Speaking of this, Qingdeng changed into a joking tone.

"The shogunate is now counting on you and me to quell the unrest in the capital. As long as the shogunate can't do without us, we can be a little more willful."

As soon as he finished speaking, as if they had agreed in advance, he and Matsudaira Yongho both raised their eyes, looked at each other, and smiled tacitly at each other.

——It seems that Matsudaira Yongho is not an idiot...

Qingden let out a sigh of relief in his heart.

For ministers like Seito and Matsudaira Yōho, Oshio Heihachiro is not a person who can be talked about casually.

The reason Aoden suddenly opened up this sensitive topic was to test Matsudaira Yongho.

The Aizu Domain has an ancestral motto that "the Aizu Domain has protected the Shogun's family from generation to generation and cannot blindly follow the position of other countries. If the feudal lord has second thoughts, he will not be my descendant and his retainers cannot obey."

Judging from Matsudaira Yongho's current behavior, he faithfully abides by this ancestral precept.

The shogunate promoted him to the position of guardian of Kyoto and made him the guardian of the royal city. Although he felt embarrassed, he resolutely plunged into the bottomless waters.

To be honest, if your partner - especially one who will work together for a long time in the future - is someone who will obey the shogunate's instructions, it will give Qingnobo a headache.

After all, Qingneng did not feel a sense of belonging to the shogunate.

No human being with a moderately normal IQ would have a favorable impression of such an ignorant, backward, and decadent feudal regime.

Seito never thought of himself as a "minister" of the shogunate. He only regarded the shogunate as a large company, and he just happened to work in this company.

The shogunate paid him a salary, so he worked for the shogunate; he did as much work as he was paid - that's all.

For him, the only emotional ties to the Edo shogunate were his friends headed by Katsu Rintaro, Tokugawa Iemo who was like his younger brother, and...the charming and pretty widow.

Therefore, if we do not try to figure out what kind of feelings Matsudaira Yongho actually has towards the shogunate, it will inevitably have an adverse impact on the future cooperation between the two.

And now, through Shicai's heart-to-heart conversation, Aonto has understood that although Matsudaira Yongho is loyal to the shogunate, he also has his own ideas and is not loyal to the shogunate blindly and foolishly.

If that's the case, it's easy to handle.

Aoto also took this opportunity to confess his views to Matsudaira Eiho: Like you, I am not a pedantic person who is mindlessly loyal to the shogunate.

In order to hint to the other party, Qingdeng even took the lead in "self-destructing".

After all, Matsudaira Yongho is also a dignified leader of a feudal clan who has received a rigorous education. How could he not see Aoshito's intentions?

Seeing Qing Deng take the initiative to show his sincerity, he also took advantage of the situation to express his true feelings.

In this way, the two had a brief heart-to-heart talk.

For this reason, the atmosphere between them became much more relaxed.

"Okay, let's get back to business."

Matsudaira Eiho suppressed the smile on his face and sat up straight again.

“It is reported that the Great Salt Party has an agency specifically responsible for intelligence collection, called ‘Chang Mu Liao’, and its top executive is named ‘Chang Mu Tai’.”

"Because the Great Salt Party is so popular among the people, many civilians have volunteered to become the eyes and ears of the Changmuliao, actively spying for them and passing on information."

"Thanks to this, Changmuliao can always obtain timely and accurate information."

"With Changmuliao's superb intelligence collection and application, members of the Great Salt Party escaped from the encirclement and suppression by the shogunate and the Punishment Party countless times."

"To this day, the shogunate has still not found the base of the Great Salt Party, and the same must be true for the Execution Party."

"It's like we're dealing with an imaginary enemy."

"Especially in the past two years, after Changmuliao was replaced with a new Changmu station, their intelligence collection capabilities have improved to a higher level and they have become more and more difficult to deal with."

New Changmu Tai - this group of words instantly attracted Qingdeng's attention.

Matsudaira Yongho’s words did not stop:

"While Chang Mu Liao is proficient in intelligence gathering, he is also very good at hiding himself."

"How many members do they have?"

"Where is their main scope of activity?"

"In addition to the help of ordinary people, what other methods do they rely on to collect intelligence?"

"I don't know anything about all this."

"but……"

Matsudaira Yongho's conversation suddenly changed.

At the same time, a smile appeared on his lips.

"The reputation of the Aizu Domain as the 'strongest feudal clan' is not for nothing."

"After careful investigation by my subordinates, we finally made a major discovery - the current Changmudai of Changmuliao, who is also the person who greatly increased the overall strength of Changmuliao, is a codenamed 'Miss Sumire'

woman."

Qingdeng's brows raised sharply, with an uncontrollable look of surprise on his face.

In the Edo period, when men were superior to women, a woman became the leader of the intelligence agency - such a thing should not be too unusual.

Matsudaira Eiho seemed to have guessed Qingto's reaction, and continued after smiling slightly:

"Although I learned the other party's code name, unfortunately, I don't know anything except the code name - age, appearance, body shape."

"The only thing I know is that she has very superior personal abilities."

"Otherwise, she would not have become Chang Mu Tai, and Chang Mu Liao would not have become stronger under her leadership."

"The above is everything I know about the Salt Party."

Qingden nodded slightly and silently wrote down the name "Miss Sumire".

"The next step is to punish the party..."

Saying that, Matsudaira Yongho paused and frowned slightly.

"In the past two years, the Fuzhi Party has been extremely quiet, and there has been no major movement."

"So, I'm sorry to say that I don't currently have any new information worth mentioning related to the Fuzhi Party."

As soon as Matsudaira Yongho finished speaking, Qingden hurriedly said:

"Higo-sama, there is no need to apologize."

"I know better than anyone what a terrifying and formidable enemy the Fa Zhu Party is."

"Before I sent troops to Luo, I was mentally prepared to fight a long and protracted war with the Fa Zun Party."

"Thanks to you, I have collected enough information tonight!"

After saying that, Qingdeng turned his eyes and looked directly at the map in front of his knees, as if thinking deeply.

…

…

It's night——

Kyoto, Mibu-go, Shinsengumi station, Aoto's room——

After returning from Jinjie Guangming Temple, Qingdeng went straight to his bedroom, set up his desk, lit candles, spread out rice paper, bowed his head in front of the case, and wrote something quickly.

Within a moment, four large characters appeared on the white rice paper - Infantry Drill Code.

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