At the same time——

Edo, suburbs, beside a certain river——

Kimura, who was on vacation today, was sitting on the bank of the river, fishing with a fishing rod in hand, motionless like a stubborn rock.

On one side is a rushing river, followed by dense bushes. Under the bushes are rocky hills, connected to the hills not far away.

On the other side is an open wilderness, with several trodden paths crisscrossing the area. The paths extend eastward and end at the outskirts of Edo.

Looking around, it was a beautiful scenery - however, such a beautiful scenery was ruined by Kimura's expression at the moment.

Kimura's face was expressionless, and every line on his face was as cold as the spine of a knife, and his expression was unpredictable.

Beside Kimura, the captain of the fifth division of the Huosaka Thief Division: Huisaka Genzo, who was also on vacation today, was also fishing there with a fishing rod.

At first glance, the two people sitting side by side seemed to be fishing seriously.

But after taking a closer look, we can see that both of them are drunkards who don't care about drinking.

Kimura half-closed his eyes and stared at the river. His thoughtful eyes made him look like he was staring at a distant world.

As for Kasaka, he looked completely absent-minded.

Sometimes he glanced at the river as quiet as a mirror, sometimes he tilted his eyes and peeked at Kimura's face.

——Lord Kimura suddenly called me to come fishing... What exactly do you want?

At this time, Huosaka is full of question marks.

Today is a long-awaited rest day. In order to make full use of this rare holiday and eliminate the accumulated physical and mental fatigue to the greatest extent, Huosaka has made a very detailed "travel plan".

Even though Hesaka is very young, he still knows how to play better than young people.

First of all, let’s go to the “No. 1 Entertainment Street in Edo”: Ryogoku Hirokoji, listen to storytelling, watch Kabuki, Joruri Puppet Show and other performances.

After watching the show, if you still have time, go to Suharaya in Nihonbashi—one of the most famous bookstores in Edo—to see if there are any new yellow paper books on sale.

Yellow Paper: A sentimental literary and artistic publication with yellow leather embroidered figures. It has been at the top of the sales list of various bookstores for a long time. Because this kind of reading material sells so well, many writers make a living exclusively writing yellow paper.

Kasaka is a very seductive woman. Reading yellow paper is one of his biggest hobbies. He has a large collection of yellow paper at home. The number of them fills the whole room and makes him sweat every time he goes out.

After spending the day leisurely and leisurely, he went to the place that countless Edo men dreamed of: Yoshiwara, the "city that never sleeps", and spent a night of fun in the lap of a beautiful woman. He missed Hayaki in Hakumoya too much

The lady's feet are small.

A perfect plan, a fulfilling day - but Kimura's sudden arrival completely disrupted his perfect plan.

Early this morning, Kimura suddenly came to visit and said that he wanted to go fishing with Huosaka.

Kimura's sudden invitation made Huosaka very confused.

Although he and Kimura are both captains of the Fire Thief Kai squad, they don't have much interaction with each other on weekdays.

The relationship between the two of them was neither stranger nor stranger, and familiarity could not be considered very familiar - at least not so familiar that they could go out fishing together on their days off.

Kawasaka originally wanted to refuse, but considering that this was someone's initiative to make an appointment, he was embarrassed to offend others. In addition, he was also curious about why Kimura suddenly invited him to go fishing, so he finally reluctantly accepted the invitation.

Under the leadership of Kimura, the two of them came to this small river on the outskirts of Edo.

From the moment he started fishing, Kimura remained silent - which made Kawasaka increasingly confused.

What exactly is Kimura-sama trying to do? Does he really just want to fish with me?

Kimura remained silent.

And Huosaka was troubled by doubts and couldn't find a suitable topic for a while.

The two sides remained silent.

An unknown amount of time passed, until a wisp of refreshing breeze ruffled the surface of the river, and Kimura finally spoke out his first words after throwing the fishing line into the river:

"...Housaka-kun, what do you think of Tachibana Aoden?"

"ah?"

Huosaka turned his face, blinked hard at Kimura, and asked Kimura with his movements: Mr. Kimura, why are you asking this?

Kimura, whose eyes were still fixed on the river in front of him, seemed to have not noticed the eyes that Hosaka was casting towards him, and continued to himself:

"Hosaka-kun, there are only you and me here, no outsiders are present. And you should also know: I hate Tachibana Aoden, so don't worry, feel free to speak freely."

Kawasaka raised his eyebrows slightly.

He silently withdrew his gaze from Kimura and pursed his lips thoughtfully. After a moment, he whispered:

"I... hate Tachibana Aoden."

A gloomy cloud of worry passed between Huosaka's brows.

