I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

Rewinding the time back to the time before Yukimura broke into Ogata's room—

Mucun was drinking cup after cup of the top-quality tea that Yukimura just said was produced in Tangtu West Lake.

He doesn't know much about tea, and he can't taste the quality of this tea. He can only smell that the tea smells good and tastes quite refreshing.

Mucun, who is quite fond of this tea, drank it while waiting for the return of Yukimura who just said "I have something to deal with, so I will leave for a while".

Yukimura didn't make Mucun wait too long, after only a while, Mucun saw Yukimura open the door in front of him and return to the room.

"grown ups."

"Oh, you're back."

"My lord, I'm sorry." Yukimura said apologetically at this moment, "Something happened to my father-in-law, I have to deal with it myself, I'm sorry, can you please wait here a little longer?"

Hearing Yukimura's words, Mucun raised his eyebrows, and then said with a smile:

"Now that your career has grown, it turns out that you have also become a busy person."

After finishing speaking, Mucun picked up the big sword beside him and stood up.

"Since you still have so many things to do now, I won't bother you."

"Anyway, I've already finished the important things I should tell you."

"I'll take my leave first."

As soon as Mucun finished speaking, Yukimura hurriedly said:

"My lord, are you leaving so soon? Please sit here for a while longer! I haven't had time to entertain you yet!"

Yukimura is not willing to miss such a rare opportunity to further deepen the relationship with Mucun...or the gourd house behind Mucun.

"No need." Mucun stretched vigorously, "I've already spent a lot of tea with you. I've already been treated well by you."

Even though Makimura said so, Yukimura still persisted.

After arguing with Mucun, Yukimura finally persuaded Mucun to let Mucun sit down again so that Yukimura could entertain him for a while longer.

Yukimura asked his confidant named "Xiao Hachi" in a very serious tone,

Ask Xiaoba to entertain Mucun well before he comes back, and after all the requests from Mucun are satisfied, Yukimura left the room with a sullen face, ready to settle accounts with the guy who dared to be rude to his father-in-law...

Under Xiaoba's service, Mucun sat cross-legged and returned to the original place, continuing to drink tea while stuffing a few pieces of snacks into his mouth from time to time.

From just now, Mucun's throat that kept sending tea into his stomach has not stopped. After drinking a few more cups of tea, Mucun gradually felt the urge to urinate.

"Excuse me, can you take me to your toilet?" Mucun asked Xiaoba who was sitting next to him.

"please follow me."

Xiaoba took Mucun to the toilet not far away.

After happily solving his physical problems and stepping out of the toilet, Mucun suddenly heard—a quite noisy sound came from not far away.

In this noisy sound, Makimura heard Yukimura's voice.

——What is Yukimura doing...

Driven by curiosity, Mucun, who was already idle and flustered, walked quickly towards the direction where the noise came from.

How could Xiaoba, who was told by Xingcun to "fulfill all the requirements of Mucun" before, dare to stop Mucun? Or make irresponsible remarks on Mucun's actions?

The only thing he can do and dare to do now is to respectfully follow behind Mucun.

The noisy sound heard by Mucun came from a large room with two doors open.

Walking to one of the open doors, he looked into the room - Mucun was dumbfounded by the scene inside the room, his eyes staring as if his eyes would fall out at any moment.

I saw the chaos in the room, a large group of gorgeously dressed young people exuding the "rich generation X" atmosphere, looking shivering.

In the room, Makimura saw Yukimura, who was standing in front of a beautiful woman holding shamisen in her arms.

And behind that beautiful woman, sat a woman I was quite familiar with...

——Machi? !

Immediately afterwards, Mucun saw a samurai whom he was also very familiar with sitting behind A-cho...

Although the samurai was wearing a bamboo hat and a face scarf, Mucun recognized him at a glance based on his figure and his two blue and gold sabers.

Mucun didn't drink.

But at this moment, Mucun felt that his head was as chaotic as if he had drunk alcohol.

All kinds of questions hit Mucun's brain.

...

Why are Ogata-san and Atachi-san here?

Why does Brother Ogata wear a bamboo hat and a face scarf?

Is the human skin mask broken?

What is Yukimura doing standing in front of Brother Ogata and the others? !

...

Because of the position, Yukimura could just see Yukimura's expression at this time - Yukimura was frowning now.

Ah-Ming was expressionless.

Ogata couldn't see his current expression because of the cover of the bamboo hat and the face scarf...

——That guy Yukimura, he was standing in front of Brother Ogata and the others frowning, what was he trying to do? !

In just a moment, various ideas popped up in Mucun's mind.

For example: Yukimura is finding fault with Ogata for some unknown reason...

Another example: Yukimura, for some unknown reason, is picking on Machi again...

