Before entering the village, a samurai rushed towards me with a katana raised high - the welcome ceremony of this village can be said to be "grand".
The vision was dim now, and the "beggar samurai" could not be seen clearly just now because he was far away. After he got closer, Ogata discovered that there was some rust on the blade of the katana in the hand of the "beggar samurai".
Weapons like swords will definitely rust if they are not regularly cared for with blade oil.
The katana in the hand of this "beggar samurai" obviously had not been oiled for a long time, causing the blade to rust.
"Hey! That samurai! Stop him!"
The "loud-voiced samurai" who was following closely behind the "beggar samurai" yelled at Ogata at this time.
"This guy is a scumbag! He just wanted to violate the girls in the village! Stop him!"
As soon as the loud warrior finished speaking, some villagers behind him began to shout:
"Catch him! Catch him!"
"Don't let this guy get away!"
"Qing Liu's daughter was almost ruined by that guy!"
Although the villagers were shouting in indignation, only a few young and strong men followed the "loud-voiced warrior" to chase the "beggar warrior".
Hearing the shouts of the "loud-voiced samurai" and the villagers, Ogata narrowed his eyes slightly and stared at the "beggar samurai" in front of him.
When the "loud-voiced warrior" revealed his true identity, the "beggar warrior" became furious.
While his face showed a look of exasperation, there was also a fierce light in his eyes.
"Get out of my way!"
The "Beggar Samurai" shouted at Ogata with a fierce look in his eyes.
Although his roar was quite loud, he did not change his expression in the face of the roar of the "beggar warrior", but just leisurely spread his legs.
Tsuchiya, who was standing next to Ogata, silently drew the sword from his waist.
Although Tsuchiya's dress was very shabby, the sword on his waist was very beautiful.
The blade was as bright as snow, the edge was shining coldly, and a layer of blade oil was evenly coated on the blade - you could tell at a glance that the person had taken good care of his sword.
As for Atachi, she also pulled out the wakizashi stuck in her waist without saying a word.
Ogata, Atachi, and Tsuchiya formed a human wall and blocked the "beggar samurai".
Looking at the three Ogata men who formed a human wall and blocked his way, the fierce light in the eyes of the "Beggar Samurai" became even more intense, and he silently clenched the katana in his hand.
He planned to force his way through this human wall.
The breakthrough direction he chose was the direction where Ating was.
In fact, his choice is not difficult to understand.
A-machi is the only female among the three Ogata members, and her weapon appears to be the simplest - just a wakizashi.
Anyone would subconsciously regard Atachi as the weakest of the three Ogatas.
However, anyone who knows the relationship between Ogata and Atachi, and knows Ogata's strength, knows that this "beggar samurai" drew a bad lot.
After the "Beggar Samurai" rushed to a position only 5 steps away from Ogata and others, he kicked his feet hard and pounced towards Atachi.
Atachi's close combat ability is relatively weak - in fact, it is only weaker when compared with perverts like Ogata and Mamiya.
In terms of practical experience and close combat ability, A-Machi is no worse than any ordinary samurai.
Facing the "beggar samurai" rushing towards her, A-machi remained calm, just clenched the wakizashi in her hand, ready for defense and counterattack.
The "Beggar Samurai" raised the katana in his hand high. His posture was very imposing and his steps were very agile. It was obvious at first glance that he was not a weak person.
Just as he aimed his knife at Ating's head and was about to chop it down, the "Beggar Warrior" saw a black shadow moving horizontally from the rightmost corner of his field of vision to the center of his field of vision at an astonishing speed.
This black shadow was none other than Ogata.
With Ogata's current speed, it would be easy for him to cut in between him and Atachi before the "Beggar Samurai" swung his knife.
The next moment after cutting in between the "Beggar Samurai" and Atachi, Ogata quickly raised his hands.
He held the "Beggar Samurai's" sword-holding hands with his left hand, pressed the "Beggar Samurai's" left shoulder with his right hand, and used Shiranui-ryu Jutsu to throw the man directly to the ground.
The "Beggar Warrior" didn't even see the face of the warrior who suddenly flashed into his field of vision. His vision spun and the starry night sky appeared in front of him - because he was thrown face up to the ground.
This "beggar warrior" also reacted quickly.
