Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 591 Betrayal and Cleanup

Since ancient times, almost all the people who betrayed their lord have roughly three reasons: women, money and power.And Pingtai betrayed Zhao Xin because of the former.

Due to accepting Zhao Xin's secret mission to eliminate the "Wanshi Family", Pingtai lived in Kyoto for almost half of the time every year, and the rest went to Osaka, where he and Katsuyama Denzo handled the business agency affairs of large merchants in the island country.

You must know that the opportunity for assassination does not come at any time, and more time is spent waiting and inquiring about news.In addition, Beihai Town's trade with the island country has also been on the right track in recent years, and the agency share of various commodities has been divided up.Ever since, Pingtai was free at once.The so-called "feeling warm and thinking about sex", eating and drinking all day long and having nothing to do, he gradually began to come into contact with the Fengyue place. He could not only get some news from it, but also pass the time. Once he came and went, he became a frequent visitor to the Fengyue place.

Although Pingtai has a wife and children in Beihai Town, how can the yellow-faced woman he found among the refugees compare his style with the wandering girls in Fengyuechang?

Throughout the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate set up three franchised large-scale fenggetsu fields across the country. In addition to Shimabara in Kyoto, the other two are Yoshihara in Edo and Shinmachi in Osaka.It should be noted that in the Edo period, the highest-ranking women in Kyoto and Osaka were called "Tayu", and the title of oiran was only found in Yoshiwara, and it has been used until later generations.

That is to say, if you want to drink flower wine and ask a Taifu or Huakui to accompany you in the island countries in the 18th and 19th centuries, you can only go to the above three places. Are there no talent shows in the brothels in other feudal clans?

Once Heita was at the door of a restaurant in Nakanomori, and accidentally saw a beautiful woman surrounded by a group of waiters getting into the car, and his soul was taken away at that time.After inquiring, I found out that the woman was the famous "Taifu Yoshino" - the sixth generation.

Speaking of the name "Taifu Yoshino", it is an absolutely top-notch figure among the wandering girls in the island country. It has been around since the Azuchi-Momoyama era and has been passed down from generation to generation.It is said that if a wandering girl wants to inherit this name, she must be cultivated from an early age. Except for waka, liange, and haiku, she is not inferior to ordinary literati. You have to be proficient in everything.

The most famous in history is Taifu Yoshino, the second generation, who is one of the "Three Famous Prostitutes of Kanei". There is a saying that "there is Lin Luoshan in the east and Tokuko Yoshino in the west". It is said that he has a close relationship with Miyamoto Musashi.

Later, in a small chat with Katsuyama Densan, Heita mentioned Taifu Yoshino, and his words showed fascination.Katsuyama Densan immediately said, what's so difficult about this?I will arrange it!
Pingtai was overjoyed when he heard the words, and said that he was already very satisfied to see each other.As everyone knows, his request is exactly what the Tokugawa shogunate has been looking forward to for a long time.

It is said that in the Tianming fire four years ago, due to the death and injury of too many royal families, it aroused the suspicion of Matsudaira Sadanobu, the head of the shogunate. The key is the two boxes of napalm bombs.He then sent his men to investigate the fire at Fushimi Palace's house earlier.Sure enough, all the clues pointed to Pingtai again.

What exactly is Beihai Town going to do? !After careful analysis, Matsudaira Sadanobu, who was extremely shocked, locked the culprit on Zhao Xin.In his opinion, although Pingtai, who has changed his surname to "Zhao", is Zhao Xin's confidant, he is an islander after all; if no one bewitches him, he would never dare to reach out to the royal family.

Killing a Zhao Pingtai is nothing to the shogunate, creating a dispute and hacking him to death, and letting the samurai who did it open his stomach to apologize is enough to deal with it.The problem is that Matsudaira Sadanobu wants to find out when Beihai Town will do it next time. One is to prevent it, and the other is to use it as an excuse to discuss with Beihai Town the profit of Lingkari Mine and ease the financial situation of the shogunate.

The Tokugawa shogunate is not a fool, and some things can be seen after a little analysis.Why did Beihai Town completely seal off the area around Lingjia Mountain?Not to mention the ban, but also sent the North Navy to strictly guard the entrances and exits of all mountain roads?Why are there often deafening roars in the mountains?What are the strange vehicles that travel between the ports of Lingkari and Izumi-gun, and why do they make deep ruts on the road?
Of course, because all the ores shipped from Beihai Town are not refined locally in Southern Kyushu, the current analysis of the shogunate is that there may be an unknown copper mine in Hishika, accompanied by a small amount of gold and silver.

