,I was a swordsman in ancient Japan

There will always be someone who will defeat me someday, but it won't be today, and it won't be you.

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Five days after the results of the literary test were released, the martial arts test began.

On the list with the names of those who passed the literary test, there were only 408 names in total.

Ogata didn't know exactly how many people participated in the "Gozen Trials".

But according to the gossip he heard from various channels, the total number of people participating in the "Imperial Trial Combination" was around 500 people.

In other words, one literary test directly screened out about a hundred people and eliminated nearly one-fifth of the participants.

The venue for the martial arts test was located on a river beach on the outskirts of Edo.

The official start time of the martial arts test is five o'clock in the morning.

When Ogata and others arrived at the scene, it was almost 7 o'clock in the morning.

Although it had been some time since the martial arts test started, many people had already gathered at the scene.

Shimada was speechless: "There are so many people..."

"Most of the people who come here should be those who come to participate in the 'Imperial Trial Match'." Makimura on the side said, "There shouldn't be many people like us who just come here to join in the fun."

The only people who accompanied Ogata to participate in the imperial trial and stopped by to join in the fun were Makimura and Shimada.

It is early in the morning, and the only people who can come to join in the excitement of the "Imperial Trial Match" at this time are those who have no work and have nothing to do on weekdays.

The venue for the martial arts test is located in a wilderness on the outskirts of Edo. You have to leave Edo and walk for half an hour to reach the venue.

Such a long distance is enough to put off most idlers who want to join in the fun.

So in the end, very few people will come here as spectators, basically just idlers who have a strong interest in the art of war.

Ogata expected that there would be very few people coming to join in the fun of the martial arts test, so he didn't ask Atachi to follow him.

There are absolutely very few women who would go all the way to watch a bunch of tough guys compete.

If A-Machi is asked to follow him, A-Machi will definitely stand out and attract too much attention.

Although A-Machi is covered by makeup, one of the "four major evil arts in Asia", it is still too risky to show his face in such a conspicuous environment.

To be on the safe side, Ogata asked A-Machi to stay in the hotel and not allow A-Machi to accompany him to participate in the martial arts test.

And Ogata's judgment was correct because there were indeed very few women at the scene.

Ogata glanced around and saw not a single woman, but a bunch of rough guys of different ages.

Asai has no interest in the "imperial trial".

Yuan Yi was very interested, and last night he also offered to join in the fun.

But Lin sternly refused.

Uncle, have you forgotten that there are many enemies of yours wandering around in Edo right now? Don’t go looking for trouble at this time. These were the exact words Lin said when she rejected Genichi last night.

Ogata was very curious: What would Rin think if she knew that Genichi actually sneaked out to kill his enemies one by one every night? What would his expression be like...?

After being sternly rejected by Lin, Ogata thought that Genichi would argue with him.

But unexpectedly, after being rejected by Lin, Yuan Yi nodded obediently and agreed, patting his chest and saying: Got it, don’t watch it if you don’t want to watch ‘Ozen Trial Combination’.

Mamiya is also one of the wanted criminals of the shogunate. He should try his best to avoid places where a large number of people gather and where official officials are definitely present.

Although Rin does not need to hide her head and tail like Mamiya, she, like Asai, has little interest in the "imperial trial match".

So in the end, Makimura and Shimada were the only ones who accompanied Ogata to the martial arts test.

The breath exhaled by hundreds of people made the surrounding air turbid and stuffy.

Not far away is a winding river nearly 3 meters wide.

The land Ogata and others stepped on was the beach washed away by the river over the years.

The terrain is flat and the soles of the feet are hard soil or broken stones. This kind of terrain is indeed suitable for use as a trial site.

"Look." Shimada suddenly pointed in a certain direction, "What is that?"

Ogata and Makimura looked in the direction pointed by Shimada's finger.

At the end of the direction pointed by Shimada's finger, several people dressed as official officials were hurriedly erecting three flawless white curtains with neat techniques.

These three pieces of white curtain fabric standing up just form a rectangle with one side missing.

In this "rectangle with one edge missing" surrounded by three white curtains, there are dozens of small stirrups.

At this moment, many people have taken their seats on these dozens of pony stools.

The people sitting on these pony stools were, without exception, wearing clothes that looked very expensive, and hanging around their waists were swords that looked very ordinary.

