I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

Today's weather is fine without snow.

There were no accidents on the road.

So Ogata and the others arrived at the northern border of the Matsumae Domain very smoothly in the afternoon.

After successfully delivering Ogata and Atachi to their destination, Nakahara said goodbye to the two, and then drove the sled back to Matsumae Castle.

After watching Nakahara drive the sled back to the same spot, A-Machi turned his head, looked north, and let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay, then... we can only walk."

"It's a good thing we're used to walking." Ogata joked as he took out a map from his pocket.

This map was given to them by Soichiro Nishino on the ship.

This is a simple map of Ezo.

But fairly brief.

Only the Matsumae Domain and part of the area to the north of the Matsumae Domain are drawn.

In this map, there are some red dots drawn north of Matsumae Domain—these red dots are the settlements of Ezo.

Ogata planned to rely on this map first, find these "red dots" one by one, and collect clues.

Maybe some of the Ezo settlements happened to run into Xuanzheng, Xuanzhen and the others.

And maybe——Xuanzheng and Xuanzhen are in some Ezo settlement right now.

"We are about to enter the territory of Ezo." Ogata put away the map in his hand, and then said seriously to A-Machi beside him, "Be careful at all times."

Unnaturalized Ezo, Lucians, gold diggers... The Ezo land where everyone has it is not peaceful now, so be extra careful—Since he was still in Edo, Ogata has been reminded of a similar I have heard it countless times.

"I'm a female ninja." A-Ming smiled and said in a half-joking tone, "Saving our lives is what we ninjas are best at."

...

...

2 days later -

Today, Tang Shen sat behind his booth as usual, waiting for customers to come to his door.

The wooden cages holding all kinds of animals are neatly placed in front of Tangshen's body and on the left and right sides.

Tang Shen held his crutch half as thick as the mouth of a bowl, sat on the ground, lowered his head, closed his eyes and rested.

"Mr. Tang Shen, long time no see. I haven't seen you for more than 3 months. You are still as energetic as ever."

A familiar male voice sounded in front of Tangshen's booth.

After quickly opening his eyes, Tang Shen immediately looked towards the front of the stall.

Standing in front of the stall was a middle-aged man who was quite familiar to Tangshen.

The middle-aged man was looking at Tang Shen with a smile.

Looking at the middle-aged man, Tang Shen also smiled.

"Oh! It's Yamamoto-sama! It's been a long time! Have you come to stock up so early this year?"

"Yeah." The middle-aged man called 'Master Yamamoto' by Tang God shrugged, "The pets I bought from you last time were sold out quickly, and our furs are also almost sold out, so This year, we can only start early to buy goods."

Yamamoto—that is, this middle-aged man, is Tang Shen's regular customer.

He is a wealthy businessman from Kyoto who specializes in fur business. We only sell fur from Ezo.

Due to various reasons such as the vastness of the land and the sparse population, the various wild animals in Ezo not only have a large number, but also have abundant and dense fur in order to keep out the cold.

Therefore, animal fur in Ezodi has always been a bestseller.

In addition to selling fur, Yamamoto also took part-time jobs in "pet sales".

As the ancient capital of thousands of years, Kyoto has no shortage of princes, nobles and samurai families who have both spare money and free time.

Cute pets have always been bestsellers among these "human beings".

Red foxes, pikas, red squirrels in Ezo, and other cute animals that are only found in Ezo and not in Kyoto are extremely popular.

So Yamamoto is Tangshen's most important and most frequent customer of Tangshen's business.

Every time Yamamoto came to Ezo to buy furs, he also bought these cute little animals that are unique to Ezo from the hands of God Tang, and then shipped them back to Kyoto for resale.

Yamamoto glanced at the wooden cages placed in front of Tang Shen.

"How many animals do you have in total this time?"

"32 in total." Tang Shen responded, "5 red foxes, 14 pikas..."

Tang Shen reported the number of various animals one by one.

After Tang Shen's voice fell, Yamamoto said:

"The number of animals seems to be less this time."

"I'm getting older." Tang Shen smiled wryly, "The skills have become a little worse than before."

Yamamoto leaned down and carefully inspected the animals in the cage.