No matter what kind of conjecture it is, Mucun is in a cold sweat at this time.

Mucun couldn't be more clear about what kind of character Ogata is.

Mucun has never seen anyone who provokes Ogata or Acho, and it will end well.

So at this moment, seeing Yukimura frowning and standing behind Ogata and the others, he yelled at Yukimura like a conditioned reflex:

"Yukimura! What are you doing to our distinguished guest?!"

Afterwards, Mucun strode into the room.

"You didn't do anything to Yukimura, did you? Yukimura, you shouldn't be rude to the two distinguished guests I'm waiting for, right?"

It is naturally impossible for Makimura to say bluntly, "What do you want to do with Ogata Yidaosai", so he calls Ogata and Atachi "their distinguished guests".

In fact, he was right, Ogata and the others were indeed honored guests of their gourd house.

Calling the two of them VIPs was enough to scare Yukimura.

And then... to save Yukimura in a disguised form.

At this moment, Mucun only felt a relief in his heart.

He breathed a sigh of relief for successfully saving Yukimura's life...

...

...

Just now, when he heard that Mucun called Ogata and Atachi their honored guests, Yukimura's face changed completely.

— VIP? These two people? Aren't the two of them Miss Chuguang's guards and assistants?

Yukimura's expression at this time was exactly the same as Mucun's expression when he saw him frowning standing behind Ogata and the others just now.

His eyes flicked back and forth between Ogata and Atachi.

His eyes were full of disbelief.

No matter how he associates it, it is difficult for him to connect the two identities of "Miss Chuguang's guard and assistant" and "VIP of the Gourd House".

In Yukimura's eyes, the gap between these two identities is the same as the gap between a frog and a shogun.

"My, my lord..." Yukimura, who couldn't hide the horror in his heart, stammered, "You said these two are... your distinguished guests?"

"Can I still lie to you?" Mucun said in a somewhat impatient tone, "Tell me the truth, you didn't do anything rude to them just now, did you?"

"No, no." Yukimura, who was sweating profusely, said respectfully, "I didn't do anything rude."

"I just saw that Miss Chuguang is here, so I just want to invite Miss Chuguang to play for you later."

"Chuguang?" Mucun looked puzzled.

"That's this one." Yukimura spread out his palms and pointed at Hatsumitsu, "This is the most well-known artist in Osaka at present. I saw that she happened to be here, so I thought about asking her to play the shamisen for you."

Makimura looked at Yukimura suspiciously.

But at this moment, a young male voice that had not been heard for several months reached Mucun's ears.

"...he was right."

The person who spoke was Ogata.

Ogata continued calmly.

"He really just came to invite Miss Chuguang to perform at their place later, and he didn't do anything rude."

Ogata understood at this moment—Makimura probably misunderstood.

He mistakenly thought that Yukimura had done something disrespectful to him and A-cho just now.

This Yukimura just came to invite Hatsumitsu just now, and he didn't do anything excessive, so Ogata was also willing to help him clear up the misunderstanding.

Hearing Ogata's personal explanation, the cloud that originally hung over Mu Cun's face dissipated a little.

"That's it... that's good." The head of the village let out a sigh of relief, "It's good that I didn't do anything rude to you..."

--Great……

Mucun added silently in his heart.

——Yukimura's life is safe...

At this time, Yukimura bowed to Ogata and Atachi with a very humble attitude.

"I'm very sorry!" Yukimura said loudly, "I didn't know that the two of you are distinguished guests of Master Mucun and the others. I was rude just now! I didn't say hello to you and salute you, please forgive me!"

Now in this room, there are not only Miura and others, but also his own father-in-law and subordinates—even under the eyes of so many people, Yukimura still bowed humbly to Ogata and the others without hesitation salute.

Everyone present was dumbfounded when they saw this.

Yukimura, who is well-known and well-known in the business circle of Osaka, bowed to apologize to a man and a woman who were very young and looked very humble, expressing that he was not polite... The scene in front of him was full of unspeakable sense of absurdity. Valley

Everyone is guessing - who is this man and woman, and this tall young man who suddenly appeared? Why can Yukimura be so humble in front of them?

Among all the people in the room, Miura reacted the most after seeing the scene in front of him.

He was staring blankly at Ogata not far away, as if he had lost his soul.

Isn't this guy a guy who was selling tooth powder on the street yesterday?

Shouldn't he just be a guy struggling to survive at the bottom and just lucky enough to have a beautiful wife?

He was leaning against the well-known Miura family in Osaka, and he was nothing in front of Yukimura. Yukimura yelled at him, but he didn't even dare to breathe.

Such Yukimura was humbly saluting to someone he had never looked at...

