After realizing that they seemed to be affecting other people's collection or return of the onigiri, Ogata and Atachi hurriedly left the "onigiri collection point".
But before leaving this "female cutter pick-up point", Ogata pointed to the imposing mansion behind the uncle:
"Excuse me - is this room behind you the Shirobei Club?"
"That's right." The uncle nodded, a hint of pride on his face, "This house is the Shirobei Club. If you encounter any trouble in Yoshiwara, just come to the club and we will help you."
"Of course - the things we can help with are limited to things in Yoshiwara."
"Okay." Ogata said casually, "I will."
After looking up and down at the Shirobei Club in front of him, Ogata thought to himself:
——It’s exactly the same as what I heard from that lady today… The Shirobei Club is located next to the main gate. After passing through the main gate of Yoshiwara, you can see the Shirobei Club on the right hand side…
—Hmm? What is that?
Just as Ogata was looking at the headquarters of the Shirobei Club in front of him, he suddenly noticed a large, eye-catching piece of paper pasted next to the door of the club.
There were densely packed words written on the paper in a flamboyant style.
Ogata, his curiosity aroused, walked quickly towards the paper .
A-Machi followed Ogata to the paper, took a look at it, and immediately showed an expression as if a fly had been eaten:
"There are so many difficult Chinese characters...what do they say?" Atachi poked Ogata beside her with her elbow.
"That's right...you can't read Chinese characters..." Ogata smiled bitterly and began to read the words written on the paper at a glance.
The person who was responsible for writing on this piece of paper must have practiced calligraphy. The handwriting is neat and looks pleasing to the eye.
In order to take care of those who are not well educated, the people in charge of writing seem to have intentionally reduced the frequency of use of Chinese characters.
The ratio of Chinese characters to Kana on the entire piece of paper is about 4 to 6.
However, although the number of Chinese characters has been deliberately reduced in order to take care of those who are not well educated, it is still too difficult for people like Atachi who really know nothing about Chinese characters to read.
After quickly reading the contents of the paper, Ogata explained to A-Machi:
"The contents written on this piece of paper can be summed up in one sentence: The Shirobei Association is recruiting new members, and hopes that those who are capable of clerical work or have good skills will sign up."
"It looks like the conditions are pretty good. The wages are paid daily, and the daily wages are 6 silver coins."
This model of "settling wages on the same day and paying daily wages" was very common in ancient Japan.
Many jobs use this salary model.
For example, when a section of a city wall or a large house needed to be renovated, a group of people would be temporarily recruited to do the hard labor, and their wages would be settled on the same day.
Many people who cannot find proper jobs, such as ronin who have escaped from their clans, rely on this kind of work that can be paid on the same day to make a living.
It is now the Kansei period, and the daily wage of an ordinary craftsman is about 3 to 4 taels of silver.
The salary offered by the Shirobei Club was 6 taels of silver per day, which was considered a very fair wage.
When Ogata finished explaining what was written on the paper to Atachi, the uncle who was in charge of distributing the female hand was handing the female hand to a woman in front of him and said to Ogata:
"We have already recruited enough people to handle clerical work. We are only lacking people with good skills now."
"If you are interested in working at our Shirobei Club, please sign up as soon as possible."
"Are you short of people here now?" asked Ating.
"I guess so." The uncle smiled bitterly, "It's because of the Imperial Trial that attracted many ronin from other places. As a result, we have a lot more customers in Yoshiwara now, and we don't have enough manpower."
"Anyway, if you're interested in working here, come and sign up as soon as possible."
"Okay." Ogata said casually, "I will."
After taking their eyes off the "recruitment advertisement", Ogata and Atachi walked away from the "female cutter pick-up point" shoulder to shoulder.
A wide avenue connected to the main gate of Yoshiwara, and Ogata and Atachi walked along this avenue into the depths of Yoshiwara.
Both sides of the avenue are lined with brothels with various signs hanging on them.
There are red lanterns hanging outside each brothel for lighting.
The red light emitted by the red lanterns enveloped the entire Yoshiwara, making it as bright as day. At the same time, the red light also added a lewd atmosphere to Yoshiwara.
The atmosphere in Yoshiwara was almost identical to the one Ogata had felt in Shimabara in Kyoto.
The style of each yukata in Yoshiwara is similar to that of the yukata in Shimabara.
The first floor of each brothel has a wooden, grid-like fence.
