Nijo Castle consists of two major building groups: Honmaru Palace and Ninomaru Palace.
The main entrance of Tangmon Ninomaru Palace.
First pass through the Higashi Otemon, enter Nijo Castle, and then enter the Karamon to enter the Ninomaru Palace.
After passing through the Karamon Gate and entering the Ninomaru Palace, walk to the left to enter the Ninomaru Garden.
Ninomaru Garden adopts the cloister style. The most conspicuous feature of Ninomaru Garden is its huge pond.
There are three islands in the pool, one large and two small.
The larger island is named "Hengrai Island", and the other two smaller islands are named "Turtle Island" and "Crane Island" respectively.
Tonight's banquet will be held on a certain grassland on Penglai Island.
The reason why it should be held on the grass was also proposed by the Owari clan daimyo, Tokugawa Munemu, who decided to hold this banquet.
Just to experience this picnic feeling.
Tokugawa Munetsu had long been tired of having banquets in a luxurious palace.
Just now, this grand banquet started.
The absolute master of this banquet, Tokugawa Munemu, is unquestionably in the spotlight.
The guests at the banquet were seated on the left and right sides of Tokugawa Munumu in order according to their status.
Tadahiro Toda, the governor of Kyoto, sat in the first place on the right hand side of Tokugawa Munemu.
Then, in order, there is Osaka Castle Hota Masjun, the temple worships Ota Shiai...
After taking a sip of wine, a slightly blushing Tokugawa Munumu whispered to Toda sitting below:
"King Toda, today I sent people to take a look at several burned areas in Kyoto."
"You did a good job. Although the burned areas have not had time to be rebuilt due to lack of funds, there are no people left without a fixed place."
Seeing Tokugawa Munumu praising him, Toda quickly sat upright and put a bright smile on his face with great skill.
"Lord of the feudal lord, you have given me too much praise. I just did what I should do."
Tadahiro Toda is nearly 50 years old.
The two words "short" and "fat" should be the first impression most people have after seeing Toda Tadahiro. His fat belly, which seemed to be stuffed with a big quilt, was extremely conspicuous.
When he leaned down and spat out various modest words towards Tokugawa Munumu, a proud sneer appeared on Toda's fat face.
However, because Tadahiro Toda was pressing his forehead to the ground at this time, no one could notice the proud smile on Toda's face at this time.
The officials sent by Tokugawa Munemu to inspect the current situation of the burned areas had long been bribed by Toda.
The burned areas that Toda took the bribed officials to see were the burned areas that Toda had specially "organized".
Toda had previously received rumors that Tokugawa Somutsu was coming to Kyoto to watch this year's Gion Festival, and at the same time, he wanted to send someone to see how the reconstruction of Kyoto was going.
Toda, who received the news in advance, sent people to drive away all the residents of the burned-out areas closer to Nijo Castle before Tokugawa Munumu arrived in Kyoto.
This is the truth that "the victims of the Tianming Fire have been arranged."
Tokugawa Munumu was still praising Toda Tadahiro's abilities.
Listening to Tokugawa Munumu's compliments, the look of pride on Toda's face became more intense...
…
…
Kotaro, who was standing not far away, watched the banquet with cold eyes.
There are 28 ninjas responsible for guarding Nijo Castle.
Kotaro is one of these 28 people, and he is also the overall person in charge of this mission.
At this moment, Kotaro was standing in a dark place not far from the banquet site, silently observing the banquet.
"It is truly a banquet hosted by the most powerful lord of the Owari clan..."
Kotaro sighed in a low voice at a volume that only he could hear clearly.
Kotaro could not recognize the quality of the clothes worn by these people at this banquet.
But he recognized the quality of the food they ate.
The food eaten by these people at the banquet hall was all genuine delicacies from mountains and seas.
Not to mention his Kotaro, even Enma, the leader of Shiranui, may not be able to eat these foods in his lifetime...
After softly lamenting the extravagant life of the upper class, Kotaro stretched himself vigorously.
"What a boring mission..."
"Xingtaro, you are right, this mission of 'defending Nijo Castle until the banquet of these people is over' is indeed boring."
"Heitaro, you are here."
A figure slowly emerged from the darkness behind Kotaro, and gradually outlined its specific shape.
Heitaro is one of the Jonin who came to guard Nijo Castle with Kotaro.
After standing next to Kotaro, Heitaro continued:
"The Nijo Imperial Palace is easy to defend...and it's impossible for anyone to attack the Nijo Imperial Palace without good intentions..."
