The guards who came up suddenly froze on the spot, their eyes were straight, their expressions were blank, they could neither advance nor retreat.

Suddenly, they looked at each other and started a silent communication with their eyes——

Nioh? Is it really him?

How do I know? I've never seen Nioh!

Anyway, let’s report it to the superiors first!

Well, let’s do it!

After reaching a consensus, one of them raised his chest and raised his head, speaking loudly to Qingdeng in a neither humble nor arrogant tone:

"Please wait!"

After saying that, he turned around and retreated into the feudal mansion in three steps and two steps at a time.

With the help of waiting time, Qingden raised his eyes and swept his eyes without leaving any trace.

At first glance, there is nothing special about the Tosa Domain's mansion.

Like other mansions, it has two doors: a large door and a small door.

The gate will only be opened when the feudal lord arrives or other important events occur.

The small door opened on the side of the main door is used for daily entry and exit.

The simple black and white color scheme of black tiles and diamond-patterned walls has become the basic tone of the entire mansion.

The flag embroidered with the Yamauchi family crest "three cypress leaves" was hung in a conspicuous place, stretching in the wind.

In the past peaceful times, these "XX Domain Offices in Kyoto" were without exception the Qingmizu Department, which was very comfortable.

The reason is quite simple.

First, the Kyoto court had no real power and there was no need to have in-depth contacts with it.

Secondly, the shogunate was very taboo about direct contact between the vassal state and the imperial court.

The trigger for the Ansei Prison a few years ago was that the emperor went beyond the shogunate and directly issued a secret order to the Mito Domain to "take down the boss Ii and launch the reform of the shogunate." After Ii Naoki learned about this, he directly used it as a warning.

The handle initiates a major cleaning.

Therefore, under the strict supervision of the shogunate, each domain had little communication with the imperial court.

As a result, the daily work of each vassal's "Beijing Office" is nothing more than to greet the emperor, say hello, and send gifts every important holiday.

However, with the outbreak of the Zunxing Movement, these Kyoto feudal residences, which had previously had no sense of existence and no one paid attention to, suddenly became the most important frontline positions!

This is the case with the Tosa Domain.

Since Hanheita from Takibu City led 400 feudal soldiers to Kyoto, the place has become the headquarters of the Tosa Kinou Party, and countless Tosa feudal warriors come and go here every day.

Aoden turned his head to the side, looked at the small door not far away, and then noticed: every Tosa feudal lord who passed by his eyes was full of energy, high-spirited, and walked in a hurry, with the wind at his feet.

To a certain extent, the mental outlook of the vassal warriors represents the strength of the entire vassal state.

Needless to say, the feudal lords of Satsuma, Choshu, Aizu and other powerful feudal lords are exuding a strong aura of confidence in every move they make.

As for those small vassals with stone heights of only tens of thousands of stones... their vassal officials are basically like walking zombies, with dull eyes, numb expressions, and shaky steps, just like salted fish.

However, this is understandable.

The area of ​​these small vassals is so small that if you put their territories on the world map, you can't find them.

Their too weak strength limits their development everywhere. Even if they are determined to do a big business, they can't do anything. They can only live day by day.

In this once-in-a-lifetime world of great conflict, it is destined that only the heroes who stand on the shoulders of "giants" such as the Shogunate, Satsuma, and Choshu can shine!

Aoto does not yet know the specific details of the Tosa Domain, but judging from the spirit of the feudal warriors, it is enough to conclude that the Tosa people are at a loss!

The guard who came in to report did not keep Aoto and Yataro Iwasaki waiting for too long.

Only 3 minutes later, he returned to their sight.

"plz follow me!"

While speaking respectfully and seriously, he bent down and turned sideways, making a "please" gesture to Qingden.

Qingdeng nodded slightly, then raised his chin and signaled, "Lead the way."

Just when Yataro Iwasaki was about to step up to follow, the guard added at the right time:

"Only Nioh-sama can enter!"

Iwasaki Yataro was startled for a moment, then turned to look at Aoto, asking for his opinion.

Qingdeng whispered without thinking:

"Iwasaki-kun, please wait here for a while, I'll be back soon."

Saying this, he untied and carried Vairochana and Dingguishen with his right hand.

After receiving Aoto's clear instructions, Iwasaki Yataro immediately said "yes", then obediently took his steps back, stood under the earthen wall not far away, and stood respectfully with his hands lowered.

…

…

Under the leadership of the guard, Qingdeng strode across Baizhou, stepped onto the entrance hall, and walked into the depths of the mansion.

[Note·Hakushu: The place where the front door of a large mansion is paved with fine white stones.]

There is nothing particularly eye-catching about the internal structure of the Tosa Domain Residence.

Simple furniture and unremarkable decoration style.

However, there was one place that caught Qingdeng's attention.

When Qingdeng turned into a corridor and passed an open-air courtyard, he suddenly discovered that many young warriors were practicing martial arts in the courtyard.

Looking around, there were about twenty people waving bamboo swords and wooden knives enthusiastically, and they kept shouting powerfully.

Suddenly, I heard someone cheering:

"It's written! Take a look!"

After saying that, he raised a pair of straw sandals in his hand.

I saw the two characters "西" and "伊" written on the soles of these two straw sandals respectively.

"From now on, I will wear these shoes every day and crush the 'Western Barbarians' under my feet! This will encourage me not to forget my ambition to resist the barbarians!"

The other people who gathered after hearing the sound commented on the pair of straw sandals:

"Yoshimura-kun, you are such a genius!"

"What a great idea you have!"

"Yoshimura-kun, I'm not good at writing. Can you do me a favor and write the word '西伊' on the soles of my shoes?"

"I want it too!"

"And me!"

They rushed to take off their straw sandals and handed them to the feudal lord named "Yoshimura".

Yoshimura did not reject anyone who came, and with a flourish of his pen, he wrote the word "西伊" in large letters on the soles of pairs of straw sandals.

"Brothers!"

At this time, someone jumped on a big stone, raised his arms and shouted.

"Continue to practice! We must get rid of the smell of mutton! Let the kingdom of God be peaceful! Let those sergeants who are not enterprising and eat all day long see how powerful we are!"

As soon as he finished speaking, enthusiastic echoes suddenly broke out.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Nakajima-kun, well said!"

"Fame only comes from horses!"

"Compared with the sergeants who only know how to bully others, we country warriors are the real samurai!"

"Yoshimura-kun, write '西伊' on the sole of my left shoe, and then write 'Sgt' on the sole of my right shoe!"

"Me too! I will trample both Xiyi and Sergeant under my feet!"

After being beaten hard, they spread out and continued to practice martial arts. The sound of sword swinging "hoo", "hoo", and "hoo" became the only sound that dominated the courtyard.

"..."

Qingdeng quietly took in this scene, a look of dumbfounded laughter flashing across his eyes.

…

After walking forward for some distance, Qingdeng suddenly heard the sound of footsteps coming from far and near in front of him - two young warriors with dark skin and wearing rough linen clothes were walking towards him.

Their lips moved, as if they were whispering something.

Although there was still a considerable distance between them, Qingdeng could clearly hear their conversation with his excellent hearing:

"Teacher Wu Shi is truly a great talent! Joining the King Qin Party is indeed the right thing to do!"
To be continued...