Chapter 623 Ogata: About someone approaching A-cho in front of me [5800]
PS: First of all, I would like to remind everyone that Ogata’s sales routine in this chapter is a real routine in Japanese history, and it is not made up by the author.
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"No. Sorry, I'm a little tired now." Isshikihua shook her head gently, "I want to go home and rest quickly."
Kitahara actually has no interest in performing at all.
The reason why he invited Isshiki to watch the performance was just because he knew that Isshiki was a person who loved watching acrobatic performances.
Even his efforts to invite Isshiki to watch the performance failed, and Kitahara had a bit of regret and loss on his face.
However, he quickly calmed down his expression and emotions and showed a very graceful smile again:
"It's okay. See you later, Miss Isshiki."
"Yes." Isshiki bowed to Kitahara, then turned around and left without any hesitation.
Kitahara was not in a hurry to leave immediately, but continued to stand where he was, staring blankly at Isshiki's retreating back.
Until Isshiki's back had completely disappeared from sight, he did not look back.
At this time, Beiyuan suddenly heard a familiar voice from behind:
"Kitahara-kun, stop looking, Miss Isshiki has disappeared."
"Miura-kun? Why are you here?" Kitahara raised his eyebrows and cast a surprised look at the owner of the voice just now, a young man who was followed by seven followers.
The young man whom Kitahara calls Miura is dressed in extremely luxurious clothes.
Brocade from Tang Dynasty has always been a status symbol in Japan in this era, and it is also synonymous with expensiveness.
Anyone who can afford brocade is without exception a person who is either rich or noble.
And this Miura's clothes from head to toe, except for socks, are all made of silk and satin.
Wearing two swords at the waist, the scabbards and handles are engraved with many decorative patterns, making it clear at a glance that they are valuable knives.
"I just happened to pass by here." Miura said with a smile, "When I passed by here, I happened to see you saying goodbye to Miss Isshiki."
Beiyuan looked embarrassed and laughed a few times: "I let you see it..."
"You are so infatuated." Miura sighed softly, "You have been pursuing Miss Isshiki for three years, right? It's a shame that you persisted. If it were me, I would have been hot and cold, let alone three years.
I couldn’t hold on for three months.”
After saying that, Miura turned to look in the direction Isshiki had just left.
"Miss Isshiki is also quite unscrupulous. Her attitude towards you is still so cold..."
"If you want to choose a husband, there is obviously no one in Osaka who is more suitable than you, Kitahara-kun."
"You have a handsome appearance, and you are already the teacher of the Military Academy at a young age. It is only a matter of time before you inherit the Military Academy."
Speaking of this, Miura changed into a half-joking tone.
"If I remember correctly, Miss Isshiki is already 21 years old this year, right? If we wait a few more years, she will completely become an old woman. She is already so old, isn't she worried about her marriage?"
"Hey, Miura." Kitahara cast a displeased look at Miura, "Even you are not allowed to speak ill of Miss Isshiki."
Miura, who was startled by Kitahara's suddenly serious tone, shrugged: "I understand, I just take back what I just said."
After that, Miura straightened his clothes and cleared his throat.
"Okay, let's not talk about Miss Isshiki anymore. It's a rare chance that we meet each other. Do you want to go to the old place and have a few drinks together?"
After Beiyuan pondered for a moment, he nodded: "Okay."
Miura and Kitahara walked side by side and walked quickly towards a certain izakaya they often went to in their old place.
After turning an intersection, the two of them suddenly saw a lot of people surrounding the street in front of them, with three floors inside and three floors outside.
"What are you doing in front?" Miura frowned slightly.
Because this group of people happened to be located on the place where Beiyuan and the others must pass, they strode towards the crowd in front of them.
As soon as they got close to the crowd, they heard a loud shout from inside the crowd:
"Please watch me. I will use my sword to cut this piece of wood into two pieces later."
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Ogata took advantage of his height to raise the wooden board in his hand high, so that the attracted spectators could clearly see the finger-wide wooden board he had just picked up at random.
"There are already a lot of spectators here, is it almost time for the performance?" A strong man dressed as a samurai with a pair of swords at his waist shouted to Ogata impatiently.
Only a person with two swords at his waist would dare to talk like this to someone with two swords at his waist.
Ogata ignored the strong man's urging and looked around at the onlookers. More than 50 people had already gathered around him.
