In a small village with only a few dozen households, nothing is trivial.

A child who went missing in the summer, a conflict between someone's family, a rumor of an unchaste daughter-in-law, and a sudden visit from an unknown stranger. In this kind of small, sparsely populated village, any matter can be widely discussed.

"I'll tell you one thing, it's a secret, don't tell anyone else. It is often the first thing housewives and aunts will mention when they whisper, and this "unspeakable" secret will always spread to the entire social network in a very short time, becoming an open "secret" that everyone is discussing.

The poor women who live a boring life always like to chew on the root of their tongues, as if they are afraid that something will not be big enough, and they always like to add oil and vinegar to the process of spreading the original small things - when the neighbors quarrel, the male host's voice is a little louder and shouts through the house "slut!" and other abusive words, through chasing the wind and adding oil and vinegar, can become the "conclusive evidence" of the hostess red apricot out of the wall, and then began to circulate in the local housewife circle, so that they invariably began to reject and isolate this" a woman with a bad reputation", so as not to be "implicated".

A small thing can always add fuel and vinegar to the local circle of the hot spring village and turn it into an earth-shattering event.

Perhaps it is precisely because of this practice of always adding fuel and vinegar to exaggeration like "The Wolf" that makes them seem insensitive when the real big thing comes.

In the morning, everyone who was working in the fields stopped what they were doing.

They stared blankly at the bloody procession.

Almost all of them were in tatters, and the dried blood had turned the bumper and other garments from soft to hard like raw cowhide, and even the cold air that had been blowing incessantly since yesterday could not shake a bit, and hung down like a skin full of wine, motionless.

A tired look filled almost everyone, including the ronin, their weapons were as bright as they could be, but anyone could see that they were struggling.

The villagers stared intently, but did not say a word. It's not that you don't want to say something, it's that you don't know what to say.

The young people who had been fighting in the middle of the lake island and had been full of self-confidence and had learned to tie up their hair from the samurai were also among them, and many of these young people who had returned with a full load boasted of themselves in front of the villagers and elders, but with the courage of a hundred enemies at the wine table, it seemed that they could not even drive them to step forward and ask the ronin what had happened.

Obviously, something big really happened, but these villagers of the hot spring village, who should have taken "strong winds and waves" as their daily routine and "experienced in a hundred battles", were stunned for a while, not only did they stop and did not even dare to speak.

The hot spring village said that it was not a big deal, and it was only a moment for some news to spread.

The innkeeper Masayuki and the missionaries and Miss Doctor, as well as Oiran and Kenye, who had soon known that everyone had returned, hurried to the entrance to meet them, and they were shocked when they saw the scarred procession. But before Henry could tell him what had happened, the anxious-looking Miss Doctor preemptively told them something equally troublesome - that Aqiu, her father, and the rest of the family had all been detained by the nearby townspeople.

There were still some red and swollen Aya on the left side of her face who looked anxious and had dark circles under her eyes, and it was obvious that she hadn't been able to sleep well all night last night, because Aqiu's family would be executed by the villager at noon today.

"Suka. Running all the way back to the hot spring village, the girl Luoan, who was not much better than Aya, couldn't help but curse after listening to Miss Doctor's narration, Henry glanced at her, but Mira, who noticed that she had lost her words, just turned her head and sulked and had no intention of retracting the sentence.

The story is simple but complicated - Henry and his party set out to suppress the bandits, including the samurai and their tall aliens, all of whom had a deterrent fighting force. And Torataro also went to the county seat of Pingshan County after Ah Hui's condition stabilized. Basically, in the undefended state of the rear, Aaron, who wanted to snatch his daughter back earlier but was deflated, took this opportunity to come back to find a field.

Aaron, who roared loudly and broke into the hotel, took advantage of the fact that the men were not there? Aya was having dinner with Aqiu at the time, so when Aaron tried to snatch her, Miss Doctor naturally went up to stop her.

And this middle-aged man who bullied the soft and was afraid of the hard saw that it was a short young girl who stopped him, so he moved mercilessly.

This slap was very hard? The redness and swelling on Aya's face have not gone away. The air in the inn fell silent for a moment, and Alun, who felt uneasy, roared loudly: "What? Is it still wrong for Lao Tzu to bring back his own children!"Preaching his own correctness? But he clearly did not anticipate the gravity of the situation.

Aya wasn't wearing a doctor's outfit at the time, but when she came out of the shadows with her face covered? In the sunlight pouring in through the window, when Aaron saw the dark blue hair? His whole body trembled.

Despite the lack of real power? However, as Dr. Hoshiei certified by Shinkyo Tengkaku Academy, Aya's high status is equal to that of the feudal king.

