Chapter 879 Entrust your dream! Obtain 'Ten Thousand Steelmaking'! 【4500】
"The jet-black luster...Miss Souji, apart from that, does 'Wanliangang' have any other characteristics?"
Although Elodie's strangeness made the director feel strange, she didn't think much about it and answered truthfully:
"Well, let's think about it... Qingdeng seemed to have told me before that weapons forged with 'Wanliang Steel' would be extremely tough and sharp, and even the 'Supreme Great Karma' would be hard-pressed to match it."
"..."
Elodie remained silent, pursed her lips in deep thought.
The director's curiosity was aroused and he couldn't help but ask:
"Elodie, what's wrong? Are you very interested in 'Wan Liangang'?"
"..."
Elodie remained silent, her head lowered, still immersed in her own world.
Upon seeing this, the Director-General couldn't say anything more and could only wait quietly.
Fortunately, the other party didn't keep her waiting too long.
Abruptly, Elodie raised her head suddenly, as if she had made up her mind, with a determined light shining in her eyes.
"...I'm sorry, Miss Souji, I'll excuse you now!"
Before she finished speaking, she stood up and ran towards the corridor in three steps and two steps at a time, making a "dong-dong" sound on the floor.
Souji sat there blankly, staring blankly at the blond girl who was leaving quickly, and murmured:
"What is going on...?"
…
…
Judi, Qingdeng’s office—
At this moment, except for Qingdeng, there was no one else inside or outside the room.
Behind the desk, Qingdeng sat cross-legged casually, leaning on the elbow rest next to him, lowering his head to read the letter in his hand, frowning slightly.
Recently, he and Tokugawa Iemo have started an extraordinarily intensive correspondence.
Not long ago, they worked hard on the issue of "military reform" and finally reached a preliminary consensus.
Without waiting for a moment's rest, they immediately started the next important topic: "Changzhou Expedition"!
There is a saying that "it is better to chase down the poor bandits with the remaining brave men, and not to be a famous academic overlord".
After several consecutive wars, Changzhou's national power has declined significantly.
If we don't take advantage of this opportunity to launch an attack, when will we wait?
Although it has been determined that the war will begin, when the Western Expedition will be launched and how the attack will be carried out are still open to question.
Regarding the timing of the attack, Qingteng's opinion is to wait until next spring before launching the offensive.
The reason is simple. The climate in spring is neither cold nor hot, there is less logistical pressure, and the soldiers are in better physical condition.
However, Tokugawa Iemo put forward completely different opinions from Aonto.
He advocated officially launching the Western Expedition in the next month...that is, at the end of November!
To be honest, Qingdeng did not agree with his opinion.
Using troops in winter...just the cold-warming clothing of the soldiers and the poor road conditions caused by wind and snow are a huge logistical burden.
However, Tokugawa Iemo's consideration was not without purpose.
First of all, Changzhou is now at its weakest.
Since we decided to take advantage of its illness to kill it, it was natural to send troops as early as possible.
If the time drags on for too long, there is no guarantee that something unexpected will happen.
Considering this aspect, the best policy is to send troops as soon as possible and achieve a quick victory.
Furthermore, if we wait until spring next year to launch the expedition, "spring plowing" is an influencing factor that must be considered.
As the saying goes, "The plan for a year lies in spring."
Spring is the time when farmers plant new seedlings.
In this western expedition, the shogunate and the feudal lords will launch a huge army of 200,000 people!
In this case, it is inevitable to mobilize many civilians to engage in logistics work.
These civilians who were forcibly recruited to transport grain were serving as corvees and received no wages at all.
Even if the shogunate and the feudal lords wanted to show some kindness and obediently pay the wages, their shabby finances would not be able to support this horrific expenditure.
If there are more people going to transport grain, there will definitely be fewer people working in the fields.
As a result, next year's grain production is bound to plummet.
In the feudal era, a reduction in grain production was no small matter...it might lead to big trouble.
Although sending troops in winter will increase the logistical burden, the pressure is limited.
Japan is not Russia, and "Winter General" is not so scary. There is neither waist-deep snow nor terrifying low temperatures of dozens of degrees below zero.
Therefore, sending troops in winter is not an unwise move.
Throughout Japanese history, there are many precedents for sending troops in winter.
All in all, both of their claims are reasonable.
In the end, Aomori agreed with Tokugawa Iemo's proposal—to begin the Western Expedition at the end of November this year!
After finalizing the attack time, the two began to discuss the next step: how to attack?
Such complex issues cannot be communicated effectively through simple letters.
To this end, Tokugawa Iemo sent an invitation to Aonto: Tachibana-kun, come back to Edo! Let’s talk face to face in detail!
