"kia"
In the early morning, a standard Japanese scream woke many passengers from their sleep.
At the same time, it also kicked off a suspenseful drama.
This place, called "Chuanpengzhuang", is a hot spring hotel located in Xiaguan.
Yesterday afternoon, Shuangxie and Keijiro came here together. The three of them ate, bathed, drank and talked here leisurely, and stayed for one night.
Originally they planned to leave this morning, but they did not expect that this early in the morning, a fatal accident occurred in the hotel.
Of course, if the person who died was just an ordinary customer with a low status, it would not be a big deal; if it wasn’t just a civilian who died, wouldn’t it be over if the store just disposed of the body by itself? Do you still have to report it to the official? And do you expect someone from the yamen to help you track down the murderer?
In these turbulent years, all the big names are busy fighting wars and grabbing territory. How can they have so much thought to take care of every corner of their territory? Public security in every corner
I keep a certain place in good order today, but tomorrow this place may not be mine, so what’s the point?
There are only a few like this Only a force with a very stable territory like the Shimazu clan has the leisure to deal with public security issues. But in the case of the Mori clan, it would be "selective management."
Some people may ask after seeing this, isn’t it meaningless to say that most places are managed well? Then why should we still “manage selectively” instead of “just ignore it”
Because if you really dare to ignore it completely, with the rampant banditry at that time, they can make your land "abandoned" in a very short time and turn it into a dead land where no residents dare to live.
And it is almost impossible to eradicate this type of banditry before the end of the war. The samurai who lost their lords, the deserters on the battlefield, and the people who were forced to have no other way out, etc., may all join the ranks of bandits at any time. Among them, he engaged in the business of killing people and selling goods.
For most people, the honor of warriors, human dignity, and compassion for others are vulnerable to the pressure of survival.
Only those who have eaten enough and sit in front of the computer typing on the keyboard will discuss what is right and kind; people who have been deprived of everything by the war and have been hungry for several days will not talk to you. What a shame, if you hold a rice ball in your hand and don't give it to him, he can pick up the knife on the ground and grab it.
When dealing with the growing number of bandits, the daimyo usually followed the principle of "kill a little and gain a lot". Those who were small in size and had a small number of people would be slaughtered if they were caught. Those who were large in scale and had a large number of people would be killed. Collect.
Ninety-nine percent of the bandits are willing to be included, because they do not want to "rebel" originally, they just want "food"; after being included, the more capable among them will , or those with a samurai class background, will be transferred to join the main combat troops or become lower-level staff, and other miscellaneous fish will become similar to the soldiers and ashigaru in the previous two chapters.
Return to the topicThe story goes, so why is this scandal now a "trouble" and why does it need to be taken care of?
It's very simple, because the person who died this time was not an ordinary person, but someone with a background. of.
This man's name is Takeda Kuranosuke. He is in his early forties and is a famous wealthy businessman in the southern area of Hiroshima. His family is one of the "money bags" of the Mori family.
If even he dies inexplicably, then the other merchants on the Mouri territory will definitely have the idea to cooperate with you samurai gentlemen to collect so much tax from us on weekdays. Sorry, you can't protect our property and life, and you can't catch the real culprit and bring him to justice, so I've spent all my money.
So, no matter what, this guy needs an explanation. .
As a result, the investigation of the case started intensively early in the morning.
The person who checked the situation was no one else. It was a samurai general named Kumagai Hirotada who had a banquet with Takeda last night.
Kumagai and Takeda will meet here to eat, drink and have fun. It can be regarded as a kind of official entertainment. Kumagai is here to establish a good relationship with the Takeda boss on behalf of the Mori clan. The two have negotiated some cooperation between government and businessmen. After the incident, they started eating and drinking until they were almost vomiting, and then they went back to their rooms to rest.
Unexpectedly, early the next morning, when several hotel maids went to clean the hot spring, they found Takeda's body on the edge of the pool, which triggered the screaming scene at the beginning.
About three minutes later, Xiong Gu staggered to the scene despite being hungover. At this time, more than a dozen people had gathered around to watch the excitement. Xiong Gu pushed through the crowd and walked to the front. He saw it at a glance. Takeda's body.
The corpse was lying on the ground with its face turned sideways. Surprise was written on its expressionless face. There was a huge and hideous wound on the lower part of the back of its head. It was not known whether it was caused by a blunt instrument or a sharp blade. , anyway, the power of this blow was so powerful that it directly shattered a large piece of his skull, causing a large amount of blood to flow out from the shattered and collapsed "brain hole", spreading all over the floor, and some blood was still wet along the The ground slowly flows into the hot spring pool not far away.
