I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

"I was a swordsman in ancient Japan ()"

Although it took a lot of time to hold a rather short "lying meeting" before going to bed last night, Ogata still slept very soundly that night.

Early the next morning, Lin asked everyone to gather in the big room where Ogata and the others lived.

Only the six-person room where Ogata and the others lived had enough space for their meetings.

If the meeting was held in the single room where Rin and Machi lived, they wouldn't even have a place to sit, they could only stand.

After everyone lined up in a circle and sat down on the tatami in Ogata's room, Lin cleared her throat and said first:

"Look at everyone's complexions, everyone had a good rest last night."

Thanks to the blessing of the sea voyage some time ago, Ogata has long been used to sleeping in the same room with Mamiya and the others.

Ogata slept very well last night and didn't even have a dream.

Judging by the expressions of Jiangong and the others, they must have had a good rest last night.

After resting for a whole night yesterday, A-Ming has also recovered, his face has become rosy, and he is no longer as pale as before due to dizziness and nausea.

Lin's complexion is also very good, and her seasickness symptoms must have disappeared like Ah-Ming's.

After saying a few simple greetings, Lin cleared her throat:

"In short—let's review the information we currently know."

Lin winked at Jiangong and Mucun.

Obviously they didn't say anything, but the tacit understanding cultivated by getting along for a long time made Jiangong and Mucun instantly understand what Lin asked him to do.

Jiangong and Mucun each held their knives and walked in different directions.

Jiangong walked towards the door, and Mucun walked towards the window.

The two checked the outside of the room and confirmed that no one was eavesdropping outside the door or window. They nodded to Lin and sat back in their seats.

When Mamiya and Mucun returned to their positions, they knocked on the ceiling above their heads with the knife in their hands to confirm that no one was eavesdropping on the ceiling.

After Jian Gong and Mu Cun sat down again, Lin said solemnly:

"According to the information provided by Ms. A-machi, Shiranui has 24 top ninjas, 52 middle ninjas, and 139 low ninjas. The total number of ninjas is 215."

"Of course—this is also the total combat power Shiranui had before Ms. A-Machi left Shiranui."

"The combat power that Shiranui has now is definitely less than the combat power that Ms. Machi had before she left."

"After all, the Junin and Chunin alone were hacked by Ogata Yidaosai in Nijo Castle a lot."

After Ogata and Atachi decided to form an alliance with the gourd house, they have already shared all the information they know about Shiranui.

For example, Shiranui's current combat power, their possession of a special drug called "Yasha Pill", etc., were all clear to everyone present.

Although everyone was familiar with the information, they still listened to Lin's story seriously.

"Whether it's the upper ninja, the middle ninja, or the lower ninja, they are nothing to be afraid of. The only thing we need to beware of is their leader, the Balrog, and their four heavenly kings: Shuntaro, Gokutaro, Kotaro, and Shintaro."

Acho not only shared the number of ninjas in Shiranui before she left, but also shared the list of the Four Heavenly Kings in Shiranui.

"Currently, Kotaro has been beheaded by Ogata Ittosai."

"Although the Four Heavenly Kings are currently missing one, they still cannot be taken lightly."

"After all, it cannot be ruled out that the Balrog newly promoted a ninja with good skills to be the new king during this period."

"We need to do two things first."

Lin held up 2 fingers.

"We only know that Shiranui's new base has moved to Edo, but we don't know where it is in Edo Castle."

"So the first thing we have to do is: find out where the new base in Shiranui is.

"

"As for the second thing, it is to find out what happened to the 'Imperial Trial'."

"The 'Imperial Trial' may contain some interesting information that is useful to us."

"In short—let's all take action today."

"Find out where the new base in Shibuhuoli is - I will be responsible for this matter."

Lin took the initiative to take on the task of finding a new base in Shiranui.

"I have a little friendship with a ground snake here in Edo. I found out the exact location of the new base in Shiranui in Edo. For such a thing, I can definitely find that ground snake."

"Uncle, you can follow me today. With you following me, and talking about business with those ground snakes, I will definitely save a lot of resistance."

"Gamiya, Ogata Yidaosai, you guys should go to the street today and ask passers-by what is going on with the 'Imperial Trial Marriage'."

"In addition to looking for information related to the 'Imperial Trial Cooperation', you should also find out if there is anything worth mentioning that happened in Edo recently."

"Inquire about the recent major events in Edo, and maybe you can find some interesting and useful information."

"Acting alone may encounter dangers that cannot be solved alone, so you act in pairs."

"Yahachi and Katsurokuro are in a team, and Kuro is in a team with Shichibei."

Rin turned her attention to Ogata and Acho.

"Ogata Ittosai, you should be in the same group as Ms. Atachi."

"Those of you who are inconvenient to show your face, remember to put on a good disguise."