The prostitutes from each prostitute house sat behind the grid-like wooden fences, just like commodities displayed behind a window, allowing passers-by to freely choose their favorite girls.
Although Yoshiwara and Shimabara are similar in all aspects, the difference in scale between the two is huge. The difference in scale between Yoshiwara and Shimabara is overwhelming.
Yoshiwara was said to have 3,000 prostitutes, but Ogata had no idea whether there were really that many.
In terms of management model, Yoshiwara's management is much stricter and more formal than Shimabara's.
Yoshiwara has an independent organization called "Shirobei Kaiso" to manage it, but Shimabara does not.
"It's so bright..." Atachi muttered as he looked around, "How many candles and lamp oil does Yoshiwara use in one night..."
"Yoshiwara is the 'city that never sleeps in Edo' after all," Ogata replied casually.
"I wonder if I'll have a chance to see Yoshiwara's oiran." A-Machi said, "I heard that women who can become oirans must be extremely beautiful. I want to see how beautiful they are."
"It's not that easy to meet an oiran." Ogata shrugged and said helplessly.
The two of them did not forget why they came to Yoshiwara.
Ogata casually stopped a young man who was strolling on the street at a leisurely pace and who must be very idle, and asked him where "Sakuramonya" was.
The young man spoke with a fluent Edo accent and should be a native of Edo. After hearing Ogata asking where Yoshiwara was, he enthusiastically told Ogata how to get there.
The road was not difficult to walk on, and Ogata memorized the route immediately.
While heading towards Sakuramon-ya with A-machi along the route indicated by the young man, Ogata also kept an eye on his surroundings, listening attentively to the conversations of the people around him, trying to get some interesting information from them.
Most of the people walking on the road are men who are looking for pleasure, but there are also some women.
The women who come to Yoshiwara are naturally not here for pleasure, but to do business, so the women walking on the streets of Yoshiwara are basically in a hurry and do not look around.
Although Ogata had intended to eavesdrop on the conversations of the people around him, unfortunately - after listening for a long time, he did not hear any interesting information.
After listening to it, what I heard was basically the following conversation:
"Hey, you're in Yoshiwara again? Didn't you just come here last night?"
"You just had dinner last night, so you won't have dinner tonight?"
…
"I recommend a girl to you, Hatsufuji from the Corner House. She has amazing feet and mouth."
"Haha~~ Then I'm going to give it a try!"
…
"I just heard that a customer ordered Furin-tayu from the Umeya restaurant."
"Is this true? Then won't we be able to see 'Oiran Daozhong' later?"
…
All I could hear were these random conversations.
At the same time, the sweet voices coming from the prostitutes' houses on both sides of the street disturbed Ogata all the time.
The prostitutes sitting inside the wooden fences on the first floor of each prostitute house would occasionally stretch their hands out of the fences, either to tease the people standing outside the fences, or to attract customers for themselves.
"Sir, this is the first time I meet you."
"Sir, would you like to come and play with us?"
Similar conversations continued to reach Ogata's ears.
With Atachi following him, Ogata didn't dare to reply to the prostitutes, nor did he dare to look at them any longer.
In addition to these prostitutes, Ogata was also harassed by solicitors.
In front of the door of almost every brothel, there is always one or even several people soliciting customers.
These people who are responsible for soliciting customers are called "Jianshifan".
When they see men passing by the door of their store, they will greet them enthusiastically and tell them how good the service in their store is and how great their girls are.
Those who are responsible for the role of Jianshiban are basically men.
The principle is simple - only men have enough strength to pull men.
Ogata had personally seen several Kenseiban with enthusiastic smiles on their faces semi-forcefully pulling hesitant people who didn't know which store to go to into their stores.
Of course, these Jianseban only dared to pull those civilians who did not have swords on their waists. Almost no Jianseban would have any physical contact with the samurai.
The reason why people try not to have physical contact with samurai is to avoid encountering the kind of psychopath who likes to yell, "Ah, you dare to touch my sword, you have defiled the soul of the samurai, I will kill you."
However - although they would not force samurai into their store, when the kenshiban saw a samurai passing by their store, they would still greet him enthusiastically and introduce to the samurai how great their store is.
Ogata could no longer remember how many mishiban he had encountered since he came to Yoshiwara. The number was too numerous to count.
Even Ogata felt annoyed by being disturbed again and again by these mishiban.