As soon as he was thrown to the ground by Ogata, he immediately took out a sword from his arms with his left hand and stabbed at Ogata.
His attack was extremely vicious, and his target was Ogata's heart.
But the speed of his sword drawing was... so slow that Ogata didn't even need to be on edge.
There just happens to be a technique in Shiranui-ryu Jujutsu that allows you to snatch a sword and use it to counterattack.
Ogata directly used the sword-snatching technique from the Shiranui-ryu judo to snatch the sword from the "beggar samurai"'s hand, then turned the sword and pierced the heart of the "beggar samurai".
[Ding! Shiranui Style Ninjutsu, Shiranui Style Jujutsu, kill the enemy ]
[Gain 90 personal experience points, and 90 experience points for the Ninjutsu "Shiranui Style Ninjutsu"]
[Current personal level: Lv34 (5170/5200)]
[Shiranui Style Ninjutsu Level: 7th Stage (805/6000)]
Since agreeing to teach the apprentices of Hosho Sword Hall swordsmanship and jujutsu, Ogata's various experience bars have been increasing in an orderly manner over the past few days.
It was probably the day before yesterday that Ogata's Shiranui-ryu Ninjutsu was finally upgraded to the 7th level due to full experience points, contributing 2 skill points to Ogata.
After Ogata killed the "beggar samurai" with one move, the "loud-voiced samurai" and the villagers who had been chasing him finally arrived.
"Oh! You are very good at fighting!" The "loud-voiced samurai" praised Ogata with his loud voice.
Just now, the "loud-voiced samurai" saw clearly how Ogata subdued the scum with his swift skills and how he snatched the knife and killed the scum.
After praising Ogata, the "loud-voiced samurai" turned his gaze and cast a contemptuous look at the "beggar samurai" who had been killed by Ogata.
"Tsk... It's a relief for a scum like him to die." After saying that, the "Loud Warrior" spat on the ground.
The villagers who had gathered from all directions now joined in cursing the dead "beggar warrior".
However, there are only a few villagers who dare to curse the "beggar warriors".
Most of the villagers only dared to look at the "beggar warrior" with resentment.
"Are you guys the samurai invited back by other villagers?" The "loud-voiced samurai" shifted his gaze back to Ogata.
"Yes." Ogata slowly stood up, "Are you also the samurai who were invited back?"
"That's right!" The "loud-voiced samurai" grinned, "My name is Hizaka Masaomi!"
"Mashima Goro." Ogata introduced his family name, and then introduced Atachi behind him, "This is Uchiko-Atachi."
"I'm Tsuchiya Shinzaburo." Tsuchiya next to him also introduced his home address.
"Oh!" The "loud-voiced samurai" - that is, Hikaru raised his eyebrows, glanced at Atachi behind Ogata, and smiled, "You actually have such a beautiful wife! I'm so envious!"
After saying that, Hizaka glanced at Ogata and Tsuchiya.
"Including the two of you, this village has invited six... no, five samurai. That's more than I expected."
"5?" Sukezo, who had just dodged to the side, has now returned to Ogata and the others.
As soon as he returned to Ogata and the others, Sukezo asked the nearby villagers:
"Did you manage to recruit three warriors?"
Ogata remembered that Sukezo had told him that their village had sent several groups of people to different nearby towns and cities to hire samurai.
People like Hizaka should be the samurai who were successfully invited from other towns by other groups of villagers who went to invite samurai.
"To be precise - there are four samurai." Hizaka shrugged, then pointed to the "beggar samurai" at his feet, "This guy is also one of the samurai who was invited back."
"But this guy has bad intentions and is a scumbag."
"This guy was brought back to the village this morning."
"He had just arrived in this village and was sneaking around."
"I felt that this guy was not right, so I kept an eye on him. I followed him secretly wherever he went."
"Then just now, this guy finally showed his true colors."
"He had just sneaked into someone's home and was going to assault that family's daughter."
"Because I had been keeping an eye on him, I rushed in just in time, intending to kill this scum with one blow."
"But this guy ran away really fast. I don't know if he had practiced before. He managed to escape from my knife."
"I don't need to say more about what happened next."
"This guy is also unlucky. He ran into you guys right after he escaped."
Hizaka raised her eyes and looked at Ogata and the others.
"Is the girl okay?" asked Ating.
