There are bronze statues of Tokugawa Ieyasu and many places of interest. His reputation is really enduring! But what interests me is not these things, but some ancient legends.
The lower reaches of the Three Rivers are fan-shaped terrain, which has been the place where people live since ancient times. There are many primitive relics and ancient graves along the river.
The weather was very hot, and my skin was tanned by the sun. On the morning of my return to Tokyo, I met Mr. Nakamura at the suburban railway station, and he happened to be on vacation. The single-track platform is on one side of the railway track, and passengers who get off the platform come in and out from the ticket gate on the left hand side. Because there are not many people at the station, I saw Nakamura standing there at a glance.
Nakamura is a carpenter, in his fifties, tall and thin. Because he likes my works, he has become pen pals with each other.
There are many shells beside the railway under construction. Walking along the hillside, I found many at the corner of the building. There are two exhibition windows on both sides of the station, which are decorated with various shellfish fossils and mussel models.
The unknown ancient tomb is 8 1 m long, which is a tomb with a round front and a round back. Looking down, it is a large paddy field, and the green is really beautiful! The railway is in a zigzag shape, and when the train passes by, it brings a noise, just like a monster emerging from the horizon and devouring the whole plain.
Although the Unknown Tomb is not far from the station, it is quite difficult to walk. I know that Nakamura wants to walk slowly because he drinks too much, his liver is not very good and the weather is so hot.
"Mr. Kimura, hurry up!" He urged me to go ahead.
On the top of the main grave stands a stone pillar of the address of the God Society, next to another ancient grave, the Akiba Shrine Hall.
Finally, there is another ancient grave. After climbing the 33rd stairs, there is a shallow shrine. Because of disrepair, it has collapsed by half. In order to prevent tourists from falling, stone fences are specially enclosed on both sides.
"Oh, almost every ancient grave has a shrine. It's been a long time!"
"These ancient tombs were built at the end of the Warring States period, and there is an interesting legend."
"What legend?"
"Secret killings ... I'll tell you again and again!"
We went back to the holiday cottage in Nakamura, changed into light clothes and tasted the dishes cooked by Mrs. Nakamura herself. I have just walked three or four kilometers, and I am very thirsty. Now I can drink beer one after another, and I feel particularly enjoyable.
"This area is Tokugawa Ieyasu's area. When he was a hostage under Imagawa Yoshimoto, people in this area were heavily taxed, and many people had three meals, so they had to tell Imagawa Yoshimoto that the harvest was not good and secretly hid a lot of rice. The tax bureau later found out about it and sent someone to investigate. However, because the workload of officials is limited and there are many eyeliner hidden in the village, nothing can be found. "
"So what about the secret murder?"
Nakamura raised his glass and fucked me.
"One year, the tax bureau sent an official named An Yuan. He was a genius in tax collection and took away a lot of food in the village. In that year, several old people and children in the village starved to death!"
"Is it the same next year?"
"Yes, not only that, but the temple will stay forever. He is scheduled to arrive here in the evening and start a strict tax inspection the next day. Near Okazaki, some angry villagers couldn't bear heavy taxes and killed those officials who came to collect taxes with knives. "
"Was the temple also killed?"
Nakamura nodded and continued.
"In the spring of that year, a young man named Wu Ping came here with Anyuan. They decided to use the shallow shrine as their dormitory, so they called the villagers to clean it. In addition, a sentry guard was set up in front of the stone steps, and some organs were arranged before the ancient grave, and other roads were blocked, so this is the only way to go to the shrine! "
"The alert is so strict!"
"In addition, more than a dozen guards were sent to inspect."
"What happened later?"
"In order to make peace, the villagers sent several men and women to the outpost to receive them, and the young women fled to other places to take refuge."
"What about the young man?"
"They have all been sent to other places to hunt."
"The bloody men are not in the village!"
Nakamura took a sip of beer and said:
"It was nearly evening when the temple arrived, and Wu Ping took him up the stone steps. When he passed the outpost, he saw several young people coming with a big pig, and some people were holding wild birds and wine!"
"What are you doing? Do you want to comfort those people? "
"Yes, then the sentry stopped those people."
"What about Anhara?"
"When Wu Ping came down to find out his purpose, he told them to carry the pig up."
