from Pingshan County passed, and the details of the official documents written by Torotaro before were basically impossible for the civilians to know, so it was normal for them to not know what the names of the samurai who participated in the battle, and how many people there were. But they already knew the details of the peasants and ronin's involvement in the battle, but these people didn't mention the samurai who participated in the battle, and threw all the questions on the peasants and ronins who participated in the battle, and the reason was obvious.

Persimmon should be pinched softly, and the samurai class they can't afford to offend, but it is right to despise ronins and peasants in the context of the large culture of the Japanese society.

One is a vagrant who has lost his master, and the other is at the bottom of the same class as them. Compared with insulting the scholars and the Chinese, this kind of impassioned heartache is first and foremost "safer" and "less harmful to oneself".

This fiasco needs a culprit, someone who can criticize and abuse anyone without offending anyone. In Crescent Continent, where the class is harsh, it is natural that ronins and war-going peasants will be chosen as their targets.

Ryunosuke also knew this very well and stayed in the hot spring village.

But despite this, hearing in the teahouse about these people who had never fought in that battle and who had never even fought in their lives made Mira feel the urge to beat people to their worthlessness.

What's even more unpleasant is that these people discussed for most of the day, and what they called "an excellent way to avoid this tragic situation".

It is "courage" and "spirit".

They seem to think that if the peasants are brave enough and the ronins they have never met "don't run away", then they can easily win.

There are no tactical considerations, no planning based on geography, no equipment and personnel literacy, and any other in-depth views - just blaming the tragedy on "not working hard enough" and "not having enough courage", and then confidently criticizing this assumption.

In such a scene, the person in the middle of it keeps nodding his head and saying that he thinks he has the foresight to see through the puzzle, while the onlooker who has a little knowledge feels speechless about this ignorance.

But they continued to discuss it on their own, and naturally someone had a seizure.

"Hmph" came with a disdainful sneer, but not from the seats of the group. The gossiping idlers fell silent, and turned to look at the young man with medium-long hair—who was clearly a scholar judging by his dress.

"Your way of looking at the problem is still too superficial. Although the words of disdain were spoken, unexpectedly, these people were not disgusted, but looked respectful: "It turns out that Lord Qing is here, and please give me advice?"

They seemed to know and respect the young scholar well, and the young man known as Qing was also very useful for this humble attitude, his chin tilted even higher: "There is still a lack of information in your knowledge, people, you have to know the whole picture before you can judge." ”

He said this, and then did say some general things about the details of the defense and the history of the battlefield - the idea of the defense was basically similar to what Henry had done at the beginning: control the entrance near the swamp, establish a defensive line to set up a chokepoint, but the rest of the part was very different.

"It's from the School of War History. Aya, who was sitting behind Henry and the others, had changed into a civilian woman's costume because of the dirty doctor's uniform, glanced at the scholar's costume and said.

The doctors of Waren have their own strengths, and the scholars under them are also divided into various specializations. The Tiange Academy is divided into three major areas: the Land Bureau is good at civil engineering and road construction, the Star Wing Bureau is responsible for studying the stars and all things in heaven and earth, and the History Book Bureau is responsible for recording the long history of more than 4,000 years.

Focusing on the "present" and carrying out construction and improvement work, the Land Bureau is the most pragmatic. The Historical Book Bureau is responsible for excavating antiquities and recording history, which is a carrier of the "past". Miss Doctor's star focuses on the changes in the sky and the earth, predicting natural disasters such as locust plagues and volcanic eruptions, and giving early warning for the "future".

The history of the war to which the scholar belonged was a branch of the Historical Book Bureau, which specialized in the study of war-related history. Considering that his statement would be respected, it is understandable that his statement would be respected by the layman who talks on paper, who may seem to him to be the so-called authority figure.

But his statement was still very problematic.

"Arm the farmers and train as much as they can in a limited amount of time. Rely on the barrier and fight alongside the samurai and ronin who can defeat one against ten. ”

"Even if there are hundreds of enemies, as long as you gather all the villagers, each person can kill at least one beast, and the samurai will deal with the rest, there is nothing to fear. ”

- This is definitely a layman who has never been on the battlefield.

Just listening to his subtle and conclusive battle damage ratios, the Luoan girl could clearly realize this.

He thinks of people as machines that will never be shaken, as long as he trains a villager to a certain extent, he can play perfectly every time and successfully kill an opponent.

According to his perfect algorithm, even if the ratio of battle losses paid by the villagers to the enemy is 1:1, for example, if the enemy has 600, as long as 200 villagers sacrifice themselves to solve 200 of them, the remaining 400 can be solved by 100 experienced ronins and samurai who can fight against 100 at a small cost.

This is textbook-like paperwork, because it is detailed enough that the steps sound plausible when taken apart, so civilians are stunned when they hear it.

The middle-aged man, who had also seemed very confident before, spoke a little timidly, and retorted as if whispering to himself: "But won't this go too well, in case there is any accident." ”

This caused Lord Qing's displeasure, he frowned, and scolded loudly: "Solving the problem to avoid any accidents, and controlling the battle situation is the task of the high-ranking person." So you are a commoner. ”

The person next to him echoed: "Lord Qing has never met an opponent in a chess game, and he is like a god. His eyebrows were loosened again, and his nose was raised to sky-high heights.

"Headache, there are a lot of such people. Aya looked a little helpless and held her forehead.

Perfect, like a god, everything can go according to his predictions—this sounds a bit like Henry's experience at first glance—so this is a Crescent Continent version of the sage? Naturally not, if you really stay by Henry's side long enough, you will know that the sage is far from this kind of person.