"It's okay, it's okay." Huo Ban waved her hands. "The scumbag just rushed into the house, and I rushed in right after him. The scumbag didn't even have time to tear off her clothes. It's just that the girl seemed a little frightened."
"This scumbag probably doesn't really want to help this village."
"He probably thought this was an opportunity to enter someone else's village in an open and aboveboard manner, so he pretended to agree to help."
"Then after entering the village, his fierce appearance became apparent."
"After he came to this village this morning, he was walking around stealthily. He must have been looking for a family with prettier women."
"This kind of scum is really annoying..."
Hizaka raised his hand and scratched his cheek.
"It is because of scum like this that the reputation of us warriors has been ruined."
"In short, this is it - the villagers originally invited four warriors."
"And one of them was a scumbag with bad intentions, and he has already fallen here. So there are three left."
"Including you two newcomers, there are now five warriors in this village."
Hizaka raised five fingers towards Ogata and the others.
At this moment, a man with a weather-beaten face rubbed his hands and walked slowly towards Huozaka.
"My Lord Warrior..."
The man looks like he is in his 40s, but his voice is very young. Just by listening to his voice, you would think he is only in his early 30s.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Hizaka looked at the man.
"I'm Ajiao...ah, the father of the girl who was nearly raped by that samurai. I've heard the details of what happened from Ajiao."
The man bowed deeply to Hizaka.
"Thank you so much for saving my daughter."
"Hahaha!" Huosaka laughed heartily, "It's just a small favor! How is your daughter now? Is she still crying?"
"Still crying..." The man smiled bitterly, "Her mother is with her now. Alas... her mother and I were just away from home for a while due to some matters, and something like this happened..."
"Are you still crying..." Hizaka raised her hand and scratched her cheek, "That's really hard to deal with... I don't know how to make a woman stop crying... Well, anyway, you two should spend more time with your daughter tonight and comfort her."
Gu...
At this moment, Hizaka's stomach suddenly made a loud noise.
"Oh my..." Hizaka patted her belly without any shame on her face, "My belly is really smart. It growls when it's time for dinner."
After saying that, Hizaka turned and looked at the villagers who were gathered not far away.
"Hey! It's time for dinner! Can we start cooking?"
"Yes, yes!" An older man among the villagers nodded hurriedly, "We will go prepare dinner for you now!"
"You must be very tired to come to this village!"
Hizaka turned her head and glanced at Ogata and the others.
"Come and have dinner together! You can also take this opportunity to get to know the other two warriors while you eat."
"The rice in this village is quite fragrant, and the uncle who cooks for us is quite good at cooking."
…
…
In a fairly spacious wooden house made of wood and thatch in the village—
Whoosh…
Streams of hot air came out through the gaps in the pot lid and turned into thin gusts of wind.
This house is a very common type of house in rural areas of this era - it has only one room.
There is only one room in the whole house, which is used as both a living room and a bedroom.
The owner of the house eats, drinks, sleeps and entertains guests in this one room...
At this moment, there are 7 people in this house.
Ogata, Atachi, Tsuchiya, Hizaka, two samurai whose names Ogata didn't know yet, and an old man who was sitting next to the pot, observing the heat.
According to Hizaka's introduction, this old man is one of the villagers in the village. He is responsible for cooking for the samurai, and his name is Yozo.
The warriors invited by the villagers gathered here at this time.
Ogata, Atachi, Tsuchiya and others were just brought in and sat down on the floor.
As soon as he sat down on the floor, Oba looked at the two warriors in front of him whose names he didn't know yet.
These two warriors each have their own characteristics.
One of them was very young, probably only around 17 years old.
He was a little reserved, and didn't know where to put his hands after Ogata and his group of strangers came in.
The other person is a little older, probably between 25 and 30 years old.
He sat upright from beginning to end , his back and neck straight, his eyes straight, and every move he made was graceful.
You can tell at first glance that he is a well-educated person.
If his clothes were not so ragged and old, others would have thought he was the son of a samurai family.
Huosaka then extended his right arm and embraced the very reserved young warrior.
"This is my apprentice - Mizuno Yogoro."
As soon as Huosaka finished speaking, the young samurai whose shoulders he had put his arm around hurriedly bowed his head to salute Ogata and the others.
