I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

According to subsequent statistics, more than thirty bodies were recovered from the Ikeda House.

There were only about thirty people who participated in this meeting.

In other words—they were basically all captured!

Everyone except Katsura Kogoro and Hannya was killed by Kondo Isami, Souji and others, and none escaped!

It has to be said, Katsura Kogoro really knows how to escape.

Six months ago, during the "August 18th Coup," Katsura Kogoro personally led the rearguard to block the combined forces of the Hui and Sahara.

Logically speaking, this should have been a perilous mission with a slim chance of survival.

Indeed, the rearguard suffered heavy casualties, with less than one in ten surviving.

But Katsura Kogoro returned safely to Choshu, intact and with not a single part missing.

This happened again—the Ikedaya restaurant was attacked, everyone else died, but Katsura Kogoro survived by successfully escaping.

Given his "skill at escaping," the Shinsengumi soldiers privately nicknamed Katsura Kogoro "Runaway Kogoro."

In conclusion, although it was truly regrettable that Katsura Kogoro, one of the "Three Heroes of Choshu," managed to escape, it was merely a minor flaw.

Miyabe Teizō, Yoshida Toshima, Ōtaka Matajiro, Matsuda Shigesuke... these people are all the backbone elites of the Zunyan faction!

If we make a horizontal comparison, it's almost as if the Shinsengumi lost a group of captains, including Nagakura Shinpachi, Saito Hajime, Inoue Genzaburo, and Todo Heisuke!

For the pro-democracy faction, this is undoubtedly an irreversible and devastating loss!

Compared to the heavy casualties suffered by the pro-imperial faction, the losses of the Shinsengumi were almost negligible.

Kondo Isami, Nagakura Shinpachi, and Saito Hajime suffered some minor injuries.

Inoue Genzaburo suffered minor injuries, was exhausted, and had a muscle strain in his right arm.

Heisuke Todo was the most seriously injured, having been slashed in the forehead.

Fortunately, his life was not in danger.

From then on, however, he would have a noticeable scar on his forehead.

Although the commander was kicked twice by Hannya and suffered some internal injuries, it was nothing serious and he could recover after resting for a while.

In comparison, the losses in terms of weaponry were more severe.

Nagasone Kotetsu (Kondo Isami's sword) has 6 minor wounds.

Oshu Shirakawa Sumikane (Inoue Genzaburo's sword) suffered 4 major wounds and 19 minor wounds.

The resident of Boshu, the Yamashiro clan (Nagakura Shinpachi's sword), has 11 minor wounds.

Kaga Kiyomitsu's (Sōji's sword) blade is broken.

The four of them were the first to storm the Ikedaya, so their swords were the most severely damaged.

The swords of others, such as Todo Heisuke and Yoshimura Kanichiro, also had various degrees of damage.

The only person who participated in the battle with a completely undamaged blade was Qing Deng.

Firstly, Qingdeng's swordsmanship is superb; he can take a person's life directly, so he will never fight with his sword.

Secondly, Vairocana is truly a rare and precious sword, one in a billion, whose blade remains sharp no matter how it is chopped or hacked.

The blacksmiths at the Refinement Bureau will be busy for the next while they work on repairing the swords of the generals.

[Note: Refinement Bureau: A department within the Shinsengumi specifically responsible for weapon forging and repair.]

Unfortunately... while everyone else's swords could be repaired, there was truly no way to repair Souji's Kaga Kiyomitsu.

The blade is broken... Even if a master craftsman were to be reborn, he couldn't put this blade back together.

The only feasible solution is to melt down the blade and reforge a new one.

The commander is still considering whether to reforge the blade or simply replace it with a new one.

One side suffered heavy casualties, losing a large number of elite personnel.

On the other hand, apart from a few injuries, no one died.

Big win!

An undeniably glorious victory!

This is another glorious victory for the pro-shogunate faction since the "August 18th Coup"!

The "August 18th Coup" was the result of the joint efforts of many forces. Not only the Shinsengumi fought hard, but Aizu and Satsuma also contributed.

This time, the "Ikedaya Incident" was quite different—this enormous credit belongs solely to the Shinsengumi!

From gathering intelligence to locating the enemy and then annihilating them, the Shinsengumi fought alone the entire time.

How could we let such excellent promotional material slip by?

As a time traveler from the 21st century, Qing Deng was well aware of the power of public opinion.

Therefore, Qingdeng has always valued publicity and maintained close ties with several major roof tile manufacturers in Kyoto.

Driven by his requests and his immense financial power, the various roof tile manufacturers in Kyoto spared no effort in publicizing the "Ikedaya Incident," reporting on it for several days in a row.

