I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

Edo, Kitamachi Magistrate's Office.

"There are so many people..."

Looking at the scene in front of him, Ogata couldn't help muttering in a helpless tone.

It was just dawn today, and Xu convenient took the document like "candidate's certificate" he had obtained at the registration place before, and rushed to the meeting place of the participants of the "Osaka Examination"-Kitamachi Office. .

Edo is currently the largest city in Japan.

The total population is more than one million.

Due to the overpopulation and large area, in order to facilitate the management of this "monster-type" town, Edo has set up two towns-Minamimachi and Kitamachi.

Historically, Edo once set up "Nakamachi Enforcement", but Nakamachi Enforcement was removed shortly after it was established.

Ogata and others turned on a highway leading directly to the Kitamachi Magistrate in Edo, and after walking straight along this highway, they arrived at a magnificent mansion.

And this magnificent mansion is exactly the Kitamachi Magistrate in Edo.

A small open space in front of the Kitamachi Office was already crowded with dense crowds.

According to Ogata's estimation, nearly a hundred people have gathered in this small open space.

And this number is still slowly increasing.

The people gathered here are without exception the people who signed up for the "Prince Test Combination".

Some are young and handsome, exuding energy and energy all over.

Some are old-fashioned, with some white in their hair and beard.

Some are well-dressed and well-dressed.

Some of them are sloppy, and the clothes on their bodies are as dirty as a rag specially used to wipe the floor of the toilet. What's more, their clothes are directly tattered and ragged.

Most people come on foot.

Of course, there are also a small number of people who come here directly on horses or in sedan chairs.

Although the people gathered on this street at this time have thousands of styles, they all have one thing in common-they all have the soul of a samurai on their waists: a sword.

Almost all the people here, whether they are glamorous in appearance or in ragged clothes, are basically samurai.

Of course there are a few exceptions.

There are also very few people who don't have a knife stuck in their waist.

These people with no swords around their waists are either warriors with weird characters and no swords on their bodies, or ordinary civilians.

The latter is much more likely than the former.

The number of samurai who goes out without a sword is so small that they can be called "rare animals."

Ogata guessed that these civilians who came to participate in the "Private Examination" may just want to participate in the literary examination, and try to see if they can get the prize of the literary examination.

After all, these civilians should be unlikely to come to the latter "martial test".

Looking at the crowd in front of him, Ogata couldn't help but secretly said in his heart:

——It is the epitome of the samurai class of this era...

This situation and situation made Ogata sigh with emotion.

Although there are very few civilians in this small open space, most of them are still samurai.

The group of warriors gathered in this small open space at this time are like the epitome of the warrior class of this era.

Although they all have the title of "Samurai", their lives are very different.

Some of them have horses and sedan chairs when they travel.

Some were wearing ragged clothes that were not even as good as ordinary civilians, and apart from the sabers stuck in their waists, their appearances were no different from ordinary civilians.

After expressing this small emotion in his heart, Ogata walked to the outermost part of the crowd, quietly waiting for the official start of the literary examination.

Amachi and Makimura accompanied Ogata to the Kitamachi Office.

Ogata didn't want to bother Makimura also came to send him to the Kitamachi magistrate.

However, Makimura is a person who likes to join in the fun.

There is such a lively event to join in, and the pastoral village will naturally not let it go.

So even if Ogata had persuaded him not to come, Makimura still insisted on coming to the Kitamachi Office with Ogata and Amachi.

Ogata feels quite helpless for Makimura's insistence on joining in the fun...

Because the main reason Ogata didn’t want Makimura to come over was that he wanted to be alone with Amachi after a long absence...

Makimura and Amachi, who put on heavy makeup that even parents could not recognize, looked at everything around them with curious eyes.

Such a great group of warriors with different styles gathered together, and it was a spectacle that is usually hard to see.

While looking at everything around him with curious eyes, Makimura also tapped Ogata's shoulder with his hand, and asked Ogata:

"Do you have confidence in this'literary examination'?"

"It's okay." Ogata smiled.

