I formed the strongest swordsman group

After Arima finished speaking, the living room was instantly surrounded by silence.

"……Um?"

After a while, Qing Deng broke the silence with a puzzled "hmm".

"This... Lord Arima, is the news conclusive?"

Arima nodded lightly with a determined face.

Arima, who is notoriously serious, showed such an expression, so Aidou couldn't help but not believe it...

Unbelievable light flickered in Qingdeng's pupils.

"Directly promoted me to be the captain of the third division of Huofu Thief Kai and the leader of the seventh division of the Xianshou bow group... The span of promotion is too big..."

What Arima just said earlier: Zenglu 500 shi and family status promoted to "banner", all were within Qingdeng's expectations.

Qingdeng had expected long ago that based on the merits he has made this time, the increase in family salary is just a certainty, and maybe Jiage will be promoted from "Royal Family" to "Banner" .

But what Arima said later was completely beyond Qingdeng's expectations...

He had received rumors before that he might be transferred to Huo Fu Thief Kai.

Regarding this gossip, which is not true or not, Qingdeng only guessed at first: Even if he will be transferred to Huo Fu Thief Kai, he will probably only serve as the leader of a certain team.

From the concentricity of the "Three Returns" of the Enforcement Office, the promotion to Huofu Thieves and Gaili... In this era when the class is extremely solidified and the promotion of officials is as difficult as reaching the sky, this is already an extremely precious move to the right.

Qingdeng never expected that his promotion span would be so exaggerated - surpassing the level of "Yu Li" and directly taking charge of a team of Fan Team and Xianshou Gong Group as "Captain of Fan Team".

The first bow group and the first iron artillery group - the bow group foot light team and the iron artillery group foot light team directly under the shogunate, that is, the two standing armies of the shogunate.

The so-called "iron cannon" is a musket.

The Edo shogunate closed the country, did not communicate with the outside world, and did not pay attention to the development of science and technology. As a result, the Xianshou Iron Pao Group is still using the arquebus that has been outdated for hundreds of years.

Matchlock guns have the fatal flaw of spending a lot of time filling the next round of bullets after shooting, so bows and arrows have become an important presence when matchlock guns fill bullets.

In a word - just because the Edo shogunate is still using this backward firearm that has long been placed in museums in the Western world, bows and arrows still have a role to play that cannot be ignored until now.

Both the Xianshou bow group and Xianshou iron artillery group are the troops that lead the generals in wartime, so the candidates are all selected from those with outstanding martial arts skills.

At the beginning of the Edo Shogunate, there were 34 groups of Senshoubow and Senshou Iron Cannons, but since a hundred years ago, the formation has been reduced to 8 groups of Senshoubows and 20 groups of Senshou Iron Cannons.

As the standing army of the shogunate, whether it is the first bow group or the first iron artillery group, both groups are idle jobs in the Taiping era when there are no big battles to fight.

In order to allow the second group to have something to do, the Edo shogunate assigned them a lot of "part-time jobs".

The second group needs to be responsible for guarding the gates of Edo Castle, guarding the generals when they go out, and being responsible for setting fires and thieves to change their duties when they are not in military drills!

The "three-time" samurai of the Edo Nanbei Enforcement Office are full-time catching thieves, there are only more than 30 people, and such a pitiful number of people are used to maintain the law and order of Edo... I want to know the burden on the shoulders of the "three-time" samurai How stressful it is.

It's abnormal to be safe and stable, but it's normal to be too busy.

Moreover, the Edo Executive Office cannot control the entire Edo. The Edo Executive Office was only responsible for the administrative, judicial, and police work of Edo civilians.

For example, the land of temples and shrines and samurai... that is, "the boundaries of shrines and temples" and "the residence of samurai" are not under the jurisdiction of the execution.

The temple grounds are managed by the temple administration.

Temples and shrines pursue—an official position with a very prominent official position. Responsible for the jurisdiction of temple territories and their residents across the country, as well as priests, monks, onmyoji, musicians (people who play music for a living), Go and shogi players and other occupations.

Under the auspices of the temple, there is a yin flavor material transfer service, which is responsible for resolving disputes within the territory of the temple, reporting and investigating crimes, etc.

Once an incident occurs in the territory of the temple, the big prosecutors and small prosecutors will be dispatched to summon or arrest the suspects for investigation.

Because the temple grounds are not under the jurisdiction of Edo, the "three times" samurai cannot enter and leave the temple grounds at will.

