Eternal Silence is no longer a settlement.
Over the past ten years, wooden beams and tiles have replaced thatch and mud, and stone paths have replaced gravel and mud, extending along the banks of streams and rivers.
The canal is led from the upper stream of the stream and divided into three branches, one running along East Street, one running along West Street, and one running through the market square in the center of the town.
Both sides of the canal are paved with bluestone slabs. In the summer, children tread water on the slabs with their bare feet. The water splashes onto the stall of the aunt selling vegetables on the roadside. The auntie curses a few words, and the children run away laughing.
The market square is the most lively place in Eternal Silence. Every morning, people set up stalls, selling vegetables, firewood, cloth, pottery pots, and rare gadgets sold from deeper areas of Rukongai.
There is a public stone well in the center of the square. The water in the well is warm in winter and cool in summer. The edge of the well is worn with ropes and wooden barrels to create a deep groove. The edge of the groove is as smooth as if it had been polished with sandpaper.
There is a stone pillar on each side of the square. There are two lines of words engraved on the pillars. On the left is "Those who come do not ask where they came from" and on the right are "Those who go leave no way home".
This was drawn up by monk Jueshu. He said that Eternal Silence should be like this. People who want to come can come, no matter who you are, where you come from, whether you have spiritual power, or whether you have a past. People who want to leave, no matter where you go, why you leave, or when you come back, you don't need to explain. But after more than ten years, there are very few people who leave and many people who come.
With a population of over a thousand, there are more and more children with psychic powers every year, and there are more and more adults with psychic powers every year.
Changji is no longer a shelter, not a ruined settlement where only the old, weak, sick, and disabled can survive with the Zanpakutō of two wandering Shinigami. It has become a town in the true sense, a place with a name, people in charge, and rules.
There are three private schools in the town, which are located on East Street, West Street and South Street. The teachers are invited from the first few districts of Rukongai. They are not high-level, but they take care of food and housing.
Shen Du has only one request for these gentlemen: both boys and girls must be literate. He himself is illiterate. Wuran has taught him for several years before he can barely understand the content on the notice. He does not want Eternal Silence The next generation of is still like him - they can't even write their own name, they can't even read other people's names, and even Seireitei's enrollment brochure has to be paraphrased by Wuran to know what's written on it.
Children with psychic powers learn literacy and arithmetic in private schools, and at the same time they also undergo basic training with Eternal Silence's armed forces, Zanjutsu, footwork, and Reiatsu perception. Not much can be taught, but it is better than learning nothing at all.
Every year, several children leave Eternal Silence, some go to Seireitei to apply for the Shin'ō Academy, some join Rukongai other armed groups, and some just want to see further places, Shen Du never stops them.
He only said one thing, "Tell your parents before you leave, don't let them think you were taken away by a ghost."
We don't stop the children when they are here, and they don't stop them when they leave, but every year, several young people come to Eternal Silence from outside, bringing with them new skills, new news, and new friends. Eternal Silence is breathing like this, people leave and people come, like a tide.
Shen Du transformed Eternal Silence's armed force from the original "team" of only two people and one Asauchi to today's Hundred-Man Squad
In terms of organization, training and discipline, he divided Hundred-Man Squad into ten teams. Each team has a captain. The captain reports directly to him. The patrol area covers all villages and wilderness within dozens of miles around Eternal Silence. The frequency of clearing out the void has changed from daily at the beginning to once a week or even half a month now.
The organized team members wear uniform dark gray shorts, with the Eternal Silence mark sewn on their left arm. A simple drawing of a small house is exactly the same as the one painted on the wooden sign that Wuran erected at the entrance of Eternal Silence.
Their weapons were initially iron knives, wooden sticks, and sharpened bamboo poles. Later, some Reishi Armament were seized from the armed groups of Rukongai. Later, a few stray Soul Reaper stayed in Eternal Silence and became the main combat force of Eternal Silence.
Of course, if there are too many people, Shen Du cannot manage them all
Some senior leaders, the old captain in Hundred-Man Squad, the old man in charge of supplies under Wuran, and even the first few old brothers who followed Shen Du out of that broken yard, have raised some private armed forces outside.
The scale is small, with more than a dozen or dozens of people. They usually make a living while patrolling around Eternal Silence. Sometimes they clash with other armed groups, sometimes they occupy some unowned land and water sources, and sometimes Shen Du knows about it but doesn't take care of it.
As long as he doesn't cause trouble, doesn't bully Eternal Silence residents, and doesn't cause trouble on Eternal Silence's territory, he will acquiesce.
These people did not leave Eternal Silence when it was the most difficult time. Now that Eternal Silence is getting better, he cannot turn his back on others. Moreover, Eternal Silence is essentially a community maintained by personal authority and human relationships. It is not a society like Seireitei with a complete legal and law enforcement system.
Shen Du's authority comes from his decades of continuous protection. He does not rely on decrees and punishments to maintain order, but relies on the trust of "this man has protected us all." This kind of trust is effective for old brothers, but its effectiveness is slowly weakening for young people who have never seen him hacking people in the ruins. He knows this, but he is not good at other methods.
Wuran is in charge of all the rest
With more people, there are more problems, such as eating, drinking, getting sick, quarreling, stealing, and fighting. Every day there are new troubles, and every day there are old troubles that remain unresolved.
He changed from a person who mediates disputes to a person who manages all people who mediate disputes; from running around every room in the settlement by himself to sitting in the management office on South Street and listening to the reports from the people in charge of each street. Chang Ji's "management" has changed from a single person to a network, with a person standing at every node of the network.
