If Aonto remembers correctly... When he was patrolling on the road the day before yesterday, he met Kinoshita Dance Queen. The child told him that she was going to Fujisawa-juku on Tokaido to meet her friend.
After the establishment of the Edo shogunate in 1603, in order to strengthen its rule over the country, the Edo shogunate started from Edo and built five avenues collectively known as the "Five Streets" that connected major economic and military locations across the country.
These five highways are: Tokaido, Nakasen Expressway, Nikko Expressway, Oshu Expressway, and Koshu Expressway.
In order to facilitate the mobilization of personnel and materials, and to promote the development of commerce, the shogunate established a large number of sleeping quarters and inns along these five avenues.
Tokaido, which connects the two major cities of Edo and Kyoto, is the busiest avenue with the largest flow of people among the "Five Streets".
There are 53 inns in Tokaido. Fujisawa-juku, which Arima just mentioned and where Mai Kinoshita is going to meet her friend, is one of the inns on Tokaido.
In addition to being used for political and military purposes by the government, ordinary travelers and businessmen can also freely use the "Five Streets" and each camp along the way to travel to and from various places. As a result, the demand for accommodation, dining and shopping has greatly increased.
As a result, large-scale settlements gradually gathered around most of the sleeping quarters on the "Five Streets" and gradually evolved into castle towns.
This kind of castle town formed with a shukuba as the center is called a "shukuba town".
Fujisawa Juku is one of the typical examples.
Fujisawa-juku is still a dormitory in name, but in reality it has become a large-scale castle town.
Teahouses, izakayas, brothels, casinos, bathhouses... Fujisawa-juku has everything you would find in a normal town.
"Arima-sama." Aoto asked, "Did something happen at Fujisawa-san's place?"
"Recently, a group of very skilled thieves have appeared in Fujisawa Lodge." Arima said, "They specialize in stealing travelers' money at the lodge."
"The amount involved has reached 200 taels of gold."
"Faced with this group of thieves who could not be caught no matter how hard they tried, the officials at Fujisawa Juku were completely at their wits' end, so they asked our Edo Office for help and asked us to send colleagues to support them."
"Fujisawa-juku is one of the most important inns in Tokaido, and it is not very far from Edo. After weighing the pros and cons, Mr. Susui decided to accept Fujisawa-juku's request for help, and personally asked Tachibana-kun to be responsible for it.
case."
"Master Boi personally named me?" Qingden was stunned.
"Your good performance in Granny Ping's case seems to have really changed Mr. Hakui's view of you. He will personally name you to take charge of the case. This is when he really starts to regard you as a certain character.
The performance of the molecules.”
"Anyway - work hard, Tachibana-kun."
"Try to perform at Fujisawa-san's place and make everyone shine again."
Qingto laughed a few times: "Is it a theft... Mr. Arima, you put me under a lot of pressure when you said that."
"The official is not a god, and it is impossible for every case to be fortunately solved."
"Just do your best."
After saying that, Arima took out a document with the seal of the observance office from the desk, and then took out 2 taels of gold from a lacquer box next to it.
"This is your official document, keep it. If you lose it, you won't be able to live and eat in the dormitory for free."
"These two taels of gold are your travel expenses. Don't spend them arbitrarily. No matter how happy you spend the travel expenses, it will be painful when you come back to report the consumption details. The last time Inoya went on a business trip, it was because he spent most of the travel expenses with
The woman got too involved and was severely criticized by Mr. Bojing."
If a person comes to the camp for official business of the shogunate, the camp must provide the service of "regiment of men and horses" free of charge.
Each dormitory must have a certain number of logistics personnel and horses. The so-called "horse and man succession" is a system in which the dormitory assists officials in replacing personnel and horses, and provides accommodation and meals for officials free of charge.
Therefore, the general document that Arima handed over to Qingnobo at this time is very important. Without this document that can prove that he is an official with official duties, he will not be able to eat, drink and live in various lodging houses for free.
Already.