"My name is Mizuno Yogoro, please give me your guidance!"
After Hizaka and Mizuno finished introducing themselves, the samurai sitting not far from them, who was graceful in his gestures, also opened his lips and whispered:
"Jin Chengsheng. Please give me your advice."
After Mizuno and Kaneshiro introduced themselves, Ogata and others also began to introduce themselves.
Hizaka, Mizuno, Kinjo, Tsuchiya and Ogata - if you don't count the scumbag samurai who has been killed by Ogata, these are the five samurai currently invited by this village.
"Hizaka, Mizuno, Kinjo, Tsuchiya..." Hiizaka grinned, "We really are destined to be together. If we can find another one with the character 'wood' in the last name, we'll make up the five elements."
Huo Ban's complaint made everyone present smile involuntarily.
"The rice is ready." The old man named Yozo, who was responsible for preparing meals for Ogata and others, said as he lifted the lid of the pot.
Balls of milky white steam came out as the lid of the pot was lifted.
The pot is filled with white rice.
The only side dishes the villagers prepared for Ogata and his friends were pickles and radishes.
No fish, no tofu and no soup.
But judging from the current situation of the village, pickles and radishes should be the best food the villagers can offer.
After telling Zou that the rice was ready to be eaten, Ogata and the others began to devour it.
Since leaving the feudal domain, Ogata has been living a life that is neither extravagant nor restrained, so he didn't feel anything about tonight's dinner.
But Huo Ban and the others are different.
Just by looking at their clothes, you can tell that they must be living a life of poverty and hardship.
So after the incident with Zou, Hizaka and the others' eyes immediately lit up.
After taking the bowl of rice from Yuzao, they immediately started to dig up the rice in their hands like pigs.
When they set out for the village today, Tsuchiya told Ogata that the reason he agreed to come to the village to help was just to eat white rice.
Therefore, among all the people, Tuwu was the one who ate the most eagerly and worked the hardest.
The way Huo Ban eats matches his rugged appearance very well—he eats quite heroically.
Should we say they are worthy of being master and disciple? Mizuno's heroic eating style is even better than that of Hizaka.
While eating, Mizuno was like a powerful general on the battlefield. Compared with his reserved appearance just now, he was like a completely different person.
As for Jin Cheng, he maintained an elegant demeanor even when eating .
Keep your back and neck straight, shoulders relaxed, hold the rice bowl in front of your chest, and when you use chopsticks to bring food to your mouth, only wet the tips of the chopsticks a little bit.
Huosaka is a very outgoing and lively person, and he kept talking about this and that during the meal.
Thanks to Hizaka's liveliness, the meal was not too boring. At the same time, Ogata learned from Hizaka that Hizaka and Mizuno were the first to arrive in the village.
The two of them arrived in the village in the evening the day before yesterday.
Then this morning, the "beggar warrior" arrived in the village.
Jincheng arrived at the village this afternoon.
Ogata and his group were the last batch and had just arrived.
Jincheng seems to have a small appetite.
After eating only one bowl, he put down the bowl in his hand which was empty without even a grain of rice left, then clasped his hands together and said softly, "I'm full."
Even the way she put her hands together and bowed to the bowl in front of her was so elegant.
Hizaka was sitting next to Jincheng.
He glanced at Jin Cheng beside him, grinned, and asked:
"Jincheng, from the first time I saw you this afternoon, I noticed that you have a lot of temperament. You have a good posture when you stand and sit."
"I didn't expect that even eating is so elegant."
"You should be the son of a wealthy family, right?"
In response to Hizaka's question, Jincheng remained silent.
Facing the silent Jincheng, Hizaka continued:
"Well, if you don't want to talk about your past, I won't force you to."
"No." As soon as Huo Ban finished speaking, Jin Cheng immediately said, "There is nothing shameful about my past. If you are curious, I would be happy to tell you. It's just right to kill some free time after dinner."
Jincheng took the water cup beside him, took a sip of the water, and slowly told his past.
It turns out that Jincheng really comes from a wealthy family.
He was born into a hatamoto family in Edo with a salary of 3,500 koku.
3,500 koku - a small amount for the hatamoto samurai in Edo, but an unattainable number for the middle and lower-level samurai in various places.
While living a life without worries about food and clothing, they also received a strict education.