"Although it is impossible for anyone to attack the Nijo Imperial Palace." Kotaro smiled, "but the shogunate still needs to do some superficial work."
"Xingtaro." Heitaro suddenly changed his tone to a more serious tone, "The four Ryutaros who were responsible for finding A-Machi have not come back until now."
28 of them were responsible for guarding Kyoto, and the other 4 were responsible for tracking down the defecting Amachi while the rest were guarding Nijo Castle.
Kotaro gave the task of tracking Amachi to the four of Ryutaro.
Kotaro made an agreement with the four Ryutaros who were responsible for tracking Amachi: they must report to them regularly.
And now the agreed time has passed, but until now, Ryutaro and the others have not been seen returning to report...
This made Xingtaro couldn't help but prepare for the worst...
"...Heitaro, you secretly take three chuunin to find Ryutaro and the others."
Hearing what Kotaro said, Heitaro looked shocked.
"Xingtaro, we must leave at least 28 people to guard Nijo Castle." Heitaro said solemnly.
The agreement they made between Shiranui and the shogunate was to send at least 28 powerful ninjas to guard Nijo Castle until Tokugawa Munemu and his party's banquet was over.
The banquet of Tokugawa Munemu and the others is still going on. If they find that the number of ninjas guarding Nijo Castle has become smaller than the number agreed upon in advance, it will be troublesome.
"Don't worry." Kotaro shrugged, "These people are busy eating, drinking and having fun, so they don't care whether our number is small or not."
"They won't find out if there are four people missing."
"Anyway, Nijo Castle is very safe. It is impossible for anyone to dare to attack Nijo Castle, so it doesn't matter whether there are 4 more guards or 4 fewer guards."
"Go quickly. Regardless of whether Ryutaro and the others are found or not, they will be back in an hour."
"...Yes!" After hesitating for a while, Heitaro responded with a loud "Yes".
…
…
Kyoto, Sanoji Street, in an uninhabited private house.
After capturing the bald man and checking the three-story building to confirm that no other enemies were still hiding in the building, Ogata and his party left the building and took the bald man with them.
In an uninhabited private house some distance away from this three-story building.
While moving to this uninhabited private house, Ogata and Makimura exchanged information about each other.
Makimura, Hasegawa and the others were also able to learn about the kidnapping of the wife and daughter of the owner of the metaphysics hall and their rescue by Ogata and the others, as well as the existence of Ryunosuke and Tsururugi.
This uninhabited private house seems to have been a tea house before, with a total of 2 floors.
At this moment, Ogata and his party were all on the second floor of this tea house.
"Yes, just tie him up like this." Makimura said to Hasegawa.
"Makimura." Hasegawa followed Makimura's instructions and tied the bald man's hands tighter, while asking Makimura, "Why are you tying him like this?"
The bald head was now tied to a removed paper sliding door.
The bald man with his hands and feet tied to this paper sliding door was not lying flat on the ground.
The bald man's feet were tied to the south side of the paper sliding door, and his hands and head were tied to the north side of the paper sliding door.
There are a lot of things padded on the bottom of the south side of the paper sliding door, which makes the bald head appear in a strange posture with his feet padded very high, the height of his feet above his head, and his nostrils slightly pointing upward.
Makimura, Ogata, and Hasegawa worked together to tie the bald head into this weird posture.
"Why are you tying him up like this?" An intriguing smile appeared on Makimura's face, "You will know later."
"Makimura-senpai." Shimada walked quickly towards Makimura holding a large jar of water, "I brought the water you asked for!"
"Well, thank you for your hard work."
Makimura, Ogata, and Hasegawa had their heads tied up.
Shimada followed Makimura's instructions to find water.
As for Amachi, he was doing nothing but holding Pochi in his arms and playing with him.
After receiving the large amount of water from Shimada, Makimura whispered to Ogata and Hasegawa beside him:
"Okay, you two, please step aside for a moment."
Although they didn't know what Makimura planned to do, Ogata and Hasegawa obediently followed Makimura's instructions and took a few steps back and stepped aside.
Makimura held the large jar of water in his hand and walked slowly to the side of the bald head.
"You, you, what are you going to do?" The bald man looked at Makimura with horror on his face.
"I have many things to ask you." Makimura said to the bald head in an indifferent tone without any emotion, "but I know you will definitely not tell everything you know."