"Those solicitors are so annoying..." Ating said unhappily.
"Yeah." Ogata nodded in agreement, "It's really annoying..."
Just when Ogata was thinking about whether there was any way to stop these people from bothering him again -
"Go away! Everyone, go away!"
A series of shouts suddenly broke out from the crowd in front.
The crowd ahead was not dense, and Ogata was taller than most of the people around him, so he only had to look ahead to see what was happening ahead:
A bald man was running towards him with a panicked look on his face.
The bald man shouted "Get out of the way" and pushed away everyone who blocked his way with a very rough method, which caused screams and scolding.
Just as Ogata was wondering what was going on with this panicking bald guy, a series of shouts from behind him told Ogata the answer:
"Quick! Catch him! He's a thief!"
Several people followed behind this panicking bald man.
These people were all wearing the Shirobei Club's haori and holding wooden sticks in their hands. They chased the bald man closely and shouted loudly to inform the people around him of the bald man's identity and asked them to work together to catch the thief.
——So he’s a thief…
After saying this in his heart, Ogata turned his gaze and stared at the bald man who was rushing straight towards him. After transferring the large box of steamed buns in his right hand to his left hand, he slowly raised his right hand and reached for the Daishiten at his waist.
After all, it was just a thief, so Ogata only planned to use the back of the knife against the enemy, using the back of the knife to stop the thief and knock him unconscious.
Just as Ogata placed his right hand on the hilt of Daishikatsu, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a petite figure suddenly jumping out from behind the bald man.
I saw this petite figure quickly jump onto the eaves of a brothel nearby, then jump over the crowd under the eaves in one breath, get in front of the bald man and leap forward.
When the petite figure jumped down from the eaves, it landed precisely in front of the bald man, between Ogata and the bald man.
Looking at the petite figure that suddenly appeared in front of him, Ogata raised his eyebrows in surprise.
He knew this man.
It was Ueyu Hide, who is known as the "Yoshiwara Village Heart", whom I met just today.
The bald man in front of him didn't expect that someone could overtake him by walking on the roof. His face was full of fear. Although he tried his best to slow down, his body continued to rush forward due to inertia.
Just like that, he rushed into Guasheng's best attack range.
After the bald man entered his attack range, Guasheng quickly drew out the wooden sword from his waist and slashed at the bald man's neck.
The wooden sword hit the bald man's neck accurately and knocked him to the ground.
After Uesugi knocked the bald man down, the officers from the Shirobei Club who had been chasing the bald man finally caught up with him.
"Tie this guy up and take him to the club." Guasheng ordered the officers, "Also - search this guy and take out all the money bags he stole."
"Yes!" The officers responded in unison, rushed forward and subdued the bald man. While tying him up with hemp rope, they groped his body up and down.
After a short while, he took out three purses of different styles from the bald man's body.
The physical evidence was complete. The bald man hung his head with a pale face, like a defeated rooster. He allowed the officials from the Shirobei Club beside him to escort him to the club .
Guasheng did not follow her companions back to the club.
Instead, he put the wooden sword in his hand back to his waist, let out a long breath, and then slowly turned around.
As she turned around, she saw Ogata and Omachi standing behind her.
Looking at Ogata and the other man, Uesugi showed a look of surprise on his face.
"What a coincidence." The look of surprise only appeared on Guasheng for a moment before it turned into a faint smile, "We meet again."
"Yeah." Ogata also responded with a smile, "It's indeed a coincidence."
"Look at you guys, you came to Yoshiwara to do something, right? Do you need my help?"
"You can see this?" Ating asked in surprise.
"I am an old man who has worked in Yoshiwara for a long time." Guess laughed, "I can tell which people are here for fun and which are here for business at a glance."
"You have a very sharp eye." Ogata raised the , "We are here to deliver steamed buns to a teahouse."
"Delivering steamed buns...Which family are you sending them to?"
"Sakuramonya." Ogata answered.
"Sakuramonya... It's a bit far away."
After saying that, Uesugi turned around and waved to Ogata and Atachi.
"Come with me, I'll take you to Sakuramonya."
"Ah, that's not necessary." Ogata said quickly, "We've already asked for directions and know how to get to Sakuramon-ya."
"It's alright." Guasheng waved his hands proudly, "You guys just helped me at noon today, so it's only natural that I help you with this little favor."