In a country with such a strict class, the peasants at the bottom attacked beings who were higher than the samurai and the Chinese? Nature is an unforgivable sin.

"Spare your life!!"

The middle-aged farmer who still thinks he's a powerful man in the last second asserts his strong position by beating petite girls? In the next second, his knees weakened, and the whole person threw himself to the ground, desperately begging for mercy.

"Look, for my daughter's sake!" he grabbed Ah Qiu, who was trembling because of the emotions of the adults even though he didn't understand what was going on, trying to win the sympathy of Miss Doctor with this child he didn't care about at all.

But the situation has inevitably expanded. Crowded hotels and small villages, it is rare for a big event to happen? The long-tongued woman and the long-tongued man spread the whole thing throughout the hot spring village in a hurry.

"Aaron hit a doctor. ”

"I knew he was going to do something like that. ”

Housewives and idlers are talking about it? Many of them were complacent about their foresight. Only a few people sighed like this - "pity his family." ”

The following grave sins are to be committed.

The villagers stationed in such a small border village may not be able to encounter a major event for ten and a half years? So they rarely moved at high speed? Less than half an hour after the incident spread, all three of them were mobilized to arrest Aaron's family.

Aya trying to thwart? She even hurriedly changed into a doctor's outfit.

But the respectful villagers still took everyone away, and announced that they would be executed at noon tomorrow.

When you say these things? Miss Doctor's expression was gloomy.

This is the sorrow of the noble who have no real power.

The other party was to be executed because he had offended her, and the implicated executioner was even the one she originally wanted to protect. Her noble status would have made these villagers respectful, but she herself did not even have the power to forgive them and save them from execution.

Polite, but unyielding.

It's only the status of the doctor, not the person she is.

For the first time in her life, Aya questioned the value of her efforts so far. However, with Torotaro gone, and the entire hot spring village without any real power above the villagers, she could do nothing but be anxious.

"What the hell is this. "Even Henry didn't foresee such a thing in the group that returned from the bloody battle, the context of the matter was very simple, but because of the entanglement of human motives, it was difficult to distinguish between right and wrong in black and white, good and evil - Aaron had what Aaron himself saw as right, and he wanted to bring back his child, even if it seemed to others that he didn't love her, but he beat Aya, and the villagers did what they did according to the laws of Crescent Continent, but their motive was obviously only to increase their own fame rather than uphold justice.

No one is innocent.

"Severely punished the following people who were guilty of beating the doctor. "It is a great achievement that can draw a strong stroke in the career of a countryman, and in the eyes of this kind of poor and low-level samurai, this is a major event that may not be encountered once in a lifetime.

Aya couldn't solve the matter, she was noble but powerless, so she could only wait anxiously for Henry and the others to return.

More than half of the battle was damaged, and even the bodies of his companions could not be recovered. Although it actually had nothing to do with them, after hearing about it, the ronins under Ryunosuke's command all became aggressive as if they were diverting their anger.

"If you want to make great contributions, why don't you have a chance. The voice of the former prefectural commander was so cold that it could drip water, and after Heng told the store manager Masayuki what had happened in a short word, the latter's face turned blue and repeatedly confirmed the truth of the matter, and he hurried away to go back and call the whole village.

Immediately afterwards, the former Chinese showed his extremely high executive ability. The team of more than half a hundred people with a bloody breath all over their bodies took Miss Doctor and others to the villager's residence on the outskirts of Hot Spring Village, and the heavy sound of horses' hooves and armor colliding made the countryman's foot light run out to check it in the distance, and after seeing this formation, he ran back with a roll and crawl.

Immediately afterwards, the villager who was not very tall but had a big belly also walked out of it, he was covered with fat, not to mention that the knife on his waist had not been properly worn, and when he came out, an unbalanced knife slipped out and fell to the ground. Narumi frowned as he bumped off his scratched scabbard, it was clear that this man didn't care much about his weapon.

"Everyone, what do you have to do? The townsman who realized what had happened the moment he saw Aya with a displeased face was still pretending to be stupid, but Ryunosuke didn't show him mercy.

"Hand in your list of prisoners held here, and release the young and middle-aged laborers temporarily. Someone was sent to inform the Pingshan County Headquarters to send reinforcements, and the stored armament was also taken out. Ryunosuke said this condescendingly on his horse, and the villagers who were very fat under the supply of hot spring village products rolled their eyes, and after not seeing any Chinese family crest on him, he straightened his waist and coughed: "Ahem, this, Your Excellency Ronin." ”

"What kind of identity and power do you have?" his attitude became very arrogant, but the former prefectural magistrate, who had been through 11 years of ups and downs, was definitely not a person who would still care about red tape.

