I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Previously, under the propaganda offensive of the "Hitotsubashi faction," many people... including Aoto, believed that Hitotsubashi Yoshiki, who received elite education from a young age, must have some ability.

However... Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu's actual behavior in the face of danger was in stark contrast to his reputation.

The virtuous man championed by the "One Bridge School"... is that all?

Is this the leader of the "Hitotsubashi faction"?

Can such a bunch of people really save the shogunate?

People gradually realized that Yoshiki Hitotsubashi was not as magnificent as it appeared on the surface.

Overnight, Yoshiki Ichijo's reputation plummeted, and he became a laughingstock.

As a result, the "Hitotsubashi faction" also became the target of ridicule.

Clearly, the infamous Hitotsubashi faction is no longer qualified to confront the Nanki faction.

Knowing he had gotten himself into serious trouble, Yoshinobu Hitotsubashi resigned from his position as "Shogun's retainer" after sneaking back to Edo, and retreated to his residence to live a life of leisure, thus giving himself a semblance of dignity.

Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu, the core figure of the "Hitotsubashi faction," has already "surrendered," so Matsudaira Haruaki, who is merely the "second-in-command," naturally has no reason to continue to hold out.

He also relinquished his position as "President of Political Affairs" and returned to his own domain (Echizen Fukui Domain).

Thus, the two leaders of the "Hitotsubashi faction" stepped down and left the stage one after another.

Just because of a careless remark by Yoshiki Hitotsubashi, the "Hitotsubashi faction" has completely lost power and is now practically defunct.

The fierce political struggle between the "Nanki faction" and the "Hitotsubashi faction," which lasted for many years, came to an end with a farcical and absurd result.

There is no power vacuum; there will always be other people or forces to fill the power void.

With the "Hitotsubashi faction" losing power, the "Nanki faction" naturally gained power.

Compared to the bewildered and helpless Yoshinobu Hitotsubashi, Aoto's heroic act of dismissing the British ships a few days ago was swift and decisive, full of masculine spirit!

It not only lifted the siege of Edo, but also allowed the shogunate to finally give the imperial court an explanation.

In any case, it was the shogunate that issued the call to "begin expelling the barbarians on May 10th".

Judging from the current situation, this call for action has unexpectedly worked.

The shogunate was not burdened by the "expelling the barbarians" campaign.

Instead, it was Changzhou that fell into the trap.

However... this cannot change the fact that the shogunate was inconsistent.

At this critical moment, Qing Deng made his move.

They drove away the British fleet in Edo Bay—that could be considered expelling the barbarians!

Although it wasn't the kind of expulsion of foreigners that the imperial court wanted, it was still a concrete action taken.

In terms of actual power and status, Aoto was the third-in-command of the "Nanki faction"—the first two being Tokugawa Iemochi and Tenshōin.

The third-in-command made such a great contribution that the prestige of the entire "Southern Ji Faction" rose accordingly.

With the shift in power and the absence of the constraints imposed by the "Hitotsubashi faction," Tokugawa Iemochi was finally able to concentrate his strength and resources to build the shogunate he envisioned!

The first thing he did was to allocate funds to the new electoral group.

Previously, when the Shinsengumi was first established, Tokugawa Iemochi only paid such a small amount of military expenses (3000 taels of gold) because the Hitotsubashi faction obstructed him at every turn.

One minute they're saying the national treasury is empty, the next they're saying they need money here and they need to repay debts there... In short, they're going against Tokugawa Iemochi!

Now, all those fly-like noises have disappeared.

With a stroke of his pen, Tokugawa Iemochi directly issued an imperial edict to allocate 2 taels of gold annually to the Shinsengumi for military expenses, with one-quarter paid in the spring, one-quarter in the summer, and the remaining half in the winter, to be paid in three installments.

With the Hitotsubashi faction weakening and the Nanki faction gaining power, and Aoto, who had made great contributions to "saving Edo," at the height of his power, no one or any force dared to disobey Tokugawa Iemochi's imperial edict.

2 taels of gold—to ordinary people, this is a dizzying astronomical figure.

During the Edo period, one tael of gold could generally buy one koku of rice, and a territory of 10,000 koku... that is, 10,000 koku of rice could support 250 full-time soldiers.

The Shinsengumi now has 3000 soldiers.

To put it in perspective, feeding the 3000 soldiers of the Shinsengumi would require at least 12 koku of rice, or 12 taels of gold.

An annual military allowance of 2 taels of gold... is simply a drop in the bucket for the current Shinsengumi.

However, it's better than nothing.

It's better to have money than not to have money.

Seito was well aware of the current financial situation of the shogunate.

It is already quite an achievement to be able to squeeze out 2 taels of gold each year to support the new electoral group.

Immediately afterwards, Tokugawa Iemochi allocated a large sum of money to the Military Academy and the Bureau of Foreign Documents.

