Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1484 - 1033: Five Years of Blessings, Sovereign of Great Calamity Relief, Lotus-Mother White-Robed Guanyin
"Hachiman Mahasattva protect us! Gold Shipwright, have the sails and ropes of the Ocean Shielding Ship been stored well? The most important are the sails..."
"Lord님! I have already stored the sails and ropes. As long as they don’t get too wet or freeze, the sails won’t crack!..."
"Hmm, that’s good!... With the sea frozen over, we’ll have to spend the winter here at the Rokube camp this year. The Ocean Shielding Ship will remain by this river... it won’t crack from freezing, right? Especially the bow that was previously damaged..."
"Lord, the bow has been repaired. There shouldn’t be any major problems. Naturally, it would be safest to haul the ship ashore... but if the ship is too heavy and there aren’t enough people to drag it, keeping it on the frozen river is also an option. It’s best to clear out the cargo from the hold, so the portion frozen under the water is shallower... then, every few days, drag the ship around so the ice doesn’t build up too thick..."
"Hmm... Hachiman Mahasattva protect us! Gold Shipwright, do as you say! Whether we smoothly return to the warm Victory Mountain Manor next spring or fall into the endless abyss of the Kusatsu, it all depends on you and this ship!..."
"Lord님! I understand!..."
The Little Deer Moss River meandered, shimmering with the white light of floating ice, flowing slowly into the Northwest’s Far North Sea. Unknowingly, November was already halfway through. In the north of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the coastal freeze was gradually deepening, with snow covering up to half-shin depth along the shore, a white expanse as far as the eye could see, truly clean.
"Phew! Bodhisattva protect us! The long, dreadful winter of the Far North land is visibly approaching!..."
Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi exhaled a breath of white mist, standing on the third deck of the Ocean Shielding Ship, surveying the cold, white world. In the distance lay the white Far North Sea, nearby the white land. To the southeast, the horizon was a series of tall, white mountains.
The local people of Rokube said that in the southern mountains, there lives a "Mountain Part." They are also reindeer herders and fishermen, but timid and never dare to clash with the "mighty Deer Moss River Tribe." The "mighty Deer Moss River Tribe" resides over two hundred li south by the Great Deer Moss River. The Great Deer Moss River is indeed a Great River, surrounded by lush short grass and moss, which even now hasn’t frozen over!
Recalling the tone of envy and longing when the local people of Rokube mentioned the Great Deer Moss River, Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi shook his head, filled with caution.
In this savage and fierce Far North land, being able to occupy lush waterways must mark a powerful tribe within hundreds or even thousands of li! This so-called Deer Moss River Tribe might be able to muster two hundred able-bodied hunters in one go...
And now, there are only twenty-one people on the ship, seven of whom are Korean sailors and shipwrights with no combat capabilities, six are wounded, and truly only eight are Samurai. With such a force, if the ship were to encounter these powerful tribes, they might easily be overrun, ship and all!
"Damn it! May the immovable Ming King of justice cast out the ropes, bind those brutal and cruel Tent Barbarians, wield the sharp sword, and slash off those human-eating demons’ heads!... Damn it! Chop off your heads!..."
Remembering the Chukchi Tent Division hunters who raided the fleet, Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi gritted his teeth, cursing helplessly. He couldn’t help but press his left hand against his injured right shoulder, feeling the bone-chilling pain, just like when he was first wounded! 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
That day’s Tent Division ambush, though nearly a month had passed, still haunted Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi like a nightmare. As he landed with half the crew to set up camp, fetch water, and cook, the Tent Division hunters sledded up, bows raised, shooting them down one by one on the snow plains!
"Damn it! Damn Tent Barbarians! If not for the arrow in my shoulder!..."
Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi cursed furiously, pressing against his injured shoulder, still feeling a close brush with death!
Those taciturn, weather-beaten, fierce hunters, without a word, charged close and shot with extraordinary precision using bone arrows!
The outermost few Korean sailors drawing water were shot through the throat, dying silently by the cold riverside. As the Monk Soldier leader clad in Doumaru, he was a prime target, with two bone arrows piercing towards his throat and cheek, terrifyingly precise!
In that moment of life and death, he relied on years of battle instinct, crouching and sidestepping to block the two arrows with his shoulder. The strength of those bone arrows, even across tens of meters, pierced through the shoulder armor of his Doumaru. The arrowheads penetrated an inch deep into his flesh, causing him to lose grip of his Naginata instantly...
"Damn it! My Naginata! That was a superior quality weapon bestowed upon me personally by the Elder of Miao Courtyard!..."
Thinking of the lost Naginata on the snow plain, Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi pressed his lips, a touch of shame appearing on his face, unable to utter another word.
Facing the Tent Division hunters’ assault, five Samurai of the Kaozaki Family immediately took up long spears, stepping on ankle-deep snow, charging towards the enemies dozens of meters away. Yet those brutal and cruel Tent Barbarians did not engage in close combat. They skillfully commanded their sled dogs, continually retreating, maintaining a shooting distance of twenty to thirty meters, shooting down the Armor-clad Samurai of the Kaozaki Family one by one onto the thick snow...