These days, Oukata has been taking time to read the Four Books and Five Classics. Review some chapters where you are a little unfamiliar, or have forgotten most of the content.

All the content of the literary test is 100 fill-in-the-blank questions.

If you want Ogata to answer all 100 questions correctly, then Ogata has no confidence.

But if Ogata meets the conditions for passing the literary examination: answering half of the questions correctly, then Ogata still has some confidence.

Fill-in-the-blank questions can be regarded as a kind of exam questions with a long history.

As early as in the imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty, there was a kind of examination questions called "Tie Jing".

And this "posting scripture" is a fill in the blank question.

Just as Ogata silently waited for the officials to take them to the examination room, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind him:

"Isn't this Goro-kun Mashima?"

As soon as he heard this voice, Ogata's brows immediately frowned, and then Xunsheng turned his head to look at the owner of this male voice: a well-dressed samurai.

This samurai can be regarded as Ogata’s old acquaintance...

It was the famous Kibmoto samurai: Heiichiro Takigawa.

Takikawa's dress at this time is the same as the dress that Ogata saw last time at the registration place of the "Gozen Examination": the whole body exudes an aura of wealth.

The samurai of this era often have the family pattern of the lord that they belong to on their clothes.

For example, before Ogata's resignation from the feudal clan, the few clothes he had had had the family pattern of "Hirose Matsudaira" on them.

And these clothes were thrown away by Ogata after Ogata's resignation.

The Haori on Takigawa's upper body is also tattooed with the family crest of the lord he is loyal to-the family crest of the Tokugawa family: the three-leaf sunflower pattern.

Except for the Ronin who has no loyalty to the lord, there is also a chain of contempt among the samurai.

At the bottom of the contempt chain are the samurai who are loyal to the weak foreign names.

The samurai who stand at the top of the chain of contempt are those who can wear clothes with three-leaf sunflower patterns.

Takikawa walked slowly to Ogata's glamorous dress.

After Takigawa approached, Ogata's simple dress greatly set off the gorgeousness of Takigawa.

"Gui'an. You came really early." As he approached Ogata, Takikawa said hello to Ogata, saying hello.

"Nothing." Ogata replied in a calm tone, "I just came here."

"How? Are you ready for today's essay test?" Takikawa asked next.

"For the time being, I have turned over those Sinology classics several times." Ogata's response was still flat.

"That's good." Takikawa nodded, changing into a weird tone, "I look forward to seeing your excellent performance."

After uttering this sentence in a strange tone, Takigawa didn't say a word with Ogata, and walked away from Ogata in another direction.

As soon as Takikawa's words fell, Ogata's brows frowned slightly.

Takikawa said that sentence just now in a very strange tone, so that made him have a strange tone from beginning to end.

But Ogata's brows stretched out after frowning slightly.

Ogata has always had no good feelings about Takigawa, so he didn't even want to talk to him for a while, too lazy to bother with Takigawa's yin and yang just now.

However-Ogata can ignore Takigawa, but that doesn't mean that others can also ignore it.

"What..." Ah Ting cast a displeased look on Takigawa's body, "Who is that guy? Why is it so unpleasant to speak..."

In addition to Amachi, Makimura is also looking at Takigawa's back, who is slowly leaving, with a displeased face.

Makimura used to accompany Ogata to the registration site for the "Gozen Examination", so he recognized Takigawa.

But Ah Ding does not recognize Takigawa.

In order to avoid unnecessary incidents of Amachi and Makimura’s apprenticeship, Ogata said quickly:

"Who is that guy, I will explain to you slowly later."

"Don't worry about that guy. Just treat that guy as the kind of annoying fly that only hums."

"There is no need to cause trouble and waste time for this guy."

Hearing Ogata's words, Amachi and Makimura withdrew their displeased gaze from the back of Takigawa.

After briefing Amachi about who Takigawa was from, Ogata continued to wait quietly for the start of the literary examination.

After waiting for an unknown amount of time, a group of officials dressed as officials finally walked out of the office.

After these officials dressed as officials walked out of the office, the crowd gathered in this small open area immediately became more noisy.

