I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

Ogata used Mizuro of Sakakibara Ittoryu.

Then the gravitational potential energy when the body fell, directly killed this guy together.

After the battle with the bandits, the feeling of cutting flesh with the blade was passed down the handle to the palm of the hand after an absence of more than a month.

The familiar system prompt for gaining experience points sounded.

According to Ogata's actual experience of this person's skill and the system's notification sound, the person who was beheaded by Ogata's sword is not very strong. Ogata's personal level and Sakakihara Ichidou's experience bar only got 75 experience points respectively.

Before the guy who had died had time to fall to the ground, the other two companions standing on his left and right sides were already full of horror.

"what……"

The screams of these two people had just had time to utter the first syllable when they saw two sword lights rising from the sky.

As soon as Ogata's feet touched the ground, he quickly switched the Dazizi in his hand to the lower stance, and cut from the chin of one of the remaining two people to the Tianling Gai from bottom to top.

As soon as Da Zizai's blade was cut from the man's Tianling Gai, Xu Yifang turned the blade again, and set up a stabbing posture. The tip of the blade aimed at the chest of the last person, and then pierced his chest with one blow.

When pulling Da Zizai out of the man's chest, Ogata grabbed the wide sleeve of the man's kimono and put it between him and the man, so that when he drew the sword, the blood sprayed from the wound would not splash him. body.

"Ding……"

...

"Ding……"

...

The system beeps again 2 times.

It only took a few breaths of effort, and the three guys who were aggressively trying to shoot them with bows and arrows just now were all killed. The addition of the three of them only added less than 200 points of experience to Ogata's personal level experience bar value.

When Ogata took out the pocket paper that he carried with him, and wiped off the blood and grease attached to the sword by Ozi, A-Machi trotted to Ogata's side.

"The robbers in Ezo are really simple and straightforward..." A-Ming murmured, "Without saying anything, they planned to kill us and steal the money..."

After muttering, Ah-Ming squatted down, raised his hands, and quickly rummaged through the three people's bodies to find the spoils.

The identities of these three guys are not difficult to guess.

In all likelihood, they are bandits who intend to rob Ogata and Atachi.

Ogata and the others saw a lot of this kind of people in the Northeast some time ago.

It's just that those people I met before can still say a few words on the scene. For example: "Hand over the money obediently!"

Some people who are greedy for Ah Ding's beauty will say a few more words, such as: "Keep the women around you obediently."

But it's the first time they've seen these three people who didn't say anything, just drew their bows and started killing directly.

Soon, Ah Ding touched the bodies of the three robbers all over - all three of them were quite shabby.

They carried only a small amount of copper coins, roughly a few hundred coins.

Their bows and bows and arrows must not be taken away.

Neither Ogata nor A-Machi knew how to use a bow.

If you want to sell it for money, there is no channel to resell the stolen goods.

"A-cho, let's go." Ogata said, "Maybe someone will come here at some time. If people see us standing next to the three corpses, it will be inconvenient to explain."

"Yeah." Ah-cho nodded, collected the 100-mon coins that had just been looted from the three corpses, and then quickly walked out of the alley with Ogata.

After returning to the street full of people, Ah-machi looked back at the alley that had disappeared behind them.

"They look so weird..." A-Machi muttered.

"They should be Ezo." Ogata answered.

A bit of surprise flashed in A-Ming's eyes:

"Is that Ezo?"

Machi had never seen Ezo with his own eyes.

Ogata: "I guessed. But I shouldn't guess wrong."

Ogata, he had never seen Ezo with his own eyes.

But during his previous sea trip, he heard Soichiro Nishino introduce the appearance of Ezo.

The appearance is obviously different from that of the people, the facial features are deeper, three-dimensional, and the hair is more vigorous-it completely matches the appearance characteristics of the three robbers just now.

"Ezo... wearing our Kazuto's clothes..." A-Machi turned his head and looked back again, "Could it be that they are naturalized Ezo?"

"It should be." Ogata nodded, "Since they can walk around Kazuto's castle in kimonos, they should be naturalized Ezo."

The grievances between Heren and Ezo have a long history, dating back thousands of years.

As early as thousands of years ago, a protracted war broke out between Kazuto and Ezo.

The de facto highest power in Japan and the ruler of the shogunate-the shogun, whose full name is the general who conquers barbarians.

