I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

Realizing that they seem to be affecting other people to claim or return Nyokiri, Ogata and A-Machi hurriedly left from the "Nyokiri pick-up point".

However, before leaving the "female cut hand pick-up point", Ogata pouted at the magnificent mansion behind the uncle:

"Excuse me—is the room behind you the Shirobei clubhouse?"

"That's right." The uncle nodded, with a faint look of pride on his face, "This house is the Shirobei clubhouse, if you encounter any trouble in Yoshihara, just come to the clubhouse, we will help you your."

"Of course—the things we can help are limited to those in Yoshihara."

"Okay." Ogata said casually, "I will."

After looking up and down the Shirobei clubhouse in front of him, Ogata thought to himself:

——It’s really the same as what I heard from the lady today... The Shirobei clubhouse is located next to the gate. After passing through the gate of Yoshiwara, you can see the Shirobei clubhouse on the right...

--Ok? what is that?

When Ogata was looking at the headquarters of the Shirobei clubhouse in front of him, he suddenly noticed a large piece of eye-catching paper pasted on the door of the clubhouse.

There are densely packed words written on the paper.

Ogata, whose curiosity was aroused, walked quickly towards the piece of paper.

A-Machi followed Ogata to the piece of paper, and after glancing at the piece of paper, an expression appeared on his face as if he had eaten a fly:

"There are so many difficult Chinese characters...what are they written on?" A-Machi poked Ogata beside him with his elbow.

"That's right...you don't understand Chinese characters..." Ogata smiled wryly, and began to read the words written on this piece of paper at a glance.

The person in charge of writing on this piece of paper should have practiced calligraphy, and the handwriting is neat and pleasing to the eye.

In order to take care of those less educated, the person in charge of writing seems to have deliberately reduced the frequency of use of Chinese characters.

The words on the whole paper, the proportion of Chinese characters and kana is about 4 to 6.

However, although the number of Chinese characters has been deliberately reduced in order to take care of those who are less educated, it is still too difficult for people like A-Machi who really don't know anything about Chinese characters to read.

After quickly reading what was written on this piece of paper, Ogata explained to Atachi:

"The pile of content written on this paper can be condensed into one sentence: They are recruiting new recruits at the Shirobei Club, hoping to be qualified for clerical work, or those with good skills can sign up enthusiastically."

"It seems that the conditions are not bad. The wages are paid every day, and the daily wages are silver 6 匁."

This "salary settlement on the same day, daily salary payment" model was very common in ancient Japan.

Many jobs use this payment model.

For example, when a section of the city wall or a big house needs to be renovated, a group of people will be temporarily recruited to do coolies, and the wages will be settled on the same day.

Many people who can't find any serious jobs - such as ronin who left the domain,

Live on this kind of work that can be paid for the day.

Now is the Kanzheng period, the daily salary of an ordinary craftsman is about 3 to 4 silver.

The wages paid by the Shirobei Clubhouse are 60 silver per day, which is considered a very conscientious wage.

When Ogata had just finished explaining to A-Ming what was written on the paper, the uncle who was in charge of distributing the hand-cut hand was handing the hand to a woman in front of him, and said to Ogata:

"We've already recruited enough people who are in charge of the paperwork. We only need people with good skills."

"If you intend to work in our Shirobei clubhouse, remember to sign up as soon as possible."

"Are you short of people here now?" A-cho asked.

"Probably." The uncle smiled wryly, "Isn't it because of the pre-imperial trial that attracted a lot of wanderers from other places, which made our Yoshihara have a lot more customers now, and there is not enough manpower."

"In short, if you intend to come to work with us, please sign up as soon as possible."

"Okay." Ogata said casually, "I will."

After looking back at the "recruitment advertisement", Ogata and A-Machi left side by side from the "female cut hand collection point".

A wide avenue connects the gate of Yoshiwara, and Ogata and Atachi walk along this avenue toward the depths of Yoshiwara.

Both sides of the avenue are full of traveling girls' houses with various signboards.

Red lanterns for lighting are hung outside each playgirl's house.

The red light emitted by the red lanterns enveloped the entire Yoshihara, making Yoshihara as bright as day, and at the same time, this red light also added a lewd atmosphere to Yoshihara.

The atmosphere in Yoshihara is almost exactly the same as the atmosphere that Ogata felt in Shimabara, Kyoto before.

The style of each Yoshihara house is similar to that of Shimabara's house.

On the first floor of each playgirl's house, there is a wooden grid-like fence.

