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Kyoto, Kinkaikoji Temple (Aizu Military Main Formation), Matsudaira Yoshiho's room——

Matsudaira Yongho is attending to official business.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps came from outside the room from far to near:

"Lord! Good news came from the Yamato front line!"

Matsudaira Yongho was surprised:

"Come in!"

With the sound of the door sliding, a dusty messenger appeared in front of Matsudaira Yongho.

Before he could speak, the man consciously said loudly:

"Lord! The Shinsengumi has won a great victory!"

"The Tenchu ​​group is completely destroyed! Takatori Castle is recovered! The thief chief Yoshimura Totarō is captured!"

"The Shinsengumi will rest in place for 3 days, and after the rest, they will officially take over!"

After Matsudaira Yongho heard this, a look of surprise suddenly appeared on his cheeks.

Out of too much shock, he subconsciously stood up and asked urgently:

"What? The Shinsengumi has recaptured Takatori Castle? Is the news accurate?"

The messenger who came to report the news replied in a neither humble nor condescending manner:

"My lord, the news is accurate! I saw with my own eyes the Aoi pattern flag and the sincerity flag flying on the castle tower of Takatori Castle!"

Matsudaira Yongho opened his eyes in confusion, his expression dull, as if he had lost his soul.

After a moment, he sat back to his original position slowly and numbly.

"It's actually... so fast...! That's not right... Didn't the Shinsengumi arrive at the foot of Mount Takatori until yesterday...?"

Matsudaira Yongho frowned, calculating rapidly in his mind.

As far as he knew, the entire Shinsengumi army did not reach the city until yesterday afternoon.

The time now is noon.

Eliminating the time required for the messengers to move back and forth... In other words, it only took the Shinsengumi one night to eliminate the Tenchu ​​group! They recovered Takatori Castle!

Thinking of this, Matsudaira Yongho couldn't help but take a deep breath.

It's not that he doesn't believe that the Shinsengumi will regain Kotori Castle.

He trusted Qingdeng very much.

I also believe in the Shinsengumi’s fighting power.

It's just... he couldn't believe that it only took such a short time for the Shinsengumi to regain Takatori Castle!

Although he has never seen Gaotori Castle with his own eyes, he still has a certain understanding of the defense situation of this famous mountain city.

To put it bluntly - if he and Aoto were swapped and he was asked to lead the Aizu army to attack Takatori Castle, he would only have a huge headache! He wouldn't know where to start!

Although the Aizu Army has a world-famous cavalry unit, it lacks firearms, especially heavy firearms represented by artillery.

When they arrived in Shangluo, the entire army only carried a few antique-like old artillery pieces.

Using these broken cannons to bombard a fortified city such as Gaoche City has no use other than to build momentum, intimidate the enemy soldiers, and blow up some stone chips and earth clods.

Therefore, facing the Takatori Castle occupied by the Tenchu ​​Group, the only way Matsudaira Yongho could think of to attack the city was to issue the order "attack with the entire army, and the first one to get there will be heavily rewarded", and consume the enemy troops bit by bit, using "brute force"

"Break in" to win.

All in all, even with superior troops, it is not easy to capture Gaochei City!

Even if it turns into a bad battle where each other consumes each other's baggage and competes for endurance, it would not be surprising.

At first, even with the most optimistic attitude, Matsudaira Yōho believed that it would take the Shinsengumi at least half a month to capture Takatori Castle.

He was even ready to supply food and fodder to the Shinsengumi.

As a result... he only received the news yesterday that "the entire Shinsengumi army has arrived at the foot of Mount Takatori", and today he has already received the news that "the Shinsengumi has won a great victory"!

No matter which angle you look at it, the speed at which the Shinsengumi regained Takatori Castle was too fast! It was surprisingly fast!

Abruptly, Matsudaira Yongho felt a strong sense of frustration for no reason.

When people mention Aizu, people can always think of the world-famous Aizu Army first.

