I formed the strongest swordsman group

As for how to explain "next to the orderly army formation, followed closely by three unidentified people, a large one, a middle school and a small one", it is not difficult.

Qingden lied that Elodie and others were his friends, and because they were also going to Kyoto, he gave them a ride.

In order to ensure the personal safety of the Angoulême family, Qingdeng also placed them all in the Chinese army where he was, ensuring that their presence was always under his nose.

To be fair, Qingdeng's behavior can be regarded as seeking public benefit for personal gain.

However, it does not harm the collective interests, it is just a small and innocuous matter, so no one dares to say anything.

Snap, snap, snap, snap...

At this time, the sound of footsteps coming from far and near suddenly came from the direction of the corridor.

In an instant, Anthony and Leroy seemed to have a stress reaction and quickly grabbed the hats and face towels they had just taken off.

Only Qingden and Elodie looked normal, and the latter even looked happy - because they were so familiar with this series of footsteps.

"Mr. Anthony, Miss Leroy, don't be nervous."

Qingden smiled.

"The person who came here is an acquaintance of ours. I asked her to come."

As soon as he finished speaking, the soft voice of a girl in red sounded outside the door:

"Qingden, it's me! Can I come in?"

"Well, come in."

The next breath, Kinoshita Wu eagerly pushed the door open and entered.

When the paper sliding door that blocked her vision was pushed aside, she first glanced at Qingdeng on the main seat, and then quickly swept her eyes, as if she was looking for something.

Soon, she found her target - the blonde girl who was looking at her with bright eyes.

"Elodie!"

"Miss Dance!"

Kinoshita Mai ran towards the opponent in three steps and two steps at a time.

Elodie also stood up and leaned forward.

The two girls hugged each other tightly.

Looking at this quintessential picture of "beautiful girl sticking up", a smile appeared on Qingdeng's lips unconsciously - this was not because he had any strange hobbies, but simply because he was seeing his lover and After the apprentice showed a happy smile, he also became happy.

On the one side are social terrorists who are clumsy-tongued and not good at speaking.

The other side is a lonely girl who has left her hometown and lives in a foreign country.

Both parties regard each other as their most important friends.

Among the current Shinsengumi, apart from Aoto, only Kinoshita Mai knows the true identities of the three people who "hitched a ride".

The reason why Qingto suddenly called Kinoshita Mai was, on the one hand, so that the two best friends could meet and talk.

In order to cover up others' eyes and ears, Elodie and others must try to avoid contact with others, so the two women will not communicate during the day.

The other reason is more serious.

Although I really want Kinoshita Mai and Elodie to get along with each other for a while, big things are at stake.

"Mr. Anthony, Miss Elodie, Miss Leroy, I'm sorry, can you please go down and rest temporarily? I have something very important to discuss with Ah Wu now."

Elodie is an obedient, sensible, mature and good child, so naturally she will not act willful in such situations.

She nodded lightly, and immediately put on her hat and face towel again together with Anthony and Leroy, and filed out.

When the footsteps of the Angouleme family completely disappeared at the end of the corridor outside the room, Kinoshita Mai asked:

"Qingdeng, what do you want to discuss with me?"

She paused for a moment, then as if she thought of something, she crossed her hands and waved hastily, and said urgently with red cheeks:

"I, let me declare in advance! I walked all day today, and I haven't even taken a shower yet. I really am not in the mood to do that, that kind of thing!"

"Who said I would do that kind of thing with you?"

After saying this angrily, Qingden waved to Kinoshita Wu.

She immediately walked to him obediently.

"Ah Wu, let me tell you the truth. The main reason I summoned you here tonight is to talk about your ninth division."

Kinoshita Mai looked puzzled:

"My ninth division?"

Qingdeng nodded and continued:

"Have you noticed that the members of your ninth division are all ordinary-looking and average-looking people who can't be found in a busy city?"

