I formed the strongest swordsman group

"Mr. Robin Hood has many companions and entourages who have robbed the rich and donated to the poor with him," Alodie added.

"Haha, maybe the cat monk will find some companions for himself as you said, miss." Leroy covered his mouth with a smile, "Okay, the story is over, and it's time for you to go to bed, miss .”

"Miss Leroy, tell me more about this cat monk! I'm very interested in this strange thief!"

"Miss, I have already told you all the deeds of the cat monk I have heard."

Leroy reached up and stroked Elodie's silky pale blond hair.

"Since you are very interested in the story of Little Monk Mao...then I will pay attention to all kinds of news related to Little Monk Mao for you in the future, and will inform you of these news as soon as possible."

"Really?" Elodie's already big eyes opened a little wider, and the pupils of the eyes shone with light that people could not help but think of stars.

Leroy smiled and nodded: "The premise is that from now on, miss, you will go to bed obediently every time it is time to go to bed. Otherwise..."

"Miss Leroy! Put out the candle for me, I'm going to bed!"

After all, Elodie closed her eyes tightly, and at the same time covered her body with the quilt tighter.

Amused by Elodie's cute appearance, Leroy, who covered his mouth and laughed again, stood up from the chair, extinguished the candle lamp beside the bed, and left Elodie's bedroom calmly.

Slap, slap, slap, slap...

Outside the room, the sound of Leroy's footsteps faded away.

Elodie, who had been paying close attention to Leroy's footsteps, confirmed that Leroy had gone far away, then playfully half-opened one right eye, glanced at the closed door, and closed both eyes. open.

"Mao Xiaoseng..." Elodie looked at the light gray ceiling under the night light and the moonlight coming in from the window.

"I don't know if it will be some strong and elegant handsome man..."

Elodie's lips and the corners of her eyes raised a smile of anticipation and fascination.

...

...

the next day—

In the early morning, as soon as Susuki and others arrived at the Beifan office, Qingdeng and Nishino, who had been on the night shift all night in the Beifan office, immediately reported the important news that "the little monk Mao appeared at the Beifan office last night".

After knowing this, all the top executives of the Beifan Institute headed by Susui were shocked.

Previously, Mao Xiaoseng had always presented the image of "only stealing money from the notorious Yakuza, villains and profiteers".

Why did Little Monk Mao show up at Beifan last night? What is he going to do? Did you come to Beifan to steal something?

Under Susukei's instruction and organization, everyone quickly investigated the Beifan Office inside and out to see if there was anything missing, and finally found that nothing was missing.

This made everyone feel even more confused.

Did Mao Xiaoseng have no plan to steal something in Beifan at all... Or did he get caught by Qing Deng who was about to go to the toilet before he could steal something in the future and had to stop the theft?

If he had no plan to steal anything in Beifan, then he showed up in Beifan for no reason, what did he want?

Due to the extreme lack of information, these questions may never be answered...

In the end——"the little monk Mao suddenly visited the Beifan Institute late at night" could only end without a problem.

If you want information but don't have it, even if you want to catch the cat and monk, you can't catch it. What else can the enforcement office do?

Anyway, nothing important was stolen, so let's just forget about it.

Susukei asked everyone to pay more attention from now on, to strengthen their precautions at night, and ordered Nishino, who is now fully responsible for catching the cat monk, to work harder to catch the cat monk as soon as possible. It's a turnaround.

In the next few days, two big happy events took place in the south and north enforcement offices in Edo.

The first big happy event: everyone's spring family salary, salary, and offerings have finally been distributed.

Generally speaking, the income of samurai mainly consists of two parts: family salary and salary.

In the Edo period, Japan pursued a "rice standard" economic system. Whether it was family salary or salary, it was basically distributed with rice. After the samurai received the rice, they exchanged the rice with the merchants for money.

Most samurai theoretically own a piece of land inherited from the family era that they worship from the lord they serve.

The rice produced on this fief is your family's income.

If your fief can produce 100 shi of rice, then your family salary is 100 shi.

The samurai had only nominal ownership of the fiefdoms owned by their own families. The actual rights to use are all gathered in the hands of generals and daimyo.

To put it simply: Your fief is under our control. But even a grain of rice that should be given to you will not miss you.

In the name of "helping manage the land", the generals and daimyos hold the right to use the fiefs of the samurai under their command, and all the rice produced on the fiefs will be distributed to the samurai who own these fiefs.

