I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Suddenly, Qing Deng asked Yuan Canqi:

"Yuan Jun, how many troops do you... no, how many troops do we currently have?"

Yuan Canqi replied without hesitation:

"We currently have 2173 able-bodied men of working age!"

"If war comes, we can probably mobilize about 2500 men who are ready to fight if we grit our teeth."

With 2500 troops... that's quite a lot more than Qingdeng had anticipated.

It is said that "a thousand people are of one mind," but its scale cannot remain unchanged indefinitely.

After more than two hundred years of growth and reproduction, their total military strength naturally exceeded one thousand people.

Qingdeng then asked:

"How much grain, hay, and horses do we currently have stored?"

Yuan Canqi's response was still swift:

"We currently have a total of 3282 shi of grain, 1547 shi of fodder, and 82 horses, including 51 pack horses and 31 warhorses that can be ridden."

"Where are the weapons?"

“4145 katanas, 1389 wakizashi, 357 sankan-ya, 28 longbows, and 12 arquebuses.”

At this point, Yuan Canqi turned to the side and winked at someone behind him.

This person was quite astute; after noticing the other party's expression, he immediately picked up the black book in his hands and handed it to Yuan Canqi with both hands.

This is an incredibly thick leather book.

At first glance, it looks like a city brick, with a severely damaged cover and yellowed paper.

Yuan Canqi then handed the large book to Qing Deng.

“Lord Renwang, these are our account books since January of last year. Please take a look.”

Qingdeng reached out and took the book, unfolded it, and flipped through the pages rapidly, reading ten lines at a glance.

With the combined effect of his innate talent for "concentration" and "photographic memory," his reading and digestion speeds are extremely fast.

As he watched, he continued to question Yuan Canqi—his innate talent of "Ambidextrous Fighting"—which, when activated, allowed him to multitask effortlessly.

The questions he asked covered a wide range of topics.

They asked about everything from the annual training schedule to daily dietary habits.

From the agricultural harvest situation in recent years to whether there have been any strange strangers wandering around here recently.

Faced with the bizarre and varied questions raised by Qing Deng, Yuan Canqi calmly and accurately answered them one by one.

At the same moment Qing Deng finished asking his question, the ledger in his hand also turned to the last page.

"...Yes, thank you for your hard work."

Qing Deng gave Yuan Canqi an approving look, his facial features relaxing slightly.

Qingdeng is very satisfied with the current performance of the original participants... no, with the "thousand heads and ten families".

He was used to the bureaucrats of the shogunate living a life of ease and comfort, and he was also used to their utter incompetence.

He was quite surprised and unaccustomed to encountering such a capable official who was willing to get things done and did not pass the buck or play games.

Putting aside everything else, this thick, meticulously recorded ledger alone is enough to demonstrate the care and dedication of "thousands of people and ten households".

The ledgers contained very detailed and professional records.

The dates when the grain and weapons were stored and when they were released were all clearly recorded; how much grain was left over last month and how much was used this month...

Any question posed... even some tricky ones, could be answered immediately by Hara Sanke, who was the "person in charge".

It is obvious that they are not mediocre people who hold positions without doing their jobs.

They are indeed diligently managing the unity of a thousand people.

By this time, the group had arrived deep into the village.

The gray-brown thatched roof, the dark brick walls, the rammed dirt road, and the intermittent sound of grinding stones...

Qingdeng turned his head and looked around, carefully examining the closely packed village houses on both sides, one after another.

With a roof, walls, and windows that don't let in the wind, this was considered a fairly wealthy village by the standards of rural areas in that era.

Along the way, we encountered more and more villagers, mostly the elderly, women, and children.

At this time of year, able-bodied men are either working in the fields or honing their military skills in the drill grounds.

Upon seeing Qingdeng and his group, the villagers along the way consciously stepped aside, bowing respectfully while secretly observing Qingdeng.

"Which one is Lord Niou?"

"Of course, it's the most eye-catching one."

"How tall he is... No wonder he is a fierce general who can take on a thousand men."

