Edo is so noisy tonight.
Since the rise of the Qingshui clan, its dominance has been constantly challenged by other forces.
In order to whiten himself, Yakuza often puts on the appearance of a businessman or a knight.
But in the final analysis, the essence of Yakuza is always "violence".
Therefore, endless fighting is the norm in the underground world.
In recent years, many emerging Yakuza groups who are not afraid of tigers, as well as Yakuza forces who want to get a share of the prosperous Kanto, have attacked the Qingshui clan one after another.
In addition, there are occasionally some warriors who consider themselves to be highly skilled, who want to imitate the knights who draw swords to help in the market, and want to suppress the Qingshui clan and eliminate harm for the people.
However, whether it is for profit or simply wanting to be a hero, no matter what, as long as they challenge the Qingshui clan, their final endings will be very similar.
The former were either annexed or killed from top to bottom.
As for the latter... their fate is even simpler. Either he fled far away and never dared to come to Kanto again, or he was given a seat in Edo Bay and contributed to the fishery of the Pacific Ocean.
Three years ago, there was a master of swordsmanship who had obtained Katori Shinto-ryu's all-in-one reputation. He was very angry because the girl he liked was bullied by a member of the Shimizu clan.
The swordsman, who was in the prime of his life, got up angrily with a rush of blood, turned into a red face with anger, put on his sword, and went straight to the man to settle the score.
Then... there is no more.
Since that night, no one has seen him and his sweetheart again...
One night after that, someone witnessed several Yakuza from the Shimizu clan striding toward Edo Bay carrying a large wooden barrel containing unknown items...
All in all, with the full support of the Punishment Party, the Qingshui clan used blood and bones bit by bit to establish an unshakable hegemonic position in the Yakuza world of Kanto!
Of course, unless the government has completely lost its authority and grass-roots management capabilities, and has become an empty shelf, no matter how powerful the Yakuza organization is, it will be difficult to confront the government with violent machines such as the police and the army. This is undoubtedly The truth, no matter ancient or modern time, east or west.
Although the Edo shogunate is currently in decline, it is far from weak enough that even Yakuza can bully it.
However, the leadership of the Qingshui clan is not stupid. They certainly know that as long as the well-dressed Yueqing Yunke at the top of the shogunate is willing and willing to work hard, the Qingshui clan will not be able to bully them even if they are two or three times bigger.
[Note: Yueqing Yunke: a Japanese idiom that initially referred to the ministers of the Kyoto court, and later generally referred to meat eaters in high positions]
Therefore, the Qingshui clan allocates a huge amount of money every year to bribe and bribe officials at all levels of the shogunate, sparing no effort to manage relationships and unblock connections.
Who can have trouble with money?
What's more, the policy of governing the country upheld by the Edo shogunate and continued to this day is to "strive for stability in everything."
Influenced by this trend, the suffocating bureaucracy has always enveloped the shogunate.
As long as they don't go too far, the shogunate officials who take "don't cause trouble for me" as their highest action goal are willing to turn a blind eye to the dirty behavior of the Qingshui clan.
As a result, the Qingshui clan had an extra protective umbrella, and the officials of the shogunate had money.
It can be said that "everyone is happy" - only the common people suffer.
As time goes by, fewer and fewer people or forces dare to oppose the Qingshui clan.
No one dares to run wild in the territory of the Qingshui clan anymore.
No one dared to challenge the Qingshui clan's troops head-on.
To this day, both the common people in Kanto and the internal members of the Qingshui clan have reached the same consensus - the Qingshui clan is the earth emperor of Kanto!
Its casinos, gang houses, underground banks and other venues have no influence on Edo... No! It is an inviolable existence for the general public in Kanto.
But now - just tonight, these "noble" forbidden areas were breached one by one by that man... by "Nioh" Tachibana Tachibana, as if he was in an uninhabited place!
From Kan'eiji Temple to Shinagawa.
From Naito Shinjuku to Onagi River
[Note: Kan'eiji Temple is at the north end of Edo; Shinagawa is at the south end; Naito Shinjuku is at the west end; Onagi River is at the east end]
The whole night, Qingdeng ran in the bloody storm!
He is like a hunter with a keen sense of smell and extraordinary mobility. He gallops, leaps, wields a knife, and hunts.
Every time he destroyed a stronghold of the Qingshui clan, he would rush straight to the next "place" without stopping.
Whether it's an insignificant Okonomiya or an important casino with a lot of revenue, they are all like the streets in the early morning, allowing Aomori to come and go as he pleases!
No one can stop him.
No one can stop him!
