Wenjiu three years (1863), early morning on April 15th——

Kyoto——

I saw a golden edge quietly rising on the distant skyline.

That bright line is like a shy virgin, shyly appearing to welcome people.

First it smudged the surrounding sky, and then spread little by little to the entire sky and the entire earth.

The morning light is faint and the morning fog is thick.

The light dust-like mist blurred the outline of the building.

Logically speaking, at this point in time, the ancient city of Kyoto has not yet burst out with its due vitality.

However, at this moment, the road east of Kamogawa was crowded with a steady stream of people.

"Go quickly, go quickly! Don't dawdle! If you continue to dawdle, be careful not to find a good spot!"

"Hello? What's going on? Why are there so many people? What's wrong with you? Where are you going? Is there anything exciting to see?"

"Don't you know yet? Master Tachibana's class teacher has returned to the court!"

"What?! Lord Tachibana has triumphed?!"

"The troops that were sent out on April 2 only arrived in less than half a month. How could they eliminate the bandits and put down the rebellion so quickly?"

"That's right! The Xinhui Allied Forces won a great victory! Lord Tachibana completely defeated the bandit army in just one day, and personally beheaded the bandit leader Shibasaki Renjuro!"

"One day?! Really or not? As far as I know, the total strength of the Xinhui Allied Forces is less than two hundred, while the bandit army has tens of thousands of people. It only took one day for two hundred to defeat ten thousand.

time, defeating the latter?"

"Hey! What a surprise! You don't even know who the leader of the army is. He is an invincible benevolent king!"

…

Scholars and citizens in Kyoto learned through various channels that Ayoto would return to the capital on the morning of April 15.

By then, the Xinhui Allied Forces will first enter Luoyang to the east of Yachuan River, and then return to Luozhong along Shijotong in great glory.

[Note: Shijo-dori: an important street in Kyoto, Japan, running east-west through the city center. The east end of Shijo-dori is Yasaka Shrine and the west end is Matsuo Taisha Shrine]

The army's triumphant return - this is an extremely rare sight for the men, women, and children of Kyoto.

When was the last time war broke out in Gyeonggi Province?

Even if you ask this question to those older men, they may only be able to answer "Oshio Heihachiro's uprising 26 years ago."

How can we not take part in this rare and rare occasion?

The Kyoto Administrative Office has long been familiar with the scene of "people warmly welcome Tachibana Aoden wherever he goes".

As a result, they sent a large number of manpower early to maintain order at the scene.

The officers from the Kyoto Administrative Office went to Shijo Street early in the morning and made careful arrangements.

First, clean the streets thoroughly.

Although Kyoto is one of the "Three Capitals", in terms of prosperity alone, only Edo and Osaka rank higher.

However, you must not have any expectations for the urban environment of the feudal era.

In fact, everything inside and outside Kyoto is dirty.

Most of the streets are compacted dirt roads, which are dusty on sunny days and muddy on rainy days.

Not to mention garbage and so on.

The Japanese nowadays do not have the habit of "not littering" or "setting up trash cans on the roadside".

Not to mention pieces of paper, wood and other large and small garbage, you can find all kinds of disgusting things on the street.

Dead rats, livestock feces... just to name a few.

The envoy from Gyeonggi Town returned with a great victory, but the road his troops passed was a mess... How is this unbecoming?

In many cases, certain "face projects" must be done, which involve etiquette.

Then, they lined up neat human walls on both sides of Shijo Street. They all held long sticks in their hands, holding the sticks horizontally and connecting them end to end. They blocked the soldiers and people who had heard the news and came to join in the fun.

The scope of activities is limited to the street.

If you look down from above, you can see that the entire Shijo Street presents two distinct scenes.

The central street was deserted, and Feng'er was the only passer-by strolling there.

All rubbish on the road was cleared away.

In addition to the ruts, the potholes were also filled in overnight.

As for the streets on both sides, they were filled with moving heads.

The soldiers and civilians stretched their necks one by one, like swaying garden eels, waiting impatiently, looking eastward and looking at the end of Shijo Street.