"Draw the bow. As soon as he gave the order, the ronin, who had just returned from the battlefield, scattered in unison and drew their bows and arrows.

"That's my power. ”

"Uhh

After Ah Qiu, who couldn't stop crying, was released, he ran to where Aya and Sakura were, and after this experience, Aaron was no longer full of resentment, but kept kowtowing to thank the group, and then ignored Ah Qiu and quickly rushed to his own direction with the rest of his family.

"Young master, please go down and explain how they write the paperwork. Ryunosuke's ronin identity is delicate after all, so Narumi said to Yajiro, who is the heir to the Aota family. The group was divided, and the bloodied ronin returned to the door of the inn, and the villagers who had been called by the manager of the store at about this time also gathered nearby.

Seventy or eighty percent of them were women of good deeds, who looked at the bloody procession with curiosity, and from time to time whispered something while glancing at this side with their spare eyes.

"I didn't come. The girl Luo An glanced at it, and none of the young and middle-aged figures who had participated in the bandit suppression activities on the island in the middle of the lake appeared in it.

After experiencing the battle, they saw the group of people reduced and looked bloody, and they probably guessed something. So unlike these ordinary peasant women, they can maintain a simple and pure curiosity.

But escaping will not solve the problem, and there is a gap between the townspeople and the commoners, so as the actual storyteller of the hot spring village, the prestige manager of Masayuki becomes the narrator of this series of events.

They omitted most of the things that were too difficult to understand, and simply stated that there was a person who could drive the ghosts and was likely to come to the hot spring village. At present, the villagers must be mobilized to build a defensive line, at least until reinforcements from Pingshan County arrive.

Masayuki informed all the villagers present, hoping that they would make a choice.

After the words fell, the air in the entire inn door became quiet.

The villagers looked at each other, and even the most eloquent long-tongued woman could not say anything at this time. The people in the small village have always exaggerated the big things as much as possible, but when it comes to a big event, they don't know how to react.

"Oh, Masayuki-sama is really good at laughing. At last a woman spoke, and her dry laughter elicited the casual echo of several women, but soon fell silent again.

No matter how lonely they are, it is obvious that these bloodied ronins are not playing around with them.

"I, I still have something to do at home, so I'll go back first. "Yes, so do I have it at home. "Ah, my children have to—" The peasants had a rare right to choose, and they unsurprisingly chose to escape. Ryunosuke sighed, then yelled at the farmer who was about to turn away.

"Stop me!"

The obedient nature engraved in the bones made these people not move after a single stirring. The former prefectural governor, who had lost power and had been in contact with many Rigal ideologies, did not want to use his power to oppress people in this way, but it was clear that if democracy was adopted at this point in time, this group of people would only become scattered and then be broken one by one.

The reason why the social system of condescending rule over others with the aristocracy at its apex has existed for so long is precisely because in many cases it is more efficient for a powerful individual to assert himself than for a group of rabble—Ryunosuke then spoke, his tone of voice very different from that of Henry and the others:

"What do you want to do, escape?"

"Where can I escape? He pointed to the key point mercilessly: "The terrain of Zhangzhou is treacherous, and there are many swamps and miasma. There is a waterway in the north but it is occupied by monsters, and there is a land route in the east, but it takes a lot of time to climb up and down. So if you go south to Pingshan County, it will take a few days to get to Pingshan County, so what are you going to do if you have to walk with your family?"

"The Legend of the Fairy Tree"

"It's summer harvest time, and those who abandon their farmland and fail to pay taxes will be severely punished. How are you going to get your rations in the future?"

"What is the punishment for deserting peasants, I don't need to say anything, right?"

"You can't escape for a while. ”

"Abandoning your homeland, how will you live in the future?"

"I tell you what will happen to you, or you will live a poor life with only one bowl of porridge a day. It's still summer, but if it's winter, most of them will freeze to death due to lack of heating fuel. ”

"Or if you fall into the grass and be killed by the samurai, can you live like this? ”

His words made the peasants stop, and although Ryunosuke could use his power to force these people to obey his command to fight, he also knew that the militia that was forced out was demoralized and could not be effective.

Hot Spring Village is a relatively wealthy village in Zhangzhou, relying on the farmland and the products near the swamp here, they can eat quite well, at least fish and shrimp can often be seen on the dinner table.

The peasants will not understand any righteousness and honor, and they may nod their heads and say that they are superficially respectful, but they will never hear the spiritual beliefs of the samurai. But the words of the former prefectural order are to the point - these people do not want to lose their current lives.

"Well, what are we going to do, we're just farmers. ”

"yes, monsters or something, I've never seen them. ”

They faltered.

Mira looked at the group and remembered so many things she had experienced in Rigal.

