At this moment, a lot of questions emerged in Ogata's mind.
—Fencing teacher? Me? You want me to be your swordsmanship teacher?
——Are you crazy...? You want me, the most wanted criminal in the shogunate, to be your swordsman?
Because he suspected that Naozune had a problem with his brain, Ogata couldn't help but look at Naozune with a strange look.
Although Ogata's reputation was not bad among the people, in the eyes of the shogunate and the imperial court, Ogata was undoubtedly the "number one terrorist."
Forget about inviting Ogata to be their swordsmanship teacher. Even if you provide Ogata with a hiding place or any other help, the shogunate may not forgive you.
Ogata resisted the urge to ask Naoshige, "Are you crazy?" and cleared his throat.
"Thank you for your kindness, but I have no intention of becoming a swordsmanship teacher."
After saying this, Ogata pulled on Radish's reins, preparing to bypass Naoshige and Ryoma.
Regardless of the fact that Ogata is very busy now, even if Ogata is very free now, he will not become a swordsmanship teacher - after all, he has no interest in staying in a sword hall and being a swordsmanship teacher.
Just when Ogata was about to bypass Naozune and Ryoma, Naozune hurriedly blocked Ogata's way again.
"Sorry! I was rude just now!" Zhi Zhou said hurriedly, "The 'Sword Hall' I just mentioned is not an ordinary sword hall!"
"I hope that the swordsmanship teacher you serve as is not just an ordinary swordsmanship teacher!"
Ogata raised an eyebrow: "Not an ordinary swordsmanship teacher?"
"Yes! Lord Ittosai! Can you spare a moment? I will explain it to you slowly!"
When Naoshige was about to say something else, Obe took the initiative to wave his hand to stop him from continuing.
"No need for that. I have no interest in being a swordsmanship teacher. No matter how different the 'swordsmanship teacher' you want me to be, my thoughts will not change."
"Please leave. If you keep pestering me, I'm not a person with a good temper."
After giving Naoshige a bland warning, Ogata pulled the reins again, preparing to bypass Naoshige.
Seeing that Ogata refused to listen, Naoshige froze.
When Ogata was about to pull the reins and pass by Naozune, Naozune gritted his teeth.
"Please! Please spare some time and let me explain it to you!"
"I assure you - it won't take you too long!"
Naoshige once again quickly ran to Ogata's front, then knelt on the ground in the dogeza posture with his forehead pressed against the ground.
Dogeza is the highest level of etiquette in Japan. Ogata was surprised to see that Naoshige actually performed this highest level of etiquette to him.
As far as Ogata could remember, this was the first time an old man of this age had shown him such a great respect.
Out of respect for the old man, Ogata subconsciously moved aside to avoid Naoshige's salute.
Just as he was about to go over and help Naozune up, his grandson Isshiki Ryoma rushed to Naozune's side before Ogata did.
"Grandpa! What are you doing?"
Naoshu suddenly knelt on the ground, which scared Isshiki.
Although Zhi Zhou was old, he was very strong. Yi Se tried to help him, but was unable to help him up immediately.
"Master Ittosai."
Naoshige raised his head and looked up at Ogata.
"I'm really only going to take up a moment of your time, please. Please listen to me."
Ogata looked into the eyes of Naoshu, who was looking up at him.
The passion in Naoshige's eyes... seemed to be able to burn through rocks.
This passionate feeling was so strong that it seemed to have turned into a tangible flame, burning fiercely in Zhi Zhou's eyes.
Ogata was stunned because he rarely saw such a look.
Ogata just stared at Naoshige.
After a while, Ogata sighed softly: "...Okay, since you have come this far, I will listen to you."
"But we need to talk somewhere else. If we talk in this remote place, my wife and I might not be able to reach the city before dark."
"I'm planning to go to Fengnan Town, which is not far from here. If you have anything to say, let's talk about it when we get to Fengnan Town."
"Yes!" Zhi Zhou looked excited, "Thank you very much!"
Zhi Zhou hurriedly stood up from the ground, his face flushed with excitement.
