Chapter 7 Kamedaichis middle-aged event record (Part 1)
"KIA——"
In the early morning, a standard Japanese scream woke many passengers from their sleep.
At the same time, it also kicked off a suspenseful drama.
This place, called "Chuanpengzhuang", is a hot spring hotel located in Xiaguan.
Yesterday afternoon, Shuangxie and Keijiro came here together. The three of them ate, bathed, drank and talked here leisurely, and stayed for one night.
They originally planned to leave this morning, but they did not expect that a fatal accident would occur in the hotel this early in the morning.
Of course, if the person who died was just an ordinary customer with a low status, it would not be a big deal; wouldn’t it mean that a civilian died? Wouldn’t it be over if your store just disposed of the body on its own? Do you still need to report it to the official and expect someone from the yamen?
Will someone help you track down the murderer?
In this time of war and chaos, all the famous names are busy fighting wars and grabbing territory. How can they have so much thought to take care of the public security in every corner of their territory?
I keep a certain place in order today, but tomorrow it may not be mine, so what’s the point?
Only a few forces with a very stable territory like the Shimazu clan have the leisure to deal with public security issues. In the case of the Mori clan, it would be "selective management."
Some people may ask after seeing this, isn't it meaningless to manage most places well? Then why should we still "selectively manage" instead of "just ignore it"?
Because... if you really dare to ignore it completely, with the rampant banditry at that time, they can make your land "waste" in a very short time and turn it into a dead land where no residents dare to live.
Moreover, it is almost impossible to eradicate this type of banditry before the end of the war - samurai who have lost their lords, deserters on the battlefield, and people who are forced to have no other way out, etc., may all join the ranks of bandits at any time and engage in murder and robbery.
activities.
For the vast majority of people, the honor of a warrior, the dignity of a human being, and compassion for others... are all vulnerable to the pressure of survival.
Only those who have eaten enough and sit in front of the computer typing on the keyboard will discuss what is right and kind; people who have been deprived of everything by the war and have been hungry for several days will not push you too hard.
If you hold a rice ball and don't give it to him, he can pick up the knife on the ground and grab it.
When dealing with the growing number of bandits, the daimyo usually follow the principle of "kill a small amount and gather a large amount": if they are small in size and have a small number of people, they will be slaughtered if they are caught; if they are large in scale and have a large number of people, they will be recruited.
Ninety-nine percent of the bandits are willing to be incorporated, because they don't want to "rebel" originally, they just want "food"; after being included, those who are more capable or have some samurai class background will be recruited.
, they will be transferred away to join the main combat force or become a lower-level staff member, or other miscellaneous fish... they will become similar to the soldiers and ashigaru in the previous two chapters.
Let’s get back to the topic, so why is this scandal now a “trouble”? And why does it “need to be taken care of”?
It's very simple, because the person who died this time was not an ordinary person, but someone with a good background.
This man's name is Takeda Kuranosuke. He is in his early forties and is a famous wealthy businessman in the southern area of Hiroshima. His family is one of the "money bags" of the Mori family.
If even he dies in an unknown way, then the other merchants on the Mouri clan's territory will definitely have an idea: You samurai gentlemen collect so much tax from us on weekdays, but if something goes wrong, you can't protect them.
We have money and lives, and we can’t catch the real culprit and bring him to justice... So what will happen to me for the money?
Therefore, no matter what, this eucalyptus must have an explanation.
As a result, the investigation of the case began in full swing early in the morning.
The person who made the investigation was no one else, but a samurai general named Kumagai Hirotada who had a banquet with Takeda last night.
Kumagai and Takeda met here to eat, drink and have fun. It was considered a kind of official entertainment. Kumagai came to establish a good relationship with the Takeda boss on behalf of the Mori clan. After the two of them negotiated some cooperation matters that colluded with government and businessmen, they started eating and drinking.
, drank until he was almost vomiting, and then they went back to their rooms to rest.
Unexpectedly, early the next morning, when several hotel maids went to clean the hot spring, they found Takeda's body on the edge of the pool, which triggered the screaming scene at the beginning.
About three minutes later, Xiong Gu staggered to the scene despite being hungover. At this time, more than a dozen people came to watch the excitement. Xiong Gu pushed through the crowd and walked to the front, where he saw Takeda's body at a glance.
The corpse was lying on the ground with its face sideways, its expressionless face was full of surprise, and there was a rather ferocious huge wound on the lower part of the back of its head. It was not known whether it was caused by a blunt instrument or a sharp blade. Anyway, the power of this blow was
It was so big that it directly shattered a large piece of his skull, causing a large amount of blood to flow out from the shattered and collapsed "brain hole" and spread all over the ground. Some blood also slowly flowed along the wet ground not far away.
