Chapter 470 Ogata: Why has the price of my head increased again? [7000 words]
What Ogata used was the water fall of Sakakihara's Ittoryu.
Then the gravitational potential energy of the body's fall directly killed this guy.
After the battle with the bandits, the feel of the blade cutting through flesh was transmitted along the handle to the palm of my hand after being away for more than a month.
The familiar system prompt for gaining experience points sounded.
According to Ogata's actual experience of this man's skill and the system's prompt tone, the man who was killed by Ogata's sword was not very strong. Ogata's personal level and the experience bar of Sakakibara's Itto style only gained 75 experience points respectively.
Just value.
Before the lifeless guy could fall to the ground, the other two companions standing on his left and right had faces full of horror.
"ah……"
Just as the two men had time to utter the first syllable of their screams, they saw the light of two swords rising from the sky.
As soon as Ogata's feet touched the ground, he quickly switched the Daizhi in his hands to the lower stance, and slashed from the bottom up to the chin of one of the remaining two people to the Tianling Gai.
As soon as Da Zi Zai's blade was cut out from the man's Tianling Gai, Ouriang turned the blade again, got into a stabbing stance, aimed the tip of the blade at the last man's chest, and then pierced his chest with one blow.
When pulling Dai Zizai out of the man's chest, Ogata grabbed the wide sleeve of the man's kimono and stood between him and the man so that when he pulled out the sword, the blood spurting from the wound would not splash on him.
On the body.
"Ding……"
…
"Ding……"
…
The system tone rang 2 more times.
It only took a few breaths of effort to kill the three guys who had been trying to kill them with bows and arrows just now. Together, the three of them only added less than 200 experience points to Ogata's personal level experience bar.
value.
When Ogata took out the pocket paper he carried with him and wiped off the blood and grease attached to the sword, Amachi trotted to Ogata's side.
"The bandits in Ezo Land are so simple and straightforward..." Amachi murmured, "Without saying anything, they just planned to kill us and steal our money..."
After murmuring, Ating squatted down, raised his hands, and quickly rummaged through the three people's bodies to find the loot.
The identities of these three guys are not difficult to guess.
In all likelihood, they are the thieves who plan to steal Ogata and Atachi's money.
Ogata and the others saw a lot of this kind of people in Tohoku some time ago.
It's just that the people I met before will also say a few words. For example: "Hand over the money obediently!"
Some people who are greedy for Ating's beauty will say a few more words, such as: "Keep the woman next to you obediently."
But this was the first time they had seen these three people who didn't say anything, just drew their bows, fired, and started killing people.
Soon, Amachi touched the corpses of the three robbers all over. All three of them were quite shabby.
They only carried a small amount of copper coins with them. A rough count showed that they only amounted to a little over a hundred coins.
Their bows and arrows must not be taken away.
Neither Ogata nor Omachi can use a bow.
If you want to sell it for money, there is no way to resell the stolen goods.
"Omachi, let's go." Ogata said, "Maybe someone will come here sometime. If people see us standing next to three corpses, it will be inconvenient to explain."
"Yes." A-Machi nodded, put away the hundred cents he had just looted from the three corpses, and then followed Ogata quickly out of the alley.
After returning to the bustling street, Amachi looked back at the alley that had disappeared behind them.
"They look really weird..." Amachi muttered.
"They should be Ezo." Ogata answered.
A bit of surprise flashed in A-Machi's eyes:
"Is that Ezo?"
Atachi has never seen Ezo with his own eyes.
Ogata: "I guessed it. But I can't guess wrong."
Ogata had never seen Ezo with his own eyes.
But during his previous trip to the sea, he heard Soichiro Nishino introduce the appearance of Ezo.
The appearance is obviously different from that of Kazuto. The facial features are deeper, three-dimensional, and the hair is thicker, which is completely consistent with the appearance characteristics of the three robbers just now.
"Ezo... are wearing our Kazuto clothes..." Amachi turned his head and looked back again, "Could they be naturalized Ezo?"
"Probably." Ogata nodded, "Since they can walk around in Kazuto's castle wearing kimonos, they must be naturalized Ezo."
The feud between Kazuto and Ezo has a long history, dating back thousands of years.
As early as thousands of years ago, Kazuto and Ezo had a protracted war.
The de facto highest authority in Japan, the ruler of the shogunate, the shogun, whose full name is the Shogun.