Matsudaira Sadanobu first courted Katsuyama Denzo.For this island country businessman who has a long-term cooperation with Beihai Town and often haunts Kyoto and Osaka, the shogunate did not use any coercion or temptation, because they knew that doing so was completely useless.They directly threw out the evidence of Pingtai's murder of the "Wanshi Yixie", and spread Katsuyama's three thunders to the outside world.

Boss Shengshan said he grew up in Hongqi, an island country!People under the sun of the island country, although Zhao Xin is an excellent business partner, his intention to destroy the "living gods" of the island country still annoyed Katsuyama Denzo.After going back and forth, the two sides reached a cooperation in the end, La Pingtai went into the water, prevented it from harming the royal family further, and found out the inside story of Lingjia County.

Boss Shengshan thinks very well, anyway, I won't mess with Beihai's business, I'm just for the world of the island country.

Afterwards, under the arrangement of Katsuyama Densan and the shogunate, Pingtai met the sixth generation Yoshino Taifu smoothly, but the other party's beauty and manners made him even more addicted. After seeing him for the first time, he still wanted to see him for the second time and the second time. three times
However, if you want to kiss Fangze with an oiran-level girl this year, you will spend a lot of money, and you have to divide it up several times.First of all, when meeting for the first time, the other party will sit far away from the guests, neither talking nor drinking and eating with the guests.And if the guest wants to show his wealth this time, he is absolutely worthy of the other party, so it is not enough to invite only one, and it is necessary to invite many geisha to come and perform their talents.

The second time after that was basically the same as the first time, but this time the oiran sat closer.

After the third or fourth time, the oiran will prepare a tray and chopsticks with his name written on it.At this time, I will offer a large sum of money, and then I can do that.From then on, the guests can only take care of the oiran, and are not allowed to find other wandering girls; if they are found out, it is a violation of the rules, and the guests have to pay a large sum of money to apologize.

In this way, relying on Katsuyama's boss to spend a lot of money to clear the way, Pingta finally became the guest of the sixth generation Yoshino Taifu.Pingtai loved this woman madly, and the woman wanted to seduce her, so she gradually told her about some things in Beihai Town.Little did he know that every time he had a tryst with the other party, there were spies from the shogunate hiding next door to eavesdrop.

By October last year, the people in the shogunate felt that the heat was almost ready, so they tried to see each other poorly.A "capture" was organized by Kyoto Soji, and the two were held down on the spot in the boudoir of the Iwasaki Pavilion.Although Pingtai revealed the identity of Beihai Town, the shogunate officials then threw the conversation record in front of him with a sneer, and said that if he did not agree to cooperate, he would put Taifu Yoshino in prison for interrogation.Facing the crying pear blossom and rainy beloved woman, Pingtai's brain became hot and he gave in.

Afterwards, he told how Zhao Xin ordered him to do something to the "Wan Shi Yi Line", but he really didn't know the secret of Southern Kyushu.After returning from Beihai Town after the Spring Festival this year, people from the shogunate came to the door to urge him several times. He was forced to do nothing, so he had to quietly go to South Kyushu last month, in the name of not seeing Wanzao for a long time. After turning around, I realized that Lingjiao seems to be a big golden mountain.

When Heita returned to Kyoto from Osaka, it was already August in the lunar calendar, and the maple leaves began to be dyed with autumn colors, while Takao, Tomano, and Makio to the west of Kyoto were already full of fiery red, like a gorgeous picture scroll generally.

It is said that although the fire four years ago burned Kamo River, Kamo River, and the west of Takase River to white ground, the loss was heavy, but in the past few years, with the large-scale capital and manpower investment in rebuilding Kyoto, the entire Kyoto has recovered out of the old look.

Heita did not go directly to his sweetheart, but under the escort of several hired ronin, he first went to Yase in the northeast of Kyoto, and came to a place called "Kabei Tea House".

Since the Heian period, Yase bathing has been famous in the island nation for its special way of bathing.The bathhouse is a room called a "cauldron", one for each person. It looks like a charcoal kiln or a similar huge pottery kiln, and firewood is placed around it.Wait until the internal air is fully heated before allowing guests to enter the inner chamber of the kettle.

The bather wears a bath towel and lies flat on the straw mat on the indoor floor.These straw mats are sprinkled with salt and covered with fresh Aoki leaves.When the sweat starts to wet the towel on your body, take off the towel and move to another room and soak in warm water.This method has a good effect on eliminating fatigue.

After taking a bath, he felt a little hungry, so he ate a bowl of soba noodles at the tea house, and then called Dingjialong, and led his people straight to Wuhua Street.