Like their counterparts in Rigal, these congenial peasants are narrow-minded. Narrow-mindedness, selfishness, greed, cowardice – although this kind of talk is very much like the condescending contempt of a carefree aristocracy, any prejudice spreads precisely because it is correct to a certain extent.

Selfish and narrow-minded, but definitely not stupid.

Farmers don't sacrifice themselves for the sake of sentiment, which seems unrealistic to them. Their minds are actually closer to the mercenary adventurers of Rigal, and 11 years of ronin life have also made Ryunosuke understand what to say to touch these low-level people.

They are short-sighted and can't see the big picture, so it's better to tell them anything here than to tell them directly that they will lose their land and their homes and their lives now.

These people would never stand up for the sake of the country, and they would scoff at the spirit and loyalty of the samurai in the dark, but they would use their hoes to knock out the heads of their neighbors in order to keep their own grain.

"The samurai have already sent a document to Pingshan County to inform them of the situation and ask for reinforcements, and they do not ask you to go to the front line to fight, you just need to build a defensive line here and wait for reinforcements to arrive. "The former prefectural order added another fire, and after letting these people know what they were going to lose, they were told that they didn't need to fight on the front line, so that they were relatively relieved.

After these words, many farmers stopped leaving, and at this point they could finally start to take action.

"What to do. ”

As long as one person takes the lead, more and more people will join the ranks.

Through the connections of the store manager, they began to gather the blacksmiths and other craftsmen in the village. The summer harvest rations were also pooled and prepared for temporary storage in the inn's warehouse, and several families closer to the swamp were temporarily relocated to the inn, and their houses served as the front line against Saburo.

The sailboat had all been burned, and the snake-like man could no longer travel by water. The hot spring village was the only direction he could go, and there was a vague feeling that he wouldn't try to escape.

Despite being half-, the value of those ghouls is still considerable.

Ryunosuke's heavily armed ronins are elite warriors, and they are full-time Japanese professional samurai who have been trained in various martial arts since they were seven or eight years old. It would take more than ten years to train such a professional samurai and the cost would be comparable to the income of a dozen peasant families.

These weakened ghouls have the same combat abilities as heavily armed samurai in one-on-one, although they lack tactics and coordination, so collective action is more dependent on numbers. But even so, this existence is enough to make ambitious people can't hold back their desire to move.

Because these sources of soldiers are too cheap.

The tenacious vitality and ferocity equal to that of a beast only require ordinary mortals as materials to transform, and it takes less than ten days and half a month to form combat effectiveness.

This is a force that can shake the foundations of the society of Crescent Island, where the samurai are the grassroots. Although it has many flaws and shortcomings, and to the eyes of a person like a sage who knows the inside story, it seems to be foolish enough to try to harness the sea, but once it spreads, it is still enough to attract a large number of people to rush over it like insects attracted by the light source.

Saburo will not run away.

He will definitely come here and expand his power step by step.

As a former famous scholar without power, he probably has the most profound understanding of what Miss Doctor has experienced.

Therefore, even putting aside his personal enmity, he was hostile to Ryunosuke, who was born as a nobleman, and he hated the samurai class and wanted to overthrow the existing system with his own hands.

The implicit culture of harmony always makes them love to use metaphors and rhetoric, and the so-called dragon ascending to heaven and the bright moon are the same as the bright moon, which is actually to establish themselves as kings.

The harsh wind blew the signal flags to hunt.

The quickly erected barrier allowed the sentinels to observe the enemy from a higher vantage point, and the perimeter fence with wooden spikes pointing down to resist the ghouls' climbing, but it was not stony and would probably be overturned if there were a few more of them.

Ryunosuke lied.

It is very likely that they will not be able to hold up the arrival of reinforcements from Pingshan County.

There was only one reason why Saburo only left a part of his forces to protect the sailing ship - he took the main force to expand his forces. Although the ragtag rogues who were brought into the swamp scattered and escaped under Henry's strategy, Saburo would probably not let go of these good materials.

The number of people killed near the sailboat is optimistically estimated to be in the hundreds, which means that his remaining force is still more than ten times that of the existing ronin force.

Among the dozens of villagers, the young and middle-aged people have only made up the team to more than 100 people, and the remaining old and weak women and children have even become a problem for self-protection.

Not to mention whether reinforcements from Pingshan County will arrive. Even if the young master used methods such as Qingtian family tokens to prove his identity, it would be a fantasy to persuade a group of samurai who had never seen these ghosts and spirits to attack here.

So in fact, the plan is not as told by the previous prefectural commander, which is to stick to and wait for reinforcements.

They had to be proactive.

Only by continuing to carry out the decapitation tactic can there be a way to survive.