I formed the strongest swordsman group

"I was lucky enough to win the Little Chiba Sword Hall in that match." Qing Deng smiled modestly.

After exchanging a few words with Zhu Gu and Niu Shan, whom he hadn't seen for a while, Qingdeng noticed that Niu Shan's face was a little tired.

"Mr. Niu Shan, why do you look so tired? Did you not sleep well last night?" Qingdeng cast a concerned look at Niu Shan.

"Ah, it's okay..." Niu Shan raised his hand and rubbed his bloodshot eyes vigorously, "Isn't it the Shangsi Festival in the next day? In the past few days, I have prepared dolls for my two daughters. He Chutan is busy, so he is just a little tired."

"Shangsi Festival?" Qing Deng raised his eyebrows, "That's right... the day after tomorrow is Shangsi Festival."

Shangsi Festival: also known as Girl's Day, a traditional festival in China. Before the Han Dynasty, the festival was set as Si Ri in the first ten days of March, and later fixed on the third day of March.

On this day, people go to the waterside to bathe together, and hold activities such as exorcising waterside baths, offering sacrificial feasts, drinking water cups, and outings in spring.

This day is also the Chinese Girl's Day.

Girls generally hold a coming-of-age ceremony on this day: "Ji Li". Girls "play in the spring of Shangsi", walk by the water, play orchids by the water, put on beautiful clothes, sing and dance to drive away evil spirits.

The meeting of men and women is one of the activities of Shangsi Festival, so Shangsi Festival can also be regarded as Chinese Valentine's Day. On the Shangsi Festival, it is extremely romantic to travel with the girl you like for a spring outing.

It's a pity that with the rise of Neo-Confucianism, which advocates "preserving the principles of nature and destroying human desires", the attributes of Valentine's Day on the Shangsi Festival almost disappeared in the Song Dynasty. Customs such as bathing have gradually declined.

To put it simply-due to the rise of Confucianism, the Shangsi Festival has no "festival flavor" since the Song Dynasty, and people no longer spend the Shangsi Festival in a grand manner.

The Shangsi Festival has declined in China, but Japan on the other side still treats this festival solemnly.

Thousands of years ago, when Japan comprehensively studied the advanced culture and systems of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it also learned the Shangsi Festival.

After thousands of years of development and cultural integration, Japan's Shangsi Festival has developed a completely different way of celebrating the festival from China.

In the Edo period, Japan's Shangsi Festival basically only had the attribute of "Hina Festival".

On the day of the Shangsi Festival, in order to pray for their girls, families with girls will set up a high platform at home to display a kind of exquisite dolls called "hina dolls". The high platform of the Hina dolls is called "Hinadai", and the whole family eats chirashi sushi, clam soup and other foods with good meanings together.

The Shangsi Festival is one of the most important festivals in the Edo period. On this day, Qingdeng and others in the government will have a day off.

The day after tomorrow will be the Shangsi Festival, and this coming festival obviously has nothing to do with Qingdeng at all - because he doesn't have a daughter at all, how will he celebrate the Shangsi Festival?

Qingdeng could imagine how he would spend the next day's Shangsi Festival holiday - practicing swords with Kondo, Okita and the others in the test hall for a whole day.

After Niu Shan mentioned the topics related to the Shangsi Festival, he successfully aroused the desire to chat with Inoya, who also has a pair of daughters under his knees.

"Those Hina dolls made by famous craftsmen are really expensive..." Inotani twitched the corners of his mouth, "The day before yesterday, I visited the 'Gojo Doll House' in Togencho, and I was going to buy some new Hina dolls To my daughters."

"I was shocked when I went to the 'Wujo Doll House'. Do you know how much the most expensive Hina doll is sold there? 120 taels of gold... Is that doll made of pure gold..."

"The craftsman of the 'Five Dolls': Wu Tiao Xingua is a well-known craftsman." Arima interjected lightly at this time, "The top-notch dolls in their family will naturally be more expensive."

"Ah, having said that--" Inotani turned to look at Arima, "When the Shangsi Festival arrives, you will be busy again, Arima-sama..."

At this moment, there was a trace of helplessness on Arima's face: "Oh... I really hope that I can spend a good time with my daughter on the day of the Shangsi Festival..."