Lin's arrangement was straightforward.

No one objected.

...

...

Lin and Yuanyi, who were ready to go out the fastest, set off first to find the local snake in Edo that Lin just mentioned.

Mamiya, Makimura, Asai, and Shimada all followed closely behind. After getting ready to go out, they dispersed in groups of two to different directions, looking for information related to the "Imperial Trial". intelligence.

Only Ogata and A-Machi remained in the hotel, not going out for a long time.

It's not that Ogata and A-Machi are cocksuckers, it's just that A-Machi needs to make up, so it takes a little longer.

Acho is the rebellious ninja in Shiranui.

At the moment when Shiranui moved their base to Edo, it was very necessary for Acho to disguise his face like Ogata and Mamiya, the two fugitives of the shogunate.

When entering Edo Castle at dusk last night, Ah-cho had been lying on Ogata's back, buried his face in Ogata's back, and never raised his head the whole time. Outsiders couldn't even see Ah-cho's face, so when Ah-cho entered the city last night It doesn't matter if you don't have to pretend.

But not now.

Now if he wants to walk swaggeringly on the street, it is very necessary for A-Machi to disguise his own face.

And the form of camouflage chosen by A-Ming is—makeup.

According to Ah-Ming, she wanted to put on a make-up that even her father would not recognize her.

Ogata first went to a store specializing in women's cosmetics, and bought various cosmetics that A-machi requested.

Ogata was lucky. Somewhere not far from the hotel where they were staying, there was a shop selling women's cosmetics.

After buying the cosmetics she requested for Ah-cho, Ah-cho locked himself in her room and began to put on makeup.

And it takes half an hour to put on makeup...

Now half an hour has passed, and A-Ming still hasn't come out of her room.

Ogata stayed in the big room where he, Mamiya and the others lived, silently waiting for A-Machi to put on her makeup.

In the past half an hour, Ogata had knocked on the door of Ah-Ming's room several times, asking whether Ah-Machi had put on his makeup or not.

The answers I got were all——Come on, come on, just wait.

After waiting tediously for half an hour, when Ogata was thinking about whether to knock on the door of A-Machi's room again, asking if A-Machi had put on makeup——

call!

It was the sound of the door of the large room where Ogata was staying was being opened.

Ogata hurriedly followed the prestige.

I saw a woman with incredible heavy makeup standing at the door.

Looking at the "heavy make-up monster" walking slowly in front of him with a smile along the opened door, Ogata asked back in a surprised tone:

"Are you...A-Machi?"

"Who else but me?"

"...What an incredible makeup look." Ogata said with emotion.

At this time, Machi pulled her hair into the Shimada bun, which is very popular among women.

The eyes are painted with rather exaggerated red eyeshadow.

The two eyebrows were drawn into indescribable shapes.

The lips were stained with lipstick so that they couldn't bear to look directly at them.

I have to say - Ah-cho's make-up was quite successful.

Thanks to the heavy makeup, Ah-Ming's beautiful facial features have been messed up.

It is difficult for Ogata, who has a close relationship with Ah-Machi, to recognize her...

The current appearance of A-Ming is very similar to the kind of young girl who has just become interested in makeup, but because she is not yet proficient in makeup, she has drawn a very indescribable makeup...

Looking at Ogata's stunned look, A-Machi nodded with satisfaction on his face:

"It seems that my makeup is very successful."

"It's really too successful..." Ogata couldn't help applauding a few times.

...

...

There were originally only two pieces of A-Machi's clothes—one of the ninja uniform they had in Shiranui, and one of the yukatas that A-Machi bought in Kyoto after defecting from Shiranui and fleeing to Kyoto.

Because A-Machi has very few clothes, on the way from Kyoto to Owari, Ogata bought a Wakizasa and a sword for A-Machi, and also bought a few pieces for A-Machi new clothes.

At this time, Amachi was wearing a light red kimono that Ogata bought for her, and her feet without socks were wearing a pair of very convenient straw sandals that were very similar to the flip-flops of modern Earth. They walked together with Ogata On a busy street in Edo.

Looking at the densely packed crowd in front, back, left, and right, A-Ming let out a low exclamation.

"There are so many people..."

Ogata and A-machi are now in a commercial area full of shops, so the flow of people is frighteningly high.

There are only people everywhere, people gather into mountains, people merge into seas, and people pile up into walls.

This street is like a river whose bed is full of mud and is seriously silted up. The river can only move forward with difficulty in this pile of mud.

Seeing a little gap ahead and jumping in to fill it - that's how people move on this street.

People on this street are squeezing, crawling, and touching each other like this, moving their bodies forward little by little, and moving forward slowly.

Edo was finally able to show its full prosperity to Ogata and the others at dawn.

The scene of Edo during the day and the scene that Ogata saw last night cannot be compared at all.