"Then what?"
"Wu Ping put the big pig at the door and reported to the temple, but no one answered in the hall. Wu Ping was curious and went in to see it, only to find that the temple had fallen in the dark hall."
"Was someone assassinated?"
"Yes, because the room was too dark, Wu Ping carried him out, and then he found a sharp knife that pierced his chest from behind!"
"Behind?"
"yes."
"Whose knife is this?"
"I don't know, because the knife has no characteristics."
"I think of the shallow shrine I just saw, which is very small and dark."
"Wu Ping immediately entered the social hall to search, but there was no one inside."
"What is the structure of the social hall?"
"The gate is a wooden door pushed left and right, and the walls on both sides are fixed lattice windows. It is impossible for the murderer to come in from there."
"Wu Ping will definitely think that the murderer killed the original while he was in front of the social hall, and then he could not escape the sentry's sight, so he immediately ordered a comprehensive search."
Nakamura nodded and poured me a glass of beer.
"Why is it so dark inside?"
"Because it is in the evening, and the light is not enough."
"I think there is a need for lights in the house. Before the lights were lit, the temple was killed as soon as it entered."
"I'm sorry, I missed one thing-when Anyuan and Wu Ping were walking on the stone steps, a woman walked past Wu Ping with a candle in her hand, entered the social hall, and then walked down with the young people carrying pigs."
"Because everyone is not wary of women, the murderer must be her and took the opportunity to kill the original."
"At that time, Wu Ping thought about this, but the woman was not stained with any blood, and the hall was covered with blood!"
"Will there be a secret passage?"
"There is no organ on the ground!"
"Did she change her clothes before Wu Ping came in?"
"No, after she came down the stone steps, she went to the sentry room to help."
"Doesn't that mean there is no suspicion?"
"Yes."
"Did Wu Ping catch the murderer later?"
"I don't know, because Guan Yuan died in the shrine and everyone was afraid of offending the gods, so they all ran away in fear. When they heard that Guan Yuan was killed, other tax collectors were afraid, so they were not so strict in paying taxes, but Wu Ping, I heard that they were severely punished!"
I took out a cigarette and lit it.
Nakamura couldn't stand the fact that there was no beer in the glass, so he poured me another glass of wine.
"I'll tell you my reasoning. Please tell me what's unreasonable."
"You say it!"
"Judging from the wound, the temple was definitely stabbed to death. Because the knife was stabbed from behind. "
"That's right!"
"Wu Ping had the opportunity to kill AnYuan from behind when he was on the steps, but he had to avoid the attention of the sentry and others. Especially the woman with the lamp, if she goes in with the lamp and sees the body, she will definitely make a hullabaloo about and attract the attention of the sentry. "
"So the murderer is not Wu Ping!"
"Yes, at the same time, the woman was not stained with blood. Besides, judging from the situation that the temple was stabbed, it was completely beyond the power of a woman, and the young people in the village came in only after the body was found."
"Then there is no one else to doubt?"
"Yes, and that woman is his accomplice."
"What do you mean?"
"That man should be a servant in the village. He took advantage of the opportunity to clean the house of the club and hid in it in advance. After the temple went in, he pierced his heart from behind, while the body was carried out, and when the outside was in chaos, he fled again, so no one saw the blood on him.
"If that's the case, then the woman holding the lantern will see the temple lying on the ground when she walks into the temple, which shows that this is a planned assassination, otherwise when the woman holds the lantern, it will destroy the murderer's action.
"You're absolutely right."
Nakamura toasted me again.
"If the assassination fails, it will be put to death, so the woman must have a close relationship with the murderer. Maybe that woman is the mother of the murderer, and she will die with the child when she dies. "
"Not only that, the villagers of the big pig should also be their accomplices. If they appeared on the stone steps too early, I'm afraid Anhara would have seen them and lost interest. If it appears too early, the temple has already entered the temple, and Wu Ping will follow. In that case, it is obviously impossible for the murderer to kill two people. "
"Yes!"
I picked up a clay doll in Nakamura and played with it for a while. Then I looked at my watch. It was past 3 pm, so I said goodbye to Nakamura. When she left, Nakamura's daughter happened to come back. That is a girl with big eyes. After she saluted me, she ran into the house ...