There is also a custom of the Shangsi Festival in the Edo period: early in the morning on this day, all officials of a certain rank in Edo have to go to the Edo Castle to celebrate the Shangsi Festival with the shogun in Daguangjian.

Edo Castle and Edo are two completely different things.

Edo Castle is located in the center of Edo, surrounded by a moat. It is the residence of the shogun and the place where government affairs are handled.

To give an image metaphor - the relationship between Edo Castle and Edo is similar to the relationship between the Forbidden City and BJ.

The "Three Returns" concentrics like Qingdeng and Inotani are not eligible to enter Edo Castle to accompany the shogun for the festival because of their lower grades.

But not with horses.

Officials like Arima need to go to the city to accompany the shogun to celebrate the Shangsi Festival, so Inotani just said "Arima will be busy again on the day of the Shangsi Festival".

After chatting for a while with the horse, pig, and cow about the "Shangsi Festival", Qingdeng suddenly heard—a group of conversations next to him that made him prick up his ears involuntarily.

"Ha...so nervous...I haven't met Elder Jing Yi yet..."

"I heard that he is very serious, always with a straight face, not arrogant."

"Huh? How did I hear that Mr. Ii, who is famous in the tea ceremony and also proficient in poetry and drama, is a very refined person?"

"What you said is different from what I heard... I heard that Ii Dao is proficient in Iaido, and his words and deeds are very warrior-like..."

...

The host of this group of conversations is Tongxin from the Nanfan Institute who Qingdeng doesn't know.

Listening to the conversation these people had just now, Qing Deng thought to himself:

——It seems that the news that Mr. Jing Yi will personally participate in and host this assessment activity today has already been completely spread...

Qingdeng has never met Jing Yi Naobi, after all, he is only a small concentric with a humble status, and he has no chance to meet the current highest power holder in this country, he has only heard some anecdotes about Jing Yi Naobi.

As far as Qingdeng knew, Jingyi Naosuke was a strange man with quite a legendary experience.

He was originally the 14th son of the 13th lord of the Hikone Domain: Ii Naanaka and his concubine.

Ranked 14th... Logically speaking, no matter how many rounds, it would not be his turn to succeed the feudal lord.

But the world is so unpredictable. The 13 elder brothers in front of him either died or were sent out to be adopted sons, so the fourteenth, he miraculously succeeded as the new lord of the Hikone Domain in 1846.

As soon as he took office, he carried out drastic reforms in the feudal domain with his brilliant political methods and tough governing skills, rectified the feudal regime, and greatly increased the national power of the Hikone feudal clan. Mingjun.

After the door of Japan was knocked open by Western powers and the country fell into unprecedented danger, he was ordered to take the position of "big boss" and has been in charge of the country so far.

From a fourteenth son who was not valued by anyone, to today's "one person under one person and above ten thousand people" step by step, his experience is nothing short of legendary.

In addition to superb political ability, Ii Naosuke's other talents are also quite outstanding.

He is both civil and military.

Proficient in Iaido, he is a well-known master of Iaido, and created a brand-new school of Iaido: "Xin Xin Xin Liu".

He can write Waka, Kyogen, and Noh, and is proficient in tea ceremony. He is a famous tea ceremony.

In short - he is a strange person who can perceive his extraordinaryness just by looking at his resume.

At this time, all the officials from the "three chapters" of the Nan and Beifan Institutes had arrived one after another.

Members of the "Tojo-gumi", who often compete with the "Arima-gumi", also came together.

Because today's assessment meeting was not something that could be treated carelessly, Dong Cheng, who was always sloppy on weekdays, managed to tidy himself up very rarely today.

Her hair was neatly combed, and her clothes were clean.

It's just that his every move is still so dirty that it's hard to look directly at it.

He was yawning vigorously, stretched out his right index finger to pick his ear, and after picking his ear, he put the finger that had just picked the earwax into his nostril to pick his booger...

Nishino, who was standing behind the Dongcheng side, half closed his eyes, looking at his nose and heart.

At this moment, Dongcheng's group found Qingdeng and others standing not far from them.

