I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

The sheer number of customers, the sheer popularity comparable to the Gion Festival, would make any businessman envious!

[Note: Gion Matsuri: An annual festival held in Kyoto, considered Japan's largest and most famous festival, and one of the three major summer festivals in Japan. (The other two are Osaka's Tenjin Matsuri and Edo's Kanda Matsuri.)]

Despite the overwhelming influx of customers to the new Chamber of Commerce, there was no chaos at the sales site.

Whether it's supplying goods behind the scenes or selling them on stage, everything is proceeding in an orderly manner.

This only proves one thing: the person in charge of the newly elected Chamber of Commerce is very capable! Their management skills are extremely excellent!

In that instant, Takechi Hanpeita suddenly remembered the day when Seito personally came to his door, asking him to restore the reputation of Iwasaki Yataro's father and to move the Iwasaki family's household registration out of the Tosa Domain.

Scenes from that time flashed quickly through his mind.

Finally, an image froze before his eyes—

When he asked, "What kind of person could make you go to such lengths?" Aoto replied with a meaningful smile, "Well... it's hard for me to explain in just a few words. In short—Iwasaki Yataro is definitely worth me going to such lengths for."

Qing Deng exchanged Iwasaki Yataro for a promissory note worth 10 taels of gold...

At this moment, Wu Shihanhei suddenly realized, belatedly, that she seemed to have lost a treasure far more valuable than 10 taels of gold...

Thinking of this, his face turned as if it had been painted with blue pigment... a pale, luminous color.

……

……

Kyoto, Mibu Village, Shinsengumi Garrison, Seito's Study—

Qingdeng crossed his legs and casually leaned against the elbow rest beside him.

Yataro Iwasaki sat upright in front of him, holding a thick ledger in his hands.

"Lord Ren-ou! I..."

He had barely begun to speak when Qingdeng raised his hand and made a "pause" gesture, saying:

"Iwasaki-kun, before we get down to business, I have something very important to tell you."

Yataro Iwasaki paused for a moment, then quickly asked:

"what's up?"

"It's about time you changed how you address me, isn't it?"

As he spoke, Qingdeng showed a helpless expression.

"Using 'Lord Niou' all the time... it's tiring and makes people feel distant."

"If it were a complete stranger who didn't know me well, then it wouldn't matter."

"You and I are now comrades-in-arms who share honor and disgrace, and we will be working together for a long time to come."

“It just doesn’t feel right to keep using such a cumbersome form of address.”

"So, please use a more friendly way to address me."

After listening, Iwasaki Yataro hesitated and spoke haltingly:

"But... I can't very well address you by your full name..."

Qingdeng smiled:

"If you must use a respectful term for me, just call me 'Mr. Tachibana' like Nagakura, Harada, and Todo do."

After thinking for a while, Yataro Iwasaki nodded vigorously.

"Well then... Mr. Tachibana, please allow me to report on the current situation of the New Selection Chamber of Commerce!"

Qingdeng nodded slightly.

"The workshop is operating very stably, and there is no need to worry about production output."

"Our two major tactics—'inviting geishas to help out' and 'making tile merchants quarrel with each other'—have both been huge successes!"

"Under Miss Shiyo's leadership, most of the geisha in Gion have started using our new mirrors."

"The influence of geisha is indeed extraordinary."

"Nowadays, almost every woman in Kyoto knows that the silver mirrors produced by Shinsen Shokai are very popular among the geisha, so they rush to buy them to imitate the geisha."

"The two tile merchants we bribed faithfully followed our instructions, arguing with each other at a rate of one article per day, putting on a perfect show and successfully attracting the attention of the people of Kyoto."

"The number of customers attracted by these two tactics far exceeded our expectations."

"For this reason, it took me a little longer to finally compile a list of income and expenses since the business opened!"

As he spoke, he opened the ledger in his hand.

"To date, we have sold a total of 712 mirrors! Among them, 268 are life-size mirrors..."

He reported to Qing Deng, item by item, on the operations of the newly established Chamber of Commerce since its opening.

Qingdeng listened attentively without any emotion, showing neither sadness nor joy, and made no response.