Thousands of years ago, General Zhengyi was just an ordinary military officer title.

The "Yi" in the general who conquered Yi is Yezo. General Zhengyi is an official title specially set up to fight against Yezo.

Until later, the power of the emperor was taken away by a samurai from Minamoto Yoritomo. After the power of the emperor was emptied, Minamoto Yoritomo opened another government in the Kamakura area-the first shogunate in Japanese history: the Kamakura shogunate.

When the first shogunate in Japanese history was established, Minamoto Yoritomo's official position was the "general who conquered barbarians".

Since then, the "General Who Conquered Yi" has been passed down, and the Muromachi shogunate after the Kamakura shogunate and the current Edo shogunate have inherited this title.

In this way, "General Zhengyi" has changed from an ordinary official title to the official title of the supreme ruler of the shogunate for hundreds of years.

Thousands of years ago, Ezo's sphere of influence was extremely wide. Ou, Hokuriku, Kanto and other areas on Japan's Honshu Island were once Ezo's territory.

But because Ezo has always been in the primitive tribal civilization, it is no match for Heren's soldiers.

So Ezo was driven all the way north, was completely driven out of Honshu Island, and was driven all the way to the current Ezo land.

For thousands of years, Ezo has been naturalized into Kazuto either actively or passively.

The appearance of the three wearing kimonos just now made Ah-machi naturally wonder if they might be the naturalized Ezo.

"If those three people just now were naturalized Ezo... then the bows they used just now should be Ezo bows..." A-Machi muttered, "What a dangerous group of robbers... they even have bows and arrows... ..."

Ogata nodded approvingly, expressing his agreement with what A-cho said just now.

Although Ogata killed the three bandits with ease just now, it was only because Ogata was too strong.

If it wasn't Ogata and the others who were robbed today, but other people with ordinary skills were robbed, then the person who was robbed might have died.

Before firearms appeared, bows and crossbows were undoubtedly king-level weapons.

Because this is an era of peace, Ogata has rarely seen bows and arrows before.

Ordinary samurai houses and civilian houses do not have bows and arrows at all, and no one will carry bows and arrows with them.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he boarded Ezo, he was attacked with a bow and arrow for a long time.

While Ogata and A-Machi were still discussing the three gangsters they encountered just now in low voices, they suddenly saw six people dressed as officials walking towards them in front of them.

These 6 official servants are very standard "official servants' attire" - ten hands, stabs and other traps are readily available.

This group of officials walked in the middle of the street with their heads held high and their chests held high.

Passers-by on the street gave way to both sides for the gang of officials to pass through.

Ogata and A-Ming did not walk on the only path of this group of officials, so there was no need to think about it.

When passing by the group of officials, Ogata turned his head and looked at the group of officials.

When looking at this group of officials, Ogata frowned.

"...A-Machi." Ogata whispered to A-Machi next to him, "Don't you think there seem to be too many official posts here?"

Ogata had just discovered it too.

From the moment he left the port and entered the urban area, Ogata has seen many waves of officials standing guard or patrolling.

Such a number of official errands seems to be too much.

Ogata had never seen such a high-density deployment of official missions in Edo before.

Hearing Ogata's words, A-Machi recalled the scenes since he landed: "It seems like...there seems to be too many official missions here...Did something happen?"

"... Forget it. Let's not worry about it." Ogata said softly, "Let's go."

...

...

Not long after Ogata beheaded the three men who were going to kill them with bows and arrows, and then quickly left the alley, a townsman who had lived here for a long time passed this alley in order to take a shortcut to go home.

Then, the three bodies on the ground were naturally discovered.

He was so frightened that he fled out of the alley in a hurry, then looked for the official, and reported the discovery of the body.

Soon, four officials rushed to this alley with their arresting gear.

The four officials with serious faces first entered the alley and saw the faces of the three corpses, their expressions froze at first, and then the seriousness dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"What?" One of the four officials twitched his lips, "It turns out that the dead person was Ezo... I lost the motivation to investigate the case in an instant. What is there to investigate about Ezo's case?"

"They are wearing kimonos." Another person said, "And I seem to have seen their faces before. They seem to be naturalized Ezo."

"That's right." Another person said, "It doesn't matter whether he is naturalized or not, Ezo is Ezo. You see, they all have bows and arrows, and they seem to be a bunch of animals who intend to kill and steal money."

