"Mr. Robin Hood has many companions who come with him to rob the rich and give to the poor." Elodie added.

"Haha, maybe that little cat monk will actually find some companions for himself as you said, miss." Leroy covered his mouth and smiled, "Okay, the story is over, and it's time for you to go to bed, miss.

.”

"Miss Leroy, tell me more about this cat monk! I'm very interested in this Phantom Thief!"

"Miss, I have told you all the stories I have heard about the Cat Monk."

Leroy raised his hand and touched Elodie's smooth pale golden hair.

"Since Miss, you are very interested in the story of Cat Monk... then I will pay close attention to all kinds of news related to Cat Xiao Monk for you, Miss, and inform you of these news as soon as possible."

"Really?" Elodie's already big eyes opened even wider, and the pupils of her eyes flashed with light that made people think of the stars.

Leroy smiled and nodded: "The premise is that from now on, Miss, you will go to bed obediently and obediently every time it is time to go to bed. Otherwise..."

"Miss Leroy! Please put out the candle for me, I'm going to sleep!"

After saying that, Elodie closed her eyes tightly and covered her body with the quilt more tightly.

Amused by Elodie's cute appearance, Leroy covered his mouth and smiled again. He stood up from the chair, extinguished the candle lamp placed beside the bed, and left Elodie's bedroom calmly.

Pat, pat, pat, pat...

Outside the room, Leroy's footsteps gradually faded away.

Elodie, who had been paying close attention to Leroy's footsteps, after confirming that Leroy had gone far, playfully half-opened one right eye, glanced behind the closed door, and rounded both eyes.

Open.

"Cat Monk..." Elodie looked at the ceiling that turned light gray under the dim light of night and the moonlight coming in from the window.

"I don't know if he will be a handsome man who is both powerful and elegant..."

Elodie's lips and corners of her eyes were filled with an expectant and fascinated smile.

…

…

The next day——

In the early morning, Assui and others had just arrived at the Beifan Institute to start work. Aoto and Nishino, who had been working the night shift at the Beifan Institute, immediately reported the important news that "Cat Monk showed up at the Beifan Institute last night."

After learning about this incident, the senior officials of the Beifan Institute led by Susui were shocked.

Previously, Cat Monk had always presented himself as "only stealing money from Yakuza, villains and profiteers with extremely bad reputations".

Why did Mao Xiaoseng show up at Beifan Station last night? What was he going to do? Did he come to Beifan Station to steal something?

Under the instructions and organization of Bosui, everyone quickly investigated the inside and outside of the Beifan Institute to see if anything was missing, and finally found that nothing was missing.

This made everyone even more confused.

Did the cat monk have no plan to steal things in Beibansuo...or did he have to stop the theft because he was caught by Qingto who was about to go to the toilet before he could steal anything?

If he had no plan to steal anything in Beifan, then he showed up in Beifan for no reason. What did he want?

The extreme lack of information means that these questions may never be answered...

In the end - the incident of "Mao Xiaoseng suddenly visited Beifansuo late at night" can only end without any problem.

If you want information but don’t have information, you can’t catch the cat monk even if you want to, so what else can the execution office do?

Anyway, nothing important was stolen, so let’s just forget about it.

Susui asked everyone to pay more attention from now on and strengthen their defenses at night, and ordered Nishino, who is now solely responsible for catching the cat monk, to work harder and strive to catch the cat monk as soon as possible. After the "cat monk night attack"

It's a turn of events.

In the next few days, two great events occurred in the south and north offices of Edo.

The first big happy event: everyone’s spring family income, salary, and offerings have finally been distributed.

Generally speaking, the income of samurai mainly consists of two parts: family salary and salary.

Japan in the Edo period followed a "rice-based" economic system. Whether it was family income or salary, rice was basically used to distribute the money. After receiving the rice, the samurai would exchange it for money with merchants.

Most samurai theoretically own a piece of land that they inherited from the lord they serve.

The rice produced on this fiefdom is your family's income.

If your fief can produce 100 shi of rice, then your family income is 100 shi.

The samurai had only nominal ownership of the fiefdoms owned by their families. The actual rights of use were collected by the shoguns and daimyo.

To put it simply: your fiefdom is under our control. But you will not miss a grain of rice that should be given to you.

In the name of "helping manage the land," the shoguns and daimyo controlled the use rights of the fiefdoms of their samurai warriors, and all the rice produced on the fiefdoms would be distributed to the samurai who owned these fiefdoms.

