Edo, somewhere——
A young man with red lips and white teeth walked slowly to Nishino's cell, carrying a bowl of steaming soba noodles.
In the cell, in a corner where the light does not shine, Nishino leaned against the corner behind him with his arms folded, his eyes closed and his breathing steady, as if he was sleeping or concentrating with his eyes closed.
"Nishino-sama, Nishino-sama?"
The young man called Nishino repeatedly, but the other party was indifferent.
As a last resort, young people can only increase their volume:
"Lord Nishino!"
This time, Nishino finally reacted.
"...It's so noisy."
Nishino slowly raised his eyelids and cast an impatient look at the young man standing outside the prison.
The young man bowed his head and apologized:
"terribly sorry……"
Rakshasa, who has a "talent collecting habit", values Nishino, who is proficient in criminal investigation techniques, and wants to take him under his wing.
In order to show his love for talent, Rakshasa specially ordered: Nishino Hosijiro is my distinguished guest! No matter who he is, he must be treated with courtesy!
Because of this, young people are so respectful to Nishino.
Although he was the one standing outside the cell, he acted more like a prisoner than Nishino.
Nishino swept his eyes and looked at the young man from head to toe several times.
"I've never seen you before. Are you new here?"
"Yes! Toru Kibe! From today on, I will be responsible for your daily diet! This is your dinner today!"
After saying that, the young man passed the soba noodles in his hand forward.
Nishino glanced at the soba noodles in the young man's hand, then withdrew his gaze and pursed his lips toward the small window next to the cell door.
"Put it there."
"yes!"
The young man bent down, took out a small key from his waist, inserted it into an inconspicuous hole on the edge of the cell door, and turned it twice to the right. Then he heard a "clack" sound from inside the door. There was a sound, and a section of the doorframe at the bottom of the cell door suddenly popped open, revealing a small window.
This window is specially used to deliver meals, drinking water and other items into the prison.
"Master Nishino, please eat as soon as possible."
As the young man spoke, he stuffed the soba noodles in his hand into the window and passed them into the prison.
Nishino didn't say much. He stood up and took the noodles silently. He didn't even say "I'm ready" and just started eating.
When the young man saw this, he couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself:
——Tanaka-senpai is right... Nishino is quite easy to deal with.
Tanaka was the last person responsible for taking care of Nishino's daily diet.
According to Tanaka-senpai, although Nishino often put on a bad face, he was generally quite docile and did not engage in hunger strikes, suicides or other "non-violent non-cooperation movements".
At every meal time, he would eat on time, and he would eat every meal delivered without any leftovers.
Young people are just low-level cadres in the Qingshui clan.
He didn't care at all whether Nishino surrendered or not.
He only cares about his job and whether his tasks can be completed perfectly.
As long as Nishino is willing to cooperate with him, eat on time without fussing, and does not have a negative impact on his mission or cause him any trouble, he will not care about Nishino's future fate.
"Master Nishino, I'll take my leave now. I'll be back in half an hour to clean up the dishes."
"..."
Nishino, who did not change his indifferent expression, kept snarling and ignored the young man.
Such an indifferent attitude naturally made the young man feel a little unhappy.
But he didn't dare to say anything. He bent down and bowed before leaving.
——Ah... I'm so busy... mopping the floor, boiling water, cooking, doing laundry... all I do every day is boring work. How long will it take for me to get promoted...
The young man complained angrily in his heart about all the recent events.
Just when all his thoughts were focused on feeling sorry for himself... he was caught between a rabbit and a falcon! A big hand holding a cloth stretched out from the thorn and covered the young man's mouth and nose!
"Uh huh...!"
The sudden change caught the young man by surprise. His mouth and nose were completely covered by the cloth. He was frightened and subconsciously took a deep breath.
Suddenly, a very strong pungent medicinal smell penetrated his mouth and nose.
--Oops!
Knowing that something was serious, he quickly held his breath.
However... it was too late.
"I'm sorry~Please sleep for a while~~"
A familiar young male voice came to the young man's ears, and it sounded like it came from afar.
His eyes were completely dark, and his vision didn't reflect anything.
——This voice is...? !
The moment this thought occurred, the young man's consciousness was completely interrupted.
…
Nishino eats very quickly.
As soon as the young man walked away, he ate a large bowl of soba noodles without even a drop of soup left.