The latter is an educational institution that specializes in the study of Western learning.

As for the former—for several years now, the Military Academy has been trying to train and build a fully Westernized new army.

Tokugawa Iemochi's intention in allocating funds to these two institutions is quite clear.

Then, he summoned the French Minister to Japan, Roche, to discuss the possibility of "Franco-Museum cooperation".

Both Aoto and Katsura Rintaro participated in this unique bilateral meeting.

On the surface, France has the largest army in Europe.

Since the "Black Ships Incident," the shogunate's number one enemy has never been the western countries, but rather the imperial court and the western domains, which were eager to make moves when they saw the situation changing.

Therefore, the shogunate now prefers a strong army to a powerful navy.

In this way, the shogunate would definitely prefer France, which was better at land warfare.

The shogunate's proposition was simple—France would provide the shogunate with advanced weapons and assist in establishing a new army.

France, as one of the greedy and shameless Western powers, naturally had no good intentions.

Their goal was simple—to make the Shogunate France's dog.

The interests of both sides are aligned in some respects.

The French wanted the Shogunate to be their dog, but to make the dog more effective, it had to be made stronger.

After several days of back-and-forth wrangling, although the two sides did not reach a specific cooperation agreement, they did manage to reach some substantive agreements.

Everything that needed to be dealt with has been taken care of.

The holidays I was supposed to spend have mostly come to an end.

The new recruits in Edo have all completed their preparations for departure and are ready to be deployed at any time.

Having rested and recharged, Qingdeng immediately issued the order—

June 24th, returned to Kyoto!

……

……

Wenjiu three years (1863), August 23, night——

Edo, Koishikawa Kohinata Yanagi Town, Test Guard Hall——

Tomorrow morning, Aoto and Hijikata Toshizo will lead all the new recruits of the Shinsengumi on their journey back to the capital.

Tonight is their last night in Edo.

For this reason, the meal at Shiwei Hall tonight is exceptionally lavish.

It has all five flavors and is served with chilled drinks.

Aoto, Hijikata Toshizo, Kondo Shusuke, Okita Hikaru, Okita Rintaro (Okita Hikaru's husband), Obi (Kondo Shusuke's wife), Otsune (Kondo Isami's wife), and Aoto's old servant Kyubei gathered in the hall of the Shieikan and quietly ate their dinner.

After Qing Deng and others arrived in Kyoto, Jiubei replaced Inoue Genzaburo as the current "head steward" of the Shieikan, taking full responsibility for all miscellaneous tasks such as sweeping and laundry at the Shieikan.

Kyubei was originally an old servant of the Tachibana family, serving them.

Therefore, he was quite adept at handling these trivial household chores.

It is worth mentioning that the meal Qingdeng and the others ate tonight was unusual.

There were clearly only 8 people eating here.

However, there were more than eight servings of food laid out here.

Around Qing Deng and the others, there were many dining tables, each laden with sumptuous dishes.

Upon careful counting, there were exactly eight meals, no more and no less.

These eight dishes stood alone, steaming.

There was no one sitting around them...

There weren't that many people, yet so many dishes were laid out... At first glance, the scene was quite shocking.

In reality, this is a very solemn Japanese custom called "yin shan" (陰膳).

The so-called "yin shan" refers to providing meals for people who are traveling or going to war and are not at home, praying that they can be well-fed and safe in a foreign land.

These eight meals represent the eight people who are currently not at the Shieikan: Kondo Isami, Yamanami Keisuke, Okita Souji, Nagakura Shinpachi, Saito Hajime, Inoue Genzaburo, Todo Heisuke, and Harada Sanosuke.

In fact, this is not only the case tonight.

After Qing Deng and his group arrived in Luoyang, those who remained at the Imperial Examination Hall would prepare elaborate meals for them every day and at every meal.

Before Aoto and Hijikata Toshizo returned, Kondo Shusuke and the others had to prepare not just 8 servings of yin-shan (a type of vegetarian meal), but a full 10 servings—because they also had to include one serving for Aoto and Hijikata Toshizo.

Preparing so much food that no one will eat at every meal... one can imagine how much waste this will cause.

It was only after returning to Edo that Aoto learned that Kondo Shusuke and the others had been praying for them through "yin shan" (a type of vegetarian meal).

He initially thought it was Kondo Shusuke's idea.

Unexpectedly... the person who advocated for this matter was none other than the mistress of the examination hall—Aunt Abi.

Qingdeng was initially shocked, and then overwhelmed with mixed feelings.

It's no wonder that the Qing Deng Association acted this way.

When Qingdeng and the others first moved into the Shiwei Hall, Abi always had a sour face and seemed to dislike them.

For this reason, many people, including Qing Deng and Yongcang Xinpachi, are quite afraid of Abi and try to avoid him as much as possible.