After selling pets for so long, Yamamoto has developed some eyesight.

Which animals are healthy and which are sick - Yamamoto can tell at a glance.

After briefly checking the status of all the animals in the cage, Yamamoto nodded:

"Although the number is smaller this time, every animal is healthy."

Yamamoto straightened up.

"All right. I want all of your animals. Make an offer."

Yamamoto is not only Tangshen's most important and frequent patron of his business, but also Tangshen's favorite guest.

Because Yamamoto is very proud, every time he comes to patronize his business, he will buy all his animals at one go - except for those that look unhealthy.

Afterwards, Tang Shen and Yamamoto launched a brief "business war".

Although Yamamoto is an old customer of Tangshen, the price to be negotiated and the price to be paid back must be negotiated and paid back.

After several rounds of bargaining, Tang Shen and Yamamoto finally negotiated a price acceptable to both parties.

After handing over the money that should be given to Tangshen, Yamamoto immediately called the guys under his command, and asked these guys under his command to immediately move all the pets from Tangshen's booth to the bed.

As one of the well-known wealthy businessmen in Kyoto, Yamamoto naturally has a lot of guys under his command.

Soon, the wooden cages that had been piled up as high as a hill in front of Tang Shen to keep various animals were emptied.

After all the animals were removed, Yamamoto had a brief chat with Tangshen before saying goodbye to Tangshen.

Selling fur is Yamamoto's main business, so he still needs to be busy negotiating with local fur traders about purchasing.

After Yamamoto left, Tang Shen looked at the empty booth with joy on his face.

As a merchant, there is nothing more satisfying than selling out of merchandise.

"Looks like I have to go hunting again..."

While muttering, Tang Shen supported the ground with his cane, and slowly stood up from the ground.

Now that the animals have been sold out, there is no need for God Tang to stay here anymore.

There was a trolley parked behind Tang Shen.

The owner of this trolley is Tang Shen.

Tangshen used this trolley to push his animals to the street connected to the port for sale, and then pushed the animals back in the afternoon.

Just when Tang Shen was about to turn around and push his trolley home——

Boom.

"Hey! Don't you look at the road when you walk?!"

Because the animals were sold out and he was so happy, Tang Shen didn't notice that there happened to be a strong man walking very close to him.

Tang Shen, who was a little carried away with excitement, accidentally bumped into this strong man, making a physical collision sound that was neither light nor heavy.

The thick and long crutch in Tangshen's hand, which was half as thick as the mouth of a bowl, also accidentally dropped his hand during the collision and fell to the ground.

The strong man who was accidentally hit by Tang Shen was wearing an ordinary rough coat, without a saber on his waist——an ordinary civilian.

But he obviously has a bad temper. After being bumped by God Tang, he immediately cast an extremely displeased look at God Tang and yelled at God Tang angrily.

Shocked, Tang Shen hurriedly bowed and apologized to the strong man.

"No, I'm very sorry! Please forgive me!"

Looking at God Tang who bowed respectfully and apologized to him frequently, the strong man also felt a little less angry.

"Hmph!" The brawny man snorted heavily, "Next time you walk, show me the way!"

After leaving a vicious and cruel word, the strong man strode away.

As soon as the strong man left, a young man who just happened to witness the whole incident ran towards Tangshen not far away.

"Old man, are you okay?" The young man cast a caring look at Tang Shen.

"It's okay..." Tang Shen's face showed a bitter look, "It's just that the left shoulder that accidentally hit him just now is a little painful..."

As Tang Shen spoke, he rubbed his left shoulder.

"That guy is really..." The young man raised his eyes and looked in the direction where the strong man left just now, "It's too shameful to be cruel to an old man for such a trivial matter."

While complaining about the rudeness of the strong man just now, the young man bent down to help Tang Shen pick up the crutch that was accidentally dropped after bumping into the strong man.

Holding the crutch with his right hand and lifting it up, the young man's expression changed suddenly.

"Old man, is your crutch filled with lead? Why is it so heavy?"

Tangshen's crutch is actually not unreasonably heavy, but it seems too heavy for a wooden crutch.