Witnessing such a one-sided slaughter and the blood blossoms on the snow, Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi felt a chill overtake him. He was once a Great General of the Shoni Family, acquainted with the Ouchi clan’s Ryu-Tetsu Horses, knowing the potency of such a tactic. With their precise and powerful archery, even twenty sled hunters were beyond what the ship’s force could contend with!...
So, on the brink of life and death, he decisively dropped the unholdable long Naginata and ran towards the Ocean Shielding Ship at the shore, as decisively as he had once fled a battlefield with the Ouchi clan...
The ambush by the Chukchi Tent Division lasted less than a quarter of an hour, with just twenty sled hunters shooting down five Kaozaki clan samurai and four Korean sailors. Of the fifteen crew members who landed ashore, including Watanabe Masumi himself, only six escaped back, each with arrow wounds. If it weren’t for the cautiousness of Ship Commander Murakami Kitamichi, who always kept half the crew on the Ocean Shielding Ship, they might not have had enough time to raise the sails and leave that treacherous coast where danger suddenly loomed!...
"Ah! This is... the Merciful Mother of the Lotus Department, the White-robed Guanyin, the Great Savior of Peril and Suffering!"
On the highest deck, Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi’s thoughts surged, and he couldn’t help but bow his head. Then, he opened his eyes wide, staring at the wooden plaque devoutly carved by the Gold Shipwright, quickly recognizing the image of the White-robed Guanyin.
This White-robed Guanyin, known for saving the suffering in Korean Buddhism, is precisely the Thousand-Armed Guanyin worshiped at the Miao Courtyard’s Lotus King Temple. In the so-called Thirty-Three Halls of the Lotus King Temple, there are the Eleven-faced Thousand-armed and Thousand-eyed Avalokiteshvara, and the Twenty-eight Minsions under Guanyin’s command!
Simply put without shirking responsibility, the White-robed Guanyin is the Chief Divine in the Buddhist faith of Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi!
"Great Compassionate Thousand-armed Guanyin!..."
Looking at the wooden plaque of Guanyin, Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi stood silently for a long time. At this moment, he remembered again the last look towards the shore after escaping onto the Ocean Shielding Ship.
The Chukchi hunters, dressed in open-winged armor, commanded their howling pack of dogs, resembling the Heavenly Dogs of the Far North Snow Plains. They pursued the Ocean Shielding Ship until the large ship sailed away from the shore, then stopped in disappointment, letting out a few mournful howls.
Afterward, they dragged all the corpses of the samurai and sailors onto sleds and took everything from the camp, not even leaving behind a single plank of wood. Once everything was packed up, they drove away like the wind with their wolf-like pack of dogs...
The Chukchi came swiftly and left just as swiftly, as if it was all just an illusion of wind and snow, leaving only a third of the crew gone. The Ocean Shielding Ship raised full sails, hastily escaping the coast, even crashing its bow on coastal reefs, taking more than half a month to repair. As for the fate of the crew’s bodies, in Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi’s view, they were either consumed by the "Heavenly Dogs" of the snow plains or by the wolves of the Heavenly Dogs, likely to be doomed to the Beast Path underground!
"Great Compassionate Thousand-armed Guanyin! May those warriors and sailors who fell into the Sanzu River and were devoured by evil spirits, be saved by your merciful incarnation, the Majestic Horse-Headed Ming King, and transcend from the Beast Path!..."
Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi closed his eyes and bowed his head, twirling the sandalwood Buddha beads in his hand, counting twenty-eight times, exactly corresponding to Guanyin’s twenty-eight minions. Then, he shook his head, stuffed the string of twenty-eight sandalwood Buddha beads into the kneeling Gold Shipwright’s hands, and patted his shoulder.
"Gold Shipwright, you are now the only shipwright in the fleet, the only one who can repair the ship and sails!"
"My lord?"
"The Great Compassionate Thousand-armed Guanyin can only save us after death... But in this lifetime’s wind and snow hardships, we can only rely on everyone in the fleet, rely on ourselves!..."
"Eh?... My lord?..."
"Get up, stop prostrating. Come down from the ship with me!"
"Ah?"
"That guy Murakami traded with the local tribes for some deer meat. So many people have died, yet there’s plenty of food on the ship... we’re preparing to cook deer meat porridge!"
"Deer... Deer meat porridge?... *slurp*, *gulp*..."
"Yes, you will join us. Have porridge together!"
"Ah! Oh... My lord..."
Watching the surprised and hesitant Gold Shipwright, Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi cracked a rare smile. Then, he pointed to the low camp on the shore, indicating the unimpressive bonfire in the middle, before stepping off the sea ship in two strides.
Behind him, Shipwright Kim Sun-su hesitated for a moment, carefully wrapped the Buddha beads and Guanyin wooden plaque, then climbed the ship’s ropes while chasing after Watanabe Masumi’s figure, shouting out one last sentence.
"My lord! I will listen to you!... The Bodhisattva will surely bless us!~~"