"I, Hosaka Genzo, have been serving the Tokugawa family since I was 16 years old. I have been self-denial and dedicated to the public service for decades, and have accumulated countless merits and hard work, and I have finally reached the high position I am today."

"And that Ju Qingden just killed a few lunatics who talked about 'rejecting the foreigners', and he transformed from a 'three times' concentric to the captain of the third division on an equal footing with me... It's really unreasonable!"

Speaking of this, Kawasaka's hand holding the fishing rod trembled slightly like a dead leaf in the wind, and jealousy burst out of his eyes as if they were about to solidify.

As if he wanted to drain away all the private words accumulated in his heart, he no longer worried and hesitantly opened his voice:

"Ju Qingden's promotion is disrespectful and blasphemous to a veteran minister like me who works hard every day!"

When Hisaka spoke, Kimura listened quietly the whole time.

As if he had long expected that Huosaka would express his dissatisfaction with Ayoto, his expression was calm, and there was a faint smile on the corner of his mouth.

"Hosaka-kun, I knew you must hate Tachibana Aoden just like me."

After saying that, Kimura put down the fishing rod in his hand, turned around, and met Kasaka's eyes with a serious look on his face.

"Hosaka-kun, the reason why I invited you to go fishing today is actually because I want to discuss an important matter with you: Do you want to join hands with me and work together to bring trouble to Tachibana Aoden?"

Let Tachibana Aoden be unlucky - as soon as these words entered his ears, a bright light suddenly flashed in the depths of Kasaka's pupils.

However, this bright light was fleeting and disappeared quickly the next moment after it flashed.

"Of course I would like to see Tachibana Aoden's life uncomfortable, but... can this kind of thing be done?"

Huosaka slumped his shoulders and looked gloomy.

"Although I really don't want to admit it...but that kid with a yellow mouth does have some talents."

"Excellent swordsmanship, dare to fight and charge. He made great achievements on the first day he took office here... Damn it...!"

Although Kawasaka's expression dimmed, the jealousy in his eyes did not go out—in fact, it became even stronger.

Hearing Huosaka's words, "He made great contributions on the first day he took office here," Kimura's face suddenly turned uglier. From a certain perspective, Aoshinobu's new contribution was still

He gave it to Qingdeng.

He originally wanted to assign a difficult task to Qingto in order to embarrass him, but who knew that he would further enhance his reputation... Even now, every time he thinks about this, Kimura is still so depressed that he wants to vomit blood.

Kimura took several deep breaths, and after barely gathering his emotions, he sneered:

"Hosaka-kun, you can't say that."

"I admit: that 'Yuan Yu family' does have some abilities - but that doesn't mean he really has the ability to live a peaceful life in the Huofu Thief Kai."

"You and I are both captains of the Huoshan Thief Kai squad, so Huosaka-kun, you should also know very well how difficult it is to discipline the soldiers in the team."

"There are many arrogant soldiers in the army who cannot be beaten or scolded, and are more delicate than porcelain."

"Not to mention commanding these arrogant soldiers, just telling them not to cause trouble and not to hinder me is enough to make Ju Qingden very busy and exhausted."

"Hmm..." Huosaka nodded in agreement, and the gloom on his face suddenly disappeared.

The Edo shogunate was a samurai regime, and the samurai who were in the ruling class were, to put it bluntly, a group of "hereditary soldiers."

Everyone does their own thing on weekdays.

Open the sword hall to open the sword hall.

Those who do knowledge do knowledge.

Work as an errand in the government.

But if there is a war and the shogunate issues a mobilization order, then all samurai are obliged to put down all matters and work at hand, take their own armor, swords, guns and other weapons and join the army.

In other words, the samurai are a group of "professional soldiers waiting to be called upon at any time."

Therefore, ever since the Tokugawa family established the shogunate in Edo, there has been no such thing as "recruitment" either in the shogunate's territory or in the vassal territory.

Civilians were not qualified to serve as soldiers, and the military was entirely handled by samurai.

Regardless of whether it is the Hufu Thieves Kai, the "Third Division" or other troops, all the existing standing armies of the shogunate, from generals to ordinary soldiers, are serious samurai. Almost every one of them has an ancestor.

, all had been wounded, shed blood, and made meritorious service for Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo shogunate.

They were either selected or gained through connections. Some of them were from wealthy families with very strong backgrounds, and they stuffed incompetent disciples from their families into them to gild their qualifications.

Although Aoto, my grandson, and Kimura are the captains of the team, they do not have the power to eliminate the old team members and select new ones.

Let alone changing a team member, even if you are punishing a team member, you must carefully consider it first - the Yuli or Tongxin in front of you may seem to have a lower official position than you, but the family power behind him may be much greater.

It can scare you to death.

Generally speaking, samurai would not marry commoners. Samurai would only marry samurai.
To be continued...