I formed the strongest swordsman group

Edo, Edo Castle, Akasaka Gate——

Qing Deng held Vairocana on his waist and looked at the enemy formation opposite.

The camping location chosen by the Ichibashi Army was very clever.

They set up the camp at a crossroads with a good view and superior geographical environment, and "expropriated" nearby houses.

They used civilian houses as their residences and set up visible and hidden sentries on the streets outside the houses.

In order to prevent the leakage of intelligence, they specially built a "long wall" around the camp with wooden shields and curtains.

In this way, outsiders cannot see what is going on inside at all.

Although Qingdeng was standing on a high place and looking far into the distance, he still found nothing.

One could only vaguely see dark shadows running at a rapid speed... There was no doubt that the other side was preparing for today's attack!

At this moment, Qing Deng suddenly heard footsteps coming closer and closer behind him - Harada Sanosuke, carrying his spear, moved quietly behind Qing Deng.

"Mr. Ju, how do you think the enemy will attack today?"

Qing Deng chuckled.

"How else can they attack? They can only continue the 'pig rush' tactics they used yesterday and compete with us in perseverance."

Harada Sanosuke shrugged:

"If so, that's exactly what I want!

"I'm stupid and don't like complicated battles."

"I like to fight my enemies head-on! Fist for fist, sword for sword!"

"This kind of simple and direct battle is what I like best!"

Qing Deng smiled slightly, then turned his head and looked Harada Sanosuke up and down.

"Zanosuke, how is your injury?"

I saw that Harada Sanosuke's abdomen was wrapped in thick linen - this was a new wound he accidentally left yesterday.

Yesterday, an enemy soldier took advantage of his unpreparedness and launched a surprise attack from the side, wounding his left abdomen with a pistol.

Fortunately, the wound was not deep, it only cut the skin and flesh, and did not hurt the internal organs. After applying ointment and bandaging it with linen, Harada Sanosuke was back to life.

In terms of combat effectiveness, Harada Sanosuke can only be ranked in the upper middle level among the captains of the Shinsengumi.

But in terms of vitality, let alone the captains of the Shinsengumi, even if you search the entire Shinsengumi, you can rarely find anyone who can be compared with Harada Sanosuke.

Harada Sanosuke chuckled and scratched the wound on his belly a few times.

"This level of injury is just a bit between 'pain' and 'itch'!"

Seeing that Harada Sanosuke was about to recite his glorious story of "committing seppuku without dying", which he would never tire of, Qing Deng immediately interrupted and said:

"Zanosuke, I am no longer able to go to the front line. The next battle will all depend on you."

As he spoke, he looked down at his right hand.

But his right hand seemed to be electrified and could not stop shaking.

This situation not only occurred in Qingdeng's right hand, but also in the muscles of his left hand, legs and other places.

This is one of the sequelae of "muscle overstrain".

After saying goodbye to Tianzhangyuan last night, Qingdeng returned to bed.

Although he was no longer sleepy, he still forced himself to take another nap.

He had a good night's rest and felt a little more energetic, but the fatigue that enveloped his whole body was still strong.

It seems that he won't be able to recover without a few days and nights.

As soon as Qing Deng finished speaking, Harada Sanosuke grinned and showed a confident smile:

"Mr. Ju, please rest assured! Have I ever let you down?"

Qing Deng smiled:

"Because you have never let me down, I am confident in entrusting this important task to you."

It is true that Harada Sanosuke has various problems, such as low IQ, inability to read Chinese characters, liking to be a parrot, and endlessly showing off the scar on his stomach.

But all along, he never slacked off on important matters, and he would make decisions when necessary and never procrastinate.

In this way, he became one of Qingdeng's most trusted and relied upon friends.

Just as Qing Deng turned around and prepared to deal with other matters, suddenly, a burst of shouting attracted his attention:

"General Tachibana! General Tachibana!"

Qing Deng paused, turned his head, and saw a messenger running towards him breathlessly.

After he ran to Qing Deng in one breath, he hurriedly said without waiting for his breath to even out:

"General Tachibana! Yes, there are volunteers! There are volunteers reporting in!"

Volunteer Army - Qing Deng and Harada Sanosuke were both stunned when they heard this slightly unfamiliar word.

The first person to react was Harada Sanosuke:

"Volunteers? Are you sure?"

The messenger nodded vigorously:

"A group of volunteers appeared outside the Hibiya Gate! They declared that they would stand with Lord Niou!"

After hearing this, Harada Sanosuke turned to look at Qing Deng with excitement:

"Mr. Tachibana! Great! The Volunteers are here to help!"

Qing Deng was not as excited as Harada Sanosuke, but his subconsciously clenched fists revealed his true thoughts.

He lacks nothing now.