After taking the crutch back, Tang Shen smiled:

"Who would use a crutch filled with lead? My crutch is only a little heavier because it uses special wood."

"Thank you, boy."

After thanking the young man, Tang Shen walked quickly to his trolley next to him, pushed the trolley, and headed straight for his home.

...

...

Both Ogata and A-machi are people who are used to living a life of eating and sleeping in the open.

A-cho has received corresponding ninja training, and when performing those tasks before, he did not suffer from food and sleep.

Not to mention Ogata, in the more than a year since leaving the Hirose Domain, he spent slightly more days sleeping in the wild than living in comfortable hotels.

Therefore, the two are not uncomfortable with the current "trip to Ezo".

During the day, follow the map and head straight for the Ezo settlement closest to the Matsumae Domain. At night, they take turns sleeping, and when one of them sleeps, the other is responsible for sleeping.

Before they knew it, it was five days ago that the two left Matsumae Domain and headed northward all the way.

...

...

A Ding looked at the sun in the distant sky, which was already hanging down badly, and murmured in a low voice: "It's getting dark..."

As soon as A-Machi's voice fell, Ookai on the side answered in a helpless tone:

"That's the only bad thing in winter. It gets dark too fast."

According to Ogata's calculations, it was probably just past 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

But at this time, in Ezo, which is quite northward in latitude, it is almost dark.

"Speed ​​up a little bit." Ogata looked around, "It's not very suitable for camping here."

Ogata and the others are now in a forest.

Surrounded by dense trees, not suitable for camping.

"Yeah." After A-Machi nodded lightly, he followed Ogata to quicken his pace.

Before walking a few steps, Ogata and A-Machi suddenly heard some strange noises.

Xunsheng looked over - it turned out to be two deer.

These two deer have long and large antlers on the top of their heads, and there are some white spots on the smoked brown hair.

The two deer also seem to have spotted Ogata and Acho.

Without even looking at Ogata and A-Machi, they spread their hooves and quickly left the field of vision of the two.

Looking at the two deer leaving in a hurry, Ah-Ming sighed with emotion:

"There are so many deer in Ezo..."

During the five days in the hinterland of the Ezo region north of the Matsumae Domain, Ogata and A-Machi did not see anyone other than the two of them.

Be it Kazuto, Ezo, or Lucia, Ogata and the others didn't see any of them.

On the contrary, I have seen a lot of animals.

So far, the animal that Ogata and A-Machi have seen the most is deer. Followed by squirrels, rabbits and other small animals.

Deer can be seen almost everywhere, and you can see deer every time you walk a certain distance.

Because they saw deer so many times, Ogata and A-machi were no longer surprised after seeing the deer.

"The two deer just now are really big." Atachi said casually, "It should be the biggest deer we have seen so far."

"Speaking of big. This kind of deer is not considered big." Ogata smiled, "I heard that in the countries of Tang Tu and Nanman, there is a kind of deer called 'moose'. These deer are called big."

"A moose is basically 6 feet to 8 feet tall (one foot: 30 centimeters) in terms of shoulder height."

"Ah, I've heard about this kind of animal before." A-cho nodded, "If I have a chance, I really want to see with my own eyes whether this moose is really as big as the rumors say."

"In addition to moose, I also want to see what a unicorn looks like."

A-Ming touched his swan neck.

"I heard that unicorns have very long necks, as long as 3 or 4 rooms. (1 room: 1.818 meters)"

"And I heard that as long as you touch the unicorn, you can get the auspiciousness of the unicorn, and you will become lucky for a while."

"I don't know if it's really so magical. If I have a chance, I really want to see Qilin with my own eyes."

Travel time has always been boring.

So in order to pass the time, Ogata and A-Machi often chatted casually about some random topics like now.

Although Ogata has never seen a moose in person, he has seen related photos on the Internet - a moose standing next to a car.

With the moose as a reference, the small car became petite.

This picture, which made Ogata intuitively feel the hugeness of the moose, gave Ogata a great impact.

Although the "kylin" that A-cho mentioned just now has such a domineering name, it is actually just a very common animal in Africa.

This animal is the giraffe.

Why is the giraffe called a unicorn? It all started with an eunuch named Zheng He.

