Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 278: Reunion with Ating
At Fushimiguchi, one of Kyoto's "Seven Gates of Kyoto", an official who seemed to be around 30 years old registered a group of traveling merchants from Edo and then waved to the people in line behind him.
The merchants lining up behind this line of Edo peddlers were led by an old man with a missing tooth.
Before the official could say anything, the toothless old man came towards him quickly with a flattering smile on his face.
While the official was saying something politely like "My goods are just some wine, no problem", he quietly stuffed two small items into the official's big hands.
The official lowered his eyes and looked at the palm of his hand - there were two silver coins.
After taking a look at the two silver coins, the official calmly put the money away.
The old man and the official's operation of handing over and receiving money was smooth, as if they had been rehearsed in advance or had done it countless times.
Four ox carts and the goods loaded on them - this was all the things the old man and his men brought to Kyoto.
The official, who had received money from the old man, surrounded the four ox carts and pretended to do some actions that looked like a "search", then waved his hand to signal the old man that he could enter the city.
…
…
After entering the city, the old man with a missing front tooth led his caravan but did not go directly to any inn or a commercial area in Kyoto.
Instead, he led his caravan into a deserted alley in Kyoto.
"Sir warrior!" After checking all around and making sure there was no one else around, the old man shouted towards one of the ox carts, "You can come out now."
Bang.
As soon as the old man finished speaking, the door of the ox cart was pushed open.
"I didn't expect it to be so smooth..."
While sighing like this, Ogata slowly walked down from the ox cart.
The deal that the old man with a missing front tooth just talked about with Ogata was that Ogata would give him money and he would take Ogata "smuggled across the border".
According to the old man, he is a repeat offender in this regard.
On the surface, he is an ordinary liquor merchant, but secretly he has helped countless people like Ogata who are not convenient to enter Kyoto openly to "smuggle" smoothly, and earn huge extra money in this way.
With the thought of "give it a try, even if I fail I have plenty of ways to escape", Ogata nodded and agreed to the deal.
So there was the scene just now where the old man bribed the officials with two silver coins and successfully "smuggled" Ogata across the border.
After getting off the car, Ogata held the knife at his waist and looked in the direction of Fushimiguchi.
"It went much more smoothly than I expected..."
"The officials and clerks in Kyoto are all very corrupt now."
The old man sneered, and the smile on his face was full of sarcasm.
"No, it should be said that the whole country in Japan is now in the same state: extremely corrupt. The Edo Shogunate is now on its last legs."
"Kyoto has long been in a state of disrepair. As long as you are willing to give money to the people guarding the gate, you can enter and leave Kyoto no matter who you are."
"I can't even remember how many people I've brought to Kyoto over the years."
"I thought that with Kamiyama Koshinosuke, the 'Ming Bugyo', in charge of Kyoto, the officialdom here wouldn't be so corrupt."
Ogata had also heard of the name of the "Ming Bugyo" Kamiyama Koshinosuke.
Although he didn't have a deep understanding of this person, Ogata had heard of titles such as "Kamiyama Koshinosuke is an outstanding talent."
"Kamiyama Koshinosuke?" The old man shrugged, and the mockery on his face became more intense. "Kamiyama is indeed a great man."
"But Kamiyama is the only one left in Kyoto who has some ability."
"As long as the good-for-nothings like Toda Tadahiro, the head of the Kyoto Shoshidai, are still around, Kamiyama will never be able to bring Kyoto back to life, no matter how powerful he is."
"After all, no matter how clean a drop of water is, it is impossible to make a muddy pool clean."
After hearing the old man's words, Ogata shrugged:
"Whatever the case, the corruption of the Kyoto officials really helped me a lot."
Ogata, who was not very interested in these affairs in the Kyoto officialdom, reached into his arms and took out his purse while speaking.
He took out seven silver coins and threw them to the old man.
"Here, the agreed reward."
After taking the seven silver coins thrown by Ogata, the old man immediately smiled happily.
In just less than half an incense stick of time, he made a net profit of 5 bean-shaped silver coins - it was hard not to laugh at such a good deal.