Even if a crime is committed in Edo-cho, which is under the jurisdiction of Edo-cho, once it escapes into the territory of the temple, the people of the town prefectural office cannot go in and arrest the person arbitrarily.

In such a situation, the only way to enter the monastery grounds to arrest the criminal is to contact the monastery's enforcement office and ask the chief prosecutor or minor prosecutor to arrest the criminal, or to obtain the permission of the monastery's enforcement.

The same is true for Wujiadi.

If the samurai of the Edo samurai committed a crime, it would be dealt with by the official party responsible for the appointment.

Once a crime occurs in towns, samurai, temples and other places, it is necessary to contact the officials under the jurisdiction every time, which has caused great obstacles to the prosecution of criminals.

In order to solve this problem, and to ease the pressure on law enforcement officers such as the "Three Returns", the "Eight State Director" and "Huo Fu Thief Kai" came into being.

The so-called "Eight States" refers to the "Eight States of the Kanto": Sagami, Musashi, Anfang, Shangzong, Xiazong, Hitachi, Ueno, Shimono.

The eight state governor is a special patrol.

At first there were only 8 officials, but with the social turmoil, the current number has increased to 15 or 6.

Their daily work is to ride horses and lead their men to wander aimlessly in Guanbazhou. As long as they meet gangsters, they can arrest them without hindrance, no matter whether they are in the daimyo, samurai, temple or town residents .

Freedom to use violence against prisoners and suspects. If the prisoner or suspect resists and is difficult to subdue, the opponent can be killed directly.

In order to distinguish it from the "three times" samurai, the ten hands used by the eight state governors are tied with purple cherry ears.

As for Huofu Thief Kai, it is a "special police force".

All the members of Huofu Thief Kai are basically all soldiers from the Xianshou Bow Group and Xianshou Iron Cannon Group.

Therefore, Huofu Thief Gai has the common name of "additional service".

The supreme officer of Huofu Thief Gai is concurrently served by the first bow head or the first iron gun head (the supreme commander of the first bow group or the first iron gun group).

In order to facilitate the work, the chief's house will be used as the office. Therefore, the office of Huofu Thieves is not fixed.

Unless there are some special cases, the term of office of the chief executive of Huofu Thief Kai is basically about one year, so the position of the office is basically changed every year.

Like the Yashu Governor, Huofu Thief Kai can freely enter and exit all areas such as samurai land, town dweller land, and temple land.

However, compared with the Eight States Governor, Huo Fu Thief Gai has a very strong difference-it is not only an independent security force, but also an independent judiciary.

After the execution institute catches a prisoner, if he wants to torture and interrogate him, he needs to be notified layer by layer, and he can only be tortured after going through a lot of complicated procedures.

Huofu Thief Gai does not need to go through such complicated interrogation procedures at all.

It's better to say...they don't have the so-called interrogation procedure at all.

After they catch the prisoner, they can directly take him back to the prison to torture him without saying hello to anyone or going through any formalities.

This kind of power to freely use lynching is somewhat similar to that of Jinyiwei in Tang Tuming Dynasty.

Since there are almost no restrictions on torture and interrogation of suspects, Huofu Bandit Kai's torture is extremely harsh.

Therefore, there has been a common saying among the people: "Once you are arrested by Huofu thieves, you will never come back alive."

Being able to freely enter and exit any territory, having the privilege of using lynching freely... This is not the most frightening thing about Huo Fu Thief Kai. The most terrifying thing about them is their fighting power.

All the members are members of the first bow group and the first iron artillery group who are professional soldiers. They can freely use heavy weapons such as bows and arrows and muskets...the combat power is not at all "three times", eight states, etc. Organizations can compare.

Although as the shogunate went from bad to worse, the quality of the generals of these standing armies inevitably weakened a lot, but after all, a lean camel was bigger than a horse.

Right now, Huofu Thief Kai has a total of 8 teams. Each fan team is served by one of the first bow group or the first iron cannon group.

The third division of Huofu Thieves Kai is also served by the seventh division of the Xianshou bow group.

Qing Deng, who became the captain of the third team, naturally became the team leader of the seventh team.

From Dingchohui Tongxin, who had only a few Okabiki under his direct subordinates, to a small archer general who can command dozens of archers in one go... This kind of promotion speed and promotion span is truly a "rocket jump".

--Too strange……

The more Qingdeng thought about it, the more he felt that his promotion speed was a little weird.

