Although he knew that the other party was an undercover agent of the Salt Party, Qingdeng not only did not report him, but also reused him as always - of course, he would not be allowed to participate in certain tasks involving important secrets.

Aoto quickly dispatched Shintaro Tojo, ordering him to clear out the bandits in the shortest possible time. He also sent Nishiki Nimi, Sanosuke Harada and their fifth and tenth divisions to assist.

Tojo Shintaro is indeed a reliable official.

After more than half a month of high-intensity bandit suppression, these road bandits died and escaped, and the roads around Kyoto returned to peace.

Seeing that the road bandits have been cleared, Qingteng asked Tojo Shintaro to come over today to give a detailed work report.

Qingdeng waited silently while sitting upright and adjusting his clothes a little.

After a while, he heard heavy footsteps approaching from far away.

Wow - the door of the room opened, and the plump figure of Shintaro Tojo came into view.

"Your Highness, long time no see."

Shintaro Tojo bowed slightly, with a faint smile on his face.

"Don't be formal, just relax."

Qingden said and waved his hand.

Suddenly, his gaze tilted downwards involuntarily, looking straight at Shintaro Tojo's right abdomen, with complicated emotions flashing in his eyes.

His strangeness is only temporary.

Qingdeng quickly adjusted his eyes and expression and remained calm.

There is nothing special about Tojo Shintaro's work report.

Just briefly and concisely state the results of the battle, how many gangsters were killed, how many heads were chopped off, and so on.

After Qingdeng listened quietly, he cast an appreciative look at the other party.

"Dongcheng-kun, thank you for your hard work."

Dongcheng Shintaro hurriedly said:

"Don't dare to take it seriously."

At this time, he probably remembered something important, his face changed slightly, and he looked like he was hesitant to speak and found it difficult to speak.

The subtle changes in his expression caught Qingdeng's eyes.

"Dongcheng-kun, what's wrong? If you have something to say, it's okay to say it."

Qingdeng's words dispelled the other party's last worry.

"...Your Highness, I have something to report to you."

He put on a solemn expression and said word by word:

"As far as I know, many people in Kyoto sympathize with Changzhou."

When Qingdeng heard this, he couldn't help showing a look of astonishment:

"Do you sympathize with Changshu? The soldiers and people of Kyoto?"

Shintaro Tojo nodded vigorously and continued:

"Due to the Ansei Five-Nation Treaty, domestic goods were in short supply, prices soared, and people's lives were seriously affected. Therefore, many people in Kyoto have always expressed sympathy for the Choshu Domain, which actively resisted the foreigners."

"Recently, 'Changshu Bixi' has become popular in Inma, Kyoto City."

Qingdeng interjected:

"'Bi Xi'? What is this?"

Tojo Shintaro answered:

"'Bici' is a dialect, which means sympathy. To put it simply, when people chat, they always use euphemistic expressions to express their sympathy for Changzhou."

After Qingdeng heard this, a look of understanding suddenly appeared on his face.

The Edo shogunate strictly prohibited public criticism of politics.

However, as the saying goes, "There are policies from above and countermeasures from below."

No matter what kind of orders the shogunate issued, the people at the bottom also had many ways to deal with them.

The most typical example is, as Shintaro Tojo said just now, using various "black words" and "code words" to discuss and criticize current affairs.

"In addition to 'Changshu Hagi', a round red bean glutinous rice dumpling called 'Changshu Hagi mochi' has become popular in Injama, Kyoto."

“‘Choshu Hagi Mochi’ is actually a specialty of the Hagi castle town of Choshu.”

"Recently, many stores in Kyoto have started selling this kind of Hagi mochi."

"When selling this cake, the store will specially arrange three round hagi cakes in the shape of the word 'pin', with a pair of chopsticks placed across them, which looks like the Maori family's family crest 'one moji three stars'."

"The price of this cake is uniformly set at 36 cents, which symbolizes the height of the Changshu domain stone at 360,000 koku."

“When buying, say ‘negativeけてくれ’ (make it cheaper for me).”