Kinoshita Mai blinked a few times.

"Huh? From what you said...it seems to be true..."

"I did this on purpose. I deliberately put the least conspicuous people into your team."

"Huh? Why is this happening?"

Qingdeng straightened his back, sat upright, and put on a serious tone:

"Ah Wu, if you want to win the war, you must focus on two aspects."

He held out two fingers.

"One is logistics, and the other is intelligence."

"As long as you can have supplies in one step and know your enemy and yourself, you can still be in an invincible position even if you cannot defeat the opponent."

"My Shinsengumi must have a new, independent, and more efficient intelligence collection agency."

"Therefore, I plan to build your ninth division into a ninja unit dedicated to intelligence collection."

"This important task belongs to you."

"After all, you are a true female ninja."

Kinoshita Wu opened her eyes wide and moved her red lips:

"Intelligence collection... Ninja troops..."

After a moment, she came back to her senses and said nervously:

"How can a person like me have the ability to shoulder such an important task?"

"If you ask me to do rough and tiring work, I won't hesitate."

"But this kind of work requires management and brainpower... Qingdeng, you'd better entrust this important responsibility to others!"

Qingden Wan'er:

"A Wu, give yourself more confidence."

As he spoke, he stretched out his hands, grabbed Kinoshita Mai's two round shoulders, turned her in a half circle so that her back was facing his chest, and then took the girl into his arms.

"Don't you always tell me: You don't want to go on like this anymore?"

"You really want to get rid of your bad habits of not being good at communicating with others and not even daring to look at strangers, don't you?"

"And now is the best opportunity for you to start changing yourself."

“The first step is always difficult, but as long as you take the first step, the rest of the steps will be much easier.”

"If you have the talent, believe in yourself."

Qingden's encouragement immediately had an effect—but not much.

Kinoshita Mai played with her fingers, looked away, and murmured:

"That's true, but...but...but..."

Looking at the girl in red who was still hesitating, Qingdeng smiled helplessly, and then changed the topic:

"There's no need to worry about the Ninja Army for the time being."

"Before that, I have to give you an equally important confidential task."

"This task must be very handy for you, who once used your identity as the 'Cat Monk' to frighten all the villains in Edo."

After hearing this, Kinoshita Mai raised her head and put her head on Qingdeng's chest. The two looked at each other.

What mission? She confirmed it to Qingdeng with her eyes.

Qingdeng said seriously:

"Monitor Qinghe Hachiro and report his daily activities to me in detail."

…

…

3 days later——

After passing through Shinagawa-juku, Kawasaki-juku, Kanagawa-juku, Hodogaya-juku, Totsuka-juku, Fujisawa-juku, Hiratsuka-juku, Oiso-juku, and Oda-Harajuku, all the Shinsengumi soldiers arrived at dusk on the third day. , arrived at the 10th accommodation on Tokaido: Hakone-juku.

When talking about Hakone, we have to mention the famous mountain located here: Mount Hakone.

Among Japanese people, there is a familiar saying: "The mountains of Hakone are dangerous to the world."

The "danger" here not only refers to the high altitude of Mount Hakone (1,438 meters), but also refers to the fact that it is dangerous - dangerous in the true sense.

Mount Hakone is an active volcano. Due to frequent geological activities, natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and landslides often occur.

However, "danger" and "opportunity" are often twins.

Although the yet-to-be-dormant Zhurong has made Mount Hakone full of dangers, it has also endowed it with quite developed geothermal resources.

As early as the Heian period more than 800 years ago, Mount Hakone was a famous hot spring resort and hot spring town.

The seven most famous hot springs - Tonosawa, Yumoto, Tsukura, Dojima, Miyanoshita, Kiga and Ashinoyu - are collectively known as the "Seven Hot Springs of Hakone".

To be honest, Qingden really wanted to go to a hot spring. He had never been to a hot spring in his whole life.

