Return!【4700】

As soon as these words came out, Sagawa Kanbei's expression suddenly changed.

He raised his eyebrows first, then lowered his face.

"'Weird'? Mr. Tachibana, what does this mean?"

Qingdeng said calmly:

"This is my personal intuition. This bandit army always gives me an ominous premonition. In short, no one, whether the Shinsengumi or the Aizu army, is allowed to attack without my order!"

"..."

Sagawa Kanbei remained silent.

He turned his head and looked at the large-scale movement of the bandits in the distance, an elusive color flashing in his eyes.

After a moment, he lowered his head, the expression on his face was hidden in the shadows, and he softly responded without sadness or joy:

"...Yes, I have resigned."

…

…

Seen from a distance, the hordes of thieves pouring into the Ueno Basin really look like ant colonies that have continuously poured out due to the destruction of their nests.

In fact, it is the best explanation of the term "bee colony and ant gathering".

After a while, they were seen bringing wood blocks, hay and other materials from the forest and starting to "build a nest".

Gradually, fences, watchtowers, tents... buildings were pulled up one after another at a speed visible to the naked eye.

About half an hour after the bandit troops arrived at the city, Qingdeng issued a "convocation order" and ordered the generals at division captain and above to come to the formation immediately to discuss matters.

The Shinsengumi camp, this formation——

Qingdeng's right hand rested naturally on his thigh, and his left hand rested on the side of his waist. He straightened his waist and sat upright, overlooking the entire camp because he was in the main seat.

His two sabers - Vairochana and Dingguishen - lay quietly on the sword rest behind him.

Next to the knife rest, there is the big purple bow gifted to him by Tianzhang Academy: Yisezhafuriluo.

There was a long table in front of him, and on the table lay his recent work: the topographic map of the Ueno Basin.

The General Secretary and others sat on the left and right sides of the long table in order according to their status.

Everyone present has put on armor and light green feathers and is ready to go.

The Shinsengumi generals have arrived, but the only one missing is Sagawa Kanbei, who came to help as a guest general.

The general manager turned his head frequently, stretched his neck, and looked outside the tent.

The delay in seeing Sagawa Kanbei made an impatient look appear on her pretty face.

"Why hasn't Sagawa-kun arrived yet...it's so slow..."

Sanosuke Harada joked half-jokingly:

"Could it be that you fell into the poop while having a bowel movement?"

Nagakura Shinpachi shrugged and sang along with Harada Sanosuke:

"If that's the case, it's over. The pit is filled with thick sediment. Once he falls in, even if he doesn't drown, he won't be able to see anyone for the rest of his life."

Todo Heisuke joined the conversation:

"Speaking of which...does Mr. Sagawa dislike us? I always feel that he always has a straight face when we are with you."

Hijikata Toshizo snorted coldly and started spraying:

"Hmph! I don't care if he likes us or not, but I've always disliked him. This guy always has the abominable look of 'I am a noble Aizu native, how can you country folk fight alongside us'!

It’s so annoying!”

At this time, Shannan Keisuke lowered his eyelids, as if thinking about something.

After a while, he slowly said:

"I heard...Mr. Sagawa is very dissatisfied with Mr. Tachibana..."

As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately received a question from Sanosuke Harada:

"You are dissatisfied with Mr. Tachibana? Why?"

Shannan Keisuke added:

"To be precise, his malice is not directed at Lord Ju, but at the 'Gyeonggi Governor'."

Serizawa Kamo, who usually doesn't deal with Aoto and the "Seibeikan faction", now rarely stands on a united front with everyone.

He folded his arms in front of his chest and said:

"There are quite a few people in the Aizu Domain, like Sagawa Kanbei, who are very hostile to the envoy of Gyeonggi Town."

"I can quite understand their thinking."

"The current situation in Kyoto is a complete mess."

"The Changzhou vassal held the emperor in arms and ordered the princes to summon all the heroes in the world to raise troops to fight against the barbarians."

“‘Reject the foreigners’ has become a banner that no one is allowed to question.”

"The shogunate, which opened its borders and signed a series of treaties with the barbarians, became a target of public criticism."

"Under such unfavorable circumstances, if the Aizu clan, which is in the Samaku camp, plunges headlong into the shithole of Kyoto, it will surely stink all over it."

"My lord took huge risks, put his life, death and reputation at risk, and raised his troops to Luo without hesitation."

"We Aizu people have devoted so much effort to the shogunate and the Tokugawa family for the ancestral motto of 'loyalty to Aoimon to the death' more than 200 years ago."

"As a result, the shogunate still had to be wary of us at all times, and set up a useless "Gyeonggi Town Envoy" to take away the power of the lord."

"The birth of this new position has directly greatly reduced the power of the Guardian of Kyoto. The only tasks at hand are to protect the imperial court and monitor Sa, Chang."

"I traveled thousands of miles from Northeast China to Kyoto, only to get this result... If it were me, I would feel very angry."

"You want us to be like cows and horses, working hard for you to drive without complaint, but you are also afraid that we will become big... What the hell! No one else can swallow this breath."

Serizawa Kamo's words caused a slight change in the atmosphere in the tent.

Todo Heisuke lowered his head and murmured:

"But... wasn't the original intention of establishing the position of 'Gyeonggi Town Governor' to share the pressure of the guardianship of Kyoto? It was not to divide Higo-sama's power and prevent Aizu from getting bigger..."

Serizawa Duck sneered:

"Boy, since you are still young, let me teach you a cruel truth - there are many things in this world that can be said both 'positively' and 'conversely'."

At this time, Genzaburo Inoue, who was sitting next to Serizawa Kama - the division captains' seating order is that the "even-numbered teams" sit in one row, and the "odd-numbered teams" sit in another row - suddenly stretched out his left elbow and poked him.

flank.

"Okay, Serizawa-kun, stop talking."

Serizawa ducked his eyes, glanced at Genzaburo Inoue expressionlessly, and then said nothing.

For a moment, only silence dominated the entire camp.

Regarding the reason for establishing the post of governor of Gyeonggi Province, the official explanation given by the shogunate was that it was worried that Matsudaira Yongho would not be able to sustain such a big situation, so it sent more people to help him.

But what's going on behind the scenes... no one can tell.

Except for Heisuke Toudo, who is new to the world, and Sanosuke Harada, who never pays attention to such complicated matters, everyone here knows that their allies... many people in the Aizu Domain are hostile to the Shinsengumi

, is no less hostile to them than the King Zun faction.

On weekdays, everyone pretends to be confused and does not reveal the cold facts.

Serizawa Kamo's words just now revealed what everyone had been secretly thinking for a long time.

"...Okay, enough of the gossip."

Qingden spoke abruptly.

He gave a brief conclusion to the above discussions:

"At this stage, the Aizu Domain is our undoubted ally."

"We talk about deeds but not our hearts."

"As long as they don't cause any obstacles for us, we don't care what their thoughts are."

"It's not like we want to get married together and spend the rest of our lives together."

"We only pay attention to what they do, not what they think."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Toudo Heisuke blinked and said to himself with a confused expression:

"What kind of thing is this... We are obviously allies, but in the end we have to be wary of each other... If this continues, the shogunate can still be saved..."

Having said this, he closed his mouth.
To be continued...