Through the conversations with people around, Ogata learned that the head of the group of officials who came out of the Kitamachi Office is the current Kitamachi of Edo: Masago Nagase.

As soon as Nagase, who is pursuing Kitamachi, arrived, he announced to everyone that the literary examination was about to begin, so that everyone was quiet.

Nagase's voice is very loud, and his voice can cover every corner of this small clearing perfectly.

After hearing Nagase let them be quiet, the little clearing that was originally noisy slowly quieted down.

The ordinary people who stood on the periphery watching the excitement also softened their voices.

After quieting the open space, Nagase cleared his throat, and then announced the next procedure like everyone else.

Nagase explained a lot of cumbersome procedures.

After excluding those Mandarin and idioms, and streamlining the remaining parts, the main content is: later they will call their names one by one, and the person who is called will go out to the one who calls them. The officials approached, and then they were taken to the place where the literary examination was conducted.

According to Nagase, because there has never been a similar activity before, there is no place dedicated to exams for a large number of people.

In order to solve the problem of test venues, the shogunate rented several large tea houses adjacent to the Kitamachi Magistrate.

Ogata and the others will be taken to these tea houses in batches later, where they will have a literary test.

Everyone will be taken to a separate room in the tea house to take the exam.

The test continues until noon.

Ogata was not surprised that the shogunate rented a few teahouses as places for literary examinations.

After all, there was no examination culture in Japan during the Edo period, and no examination activities had been held before.

In such a situation where there is no place for a large number of people to take exams, renting a tea house with a large number of independent compartments is the best choice.

After briefly explaining the before and after procedures for conducting the literary examination, the group of officials who had just followed Nagase out of the Kitamachi Enforcement Office dispersed in all directions, and began yelling for everyone who participated in the "Gozen Examination". first name.

After a while, Okinawa heard an official not far away yelling "Majima Goro".

"Then I will leave first." Ogata smiled at Amachi and Makimura beside him, "I'll see you in the afternoon."

"Oh!" Makimura slapped Ogata's shoulder vigorously, "waiting for your good news!"

"I wish you good luck!" Amachi cheered Ogata loudly.

"It's'Bunyun Masakataka'." After correcting Amachi's sentence with a half-joking tone, Ogata quickly walked towards the official who had just called the name "Majima Goro".

After walking up to the official and showing the official the document that looked like a "candidate certificate" from the official at the "registration place", the official nodded and then let the thread go. Fang waited a while.

These officials each supervised a group of candidates who participated in the "Private Examination", and after scoring the candidates in charge, they took the candidates to the various tea houses for the literary examination.

After waiting for a while, the official in charge of Ogata finally ordered all the candidates he was in charge of.

The official's luck was not bad. The candidates he was in charge of, including Ogata, were all here, and no one was here.

After ordering the candidates he was in charge of, the official led Ogata and others under his charge to the tea house where Ogata and others were conducting the literary examination.

Following this official, when he walked to a tea house not far from Kitamachi enshrinement, Ogata suddenly noticed four people dressed as officials standing in front of the tea house.

The four officials have ten hands stuck in their waists, with thorns in their hands.

Seeing that Ogata and others were coming, the four officials immediately told Ogata and others in a stern tone that they wanted to check whether they were carrying any cheating equipment.

Only those who pass the inspection can enter.

Hearing these four officials' words, Ogata couldn't help but raised his eyebrows.

Ogata was not surprised, but also a little surprised at the fact that there was an "anti-cheating check."

What Ogata was not surprised was that it was normal to check whether the candidates were carrying cheating equipment before entering the examination room.

Ogata was surprised that in Edo Japan, where the examination culture was almost zero, the shogunate officials still knew about cheating prevention.

Everyone will be taken to a small room in the tea house, and then checked.

Check that there are no strange things on your body, and check that there are no problems with your clothes.

Under the inspection of officials, two guys with problems were really caught.

One of these two people covered the contents of the Four Books and Five Classics in tiny print on the inside of the kimono.

