】

Qingden responded loudly, raised his hands above his head, and took the Dingguishen from Ii Naobi's hand.

After Qingdeng received the knife, the eyes of everyone in the hall towards Qingdeng changed further.

In the eyes of Arima, Inodani, and Ushiyama, we can only find pure joy and congratulations.

Dongcheng looked indifferent and didn't seem to care much about what reward Qingdeng got.

As for the three "Tojo Group" headed by Nishino, the emotions contained in their gazes on Aoto became more complicated.

However, the complex emotions in the eyes of these three people are not exactly the same.

There are also negative emotions such as jealousy and displeasure in Nishino's eyes, but among these many emotions, the most dominant one is envy.

This is not the case for the other two members of the "Dongcheng Group" - the most obvious emotion in the eyes of these two people is jealousy.

…

…

Some people are happy and some are sad - this proverb is very appropriate to describe today's assessment meeting.

After all, the main purpose of this assessment meeting is to take the opportunity to eliminate those ordinary people with mediocre abilities who are of no use, and to take the opportunity to "cleanse" the "three rounds" of the Southern and Northern Institutes.

"Qingden receives the reward" and so on... it's just a small episode in this assessment meeting.

Naoki Ii said just now: He didn't have enough time, so he went straight to the point.

He really didn't say any polite words there.

After Qingtou took the reward he received and returned to his seat in a graceful manner, Naoki Ii also sat back on the tatami, and then... officially began the main topic of the day.

Naoki Ii first praised some people who also had very good political achievements.

Nishino of the "Tōjo Group" was also among those praised.

In fact, Nishino's performance has been mediocre in recent times, because he was assigned to take charge of the case of the "Cat Monk" who was said to be a female ninja more than a month ago.

That little cat monk can walk on rooftops, tree canopies and other extreme terrains as if on the ground. He comes and goes without a trace and his whereabouts are erratic. The only clue is that he only steals money from notorious villains.

One can imagine how difficult it is to catch the Cat Monk.

Qingden has heard that for more than a month, Nishino has made no progress on the case of "Cat Monk".

But how could it be that Nishino is the "number one crime-solving master of the Beifan Institute" with outstanding merits?

Even though his performance in the past month or so has not been very impressive, his previous achievements alone are enough to make his overall political achievements stand out from almost all his colleagues.

After praise and praise... comes criticism and scolding.

This is where some people’s nightmares begin…

Originally, based on Qingdeng's original achievements, he, the "idiot", should have been one of the people who received training.

But now, he has successfully "resurrected" by relying on the two major achievements of "solving the murder case in Koyanagi Town" and "defeating the anti-barbarian thugs and protecting the French merchants".

In terms of overall political performance, he can be regarded as the "number one hero" in the "three rounds" of the Southern and Northern Divisions in the past three months. He just received a generous reward from Naomi Ii, and there is no need to worry about being in this evaluation meeting.

Throw away the black gauze hat.

There were a total of five officials who were reprimanded by Ii Naobi.

They are one Tong Xin who was temporarily returned to the northern branch and secretly returned, one Yori and one Tong Xin who were temporarily returned to the town of Nan Ban.

There are 2 Yuli and 3 Tongxin - all 5 of them have recent political achievements that make Ii Naomi very dissatisfied.

When reprimanding these five people, Ii Naobi did not show any ferocious face, nor did he use any angry words.

Instead, with a calm face and a calm tone, he unhurriedly detailed how the political achievements of these five people disappointed him.

Obviously there are no very ferocious expressions or words...but for some reason, it can make the listener feel the huge pressure in his heart...

After counting the poor performance of these five people one by one, Naomi Ii personally issued a punishment for them - two of them whose political performance was not too ugly will have their salary and the offerings they can receive in the next six months halved.

, and the other three...from today on, they will all go to fend for themselves.

After learning that their hats were still there, but their salaries had been deducted, the two men looked as if they were surviving the disaster.

As for the three people who had their official bodies stripped off... their faces were as white as paper, and cold sweat could not stop pouring out...

They did not dare to raise any objections to Ii Naobi's punishment.

