"Being able to acquire steam battleships and hire a large number of Slavs for their own use, I think the French Party must have quite a lot of contacts in Europe."
Faced with Qingdeng's inquiry, Miss Sumire was silent for a while, then shook her head:
"Sorry, we have not received relevant information yet."
"However, An Yi, I agree with your point of view."
"We not only purchased advanced steam warships, but also organized a 'Slavic Legion' with a size of more than 2,000 people. Without the help of capable people from Europe, it would have been impossible to accomplish these two things."
"According to my personal guess... the French Party is probably cooperating with a certain arms dealer in Europe."
"If this is the case, then everything will be easily explained."
After Qingdeng heard this, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and muttered:
"Arms dealer..."
Somehow, when he heard the word "arms dealer", the figure of Elodie's biological father, Maher d'Orléans, emerged from his mind.
The reason why I suddenly thought of this person is because Elodie said that his father started out in the arms business!
Qingden clearly remembers Elodie's evaluation of Maher: If he risked his life to cross the ocean to come to Japan simply to recover his daughter, then this is really not something Maher would do.
Thinking of this, Qingdeng frowned subconsciously and thought to himself:
——It should...not be such a coincidence...
Just when his thoughts were wandering, Miss Sumire's voice came up again, bringing his thoughts back to reality:
"An Yi, our Great Salt Party only knows so much information at the moment."
"If we get new information in the future, I will ask Shintaro Tojo to tell you."
Qingdeng sat up slightly and responded solemnly:
"Ms. Sumire, thank you for your generous help. It really helped me a lot. I will never forget it."
Miss Sumire smiled:
"You're welcome, we're just doing what we need."
At this critical juncture, Qingdeng was naturally happy to see powerful helpers coming to help.
Qingdeng had no doubts about the intelligence gathering capabilities of the Great Salt Party.
The information Miss Sumire just provided is basically consistent with the information he currently has.
As early as before, there were reports that there were a large number of Westerners in the Changshu Army, which was marching directly to Kantung.
It seems that these Westerners should be the "Slavic Legion" that Miss Sumire just mentioned.
After Qingdeng thought for a moment, he said quietly:
"The Choshu Domain and the Hoshu Party are working together... what a troublesome combination."
"But...if you think about it from another angle, this might not be a precious opportunity once and for all."
The content of these words instantly attracted the attention of Miss Sumire and Shintaro Tojo.
Facing the doubtful looks cast by the two of them, Qingden explained calmly:
"The Qi soldiers are the last elite of Changzhou."
"As long as the Qi soldiers are eliminated, Changzhou will be completely reduced to a sick tiger without claws and claws."
"Similarly, that 'Slavic Army' should be... no, it must be the trump card of the French Execution Party!"
"No matter how well-connected and capable the Fanzhu Party is, it is still just an association."
"Even if there is support from arms dealers or other forces, the amount of money required to raise a mercenary army of 2,000 people is absolutely an astronomical sum."
"Such a large amount of money is definitely not something that an association can easily afford."
"I dare to conclude that the 'Slavic Army' is a valuable force that the French Communist Party spent countless time and energy to build up."
"Essentially, the reason why they were able to successfully attack Nongwei by surprise was simply because the timing of the attack was so good, and they cleverly took advantage of the window period of our Western Expedition, Tuesday Country."
"In order to conquer Changzhou, we mobilized the troops of the Gyeonggi and Nongwei vassals, leaving the two areas extremely empty of troops, which allowed them to take advantage of the loophole."
"This great opportunity comes only once in a lifetime!"
"For Choshu, this is a unique trick to bring the feudal state back to life."
"For the Punishment Party, this is the precious opportunity they have been waiting for for a long time to completely eliminate the shogunate."
"Therefore, from the moment they landed on the Nomi coast, Choshu and the Hōsū Party had no way out."
"Either win or die in defeat!"
"In such a battle where victory is guaranteed and defeat is not allowed, and if we miss it, we don't know how long we will have to wait, there is no reason for the Fa Zhu Party not to send out all its combat power!"
