I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Ring~ Ring~ Ring~ Ring~

Suddenly, the sound of bells rang out from outside the shop, growing louder as they approached.

Mr. Kiryu suddenly raised an eyebrow.

The townspeople of the Edo period would certainly be familiar with this bell sound.

That's the sound of the flying kick bell.

Flying Kick – A deliveryman in the Edo period.

Whenever they deliver packages, they wear bells on their bodies, so the bells make a clear sound when they run.

"Senjiya! There's a letter for you!"

Mr. Kiryu walked back to the doma and opened the shop door.

A well-dressed young man with a flying kick stood outside the door.

He glanced at Kiryu, then unloaded the carrying pole from his shoulder—one end of which had a basket on top—and pulled a letter from the basket, handing it to Kiryu.

"Wishing you a prosperous business."

After leaving those words in a nonchalant manner, he strode away.

No sooner had the other party left than Mr. Kiryu impatiently tore open the envelope and pulled out the letter inside.

The pristine white letter contained only one line: Return to Osaka immediately.

*******

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Please vote with monthly tickets! Please vote with recommendation tickets! (Leopard crying.jpg)

Let's guess: Who will become the head of the Shinsengumi?

Chapter 758 Komaki Town, Online! The Blonde Heroine, Online! [5300]

The "flying kick" just now was not an ordinary flying kick.

Simply put, he is the special messenger of the Gourd House! His mission is "Swift Pigeon".

The Swift Pigeon is only used when important information needs to be transmitted within the organization.

The reason he dressed up as an ordinary flying kicker was to avoid being recognized and to conceal his identity.

"Return to Osaka immediately"—looking at this line of large characters on the letter, Mr. Kiryu slowly frowned.

The Senjiya run by Mr. Kiryu can be considered a branch of the Gourd House in Edo.

The two sides have maintained communication, regularly exchanging letters and intelligence.

Even if nothing is wrong, Kiryu would still send a "greeting letter" to Osaka, indicating that Edo is alright and that he is still alive.

Generally speaking, if something happens that needs to be told to Kiryu immediately, it will be written directly on the letter.

The letter contained nothing but a request for Mr. Kiryu to return as soon as possible... This situation today is truly rare.

Osaka will definitely not make things difficult for Kiryu's boss unless absolutely necessary.

After all, Edo and Osaka are separated by almost half of Japan.

In conclusion, there is only one possibility—something happened that was inconvenient to discuss in detail in a thin letter, which is why he was summoned back to Osaka so suddenly…

"...There's no other way, I'll have to go back after all this time."

Mr. Kiryu murmured to himself as he carefully put away the letter in his hand.

At that moment, the big orange cat, Duoduo, darted out from the inner room.

Meow~ Meow~ Meow~

Perhaps she was hungry, because Duoduo squatted down at the feet of Mr. Kiryu and made a coquettish sound.

Mr. Kiryu smiled and reached out to stroke Duoduo's chin.

"Duoduo, I'm sorry to trouble you to come with me on this long trip."

Since we're leaving Edo temporarily, we should naturally take this big orange cat with us.

Otherwise, this pampered, fat cat with a belly almost touching the ground and completely incapable of hunting would surely starve to death.

Meow~ Meow~ Meow~

Duoduo meowed even louder, as if to say: "Okay! I know! Stop talking nonsense and go get the dried fish!"

Thanks to the long-term management of the shogunate, the route from Edo to Osaka... or rather, from the Kanto Plain to the Osaka Plain, had become extremely well-established.

If you hire a palanquin, you can safely reach Osaka in less than a week.

—I'll also stop by and visit Tachibana-kun and the young master while I'm on the way…

Aoto misses Kiryu-sensei—and the latter does too.

When Aoto and Kinoshita Mai were mentioned... Kiryu's mind suddenly stirred.

He looked down at the folded letter in his hand—for some reason, an ominous premonition suddenly arose in his heart…

……

……

Kyoto, Mibu Village, Shinsengumi Headquarters, Aoto's office—

Swish, swish, swish, swish...