Seeing that the number of people was almost there, Ou lowered the wooden board he was holding high: "Then I will officially start the performance. Next, please don't be distracted."
Hearing what Ogata said, the onlookers around him quickly held their breath and concentrated.
Most of the onlookers thought that Ogata was going to put the wooden plank on a platform half a person's height, and then use a knife to chop it.
As a result, Ogata made an action that almost everyone around him didn't expect.
He threw the board high in the air.
The wooden board rolled and flew to the highest point, and then fell slowly.
When the board began to fall, Ogata, who maintained an ordinary standing posture, continued to hang down naturally with his left hand, and held the handle of Daishuken's sword with his right hand.
The Two Swordsman Style of Wuwo·Raikiri.
The sword flashed.
A flash of sword light passed over the wooden board that was about to hit Ogata's head. The wooden board split into two halves in the middle, and the two fragments fell on Ogata's left and right sides respectively.
quiet……
The surrounding spectators were silent at first, then burst into thunderous applause and bursts of cheers.
"Oh..." Kitahara, who was standing at the back of the crowd and had a clear view of Ogata's actions just now, raised his eyebrows.
Ogata, who had sheathed his sword, bowed lightly to the onlookers in front of him, and then shouted loudly:
"Everyone, this was just a small test of my skills. Next, I will perform a more powerful performance."
“But, before that”
Speaking of this, Ogata winked at Atachi, Atzuki, and the little girl next to him.
After receiving the gaze from Ogata, Atachi, Atsuki and the little girl hurriedly held a bag of tooth powder to greet the audience.
"Can you please buy some tooth powder?" Ogata spread his left hand and made a "please" gesture, "You can buy a pack of these tooth powders for only 16 cents!"
“Not only are the prices affordable, but they are also of excellent quality.”
"You only need to buy a 15-pack, and you will have enough strength to continue performing."
Ogata almost said this directly: "Want me to perform? Pay for tooth powder!"
Although Ogata said so blatantly, "If you want to watch the show, buy tooth powder," before he finished speaking, a large number of people had already spent money to buy tooth powder from Atachi and Aszuki.
Because this routine of Ogata is essentially an old routine that everyone has seen too much. So when Ogata suddenly "changed his style" and asked everyone to buy tooth powder, no one was surprised.
Using performances to attract customers, and then stipulating what kind of performances will be performed according to how many goods are sold is actually not uncommon in this era.
Although this routine is very common, it is quite rare to use swordsmanship performances to attract customers.
After all, there are only a handful of people who can use swordsmanship and are willing to perform it.
Ogata had heard Makimura introduce him before: When Makimura was still a young man in Kyoto, he once saw a prosperous medicine seller on the street.
His secret to selling medicine is to perform the art of drawing swords.
If you use swordsmanship as a performance, there will never be a shortage of audiences.
Swordsmanship is a very mysterious skill for the common people of Li. There are too few people who have the money and time to learn swordsmanship. Therefore, the attitude of most Li people towards fencing is "curious".
Therefore, the medicine seller never had a day without customers, and his medicines were basically sold out every time.
His routine is basically like this: He first tries his skills on a small scale to let the audience see what he is capable of, and then tells the audience: As long as I can sell 10 or more copies of my medicine, I will continue to perform more powerful things.
He relied on this routine to make a lot of money.
Now, Ogata just "borrowed" this routine.
At this moment, relying on this routine, the little girl was unable to sell a few packets of tooth powder for most of the day. In the blink of an eye, she reached the set goal and sold 15 packets.
Seeing that the goal had been achieved, Ogata picked up the second wooden board and prepared for the second performance.
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Ogata performed a total of 3 performances.
The three performances were all sword-drawing skills. The second performance was to swing 2 swords in a row and chop the fallen wooden board into 3 pieces. The third performance was to swing 3 swords in a row but chop the fallen wooden board into three pieces.
into 5 pieces.
Even in a metropolis like Osaka, swordsmanship performances are extremely rare, let alone swordsmanship demonstrations of this level.
After the third performance, Ogata and the others completely sold out all the tooth powder they had on hand.
From the time I started selling tooth powder for the little girl to the time I sold all the tooth powder, it only took about 3 sticks of incense in total.
Since the tooth powder had been sold out, Ogata naturally did not need to perform any more performances, so he bowed to the spectators, indicating that the performance was over and everyone could leave.
