"Mr. Robin Hood has many companions who come with him to rob the rich and give to the poor." Elodie added.
"Haha, maybe that little cat monk will actually find some companions for himself as you said, miss." Leroy covered his mouth and smiled, "Okay, the story is over, and it's time for you to go to bed, miss.
.”
"Miss Leroy, tell me more about this cat monk! I'm very interested in this Phantom Thief!"
"Miss, I have told you all the stories I have heard about the Cat Monk."
Leroy raised his hand and touched Elodie's smooth pale golden hair.
"Since Miss, you are very interested in the story of Cat Monk... then I will pay close attention to all kinds of news related to Cat Xiao Monk for you, Miss, and inform you of these news as soon as possible."
"Really?" Elodie's already big eyes opened even wider, and the pupils of her eyes flashed with light that made people think of the stars.
Leroy smiled and nodded: "The premise is that from now on, Miss, you will go to bed obediently and obediently every time it is time to go to bed. Otherwise..."
"Miss Leroy! Please put out the candle for me, I'm going to sleep!"
After saying that, Elodie closed her eyes tightly and covered her body with the quilt more tightly.
Amused by Elodie's cute appearance, Leroy covered his mouth and smiled again. He stood up from the chair, extinguished the candle lamp placed beside the bed, and left Elodie's bedroom calmly.
Pat, pat, pat, pat...
Outside the room, Leroy's footsteps gradually faded away.
Elodie, who had been paying close attention to Leroy's footsteps, after confirming that Leroy had gone far, playfully half-opened one right eye, glanced behind the closed door, and rounded both eyes.
Open.
"Cat Monk..." Elodie looked at the ceiling that turned light gray under the dim light of night and the moonlight coming in from the window.
"I don't know if he will be a handsome man who is both powerful and elegant..."
Elodie's lips and corners of her eyes were filled with an expectant and fascinated smile.
…
…
The next day——
In the early morning, Assui and others had just arrived at the Beifan Institute to start work. Aoto and Nishino, who had been working the night shift at the Beifan Institute, immediately reported the important news that "Cat Monk showed up at the Beifan Institute last night."
After learning about this incident, the senior officials of the Beifan Institute led by Susui were shocked.
Previously, Cat Monk had always presented himself as "only stealing money from Yakuza, villains and profiteers with extremely bad reputations".
Why did Mao Xiaoseng show up at Beifan Station last night? What was he going to do? Did he come to Beifan Station to steal something?
Under the instructions and organization of Bosui, everyone quickly investigated the inside and outside of the Beifan Institute to see if anything was missing, and finally found that nothing was missing.
This made everyone even more confused.
Did the cat monk have no plan to steal things in Beibansuo...or did he have to stop the theft because he was caught by Qingto who was about to go to the toilet before he could steal anything?
If he had no plan to steal anything in Beifan, then he showed up in Beifan for no reason. What did he want?
The extreme lack of information means that these questions may never be answered...
In the end - the incident of "Mao Xiaoseng suddenly visited Beifansuo late at night" can only end without any problem.
If you want information but don’t have information, you can’t catch the cat monk even if you want to, so what else can the execution office do?
Anyway, nothing important was stolen, so let’s just forget about it.
Susui asked everyone to pay more attention from now on and strengthen their defenses at night, and ordered Nishino, who is now solely responsible for catching the cat monk, to work harder and strive to catch the cat monk as soon as possible. After the "cat monk night attack"
It's a turn of events.
In the next few days, two great events occurred in the south and north offices of Edo.
The first big happy event: everyone’s spring family income, salary, and offerings have finally been distributed.
Generally speaking, the income of samurai mainly consists of two parts: family salary and salary.
Japan in the Edo period followed a "rice-based" economic system. Whether it was family income or salary, rice was basically used to distribute the money. After receiving the rice, the samurai would exchange it for money with merchants.
Most samurai theoretically own a piece of land that they inherited from the lord they serve.
The rice produced on this fiefdom is your family's income.
If your fief can produce 100 shi of rice, then your family income is 100 shi.
The samurai had only nominal ownership of the fiefdoms owned by their families. The actual rights of use were collected by the shoguns and daimyo.
To put it simply: your fiefdom is under our control. But you will not miss a grain of rice that should be given to you.
In the name of "helping manage the land," the shoguns and daimyo controlled the use rights of the fiefdoms of their samurai warriors, and all the rice produced on the fiefdoms would be distributed to the samurai who owned these fiefdoms.
