Before he finished speaking, Yu Qiuping heard the sound of a string loosening on the left. Immediately afterwards, the sound of a sharp arrow piercing the air crossed the entire sea. In the blink of an eye, he saw a rope on the mast of the ship on the opposite side being shot.
, the sail fell straight onto the boat, and hit two soldiers.
"So far! It must be two hundred meters!" Yu Qiuping was shocked and turned to look to the left.
A young man with blond hair and blue eyes, with a straight figure and about the same height as Yu Qiuping. Wearing a sleeveless Zhenhaori, he was holding a long bow that was almost as tall as a man. He was bending the bow and setting an arrow with a serious expression. He twisted his waist.
, the bow string was suddenly stretched to an exaggerated degree. He closed his left eye and squinted his right eye slightly to take aim. He loosened his fingers on his right hand and shot another arrow. The sail of another ship was also shot down.
"What a fuck!" Yu Qiuping couldn't help but exclaimed. Everyone around him was baffled by this shout, but the foreign archer looked at Yu Qiuping in surprise, then continued to turn back and bend his bow.
Whizzing.
Two more arrows were fired, and the sails on the other two ships also fell one after another. The Hojo navy looked in horror at the Imagawa navy flying the two flags, and received a salvo from the Imagawa navy. The side of the ship
A row of arrows was immediately inserted into the deck. When the Hojo navy was in panic, they heard Itami Yasukiyo shouting loudly.
"Don't do such dirty things on our Imagawa waterway! Leave immediately! For the sake of the two alliances, we won't hold you accountable!" He took a breath and shouted again: "Over there
That merchant ship, follow our team!"
After the incident was over, Yu Qiuping and Itami Yasuki met the foreign archer on the deck. After the foreigner glanced at Yu Qiuping, he turned around and continued to clean his longbow.
"Doesn't he understand Japanese?" Yu Qiuping asked.
"That's not true. Like Momiji, he is a foreigner who understands Japanese." Yasuki Itami explained, "It's just that the way he talks to others is very strange. He seems to be deliberately not communicating with others and is busy practicing archery every day.
He won't stop until he shoots hundreds of arrows at the target. The whole ship is disturbed by him, it's really annoying."
"Then..." Yu Qiuping asked with some confusion, "How did he get on the Imagawa family's boat?"
"Oh, this," Yasuki Itami smiled, "it was the Western businessman who asked me to take care of him. His family seems to be a noble from a country in Europe, and he offended the king and was executed. After he barely escaped,
We arrived on the merchant's ship. The merchant was about to come to Japan for trade, so he entrusted him to my care and asked me to help him settle down. Hey! I shouldn't have agreed at that time."
"That's it," Yu Qiuping was stunned. He remembered that the English in the West during Shakespeare's time was very different from the modern English he learned in later generations. He didn't know if they could still communicate, so he became curious and went to ask.
"Sir, let me ask you this. Are you from England? Or England, Great Britain?" Yu Qiuping asked in Japanese, but the British titles were pronounced in pure English.
"Oh, that's right, my noble knight." The foreigner seemed to understand and blinked unexpectedly, "You seem to know the language of our old continent very well. As you know, many Japanese can't tell the difference at all.
Clear our UK and other countries.”
"That's all." Yu Qiuping said with a smile. He is a history student. Although European history is not as proficient as Japanese history, it can be regarded as a lot of experience. "Then you are not accepted by that person because of your Protestant beliefs.
Did Bloody Queen Mary banish?”
"Your knowledge astonishes me." This time the Englishman was really startled, "Honorable knight, have you ever been to our country before?"
"That's not true, it's just that my father has been there." Yu Qiuping explained, "But don't worry, it is estimated that the one who will succeed will be Her Royal Highness Elizabeth. She will be a generous queen who will not treat Protestants again.
The persecution is severe.”
"You are really the most knowledgeable Japanese person I have ever met," he said.
"No, I'm from the Ming Dynasty." Yu Qiuping explained.
"Oh! Ming Dynasty? That great country with a wise monarch." The British said with emotion, "I am lucky to meet you, but I will start practicing longbow soon, so I can only talk to you next time.
." The British terminated the conversation and prepared to leave.
"Hey, Sir Charlie, don't leave yet," Yasuki Itami called to her, "You can't live on the ship forever. After the ship arrives at Junfu, I plan to entrust you to this gentleman."
"Oh?" Yu Qiuping and Charlie looked up unexpectedly at the same time.
Charlie's full name is Thompson Charlie. He is 18 years old and is a British longbowman. No wonder he has such superb shooting skills. His family is a Puritan family, so he had a conflict with the Catholic Queen Mary.
