I formed the strongest swordsman group

"The enemy is in XXX" - a famous slogan in Japanese history.

Back then, Akechi Mitsuhide shouted "The enemy is in Honnoji Temple" and led his troops to attack Honnoji Temple and kill his lord Oda Nobunaga.

From then on, the slogan "The enemy is in XXX" had a special meaning, just like "clear the court".

Now, the soldiers of the "Ichibashi faction" are clamoring "the enemy is in Edo Castle"... Putting aside other things, just shouting this sentence makes the tense atmosphere in the air of Edo even more intense!

…

…

Edo, Imado-cho (north of Edo Castle), a certain mansion—

The courage-boosting shouts, the angry roars, the clanging of weapons clashing...the fierce clash between the two armies produced horrifying sounds.

These waves of sound penetrated the tiny world of Akasaka Gomon, spread in all directions, and reached far away, so that even Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu and others in Imado Town could vaguely hear them.

Gao Lao raised his eyelids, his eyes were deep, and he murmured:

"here we go……"

In a room deep inside this mansion, a group of high-ranking members of the "Ichibashi faction" gathered - Ichibashi Yoshinobu was also there.

They were seen sitting upright, with Ichihashi Yoshinobu sitting at the head seat, and the tall, short, fat, thin and others sitting on both sides.

Every one of them was fully armed, with swords on their waists, feather robes on their bodies, and armor passed down from their ancestors.

On high alert, with swords drawn... Such a scene, such an atmosphere, is just like the main camp of the army.

If you look carefully, you can find all kinds of living things in this room... no, correct, in this formation.

There are some who look calm, such as Gao Lao and a few others.

Some people look anxious, such as fat people and most people.

There are also those with complicated expressions, such as Yoshinobu Hitohashi.

Suddenly, the fat man sighed heavily:

"Alas...seizing power by force...it has finally come to this..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the thin man echoed him:

“Do we really need to do this?”

As soon as the thin man finished speaking, the tall man gave him a cold look.

"Don't say such stupid things now! Do you think I don't want to take a more cautious approach?"

Facing the tall man's rebuke, the thin man lowered his head dejectedly, not daring to say another word.

Abandon verbal attacks and assassinations, mobilize the army, and seize power by force... There is no doubt that this is the ultimate means with no room for maneuver!

Gao Lao did not lie. If they had a choice, they would indeed want to adopt a more stable and secure method.

Just like the "Xuanwu Gate Incident" back then, the impact will be minimized and the power will be seized at the lowest cost.

A while ago, they had been trying to assassinate Tokugawa Iemochi and Aoto.

If you want to assassinate these two people, there are only two ways -

One is to send out skilled ninjas to cut their throats with short swords.

In comparison, Tokugawa Iemochi is much easier to find. He is definitely in the Honmaru of Edo Castle and could not be anywhere else.

However... letting the ninja sneak into the Honmaru of Edo Castle was also an impossible task.

Edo Castle is the culmination of Japan's castle-building technology. How could two or three ninjas easily sneak into it?

There is no secret passage leading directly to the main castle in the city, nor are there many dark places for ninjas to hide.

To get to Honmaru, you have to walk along the wide avenue, cross the moats, and pass through San-no-maru and Ninomaru...

Even someone as strong as Shuten-doji never thought of sneaking in when facing this towering fortress, but instead attacked head-on.

To sum up, something like "sneaking into Edo Castle" is physically impossible!

The only feasible method is the latter, that is, poisoning.

But... the facts have proved that the Edo Shogunate was able to last for more than 260 years and become the longest-lived samurai regime in Japanese history. It did have some means.

The shogunate designed a series of complete systems to prevent poisoning.

First of all, the daily meals of the shogun, the emperor, the great emperor, and other nobles of the shogunate were prepared by the Imperial Kitchen.

The management of the Imperial Kitchen was extremely strict, and it was extremely difficult for outsiders or people with unclear family backgrounds to get close to the Imperial Kitchen.

How does the imperial kitchen prepare food and how does it serve food... All of the above have extremely complicated regulations. If they are elaborated in detail, it would take thousands of words to write about them.

Secondly, the food prepared by the general and others was tested for poison by special personnel.

After the meals were prepared by the imperial kitchen, they had to be tested for poison by the chef first.

The specific number of people in charge of the meal varies from a few to more than ten.

They were responsible for the food of Edo Castle, and were also the poison tasters for the meals of the shogun and others, commonly known as "Oniyaku".

The poison testing process performed by the chief minister also has very complicated regulations.

After the chief minister had eaten the meals prepared by the general and others and waited for a while to confirm that the meals were non-toxic, he would officially hand over the meals to the general and others.

For this reason, the general and others could only eat cold meals every day and almost never had hot meals.

Although the price was paid was "eating cold dishes every meal", the possibility of "death from poisoning" was successfully reduced to a minimum!

At first glance, "poisoning" also seems to be unfeasible.

