In order to become a Heroic Spirit, I had no choice but to cause trouble in history.

He used to be active in the Kyoto area and knew where there were suitable places to establish a base. Moreover, if the loyalist party could really gain a certain status in Kyoto, the main members might enter the city and make contact with the imperial court and the shogunate.

Zuocun found a small, abandoned village that seemed to have been robbed by bandits, with the houses showing signs of burning.

Zuocun frowned. He had passed through here when he left Kyoto, and the village was still in good condition then.

"This is really..."

Bandits.

While every era has its share of such people, their presence is particularly abundant in this hellish age.

"Is everything around Kyoto unsafe?" Samura touched the charred wall, his brow furrowed. "What on earth are those people from the shogunate doing?"

"Even in this ambiguous period of cooperation between the court and the samurai, we shouldn't be so dismissive of the security of Kyoto and its surrounding areas!" Sangaku sighed.

Kanna stood beside Samura, her eyes slightly blurry, her body trembling.

"What's wrong, Kanna?" Zuocun squatted down and looked at Kanna's face.

He didn't dare look directly into Kanna's eyes, and could only look at Kanna's nose.

“I remember… our house looked like this after the attack.” She looked like she was about to cry.

Zuocun fell silent.

Kanna was reminded of the day that had caused her to break down, triggered by the sight of the scene.

Gently stroking Kanna's hair, Samura sighed, "Let's choose another place. This place is no longer suitable as a base for our operations."

Zuocun also knew that there were other villages in the surrounding area.

Kanna nodded and quietly followed behind Samura.

After walking for a while, the two of them reached the hillside.

Zuocun heard a sound.

Several people emerged from the surrounding area.

Despite it being the dead of winter, these people were wearing short coats that allowed them to move around easily but offered no warmth.

Zuo Cun's eyes turned cold.

Mountain bandits.

Moreover, each of these bandits carried a dagger at their waist.

"You're clearly samurai, yet you've chosen to be bandits," Zuocun said sarcastically. "Don't you know the katana at your waists are crying?"

"Mr. Sumida, he seems to be a samurai as well. Should we still fight?" A bandit nervously gripped the katana at his waist, looking at Samura, who stood there like a sword.

"Definitely going..."

Before the bandit leader could finish speaking, he saw Zuocun draw his sword, not a katana, but a wakizashi pheasant feather.

“Too much gore in front of children might frighten them.” Zuo Cun stood up on his pheasant feathers, which reflected a cold, eerie light. “So please, stand quietly.”

After saying that, Zuo Cun disappeared from the spot.

"what!"

"Where!"

The bandits immediately became agitated.

Zuo Cun hovered in the air, observing the bandits' positions.

He wanted to eliminate the bandits before they could reach Kanna.

"Shina! Close your eyes!" Samura shouted in the air.

Terrified, Kanna immediately closed her eyes, and the bandits followed the sound and discovered Zuocun.

But it was too late.

"New Feather Wheel - Wing Two!"

Zuocun spun around.

"Scatter the pheasants!"

Emerald green shoots swirl in the mountain breeze, falling like dust, unstained by blood.

The bandits watched as Zuo Village was bombarded down from the sky like a hurricane, and they tried to scatter and flee.

"It's too late!"

boom----

Before they could even scream, about half of the bandits were killed instantly.

Their bodies were cut into several pieces by pheasant feathers, and their internal organs fell to the ground.

Zuocun did not stop. Besides jumping, he was also good at thrusting, but it was not as terrifying as Okita Souji's Mumei Sandan Thrust.

In less than five minutes, all of the dozen or so bandits were killed.

Exhaling a breath of stale air, Zuo Cun shook the pheasant feathers, which were unstained by blood, and gently sheathed them.

"Let's go, Kanna, don't open your eyes." Sakura's tone was very gentle.

“…Mmm.” Kanna’s voice was barely audible.

Holding Kanna's hand, Zuocun quickly left the mountain path littered with the corpses of bandits.

Feeling the small hand trembling slightly in his own, Zuo Cun remained silent.

Kanna did not open her eyes.

She knew what had happened.

Samura was a very powerful unofficial samurai. Although he did not have a formal identity, everyone who knew Samura respected him.

Kanna knew perfectly well what would happen when a powerful samurai encountered bandits.

Smelling the faint smell of blood in the air, Kanna held back her tears.

