I formed the strongest swordsman group.

Chapter 771 The remnants of the Great Salt Party! 【4600】

This trip to Osaka can be considered an incognito visit.

Therefore, in order to facilitate the operation and conceal his tracks, Qing Deng reduced the number of his entourage to the limit.

He only brought two followers with him - Boss Kiryu and Mai Kinoshita.

One of these two men is a veteran of Hulu House, and the other is the young master of Hulu House.

With their company, it would surely save a lot of trouble and effort when dealing with the Calabash House.

Of course, there is another reason why Qing Deng brought Mai Kinoshita with him - Osaka is her hometown, and taking her to Osaka is also a disguised way of taking care of her, giving her a chance to go home and visit her relatives.

Qing Deng's style of doing things has always been vigorous and resolute.

He had just announced to his generals at the meeting today that he would embark on a trip to Osaka, and by tomorrow morning, they had already quietly set off.

This time, he did not ride on the carrot.

Everyone knows that Nioh's mount is a big black bull.

There is no difference between riding a carrot out of the house and having a big note with the words "I am Ju Qingdeng" stuck on your face.

Led by Boss Kiryu, they rode fast horses and headed south quickly, heading straight for Osaka.

Kyoto and Osaka are neighbors separated by a narrow strip of water.

The Kyosaka area is the birthplace of the Yamato people. After thousands of years of development, the transportation conditions between the two places can be said to be quite complete.

In just two days, the sound of the waves in Osaka Bay gradually became clearer in Qing Deng's ears.

……

……

Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!
The white waves hit the rocks, making a surging, rhythmic sound.

Qingdeng reined in his horse on the beach, and the magnificent scenery of Osaka Bay came into his sight.

Looking ahead, just off in the distance, close to the horizon, a few ships leaving the port can be vaguely seen.

Some of these ships were ordinary sailing ships, while others were steamships emitting black smoke.

Boss Kiryu and Mai Kinoshita were waiting quietly on Qing Deng's left and right, accompanying Qing Deng to enjoy the sea view.

Just now, when passing by this place, Qing Deng suddenly had the urge to get closer to see the famous Osaka Bay.

After watching quietly for about 3 minutes, he nodded slightly and praised softly:

"The name 'Naniwa' is well deserved."

Naniwa - the ancient name for Osaka and its surrounding areas, "Naniwa Castle" means "Osaka Castle".

Other ancient names for Osaka include Naniwa and Namba.

According to legend, Emperor Jimmu traveled eastward from Kyushu by boat and when he arrived near Osaka, the water was turbulent and the waves were rolling, so the place was named "Namika".

"Naniwa", "Nanwa" and "Naniwa" have similar meanings.

As the surrounding area is mountainous, the area around Uemachidai is large and the slopes are gentle. In Japanese, "坂" means "slope", so it was called "Osaka".

Qingdeng is not just for sightseeing.

He wanted to see with his own eyes the future development focus of Qinjinfan.

Japan is just an island country with a small territory and scarce resources.

If you only do business in a corner of Japan, you won't make much money even if you work hard.

If you want to make a lot of money, developing ocean trade is essential.

Qing Deng stared at the ships on the horizon and thought:
——First of all, we need to build a professional fleet.

How can we talk about ocean trade without even a ship?

Moreover, it cannot be an ordinary ship.

In business, time is money.

Therefore, it would definitely not work to get an old, slow sailing ship, so at least a steamship would be necessary.

Having a ship is not enough, you also need enough professional crew members.

This series of things will cost me a lot of money...

Thinking of this, Qing Deng couldn't help but look bitter.

If this "Osaka trip" fails and he fails to reach a cooperation with Huluya, then he will be in a very difficult situation in the future...

Qing Deng turned around and asked Mr. Kiryu beside him:

"Boss Kiryu, how far are we from Osaka?"

Boss Kiryu answered without hesitation:
"Almost there. Another 20 cho and we'll be in Osaka's castle town."

[Note: 1 cho = 109 meters, 20 cho totals 2.18 kilometers]

Qingden nodded.

"20 cho... Looks like we can reach Osaka before dark."

As he said this, he turned his horse around and returned to the main road.

Kinoshita Mai hurriedly followed.

Boss Kiryu moved to the front to lead the way for them.

With the strong power of the horses, the distance of just over 2 kilometers was reached in the blink of an eye.

The grass and trees on the roadside gradually became sparse.

Instead, the number of houses and people gradually increased.

Before entering the core area of ​​Osaka, Qing Deng had already tasted a bustling atmosphere.

"Come and see! Fresh saury! Freshly caught saury! Look, these fish are still alive and kicking!"

"White sugar! Crystal clear white sugar! Just lick it and it will relieve your fatigue and increase your strength! If someone at home is sick, buy him some white sugar!"