However, Gao Lao and others did not think so.

They believed that there was every opportunity to poison Tokugawa Iemochi at that moment!

The reason was simple: they were just gambling - they were gambling that after a fierce battle, order in Edo Castle had not yet returned to normal!

The previous war brought Edo Castle to a standstill, and many officials and servants who had fled there for refuge had not yet returned.

In this chaos, there might be an opportunity to take advantage of!

In order to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Gao Lao and others mobilized all the spies lurking in Edo Castle and ordered them to put drugs in Tokugawa Iemochi's food at all costs!

They grasped the opportunity very accurately, but... they still underestimated the ability of Tianzhangyuan.

Based on the information they currently knew, Aoto and others transferred Tokugawa Iemochi to the O-oku.

The Great Inner Palace is the territory of Tenshoin.

The main responsibility of the O-no-dai-sho was to assist the shogun in managing the O-oku.

After years of hard work, Tianzhangyuan has already built the Great Inner Palace into an iron barrel, making it extremely difficult for outside forces to infiltrate.

Previously, the "Ichibashi faction" had tried to plant spies in the Ooku.

However, the women in the O-oku already hated the "Ichibashi faction".

Tokugawa Nariaki, the soul of the "Ichibashi faction", the biological father of Ichibashi Yoshinobu and the former lord of Mito Domain, once advocated cutting the funding of the O-oku, which severely offended the women of the O-oku.

After Tenshoin's management, the "Ichibashi faction" had no room to interfere in the O-oku.

The previous war had indeed caused heavy damage to Edo Castle, which became like a poorly controlled busy city, with noisy and chaotic scenes everywhere.

Those who were not interested in working took the opportunity to slack off.

People who want to do something don't know what to do.

Tenshoin knew that it was impossible to restore order in Edo Castle in a short period of time.

Therefore, she gave priority to the two most important departments, the O-oku and the Imperial Kitchen.

As long as we take good care of these two places, Tokugawa Iemochi's life will be safe!

With her extraordinary skills, she managed to restore the two departments to their proper stable environment within one day and greatly improved the alert level!

No matter how hard the spies of the "Ichibashi faction" tried, they could not get close to Tokugawa Iemochi's food.

At this point, the plan of "killing Tachibana Aotoshi and Tokugawa Iemochi through safe and low-key means" was no longer possible.

In this case, there is only one last resort - launching a military coup! Seizing power with sword and fire!

This move is undoubtedly a dangerous one, but as long as they wade through this thorny road, there will be a smooth road in front of them!

Tokugawa Iemochi is in a coma, Tachibana Aoto is seriously injured, and both of them are now in Edo, which is the right time.

Akasaka Gate was reduced to ruins, and a huge hole appeared in the "Sanjuroku Mitsuke", which was a geographical advantage.

There is no obvious difference in combat power between the two sides, this is harmony among people.

With the right time, location and people, why not give it a try?

So, Gao Lao and others made suggestions to Ichibashi Yoshinobu, asking him to raise an army and raise the banner of rebellion!

In any military coup, the first thing to do before launching the uprising is to seize the political high ground.

An unassailable political commanding height is more powerful than a million lions.

Therefore, even if it is a fabricated reason, a reasonable and convincing reason for sending troops must be created.

After careful discussion, Gao Lao and others finally decided on the banner of "suppressing the Ju rebels."

Tokugawa Iemochi had long been dead, and Tachibana Aoto was trying to usurp power, so he lied to the outside world that Tokugawa Iemochi was still alive, using this as a cover to quietly prepare for the seizure of power. The Shinsengumi's control of the "Thirty-six Mitsuke" was indisputable evidence. In order to eliminate the traitors, restore the discipline of the shogunate, and restore peace to the world, Ichibashi Kimichika led the army to conquer Tachibana Aoto - this was the "coup script" carefully designed by Gao Lao and others.

At the beginning, Yoshinobu Ichibashi was very hesitant and could not make up his mind.

Gao Lao and others tried to persuade him again and again, and some of them even shed tears... It was not until a long while later that he finally gave a definite answer.

"…Okay, in that case, please prepare yourself for death together with me!" - At that time, Ichibashi Yoshinobu said this in a sonorous and powerful voice.

In recent years, whether Tokugawa Iemochi seized the position of shogun or Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu was forced to retire, the core members of the "Hitotsubashi faction" did not feel discouraged!

Under the leadership of Yoshinobu Hitotsubashi, the "Hitotsubashi faction" has been accumulating strength! There is no slacking off for a single day!

They followed the example of the Sima family during the Three Kingdoms period and secretly trained loyal and courageous warriors, spreading them among the people.

If one wants to seize power by force, the difficulty is not "how to attack Edo Castle" or "how to search for Tokugawa Iemochi in Edo Castle". These are all trivial matters.

The real difficulty is how to gather the death squad under the nose of the "Nan Ji Faction"!

