Privileged businessmen bribe bureaucrats.

Bureaucrats provide various conveniences to privileged businessmen.

The rivalry between the two parties made the privileged businessmen seem to have become a new aristocratic class that was superior to the samurai class.

Even the officials have to sell privileged businessmen a little less, let alone ordinary people?

As privileged businessmen become increasingly arrogant, naturally what follows is the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, and increasingly acute class conflicts.

In fact, the evil deeds committed by privileged businessmen have long gone beyond the low-end level of roaming the countryside and molesting women on the streets.

The peaceful and peaceful environment of the Edo period led to the rapid development of the commodity economy in major cities and towns, and the seeds of capitalism have sprouted in Edo, Osaka and other areas.

Affected by this, privileged businessmen are no longer simple classical businessmen, they possess some characteristics of capitalists.

As long as they can increase the value of their capital, they will do whatever it takes.

Every time there is a severe drought, flood or epidemic, privileged businessmen will inevitably appear in the market - of course, they are not kind or reliable figures.

They hoard supplies, drive up prices, and disregard the lives of thousands of people.

In their eyes, the "forces" that make people human rather than animals, such as laws and morals, are just insignificant little restrictions.

Nishino has come into contact with countless cases related to privileged businessmen.

The final outcomes of these cases are extremely similar - they are either ended hastily or simply end without any problem due to the intervention of some unspeakable "mysterious force".

Nishino has always hated this kind of barbaric behavior.

Facing the privileged businessmen headed by Zha Chai, he had only one thought - he felt sick when he saw their faces.

Because of this, he showed such a big reaction when he heard the word "Zha Cha".

Nishino lowered his head and scanned the letter in his hand a few more times.

"Handwriting? Isn't it too arbitrary to use this alone to identify the suspect?"

"No, no, no, not arbitrary at all."

Ebina smiled slightly.

"Look carefully. Isn't the handwriting in this letter particularly delicate?"

"Phoenixiya Yataro is a master of calligraphy who is proficient in 'wild traces', so his calligraphy is particularly easy to recognize and there is almost no possibility of making mistakes."

The Japanese are used to referring to calligraphy as calligraphy.

Wild traces are the ink traces of Ono Daofeng.

Ono Michikaze was a famous calligrapher during the Heian period in Japan.

He formed his own "delicate" style based on imitating Wang Xizhi's calligraphy. He is the founder of "Japanese style" calligraphy and occupies a particularly important position in the history of Japanese calligraphy.

His original calligraphy works, such as "The Imperial Book of the Posthumous Title of Master Zhizheng", "Screen Draft", and "Three-Body Thousand-Character Essay" are regarded as national treasures.

His ink marks are called "wild marks", and together with calligraphers Fujiwara Sori's ink marks (left mark) and Fujiwara Yukinari's ink marks (quan mark), they are known as "three marks".

Hearing this, Nishino lowered his head again and scanned the letter in his hand.

As Ebina said, the writing style in the letter is particularly elegant and graceful, quite in the style of everyone.

Although Nishino knew nothing about calligraphy, he could tell that the person who wrote this letter must have deep attainments in calligraphy.

At this time, Ebina continued:

"Besides, there is no absolutely correct information in this world."

"The mere fact that the suspicion of Phoenix House Yataro has deepened is enough for us to increase the intensity of our investigation into him."

"...Indeed."

Nishino nodded slightly.

"So - what are you going to do next?"

As soon as Nishino finished speaking, a rude young male voice suddenly sounded:

"Do you even need to ask? Of course I kidnapped Phoenix House Yataro and then tortured him violently!"

The person who spoke was none other than the young man who always had a cynical expression on his face - Akutsu.

"Akutsu..."

Ichinose turned his head and cast a dissatisfied look at Akutsu, as if he was scolding Akutsu for being polite and not speaking so vulgarly.

Akutsu, who noticed Ichinose's gaze, immediately closed his mouth and stopped talking.

After Nishino glanced at Ichinose and Akutsu, he pondered to himself, thoughtfully.

At this time, my grandson suddenly said:

"Nishino-kun? How about it? We are going to have a 'talk' with that Phoenix House Yataro. Do you want to come with us?"

Nishino was stunned for a moment, and then said quickly without thinking:

"Of course! Take me with you, I also want to 'talk' to that Phoenix House Yataro!"

As soon as Nishino said this, everyone except my grandson, Ebina and others, looked surprised.

"What? I'm not welcome?"

Ebina quickly said:

"No, no, no, how could it be? We here in Kanto have been short of manpower for a long time. Nishino-kun, you are willing to help us. We are happy before it is too late."

Compared to Ebina, who was in high spirits, Nishino's expression remained cold.

"Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of helping you."

"I am just advancing and retreating with you out of my obligation as an 'ally'."

"Now that things have come to this, I can only keep moving forward."

"No matter whether it is success or failure in the end, I will witness the ending."

Speaking of this, Nishino seemed to have remembered something, paused, and added:

"However, I still have to explain something in advance."

"I only temporarily formed an alliance with you because I couldn't sit back and watch the spread of the phantom deposits."

"In short, I only share common interests with you on issues related to Huanfu Lake."

"I don't care about anything other than fantasy deposits."

"As far as identity is concerned, I am still at odds with you."

"After everything is over, we will go our separate ways and not disturb each other."

Nishino's argument immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of "the grumpy old man" Akutsu.

Just when Akutsu was about to have a seizure, Ebina reached out and held his shoulder.

Akutsu froze on the spot for an instant, like a toy whose wind-up had been taken out.

He turned to look at Ebina next to him, and met his gaze.

Akutsu, be patient - Ebina said this silently with his eyes.

Seeing this, Akutsu silently swallowed back the words that had flowed to his lips.

"That's enough~"

My grandson grinned, showing his white teeth.

The raised corners of the lips and slightly narrowed eyes formed a friendly smile without any malice.

"When we choose our allies, we never care about the other party's age or identity."

"In this world, there are neither eternal friends nor eternal enemies, only eternal interests."

“There is no stronger bond than an alliance formed out of common interests.”

As soon as my grandson finished speaking, Ebina softly added:

"This is the precious experience that we...the Great Salt Party has accumulated bit by bit after more than 20 years of hard life like a street rat."

…

…

The Buddhist influence has been growing wildly since it was introduced to Japan. It once caused the Kyoto court, the Kamakura shogunate and other political regimes to suffer a lot.

In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the previous dynasty, the Edo shogunate adopted a policy rich in political wisdom against Buddhism.

On the one hand, there was crazy suppression, such as prohibiting temples from raising private soldiers, and monk soldiers with a long history were reduced to historical nouns.

On the other hand, he tried his best to win over them and turned them into his own tools of rule.

In the Edo period, there was the so-called "Tan family system". Everyone must register with a certain temple to become a Tan family. This kind of temple is called Tananaji or Bodhi Temple.

The register used for this registration is called the "Target Person Account". It records the name, age, family member structure, etc. according to each family.

In addition, when someone passes away, it is also handled in the temple.
To be continued...