"Miso dengaku! Fragrant miso dengaku! Anyone want to try miso dengaku?"

[Note: Miso dengaku: Cut eggplant, tofu, konjac, taro and other ingredients into long strips, apply various sauces, and grill them on bamboo sticks. ]

……

Qing Deng lowered the bamboo hat on his head to prevent others from recognizing him, and watched the street scenes around him with great interest.

It looks like this is a food market.

The streets are lined with food stores.

From street corners to alley ends, you can see vendors selling snacks and treats everywhere.

Seeing the big from the small - just an ordinary food market can have such a prosperous scene. It is not difficult to see that the abundance of Osaka's products is difficult to compare with even Edo and Kyoto, which are also one of the "three capitals".

As the saying goes, “seeing is believing.”

It was not until this moment that Qing Deng experienced firsthand what “the kitchen of the world” meant.

Osaka is not only located in the heart of Japan, but is also adjacent to a natural harbor (Osaka Port). Such a unique geographical location makes it a "distribution center" for distributing materials from all over the country.

It plays the role of a transit hub between eastern and western Japan.

In this way, you can find ingredients and supplies from all over the world in the market in Osaka.

Bear paws from Ezo, Nagasaki cake from Nagasaki...even ginseng and tiger meat from North Korea can appear on the shelves of Osaka merchants.

Even white sugar, a luxury that ordinary people cannot afford, can be seen everywhere on the streets of Osaka.

Over time, Osaka gained the reputation of "the world's kitchen".

Just as Qing Deng was lingering on the street scene, suddenly, a spirited and loud shout rang out in front of him:

"%&*￥@#*!"

Qing Deng was startled and subconsciously tightened the reins. He looked in the direction of the sound - a middle-aged man with a smile on his face and dressed in plain clothes was looking at him eagerly.

[Note: Jinbei: very simple civilian clothing, suitable for use as home clothes in summer]

"You&*%￥#taste%￥#@&delicious*&%￥#!"

The other party spoke a lot of difficult to understand words.

Not only did he speak very fast, but he also spoke in Osaka dialect, which is very different from Mandarin (Kanto dialect), with a very heavy accent, and Qing Deng couldn't understand him at all. "Uh... sorry, I don't understand Osaka dialect, can you speak Mandarin?"

The other party was stunned for a moment, then asked seriously:
“&%￥#@*&%￥*?”

Just when Qing Deng was confused, Kinoshita Mai quietly leaned over:
"He said, 'Isn't Osaka dialect just Mandarin?'"

"..."

Just when Qing Deng was speechless, Kinoshita Mai continued:
"He just said: He hopes you can come to his tea house and have a seat. He just got a new batch of good tea today. It tastes delicious."

"Awu, please tell him: Thank you for your kindness, but we are on our way, so we won't go for tea."

After saying that, Qing Deng tapped the horse's belly lightly and continued to move forward.

However, he had not gone far when another person stopped him.

"This gentleman!"

The person who appeared this time spoke Mandarin, but his accent was still mixed with a strong Osaka flavor.

"Would you like to play the string lottery? The top prize is a full 10 taels of gold! 10 taels of gold!"

He said this in a pompous tone while holding up 10 fingers.

String lottery - also known as "ho-in". You pick a string from a pile of strings and pull it. If you pull a special string, you win the prize and can receive the prize. It was originally a game for children, but later the prizes gradually became more luxurious, and adults began to get crazy about it, so it was banned during the Kansei Reform (1787-1793).

"No thanks."

"Sir! Think about it again! Such a generous prize is rare!"

"Thank you, it's really not necessary."

After struggling back and forth for quite a while, Qing Deng finally managed to break free from the man's entanglement.

Before he could catch his breath, a new figure appeared in front of his horse.

"My dear fellows, you look like travelers from other places, right?"

The guy who showed up this time was a young man dressed in funny clothes.

He looks like a street performer.

Without waiting for Qing Deng to respond, he continued:

"Since you are a stranger, you must come to Osaka and watch Ujiro's proud performance!"

After saying that, he lifted up the hem of his clothes, stuck out his butt, and looked up to the sky.

Seeing this, Qing Deng couldn't help but twitch his lips.

With this posture... he had already recognized the artistic talent the other party was going to perform.

Obviously, this is a traditional Japanese art - fart singing.

Simply put, it is an acrobatic performance of farting accompanied by shamisen and ditty songs. It is very vulgar, but very popular among the people.

In the blink of an eye...really in the blink of an eye, a large number of spectators suddenly appeared around Qing Deng.

They gathered in three circles, waiting excitedly for the street performer who called himself Ujiro to fart.

After completing his preparations, Yujiro slowly took out a simple flute from his arms.

Then he continued to fart loudly while playing the flute.