And just as Zhi Zhou stood up——
Rustle, rustle.
There was the sound of bushes being pulled aside.
Along with the rustling sound, there was also a childish female voice with an anxious tone:
"Wait, wait a minute! Master Ittosai!"
The bushes that were at a considerable distance from Ogata were roughly pushed aside, and a small face poked out from the bushes - it was Azhu.
Perhaps because she was anxious, she was in a hurry to get out of the bushes, and she crawled out of the bushes.
"Master Ittosai! I have something to say to you too!"
"Could you please take a moment to listen to me?"
After saying that, Azuki paused, then knelt on the ground in the dogeza posture like Naoshu just did.
Azhu: O(≧口≦)O "I'm counting on you!"
Azuchimoto also hid himself like Naoshige and the others, waiting for Ogata to get off the ship.
But she was too late.
Naoshige and Ryoma rushed out of the bushes where they were hiding before Azuku.
It was not until then that Azhu realized that there was someone hiding in the bushes just like her, waiting for Ogata to appear.
Naoshu and his companions got one step ahead of Azuki. Although Azuki was unwilling to accept this, he could only wait silently. Waiting for Ogata and Naoshu to finish their conversation.
Fortunately, Ogata and Naoshige's conversation didn't last long, and Azuki soon got the chance to appear.
At this moment, Azuki was actually imitating Naoshige.
Although the place where she had just hidden was a bit far from Ogata and the others, she could barely hear what they were saying.
She clearly saw and heard that Ogata finally gave in only after Naoshige had made Izuku leave his seat.
——Ogata Ittosai might not be good at dealing with people who kneel down before him!
Azhu said this with shining eyes.
Feeling that he had obtained extremely useful information, Azuki couldn't wait to use the Dogeza on Ogata after emerging from behind the bushes.
Looking at Azhu who suddenly jumped out and was now kneeling in front of him, Ogata was now speechless.
——Why is there another one popping up... Do you have something to tell me too... Why did you all wait until you got off the ship before rushing to see me... Are you all going to tell me something that cannot be heard by too many strangers...
Ogata complained silently in his mind.
Compared to Naoshige, Ogata had a better idea of ​​what Azuki wanted to say to him. Ogata guessed that Azuki probably wanted to ask him questions like "Why were you able to master the use of energy so quickly?" or "Have you learned the use of energy before?"
After getting off the pirate ship, the feeling of exhaustion that arose from the bottom of his heart has not completely dissipated from Ogata's body until now.
This feeling of exhaustion made Ogata, who didn't want to waste any more energy dealing with their nagging, feel like giving up on himself when faced with Azhu who suddenly popped up and said he had something to say to Ogata, thinking, "If you have something to say to me too, just say it. One more or one less won't make any more or less."
"…Then you can come along too, Tsukushi." Ogata sighed, "But I have to say this first - don't take up too much of my time."
"Okay! No problem!" Azhu said excitedly, "I won't take up too much of your time!"
——Ogata Ittosai is really not good at dealing with people who perform the Dogeza on him!
Azhu said this excitedly in his heart.
…
…
Before the sky became completely dark, Ogata and the others finally arrived at Toyonan Town.
Just as the crew of the smuggling boat had told Ogata before, Toyonan Town is a small town.
After entering Tonan Town, the first feeling Ogata had was that it lacked vitality.
This is probably a common problem in small towns with a lack of population.
Although Toyonan is small, it has a complete range of hotels.
There are cheap hotels with tatami mats and futons full of fleas and bedbugs, to high-end hotels with their own baths.
Ogata chose the most upscale hotel with its own bathhouse without hesitation.
The reason is very simple - now that Ogata has lost his human skin mask, he can no longer freely enter and exit the bathhouse, a place where he must take off all the clothes.
Therefore, if Ogata wants to take a bath, he can only rent a hotel with its own bathhouse.
After checking in and having a quick dinner, Ogata, Amachi, Azuki, Naoshige and Isshiki sat opposite each other in the room of the hotel checked in by Ogata.
