I formed the strongest swordsman group.

Chapter 791: The wedding is confirmed! The wedding will be held on New Year's Eve! [4700]

As expected - as soon as these words came out, Nagakura Shinpachi, Serizawa Kamo and others immediately gave him a look.

The vicious eyes, the gloomy atmosphere... everything expressed their dissatisfaction.

Souji, who is meticulous and good at "controlling the situation", immediately laughed it off when he noticed the unusual atmosphere. He changed his position calmly and moved between Hijikata Toshizo, Nagakura Shinpachi and others to separate the two sides.

"Although swords are no longer as powerful as guns, I believe there are still things in this world that only swordsmen like us can do!"

As she spoke, she showed her signature bright smile.

I have to say, Souji's smile does have a special kind of magic.

Whenever she smiled, even the most furious person would be infected and calm down.

The saying "Don't hit someone who smiles at you" has always been true for her.

After her mediation, the originally disharmonious atmosphere immediately improved a lot.

Then, Souji side-glanced his eyes and gave a reproachful look to Hijikata Toshizo who was standing beside him.

To a certain extent, what Hijikata Toshizo just said was indeed very hurtful.

As warriors obsessed with swordsmanship, Nagakura Shinpachi, Serizawa Kamo and others all regard "live by sword, die by sword" as their creed and devote their entire lives to the sword.

What Hijikata Toshizo had just said seemed to be telling them: Your swordsmanship and your life creed of "treating the sword as your life" are completely meaningless!

Despite their dissatisfaction, they couldn't utter a word.

The reason is simple—they have no way to refute it...

Since joining the Shinsengumi, the generals' horizons have broadened a lot, but there are still many limitations in their military thinking.

Their impression of the iron cannon still remains in the Warring States Period, that is, "a fairly effective long-range weapon."

All the generals, including the two great think tanks (Hijikata Toshizo and Yamanami Keisuke), viewed firearms in this way:

The artilleryman can only play a supporting role on the battlefield! If you want to defeat the enemy, you have to rely on the heroic fighting of the infantry and cavalry!

The most fundamental reason for this perception is that they have never seen the power of the "modern army".

Looking back at history, we can find that the Western powers relied on naval battles to subdue the shogunate and the various feudal domains, and never used the army.

During the "Black Ship Incident", the United States only sent four warships, and the shogunate surrendered without a fight.

In the recent Shimonoseki War, the American and French allied forces beat Choshu. The fleet sailed directly to the Shimonoseki Strait, and the naval guns fired, directly destroying Choshu's coastal defense forces and leaving Choshu without any ability to resist.

As a result, the Japanese people naturally only knew that the navy, ships, and cannons of the Western powers were powerful.

They lack a correct understanding of the armies of Western powers.

Because of this, to this day, the extreme idea of ​​"holding this Tiangang sword, facing the Marines with a smile, foreigners are shit" is still widely circulated.

There are still many people who believe that: if it is a land war, the brave and invincible men of the Wu family will be able to beat these barbarians to a pulp!
So, when Qing Deng ordered the generals to come and watch the musketeers' training early in the morning, many people held an indifferent attitude.

It's just a cannon! What's so good about it?

As long as you understand their views on firearms, it is not difficult to understand their contempt, nor is it difficult to understand their inexplicable horror after seeing the true power of the "Western iron cannon" with their own eyes!

They came nonchalantly, watched nonchalantly... and then were dumbfounded! They were speechless for a long time!
With the exception of Satsuma, which had partially completed modernization, the shogunate and the various feudal domains still widely used backward firearms.

Muzzle-loading smoothbore flintlock rifles, matchlock rifles that were not outdated even in the Warring States Period...they are all "museum-level" weapons.

These old, rotten antiques are nothing compared to the rifle that everyone has just seen!
A distance of about 10 meters, 300 rounds of bullets, and a 10% hit rate - this seemingly poor hit rate is far better than every firearm known to everyone!
As we all know, the "endurance" of ancient armies was very poor.

An army that can withstand a 10% casualty rate on the battlefield is already considered an elite force.

For ordinary armies, a casualty rate of 5% is the limit.

If it were a group of poorly trained and disorganized comrades, they would have simply fled in all directions after only a few of their comrades had fallen.

The rifle that Qing Deng brought back...the M1861 rifle has an accuracy of 10%.