Matsudaira Yoshiho has always been proud of the strength of the Aizu Army.

He always believes that even if you look at the whole of Japan, the Aizu Army is a uniquely powerful army!

However, at this moment, he suddenly realized that the Aizu Army, which he was so proud of, seemed to have been left behind by the Shinsengumi...

He couldn't help but ask himself:

——If... if we are in conflict with the Shinsengumi now, can we win?

Deep down in his heart, he could not give an accurate answer to this question.

No, to be more precise - his reason has already produced the answer, but his sensibility cannot accept the answer...

At this time, the messenger who came to deliver the message hesitated for a while, and then said hesitantly:

"Lord, regarding how the Shinsengumi regained Takatori Castle in such a short period of time... I have collected some gossip that I don't know whether it is true or not..."

After hearing this, Matsudaira Yongho immediately became energetic and said quickly:

"Speak quickly! Just say it! I will judge whether the content is true or false!"

Hearing what Matsudaira Yongho said, the messenger no longer hesitated, took a deep breath, and said slowly:

"Lord, as far as I know, the rapid recovery of Takatori Castle completely depends on Tachibana-sama's ability!"

"Tachibana-sama single-handedly invaded Takatori Castle and captured Sannomaru, Ninomaru and Honmaru one after another. This greatly weakened the Tenchu ​​team's combat power, disrupted the defenses in the city, and cleared the way for the army's follow-up attack."

"In this way, the Shinsengumi were able to liberate Takatori Castle overnight!"

The messenger finished speaking concisely and concisely.

"..."

It was clear that the other party had finished speaking, but Matsudaira Yongho remained silent for a long time without saying a word.

The look of shock that had just faded away appeared on his cheeks again.

About half a minute later, he asked mechanically:

"……What did you say?"

The messenger spoke again very honestly:

"Tachibana-sama single-handedly invaded Takatori Castle..."

"No! I didn't ask you to repeat it again...Oh...forget it..."

After saying that, Matsudaira Yongho let out a long breath, and then leaned weakly on the elbow rest next to him.

A samurai broke into Takatori Castle, one of the "Three Mountain Castles", by himself, and penetrated the entire city at one go, even Honmaru was captured. In ordinary days, if someone said this to Matsudaira Yoshiho, then he

They will definitely scold each other angrily: It’s broad daylight, why are you hysterical?!

But the strange thing is... after changing the protagonist of this "story" to Tachibana Aoden, he will change his mind: If it is Tachibana Aoden, then such a thing is really possible!

Although Qingdeng was a divine man who performed miracles, to this day, no matter how appalling things he did, it is not surprising.

But...even so, Matsudaira Yongho was still shocked beyond words by this astonishing achievement of "breaking into the high castle alone".

After taking another deep breath, Matsudaira Yongho put his hand on his forehead and gently massaged his scalp with his fingers to relax his brain, which was extremely tired from listening to a large amount of heavyweight information.

Suddenly, he seemed to have thought of something, and was stunned for a moment, and then said to himself quietly:

"It won't be long before there will be a powerful name in this land... I don't know where the Orange Military Department will be divided..."

…

…

Almost at the same time, the imperial court, the Satsuma Domain...the major forces in Kyoto, as well as the Choshu Army who were still fleeing westward, all received the good news of the Shinsengumi.

Regarding the Shinsengumi, the reaction of various forces can be said to be that some are happy and some are sad.

Among them, the most excited and excited people were undoubtedly the monarchs and ministers of Takatori Domain.

The day after Gaotori City was recovered, they returned to their homeland.

Thanks to Seito's lightning fast attack, Takatori Castle was liberated without much damage.

Not only did he help them drive away the bandits, but he also protected the city as much as possible... The gratitude of the monarchs and ministers of the Takatori domain to Qingden can no longer be described in specific words.

It is no exaggeration to say that they wanted to hug Qingdeng and "gnaw" Qingdeng's face like a watermelon.

…

…
To be continued...