The so-called "Wuhua Street" actually refers to the five Fugetsu districts in the Shimabara area, including Gion Kobe, Miyagawa Town, Pontocho, Shangqigen and Gion East.The Fengyue venue in Kyoto originated in the Taoshan period, and it first started in Shangqixuan.

In the middle of the 15th century, part of the Kitano Shrine was burned down. During the construction process, seven teahouses were built with the remaining building materials. This is the origin of the place name "Shangqixuan".Afterwards, many entertainers came to the teahouse to perform their talents for the guests and serve as waiters by the way.

In fact, the early geisha in the island country were all men. These people are also called "gangjian". They are guys who perform talents for the guests before the banquet, and have an active atmosphere, such as playing taiko, playing a song, and saying something. Jokes or something; and prostitutes were called "younv" in the early days, and there was no such thing as a geisha.About 40 years ago, some of the holy girls in the Kitano Shrine retired in their 20s, and some of them came to teahouses as waiters, so there is a saying that geisha originated from Shangqixuan.

Pingtai is going to Minoya in Naka no Mori, Kamiseven Pavilion tonight, and he has already made an appointment with Katsuyama Denzo to meet there.

When he arrived at the Mino House, it was already time to light the lamps. Pingtai was respectfully led to a single room on the second floor by the shop owner and his maid, and the guards who followed him were taken to a room next door.Several guards brought by Katsuyama Densan were eating inside, and when he saw Heita's men coming down, he nodded familiarly, as a greeting.

Pingta walked into the private room, and before he could say hello to Denzo Katsuyama, he was surprised to find that Taifu Yoshino, the sixth generation, was also there, and blurted out: "Ah! You are here too!"

"Come on!" Taifu Yoshino smiled and waved to him.Pingtai sat on the main seat, and then exchanged cups with Boss Katsuyama present and contacts from the shogunate.

However, at this moment, more than a dozen guys wearing dark blue coats and hoods, with only two eyes and mouths exposed, have surrounded the front and rear doors of Meinong House.Since Zhongzhi Forest is a small forest with few pedestrians, no one has paid attention to it for the time being.

Jia He, who led seven people to attack from the main entrance, pushed open the door and rushed in. Before the boss could yell, he raised his hand and punched him hard, knocking him to the ground.The people behind them took out revolvers and daggers from their pockets, took off their shoes, and quietly walked up to the second floor with bare feet.
There are not many single rooms on the second floor, and these people quickly came outside the room where the target was.At this time, voices could be heard from both rooms, and they didn't realize that they were surrounded at all.

Jia He saw a figure reflected on the partition door of the innermost single room, and the sound of fingers plucking the strings flowed out from inside. It was undoubtedly a geisha.From this, he determined that Pingtai and the others were in this room, and then he waved lightly with his left hand holding the dagger, giving the order to attack.

All of a sudden, there was loud gunshots in the narrow corridor. Eight people raised their guns and fired indiscriminately through the barrier, firing all the bullets in the magazine.There were wailing sounds from the two rooms, and then Jia He took the lead and rushed into the room, preparing to make up for the guy who was shot and survived.

Mrs. Yoshino was shot in the back, screaming loudly in the pool of blood, Jia He had no heart for pity, so he went up with a dagger, but because he was rolling on the ground, he missed the back of the heart, and got hit on the shoulder instead.Taifu Yoshino was in so much pain that he rolled around on the ground, screaming incessantly.Jia He simply sat on her body, pushed away her blocking hand, and stabbed his chest with a knife. Taifu Yoshino struggled a bit, but did not move.

At the same time, Katsuyama Denzo and the shogunate, who were screaming for help, were killed by others one after another. Both of their necks were cut open, and the blood gushed out like a spring, instantly staining the rush mat.

At this time, Pingtai was the only one alive in the house. He was shot twice in the shoulder, and he huddled in the corner. The pistol in his arms fell to the ground, gasping for breath, his face full of shock.

"You, who are you?"

Jia He and the other three walked up to Pingtai, without any emotion in their eyes, and said coldly in Mandarin: "From the day you betrayed your lord, you should know what will happen."

Pingtai's eyes suddenly opened wide, and he said in amazement: "You, you are, sir, sent by your lord?"

He turned his head to look at Mrs. Yoshino, who had already passed away, with tears streaming down his face, and cried, "You guys just kill me, just kill me, why do you have to kill her!"

"Idiot!" Jia He cursed casually, and after thinking about it, he explained, "She has conspired with Shengshan Densan to plot against you from the very beginning!"

After finishing speaking, he stabbed the dagger into Pingtai's heart with his backhand, then turned around and left.When a dozen people came, there was a gust of wind, and they left like ghosts.

By the next morning, the murder at Minoya shocked the whole of Kyoto.

(End of this chapter)