The girls from each girl house sit behind the grid-shaped wooden fences, like commodities placed behind the window, for the passing guests to freely choose their favorite girls.

Although Yoshihara and Shimabara are similar in every respect, there is a huge difference in scale between the two. The scale gap between Yoshihara and Shimabara is overwhelming.

Yoshihara claims to have three thousand wandering girls, but Ogata does not know whether there are really so many wandering girls.

In terms of management model, Yoshihara's management is stricter and more formal than that of Shimahara.

Yoshihara was managed by an independent organization called "Shirobei Club", but Shimahara did not.

"It's so bright..." A-Machi looked around and muttered, "How much candles and lamp oil does Yoshihara spend a night..."

"Yoshiwara is 'Edo's city that never sleeps' after all." Ogata responded casually.

"I don't know if I have a chance to take a look at Yoshiwara's oiran." A-Ting said, "I heard that the women who can be the oiran must be peerless beauties. I want to see how beautiful they are."

"Oiran is so easy to see." Ogata shrugged and said helplessly.

The two of them did not forget why they entered this Yoshihara.

Ogata casually grabbed a young man who was strolling along the road without haste or slowness, and he knew that he must be free at a glance, and asked him where the "Sakura Gate House" was.

This young man speaks a proficient Edo accent and should be a native of Edo. After hearing Ogata ask where Yoshihara is, he enthusiastically told Ogata how to get there.

The road was not difficult to walk, and Ogata remembered the route immediately.

While going to Sakuramonya along the route indicated by the young man with A-Machi, Ogata also paid attention to the surroundings, listening to the conversations of the people around him, trying to pick up some interesting information from the conversations of the people around him.

Those who walk on the road are basically men who come to have fun, but there are also some women.

The women who come to Yoshihara are naturally not here to have fun, but to do business, so the women who walk on the roads of Yoshihara are basically in a hurry without looking sideways.

Although Ogata had intentionally listened to the conversations of the people around him, it was a pity - after listening for a long time, he didn't hear any interesting information.

After listening and listening, what I heard was basically a dialogue like this:

"Yo, you came to Yoshiwara again? Didn't you just come last night?"

"You just had dinner last night, don't you want to eat tonight?"

...

"I recommend a girl to you, Chufeng from the corner house. Her feet and mouth are amazing."

"Hoho~~ Then I'm going to give it a try!"

...

"I just heard that a customer ordered Jianmeiwu's wind chime Taifuye."

"Really? Then we can see 'Oiran Road' later?"

...

What caught my ears was all these conversations that I didn't have.

At the same time, the delicate voices from the wandering girls' houses on both sides of the street disturbed Ogata all the time.

The wandering girls sitting in the wooden fences on the first floor of the wandering girls' houses stretch their hands out of the fences from time to time, either to tease the people standing outside the fences, or to attract customers for themselves.

"Guest officer, this is the first time I see you."

"Guest officer, do you want to come play with us?"

Conversations similar to this continued to spread to Ogata's ears.

With A-Machi right next to him, Ogata didn't dare to answer the words of these wandering girls, nor did he dare to see more of these wandering girls.

In addition to these wandering girls, Ogata will also be harassed by those who solicit customers.

In front of the gate of almost every playgirl's house, there is one or even several solicitors.

These people who are responsible for soliciting customers are called "Jianshifan".

After seeing a man passing by their store, he would greet them very enthusiastically, telling them how good the service of their store is, and how wonderful the girls in their family are.

Most of the people in charge of seeing the world are men.

The principle is also very simple - only men have enough strength to pull men.

Ogata had already seen with his own eyes several Miiseban with enthusiastic smiles on their faces, pulling some people who were hesitant and didn't know which store to go to, into their store in a semi-forced manner.

Of course, these Jianshifans only dared to pull those civilians who didn't have knives around their waists, and almost no Jianshifans would have any physical contact with samurai.

The reason why I try not to have physical contact with the samurai is to avoid encountering the kind of neuropathy who likes to yell "ah, you dare to touch my sword, you have defiled the soul of the samurai, watch me cut you off".

But—although they will not force a samurai into the store, the Misai fans will still warmly greet a samurai passing by their store and introduce to the samurai how great their store is. How powerful.

Ogata no longer remembers how many Miseiban he has met since he entered this Yoshiwara, the number is too numerous to count.

Even Ogata felt a little annoyed by being interrupted by these encounters over and over again.

"Those soliciting people are so annoying..." A-cho said displeased.