The letter Aonto is reading now is Tokugawa Iemo's "invitation letter".
It was just as he wanted - Aomori was indeed willing to return to Edo.
It is necessary to discuss such an important military issue in detail in person.
The last time he returned to Edo was a long time ago.
He could just take advantage of this opportunity to go back and visit old friends such as Kondo Shusuke and Chiba Jutaro.
At this time, somehow, when the idea of "visiting an old friend" passed through Qingdeng's mind, he suddenly recalled the graceful figure of a certain widow...
——His Royal Highness Tianzhangyuan... Thinking about it carefully, she and I have indeed been apart for a long time...
Qingdeng had a helpless smile on his face while thinking to himself.
Then, he let out a sigh of relief and put down the letter in his hand.
Immediately afterwards, he leaned most of his body weight on the elbow rest to relax all the nerves in his body.
His recent mental condition is indeed not very good.
The reason was that he had so many things to do that he didn't even have time to breathe.
In addition to the "Changzhou Expedition", there was another thing that made him frown.
That is Elodie's father.
Nitta Tonosuke was sent to follow and monitor Maher - this happened several days ago.
Logically speaking, Nitta Tonosuke's "surveillance report" should have been delivered early in the morning.
However... as of today, Qingdeng has not received its report.
The meaning behind this is naturally self-evident...
Nitta Tonosuke is one of the most elite ninjas in Division 9, and ordinary people cannot do anything to him.
Even he had an accident... Elodie was right, Maher was indeed suspicious!
According to Elodie, Maher is just an ordinary person with good physical fitness, not a martial arts master with great skills.
In this case, the person who killed Nitta Tonosuke was probably a bodyguard or something like that.
Thinking of this, Qingden became more and more concerned about Maher's true purpose of coming to Japan.
It was a pity to lose an outstanding elite ninja for nothing, but Qingto couldn't bear to be sad.
Now he only thinks about how to remedy the situation, how to find Maher, and find out the truth behind it.
Just when Qingdeng was thinking secretly, the waiter's announcement suddenly came from outside the door:
"My lord, the room chief wants to see you!"
Qingdeng couldn't help but look surprised when he heard this.
——Elodie? Why is she here?
Although he was doubtful in his heart, he was not slow at all and said immediately:
"Let her in!"
"yes!"
After a while, the familiar sound of footsteps reached Qingdeng's ears.
Wow—accompanied by the sound of the door being opened, the long, pale blond hair tied into a high ponytail for ease of movement jumped into Qingden's eyes.
"Elody, why did you come here suddenly?" Qingden asked, looking down at the other party's arms.
I saw Elodie holding a huge bundle, which looked very heavy and I didn't know what it contained.
At first, Qingdeng also thought about changing his name to "Alice".
However, it is indeed quite difficult for him to suddenly change his name to something else after being called "Elodie" for so many years.
After getting the other party's permission, "Don't worry, you can call me by any name you want," Qingdeng chose to keep things as usual and continue to call her "Elodie."
Faced with Qingdeng's inquiry, Elodie smiled slightly:
"Master, it's nothing serious, I just...want to give you something."
"Send me something?"
When Qingdeng heard this, he subconsciously looked at the big bundle in his arms again.
"Master, do you still remember the dream I talked about a while ago?"
As Elodie spoke, she bent down, placed the large bundle in her arms on the ground in front of her knees, and then sat on the ground respectfully.
Qingdeng immediately said:
"'Live a chivalrous life as free as Robin Hood' - of course I remember."
Elodie nodded.
"Yes."
"Although this dream was childish and out of place, I was very serious about it back then."
"Even today, I occasionally fantasize about becoming the second generation of Robin Hood."
"Master, if I remember correctly, I should have told you that in order to realize my dream, I not only asked my father to arrange more swordsmanship lessons for me, but also stole special steel that has been passed down from generation to generation in my family, hoping to use it to
Forge it into a magical weapon that belongs only to me."
Having said this, Elodie stretched out her hand and slowly untied the large bundle in front of her knees.
"It is difficult to verify where this piece of steel came from."
"I only know that our family has acquired this piece of steel a long time ago and regards it as a precious family treasure that has been passed down from generation to generation."
"My father had no interest in it, so he casually placed it in the cabinet in the study. This gave me the opportunity to steal it secretly."
"Father, I'm afraid he still doesn't know that the family heirloom is in my hands to this day."
"When I was very young, my grandfather often told me various stories about this family treasure by the fireplace."
"Although the content of the story is all kinds of weird, there is one thing that I always remember - weapons forged from this steel will have a jet-black luster! And they are extremely tough and sharp!"