"Don't even talk about it." The leaders of the four officials said, "In short, let's call someone to come over with straw mats to collect the corpses of these guys. Although the dead are only Ezo, it's still the right thing to do." gotta do it."

...

...

This time, there were no surprises.

Ogata and A-machi arrived at the inn they had heard about from a passer-by without incident.

After asking about the price and confirming that it was a reasonable price, Oo conveniently opened a room big enough for two people to live in.

It was past 4 o'clock in the afternoon when they landed.

The two are currently in Matsumae Castle, which is further north than the Ou region. In such a big winter, it gets dark faster.

After finding the hotel, opening the room, placing the luggage, and taking care of everything, the sky began to turn dark.

Looking at the darkening sky, Ogata quickly made a plan for the future - first go to a restaurant for dinner, then go back to the hotel directly after dinner, and go to bed early tonight.

They are still drifting at sea for most of the day today.

Ogata is fine. But A-Machi, who is prone to seasickness, is not so good.

From landing to now, Ah-cho's face is still pale, which shows that Ah-cho still suffers from the sequelae of seasickness.

The two of them randomly found a decent-looking restaurant quite close to the hotel where they were staying.

After entering, I saw a young clerk of the store greeted Ogata with a warm smile on his face.

A large menu is hung on one wall of the restaurant, with all the food sold in this store written on it.

Led by the staff in the shop, after sitting down at a table that was still vacant, Omoto asked A-cho:

"Is there anything you want to eat?"

Ogata left the decision to Machi.

In order to take care of those who cannot read Chinese characters, the menu hanging on the wall of this store uses only pseudonyms.

So even Ah-machi can understand all the dishes on the menu.

After looking at the menu list hanging on the wall, A-Machi pointed to one of the dishes written on it and asked:

"What is this 'crab pot'?"

"Crab pot is a special delicacy we have to eat here!"

The clerk introduced Ogata and A-Machi with a strong accent.

"Our crabs from Matsumae are bigger and more delicious than crabs from other places!"

"Crabs, mushrooms, green vegetables and other vegetables are boiled together, which is the 'crab pot', which is most suitable for eating in such a big winter."

"Just one sip will warm you up and make you feel comfortable!"

The guy seemed to recognize that Ogata and Atachi were foreigners, so he kept emphasizing that this crab pot is a special delicacy of their Matsumae domain.

And Ah-Ming's interest was successfully aroused by him.

After learning that the crab pot is a local specialty of the Matsumae clan, he turned his head and cast a questioning look at Ogata.

Ogata didn't care what to eat, and nodded immediately after A-Machi cast a questioning look.

"Then let's have a crab pot!" Ah Ding said.

"Okay! How many crabs do you want?"

"How big is one of your crabs?" Ah-Ming asked.

The guy raised his hands and made a gesture: "Basically, they are all this big."

"Are the crabs here so big?" Ah-Ming's tone was a bit surprised, "Well...then let's get 4 first. And then 2 bowls of white rice."

"Okay! Do you want drinks?"

"Would you like a drink?" Amachi asked Asaogata.

"Okay." Ogata said cheerfully, "Let's drink a little."

"Then come here to boil two bottles of wine." A-Machi turned his gaze back to the buddy.

"No problem! Please wait a moment! Drinks and food will be served soon!"

The man quickly left the field of view of Ogata and A-Machi, and rushed to the back kitchen.

In order to pass the boring time of waiting for the dishes to be served, Ogata turned his head and looked at the restaurant.

The interior layout of this restaurant is the layout of ordinary Japanese buildings, and there is no exotic style in it.

While looking around, Ogata suddenly found something hard to ignore on a certain wall.

"...Amachi, look at that." Ogata stretched out his finger, pointing at the wall.

After looking in the direction pointed by Ogata's finger, Ah-cho raised his pretty willow eyebrows: "A wanted warrant..."

On a certain wall of this restaurant, there are more than a dozen wanted warrants.

The most conspicuous one pasted in the middle of the dozens of wanted warrants is the wanted warrant of Ogata.

Wanted posters are posted on the walls of restaurants—not uncommon.

The government often forces restaurant owners to post wanted notices in their stores, so that enough people can pay attention to these fugitive wanted criminals.