The rice produced on the fief will not all be given to the samurai, they will all have to pay taxes - in the Edo period, no matter it is family salary or salary, the tax rate is "four public and six people", that is, the government collects 40% of the tax .

Qingdeng, who is a lower-level imperial family, their Ju family's family salary is not too much, exactly 100 shi.

After deducting the tax of the "four lords and six people", they can receive 60 shi of family salary from the shogunate every year.

Regardless of whether Qingdeng will lose his job in the enforcement office in the future, as long as his samurai origin is not deprived, then he can always receive this family salary—but the family salary of their Ju family is quite meager, just look at this point It will be difficult for Jialu to live.

Qingdeng grew up so big... No, it should be said that no one from the Ju family has ever seen what the fief that their family worshiped looked like, and they didn't even know the exact location.

This situation is actually not new. Because the generals and daimyos hold the right to use all the samurai's fiefs in their hands, most of the samurai have never seen what their fiefs look like for generations, anyway, just wait for the rice to be harvested.

As for the salary, it is easy to understand, it is the salary of an official. If you don't serve in the government, then you have no salary to get.

It doesn’t matter if it’s Tongxin from the Puritan Office, Yinwei Fang or any other department, as long as it’s Tongxin, the annual salary after deducting the tax rate is basically 30 yuan for 2 people to support.

1 俵 is 4 dou, and 1 stone is 10 dou, so 30 俵 is converted to 12 shi.

The "support by two people" can be understood as an allowance. Every year, you will be given enough rice to feed two adults for a year.

The salary for one year is only 12 stone plus the allowance for 2 people's support... The income is extremely meager.

Therefore, the days of Tongxin in all departments are quite miserable haha--the only exception is the Tongxin in the practice.

Because the samurai working in the execution office have another income: enshrinement.

The daimyos from all over the country and merchants in Edo will pay a "gift money" to the Edo magistrate on time every year, and ask the magistrate to "take care" of them in the next year.

Because part of this "gift money" will also be distributed to the shogunate, the shogunate has always adopted an attitude of "turning a blind eye and closing one eye" to the invisible income of the Edo magistrate.

Every year, the magistrate will distribute these "gift money" to the officials in the magistrate according to their status, status, and political achievements.

People used to call this "hidden salary" received by the officials of the enforcement office "offering".

This "offering" is the bulk of the income of officials in the enforcing office.

Take Arima as an example-Arima is a man of power, and his annual salary is 200 shi.

But including the offerings that can be received every year, the actual annual income of each person and power in the monastery is as high as 500 shi to 1,000 shi.

Both family salary and salary are distributed in three seasons.

A quarter will be issued in spring, a quarter will be issued in summer, and the remaining half will be issued in full in winter.

The enshrinement of the enshrinement is divided into four seasons of "spring, summer, autumn and winter" to distribute.

How many offerings you can receive each quarter depends on your position and ability.

In the past, when Qingdeng was still the "Original Juqingdeng", due to the messy political performance, the offerings that could be received each quarter were always pitifully small.

But now——Qingdeng is no longer the original "dumbhead".

Qingdeng's brave performance in the last quarter made him receive a very high amount of offerings in this quarter: 51 taels of gold!

When Susui announced the spring offerings that Qingdeng could receive this year, there were bursts of low breathing sounds directly at the receiving site.

It is extremely rare that Tongxin can receive 51 taels of gold in one quarter.

The 51 taels of spring offerings, including the 15 shi spring family salary, 3 shi spring salary and the "two-person support" allowance, made Qingdeng's purse swell again.

As for the second big happy event, it was quite serious.

On the night Qingdeng's house was burned, one of the arsonists caught by Qingdeng and Okita together - the fat man, was immediately sent to the prison in Kodenma Town after he was arrested.

Under the order of the shogunate, the prison guards who were in charge of interrogating prisoners greeted the fat man with various cruel torture methods day and night.

The fat man's will was unexpectedly strong.

Whether it was the "Punishment of Holding the Stone" that would make people feel the pain of having their legs broken, or the "Punishment of the Old Sea" that would make people feel that life would be worse than death, he gritted his teeth and persisted one by one.

But ah... these torture methods in the prison house are all "the crystallization of human wisdom" created by the accumulation of thousands of years and the continuous improvement of generations.

You can survive these tortures for a while, can you survive these tortures for a lifetime?