With the huge Edo Castle, there was no shortage of money or food, nor of equipment.

The only thing he lacks is manpower!

As long as he is given an army of more than 500 people, he can take Edo Castle's defense capabilities to a higher level!

Welcoming the volunteers at this critical juncture is truly a timely help!

After a brief moment of surprise, Qing Deng stared at the messenger:

"How many people are there in this group of volunteers? Are they direct soldiers or ronin?"

When the messenger heard this, his expression suddenly changed and his look became strange.

“This…”

Seeing the other party hesitating, Harada Sanosuke immediately frowned and scolded:

"Don't waste your time! Just answer whatever you are asked!"

The messenger was startled and did not dare to hesitate any longer. He said quickly in one breath:

"There are 7 people in total! They are not direct participants, nor are they ronin! They are just ordinary civilians!"

Harada Sanosuke was dumbfounded:

"Common people?"

"Yes! Civilians! Absolutely!"

At this moment, Harada Sanosuke's facial expression changed dramatically.

A few seconds ago, his eyes were shining and his face was full of joy.

Now, he looked like a wilted vegetable, sighing and scratching his head:

"Alas... I was so happy for nothing..."

“It’s admirable and touching that these civilians are willing to help.”

"But... what use can a mere civilian be..."

"Besides, there are only seven of us... Such a small number of people is really useless..."

When Harada Sanosuke learned that there were volunteers coming to help, he thought that a large number of samurai came to help.

Just like the Hitotsubashi Army yesterday, it received a lot of direct assistance.

Unexpectedly, the visitors were civilians, and there were only 7 of them...

Samurai were responsible for fighting, while civilians were responsible for production - this concept was deeply rooted in people's minds during the Edo period.

Although the Shinsengumi is a mixed group of samurai and civilians, both samurai and civilians are eligible to join the Shinsengumi, but to this day, the vast majority of the Shinsengumi's generals and soldiers are still samurai.

Even Harada Sanosuke, a veteran of the Shinsengumi, subconsciously looked down on civilians.

At this moment, Harada Sanosuke suddenly discovered that Qing Deng beside him had entered a "weird" state.

After learning that these volunteers were seven civilians, he was struck by lightning and stood there in a daze, not saying a word for a long time.

Seeing this, Harada Sanosuke mistakenly thought that Qing Deng was too disappointed, so he scratched his hair, racked his brains, and squeezed out all his life's learning, and clumsily comforted Qing Deng:

"Um... Mr. Ju, please cheer up and don't be disappointed."

"Even without the Volunteer Army, I have every confidence that I can defend Edo Castle and repel the rebels!"

He was speaking in high spirits.

Unexpectedly, Qing Deng suddenly spoke up and interrupted him:

"…Zanosuke, you're wrong."

Harada Sanosuke was startled:

"Ah? What did I do wrong?"

"Because they are civilians, they have unlimited potential."

Qing Deng clenched his fists again, his eyes sparkling with excitement:

"Yeah... I'm so stupid... How could I forget... How could I be short of troops...!"

After mumbling to himself, his gaze returned to the messenger.

"This group of volunteers is now in Hibiya Palace, right?"

"Yes...Huh? Lord Niou?"

After receiving the definite answer, Qing Deng didn't waste even half a second, and turned around and left at an incredibly fast pace.

In just a moment, his figure appeared in the distance.

Harada Sanosuke blinked, becoming more and more confused:

"Mr. Ju, what are you doing..."

"Zanosuke, the front line is in your hands! Don't let me down!"

After simply leaving these words, Qing Deng's back disappeared completely, leaving only his voice lingering in the air.

Harada Sanosuke and the messenger stayed where they were.

They blinked vigorously at the same time, then turned their heads and looked at each other - both of them noticed strong confusion on each other's faces.

…

…

Hibiya Gate is not far from Akasaka Gate.

After a while, Qing Deng, who was walking as fast as a meteor, arrived at Hibiya Gate smoothly.

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As soon as he arrived at his destination, he saw seven young men waiting outside the imperial gate.

These seven people were all wearing tattered clothes and had pale faces. They were obviously civilians.

Three of them wore katana on their waists, and the other four carried bamboo spears on their shoulders... Apart from that, they had no other equipment.

Seeing someone coming, the seven people turned their heads to look at Qing Deng with confusion on their faces.

Someone seemed to recognize Qing Deng.

After carefully observing Qing Deng's appearance, the man immediately widened his eyes and said in a trembling voice:

"Yes, it's Lord Niou!"

When these words were spoken, the seven people were all shocked, and their confusion turned into shock.

Then, they all knelt down on the ground in no particular order, lowered their waists, and dared not even breathe.

Qing Deng raised his hand:

"Everyone, get up!"

