Ivan Davydov. Brother

...any of our random fellow travelers on the train could turn out to be our BROTHER...
Nikolai Pereyaslov. " Life of the Journals "
Literature Day, #13(43)

That 's what history is. In Japan at one time (eight hundred years ago) there was, of course, an emperor, his ministers, and so on in the same spirit. Only they didn’t rule anything. All were ruled by organized crime groups called samurai clans. As it should be, organized crime groups, if anything happened, gathered their people and went to sort things out with each other: who would run the rice fields along with the processing personnel, the roads, etc. There were two main groups: Minamoto and Taira. And at some point, Taira and Minamoto finally sorted it out. Well, that's what they thought. This means that all the authorities from Minamoto were stabbed with swords, some were sent one hundred and first kilometer from the capital, which, in fact, given the state of communications at that time, was quite serious.

Minamoto Yoshitsune, the son of one of the most respected people among Minamoto, was not touched due to his youth. True, there was a dark story with his mother and the head of Taira, but let’s forgive the old lady. They put Yoshitsune in a monastery to teach sutras. Well, he taught until he was fifteen. And by the time he was sixteen, he caught the eye of one of the petty bandits, who had worked as a laborer under his father. This one says to him: your elder brother, Yeritomo, is a great man in the eastern provinces, we have only one hope. I would go to him, maybe he’ll get a job somewhere.

Yoshitsune doubted a little and went.

But Yeritomo was not ready to accommodate his brother. We must go to the capital, Yeritomo said, all the power is now in the capital. I'll rake a little here and move it.

In a word, Yoshitsune went on to wander further. Anything happened to him, because an action movie should be rich in episodes. In particular, he met the fugitive monk Benkei, who amused himself by taking away bladed weapons from citizens. “Your sword is real, but you’re dressed like a dick,” said Benkei. For which he was immediately almost killed, and, of course, became a devoted servant of Yoshitsune.

Then the war began, and the older brother dumped all the dirty work on the younger brother. The youngest managed, although it was hard for him. When it became unbearable, he would stop at some mountain temple and spend the night playing his favorite tunes on a bamboo flute from the repertoire of the Nautilus Pompilius group, which was fashionable eight hundred years ago. Some Taira, let’s say to the honor of the valiant husband, he sometimes released alive, admonishing: “Tell your people, whoever touches his brother, I’ll ruin him.” And he kept his word.

In general, less than a year passed before Taira and Minamoto swapped places.

Yoritomo became the shogun, in other words, the main one, and Yoshitsune for some reason became the judge and lived peacefully in the capital with his girlfriends, of whom he had about eleven.

But a certain Kajiwara came to his eldest, not to say that he was a nice person. Whether he used proverbs in his speech - history is silent about this. But he asked Yeritomo directly: “In the monastery, you say? Have you read the sutras? And all the Taira troops? And the famous night assault - on horseback through impenetrable rocks? Who do you think is next?” Yeritomo thought about it and decided that it would be good to kill Yoshitsune.

Yoshitsune first sent a letter to the eldest, like, brother, after all, you are my brother, you are like my father... It didn’t work, and Yoshitsune hid for a long time. While he was hiding, he exterminated half of the population of Japan loyal to Yeritomo, as is customary in their organized crime groups. But the second half was enough to greatly poison his life.

Meanwhile, Yeritomo captured his girlfriend. Well, the fact that he stabbed her newborn child to death is not worth talking about, it’s a common thing for them. But he also forced her to dance, and she was a singer like our Saltykova. In general, he did the trick. But it didn't work out. “There will be blows - come, let’s show off like adults,” said the singer, whose name was Shizuka, by the way, and returned to the capital.

Meanwhile, Yoshitsune was besieged on all sides, and those faithful who remained with him died a heroic death. He then played “Goodbye America” on a reed flute and committed seppuku.

So there won’t be a second episode; there’s no one to go to America.