"…Then, the four warriors who provoked me were knocked down one by one by me."
"I was in a good mood at the time, so I spared the lives of those four people."
…
Ever since Gokutaro mentioned to the girl next to him that he was going to participate in the upcoming imperial trial, Gokutaro began to talk endlessly about his various heroic deeds in the past.
Neither Makimura nor Asai knew how many heroic deeds Kitaro had told.
I just remember that I am very impatient now.
How long will he continue to tell his heroic deeds? Makimura and Asai also don't know how many times they have whispered this sentence...
Makimura admired the two girls sitting next to Gokutaro and Gokutaro's follower...
After listening to "Gokutaro's heroic deeds" for so long, he still managed to show interest.
I don’t know if they have superb acting skills or if they are really interested in the heroic deeds told by Ji Tairou...
After draining the glass of wine, Gokutaro, whose cheeks were already obviously red, said to his follower:
"How long have we been here?"
"One hour." Ji Tairou's follower replied without thinking.
"It's been such a long time." Ji Tailang stretched hard, "Okay, let's drink this for tonight."
"Eitaro, let's go."
Ji Tairou put the money on the table, said goodbye to the girl he ordered tonight, and then led his followers and strode outside the Four Seasons House.
Although he drank a lot of wine, Kitaro's steps were still steady and strong. If his face was not very red, he would not look like someone who drank a lot of wine.
After Gokutaro and his followers left, Asai whispered to Makimura next to him:
"I finally left..."
"Maybe he went to have fun." Makimura agreed.
According to the information Ogata gave them, Kitaro would come to Yoshiwara every night to have fun, without exception. After drinking in the Four Seasons House, Kitaro should have gone to a certain wandering girl's house to have fun.
Makimura and Asai's eavesdropping mission tonight is now over.
Kitaro left the Four Seasons House and went to have fun, and they could no longer eavesdrop on the conversation between Kitaro and others.
It wasn't until Gokutaro and his followers were some distance away from the Four Seasons House that Makimura and Asai left the Four Seasons House together.
After walking out of the Four Seasons House, the two came to a remote corner and started talking in a low voice.
"I've gained a little bit tonight," Qianjing said.
"Yeah." Makimura showed a faint wry smile, "It's just that the price I paid was high... I listened to that guy's nonsense for an hour, and my head felt swollen..."
"I'm a little concerned about it." Asai frowned slightly, "Why does that Gokutaro want to participate in the 'Gozen Trial Match'? He can come to Yoshiwara every night, so he shouldn't be short of money."
"Is it because you can compete with masters from all walks of life and hone your skills?"
The "little gain" that Asai mentioned just now refers to learning that Gokutaro is going to participate in the "Gozen Trial Match".
Makimura shrugged: "Who knows. Judging from the results, the information obtained tonight was still too little, and we couldn't get some more interesting information."
"But no matter what, it's better to have something to gain than nothing."
When Makimura and Asai were exchanging what they had learned tonight, the conversation of a group of people in the distance suddenly caught their attention.
"Hey, have you heard? At the gate of Yoshihara, the officers of the Shirobei Club got into a fight with the officers of other places."
"Official servants from other places? Official servants from which place?"
"It seems that it was changed by a bandit."
"The Fire Thief Kai? Why are the official officials of the Fire Thief Kai in Yoshihara? Are there any vicious thieves or arsonists here in Yoshihara?"
"I don't know the specifics. I only know that two waves of people started fighting, and then all the officials who were reformed by Huo Fu Thief were beaten to the ground!"
"When did the officer of the Shirobei Club become so powerful? He was able to beat the officer of the Huofu Thief Kai to the ground?!"
"And I heard that all the officials who were reformed by Huo Fu Thieves were defeated by one person."
"A person? Did you hear wrongly?"
"This is the one person I heard about! A servant of the Shirobei Club single-handedly killed more than 20 officials who had been converted into thieves!"
"Really... let's go directly to the Yoshihara gate to see the excitement."
