Since ancient times, almost all people have betrayed their masters for three reasons: women, money and power. And Pingtai betrayed Zhao Xin because of the former.
Because he accepted Zhao Xin's secret mission to eliminate the "Eternal Generation", Pingtai spent almost half of the year living in Kyoto. The rest was spent in Osaka, where he and Katsuyama Denzo handled commercial agency affairs for large merchants in the island country.
You must know that opportunities for assassinations are not always available. More time is spent waiting and asking for information. In addition, Beihai Town's trade with island countries has also been on the right track in recent years, and the agency share of various commodities has been divided up. As a result, Pingtai suddenly became free. The so-called "full and warm, thinking about sex", eating and drinking all day long with nothing to do, he gradually began to contact Fengyue places, not only to get some information from them, but also to pass the time. After going back and forth, he became a frequent visitor to Fengyue places.
Although Pingtai has a wife and children in Beihai Town, how can the yellow-faced woman he found among the refugees compare with the wandering girls in Fengyuechang?
Throughout the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate established three chartered large-scale fengzuki grounds across the country. In addition to Shimabara in Kyoto, the other two were Yoshihara in Edo and Shinmachi in Osaka. It should be noted that during the Edo period, the highest-ranking oiran in Kyoto and Osaka was called "Tayu" (Tayu). The title of oiran was only available in Yoshiwara and was used until later generations.
This means that if you want to drink flower wine and ask a courtier or an oiran to accompany you in the 18th and 19th century island countries, you can only go to the above three places. There are no talent shows in the brothels in other vassals.
One time Heita was at the door of a restaurant in Nakanomori and accidentally saw a beautiful woman getting into a car surrounded by a group of waiters. At that time, his soul was taken away. After asking around, I found out that the woman was the famous "Yoshino Taifu" - the Sixth Generation.
Speaking of the name "Yoshino Taifu", he is an absolutely top-notch figure among the wandering girls in the island country. It has been around since the Azuchi Momoyama era and has been passed down from generation to generation. It is said that if a wandering girl wants to inherit this title, she must be trained from an early age. In addition to waka, renge, and haiku, she is not inferior to ordinary literati, but she is also good at piano, pipa, sheng, calligraphy, tea ceremony, incense ceremony, flower arrangement, go, and sugoroku. You have to be proficient in everything.
The most famous in history is the second generation Yoshino Taifu, one of the "Three Famous Courtesans of Kanei". It is said that "there is Hayashirayama in the east and Yoshino Tokuko in the west". It is said that she also had a close friendship with Miyamoto Musashi.
Later, during a casual chat with Katsuyama Denzo, Heita mentioned Yoshino Taifu, and his words showed admiration. Katsuyama Denzo immediately said, why is this so difficult? I'll arrange it!
Pingtai was overjoyed when he heard this and said that he was very satisfied just to meet him once. As everyone knows, his request is exactly what the Tokugawa shogunate has been waiting for.
It is said that in the Tenmei Fire four years ago, too many royal family members were killed or injured, which aroused the suspicion of Matsudaira Sadanobu, the senior shogunate. After half a year of secret investigation, Matsudaira Sadanobu discovered Heita in countless confusing details. The key to his figure is the two boxes of napalm. He then sent his men to investigate the earlier fire at Fushimi Miya's house. Sure enough, all the clues pointed to Pingtai again.
What on earth is Beihai Town going to do? ! After careful analysis, the extremely shocked Matsudaira Sadanobu identified the culprit on Zhao Xin. In his opinion, although Pingtai, who had changed his surname to "Zhao", was a close confidant of Zhao Xin, he was from the island country after all; he would never dare to reach out to the royal family without being tempted by others.
Killing a Zhao Pingtai was nothing to the shogunate. Creating a dispute and killing him, and then having the samurai who did it to disembowel him to apologize was enough to deal with it. The problem is that Matsudaira Sadanobu wants to find out when Hokkai Town will take action next. The first is to stop it, and the second is to use it as a lever to ask for the profit share of Hisikari Mine from Hokkai Town and ease the financial situation of the shogunate.
The Tokugawa shogunate was not a fool. Some things can be revealed with a little analysis. Why did Beihai Town completely close the Linggao Mountain area? Not only did they just impose a ban, but they also sent the Northern Navy to strictly guard the entrances and exits of various mountain roads? Why do mountains often emit deafening roars? What are the strange vehicles carrying on the road between Hisigari and Izumi-gun ports, and why do they make deep ruts on the road?
Of course, because all the ores shipped out of Beihai Town are not refined locally in Minami Kyushu, the current analysis of the shogunate is that there may be an unknown copper mine in Hisikari, accompanied by a small amount of gold and silver.