Dong Cheng grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellowish teeth, and then led his subordinates headed by Xi Ye, walking towards Qingdeng and the others swaggeringly.

"Guian, Arima-sama."

Arima smiled and nodded to Dongcheng: "Guian, Master Dongcheng."

Although Dongcheng is the leader of the "Dongcheng Group", no matter whether it is Qingdeng or the horse, pig, and cow, they don't have much ill feeling towards this sloppy fat man.

The people of Dongcheng... To put it mildly, it is "doing things freely", and to put it bluntly, it is "too messy in doing things".

The affairs that I am in charge of are all handled with an attitude of "as long as I can do the job". I will never do one less thing, but never do one more thing.

For Nishino and other subordinates, he basically adopts a "stocking policy", and rarely manages what his subordinates do in daily life. As long as nothing goes too far, he will not ask about the affairs of his subordinates.

Therefore, Dongcheng hardly took the initiative to participate in the "merit competition" with the "Arima Group", mainly because his three subordinates headed by Nishino were actively competing with the "Arima Group" for cases and political achievements.

It is also because the relationship with the "Arima Group" is not tense or bad that Tojo can greet Arima as naturally as he does now.

After exchanging a few simple greetings with Arima, Arima turned his eyes away and looked at Qingdeng aside.

"Mr. Ju." Dong Cheng said to Qingdeng in a calm tone, "Have you healed up from the wounds you suffered during the battle with the 'Radical Barbarian Sect'?"

"Thank you for your concern." Qingdeng said, "The body is no longer in any serious trouble."

"That's good." Dongcheng grinned a little more, "You said that you changed your past... It seems that you are not talking nonsense."

"Now, there is no one who can call you 'Didoudeng' anymore."

When Dongcheng praised Qingdeng in a flat tone, Nishino who stood behind Dongcheng raised his eyes and cast a complicated look at Qingdeng.

The other two Tongxin members of the "Dongcheng Group" also looked at Qingdeng with complicated expressions. Unlike Nishino, there was a bit of jealousy in the eyes of these two Tongxins...

Suddenly, at this moment - Susui's white and fat body flashed from outside the room into the room in a hurry.

Behind him was a very thin middle-aged man—this man was the town magistrate of Nanbansuo: Atsukawa Chugoro.

After seeing the two "Mayors of Edo City" rushing into the room, Susui who walked in the front had a serious face and said solemnly:

"Everyone is quiet, everyone is quiet! Elder Jing Yi is here! Hurry up and sit down! Sit down!"

As soon as Susui's words fell, the expressions of everyone in the discussion room immediately changed.

The small conversation turned into the noisy footsteps of "crash la la".

Susukei led all the members of the Beifan Institute to face the north side and kneel to the west of the meeting room.

Hou Chuan led the members of the Nanfan Institute to kneel and sit on the east side of the discussion room.

Everyone sat down, and the discussion became audible.

This strange silence was broken by a faint sound of pulling the door after a while.

Crash... The paper sliding door in the north corner of the meeting room was slowly opened.

Seeing the door open, Susukei and Atsukawa, who were kneeling at the front of the crowd, quickly lowered their heads, bowed their waists, and put their hands on the tatami.

Sitting behind the two, Qingdeng and the others hurriedly followed, bowing their heads toward the north side of the room where there was still only a mass of air.

With his head hanging down, Qingdeng can only see the dark green tatami.

Eyes can't see, but ears can hear.

Qingdeng heard several footsteps coming towards the meeting room along the opened side door.

The footsteps stopped when they moved directly opposite them, and then changed into the sound of lifting the hem of the clothes and kneeling on the ground.

"Stand up straight, everyone."

A slightly hoarse voice clearly entered Qingdeng's ears.

Qingdeng slowly moved his gaze up inch by inch.

On the north side of the hall, there were already 5 more people.

A middle-aged man with black and white hair and a short beard on his chin was sitting in the center of the north side of the hall.

He crossed his legs casually, and his clothes were embroidered with the family crest of Jing Yi's family: Orange Blossom.

Except for this middle-aged man, the other four are relatively young, and the oldest one should not exceed 30 years old.

