Wenjiu three years (1863), May 28th——

Kyoto, Mibu Township, Shinsengumi Village, Aoto's office——

Qingdeng handled official duties meticulously before committing the crime.

Suddenly, Shannan Keisuke's voice sounded outside the door:

"Tachibana-kun, Hijikata-kun has returned from sending a letter!"

Qing Deng responded without raising his head:

"Come in."

Whoa—Shannan Jingsuke pushed open the door and walked in, running to Qingdeng in three steps at a time.

Shannan Keisuke is the chief of the Shinsengumi and the highest officer of the General Affairs Office, responsible for the clerical work of the Shinsengumi.

Due to the nature of his work, Shannan Keisuke is destined to be the person who has the most contact with Qingto in daily life.

He often helped Qingdeng, made suggestions for Qingdeng, and held various meetings with Qingdeng. He seemed to have become Qingdeng's personal secretary.

If Qingdeng were asked to describe Shannan Keisuke's talents in easy-to-understand words, it would be - he is truly the "Innate Secretary Holy Body"!

Cooperation with Shannan Keisuke always makes Qingto feel more happy.

First of all, Shannan Jingzhu read poetry and books, had a very high level of cultural accomplishment, and could write good calligraphy and articles.

Whenever there is a task that requires writing, such as writing an official document or something, Qingteng will give this type of work to Shannan Keisuke to handle it with full authority, and he will solve it beautifully every time.

Secondly, he has extraordinary physical strength.

He is a martial arts practitioner and possesses the two major schools of Ono Ittou Ryu and Beichen Ittou Ryu.

In terms of personal strength alone, he is one of the top fighters of the Shinsengumi.

Therefore, under his scholarly appearance, there is a strong and vigorous body hidden!

With the blessing of talents such as "Sleeping God", "Strengthening Essence +4", "Lock Blood +7" and other talents, Qingden is a veritable scroll king!

He often stayed up all night and worked all night long.

When he was tired, he lay down casually on the tatami, squinted his eyes, and soon regained his energy.

At the busiest time, he didn't even get into bed for 3 days and 3 nights in a row.

In addition, Qingdeng's work efficiency is extremely high thanks to his talents such as "photographic memory", "concentrating the mind", and "brain +9".

What would take an average person an hour to handle, he could do in half an hour.

The work attitude of forgetting sleep and food + the work efficiency of getting twice the result with half the effort... Taken together, one person in Qingdeng can do the work of 30 people.

So far, there has never been a backlog of documents waiting to be processed on his desk.

It is precisely thanks to Aomori's large scrolls, crazy scrolls, and violent scrolls that the Shinsengumi has been able to develop so rapidly.

An ordinary person would simply not be able to keep up with Qingdeng's work pace.

Only strong men like Shannan Keisuke can work closely with Qingdeng.

Although not as good as Aoden, Shannan Keisuke is also an incredible scroll king.

I also know that Shannan Keisuke, who has made outstanding achievements in both literature and martial arts, must be a person who is very capable of "torturing" himself.

He often stayed up late with Qingdeng. He would work as late as Qingdeng worked.

Whenever he hears Aoto's summons, Shannan Keisuke will immediately put down everything at hand and appear in front of Aoto as quickly as he can - even in the middle of the night, no exception.

Even if he fell asleep, as soon as Qingdeng's order came, he would jump upright like a zombie and quickly get into work mode.

Some people joke that Shannan Keisuke has the ability to "sleep with one eye open".

In general, in one sentence - Shannan Keisuke can always appear where Qingdeng needs him to appear.

Finally, his memory is extraordinary.

Ayoto's gift of "photographic memory" was copied from Shannan Keisuke.

A memory that is beyond ordinary people is naturally very helpful in paperwork.

Not only that, Shannan Keisuke is also a rigorous person.

Even though he already has an extraordinary memory, he still records important events in his personal workbook meticulously to prevent mistakes.

It is a pleasure to work with such smart and hard-working people!