"Master Samurai, you are right. Government corruption is not only beneficial to you, but also to me." The old man put away the silver and said to Ogata, "Master Samurai, let me give you something as a parting gift."
After saying that, the old man turned and walked to a ox cart next to him.
He was searching for something in the packages placed on the ox cart.
Finally—he pulled out a red Tengu mask and threw it to Ogata.
"Master Samurai, this is for you."
"The Gion Festival is being held right now, so it's a good time to go out with a mask without looking weird."
"This thing should come in handy for you since it's inconvenient for others to see your face."
"Thank you very much." After taking the mask thrown by the old man, Ogata looked it over from front to back and confirmed that it was just an ordinary mask. He smiled and thanked the old man, "This thing is really useful for someone like me who is not convenient to show his face."
…
…
After watching the old man lead his caravan away, Ogata put on the Tengu mask and secretly sighed in his heart: What a bold businessman...
Knowing that he might be a wanted criminal, he still dared to come to him to "do business" - this courage made Ogata admire him.
The breathability of this Tengu mask, which covers Ogata's entire face and leaves only a pair of glasses, is only average, but not to the point of being uncomfortable.
Because of the mask, his field of vision suddenly became narrow, making Ogata feel quite uncomfortable.
——Just make do with it.
After saying this to himself as if to comfort himself, Ogata slowly walked out of the alley.
As soon as he walked out of the alley, the noise immediately hit Ogata like a tsunami.
——There are so many people...
Ogata looked up and saw that there were no less than a hundred people within his field of vision.
It had been a long time since Ogata had been in a place with so many people, and he felt a little uncomfortable.
——Anyway... let's start from the pharmacy .
He took a breath of cold air, and under the stimulation of the cold air, Ogata felt his mind became clearer.
I randomly found a passerby and asked him, "Where is the nearest pharmacy?" Then I followed the passerby's instructions and strode straight forward along the muddy road full of gullies under my feet.
It hadn't rained for several days. Under the scorching sun, the dirt road under his feet was so hard that Ogata had the illusion that "the mud under his feet might be as hard as steel."
Just like what the old man just said - now is the time when no one will find it strange even if you go out wearing a mask.
Those passers-by who passed by Ogata did not cast any puzzled looks at Ogata who was wearing the Tengu mask.
Either they just cast a curious look or simply ignore it.
From time to time, Ogata would see some passers-by who were also wearing masks.
When these passers-by wearing masks saw Ogata, their "common kind", they basically nodded to him, which made Ogata smile.
As we got closer to the commercial area, more and more people came to the surrounding area.
The appearance of the houses on both sides of the street has also gradually changed.
The area where Ogata was just now should be the residential area for Kyoto citizens, with ordinary houses on both sides of the street.
After entering the commercial area, the houses on both sides of the street changed from ordinary houses to businesses.
After scanning the surroundings, Ogata withdrew his attention and energy and began to concentrate on looking for the pharmacy.
After a while, Ogata found a beautiful house that was emitting the smell of medicinal herbs.
He strode into the pharmacy and walked to the counter. A young man standing behind the counter immediately put on a flattering smile and asked Ogata "What do you want to buy?"
"Excuse me, do you recognize the handwriting on this prescription? Do you know which doctor wrote it?"
Ogata took out the two prescriptions from his arms and asked the young man.
Seeing that Ogata was not here to buy anything, the young man's expression froze slightly.
But the young man still showed very strong professional qualities. After quickly adjusting his facial expression, he took the two prescriptions handed over by Ogata and looked at them carefully.
" Sir , I'm sorry." The young man looked at the two prescriptions for a while and shook his head, "I can't recognize the handwriting..."
"I see..." Ogata took back the two prescriptions, "Sorry for bothering you then."
Ogata had already expected such a result.
Ogata had long been prepared for a "protracted war".
Therefore, when he saw that the people in the pharmacy did not recognize the handwriting on the prescription, Ogata did not show any frustration.