Who has the guts to raise objections to the "prime minister" in person?

All they can do is hang their heads in despair...

"I hope you can learn from this."

Ii Naobi glanced at the three people who were now hanging their heads.

Previously, Ii Naoki, who had always had a faint smile on his face, whether when personally giving Aonto the reward or verbally praising Nishino and others, after he began to name names one by one and reprimanded those whose political performance did not meet the standards, a faint smile appeared on his face.

The smile disappeared.

There is no sadness or joy, no joy or anger can be seen.

"Protecting Edo is your 'Sanchai' duty."

"I have always believed that it is only natural to let those who can't even do what they should do go out."

"I will hold assessments like today from time to time."

"So those who have successfully passed this assessment should not feel relieved and feel that they are safe."

Hearing these words from Ii Naomi, some people who expressed joy for successfully passing today's assessment immediately froze.

"Taking this opportunity... let me reveal it to you."

Naoki Ii straightened his waist a little straighter and sat upright.

"Right now, the rampage of the 'anti-barbarian faction' has reached an intolerable level."

"They are all a bunch of unreasonable thugs. If we don't try to curb their arrogance, sooner or later they will commit more extreme atrocities than attacking foreign businessmen."

"In the past month, because I had many more important things to deal with, I had no time to properly deal with the 'rejection faction' matters."

"But now, I finally have freed up time and energy."

"From today on, I will focus on the two cities of Edo and Kyoto to intensify the rectification of the 'anti-barbarian faction'."

"That is to say, as Edo's "Three Chapters", all of you will be in a hurry from now on."

"So——everyone, please be mentally prepared."

"Let's all try our best to make some contribution in the operations against the 'rejection faction' that will be carried out in the future."

"I hope that in the subsequent evaluation meetings, no one will have such poor performance that it is difficult to see."

Bojing and Atsukawa led the crowd and bowed their waists and responded respectfully to Jingyi Naobi.

…

…

Because Ii Naomi didn't speak any long official or formal talk from beginning to end, the process of this assessment meeting was extremely fast.

From the time Naomi Ii showed up to the time he stood up and announced the end of the assessment meeting, less than an hour had passed...

After Ii Naomi led his entourage and left through the side door they came from, Aomori and others also exited the meeting hall one after another.

As soon as he retreated to the corridor outside the meeting hall, Inotani leaned towards Qingteng with a curious look on his face.

"Ju, let me see the new sword that Mr. Jing Yi just gave you."

Qingden happily handed the Dingguishen he was holding with his right hand to Inotani.

Uh-huh - After Inotani took the knife, he pulled the blade out of the sheath just a few inches.

Many people around him came closer and looked at the ghosts and gods with their eyes with different emotions.

Looking at Ding Guishen's beautiful blade glowing with blue light, I was filled with admiration.

"What a good knife..." Inotani smacked his lips a few times, carefully looked at the blade of the Kishin's blade several times, then put the knife away and handed it back to Qingteng, "If I sell this knife, I will sell it."

It’s not impossible to get 300 taels of gold…”

Qingdeng smiled and said: "This kind of good knife can't be bought even if you have money. I won't sell it unless it is absolutely necessary."

After saying that, Qingdeng lowered his head and looked at the Dingguishen in his hand.

His current sword, which was the family sword that had been passed down by the Tachibana family for several generations, was seriously damaged in that "snowy night battle", with more than a dozen holes broken.

Seito is a samurai with an official position, and he must never do such a thing as taking the thieves' property as his own.

If the government discovers that you have done such a thing, the consequences will be disastrous. If the financial amount you possess is too large, it is not impossible to ask you to commit seppuku.

The weapons left by the "anti-barbarian" thugs on the ground could not be taken away, so after the battle, Qingdeng could only pick up his family sword.

When he first moved into the Imperial Guard Hall, Aoto borrowed money from Kondo and took his severely damaged family sword to a knifesmith's shop for repair. It took about 10 days to successfully repair it.

.

Of course, the "money to repair the knife" borrowed from Kondo has been fully paid back after receiving the gift money from the French Embassy.
To be continued...