Simulation: Starting from Under One Person

Compared to the shogunate, Katsura Kotaro was easier to persuade, since he had been consistently trying to expel the Amanto...

After meeting and talking, the result was as he expected: Katsura Kotaro was willing to accept the investment, but... he would not obey Fang Rui's orders to do anything illegal.

Fang Rui naturally had no objection to this; he was a good person and would not coerce anyone into doing anything.

"If, I mean if... you were in a situation where you needed to cooperate with the Shogunate, what would you do?"

Before leaving the Yorozuya, Fang Rui asked this question, and Katsura Kotaro replied without hesitation, "I will choose to cooperate."

Fang Rui said nothing, turned and left the Yorozuya, and listened to a group of people talking about trivial matters in the Otose Tavern, waiting for news from Matsudaira Katakuri.

After confirming the location of the ski resort, Matsudaira Katakuriko will send a text message to Fang Rui.

In the evening, Fang Rui received a text message with the transaction address recorded, and then he invited Sakata Gintoki and others to go skiing.

Sakata Gintoki and the others naturally didn't refuse. Even though they were injured, they still wanted to go to the ski resort, since it was free...

The next day, the group traveled by car to the ski resort. Fang Rui looked at the continuous snow-capped mountains and nodded slightly. Under normal circumstances, the mountains and forests would indeed provide some cover.

But wouldn't it be more eye-catching if a starship landed here?

Or do these people think I wouldn't use starships to transport weapons? Instead, I'd use other means of transportation...

Without dwelling on the matter, Fang Rui parted ways with Sakata Gintoki and the others, and went into the mountains alone. He randomly chose a mountain and carved out a huge cavity inside it to store laser cannons and shield generation devices.

"Okay, notify them to come and pick up the goods."

I took out my phone to check; the signal was a bit weak, but I could still send text messages.

Meanwhile, Matsudaira Katakuri and his team had just arrived at the ski resort and were packing their gear.

Although the so-called "comfort trip" is just a pretext, everyone will genuinely be here to have fun after the deal goes smoothly, so... there's a part of it real.

Matsudaira Katakuri saw the text message and told the others about it.

"First, ski, then 'accidentally' leave the safe zone and head to the transaction location."

The team they brought was carefully selected, but even so, it couldn't be confirmed that there weren't any spies from the Heavenly Path Clan within it...

Therefore, they had no intention of bringing anyone else with them to the trading location.

"So……"

"let's start!"

After exchanging glances for a moment, everyone took out their skis and started playing on the ski slopes. Sakata Gintoki and the others, who had been invited by Fang Rui and the others, were also in the skiing group.

Whether it's some kind of rule or just a coincidence...

Whenever Sakata Gintoki and the others encounter the Shogun, the Shogun always seems to have bad luck and gets tricked in all sorts of ways.

Today is the same.

Before Tokugawa Shigeshige and the others could even begin to implement their plan, it was interrupted by a sudden accident. Tokugawa Shigeshige was crushed by a snowball, then embedded in it, and rolled straight into the forest.

"It's so noisy..."

Fang Rui, who was guarding the foot of the mountain, looked up and looked at a mountain on his left, which was the mountain where the ski resort was located.

At that moment, something happened, and an avalanche occurred on one side of the mountain, the rumbling sound echoing through the valley.

Fang Rui vaguely heard screams.

"Could the avalanche have been caused by Sakata Gintoki and the others?"

Considering the troublemaking abilities of certain individuals, Fang Rui became even more convinced of his suspicions. Estimating the distance, he figured the avalanche wouldn't affect him, so he stopped worrying about it and instead took out a pair of binoculars to observe the situation…

"Whoa~ It really is them..."

Seeing the group of people embedded in the snowball, Fang Rui was momentarily speechless.

How did these people manage to squeeze themselves into such a huge snowball?

One or two is normal.

But the sight of a dozen snowballs rolling in a wave-like pattern, with an avalanche-induced wave chasing behind them, seemed rather strange no matter how you looked at it.

"You guys really know how to have fun..."

As he grumbled, Fang Rui shifted his gaze to the back, where he could see a helicopter with people inside looking at Snowball.

Apart from that, no one else was seen.

Without looking around any further, Fang Rui's gaze returned to the snowball inlaid with Sakata Gintoki and the others.

Perhaps it was luck, but there were no obstacles such as rocks or trees along the way, and the group rolled smoothly all the way into the cliff.

Seeing this, the people in the helicopter immediately picked up their walkie-talkies and notified the others to go down the cliff to search for the missing people.

Seeing this, Fang Rui put away his binoculars, no longer interested in watching the show. After confirming the location of the group, he headed straight for the target location.

Then he summoned several paper doll shikigami to carry Sakata Gintoki and the others back to the cave. As for the other people who were searching for Sakata Gintoki and the others, Fang Rui did not notify them for the time being.

There's no complicated reason; I just find it too troublesome.

Inside the cave, Fang Rui piled up the dry branches, then used the Yin-Yang technique he had learned the day before to create a fireball and ignite the branches...