"The seller will answer 'minus けん' (can't be cheap)."

"This is a typical pun."

“‘negative ける’ can either mean price reduction or failure.”

"That is to say, 'Changzhou will never fail.'"

"These people expressed their spiritual support for the Choshu clan through hagi cakes and puns."

"In addition to Hagi mochi, 'Changshu Katsu' from Choshu has also become popular and has become one of the most popular dances in Kyoto."

"As the name suggests, this is a dance song praising Changzhou's victory."

"It is reported that this dance started in a restaurant in Akaishi,"

"The owner got drunk and danced 'Changzhou Sheng' while wearing a child's clothes. His wife finally stopped him, but the child died suddenly."

"The owner next door came over to ask what was going on. The owner of the restaurant said that the child died because his wife stopped him from dancing. If he didn't dance, he would get into trouble."

"Then the owner next door came home and danced the same dance. It was spread to ten, and then to hundreds, and 'Changzhou wins' soon spread throughout the capital."

“Even shrunk kapok produced in Changzhou, which is essential for dancing, has become a hot commodity overnight.”

Speaking of this, Dongcheng paused and hesitated for a while before continuing:

"There is one more thing, I think it would be better to report it to you together."

"After our army won a complete victory in the Battle of Kyoto's Summer Battle, a Choshu feudal lord named Yamamononosuke committed suicide in Amagasaki and buried his body on the spot because he realized that there was no hope of escaping with the large army."

"Somehow, news suddenly spread a while ago that 'Yamamonosuke's cemetery has magical effects in curing difficult and complicated diseases,' so people from the surrounding area rushed to pay homage."

"The local lord kept the ban in place, so he ordered his subordinates to bury the body elsewhere."

"While his men were digging the grave, he suddenly became stiff and feverish and died. This frightened the lord, and he never dared to explore the cemetery again."

"This miracle has strengthened the people's faith, and there is an endless stream of people going to the local area to worship."

“The local people named this cemetery ‘Cannian Tomb’ to express their sympathy and pity.”

After Shintaro Tojo finished speaking, he stood quietly, waiting for Qingto's response.

"..."

Although Qingdeng said nothing and had a calm expression, he had already cursed in his heart.

——Tsk...what the hell is this...!

——Is it possible that these guys all suffer from Stockholm Syndrome? The more you abuse them, the happier they feel?

Stockholm Syndrome - a very classic mental illness. Its main manifestation is that when the victim faces an extreme threat, he will develop emotional identification with the perpetrator and form a harmonious relationship.

As the "Changzhou Expedition" was about to begin, Seito mobilized a large number of elite ninjas headed by Yamazaki Hao to go to the Western Kingdom to gather information.

For this reason, Seito's intelligence network deployed in Kyoto has become much weaker. He has not received much intelligence related to Kyoto recently.

If Shintaro Tojo had not made this series of reports to him today, he would not have known that Kyoto had undergone such changes recently.

To be honest, Seito truly felt that these Kyoto citizens who sympathized with Choshu either had bad intentions or were unfortunately suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and had developed emotional identification with the perpetrators.

It's fine if they are from other places. Why do you people from Kyoto sympathize with Choshu?

During the Battle of Ikedaya, the radicals in Choshu planned to burn Kyoto and take advantage of the chaos to kidnap the emperor.

If Qingdeng and others hadn't crushed their conspiracy, I don't know how many people would have died that night.

During the Battle of Summer Formation in Kyoto, Choshu mobilized tens of thousands of troops and directed their troops towards Kyoto.

If Qingteng hadn't led his troops to hold the Changshu Army firmly on the outskirts of Kyoto, I don't know how serious damage this battle would have caused Kyoto.

It is obvious that Changshu never cared about the life and death of the people in Kyoto.

In order to achieve their goals, they did not hesitate to put innocent people into danger many times.

Choshu is so bad, yet so many people in Kyoto sympathize with and respect Choshu.

This, this...

Qingdeng was speechless for a moment and didn't know who to scold.
To be continued...