I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

"You'll all be watching closely in the underworld—see how I, 'Renwang,' break through enemy lines, slay the wicked, and vanquish the rebels!"

It's unclear whether the other party heard what he said.

Before Qingdeng could finish speaking, he suddenly dropped his knife, bent his knees, lowered his head, and finally fell forward, leaving a large pool of blood around him.

Although Yoshida Toshima was quite long-winded just now, it must be admitted that everything he said was true.

The Imperial Court, Satsuma, Tosa... they are all wolves in sheep's clothing.

Many officials in the court still harbored ambitions to "restore the prestige of the court."

Needless to say, Samo is a flexible fence-sitter with no bottom line.

Therefore, Yoshida Toshima was absolutely right.

The shogunate is only barely maintaining a fragile "balance" thanks to its lingering power and the support of Seito in recent years.

If anything unexpected happens in the future, this "balance" will be broken instantly.

At that time, the enemies that the shogunate and Seito will face will not be limited to Choshu...

Of course, these things were all within Qingdeng's expectations from the very beginning.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have put so much effort into promoting the construction of Qinjin Prefecture, precisely to prevent the worst-case scenario from occurring.

Just as Qing Deng said earlier—he will protect everything that should be protected!

Qing Deng glanced at Yoshida Toshima's corpse, then, too lazy to look at him any longer, looked away and shouted loudly:

"Yoshida Toshima has been defeated by me!"

With the blessing of the talent "Piercing Clouds and Splitting Stones +2", his shout quickly spread.

A brief silence fell over the scene...

Under the combined onslaught of Aoto and Tojo Shintaro, the ground was covered with corpses.

Only about fifty people remained standing safely.

With their commander-in-chief dead... those who lacked willpower and fighting spirit could no longer continue fighting.

They looked at each other, bewildered... and then, without anyone knowing who started it, they turned and ran away.

Then, like a plague, it spread from one person to ten, from ten to a hundred, and more and more people turned and ran away.

These guys are all insignificant nobodys, not worth mentioning.

Therefore, Qingdeng did not pursue them—nor did he have the time to do so.

Some die-hards have not fled and remain in place.

Roughly speaking, there are about a dozen of these die-hards.

They were not intimidated by the large number of their companions leaving; they still gripped their steel knives tightly and glared angrily at Qingdeng.

Since they have made up their minds to die, there is no need to say more.

Qingdeng silently prepared his sword and said softly:

"bring it on."

The battle began as soon as the words were spoken.

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!"

The opposing team roared in unison, stepped forward, and charged at them.

From a certain perspective, the most terrifying opponent is one who is determined to die and never considers survival.

For Qing Deng, dealing with these guys who had neither outstanding skills nor physical abilities, but only a lot of fighting spirit, was just a waste of time.

But for Shintaro Toujou, it was a different story.

Age and body shape are ultimately two major obstacles that are difficult to overcome.

Shintaro Tojo raised his spear and fought bravely against the enemy.

However, the exhaustion of his physical strength still made his hands and feet much slower.

He swung his spear to the left, forcing back the enemy on his left, and then swept it to the right, knocking away the enemy on his right.

Just when his old strength had been exhausted and his new strength had not yet emerged—

"Drink it! Aaaaaaaah!"

Some patriot somehow obtained a burning handcart.

He pushed the handcart straight at Shintaro Tojo at an extremely high speed.

Under normal circumstances, it would be incredibly easy for Shintaro Toujou to dodge such tricks.

However, the situation is quite different when one's physical strength is already depleted and reactions begin to slow down.

Although he dodged to the left immediately, he was still a little too slow.

He avoided a head-on collision with the handcart, but the flames still managed to scorch his clothes.

Soon, the flames licked at Shintaro Toujou's clothes and spread rapidly.

At this moment, Qingdeng had already swiftly dealt with the enemies on his side.

Upon discovering the situation in the East City, they immediately rushed over and joined the battle.

He confronted the guy who had brought the "train," and with a swift movement, "whoosh," he decapitated the man in a single blow.

While fighting, Qing Deng didn't forget to ask a question:

"Mr. Dongcheng, are you alright?"

After his clothes caught the flames, Shintaro Toujou ripped off his upper garments and threw them away before the flames could burn his skin.

"I'm fine... I just got a few blisters from the burns."

Upon hearing this, Qing Deng calmed down and focused on dealing with the enemy in front of him.

——1、2、3、4、5……

He counted the number of remaining enemies.

Only 5 enemies remain standing on the field.

They truly deserve to be called warriors who die for their cause.

Even though they had no chance of winning, the five men did not back down.

They rearranged themselves into an arc-shaped formation that partially surrounded Qingdeng, and then attacked together.

Qingdeng calmly lowered his body, gathered strength in his waist, stepped forward, bent and stretched his upper body, and launched a fierce attack on the enemy on the far right.

He didn't even need to examine the effect of the slashes closely, because the feeling of "the knife entering the flesh" was very solid.

Although the enemies on the front and left swung their swords, Qing Deng's sense of distance was very precise. His previous attack included "moving his body" and "dodging", causing their slashes to miss completely.

The next moment, he seized the opportunity when someone changed their stance and stepped forward to strike with his knife.

A moment later, his Vairocana collided with the skull of another person.

Qing Deng slightly shifted his feet and lunged at the last two enemies.

He nimbly evaded their blades, quickly moving from left to right and appearing behind them—at this moment, he forcefully swung his blade, shaking off the remaining blood.

The two people seemed to be frozen in place, then fell to the left and right like rotten wood.

At this point, the scene finally quieted down.

The fighting has ended, and the chaos has subsided.

The patriots either died or fled.

All that remained was the roaring sound of the flames burning.

Qingdeng glanced around, then looked up at the sky and let out a long breath, feeling a sense of relief, as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

—It's finally over...

He was unaware of the current situation at Ikedaya.

He's completely done on his end.

The dangerous items in the warehouse have all been confiscated.

The patriots were almost all killed or wounded, and Yoshida Toshima himself was killed.

Yoshida Toshima was to the pro-imperial faction what Nagakura Shinpachi and Saito Hajime were to the Shinsengumi—an unbearable and devastating loss.

For the pro-revolutionary faction, this was undoubtedly a historic defeat!

Conversely, this is another glorious victory for the pro-shogunate forces since the "August 18th coup".

At this moment, Qing Deng couldn't help but think of a question: What will the Zunrang faction do next?

Under the control of radicals such as Genzui Hisaka, the Zunjo faction has now become an incomprehensible extremist organization that cannot be measured by worldly standards.

What is certain is that after suffering such a huge loss, the pro-revolutionary faction could not possibly remain completely indifferent!

In a fit of rage, he could mobilize all the troops of Choshu and launch an eastern expedition to fight the shogunate to the death... Such a possibility is not out of the question!

The 30 kilos granted to Aoto was not only one of the richest lands under the rule of the shogunate, but also the western frontier of the shogunate.

If Changzhou really attacks, then Qinjin will be the first to be affected.

After more than half a year, the battle clouds reunite...

—One wave subsides, another rises…

Just as Qing Deng was pondering this, he suddenly heard light footsteps—

Miss Sumire led Atao, Amei, and a group of other female ninjas towards them.

Miss Jin glanced at Qing Deng and then looked away—because she could tell at a glance that apart from being slightly out of breath, Qing Deng was not injured at all, and his clothes were not even disheveled.

She turned her gaze to Shintaro Toujou:

"Shintaro, are you alright?"

Shintaro Toujou gave a wry smile:

"I'm fine... Apart from a few blisters from the burns and feeling nauseous from exhaustion, I'm mostly okay."