"How is it?" A-Machi asked Ogata, who had just used a telescope to take a look at the Red Moon Fortress from afar, "What does the Red Moon Fortress look like?"
"It's too far away to see clearly. I can only see a section of wooden wall and a river next to it."
Ogata handed the telescope in his hand to Atachi.
"Would you like to take a look at it?"
"I don't need it." Ating shook his head, "It will be here soon anyway."
At this moment, a very young man suddenly came.
After the young man said something to Ayizan who was right next to Ogata, he quickly left and ran towards the back of the team.
"What did that person say just now?" Ogata asked.
"That young man came to convey the order of the village chief," Ayizan said. "The village chief just ordered: Rest here for a while."
"Rest here now?" Ogata raised his eyebrows, "He Yezhe is already in sight."
"The young man just explained the reason," Ayizan said. "We have been walking for quite a long time, and many of the elderly and weak are already very tired."
"Although He Yezhe is right in front of us now, the remaining distance is not too short."
“It’s a bit too much of a stretch to ask these tired old and weak people in the team to continue walking the rest of the distance.”
"Anyway, there's still some time before dark, so there's no rush to enter Heye Zhe."
"That's why the village chief decided to take a short break and then finish the last part of the journey after he's had enough rest."
Ogata was not in a hurry at first. Since Village Chief Chepke decided to continue resting for the sake of the elderly and weak in the village, Ogata would not say anything more.
At this moment, Ogata suddenly remembered something.
"Rest?" A strange smile appeared on Ogata's face. "I think Asuma and the others will be very happy..."
Hearing Ogata's sigh, Atachi beside him couldn't help but let out a strange smile.
Ogata felt that it was a waste of talent for Yashili's grandmother to stay in Ezo.
He thought that Yashili's grandmother should go to a big city like Osaka, Kyoto, or Edo to be a storyteller, and she would definitely make a lot of money every day.
…
…
It was indeed just as Ogata said - after receiving the order from Chepke Village Chief to take a temporary break, the people of Red Moon Fortress, led by Aizuma, were very happy.
At last they could continue to listen to the story.
…
…
"Grandma! You're here!"
Asuma said this in an excited tone to Yashili's grandmother who was walking slowly towards them.
"Wow, wow, wow..." Grandma covered her mouth and laughed, "Sorry, I kept you waiting for so long."
In front of grandma were the people from the Red Moon Fortress sitting on the snow in various postures.
Everyone looked at grandma with expectant and impatient eyes.
"Grandma! There happens to be a fallen dead tree here!" Aisuma took her grandmother's hand and led her to a dead tree lying on the ground.
The snow on the dead trees had just been swept away by Aisuma and the others.
Grandma didn't hesitate and sat down on the dead tree, crossing her hands over her legs.
"Where was I last time?" asked Grandma.
"It tells the story of a white man who was trying to escape on his horse, but was blocked by Majima Goro!" said Aisuma.
"Oh, there it is." Grandma raised her hand and patted her head, "I remember it now."
"Um... Mother-in-law." Asuma suddenly made a strange expression and said in a cautious tone, "Is there any way to finish the story today?"
"Ha ha ha..." Grandma covered her mouth and laughed in her unique way. "The story has come to an end. Grandma promises you that she can finish the story during this break."
After that, grandma cleared her throat and continued slowly:
"The white man who was trying to escape on horseback escaped all the way."
"Just when he was about to escape from the village, Majima Goro jumped out from the side."
"He just stood there in front of the white man who was trying to escape on horseback."
"There was no extra time or energy to change direction, so the white man decided to ride his horse and knock Majima Goro away."
…
Aisuma and others who were sitting in front of her in various postures listened attentively to their grandmother's story.
My grandmother used to tell the young children in the village heroic epics passed down from generation to generation, so she had already developed a sharp storytelling skill.
Grandma knew that if she finished telling Ogata's story too quickly, she would be stuck in the same situation again, with nothing to do during breaks.