The occasional sound of pages turning became the only noise inside and outside the room.

Qingdeng bowed his head before the desk, intently reading an old, thick book that was thicker than a brick.

This brick... ah, no, this book is none other than Otsu's government ledger.

Compared to the Shinsengumi's account books, Otsu's account books were undoubtedly much thicker and more complex.

The accounting works like this: the army's ledgers at most record the income and expenditure of supplies, while the ledgers of vassal states need to consider many more factors.

The income and expenditure of various agricultural products, including rice, millet, carrots, and tea.

Road leveling, canal digging, dam maintenance... all sorts of expenses.

The expenses for purchasing stone, hiring laborers, income from selling tea, income from selling porcelain...

Lines of names, strings of numbers... it's enough to make your head spin!

Qingdeng is not a professional accountant and does not have that much professional knowledge.

If you're not careful, you might make a mistake or miss something.

Even with the added advantages of talents like "Super Brain +9" and "Photographic Memory," he still felt dizzy and overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information.

After persisting for a while, he had to take a short break, looking away from the ledger and letting out a long sigh.

In that instant, he felt a sense of liberation, as if he had finally pooped after being constipated for many days.

"We really need to find a competent roommate as soon as possible..."

Just as Qingdeng was feeling sentimental, suddenly, light, cat-like footsteps sounded outside the room.

With a soft "whoosh," the door was pulled open a crack—Kinoshita Mai peeked out, revealing half of her cute head.

"Qingdeng, are you busy?"

"I'm resting right now. What's up? If you have something to say, come in and talk to me."

Upon hearing this, Kinoshita Mai immediately slipped inside and gracefully moved to Aoto's side.

"Hmm? Qingdeng, are you looking at the accounts?"

The thick ledger, resembling a city brick, would be hard to miss if it didn't attract Kinoshita Mai's attention.

Qing Deng gave a bitter smile:

"Yes...it's a really unpleasant and tedious job."

"What kind of rubbish is written in there..."

"I really want to set this rotten book on fire and burn it all...!"

He succinctly explained to the other party the various situations he encountered while inspecting Otsu's accounts.

As a stranger in a foreign land, Aoto naturally did not know the specific details of Otsu.

What is the current grain production of Ōtsu? How much grain is stored in the treasury? What is Ōtsu's annual commercial revenue? If even these most basic economic conditions are not known, then Aoto, as the lord of the domain, is far too derelict in his duty.

The simplest and most direct way to understand the economic situation of a place is to look through its accounting books.

Every year's grain entering and leaving the warehouse; every quarter's expenses... all can be clearly seen by simply looking at the ledgers.

The ledgers of Otsu... let's call them the "Otsu Books" for now. Previously, they had been kept and recorded by the Otsu Magistrate's Office.

The Edo Shogunate was notoriously inefficient in its administration.

Under the hereditary system, officials were not afraid of losing their jobs as long as they did not make any major mistakes.

This fostered a bureaucratic atmosphere of "Why take it so seriously? Just do it casually."

Therefore... the record-keeping of the account books by successive leadership teams of the Otsu Magistrate's Office was mainly characterized by a casual approach!

At first glance, the records are plentiful, making it seem like the author is very responsible.

Upon closer inspection, however, one finds numerous contradictions, and even some laughable points!

Why is there a surplus of 290 copper coins when 3184 copper coins were received and 2899 copper coins were spent?

Where did the 850 koku of rice collected from Hiyori Village in the spring of Ansei 7 (1860) go?

Why do we always seem to have extra money and grain that appear out of nowhere?

These are just a few examples.

Compared to these bizarre situations, those illegible, scribbled sentences actually seem quite endearing.

Over the years, the "Otsubu" has become a huge mountain of code!

The work Qingdeng just did was cleaning up this "mountain of shit" and checking for errors and omissions in the ledgers.