I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

The atmosphere in the room... fell into an eerie silence at this moment.

The atmosphere was so heavy that the air itself seemed to become murky.

“…I’m sorry.” Inugaya closed his eyes, opened his lips, and let out a long, painful sigh.

"...Let's get back to business." Arima's words eased the tense and oppressive atmosphere in the room. "...Let's change the topic for now. Let's talk about how to protect Tachibana-kun from the 'anti-foreign faction'."

“Those radical ‘expelled foreigners’ are a bunch of madmen whose actions are unpredictable.”

"They come and go without a trace, and it is extremely difficult to eradicate them completely."

"Before we completely annihilate them, we must find a way to ensure that Tachibana-kun will no longer be harmed by those lunatics."

"Therefore, I have a plan: the three of us can pool our money to hire a bodyguard for Orange-kun. What do you think?"

"Bodyguards?" Inugaya asked. "Shall we pool our money to hire bodyguards for Tachibana-kun...? I have no objection, but who should we hire?"

“I happen to have a perfect candidate here,” Arima said. “Do you remember the boy with the left-handed sword I mentioned to you before?”

Ushiyama: "You mean... that Saito Hajime?"

Arima nodded: "I think Saito Hajime is perfect. If we hire him to protect Tachibana-kun, ordinary cats and dogs shouldn't be able to do anything to him."

Pig Valley and Ox Mountain exchanged a glance.

Then he nodded vigorously.

*******

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Chapter 25 An Encounter with Okita

Why Arima left only Inoya and Ushiyama behind—Aoto could deduce the reason.

Most likely, it was to discuss with Pig and Ox how to help him get through the big boss's assessment in a month and a half.

After Qing Deng's father, Tachibana Takayuki, died, Ma, Zhu, and Niu treated Qing Deng as their own son and took good care of him. Now that Qing Deng is at risk of being dismissed from his post, the three of them cannot simply ignore him.

The bond between the horse, pig, and cow and the Ju family made Qing Deng sigh, "The original Ju Qing Deng didn't leave him with just a bunch of accusations..."

Following Arima's instructions, Qing Deng left his office alone and then strode out of the magistrate's office, holding the sword at his waist, ready to begin his work for the day.

When they don't have any cases to handle, the daily work of the Sadamachi Kaitoshi is to patrol their respective jurisdictions.

Qing Deng currently has no cases to handle, so his current task is to inspect the area under his jurisdiction.

The patrol method of the Sadomachi Kaitoshi is not to patrol every corner or important place in their own jurisdiction.

The reason is simple—there is a shortage of manpower.

The Southern Office and the Northern Office—at first glance, one might assume that the former governed the southern half of Edo and the latter governed the northern half.

But that's not actually the case.

Edo was the ruling center of the Edo Shogunate.

Such an important city was not something the Edo Shogunate would feel comfortable entrusting to one person to manage entirely.

Therefore, the shogunate divided the Edo magistrate's office into two parts, the South Office and the North Office, and adopted the "monthly rotation" system for the two offices.

The term "yueban kotai" simply means that two bans take turns managing Edo, with each "month" serving as a unit.

This month, the Northern Frontier Office is in charge of Edo, and next month it will be the Southern Frontier Office's turn.

When it was the turn of the Northern Bureau to govern Edo, what were the officials of the Southern Bureau supposed to do?

Take a whole month of paid leave!

They will continue to have holidays until the month when the Nanban Office takes over the management of Edo.

When the following month arrives, which is February, when the Southern Bureau takes over the administration of Edo, the Northern Bureau, to which the Seido Bureau belongs, will be given a full month of paid leave.

Of course, samurai like Qing Deng, who are "three-time" samurai, only have the chance to take a full month of paid leave if they are extremely lucky due to the special nature of their work.

Even though it was already the turn of another branch office to manage Edo this month, I still had to go to work because I had an unfinished case to deal with—this was a very common occurrence in the "three shifts" of the South and North branch offices.

It is even more normal for staff to be urgently called up or transferred to support the duty stations when an emergency case suddenly comes during holidays due to manpower shortage.

It's January now, the month when the Northern Bureau is in charge of managing Edo. So, Aoto, who belongs to the Northern Bureau, needs to come to work, while the officials who belong to the Southern Bureau... including the "Sanhui" of the Southern Bureau, are basically all on vacation.

In other words, the total number of officers in the three police stations in the south and north is 36. Given the already limited police force, unless a special call-up is issued, the number of officers that can be deployed each month will be reduced by half!

There is always one officer in the police station on paid leave every month, so there is always only half of the police officers on duty every month!

Currently, the only personnel responsible for maintaining order in Edo are the four Yori and fourteen Doshin from the Hokuban-sho (three-times-returned) branch.

As high-ranking officers, the officers from the town of Sadamachi would not participate in patrols to Edo.

Only the comrades from Sadamachi participated in the patrol work.

There were only 6 members of the Doshin (a unit of authority) in the Sadamachi-kai (town) area. How could such a small number of people possibly inspect every important place in Edo?

Therefore, the members of the Staucho-maru clan only patrol each of their own districts.

