I was a swordsman in ancient Japan

After discovering this middle-aged man passing by by chance, Ogata immediately stopped the middle-aged man.

"Excuse me! I want to ask you a question!"

"Huh?" The middle-aged man looked up and down Ogata and A-Machi several times with suspicious eyes.

Looking at his appearance, he didn't seem to want to talk to Ogata who suddenly called him to stop.

But the two sabers hanging on Ogata's waist made the middle-aged man not have the courage to ignore the samurai, so he immediately put on a flattering smile and walked quickly to Ogata's side.

"My lord, what are your orders?"

"What's the meaning of this plaque in this sword hall?" Ogata pointed to the plaque in front of him that said "Welcome to ask for advice".

"Huh? Samurai, are you a foreigner?"

"Well. Because of some things, I happened to travel here today."

"Oh! That's why you don't know about this plaque." The middle-aged man turned his head to look at the Baosheng Dojo beside him, and then said slowly, "This plaque is actually a bit ugly, it is used by the owner of Baosheng Sword Gym to attract eyeball."

"Master Samurai, you should also know that the world is in trouble now, fewer and fewer people are willing to practice swords, and the dojo is not well managed."

"So in order to attract more people's attention to his dojo, the owner of the Baosheng Sword Gym hung up this plaque."

"And then it really worked."

"Other sword halls avoid those challengers, but Baosheng Sword Hall has a plaque that welcomes advice. Because it is very special, it really attracted everyone's attention."

"Since you dare to hang up such a plaque to attract people's attention, then the masters and apprentices in this sword hall must be very good in their own strength?" A Ding asked.

"Well. The strength of the practitioners in the Baosheng Sword Gym is indeed very good." The middle-aged man nodded slightly, "After the owner of the Baosheng Sword Gym hung up this plaque, many young and energetic young people came Teach the arrogant Baosheng Sword Hall a lesson."

"But these young people who came to challenge basically lost."

"Baosheng Jianguan successfully relied on this plaque and these young people who were attracted by the plaque to challenge, and made a name for itself in the neighborhood."

"I see." Ogata nodded lightly, "The owner of the Baosheng Sword Gym is pretty good at management."

Ogata has seen this kind of business method many times in his previous life.

The whole point of gimmicks to attract the public's attention and traffic.

This kind of "gimmick, attracting traffic" business method was very common in previous lives, but it is indeed quite rare in this Edo period.

"Master Samurai, is there anything else?" The middle-aged man bowed and asked.

"Well. It's all right." Ogata took out two copper coins from his pocket and handed them to the middle-aged man, "Thank you for your help."

"Where is it! Where is it!" The middle-aged man took the copper coin from Ogata with both hands, and said with a smile, "It is my honor to be able to help Mr. Samurai!"

After the middle-aged man happily left with the two copper coins that Ogata gave as a gift of thanks, Ogata turned his attention to the plaque in front of him again that said "Welcome to ask for advice".

"The world is really not easy now," Ah-cho sighed, "Even the sword hall has to find ways to attract people's attention."

After that, Machi asked Ogata in a half-joking tone:

"How? Are you interested in going in and seeing the scolding?"

"I'm very interested." A meaningful smile appeared on Ogata's face.

He had a hunch.

He had a premonition: he seemed to have found a place where he could earn experience and level

The architectural layout of this Baosheng sword hall is typical of a wealthy family in this era. There is a wall on the outside, and the space between the sword hall and the wall is the yard.

Although there were no guards inside and outside the gate of the wall, there were two young warriors guarding the gate of the sword hall.

Ogata and A-Ming passed through the gate of the wall, stepped on a path paved with white fine sand, and came to the gate of the gymnasium. The two warriors guarding the gate stopped Ogata and A-Ming.

One of them briefly looked at Ogata and A-Machi, and then asked aloud:

"May I ask who you two are?"

"I'm here to ask for advice." Ogata smiled slightly, and raised his left hand to rest on the two sabers on his left waist.

Since the eye-catching plaque was hung, the number of people who called for advice and actually kicked the hall suddenly increased, so the two young warriors guarding the gate have become accustomed to this kind of people being attracted by the plaque from time to time , Then the life of door-to-door advice is gone.

After showing a clear expression on his face, he turned his body to one side, and opened the door of the pavilion while giving way to the passage.

"plz follow me."

The young warrior who asked Ogata just now led Ogata to the depths of the sword hall.

When leading Ogata and Atachi to the dojo, the young samurai introduced to Ogata behind him:

"You may have to wait a while at the dojo."

"Because just now, four warriors from other places came to ask for advice."

"It should be hot now."

"It's okay." Ogata responded, "I have a lot of time, so I'm not in a hurry."

After passing through a not-so-long corridor, the young samurai led Ogata and the others to a wide wooden sliding door.

After slowly pulling the wooden sliding door open, puffs of hot air and "poisonous gas" mixed with various smells such as sweat and foot odor rushed toward Ogata and Acho.

Smelling the slightly pungent smell, Ogata not only secretly said:

It's been a long time.

This kind of "poisonous gas" made up of sweat and foot odor can be regarded as the smell that every dojo will have.

The last time Ogata entered the sword gym was in Kyoto this summer.

It was the first time in a few months that he hadn't been close to the sword hall, so Ogata was not used to the unpleasant smell.

At this time, in this dojo, there happened to be two strong men standing opposite each other holding wooden knives.

A large number of men of various ages sat kneeling on both sides of the dojo.

After the wooden door was pulled open, the men kneeling on both sides of the dojo immediately focused their attention on the pulled wooden door.