How tough is the backstage that this guy is relying on?

Is he a son of some giant businessman?

Or is it the descendant of a high-ranking official in the shogunate?

The more Miura imagined the identity of this guy who covered his face with a bamboo hat and a face scarf, the paler his cheeks became...

Reminiscent of myself just now in front of Ogata and Atachi, proudly showing off their Miuraya's business achievements... If there is a crack in the ground, Miura really wants to hide in the crack... …

...

...

"Ma, Mashima-kun."

Ogata heard Shibata next to him, and asked him in a low voice with a forced calm voice:

"You...couldn't be a child of the Wu family who went to the bottom to experience folk life, right?"

Ogata looked sideways at Shibata and Hatsumitsu next to him.

Shibata was looking at him and Machi in panic.

Ogata noticed that he seemed to have moved aside secretly just now, and distanced himself from Ogata and the others.

I don't know if it's because Chuguang often goes to places where big shots are present, but her psychological endurance seems to be surprisingly good.

Although she also looked panicked, the emotion contained in her gaze towards Ogata and Atachi was mainly "curiosity".

Ogata scanned his surroundings, and the current situation in front of him made Ogata couldn't help showing a helpless wry smile.

The sudden appearance of Mucun made Ogata and Atachi the undoubted focus of the audience...

After letting out an imperceptible sigh, Ogata looked at Mucun, whose expression changed for the better after the misunderstanding was resolved.

"Makimura, why are you here?"

"Well...the reason is complicated, and it will be difficult to explain it clearly to you in a while." Mucun scratched his hair, "When are you free? Let's have a few drinks together after a long absence tonight."

After all, Mucun made a gesture of drinking.

Ogata immediately understood what Mucun meant, and after looking at the surrounding environment where it was obviously impossible for Chuguang to continue playing, he said:

"I think... I'll be free soon."

"That's good." Mu Cun nodded, "Then let's go to a bar together later!"

Having said that, Makimura turned his attention to Yukimura.

"Yukimura, thank you for your hospitality tonight. I decided to go drinking with my brother later, so I won't bother you anymore!"

"Hey, but..." Yukimura's face changed slightly.

He also wanted to entertain Mucun for a while longer, to get close to Mucun more.

Before Yukimura finished speaking, he was interrupted by Mucun's hearty laughter:

"The tea you gave me tonight was delicious! I'll be back later!"

Hearing what Mucun said, Yukimura's slightly changed face became better.

"...I understand." Seeing that Mucun seemed to have made up his mind at this time, Yukimura didn't bother anymore, "My door here is always open for you, and you are welcome to come back anytime."

After bowing respectfully to Makimura, Yukimura turned to salute Ogata and Atachi.

"I also welcome your visit. If you need any help in Osaka in the future, please feel free to come to me!"

"Master Mucun and their friends are my friends!"

...

...

At this very moment—

Kyoto, the Kyoto Magistrate's office, the office of the town's magistrate——

"Are you really planning to go back to Edo tomorrow?"

Kamiyama, who is a good friend of Hasegawa, who is the governor of Kyoto Town, poured a full glass of wine into Hasegawa's wine glass while asking Hasegawa in front of him.

At this moment, in the office of Machibuki, Kamiyama and Hasegawa were sitting opposite each other.

"The Blood Fog has been executed." After Hasegawa sipped the wine that Shenshan poured for him, he said slowly, "The finishing work is almost done, there is no reason to stay in Kyoto any longer, I naturally have to go back. "

"Isn't it true that the two mysterious people who attacked the casino of the 'Great Buddha Clan' and killed Bai Chuan and others have not yet been found?" Shen Shan frowned slightly.

"Well..." The corners of Hasegawa's mouth twitched slightly, and then he started talking nonsense with his eyes open, "There are too few clues, and it will take an untold amount of manpower to find those two mysterious people." , material resources and time.”

"Anyway, those two mysterious people didn't do anything harmful, and they even helped us in disguise."

"So I decided to postpone the search for the two mysterious people, and deal with other more urgent matters first."

"...Forget it, how to assign the priorities of various tasks is your responsibility, and I won't interfere too much." Shenshan picked up his wine glass and took a sip of wine, "You just need to pay more attention to your health."

"You are not young anymore, you are almost 50 years old. At such an age, you can't be like when you were young. You just need to sleep, and all the fatigue will disappear the next morning."

"What is 50 years old." Hasegawa said angrily, "I'm only 46 this year."

Hasegawa drank the wine in the glass in one gulp.

"Speaking of which—do you know where Mr. Laozhong has gone? Did he go back to Edo?"

It wasn't until yesterday that Hasegawa knew that Matsudaira Sadanobu had quietly left Kyoto at some point.