"In other words, in the next battle, I will most likely encounter important cadres such as Otakemaru and Shuten Doji of the Punishment Party, and even its leader Yamata no Orochi!"
"Therefore, this battle is not only a decisive battle between me and Changzhou, but also a decisive battle between me and the Fanzhu Party!"
"With this battle, we can defeat Changzhou in one fell swoop and punish the party!"
Listening to Qingdeng's heroic words, Miss Sumire blinked blankly, and then showed a slight smile:
"Destroy Changzhou in one fell swoop and punish the party... You have a huge appetite."
"However, from what you said, it doesn't seem impossible."
"Whatever happens to Changzhou, let's leave it alone."
"If you really succeed in wiping out the 'Slavic Legion' and successfully kill Yamata no Orochi, Otakemaru, Shuten Doji and others, it will indeed completely wipe out the Hōzoku Party."
"Haha, when I think of this, my heart beats a little faster."
At this point, she held her head high, stared straight at Qingdeng, and said in a tone that was half teasing, half serious:
"In that case, An Yi, I wish you a great victory! You must eliminate the Law and Punishment Party in one fell swoop!"
Qingden smiled and said:
"I will do my best!"
…
…
Hachioji area——
"Whoosh...! Whoosh...! Whoosh...!"
The horse is galloping, breathing heavily, sweat is splashing, and dust is flying.
Hijikata Toisho held the sincerity flag high with one hand and held the reins tightly with the other hand. No matter how strong the headwind was, he remained unmoved.
Without looking back, he said loudly:
"Tetsunosuke, hold on a little longer! We'll be there soon!"
Ichimura Tetsunosuke, who was half a body behind him, responded loudly:
"Mr. Hijikata, you are worrying too much! I am very well! Even if I ride to Matsumae Domain in one go, it won't be a problem!"
Matsumae Domain, the hometown of Nagakura Shinpachi, is located at the southernmost tip of Ezo Land (Hokkaido), which was essentially the northernmost part of Japan during the Edo period.
Hijikata Toizan squinted his eyes and looked at Tetsunosuke Ichimura, who was standing behind him.
Looking at the other person's slightly trembling back and legs, he couldn't help but feel secretly amused.
However, he did not expose the other party, silently withdrew his gaze and focused on the road ahead again.
After leaving Otsu, Hijikata Toshizo ran non-stop—non-stop in the physical sense—to the Hachioji area.
When one horse gets tired, he switches to another. Since the two of them brought a total of eight horses, they didn't need to worry about horsepower.
Although Hijikata Toshizo's physical fitness cannot be compared with Aoto, it is still far superior to ordinary people.
In his eyes, this hard work is really not worth mentioning.
On the other hand, Ichimura Tetsunosuke was not good at physical strength or force, so he was not so able.
However, he is indeed a good boy who was spotted by Hijikata Toshisan at a glance and promoted to his nickname.
No matter how hard and tiring he was, he never complained and kept persevering.
After three days and three nights of running wildly, Toshizo Hijikata felt that the surrounding scenery was becoming more and more familiar.
Hachioji is adjacent to Tama.
To put it bluntly, these two places are basically one!
As a son of a farmer from Tama, Hijikata has been visiting Hachioji since he was a child. This place is basically half of his hometown.
Therefore, looking at the increasingly familiar scenery around him, he concluded in his heart: We are almost at Hachioji!
The master and servant walked a long distance one after another, and after entering an unknown forest... suddenly, a sudden change occurred!
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da!
Suddenly, dense footsteps sounded in front of them.
A militiaman armed with a musket - about a dozen of them - emerged from the bushes and stood on the road, blocking the way forward for the two of them in the blink of an eye.
This group of militiamen was not running around in disorder.
After occupying the road, they quickly formed a team and formed two horizontal lines, with the first row squatting and the second row standing up.
Immediately afterwards, they all raised the muskets in their hands, and the black muzzles were pointed directly at Hijikata Toshizo and Ichimura Tetsunosuke!