"That's right, let's just go and take a look. I would like to see if all the officials who were reformed by Huo Fu Thief were really killed."
After the group finished their conversation, they lifted up both sides of their pants and ran quickly towards Yoshiwara's gate.
Makimura and Asai have been quietly listening to the conversation of this group of people since just now.
After the group ended their conversation and quickly ran towards the Yoshihara gate, Makimura and Asai looked at each other with complicated expressions.
"Makimura," Asai said, "could that be the person who single-handedly killed more than twenty government officials who had been turned into thieves?"
"Hmm." Before Asai finished speaking, Makimura answered with a wry smile, "Except for that guy, no one has the strength to take down more than twenty gangsters in one go...
"
…
…
Edo, Yoshiwara, at the gate.
The club officials gathered at the gate of Yoshihara were divided into three groups.
Some people drove away the spectators who gathered around.
After all, this is the entrance to Yoshiwara. If too many people gather here, it will cause great inconvenience to guests.
Some people moved the officials who had been beaten down by Ogata as fire thieves and changed into the club one by one.
Because Ogata used the back of the sword just now, no one bled or died.
The most seriously injured person only has some injuries to his bones, which can be cured by applying medicine.
Although some very unpleasant things happened to the officials who had been reformed by Huo Fu Thieves just now, they are still ministers of the shogunate after all, and it is impossible to let them lie on the street like this.
Therefore, Guasheng and the others assigned a group of people to move all the members of the Huofu Thieves Kaishu Group 6 into the club.
There was also a small group of people gathered around Ogata, casting admiring and reverent glances at Ogata.
"Mashima-kun! You are so powerful! You can actually defeat 25 fire-stricken thieves and officers by yourself."
"Mashima-kun, what style of swordsmanship do you use?"
"I just saw you use the special technique of stepping on the stabbing when you were dealing with someone who used the stabbing. This skill is really powerful! What is the name of this skill?"
"Well done, Majima-kun! The bossy look of those people makes me angry just looking at them! You helped us vent our bad temper!"
…
The people around him threw all kinds of compliments and questions at Ogata.
Looking at the group of people surrounding him, a helpless smile appeared on Ogata's face.
Just now, when he was fighting against the more than 20 officers and soldiers who had been transformed by fire-fighting thieves, the system's notification sound kept ringing in Ogata's mind.
His head had just cleared up, and Ogata really didn't want to hear these people's noisy compliments and questions at this moment...
Just when Ogata was thinking about how to break away from the "surrounding" of these people, out of the corner of his eye, Ogata caught a glimpse of Gua Sheng walking slowly towards him.
"Miss Guasheng," Ogata asked, "Have all the officials who were reformed by Huo Fu Thieves been settled?"
Gua Sheng did not come to Ogata alone.
She was accompanied by Kawajiro.
It was Guao and Kawajiro who were responsible for directing everyone to place Natori and others in place.
"Yes." Guasheng nodded, "We have placed them in various rest rooms in the club."
"Is your face okay?" Ogata pointed to his left cheek.
Just now, when Gua Sheng was pushed away by the official officer who had been changed by the Huo Fu thieves, because he did not expect that they would make a sudden move, Gua Sheng did not have time to adjust his landing posture when he was pushed down. His left cheek accidentally touched the ground and was rubbed out.
A few bloodstains.
"It's okay." Guasheng touched his left cheek.
Guasheng's left cheek now has a piece of linen cloth attached to it.
There was no such thing as bandages in this era, so when stopping bleeding or dressing wounds, linen was basically used.
"I've just applied medicine and bandaged it. It's just a minor injury. It will heal in a few days."
"Mashima-kun..." At this moment, Kawajiro, who was standing next to Gua Sheng, suddenly said with a bitter smile, "You beat down all the officials who were reformed by the thieves. Although you relieved your anger, it doesn't end well now.
Already..."
"What should we do if the people who have been reformed by Huo Fu Thieves come to us for trouble on the grounds that 'we beat their people'..."
I have to say that Kawajiro’s worries are quite realistic.