Some spectators were still unhappy and asked Ogata to perform a few more pieces. Some people asked Ogata if he would still perform here tomorrow or when. Ogata responded in a tactful tone: "When will I be short of money again?"
, will perform here again.
The spectators gradually dispersed, and Ogata and the others quickly left with the money they earned.
But Beiyuan and the others were still standing where they were.
"...That man's skills are pretty good." Kitahara looked at Ogata and the others as they left, "His accent... doesn't sound like a local from Osaka, he's probably a ronin from out of town."
"What a pity. His swordsmanship is acceptable, but he is a crooked person who uses swordsmanship as a sideshow."
Beiyuan sneered and shook his head.
"Okay, Miura, let's go to the old place and have a few drinks quickly. If the time is delayed a little longer, it will get dark... huh?"
Kitahara looked at Miura beside him in surprise.
Miura, who was standing next to him, was staring blankly at the direction Ogata and the others left just now.
He looked dazed, as if he had lost his soul.
"Miura?" Kitahara gently shook Miura's shoulders.
Kitahara shook his shoulders, and Miura's "soul" finally returned to his body.
But even after his soul returned to his body, Miura's eyes were still fixed on the direction Ogata and the others left.
It wasn't until Ogata and the others almost disappeared from his sight that he murmured to himself:
"That woman is so beautiful..."
After finishing speaking, he swallowed hard.
Then, a trace of determination appeared in his eyes.
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"Okay, let's go home quickly while it's still bright." Ogata touched the little girl's head.
At this time, Ogata and the others returned to the door of the tea house where they met the little girl just now.
"Really, really thank you very much!" The little girl held a small cloth bag stuffed with money earned from selling tooth-cleaning powder in her arms. She thanked Ogata and the others loudly in a slightly choked voice, while looking towards
Ogata and the others bowed so deeply that their heads almost hit the ground.
"It's just a trivial matter." Ogata smiled and said calmly, "Go home quickly."
The little girl turned back three times and ran to the street not far away. She stopped every few steps, bowed vigorously in the direction of Ogata and the others, and then continued walking forward.
"Mashima-sama is so kind!" After the little girl left, the short Azuki raised his hand with some difficulty, smiled and patted Ogata on the shoulder, "You are actually willing to condescend to help a person.
little girl."
"What do you mean by being condescended to?" Ogata said angrily, "I don't have any respect or dignity. To be honest, I'm just an ordinary person who is good at fighting."
"I just happened to have a lot of free time, so I just did some small things that I could do."
"Okay, let's go. While it's not dark yet, let's go shopping somewhere else... huh?"
Ogata's words suddenly stopped because he saw out of the corner of his eye: a group of people was striding towards them.
The leader of this group of people was dressed very brightly and exuded the aura of a wealthy man.
And next to this "rich man" was a handsome man who unfortunately had a haircut. In Ogata's eyes, his hairstyle successfully brought his appearance to a negative level.
These two people were followed by seven people. Judging from the clothes and movements of these seven people, they should be the followers of these two people.
At this time, both A-Machi and A-Zhu noticed the group of people striding towards them, and cast doubtful and wary glances at them.
"First time we meet! My name is Taro Miura! He is the eldest son of Miuraya!" As soon as he strode up to Ogata, the guy who exuded the aura of a "rich man" introduced himself loudly, "This lady,
You are so beautiful, can you tell me your name?"
Miura's question was addressed to Amachi.
After Miura finished speaking, Atachi was stunned for a moment.
Then he looked around, and after confirming that Miura was speaking to him, he smiled awkwardly but politely.
"Thank you for the compliment." Atachi first expressed her gratitude to Miura for the compliment she just received, "My name is Mashimacho."
"Machi! What a good name for a beauty like you! Do you have time now? There happens to be a teahouse owned by our Miuraya nearby! Do you want to go have some tea and eat some snacks together?"
What Miura has done from now on can be described in one word as upright.
He introduced himself very straightforwardly, and then very frankly invited Amachi to drink tea with him.
He is very upright, but Amachi is also quite upright:
"I'm sorry." A-Machi continued with a polite smile on his face, "Thank you for the invitation, but I have something to do with my husband now, so forgive me for not being able to accompany you."
"Husband?" Miura's eyes immediately widened.
At this time, Ogata calmly took half a step across and stood between Miura and Omachi.
"I am his husband." Ogata said calmly.