The young scholar is still short-sighted, like an invincible samurai on the practice field.

What is the biggest gap between actual combat and practice, battlefield and chess game.

It's informative.

Practice matches and chess games are almost 1-on-1, and you know who your opponent is, what kind of strength your opponent is, and where the battle will take place.

But the actual combat is different.

The Rigal Plate Knights, who are suitable for the impact of the plains, will inevitably run into a wall in the Crescent Continent, which has many mountain terrains with many height differences, and even the Rigal Knights and the Crescent Warriors, these two of them, who have gathered huge amounts of money, need to spend more than ten years to cultivate successfully, and can basically be used as representatives of the elite warrior class in society.

It is also far from perfect and invincible.

The elite warrior class, which accounts for 1% of society, is always acting like the façade of a country or region. Due to the mystique brought about by the closed military training system, the people often have the impression that such beings are "invincible".

But in the circle of high-ranking mercenaries in the world of Rigal, which is now far away, there is a set of rules for infantry to deal with knights:

The pikemen fended off the knight's charge, the halberdiers used the barbs of their weapons to pull the knight off their horses, and finally the swordsman attacked from the relatively weakly defended inner thighs, hips, and the back of the armpit and neck.

It only takes three well-trained infantry to defeat a hoplite knight at a small cost. Although considering the strength of the horse's charge, the probability of a spear alone being blocked is quite low, so the spearman must take a higher risk, but there is not only one way to stop the horse, and the most important thing is that the cost of such infantry mercenaries is much lower than that of knights.

The only armor required was the spearmen who met the attack, and the possibility of injury was the highest, so at least armor such as chest, thighs, and helmets were required. However, halberdiers and swordsmen can be equipped with helmets only, and although the fallen knights are still strong enough to fight, this anti-cavalry configuration can only fight for a win rate of 46 at best, but it is undoubtedly a good example of trying to outperform quality in quantity.

- And that's the problem, the actual battle is not like a one-on-one practice match. On the battlefield, it is only about victory and defeat regardless of etiquette, even if you can fight ten at a time, the other side will never honestly send 10 people to kill you each time when they know this, but send 50 or 100 in one go.

The battle loss ratio will never be as perfect as the data on paper and the chess game. If he is besieged by 50 people in one breath with one enemy and ten people, then he may die without even killing 1 person.

The young scholar Ah Qing enjoyed the praise, and he used his knowledge to analyze and explain, and got the attention he wanted.

The group that had actually participated in the battle was silent.

"Flirting is a common problem. Aya sighed, she had probably seen a lot of things like this.

People are bound by what they are good at.

Just like when a wrestler encounters a door that cannot be opened, he will try to open it with brute force, a thief will try to pick the lock, and the first instinct of a wealthy businessman is to hire someone else to solve it. When people encounter something, they tend to solve it in the way they do best – and sometimes they don't even think about anything else.

I was constrained by what I was good at, and in the end, my vision became narrower and narrower, and I couldn't see anything other than what was related to it.

It is only human nature that people who have a certain amount of knowledge like to show off, and they are immersed in the voices of others who are appreciated.

This may be the value of our Sage Gentleman.

He possessed a great deal of knowledge, perhaps enough to influence the fate of a people or even an empire.

But he never imposed it on anyone.

Since that day.

From the day he did not choose to become emperor and become Hamirinin I, but chose the path of a sage.

The king is the ruler, looking down on all beings like a living god. His will is the only truth under the circle of power, and if he chooses to hold such authority, perhaps he can do far more in the past two hundred years than he has now lived in obscurity. But this is not the path he chose to walk.

The king is the being who reshapes the world with his own will, but the sage is the will of the world itself.

Unknown to everyone, speaking many languages, and understanding many customs. Immerse yourself in it, absorb it, and give what you know.

The earliest origin of the title "Sage" is difficult to verify, but it is like the person who took it over, and the people are trusted to call him as such.

Power always comes from the people.

The king is always alone.

Because the power of kings comes from their own authority, they only have great power when the king holds his own authority, and there are countless kings in history who have been successful in battle while alive, and once they are dead, the country falls apart and its glory is gone.

But the sage is not.

All those who have come into contact, travel together, and are influenced by it can become an extension of his will.

This is a kind of thinking on a larger time scale, and the result is not something that can be formed over a very long period of time, such as one or two generations or even one or two hundred years. It is precisely because he has a long lifespan but is not a natural long-lived species like an elf that he can have such a unique vision.

No matter how heroic a king is, he will grow old and sick, and eventually die.

Great empires that flourished at one time will fall, and they will be destroyed.

But as long as there are people, it's not over.

What he did didn't really matter, because if the level of participation was so high that he would fall apart from his existence, it would be contrary to the original purpose.

But it is only a gentle push behind the back of those who stand still, it is only a way forward for those who are confused, and it is only a gesture to tell the world that the moment of despair has not yet come.

It's just to hold the hand of a girl who wants to change her life.

Sometimes it's enough to change the tide.

He didn't want to impose his own will, he didn't want everyone to be Henry Mayer, he agreed with Henry Mayer, and Henry Mayer was all truth.

Children have their own path.

He's just a guide.

The seed will one day sprout and thrive.

Even though everything had changed by then, the ups and downs we had experienced along the way, and the things we had accumulated from these journeys.

It will accompany them all the way.

Turn into strength, no matter what you encounter in the future, even if you think differently, even if you deal with it in a very different way.

That's also "correct".