These people were plotting an assassination, but the target wasn't Shimotsuki Ushimaru, but the Daimyo of Kuri, Ren.
The beginning of the tarnishing of the samurai's name was the Daimyo of Kuri, who had inevitably become a thorn in their side. Shimotsuki Ushimaru's current way of thinking was entirely because of Kuri. Since that was the case, they would use the blood of Kuri's Daimyo to make an example of him.
After all, the life or death of Kuri's Daimyo meant nothing to them. If anything happened to Shimotsuki Ushimaru, their yakuza in Ringo would find it hard to establish themselves.
"So, how about we carry out the action at the end of this year and the beginning of the next?" someone suggested. They needed some time to prepare, but with over three months until the end of the year, they didn't actually need to prepare for that long. However, the samurai of Wano always wanted a sense of ceremony, making timing very important.
It was like how some people always want to sleep on the hour or half-hour, or insist on waiting until the start of the next week or month to do anything.
But people who think that way find it hard to persevere when faced with difficulties. In fact, if you really want to do something, it's best to act immediately and start as soon as you're prepared.
But the day of the new year's transition was of extraordinary significance to them.
Actually, there was another festival more suitable for such an assassination: the Fire Festival. The Fire Festival was originally held to commemorate the deceased, a festival to let the dead rest in peace and the living find closure, making it more suitable to send Kuri's Daimyo off to the next world.
But unfortunately, this year's Fire Festival had already passed.
Ren set sail in May, and after returning, it was almost August. The Fire Festival was in late August. This year's Fire Festival was the first in Kuri, and to organize the festival, Yukiko and Keiko were busy running around, even calling Yuriko over to help.
Yuriko had many strengths, and things like etiquette and craftsmanship were handed over to her to handle.
The entire Fire Festival lasted for a whole month. During this time, the curfew for the people of Kuri was pushed back to 11 PM. Before that, the bustling night market would be abuzz with noise and people.
The entire population of Kuri was celebrating the festival, and some people from other regions who were working in Kuri and hadn't returned also joined in the festivities.
The nighttime revelry was at the expense of daytime hours.
During the Fire Festival, the people of Kuri had holidays. Of course, the holiday time wasn't long, just a few days, otherwise, a long work stoppage would cause problems in all industries throughout the region.
Although the official holidays were only a few days, working hours were also reduced in the following days. Those who used to start work at 7 AM had their start times pushed back by several hours.
Of course, this reduction in working hours only applied to wage workers; merchants who ran their own businesses or farmers didn't have such strict requirements. In other words, the Fire Festival itself was a huge business opportunity that no merchant would want to miss.
The festival needed vendors to make it lively; if they also took a holiday, how could the festival be held?
Strictly speaking, the Fire Festival wasn't completely over; it was now in its final stages in Kuri. But it would take another two or three days for the grand finale to truly end. In this regard, the Fire Festival in Kuri might be even more grand than the New Year.
After all, celebrating the New Year in Kuri, which only has summer, just doesn't have the same feeling.
The remaining few days of the festival weren't enough to plan anything.
"Alright, it's settled. By then, people from other regions will also join us. Their situation isn't as severe as ours, but it seems their Daimyos are also having similar thoughts."
Not all the Daimyos of Wano were scoundrels. In fact, many could still see the greater good and the needs of the people. It's just that they never dared to think about such things before. Now that Kuri had taken the lead, they were naturally willing to give it a try.
Most importantly, if it succeeded, it would enhance their region's strength and reduce their dependence on others in many aspects.
Take Hakumai as an example. Although Hakumai had a lot of wasteland, if people went to cultivate it, even if the soil fertility was a bit lower, it would still increase food production significantly.
This was in the interest of the Hakumai Daimyo, but not in the interest of those samurai. If they were willing to farm, why would they pick up a sword and be a samurai?
Therefore, besides the yakuza in Flower Capital and Udon, the yakuza forces in the other three regions all had ideas of getting involved.
The involvement of so many forces was no longer just about the status of the samurai; it even concerned the survival of their yakuza organizations.
Now everyone knew two things. First, Kuri had no yakuza, but its public security was now the best in all of Wano. Second, the commercial tax revenue in Kuri was actually the highest in all of Wano.
At first, merchants were very dissatisfied with Kuri's high taxes, but they slowly realized that without the yakuza, the highest tax region of Kuri actually gave them higher profits.
Compared to the protection fees they paid every month, the extra tax in Kuri was nothing.
Those Daimyos were not fools. On the contrary, they were keenly aware of the benefits. It could be said that they were returning the interests that originally belonged to the yakuza to the merchants, while also taking a share for themselves.
This way, the Daimyo's office increased its fiscal revenue, the merchants' income increased, and only the yakuza were hurt in this world.
For now, due to the unclear and entangled relationship between the yakuza and the Daimyos, with friction and cooperation between them, and even many familial relationships among their members, these Daimyos had not yet taken action against the yakuza.
But if this continued, even if the yakuza weren't abolished, their power would gradually shrink.
This was what these yakuza leaders did not want to see.
To reverse this situation, the yakuza from Hakumai, Udon, and Ringo all planned to contribute to this assassination.
They were yakuza to begin with; fighting and killing was their proper job. No one thought there was anything wrong with it. Everything the Kuri Daimyo had done, although it didn't directly affect their interests, had a very profound impact.
Since both sides had become enemies, they decided to be ruthless.
"There won't be any evidence left, right?"
"Don't worry. If a Daimyo from another region is assassinated, it would be a huge deal. But the Kuri Daimyo..." one of them smiled, "Kuri's connections are too shallow. In this world, it's all about power and connections!"
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