The heavy news that "'Nioh' Tachibana Aoden attacked the Shimizu clan" spread from the people to the government, and from the government to the people.
One spreads to ten, ten spreads to a hundred, and a hundred spreads to a thousand.
Soon, the silence of the night was broken.
The originally deserted streets were suddenly filled with anxious figures of officials from various departments including the Huo Fu Thieves Kai, the "Three Chapters" of the Enforcement Station, and the Home Division.
Suddenly receiving the summons, they had to get up from their warm beds. When they first arrived at their respective government offices, they all had stinking faces.
But after learning the reason for the sudden emergency summons, they all showed shock and disbelief.
The Qingshui clan suffered heavy losses and their strongholds fell one after another?
Is it just one person who single-handedly created this situation?
And that person is the "Nioh" Tachibana Aoto who has been missing for a long time?
What is the purpose of "Nioh" suddenly attacking the Qingshui clan?
Does he have any accomplices?
Where is he now?
Countless questions and confusions hit the heads of the officials like a giant hammer falling from the sky.
It made them dizzy.
It was as if they were trapped in a fog.
What should we do next? The officials all turned their attention to "applying for instructions" to their superiors and leaders.
In fact, their superiors and leaders were also at a loss and confused at this time.
After weighing the pros and cons, they could only issue a blank order to "go to the streets to look for Tachibana Aoden", and temporarily put on a posture of "we are not doing anything".
Compared with the slow action of the government, the reaction of the victim...that is, the Qingshui clan was undoubtedly much faster.
After receiving the news that "The King of Benevolence is coming", Rakshasa immediately mobilized his troops and generals.
But...everything happened too suddenly.
Although Rakshasa's remedial work was not untimely, his deployment speed could not keep up with Qingdeng's attack speed!
Qingdeng acted alone, without the burden of companions.
With the blessing of talents such as "Leading the Lead +1" and "Iron Lung +1", Qingdeng can move much faster than ordinary people.
What's more, he also received formal ninja training in the New Imperial Palace, and has super mobility that "even on a wall that is only a palm wide, he can still walk on flat ground."
Ten minutes ago, he was listening to the music of Mi Mi in Yoshihara.
Ten minutes later, he might appear near Nihonbashi, overlooking the bustling city with people coming and going.
The right way is to be prepared for the front and the back will be few, to be prepared for the back is to be few for the front, to be prepared for the left and be few for the right, to be prepared for the right and be few for the left. If you are not prepared for everything, you will be few for everything.
If you deploy defenses everywhere without any specific purpose, like sprinkling pepper, your strength will be dispersed invisibly, and the great opportunity of "defeating them one by one" will be given to Qingdeng.
Therefore, Rakshasa could only concentrate its forces in important strongholds.
As for other less important places... you can only ask for your own blessings!
However... even though he was so cautious, it did not relax Rakshasa's frown.
Because just now, he received bad news: a certain area that he had focused on defending was still under Qingdeng's sword!
It wasn't until dawn broke in the sky, and the soft white light of dawn filled the streets and alleys of Edo, that Aoto finally stopped his attack.
In just one night, Qingden destroyed 13 strongholds of the Qingshui clan! Hundreds of Yakuza were killed and injured by him!
The news that "'Nioh' Tachibana Aoden kicked the Shimizu clan 13 times in just one night and killed over a hundred enemies" swept through the entire Edo like a whirlwind, and then spread to Kanto and even further places.
Nioh, who has been silent since the destruction of the Yi Group, has once again burst into the world's sight with his figure standing with a sword in hand after half a year!
…
…
The morning after the Qingshui clan was severely injured——
Edo--
On the red soil road, the dry and cold north wind howled by.
At first glance, everything looks like it always does.
Men and women came and went.
The large trucks carrying goods rushed through the pedestrians.
However, if you observe carefully, you will definitely find that the atmosphere of the town at this time has completely changed.
"Hey, do you know what happened last night?"
"I knew it earlier."
"Oh, this is really... a feeling like 'when I wake up, the whole Kanto has changed'."
"It's not like 'Chantian'. The Qingshui clan's tree has deep roots, and such a small amount of trauma is not enough to topple it."
"However, even the rich and wealthy Qingshui clan will feel deeply hurt after being kicked for 13 times, right?"
"Tch, what do you know? For a Yakuza organization at the level of the Qingshui clan, losing a little money is nothing. Losing money is a small thing, but being embarrassed is a big thing! Yakuza can give up anything, but they can't lose face. ! If the Qingshui clan doesn’t try to save their face as soon as possible, how will people view them afterwards?”
"Well...that's true."
