"Your Excellency." His expression changed drastically, and he frowned slightly, "All sword techniques should be eliminated - what does this mean?"
The old man sitting next to Isshiki, his grandfather Naoshu, was also frowning at this time.
"I'm just telling the truth." Ogata said calmly, "Compared with other tools, a sword is very different in one respect - it has no other use except to kill people."
"An axe is used for felling trees. A bow and a spear are used for hunting."
"But the sword has no other use except to kill people."
"The sword was invented to kill people from the beginning."
"Swordsmanship is a skill designed to make it easier to kill people with a sword."
"The sword is a killing weapon, and swordsmanship is a killing technique."
"You just said that swordsmanship that focuses on strengthening the body is the 'true sword'. That means you also believe that swordsmanship should focus on practicality."
"So, you should agree with what I just said, right?"
Isshiki was silent for a while before nodding his head gently: "...That's right. I agree with what you said just now. The sword is indeed a killing weapon, and swordsmanship is a skill designed to make killing more convenient."
"Hundreds of years ago, swords and swordsmanship existed in the world as killing weapons and killing techniques, and they indeed had an irreplaceable and important position." Ogata then continued, "But now the times have changed."
"You should know the famous Battle of Changchu from more than 200 years ago, right?"
"Of course I know." Isshiki responded.
"Since you know about this battle, you must also be very clear about the final outcome of that battle. The famous Takeda army was defeated miserably by Oda Nobunaga's iron cannon troops."
In the Edo period, anyone who had received a little historical education knew about the Battle of Nagashino, a very famous battle in the Warring States period more than 200 years ago: a strategic decisive battle between the Oda clan and the Takeda clan.
Ogata inherited all the memories of "Hara Ogata". As a samurai who successfully completed all basic education, "Hara Ogata" naturally also has various knowledge about the Battle of Nagashino in his memory.
The Takeda family was one of the most powerful princes in the Warring States Period more than 200 years ago, famous for its military power. The Takeda Army was known as the "strongest army", and the Takeda family's cavalry was even known as the "best cavalry in the world."
However, in the Battle of Nagashino, the head of the Oda family, Oda Nobunaga, assembled more than 3,000 matchlock guns and defeated the long-renowned "strongest army" by alternating shooting. The famous cavalry of Takeda was almost annihilated by the matchlock guns. After this battle, the Takeda family completely declined and was completely annexed by Oda Nobunaga seven years later.
"…So, what you mean is that the emergence of the iron cannon has made swordsmanship useless?"
Having said this, Isshiki paused, then sneered disdainfully.
"Humph, I thought you were going to say something profound. But all you said were these old-fashioned remarks."
"How can a cannon replace a sword?"
"In the Battle of Nagashino, the Takeda clan was defeated so badly, in part because the commander of the Takeda army at that time was an idiot. If a better commander had been in charge of the battle, not only would they not have lost, but they might have even defeated Oda Nobunaga."
"I can't even finish talking about all the shortcomings of the iron cannon in a cup of tea."
"First of all - the cannon's firing rate is extremely slow, and reloading the ammunition is extremely troublesome."
"No matter how skilled a gunner is, it will take at least 10 breaths to reload the ammunition after firing a round."
"Secondly, the accuracy of the iron cannon is extremely low. Unless you are an extremely talented marksman, whether you can hit a target 5 rooms (about 9 meters) away with a iron cannon depends entirely on luck."
"Secondly, there are many restrictions on the use of the iron cannon. It cannot be used on rainy days, snowy days, or in wet places..."
"Of course, I don't deny the power of iron cannons, nor do I deny that iron cannons can play a very important role in certain places."
"But you said that the cannon can replace the sword - I really don't agree with that."
At this time, Isshiki's face was no longer filled with excitement and excitement as before, he just looked at Ogata with a calm and indifferent look.
Ogata had been listening quietly to Isshiki's speech just now.
After Isshiki finished speaking, Ogata smiled slightly:
"You are right."
"Even today, iron cannons still have many flaws."
"But the cannon is an extremely precise instrument."
"And one of the characteristics of extremely precise instruments is that there is no upper limit to their 'progress'."
"It is true that the iron cannon still has many flaws now, but have you ever thought about what the iron cannon will be like in 50 or 100 years?"
"Unlike Japan, the southern barbarians attach great importance to the development of iron cannons."
"They continued to improve their cannons. To this day, the southern barbarians have invented many extremely powerful cannons."
"Not only has the range been greatly extended, but the shooting accuracy has also been greatly improved."