Queen Mary massacred thousands of Puritans in the territory with bloody methods, and Charles's whole family was also killed in the massacre. Only he escaped alone, relying on several of his father's friends, and escaped on a Dutch merchant ship, which was Yasuki Itami's
That friend's merchant ship.
When Yasuki Itami first handed Charlie over to him, Yu Qiuping had some resistance. After all, he felt that Yasuki Itami wanted to pass the blame to a good friend. But he realized that this Charlie, like himself, had lost everything.
All the family members were alone in a foreign land. Feeling sympathy for each other, Yu Qiuping agreed to put him in his shop and sleep in the place where Kondo Yasso was.
This Charlie also encountered a situation similar to time travel, even worse than Yu Qiuping. At least Yu Qiuping's relatives did not die. But this Charlie did not seem to be too sentimental. He focused on his bow and arrow, as if practicing Zen
Like a Tao master, there is nothing outside his heart. Apart from eating and sleeping together every day, Yu Qiuping hardly sees his people. And he seems not to want to have too many interactions with others that will affect his practice of archery. He himself seems
I have some savings, so I don’t need Yu Qiuping’s support.
What kind of obsession can make a person so obsessed with archery? Yu Qiuping is puzzled.
After arriving at Sunfu City, the first thing Yu Qiuping did was to go to the market outside Sunfu City to buy chickens for the slaves' families. These days, in the context of the meat ban, the price of chickens cannot be considered too expensive, and the people selling them are not too expensive.
It's not a lot. But it's still a large amount of money, and it's not something ordinary people can afford. At this moment, Yu Qiuping was faced with the problem of money.
"Two hundred and thirty-two families, a total of 116 chickens, each chicken is almost 80 yuan, my God, 9 yuan."
Yu Qiuping worked hard to settle the accounts, but now the family has only saved less than 3 coins.
"Young man, do you want to buy it or not?" the chicken seller urged.
"Uncle, can you keep these chickens for me for a while?" Yu Qiuping said troubledly, "I don't have enough money."
"Then wait until sunset and go back to the city to get it." The uncle said.
"This..." Yu Qiuping smiled awkwardly, "I guess I have to borrow money from my friends, so..."
"How can you buy chickens when you don't have money, and you want to buy more than a hundred?" The uncle sneered, "Forget it, I still dare to do business!" After that, he made a show of leaving.
"No, uncle!" Yu Qiuping stopped him in a hurry, "There are not many people selling chickens these days. Now that you are gone, I don't know how long it will take to get more than a hundred chickens."
"I guess you know the goods," the uncle successfully raised the price, he chuckled, "I'll wait for you for two days, remember to pay me 10 yuan when the time comes."
"This..." Yu Qiuping couldn't help but feel a little angry when the profiteers in front of him were raising prices. But when he thought about himself, since he had already promised to help those poor families buy a chicken, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and agree. What he promised must be done.
Do it.
After Yu Qiuping hurried back to the city, he wanted to borrow money from Asahina Taehyung. When he arrived at Asahina's house, he found that Asahina Taehyung was still in Yuanjiang and had not returned. The dozens of followers Yu Qiuping knew were also parked in Yuanjiang.
Jiang Yuqiuping had no choice but to go home.
"Thompson..." During dinner, Yu Qiuping said hesitantly, "I don't know if you have any extra money..."
"Yes." Charlie replied cheerfully, "Sir, do you have anything urgent to ask?"
"Yes." Yu Qiuping admitted honestly, "I met more than two hundred poor slaves in Sanhe, that is, on the east side. Well, they are almost the same as your western slaves. Their families are very embarrassed, and I
At that time, out of good intentions, I promised them to buy half a chicken for each family, but now I don’t have enough money..."
"This is something that every caring knight and noble should do," Charlie said with approval, "I have four taels of silver here, which should be counted as four taels of silver here, Mr. Hongye, if you are very anxious
If so, please take it first." After that, he simply took out a few ingots of silver from the package.
"You're... thank you so much." Yu Qiuping was speechless for a moment. He didn't expect that this Englishman who had only known each other for a short time would be so generous. "Won't you leave some for me?"
"No need, I don't spend much money every day." Charlie said, "How to use money is a compulsory course that every noble knight should learn. My father has taught me since I was a child that money is for those who need it."
"Thank you so much, I will definitely return it to you in the future," Yu Qiuping gratefully accepted the few ingots of silver.
"I believe in the guarantee made by an honest person. Cheers to your chivalry!" Charlie raised the water glass in his hand, touched it with Yu Qiuping and drank it down in one gulp.