After taking a few glances at the dozens of arrest warrants pasted on the wall, A-Machi asked Ogata, "Isn't it just a arrest warrant? What's so interesting about it?"

"Look at the arrest warrant for the executioner Yidaozhai in the middle. Look at his bounty."

"Executioner Yidao Zhai?" Ah-Ming showed a puzzled expression, and turned his gaze to the wall again.

A-cho had only glanced briefly just now, so he didn't read the number written on the wanted notice carefully.

After focusing on the number written on the arrest warrant this time, a look of strong surprise emerged on Machi's face.

"Huh? Why has the bounty increased..." Ah-Ming murmured.

Ogata didn’t have dementia yet, so he remembered it clearly—more than a month ago, when he saw his arrest warrant from Husaka, the reward written on the arrest warrant was 500 taels of gold.

But now, the bounty written on the wanted notice posted on the wall of this restaurant has increased.

It became 800 taels of gold.

Ogata felt very confused now.

He didn't understand why his bounty had suddenly increased again.

At this time, a waiter from this restaurant happened to pass by Ogata, so Ogata stopped him quickly.

"Excuse me, I would like to ask."

Ogata raised his finger and pointed to his wanted notice posted on the wall.

"What happened to the arrest warrant for the executioner Yidaozhai? I remember that the reward for the executioner Yidaozhai wasn't 500 taels? Why is it now 800 taels?"

"Ah, this. I'm sorry, samurai, I'm not very clear." The man smiled wryly, "The executioner Yidao Zhai's previous bounty was indeed 500 taels of gold."

"But just four days ago, someone from the government suddenly came to our door and asked us to post a new arrest warrant."

"Among those new arrest warrants, there happens to be Yidao Zhai's new arrest warrant whose bounty has been changed to 800 taels of gold."

"That's it...thank you." Ogata thanked the guy, and then let the guy leave.

After the guy left, Ogata looked again at the wanted notice posted on the wall.

The wanted notice on the wall is indeed very brand new, the paper is white and clean, and it can be seen that it is newly made.

"Master Samurai, don't be confused!"

At this moment, a strange voice sounded beside him and Ah Ding:

Ogata turned his head and looked at the owner of the voice.

The owner of this voice is a middle-aged and elderly person who is probably over 40 years old.

The most conspicuous appearance feature of this middle-aged and elderly person should be his shiny bald head.

The bald head sat at the table next to Ogata and Atachi, and there were 6 middle-aged people who were similar to him at the same table.

None of them carried sabers, so they were just a group of ordinary townspeople.

The bald-headed face is now as red as a monkey's buttocks. They must have drank a lot of wine. Even if they are separated by a certain distance, they can smell the wine on their bodies.

"I heard that the bounty for Executioner Yidaozhai has increased because there is a certain important person who dislikes Executioner Yidaozhai very much."

"Big man?" Xu Fanglu asked suspiciously.

"Hmm. As for which big shot it is, I don't know. After all, I heard it from hearsay. That big shot didn't like to see the executioner Yi Dao Zhai very much. After learning that the reward for the executioner Yi Dao Zhai was only 500 taels of gold, he demanded that the executioner Yi Dao Zhai be killed." The bounty has been increased to the current 800 taels."

Hearing this, Ogata couldn't help turning his somewhat complicated eyes to the wanted notice on the wall.

I obviously didn't do anything, so I inexplicably raised another 300 taels of bounty...

——Forget it...

Ogata thought to himself.

——Anyway, whether the bounty is 500 taels or 800 taels, it doesn't matter to me.

No worries if you have too many debts, no itching if you have too many lice - this is Ogata's current state.

Ogata is more concerned now - which big man doesn't want to see him, so that his bounty has increased by another 300 taels.

"Look carefully, I haven't seen your faces before." The bald man from just now looked at Ogata and Atachi with curious eyes, "Are you from other places?"

"Hmm." Ogata just nodded to show his answer to the bald head's question just now.

He and Ah-Ming's accents make it clear that they are not locals.

The accent of the Matsumae clan is somewhat similar to the accent of the Northeast region.

Ogata and the others have neither the need nor the ability to conceal the identity of outsiders.

"Hahahaha! Welcome to Matsumae!" After laughing, the bald head said enthusiastically to Ogata and Atachi, "Although our place is small, we have a lot of delicious food and fun!"

"Yes." Ogata responded with a smile, "If we have time, we will have a good time here in Matsumae."