After eating and drinking, Nishino sat back in his original position, in the corner of the wall where the light could not reach, folded his hands on his chest, closed his eyes and rested.
However, at this moment, he was no longer as motionless as before.
He raised his eyelids from time to time and glanced outside the prison. His mind was not at peace, as if he was waiting for something.
However, every time he opened his eyes, all he saw was a quiet corridor with no one around.
Gradually, Nishino's brows became impatient and disappointed.
The frequency with which he opened his eyes also decreased.
Suddenly, just when the disappointment on Nishino's face was about to reach its limit, the sound of footsteps approaching from far away was heard outside the prison.
"!"
The next moment this string of footsteps reached Nishino's ears, he cheered up and looked forward - a familiar figure came into view.
"Nishino-kun~ Good evening~~"
My grandson smiled and waved to Nishino through the gap in the fence.
"...My grandson, you are actually here."
Nishino's thick eyebrows were raised at the corners of his raised eyes, his expression was stiff and complicated.
"Of course I will come~ I told you already, right? I will never lie to you again this time~~"
After saying that, my grandson bent down and took out the key to the cell door from his arms...
"I brought the key to the cell and your sword~"
…
…
A while ago——
"...Jun."
A voice came from a distance.
"...Yejun."
The sound gradually approaches.
"...Nishino-kun."
Familiar voice.
"Nishino-kun!"
White light shines into the dark world.
"……Um?"
As Nishino regained consciousness, he slowly opened his eyes.
"Nishino-kun, you finally woke up~ You slept so deeply~~"
Nishino, who was sleepy, looked out of the prison following the sound in a daze.
After seeing the appearance of the visitor clearly, his sleepiness disappeared immediately.
"My grandson...!"
There was an instant tense atmosphere, with no room for joking.
Nishino, who had created this atmosphere with his own hands, turned pale, and a distorted shadow appeared on his handsome face.
While casting a hateful look at my grandson standing outside the prison, he blurted out like a dam bursting:
"What are you doing here? Get out of here!"
Faced with Nishino's disgust and abuse, my grandson behaved as usual, neither getting angry nor showing dissatisfaction.
"Ouch~ Nishino-kun, don't be so angry, calm down~ calm down~~"
"I neither want to see the traitors who are treasonous to the country nor want to hear their voices."
Nishino interrupted him before he could finish. His voice was sonorous and powerful, and when he said the phrase "treasonous traitor", the boredom shown in his voice was unprecedented.
However, even though Nishino scolded me so much, my grandson still looked like he didn't hear anything.
"Hehehe...are you treasonous and collaborating with the enemy..."
My grandson, with a strange smile on his cheeks, slowly squatted down.
"Nishino-kun, I can't stay here for too long, so I'll keep the story short~~"
"As Rakshasa said before, I am indeed a spy planted by the Fa Punishment Party within the shogunate~~"
"However...this is not all my 'real body'~~"
As soon as my grandson finished speaking, Nishino was startled.
"...Huh? What did you say?"
Facing the stunned look from Nishino, my grandson smiled slightly, then half-closed his eyes and recited a Chinese poem in a slow and sacred tone:
"The rice fields are rotting in the ponds and ditches, and every village has its hands in mourning. Although Lian is a gentleman, he is ruthless, but his beauty smiles when he comes out of the water."
After my grandson read this poem... No! Just when my grandson read the beginning, Nishino's pupils suddenly shrank to the size of a pinhole.
This poem... Nishino is really familiar with it.
To be precise, everyone who has a little knowledge of the far-reaching and shocking changes 24 years ago will be familiar with this poem.
Swish, swish... the hakama skirt rubbed against the ground.
Because of his anxiety, Nishino didn't even bother to get up, and used his knees to rub all the way to the cell door. He held the railing tightly with both hands and pressed his face against the gap between the railings. While staring straight at my grandson's smiling face, he spoke with disbelief. The emotional voice said word by word:
"You, you are from the Great Salt Party?!"
The poem my grandson recited just now was written by that great leader who created immortal achievements as a scholar - Oshio Heihachiro!
From a young age, Oshio Heihachiro, who was very open-minded, determined to study Confucianism, eradicate his own shortcomings, and improve his academic quality.
By chance, he discovered "Moaning Yu" by Ming Dynasty Confucian Lu Xinwu, and learned about Yangming Studies for the first time through it.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, he began to study Yangming's philosophy of mind, and gradually developed a profound knowledge of Sinology.
