Since this bathhouse is adjacent to the hotel where Ogata lives, Ogata only comes to bathe in this bathhouse.

Because Omachi took longer to take a bath than Ogata, Ogata would go to the resting area on the second floor to kill some time after taking a bath.

So I often meet Shisuke by chance.

Every time I met Shisuke, Shisuke was telling people about his previous hunting experiences, or was preparing to tell people about his hunting experiences.

Shimasuke was an "original hunter" who lived in Ezo, so he might be able to gather some useful information from his previous hunting experiences.

So whenever he met Shisuke on the second floor, Ogata would come up and listen to his hunting stories.

After listening to Shisuke's hunting stories for more than a month, I didn't collect much useful information. Instead, I learned a lot about various hunting tips and wilderness survival techniques.

Ogata wanted to know more about Ezo.

Ogata knew almost nothing about Ezo.

The only thing Ogata knew about Ezo was that they still lived a very primitive settlement life and made a living by fishing and hunting.

He also took the initiative to ask Shisuke if he knew about Ezo.

Unfortunately, I only received a negative answer.

Shisuke and his fellow villagers lived a very isolated life, rarely communicating with the outside world.

According to Shisuke, his village has basically no contact with Ezo. He also knows very little about Ezo. He only heard about some strange customs of Ezo from the elders, such as calling a bear that has eaten human flesh "unka".

Mui" and a few simple Ezo words.

Ogata, who was still a little warm from the shower, sat cross-legged next to Shisuke, and then said to Shisuke:

"Mr. Shisuke, today may be the last time I come to listen to your story."

"Oh?" Shimasuke's eyes flashed with surprise, "Are you leaving here?"

"Yes." Ogata nodded, "Tomorrow morning I and Uchiko will leave Kinkino Town. Tonight is my last night in Kinkino Town."

"That's it..." Shisuke grinned with a smile full of kindness, "Then I wish you and your wife a safe journey in advance!"

"Since tonight is the last night you stay in Nishikino Town, then listen to my story tonight."

"After all, it's the last time."

"That's what I meant." Ogata smiled, "But don't tell your story tonight too long. If you tell it too long, I might not be able to hear the end."

Although I couldn't get any useful information from Shisuke's mouth, his hunting stories were quite interesting.

Listening to Shimasuke's stories has become one of Ogata's important pastimes during this time.

Unfortunately, sometimes the stories Shimasuke tells are too long. Before the story is finished, Omachi has already finished taking a bath, so he has to put down the half-heard story and leave the bathhouse.

"Okay." Shimasuke laughed a few times, "Then I'll try to pick a shorter story to tell today!"

At this time, Shisuke was surrounded by people who usually liked listening to Shisuke's stories.

After seeing that the audience had almost arrived, Shimazuke cleared his throat and prepared to start today's story.

"Mr. Shisuke! It is said that there are gold mines in Ezochi. Is this true?"

The person who asked this question was one of the audience members surrounding Shimazuke, a young man who was probably only in his early teens.

Ogata had some impression of this young man, who was an old listener of Shisuke's.

Hearing the boy's rhetorical question, Shimasuke was stunned for a moment, and then asked:

"Why are you asking this?"

"I heard what the samurai who came to our bar today said." The young man said, "Those drunk samurai said that Ezochi is full of gold mines, and they said they wanted to go there to gold mine and become rich."

"Ha." Shimasuke smiled with an unknown meaning, "How could the Ezo Land be full of gold mines? If the Ezo Land was really full of gold mines, the shogunate would have sent troops to occupy the entire Ezo Land."

"Ezo Land is full of gold mines and so on, but people are just spreading rumors."

Having said this, Shimasuke picked up the teacup on the side, took a sip of tea, moistened his throat, and then said:

"But there is indeed gold poured there in Ezochi."

"I once heard my father say that when the Edo shogunate first opened two hundred years ago, some people found placer gold in the rivers of Ezo."

"As soon as the news came out, tens of thousands of speculators flocked to Ezo, hoping to strike for gold and get rich."

"But gold is not that easy to find. The speculators who flocked to Ezo to hunt for gold basically lost all their money."

"And their rough gold mining behavior of occupying various rivers has also angered the Ezo people."

"Although the Ezo people still live a very primitive and barbaric life, it would be troublesome if they started to cause trouble."

"In order to calm down the emotions of the Ezo people, the Matsumae Clan, which is located in the northernmost part of the country and has the responsibility of monitoring Ezo, with the help of the shogunate, ordered that gold mining in Ezo is strictly prohibited."

"If a gold digger is caught, he will be punished on the spot."

"Under the 'gold mining ban' imposed by the shogunate and the Matsumae clan, the Ezo land, which had been plagued by gold diggers, was finally restored to peace."

"However, to this day, there are still some people who want money rather than their lives. In order to make a fortune, they decide to take risks and come to Ezochi to pan for gold despite the government's ban."

"When I was young, I encountered a group of gold diggers who passed through our village."

"Today's gold diggers are basically a bunch of lawless desperadoes who regard law and morality as nothing."

"The gang of gold diggers passing by our village actually planned to rob our village of money and food."

"Oh, those gold diggers are stupid too."

“I came to Ezo to pan for gold, but I didn’t know much about Ezo.”

"They didn't realize that our village is a 'ghost village' where people make a living by hunting. Even the women can draw bows and shoot arrows."

"Compared with bears and wolves, those gold diggers are nothing to mention."

"Under the volley of our bows and arrows, we shot the gold diggers who were trying to steal our money and food into hedgehogs."

"I can remember the funny expressions of those gold diggers when they saw the whole village taking out their bows and arrows. Hahahaha."

Shisuke's words directly aroused the interest of many people present.

"Mr. Shisuke! Can you tell us how your village fought against those gold diggers? I want to hear it!"

"Yeah, yeah, we want to hear it!"

Shimasuke looked embarrassed: "How to fight those gold diggers... This story is not very exciting."

"It's okay, just tell us!"

Seeing that most of the audience expressed that they wanted to hear the whole story of their village's fight against the gold diggers, they could only sigh helplessly and then said:

"Okay then, let's change today's story to how our village dealt with that group of gold diggers."

"I remember that was 35 years ago..."

Shisuke began to tell a story.

However, Ogata's mind was still immersed in the "Gold Rush in Ezo Land" that Shisuke just talked about.

There is a lot of gold in Ezochi, and to this day there are still outlaws going to Ezochi to dig for gold. This is the first time Ogata has heard of it.

No one had ever told Ogata about this before.

Because Ezo is so remote, in this era of extremely underdeveloped information transmission, there are very few people who know about Ezo.

Ogata didn't expect that after listening to Shisuke's story for so long, he didn't collect any useful information.

Unexpectedly, the night before leaving Nishikino Town, I had an unexpected surprise and received a piece of valuable information.

Gold digger?…

Ogata silently chewed the word "gold digger" in his heart.

According to what Shisuke just said, there are still many desperadoes who want money but not their lives and go to Ezo land to hunt for gold.

These people who came to dig for gold had already regarded the authority and laws of the shogunate as nothing, so it was not surprising what they did.
Chapter completed!