"Yeah." Ogata nodded sympathetically, "It's really annoying..."

Just when Ogata was thinking about whether there was any way to stop these Misaiban from bothering him——

"Go away! Go away!"

A series of shouts suddenly erupted from the crowd ahead.

The crowd in front was not dense, and Ogata was taller than most of the people around him, so Ogata could see clearly what was going on just by looking forward:

A bald head was running towards him in a panic.

While the bald man shouted "Get out of the way", he pushed all the people in front of him away in a very rough way, causing screams and scolding.

When Ogata was thinking about what was going on with this panicked bald head, the shouts from behind this guy told Ogata the answer:

"Quick! Catch him! He's a thief!"

Behind the panic-stricken bald head were several people.

These people were all wearing the haori of the Shirobei Club, holding wooden sticks in their hands, and while chasing the bald head, they kept yelling, telling the surrounding people the identity of the bald head, and asking the surrounding people to work together Catch this thief.

——It turned out to be a thief...

After secretly saying this in his heart, Ogata turned his eyes and stared at the bald man who was rushing straight towards him. After handing over the large box of steamed buns in his right hand to his left hand, he slowly Raise your right hand and reach for Da Shitian at your waist.

After all, it was just to catch a thief, so Ogata only planned to use the back of the sword to fight the enemy, and use the back of the sword to stop the thief and knock him unconscious.

As soon as Ogata put his right hand on the handle of Da Shitian's knife, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw a petite figure jumping out from behind the bald man.

I saw this petite figure rushing up to the eaves of the girl's house at a very fast speed, and then along the eaves, crossing the crowd under the eaves in one breath, ahead of the bald head and leaping forward.

When this petite figure jumped down from the eaves, it landed precisely in front of the bald head, between Ogata and the bald head.

Looking at the petite figure that suddenly appeared in front of him, Ogata raised his eyebrows in surprise.

He knows this person.

It is Gua Shengxiu who has the reputation of "Yoshihara-sato Concentric" who met once during the day today.

Unexpectedly, someone could walk ahead of the bald man in front of him by walking on the eaves. His face was full of horror. Although he had tried his best to slow down, his body continued to rush forward by inertia.

In this way, he rushed into Gua Sheng's best attack range.

After the bald head entered his attack range, Gua Sheng quickly drew out the wooden knife from his waist, and aimed at the bald head's neck to slash horizontally.

The wooden knife accurately hit the bald head's neck, knocking the bald head down to the ground.

After Gua Sheng knocked the bald head over, those officials from Shirobei Club who had been chasing the bald head just now finally caught up.

"Tie this guy up and take him into the clubhouse." Gua Sheng ordered the officials, "Also—search this guy, and find out all the money bags that this guy stole."

"Yes!" After the officials responded in unison, they swarmed up and suppressed the bald head. While tying him up with hemp rope, they groped up and down his body.

After a while, three money bags of different styles were found from the bald head.

With all the physical evidence, the bald head drooped, his face was bloodless, like a rooster that had been defeated in a fight, and he was escorted to the club by the officials of the Shirobei Club next to him.

Gua Sheng did not follow her companions back to the clubhouse.

Instead, he retracted the wooden knife in his hand to his waist, took a long breath, and then turned around slowly.

As soon as she turned around, she saw Ogata and A-Machi standing behind her.

Looking at the two of Ogata, Gua Sheng showed surprise on his face.

"What a coincidence." Guasheng's astonishment only surfaced for a while, and then turned into a faint smile, "We meet again."

"Yeah." Ogata also responded with a smile, "It's really a coincidence."

"Look at you, you came here to Yoshihara for something, right? Do you need my help?"

"You can see that?" A-cho asked in surprise.

"I'm an old man who has worked in Yoshihara for quite a long time." Guasheng said with a smile, "Which people are here for fun and which people are here for business, I can tell at a glance."

"Your eyes are very poisonous." Ogata raised the big box of steamed buns in his hand, "We are here to deliver steamed buns to a tea house."

"Send steamed buns... Which one are you going to send to?"

"Sakuramon House." Ogata replied.

"Sakura Gate House...it's a bit far away."

After finishing speaking, Guasheng turned around, and then raised his hand to Ogata and Ating.

"Come with me, I'll take you to Sakuramon House."

"Ah, that's unnecessary." Ogata said hastily, "We've already asked the way just now, and we know how to get to Sakuramon House."

"It's okay." Gua Sheng waved his hands proudly, "You just helped me at noon today, so I should do you a little favor."