Thousands of years ago, General Zhengyi was just an ordinary military attaché.
The "barbarian" in "Shogun" means "Ezo". "Shogun" is an official title specially created to fight against Ezo.
Until later, the power of the emperor was taken away by a samurai named Yoritomo Minamoto. After removing the power of the emperor, Yoritomo Minamoto established a new government in the Kamakura area, which was the first shogunate in Japanese history: the Kamakura shogunate.
When the first shogunate in Japanese history was established, Minamoto Yoritomo's official position was "General of the Conquest of Barbarians".
Since then, the title "General of the Conquering Barbarians" has been inherited. The Muromachi shogunate after the Kamakura shogunate and the current Edo shogunate have all inherited this title.
"Shogun" just changed from an ordinary official title to the official title of the supreme ruler of the shogunate for hundreds of years.
Thousands of years ago, Ezo's sphere of influence was extremely wide. Ou, Hokuriku, Kanto and other regions on Japan's Honshu Island were all Ezo's territory.
However, because Ezo has always been in a primitive tribal civilization, it is no match for Kazuto's soldiers.
So Ezo was driven all the way north, completely driven out of Honshu Island, and driven all the way to the current Ezo land.
Over the past thousand years, there have always been some Ezo who either actively or passively transformed into Japanese people.
The appearance of the three people just now wearing kimonos made Amachi naturally think that they might be naturalized Ezo.
"If those three people just now were naturalized Ezo...then the bows they used just now should be Ezo bows..." Amachi muttered, "What a dangerous group of bandits... they even have bows and arrows...
…”
Ogata nodded with deep understanding, expressing his agreement with what Amachi just said.
Although Ogata had easily killed the three bandits just now, this was only because Ogata was too strong.
If it were not Ogata and the others who were robbed today, but someone else with ordinary skills was robbed, then the person who was robbed might have died.
Before firearms appeared, bows and crossbows were the undoubted king-level weapons.
Because this is a peaceful era, Ogata has rarely seen bows and arrows before.
Ordinary samurai families and civilian families did not have bows and arrows at home, and no one would carry them with them.
Unexpectedly, as soon as we landed in Ezo, we were attacked with bows and arrows for the first time in a long time.
While Ogata and Atachi were still discussing in low voices the three gangsters they had just encountered, they suddenly saw six people dressed as government officials walking towards them in front of them.
These six officers are in very standard "official dress" with ten arms, thorns and other fishing equipment.
This group of officers held their heads high and walked striding in the middle of the street.
Passers-by on the street stepped aside to allow the officers to pass by.
Ogata and Atachi were not walking on the path that this group of officials must pass, so there was no need to worry.
When he passed by this group of officials, Ogata turned his head and looked towards the group of officials.
When looking at this group of officials, Ogata's brows were furrowed.
"...A-Machi." Ogata whispered softly to A-Machi next to him, "Don't you think there seem to be too many official duties here?"
Ogata also just discovered it.
From the time he left the port and entered the city until now, Ogata has seen many waves of officials standing guard or patrolling.
Such a number of official errands seems to be too much.
Ogata had never seen such a high density of official deployment in Edo before.
Hearing Ogata's words, A-Machi recalled the scenes since landing: "It seems so... there seem to be too many official duties here... Did something happen?"
"...Forget it. Don't worry about it for now." Ogata said softly, "Let's go."
…
…
Ogata had just killed the three guys who planned to kill them with bows and arrows, and not long after he quickly left the alley, a town resident who had lived here for a long time passed through this alley in order to take a shortcut home.
Then, the three bodies on the ground were naturally discovered.
He was so frightened that he quickly escaped from the alley, then looked for the official to report the discovery of the body.
Soon, four officers arrived at the alley carrying fishing gear.
The four officials, who originally had serious faces, entered the alley and saw the faces of the three corpses. Their expressions froze at first, and then their serious expressions dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"What?" One of the four officers curled his lips, "It turns out that the person who died was Ezo... I instantly lost the motivation to investigate the case. What is there to investigate about Ezo's case?"
"They are wearing kimonos." Another person said, "And I seem to have seen their faces. They seem to be naturalized Ezo."
"That's right." Another person said, "Regardless of whether he is naturalized or not, Ezo is Ezo. Look, they all have bows and arrows on them. They look like a bunch of beasts who want to kill people and take wealth."
