"Mr. Tachibana, tonight...thank you so much."
Katsurin Taro sincerely bowed almost 90 degrees to Aoto.
"Mr. Katsu, there is no need to be polite." Qingden raised his hand to help Katsu Rintaro up and said modestly, "I just had good luck for a while and did what I should do as a 'Sankai' samurai."
After learning that Katsu Rintaro wanted to see him, Aoto guessed that Katsu Rintaro wanted to thank him in person.
Anyway, he happened to be free now, so Qingden took the initiative to greet Katsurin Taro.
As Ayoto expected - after seeing him coming, Katsurin Taro immediately saluted him respectfully and solemnly thanked him.
Katsu Rintaro is older than him, and judging from his official position, Katsu Rintaro is older than him by an unknown number of levels. Therefore, even though he has a life-saving grace for Katsu Rintaro, Ayoto does not treat him with any casual or disrespectful attitude. I always use honorifics when speaking to Katsu Rintaro and Katsu Rintaro.
After thanking Aoto several times in one breath, Katsurin Taro straightened up and showed an expression of mixed emotions to Aoto.
"Mr. Tachibana, I have heard your name before."
"He is truly worthy of his reputation... He is indeed a young hero who has become famous recently."
"Um?"
At this moment, Katsurin Taro suddenly opened his eyes wider and carefully looked at Qingden from head to toe.
"Mr. Orange...have we met recently? Why do I always feel that you look familiar?"
Qingdeng raised his eyebrows and laughed and said: "When I went out to eat at noon today, I passed by the gate of the martial arts institute. At that time, I passed by Mr. Sheng who came out of the martial arts institute. It was probably at this time that you saw You know me, so you have an impression on me."
Sheng Lintaro showed a look of sudden realization: "Yes, yes, I remembered that you are one of the tall guys I saw outside the martial arts school at noon today."
"Haha, it seems that the two of us have a strange fate."
After expressing a small sigh in a half-joking tone, Shenglin Taro turned his head and looked at the Tibetan Shutiao House next to him with a somewhat sad look, which had been burned down to a small extent.
"Mr. Ju, you not only saved us tonight, but you also saved this Tibetan Bookstore."
"Without your timely arrival, this academic center, which was built with countless people's efforts, would have been completely destroyed by those lunatics..."
"You are very kind to me and to us, Fanshu Tiao."
Katsurin Taro turned his gaze from Fanshu Tiaoshuo back to Qingden's face, showing a smile full of gratitude.
"Mr. Orange, if you encounter anything that needs help in the future, just come to us. Wherever we can help, we will do our best to help!"
"Can you try your best to help..." Qingden smiled, "... By coincidence, Mr. Sheng, I happen to have something that needs your help right now."
Sheng Rintaro was startled for a moment, and then said quickly: "What's the matter? Please tell me."
"Actually, it's nothing, I just have a question to ask you."
Qingdeng raised his hand and made a gesture of pulling the trigger.
"Mr. Katsu, how did you get that revolver?"
While fighting fiercely with the "surrounding team" of the "anti-barbarian group" outside the transfer station, Qingdeng kept hearing vague gunshots coming from inside the transfer station.
After the war, he inquired with someone and found out that these gunshots came from a revolver owned by Katsurin Taro.
"Huh? Mr. Tachibana, why are you asking?"
"I'm just a little curious." Qingdeng said casually.
"Oh..." Katsurin Taro nodded lightly, then without doubting his presence, he reached out and took out a completely black revolver from his arms, "This gun was from when I went to the United States two months ago. I got it from an American friend of mine."
"Although it is very powerful, loading and aiming are very troublesome. If you don't train hard, whether you can hit a distant target depends entirely on luck."
"That's it..." Qingdeng murmured, "It was a gun given by a friend..."
——It turns out I didn’t buy it myself...
Qingdeng couldn't help but feel a little regretful.
He originally wanted to find out how to buy a gun from Katsu Rintaro...
For Qingdeng, whose soul comes from the 21st century, he has long been salivating over firearms.
If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't find a way to buy a gun, he would have stopped practicing swordsmanship and went to buy a pistol!
Not being able to ask Katsu Rintaro what he wanted... Although Aoto was regretful, he was not too anxious.
——Forget it...weapons like pistols...just let it happen...
Qingdeng comforted himself in his heart.
…
…
Tonight is a sleepless night for many people in Edo.
Needless to say, the "three chapters" of the execution camp have been working hard since daytime to hunt down the anti-barbarian group.
In order to escape the fire scene, people dragged their families and fled to a safe place.