In his previous life, he had only soaked in the kind of "hot spring" that had a beautiful name and gorgeous publicity, but was actually just a pool of boiler water.

Of course, it would be even better if we could bring Sanako, Kinoshita Mai, and Souji to have a mixed bath where we could drink and soak in the bath.

In order to protect Edo, monitor the flow of population and materials across the country, and obtain information on public opinion events, the Edo shogunate established checkpoints at various important nodes in the five streets.

Because Hakone happened to be located at a very critical strategic point and the terrain was dangerous, the shogunate established the "Hakone Checkpoint" here.

It is the closest checkpoint to Edo on the Tokaido Road and can be called the gateway to Edo.

For this reason, Hakone Checkpoint has become the largest and most stringent of the many checkpoints in Japan, and is known as "Japan's No. 1 Checkpoint".

Hakone Pass is managed by Odawara Castle, a fortress in the Kanto Plain.

Its two gates: Shangfang Gate and Edo Gate, open at approximately 6 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. In principle, access is prohibited at night, and special permission is required for access under special circumstances.

There are about 20 officials of different sizes guarding it every day, and they rotate once a month.

The guards here are well-equipped, with 5 bows, 10 iron cannons, and 10 spears.

Although in today's troubled times, this level of defensive strength is really not worth mentioning, but in the previous peaceful period of Wentian and Wuxi, such weapons were quite terrifying.

In all the checkpoints in the Edo period, there was a term called: "Into the iron cannon comes out the girl."

The so-called "entering iron cannon" means that when entering Edo from the checkpoint, carrying iron cannon (arquebus) is strictly prohibited. Its purpose is to maintain the security of Edo.

If you really need to bring one under special circumstances, you will need special credentials, that is, the "iron gunner's hand shape" of the shogunate.

The stamp on the voucher will be strictly confirmed, and its owner, number, date, origin and destination will also be verified.

As for "outing women", it means that women in Edo are not allowed to go out.

According to the rules of the pilgrimage, the wives of the feudal lords had to become hostages of the shogunate and live in Edo for a long time.

Once these hostages escape back to the feudal state without authorization, the political harm will be very great, so "nursing" is strictly prohibited, even stricter than the iron cannon inspection.

If a woman needs to go outside the detention center due to special circumstances, she will also need to obtain a permit, which is a "female pass hand-shaped" document, and an "ID card".

When a woman goes to the detention center with these two things, the person in charge of the detention center will send a female prisoner who is responsible for examining women, that is, a "renjiannv", to inspect the woman's body in detail to confirm that she is the "female pass hand shape" ” and the person described on the “ID card.”

This inspection is very strict.

When people meet women, they will ask the woman to untie her hair and take off her clothes to check whether they match the characteristics recorded in the document. They will even conduct detailed inspections on hair, body features, moles, and pregnancy.

In addition, the customs authorities are entitled to conduct the same inspection on men with neutral faces in order to avoid the situation of "women dressing up as men and sneaking out of the customs office".

Fortunately, before leaving, Tokugawa Iemo gave the Shinsengumi the privilege of "when encountering a customs station, they can just go through the customs without being inspected."

Otherwise, the General Secretary will be in big trouble.

Just based on her handsome appearance... the probability of being dragged for examination is 10 to 10.

There was a moderate snowfall in the afternoon, which delayed the trip.

When the gray clouds cleared, Aomori ordered to "speed up" and finally managed to pass through the Hakone Checkpoint before the gray veil covered the sky, and arrived at Hakone-juku behind the checkpoint as scheduled.

Hakone-juku's Manyaba showed great enthusiasm to entertain the Shinsengumi.

Local specialties were served to the soldiers' tables.

Hot spring black eggs boiled with high-heat hot spring water, hot spring tofu also soaked in hot spring water, hot spring soba noodles made with hot spring water, hot spring steamed buns steamed with hot spring water, and hot spring fried rice with hot spring water. Spring Fish... I can't even figure out whether it's eating food or hot springs.