The first person Matsudaira Sadanobu wooed was Katsuyama Denzo. For this island businessman who had long-term cooperation with Beihai Town and often visited Kyoto and Osaka, the shogunate did not use any coercion or inducement because they knew that it was completely useless. They directly threw out the evidence that Pingtai was plotting to murder the "Eternal Generation", and shocked Shengshan Chuansan.
No matter what Boss Shengshan said, he grew up in the island country of Hongqi... Bah! Although Zhao Xin is an excellent business partner for people under the sun of the island country, his intention to eliminate the "living gods" of the island country still angered Denzo Katsuyama. After going back and forth, the two parties finally reached a cooperation to bring Pingtai down, prevent him from further harming the royal family, and find out the inside story of Linggao County.
Boss Shengshan has a good idea. Anyway, I will not cause trouble in Beihai Company's business. I am just for the sake of the island country.
Later, under the arrangement of Denzo Katsuyama and people in the shogunate, Heita successfully met the sixth generation Yoshino Taifu, but his beauty and manners made him even more obsessed. After meeting him for the first time, he wanted to meet him again and again. three times......
However, in this day and age, if you want to have sex with an oiran-level prostitute, you will have to spend a lot of money, and you have to divide it several times. First of all, when meeting for the first time, the other party will sit far away from the guest, neither speak nor drink or eat with the guest. The guest must use this time to show that his wealth is worthy of the other party, so just inviting one geisha is not enough. Many geisha must be invited to perform their talents.
The second time after that was basically the same as the first time, except this time the oiran would sit closer.
After the third or fourth time, the oiran will prepare a tray and chopsticks with her name written on them. At this time, if you offer a large amount of money, you can do whatever you want later. From then on, the guest can only take care of the oiran alone and is no longer allowed to go to other oirans. If he is discovered, he has broken the rules and the guest has to pay a large amount of money to apologize.
In this way, relying on boss Katsuyama's huge money to clear the way, Heita finally became the guest of the sixth generation Yoshino Taifu. Ping Tai loved this woman like crazy, and the woman wanted to seduce her, so he gradually told her some things about Beihai Town. Little did he know that every time he had a tryst with the other party, there would be spies from the shogunate hiding next door and eavesdropping.
By October last year, the people in the shogunate felt that the situation was almost over, so they took action. A "capture" was organized by the Kyoto Governor, and the two were held down on the spot in the boudoir of Iwasaki Hall. Although Heita revealed his identity as Beihai Town, the shogunate official sneered and threw the conversation record in front of him, and said that if he did not agree to cooperate, Yoshino Taifu would be imprisoned and tortured. Faced with the crying beloved woman, Pingtai's brain suddenly became hot and he gave in.
After that, he told how Zhao Xin ordered him to take action against the "Wanshi One Line", but he really didn't know the secret of Nan Kyushu. After returning from Beihai Town after the Spring Festival this year, people from the shogunate came to visit him several times. He was forced to have no choice but to quietly go to Minami Kyushu last month, in the name of not seeing Manzo for a long time. After walking around, I realized that Linggao seemed to be a large golden mountain.
When Heita returned to Kyoto from Osaka, it was already the eighth month of the lunar calendar, and the maple leaves were beginning to turn into autumn colors. Takao, Takanoo, and Makinoo in the west of Kyoto were already covered in fiery red, like a gorgeous picture. generally.
It is said that although the fire four years ago burned everything west of the Kamo River, Kamogawa and Takase River to a white ground and caused heavy losses, in recent years, with the large-scale investment in funds and manpower to rebuild Kyoto, the entire Kyoto has recovered. The appearance of the old days.
Heita did not go directly to his sweetheart. Instead, under the escort of several hired ronin, he first went to Yase in the northeast of Kyoto and came to a place called "Kahei Tea House".
Since the Heian period, Yase bathing has been famous in the island country for its special bathing method. The bathhouse is a room called a "kettle", each person has one room. The exterior is built like a charcoal kiln or a similar huge pottery kiln, and is lit by firewood around it. Wait until the internal air is fully heated before allowing guests to enter the inner chamber of the cauldron.
Bathers wear bath towels and lie flat on straw mats on the indoor floor. These straw mats are sprinkled with salt and covered with fresh green wood leaves. When the sweat starts to wet the bath towel on your body, take off the bath towel, move to another room, and soak in warm water. This method has a good effect on eliminating fatigue.
After taking a bath, he felt a little hungry, so he ate a bowl of soba noodles at the teahouse, then called for a carriage and led the people straight to Wuhua Street.