Three of the four were kneeling on the left and right sides of the middle-aged man in the most standard posture with solemn faces. The only exception was holding a knife that was red from the handle to the scabbard. , black and white knife, kneeling on one knee behind the side of the middle-aged man.

Wearing clothes embroidered with the family crest of the Ii family, and the four young men respectfully accompanying him - the identity of this middle-aged man is self-evident.

——Is this Ii Naosuke?

Qingdeng swept his eyes uncontrollably, sizing up Naosuke Ii.

Almost all the people present who had never seen Jing Yi Zhibi before, like Qingdeng, couldn't stop casting curious eyes at Jing Yi Zhibi.

Jingyi Naosuke's first impression of Qingdeng was that he was ordinary.

She has a neat shaved head, is neither fat nor thin, and has neither ugly nor handsome features.

His face was not majestic, but there was a faint smile in the corners of his mouth and eyes.

At first glance, he looked like an ordinary middle-aged man.

There is neither an aura of not being angry and arrogant, nor is there any refined temperament or the spirit of a warrior.

Qingdeng felt that if Naosuke Ii changed into civilian clothes and went to the streets of Edo, he would be able to blend in perfectly with the crowd on the streets.

While Qingdeng and the others were still sizing up Naosuke Jingyi... Naosuke Jingyi spoke——

"Presumably... you all know who I am, right? So I won't take the time to introduce myself."

Jing Yi Naosuke's tone was very slow, with a faint smile.

"This is the first time that most of you and I have met."

"How? Is the famous Jingyi Naosuke not as majestic as you imagined?"

Jing Yi Naobi opened his hands, and put on a posture of "big roc spreading its wings", as if he wanted to let people around him see him more clearly.

"I often hear that there are always rumors that I am a person with a dignified face and a calm and dignified face."

Jing Yi Naobi smiled and raised his hand to touch the short beard on his chin.

"Half a year ago, I seriously considered whether to cooperate with this rumor and make myself more majestic. If I can really make my face more majestic, then I can do a lot of things. It's much more convenient."

"So I tried growing my beard on my chin."

"As a result, after growing the beard, the majesty did not increase, but the old-fashionedness increased, which caused me to be laughed at by my wife."

Jingyi Naosuke's funny words made many people in the hall laugh.

The corners of Qingdeng's mouth couldn't help but tilt up slightly.

In the meeting hall, the atmosphere that was a little tense due to Jing Yi Naosuke's appearance instantly eased a lot.

"I don't like talking about empty scenes, and I don't have much time, so I'll just cut to the chase."

Jingyi Naobi cleared his throat lightly, and the smile on his face became a bit more intense.

"I have personally reviewed all the political achievements you have made recently."

"The achievements of many of you make my eyes shine."

"There are even some people's achievements... so bright that I couldn't believe my ears when I heard it for the first time."

Having said that, Jingyi Naobi raised his head and put on a louder voice:

"I don't know who is Ju Qingdeng?"

As soon as Jing Yi Naobi's words fell, everyone in the field turned their heads and focused their eyes on Qingdeng.

"Oh..." Jing Yi Naobi looked at Ju Qingdeng who was tall, so even if he was kneeling on the ground, he still stood out from the crowd, "You are Ju Qingdeng..."

Speaking of this, Jing Yi Naobi sat up a little bit straighter, and then compared to him: "Jingqingdeng, step forward."

Hearing that Jing Yi Naobi asked him to come forward, Qingdeng hurriedly answered "Yes" loudly, then got up and went out of the queue, quickly ran to the front of Jing Yi Naobi and knelt down on the ground again.

"Mr. Ju, I've wanted to see you for a long time." Jing Yi Naobi smiled at Qing Deng, "You are much more handsome than I imagined."

"When I heard about your feat of 'Victory against a mighty enemy on a snowy night', I checked with the person who came to report the news to me several times before I was finally sure that I heard it right."

"Hehe... I have never heard such good news that makes people feel proud."

"The shogunate will never treat anyone who has made remarkable achievements."

When saying this, Ii Naosuke raised his head and quickly glanced at the other people in front of him, led by Susui and Atsukawa.

"As long as you can make remarkable achievements, the rewards that should be given to you will never be less."

After finishing speaking, Jing Yi Naobi turned his head and glanced at a certain young man kneeling on his left.