Sensing the warmth, Sakata Gintoki and the others gradually woke up.

"Hey! How was your skiing experience?"

Fang Rui greeted the group of people who had just woken up with these words.

The next second, Sakata Gintoki and the others' faces turned ashen; their skiing experience was, to say the least, terrible.

I spent less than half an hour on the skis; the rest of the time I was falling and tumbling.

Seeing that the others did not answer, Fang Rui did not press them for an answer and instead looked at the others.

"Would you like to inspect the goods?" Fang Rui asked Sasaki Isaburo, Tokugawa Shigeshige, and the others.

"Of course!" Sasaki Isaburo replied decisively.

"...It seems you have something to discuss. Let's go gather some firewood nearby."

The conversation between the group made Sakata Gintoki realize that what they were talking about was definitely not simple. He had no intention of getting involved, so he told Kagura and the others what to do and then left the cave first, with Kagura and the others following closely behind.

After all the irrelevant people left, the group headed deeper into the cave and soon came across neatly stacked laser cannons and shield generation devices.

"The weapons here are enough to arm two hundred of your warships. After you have verified them one by one, we can discuss the second deal."

Two hundred warships—not a lot, not a little—is a number that even the current shogunate might not be able to muster.

After all, too many warships would arouse the suspicion of some people.

Sasaki Isaburo and the others said nothing, picked up the laser cannons and left the cave, testing the power of the laser cannons and the defense of the shield generation device in the snowfield...

Because there were outsiders present, the group didn't test everyone individually; they only picked and chose a few to test...

"Let's discuss future cooperation matters."

After everyone returned to the cave, Sasaki Isaburo started a conversation. After confirming Fang Rui's strength as a weapons merchant, he felt that they could cooperate.

“Actually, there’s nothing to talk about,” Fang Rui explained succinctly. “You need to gradually build up your strength, so you need an organization to help you manage your weapons, and the person I’ve chosen for you is…”

As he spoke, Fang Rui looked at someone, "Katsura Kotaro!"

"As a renowned anti-foreign activist, it is only natural for him to acquire arms. Letting him attract attention temporarily is fine, but once the number of weapons such as warships increases, it will be very troublesome if he owns them all."

"So, you need to find more 'teammates'..."

Tokugawa Shigeshige and others had no objection to this, after all, the shogunate was almost like a sieve, with many spies from other forces.

but……

They couldn't trust Sasaki Isaburo and others, or Tokugawa Shigeshige, to hand over the purchased weapons to the anti-foreign organization.

At this point in time, Tokugawa Shigeshige and the others have hardly spent any time with Katsura Kotaro, and do not know much about his true nature, so they cannot trust Katsura Kotaro.

"Or rather, secretly supporting several military units."

Sasaki Isaburo and the others remained silent, each lost in thought. Fang Rui looked at Katsura Kotaro and asked for his opinion.

"So? What are your thoughts after watching the whole thing?"

Katsura Kotaro was silent for a moment, then said, "I have no thoughts."

His gaze fell on Tokugawa Shigeshige and the others, his eyes flickering slightly, as if he were thinking about something.

"Let's eliminate the internal parasites first! After all, we must first secure our internal stability before we can fight off external enemies. If our internal situation is not stable, we cannot use all our strength to drive out external enemies."

Fang Rui didn't say it explicitly, but everyone present started to make connections. While the people they thought of weren't exactly the same, there was some overlap.

For example, the previous general. From his actions, everyone knew that he was close to the celestial beings, which was different from their position, and he was the target that needed to be dealt with first.

And dealing with him is quite troublesome.

Eliminating him, even if it's not exactly severing one of the Heavenly Dao Sect's hands, can at least be considered removing a stumbling block to our side.

"Leave it to us! I'll send someone to assassinate him," Katsura Kotaro said, eager to take on the task.

The previous general was his enemy and one of the culprits who caused him to lose his teacher, Songyang.

Tokugawa Shigeshige and the others ignored him and continued their discussion.

"The chances of an assassination succeeding are very small, and my uncle is always accompanied by guards."

Tokugawa Shigeshige provided the information without much hesitation.

"His bodyguard is Tenshoin Naraku, an assassination unit directly under the Tendoushu."

Imai Nobuo also stated based on the information she possessed, "I do not recommend using assassination to eliminate the target."

"No, actually, assassination is a good solution." Fang Rui had a different opinion. "Now we have sniper rifles that can snipe enemies from thousands of meters away. If we deploy more snipers, we can always complete the mission."

"What you need to think about is how to lure him out. A more spacious place is more suitable for snipers."

No one said anything upon hearing this; neither did they adopt Fang Rui's suggestion nor did they explicitly reject it.

Seeing that no one responded, Fang Rui did not continue the discussion and left the cave alone, finding Sakata Gintoki and the others who were picking up tree branches.

Is exploring the snowfield interesting?

Fang Rui's greetings were always so infuriating; Sakata Gintoki didn't respond and asked about something else.

"Are you planning to start a war?"

Sakata Gintoki's voice was so low that it would dissipate with a gust of cold wind and would not be heard by others.