After seeing Ogata and A-Machi, to be more precise, after seeing Ogata with a woman, many people frowned.

"Please come with me." The young samurai who led the way for Ogata just now made a "please" gesture for Ogata and them, and then led them to the corner of the dojo.

In this corner sat three burly men.

After successfully leading the way for Ogata and Atachi, the young samurai left quickly and went back to guard the gate.

After Ogata knelt and sat beside the three burly men, the bearded man who sat closest to Ogata asked Ogata:

"Are you also here to kick the gym?"

"Kicking the hall" and "asking for advice" actually mean the same thing.

It's just that the term "asking for advice" is a little more elegant.

"I'm very free now." Ogata said softly, "So I want to see the Katori Shinto style of this Hosho Sword Gym."

"Then they are here to kick the gym." The bearded man grinned, "The four of us are also here to kick the gym."

"The four of us were entrusted by a merchant to serve as their caravan's guards and escort their caravan back to Nishino Town."

"We just came to Nishino Town this morning."

"I planned to take a casual stroll in this town, but I saw this extremely arrogant sword hall."

Speaking of this, a bit of disdain appeared on the bearded face.

"How dare you hang that kind of plaque in front of the gym, we want to see how powerful this sword gym is."

"Judging from your accent, you seem to be from Kansai."

"No. I'm not from Kansai." Ogata smiled helplessly, "I'm from Izumo. It's just that my wife is from Kansai. After getting along with my wife for a long time, my accent has changed to a Kansai accent."

"I traveled here with my wife for some reasons."

The bearded man glanced at A-Ming.

"Is she your wife? She's so beautiful."

"Thank you." Ah Ding smiled and thanked the bearded man.

Whether it is a man or a woman, they all like to be praised by others.

"How dare you travel to this messy place in the Northeast." The bearded man cast admiring glances at Ogata, "Don't you know that the Northeast is very messy now?"

"I know." Ogata nodded, "But my wife and I are lucky, so far, we haven't encountered any very powerful gangsters."

After saying that, Ogata turned his gaze to the center of the dojo.

The two strong men were still standing with their knives, constantly changing their positions, just facing each other.

"Which one is your companion?" Ogata asked.

"The one who is taller is our companion." The bearded man pointed to the tallest of the two, "The other one is Tasuke Shimura, Hosho Ten Swords."

"Baosheng Ten Swords?" Xu Fang raised his eyebrows.

"A title of their Baosheng Sword Gym." Disdain appeared on the bearded face, "It seems to be the collective name of the 0 disciples with the best swordsmanship in their Gym."

Ogata turned his attention to Shimura, who had the title of "Hosho Ten Swords".

He has a strong figure, a square face, and a look of determination in his eyes. It is the kind of face that anyone who looks at will praise him as "worthy of being a samurai".

The fly in the ointment is that Shimura's head is a bit big compared to his body.

It seems that the figure of the whole person is a little uncoordinated.

Shimura and his bearded companion kept changing their positions, but they just didn't attack.

Whether it is the students of the Baosheng Sword Gym, or Ogata and the bearded kickers, they are all watching the competition that is being staged in the center of the venue.

"It's not the same," the bearded man said in a deep voice.

As soon as the bearded man finished speaking, a plain voice suddenly came from beside him:

"No, your companion should lose."

The person who said this was naturally Ogata.

Hearing Ogata's words, a bit of surprise flashed across his bearded face, and he turned to look at Ogata beside him.

"My companion is going to lose? Why?"

While talking, the bearded man looked back at the center of the dojo.

No matter how he looked at it, the two were on par, constantly changing their positions, looking for opportunities to attack.

"Shimura's footsteps are far more solid than your companion's." Ogata continued softly, "Just based on this, it can be seen that Shimura's swordsmanship is far superior to your companion's."

"In my opinion, the outcome should be decided soon."

The duo in the middle of the ashram who kept performing duets were like puppets who only listened to Ogata's orders. As soon as Ogata's words fell, the bearded companion made a very imposing chorus while slashing at Shimura with the wooden knife in his hand. go.

Facing the wooden knife that was coming straight at him, Shimura didn't dodge or dodge, just stared at the wooden knife that was getting closer and closer to him with his eyes.

When the wooden knife was only as long as an adult's arm away from Shimura, Shimura gave a loud shout, and then swung the wooden knife in his hand at a speed far faster than that of his bearded companion.

Snapped!

Shimura's first attack was to parry the knife of his bearded companion.

Afterwards, he quickly made up the second knife, which hit the bearded companion who opened the door wide open because the knife in his hand was blocked.

Snapped.

The wooden knife accurately slashed the bearded companion's right shoulder.

Because Shimura retracted his strength in time, the bearded companion only suffered pain and did not suffer any injuries.

The bearded companion's face turned blue and white, and his lips trembled slightly, as if he wanted to say something.

But in the end he still didn't say anything, and after snorting heavily with his nose, he dropped the wooden knife in his hand, and quickly walked back to the place where Lu Hu and Ogata were sitting.

There are 4 of them in total, and now one of their companions has lost, leaving 3 people including the beard.

"Next." Shimura cast his calm gaze on the three bearded men who hadn't played yet.

"I come!"

The bearded man yelled, then stood up from the floor, walked quickly to Shimura, and picked up the wooden knife his companion had just thrown on the ground.

"I'm going to slap a bag on that big head of yours!" His companion was defeated, which seemed to make the beard very unhappy.

"Hmph." Shimura smiled, "If you can do it, just come and try."