"Why is that Tachibana Aoden trying to get in trouble with the Qingshui clan? Is there any grudge between them?"
"who knows."
"Humph, I never thought that the damn Qingshui clan would suffer a big blow. It deserves it!"
"Shush, shush, shut up! Be careful the walls have ears!"
…
Conversations similar to this can be heard everywhere.
Logically speaking, if such important news happened, it would be published on the tile board the next day.
However, the tile vendors were afraid of the pressure from the Qingshui clan and did not dare to publish any information about last night's incident on their tiles.
The so-called "tile-ban tabloid" can be understood as a newspaper from the Edo period.
At the beginning of the 17th century, a newspaper-like reading material called "tile board" appeared for the first time in Osaka, the "commercial capital".
It is an unofficial reading material, freely printed and sold by the public.
To make a tile reading, you would first carve it out of clay, then burn the clay into tiles, and then use the tiles to print the contents onto paper.
With the development of technology, tiles are no longer limited to clay printing, and tiles printed with woodblocks have also appeared.
Waban will report various types of news, including domestic wars, riots, murders, earthquakes, fires, black ship attacks and other news-like information, as well as some love killings, vendettas, freaks, prodigies, Legends of exotic animals and other entertaining gossip and legends.
Tile tile vendors read out today's hot news aloud on the street while peddling their products to citizens - this is one of the most common street scenes in major cities such as Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka.
The Qingshui clan can use their power to force the tile vendors to shut up.
But no matter how powerful they are, they can't stop Youyou's mouth.
Teahouses, izakayas, bathhouses... Anywhere where people gathered, people were discussing Qingnobo's righteous deeds.
Yes, a righteous act.
No human being with a normal mind would have a favorable impression of the Yakuza group.
The common people of Edo have long hated the Shimizu clan for their evil deeds.
It's just that I am unable to resist, so I can only swallow my anger.
Therefore, after learning that Qingdeng had accomplished the feat that they had always wanted to do but did not dare to do, they all felt like a great revenge had been avenged and a breath of bad breath was released.
The men looked fascinated.
The women's eyes were filled with brilliance.
The hearts of thousands of people in Edo were all touched by the same person.
…
…
Edo, Yoshiwara——
After listening to the report of his subordinates, "Yoshihara Tongxin" Kua Shengxiu smiled bitterly and said to himself:
"This Tachibana Aoden... really looks like Mr. Ogata... if he doesn't chirp, it's enough. If he chirps, it will make people's jaws drop..."
…
…
Edo, the settlement of Westerners——
Elodie jumped down from her chair and looked at Leroy in front of her with surprise.
"Miss Leroy, teacher, he showed up? Please tell me in detail!"
…
…
Edo, the Imperial Guard Hall——
"Ah Sui! Ah Sui!"
"Don't be so loud, it's so noisy, I heard you."
Hijikata Toshizo glanced helplessly at Kondo Isamu behind him.
"Ah Sui, you..."
Kondo had just begun to speak when he was interrupted by Hijikata:
"I already know about the 'Tangerine Night Attack on the Qingshui Clan'."
"You already know, don't you? That's fine, you can save me the trouble. Ah Sui, in your opinion, why did Mr. Ju come into conflict with the Qingshui clan?"
"How do I know this kind of thing?"
Hijikata said angrily.
"I'm not a roundworm in his stomach."
Having said this, Hijikata paused.
Suddenly, he continued with a thoughtful expression.
"The only thing that is certain now...is that Tachibana is determined to fight against the Qingshui clan."
Hijikata clicked his tongue.
"I kicked him 13 times...I didn't even save any face...This is completely a life-and-death relationship..."
…
…
Edo, Chishiya——
Click, click, click...
A bright red color rushed towards the Thousand Things House not far away at a very fast speed.
She likes to wear red clothes, is petite, and is agile - it is Kinoshita Mai.
"Mr. Kiryu! Mr. Kiryu!"
Kinoshita Mai pushed open the shop door and shouted emotionally:
"Mr. Kiryu, Tachibana-kun...eh?"
As soon as she opened her mouth, the rest of the words got stuck in her throat.
The reason for this was all because there was a tall figure standing in the Thousand Things House that she had not expected.
"Hey, young master, it's been a long time"
Standing in front of Kiryu, Makimura Yahachi pushed the hat on his head and smiled slightly.
"I'm back."
**********
**********
In terms of order of appearance, Kinoshita Mai is indeed the first heroine in this book.
Aoto met Kinoshita Mai first, and then met Souji, Elodie, Sanako, and Tenzouin respectively.