Miura's current expression is quite wonderful.
He first looked at Atachi with a look of regret and unwillingness, and then glared at Ogata with jealous eyes.
After looking back and forth at Ogata and Atachi with eyes full of complex emotions for a while, Miura said quietly:
"Then...please forgive me for interrupting..."
After that, Miura turned around and left with the rest of the people around him.
Not long after Miura and the others left, Atzuki immediately pouted: "Why did you only invite Miss Atachi and not me..."
"What?" A-Machi joked at this time, "Do you really want to go drink tea with a stranger?"
"It's not that I want to drink tea with a stranger. It's just that even though I'm standing with you, Ms. Atachi, but you're the only one invited, it makes me feel weirdly frustrated..." Ashu raised his hand and rubbed his hands vigorously.
Zhang's face was full of childishness, "Speaking of which, the clothes of that person just now are really exaggerated... Those fabrics look so expensive at first glance... And the people of Osaka are really very enthusiastic... I have been following you for so long, and this is my first time."
I once saw someone take the initiative to talk to Miss Atachi."
After all, the Edo period was still an ancient society, and the relationship between men and women was not too open. Picking up people was very rare in this era.
A-Machi nodded: "Well, that's right. Osaka people are really proactive and enthusiastic. Okay, don't worry about that person just now, let's go quickly."
Neither Ogata nor Omachi took the "picking up" incident just now to their hearts.
Someone had the courage to strike up a conversation with Amachi Ogata, and he didn't think it was a big surprise.
After all, Ogata has a good idea of his wife's appearance and figure. If no man comes to talk to her, he will doubt whether there is something wrong with the aesthetics of other men in this era.
Both Ogata and Atachi only regarded the incident of chatting up just now as an ordinary episode in daily life.
But as another party involved in this incident, he has never forgotten it...
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"What a pity, Miura." Kitahara joked, "I mustered up the courage to invite that woman, but she turned out to be a married woman."
"All the good carrots have been eaten by the donkey..." Miura's face was covered with many black lines at this time, "Such a good woman is already married... It's just a marriage, she is still married to a dependant.
A poor guy who performs juggling and sells tooth powder for a living..."
"Even I'm not worth it for that woman... That woman really doesn't know how to find a man..."
"Forget it, Miura." Kitahara patted Miura's shoulder and comforted him, "I heard that woman's accent. She is also from out of town."
"That woman speaks with an Omi accent. She's probably just a country bumpkin from somewhere in Omi."
"She probably doesn't even know what 'Miuraya' means in Osaka, so she refuses your invitation."
"If she knew how huge the family fortune you were going to inherit in the future, she might immediately feel extremely upset about rejecting your invitation, and then she would beg you to take her as your concubine, and then she would
Kick aside the poor husband she had."
Kitahara just said a lot of nice things to comfort Miura.
But Miura seems to be quite useful.
The black lines on his face slowly dissipated, and his face, which was originally full of depression, was now gradually smiling.
"You're right!" Miura nodded solemnly, "It's that woman's loss for rejecting my invitation!"
"That's all you can think of! Okay, don't worry about that woman." Kitahara patted Miura's shoulder again, "Hurry up and have a drink at the old place."
"Ah, by the way, Kitahara-kun." Miura seemed to have remembered something at this time and patted his forehead, "I'm going to hold a banquet with some friends at Shinmachi tomorrow night."
"Do you want to come along?"
Having said this, Miura lowered his voice and put on a mysterious look.
"Tomorrow's banquet will be grand. I spent a lot of money to invite Chu Guang, the artist who is in the limelight recently."
"Hatsuguang?" Beihara was stunned, "You actually invited her?"
"How? Do you want to come?"
"No." Kitahara smiled wryly and shook his head without any hesitation, "If it were somewhere else, that would be fine. Shinmachi would be..."
"You also know that Miss Isshiki hates the kind of men who often hang out in those places."
"In order to protect my image, I will never set foot in Shinmachi again until I marry Miss Isshiki."
"I'm just going to a banquet, not playing with women." Miura shrugged, "Forget it, if you don't want to go, just go."
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Today I have a lot of things to do during the day, so the update is a little late (Leopard Head Crying.jpg)
In this chapter, Ogata's routine of selling tooth powder by performing the Iai Sword is based on historical facts. There was a person in history who really relied on this method to sell tooth powder. For details, please see the "Writer's Words" below.