— Let’s go find a second pharmacy…
Ogata thought to himself as he left the pharmacy with nothing.
…
…
—Hmm? Am I... entering the entertainment area?
Ogata, noticing the change in the atmosphere around him, raised his eyebrows and looked around him.
When we were in the commercial district just now, there were only some ordinary shops on both sides of the street.
From the beginning, Xu Fang gradually began to find that the atmosphere around him and the scenery on both sides of the street began to change.
Although there are still many shops on both sides of the street, in addition to these shops, there are many more people performing on both sides of the street.
Not far in front of Ogata, a sturdy man who was about the same height as him was holding a large rock high up, as if to show his great strength to passers-by.
After the giant lifted the huge rock, he immediately received cheers and applause from everyone around him.
Opposite the giant who was performing the stone-lifting performance, a young man whose clothes revealed his poverty was playing the shamisen.
It’s a pity that not many people stopped to listen to the performance.
As Ogata looked around, he saw these "artists" performing various shows filling almost every corner of the street.
They performed their own specialties, attracting countless passers-by to stop and watch and cheer.
Ogata asked a passerby next to him and found out that he had actually entered the entertainment district of Kyoto.
This street is called "Bojo-koji" and is one of the most famous entertainment streets in Kyoto.
At the same time, according to this passerby, there is a pharmacy located on this small road in the city.
After confirming that he was not on the wrong path, Ogata walked deeper into the alley of the castle, looking around with curiosity.
Even before he left the Hirose Domain, Ogata had never seen such a prosperous scene with street performers everywhere.
At this moment, a loud and powerful male voice suddenly attracted Ogata's attention.
Ogata looked in the direction of the voice and raised his eyebrows in surprise.
——He’s a storyteller…
The owner of this loud and powerful male voice is a middle-aged man sitting on a small platform.
Because the distance was quite far, Ogata did not hear clearly what story the storyteller was telling.
All I could see clearly was that this storyteller was quite popular, and there were many listeners gathered around him who were listening attentively to the story.
Looking at the storyteller, Ogata felt a sense of familiarity.
In his previous life, Xu Fang loved listening to books very much.
And this was the first time that Ogata saw a storyteller telling a story since he came to the Edo period.
So after seeing the storyteller, Ogata's feet immediately stopped and he could not move.
——Go and have a listen.
Unable to resist the spontaneous feeling of familiarity, Ogata slowly walked towards the storyteller.
There were really a lot of listeners gathered around this storyteller.
Three layers inside and three layers outside.
Just as Ogata was looking for a suitable gap to break into, his pupils shrank slightly.
Just because - just now when he was moving his eyes to look for a gap, he caught a glimpse of... a familiar figure.
Although the owner of the figure had changed her clothes, Ogata still recognized her at a glance.
She was now in the middle of the crowd, looking up and listening attentively to the storyteller.
Feeling his heartbeat speeding up uncontrollably, Ogata gave up his plan of "looking for a gap to break in" and decided to go for a "frontal assault".
"Excuse me, please make way."
Ogata used somewhat rough movements to push away the listeners who were blocking his way one by one and launched an "assault" into the center of the crowd.
You are happily listening to a book, and suddenly someone pushes you aside - no matter who you are, you will feel more or less unhappy.
After being pushed aside by Ogata with brute force, several young men who were full of vigor and vitality immediately showed anger on their faces.
He turned his head and was about to scold Ogata.
But after seeing the two knives on Ogata's left waist, he swallowed back the words of reprimand that were about to come out of his mouth.
They were angry, but not so angry as to lose their minds and provoke the warriors with swords at their waists.
After forcing his way out through brute force, Ogata finally arrived three steps behind her.
The main reason why he didn't get any closer was because Ogata was worried that if he got any closer, he would be discovered by her.
And Ogata planned to give her a little surprise.
And Ogata's plan was very successful - she was so focused on listening to the book that she didn't notice Ogata's presence three steps behind her.
After taking a deep breath and letting his heart beat a little slower—
"A-Ming!"
Ogata called out the man's name.