In order to prevent the fire from spreading, the town fire police officers all had their faces blackened by the fire.
After nearly an hour of fighting, the fires in various parts of Edo were finally extinguished.
Being able to put out the fire so quickly was all thanks to two things.
One: God’s cooperation.
Although there was a meager night wind tonight, the wind was not strong overall. Without the help of the wind, the spread of the flames was greatly slowed down, leaving enough time for the town fire officials to remove the fire breaks.
Two: The shogun...that is, the mobilization of Tokugawa Iemo.
Tonight is not just a "sleepless night" for the town residents, the execution office, and the town fire department officials.
The Supreme One who lives in Edo Castle has not slept until now...
…
Edo, Edo Castle, Fujimi oar——
"Sir General, the fire in Edo City has been basically extinguished." A junior named Tokugawa Iemo knelt on one knee behind him and reported respectfully to Tokugawa Iemo who was now standing by the window.
At this moment, Tokugawa Iemo, who was standing by the window, was holding the window edge with both hands, pressing his lips tightly, and looking at the world outside the window solemnly.
And beside him, stood the "empress dowager of the day": Tenzouin - she stood side by side with Tokugawa Iemo, and looked out the window with Tokugawa Iemo.
Outside the window, in the towns of Edo, the thick smoke that was still very strong just now has basically dissipated.
The firelight that originally illuminated half of the sky almost disappeared at this time.
Under the cover of night, the towns and cities of Edo were once again plunged into darkness.
Looking at the castle town where there was finally no more firelight, and listening to the report just made by the young man behind him, Tokugawa Iemo's face, which had been tense, finally gradually relaxed.
"It's finally put out... Let the town fire department calculate the damage as soon as possible. How many people died and how many houses were burned down. You have to give me an accurate number."
"yes!"
"Okay, please step back first."
The young man lowered his head, said "Yes" loudly, and then exited the room with a quick but polite pace.
As soon as this young man left, he saw Tenzouin, who had been standing next to Tokugawa Iemo, smile slightly.
"...Sir General." Tianzhangyuan asked in her wonderful ethereal voice, "That's great, the fire in the town has finally been put out."
Tokugawa Iemo smiled tiredly: "It's been such a long night..."
As the shogun's residence, Edo Castle is located in the center of Edo. If anything big happens in the towns of Edo, it will not escape the eyes of Edo Castle.
When the flames started to appear from various cities and towns such as the Edo town, Edo Castle immediately detected the change.
Although there is a wide moat outside Edo Castle, we still cannot be careless in the face of fire.
Thinking back two hundred years ago, the "Meiretsu Fire" that burned two-thirds of Edo to rubble spread to Edo Castle and burned down the Edo Castle Castle Tower, which was the tallest in the country at the time. .
Although there was no wind tonight, as long as we acted quickly, there was a great hope of preventing the fire from getting out of control. However, the fires broke out in so many places at the same time, and the noise was still a bit scary. For the sake of caution, the officials responsible for serving Tokugawa Iemo in Edo Castle finally Still decided to escort Tokugawa Iemo to a safe place.
At that time, Tokugawa Iemo had already fallen asleep. His attendants woke him up urgently and wanted to take Tokugawa Iemo to temporarily escape from Edo Castle through the tunnel.
After waking up in a daze and figuring out what had happened, Tokugawa Iemo had a serious face.
"It's ridiculous! As a general who conquered the barbarians, wouldn't it make people laugh if I ran away before the fire in the castle town was completely out of control?" - With these words, he was severely reprimanded and advised to leave Edo Castle temporarily. After a meal with those people, Tokugawa Iemo insisted on staying.
Also requesting to stay in Edo Castle was Tenjoin: "With such a fire, it is far from the point where we need to leave through the tunnel."
Tokugawa Iemo got dressed, and together with Tenjoin boarded the Fujimi Tower, the tallest building in Edo Castle, where you can overlook Mount Fuji and have a panoramic view of the entire Edo city when the weather is good.
While monitoring the fire-fighting situation in real time in the tallest building in Edo Castle, he also personally issued a mobilization order: recruiting fire-fighting bandit Kai and other troops to participate in the fire-fighting.
Tokugawa Iemo's mobilization order played a great role.
Although the fire-fighting thieves Kai and other troops do not have very professional fire-fighting skills, they are still capable of helping guide the townspeople to evacuate to safe places and help demolish houses.
The additional manpower transferred by Tokugawa Iemo greatly reduced the pressure on Edo's firefighting firefighters.
With the help of "timing" and "hehe", the town fire department finally put out the sudden fire tonight.