In the hot spring pool.
Since Takeda was only wearing a loincloth when he died, it is easy to see that the blow to the back of the head was the only fatal injury on his body, and it was most likely that he was shot by someone just after taking a hot spring bath.
Sneak attack from behind and kill with one blow.
Xiong Gu stared at the bloodless face of the corpse for about ten seconds. During this process, most of his remaining sleepiness and hangover had disappeared, and shock and panic were taking turns to attack his brain.
But he was also a samurai general after all. It didn't take long for him to calm down. After weighing the pros and cons and thinking about the priorities of the situation, he revealed his identity and began to control the chaotic situation at the scene.
Soon, Xiong Gu issued an order to several of his accompanying subordinates who had arrived at the scene one after another, asking them to divide their troops into two groups. One group was to seal all the entrances and exits of the hotel, and the other group was to go to the nearby military base to request reinforcements.
During the Warring States Period in Japan, Kyoto had the "Procuratorial and Non-Violating Bureau", which was so powerful that it basically took care of all grass-roots public prosecutorial, legal and civil affairs matters in Kyoto, leaving many other related functional departments empty.
But this...is not Kyoto.
In the vassal territories where public security management was relatively chaotic, the local garrison was responsible for the affairs of many places.
As for the murder of the Takeda boss, even if it should not be handled by the military, Kumagai would take the initiative to take over, because he had already settled the account clearly before giving the order: since the matter has been revealed today, he will
If someone else comes to investigate, it would be fine if they find out, but if they don't find out... the other party will probably put the whole blame on him in order to make a deal, or at least give him the whole "lack of protection"
If he is charged with a crime, then where can he go to reason with him?
Thinking further, I don’t know how long this corpse has been lying here. Although it is winter now, the hot spring pool is filled with warm water vapor. It is difficult to judge the time of death through rigor mortis and blood coagulation...
Who knows if Takeda just died early in the morning, or if he was lying there early in the morning? Maybe the murderer ran out long before the blockade, so can he be traced back?
Therefore, Kumagai might as well take the responsibility for the investigation on his own initiative. He can say nice things like "I will take responsibility for my failure to protect Mr. Takeda" on the surface, and secretly do something to get rid of the blame. Anyway,
What he needs is not the "truth", what he needs is just an "explanation".
You must have understood after seeing this - no matter who the real culprit is today, or whether the real culprit is still in this "Kawapeng Mansion", Xiong Gu will definitely catch those people who are still in the hotel.
One as a murderer.
Of course, he couldn't just, right away... just pick someone who seemed easy to bully and slam the shit basin over their head. Doing so would be too obvious.
As mentioned before, Takeda Kuranosuke is a reputable person. If you, Kumagai, can't even produce any decent evidence, or if you finally pull out a person who has been beaten to a disability or become mute, your colleagues will be killed.
You and your superiors will definitely have opinions on you.
That’s not to say that you can’t frame someone up, but when you frame someone up, you have to do it carefully so that everyone can tacitly let you pass.
If you make a mess and give a hasty communication, it will either make people think that you are incompetent and can't even do a superficial job, or it will make people think that you have a perfunctory attitude and do not respect your superiors.
Kumagai was thirty-five years old and had been in office for many years. He would not make such a stupid mistake. Therefore, soon after the reinforcements arrived, he continued to take full command.
All guests of Chuanpengzhuang and hotel staff launched an investigation.
It's just that this investigation... is also detailed. Judging from the state of the wound on the back of Takeda's head, this is definitely not the work of an ordinary person. This murderer either knows martial arts or has amazing arm strength, so he does not meet the conditions for committing murder.
, you can rule them out with a brief screening. If you have this ability, you should focus on asking.
…………
Chenshi, a certain guest room.
"Please state your name."
"My name is Miyamoto Musashi."
"Oh?" Xiong Gu looked at the man in front of him who looked about thirty years old and had a rough face. His eyes couldn't help but linger on the two swords, one long and one short, beside him for a while. "Is it possible that you were the one who was there that year?
The one who single-handedly defeated more than seventy Yoshioka-ryu people in Ichijoji Temple..."
"As you said..." Musashi knelt down and answered calmly, "I'm just a swordsman passing through here."
"Is that so..." Xiong Gu muttered softly and then asked, "Then where are you going?"
"Today Japan is going to Ganliu Island to duel with a young swordsman known as a genius." Musashi said, "But because you suddenly blocked the hotel, you can only wait in this room."
"Well..." Kumagai was a little annoyed at Musashi's neither humble nor overbearing attitude and slightly thorny words, but he couldn't find any reason for the attack.