"Tachibana-kun, Hijikata's letter."

Saying that, Shannan Keisuke raised his hand and handed the letter in his palm to Qingdeng.

Qingto took the letter and after confirming that the seal was intact, he opened the envelope and asked Shannan Keisuke:

"Kingsuke, how's it going over there in Xiaguan?"

There is no doubt that Choshu's blockade of the Shimonoseki Strait has become the most disturbing event nowadays.

All forces are paying close attention to the war in Xiaguan.

Qingdeng is naturally no exception.

Since May 10, Qingto has been paying attention to the latest situation in the Shimonoseki Strait every day.

Although Changzhou has set a big trap, and Western countries will never let Changzhou off easily, the development of history is always unreasonable.

God knows whether there will be any accidents next, causing Changzhou to escape the disaster, or even break out of the cocoon and be reborn?

As soon as Aoshito finished asking, Shannan Keisuke, the backfoot, immediately answered:

"The Shimonoseki Strait is still blocked, and Choshu is still relentlessly bombarding every Western ship passing through the Shimonoseki Strait."

As he spoke, he took out a small booklet from his pocket - this was his work diary - spread it out and read it quickly.

"On May 23 and May 26, a French merchant ship and a Dutch merchant ship passed through the Shimonoseki Strait respectively. Both ships were bombarded by Choshu and had to flee in a hurry."

Speaking of this, Shannan Jingshu paused suddenly.

When he spoke again, he changed into a solemn tone:

"It is reported that Western countries have begun to respond one after another."

"The United States and France sent warships one after another."

"If nothing else happens, the US ship will arrive in the Shimonoseki Strait on June 1."

"French warships will enter the battlefield within a week at the latest."

"Changzhou is about to usher in a real 'war against the foreigners'..."

After finishing speaking, Shannan Keisuke let out a long sigh.

Today is May 28th, and more than half a month has passed since the "war started" on May 10th.

During this period of time, the state of Changzhou... can be summed up in one word: it is becoming more and more crazy!

The shogunate and other vassal states stood aside, which not only did not discourage the patriots of Choshu, but also greatly increased their fighting spirit!

The shogunate and other vassals are all cowards! When they see Xiyi, their legs tremble! We men from Changshu are the real warriors who help people in danger!

In this way, they become pretentious, more and more extreme and fanatical.

If you see a ship flying a Western flag, you will attack it, regardless of whether it is a merchant ship or another ship.

Not only that, they also began to accuse the Ogura Domain on the other side.

The Choshu Domain is located on the east side of the Shimonoseki Strait, and the Kokura Domain is located on the west side of the Shimonoseki Strait. The two feudal clans jointly guard the Shimonoseki Strait.

Choshu was trying its best to fight off the barbarians, but the Ogura clan on the other side stood by and watched. This made the people in Choshu extremely dissatisfied.

There are rumors that the loyal warriors of Choshu want to attack the Ogura Domain! Teach them a lesson!

At first glance, what Changzhou did was very refreshing and relieving.

However, so far, they have not sunk a single Western ship!

In this era, there were no radars, let alone satellites, so aiming was all done with the naked eye.

It is extremely difficult to attack targets on the sea. As a result, the cannons used by Changzhou are basically very old models, with poor range and accuracy.

In addition, the patriots in Changzhou generally lacked training. They couldn't even load artillery shells, so they could only bully the weak.

In this way, it is only possible that Changzhou can achieve brilliant results.

Their biggest result so far is just damaging a few merchant ships.

The injured merchant ships were not seriously injured. After being hit by artillery shells, they still managed to escape beyond the shelling range of Changshu.

Although the patriots in Changzhou continue to "win", the targets they currently attack are basically civilian ships that are unable to fight back.

They have yet to engage in combat with real warships.

When the warships from Western countries arrive one after another, Changzhou will be able to experience the real war against the foreigners in person...

Qingdeng thought for a while, and then said slowly:

"Respectfully assist, continue to pay attention to the war in Xiaguan."
To be continued...