After hearing what Kawajiro said, the faces of the people surrounding Ogata, as well as Gua Sheng, all changed.
"Yes, it's us who are responsible!" one of the guards shouted loudly, "those people robbed the prisoners we caught, and they were the first to use force against us. Miss Guasheng's face was even injured by them!
Is there anything wrong with us fighting back against them?"
"Although it is true that we are responsible." The bitter look on Kawajiro's face became more intense, "But if the people who reformed the thieves are unreasonable and insist that the fault is ours, it will still be quite troublesome.
ah……"
While the faces of everyone around him became heavy, only one person's expression did not change at all.
He also showed a faint smile.
"Don't worry, Mr. Kawajiro." Ogata smiled, "I have a solution."
"Huh?" Kawajiro's eyes widened, "What can I do?"
As soon as Kawajiro finished speaking, a voice that was quite familiar to Ogata suddenly rang out from the crowd not far away:
"Mashima...you really defeated all the officials who turned against thieves..."
"Oops." Ogata followed the voice and said, "Makimura, you are here."
Makimura and Asai, who had complicated expressions, squeezed through the crowd and walked slowly towards Ogata.
After the two of them learned that there was a guy who had settled the official duties of more than twenty thieves, they vaguely guessed who "this guy" was, so they rushed to the gate of Yoshihara.
As soon as he arrived at the gate, he saw Ogata being surrounded by the club's officials...
"Mashima-kun." Gua Sheng asked, "Who are the two of them?"
"They are my friends." After answering Gua Sheng's question, Ogata turned his attention back to Makimura and Asai, "You two came just in time, saving me the trouble of looking for you later."
…
…
at the same time--
Edo, a certain inconspicuous tea house.
"Hasegawa-sama."
Imai, who was leading the way, whispered to Hasegawa Heizo behind him.
"Here we are."
"Yeah." Hasegawa nodded, "Let's go in."
Hasegawa was only accompanied by his adjutant, Imai Cheng.
Apart from Imai, Hasegawa did not have any other guards or attendants with him.
Together with Imai, he took off the knife from his left waist and held it up with his right hand. They walked into the inconspicuous teahouse in front of them one after another.
As soon as I entered the tea house, I saw a young and slightly older samurai at the door of the tea house.
After seeing Hasegawa, the samurai nodded slightly to Hasegawa as a greeting, and then led Hasegawa towards the second floor of the tea house.
Before following the samurai onto the second floor of the tea house, Hasegawa said to Imai:
"Imai, stay here and wait for me."
"yes."
After giving this order to Imai, Hasegawa followed the samurai upstairs.
The samurai led Hasegawa all the way to the door of a room on the second floor, knelt on one knee beside the door, and then slowly opened the door of the room.
The door opened, and the scene inside the room was revealed before Hasegawa's eyes.
The layout of the room is just that of a very ordinary teahouse room.
A middle-aged man, about 40 to 50 years old, with a neatly shaved Tsukiro head, was sitting on his knees in the center of the room.
After meeting Hasegawa, the middle-aged man smiled slightly and said in a half-joking tone:
"Hasegawa-sama, good evening."
"I'm sorry, Sakura-sama." Hasegawa said to the middle-aged man in an apologetic tone as he walked into the room, "I'm a little late."
Hasegawa knelt in front of the middle-aged man in a standard posture, and then placed his sword on the tatami on his right.
"It's okay, it's okay." The middle-aged man whom Hasegawa called "Sakura" waved his hand, "You and I have quite a lot of official duties on weekdays, I understand."
After Hasegawa entered the room, the samurai who led Hasegawa to the room just now slowly closed the door.
In the room, there was only Hasegawa, a middle-aged man named "Sakura".
"Hasegawa-sama, you and I are people who don't like talking nonsense." Sakura said sternly to Hasegawa in front of her, "So let's get straight to the point and continue the topic that didn't come to an end last time."