"Stop talking," said the leader of the four officers, "Anyway, let's call someone to quickly bring straw mats over and collect the bodies of these guys. Although the dead people are only Ezo, the way they should be done is still
Gotta do it.”
…
…
This time, there were no surprises.
Ogata and Atachi successfully arrived at the hotel they had heard about from a passerby.
After asking about the price and confirming that it was a reasonable price, Oufang bought a room large enough for two people.
It was already past 4 o'clock in the afternoon when they landed.
The two of them are now in Matsumae Castle, which is further north than the Ou area. In such a deep winter, it gets dark faster.
After finding the hotel, opening the room, placing the luggage, and taking care of everything, the sky started to get dark.
Looking at the darkening sky, Ogata quickly made a plan to find a restaurant for dinner. After dinner, he would go back to the hotel directly and go to bed early tonight.
They spent most of today wandering at sea.
Ogata was fine. But Omachi, who has a constitution prone to seasickness, was not so fine.
From the time he landed until now, A-Machi's face is still pale, which shows that A-Machi still suffers from the sequelae of seasickness.
The two of them randomly found a decent-looking restaurant quite close to the hotel where they were staying.
After entering, I saw a young waiter in this store greeting Ogata with a warm smile.
There is a large menu hanging on one wall of the restaurant, which lists all the food sold in this restaurant.
Under the guidance of the waiter in the store, after sitting down at a still empty table, Oubon asked Amachi:
"Is there anything you want to eat?"
Ogata left the decision to Amachi.
In order to take care of those who cannot read Chinese characters, the menu hanging on the wall of this store uses only pseudonyms.
So even Atachi can understand all the dishes on the menu.
After Amachi glanced at the menu list hanging on the wall, he pointed to one of the dishes written on it and asked:
"What is this 'crab pot'?"
“Crab pot is a must-eat specialty here!”
The waiter introduced Ogata and Atachi in a thick accent.
“The crabs from our Matsumae clan are bigger and more delicious than those from other places!”
“Crabs, mushrooms, greens and other vegetables are boiled together to form a ‘crab pot’, which is most suitable for eating in such a winter.”
"Just one bite will warm you up and make you feel comfortable all over!"
The waiter seemed to recognize that Ogata and Omachi were foreigners, so he kept emphasizing that the crab pot was a specialty delicacy of their Matsumae clan.
And he successfully piqued A-Machi's interest.
After learning that the crab pot was a local specialty of the Matsumae clan, he turned his head and cast a questioning look at Ogata.
Ogata didn't care what he was going to eat. After Amachi cast a questioning look, he nodded immediately.
"Then let's have some crab pot!" Amachi said.
"Okay! How many crabs do you want?"
"About how big is one of your crabs?" Amachi asked.
The clerk raised his hands and gestured: "They are basically this big."
"Are the crabs here so big?" Amachi said with a bit of surprise in his tone, "Well... let's get 4 crabs first. Then 2 bowls of white rice."
"Okay! Do you need a drink?"
"Want to drink?" Amachi asked Ogata.
"Okay." Ogata said cheerfully, "Let's drink a little."
"Then bring over two bottles of wine." Amachi turned his attention back to the waiter.
"No problem! Please wait! The drinks and food will be served soon!"
The waiter quickly left the sight of Ogata and Omachi and ran to the kitchen.
In order to pass the boring time while waiting for the dishes to be served, Ogata turned his head and looked at the restaurant.
The interior layout of this restaurant is that of an ordinary Japanese-style building, and there is nothing exotic in it.
While looking around, Ogata suddenly found something on a certain wall that was difficult for him to ignore.
"...Omachi, look at that." Ogata stretched out his finger and pointed towards the wall.
After looking in the direction pointed by Ogata's finger, Atachi raised his beautiful eyebrows and said, "A wanted order..."
On a certain wall of this restaurant, there are dozens of wanted posters.
The most conspicuous one posted in the middle of these dozens of wanted posters is clearly Ogata's wanted poster.
It's not uncommon for wanted posters to be posted on restaurant walls.
The government often forces restaurant owners to post wanted notices in their stores so that enough people can pay attention to the fugitives.
After taking a few glances at the dozens of wanted posters posted on the wall, Amachi asked Ogata: "It's just a wanted poster. What's so interesting about it?"