Not all the rice produced on the fiefdom would be given to the samurai, but would have to be taxed - in the Edo period, whether it was family income or salary, the tax rate was "four public and six people", that is, the government collected 40% of the tax.

.

As a lower-level imperial family member, Qingdeng, his family's family income is not too much or too little, just 100 shi.

After deducting the taxes of the "four public officials and six citizens", you can receive a family salary of 60 shi from the shogunate every year.

Regardless of whether Seitobo loses his job at the training center in the future, as long as his samurai ancestry is not taken away, he can continue to receive this salary - but the salary of the Tachibana family is quite meager. Just look at this.

Life will be very difficult if you live on a low income.

Qingden has grown so big... No, it should be said that for generations, no one in the Ju family has ever seen what the fiefdom their family claims looks like, or even knows its specific location.

This situation is actually not new. Because the shoguns and daimyo held the right to use all samurai fiefdoms in their hands, most samurai had never seen what their fiefdoms looked like for generations, so they just waited and waited.

Just harvest the rice.

As for salary, it is easy to understand, it is the salary of an official. If you are not serving in the government, then you have no salary.

Regardless of whether it is the same thing in the practice office, the Yinweifang or any other department, as long as it is the same thing, then the annual salary after deducting the tax rate is basically 30 taels to support two people.

1 俵 is 4 buckets, and 1 shi is 10 buckets, so 30 俵 is converted into 12 shi.

The "two-person support" can be understood as a subsidy. You will be given enough rice to feed two adults for a year every year.

The annual salary is only 12 dan plus allowance for support of 2 people...the income is extremely meager.

Therefore, the lives of the co-workers in all departments are very difficult hahahaha - only the co-workers in the practice office are an exception.

Because the samurai who work in the temple also have another income: offerings.

Daimyos from various places and merchants in Edo would pay a "gift" to the Edo Shrine on time every year, asking the Shrine to "take care" of them in the next year.

Because part of this "gift money" will also be paid to the shogunate, the shogunate has always adopted a "turn a blind eye" attitude towards this invisible income from the Edo Office.

Every year, the town priest will distribute these "gifts" to the officials in the town priest according to their identity, status, and political achievements.

People call this "hidden salary" that the officials of the execution office can receive "offerings."

This "contribution" is the bulk of the income of the officials at the prison.

Take Arima as an example - Arima has a body and strength, and his annual salary is 200 dan.

But including the annual offerings, the actual annual income of each member of the monastery is as high as 500 to 1,000 dan.

Both family salary and salary are distributed in three seasons.

One-quarter will be distributed in spring, one-quarter in summer, and the remaining one-half will be distributed in winter.

The offerings at the shrine are divided into four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.

How much offerings you can receive each quarter depends entirely on your position and ability.

In the past, when Qingteng was still the "Original Orange Qingteng", his political performance was really a mess, so the offerings he could receive every quarter were always pitiful.

But now - Qingdeng is no longer the "idiot" he used to be.

Qingdeng's heroic performance last quarter earned him a very high amount of tribute this quarter: 51 taels of gold!

When Hakui reported the spring offerings that Qingteng could receive this year, bursts of low breathing erupted from the offering site.

Tongxin can receive 51 taels of gold as an offering in one quarter... This is extremely rare.

The spring offering of 51 taels of gold, including the 15 taels of spring family salary, 3 taels of spring salary and the "two-person support" allowance, Qingdeng's wallet was once again bulging.

As for the second big happy event, it was a bit more serious.

On the night when Aoto's house was burned down, Aoto and Okita worked together to catch one of the arsonists - the fat man. After he was arrested, he was immediately sent to the prison in Kodenma Town.

Under the instruction of the shogunate, the prison guards who were responsible for torture of prisoners used all kinds of cruel torture methods on the fat man day and night.

The fat man's will was unexpectedly strong.

Whether it was the "stone hug torture" that made people experience the pain of having their legs almost broken, or the "ebiosis torture" that made people feel that life was worse than death, he gritted his teeth and persisted one by one.

But...the torture methods used in prison are all "the crystallization of human wisdom" created through thousands of years of accumulation and continuous improvement by generations of people.

If you can endure these tortures for a while, can you still endure these tortures for a lifetime?

The kind of people who can endure these tortures for a lifetime are the best among people - and Fatty has no chance of meeting such people.

After enduring nearly three months of abuse and torture in the cell, he finally couldn't hold on anymore and confided everything he knew.
To be continued...