Sakura cleared her throat, then lowered her voice and said in a deep voice:
"Lord Hasegawa, are you willing to lend a helping hand to destroy Shiranui Ri's attempt in the 'Gozen Trial'?"
"Seven days have passed since the last discussion."
"Such a long time should be enough for you to come up with a specific answer, right?"
After hearing Sakura's words, Hasegawa lowered his head slightly.
A solemn look appeared on his face.
*******
*******
When serializing the fifth volume, I tried to write a little story about Genichi and Fuma when they were young.
I plan to update it from time to time in the form of special codes, and release special codes at the end of chapters from time to time to tell the story of Genichi and Feng Mo when they were young.
I have already thought of a name for this series that is updated from time to time.
It’s called “The Legendary Adventure of the Sword Master and the Wind Demon!”
Let’s start today and update it slowly and irregularly in the future.
*******
*******
Volume 6 Bonus 2: "The Legendary Adventure of the Sword Master and the Wind Demon! (1)"
…
…
The timeline of the story begins 47 years ago - the third year of Kuanbao (1743 AD).
That year, Kinoshita Genichi was 17 years old and Fuma was 25 years old.
That year, the two of them didn't know each other.
That year, the two of them were just unknown people.
(Note: The name Fuma used before taking the name of the 17th generation Fuma Kotaro was "Kanmitsu", which means that Nanamitsu is the Fuma that everyone is familiar with)
No one expected that the first conversation between these two heroes would be like this...
…
…
Kuanbao 3 years (1743 AD), June 11.
Kobe, somewhere.
It's midsummer now.
It's obviously only mid-June, but the sun is already mercilessly pouring light and heat onto the world.
The scorching sunlight struck the earth like thorny whips.
In the scorching sun, the summer cicada was hiding feebly on the branches and groaning. The scenery as far as the eye could see was steaming with heat, and the world seemed to be melting into a viscous liquid.
Ganshi wiped the sweat dripping from her cheeks, took off the bamboo tube with some water left from her waist, and poured all the water left in the bamboo tube into her mouth without leaving a drop.
After wiping away the remaining water droplets from the corner of his mouth, Ganshi let out a long breath.
"Okay, let's continue on our way."
After giving herself a simple pep talk in a low voice, Kanji lowered the hat on her head slightly, and then continued to walk straight forward along the street below her feet.
Tangerine is now located on an ordinary street in Kobe.
His destination was a magnificent mansion located in the center of Kobe's castle town.
The center of Kobe's castle town is where dignitaries live.
Compared with the crowded and dense layout of residences in other areas, the layout of residences in the center of Kobe Castle is much sparser.
There are no more than seven or eight households on a street, but each household occupies a terrifyingly large area.
Ganshi walked very quickly, and in a short time, Ganshi arrived at his destination.
This is a very impressive and magnificent mansion.
The gate of the mansion is wide, and the walls on both sides are more than thirty paces long.
If you stand on a high place and overlook the mansion, you can see that there are green plants such as pines, bamboos, wisterias and vines all over the wall, which is sparse and beautiful.
The roofs of the mansions in the courtyard are covered with light blue tiles. The tallest mansion is four stories high, showing its grandeur.
There happened to be an old man with white hair and beard sweeping the floor in front of the mansion's door.
Ganshi walked up to the old man and said in a polite tone:
"Gui'an, I'm going to lower Ganshi..."
Before Ganshi could say anything, the old man let out a soft "ah" and then laughed.
"Is this a tangerine fruit at your feet? I've been waiting for a long time. I already heard about you yesterday. Come on, come in."
"Excuse me." After bowing respectfully, Ganshi followed closely behind the old man and walked towards the house.
Before passing through the mansion gate, Ganshi paused for a moment, raised his head and looked at the imposing gate above his head.
Looking at this magnificent gate, Gan Yong said in his heart in a sonorous and powerful tone:
——You must take advantage of this opportunity to save enough money!
In order to improve his skills, Ganshi resolutely decided to leave the Feng Mo Village six months ago and travel around the world to engage in "warrior training."