"Look at the wanted poster in the middle for the executioner Ittousai. Look at his reward."
"Executioner Ittosai?" A-Machi showed a puzzled expression and turned his attention to the wall again.
A-Machi just glanced at it briefly, so he didn't read the numbers written on the wanted poster in detail.
This time, after focusing on the numbers written on the wanted poster, a strong look of surprise appeared on Atachi's face.
"Huh? Why has the bounty increased..." Amachi murmured.
Ogata doesn't have Alzheimer's disease yet, so he remembers very clearly when he saw his wanted notice from Huosaka more than a month ago. The reward written on the wanted notice was 500 taels of gold.
But now, the bounty written on the wanted poster posted on the wall of this restaurant has increased.
It becomes 800 taels of gold.
Ogata feels very confused now.
He didn't understand why his bounty suddenly increased again.
At this time, a waiter from this restaurant happened to pass by Ogata, so Ogata quickly stopped him.
"Excuse me, I want to ask a question."
Ogata raised his hand and pointed to his wanted poster posted on the wall.
"What's the deal with the wanted notice for Executioner Ittosai? I remember that the reward for Executioner Ittosai was not 500 taels of gold? Why is it now 800 taels of gold?"
"Ah, that's right. Sorry, samurai-sama, I don't know very well." The clerk smiled bitterly, "The reward for Executioner Ittosai was indeed 500 taels."
"But just four days ago, someone from the government suddenly came to our door and asked us to post a new wanted notice."
"Among those new wanted orders, there happens to be a new wanted order with a reward of 800 taels of gold from Yitousai."
"That's it...thank you." Ogata thanked the waiter and let him leave.
After the guy left, Ogata looked at the wanted poster posted on the wall again.
The wanted notice on the wall is indeed very new. The paper is white and clean. You can tell it was newly made at a glance.
"Samurai-sama, there is no need to be confused!"
At this moment, a strange voice sounded beside him and Ating:
Ogata turned his head and looked at the owner of the voice.
The owner of this voice is a middle-aged and elderly man who is probably over 40 years old.
The most conspicuous appearance feature of this middle-aged and elderly man should be his shiny bald head.
The bald man was sitting at the table next to Ogata and Omachi, and there were 6 middle-aged people of similar age to him at the same table.
None of them carried swords on their bodies, so it was obvious that they were just a bunch of ordinary town residents1.
The bald man's face was as red as a monkey's butt. He must have drank a lot of wine. Even from a distance, you could smell the alcohol on them.
"I heard that the reason why Executioner Ittosai's bounty increased was because there was a certain big shot who didn't like Executioner Ittosai."
"Big shot?" Oufang asked with confusion.
"Hmm. As for which big shot it is, I don't know. After all, I heard it from hearsay. That big shot didn't like to see the executioner Ittosai. After learning that the reward for the executioner Ittosai was only 500 taels, he demanded that the executioner Ittosai be killed.
The bounty has been increased to the current 800 taels of gold."
Hearing this, Ogata couldn't help but cast a somewhat complicated look at the wanted poster on the wall.
Even though I didn't do anything, the bounty was inexplicably increased by another 300 taels...
Whatever...
Ogata secretly thought in his heart.
Anyway, it doesn't matter to me whether the reward is 500 taels or 800 taels.
If you have too many debts, you don't have to worry; if you have too many lice, you don't have to itch. This is Ogata's current state.
Ogata is now more concerned about which big shot didn't want to see him, so his bounty was increased by another 300 taels.
"If I look carefully, I haven't seen your faces." The bald man just now looked at Ogata and Atachi with curious eyes, "Are you from other places?"
"Yeah." Ogata only nodded as an answer to the question that Baldhead just asked.
From the accents of him and Atachi, you can tell that they are not locals.
The accent of the Matsumae clan is somewhat similar to the accent of the Tohoku region.
Ogata and the others have neither the need nor the ability to conceal the identity of outsiders.
"Hahahaha! Welcome to Matsumae!" After laughing, the bald head said enthusiastically to Ogata and Amachi, "Our place is small, but there are a lot of delicious and fun things!"
"Yes." Ogata agreed with a smile, "If we have time, we will have a good time here in Matsumae Clan."
The bald man directly picked up a wine bottle, blew a big sip into his mouth, and then changed into a serious face and tone.