------------

Chapter 341 Kyoto Security

Samura has found a base, and now all that is waiting for is for the feudal lord to enter the capital, and for the loyalist party to come along as well.

Although the anti-foreign forces suffered a severe setback during the Ansei Purge a couple of years ago, they are like a centipede that dies but does not fall down. The Hitotsubashi faction, led by Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu, is still active in the shogunate and the imperial court as the leaders of the anti-foreign movement.

The most fundamental reason was that the passion of the lower-ranking samurai among the common people greatly aided the anti-foreign faction.

As for the Emperor, although these samurai were fighting under the banner of "respecting the Emperor and expelling the barbarians," the Emperor himself did not share their views and even disliked these samurai who were spreading the idea of ​​expelling the barbarians.

Emperor Komei was undoubtedly a proponent of the "union of the court and the samurai." In recent years, the emperor, who had no real power, had been working to unite the court and the samurai in order to achieve stability.

Although foreigners are formidable, the Emperor is well aware that as long as Japan does not take the initiative to attack and compromises with them to a certain extent, it can buy Japan enough time to develop. After all, these foreigners have never focused their attention on Japan; their eyes are on other places, not on this small springboard.

March.

The Tosa Domain lord, Yamanouchi Yodo, compromised with the loyalist party and led his domain troops into Kyoto, where the loyalist party also followed.

Samura, who had been guarding the vicinity of Kyoto, quickly located Takechi Zuizan and Sakamoto Ryoma after learning that the Tosa Domain had arrived.

"How have things been lately?" The group was heading to the base they had set up in Zuo Village.

"Nothing's wrong. Since you killed Yoshida Toyo beforehand, we didn't encounter much resistance. If Yamanouchi Yodo wants to support someone else to fight against us, he can't do it in a short time."

"That's good." Zuo Cun smiled, neither taking credit nor saying anything more. "Mr. Wu Shi, then, I'll leave things here to you."

"Don't worry, you'll just be ordinary patriots." Takeshi Zuizan patted Samura and Ryoma on the shoulder.

Takeshi Zuizan was also a proponent of the anti-foreign movement, but he was able to see beyond the surface of anti-foreignism to its true essence.

Expelling foreigners does not necessarily mean driving them out; befriending them is also a way to expel foreigners.

However, now that the whole country is calling for the expulsion of foreigners, Takeshi Ruizan, as the leader of a party, will not be foolish enough to go against the tide.

Anyway, his task was just to attract attention.

"Well, I'll be leaving after you take over the base and supplies." Zuo Cun glanced at Long Ma.

“The organization’s operating funds can be obtained from Izang,” Longma added.

As a wealthy dog ​​owner, the thing he can do most is naturally money.

"By the way, Mr. Takeichi, when Lord Yamanouchi enters the Imperial Court, I hope that Lord Yamanouchi can convey a message, or rather, a reminder, to His Majesty the Emperor and the Shogun."

"Tell me, and I'll try my best to help if I can." Wu Shi Ruishan listened attentively.

"This matter is quite important..." Zuo Cun's eyes were as cold as ice. "Please ask those two important figures to pay close attention to the security issues around Kyoto."

Wu Shi Ruishan felt a little cold and nodded: "Oh, oh."

......

Yamanouchi-do brought with him the will of the Tosa Domain and the Tosa Loyalist Party, so he could not escape the word "expelling the barbarians".

Xiaoming gets annoyed just hearing that word now.

"I understand, Lord Yamauchi. Is there anything else?" Emperor Komei sighed, looking at Yamauchi Yodo with a listless expression.

His health is deteriorating.

"Hmm... there's one more thing." Yamanouchi Yodo hesitated for a moment, recalling what Takeichi Zuizan had said to him so respectfully before.

"What is it? Tell me."

"Your Majesty, please pay close attention to the security situation in Kyoto and the surrounding areas," Yamanouchi-do said, bowing his head as he advised Emperor Komei.

Takaaki paused, then shook his head and smiled: "Lord Yamauchi, you shouldn't have come to me about this. You should have gone to Tokugawa Iemochi."

“…I understand.” Yamanouchi Yodo gave a bitter, dry laugh.

As a relatively traditional feudal lord, he cared more about "respecting the emperor" than about "expelling the barbarians" which was more important to the loyalist faction.

Despite being of divine blood, the Emperor possessed pitifully few rights.

Moreover, even their meager rights are subject to interference.

Hisamitsu Shimazu, who was far away in Satsuma, shared the same worries.