Since Takeda was only wearing a loincloth when he died, it is easy to see that the blow to the back of the head was the only fatal injury on his body, and he most likely had just finished soaking. When he came out of the hot spring, he was attacked from behind and killed with one blow.
Xiong Gu stared at the bloodless face of the corpse for about ten seconds. In the process, most of his remaining sleepiness and hangover had disappeared, and shock and panic were taking turns. to his brain.
But he was also a samurai general after all. It didn’t take long for him to calm down. After weighing the pros and cons and thinking about the priorities of the situation, he revealed his identity and began to control the scene. Chaotic situation.
Soon, Xiong Gu issued an order to several of his subordinates who had arrived at the scene one after another, asking them to divide their troops into two groups. One group would seal all the entrances and exits of the hotel, and the other group would go to the nearby The military station requested reinforcements.
During the Warring States Period in Japan, Kyoto had the "Prosecution and Non-violation Office", which was so powerful that it basically took over all grass-roots public security, law and civil affairs matters in Kyoto, and eclipsed many other related functional departments. .
But this is not Kyoto.
In the vassal territories where public security management is relatively chaotic, many local affairs are managed by the local garrison.
As for the murder of Boss Takeda, even if it should not be handled by the military, Kumagai would take the initiative to take over, because he had already settled the account before giving the order. Today, since this matter has been If someone else comes to investigate, it will be fine if they find out. If they don't find out, the other party will probably blame him for doing business, and at least give him the whole " If he was accused of "inadequate protection", then where could he go to reason?
Thinking further, I don't know how long this body has been lying here. Although it is winter, the hot spring pool is filled with warm water. The water vapor makes it difficult to judge the time of death through rigor mortis and coagulation of blood. Who knows if Takeda died just in the early morning or if he was lying there early in the morning. Maybe the murderer ran out long before the blockade. What else could he do? I can get him back
So, Kumagai might as well take the responsibility of the investigation on his own initiative. On the surface, he can say such beautiful words as "I will take responsibility for my fault of not protecting Mr. Takeda", but secretly Then you can do something to throw the pot away. Anyway, what he needs is not the "truth", what he needs is just an "explanation".
Everyone must have understood after reading this that no matter who the real culprit is, or whether the real culprit is still in this "Kawapeng Manor", Xiong Gu will definitely take action from those who are still in the hotel. One of these people was caught as the murderer.
Of course, he can't just pick someone who looks easy to bully and slam the shit basin on their head right away. Doing so would be too obvious.
As mentioned before, Takeda Kuranosuke is a reputable person. If you, Kumagai, can’t even produce any decent evidence, or you end up dragging out a person who was crippled or mute to challenge him. If the tank is full of eucalyptus, your colleagues and superiors will definitely have opinions on you.
It’s not that you can’t frame someone up, but when you frame someone up, you have to do things carefully so that everyone can tacitly let you pass.
If you mess around and make hasty exchanges, it will either make people think that you are incompetent and can't even do superficial things, or it will make people think that you have a perfunctory attitude and disrespect for your superiors.
Kumagu is thirty-five years old and has been in office for many years. He will not make such low-level mistakes, so soon after the reinforcements arrived, he continued to take full command, not only once again strengthening the control of the hotel Lockdown, and also launched an investigation into all the guests who stayed in Chuanpengzhuang yesterday, as well as the hotel staff.
It’s just that this investigation is also detailed and detailed. Judging from the state of the wound on the back of Takeda’s head, this is definitely not the work of an ordinary person. This murderer either knows martial arts,Either they have amazing arm strength, so those who do not meet the conditions for surgery can be eliminated through a brief screening. Those who have the ability to do surgery should be questioned intensively.
Chenshi, a certain guest room.
"Please state your name."
"This is Miyamoto Musashi."
"Oh" Kumagai looked at the man in front of him who looked about thirty years old. , the man with a rough face, his eyes could not help but stay on the two swords, one long and one short, beside him for a while, "Is it possible that you are the one who single-handedly defeated more than seventy Yoshioka-ryu warriors in Ichijoji Temple?" "The one who is human"
"As you said," Musashi knelt down and replied calmly, "I am just a swordsman passing through this place."
"Is that so?" Kumagai muttered softly, and then asked, "Then may I ask where you are going?"
"Today I am going to Ganliu Island to meet a man who is called a genius. "Young swordsmen duel." Musashi said, "But because you suddenly blocked the hotel, I can only wait in this room."
"Yes." Kumagai said to Musashi's neither humble nor arrogant attitude. The words were a little irritating, but there was no reason for the attack.