"I'm just patrolling aimlessly in Yoshiwara now anyway."
"Taking you to Sakuramonoya won't interfere with my work."
"Just think of it as a quick patrol of the road from here to Sakuramon-ya."
"Besides - there are many benefits if I lead the way."
"For example: No thief would dare to approach you."
"At the same time, you won't be harassed by those annoying jianshiban."
"Then thank you for your help." As soon as Uesugi finished speaking, Oofang said this seriously.
…
…
As Ogata, Atachi and Ueyoshi led the way to Sakuramon-ya—
Edo, Yoshiwara, Shirobei Club.
The Shirobei Club has three floors.
In a secret room on the third floor, three people were sitting on the tatami.
2 old men and 1 young girl.
"It's been a long time, Genichi."
One of the old men spoke to the other old man in front of him in an enthusiastic tone.
"When was the last time we met? I almost forgot."
"I forgot too. I just remember that you didn't have so little black hair at that time."
The only girl in the room was Lin, who accompanied Genichi to the Shirobei Club.
The two old men were none other than Genichirō and Shirobei, the manager of the Shirobei Club.
In all walks of life in Japan, there is a tradition of inheriting names.
This is true in the literary and artistic circles, in the martial arts circles, and in the political circles.
Every manager of the Shirobei Club will automatically take the title of "Shirobei".
The old man currently sitting in front of Genichi and Rin is the Sixth Generation Shirobei, a 65-year-old man with gray hair.
"Shirobei, let me introduce you." Genichi pointed to Lin beside him, "This is my great-niece, Kinoshita Lin."
As soon as Genichi finished speaking, Lin respectfully bowed and greeted Shirobei.
"You are the grandniece of Genichi...Yes! Your eyebrows and eyes do look a lot like Genichi!"
Although Lin had been to Edo many times, this was her first time in Yoshiwara.
While visiting Yoshiwara for the first time, it was also the first time that Lin met this old acquaintance of her great-uncle.
After completing a deal with Tojo Daigo, the most powerful Yakuza in eastern Japan, Genichi told Lin that Shirobei was the only person in all of Edo who could be trusted and might have the ability to find the location of the Shiranui base.
Although I don't know what the relationship between my uncle and Shirobei is.
But considering that Genichirō could say, "Shirobei is the only person left who can be trusted and who might have the ability to find the location of the Shiranui base," the relationship between the two should be quite good.
Shirobei made a good first impression on Lin.
He had a neatly shaved topknot and his clothes were also clean. He had an elegant air about him and looked like a very learned and cultured man.
Old friends met again, and after some enthusiastic conversation between Genichi and Shirobei, Genichi gradually turned the topic to business.
"Shirobei, to be honest, I have something to ask of you."
"What's the matter? Has one of your friends committed a crime and you want me to help you get him back?" Shirobei asked in a half-joking tone.
"It's much more troublesome than this."
Genichi briefly explained to Shirobei that he hoped Shirobei could help him find the base in Shiranui.
"Looking for Shiranui's base?" Shirobei laughed dumbly, "Genichi, you think too highly of me."
"I'm just an old man who manages Yoshiwara."
"Although I do have some connections and power in Edo, the only thing I can do for you is to help you get some people who have committed minor crimes out of prison."
"Unless we are arresting those who have committed crimes in Yoshiwara and have escaped from Yoshiwara, my men are not allowed to wander around outside of Yoshiwara."
"So I can't help you with this."
"Is that so..." Although he was rejected by Shirobei, there was no trace of regret on Genichi's face. "Then there is nothing I can do. Shirobei, forget about my request just now."
"I'm sorry, Genichi."
"It's okay. We are the ones who need to apologize to you for throwing a difficult request to you without any reason."
Shirobei picked up the tea beside him, took a sip of the hot tea, and then said:
"Genichi, because of your request, the atmosphere of our conversation has suddenly become serious."
"But whatever, I'll take advantage of this serious atmosphere to tell you something serious."
Shirobei put down the teacup in his hand, raised his eyes, and cast a serious gaze at Genichi in front of him.
"Genichi, you'd better stay at home until you leave Edo."
"Oh?" Yuan Yi raised an eyebrow, "Why."
"Your enemies...are all gathered in Edo Castle now." Shirobei's tone was extremely serious. "If you don't want to cause yourself too much trouble, stay in the hotel until you leave."