So grandma made a very smart decision - to tell Ogata's story as long as possible.
So, relying on her storytelling skills that she had honed from telling stories to children in the village, she has not yet finished telling Ogata's story - several days have passed...
In order to prevent Aisuma and the others from getting tired of the story, grandma was particularly careful - she would stop at the most exciting moment every time to whet Aisuma's appetite, so that Aisuma and the others would keep asking her to come over to tell the story in order to continue listening to the following content.
So - since they started traveling with the villagers of Qina Village, sitting around grandma's lap like they are doing now and listening to her talk about the specific process of Ogata "saving the village alone" has become something they must do during their breaks.
Ogata, the protagonist of the story, learned about this shortly after Yashili's grandmother began to tell his story to Asuma and the others.
When Ogata learned that Yashili's grandmother had the ability to tell the story of how he "saved the village alone" for so many days, he was simply astonished...
Ogata attended the lectures several times.
On the night the village was attacked, the elderly grandmother did not participate in the battle but hid at home.
Although she did not witness Ogata's battle personally, she heard about Ogata's deeds from different people afterwards, so she had no worries about having nothing to say, and what she said was generally correct.
Through the few times he had sat in on the story, Ogata discovered that the reason his grandmother could tell his story for so long was not because of any complicated method, but simply because she simply dragged out the plot.
His grandmother could talk for a whole minute about the action of him drawing his sword to block.
But what can I do? My grandma is very eloquent.
She could make such a trivial story sound so good. I knew she was dragging her feet, but I couldn't help but want to listen to her.
After attending the grandmother's "storytelling session", Ogata's first feeling was that it was a pity that Yashili's grandmother did not become a storyteller.
But grandma is also a conscientious person.
She knew that the Red Moon Fortress was just around the corner, so she knew that now should be their last rest time.
Therefore, grandma did not continue the story this time, but ended Ogata's story very neatly, so that Aisuma and the others did not have to keep them in suspense.
At the end of the break, grandma just finished telling the whole story.
When they learned that the story had finally come to an end, both Asuma and the other people in Red Moon Fortress felt as if a huge stone had fallen from their hearts and the anger that had been pent up in their chests had finally been released.
After the rest period, the team set off again.
After the team set off again, Aisuma took the initiative to request that they, the residents of Red Moon Fortress, walk in the front, so that it would be convenient for them to communicate with their compatriots on the city wall and ask them to let them pass.
There was no reason to refuse such a proposal, so Chepke readily agreed.
…
…
The team that set out again approached the Red Moon Fortress little by little.
The fortress, which was originally only a vague shadow, is now gradually becoming a clear entity.
Just now, when Ogata was using the telescope to observe the Red Moon Fortress for the first time, he couldn't see it clearly because the distance was still too far.
As he got closer and closer to the Red Moon Fortress, Ogata finally began to see the specific appearance of the Red Moon Fortress and its surrounding environment.
Red Moon Fortress was built along the river.
There is a "J"-shaped river flowing around it. The river channel is very wide and the water is very fast. It will not freeze even in such a cold weather.
The Red Moon Fortress was built inside this Chinese character “几”.
To give an illustrative example, the Red Moon Fortress and the river flowing by it can form the Chinese character “凡” (Fan).
The river is the "几" in the word "凡", and the Red Moon Fortress is the "丶" in the word "凡".
The fortress is surrounded by rivers on three sides, and Ogata and his companions are now approaching the side of the wall that is not close to the river.
There is a huge gate on the side of the wall that does not face the river.
The walls and doors are all made of wood.
After getting closer to the Red Moon Fortress and being able to see it more clearly, Ogata was surprised to find that the Red Moon Fortress had a double wall structure.
There is an outer city wall, and inside the outer city wall there is an inner city wall.
The inner city wall is higher than the outer city wall.
According to Ogata's visual estimation, the height of the outer city wall was about 4.5 meters.