Seeing this, Hijikata Toshizo quickly tightened the reins in his hands and stopped the horse. Ichimura Tetsunosuke followed suit.
At the same time that the master and servant were reining in their horses, someone from this group of militiamen asked loudly:
"Who are you?!"
Faced with this sudden change and the terrifying muzzle of a gun so close at hand, Hijikata Toshizo was not afraid at all and remained very calm.
He calmly raised the sincerity flag in his hand and responded loudly:
"I am the deputy chief of the Shinsengumi, Hijikata Toshizo!"
"By order of General Tachibana, the President of the Army, I came to assist the Eighth Prince and thousands of people work together!"
"I dare to ask you, are you a soldier with a thousand people working together?"
Although he used a question sentence, his tone was affirmative.
In fact, after this group of militiamen appeared, Hijikata Toshizo saw through their true identity at a glance.
Hearing that the person coming was the famous "Deputy Commander of the Ghost", there was quite a commotion among the militiamen.
They looked at each other, you looked at me, I looked at you, and there were expressions of astonishment and surprise on each other's faces.
At this time, someone exclaimed:
"Hmm? Are you Hijikata?"
Hijikata Toisan followed the sound and stared straight at the other person's face. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly realized:
"Are you Ushisaburo?"
"That's right! It's me! I didn't expect you to still remember me!"
"Of course I remember! After all, you and I are participating in the 'Zhaoyu Sleeping' friendship together!"
Miscellaneous Fish Sleeping - One of Hijikata's most enthusiastic activities before he turned 3 years old.
To put it simply, this is an activity that is widespread in Japanese villages. The whole village, old and young, squeezes into the same room and sweats to their heart's content.
The young man whom Toshizo Hijikata called "Ushisaburo" put down the musket in his hand and called to his companions to quickly lift their guard.
"Quick! Put down the cannons! Don't hurt your own people! The opponent is indeed Shinsengumi Deputy Chief Hijikata Toshizo!"
Seeing the large Chengji flag in Hijikata Toizan's hand, and having it certified by Ushisaburo himself, the militiamen no doubt had it, and they all breathed a sigh of relief, put down their muskets, and lifted their alert.
In this way, the originally slightly tense atmosphere completely disappeared.
Ushizaburo took three steps in a row and then ran to Hijikata Toizo with a sad face:
"Suisan...ah, no, deputy commander! I finally got you here! We have been waiting for General Tachibana's reinforcements!"
Hijikata Toshizo said calmly:
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Who is the person currently responsible for commanding Thousands of People Together? Take me to see him quickly!"
The war situation was urgent, so Hijikata Toshizo flawlessly chatted with his old friends and got to the point directly.
Although Ushisaburo is a peasant who cannot read a word, he still knows what he should and should not do now.
He nodded vigorously, then, under Hijikata Tobizo's instructions, got on his horse, sat behind him, and guided him.
As for the other militiamen, they stayed here and continued to guard the place.
The horse that had just stopped for a short time moved its four hooves again and galloped away.
"Deputy Commander! After you leave this forest and run a short distance, you will find our large force of thousands of people working together!"
At this point, he paused for a moment, and then changed into a meaningful tone:
"Deputy Chief, you might not believe it!"
"The person currently responsible for commanding our thousands of people is neither an elder in the village nor a high-ranking official sent by the shogunate."
"It's the blonde girl who came over to check the accounts a while ago!"
Hearing this, Hijikata Toshizo was stunned on the spot.
"Goldilocks?"
He turned his head slightly and asked back, as if he wanted to confirm whether he heard correctly.
Ushisaburo nodded vigorously:
"That's right! It's her!"
"This girl is really amazing! She deserves to be General Tachibana's apprentice!"
"Thanks to her, we were able to stabilize the morale of the military!"
…
…
A few days ago——
Hachioji, a certain private house——
Click, click, click, click, click...
The monotonous sound of moving beads dominated the entire house.