"Sir Samurai, you are from out of town. As a local, I would like to give you a warning."
“In Matsumae Domain, remember to be careful of Ezo.”
"Especially those naturalized Ezo."
"You may not have seen what Ezo looks like."
"Ezo's faces are easy to recognize. They usually have a lot of hair on their faces, and their eyes, noses, and mouths are all different from ours."
"You can tell who's Ezo and who's a good guy just by looking at them."
"Although I do not deny that there are some law-abiding people among the naturalized Ezo."
"But most of the naturalized Ezo are bastards!"
At the end of the sentence, the bald man seemed to be recalling some very bad memories, with obvious anger in his tone and an angry look on his face.
Listening to what the bald man said just now, Ogata couldn't help but recall the three guys he encountered shortly after landing today who were pointing bows and arrows at him and Atachi, intending to directly kill people.
Maybe it's because he drank a lot of wine, but the bald head is a little excited now.
He didn't deliberately hide his volume when he said what he just said. Everyone in the restaurant could hear every word that the bald man just said.
However, no one scolded the bald head for being too noisy.
Instead, they responded one by one.
"That's right! Most of the naturalized Ezo are just a bunch of bastards!"
"They do all kinds of bad things!"
"A few days ago, several naturalized Ezo men stole money from my shop!"
"We should never have allowed Ezo to be naturalized from the beginning! Even if a bunch of barbarians wear our clothes, they are still just a bunch of barbarians!"
"Samurai-sama! You must pay special attention to Ezo! Whether they are naturalized or not, you must pay attention! Regardless of whether they wear our clothes or not, they are just a bunch of rude barbarians who do not understand etiquette, justice and shame.
That’s all!”
…
Ogata and Atachi looked around in shock.
They were not familiar with Ezo Land and were very surprised by this scene.
The Ezo and the Kazu people are completely different races and different civilizations.
There will definitely be friction between the two civilizations. Coupled with the conflicts between Ezo and Kazuto, the bloody battle has lasted for thousands of years.
Therefore, Ogata guessed that the common people of Matsumae Domain would not welcome Ezo very much.
However, Ogata did not expect that the common people of the Matsumae Domain would have such deep resentment towards Ezo. They directly gathered in a restaurant to denounce Ezo.
The bald head seemed to notice the surprise on Ogata and A-Machi's faces.
After pouring another large gulp of wine into his mouth, he talked to Ogata and A-Machi:
"Samurai-sama, you must be wondering why we have so much resentment towards Ezo, especially the naturalized Ezo?"
"This all starts from the era of 'former old Chinese' Tanuma Yiji."
"When 'former old man' Tanuma Yiji was in office, he issued a plan to develop the Ezo land."
"His development plan was quite effective. By the time he stepped down, our Matsumae Domain had gained millions of additional farmlands."
"But Tanuma's strategy for dealing with the Ezo people in the Ezo land is disgusting."
"Tanuma's strategy for dealing with Ezo is to focus on pacifying and suppressing as a supplement."
"Vigorously appease Ezo and establish friendly relations with as many Ezo settlements as possible."
"At the same time, we welcome Ezo to integrate into us and let Ezo become a naturalized human being."
"So since then, the number of naturalized Ezo in various parts of Matsumae Domain has increased."
"Tanuma's strategy to deal with Ezo is just nonsense!"
"Ezo and the others are just a bunch of barbarians, there is no value in naturalizing them!"
"Even if they put on our clothes, they can't change their barbarian nature!"
"As expected! Since the number of naturalized Ezo in the city increased, the security situation has immediately deteriorated!"
"They do all kinds of bad things. Now out of the 10 cases in Matsumae Castle, at least 6 are related to Ezo!"
As soon as the bald man finished speaking, there were echoes one after another from all over the restaurant.
"Samurai-sama, you must be careful of those naturalized Ezo."
"Now those Ezo have learned a lot and know how to kill outsiders."
"Ezo and the others all live a life of fishing and hunting, so they are all good at using bows and arrows."
"In order to make it easier for them to seize wealth, some Ezo people specially use their best bows and arrows to kill people and seize wealth."
Hearing this, Ogata recalled the three guys he encountered today who shot him and Atachi with bows and arrows without any reason.
"Yes." Ogata nodded lightly and said in a deep voice, "Thank you for the reminder, we will pay attention to it later."