…

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

The opponent struck with his sword and moved quickly, and in the blink of an eye his bamboo sword was in front of Qingdeng.

Qingdeng leisurely spread his legs, stood still, and allowed the opponent to attack.

Bang - a sound.

The two only fought for one round before the other side slipped to the ground due to a sword hit on his shoulder.

"You are not qualified, go down."

There was another dejected person at the venue.

The officer opened the thick book in his hand to a new page.

"Next! Serizawa Duck! Serizawa Duck! Serizawa Duck, are you here?"

"Huh? Oh, it's my turn..."

Among the applicants, a strong man scratched his hair and yawned widely.

When he stood up, he immediately attracted a lot of exclamations.

I saw that this man had a strong physique that is quite rare among Japanese people nowadays. He had a leopard head with ringed eyes, a swallow jaw and a tiger beard. He looked like Zhang Fei.

His hair was disheveled, he was dressed in clothes covered with dirt, and there was a large, heavy-looking iron ruler inserted into his right waist. His thick, bushy beard was very conspicuous.

Since the Yuan and Yanwu eras, the Edo shogunate has considered not shaving to be a legacy of the Warring States Period.

The shogunate was very wary of the Warring States customs such as growing beards that could lead to rebellion.

Therefore, in the name of "changing customs", the shogunate promulgated the "Big Mustache Prohibition Order" in the 10th year of Kanbun (1670), requiring the martial arts disciples to shave their beards, and violators were fined.

The only people who can keep their faces tidy every day are middle- and upper-level samurai who live a decent life and can even hire someone to shave them.

A low-level samurai who lives in poverty, or a ronin who doesn't even have three meals a day, definitely doesn't have the ability to cleanse his face regularly.

Therefore, the shogunate turned a blind eye to this and did not impose strict requirements on ronin and lower-status samurai, as long as the beard stubble was not too obvious.

Of course, senior cabinet ministers like Aoto and Katsurintaro, who frequently visited Edo Castle, were absolutely not allowed to grow beards.

If the people of the "Ichitsubashi faction" discovered that Aotomo had grown a beard, the impeachment papers for Aotobo's "lack of etiquette and lack of shame" might have been delivered to Tokugawa Iemobo before the next day.

Today's Japan has long been in ruins of rituals and music.

There are too many things for the shogunate to worry about right now, and they can't even bother with the beards of the samurai.

Laws such as the "Big Mustache Prohibition Order" have existed in name only.

In order to show their prowess, many samurai imitated the heroes of the Warring States Period of three hundred years and began to grow beards.

"Serizawa Duck! Hurry up and get on the stage!"

The messenger urged.

"Tsk... don't push me, I understand."

The strong man named "Serizawa Duck" yawned loudly again and strode towards the high platform with a high profile.

There was an air of arrogance in the way this man walked.

Not only did he walk step by step, but he also walked in a swaggering manner.

At this time, a person stood in front of him and failed to get out of the way in time.

"Get out of the way!"

Without saying a word, Serizawa Duck directly flew up and kicked the man away roughly.

Being treated like this... no one will feel at ease.

The man with a dirty footprint on his back suddenly turned around with an angry look on his face.

However, after seeing the huge body of Serizawa Duck, which was nearly two heads taller than him, he suddenly lost his temper and could only step aside angrily.

Aomori has been silently observing Serizawa Duck.

If Qingdeng was asked to evaluate this strong man in simple terms...then it can be said that this man has an arrogant attitude in both his image and his behavior.

Aoden, who had a clear view of what Serizawa Kamo was doing, slowly frowned.

At the same time, the general manager under the high platform couldn't help but smile and whispered:

"Duck? What a weird name."

At this time, Nagakura Shinpachi was startled for a moment, with a look of surprise on his face:

"Hmm? Serizawa Duck?"

Harada Sanosuke, who was standing side by side with him, asked:

"Xinpachi, do you know this person?"

Nagakura Shinpachi nodded.

"He and I are from the same sect. He is also a swordsman of the Shinto Mu-en-ryu, and he is also the holder of the Fujoden. However, I am not familiar with him. I only know that there is such a number one person."

Nagakura Shinpachi's words attracted the attention of Kondo Isamu standing aside.

He turned his head sideways and asked:

"Nagakura-kun, since you know this person's name even though you are not familiar with him, then he must have something special about him, right?"

Nagakura Shinpachi nodded.

"You can say that. Although I haven't seen it with my own eyes, it is said that his swordsmanship is very superb. In addition, his past identity is also very impressive."

"Past identity?"

Hijikata Tosei raised his eyebrows and asked:

"What did he do in the past?"

After Nagakura Shinpachi hesitated for a while, he lowered his voice:

"He was a member of Mito Domain's Tengu Party."

Tengu Party——After hearing this word, the General Secretary and others shrank their necks with strange expressions.

Mito Domain is the birthplace of "Mito School", so the domain is rich in those who respect the king.

[Note: Mito Studies: A school of thought formed during the compilation of "History of Japan" by Tokugawa Mitsuki, the second generation Mito feudal lord. With Zhu Shunshui's theory as the center, it integrated Chinese studies and Shinto, and advocated respect for the king and righteousness]

For this reason, the idea of ​​respecting the king has always been deeply rooted in Mito Domain and spread widely.

It is precisely because of this that the King-resisting and Barbarian-repelling faction in Mito Domain has always had extremely strong energy.

The "Tengu Party" is a radical faction with middle and lower-level samurai as the core that emerged from the Mito Domain's King-respecting and Barbarian faction taking advantage of the former feudal lord Tokugawa Saiaki's reform of the feudal government. It is opposed to the conservative Morocei Party.

On the shogunate side, the "Nanki Faction" and the "Ichitsubashi Faction" were fighting fiercely.

The "Tengu Party" and the "Moroccan Party" in Mito fought to a bloody head--physically.

The "Sakuramon Gate Incident" in the 7th year of Ansei (1860), which led to the murder of Naomi Ii, and the "Sakashita Gate Incident" last year, which almost caused Ando Nobumasa's return to the west, were both led by radical feudal lords of the Mito Domain.

——You can imagine how violent these people are.

The tension between the "Tengu Party" and the "Zhusheng Party" has long been on the verge of breaking out, and many small-scale conflicts have broken out.

The internal turmoil in the Mito Domain made the citizens of Edo very worried.

The distance between Edo and Mito Domain was only a short distance away.

If you ride a fast horse, you can complete two or three round trips between the two places in one day.

The citizens of Edo were afraid that if a civil war broke out in the Mito Domain, Edo would be implicated in a military disaster.

The Tengu Party has always shown itself to others as having a violent style and radical ideas.

Unless you also hold the same radical idea of ​​respecting the king and rejecting the foreigners, you will never have a good impression of this kind of organization.

Therefore, it is no wonder that Souji and others showed such meaningful expressions after learning that Serizawa Kamo was once a member of the "Tengu Party".

…

…

On the other side, Serizawa Kamo took off the saber and iron ruler from his waist, casually pulled out a bamboo sword from the weapon rack, and climbed onto the high platform with dignity.

He did not immediately get into a fighting stance, but first put the bamboo sword on his shoulder while looking Qingdeng up and down without hesitation.

"Although I have lived in Edo for a long time, this is the first time I have seen the true face of Nioh."

Qingdeng smiled slightly:

"If you are interested in my appearance, you can get closer to me."

Serizawa duck sneered.

"There is no need. Anyway, there will be plenty of opportunities to take a closer look later."

After saying that, he spread his legs, held the sword in both hands, and adopted the upper position.
To be continued...