"As time goes by, the iron cannon will be improved and become more powerful, and its defects will be reduced."
“It is possible that in 50 or 100 years, there will be a cannon that can hit a target 50 rooms (about 90 meters) away, or a cannon that can fire 100 bullets at a time.”
"As for swords and swordsmanship..."
"As a weapon, the sword has almost no room for any 'improvement'. At most, some new sword-making techniques will appear, making the sword sharper and harder."
"And swordsmanship... it's people who use swordsmanship. So people's physical fitness determines the upper limit of swordsmanship."
"Human physical strength also has its limits, just like a person cannot lick his elbow with his tongue no matter what."
"Only when humans themselves 'progress', such as when everyone can lick their elbows with their tongues, can swordsmanship 'progress' along with them, and some new and more powerful swordsmanship will emerge."
"But even so, swordsmanship that requires close combat to injure the enemy cannot be any stronger."
"Just imagine this scene - a group of arquebusiers holding improved arquebuses that can fire 100 bullets at a time, fighting against samurai who are still using swords."
"Those warriors probably couldn't get out five steps before they were all shot dead."
"The sword is a 'killing weapon', and its efficiency in killing people is bound to become less and less efficient than the cannon, which is 'improving' rapidly."
"Since swords, which exist as 'killing weapons', are becoming less and less efficient than cannons, what is the need for swords to exist? What is the meaning of the art of swordsmanship?"
"The only future for the sword is probably to become a decoration in the house. And swordsmanship will become a recreational and fitness sport like Cuju."
The same expression, which had been turning blue and white since a while ago.
"A cannon that can fire 100 bullets at a time... What nonsense are you talking about?" Isshiki gritted his teeth, "How could such a cannon exist?"
Isshiki raised his head, stretched his neck, and glared at Ogata with a hint of anger on his face.
Perhaps because of his anger, his cheeks turned dark red.
Isshiki is a little shorter than Ogata, only about 1.6 meters tall.
He was already shorter than Ogata, and now the way he stretched his neck and glared at Ogata made him look even shorter.
Ating, who had been listening silently, also noticed that the atmosphere around him was becoming increasingly strange, and racked his brains to think of something to say to ease the atmosphere.
Isshiki opened his mouth again at this moment, as if he was about to say something else.
But at this moment, his grandfather who was sitting next to Isshiki reached out and grabbed Isshiki's sleeve.
"That's enough, Ryoma. Let's stop here and go back."
"Grandpa..." Isshiki turned his head and looked at his grandfather, Isshiki Naoshige.
"That's it." Zhi Zhou stared at Isse and repeated what he had just said word by word.
Yi Se, with a look of indignation on his face, hesitated for a moment and snorted coldly.
"…I am sorry to bother you. I thought your ideas were similar to mine, but I didn't expect that our concepts are so different. If we have the chance in the future, please let us discuss this in detail."
After leaving these cold words, Isshiki stood up and walked away from Ogata without even looking back.
As for Naoshige, he simply bowed to Ogata and Amachi, then quickly followed Isshiki.
After the grandfather and grandson returned to where they were originally sitting, Atachi turned his head and said to Ogata in a low voice with a wry smile:
"Really... I almost thought that Isshiki didn't fight with the samurai with the birthmark on his head, but was going to fight with you..."
" Although I agree with the view that 'firearms will eventually replace swords', what you just said was indeed a bit exaggerated. No wonder people are unhappy after hearing it."
"How is it possible to have a cannon that can fire 100 rounds at a time? How big would the barrel have to be to be able to fire 100 rounds at a time..."
After hearing this, Ogata couldn't help but smile helplessly because he felt a little aggrieved.
——I am just telling you what will happen in the future...
In the future, not only will there be guns that can fire 100 rounds in one breath, but even bullets will have evolved so much that a steel plate as thick as a finger can be penetrated by a single bullet.
However, Ogata expressed his understanding of Atachi's remarks, which he considered to be somewhat ignorant.
Although Atachi, who loves firearms, has more advanced ideas about firearms than the Japanese of that era, she is, after all, a woman born and raised in the Edo period and has her own limitations in vision.
Therefore, Ogata felt that it was understandable that Atachi and Isshiki could not imagine a musket that could fire 100 bullets.
Ogata had no way to explain to Ating that such a powerful musket would really appear in the future, so he could only smile helplessly while helping Ating wipe the sweat that had appeared again due to seasickness and physical discomfort.
…
…
"Longma." Zhi Zhouchao said softly, "Are you still angry?"