The thick makeup on A-Ming's face attracted many people's attention.

But everyone just glanced sideways at A-Ming, and didn't look at A-Ming with the eyes of looking at rare and exotic animals.

It can be seen that in Edo, there must be a lot of girls who are not good at makeup and paint their faces in a mess, otherwise everyone would definitely not look strange...

It was the first time for A-machi to see such a bustling scene, he looked left and right, and looked at everything around him with curious eyes.

"We're not here to play." Ogata couldn't help but said to A-machi who seemed to be focusing on watching the prosperity of Edo in a helpless tone.

"I know." A-Ming said, "I'm also seriously looking for someone who might know the details of the 'Imperial Trial'."

Ogata and A-Machi walked through this bustling commercial street together, and when they came to a street with less crowded traffic, Ogata found a very good questioner—a tea house sitting not far in front of him. Samurai on a bench outside.

The old samurai seemed to be in his 50s or 60s, and his hair was nearly half gray.

He is wearing decent and clean clothes, and the knife placed on the stool on the right side of his body is also clean from the scabbard to the handle. It looks like a person who is usually very diligent in taking care of his saber.

The old warrior just sat alone on the bench outside the teahouse, quietly sipping a cup of hot tea.

No matter the posture of sitting or drinking tea, there is an elegant atmosphere.

This old samurai looked like a well-bred person.

This kind of well-cultivated samurai seems to be the kind of person who knows a lot about the "imperial test".

After finally finding a suitable target, Ogata took the initiative to attack.

After asking A-Ming to stand aside and wait for him to come back, Ookai quickly walked towards the old warrior.

"Excuse me, is there someone sitting next to you?"

Walking up to the old samurai, Ooyo asked the old samurai politely.

As soon as Ogata finished speaking, the old samurai smiled slightly:

"No one, sit down."

"grateful."

Sitting next to the old samurai, after casually ordering a cup of tea, Ogata began to make friends with the old samurai.

This old samurai is also a talkative person. Seeing that Ogata took the initiative to chat with him, the old samurai also actively responded to every word of Ogata.

In order to quickly close the distance between the two, Ogata took the initiative to introduce himself, saying that he is a ronin from Izumo, named Goro Mashima, who traveled around in order to hone his sword skills, and came to Edo only yesterday.

After a brief exchange, Ogata learned that the old samurai's surname was Nakahara, and he was an Edo native who was born and raised in Edo.

After seeing that the chat was almost done, Ogata changed the subject:

"Mr. Zhongyuan, do you know about the 'Imperial Trial Marriage'? After I came to Edo yesterday, I kept hearing people talking about 'Imperial Trial Marriage'."

"Oh, 'Gozen Trial Match'." Nakahara smiled, "Mashima-kun, you don't know that 'Gozen Trial Match' is normal."

"After all, this is a new activity launched by Mr. Matsudaira Sadanobu this year."

"Mashima-kun, you should have heard of it more or less—sama Matsudaira Jonobu-sama has been actively working on the reform of the shogunate government since he took office three years ago in the 7th year of Tianmei, hoping to strengthen the power of the shogunate."

"In order to achieve this goal, Mr. Lao Zhong has put forward many propositions in the past three years."

"One of the propositions is to 'revitalize the Wu Family Gangji'."

"Your Majesty thinks that warriors are corrupt."

"Indulging in pleasure, forgetting to practice literature and martial arts. There is even an absurd phenomenon of selling the family heirloom sword for pleasure."

"In order to cheer up the samurai, Lao Zhong put forward the idea of ​​'revitalizing the samurai clan', encouraging the samurai to practice literature and martial arts, and to emulate the former samurai."

"The 'Imperial Trial Match' is the product of the idea of ​​the old middle-aged man. To put it simply, it is to let those who participate in this trial match compete in knowledge and martial arts."

"The 'Imperial Trial' is divided into 2 games."

Nakahara stretched out 2 fingers.

"The first competition is knowledge. Only those who pass this knowledge competition can enter the second competition—a martial arts competition."

"In order to encourage civilians to practice literature and martial arts together and strengthen their bodies, there is no restriction on the number of participants in the 'Imperial Trials'."

"Whether it's a warrior or a commoner, everyone can participate in this 'imperial test'."

"However, I don't think many civilians will participate in this 'imperial trial'."

"After all, when it comes to learning and martial arts, civilians can't possibly be the opponents of warriors."

"Civilians with a little bit of self-knowledge will not participate."

"There are also no restrictions on the weapons used by those involved."

"It doesn't matter whether you use a gun or a sword in the martial arts competition. There are no restrictions on the weapons and martial arts styles used."

"As far as I know—those who have achieved good rankings in these two competitions can get not low bonuses."

"I just forgot how much the bonus is."

