I was a swordsman in ancient Japan

"Then how about you tell me about the various experiences you have seen and heard during your study tour? I also like to hear this."

"The various things I saw and heard during my study tour made me think about whether there are any interesting things worth talking about. I have already said these days, the Yamada Asemon family abducted people to make medicine. thing, did I tell you?"

Ah Ding shook his head: "No. Abducting people to make medicine? What is this?"

"The Yamada Asemon family" Ogata frowned slightly, "It's the executioner family from Edo, right?"

"That's right." Lin Ziping nodded, "Since I haven't told you this story, let me tell you about it."

Lin Ziping cleared his throat.

"This is a story I heard in an izakaya when I was studying in Kanto. I don't know if it's true or not. I personally feel that it should be false, so you should just listen to it with the mentality of listening to books."

"You all should know, right? What does the Yamada Asemon family, who were designated as the shogunate's sword testers?"

"The members of their family have been the imperial sword testers of the shogunate for generations. They are responsible for executing the death row criminals in the execution ground, and they are also responsible for testing swords for the Yueqing Yunke headed by the general."

"The title of the shogunate's sword tester makes the Yamada Asemon family extremely authoritative in sword appraisal."

"When a big family gets a new treasured sword, they are willing to invite people from Yamada Asemon to test the sword and appraise the grade of the new sword."

"This is the famous business trip of the Yamada Asemon family to test knives. A certain big family invited people from the Yamada Asemon family to try their knives, and then the Yamada Asemon family sent someone to try their knives."

"Some people from distant places, such as some nobles in Kyoto, often come to Edo to invite people from Yamada Asemon to try their knives, so the Yamada Asemon family will send them from time to time when they have spare time. People go far away to try their swords on people from far away places."

"Their family has been beheading people for generations. It is said that in a year, members of their family can kill 2 to 300 people. Gradually, they developed a very profitable side business: selling human gallbladder pills."

At this time, A-Ming gave a soft "ah": "I know this medicine, it is the medicine that is very useful for treating lung diseases, right?"

"That's right. It's the medicine. After the Yamada Asemon family kills the condemned criminals at the execution ground, the dead bodies will be left for the Yamada Asemon family to deal with."

"They used the human galls of dead bodies to make human gallbladder pills, which are very useful for treating lung diseases. This medicine is so popular that the supply is always in short supply. There is basically no stock of this medicine, and as soon as one is made, it will be bought quickly .”

"Then I'm going to start talking about the topic now, don't be distracted."

"It is said that the Yamada Asemon family often kidnaps and sells human beings in order to solve the problem of short supply of human bile pills and to make more money."

"Specially abducting those who no one will pay more attention to even if they disappear. For example: wanderers, beggars, and dirty people."

"After abducting these people, use the guts of these people to make new medicines."

As soon as Lin Ziping's words fell, Ah Ding rubbed his arms as if his body was cold: "I don't like this kind of horror story."

"This is a story I heard from hearsay. I don't know if it's true or not." Lin Ziping smiled, "But according to my judgment, this story should be false. The Yamada Senemon family is a gloomy family to ordinary people. family, so they often put all kinds of messy stories on the Yamada Senemon family."

"The Yamada Asemon family is not short of money. Even though the supply of bile pills has been in short supply, they will not be able to traffic people and use living people to make medicine."

"So I think this story should be false. You don't need to take it too seriously."

Edo, the mansion where the Hyakuya family lived

"Senior Asai, there shouldn't be anything wrong with my appearance, right?" Shimada raised his arms horizontally, showing off his clothes to Mucun in front of him.

"Yeah, not bad." Mucun nodded, "You look good, and you have a lot of style."

Today is the day Shimada decides to go home.

It would be unseemly to come home sloppy, so Shimada borrowed some money from Lin to buy a new set of custom-made clothes embroidered with their Shimada family's crest.

Even the scabbard at the waist was waxed and polished.

Shimada also fulfilled his promise. After deciding to go home, Mucun, who had long wanted to see the face of the famous Shimada Soichiro, accompanied him.

In order to accompany Shimada home, Mucun also changed into a very stylish outfit.

Mucun has never been in the habit of wearing a sword on his left waist. In order to accompany Shimada home this time, he also specially bought two new swords to wear, so that he can look more like a samurai.