Each person is accompanied by one or several people with nicknames.

"There should be seats specially reserved for those dignitaries who are interested in martial arts trials to watch the trials," Ogata said.

"Probably." Makimura nodded, "Those people should be senior officials of the shogunate, and they came here to join in the fun."

In order to prevent outsiders from approaching, and to demonstrate the authority of these dignitaries, the seats of Yueqing Yunke were surrounded by white curtains on three sides. Only the front was not blocked by the cloth because it was needed to watch the trial.

Looking at these "masters" who were already in place inside these three white curtains, waiting for the official start of the martial arts test, Ogata couldn't help but laugh.

This scene made Ogata involuntarily recall the "Kung Fu show dedicated to gods" that he participated in when he was not "Executioner Ittosai".

At that time, there were also many "human masters" from the Hirose Domain who came to the competition venue to join in the fun.

Looking at the people with minor surnames who are accompanying the big shots inside the white curtains.

Ogata recalled for no reason the incident when he was favored by Matsudaira Sadanobu.

A few days ago, after being invited by Lao Zhong to use his nickname, Ogata used the "drag" technique and successfully dragged the matter over.

After returning to the hotel where he was staying, Ogata told Atachi and others the breaking news that "he was favored by Lao Chu" because there was nothing to hide.

After Atachi and others learned from Ogata that he had been favored by Lao Chu, their first reaction was whether Ogata had a fever.

Ogata understood the reaction of Atachi and others at that time very well.

After all, in the Edo period, which placed great emphasis on hierarchical order and family status, and where communication between classes was almost impossible, it was very unimaginable for a person of low status to be spotted by a big boss and then rise to the top in one fell swoop.

Ogata spent a lot of effort to convince Atachi that he was not talking nonsense, nor did he have a fever.

After believing that Ogata was telling the truth, Amachi took the lead and asked Ogata: "How are you going to reply to Lao Zhong in the future?"

Ogata replied without hesitation at that time: "I won't make any response at the moment. We will wait until Shiranui is defeated."

The reason Ogata did not reject Matsudaira Sadanobu on the spot was because he was afraid of offending Matsudaira Sadanobu.

That night, Ogata and Matsudaira Sadanobu met for the first time. Ogata knew nothing about Matsudaira Sadanobu's character and wondered if he was the kind of person who "hated others rejecting him."

Before Shiranui was defeated, it was a very irrational thing to offend the country's second-in-command, no matter how he thought about it.

And it was impossible for Ogata to agree to Matsudaira Sadanobu, because he had not forgotten that he was a guilty person.

Therefore, for the sake of caution, Ogata replied to Sadanobu Matsudaira at that time, "Let me think about it." This answer was the most conservative.

Ogata was also very lucky. Matsudaira Sadanobu agreed to set aside time for Ogata to consider without setting any time limit.

Ogata planned to put the matter of Matsudaira Sadanobu behind for the time being, and then deal with the matter of Matsudaira Sadanobu after defeating Shiranui.

By that time, it didn't matter whether he offended Matsudaira Sadanobu or not. At worst, he could just flee Edo.

…

…

The time of waiting is always boring.

In order to pass the boring time, Ogata silently opened his personal system interface and checked the current status of his various experience bars.

[Current personal level: LV33]

[Sakakihara Itto-ryu Level: 11th Dan]

[Wuwo Sword Style Level: 10th Stage]

[Shiranui style ninjutsu level: 6th level]

These days, Ogata sneaks out of the hotel together almost every night late at night to go 'rat hunting'.

Meeting an enemy whose appearance Yuan Yi still remembers is a low-probability event.

It wasn't until the night before yesterday that we finally encountered the second batch of rats we encountered after launching the "rat hunting" operation: a group of Yakuza, a total of about ten people.

According to Genichi, these samurai are the enemies he made 4 years ago. At that time, Genichi went out to the Suruga area for some matters and met a Yakuza family.

After something happened, Yuan Yi destroyed the headquarters of the Yakuza gang. These people must have come to seek revenge.

In addition to assisting Genichi in annihilating his enemies, Ogata also dealt with many troublemakers in Yoshiwara these days.

After the results of the literary test were released, Yoshiwara's crime rate skyrocketed.
To be continued...