Although Yangming Studies is highly idealistic, it actually advocates practicalism that puts morality first - the so-called "unity of knowledge and action" philosophy.
Dashan develops on this basis, closely integrates it with reality, and becomes a kind of knowledge that is useful to society.
Therefore, in front of his eyes, the shortcomings of the decadent shogunate system were exposed in urban and rural areas with irreparable ugliness, which had to make him care about politics.
He has great respect for the peasants who are helpless in the face of natural disasters and are suffocated by feudal tribute and rent, and at the same time express infinite sympathy.
Da Yan knew deeply that excessive feudal tribute rents exhausted farmers and led to farmland being abandoned.
At the same time, we also understand that the existence of privileged businessmen commercializes the rural economy and leads to the bankruptcy of the rural natural economy.
It is difficult for farmers to maintain their ability to reproduce under double exploitation.
Therefore, Oishio Heihachiro opposed corrupt officials while opposing government and businessmen, and hated those "gentlemen" who did not know the sufferings of farmers.
So he wrote this famous anti-poem, which is the poem my grandson just recited - the fields are mixed with the ponds and the ditches are rotting, and the villages are holding their hands in mourning. Although Lian is a gentleman, he is very ruthless, but his beauty smiles when he comes out of the water.
The meaning of this poem is: It has rained for a long time and the water in the fields has caused the rice to rot. The villages have nothing to gain and can only sigh in vain. Although Lian is an innocent gentleman, she is too ruthless and does not care about the suffering of the farmers at all. She only cares about blooming beautiful flowers.
Oshio Heihachiro hated the corrupt politics of the time. He said, "If you stand up and get money, you can get a big package of one hundred taels of gold, a medium package of fifty taels of gold, and a small package of ten taels of gold." He satirized the corruption of officialdom.
Privileged businessmen are also the objects of Oshio Heihachiro's opposition.
Whether they are townspeople or farmers, all ordinary people living in the middle and lower classes of society have suffered from them to a greater or lesser extent.
Oshio Heihachiro, who hates privileged businessmen with all his heart, never hesitates to write and spit when he curses them.
He called the privileged merchants "people thieves" and "vagrants" who were the same as the officials. He pointed out that "the town people (merchants) under the city specialize in luxury, indulge in random dancing, tea soup, wandering and Cuju (playing football), and decorate their houses. Collecting rare things and treasures, dressing up his wife, and entrusting all business to his assistants."
24 years ago (the eighth year of Tenpo, 1837), Oshio Heihachiro, who could not bear the corruption of the shogunate, launched the famous "Oshio Heihachiro Uprising" with his students, officials, townspeople, and farmers who were willing to follow them.
Japan in the Edo period adopted a strict national policy of "separating soldiers from peasants."
Soldiers are soldiers, farmers are farmers, and they should never be confused.
Military service was entirely borne by warriors, while farmers concentrated on farming.
One of the consequences of this is that the peasants' combat literacy is extremely low. After all, they have never received military training - and this is exactly what the rulers want to see.
The soldiers were basically townspeople and farmers.
The only weapons available are ordinary swords, guns and homemade firearms
Apart from morale, the Great Salt Army, which had no advantages in soldiers and equipment, was naturally lackluster in combat effectiveness.
However, even so, the Oishio Army still defeated the decadent shogunate army in a state of embarrassment, forcing the shogunate to quickly ask for reinforcements from nearby vassals. Amagasaki, Kishiwada, Koriyama and other vassals immediately sent troops to reinforce Osaka after hearing the news.
Under the joint efforts of the shogunate and the Gyeonggi feudal lords, the outnumbered Great Salt Army was defeated. The townspeople and farmers could not withstand the attack and fled completely.
The shogunate cast a dragnet across the country and strictly searched for Oshio Heihachiro and others.
Oshio Heihachiro and his adopted son were hiding in an independent house in Osaka City.
When the officials of the shogunate came to the door, Oshio Heihachiro, knowing that he had nowhere to escape, ignited the prepared explosives, blew up the house and set himself on fire.
Afterwards, the shogunate officials found two charred corpses with unrecognizable faces from the ruins.
To be fair, although Oshio Heihachiro's uprising did not cause huge material damage to the shogunate, it still makes the meat-eaters of the shogunate and the feudal lords still fearful.