“Therefore, our family calls it ‘Broken Iron Steel’, which means ‘cutting steel and breaking iron’!”
When Qingdeng heard this, he could no longer remain calm, and his facial expression was dominated by strong shock.
"Elodie, could it be that..."
Before he finished speaking, Elodie nodded understandingly, with a smile on her face.
"Although I'm not sure yet, I think our family's 'Broken Iron Steel' is your 'Wan Liangang'!"
The moment she finished speaking, Elodie opened the baggage, and the thing inside was finally revealed - an irregular piece of iron.
At the same moment she opened the furoshiki, the room lit up with a dark halo - it was the luster of the iron block.
At first glance, it seems to be just a big black lump of iron.
But if you look carefully, you can find that the iron block has a faint pearl-like luster.
Even Qingdeng, who doesn't understand materials science at all, can still see at a glance how extraordinary this iron is!
Before Qingden could recover from the shock, Elodie continued:
"Master, I came here this time just to entrust it to you."
She paused for a moment, then straightened her back and said seriously:
"Please use this steel to recast Vairocana's blade!"
Her solemn expression and solemn tone... It can be seen that she is not joking, she is very serious.
Qingden looked at Elodie, and then at the "broken iron steel" in front of her knees, and the shock on his face gradually subsided.
"... Elodie, I appreciate your kindness. I cannot accept this thing."
As he spoke, he shook his head solemnly.
"This is your family's heirloom, how can I steal it?"
"Besides...don't you plan to use this steel to forge a magical weapon that is unique to you?"
"In this case, I can't accept it anymore."
Elodie didn't seem surprised by Qingdeng's reply.
I saw her smiling:
"Master, you don't have to be polite."
"It is true that this object is indeed a treasure of our family, and I do intend to use it to forge a magical weapon that is unique to me."
"But since I am my father's only daughter, sooner or later I will inherit all the family property."
"In this case, how to use this family treasure depends entirely on my personal preference."
"I'm just using my property early."
Speaking of this, she stuck out her tongue playfully, showing a sly look on her face.
"As I get older, I gradually understand the reality."
"With my little skills, I can't be considered Robin Hood."
"Compared with wielding a sword, playing with an abacus is more suitable for me."
"I am not a genius warrior like Miss Souji and Miss Sanako. I am just an ordinary person with a little talent."
"It is too wasteful for a mere mortal like me to use such Kobelco."
"A good knife deserves a name, and so does good steel."
"It is better to give up your love generously than to let the pearl gather dust."
"In other words, this is not a 'gift', but an 'entrustment'."
"Master, I now entrust my dream to you!"
"Please use this steel to forge a sword that is unparalleled in the world, and then become a powerful and famous knight throughout the ages, and fulfill my unfinished dream!"
After saying that, Elodie bowed down to salute solemnly, and pushed the black steel in front of her knees forward towards Qingden.
Qingdeng opened his mouth but stopped talking.
He wanted to say something else, but after hearing what Elodie had just said and seeing her engraved expression, the words that had come to his mouth fell back into his stomach.
If Elodie is right, then this piece of "Broken Iron Steel" is most likely "Wan Lian Steel".
The "Wan Liangang" that he had been searching for for a long time but could not find, actually appeared in front of him in this way... To be honest, Qingdeng felt as if he was trapped in a dream.
However, he was not surprised by such an unexpected development.
In the real world, no matter how absurd things are, things can happen.
At this moment, he felt Elodie's unshakable determination.
Especially after she said "Entrust your dreams", there was only one answer Qingdeng could give——
"……I see."
Qingdeng sat solemnly, nodded solemnly, then bent down to return the greeting, and loudly said:
"'Broken Iron Steel', I accept it!"
…
…
The person around Aoto who knows the most about swords and steel is undoubtedly the boss Kiryu, who comes from the Yamada Asaemon family.
After the battle with Hannya, Boss Kiryu, who was seriously injured, did not return to Osaka, but was recuperating in a nearby hospital in the western suburbs of Kyoto.
In order to verify whether "Broken Iron Steel" is "Wanren Steel", Qingden hurriedly rushed to the mansion of Kiryu's boss.
As soon as he saw the other party, he directly took out the "Broken Iron Steel" and showed it to him.
It doesn't matter. At this glance, Boss Kiryu's eyes almost rolled out of his sockets.
Qingden asked:
"Boss Kiryu, how are you? Is this 'Wanliangang'?"
Boss Kiryu was silent for a moment, and then said quietly:
"Tachibana-kun, we're in trouble now... This steel is too perfect. I'm afraid no swordsmith can control this steel now...!"
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