The two checked their clothes, and after confirming that there was nothing wrong with them, they finally turned to Lin and Jiangong who were standing beside them and seeing them off.

"My lord, I will try my best to go back quickly." Shimada said seriously.

"It doesn't matter if you don't have to come back so soon." Lin said, "You can come back whenever you want."

"Makimura, don't cause any trouble." Mamiya said in a half-joking tone, "You are a troublemaker just like Gen-sama."

"When it comes to love causing trouble, I think you don't give up too much." Mucun retorted unceremoniously, "You guys always cause troubles from time to time."

"But every time I make trouble, I will solve it quickly and beautifully." Mamiya's response was also extremely sharp.

"Okay. Stop talking here." Lin interrupted the chatter between Mamiya and Mucun, "Mihachi, Katsurokuro, since you are ready, let's go early."

Makimura: "Okay." Shimada: "Yes!"

Shimada and Makimura walked side by side on the way to the "high-end samurai residence".

As he went straight to the "high-class samurai residence", the surrounding scenery was constantly changing.

The people passing by the two gradually changed from commoners to well-dressed warriors with swords around their waists.

"Shimada, let me confirm that your father is not a person who sticks to etiquette?" Mucun turned his head and asked.

"My father belongs to the typical kind of person who is tolerant to outsiders and strict with his own people." Shimada smiled bitterly, "If you do something that is not in line with etiquette, my father may not say much. But if it is me What kind of disrespect did you do?"

Having said that, Shimada didn't say any more, and just gave Mu Cun a "you understand" look.

Maybe it's because it's still early in the morning, so there aren't many pedestrians on the road.

Since the end of the "Imperial Trial Cooperation", Edo no longer swarmed in a large number of ronin like before, so the security situation has improved a lot.

The two arrived in front of a magnificent mansion unimpeded all the way.

Looking at the majestic mansion in front of him, Mucun smacked his mouth a few times: "It really deserves to be a samurai family with 9000 Shijialu as its banner."

"Okay, come with me, there's nothing to see in this broken house, let's go in quickly." After that, Shimada walked towards the gate of the mansion.

There are 2 guards at the gate of the mansion.

The two guards stared wide-eyed when they saw Shimada walking straight towards them.

"Master?!" The two guards shouted in unison.

"I'm back." Shimada smiled and nodded, "Is father at home?"

"Yes, yes!" One of the guards nodded hastily, "Young master, wait a moment! I'll report to the inside!"

After finishing speaking, the guard quickly dodged and rushed into the mansion.

After a while, the guard who had just left led the old man back within Shimada's field of vision.

"Master!" The old man shouted excitedly.

"Hachibei!" Shimada's tone became a little more excited.

The old man who was called Hachibei by Shimada came to Shimada in three steps and two steps: "Master! You are finally back!"

"Sorry, Hachibei, for worrying you."

"Master, who is this?" Hachibei looked at Mucun beside Shimada.

"This is my friend."

"Meet you for the first time." Mucun bowed to Hachibei respectfully, "It's Xia Mucun Yahachi."

"Ah, so it's the young master's friend." Hachibei hastily returned the gift and introduced himself.

"Master, come on, come in quickly. Don't stand here anymore." Hachibei greeted Shimada and Mucun to enter.

After following Hachibei into this luxurious mansion, Shimada asked Hachibei in front of him:

"Hachibei, where is father now? Are you busy?"

"No. Master, he's not busy right now. He should be with the Yamada Asemon family right now."

"Yamada Asemon?" Shimada raised his eyebrows, "Why are people from Yamada Asemon here?"

"The master got a precious sword in Osaka before: Mataju Fujishima, who lived in California. After returning to Edo a few days ago, he invited people from the Yamada Asemon family to try the sword. Today, Yamada Asemon The Men Clan finally has a spare man who can be sent over to test the knife."

"Now the knife test should start soon."

There are a lot of chores to deal with yesterday and today, so today's update time is a little bit late.

Once again, I miss that college time with plenty of time every day

Chapter 578 Ogata: "Huh? Pirate? Here?!" [8200]

Edo, the residence of the Shimada family, in a certain room

"Master, I just informed the master about your return. He said that he wanted to come to see you before Yamada Senemon started to test the sword." Hachibei said respectfully, "Please wait a moment. Wait a moment, master, he should be here soon."

"Yes." Shimada nodded, "Hachibei, thank you for your hard work."