"Of course." Long Ma answered without hesitation, "Grandpa, that person just now was blatantly belittling swordsmanship, aren't you angry?"
"I'm still mad at the moment."
After a heavy snort, Isshiki continued:
"I thought that after traveling for so long, I finally met someone who shared similar views as me."
"I was thinking about inviting him to join us."
"But I didn't expect that he would be the kind of person who would speak wildly."
"I have seen many people who claim that 'swordsmanship is useless' with such a shameless look."
Isshiki twitched the corner of his mouth and sneered disdainfully.
"Grandpa, didn't this kind of person appear in our sword hall before?"
"He claimed that swordsmanship was useless, and mocked those who were good at swordsmanship in the sword hall, saying that they were just learning skills that would be useless in the future."
"In essence, those people are just saying the grapes are sour because they can't eat them."
"Those who claimed that swordsmanship was useless in our sword hall before were all mediocre swordsmen without exception. Because they could not practice swordsmanship well, they belittled swordsmanship and mocked those who were good at swordsmanship in order to restore their pitiful self-confidence."
Isshiki turned his head and cast a disgusted and mocking look at Ogata who was concentrating on wiping the sweat off Atachi's forehead in the distance.
"That Majima Goro who spared no effort to belittle swordsmanship must be just like those people, an arrogant person whose swordsmanship is mediocre and who just wants to restore his self-confidence by belittling swordsmanship."
"That Majima Goro should really thank you, Grandpa. If you hadn't pulled me away just now, I would have really wanted to challenge him and have a good fight with him, to let him see how powerful the swordsmanship he belittled is."
After saying that, Isshiki, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, made a sword-holding gesture facing the air in front of him.
"That's enough." Zhi Zhou said with displeasure, "You should control your temper."
"Just now, you shouldn't have said anything bad about the warrior with the birthmark on his head after he demonstrated the secret sword of his school."
"Have you ever thought about what kind of trouble you might get into by saying those words to the birthmarked warrior just now?"
"What if he really pulls out a knife and cuts you?"
"You actually have the nerve to tell me that if I hadn't pulled you away in time just now, you would have had to spar with that Majima-kun."
"How many times have I told you to avoid trouble when you are out there?"
Ever since Naoshige started to scold Isshiki, Isshiki lowered his head lower and lower.
"...I admit that my actions just now were somewhat thoughtless." Isshiki pursed his lips and said softly, "But I can pretend not to see anything. The only thing I can't pretend to be blind to is when someone calls juggling swordsmanship, or when someone belittles or insults swordsmanship..."
After saying that, Isshiki turned his head subconsciously as if to look at Ogata who was still concentrating on wiping the sweat off Atachi in the distance.
Looking at Isseki who was hanging his head low in front of him, Zhi Zhou sighed heavily.
"What a troublesome child..."
"Listen up. Don't let me catch you getting into trouble again before we get back to Osaka."
"If you do it again, I will never take you out again."
Everyone nodded in unison.
After nodding until his head felt a little dizzy, Isshiki stopped.
"The long study tour is finally coming to an end..." Isshiki let out a long sigh and said with emotion, "I'm a little unwilling... We have traveled across most of Japan, but still haven't been able to meet Lord Ogata..."
"Japan is so big, it's not that easy to run into Itosai." Naoshige said unhappily, "If Itosai was that easy to run into, the shogunate wouldn't have to go to so much trouble to post wanted posters everywhere."
"I really want to meet Lord Ogata..." Isshiki said with admiration, "As the strongest swordsman in the world who has experienced many battles, he must also admire the practicality of swordsmanship and agree with our concept of 'swordsmanship should focus on physical training'."
"I really want to meet him and have a good chat with him..."
Having said that, Isshiki subconsciously glanced at "Mashima Goro" who had just given him an unpleasant experience.
But at this moment, Isshiki suddenly seemed to remember something, his expression paused, and then he knelt down behind Naoshu.
"Grandpa, please help me block it." After saying that, Isshiki hid most of his upper body behind Zhizhou.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Zhi Zhou turned his head and looked behind him.
Isshiki was seen stretching out his tongue, trying to reach his right elbow with it.
"That guy just now said that people can't touch their elbows with their tongues." Isshiki said seriously, "I'm really concerned about this... Is it true that people can't touch their elbows with their tongues?"
After that, Isshiki stopped talking and concentrated on extending his tongue, pressing his right elbow to his face, trying to reach his elbow with his tongue.
Looking at Isshiki's funny appearance, Naoshige showed a helpless expression, then tried to straighten his back so that no one could see Isshiki's current appearance.