The kind of person who can sustain these tortures for a lifetime is a dragon among people who is unique in a million—and Fatty has nothing to do with this kind of person.

After nearly three months of abuse and torture in the prison, he finally couldn't hold on anymore and confide everything he knew.

According to Fatty's confession, he belongs to an organization called "Discussion Group".

All members of this organization are radical anti-barbarians who are determined to drive all barbarians out of Japan.

A young samurai named "Kano Tatsugoro" leads the organization.

Fatty knew very little about the leader of their barbarian group, and he had only met Shen Ye a few times.

The only thing I know about Shen Ye is that he is very serious, has a strong aura, and his swordsmanship is very strong.

Although the fat man has never seen Shenye draw a sword, he has heard that Shenno's swordsmanship is extremely strong since he joined the barbarian group.

According to the rumors that the fat man has heard——the reason why Shen Ye became the leader of the extermination group at such a young age is not only because he is the veteran of the extermination group, but also because of his Swordsmanship is strong.

He was so strong that many martial arts masters in the Yi group accepted his guidance with all their hearts and minds.

In addition to frankly stating the organization he belonged to, Fatty also revealed two important pieces of information.

One: He admitted that the assassination attempt to kill the Angouleme family was the work of their group.

Two: He confessed to the organization that regarded Qingdeng as a national traitor and sent people to assassinate Qingdeng many times.

Fatty explained why they wanted to kill Anthony and Elodie—no particular reason, just foreigners.

It doesn't matter which country, identity, age, or gender the foreigner is from.

Anyway, all foreigners who set foot on Japanese soil should be killed.

The Angouleme family was simply unlucky—the Kobari group learned through some channels that a French businessman who was easy to bully would travel from Osaka to Edo in the near future.

They have been focusing on beheading "national thieves" before, and this is the first time that they have assassinated Yidi.

In order to ensure the most complete victory in this "virgin battle" against Yidi, Shenye sent so many people to participate in this operation.

As for the source from which the Barbarian Group learned that the Angouleme family would come to Edo via the Tokaido soon... Fatty didn't know.

Fatty is just a low-level member of the barbarian group, so he knows nothing about the number of barbarians, the location of the stronghold, and other important information.

The above is all he knows.

Although he failed to obtain important information of sufficient weight from Fatty, the information that Fatty confessed also dispelled a lot of fog in the minds of Qingdeng and others.

The enforcement office finally knew what organization had the ability and courage to assemble more than 200 warriors to attack and kill foreign businessmen.

And Qingdeng finally knew what organization wanted to take his head because of the ridiculous reason of "working in the American embassy".

The Enforcement Office immediately integrated the information of all the barbarians confessed by the fat man, and then reported it to the shogunate.

And the shogunate quickly sent a reply to the executive office: uproot this surprisingly large-scale radical anti-barbarian faction as soon as possible!

After receiving the stern order from the shogunate, the Southern and Northern Enforcement Offices immediately launched operations.

Susui and Atsukawa (Nanbansho Town Enforcement) summoned the town year and the town masters, and asked them to go to the towns under their respective management to publicize the existence and danger of the Koi group, and encourage the townspeople to provide information related to the Koi group , All townspeople who can provide useful information will be rewarded heavily.

All of a sudden, "discussing barbarians" became a hot topic in Edo.

As long as you go to crowded places, you can always hear people discussing this radical anti-barbarian organization that has been listed as the "enemy that must be eradicated" by Edo.

The enforcement office has slightly adjusted the allocation of resources and the focus of work—a considerable amount of resources and manpower have been allocated to investigate and track the barbarians.

April is the season of cherry blossoms.

As early as March 25th, the cherry blossom trees planted all over Edo began to bloom their beauty one after another.

By March 27th, the cherry blossom petals flying all over the sky have become a beautiful scenery in Edo.

Of course, the officials of the "three times" of the enforcement office obviously don't have the time and spare time to enjoy the first cherry blossoms.

But Qingdeng was an exception.

Because on March 27th, Qingdeng was finally scheduled for a long-lost holiday.

The current workload and work pressure are so huge that Qingdeng can hardly remember the last time he was on vacation.

But even though it was a holiday, Qingdeng also didn't have the time to watch cherry blossoms.

Some time has passed since Okita went to entrust Boss Kiryu to help find a few reliable people who are willing to be his guide.

