It's night——

Tokaido, Hakone-juku, a hotel——

“Today’s dinner tastes so delicious!”

"Yes, that hot spring steamed bun is delicious!"

"It was indeed the right thing to join the Shinsengumi. We have such delicious food every day. If the folks back home knew about it, they would definitely envy us!"

"Hey, it was only during the march that we were warmly entertained by the camp, and we were able to eat such delicious food. I'm afraid we won't be treated so well when we get to Kyoto!"

Three young men wearing wakizashi around their waists walked on the creaking corridor on their way back to their bedrooms.

Although they have shaved heads, their buns are not on top of their heads, but pinned to the back of their heads.

In the beginning, the Tsukiyo haircut was a hairstyle exclusive to samurai.

But as time goes by, this trend spreads from top to bottom to the civilian class.

Today, even a poor tenant farmer has the right to shave his head with a decent head.

However, although samurai and civilians can now shave their heads, there are still very significant differences in the specific hairstyles of the two sides - mainly reflected in the placement of the bun.

The samurai's bun is placed directly on the top of the head.

The common people's buns are positioned a little further back. When viewed from the front, it looks like they have their buns pinned behind their heads.

Judging from the hairstyles of these three people, as well as their extremely dark and rough skin due to their long-term relationship with strong winds and scorching sun... there is no doubt that they are soldiers of civilian origin.

Most of the members of the Shinsengumi are samurai who have learned martial arts.

However, there are still some civilians who are recruited into the army under exceptional circumstances because of their excellent physical fitness.

Judging from their accents, these three people should be farmers in the Musashi area.

Musashi is a strategic hub in the Kanto Plain, and it is also the location of the half-soldier, half-peasant country soldier army formed by Tokugawa Ieyasu: "The Eight Princes and Thousands of People with One Heart".

Although the long-term peaceful life has long made the military preparations of the Eight Princes become unbearable, the culture of martial arts has been passed down.

In the surrounding area with Musashi as the center, fitness and martial arts practice has become popular.

They work on the farm when the farming season is busy, and when the farming season is slack, they exercise their muscles and bones together, or hire a master with strong martial arts skills to teach them martial arts.

Because of this, in terms of physical fitness and quality of soldiers, Musashi is far better than other regions.

Most of the soldiers of the Shinsengumi who came from civilian backgrounds were the sons of the eighth prince and a good family with a thousand people.

Just as these three people were chatting happily... at the corner of the corridor in front of them, four samurai with swords on their waists suddenly appeared - this hotel has been contracted by the Shinsengumi. In addition to the staff, everyone will be in this hotel. The people who hang out in the hotel are without exception members of the Shinsengumi.

They burped and walked straight towards the three farm boys with swaggering square steps.

Two groups of people walked toward each other.

When the farm boys saw this, they were startled for a moment, with hesitation and hesitation on their faces.

However, in just a few moments, their complexions returned to normal, and they continued to move forward without stopping.

This corridor is very wide, and even if two groups of people don't give way to each other and walk side by side, they won't feel cramped.

However...the four warriors suddenly stopped.

"Hey, what do you mean?"

The leader curled his mouth, raised his chin, and looked at people through his nostrils.

"Didn't your parents teach you? When civilians encounter samurai in narrow places such as corridors and bridges, they must give way!"

When the three farmers heard this, they immediately stopped and showed dissatisfaction on their faces.

"This corridor is so wide, why do we need to make way for you?"

The warriors raised their nostrils higher:

"Even if this corridor is very wide, you should step aside. This is the etiquette that you civilians should do."

Anger spread across the faces of the farmers.

They suppressed their anger and said in a deep voice:

"Hey, what you said is wrong! Before the army set off, Lord Niou said it himself: From now on, there will be no distinction between men, women, warriors, civilians, or more! We all have one identity now.

, that is the warrior of the Shinsengumi!"

"That's right! Our status is equal now! Stop using the previous 'samurai-civilian distinction' to oppress us!"

As soon as they finished speaking, the warriors burst out laughing as if they had heard some very funny joke.

The corridor was filled with frivolous laughter.

After laughing to his heart's content, the leading warrior curled his lips in disdain.