The height of the inner city wall is about 5.5 meters.
This double wall structure has two major advantages.
1: The attacker must break through two walls in succession to capture the fortress.
Second: The defenders can launch a three-dimensional attack through the two walls. The soldiers responsible for close combat stand on the outer wall to meet the enemy, while the archers, musketeers and other soldiers responsible for long-range attacks stand on the inner wall which is higher than the outer wall and shoot at the incoming enemies.
In addition to its double-wall structure, Red Moon Fortress has another very eye-catching feature.
"Hey." A-Machi turned his head and whispered to Ogata beside him, "Why is the wall of the Red Moon Fortress so strange? It's bumpy and uneven."
"Ah... yes, yes, it is very strange..." Ogata said something casually, and after perfunctorily answering Atachi, he continued to look at the uneven walls of the Red Moon Fortress with a surprised look.
Ating, who had never seen the world, could not recognize this kind of city wall.
But Ogata, as a time traveler, recognized it.
Ogata had read an introduction to this kind of fortress in a book.
This style of wall was an important feature of some famous fortresses.
"Bastion..." Ogata murmured in a low voice that only the most powerful could hear.
Bastion - a powerful weapon that came into being after firearms were used in the West.
After gunpowder and firearms were introduced to the West and the West entered the era of firearms, urban offensive and defensive warfare entered a new stage. The following short period was the golden age of the attackers.
The old-fashioned fortresses were completely defenseless against new weapons such as firearms.
Fortress after fortress succumbed to the might of the artillery.
But Westerners are not stupid either.
However, within half a century, a new type of city defense system - the bastion - came onto the stage of history.
The so-called bastion is actually to change the fortress from a convex polygon to a concave polygon.
This improvement means that no matter where in the castle you attack, you will expose the attacker to more than one bastion face, allowing the defender to use cross-fire to launch multiple strikes.
To put it simply, no matter where the attacker attacks, they will be attacked from 2 to 3 or even more directions at the same time.
After the birth of the bastion, the West returned to the era of "the defenders gain all the advantages and the attackers suffer all the hardships."
The bastion, coupled with a sufficient number of soldiers and weapons, can completely resist the attack of enemies several times or even 10 times more.
At this moment, Ogata vaguely saw that there were many figures swaying on both the outer and inner city walls - these figures should be the guards responsible for standing on the walls to guard outside the Great Wall.
The guards on the wall have already discovered Ogata and his group, and the shadows are moving quickly.
After getting closer to the fortress, Asuma, who was walking in front, shouted something loudly to the guards on the outer city wall.
Afterwards, the guards on the outer city wall also responded with a few words in Ainu, which Ogata could not understand.
Then, Oobian saw the fortress's gate slowly opening.
There is no moat around the fortress, but the gate of the Red Moon Fortress is a European-style drawbridge gate.
The vast majority of the villagers in Qina Village have never been to the Red Moon Fortress.
So whether it was Ogata, Atachi, or the villagers of Qina Village, after they slowly entered the Red Moon Fortress through the open gate, they all turned their heads frequently and looked around.
When the team just entered the fortress, many guards wearing the iconic bright red uniforms of the Red Moon Fortress surrounded them with various weapons in their hands.
After Asuma, who was walking in front of the team, said something to them, the guards immediately made way, leaving a small path for Ogata and his team to pass.
After passing through the gate of the outer city wall, Ogata looked around - there was actually nothing interesting to see around.
There was almost nothing between the inner and outer walls. Only some people with weapons were seen moving between the two walls.
The distance between the inner city wall and the outer city wall is about 15-20 meters.
The inner city wall, like the outer city wall, is a bastion-style wall.
After Ogata and his companions passed through the gate of the outer city wall, the gate of the inner city wall was opened immediately.
After passing through the gate of the inner city wall, Ogata and his companions finally entered the Red Moon Fortress.