When Zheng He traveled to East Africa in the early Ming Dynasty, he found giraffes in East Africa.

Because the appearance of the giraffe is very similar to the appearance of the unicorn recorded in the book, Zheng He believed that the giraffe was the legendary auspicious unicorn, and happily brought the unicorn back to his country.

In this way, Zheng He succeeded in misleading the Japanese name for the giraffe.

As a time traveler, Ogata naturally knew that the so-called unicorn was just an ordinary animal, not a legendary auspicious beast, and he would not feel auspicious when touching it.

But Ogata is also inconvenient to explain the true face of Qilin to Ah Ding, and he can't bear to break Ah Ding's beautiful fantasy about Kirin.

Therefore, Ogata could only show a slightly weird smile, and said casually:

"I can only hope that one day in the future, the shogunate will also be able to send individuals across the ocean like the Ming Dynasty in Tang Dynasty, and bring back one or two unicorns like Zheng He did."

"In this way, we can also see the style of Qilin."

"Hmm... Actually, compared to the unicorn..." A-Ming pondered for a moment, "I want the shogunate to bring back lions and tigers."

"Lions and tigers?" Ogata asked, "Why?"

"Because lions and tigers are also animals that we don't have in Japan." Atachi said, "I've heard that lions and tigers are very ferocious animals since I was a child."

"I don't know who is more ferocious, a lion or a tiger, or a boar or a bear."

"I think the wild boar should be stronger. There should be no animal in this world more fierce than the wild boar."

"Huh? Have you ever encountered a wild boar?" Ogata asked back.

"Yeah. Before leaving Shiranui, I met a wild boar in a certain mission."

"The companion who was in charge of that mission with me at the time was accidentally attacked by this wild boar."

"He had been lying in bed for half a year before he could get out of bed."

Japan has neither lions nor tigers.

Although there are no lions and tigers, Japan has wild boars.

Because there are no other equally ferocious animals for comparison, and the wild boar is indeed quite ferocious, so an idiom related to the wild boar was born: the pig advances by leaps and bounds.

It means to go forward bravely.

"Fortunately, there are no wild boars here in Ezo." A-Ming shrank his neck, "I heard that even the most experienced hunters dare not take wild boars casually."

"The wild boar is stunned. If you provoke it, you won't stop if you don't use its fangs to crush you to death."

"So when hunting wild boars, either the wild boar will die or you will die. If you can't kill the wild boar with one blow, then you are finished."

"Although there are no wild boars here in Ezodi, there are equally terrifying animals—bears." Ogata said with a wry smile.

When I was living in Nishikino Town, I heard a lot of stories from the "former hunter" named Shimasuke when he used to hunt.

The most heard is the story of hunting bears.

Shimasuke always told the audience like Ogata that bears are extremely dangerous, and even the most experienced Mataki would not dare to be careless when hunting bears.

"That's true..." A-Ming muttered, "Although I haven't seen a bear, I heard that a bear can smash people to pieces with just one palm..."

"Although bears are scary, they are actually not that dangerous." Ogata comforted, "I think we need to pay more attention to wolves than bears."

"People are afraid of bears, and bears are afraid of people."

"As long as you don't provoke the bear, under normal circumstances, the bear will not take the initiative to attack humans."

"And it's winter now, and the bears are basically hibernating."

"You seem to know a lot about bears." A-machi cast an admiring gaze at Ogata, "Have you made any special investigations?"

Being looked at by A-Machi with such eyes made Ogata a little happy, and a smile appeared on his face involuntarily.

"I haven't investigated it, but I've heard about the habits of these bears from an 'original hunter' before."

What Ogata said just now is just copying the knowledge that "former hunter" Shimasuke told him.

"When you meet a bear, you can't pretend to be dead, and you can't run away. You can't run away from the bear. You should stand still, look directly at the bear, and it is best to talk to the bear."

Being looked at by A-Machi with such eyes, Ogata's talk also came up.

He talked eloquently, plagiarizing all the knowledge he had learned from listening to Shimasuke's hunting stories...ah, no, it was paraphrased one by one.

"As long as you stand still and look directly at the bear, you can send a signal to the bear that you are harmless and will not pose a threat to your life."