"Okay, Mr. Isshiki, if you have anything to say to me, please say it quickly." Ogata said lightly.
Adhering to the concept of "first come, first served", Ogata decided to let Naoshige and his friends go first and Azuku go last.
After Naoshige nodded solemnly in response, he turned his head and glanced at A-machi, who was sitting on Ogata's left, and A-tsuku, who was sitting on Ogata's right as if he was very familiar with her for some reason.
"Master Itosai, could you please send the outsiders away first?"
As soon as Naoshige finished speaking, Azhu stuck out his tongue very consciously, then stood up and left the room: "Then I'll go walk outside the hotel for a while...I'll be back soon."
Azuki moved, but Ating did not.
"This is my wife." Ogata looked at Atachi on the left. "She has been with me through thick and thin for a long time. She is like my other half. So she doesn't have to leave."
Seeing that Ogata said that Atachi didn't have to leave, Naoshige didn't say anything more.
In the room, only Ogata and Atachi were left, sitting opposite Naoshige and Isshiki.
After Azuki left, Naoshige still did not get down to business immediately. Instead, he signaled Isshiki beside him with his eyes, asking him to check around the room.
After Isshiki checked that no one was eavesdropping outside the room and sat alone by the door to monitor what was going on outside, Naoshige finally cleared his throat.
"Master Ittosai, in order not to waste your time, I will tell you directly."
Naoshu stared into Ogata's eyes, and then spoke word by word:
"Lord Ittosai, I hope you can help us defeat the Tokugawa family!"
…
…
--ha……?
…
…
After hearing what Naoshige just said, the first words that came to Ogata's mind were - "Huh?"
After savoring and digesting what Naoshige had just said, Ogata's eyes widened slightly in astonishment.
Ogata's reaction was relatively calm, but it was different for Atachi, who was sitting next to Ogata - Atachi's eyes widened as if their eyeballs were about to fall out, and her expression changed drastically.
Unlike Ogata, Atachi is not a time traveler, but a real person from the Edo period.
The impact of what Naoshige had just said on Atachi, a native of the Edo period, was undoubtedly even greater.
"...Down with... the Tokugawa family..." Atachi murmured, "Do you mean...down with the Edo Shogunate?"
Naoshu nodded solemnly: "That's right. We want to do justice and eliminate the Edo Shogunate, which has become a pest that harms the world ."
"so--"
Naoshiro cast a fiery gaze at Ogata.
"I would like to ask Master Ittosai to lend a helping hand to me."
"As long as Master Daosai helps us, it will be like having ten thousand men... no! It will be like having a million-man army!"
"After all, your name and influence alone are enough to defeat thousands of troops..."
Before Naoshige could finish his words, Oobian raised his hand to signal him to be quiet.
Seeing Ogata's gesture, Naoshige consciously closed his mouth.
"This is quite different from what you told me before, isn't it?" Ogata said in a deep voice, "More than an hour ago, you clearly told me that you wanted me to be your swordsmanship teacher."
"How come after more than an hour, you asked me to help you put down the curtain?"
After hearing this, Zhi Zhou smiled awkwardly.
"I'm sorry, this is my fault. I didn't make it clear before."
"I will explain it to you slowly now."
"I will explain one by one the reasons why we are determined to overthrow the shogunate and what I would like to ask Master Ittosai to do."
After that, he cleared his throat vigorously.
Maybe it’s because I’m old, but I have a little more phlegm.
After clearing his throat, Zhi Zhou straightened his back and sat upright.
"As I just mentioned: We are determined to destroy the Edo Shogunate for the sake of justice."
"To put it bluntly - the reason why we are determined to overthrow the Qing Dynasty is to let the people of the world live a good life."
Naoshige paused again and cleared his throat.
"I wonder if you have ever heard this famous saying: Keeping the peasants half dead is the secret to governing a country."
"This sentence can be described as extremely vicious."
"If farmers don't have to worry about food, they tend to have wild thoughts."
"And if the farmers can't get enough food, they are more likely to riot."