The string that had been tight relaxed... Tokugawa Iemo suddenly felt tiredness rushing towards him like a tide.
But now is not the time to settle down and rest.
Tokugawa Iemo raised his hand, pressed his eyebrows hard, and said in a deep voice: "After that... I have to let the people who changed the robbers to find out who was so bold and dared to set fire to the town..."
Fire Thieves Kai - a special security force in Edo.
The initial function of this special force was to catch thieves and arsonists.
But with the passage of time, and after many reorganizations, their actual functions have gradually evolved into being responsible for handling various serious and major cases, and arresting those for the Edo Office that no longer can be solved by the Office alone. those vicious criminals,
In a nutshell - they catch the criminals that the officers at the execution station cannot catch! They are here to fight against the criminal group that is difficult for the officers at the execution station to fight against! They can take care of things that cannot be controlled by devotion, and they can take care of things that can be controlled by devotion.
Under his name, he directly manages the most important armed force in the shogunate's military system - the Advanced Group.
The Pioneer Group is a vanguard force with a long history. It is mainly equipped with long-range weapons such as bows, arrows and muskets. It has repeatedly charged on the battlefield for the Tokugawa family and made countless contributions to the Edo shogunate.
In other words, the combat power and equipment that the Huo Fu Thieves Kai can use are much stronger than those of the Enforcement Station.
The executioner can only use various cold weapons, while the fire thieves can mobilize a large number of bows, arrows, firearms, and even war horses.
Therefore, the actual positioning of the Huo Fu Thieves Reform is similar to that of the 21st century police force.
It is a public security organization in name, but it is actually an army, one of the most important and most powerful standing armies of the shogunate.
Even a fool can see that tonight's fire must be caused by arson!
How could it be such a coincidence that so many towns and cities caught fire at the same time!
Tokugawa Iemo is really on fire now.
Arson in Edo... How unreasonable! They simply ignored the millions of living beings in Edo!
If the tragedy of the Mingli Fire were to happen again, I don’t know how many people would be killed in the flames!
Tokugawa Iemoge had secretly made up his mind at this time - no matter what, the thieves who set the fire tonight must be discovered and severely punished!
Tenzouin, who was standing next to Tokugawa Iemo, looked serious after hearing Tokugawa Iemo's firm murmur.
Like Tokugawa Iemo, she felt quite angry about the fact that someone set fires everywhere in Edo tonight.
At this moment, an announcement suddenly sounded outside the room:
"Sir General! There is an urgent order from the execution office!"
The owner of this announcement was the young man who just exited the room.
"Following an urgent order from the agency?" Tokugawa Iemo frowned, "Come in!"
Wow - the door was opened, and the young man returned to Tokugawa Iemo and the others.
He quickly ran to Tokugawa Iemo and knelt down, then put the tightly tied scroll in his hand on the bearing.
Tokugawa Iemo took the scroll, then raised his hand to signal the young man to go out temporarily.
After the young man left the room again, Tokugawa Iemo untied the scroll and unfolded it.
Looking at the words on the scroll, Tokugawa Iemo's expression suddenly changed.
Tianzhangin, who noticed the change in Tokugawa Iemo's expression, quickly asked:
"General, what happened?"
"..." Tokugawa Iemo, with a calm face, handed the scroll in his hand to Tianzhangin without saying a word.
Tenzouin took the scroll and looked at it quickly - and then, like Tokugawa Iemo, his expression changed drastically.
After reporting at all levels, an incident as serious as tonight's "arson incident": "The attack on the Fanshu Diao Office" was finally handed over to the supreme ruler of the Edo shogunate.
In this scroll, Hakui and Atsukawa jointly describe everything that happened today in a rigorous style.
In order to guard against the barbarian group tonight, the execution office deployed the entire city for defense; the Fanshu Diao Station was attacked; Katsurin Taro and others who stayed at the Fan Shu Diao Station almost died...
At the end of the scroll, Bosui and Atsukawa also pointed out that their law enforcement agency seriously suspected that tonight's "arson incident" was also the work of the anti-barbarian group.
A simple scroll made Tokugawa Iemo and Tianzhang Yuanzhi tremble with fear.
The Toshu Tiao Institute was an academic center dedicated to the study of foreign studies built by the shogunate with a lot of money. It was the hope of revitalizing the country in the minds of Tokugawa Iemo and Tenjoin.
As for Katsurin Taro, he was an important minister that both of them valued highly.
There have been rumors from the outside world that Tokugawa Iemo intended to let Katsu Rintaro be the first "Marshal" of the Edo shogunate... This rumor is actually correct.