"The bear will leave obediently after confirming that his life will not be infringed."

"But not all bears will not actively attack humans."

"There is a kind of bear that will attack humans even if humans don't provoke it."

"That's the bear that ate human flesh."

"After a bear eats human flesh, it can no longer eat other food. It can only eat human flesh for life."

"So in the face of the kind of bear that has eaten human flesh, it is useless even if you stand still. They are happier if you stand still."

"A bear who has eaten human flesh, will he have to eat human flesh for the rest of his life..." Ah-Ming shrank his neck again, "It's terrible..."

"This kind of bear that has eaten human flesh is very rare."

Ogata smiled and shrugged comfortingly.

"Out of a hundred bears, maybe not one has ever eaten human flesh."

"So the probability of encountering this kind of bear is very..."

"Aoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

Before Ogata finished speaking, a roar that seemed to shatter the surrounding waiting trees suddenly reached Ogata and Atachi's ears.

Both of them were taken aback for a moment, then quickly turned their heads following the sound.

I saw a big brown bear rushing towards the two of them from the southwest with all four palms on the ground!

The bear rushing straight towards them made Ogata involuntarily recall the big truck in his previous life—the speed and pressure were the same.

In his previous life, Ogata had seen some introductions about bears on the Internet - the sprint speed of a bear could keep pace with a large truck with a speed of 60 kilometers per hour.

At this moment, Ogata really felt that this introduction was not scribbling.

In just an instant, the bear who was still a long distance away from Ogata and A-Machi rushed to the two of them, and then raised the bear's paw, which was bigger than Ogata's head, and patted Ogata.

If it were an ordinary person, there would be nothing else to do except wait for his head to be crushed like a big watermelon.

But Ogata is not an ordinary person after all.

After the bear raised its paw, Xu Fang, whose reflexes and agility were far superior to ordinary people, immediately hugged A-ding beside him, and rushed towards the snow field beside him.

He avoided the bear's paw in time.

The bear's paw didn't smash Ogata's head, but smashed the big tree behind Ogata and A-Ming that was as thick as two bowls.

Facing the bear's paw, such a thick tree trunk was easily smashed like glass.

Missing one hit, the bear immediately unleashed a second.

It raised its other front paw, and pressed heavily on Ogata and the two who had flung aside holding A-Ming just now.

Ogata, who continued to hold Ah-machi tightly, rolled on the snow and avoided the attack of the big bear again.

The bear's paw slapped the place where Ogata and the two fell down just now, splashing a lot of snowflakes.

In this dodge, Ogata directly dodged to a place several steps away from Big Bear.

Before the big bear launched a new attack, the two quickly got up.

Ah Ding took out her Su Ying and pointed the gun at the big bear.

When A-Machi was about to pull the trigger, Ogata immediately yelled at A-Machi:

"Don't hit it on the head! Hit it in the stomach!"

At this moment, the "bear hunting advice" that he heard from the "former hunter" Shimasuke before emerged in Ogata's mind - when hunting a bear, one must not attack the bear's head.

Because the bear's skull is very hard, almost as hard as steel, even with an iron cannon, it may not be able to penetrate the bear's skull.

After hearing this reminder from Ogata, although he didn't know why, A-Machi quickly adjusted the muzzle position of the gun, aimed at the bear's belly, and fired 4 bullets in Su Ying's barrel in one go.

At the same time that Machi took out Suzakura, Ogata also took out his Kasumi Nagi.

He wants this bear to experience the power of human beings!

Bang, bang, bang...

Ogata and A-machi fired all the bullets in Kasumagi and Suo Sakura in one go.

Eight gunshots broke the silence of the woods.

This bear is so big and so close to the two of them, even someone like Ogata who has never practiced marksmanship has no reason to miss it.

All 8 bullets sank into the bear's stomach.

"Aoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

Painful roars erupted from the bear's huge mouth.

The eight bullets failed to kill the bear immediately.

While roaring, he raised his two front palms high, then swung his right palm, and slapped Ogata on the head again.

The 8 bullets just now are still useful.

The bear's movements were much slower, and his strength was less terrifying.