Qingdeng planned to take advantage of today's rare holiday to go to Qianshiwu to see how the commission delivered to Boss Kiryu was going.

...

...

In the first year of Wanyan (1860), March 27——

Edo, on a certain street——

"The weather is finally getting warmer..." Qingdeng brushed off a petal of cherry blossoms floating above his head, then raised his right hand, and looked at the shining sun through the fingers of his right palm.

Since the day before yesterday, when the cherry blossoms in Edo just started to bloom, Edo, which has been disturbed by the cold wave, finally began to warm up.

Now when going out, it is no longer necessary to wear thick clothes, snow hats and scarves. You only need to wear a thin haori to protect your body from the cold.

The sun is shining and the temperature is neither too cold nor too hot—this is Qingdeng's favorite weather.

Feeling the warm spring breeze blowing across his cheeks, Qingdeng was in a good mood, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly unconsciously.

The current time is around 8 o'clock in the morning, and Qingdeng led Saito towards Qianshiwu in big strides.

As soon as he reached the gate of Qianshiwu, Qingdeng heard the crackling sound of the planning board coming from inside.

Qingdeng thought it was Mrs. Kiryu who was planning the abacus, but after opening the shop door, he discovered that the person who knocked the abacus was actually Kinoshita Mai.

Kinoshita Mai, who was kneeling behind the counter, fiddled with the beads on the abacus with her left hand skillfully, and was writing something on a large notebook with a brush in her right hand.

After hearing the sound of the shop door being opened, she hurriedly stopped writing and raised her head. Seeing that it was Qing Deng, a bright smile immediately flew onto Kinoshita Mai's cheeks.

The change of seasons made Kinoshita Mai's current attire a lot cooler.

At this time, Kinoshita Mai was only wearing a thin bright red kimono, no socks on her feet, and her wide sleeves were tied tightly with a sash, revealing a pair of small jade feet and two white lotus root arms like porcelain.

"Mr. Tangerine!"

Kinoshita Wu put down the writing brush and abacus in her hands, and Bai Nen stepped on the spotless wooden floor, and sprang out from behind the counter to meet Qingdeng.

"Ms. Kinoshita, good morning." Qingdeng greeted Kinoshita Wu with a smile.

"Good morning to you too." Kinoshita Mai folded her arms in front of her body and bowed slightly to Qingdeng.

After exchanging pleasantries with Kinoshita Mai for a while, Qingdeng cut to the chase and asked Kiryu where the boss was.

"Mr. Kiryu is making breakfast in the kitchen right now." Mai Kinoshita replied, "Wait here for a while, I'll call him now..."

There is no need for Kinoshita Mai to call Kiryu anymore.

Because before he finished speaking, Kiryu's old and refined voice came from the back room.

"Young Master, I seem to have heard Jun Ju's voice, is Jun Jun coming?"

Holding a pot and spoon in his right hand and wearing an apron on his chest, Kiryu walked slowly out of the back room of Senjiya.

The apron that Kiryu was wearing was a bit cute--an orange cat's head was embroidered in the center of the apron.

"Boss Kiryu, good morning." Qingdeng bowed and greeted Kiryu who appeared from the back room, "I'm here to inquire about the current progress of the commission delivered to you a few days ago."

"Hahaha, Tachibana-kun, we have been waiting for you for a long time." Kiryu chuckled, then pointed at the cushions laid out in front of the counter, "Sit down first."

"If it's convenient, can you wait for me for a while? I have to make breakfast now, and it will be ready soon."

"It's all right." Qingdeng waved his hand, "Go and do your work first. Anyway, I'm on vacation today, so don't worry."

Kiryu returned to the back room with the pot and spoon in hand.

He wasn't lying, and after only a moment, he came out of the back room again, no longer wearing an apron, and no longer holding a pot and spoon.

After telling Mai Kinoshita to go and eat breakfast while it was hot, he sat on the back of the counter with his knees bent.

"Mr. Ju, regarding your commission... I have already found 3 very good candidates for you."

Kiryu took out a large book with a green cover from under the counter.

"It's... these three people."

Kiryu turned the big book to the last page with words written on it, and pointed to the three names written on this page.

"Nagakura Shinpachi, Harada Sanosuke and Todo Heisuke."

*****

*****

The author was busy yesterday, so today's update is a little less, and I will try to update it tomorrow (Leopard headache crying.JPG)