If the "Nan Ji Faction" were to learn that they were mobilizing combat forces, they would lose the initiative and be controlled by others in every way.

As for how to get rid of the spies of the "Nanki Faction", Yoshinobu Ichibashi and others came up with a brilliant idea: take advantage of the current "Edo Great Reconstruction"!

There are construction sites everywhere in Edo now, and countless young and strong people come from other places just to get a job with a good salary in Edo.

Ichibashi Yoshinobu and others had the death warriors disguise themselves as workers, so that they could avoid the surveillance of the "Nanki faction" and allow the death warriors to enter Edo naturally.

Then, he asked his clever confidants to dress up as nightingales, peddlers and hawkers and act as "messenger".

These professions have one thing in common, that is, even if they walk around the streets in broad daylight, they will not arouse suspicion.

In this way, through a series of ingenious arrangements, Itohashi Yoshinobu and others successfully assembled the largest force they could summon - two thousand death warriors!

The number is not large, but it is enough to attack Edo Castle where there are few defenders!

In addition, they have a back-up plan.

While secretly recruiting death warriors, Ichibashi Yoshinobu sent orders to Fukui, Mito and other feudal domains, asking them to mobilize their troops and rush to Edo to join the war!

Fukui Domain, Mito Domain...these domains were all staunch allies of the "Hitotsubashi faction".

Ichibashi Yoshinobu was confident that after receiving his secret order, these feudal states would definitely respond to his call.

According to the original plan, Itohashi Yoshinobu and others wanted to wait for a while, until reinforcements from Fukui, Mito and other feudal states arrived, and then formally launch the coup.

However, just yesterday, they received a piece of information that made them feel uneasy: there were unusual movements in the Qinjin clan in the capital!

Kondo Isami, who is currently in charge of Qinjin Domain, seems to be gathering troops!

Not only that, the Aizu Domain in the northeast was no longer as peaceful as before.

What this means is self-evident - the "Nanji Faction" is also gathering its troops!

Although they were mentally prepared, after hearing this series of bad news, Yoshinobu Ichibashi and others were still worried.

Who would arrive first, their reinforcements, or the best soldiers and generals from the Shinsengumi and Aizu armies? Ichibashi Yoshinobu and the others didn't dare to gamble.

At this stage, judging from the book data, the "Yiqiao Faction" with 2,000 death warriors has a certain advantage.

If we start fighting immediately, we might be able to strike first.

Therefore, they had no choice but to change their plan - to launch a coup d'état ahead of time! On January 1st of the new year, they would fight to the death with the "Nanji Faction"... and Tachibana Aoto!

Yoshinobu Ichibashi and others have tried their best and done everything they can.

The rest... can only be left to fate!

At this moment, Gao Lao suddenly noticed the strange look on Ichibashi Yoshinobu's face.

He looked at the other person deeply, and then said quietly:

"Master Yiqiao, once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back..."

Before he could finish, Ichihashi Yoshinobu interrupted him in a calm tone, saying:

"I see."

After saying this, he paused, half-closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

Then, his deep voice hovered in the room:

"At this point, there is no turning back. Either victory or death!"

…

…

Edo Castle, San-no-maru——

"My lord! My lord!"

Shimada Kai, covered in sackcloth, rushed into Qing Deng's room in a hurry.

"The rebels are attacking! We are engaging the enemy at Akasaka Gate!"

Qing Deng nodded slightly:

"Yeah, I heard that."

As he spoke, he turned to look in the direction of Akasaka Mimon.

"Are there any movements from other imperial gates?"

“Not yet!”

"...Shimada-kun, follow me."

As he spoke, he grabbed Vairocana from his legs and stood up.

"My Lord, where are we going?"

"Akasaka Mikado."

"My lord, this is not possible! Mr. Beifang has specifically warned you that you are in no condition to fight! Once the wound is torn, even Hua Tuo cannot save you!"

"I know. I am only approaching the front line to supervise the battle. I don't plan to fight in person. Don't be nervous."

As soon as he finished speaking, he rushed past the other person like the wind and arrived in the corridor in the blink of an eye.

"My Lord! Wait for me!"

Shimada Kai picked up his two hakama pipes with an anxious look on his face and hurriedly chased after Qing Deng's back.

…

…

Akasaka Gate——

Harada Sanosuke raised the spear in his hand and shouted loudly:

"'Fighting on the ground' is no different from 'fighting on horseback'! What? You don't know how to swing your swords after getting off your horses? Defend the Akasaka Gate to the death! Don't let any enemy soldiers get in! Watch out! This is how you have to treat the enemy—"

He stretched out the last syllable - the next moment, he dodged and rushed into the enemy group, swinging the spear in his hand with ease!

But the tip of his spear turned into silver rays, stabbing at every enemy soldier around him.

In the blink of an eye, all the enemy soldiers within the reach of his spear fell down!

Please give me a monthly ticket! Please give me a recommendation ticket! (Leopard head crying.jpg)