"Nioh? If Nioh asks you to eat shit, will you eat shit too? If Nioh asks you to lick his asshole, will you rush to lick his asshole too?"

Another person echoed:

"The Nioh just said it casually, do you really think you can be equal to us from now on?"

The leading warrior answered the question.

"Although the King of Benevolence is our leader, it does not mean that we must obey his orders in everything!"

"The reason why we chose to join the Shinsengumi is to quell the bandits entrenched in Gyeonggi. We are not here to be offended, let alone to offend you, the mud-covered civilians!"

"Letting civilians join the army... huh, it's all nonsense! His behavior of recruiting women into the army is even more ridiculous! This kind of violation of etiquette and discipline is really a shame for Nioh!"

His words were full of dissatisfaction with Qingdeng.

"If you understand this, get out of the way! Make way for me!"

After finishing speaking, he paused for a moment, squinting his eyes and glancing at the waistbands of the farmers.

Although etiquette has collapsed in Japan, and more and more civilians have begun to openly ignore the rule that "only samurai can wear katana", if you want to wear a katana, you must have a sword, right?

Throughout the Edo period, due to limited productivity, swords have never been a mass commodity that can enter thousands of households.

On the market, the cheapest knives are the bargains nicknamed "wholesale knives."

Every knife shop in major cities such as Edo, Kyoto, Osaka, etc. has made a lot of them and sold them in the open air like a hill in front of the stall.

Their styles and materials are exactly the same, as if they were poured from the same mold, and there are no inscriptions on them.

Generally speaking, in order to build their own "brand reputation" and also to create "anti-counterfeiting marks", knife makers often engrave the knife maker's name and the year and month when the knife was made on the knife stem.

The knifemakers are not even willing to leave their names on the stems of these knives - you can imagine how poor their workmanship is.

The sharpness is basically only as sharp as a kitchen knife.

Not to mention its toughness, if you use this broken knife to cut against a wooden stick, you don't know which one will break first.

However, even this low-quality product can only be purchased at a high price of between 3 plants and 1 tael.

[Note·Plant: 1 tael = 4 points = 16 plants]

3 plants... An ordinary farm family works hard for a whole year, and they don't know if they can save a deposit of 1 plant.

Not to mention civilians, middle- and lower-level samurai from poor families could not afford to buy and replace swords casually.

It is normal for generations to use the same knife.

When the grandfather is finished, the father can use it, when the father is finished, the son can use it, when the son is finished, the grandson can use it...

Some people's knives have even been passed down from the Warring States Period more than 200 years ago to the present. They are very precious. If they are accidentally knocked and broken, then they have to wear a bamboo knife on their waist.

It was obvious that none of these three farm boys could afford a knife.

They only have one wakizashi around their waists, and this wakizashi is very old.

The scabbard is mottled like rotten wood, and you can smell the stench of moisture.

The shark skin and ribbons were in tatters, like clothes with threads torn apart.

[Note: Shark skin: Stingray skin produced in Southeast Asia is affixed to the handle of the knife to make the handle suitable for holding and prevent it from slipping. Taping: After the shark skin is affixed, the handle curler will

Then tie a silk or cotton tape on the handle. In this way, a complete handle is completed.】

Looking at the long-standing wakizashi on the waists of the farmers, the disdain and ridicule on the faces of the samurai became more intense.

"With a cheap wakizashi stuck in your waist, do you really think you are a samurai?"

Having said that, the leading warrior swung the delicate sword around his waist with great force, and showed his sword to the peasants "generally and generously".

Maybe it was the contemptuous expression of the samurai that stung their hearts, or maybe it was the man's despicable words that made them unbearable. A certain farmer stepped forward, swung his fist, and hit the leader hard, the most arrogant one.

Yes, it has been on the face of the samurai who has been talking nonsense since just now.

With a "bang", the warrior who was caught off guard flew out and hit his companion behind him.

This punch ignited a powder keg that was already on the verge of breaking out.

"Damn! What do you want to do?"

"Go to hell you all!"

"A mere commoner dares to beat up a samurai! Okay, now let me show you how powerful a samurai is!"
To be continued...