In order to hold back a fart, he tried so hard that his blood rushed up and his face turned red.

puff! puff! puff! puff! puff! puff!
The fart sound is melodious...

The amazing thing is that his fart sound is strangely coordinated with the sound of the flute...

The spectators at the scene laughed and enjoyed the show very much.

Qing Deng, who was totally unable to appreciate this kind of performing art, looked at Ujiro who was trying hard to fart, and the Osaka citizens who were surrounding him and supporting him, with a confused look on his face.

About a minute later, the performance was over.

"Thank you! Thank you all for your support!"

Ujiro stood up, put on his clothes, thanked the spectators, and then bowed to Qing Deng very gracefully.

Then, he left without asking Qing Deng for any reward.

As for the onlookers, they naturally dispersed.

Qing Deng stared blankly at the gradually receding figure of the fart artist - it seemed that he simply wanted to express his desire to perform in front of the travelers...

As soon as this artist left, a new "unexpected situation" beset Qingdeng.

Five middle-aged women carrying vegetable baskets came up to him inexplicably and spoke to him in a familiar manner:
"Oh, my dear! You are so tall!"

"Look! This horse's hair is so shiny! It's so well cared for!"

"Oh! Is this your daughter-in-law?"

"What a beautiful daughter-in-law! Her skin is so tender that you can squeeze water out of it!"

"Haha, if only my daughter-in-law could be this pretty!"

"Huh? This old man wearing glasses is also very handsome!"

……

There was a lot of chattering.

With only five people, they managed to create the momentum of "5 ducks quacking in unison".

Qing Deng and the others didn't say a word, but they had already spoken dozens of sentences on their own.

Because they spoke at the same time, ignoring each other and with loud voices, Qing Deng couldn't hear what they were saying clearly, he only heard a bunch of noise.

Qing Deng dared to use his own soul as a guarantee - he definitely did not know these five aunts, and had never even seen them.

Although they were clearly strangers, the other party came over and started a conversation with ease, and they were having a very lively chat, without any sense of awkwardness at all.

It was clear that Qing Deng and the others were ignoring them, but they were still able to continue chatting without any hindrance...

If someone who doesn’t know the situation saw them, they would probably think Qing Deng was an acquaintance of theirs.

Compared to Qing Deng's confusion, Boss Kiryu and Mai Kinoshita were very calm at this time.

It seems that they are no longer surprised by the situation where an Osaka-san who they don't even know suddenly comes up to them and starts a conversation.

Kiryu Boss smiled reservedly and changed into his familiar Osaka accent:

"Thank you for the compliment. I never thought that at my age, I could still be praised as handsome by a beauty like you. I am so lucky."

"Ah! Uncle, you are really good at talking! Do you want to eat grilled squid? I just bought two grilled squids for my husband. Here! I'll give you one! Eat it quickly, it's still hot!"

……

Boss Kiryu sent the group of aunts away with just a few words.

Although the aunties left, Qingdeng was still immersed in shock and couldn't extricate himself for a long time.

——Is this the person from Osaka…?
——The way people from Osaka close the distance is so strange...!
At this moment, Qing Deng realized again: Sometimes, "regional discrimination" really is the original version of big data!
It has been less than half an hour since he entered Osaka city.

In this extremely short period of time, he has already felt an extremely strong cultural shock!

Looking across Japan, Osaka is one of the areas most vulnerable to "regional discrimination".

A long time ago, Qing Deng had heard about the public's stereotypes about Osaka people from various channels.

For example, people in Osaka have a very strong sense of pride in their dialect and believe that Osaka dialect is the true standard Japanese language.

Even if they can speak Kanto dialect, they will stubbornly use Osaka dialect - of course, it may also be because the Osaka dialect is too "infectious" and they cannot correct it.

Similar stereotypes include "Osaka people are extremely enthusiastic, so enthusiastic that it makes people feel at a loss", "Osaka people like to perform jokes", "Aunties especially like to chat" and so on.

Qing Deng was really enlightened today - it turns out that all the stereotypes people have about Osaka people are true!
As a member of the "Confucian cultural circle", under the influence of Confucian culture, the Japanese in the Edo period highly valued implicit and elegant ways of communication.

Qing Deng, who had only lived in Edo and Kyoto before, had long been accustomed to this implicit and euphemistic way of getting along with others.

Therefore, facing the Osaka people's particularly "enthusiastic" communication attitude and their strange way of narrowing the distance, he naturally felt extremely uncomfortable.

Just as Qing Deng was still confused, a sudden shout drew his attention away -

"Look! It's the remnants of the 'Great Salt Party'! Go, go!"

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After the "Osaka Chapter" ends, the "Marriage Chapter" begins. After the "Marriage Chapter" ends, the timeline of the book can be advanced to 1864.