"I never imagined that we would one day fight alongside the legendary 'Nioh' Tachibana Aoto."

"Under the leadership of King Niou, we will surely achieve great things."

Qingdeng wielded considerable influence in the Kanto region.

Hachioji is located in the heart of the Kanto region and is also deeply influenced by Edo culture.

Therefore, the young men and women of the thousand-member group naturally held Qingdeng in high esteem.

Qingdeng silently scanned the surrounding villagers, observing them in detail.

Gradually, as if he had sensed something, he subtly furrowed his brow.

……

……

Before long, under the guidance of Yuan Canqi, Qingdeng and Tufang Suisan arrived at a large, flat open space behind the village.

On the open ground, hundreds of young men carrying bamboo spears stood in a crooked square formation, staring ahead, ready to pounce.

A middle-aged man holding a military pistol stood at the very back of the military formation.

Suddenly, he raised his pistol high and shouted:

"prick!"

The next instant, the able-bodied men in the formation roared and thrust their spears straight forward.

Immediately afterwards, the middle-aged man twirled the military pouch in his hand and shouted again:

"Change formation!"

Upon receiving the middle-aged man's new instructions, the young men immediately put away their bamboo spears and began to run around in a chaotic manner, scattering into two groups and moving to the left and right sides respectively—the classic "Crane Wing Formation".

In order to build the Shinsengumi, Aoto had done some preliminary research on the military strategies of various schools of thought in Japan in order to gather inspiration.

Therefore, Qing Deng recognized at a glance that they were practicing the Koshu-ryu military tactics.

The first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu, was once brutally beaten by Takeda Shingen (Battle of Mikatagahara).

When Tokugawa Ieyasu fled in panic, he even soiled his pants on the saddle. When he was discovered, in order to ease the embarrassment (and stubbornly deny it), he said that it was not excrement, but miso soup, which became a "good story".

Perhaps because he was defeated and convinced, Tokugawa Ieyasu always admired the military strategy of the Takeda clan... namely, the Koshu school of military strategy.

After the fall of the Takeda clan, Tokugawa Ieyasu actively recruited former Takeda retainers and studied the Koshu-ryu military strategy, thus "Takedaizing" the Tokugawa army.

Therefore, after the Tokugawa family seized power, the Koshu School of Warfare held an exceptionally high position in the military science community.

The Eighth Prince, with his thousand men united, had a deep connection with the Takeda clan.

Many of them were descendants of retainers of the Takeda clan.

Thus, the Koshu-ryu military law has always been the "training template" and "military textbook" for the unity of the thousand men of Hachioji.

The able-bodied men were practicing enthusiastically... Qing Deng watched expressionlessly...

A moment later, he raised his gaze and looked into the distance—on the other side of the open space, a group of boys were engrossed in wielding bamboo swords.

These teenagers are all between 12 and 18 years old.

A young man carrying a bamboo sword walked back and forth, checking their expressions and movements.

Whenever any of the boys misperformed a movement or lost focus, he would immediately shout angrily:

"Put your waist in! Put your strength in!"

"Don't let your legs tremble! Stand firm!"

"Looking so weak, he can't possibly fight on the battlefield!"

……

Further away in the open space, a group of even younger children were playing "Red and White Battle".

"Follow me! Fight them hard! Defeat them!"

"Waaaaah!"

These children, who were not even as tall as the bamboo swords, could only use tree branches as weapons.

In the countryside, people are clearly not wealthy enough to use a huge number of porcelain bowls for games.

So the children came up with a clever idea: they smeared mud all over the tree branches, and whoever got mud on their body was out.

Qingdeng stood with his hands behind his back, quietly observing all of this.

Those around him—including Yuan Canqi—held their breath, eagerly awaiting Qing Deng's comments.

About half a minute later, Qing Deng finally spoke.

He said softly and quietly:

“Yuan Jun, our sons… are far too thin.”

"Moreover, the training level is really lackluster."

Qingdeng originally thought that the Qianren Tongxin, who grew up in a wealthy region, would be stronger.

Unexpectedly... compared to ordinary farmers, they weren't much better off.