Many warriors, in order to hone their skills and physical and mental will, choose to travel to the ends of the earth with swords, travel around the world, and compete with masters from all over the world.
The most famous representative among them was Miyamoto Musashi who was active at the end of the Warring States Period.
According to Miyamoto Musashi's own words - when he traveled around and conducted "warrior training", he competed with more than 60 masters.
In these more than sixty competitions, Miyamoto Musashi won them all.
"Having conducted more than 60 competitions and won all" - after all, this is what Miyamoto Musashi said himself, so it is difficult to distinguish whether it is true or false.
But Miyamoto Musashi has traveled far and wide and competed with many masters. This is indeed a fact.
It's just that how many masters he has competed with - the number is open to debate.
Kanomi decided to learn from Miyamoto Musashi and traveled around the world to hone her body and mind and hone her skills.
However, it had only been half a year since he left the Fuma Village and started "warrior training", and Ganshi's training had a big problem.
The big problem is: Ganshi has no money.
Find a way to get enough money to support your own practice - this is also one of the exercises of "martial arts practice".
And it may be one of the most difficult tests.
When he wandered to Kobe, Kanshi's wallet was basically "empty".
It's just that Ganshi's luck is really good.
As soon as he wandered to Kobe, Kanji came across a good opportunity to make money.
Kobe's wealthy businessman, Hanae Tachibana, is recruiting bodyguards to protect his mansion.
Not only is food and accommodation included, but the salary offered is also shockingly high.
The only drawback is probably that the salary is only paid once a month.
Although this salary is only paid once a month, there are still a large number of people flocking to it.
Naturally, it is impossible for the Huajiang family to take in all the crooked melons and cracked dates.
In order to hire real masters, the Huajiang family set up an assessment.
The content of the assessment is very simple - as long as you defeat the people they send, you can become the bodyguard of their Huajiang family.
These people sent by the Huajiang family are all "active guards" currently serving the Huajiang family.
Each of the "active guards" of the Huajiang family has a very high level of strength, and they defeated all those who came to apply for the job.
Among the ronin who applied for the job, less than one was successfully selected.
Currently short of money, Ganshi rushed to the "application point" in the south of the city with the mentality of "giving it a try" yesterday.
And was successfully selected.
The Huajiang family sent their people.
Then Kanomi used their Fuma no Sato ninjutsu and defeated the people sent by the Hanae family in three moves.
The above is the entire process of Ganshi passing the assessment.
There are no waves.
After defeating the people sent by the Huajiang family with three moves, all the people from the Huajiang family present were shocked.
The person in charge who was present at the time told Kanmi directly: "You come to our Hanae family's residence tomorrow!"
Thus, there was a scene where Tang Zhi was standing in front of this magnificent mansion.
After following the old man into the Huajiang family's mansion, the old man led the way while introducing himself enthusiastically to Ganshi behind him.
"My name is Hara Shiro." The old man said with a smile, "The people above told me yesterday that our Hanae family has recruited a new guard named Kanshi. If Kanshi comes to the house, we will take him for a brief tour first.
Come to the mansion."
"Mr. Kanshi, let me take you for a brief tour of the house now."
"I'm very grateful." Kanshi smiled and said, "Mr. Hara Shiro, you don't need to use honorifics to me, and you don't need to use any suffixes when you address me. Just call me Kanshi."
…
…
The Huajiang family's mansion is very large.
Just walking around the Hanae family's residence took Hara Shiro and Kanji a full half an hour.
After walking around Hanae's house, Hara Shiro said to Kanomi:
"I'll take you to your room now. I helped clean and tidy up your room yesterday. You can just go in with your luggage and check in."
"Ah, I can't thank you enough." Ganshi, who was somewhat flattered, hurriedly bowed and thanked her.
"Come with me."
Before Hara Shiro took Kanji a few steps further, a man also dressed as a servant quickly walked up to Hara Shiro from a distance and whispered a few words to Hara Shiro.
"Yes." Hara Shiro nodded, "I understand, I'll be there right away."