The so-called "Five Flowers Street" actually refers to the five Fengetsu areas in the Gion area, including Gion Kobu, Miyagawa Town, Ponto Town, Kamishichiken and Gion Higashi. The romance scene in Kyoto originated in the Momoyama period, and it first started in Kamishichiken.
In the mid-15th century, part of the Kitano Shrine was burned down. During the subsequent construction process, seven teahouses were built using the remaining building materials. This is the origin of the place name "Kamishichiken". After that, many artists came to the teahouse to perform their talents for the guests and also worked as waiters.
In fact, the early geishas in the island country were all men. These people were also called "bangma". They were guys who performed talents and lively atmosphere for the guests before the banquet started, such as playing taiko drums, playing music, and talking. A joke or something; in the early days, prostitutes were called "wandering girls", and there was no such thing as geisha. Starting about forty years ago, some of the sacred girls at Kitano Shrine retired in their twenties and came to teahouses to work as waitresses. Therefore, there is a rumor that geisha originated from Kamishichiken.
Tonight, Heita was going to Minoya located in the Kamishichiken Naka no Mori. He had already made an appointment with Katsuyama Denzo to meet there.
When they arrived at Mino House, it was already time to turn on the lights. Heita was respectfully led to a single room on the second floor by the shop owner and his maid, and the guard who followed him was taken to a room next door. Several of the guards brought by Katsuyama Denzo were eating inside. When they saw Heita's men coming down, they nodded familiarly and said hello.
Heita walked into the private room, and before he could say hello to Katsuyama Denzo, he was surprised to find that the sixth generation Yoshino Taifu was also there, and couldn't help but blurt out: "Ah! You're here too!"
"Come on!" Taifu Yoshino smiled slightly and waved to him gently. Heita sat on the main seat, and then exchanged glasses with boss Katsuyama and his contacts in the shogunate.
However, at this moment, a dozen guys wearing dark blue coats and hoods, with only two eyes and mouths exposed, had surrounded the front and back doors of Meinong House. Since Nakamori is a small forest with very few pedestrians, no one has noticed it yet.
Jia He, who led seven people to attack from the main entrance, pushed open the door and rushed in. Before the boss could scream, he raised his hand and punched him hard, knocking him to the ground. The people behind them took out revolvers and daggers from their arms, took off their shoes, and quietly walked up to the second floor with bare feet. The floorboards made a slight creaking sound...
There were not many single rooms on the second floor, and these people quickly arrived outside the room where the target was located. At this time, voices came from both rooms, and they didn't even realize that they were surrounded.
Jia He saw a figure reflected on the partition of the innermost single room, and the sound of fingers plucking the strings came from inside. She was undoubtedly a geisha. From this, he confirmed that Heita and the others were in this room, and then gave the order to attack with a slight wave of his left hand holding the dagger.
Suddenly, there was loud gunfire in the narrow corridor. Eight people raised their guns and fired randomly through the barrier door, until all the bullets in the magazine were exhausted. Wails rang out in the two rooms, and then Jia He took the lead and rushed into the room, preparing to perform a last-ditch attack on the guy who was shot but not dead.
Taifu Yoshino was shot in the back, and he was screaming in a pool of blood. Jiahe had no sympathy for her, so he just stabbed him with a dagger. As a result, because he was rolling on the ground, he missed the back of the heart and was hit on the shoulder instead. Taifu Yoshino went crazy with pain and rolled around on the ground, screaming in agony. Jia He simply sat on her, pushed away her blocking hand, and stabbed his chest with a knife. Taifu Yoshino struggled a little and stopped moving.
At the same time, Katsuyama Denzo and the shogunate who were wailing for help were killed by others one after another. Their necks were cut open, and blood gushed out like a spring, instantly dyeing the rush mat red.
At this time, Ping Tai was the only one alive in the house. He was shot twice in the shoulder and huddled in the corner. The pistol in his arms fell to the ground, breathing heavily with a look of shock on his face.
"You, who are you?"
Jia He and the other three people walked up to Pingtai, with no emotion in their eyes, and said coldly in Mandarin: "From the day you betrayed me, you should know what the consequences will be."
Pingtai's eyes suddenly opened wide and he said in astonishment: "You, are you sent here by your lord?"
He turned back to look at the already deceased Taifu Yoshino, tears streaming down his face, and cried: "You can just kill me, why do you have to kill her!"
"Idiot!" Jia He cursed casually, then thought about it and explained: "She has been conspiring with Katsuyama Densan from the beginning to plot against you!"
After saying that, he stabbed the dagger into Pingtai's heart with his backhand, then turned around and left. A dozen people came with a gust of wind and left like ghosts.
The next morning, the murder in Minoya shocked the entire Kyoto.