After receiving the signal from Jing Yi Naosuke's eyes, the young man nodded slightly, and then took out a neatly folded paper from his arms.

After spreading out the paper, the young man grasped the left and right ends of the paper and read aloud the words written on the paper.

He first said a lot of complicated opening remarks in obscure sentences.

Then he began to report what contributions Qingdeng had made and what kind of contributions he had made in that "Snowy Night Chaos".

At this moment, Qingdeng's pupils could vaguely see a look of anticipation.

It really made Arima right a few days ago that Ii Naosuke really wanted to give him a reward in this "big boss assessment".

Just listening to what the young man is currently reading, it can be seen that the piece of paper in his hand is an official document used to announce what rewards should be given to Qingdeng.

Because it is the most official official document, Qingdeng's most official name is used in this document: "Juyuan Shengqing" to address Qingdeng.

Everyone in the hall is now also pricking up their ears, listening carefully.

They are all curious.

Curious about what kind of reward the shogunate will give Qingdeng.

After reading a bunch of lengthy content that no one would listen to seriously, the young man finally read to the end, and read what everyone has been looking forward to——

"...In view of the achievements of Juyuan Shengqing, I will give you 50 taels of gold and a sword!"

——Precious sword?

Qingdeng's brows twitched suddenly.

The rest of the people on the field also showed surprise.

At this moment, Ii Naosuke stood up.

He waved to the young man kneeling behind him on one knee.

The young man hastily presented the sword he had been holding in his hand, with a red and black handle and scabbard, to Jingyi Naosuke with both hands.

"Tachibana-kun, this knife was made by a famous craftsman: Shikisaki Kiyose."

"Name call: Fix ghosts and gods!"

After all, Jing Yi Naobi raised his hand and grabbed the handle of Dingguishen's knife——

lang lang lang lang lang lang...

The blade was pulled out of the sheath inch by inch, making a clear sound like spring water flowing.

The blade of this knife is very long.

The length of the blade of a general sword is usually about 65cm, but the length of this sword is close to 70cm according to Qing Deng's visual inspection.

The knife face is narrow and has a large arc. With this red and black handle, it looks majestic and majestic.

If you measure it carefully, you can find that the texture of the blade is quite fine.

The boiling point lines are closely arranged.

The blade patterns are irregular and jumping peaks.

A beam of clear and soft sunlight in the morning happened to pass through the window next to it and hit the Dingguishen Dao.

Under the sunlight, the edge of the blade shone with a dazzling blue light.

Qingdeng didn't know how to taste swords.

But even if he doesn't know anything about sword tasting, Qingdeng can tell at a glance that this sword is one of a thousand.

Some people in the hall looked at the ghost-fixing tool in Jing Yi Naobi's hands, their eyes turned green. Very few people even swallowed their saliva forcefully with exaggerated movements.

Expensive and good knives - this is a deadly attraction for those samurai who love knives and swordsmanship.

What's more, this precious sword was bestowed by the government, and it can be passed down from generation to generation as a treasure.

After staring at Ding Guishen with green eyes for a long time, these people turned their eyes to Qingdeng.

His eyes were full of envy and jealousy.

"The treasured sword matches the master." After showing Qing Deng the "full picture" of Ding Guishen, Jing Yi Naobi put the knife back into the sheath with a smile, then held Ding Guishen with both hands, and handed it over Qingdeng's head, "Tachibana, I hope that your actions in the future will not disgrace this knife."

"I hope you will continue to work hard in the future."

"Continue to make achievements that can be rewarded with such great rewards again."

I know that some book lovers may think after reading this chapter:

Oops, the author, you are such a good chapter, why did you spend so much time to introduce the life of Shangsi Jie and Ii Naosuke, the water is dead, the water is dead, I just want to see Qingdeng pretending to be aggressive, not Qingdeng pretending The plots are all water words, a little bit~

To this... all I can say is -

[You will know why I wrote this when you read it later]

I believe that some people who know the history of the end of the Bakumatsu period in Japan have smiled knowingly when I described what the Shangsi Festival is, and understand why I focus on introducing the way of celebrating the Shangsi Festival in the Edo period in this chapter.