Although he did make a lot of contributions in the decisive battle with the barbarians more than two months ago... But Qingdeng always feels that his achievements of this level are not enough for him to get such a high promotion.

Moving to the right is as difficult as ascending to the sky, moving to the left is as easy as turning the palm of your hand - this is a very popular saying among martial arts.

The Edo shogunate is notoriously stingy when it comes to promotions! He is also extremely bold and generous in condemning and relegating people.

Since Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first general of the Edo shogunate, ended the troubled times of the Warring States Period and created a long-lost peaceful world, the comfortable and stable world has caused a population explosion, and the number of samurai has increased dramatically.

The samurai who are not engaged in production can all be supported by Lujin and Lumi from the shogunate and vassal government.

Therefore, in order to reduce the financial pressure as much as possible, whether it is the shogunate or the vassal government in various places, while vigorously controlling the number of officials who move to the right every year and the promotion span of each official who moves to the right, they often punish, Relegated samurai.

There are countless members of the samurai family who were deprived of their official status for just a small mistake, or even directly removed from the samurai's native place and demoted to ordinary people.

The Edo shogunate, which "had rounded the official seal and was reluctant to give it to its subordinates", actually promoted him, a royal family who hadn't made any earth-shattering great achievements... how strange it is to think!

When something goes wrong, there must be a demon.

So Qingdeng couldn't help but asked Arima on the opposite side:

"...Arima-sama, the speed of my promotion...isn't it a bit too fast? Do you know any secret information about this?"

Arima smiled wryly with a helpless look on his face.

"I was also shocked for a long time when I learned from Mr. Susui today what rewards you have received."

"Coincidentally, I also asked Mr. Susui directly if he knew why your promotion speed was so exaggerated."

"Unfortunately, Mr. Susui doesn't know much about the inside story."

"But I guess... this may be the handwriting of Da Shugong."

"Big Tree Lord?" Qingdeng raised his eyebrows.

"'Grand Tree asked you to go to the city on August 28'."

Arima repeated what he had just said.

The so-called "climbing the castle" is a general term for entering the Edo castle where the shogun lived.

Because of his low status, Qingdeng had never entered Edo City, which was similar in status to the Forbidden City in Tang Dynasty.

"I personally think it's a very positive sign."

"This means that Mr. Dashu is most likely interested in you who have performed extraordinary feats, and wants to see you with his own eyes."

"If Dashu really recruited you into Edo Castle for this reason, then it would make sense why you were promoted so abruptly."

"Because of being appreciated by the people above, he has made his way to the top... There is a ready-made precedent in the shogunate right now."

"Who?" Qingdeng asked subconsciously.

Arima smiled lightly:

"Master Sheng, who was rescued by you Tachibana-kun before. He was just a junior bannerman, and now he is about to be promoted to the new commander of the warship."

Warship pursuit: A new official position established by the Edo shogunate after the founding of the country due to the power of the great powers. Responsible for purchasing, building warships and practicing warship technology, the main responsibility is to strengthen the navy.

The "Katsu-sama" that Arima is talking about is exactly the "Fan Shu Tiao's head and the lecturer's gunnery professor" that Qingdeng rescued in the "Battle of the Fan Shu Diao Institute" a few months ago: Katsu Rintaro .

Katsu Rintaro, who was born in a lower-level banner, rose to prominence and soared because of the appreciation of the former senior middle school Masahiro Abe.

Iemo Tokugawa, who inherited the position of shogun 2 years ago, also admires Katsu Rintaro very much, and has been vigorously cultivating him.

In terms of the speed of promotion to the official position, compared with Katsu Rintaro, Qingdeng really pales in comparison.

At present, the exact news has been received: Katsu Rintaro is about to be promoted to the new warship pursuit, and is fully responsible for the construction of the shogunate navy.

Qingdeng, who has shown great kindness to Katsu Rintaro and Fan Shutiao, has kept in touch with Katsu Rintaro in the past few months, and Qingdeng even went to Fan Shutiao's office a few times in his spare time.

Although Katsu Rintaro is a genius with extremely proud talents and experience, he has a very approachable personality. He is a gentle and humorous old man. Qingdeng and him get along quite well, and have a good relationship with him.

Thinking of this, Qingdeng suddenly realized: Unknowingly, his current network seems to have become a bit serious...