The bald head directly picked up a wine bottle, and after blowing a big mouthful, he put on a serious face and tone.

"Master Samurai, you are from other places. As a local, let me remind you."

"In Matsumae, remember to be careful with Ezo."

"Especially those naturalized Ezos."

"You may not have seen what Ezo looks like."

"Ezo's faces are easy to recognize. They basically have a lot of hair on their faces, and their eyes, noses, and mouths are all different from ours."

"You can tell who is Ezo and who is a good person just by looking at it."

"Although I don't deny that there are some law-abiding people among the naturalized Eizawa."

"But most of the naturalized Ezo are bastards!"

At the end of the sentence, the bald head seemed to be recalling some very bad memories, and there was obvious extreme anger in his tone, and anger appeared on his face.

Hearing what the bald head said just now, Ogata couldn't help but recall the three guys who pointed bows and arrows at him and A-Ming shortly after landing today, and planned to kill them directly.

Maybe it's because he drank a lot of wine, the bald head is a little agitated now.

What he said just now, he didn't specifically hide his volume. Everyone in the restaurant could hear every word that the bald head said just now.

However, no one scolded the bald head for being too noisy.

Instead, they responded one by one.

"That's right! Most of the naturalized Ezo are a bunch of bastards!"

"They do all sorts of bad things!"

"A few days ago, several naturalized Ezo stole money from my shop!"

"From the very beginning, we shouldn't let people accept Ezo's naturalization! Even if a bunch of barbarians wear our clothes, they are just a bunch of barbarians!"

"Master Samurai! You have to pay special attention to Ezo! Whether they are naturalized or not, you have to pay attention! Whether they wear our clothes or not, they are just a bunch of rude, ignorant and shameless barbarians That's all!"

...

Ogata and A-Machi looked around in astonishment.

They, who were not familiar with Ezodi, were very surprised by this situation.

Ezo and Japanese are completely different races and civilizations.

There will definitely be friction between the two civilizations. Coupled with the conflict between Ezo and Kazuto, the bloody battle has lasted for thousands of years.

So Ogata guessed that the common people of the Matsumae domain must not welcome Ezo very much.

However, Ogata did not expect that the common people of Matsumae Fan had such deep resentment towards Ezo. They directly condemned Ezo in the restaurant.

The bald man seemed to notice the surprise on the faces of Ogata and A-Machi.

After taking another big gulp of wine, he talked to Ogata and Acho:

"Master Samurai, you must be wondering why we have so much resentment towards Ezo, especially the naturalized Ezo?"

"It all started from the era of the 'former old middle school' Tanuma Yiji."

"When the 'former old middleman' Tanuma Yiji was in power, he issued a plan to develop Ezo."

"His development plan is still useful. By the time he stepped down, our Matsumae Domain had more than one million towns of farmland."

"But Tanuma's strategy against the Ezos in Ezo is disgusting."

"Tanuma's strategy for dealing with Ezo is to focus on appeasement, supplemented by suppression."

"Strive to appease the Ezo, and establish friendly relations with as many Ezo settlements as possible."

"At the same time, we welcome Ezo to integrate into us, so that Ezo can be naturalized into us and people."

"So since then, the number of naturalized Ezo in our Matsumae domain has increased."

"Tanuma's strategy against Ezo is just messing around!"

"Eizu and the others are just a bunch of barbarians, there is no value in letting them become naturalized!"

"Even if they put on the clothes of us and people, they can't change their barbarian nature!"

"Sure enough! Since the number of naturalized Ezos in the city has increased, the security situation has immediately deteriorated!"

"They do all kinds of bad things. Now out of the 10 cases in our Matsumae Castle, at least 6 cases are related to Ezo!"

As soon as the bald head finished speaking, there were echoes echoing from all over the restaurant.

"Master Samurai, you must be careful of those naturalized Ezos."

"Now those Aizai have learned how to kill outsiders."

"They all live a life of fishing and hunting, so they are very good at using bows and arrows."

"In order to make money more conveniently, some Aizawa specially use their best bows and arrows to kill people and get money."

Hearing this, Ogata recalled the three guys who shot him and A-Machi with bows and arrows they encountered today.

"En." Ogata nodded slightly, and said in a deep voice, "Thank you for your reminder, we will pay attention to it later."