Some people are in charge of supplies, some are in charge of sanitation, some are in charge of public security, some are in charge of house repairs, and some are in charge of neighborhood disputes. Most of the people at these nodes are elected from Eternal Silence residents and do not receive salaries, but they will receive extra meat and cloth as subsidies during the holidays.
The man with the broken arm has been helping him for many years. People with his surname Endo and Eternal Silence call him "Uncle Endo". Only Shen Du and Wuran still call him "the one with the broken arm".
Endo has changed from the broken-armed man who only had one hand but stood in front of the old man and woman and was slapped away by the robber, to become the second person in Eternal Silence's management. When Wuran was away, he made the decision. There was a wooden stick tied to his broken arm. There were scales engraved on the wooden stick to measure cloth and wood. He made it himself and used it for more than ten years to polish it smooth and shiny.
He was in charge of the allocation of supplies, how much grain was stored in the warehouse, how much cloth was distributed, how much wood was allocated for house repairs, and how much medicinal materials were left for the medical station. He remembered every account clearly, and the handwriting was crooked but every number was correct. Wuran told Shen Du more than once that without Endo, he would have died of exhaustion at the desk of the management office about ten years ago.
Jueshu monk is still there
He traveled for several years and then came back. After he came back, he never left again. He built a small temple on the East Street of Eternal Silence. In the main hall was a Buddha statue that he kneaded with clay.
Jueshu spent three years repeatedly repairing, pinching, and polishing, until one day he sat in front of the Buddha statue for a whole afternoon and finally said, "Okay."
There is a wooden sign hanging at the entrance of the temple, with the three characters "Jueshu Temple" written on it, which were also written by Jueshu himself. The strokes are crude and simple, with edges hidden in the wood, forming an inexplicable echo with the characters Wuran at the entrance of Eternal Silence.
He recited sutras in the temple every day, and after he finished reciting, he went to sweep the floor on the street. He swept the section from East Street to the Market Square. Eternal Silence people are used to hearing the sound of a broom scratching across the stone slabs every morning, which makes people feel at ease.
The only two turmoils in Eternal Silence in recent years are reincarnation. If the soul stays in Rukongai for a long time, it will be sent to reincarnation by Reishi due to the rules of Soul Society. In most places in Rukongai, reincarnation is not something worth remembering. No one knows about it after death, so what is so good about reincarnation?
Some people who transform into Reishi are directly sent to reincarnation, some die of illness, and some die of old age. Anyway, in the end, they transform back into Reishi, return to the atmosphere of Reishi, or reincarnate in World of the Living. Because in Eternal Silence, we strive to break the numb environment, so every time a soul goes to reincarnation, it is a big event.
But Eternal Silence is different. Eternal Silence has established a rule since the town was founded: everyone who goes to reincarnation must carve a name in front of the stone tablet under the willow tree on the East Street.
The second is virtuality. Some become virtual due to extreme emotions, and some become virtual from Hueco Mundo.
Amakusa Shirō, the second combat force of Eternal Silence, the third in command of Eternal Silence, is usually arrogant, but has a pretty good personality, is not violent, and has no bad habits.
The reason why he stayed was very simple. There was food to eat and a place to live here, and no one left him waiting for anyone else.
Amakusa Shirō's house is on East Street near the temple. Amakusa was leaning against the wall, spinning a grass stem in his hand and chewing the end of the stem out of boredom.
A man came to report to him
"Amakusa Master, the south! Which abandoned mine in the south still has mines? I saw the nobleman coming in person, with a prospecting team." His voice was loud
Amakusa His eyes were looking at that man. He was thinking, not of course about the nobility, but about the mines.
"Mine" Amakusa Shirō spit the word out of his mouth. He stood up and walked to the door. His knowledge was limited. He didn't know how strong Soul Reaper was. He didn't know what the nobles wanted to do, but he knew about the mines. He knew that if there were mines, there would be money. This was what he heard in the prosperous town of Rukongai.
Amakusa stood up, walked to the door, and looked back at the person in the room who was waiting for his order, "Call the brothers and go take a look."
He didn't ask Shen Du's opinion, he didn't ask Wuran's opinion, and he didn't discuss it with anyone. He was the third-in-command of Eternal Silence, and he had the power to make this decision, at least that's what he thought.
"Sir Amakusa, you are going to..." Amakusa Shirō glared at that person
The man shut up and Amakusa Shirō walked out of the house. He had never seen a mine and didn't know what a mine looked like, but he knew that the mine was valuable. The mine could be exchanged for weapons, food, medicine, and many other things Eternal Silence needed.
There are thousands of people in Eternal Silence. They need to eat, drink water, get sick, and take medicine every day. Eternal Silence has no money. Eternal Silence relies on bartering, hunting, farming, luck, and mining is money.
Eternal Silence need that
Shen Du is in the martial arts hall on West Street
Wuran opened the door and walked in
"Amakusa is gone." Wuran saw Shen Du doing basic chopping exercises at a glance. Shen Du went to the area in front of Rukongai to learn from a swordsmanship instructor for only one year.
"What?" Shen Du stopped practicing the sword in his hands and turned to look at Wuran with a confused look on his face.
"I heard from Jueshu that Amakusa's people found a mine, and he is taking people there now." Wuran's tone was a little helpless.
"What did you say?!" Shen Du originally held the knife with both hands. He released one hand and stood up straight.
Shen Du doesn't know if there are nobles in the mine, but in his opinion, these things belong to the nobles.
"It's better to be killed by nobles there" he said with anger in his tone.