"So I'm going to give you a taste of the pain first."
"This is a method of torture that I accidentally discovered when I was still in power in Kyoto."
"This is the most powerful torture method I have ever spoken of."
"The method of use is very simple, just a little water is enough."
"It's extremely powerful. Until now, I haven't found anyone who has the ability to withstand this torture."
"No one."
After emphasizing "there is no one", Makimura tied the rag that Atachi used to gag the bald head just now on the bald head's face.
Because the head is bound and cannot turn at will, the bald face can only point straight towards the ceiling.
After tying the piece of cloth on the bald head's face, Makimura tilted the jar of water in his hand and poured the water in the jar towards the bald head's face covered by the cloth.
The water in the jar formed a water column that was neither slow nor fast and poured onto the bald face.
From Makimura's skillful technique of pouring water, it is easy to see that this must not be the first time he has used this trick on someone.
When the water first poured on the bald head's face, it was difficult for the bald head to remain calm.
But in just a few breaths, the bald head began to struggle.
After a few more breaths, the bald head's struggle suddenly became several times more intense!
The strength of the struggle was so great that everyone present thought that those few hemp ropes might not be able to tie him up.
"Shimada!"
"Ah, here!"
"Come here and give me a hand, hold him down and stop him from moving!"
"yes!"
Shimada followed Makimura's instructions, quickly ran to Bald's side, held down Bald's shoulders, and suppressed Bald's violently struggling body.
However, judging from the expression on Shimada's face and the veins popping out on Shimada's arms, it seems that Shimada's suppression of the bald head was not easy.
Ogata and Shimada have competed once, so he has a general understanding of Shimada's power and speed.
When it comes to strength, Shimada is one of the best. You can tell at a glance that he is the kind of person who never neglects exercise.
Shimada, who was not weak in strength, still struggled to suppress the bald head. One can imagine how violent the bald head's struggle was.
Looking at Makimura, who was expressionless and pouring water on his bald face with an indifferent expression, Ogata thought to himself:
It is very similar to waterboarding in the United States on modern Earth...
When he discovered that Makimura's so-called torture method was to pour water on the bald head's face, Oubon suddenly thought that Makimura's torture method was very similar to the American waterboarding method on modern Earth.
Before arriving in the Edo period, Ogata learned about the existence of water torture by chance.
As far as Ogata knows, waterboarding is a very cruel form of torture.
This kind of torture can make prisoners feel like they are about to suffocate and drown.
The reason why waterboarding is cruel is that under the control of the nerve center, the victim who cannot breathe opens his mouth wide and swallows hard. A large amount of water is sucked into the stomach, lungs and trachea, causing the victim to vomit and cough in the water.
The lungs and trachea secrete a large amount of thick nasal mucus, causing incontinence of urine and feces. The patient suffers indescribable pain and is constantly living and dying.
Precisely because waterboarding is cruel, not many people can withstand this cruel waterboarding.
While pouring water on the bald head, Makimura was also observing the condition of the bald head.
When he noticed that the bald head seemed to be dying, Makimura immediately stopped watering the water, then leaned over and removed the cloth tied to the bald head's face.
As soon as Makimura took off the cloth, Baldhead coughed and vomited wildly, vomiting a lot of water.
Snot and saliva all over my face.
After waiting quietly for the bald head to recover a little, Makimura silently tied the rag on the bald head's face again.
"Wait, wait! Wait a minute..."
The bald man seemed to want to say something, but Makimura ignored him and silently tied the rag on the bald man's face again.
Because the rag was tied up again on his face, the bald man could no longer say a word and could only whimper incomprehensibly.
After tying the rag on the bald head again, Makimura used waterboarding on the bald head again.
…
…
Makimura used waterboarding on the bald head three times.
After the third waterboarding was over, Makimura once again took off the cloth tied to the bald head's face. The bald head immediately vomited and said to Makimura in a crying tone and a pleading tone:
"I said! Ahem! Ha... ha... ha... vomit! vomit vomit! vomit! What am I... ahem! vomit! vomit! I... I say everything! Ha... ha...
Cough! Cough cough cough! I will say anything! I will say whatever you ask me! Please let me go!"
"Okay." Makimura threw aside the jar with little water left in his hand, "This is what you said. Whatever I ask you later, you will answer it. If you dare to hide it and refuse to report it, I will let you go again."
Drink more water. Anyway, there is a well nearby and there is plenty of water."