Elodie bowed her head in front of the case, concentrating on her work. On the table were the account books that thousands of people had worked on over the years. She was manipulating the abacus in one hand and scribbling with a brush in the other.
After working continuously for an unknown amount of time, she gradually felt tired and had a clear lack of concentration.
Therefore, she silently put down the brush in her hand, and then stretched hard, and immediately there was a crisp sound of "click" and "click" as her bones stretched.
While relaxing her limbs, she turned to look at the sky outside the window - the bright sunshine covered the earth like silk.
——It’s a rest anyway, let’s go for a walk outside.
Just like that, she slowly stood up, moved her lotus steps with great interest, and walked towards the entrance hall.
As soon as she opened the door, she saw a majestic figure - Kui Shimada, who was standing outside the door, stood upright and said respectfully:
"Director, have you finished your work?"
Elodie smiled bitterly and shook her head:
"Not yet. How can the account books accumulated by thousands of people over the years be checked so quickly?"
"It will take at least 7 days to complete."
"I was a little tired, so I went out for a walk to relax."
Shimada Kui nodded:
"I see. Then, Chief, please allow me to accompany you!"
Elodie smiled helplessly:
"Well, this is your job after all, let's go."
She said and was about to take a step.
Suddenly, as if she remembered something, she turned her head and looked at Shimada Kui's left arm:
"By the way, is your arm okay?"
Shimada Kui chuckled and stretched his left arm in front of Elodie.
"It's no longer in the way!"
Seeing that the other party didn't seem to be trying to show off, Elodie smiled in relief:
"That's good! I'm really sorry for forcing you to do such a boring task. According to your ability, you should make contributions on the battlefield."
Hearing what Elodie said, Shimada Kui said hurriedly:
"Please don't say that! What an important task it is to 'protect the head of the room'! I feel honored to be fully responsible for this task!"
As they talked, the two walked towards the fields not far away.
Judging from the actual results, Shimada Kui is indeed an excellent bodyguard. He did not disappoint Qingto's expectations. He fulfilled his duty of "protecting Elodie" to the extreme.
When Elodie was working in the room, he stayed outside the door the entire time, strictly prohibiting any unauthorized intrusion.
When Elodie went for a walk or somewhere else, he was always by her side.
No matter when and where he is, his left hand always holds the sheath of the sword at his waist, and his right hand is slightly raised - an expert can tell at a glance that this person is always in a "ready state"! Once the situation goes wrong, he will immediately
Draw your sword and fight!
For such a tough-minded person, anyone with a bit of discernment would walk away knowingly and would never dare to come forward to cause trouble for Elodie.
In fact, Elodie was not treated unfairly after arriving at the Eighth Prince.
Most people just looked at her carefully with curious eyes.
To put it bluntly, Hachioji is a purely rural place, and most of the residents are country folk who have never left the village.
Therefore, they have never seen Westerners.
They were full of curiosity about Elodie, who had tall eyebrows and deep eyes, blond hair and blue eyes.
"Look, her hair is yellow."
"This is not yellow, this is gold."
"Her skin is so white, so white that it almost reflects light."
"She looks really weird, the bridge of her nose is so straight."
"She's obviously not tall, but her breasts and butt are quite plump."
When the villagers of Hachioji met Elodie for the first time, discussions similar to this could be heard endlessly.
Of course, there were not a few people who cast malicious glances at her.
Even if they have never met a Westerner, it does not prevent them from hearing negative news about Westerners.
Although they don't know much about the "black ship incident", "dumping goods" and "destroying the small-scale peasant economy", they have a simple understanding: all the chaos in recent years is ultimately the fault of Westerners.
!
However, as of today, Elodie has not encountered any accidents.
The actions taken by those who clearly harbored ill intentions towards Elodie were limited to "glaring" and "saying bad things".
Blow up the auditor's helicopter with a rocket... Ah, no! Such a bastard thing as "assassinating the auditor" has never happened.
This may be because Shimada Kui and others are well protected.
