On November 3, the first year of Eiroku (1558), Suruga ushered in the first snow of winter.
"It's snowing." Yu Qiuping and Imagawa Kaede stayed in Yu Qiuping's house, looking at the white snow outside the window through the half-open window. Yu Qiuping stretched out his hand, caught a falling snowflake, and quickly retracted his hand
, watching the snowflakes melting quickly in the palm of my hand. The snow started falling last night, and when I woke up this morning, the streets of Junfu were covered with white clothes. On the road, on the eaves, on the fields in the distance, and on the mountains behind, the paper
The red leaves are covered with a layer of snowflakes.
"I haven't seen heavy snow for a long time." Yu Qiuping said with emotion. Ever since he moved from the north to the south in elementary school, he has never seen heavy snow again. The memory of building snowmen with his parents when he was a child is actually a bit blurry.
"Oh? Doesn't it snow in the Ming Dynasty?" Imagawa Kaede asked, tilting her head.
"It's raining, but not so hard." Yu Qiuping replied, "It's such beautiful snow!"
"Of course!" Imagawa Kaede said proudly, "The most beautiful thing about Suruga is the first snowfall every year."
"No, the most beautiful thing about Suruga is not the first snow every year." Yu Qiuping turned around with a smile and faced Imagawa Kaede. Today she wore a white fur coat with very light blue.
A blue belt is tied around her waist, and her waist-length hair has passed the belt. Her fair and delicate skin is better than the snowflakes outside the window.
"What could that be?" Imagawa Feng turned around without knowing it, but was suddenly hugged into Yu Qiuping's arms. Imagawa Feng let out a cry and struggled, trying to push Yu Qiuping away.
"It's my Snow Princess." Yu Qiuping said softly. He stroked Imagawa Kaede's long and silky hair lovingly, curling it in his hands from time to time. The girl in his arms calmed down, blushing and murmured: "Funny words
."
Imagawa Kaede struggled to pull out his hand, and poked Yu Qiuping on the forehead with his index finger and middle finger, but was grabbed by Yu Qiuping's big hand. "Okay, stop making trouble," Imagawa Kaede said as if talking to a child.
He said in a soothing tone: "Let me go first, I'm in the castle tower."
Yu Qiuping was about to let go when he suddenly discovered that there were several puncture marks on the fingertips of his little hand holding Imagawa Feng, and the wounds had just scabbed. "Feng'er, what's wrong with your hand?"
"No...nothing," Imagawa Kaede explained incoherently, "I caught a broom with wooden thorns."
"Feng'er can also sweep the floor?" Yu Qiuping was even more surprised.
"Okay, let me go first." Imagawa Kaede muttered.
Yu Qiuping let go of his arms, and Imagawa Feng took a step back, lowering his head to straighten the wrinkles on his coat.
"This coat looks very warm." Yu Qiuping said.
"That's right." Imagawa Kaede said with a smile, "This is a gift given to me by Jiayan. I bought it from a southern barbarian merchant. It is said to be made of the fur of a kind of bear from far north."
"Polar bear?" Yu Qiuping asked in surprise, "Do Europeans go to the Arctic these days? No?"
"That seems to be the name..." Imagawa Kaede murmured in memory, "Ping, you are so awesome, you know everything."
"Haha, I learned it all before." Yu Qiuping said with a smile. "Did you know that the southern barbarians you are talking about are not actually in the south."
"Oh? Aren't all their ships coming from the south?" Imagawa Kaede asked curiously.
"That's because they want to bypass the Eurasian continent." Yu Qiuping made a few gestures and found that it was difficult to explain clearly out of thin air, so he took out a pen and paper and began to draw a world map hastily. He first drew in the center of the map
A small island, "This is Japan." Yu Qiuping smiled at Imagawa Kaede, and drew a huge thing to the left of Japan, "This is Eurasia."
"Wow!" Imagawa Kaede looked at this astonishing size comparison, "Is Japan only... so small? Then where is the Ming Dynasty?"
"Here." Yu Qiuping roughly outlined the outline of China at the eastern end of the Eurasian continent, and added the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia in the southeast of China.
"This is Manila and Batavia. As for this..." Yu Qiuping looked at Australia, "It's a continent that no one has ever been to."
"No one has been there? Naping, how did you..." Imagawa Kaede looked at Yu Qiuping with some doubts, "Are you scribbling?"
"No!" Yu Qiuping immediately retorted, "I promise you, this is definitely not a graffiti." Yu Qiuping made a gesture of swearing. Then he picked up his pen and roughly drew Africa and America on the west side of the Eurasian continent.
Outline. Then, it points to the top of Eurasia and America.
"This is the North Pole. There are animals called polar bears living up there, and your fur coat is made of their fur."
Imagawa Kaede stared at the world map blankly. After a long time, he asked, "Is the world... like this? I have seen the globes brought by missionaries before, but they are not as good as yours."
"Hehe, I will draw a detailed picture for you another day." Yu Qiuping said with a smile.
He looked out the window. A gust of cold wind blew snowflakes into the room, and the snowflakes fell on Imagawa Kaede's face, and even lost its color for a moment.
"You are so beautiful." Yu Qiuping murmured with emotion. Imagawa Feng quietly turned around to prevent Yu Qiuping from seeing the dimples on her cheeks.
Suddenly, a scent came along the wind. Yu Qiuping sniffed it hard, and it was the smell of roast chicken.