After the servant who came to report the news to Hara Shiro left, Hara Shiro said apologetically to Kanmi behind him:
"I'm sorry, Ganshi. Something urgent happened suddenly, so I have to excuse myself for a moment."
"This area is the living area for servants like us, so you don't have to worry about entering places that you shouldn't enter."
"So Ganshi, you should walk around here first and get familiar with it."
"I'll come back to you later. I'll be back soon."
"Yes." Kanami nodded, "Mr. Hara Shiro, just take it slow and at your own pace. There is no need to be in a hurry. There is no need to mess up this urgent matter and make a mistake in order to come back quickly."
…
…
After watching Harashiro leave, Kanomi, who crossed her arms, began to wander around in order to pass the time.
The surrounding area is quite spacious, so you don’t have to worry about having nothing to do in a short period of time.
——It’s so big... If you’re not familiar with this place, you’ll easily get lost...
Hara Shiro wandered aimlessly.
Unknowingly, Hara Shiro wandered into a corridor that was neither long nor short.
As soon as he stepped onto this corridor, Ganshi's brows immediately wrinkled.
Because...he saw something strange.
At the eastern end of this corridor, there is a person lying.
To be more precise, it's a person lying on his side.
This person is a very young man.
His skin exuded a youthful air. Judging from his appearance, this young man should not even be 20 years old.
With his right cheek facing down, the young man placed his right hand under his right cheek and lay carelessly on his side at the easternmost end of the corridor.
His face was facing the west of the corridor, his eyes unblinking, as if he was looking at something seriously.
Lying on the ground in front of him was a katana and a wakizashi—this should be this young man's saber.
This strange behavior of the young man aroused Ganshi's curiosity.
After walking quickly to the young man's side, Kanshi asked:
"Um - what are you doing?"
As soon as Ganshi finished speaking, footsteps suddenly sounded from the west side of the corridor.
Ganshi looked sideways and saw a person dressed as a maid.
With her bare white feet, she was carrying a big cloth bag and walking slowly towards the east side of the corridor - the direction where Ganshi and the young man were.
The maid didn't show any surprise when she saw the young man lying on his side on the ground at the end of the corridor at his feet.
It's just that... his face became a little weird, and then he continued to walk through the corridor at an unhurried pace.
After Kanshi glanced at the maid, he withdrew his gaze.
Kanshi thought the young man didn't hear the question he just asked.
So I asked again:
"Excuse me, what are you doing..."
Before Gan Shi finished speaking, he was rudely interrupted by this young man:
"Shh, if you have any questions, ask them later. Don't disturb me now."
Ganshi, who didn't know what was going on, was full of questions, but he still kept quiet.
The corridor was not very long, so the maid quickly passed through it and left from the easternmost side of the corridor - in front of Ganshi and the young man.
When passing in front of Ganshi and the young man, the maid bowed slightly and saluted them.
It wasn't until the maid left that the young man turned his head and asked Kanshi:
"Okay, what did you ask me just now?"
"Let me ask you -" Gan Yong said in a helpless tone, "What are you doing lying here?"
"Oh, you ask me why I'm lying here..." The young man withdrew his gaze and continued to cast his gaze to the west side of the corridor.
"I'm looking at my feet."
"...Huh?" Ganshi tilted his head, wondering if he had heard something wrong just now.
"This corridor is the place where the maids of this mansion pass most often."
The young man then said in a calm tone.
"I like women's feet the most."
"Lying here leisurely like this, watching the feet of the maids walking in this corridor, is one of the few pleasures I have."
After saying that, the young man lying on his side in the corridor turned his gaze again and looked at Ganshi.
"I've never seen you before. Are you the new guard?"
"Yes." Ganshi, who had not yet recovered from the young man's violent remarks, nodded in a daze, "I am the new guard who officially entered the mansion today - Ganshi.
Please give me more advice."
"My name is Kinoshita Genichi." The young man said, "Please give me some advice."
("The Legendary Adventure of the Sword Master and the Wind Demon" - To be continued...)