"Then I'm afraid you will have to wait for a while." Two seconds later, Xiong Gu deliberately said something slightly provocative. The tone probably meant, "Your duel has nothing to do with me, and I'm not in a hurry at all."
”.
But after he finished speaking, he observed Musashi's expression and found that the other party was still unmoved, so he could only quickly ask questions to avoid embarrassing himself if the words lingered for a long time: "So, may I ask, sir, since midnight last night?
, where were you from the time before someone discovered the body this morning?”
"I had fallen asleep at midnight and woke up in the morning when I heard screaming." Musashi replied.
"Can anyone testify for you?" Xiong Gu asked again.
"No." Musashi replied.
"Then did you encounter anything unusual or unusual people yesterday?" Xiong Gu said.
He originally thought that Musashi would give a quick and brief denial in that calm tone.
Unexpectedly... Faced with this question, Musashi was silent for a few seconds before he said, "Yes, one of the three people living in the room in the west courtyard is very weird."
Hearing this, Xiong Gu suddenly remembered something: "Is it... that young man with a sky-high bun and a loud voice?"
Kumagai asked this question because when he went to the hot spring pool yesterday evening, he passed by Keijiro in the place where he was changing clothes, and the latter's appearance was indeed easy to remember.
"No..." Miyamoto Musashi said, "I also have the impression that the young man you mentioned is a strange person named Keijiro, but the strange person I am talking about is not him, but the one who traveled with him.
One of the two."
"Oh? Who is that?" Kumagai became more and more curious about who this person who could make even the famous swordsman Musashi find weird, even weirder than Qin Qi Zhi, was.
"I don't know his name either," Musashi replied, "I only know that his neck is shorter than ordinary people. Of course, this isn't anything particularly weird. What's weird about him is...since yesterday afternoon,
Until before I went to bed...every time I went to the toilet, no matter how big or small, I would always encounter him squatting in the pit, which made me wonder if he had been squatting there all day."
"Well..." This time it was Xiong Gu's turn to be silent.
The rooms that Kumagai and Takeda lived in were considered VIP rooms in the hotel, and their toilets were separate from those of other guests, so he neither knew about this nor how to comment on it...
…………
Twenty minutes later, another room.
"Please tell me your name." Xiong Gu began to ask the second person he thought was capable of committing the crime.
"My name is Tokumaru." He is also a strong man in his thirties, whose appearance is somewhat similar to Hong Kong actor Lai Lai. "The second generation successor of the 'water flow' boxing technique."
"Your accent is very special." Xiong Gu didn't ask anything about the name of the school "Liu Shui". After all, there were too many martial arts schools in Japan at that time, and the naming routines were also various. Those who opened dojos to recruit disciples wanted to control their own.
The martial arts is called whatever style it is.
"I have gone to Ryukyu to practice boxing since I was a child, and I am used to talking like this." Tokumaru replied.
"I see." Xiong Gu said, "Then, could you please tell me where you were between midnight last night and this morning?"
"I have been practicing boxing in my room since childhood. I practiced until I was exhausted before falling asleep. I don't know the time when I fell asleep, but it was still dark at the time." Tokumaru replied.
"You must have been sweating profusely after practicing Hansu Boxing. There is a hot spring nearby, so why didn't you go and take a shower before going to bed?" Xiong Gu was quite keen, and he immediately caught the suspicion in the other party's words.
"Since I've trained to exhaustion, how can I still have the energy to go out to the hot springs?" Tokumaru's expression remained unchanged.
At this time, the two of them were kneeling on the tatami in the room and talking. The bedding that Tokumaru slept on last night was just one meter away from him. It was just covered, not folded.
"If you don't believe it..." When Tokumaru said this, he leaned slightly to the left, stretched out his hand, and lifted up his quilt.
Kumagai followed his movements and cast his gaze, and saw that the inside of Tokumaru's quilt and the bedding underneath were all wet.
"You can send someone to check..." Tokumaru said, "This bedding is completely soaked with my sweat, not a drop of hot spring water."
Seeing this, Kumagai looked at Tokumaru for about five seconds, and then chuckled: "Oh... no need, I believe you."
In fact, in the first two seconds, Kumagai almost said to the subordinates behind him, "Come forward and check it out." But starting from the third second, the bed that Tokumaru opened was filled with sweat from the night.
The smell wafted over... Xiong Gu was sitting two meters away from the quilt, and he was still very smelly, so he knew without checking that this was definitely not the smell that a person who had taken a bath could come from.
Afterwards, Kumagai faced the smell and asked Tokumaru a few more questions, but he didn't get any useful information. Seeing that he was done asking questions, Kumagai hurriedly left this angry room with his men.
And their next stop was the guest room in the west courtyard where three people lived...