While he waited for the seven men to stand up - they thanked him and stood up tremblingly - he observed them carefully.

"As you can see, I am the Army President and General of the Shinsengumi, Tachibana Aoto."

"I have heard about your affairs."

"I heard that you want to come to help as 'volunteers'?"

The seven people nodded hurriedly.

Qing Deng asked again:

"Let me ask you, what are your names?"

Upon hearing this, the seven people did not dare to delay and gave their names one after another.

Qing Deng silently memorized their names, and then continued to ask:

"Let me ask you, why do you want to go to the battlefield? Do you want to achieve great things?"

Perhaps because they were nervous, the seven of them looked at each other and remained silent.

About 10 seconds later, the person standing in the front - this person just called himself "Azan".

He was not a strong man, and judging from the location of the thick calluses on his palms, Qing Deng guessed that he was an umbrella maker.

Then he took a deep breath, mustered up his courage, and stammered:

"If you can achieve great things, then that would be great."

"No, no, no, but we don't have such ambitions!"

"We just want to follow the moral principles! We want to help you! Fight back the rebels!"

After this person took the lead, the others also gained courage and spoke up:

"That's right! We don't seek fame, fortune or wealth!"

"We have backbone too!"

"Lord Niou! My name is Kusutaro! I've studied swordsmanship for a few years! I may not be very skilled, but I can fight in the battlefield!"

"Ichibashi Yoshinobu is so mean! Lord Niou, we are all on your side!"

Qing Deng looked at the seven people expressionlessly and listened quietly to their impassioned speeches.

However, if you look closely, you can see that: although the amplitude is very slight, the corners of his mouth are indeed slightly raised.

Suddenly, he frowned, having just smiled:

"You are quite courageous!"

"You are obviously a commoner, yet you are clamoring to go to the battlefield!"

"How can civilians like you achieve anything on the battlefield!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the seven people who had just been speaking passionately shut their mouths, lowered their heads, and looked ashamed.

Although Qing Deng's words were blunt and unpleasant to the ear, he was not wrong.

In fact, even they themselves do not think they can show their talents on the battlefield.

The only commendable thing about them is their passion - but what's the use of passion alone?

Just as they were being scolded by Qing Deng and couldn't even lift their heads up—

"But I admire your courage."

Following the sudden change of topic, Qing Deng's facial expression softened again.

"What happened to the civilians?"

"There are many commoners in the Shinsengumi."

"When it comes to fighting skills, they are no worse than the warriors!"

"Some of them even rose to prominence through their military exploits!"

"I am very happy that I have the honor to meet 7 warriors today!"

"I welcome you all!"

"I pay my sincerest respects to you all!"

"Let me ask you, are you ready to fight alongside me, Tachibana Aoto?"

First they were scolded, and now they received sincere praise... The thrilling experience was like riding a roller coaster, which made these seven people dumbfounded.

After a moment, the leader, Azan, swallowed hard, and then changed his tone to a firm one:

"Lord Niou, we are ready! Please let us go into battle!"

Qing Deng looked at Azan and smiled - this time it was no longer a shallow smile, but a happy smile that came from the heart.

"very good!"

"I, Ju Qingdeng, hereby announce that every civilian who comes to help will receive 3 taels of gold as military pay!"

"If you are unfortunately killed in battle, you will receive a pension of 30 taels of gold in one go!"

3 taels of gold as military pay and 30 taels of gold as pension - after hearing these two sets of numbers, Azan and the others' eyes widened instantly, their expressions dominated by intense shock.

3 taels of gold... for ordinary people, this is already a huge sum of money!

As long as you use it sparingly, it won't be a problem for a year or two.

As for the 30 taels of gold, let alone.

Of course, under normal circumstances, no one would want to earn these 30 taels of gold.

Qing Deng saw all the reactions of Azan and others.

"Now, follow me!"

Qing Deng turned slightly and made a "follow me" gesture.

"Go to the battlefield and defeat the warriors!"

…

…

A moment later——

Edo, Edo Castle, Akasaka Gate, the frontline battlefield——

“Sheng Qing!”

She is the only one who calls Qing Deng "Sheng Qing".

Qing Deng neither turned around nor looked back, waiting quietly for Tianzhangyuan to approach.

Soon, Tianzhangyuan trotted to Qingdeng's side.

"Sheng Qing, what's going on? You let civilians go to the battlefield?"

Qing Deng smiled intriguingly:

"Your Highness, just now, I have a 'new power'."

In the blink of an eye, it's the end of the month again! Book friends who have monthly tickets, please be sure to vote for this book! (tearful leopard head.jpg)

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PS: Itohashi Yoshinobu gained the support of the direct officials, while Tachibana Aoto gained the support of the common people.