Not all the rice produced on the fiefdom would be given to the samurai, but would have to be taxed - in the Edo period, whether it was family income or salary, the tax rate was "four public and six people", that is, the government collected 40% of the tax.
.
As a lower-level imperial family member, Qingdeng, his family's family income is not too much or too little, just 100 shi.
After deducting the taxes of the "four public officials and six citizens", you can receive a family salary of 60 shi from the shogunate every year.
Regardless of whether Seitobo loses his job at the training center in the future, as long as his samurai ancestry is not taken away, he can continue to receive this salary - but the salary of the Tachibana family is quite meager. Just look at this.
Life will be very difficult if you live on a low income.
Qingden has grown so big... No, it should be said that for generations, no one in the Ju family has ever seen what the fiefdom their family claims looks like, or even knows its specific location.
This situation is actually not new. Because the shoguns and daimyo held the right to use all samurai fiefdoms in their hands, most samurai had never seen what their fiefdoms looked like for generations, so they just waited and waited.
Just harvest the rice.
As for salary, it is easy to understand, it is the salary of an official. If you are not serving in the government, then you have no salary.
Regardless of whether it is the same thing in the practice office, the Yinweifang or any other department, as long as it is the same thing, then the annual salary after deducting the tax rate is basically 30 taels to support two people.
1 俵 is 4 buckets, and 1 shi is 10 buckets, so 30 俵 is converted into 12 shi.
The "two-person support" can be understood as a subsidy. You will be given enough rice to feed two adults for a year every year.
The annual salary is only 12 dan plus allowance for support of 2 people...the income is extremely meager.
Therefore, the lives of the co-workers in all departments are very difficult hahahaha - only the co-workers in the practice office are an exception.
Because the samurai who work in the temple also have another income: offerings.
Daimyos from various places and merchants in Edo would pay a "gift" to the Edo Shrine on time every year, asking the Shrine to "take care" of them in the next year.
Because part of this "gift money" will also be paid to the shogunate, the shogunate has always adopted a "turn a blind eye" attitude towards this invisible income from the Edo Office.
Every year, the town priest will distribute these "gifts" to the officials in the town priest according to their identity, status, and political achievements.
People call this "hidden salary" that the officials of the execution office can receive "offerings."
This "contribution" is the bulk of the income of the officials at the prison.
Take Arima as an example - Arima has a body and strength, and his annual salary is 200 dan.
But including the annual offerings, the actual annual income of each member of the monastery is as high as 500 to 1,000 dan.
Both family salary and salary are distributed in three seasons.
One-quarter will be distributed in spring, one-quarter in summer, and the remaining one-half will be distributed in winter.
The offerings at the shrine are divided into four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
How much offerings you can receive each quarter depends entirely on your position and ability.
In the past, when Qingteng was still the "Original Orange Qingteng", his political performance was really a mess, so the offerings he could receive every quarter were always pitiful.
But now - Qingdeng is no longer the "idiot" he used to be.
Qingdeng's heroic performance last quarter earned him a very high amount of tribute this quarter: 51 taels of gold!
When Hakui reported the spring offerings that Qingteng could receive this year, bursts of low breathing erupted from the offering site.
Tongxin can receive 51 taels of gold as an offering in one quarter... This is extremely rare.
The spring offering of 51 taels of gold, including the 15 taels of spring family salary, 3 taels of spring salary and the "two-person support" allowance, Qingdeng's wallet was once again bulging.
As for the second big happy event, it was a bit more serious.
On the night when Aoto's house was burned down, Aoto and Okita worked together to catch one of the arsonists - the fat man. After he was arrested, he was immediately sent to the prison in Kodenma Town.
Under the instruction of the shogunate, the prison guards who were responsible for torture of prisoners used all kinds of cruel torture methods on the fat man day and night.
The fat man's will was unexpectedly strong.
Whether it was the "stone hug torture" that made people experience the pain of having their legs almost broken, or the "ebiosis torture" that made people feel that life was worse than death, he gritted his teeth and persisted one by one.
But...the torture methods used in prison are all "the crystallization of human wisdom" created through thousands of years of accumulation and continuous improvement by generations of people.
If you can endure these tortures for a while, can you still endure these tortures for a lifetime?
The kind of people who can endure these tortures for a lifetime are the best among people - and Fatty has no chance of meeting such people.