"Anyway, I'm just patrolling aimlessly in Yoshiwara."

"Bringing you to the Sakura Gate House will not interfere with my work."

"Take it as a casual patrol of the road from here to Sakuramon House."

"And——with me leading the way, there are many benefits."

"For example: No thief will dare to approach you."

"At the same time, you won't be harassed by those annoying witnesses."

"Then I will trouble you." Just after Gua Sheng finished speaking, Xu Fang said with a serious face.

...

...

Led by Ogata and A-machi Yuguao, when heading to Sakuramon House——

Edo, Yoshihara, Shirobei clubhouse.

Shirobei clubhouse has 3 floors.

In a secret room on the third floor, three people are sitting on tatami mats.

2 old men, 1 young girl.

"It's been a long time, Genichi."

One of the old men said to the other old man in front of him in a passionate tone.

"When was the last time we met...? I forgot."

"I forgot too. I just remember that you didn't have so little black hair on your head back then."

The only girl in the room was Lin who accompanied Genichi to the Shirobei clubhouse.

And those two old men are none other than Genichi and Shirobei, the manager of the Shirobei clubhouse.

In all walks of life in Japan, there is a tradition of inheriting names.

This is true in the world of literature and art, it is true in the world of martial arts, and it is also true in the world of politics.

Every manager of Shirobei Club will automatically use the title of "Shirobei".

And the old man who is currently sitting in front of Yuan Yi and Lin is the Sixth Mushirobei. He is already a 65-year-old man with graying hair.

"Shirobei, let me introduce you." Genichi pointed to Lin beside him, "This is my grandniece——Kinoshita Lin."

As soon as Genichi finished speaking, Lin respectfully greeted Shirobei.

"Are you Yuanyi's grandniece... yes! The eyebrows and eyes are indeed very similar to Yuanyi!"

Although Rin had been to Edo many times, this was her first time in Yoshiwara.

While coming to Yoshihara for the first time, this was also the first time Lin met this old acquaintance of her uncle.

After finishing the deal with the most powerful yakuza in Eastern Japan—Daigo Tojo, Genichi told Lin: Shiro is the only person left in Edo who is trustworthy and who might have the ability to find the location of the Shiranui-ri base. One soldier.

Although I don't know what the relationship between my uncle and Shirobei is.

But from the fact that Genichi can say "the only one left is Shirobei who is the one who can be trusted and who might have the ability to find the location of Shiranui's base", the relationship between the two should be quite good.

Shirobei gave Lin a good first impression.

With a neatly shaved Tsukiyo head, the clothes on his body are also clean, with a refined aura on his body, he looks very knowledgeable and self-cultivated.

The old friends reunited, and after Genichi and Shirohei had a few passionate conversations, Yuan gradually turned the topic to serious business.

"Shirobei, to be honest. I have something to ask you."

"What? Some friend of yours committed a crime, do you want me to help you find someone?" Shiro Bingwei asked in a half-joking tone.

"It's much more troublesome than that."

Yuan succinctly explained to Shirobei that he hoped that Shirobei could help him find the Shiranui base.

"Looking for Shiranui's base?" Shirobei laughed dumbly, "Genichi, you think highly of me."

"I'm just a bad old man who is in charge of Yoshihara."

"Although there are indeed some contacts and influences in Edo, all I can help you is to help you get some people who have committed petty crimes from prison and other small things."

"Unless it is to arrest those who broke the law in Yoshihara and escaped from Yoshiwara, the people under my command cannot mess around in places other than Yoshihara."

"So I can't help you with this favor."

"That's it..." Although Shirobei refused, Genichi didn't show any regret on his face, "Then there is no other way. Shirobei, forget my request just now." Bar."

"I'm sorry, Yuan Yi."

"It's okay, we need to apologize to you for throwing a difficult request to you for no reason."

Shirohei picked up the tea next to him, took a sip of the hot tea, and then murmured:

"Genichi, because of your request, the atmosphere of our conversation suddenly became serious."

"However, I will take advantage of this serious atmosphere to tell you some serious things."

Shirobei put down the teacup in his hand, then raised his eyes, and turned his serious gaze to Genichi in front of him.

"Genichi, before you leave Edo, you'd better live in seclusion."

"Oh?" Yuan Yi raised his eyebrows, "Why?"

"Your enemies from all walks of life... are all gathered in this Edo Castle now." Shirobei's tone was extremely serious, "If you don't want to cause yourself too much trouble, just stay in the hotel obediently before you leave the hotel Let's go."