"Just remember that the amount is not small. This high bonus has attracted many people to Edo."

"It's just because this 'Imperial Trial' is being held for the first time, and the shogunate doesn't seem to be promoting it well."

"So the spread is not widespread. According to my estimation, the news that Edo will hold the 'Imperial Trial Coalition' is probably only spread in the Kanto region."

Ogata has been listening carefully and memorizing.

After Zhongyuan's voice fell, Ogata nodded gently:

What Zhongyuan said just now, can be regarded as dispelling a lot of fog that filled Ogata's mind.

Ogata understands why since last night, he has heard frequent complaints from Edo locals about the increase in the number of ronin in Edo City—these extra ronin must have taken a fancy to the bonus of the "Imperial Trial" and heard about it. Come.

It can be regarded as understanding why he and everyone in the gourd house do not know the existence of the "Imperial Trial" - because the spread is not wide enough, only people in the Kanto region know the existence of the "Imperial Trial".

"Mr. Central Plains." Ogata asked, "This 'Yuqian trial match' has the prefix 'Yuqian'. Could it be a competition in front of the general?"

"How is that possible." Zhong Yuan chuckled, "Your Excellency, how can you have such leisure time?"

"The reason why it is called 'Imperial Trial Held' is purely a name just for the sake of sounding good."

"Then when will this 'Imperial Trial Match' start?" Ogata continued to ask.

"Ten days later." Zhong Yuan said without hesitation, "The registration deadline is seven days later."

"After 10 days, compare knowledge first."

"After screening out a group of people with insufficient knowledge, the remaining people will compete in martial arts."

"Mashima-kun, you can try to participate." Zhongyuan said in a half-joking tone, "Let's not worry about the bonus for now. If you can get a higher ranking in this two competitions of civil and military, then it is a must." It's an honor."

"I'll think about it later." Ogata said perfunctorily with a wry smile.

...

...

While extracting information related to the "Imperial Trial" from Nakahara, Ogata also asked if there was anything worth mentioning that happened in Edo in a sideways manner.

It's a pity that I couldn't find anything from Zhongyuan. According to Zhongyuan, Edo has been calm recently, and nothing major has happened.

After collecting all the available information on Zhongyuan, Ogata bid farewell to Zhongyuan and went to join A-Ming who was hiding not far away.

After reuniting with A-cho, Ooi relayed all the information he had just collected to A-cho.

"Hey~" After listening to Ogata's report, A-Machi raised his eyebrows, "Is it a trial match set up to encourage everyone to practice literature and martial arts... It feels very interesting, and I don't know how much the bonus will be."

"What?" Ogata asked in a half-joking tone, "Have you taken a fancy to the bonus?"

"In the whole world, there is no one who doesn't love money." Ah-cho responded in the same tone as Ogata just now.

"Let's go." As Ogata said, he turned and walked towards the middle of the street, "Let's continue to search for more information."

...

...

Although after saying goodbye to the Central Plains, Ogata and Atachi have been actively looking for new information.

But it's a pity - after looking for several people one after another, none of these people could tell what Ogata didn't know at the moment.

In the blink of an eye, it was noon.

After taking a look at the sun hanging high above his head, Ogata decided to find a restaurant with A-Machi for today's lunch.

Because A-Machi said that she wanted to eat sushi, Oo conveniently found a sushi restaurant with a decent decoration nearby.

Because it is already dinner time, nearly 80% of the seats in the sushi restaurant already have customers.

After the two found a vacant seat and ordered the sushi they really wanted to eat, they chatted one after another while waiting for the sushi to be served.

The disappointment was that the voices of the guests at a table not far from Ogata and A-Machi were quite loud.

There were a total of 4 people at that table.

The accents of these four people are somewhat similar to the Izumo dialect. Ogata guessed that these four people should be from the area around Izumo.

The group chatted loudly while eating sushi.

Not only did they talk loudly, they laughed just as loudly.

Because the voices of these four people were too loud, Ogata had to concentrate to hear what A-Machi was saying to him.

Ogata doesn't like this kind of people who speak loudly in public.

After the laughter of the four people overwhelmed A-Machi's voice again, Ogata couldn't help frowning slightly, and turned to look at the guests at the table.

After Ogata turned his head to look at the guests at the table, A-Machi followed suit and directed his unhappiness towards the four people.

Machi also hated loud people in public—especially restaurants.

Just when Ogata was about to get up to remind the four people to pay attention to their volume, Ogata suddenly caught a glimpse of the sushi restaurant's curtain being thrown open from the corner of his eye.

Someone walked slowly into the sushi restaurant along the opened curtain.

This person just got into the sushi restaurant, and Xu Yi heard a small exclamation from the customer at the next table:

"Ah, why did Yoshihara-ri Tongxin come here..."