"In winter, you can have a barbecue." Yu Qiuping suddenly became happy, "Feng'er, let's take you to your cabin tomorrow to have a barbecue. Isn't there a big stove in the cabin?"
"Barbecue?" Imagawa Kaede blinked, "What is that?"
"Hey! Have you never had barbecue?" Yu Qiuping was a little surprised, but then he thought about Japan's meat ban and understood, "It's just skewering some food on bamboo skewers and grilling it on the fire. It's so good.
Eat!" Yu Qiuping smiled and gave a thumbs up, "I'm a barbecue expert! I'll show you my skills tomorrow!"
At noon the next day, when Imagawa Kaede arrived, Yu Qiuping had already turned on the stove. It must be said that the stove was really warm. It was so hot indoors that Yu Qiuping had to take off a few coats and wear summer clothes.
Fiddled with firewood.
"I'm really sorry, I'm late." Imagawa Kaede patted the snowflakes off his body, "I..."
"Did you oversleep?" Yu Qiuping answered with a smile, looking at Imagawa Kaede's aggrieved look with satisfaction.
"Hey, it's so hot in the room." Imagawa Kaede had just come in from the cold outdoors, and was immediately overheated by the heat in the room. "Why did Imagawa keep the fire so small?"
"We need barbecue. How can we grill it well without burning it vigorously?" Yu Qiuping replied while brushing oil on the chicken legs and beef skewers that would be barbecued later. After that, he pointed to the window, "I really can't open the window.
Open it, but it may bake a little slower."
As soon as the window opened, a cold wind blew in, and most of Yu Qiuping's barbecue fire was blown out. Yu Qiuping hurriedly changed places and blocked the incoming wind with his body.
"Hey! Why are there so many beef and chickens?" Imagawa Kaede shook his head, "These are all..."
"Oh, it's the meat ban that the emperor mentioned before, isn't it?" Yu Qiuping has lost count of how many times he has been troubled by this meat ban, "Some people say it's because Buddhism does not advocate killing.
Some people say that meat is a dirty thing. These are all false!" Yu Qiuping said as he put a beef skewer on the grill, "We in the Ming Dynasty, a long-lasting China, a country of etiquette, have never had
Why are you banning meat? Why are you banning meat in Japan? These are very nutritious..."
Imagawa Kaede sighed and listened to Yu Qiuping chattering, "It's those fallacies again." Imagawa Kaede muttered, picked up a skewer of grilled fish and put it on the grill.
On November 6, Yu Qiuping asked Imagawa Yoshimoto and Imagawa Kaede for a leave of absence (actually the latter was more important) to return to the territory for more than ten days and manage it properly. The troops finally decided not to go back and forth.
When he returned to the territory in the morning, the troops were training. In the morning, there was still the unwavering formation and discipline training. If there was a slight disobedience, there would be fifty - yes, the price has now increased to fifty push-ups. For example
Just now, Fukushima Yasunari's group was ordered to slap themselves immediately. One of the ashigaru reacted half a beat too late, and was caught by the patrolling Amano Keitoku to do push-ups.
"Oh my god, when I first proposed this training method, didn't you all think it was strange and impossible to complete? Why are you all so skilled now?" Yu Qiuping asked.
"I was blind beforehand." Amano Keitoku admitted his mistake, "Sir, this training method will definitely produce elite soldiers who obey orders."
"But the order to slap yourself...isn't it a bit too much?" Yu Qiuping asked.
"I don't think so," Fukushima Yasunari shook his head, "On the battlefield, it is even possible to issue a death order, and Ashigaru will need to obey unconditionally. If he is slapped repeatedly..." Fukushima Yasunari
Cheng looked at Yu Qiuping, who nodded in approval.
"How are the others doing?" Yu Qiuping looked at several square formations in the distance.
"Except for that boy Omaezaki Nakahide, who is idle all day long, and his soldiers are very free and unorganized during rest, and Ogawa Yutong is often drunk and misses training, everything else is fine." Fukushima Yasunari paused, and then added,
"There is also Charlie. He must practice archery by himself every day and refuses to participate in the training. He only occasionally comes to guide the archers' movements. However, everyone is very serious."
"Haha." Yu Qiuping smiled with satisfaction, "You all did a good job, I'm very satisfied. I will train with you for more than ten days. But I came back this time mainly to see the craftsmen.
Where’s the janissary?”
"Kaihei-sama is at the craftsman's side. I'll take you there." Fukushima Yasunari got rid of Amano Keitoku to help him take a temporary look at the troops, and then walked towards the corner of Nishimura with Yu Qiuping. Far away.
You can see the ground, and even before reaching the hotel, there are several chimneys emitting black smoke. After Yu Qiuping walked nearby, he could see that each of the twenty families of craftsmen has a small workshop of his own.
They were holding various tools and beating the weapons produced. Some were making spear points, some were making armor, and some were making bows and arrows.
"Sir, are you here?" After seeing Yu Qiuping coming, the guards hurriedly came up to greet him. The craftsmen around him also stopped their work and said hello to Yu Qiuping.
"How are you? How many births have you produced in so many days?" Yu Qiuping asked.
"Reporting to your lord," the guard bowed his hands and reported with some pride: "There are eight carpenters and twelve blacksmiths in total. A total of 4 tools, 124 spears, 45 bows and 412 arrows were produced."
"Why... there are so few Guzu!" Yu Qiuping opened his mouth. He thought that he could produce at least thirty Guzu.