The content they promoted was nothing more than "the pro-revolutionary faction is bad, the Shinsengumi is good."

It emphasizes the inhumanity of the pro-democracy faction, their disregard for human life, and their ruthless pursuit of their goals, thus highlighting the glorious image of the Shinsengumi in rescuing the people from suffering.

Judging from the results, this publicity campaign was very effective.

The new electorate's prestige has greatly increased.

The supporters of the "Respect and Expedition" faction have lost even more support.

In no time, "Shinsengumi" became a hot topic among the people of Kyoto once again, enjoying unparalleled popularity.

Everywhere, from the streets to the alleys, in every neighborhood, there was a lively discussion about the Shinsengumi.

Or it could be about the bravery of characters like Aoto and Souji.

Or perhaps they were pondering what kind of reward Qingdeng would receive for achieving another great feat.

At this crucial moment when "the great battle is over," Aoto, as the commander-in-chief of the Shinsengumi, naturally has a lot of work to do.

But he turned down all his work.

All the work that could be delegated to others was handed over to Hijikata Toshizo and Yamanami Keisuke.

If a task absolutely cannot be delegated, it should be temporarily set aside and dealt with later.

After clearing up all his work, Qing Deng immediately mounted Luo Bo's ox back and headed to Osaka alone—he was going to find Kiryu-sensei and get to the bottom of everything!

The day after the war ended, Aoto learned more detailed information about Hannya from Souji.

This includes the other party's self-identification: Yamada Asaemon Katsumi.

Yamada Asaemon... Upon hearing this name, Aoto involuntarily raised an eyebrow, his face showing astonishment.

When talking about the Yamada Asaemon family, everyone in the Edo period knew them—they were a famous "family of executioners" and a "family of killers"! The family had made a living by killing people for generations!

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PS: Some readers have questioned: Even Souji was beaten so badly, does this mean the power levels in this book are inconsistent? Not at all, this is just a common trope in action-oriented works where "the boss gets stronger and stronger".

If any character could easily defeat Souji, Nagakura Shinpachi, and others later on, that would be considered a power level collapse.

Chapter 832 The Truth Revealed! Boss Kiryu's True Identity Exposed! [4800]

During the Edo period, being an executioner was considered an unclean job and far from a respectable position.

Generally speaking, those responsible for the dirty work of killing and disposing of corpses at the execution ground are the lowest of the low, who are not considered human beings... namely, the Eta and the inhuman.

In such an environment, the Yamada Asaemon family stands out as particularly unusual—despite being a family of executioners who specialize in killing, they enjoy an extremely high social status.

In fact, the Yamada Asaemon clan's primary job was not to kill, but to test swords for the shogun; they were the shogunate's official sword testers.

For the common people who have neither money nor power, the most common way to test their skills with a knife is simply by chopping wood or bamboo mats.

However, no matter how hard or thick wood or bamboo mats are, they cannot perfectly replicate the density and texture of the human body.

Chopping at such mundane things is really boring; you can't really test the true sharpness of the blade.

The sole function of swords is to kill.

Therefore, if you want to test the true sharpness of a blade, you have to cut someone!

As a result, there are often some cruel and perverted people who, in order to test the sharpness of a new knife, will hide at street corners at night, ambush passersby, and kill them to test the knife.

This act is known as "Tsuji-giri".

Many innocent people died tragically at the hands of these beasts.

When important figures like generals and daimyo wanted to test their knives, they certainly wouldn't use such unrefined materials as wood or bamboo mats.

They mostly use three methods to test the knife: "testing with a living person," "testing with a dead person," or "testing with a hard object."

The first two are easy to understand; they involve using living or dead people to test the knife.

As for "testing hard objects", it refers to chopping hard objects such as helmets and armor.

The practice of "testing living people" is far too cruel, so the authorities never use this method—at least not openly.

Therefore, the most mainstream official method of testing knives is still "testing on the dead".

In the early Edo period, a swordsman named Yamano Kaemon was considered the earliest professional sword tester.

It is said that he attempted to kill more than 6000 corpses in his lifetime.

His son, Kanjuro Yamano, inherited his mantle, becoming not only the shogunate's official sword tester but also the shogunate's official executioner, responsible for executing death row inmates.

Unfortunately, his descendants were not skilled in swordsmanship and were unable to perform the tasks of testing swords and carrying out executions.

For this reason, he was relieved of his duties as the Yamano family's personal sword tester and executioner.

Afterwards, several of Kanjuro Yamano's disciples took on the role of test-killers.

Initially, it was Washiji Juroemon and Matsumoto Chotaro.