"Then I'm afraid you will have to wait for a while." Two seconds later, Kumagai deliberately said something slightly provocative. The tone probably meant "Your duel has nothing to do with me." , I’m not in a hurry at all.”
But after he finished speaking, he observed Musashi's expression and found that the other party was still unmoved, so he could only quickly continue to ask questions, lest he would be embarrassed if the words lingered for a long time. "Well, please Where was your Excellency from midnight last night to before someone found the body this morning?"
"I fell asleep at midnight and woke up when I heard screaming in the morning." Musashi. replied.
"Can anyone testify for you?" Xiong Gu asked again.
"No." Musashi replied.
"Then did you encounter anything unusual or unusual people yesterday?" Xiong Gu said.
He originally thought that Musashi would give a quick and brief denial in that calm tone.
Unexpectedly, when faced with this question, Musashi was silent for a few seconds before he said, "Yes, one of the three people living in the room in the west courtyard is very weird."
Kumagaya Hearing this, he suddenly thought of something, "Is he that young man with a sky-high bun and a loud voice?"
Kuma Gu asked this because he was changing clothes when he went to the hot spring pool yesterday evening. The place of clothes passed by Keijiro, and the latter's appearance was indeed easy to remember.
“No,” Miyamoto Musashi said, “I also have the impression that the young man you mentioned is a strange person named Keijiro, but the strange person I mentioned is not him. It's one of the two people traveling with him."
"Oh, who is that?" Kumagai became more and more curious, making even the famous swordsman Musashi feel weird, even weirder than Qin Qi. people,Who is it?
"I don't know his name either." Musashi replied, "I only know that his neck is shorter than ordinary people. Of course, this is not anything particularly weird. The weird thing about him is From yesterday afternoon until before I went to bed, every time I went to the toilet, no matter how big or small, I would see him squatting in the pit, which made me wonder if he had been squatting there all day.”
"Okay." This time it was Kumagai's turn to be silent.
The rooms Kumagai and Takeda stayed in were considered VIP rooms in the hotel, and their toilets were separate from those of other guests, so he neither knew about this nor how to comment on it
p>Twenty minutes later, another room.
"Please tell me your name." Xiong Gu began to ask the second person he thought was capable of committing the crime.
"My name is Tokumaru." This is also a strong man in his thirties, whose appearance is somewhat similar to Hong Kong actor Lai Lai, "the second generation successor of Shui Shui Fist."
p>"Your accent is very special." Kumagai didn't ask much about the name of the school "Liu Shui". After all, there were too many martial arts schools in Japan at that time, and the naming routines were also various. Those who opened dojos to recruit disciples , you can call your martial arts whatever style you want.
"I have been going to Ryukyu to practice boxing since I was a child, and I am used to talking like this." Tokumaru replied.
"I see." Xiong Gu said, "Then, could you please tell me where you were between midnight last night and this morning?"
"After midnight I kept practicing boxing in my room until I was exhausted before falling asleep. I don’t know the time when I fell asleep, but it was still dark at the time," Tokumaru replied.
"You must have been sweating profusely after practicing Hansu Boxing. There is a hot spring nearby, so you didn't go to wash up before going to sleep." Xiong Gu was quite keen, and he immediately caught the other person's words. doubts there.
"Since I have practiced to the point of exhaustion, how can I still have the strength to go out to the hot springs?" Tokumaru's expression remained unchanged.
At this time, the two of them were sitting on the tatami in the room, talking. The bedding that Tokumaru slept on last night was just one meter away from him. It was just covered, not folded.
"If you don't believe it." When Tokumaru said this, he leaned slightly to the left, stretched out his hand, and lifted up his quilt.
Kumagai followed his movements and cast his gaze, and saw that the inside of Tokumaru's quilt and the bedding underneath were all wet.
"You can send someone to check," Tokumaru said, "This bedding is all soaked with my sweat, and there is not a drop of hot spring water in it."
Kumagai saw this, He looked at Tokumaru for about five seconds, and then chuckled, "Oh, no need, I believe you."
In fact, in the first two seconds, Kumagai almost said to several of his subordinates behind him. He said "Come forward and check it out", but starting from the third second, the smell of overnight sweat wafted over from the quilt that Tokumaru had opened. Kumagai was sitting two meters away from the quilt, and it was still the same. quiltThe smell was quite strong, so he knew without a test that it was definitely not the smell that a person who had taken a bath could smell while sleeping.
After that, Kumagai asked Tokumaru a few more questions despite the smell, but he didn't get any useful information. Seeing that he had almost finished asking, Kumagai quickly led his men and left this slut. Angry room.
Their next stop was the guest room in the west courtyard where three people lived, tercss"cear",,