At first glance, Jincheng seems to live a life that ordinary people would envy.
But in reality, life in Jincheng is quite hard.
Because——he is the third son in the family.
"Oh?" Hizaka raised an eyebrow, "So you are Eisuke?"
"Yeah." Jin Cheng nodded, "That's right."
Ejie-those who do not inherit the family fortune.
Japan during the Edo period also practiced the system of primogeniture.
The family business is inherited by the eldest son.
Those who do not inherit the family business are called "Ejie".
Jincheng is the third son in the family, with two older brothers. When it comes to inheriting the family business, it will never be his turn no matter how the turns are.
From some perspectives, the "Ejie" are a pretty miserable group of people.
Since they could not inherit the family business, they had to fend for themselves.
Some families are kind-hearted and will support the evildoers at home.
But some families are not so friendly to the unlucky ones. They adopt a laissez-faire policy and let them fend for themselves, or simply give them some unremarkable jobs so that they don't starve to death.
Is it so easy to find a way out for the warriors?
Due to various reasons such as class attributes, there are many jobs that are actually not willing to recruit samurai, or that samurai simply cannot do.
Jincheng's family is the type that is not very friendly to Erusai.
Jincheng's father found a job for Jincheng as a house guard for another hatamoto family.
Jin Cheng, who was unwilling to guard other people's houses and was only interested in swordsmanship, simply left his hometown with his sword and started practicing martial arts.
Before I knew it, I had wandered here.
After listening to Jincheng's story quietly, Hizaka grinned:
"In that case, you are training as a warrior. Do you want to wander with us in the future? Let's form a team that specializes in catching wanted criminals."
"Catch the wanted criminal?" Jin Cheng looked puzzled.
Ogata, who was sitting opposite Higasaka, couldn't help but look up at Higasaka.
"My apprentice and I are now wandering around, making a living by catching wanted criminals."
As Hizaka spoke, he pulled out a large stack of crumpled papers from his bosom and showed them to Ogata and the others.
"These are the wanted posters I have collected so far. After we finish helping in this village, my apprentice and I will continue to look for these wanted criminals."
Looking at the stack of wanted posters that Hizaka showed them, Ogata and Atachi's eyes became strange.
Because... the first wanted poster in the stack had a face that Ogata was very familiar with.
Ogata: "Can you show me these wanted posters?"
"Here! Take a look at it!"
Hizaka directly stuffed all the wanted warrants in his hand to Ogata.
After taking the stack of wanted posters, Ogata directly picked up the one on top.
——No matter how I look at it, it looks so ugly... It doesn’t show my handsomeness at all...
The first wanted poster on the top of the pile of wanted posters in Hizaka is Ogata's wanted poster...
Ogata always felt that his wanted poster portrayed him in an ugly light.
But the strange thing is that the bounty hunters can always accurately identify him through the wanted posters...
What hurt Ogata the most was that Atachi once said to Ogata: Doesn’t this wanted poster look like you?
The "heartache" left by these words in Ogata still remains to this day.
"You actually still want to capture Ogata Ittosai?" Ogata raised his own wanted poster.
"How is that possible!" Hizaka laughed, "Don't you know how much I weigh? I'm going to catch Ogata Ittosai? No matter how many heads I have, I won't be able to chop them off!"
"I just took the wanted poster of Ogata Ittosai with me. If I really run into Ogata Ittosai one day, I will definitely run away without saying a word!"
Ogata turned his gaze back to the wanted poster in his hand.
"Ogata Ittosai is offering a reward of 500 ryo now... I remember he offered a reward of 300 ryo before..."
As soon as he received the wanted warrant, Ogata noticed that his bounty had increased.
It has risen to 500 taels.
Since leaving Kyoto, Ogata has not paid any attention to his wanted warrant.
This was the first time that Ogata had received a wanted warrant for himself since leaving Kyoto. Only now did he learn that his bounty had increased so much.
"This is the latest wanted poster!" Hizaka said, "I just got it a month ago! After Ogata Ittosai conquered Nijo Castle in Kyoto, the shogunate raised Ogata's bounty from 300 taels to 500 taels."
"Ogata Ittosai should be the most valuable wanted criminal right now." A look of longing appeared on Hirasaka's face, "500 ryo... With 500 ryo, I won't have to work for the rest of my life."