Even the future warship Feng Xing has become his friend. It also has a lot of relationship with the scholars who are deeply versed in Western culture in the Fanshu Institute.

"all in all--"

Arima followed what he said just now, and went on to say:

"What is the specific reason, we have been thinking about it dryly here, but we can't think of a reason."

"let it go."

"Remember to take out your bag to bask in the sun these few days, and clean it in time if it is dirty."

"You can't lose your dignity in front of the emperor when you ascend the city on the 28th."

Speaking of this, Arima seemed to think of something, paused, then smiled.

"If you're lucky...you might be able to see His Royal Highness Tianzhangyuan on the 28th."

His Highness Tianzhangyuan... a woman who is known to everyone in Edo, the dream lover of countless Edo men.

We all know: As the mother of the current shogun Tokugawa Ieshige, Tenzhangin is a staunch supporter of Tokugawa Ieshige, and the mother and son often "go out of the country together".

When I went to see Iemo Tokugawa on the 28th...it was really possible to take advantage of the opportunity to see the famous Tianzhangin Temple.

"Master Arima." Qingdeng asked curiously, "Have you met His Highness Tianzhangyuan?"

Arima's status and status just happened to be able to touch the threshold of climbing the city. On the 1st, 15th, and 25th of every month, as well as during festivals, Arima had to wear costumes and enter Edo Castle with other officials to say hello to the shogun and celebrate the festival with the shogun.

"No." Arima shook his head, "His Highness Tianzhangyuan seldom attends public events. And when I go to the city, I can only accompany the last seat, and the seat is so far away that I can't even see the face of Dashu Gong. I have never had the chance to see His Highness Tianzhangyuan of beauty."

"Master Arima, hearing your tone...do you really want to meet His Highness Tianzhangyuan?" Qingdeng asked in a half-joking tone.

"I'm just curious about His Majesty Tenzhangin's appearance." Arima said indifferently, "I have always heard that His Majesty Tenzhangin has the appearance of sinking fish and wild geese. It is said that the only one in Edo who can compare with His Highness Tenzhangin in terms of beauty is Xiao Chiba Chiba Sanako from the Sword Gym."

——To be able to compete with Ms. Sanako in terms of beauty?

Hearing this, Qingdeng, who was previously indifferent to Tianzhang Courtyard, couldn't help being somewhat curious about this widow who was said to be still a virgin.

Arima noticed the change in Qingdeng's expression at this moment, and laughed a few times in a low "hehehe".

"What? Mr. Ju, are you also like those guys who always want to comfort the lonely hearts of young widows, have you developed a strong interest and strange thoughts about His Royal Highness Tianzhangyuan?"

"No." Qingdeng said unhappily, "It's just that I suddenly became curious about the appearance of His Royal Highness Tianzhangyuan."

Qingdeng paused for a moment, then continued in a joking tone:

"I'm not as boring as those people, always thinking about something that can't happen."

"I, who have just been promoted to the Banner Warrior, let His Royal Highness Tianzhangyuan's loneliness be relieved—is it possible for this kind of thing?"

...

...

After the match against Xuanwuguan, "calm" dominated Qingdeng's life again.

If there is anything worth mentioning that happened in the past few days...it should be that after a short and intense discussion, Qingdeng's schedule on August 25th was also fully packed—on the day of the 25th , Aoto will go to the fireworks festival to watch the fireworks with the chief executive, Kondo, Hijikata, Inoue, Saito, Nagakura, Harada, and Fujido.

After the general manager and Yongcang sobered up, and learned of Harada's plan to "go to the fireworks together", the playful general director directly shouted "I'm going! I'm going!", although Yongcang was right. This kind of activity is not so enthusiastic, but it is not annoying, saying "If everyone goes, then I will join in the fun."

When everyone was discussing this activity, Todo Heisuke happened to come to the door, so Qingdeng and the others took advantage of the opportunity to invite Todo, who had a very good relationship with the Examination Hall.

Fujido is also the kind of person who loves to be lively.

Facing Qingdeng's invitation, he nodded almost without thinking.

Originally, Zhou Zhu and his wife, Okita Hikaru and his wife, as well as Qingdeng's old servant Jiubingwei were all invited, but they all politely declined.

Zhou Zhu, his wife, and Jiubingwei said that they were too old to afford such a jubilant celebration.

And Okita Hikaru is because he has the completely opposite personality from the chief executive.

The general manager likes to be lively, and those bustling places and noisy activities are his favorite.

