Although Japan is now a troubled time, all parts of the country are not peaceful, but this has also indirectly given birth to a lot of job opportunities, especially the samurai, now the situation is unclear, the style of the various feudal clans has changed, are recruiting troops, and actively saving capital to watch the follow-up, compared to the Meiji Restoration after the abolition of the sword order, the samurai not only have no jobs, but also can't even find the tools to commit suicide The end of the road is much better.

Especially those masters, who are now waiting to be sold at a price, whether it is the Zuo Mu faction or the Reverse Curtain faction, they are now actively fighting for manpower.

However, Zhang Heng has little interest in this road, once he joins a certain force, although he no longer has to worry about food and clothing, but he has also lost his freedom, this era pays attention to the absolute obedience of the retainers to the head of the family, and if he is assigned a task that he does not want to do, he can't refuse, and if he carries it, he will be used as cannon fodder.

And the purpose of Zhang Heng's quest is not only to get a good knife that suits him, but also to challenge the master and seek an opportunity to break through his sword skills, so whether it is the shogunate or the Satsuma domain, he doesn't want to fix his position on which side, and acting at the opportunity is the best choice.

In fact, if he wants to make money, he really doesn't have to rely on the identity of such a samurai, there are many foreign merchants in Kyoto now, and compared to others, Zhang Heng also has mastered a lot of foreign languages, no matter what era translation talents are always scarce, he can get paid by translating for those foreign merchants, and by the way, he can also visit Kyoto for free first.

After making up his mind, Zhang Heng was going to go to the dock to take a look first, it was not early now, if he couldn't negotiate a deal before sunset, he would probably have to sleep on the streets.

Zhang Heng was about to leave, but suddenly heard a voice calling,

"Do you want a grilled eel skewer?"

Zhang Heng lowered his head and saw a timid little face, it was a little girl about eleven or twelve years old, holding a food box, selling to Zhang Heng, although she plucked up her courage but also looked a little nervous, the hand holding the food box was trembling all the time.

However, before Zhang Heng could reply, an older companion of hers on the other side pulled her away.

Although the latter lowered his voice, Zhang Heng still heard her words, "Chiyo, don't provoke those ronins, they are all dangerous guys." ”

The little girl named Chiyo glanced at Zhang Heng again, but the two of them patronized and retreated to avoid Zhang Heng, a "dangerous person", but they accidentally bumped into someone from the other side.

Chiyo's companion looked up, his face turned pale in an instant, and he stammered, "Yes...... Sorry, I didn't see you. ”

"Impolite little ghost," the person who was hit was also dressed as a samurai, but his demeanor was better than that of a free-spirited ronin like Zhang Heng, and he had two companions beside him, with a little drunkenness on his face, it looked like he had just drunk flower wine, he directly overturned the food box in the girls' hands with the strength of the wine, and yelled, "This country is because of you idiots, so that those Westerners will continue to bully them!" ”

"Brother Yamada, be cautious, it's good to be heard by those guys in the Shinsengumi." His companion beside him persuaded.

"Afraid of what? Matsuo, times are different," the samurai named Yamada was unafraid, "not to mention that I've long wanted to learn about Isamu Kondo's natural flow of reason." ”

Yamada said loudly, but the two companions beside him were shocked when they heard the words Shinsengumi, and couldn't help but look left and right, after the Ikedaya incident, Isamu Kondo and his ronin group Shinsengumi became famous in a fight, and won the name of Mibu Wolf, they are staunch supporters of the shogunate, while helping the shogunate maintain law and order in the Kyoto area, while dealing with the people who have fallen behind the shogunate, they are ruthless, and they are very good at assassination.

Matsuo didn't know why Yamada suddenly mentioned this group of evil stars, and he glanced at Takahashi on the other side, as if complaining about why Takahashi had poured so much wine on Yamada just now.

The two wanted to take advantage of the fact that the matter was not big enough to step forward and take Yamada, but they didn't expect Yamada to be getting more and more crazy, not to mention those foreigners, it was okay, and when he mentioned the foreigners, he thought of the anger he had suffered over the years, and pulled out the knife on his waist.

This time, Matsuo and Takahashi didn't dare to step forward, Yamada went crazy, but his martial arts were not bad, not only the three of them were headed by him, but they were also well-known in the samurai circle that fell to the curtain, and Matsuo and Takahashi didn't want to touch this mold.

At this time, the two little girls who sold grilled eel skewers were already frightened.

He even forgot to run away, so he stood still stupidly, watching Yamada draw his long knife, emitting a cold light in the sun.

Yamada frowned, he just wanted to draw a knife to scare the two little ghosts in front of him, and watch them fart, but the other party's motionless appearance was now regarded by him as a silent struggle, plus he was not drunk now, and he couldn't help but recall some bad memories.

He has reason to resent, as a samurai of the Choshu Domain, three years ago he had followed the radical Kusaka Genrui into King Kyokin, at that time he was in high spirits, but the Forbidden Gate Rebellion did not win the defenders of Kyoto, Kusaka Genrui committed suicide, and then the shogunate also united with Britain, the United States, France, and the Netherlands to attack Shimonoseki, forcing the Choshu Domain to submit, and Takasugi Shinsaku, one of the leaders of the shogunate, was forced to wander, and the samurai who participated in the Forbidden Gate Change naturally had no good fruit to eat.

Therefore, Yamada drew the knife not only through the intention of drinking, but also for the unfinished ambition in his chest and resentment, seeing the two little ghosts in front of him, not dodging or dodging, and still "resisting" He couldn't help but be angry and angry from the heart of the evil to the side of the gall, and he was about to swing the knife to really cut down.

Zhang Heng frowned, he had nothing to do with these two little girls who sold grilled eel skewers, and he was not interested in improving the security of Kyoto at the end of the shogunate, but he insisted that the other party suffered after all to avoid him, a "wicked man", and Zhang Heng was not very good at watching the two of them really be hacked to death by a drunken and crazy samurai.

However, as soon as he was about to draw his sword, his eyes moved, but he lowered his hand again, and on the other side, Yamada had already raised the sword in his hand amid the exclamations of passers-by, but just as his sword was about to fall on the heads of Chiyo and her companions, it was held up by a wooden knife.

"Who's coming?" Yamada let out a loud snort, blowing his beard and glaring at the same time his chest was still rising and falling violently.

"Koyama Dojo, Koyama Akane." The man replied, in a crisp tone.

To the surprise of passers-by, it was a young woman who was holding a wooden knife in one hand and a tuna she had just bought at the market in the other.