Although 10 out of every 9 bullets will miss the target, if you think about it from another perspective, this means that 1 bullet will hit the enemy!
Once the musketeers' training level improves, this number can be raised further.

In this way, firearms are no longer useless weapons that serve as a deterrent, but powerful weapons that can suppress or even defeat the enemy!
There is a saying that goes "If you lack precision, make up for it with quantity."

If 100 rifles were not enough, what about 200? 500? 1000?

As long as we gather enough numbers and deliberately let the enemy get closer, after the distance between the two sides is shortened, we can directly launch a few rounds of volleys, which will surely cause the enemy's army to collapse!

If you are lucky enough and the enemy is weak enough, you may be able to defeat the enemy with one volley of fire! Win the battle!

In addition, what shocked the generals was the power of the bullet.

I saw that most of the bullet holes on the target were transparent, and I could see the scenery on the other side from one end.

In other words, the bullets penetrated the wooden target which was nearly two fingers thick!

Such a powerful force...even wearing chain mail will be useless!

When the generals thought of this, they couldn't help but wonder: What would happen if their troops encountered this musketeer team head-on in the wild?
Guns roared, bullets rained down, blood rained down, and the army was defeated like a landslide... Such a scene emerged in everyone's mind.

The swords they were so proud of were as useless as embroidery needles in front of these advanced rifles!
It’s no exaggeration to say that their entire worldview has been shaken!

In fact, even the foul-mouthed Hijikata Toshizo is not as carefree as he appears.

If you have sharp eyes, you can find a hint of loneliness between his brows.

He subconsciously raised his left hand and "reluctantly" stroked his beloved sword, Izumi no Kanesada, at his waist.

Qing Deng has not spoken since the beginning.

He did it on purpose.

Enough time is left for everyone to slowly be shocked, feel moved, think and reflect on themselves.

"Building a firearms force that is unrivaled in the world" has always been Qingdeng's goal.

Before this, he had worked his ass off, repeatedly introducing to the generals the power of firearms and the importance of building a firearms unit.

But in the end, everyone always had a cold attitude of "a novelist perfunctorily responding to followers": Yeah, okay, okay, I get it.

Therefore, Qing Deng, who was very dissatisfied with this, specially arranged today's "martial arts performance".

Facts have proved that no matter how much you say, it is not as good as letting the rifle really roar once!
Qing Deng noticed the changes in everyone's expressions.

He dared to conclude that from today onwards, even people like Shinpachi Nagakura and Kamo Serizawa, who respected swords the most and had the most old-fashioned ideas, would not dare to mention the "uselessness of muskets" theory again.

In Aoto's plan, the "modernization" and "firearms" of the Shinsengumi were imperative.

Therefore, it will never do any harm to let the generals see the true power of modern guns and artillery in advance, so that they can face up to the development of firearms and establish a correct military outlook.

After a moment of silence, Qing Deng spoke at the right time:

"The musketeers' reloading speed is still too slow, and all kinds of problems are happening!"

"According to the two instructors, once the training level is improved and the speed of reloading is increased, the fastest shooting speed will be able to reach 'three rounds per minute'."

There is no doubt that Qing Deng's words were a ruthless "finishing blow".

As he finished speaking, everyone's expressions became more complicated and heavy.

At this time, two male voices suddenly sounded from behind Qing Deng:

"Let me make it clear - the M1861 rifle is not the most advanced cannon at the time."

As soon as the handsome man finished speaking, the ordinary-looking man added:
"The M1861 rifle is a transitional weapon."

"Across the ocean, the United States is fighting a civil war."

"This low-cost rifle was temporarily developed to meet the needs of the war." "At present, the Americans have developed a more advanced M1863 rifle, which has reached a higher level of accuracy and power."

"As for the United Kingdom, France, Prussia and other European countries, they are also constantly developing and deploying new, more powerful firearms."

“Now is an era of rapid technological development.”

"Both military equipment and daily necessities are being iterated at a rapid pace."

"It won't be long before the M1861 rifles we are using now will become outdated firewood sticks."

The two people who sang in unison were none other than the two generals under Kinoshita Rin's command - the "dual-capable man" Asai Moriyasu and the "thunder slasher" Shimada Kanichi.

When the two of them appeared in front of Qing Deng again, Qing Deng suddenly realized: they were not only skilled swordsmen, but also returnees from studying abroad!
They studied at the famous Berlin Military Academy for three years, majoring in army tactics, and only returned home recently.