But Okita Hikaru likes to be quiet, the more people cheer, the more she wants to stay away from it. Secluded ancient temples, deep winding paths... these are the places that can be favored by Okita Hikaru.

In short - on the 25th, the group of young people living in the test hall, plus Hijikata and Fujido, will go to the scene of the fireworks festival to have a good time.

After finalizing the details of the itinerary with the director general and others, Qingdeng realized belatedly that he seemed a little busy in this year's fireworks display that officially started on August 23...

On the 23rd, I will have a date with Kinoshita Mai. On the 24th, I will hold a swordsmanship show with Sanako and Chiba Shigetaro on the side of the street at the conference site. On the 25th, I will watch the fireworks again with Souji and others...

This fireworks display will only be held for 3 days in total. Then, in these 3 days, Qingdeng carried out different activities with different people every day...

Although he was very busy, Qingdeng didn't dislike this feeling.

time flies.

Before you know it, the time has quietly come to August 23rd...

...

...

In the first year of Wanyan (1860), on August 23, in the morning——

Edo, the settlement, the Angouleme house—

"Master! Master! Listen to me!"

Today is the day when Qingdeng came to the residence to teach Elodie swordsmanship.

He entered Angoulême's house with ease, said hello to Elodie and the maid Leroy, and then Elodie suddenly shouted at Qing Deng in an excited tone.

"I have something nice to tell you!"

Looking at Elodie who was so happy that she seemed to be jumping up, Qingdeng said curiously:

"Good thing? What good thing?"

"Grandpa agreed to take me to the fireworks festival to watch the fireworks!"

"oh?"

Qing Deng raised his eyebrows in surprise—real, genuine surprise.

Anthony would actually agree to take Elodie to watch the fireworks... This was really beyond Qingdeng's expectations.

Qingdeng thought that Anthony would reject Alodi's pleading on the grounds that "it's too dangerous to go to such a busy place, what should I do if I meet people from the 'radical expulsion faction'".

"Are you and your grandpa going to watch the fireworks together?" Qingdeng asked.

Alodie shook her head: "No. Miss Leroy and the bodyguards hired by Grandpa will go with us."

"You hired bodyguards?"

"Hmm! Grandpa said that he dared to take me out to watch fireworks only after bringing bodyguards and covering our faces with turbans and masks!"

Qing Deng nodded. There are bodyguards hired, and there are faces that are completely different from those of the Orientals... If this is the case, the probability of encountering danger at the fireworks festival will indeed be greatly reduced.

In any case, it is a good thing that Anthony is willing to take Elodie out for fun.

A 12-year-old girl is bored at home every day and does not go out, which will affect her mental development.

"Elodie, that's really great." Qingdeng heaved a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "The wish to participate in the fireworks festival will finally come true."

"Yeah!" Elodie nodded vigorously with a smile on her face.

"Which day are you going to watch the fireworks?"

"No.25!"

"Number 25? Then we have a chance to meet at the conference site."

"Master, are you going to watch the fireworks on the 25th?"

"Well. On the 25th, I will go to the fireworks display with my partners in the sword gym to make a fuss."

——To be precise, we have the opportunity to meet each other at the conference no matter what day it is...

Qingdeng silently added this sentence in his heart.

——I am going on a date with Ah Wu tonight...

Lonely men and widows go out together... This is the first time for Qingdeng.

Thinking of this, Qingdeng couldn't help but feel a little distracted.

Kinoshita Mai's pretty face kept reappearing in Qingdeng's mind.

*****

*****

Today is the last day of this month. Book friends who still have monthly tickets on hand, please be sure to vote for this book. After today, all the monthly tickets on hand will be invalid. (Leopard dead.jpg)

Ask for a monthly pass! Ask for a recommendation ticket! (Leopard Head Crying.jpg)

With the coming of the new January, the much-anticipated "Fireworks Festival" is finally about to begin! Please stay tuned and look forward to how the "time management master" Qingdeng spent the three days of the conference.

PS: Edo's Dinghuoxiao is to select 3 groups from the first bow group, and select 7 groups from the first iron gun group to concurrently serve.

"Dinghuoxiao" and "Dinghuoxiao" that have appeared many times in previous plots are two completely different fire brigades.

The former is the official fire brigade, all members are samurai, mainly responsible for surrounding the Edo Castle where the shogun lived.

The latter is similar to the private fire brigade, which is responsible for putting out fires for ordinary people.