All in all, for Elodie, the audit work these days went very smoothly. Not only did she not feel bored or panicked, but she felt vaguely comfortable.
The pastoral scenery of Hachioji aroused her endless appreciation.
Whenever she was tired or had free time, she would always go for a walk nearby and enjoy the scenery with interest.
After chatting with Shimada Kui for a few words, she headed straight out of the village.
Shimada Kui followed closely beside him, performing his "bodyguard" duties meticulously.
Along the way, they met many villagers.
Some people walked away silently after taking one look at her.
There are also some people who greet you very warmly:
"Good morning, Mr. Room Chief!"
"Mr. Room Chief, are you going for a walk?"
"Mr. Room Chief, you have worked hard!"
Elodie's friendly and cheerful demeanor and her unpretentious and gentle attitude have won the favor of many villagers.
Although she was embarrassed by the prestigious title of "Room Chief", whenever a villager greeted her, she would respond positively and equally enthusiastically.
Shortly after leaving the village, a stretch of flat and endless fields came into Elodie's sight.
The ridges extending in all directions cut the huge fields into neat pieces.
It is the slack time for farming, so no one is doing farm work here. There is no other sound except the wind, which makes it feel a bit lonely.
The Eight Princes and Thousands of People are united as a militia armed with half soldiers and half farmers. They farm during the busy farming season and train troops during the slack farming season.
Therefore, all adult male villagers are busy in military training at this time.
In a certain open space not far from this field, it can be said that it is in full swing——
"Come on!"
"Quick! Run!"
"Don't dawdle!"
The villagers are conducting various military trainings.
Either they are exercising their physical fitness, or they are practicing formations, how intense they are.
Even Elodie, who was far away in the fields, could faintly hear the sound of their exercises.
Just as Elodie was clasping her hands behind her back and admiring the mountain scenery in the distance with great interest...she suddenly saw a "small green bean dot" appear from the horizon in front of her, and then move straight towards her.
She blinked and took a closer look - this "mung bean dot" was a samurai wearing a light green haori!
He came galloping on a fast horse, covered in dust.
Wearing a light onion-colored haori-this outfit couldn't be more conspicuous.
Seeing the sudden appearance of this Shinsengumi member, Elodie and Shimada Kui were stunned.
This man had very good eyesight. He spotted Elodie from a long distance and shouted excitedly:
"Chief! Are you the head of the room?!"
Hearing this, Elodie immediately cheered up and responded loudly:
"That's right! I am Elodie de Angouleme, the director of the Shinsengumi!"
As she finished speaking, the opponent who tightened the reins in his hands happened to stop in front of her:
"Chief, come with me! Something big has happened!"
…
…
This soldier was the messenger sent by Qingdeng to inform thousands of people to "prepare for defense immediately".
The Choshu Army made a surprise attack on Nomi, and Kantō was in danger - in the blink of an eye, the news spread throughout the village!
Suddenly, the air in the village was filled with tension and panic, and there was a lot of excitement.
"Nongwei has fallen? This, this, this is incredible!"
"Hurry up and prepare for war! The Changzhou Army is coming soon!"
"Preparing for war? Can we defeat the Changzhou Army?"
"It's not a question of whether we can win the fight, but we must fight!"
…
Arguments, quarrels, conflicts... Looking at the chaos in front of her, Elodie frowned unconsciously.
"Please be quiet!"
she said.
Everyone at the scene ignored her and continued to argue with each other.
"Please be quiet!"
She repeated it.
The quarrels are still there, the conflicts are still there.
"Quiet, everyone!"
At this moment, Elodie lost her patience, and while shouting angrily, she pulled out the saber from her waist and slashed at the big tree beside her.
Boom!
The huge sound of slashing instantly silenced all the sounds at the scene. No one spoke anymore. They all turned their heads and looked at Elodie in shock.
"Really...don't let me be so rough..."
*******
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PS: Arranging for Elodie and Shimada Kui to go to Hachioji is to allow them to participate in this battle reasonably.