The other was even more exquisite, putting "cheat sheets" full of the contents of the Four Books and Five Classics into the interlayer of his clothes.

The two guys who were caught in the current situation were directly **** by Wuhuada.

According to officials, all cheating and those who intend to cheat must be sent to prison for a period of time.

Soon, it was Ogata's turn to accept cheating checks.

Ogata had no intention of cheating, so Ogata passed the inspection soon.

As he walked out of this room used to check cheating, Ogata couldn't help showing a strange expression on his face, and said with emotion in his heart:

——It’s still too tender...

These official checks and cheating methods are still too tender in Ogata's eyes. They just check the clothes and body.

In ancient China, the examination of imperial examination candidates for cheating is called a profession.

Because of the endless emergence of various cheating methods by some imperial examination candidates, it has also forced the government to check cheating methods to develop by leaps and bounds.

However, these official checks and cheating methods are not mature enough, and Ogata understands this very well.

After all, there has never been a similar activity before, and it should be the first time that these officials have checked for cheating. It is not bad to be able to do this.

After successfully passing the cheating check, Ogata was taken to the second floor of the tea house and into a small room.

A table has been placed in this compartment.

The pen, ink and inkstone are all ready on the table, and there is also a teapot and teacup.

It is a pity that what this teapot pours out is not tea, but ordinary water.

Ogata sat cross-legged in front of this table, then took off the saber around his waist and placed it on the tatami mat on the right, and then silently waited for the official start of the literary examination.

While Ogata was waiting for the official start of the literary examination, other people were taken to the second floor of the tea house one after another, and then taken into different compartments.

After waiting until Ogata became a little impatient, finally a famous official stood on the corridor outside the cubicle and announced to Ogata and others that the literary test had begun. Those who received the test papers could start answering immediately.

Afterwards, the two officials each held a large stack of examination papers, walked into each compartment one by one, and handed the examination papers to everyone in each compartment.

After receiving the examination papers from the officials who entered his room, Xu Jian quickly flipped through it.

The examination papers are full of fill-in-the-blank questions.

These fill-in-the-blank questions are lined up together, and they look densely packed, but at first glance they are a bit crass.

——100 fill-in-the-blank questions... It's still tiring to answer one by one.

Ogata, who was not in a hurry to answer immediately, looked at the examination paper in his hand.

Because there are too many questions, there are 3 examination papers.

When turning to the last examination paper, Ogata's pupils shrank slightly.

"How is this going……"

Looking at the last part of the exam paper, Ogata couldn't help but whispered in a low volume that only he could hear, his tone full of surprise.

At the end of the exam paper, there is another question.

This question is not a fill-in-the-blank question.

The words and phrases used in the content of the title are literal.

If you use simple words to summarize the content of this topic, it would be: Please tell me your understanding of the phrase "knowing it cannot be done" in the "Analects of Confucius".

——How come there are essay questions! It's different from what I heard before!

Several black lines appeared on Ogata's face involuntarily.

What Ogata had heard before was that the literary test only took 100 fill-in-the-blank questions.

And the government announced to the public that it had always said that it only took 100 fill-in-the-blank questions.

Now, seeing that in addition to 100 fill-in-the-blank questions and 1 composition question on this examination paper, Ogata was a little dumbfounded.

And the dumbfounded person is not only Ogata.

At this moment, almost everyone who received the test paper was dumbfounded...

...

...

Takikawa got up very early today.

Because today is the day when the literary examination of "The Imperial Examination" begins.

As early as a month ago, Takikawa was preparing for the essay test of the "Gozen Test Combination".

Needless to say, I read and recite diligently every day. I also frequently study the Four Books and Five Classics with other friends who are also determined to show their skills in the "Prince Test Combination".

After a month of serious preparations, Takikawa realized that he had truly reached the state of memorizing the Four Books and the Five Classics, which was very different from what he was a month ago.

Takikawa even thought very proudly and arrogantly: With my current ability, it is easy to get all the questions on the exam paper right!

Because he was very confident in himself, Takikawa always had a proud and confident smile on his face when he went out to the Kita magistrate this morning.