Ogata lowered his body to avoid the bear's palm, then gritted his teeth, handed Kasumi to his left hand, then stretched his right hand to Da Shitian at his left waist, and then pointed forward like an arrow leaving the string The big bear rushed forward.

The sword light flashed.

When he was about to pass by the bear, Ogata used the Raikiri of Wuwu Dual Sword Style, and slashed the bear's belly heavily.

"Aw..."

The roar of the big bear, which suffered another severe wound in the belly, has weakened a lot.

Like a drunken man, it swayed a few times, and then fell heavily to the ground.

Ogata didn't dare to be careless, and after taking Xia Nagi back into his arms, he pulled out Da Zizai with his left hand, and then he threw his two knives at the fallen bear, aimed at its neck, and crazily made up the knife.

Swinging the two knives alternately aimed at the bear's neck for more than ten times, until the bear was soaked in a pool of its blood, Ogata finally stopped.

"Scared, scared to death..." Up to this moment, Ah Ding's lips and face were still pale.

From the moment the bear suddenly appeared and attacked them, to when Ogata and the others killed the bear, only about half a minute had passed.

This half-minute time made Ogata and A-Machi feel like it took several hours.

While reloading Su Ying, A-Machi slowly approached the dead bear.

And Ogata also wiped off the bear blood and bear fat stained by Da Shitian and Da Zizai, put the knife back into its sheath, took out Kasumi who had just been stuffed into his arms, and reloaded it.

"This bear is so big..." A-Ming murmured, "If it stands up, it will be as tall as two of me combined..."

A-cho's words are a bit exaggerated. According to Ogata's visual inspection, if this bear stood up, it would be about 2.5 meters tall. It is not as tall as the two A-cho's combined-but such a height is already very tall. Horror.

"It's not that tall. If there are two of you that are as tall as you are, it's okay, at most, there is only one and a half as tall as you..." Ogata turned his head, looked at the tree that was smashed by the bear, and said in a low voice, "As expected of a bear... Humans can't compare with it..."

The strongest opponent Ogata has ever encountered before is Shuntaro, the head of the "Four Heavenly Kings" in Shiranui.

But now, Ogata feels that this record can be refreshed.

The strongest opponent he has encountered so far is this bear.

Although this bear does not know much about martial arts, it has wild instincts, as well as strength and speed far superior to humans.

In the face of absolute power, skills and so on are actually useless at all...

In terms of strength and speed, Shuntaro is compared to this bear-to put it bluntly, it is simply scum...

Every attack of this bear is basically a nirvana, one hit will definitely kill you...

Until now, recalling the short bear fighting experience just now, Ogata still has a lingering feeling of fear.

If it were someone else with lesser skills, his body would have been smashed to pieces long ago.

After witnessing how the bear sprinted at a speed comparable to that of a large truck speeding on the highway, and how the bear crushed such a thick tree with one palm, Ogata I knew—it was the turn of Kasumi, who hadn’t been used for a long time.

Even after entering the "Non-Self Realm", Ogata is not absolutely sure that he can defeat such a big bear in close combat...

After all, no matter how great the improvement brought to Ogata by the "Selfless Realm", it will not make Ogata's physical fitness and swordsmanship level exceed the physical limit of human beings...

Even a body that has been raised to the limit is a slap to a bear...

"Ayi, you just said that only bears that have eaten human flesh will actively attack humans, right?" Ah-ding swallowed, "That means... has this bear ever eaten human flesh?"

"Maybe..." Ogata twitched the corners of his mouth, "Our luck is too bad... Just now we were talking about the fact that bears that have eaten human flesh are rare, but we immediately ran into a bear that might have eaten human flesh attack us..."

"Aoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!"

At this moment, exactly the same scene as before happened.

Before Ogata finished speaking, another roar exploded into the sky.

The two, whose nerves were still tense, quickly turned their heads to look at the source of the roar.

The roar was a big bear that was bigger and stronger than the dead bear next to Ogata and Atachi.

***********

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Recently, the author Jun has been studying the "What to Do When You Meet a Bear" that I told you before. I have learned a lot about bears, as well as the hunting knowledge of Ezo (Ainu people). I strongly recommend this book.