Tokugawa Iemoji indeed intended to use this valuable talent who was proficient in Western military science to form the naval force of their shogunate.
When they saw the part in the scroll about the attack on the Fanshu Adjustment Institute and the attack on Katsurin Taro, who happened to be working in the Fanshu Adjustment Institute tonight, both Tokugawa Iemo and Tenzouin were so shocked that they broke out in cold sweat.
After seeing that the Fanshu Tiao Institute was not completely destroyed and Sheng Lintaro was rescued, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"The anti-barbarian group..." Tokugawa Iemo raised his hand to press his eyebrows again, his expression extremely solemn, "Tsk...it's really a wave that has not subsided, but another wave has risen..."
Tokugawa Iemo closed his eyes and let out a heavy and long sigh.
During this period of time... To be precise, since the "Sakurada Gate Incident", Tokugawa Iemoji has hardly stopped to rest, and his spirit has been in a highly tense state.
In order to restore normalcy as soon as possible to the shogunate that had become extremely chaotic due to the death of Naomi Ii, Tokugawa Iemo quickly promoted Nobumasa Ando, whom he trusted very much, to the position of chief minister. With the assistance of Nobumasa Ando and Tenjoin, he tried his best to quell the chaos.
But how can the chaos caused by the death of Ii Naomi be easily solved?
While resolving the confusion caused by the power vacuum, Tokugawa Iemo also had to devote his attention to dealing with war issues.
Because the assassins who assassinated Naomi Ii were basically vassals of the Mito Domain, during this period, many ministers aggressively requested to launch the "Mito Expedition" and summon the shogunate army and the vassal armies of each domain to conquer the Mito Domain!
There are those who advocate war, and naturally there are those who advocate peace.
Regarding whether to conquer Mito, the war faction and the peace faction were almost evenly matched. The two parties were quarreling fiercely, which made Tokugawa Iemo feel headache.
Various internal worries within the shogunate have not yet been resolved...foreign troubles have emerged one after another...
Tokugawa Iemo also heard a little bit about this "anti-barbarian group" that gathered more than 200 people to attack and kill French businessmen more than two months ago.
He originally thought it was just a slightly larger "radical anti-barbarian" organization, but now he was shocked after reading the report on the scroll - this anti-barbarian group was far more crazy and terrifying than he imagined. !
It is no longer a hostile organization that can be treated normally...
Internal and external troubles came one after another... Even the strong-minded Tokugawa Iemo could not help but feel a bit heavy and tired.
But the good thing is—it’s not just bad things that keep happening.
Tokugawa Iemo took back the scroll.
Since everything that happened tonight is written in the scroll, it naturally also contains information about who turned the tide and saved Katsurin Taro and Fanshu Tiaosuo.
"Tachibana Aoden..." Tokugawa Iemo chewed this name gently.
Tenzouin, who heard Tokugawa Iemo's chewing, slowly said with a surprised expression: "It's really unbelievable... This person can achieve another great achievement so quickly..."
Tokugawa Iemo and Tenzouin are both familiar with the name "Tachibana Aoden".
The last name written on the "talent book" that Naoki Ii gave to Tokugawa Iemo was "Tachibana Aoden".
After receiving this "talent book" from Naomi Ii, Tokugawa Iemo immediately shared it with the person he trusted most: Tenzouin.
Tianzhang Academy has given very high praise to this "talent book". Most of the people written in it are outstanding talents that Tianzhang Academy is very optimistic about.
Because she had read through the talent book, Tenjoin also knew that Tachibana Aoden was one of the talents that Naomi Ii strongly recommended to Tokugawa Iemo.
"Tachibana Aoden... Tachibana Aoden..." Tokugawa Iemo muttered Aoden's name a few more times, then smiled:
"It seems that Jing Yi did not recommend the wrong person to me..."
After saying that, Tokugawa Iemo suddenly had a serious face and looked depressed.
"Sir General, what's wrong? Why do you look troubled?" Tianzhangin, who noticed the depressed look on Tokugawa Iemo's face, asked curiously.
"Oh...it's nothing." Tokugawa Iemo shook his head, "I'm just...thinking about how to train this Tachibana Aoden."
"Now I can confirm that the Tachibana Aoden recommended to me by Ii is indeed a very courageous person with outstanding action, decisiveness, force, and leadership abilities. He is an outstanding talent worthy of our focus and training."
"We can't leave such an outstanding talent behind."
"But I'm a little worried about how to train this person."
Tokugawa Iemo sighed silently.
"Judging from Tachibana Aoden's current performances...the military is the place where he can best demonstrate his talents."