After collecting the documents and travel expenses sent by Arima, and bidding farewell to Arima solemnly, Aoto strode out of Arima's office, preparing to go home and make business arrangements.
As soon as he turned up the corridor leaving the prison, Qingden suddenly saw one of his seniors: Inoya walking towards him.
I saw Inotani with one hand on his waist and the other hand holding a palm-sized piece of paper. As he walked forward, he showed a strange smile and stared happily at the piece of paper in his hand.
"Mr. Inotani!" Qingden took the initiative to say hello to Inotani.
"Oh?" After hearing Qingto's voice, Inotani looked away from the paper in his hand, "Oh, it's Tachibana-kun."
"What are you looking at?" Qingden cast a confused look at the piece of paper held in Inoya's hand, "I was so fascinated that I almost walked up to you and you didn't even see me."
"Hehe..." Inoya let out a strange laugh and turned the piece of paper in his hand towards Qingden.
The piece of paper in Inotani's hand turned out to be a small painting.
A portrait painted in the ukiyo-e style.
Qingdeng couldn't quite understand the paintings of this era.
After he looked carefully, he could vaguely see that... what this painting depicts seems to be a little girl with blond hair and blue eyes.
"This is a good thing I got from an old friend of mine when I went to Yoshiwara yesterday... ah, no, I went to Yoshiwara to meet friends."
"Tangerine, do you know Elodie de Angoulême?"
Qingden shook his head blankly.
"She is the granddaughter of a certain French businessman who is currently settled in Osaka." Inotani chuckled again, "I have heard of this woman's name a long time ago."
"Although she is a barbarian, I heard her skin is smoother than silk, and she has an incredibly beautiful face, which is very in line with our Japanese preferences."
"The painting in my hand is said to be a portrait of Elodie painted by a painter who had seen her up close."
After saying that, Inotani turned the painting in his hand towards himself again with a look of emotion on his face.
"It's so beautiful... If this painting is indeed the true appearance of Elodie, then this person is really a little beauty..."
"Hehe... I really want to see with my own eyes what she looks like... Hehehe..."
If you don't wipe your mouth, drool may be dripping from the corners of Inoya's mouth.
——How do you know from this kind of painting that Elodie is very beautiful...?
Aoto, who doesn't appreciate Ukiyo-e at all, doesn't understand how Inotani could see that the girl in this painting is a little beauty...
"If this painting is really a true portrait of Elodie... then this Elodie looks so young." Qingden frowned at the painting in Inoya's hand, "People are all small.
"
"Yes, this Elodie is indeed very young. It is said that she is only 12 years old this year."
"12?" Qingden glared, and then looked at Inotani up and down with strange eyes, "...Mr. Inotani, as a man in his early 30s, you can't...at least you shouldn't treat a 12
A year-old girl is in heat..."
"I'm not in heat." Inotani said with a serious face, "I'm just appreciating beauties normally."
"When appreciating a beauty, do you need to care how old she is?"
Inoya stuffed the portrait of Elodie back into his arms.
"Okay, it's better not to talk about this in the practice office."
"If Mr. Arima finds out that I'm chatting with women during official time, he will definitely scold me again."
"Ji Jun, why do you look like you are in a hurry? Is there something urgent?"
Aoto took out the general document he had just received from Arima from his arms and called to Inotani: "I'm going to Fujisawa-san's place on a business trip."
Aoto told Inoya in a concise and concise manner the detailed reasons for his business trip to Fujisawa-juku.
"Oh...Fujisawa Juku..." Inotani grinned, "It's okay to go to that place for a business trip. It's very close to Edo, so it won't be very tiring. The last time I went to Kyoto for a business trip, it was really tiring.
It kills me..."
"Do you need me to bring back some souvenirs from Fujisawa-ryu's place?" Aonto asked half-jokingly.
Inotani couldn't help laughing: "Fujisawa-juku is only three days' walk from Edo. There are some local souvenirs. You don't need to bring any souvenirs. You can just investigate the case there."
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New book sets sail!
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