In the afternoon of the next day, Yu Qiuping ran to the Cuju court again and found the uncle in the back court.
"Hey, I haven't seen you for a long time, Yuqiu," the uncle said with a smile, "I heard someone said that you and Mr. Asahina went to Mikawa?"
"Hey, uncle, how did you know?" Yu Qiuping asked with some surprise.
"Haha, businessmen, naturally you know more people and have a wider path." The uncle explained, "I also heard that you met someone from the Oda family?"
"That's right." Yu Qiuping's face suddenly dimmed, and the sad memories that had been buried in his heart also came flooding back. "And because of my cowardice," Yu Qiuping sighed, "my good friend did it for me.
Protect me to death."
"I was... watching him try to strangle him to death, but I didn't even have the courage to swing the knife," Yu Qiuping said with some dejection, "Uncle, tell me, am I very useless and timid?"
"But I also heard that you bravely rushed out and saved Mr. Asahina's life," the uncle said. "The head of the Asahina family plans to personally thank you."
"At that time..." Yu Qiuping almost blurted out, "I was just impulsive...but after thinking about it, I was so scared. I was still timid and cowardly."
"Haha, there is no one who is not afraid of death," the uncle laughed, stroking his hands, "The so-called desperate charge on the battlefield, the awe-inspiring righteousness of the samurai before his death, and his calm sacrifice are actually all what you call impulsiveness."
"When people are swayed by emotions, rational thinking will be suppressed, and the fear of death will be diluted," the uncle explained. "Even if the warrior with the strongest will can pull him back to calm down before committing suicide,
If I let him think about whether to die heroically for another ten days, I'm afraid he will change his mind."
"It's just that mature warriors can temporarily mobilize their emotions during battle to fight better." The uncle smiled, "It's already amazing that you can bravely charge into battle for the first time. There is no need to belittle yourself.
You know, when many recruits go to the battlefield for the first time, they vomit. It’s good that you didn’t vomit.”
"Thank you for your comfort. I have heard a lot of comfort from others in the past few days, but yours is still the most useful." Yu Qiuping smiled bitterly, "I came here this time to ask you to borrow some money. Isn't it convenient?"
"You can ask for as much as you want. There's nothing inconvenient," the uncle said with a hearty wave of his hand, "It's just that you want to borrow money, what do you want to do?"
"I saw more than two hundred slave soldiers in Mikawa Kariya Castle. They worked hard and lived frugally. They raised chickens for a year and wanted to send them home to replenish their bodies and taste meat for their families. In the end, they were all imprisoned.
The army took it away and gave it to Mr. Asahina and the others to eat." Yu Qiuping said, remembering the helplessness of those upright men, and couldn't help but feel a sore nose, "I promised them to buy half a chicken for each family, but
I have never bought chicken before. I didn’t know it would cost so much, but now I don’t have enough money...”
"This is a good thing with immeasurable merit," the uncle agreed without hesitation, "Oppei, get it for him..."
"How much money do you have left, Yuqiu?" the uncle asked.
"There are still 3 strings left." Yu Qiuping nodded and replied.
"Then give him 4 guan. I guess there are some families who may be short of herbs and the like, so you can buy some." The uncle said generously.
"Thank you very much. I will pay you back in the future."
"I believe that if we keep our word, Yu Qiuping will definitely pay back the money, but you don't have to pay back the money," the uncle said, staring at Yu Qiuping, "because you have a valuable quality, compassion.
.That is our inner sympathy for those who are suffering. This quality cannot be bought with a lot of money. I don’t want you to gradually lose this precious quality because of lack of money.”
"I'm going to Yuanjiang in a few days. Maybe I won't come to play Cuju. We'll play Cuju together when we come back." The uncle finally said with a smile.
After running around to pharmacies and markets for a day, Yu Qiuping finally bought everything. It took him nearly three days to deliver the food and medicines to each family. In fact, it was not easy to find them.
It was difficult. What was difficult was that to escape from the homes of these enthusiastic people who were moved to tears, they had to leave Yu Qiuping for a meal no matter what. Yu Qiuping had already eaten more than forty meals in the past three days.
His stomach was very full, but he still tried his best to show that every family entertained them attentively.
Five days of running around was very tiring and hard, and I owed a huge debt. But when I saw the weather-beaten old people crying, and when I saw the innocent and lively children eating chicken with a smile, I thought of those hard-working slaves who finally
When he no longer had to worry about his family's livelihood, Yu Qiuping suddenly felt that everything he did was worth it.
At least, I tried my best to help some people and alleviate the suffering caused by troubled times.