After arriving at the Kita Makoto at a bold step, Takikawa was surprised to find that he had seen Goro Majima who had previously embarrassed him in front of so many Yugosei.

However, Takikawa was not too surprised to see this Goro Majima again.

After all, everyone is here to participate in the "Private Trial", and meeting again in this gathering place is a high probability event.

After seeing Goro Majima again this time, Takikawa did not feel angry at seeing this guy who made him lose a big face again.

Because I know I can easily answer all the questions in the essay test, Takikawa is in a good mood now.

So in a good mood, after seeing Goro Majima, Takikawa not only did not feel angry, but also took the initiative to greet Goro Majima.

Although this Goro Majima is fluent in Chinese and seems to have a certain understanding of the Four Books and the Five Classics, in the eyes of Takikawa, the knowledge of the Four Books and the Five Classics is certainly not as deep as he is.

Convinced that Goro Majima's performance in the literary test is definitely not his dazzling Takikawa, after greeted Goro Majima, he couldn't help but mock Majima Goro in a yin and yang tone.

After putting a mocking sentence in front of Goro Majima, Takigawa leisurely waited for the beginning of the literary examination.

After spending a lot of time, Takikawa finally entered a compartment in a tea house, and then waited until the literary examination officially started and received the examination papers.

After receiving the test paper, Takikawa couldn't wait to flip through the test paper in his hand.

After seeing the questions on the examination paper, a smug smile appeared on Takikawa's face.

Among these questions, some are very simple and some are slightly more difficult.

But Takikawa will answer both simple and difficult questions.

Looking at this question that I would answer every time, the complacency and excitement mixed in the smile on Takikawa's face became more and more intense.

Until... Takikawa saw the last part of the exam paper.

After seeing the "composition question" at the end of the examination paper, the smile on Takikawa's face froze.

The eyes are full of incredible colors.

"what is this……"

Then he whispered in a stunned tone.

...

...

Ogata completed the previous 100 fill-in-the-blank questions as quickly as possible.

These 100 fill-in-the-blank questions are difficult and easy.

Ogata can answer most of the questions.

But there are also a small part of the questions, although I can fill in the content, but I don't know whether the answer is correct.

"Former Ogata" had received a complete sinology education in the temple room and studied the Four Books and the Five Classics assiduously, and Ogata himself had also studied the Four Books and the Five Classics before crossing. However, despite the memory of "Mae Ogata" and my own memory, I haven't read the Four Books and Five Classics for a long time, so some of the content is unfamiliar.

However, Ogata didn't care about it. After all, his goal was not to answer all the questions on the exam papers correctly and get the first name in the essay exam.

His goal from the beginning was to "pass the literary test safely, and then successfully enter the martial arts test below."

After answering the first 100 fill-in-the-blank questions, Xu looked at the last "composition question" with a wry smile.

When answering the previous fill-in-the-blank question, Ogata was answering the question while thinking about what he should write about this "composition question".

——"Do it if you know it can't be done"...

As to what this sentence means, different people have always interpreted it differently.

For some reason, when I repeated this sentence in my heart, the various memories that had been in the depths of Ogata's mind appeared one by one.

Three months ago, memories of when I resolutely attacked Nijo Castle...

And... 1 year ago, memories of when he charged against Matsudaira Genoui protected by hundreds of samurai all alone...

...

...

Takikawa took a few deep breaths and forced his heart that was beating wildly because of his uncomfortableness to slowly return to the usual pace.

Takikawa also completed the previous 100 fill-in-the-blank questions at this time.

Preparing to launch an "offensive" on this last topic, UU Reading www.uukanshu.com.

The subject of the literary examination was completely different from what he had heard before, and until now, the consternation in Takikawa's heart has not dissipated.

——Calm down... Takigawa Heiichiro.

Takikawa said to himself in his heart.

——You are the disciple of all the Chinese scholars who live together in Chunshui.

——Even if another question is added to the exam paper, it won't be troublesome for you!

After encouraging himself several times, Takikawa took a deep breath again, and then looked at the question at the end of the examination paper.

*******

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