"This is an extremely vicious statement. To put it bluntly, it is a means of fooling the people - although the farmers will not starve to death, their lives will not be very good, and the days when they can have a full meal will be numbered. In this way, the farmers will work hard just to have enough food."
"It prevents farmers from having extravagant ambitions because their lives are too good, and also prevents farmers from rioting because their lives are too bad."
"This extremely vicious statement was made by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Edo Shogunate."
"For the past two hundred years, the Edo Shogunate has been faithfully practicing this ancestral precept."
"Everything the Edo Shogunate has done since its opening has been for one purpose only - to maintain its own rule."
"So looking at the history of the Edo Shogunate since its opening, we can see that the Edo Shogunate never thought about improving the lives of samurai and common people from beginning to end."
"Let's take the peasants as an example. Despite the 'good intentions' of the Edo shogunate, the peasants' lives have never improved in the past two hundred years. They have only been switching back and forth between 'rebellion due to hunger' and 'barely surviving'."
"The Edo Shogunate did much more than just this to maintain its rule."
"For example, the issuance of the isolation order - a large part of the reason for issuing the isolation order was to prevent the daimyo in the southwest from strengthening themselves by doing business with foreign countries, and to prevent the merchants and Christians from becoming powerful and threatening the Edo shogunate's rule over the world." [Christians: the name for Catholics in Japan during the Edo period]
"Another example - misinterpreting 'Bushido'."
"I wonder if you have ever studied the history of the development of the so-called 'Bushido'?"
"The original 'Bushido' was not as deformed as it is now..."
"'Bushido' originally required the samurai to possess the following qualities: justice, courage, benevolence, courtesy, sincerity, honor, loyalty, and self-control."
"But gradually - 'Bushido' changed."
"Today's 'Bushido' has become a requirement for samurai to possess only these three qualities: fame, loyalty, and courage."
"Loyalty, courage and honor are linked. No matter how excellent a samurai's other qualities are, if he lacks only one of loyalty and courage, he will be despised and denounced as a disgrace to the samurai."
"Only a warrior who is both loyal and brave is a true warrior."
"This is... the 'Bushido' of today."
Anger slowly emerged on Zhi Zhou's face.
"And the one who caused the change of 'Bushido' was the Edo Shogunate."
"The Edo Shogunate... or the Tokugawa family, in order to maintain their control over the world, castrated the 'Bushido'."
"We should emphasize 'loyalty'. We should make sure that all samurai are loyal to the shogunate. It would be best if they were completely loyal and would not betray the shogunate under any circumstances."
"Emphasis on 'bravery'. Let the warriors become fearless warriors and become useful pawns."
"Then emphasize again that only by possessing 'loyalty' and 'courage ' can one gain 'fame'."
"The Edo Shogunate relied on this distorted 'Bushido' to control the samurai and make them work foolishly for them..."
Hearing this, Ogata couldn't help but frown slightly.
Because he recalled... the samurai of Hirose Domain headed by Nanahara...
Although he hated Nanahara and others who massacred the Sakakibara Sword Hall with his own hands.
But Ogata also felt a bit of sympathy for Nanahara and the others - the lord they defended with such loyalty and bravery did not treat them as human beings in the end.
Ogata could still vividly remember how Matsudaira Gennai kicked Nanahara's head away like a football.
"In short, the Edo Shogunate's governing philosophy was simply to maintain their rule."
"As long as we can maintain our rule, everything else can be ignored."
"They never thought about how well they could govern the country, or how happy the warriors and common people could live."
At this point, Naoshige laughed at himself.
"I originally...still had some hope for the Edo Shogunate. I hoped that the officials in the Shogunate would one day stop focusing on maintaining their rule and start working hard for the happiness of all people in the world."
"However... four years ago, Matsudaira Sadanobu came to power and ruthlessly shattered my expectations."
"It was only after Matsudaira Sadanobu came to power that we decided to overthrow the Tokugawa family."
Ogata couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he suddenly heard a familiar name from Naoshige's mouth.