"I'm thinking - should I just transfer Tachibana Aoden to the big division or some other unit..."
Before Tokugawa Iemo finished speaking, Tianzhangin interrupted:
"General, no."
"I think that if you want to further train and cultivate Tachibana Aoden, the best way is to maintain the status quo - let Tachibana Aoden continue to stay in the 'three chapters' of the training center."
"Oh? Why?" Tokugawa Iemo asked quickly.
To Tokugawa Iemo, Tenzōin was not only his adoptive mother and the most trusted person, but also his think tank.
Tokugawa Iemo, who is only 14 years old this year, still has many immature and uninformed aspects in the shogunate.
As for Tenjoin, who was 10 years older than Tokugawa Iemo and was the princess of Satsuma Domain before marrying to Edo, she was used to seeing all kinds of politics.
Therefore, Tenzouin, who is smart and familiar with politics, can well make up for Tokugawa Iemo's shortcomings in this regard.
Whenever Tokugawa Iemo encountered something difficult to decide, he would often ask Ji Tianzhangin.
"Sir General, what do you think is more tempering: the prison camp where the thugs are currently fighting against the 'radical anti-barbarian faction', or the current decadent army?"
Tianzhangyuan's words were extremely sharp.
The term "rotten" is directly used to describe the current shogunate army.
But after hearing this, Tokugawa Iemo did not show any displeasure.
I saw Tokugawa Iemo purse his lips, thoughtfully.
"Sir General, except for a very small number of troops such as Huo Fu Thief Kai, you should also know what most of the troops look like now."
Tianzhangyuan then continued using her ethereal voice to speak calmly.
"Nearly three hundred years of peace... have long since corrupted most of the troops."
"If Ju Qingden is transferred into the army now, it will be called a treasure in the ocean. Staying in a place where even the air is filled with the smell of decay will only destroy a person's spirit."
"So I think the best thing to do at the moment is to let Tachibana Aoto continue to stay at the training center for the 'three times'."
"Right now, the Edo Advocate is the front line against the 'radical anti-barbarians' in Edo. They are fighting those crazy thugs every day."
"It is most appropriate for Tachibana Aoden to continue to stay in the training center to train and accumulate qualifications."
"After Tachibana Aoden has been trained in the training center for several years and has accumulated certain qualifications, Tachibana Aoden will be transferred to the fire-fighting bandit reform."
"Fire pays thieves?" Tokugawa Iemo blinked at Tenzouin.
Tianzhangyuan nodded:
"The Fire Thief Kai is very suitable for the future destination of Tachibana Aoden."
"First, the Huofu Thieves Kai is a special security force of our shogunate. Tachibana Aoto, who was born in the 'Sanchai' of the Enforcement Office, was able to quickly adapt to and take over related work after being transferred to the Fire Thieves Kai."
"Second, the Fire Bandits Kai is one of the very few troops that has not yet been completely corrupted. It is the best place for a hero like Tachibana Aoto with 'general talent'."
Tokugawa Iemo listened carefully to every word and sentence of Tianzhangin.
"……I see."
Tokugawa Iemo nodded solemnly.
"Then as Mother said, let Tachibana Aoden continue to stay in the training center and train!"
After saying that, Tokugawa Iemo smiled.
"Then...Mother, let's talk about what reward we should give to Tachibana Aoden, who has made another great contribution tonight."
"Protecting the Shenghe Fan Shutiao Institute...this is an achievement that must be highly rewarded."
"Sir General." Tianzhangyuan asked, "In your personal opinion, what kind of reward should be given to Ju Qingden?"
Tokugawa Iemo pondered for a moment:
"...Now that I have decided to properly train Tachibana Aoden...then I want to gradually upgrade Tachibana Aoden's status from now on!"
"Ju Qingden is currently only an imperial member of the 100 Shi family. This status is really too lowly."
"If we want to entrust him with important responsibilities in the future, we cannot let his status remain low like this."
"Mother, I want to increase Ju Qingden's salary by 400 stones!"
"400 stones?" Tianzhang Yuan's beautiful eyes opened wider, with a look of surprise on his face.
But after the brief surprise, the look of surprise on Tianzhangyuan's face quickly turned into a look of thinking.
"...Although giving Ju Qingdeng an increase of 400 stones in one breath... is a bit out of the norm." Tianzhangyuan said slowly, "But it's not completely impossible..."
"I want to take advantage of this opportunity to boost everyone's morale." Tokugawa Iemo smiled and said, "I want to tell everyone through Tachibana Aoden: Things are no longer what they used to be. Now you only need to make great contributions, and the shogunate will not I will be stingy with rewards!”
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