A moment later, Yataro Iwasaki read out the last item, which was also the one that Aoto was most concerned about:

"In summary, the net income of the New Chamber of Commerce in recent days is... is... is..."

He suddenly stopped talking at this point.

At the same time, an excited flush appeared on his face.

After catching his breath several times, he took a deep breath, his chest heaving, and said loudly, word by word:

"5167 gold medals!"

After saying that, he seemed to lose all his strength, his back bent down, and he looked like he was about to collapse to the ground.

He wasn't the only one whose body went limp.

"..."

Qing Deng remained expressionless and silent, just as before—this composed and calm demeanor lasted only 5 seconds.

Five seconds later, as if he could no longer control his body, he let out a long breath and slumped onto the elbow rest.

"That's really outrageous profit..."

He grinned, saying this with a mixture of joy and emotion.

Making a silver mirror doesn't cost much at all.

Both the raw materials and the production process are incredibly inexpensive.

For just a few coins, a silver mirror worth more than ten taels of gold can be made.

To say it's "a sure thing" would be an exaggeration.

However, if we're talking about making a huge profit from a small investment, then that's certainly true.

With such a huge profit margin and such a large influx of customers, earning more than five thousand taels of gold in just a few days was simply a matter of course and a sure thing.

More than five thousand taels of gold... It's embarrassing to admit, Qingdeng had never owned such a large sum of money before.

Even at his richest, his savings amounted to only a little over three thousand taels of gold.

And this is just the beginning.

The business scope of the Shinsengumi Chamber of Commerce is currently still limited to a small area of ​​Kyoto.

Once the reputation of Shinsen Lens spreads and people all over Japan come to buy Shinsen Lens, the income of Shinsen Trading Company and the wealth of Seido will surely increase exponentially!

Once they have enough money, they can buy several steamships, develop foreign trade, and export silver mirrors to countries such as Ryukyu and Korea.

How much money will come in then... Qing Deng can't even imagine!

Although as the Shinsengumi continues to grow, selling silver mirrors alone will gradually become insufficient to support the daily expenses of such a large army, at this stage, Aoto no longer needs to worry about money.

—The funding problem of the new shogunate... has finally been initially resolved!

Upon realizing this, Qingdeng's cheeks flushed with excitement.

Once his excitement had subsided somewhat, he sat up straight and addressed Iwasaki Yataro in a loud voice:

"Iwasaki-kun, please take note! I will make the following plans for the newly received five thousand taels of gold!"

"Mr. Ju, are you going to spend this money now?"

"Needless to say? The purpose of making money is to spend it, right? In short, let's buy a batch of warhorses first! And equip all my soldiers with brand-new gear!"

……

……

Ise, Kyoto region—

On a country lane where the sounds of chickens and dogs could be heard, a strangely shaped sedan chair sped along.

There were six sedan chair carriers pushing and carrying the sedan chair.

Four people carried the sedan chair at each of the four corners, one at the front and one at the back. The person in front pulled hard, while the person in the back pushed desperately.

They gritted their teeth and ran at full speed, disregarding their own strength... their speed was frightening, and the sedan chair they were pushing was shaking violently.

Although it is now close to April, it is still late winter and the weather is cold.

However, the cold weather did not dampen the enthusiasm of the sedan chair carriers.

All six sedan chair carriers were shirtless, revealing their bodies, which, while not strong, were still considered healthy. They were all drenched in sweat, with faint, translucent steam rising from their heads.

The area is crisscrossed by paths, so I encountered many pedestrians on the road.

Upon seeing the sedan chair, the pedestrians along the way all changed their expressions and hurriedly stepped aside to make way for it.

The reason for this was that they all understood what the appearance of this sedan chair would signify.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that this is a "fast car" that is only deployed in emergency situations!

Japan is a mountainous country, with nearly 80% of its land area consisting of hills and mountains.

In addition, the quality of native Japanese horses is very poor; they are not only short, but also lack endurance and explosive power.

Given these unique national circumstances, horseback riding is often not the best option for traveling. In many cases, riding a horse is not as efficient as walking.

Therefore, when the shogunate and feudal states needed to send important information to a certain place, they often dispatched sedan chairs instead of post horses.

In a sense, the fast car was a deadly mode of transportation.