There is no other reason - the ideas promoted by Oshio Heihachiro really touched the hearts of middle and lower-level samurai and the majority of civilians.
The general has no clue! Whether it's a high-ranking samurai or a privileged businessman, why should these guys get on top of us?
These advanced ideas of Oshio Heihachiro were a great threat to the feudal rulers!
It can be said that if Oshio Heihachiro's advanced ideas spread widely, it would be enough to shake the foundation of the rule of the Edo shogunate and the various feudal lords!
Although Heihachiro Oshio died, his thoughts did not die, and his followers who worshiped him did not remain silent!
After the failure of the uprising, the remaining believers of "Oshio Thought" united and continued to work hard to realize Oshio Heihachiro's ideals of governing the world.
They are like grass in the cracks of rocks, surviving and growing tenaciously.
They did not announce their official name to the outside world, and people in the old world used to call them the "Big Salt Party".
It is not difficult to imagine how cruel the shogunate, who is deeply afraid of the "Great Salt Thought", would deal with the Great Salt Party.
For more than twenty years, the shogunate has been frantically pursuing the Great Salt Party.
According to Nishino's knowledge, under the shogunate's crazy suppression, the Great Salt Party was once forced to a dead end.
However... with the outbreak of the "Black Ship Incident" eight years ago, the Great Salt Party's fortunes changed.
Giving in to the powerful battleships and artillery, signing unequal treaties, and being unable to stop the economic invasion and political penetration of Western powers...
Since the outbreak of the "Black Ship Incident", the shogunate's various performances can be described as "showing as much eyes as it has a face", so that more and more people have begun to question the authority of the shogunate.
The more the shogunate stretched its hips and the social environment became worse, the more people worshiped Oshio Heihachiro.
The shogunate, who was fighting fires everywhere, had no time to pay attention to the Salt Party.
The Great Salt Party took advantage of this trend and grew rapidly.
With Gyeonggi as the center, they spread their branches and leaves everywhere.
The number of members, military strength, and sphere of influence are increasing day by day.
And the "Big Salt Thought" spread more and more widely.
Some knowledgeable people who have been influenced by Western democratic ideas have even begun to praise Oishio Heihachiro as "the founder of civil rights"
The name of Oshio Heihachiro has become a spiritual symbol with amazing appeal. He has become a major spiritual pillar for liberal and civil rights advocates to attack the autocratic government.
After years of development, the Great Salt Party is no longer the lost dog it once was - Nishino knows this very well.
However, until now, to him, the Great Salt Party was no different from a tiger or a lion—he knew it existed, but had never seen it.
"My grandson, are you, are you really a member of the Great Salt Party?"
“Of course~the goods are genuine~~”
My grandson spread his hands and put on a harmless smile.
He is not only a spy planted by the Punishment Party within the shogunate, but also a spy planted by the Great Salt Party within the Punishment Party... My grandson's complex identity of being a spy within a spy, a trap within a trap, caused Nishino's brain to spin uncontrollably. I couldn't believe it and stopped for a moment.
Just before Nishino could calm down, my grandson suddenly put away the smile on his face and said seriously:
"Nishino-kun, I need your help now, please listen to me carefully."
"I need you to help me sneak into Rakshasa's room and find evidence that they made and sold the phantom deposits!"
*******
*******
My grandson is a member of the Great Salt Party—you didn’t expect this kind of plot, right?
This is not a plot that Leopard and Leopard just slapped on the head. This setting has been foreshadowed for a long time.
See "Writer's Note" below for details.
First, when my grandson first appeared on the scene, he was reading books introducing Wang Yangming’s philosophy of mind.
Secondly, every member of the Great Salt Party who has appeared so far has a three-character last name: Akutsu, Ichinose, and Ebina.
The surnames of all the Huoshu Thieves except Aomori have a natural element, such as Mizushima, Huosaka, and Kanazawa.
Only my grandson’s surname does not have a natural element, and it is also three-letter.
Again, I have mentioned it countless times before: My grandson never corrects unjust, false or wrong cases. When handling cases, he pays attention to collecting evidence and is not sensitive to torture and extorting confessions, so he is very popular with the people. He behaves in a serious manner and is incompatible with other colleagues.
Finally, the most important foreshadowing - why didn't my grandson find anyone else for help and only focused on Nishino? Let’s leave this aside for now.