This state of great vitality and everything happening is truly extremely lively.

Suddenly, someone shouted:

"Look! It's coming, it's coming! Lord Tachibana is coming!"

In an instant, the whole place was silent.

Everyone at the scene—whether it was the citizens who came to join in the fun or the officials responsible for maintaining order—all subconsciously held their breath.

Click, click, click, click, click...

The first thing that reached everyone's ears was the gentle sound of hoofbeats.

In an instant, a bunch of eyes followed the sound of hoofbeats.

First they saw the rounded top of the pole.

The top of the pole is like the mast of a sailing ship gradually approaching, gradually "rising".

Soon, a thick flagpole and a bright flag suddenly came into view.

The flag has white characters on a red background, and in the center of the flag is a big "sincerity" character - it is the "sincerity character flag" of the Shinsengumi.

Owari Masajiro held high the "honesty flag" with a solemn expression, steady steps, and strode forward in an orderly manner.

Under the fluttering "sincerity flag", there are touches of light onion.

The Shinsengumi soldiers lined up in two columns and walked through the neat streets, basking in the respectful gaze of the civilians on the streets.

Looking around, everyone has their chests held high, their cheeks are full of pride, their expressions are full of high spirits, and their demeanor is full of heroic demeanor!

It looks like they won the battles of Danoura, Tennoyama and Sekigahara!

[Note: The battle of Danoura: the Kamakura shogunate’s battle to determine the world. The Battle of Tennoyama: the Toyotomi Taikaku’s battle to determine the world. The Sekigahara battle: the Edo shogunate’s battle to determine the world]

The Aizu soldiers who came as guest troops to assist in the battle also looked like this. They also held their chests high and wanted to raise their chins to the sky.

It is true that at the beginning of the battle, Sagawa Kanbei's light troops rushed in, causing the Aizu cavalry to be beaten to a pulp by the rebel iron gunners.

This humiliating defeat not only made the Aizu soldiers ashamed, but also made them feel extremely angry!

While waiting for the official start of the war between the two armies, the soldiers of Aizu were really looking forward to seeing what happened.

They were eagerly looking forward to...looking forward to the moment when the war started! They wanted to avenge their past humiliation!

Therefore, in the first stage of the battle, the 20 Aizu archers and the 20 Aizu iron gunners were really at full strength.

The high-intensity continuous drawing of the bow made it impossible for the archers to even lift their right arms for several days.

The iron gunners were not much better, their fingers were worn out by the tedious reloading action.

It is precisely thanks to their outstanding performance that they can greatly reduce the defensive pressure on all fronts, thus stopping the rebel army's offensive.

As for the 20 Aizu cavalry, let alone them.

In the second stage of the battle, that is, when they launched a surprise attack on the enemy camp, they followed Qingdeng closely, jumped off the cliff heroically, and stormed the enemy's main formation. They fought until the last moment and paid a heavy price.

After the battle, only 9 people returned safely, and the rest all died on the battlefield.

All in all, the Aizu soldiers showed their due "Aizu soul" in the Iga offensive and defensive battle, and successfully saved their face with their superior battlefield performance.

The triumphal procession marched forward in an orderly manner.

Because the number of the Xinhui coalition forces was not large, they reached the middle part in just a moment.

In the middle of the queue, I saw no longer the majestic soldiers, but a large number of unkempt and dejected soldiers.

These people were the prisoners captured by the soldiers of the Xinhui Allied Forces.

In this battle, the soldiers of the Xinhui Allied Forces captured thousands of people in total.

The prisoners were arranged in four neat lines, their necks tied with thick and long hemp ropes, and 30 people were tied to each long rope, forming long lines.

The soldiers drove the captives forward like sheep.

Obviously their number was several times that of the Xinhui coalition forces, but in the end they all seemed to have lost their souls. They all buried their heads low and were driven around at will.

At the front of the group of prisoners, there was a soldier holding a spear high, with a head stuck on the tip of the spear, which was particularly eye-catching.
To be continued...