"Shimada." Makimura, who was sitting right behind Shimada, gave a smirk, "Are you nervous now?"

"There's nothing to be nervous about." Shimada glanced at Mucun helplessly, "It's just to see my father whom I haven't seen for a long time, and it's not a blind date."

wow.

As soon as Shimada's voice fell, the sound of the door being pulled open suddenly sounded from the side door of the room. A middle-aged man with an expressionless face entered the room through the opened side door.

As soon as the middle-aged man entered, Hachibei, who was kneeling behind Shimada, immediately put his forehead on the tatami and saluted the middle-aged man respectfully.

After the middle-aged man entered, Shimada immediately straightened his waist and adjusted his sitting posture to a very standard, like a conditioned reflex.

The middle-aged man sat down directly opposite Mucun and the others at a moderate speed. As soon as his buttocks touched the tatami, he said in a tone without sadness:

"Long time no see, Katsurokuro. It seems that you are doing well outside."

"I've heard everything from Hachibei. Are you a friend of Inuko's?"

The middle-aged man turned his attention to Mucun.

"Soichiro Shimota." The middle-aged man said, "Welcome to our house as a guest. It has been a long time since I have had such a young guest."

Is this Shimada his father: Shimada Soichiro?

While Mucun said this in his heart, he saluted Soichiro in a neither humble nor overbearing way:

"It's the first time we meet. This is Shimada-kun's friend Yahachi Makimura."

Mucun used to be the capital of Kyoto, and he has long been familiar with "what kind of gift to what kind of person and what kind of gift to give".

"Since you are a friend of Quanzi, you don't need to be too polite, just raise your head."

After Mucun raised his head, he silently looked at a middle-aged man sitting opposite him.

Black and white hair and beard, no chin beard, but there is a short beard on the lips that is not very popular in this era, big and energetic eyes, his old posture does not match his energetic appearance .

If Mucun were to evaluate Soichiro's appearance, he would be a person who "looks like a capable official".

Looking at Mucun, who was neither humble nor overbearing, Soichiro's eyes flashed a hint of appreciation.

"Katsurokuro, it seems that you have a good friend."

"I have harvested a group of trustworthy friends. This is the biggest gain since I left home." Shimada finally said the first words since Soichiro entered the room.

Soichiro looked Shimada up and down several times with sharp eyes that seemed to see through Shimada's entire body.

"I still have a lot of things to ask you. But let's save all the questions for later."

"I've already made an appointment with the Yamada Asemon family to test the knife at this time. We can't make people wait too long."

"After the trial knife is over, let's have a good talk."

"Katsurokuro, Makimura-kun, are you going to wait for me in this room, or go to the courtyard with me to see how the famous Yamada Asemon tries his sword?"

Mucun and Shimada raised their eyebrows at the same time in a tacit understanding, then looked at each other, and began to discuss in a low voice

The Shimada House, garden

"Shimada." Mumura lowered his volume, and whispered to Shimada next to him with a volume that only he and Shimada could hear clearly, "You are a native of Edo, and you have seen Yamada Asemon test before. knife?"

"I haven't seen it." Shimada replied, "My family rarely invites Yamada Asemon to test knives. I have never taken the initiative to learn about this family of executioners."

The daimyo of Asemon Yamada, Makimura and Shimada have all heard about it for a long time, but they have never seen how they try a knife.

So the two of them thought together just now that instead of waiting in that room for Soichiro's return, they might as well try something new and see how the long-heard "sword tester of the shogunate" tried his sword.

After being brought to the courtyard, Mucun found that there were quite a lot of people in the courtyard. These people were probably the retainers of the Shimada family and accompanied Soichiro to watch the knife test. They sat in various places in the courtyard according to their status. .

Mucun looked around the courtyard and found that he couldn't tell who was Yamada Asemon, so he chose to surrender and asked Hachibei behind him for help: "Mr. Yamada Asemon, who is Yamada Asemon?" ?”

Hachibei was sent by Soichiro to accompany Mucun and Shimada, so he is kneeling behind Mucun and Shimada now.

Hachibei is also a master of small talk, he whispered in a voice that would not be heard by the third person except Makimura and Shimada:

"Yamada Asemon hasn't come yet, and is still preparing."

"The one who came to test the knife this time is not the current Patriarch of Yamada Asemon, but the son of the current Patriarch."