After enduring nearly three months of abuse and torture in the cell, he finally couldn't hold on anymore and confided everything he knew.
According to Fatty's confession, he belonged to an organization called the "Barbarian Fighting Group".
All members of this organization are radical anti-barbarian elements who are determined to drive all barbarians out of Japan.
A young samurai named "Kamino Tatsugoro" leads this organization.
Fatty knew very little about the leader of their anti-barbarian group. He had only met Kamino a few times.
The only thing I know about Kamino is that he is very serious in speech, has a strong aura, and has strong swordsmanship.
Although Fatty had never seen Kamino draw his sword, he had always heard about Kamino's strong swordsmanship after joining the group to conquer the barbarians.
According to the rumors Fatty heard - the reason why Kamino became the leader of the anti-barbarian group at such a young age was not only because he was the veteran of the anti-barbarian group, but there was another important reason, and that was his
The swordsmanship is very strong.
He is so strong that many martial arts masters in the Yi-Conquering Group willingly accept his guidance.
In addition to confessing the organization he belonged to, Fatty also revealed two important pieces of information.
One: He admitted that the assassination attempt to kill the Angoulême family was carried out by their anti-barbarian group.
Two: He confessed to the organization that regarded Qingdeng as a national traitor and had repeatedly sent people to assassinate Qingdeng. They were also their group to suppress the barbarians.
The fat man explained why they wanted to kill Anthony and Elodie - there was no special reason, they just wanted to kill foreigners.
It doesn't matter which country the foreigner comes from, what status he has, what age he is, or what gender he is.
Anyway, all foreigners who set foot on Japanese soil deserve to be killed.
The Angoulême family was simply unlucky - the anti-barbarian group learned through some channel that a French businessman who was easy to bully would come to Edo from Osaka via the Tokaido Road in the near future.
Their anti-barbarian group had been focusing on killing "national thieves" before, but this was the first time they assassinated barbarians.
In order to ensure that this "maiden war" against the Yi and Di could achieve the most complete victory, Shenye sent so many people to participate in this operation.
As for the source from which the anti-barbarian group learned that the Angoulême family would come to Edo via the East China Sea Road in the near future... Fatty didn't know.
Fatty is only a low-level member of the anti-Yi group, so he knows nothing about the number of people in the anti-Yi group, the location of the stronghold, and other important information.
The above is all he knows.
Although they were not able to learn enough important information from Fatty, the information he confessed also dispelled a lot of confusion in the minds of Qingdeng and others.
The execution office finally knew what organization had the ability and courage to assemble more than 200 warriors to attack and kill foreign businessmen.
As for Qingdeng, he finally knew what organization wanted to take his head because of the ridiculous reason of "working in the American Embassy".
The execution office immediately integrated all the information about the anti-barbarian group that Fatty had confessed to, and then reported it to the shogunate.
The shogunate also quickly sent a reply to the execution office: uproot this surprisingly large radical anti-barbarian force as soon as possible!
After receiving this stern order from the shogunate, the South and North Offices immediately took action.
Susui and Atsukawa (minister of Nanbansho Town) summoned the town's nianyue and the town leaders, and asked them to go to the towns they were responsible for to publicize the existence and dangers of the anti-barbarian group, and encourage the townspeople to provide information related to the anti-barbarian group.
, any town citizen who can provide useful information will be rewarded heavily.
For a time, "anti-barbarian group" became a hot topic in Edo.
As long as you go to a crowded place, you can always hear someone discussing this radical anti-barbarian organization that has been listed as a "big enemy that must be eliminated" by Edo.
The enforcement office has slightly adjusted the allocation of resources and the focus of its work - allocating a considerable amount of resources and manpower to investigate and track the anti-barbarian group.
April is the time when cherry blossoms are in full bloom.
As early as March 25th, the cherry blossom trees planted all over Edo began to bloom in their splendor.
By March 27th, cherry blossom petals flying all over the sky have become one of the most beautiful scenery in Edo.
Of course, the officials who have followed the "Three Chapters" obviously do not have the time or luxury to appreciate the first blooming cherry blossoms.
But Qingdeng is an exception.
Because on March 27, Qingdeng was finally scheduled for a long-lost holiday.
The current workload and work pressure are so huge that Qingdeng can hardly remember the last time he took a vacation.
But even though it was a holiday, Qingteng still didn't have time to watch the cherry blossoms.