After passing through the gate of the inner city wall, looking around, you can see Ainu-style houses.
By now, many residents of Red Moon Fortress have gathered around to join in the fun after receiving the news that "someone is visiting".
Although he had not yet officially entered the residence of the residents of Red Moon Fortress, looking around from under the inner city wall - the number and density of houses were far beyond Ogata's imagination.
What also exceeded Ogata's imagination was the liveliness of the Red Moon Fortress. Although it was still some distance away from the residents' residence, Ogata could already hear bursts of noise.
Ogata looked back at the inner city wall behind him - it must be said that the defense system of the Red Moon Fortress is so powerful that it is not enough to describe it with just the word "powerful".
Double wall structure + bastion-style wall = attacker's nightmare.
The most powerful aspect of the bastion is not its defense, but its firepower.
The bastion's wall design leaves the defenders with no blind spots for shooting.
The design of double city walls allows the defenders to launch three-dimensional attacks.
That is to say, whoever attacks the Red Moon Fortress, no matter which direction they attack, will be attacked from at least three directions: the front wall, the side wall, and the inner wall.
Ogata guessed that the Lucia people who built this fortress must have intended to use it for military purposes.
If the purpose was just to set up an ordinary outpost, they would definitely not build this kind of double-walled bastion which is both time-consuming and labor-intensive.
However, perhaps because it is in a distant foreign country and there is a lack of manpower and material resources, the construction of the Red Moon Fortress's walls is still a bit rudimentary.
The wall is not made of stone but of wood.
This kind of wooden wall is destined to affect the defense of the Red Moon Fortress. No matter how hard the wood is, it cannot be harder than artillery. If the artillery hits the city wall directly, the consequences will be disastrous.
And according to Ogata's observation, there were not many facilities such as towers on the wall.
However, it is extremely difficult to build such a wooden fortress with double wall structure in a distant foreign country with a lack of financial, human and material resources.
If the walls of the Red Moon Fortress were made of stone and had sufficient towers and other facilities, then the Red Moon Fortress would be a veritable iron wall.
More and more residents of Red Moon Fortress gathered around to join in the fun.
They looked at the villagers of Qina Village, as well as Ogata and Atachi with curiosity.
Compared to the villagers of China Village, it is naturally Ogata and Atachi, who have completely different faces and wear completely different clothes from them, who attract more attention from the residents of Red Moon Fortress.
"It feels like we are animals being watched..." Atachi, who did not like being stared at like that, complained in a low voice to Ogata beside her.
"Maybe Kazuto is very rare in Red Moon Fortress." Ogata said with a wry smile, "It has probably been a long time since Kazuto visited Red Moon Fortress... maybe he hasn't even visited it."
"We should be the only two Japanese people in Red Moon Fortress now."
…
…
At this moment——
Somewhere in Red Moon Fortress——
"Hey! Isn't it time to let me out? I've told you many times! I'm not a spy for the shogunate! I hate the shogunate the most! How could I possibly work for the shogunate!"
An angry and old voice was heard from a certain house.
The voice spoke in somewhat unstandard Ainu language.
Two young men holding bows and arrows were guarding outside the door of the house .
"Shut up!" one of the two young men shouted, "Be quiet! Once we confirm that you are not a spy among the people, we will let you go!"
"How long will it take?!" the old voice sounded again.
"I don't know!" said the young man.
"Then can you give me some paper and pen, or return my luggage to me? There is nothing in this room. Do you want to suffocate me to death?"
"No! We won't return your luggage to you until we confirm whether you are a spy!"
"That's enough!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of foot kicking on the wall was heard from inside the house .
"Why is my luck so bad lately..."
The angry voice in the house turned into a voice that was both angry and annoyed.
"First, I met a strange village doctor in a certain village... He got me kicked out of the village."
"Now he's been arrested as a spy for the shogunate..."
"That's enough!"
The sound of kicking the wall was heard again in the room.