Volume 3 Buddha's Enemy Chapter 136: The Corrupted Tatsuno Domain
“…I see.”
Hasegawa murmured softly and walked slowly towards one of the futons in the casino.
"The murderer started by kneeling on this futon."
Hasegawa knelt on a futon that still had dents left on it from someone having sat on it not long ago.
"When gambling, I found that the pot was cheating. The way the pot cheated was probably to secretly replace the three dice in the pot with another three dice, so as to manipulate the gambling game."
"After the murderer discovered that Hu Zhen was cheating, he cut the barnacle in half with a knife, exposing Hu Zhen's trick."
Hasegawa, who was kneeling on the futon, drew his sword and slashed at the air in front of him from bottom to top while speaking, and then sheathed the sword with extremely smooth movements.
"In my opinion, the murderer chopped the barnacle in half in mid-air before Hu Zhen pinned it to the ground, and also cut the little finger of Hu Zhen's right hand."
"The murderer exposed Hu Zhen's cheating tricks, which destroyed the casino's business. Naturally, the guards here were extremely dissatisfied."
"So the four guards here surrounded the murderer sitting on this futon from four directions. They planned to teach the murderer a lesson."
"But they were all killed by the murderer."
"The murderer first used the sword-drawing slash to kill the enemy on his left."
Hasegawa used a swift move to slash the air to his left.
"Then it's the horizontal slash."
Hasegawa used the sword-drawing technique and pulled the sword out of its sheath and slashed it in front of himself.
"Then there's the diagonal chop."
Hasegawa adjusted the blade and slashed diagonally at the air to his right.
"The last one is the upper part."
Hasegawa turned his body and swung the knife from bottom to top at the air behind him.
"With four sharp strikes, all four guards were killed."
"The reason why Hu Zhen and Zhong Pen were also killed was to avoid leaving any of them alive and revealing the murderer's appearance."
Hasegawa said as he sheathed his sword.
"But there is always a loophole... The murderer certainly didn't expect that there are people here who recognize the appearance of the wounds caused by his signature move."
Hasegawa turned his gaze and looked at the body of the only guard who was killed by the sword-drawing technique.
"Imai, we are lucky. We found the clue of that guy so quickly."
…
…
Hasegawa led Imai and his subordinates out of the gambling house.
As soon as he came out of the gambling house, Sano came up to him.
However, before Sano could finish his flattery, Hasegawa spoke first:
"Lord Sano, there is such a large and conspicuous gambling house in your village."
Hasegawa nodded towards the gambling house he had just walked out of.
" If I remember correctly, the shogunate should have strictly prohibited gambling."
"If my judgment is correct, this casino should be run by the Yakuza. Right?"
"Why doesn't your clan ban it and bring all the 'Yakuza' who run this gambling house to justice?"
Hasegawa's words immediately froze the smile on Sano's face.
At the same time, cold sweat broke out on Sano's forehead.
"Uh... this... this casino is indeed opened by a local Yakuza group..."
"As for... why we don't ban it... it's mainly because... because... our clan has to deal with a lot of affairs... that's why..."
Just as Sano was hesitating and squeezing words out of his stomach bit by bit, Hasegawa suddenly laughed a few times and patted Sano on the shoulder.
"Lord Sano, I was just joking and trying to scare you."
"Times are tough right now, and it's common for the feudal government to cooperate with the local Yakuza."
"Don't worry, I will turn a blind eye to this matter."
After hearing what Sano said, Sano felt as if the huge stone in his heart fell to the ground with a "bang".
He quickly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, bowed and smiled to Hasegawa, and kept expressing his gratitude.
At the same time, I was secretly annoyed.
He regretted that he had been so busy entertaining Hasegawa these days that he forgot to ask the Negishi family to temporarily close the stores they opened, which would cause trouble if they were noticed by the shogunate.
While feeling annoyed, I was also secretly glad.
Fortunately, Hasegawa is also that kind of "smart" and "timely" official.
"Lord Sano, I will have a meeting with my men under that tree next."
Hasegawa pointed to a big tree in the distance beside him.
"Because this is a secret meeting that cannot be known to outsiders, could you please step aside for a moment?"
"Of course." Sano said hurriedly, "Master Hasegawa, please rest assured that I will never disturb your meeting!"
"Grateful."
After exchanging some pleasantries with Sano, Hasegawa led his subordinates and walked towards the big tree.
After turning around and facing Sano with his back, the warm smile that was originally on Hasegawa's face disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye.
His whole face changed back to the expression he usually had - expressionless with a hint of indifference.
After walking under the big tree with his subordinates, Imai, who was following Hasegawa, curled his lips with disdain and said:
"I never thought that the Tatsuno Domain would be like this... to the point of joining hands with the Yakuza to oppress the people."
While saying this, Imai did not forget to secretly glance at Sano's location, making sure that what his group was currently saying would not reach Sano's ears.
"This kind of cooperation with the 'Yakuza'...does the lord of the Tatsuno domain know about it?" Another officer who was following Hasegawa muttered.
"Maybe they know, maybe they don't." Imai replied, "Some lords are very pitiful. They are deceived by their retainers. Under the whitewash of their retainers, they think that their domain is peaceful. Cooperation with the local 'Yakuza' - this may be the idea of those retainers of the Tatsuno domain. They receive benefits from the 'Yakuza' and then deceive their own lord, not letting their lord know that they are cooperating with the 'Yakuza' in the domain."
"Those samurai who deceived their lord are truly violating the Bushido..." the officer muttered again.
"In today's world, there are not many people who will abide by the so-called Bushido." Imai's tone this time was a little sarcastic, "The so-called Bushido, for many people, is just a fig leaf that makes it convenient for them to do bad things..."
"That's enough." Hasegawa glanced at Imai and the official. "Whether the lord of the Tatsuno Domain knew about this matter or not - it has nothing to do with us."
"Now that we have come across it, we can't just turn a blind eye."