Some time had passed since Okita went to ask Boss Kiryu to help find a few reliable people who were willing to be his Okaki.
Qingto plans to take advantage of today's rare day off to go to Chishiya to see how the commission entrusted to Kiryu's boss is currently progressing.
…
…
The first year of Wanyan (1860), March 27——
Edo, on a certain street——
"The weather is finally getting warmer..." Qingden casually brushed off a cherry blossom petal that fell on his head, then raised his right hand and looked at the golden sun through the fingers of his right palm.
Since the day before yesterday, when the cherry blossoms in Edo were just beginning to bloom, Edo, which has been plagued by a cold wave, finally began to warm up.
Nowadays, when going out, you no longer need to wear thick clothes, snow hats and scarves. You only need to wear a thin feather fabric to ensure that your body will not catch the cold.
The sun is shining brightly and the temperature is neither too cold nor too hot—this is Qingdeng’s favorite weather.
Feeling the warm spring breeze blowing on his cheeks, Qingden was in a good mood, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously raised slightly.
The time now was probably around 8 o'clock in the morning, and Qingto led Saito and strode towards Qianshiya.
As soon as he reached the door of Thousand Things House, Qingden heard the sound of an abacus crackling inside.
Aoshinobu originally thought that Kiryu's boss was making the abacus, but after opening the shop door, he discovered that the person who made the abacus crackle was actually Kinoshita Mai.
Mai Kinoshita was kneeling behind the counter, fiddling with the beads on the abacus with her left hand skillfully, and holding a brush in her right hand to write something on a large book.
After hearing the sound of the shop door being opened, she quickly stopped writing and raised her head. When she saw that the person coming was Qingden, a bright smile immediately appeared on Kinoshita Mai's cheeks.
The change of seasons has made Kinoshita Mai's current attire a lot cooler.
At this time, Kinoshita Mai was only wearing a thin bright red kimono, no socks on her feet, and her wide sleeves were tied tightly with sleeve belts, revealing a pair of small jade feet and two white porcelain-like arms.
"Tachibana-kun!"
Kinoshita Mai put down the brush and abacus in her hand, stepped on the spotless wooden floor with her white and tender feet, and rushed out from behind the counter to meet Qingto.
"Miss Kinoshita, good morning." Qingto said hello to Kinoshita Mai with a smile.
"Good morning to you too." Kinoshita Mai folded her arms in front of her and bowed slightly to Qingteng.
After chatting with Mai Kinoshita for a while, Aomori got straight to the point and asked where the boss of Kiryu was.
"Mr. Kiryu is making breakfast in the kitchen right now." Kinoshita replied, "Please wait here for a moment, I will call him now..."
Kinoshita Mai no longer needs to call Kiryu.
Before he could finish his words, Kiryu's old and elegant voice came from the back room.
"Young Master, I seem to hear Jun Ju's voice. Is it Jun Ju?"
Kiryu, holding a pot and ladle in his right hand and an apron on his chest, slowly walked out of the back room of Chishiya.
The apron Kiryu is wearing is a bit cute - there is an orange cat head embroidered in the center of the apron.
"Boss Kiryu, good morning." Qingden bowed to say hello to Kiryu who appeared from the back room, "I'm here to inquire about the current progress of the commission that was delivered to you a few days ago."
"Hahaha, Tachibana-kun, we have been waiting for you for a long time." Kiryu chuckled, then pointed to the cushions laid out in front of the counter, "You guys can sit down first."
"If it's convenient, can you wait for me for a moment? I still have to make breakfast, it will be ready soon."
"It's okay, it's okay." Qingdeng waved his hand, "You go ahead and do your work. Anyway, I have a day off today, so I'm not in a hurry."
Kiryu carried the pot and spoon back to the back room.
He didn't tell lies. In just a moment, he came out of the back room again, no longer wearing an apron or holding a pot or spoon.
After telling Mai Kinoshita to go and eat breakfast while it was hot, he sat down behind the counter with his knees bent.
"Ji Jun, regarding your commission... I have already identified three very good candidates for you."
Kiryu took out a large green-covered book from under the counter.
"It's...these three people."
Kiryu turned the big book to the last written page and pointed at the three names written on this page.
"Nagakura Shinpachi, Harada Sanosuke and Toudo Heisuke."
*******
*******
The author was busy yesterday, so today’s updates will be a little less. I will try to update more tomorrow (Leopard Head Crying.JPG)