Maybe it's because of the snow in the afternoon today that it took away everything today. The weather is particularly good tonight.

While eating hot springs under the bright moonlight, Qingdeng summoned the brothers from the Imperial Guard Hall and held a simple dinner.

This is the first time that the heroes of the Trial Guard Hall have gathered together since the expedition.

Sanako and Kinoshita Mai also attended the banquet.

Because it was an informal daily dinner, there was no distinction between superiors and subordinates, and everyone just sat around.

"How are you guys? How does it feel to be an officer and command troops?"

As soon as Seito finished speaking, Hijikata Toshizo said angrily:

"Why do you talk as if we are all generals in charge of thousands of troops?"

Nagakura Shinpachi said with a bitter smile:

"Honestly, I'm not used to it yet."

Immediately afterwards, Toudo Heisuke answered:

"My team members and I get along very well, but... I'm not very sure whether I can successfully lead them into battle in the future."

Everyone was talking in a flurry of words.

At this time, Shannan Keisuke seemed to have remembered something important, his expression serious.

After a moment, he put down the bowls and chopsticks in his hands, turned around, and faced Qingdeng:

"Tachibana-kun, although it's a bit disappointing to talk about business while eating, I still want to report to you as soon as possible: According to my observation, there are currently many team members in the Shinsengumi who are very dissatisfied with your strict management. .”

As soon as these words came out, the expressions of most people in the audience became serious.

Shannan Keisuke's words continued:

"They feel that your order of 'no contact with prostitutes' is too harsh and excessive. They strongly demand that this order be abolished."

The sesame industry in Edo was overdeveloped. There were both Yoshiwara, a nest of orioles, and Okaba, a large number of low-priced Okaba.

Kabuki, Joruri Bunraku puppet shows, listening to books...not everyone can appreciate and engage in these entertainment activities.

However, as long as a man is physically and mentally normal, it is impossible not to like Sese.

Therefore, over time, after a long day of hard work, I would relax in astringent places such as Yoshiwara and Okakura. Even if it was not good, I would go to Honjo, Samekawa Bridge, Asakusa-do and other places where nightingales often hang out. Going out has become a common daily life for Edo men.

Seito forbids the soldiers of the Shinsengumi to have contact with prostitutes... This is just like forbidding them to eat. It is really unbearable for them.

"Tachibana-kun, Mr. Shannan is right."

Isamu Kondo put down his bowls and chopsticks, folded his arms, and continued in a deep voice.

"I have also discovered this situation. A considerable number of the team members hope that you can allow them to go to Fengchen Girl to relax... To be honest, your ban has made their resentment deeper and deeper."

Souji, Nagakura Shinpachi, Saito Ichi and others nodded. It seems that there are people in their team who are dissatisfied with Qingdeng's "astringent ban".

Suddenly, Harada Sanosuke interjected:

"Mr. Tachibana, why not just lift this ban?"

Hijikata Toshizo frowned.

However, before he could speak, Qingdeng was the first to smile and said:

"That won't work. If the people below show their dissatisfaction, I will accommodate them. Then what dignity can I, the governor and the commander-in-chief, have?"

"Not only will the ban not be abolished, but it will continue until it reaches Kyoto."

"Everyone, imagine this: an army that plays with women when it wants to, and has fun when it wants. Can it still be called an army? They are bandits."

"Why should I issue this ban?"

"The purpose is to establish my majesty and let this group of people who have been used to laziness and have never been baptized by the military get used to being restrained, controlled, and learn to listen to orders."

"Otherwise, the Shinsengumi will always be a ragtag group."

Harada Sanosuke listened and murmured:

"But...if you don't untie them, I'm afraid they will cause trouble."

Qingdeng smiled slightly:

"Then let them make trouble! It's better if they make trouble. I'm afraid they won't make trouble!"

*******

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