"A person of my level doesn't know what the old man is doing." Shenshan sighed softly, "I guess he probably returned to Edo."

"I hope that when I go back to Edo in the future, I won't run into Mr. Laozhong on the way..." Hasegawa shuddered a few times with a bitter face, and handed back the wine glass in his hand to Shenshan.

"This wine is good. Thank you for the hospitality. I still have some clerical work to deal with, and I will come to you for a few drinks after I finish the work."

"Yes." Shenshan nodded with a smile, "For the sake of your going back to Edo tomorrow, I will accompany you anytime tonight."

"You blushing guy after a few drinks, where do you have the confidence to say 'I'll be with you at any time'?"

After Hasegawa laughed jokingly a few times, he picked up his saber and stood up.

But just as he stood up, he heard the voice of his recently promoted young subordinate: Yamauchi from outside the office—

"Master Hasegawa, there is an urgent message from Mr. Imai from Edo!"

"Imai's dispatch?" Hasegawa frowned.

Imai - Hasegawa's adjutant.

When Hasegawa led his troops to Kansai to capture the blood mist crowd, Imai was responsible for replacing Hasegawa and sitting in Edo.

"Come in."

"yes!"

Holding a letter, Yamauchi entered the room respectfully, and handed it to Hasegawa.

Hasegawa took the envelope, and after confirming that the envelope was intact, he waved his hand to signal Yamauchi to step back first, then tore open the envelope, took out the letter paper inside, and looked at it at a glance.

"Did something happen?" Shenshan frowned slightly.

"...It's nothing serious." Hasegawa put down the letter in his hand and sighed, "It's just that Imai reported a new case to me: Jisha Fengxing is seeking help from our Huofu thief Kai."

Hasegawa continued while stuffing the letter back into the envelope.

"There was a very powerful thief on Koyasan. A large number of Buddhist supplies were stolen, and the amount of loss was as high as 500 taels."

"The temple followed and sent a large number of people to investigate, but they didn't find out why."

"In desperation, we turned to our Huofu thief for help. Let us go to Koya Mountain and bring the thief to justice."

After all, Hasegawa let out a long and helpless sigh.

"Huofu Thief Kai is indeed a brick that can be perfectly embedded in any gap."

"Where you need it, move it there."

Temples and shrines pursued—the senior officials responsible for governing the territory of temples and shrines and their residents across the country.

In the Edo period, those large temples and shrines all had a small territory under their jurisdiction.

It can be understood that every large temple or shrine is a miniature feudal kingdom, and the temples or shrines in this "vassal kingdom" have a certain degree of autonomy.

All kinds of big and small matters in the territory of these temples are under the jurisdiction of the temple, including all administrative and criminal cases in the territory of the temple, and outsiders are not allowed to intervene

For example——a murder occurred in the territory of a certain large temple or shrine in Kyoto. As the god of the Kyoto town, Kamiyama cannot intervene in this matter. This case can only be handled by the temple priest.

If any criminal escaped from the city town of Kyoto to the territory of a large temple or shrine in Kyoto, then the officials of the prefectural office under the command of Shenshan could not rush in to arrest them, otherwise it would be a very serious crossing the line.

Because of such regulations, the territories of those big temples and big shrines became the favorite places for fugitives.

There is only one security force that is not bound by such rules, and the common people's cities and towns, as well as the territory of temples and shrines, can flow unimpeded-that is Huo Fu Thief Kai.

It is quite common for the temple to follow a case that they cannot solve, and hand it over to Huofu Thief Gai to help solve it.

"A new case came so soon..." Kamiyama clicked his tongue, "Mt. Koya...it's pretty close to here. If you use fast horses to advance alternately, you can reach Mount Koya in less than 2 days."

Koyasan, a sacred place for Buddhists from all over the country. There are more than 120 temples standing on the continuous peaks-this place has always been the key jurisdiction and care object of the priests of the temple.

"Just after we took care of a 'Blood Fog Crowd', another guy who stole Buddhist supplies appeared..." Hasegawa scratched the back of his head, "Really... dare to steal even Buddhist supplies... Isn't that thief afraid of being punished by God... ..."

"Oh? Hasegawa, when did you become a Buddhist?"

"I am not a believer in any religion, but when it comes to gods and Buddhas, I have always taken the attitude of 'I would rather believe in something than believe in nothing'."

"I can't help it... I can only return to Edo later..."

"Do you want to go to Koyasan to investigate this case now?" Shenshan frowned.

"Koyasan is just south of Kyoto." Hasegawa rubbed his slightly frowning brows, "Since I'm so close to Koyasan now, I'll drop by the way, saving time and effort."

"I hope the thief this time is an easy one to deal with."