What is a "self-generated content"?

This leads to the two special systems that enabled the southern and northern barbarians to maintain order in Edo with such a small police force.

The first major system is the "towns and cities self-governance system".

Simply put, this system is a special kind of "official system" that appoints commoners and lets them manage other commoners.

Under this unique bureaucratic system, the servants hired to assist in managing Edo were roughly divided into three levels: "town year servants - town name lords - family heads".

The position of "Machi-nen-yori" was hereditary, passed down through the three families of Taruya, Naraya, and Kitamura. The duties of this position were to assist the Minami and Kita-chō-kō (South and North Town Magistrates) in governing Edo.

The main tasks included: conveying the instructions of the shogunate and the magistrate's office to the people of Edo; compiling household registers; assisting in the management of merchants and craftsmen; helping to collect and pay various taxes and fees; and other various other tasks.

[Note: Person Registration Book: A family register from the Edo period]

Under the town year, there is the "town name owner".

Throughout Edo, there were a total of 264 town heads, each governing anywhere from two or three towns to more than a dozen. Town heads were all commoners from the landowning class, and the position was mostly hereditary.

[Note: "町" is an ancient Japanese city administrative division. Edo during the Edo period was said to have "808 町," but the actual number was far greater; by the end of the Edo period, Edo had nearly 2000 町.]

Below the town master is the "head of the family".

Each town lord has several to a dozen or so family heads under his command.

The heads of the families were tasked with actually managing the various towns under the jurisdiction of the town lords.

Some heads of households were hired by the town's head, but others were hereditary.

Although the town officials, town heads, and household heads bore the heavy responsibility of assisting the magistrate in managing Edo, they were not officials.

The reason is simple: they were all commoners without swords at their waists, not samurai.

"No one but a samurai may hold office"—this was an ironclad rule in Edo-period Japan.

Although they perform the functions of an "official," they do not hold the title of "official."

From the town's headman to the head of the household, their official status was "town servant," not officials. They were just a group of people who did odd jobs for the samurai lords, at most a group of "clerks."

The "townspeople's self-governing organization" that helped manage Edo was also responsible for helping the "three-way" gang with their cases.

If any case occurs, it is first resolved by the town head or family head in charge of managing the town.

If the problem cannot be resolved, it will be handed over to the "three-times" of the magistrate's office for handling.

Therefore, the "third-tier" officials basically do not handle ordinary civil cases.

Whose cat is lost, whose wife is fighting with the plumber who comes to fix the pipes, whose wife is being told, "Honey, you don't want your husband to lose his job, do you? So please help me."... These trivial civil cases are basically handled by the "towns' self-governing organizations" on their own.

Only when a major criminal case arises that a "township self-governing organization" cannot handle on its own, such as a murder or theft case, will the case be transferred to the "Sanhui" of the Magistrate's Office.

If a major criminal case occurs in a town that requires the intervention of a "Sanhui" (a samurai), the town's headman and family headman will provide full assistance to the "Sanhui" samurai in charge of the case.

The heads of the families usually work in their own quarters.

The term "self-contained unit" can be understood as a facility that combines the functions of a modern police station and a fire department.

In addition to arresting tools such as spikes and forks, the prison also contains team flags, fire hooks, and hand-operated fire pumps.

The heads of the families responsible for managing the town generally work within the town's own administrative offices.

Besides the head of the family, those who worked in their own quarters also included minor officials such as "scribes" who were hired by the head of the family to help with odd jobs.

The patrol process of the "Stay-to-Town Guild" involves inspecting each town within their own jurisdiction, inquiring about any major events that may have occurred recently, staying to handle any incidents, and then moving on to the next town's "Stay-to-Town" if nothing has happened.

……

……

Edo, Hyuga-cho, Jishinban—

As soon as he stepped through the gate, a family head who worked inside the compound quickly put on a formal smile, rubbed his hands together, and greeted Qing Deng.

"Ah! Lord Tachibana, you've arrived!"

"Greetings." After a brief greeting to the head of the family, Qing Deng quickly asked, "Has anything major happened in Hyuga Town recently?"

"It's nothing serious. Just a fight," the head of the family replied. "Yesterday afternoon, the owner of Kikuya got into a fight with a passerby on the street over a trivial matter."

"But because the two were pulled apart in time, neither of them was seriously injured. I led a team to mediate yesterday afternoon, and the two sides have now reached a settlement."

"Hmm." Qingdeng nodded gently. "It's good that nothing serious happened."

"Lord Ju! It's cold today, would you like to come in and have a cup of hot tea?"

"No need." Qingdeng smiled politely at the family head. "This morning, due to the emergency meeting convened by the Enforcer, the patrol time was already delayed considerably."

"I still have many places to inspect, and I dare not waste any more time."

"I'll be going now. If anything serious happens in Hyuga Town, remember to report it to the Magistrate's Office immediately."

"Yes!"

Qingdeng, who was preparing to inspect the next of his own domains, strode away as the head of the family bowed to see him off, then turned right and entered a bustling commercial street.

"Wu Fu! Come quick and see! New Wu Fu clothes have just arrived!"