Berlin Military Academy - its history can be traced back to the Napoleonic era.

In order to fundamentally reform the military system and add a new backbone force to the Prussian army, a man named Scharnhorst established the Berlin Senior Officers School, the predecessor of the Berlin Military Academy, in 1810 based on the military society he had founded earlier.

Although judging from people's habitual thinking and the data on paper, France has the best army in the world, in reality, the Prussian Army can be said to be stronger than the French Army.

They returned from studying in Prussia and graduated from the prestigious Berlin Military Academy. They are truly remarkable high-level talents.

These two people are the military instructors that Kinoshita Lin promised to send to teach gun and artillery tactics.

To be honest, Qing Deng was relieved when he saw that the instructor sent by Kinoshita Lin was a local and someone he knew.

If Kinoshita Lin sent a few blond-haired and blue-eyed foreign instructors over, Qing Deng would have to smile bitterly.

The language barrier alone is an insurmountable hurdle.

I said front gate building, but you heard it as hip bone and elbow, so what are you training for?

Even if experienced translators are sent, they may not be able to accurately translate those professional military terms.

When Asai Moriyasu and Shimada Kan'ichi came to report to Aoto, they both made it clear that their identities were merely "instructors" and not "generals" of the Shinsengumi.

If the Shinsengumi launches military operations in the future or encounters any trouble, they will not actively participate, but will only provide "limited" help.

In addition, they emphasized that they were by no means Qing Deng's subordinates and that there was no master-servant relationship between the two parties.

If you must say it, they are the "envoys" sent by Kinoshita Lin to help Qing Deng.

【Note: Lending one's own subordinates to others for use. Such people who are loaned out are called "Jiqi"】

For Qing Deng, the suggestions of these two people were of great help - clearly dividing the specific functions in advance could avoid a lot of trouble.

In this way, Qing Deng immediately appointed the two of them as the Shinsengumi's gun instructors, with full responsibility for forming and training the Shinsengumi's firearms units.

The people sent by Kinoshita Lin are indeed quite capable.

They quickly got into the state and devoted themselves to their posts.

Because the first batch of rifles that arrived at Qinjin Domain only consisted of 100 rifles, they first selected 100 people from the th Division and formed the first musket team of the Shinsengumi.

After the subsequent equipment arrives, the 6th and 8th squads will be gradually "transformed" into powerful forces specializing in firearms according to Qing Deng's wishes.

I have to say that they both have some skills, and they are indeed top students who have studied abroad and attended colleges and universities.

Although the time was short, with the careful hands-on teaching of the two of them, the first batch of musketeers of the Shinsengumi had already become quite capable and at least knew how to shoot and load bullets.

"What a pity... the Parrot rifled cannon is still on the way."

Asai Moriyasu shrugged and murmured with regret:

"Compared to a cannon, a rifle is nothing!"

"Cannon is the real 'God of the Battlefield'!"

As he spoke, he danced with excitement in his eyes.

Shimada Kanichi shook his head helplessly and introduced to Qing Deng and others:

"Please forgive me, Asai likes cannons very much. When talking about cannons, he will be so excited that he can't control himself."

Qingden smiled:
"It's okay, it's understandable."

At this point, today's unique "martial arts performance" has finally come to an end.

Qing Deng turned around, put his hands behind his back, and faced the generals and musketeers.

He said some polite words like "You've worked hard," "Have a good rest when you get back," and then waved his hand and said, "Okay, let's go!"

……

……

"Moo~Moo~"

Radish wagged its tail and walked forward leisurely.

Shannan Jingzhu reined in and walked slowly so that he could walk side by side with Qingdeng, making it easier for him to report to the other party.

The two of them returned to Otsu and discussed state affairs.

"Tachibana-kun, as the treasury gradually fills up, Iwasaki-kun has begun to promote projects such as 'opening up new fields', 'restoring old fields', and 'building bastions'."

"He has been very excited recently and has been working non-stop. Every time I go there, I can always see him busy."

"To be honest, his condition makes me very worried."

"I'm afraid he'll die of exhaustion..."

Qingdeng smiled helplessly:
"In that case, you should keep an eye on him more."

"I don't want to receive the sad news that Yataro Iwasaki has died suddenly someday in the future."

Shannan Keisuke nodded:

"Of course. I have ordered someone to keep an eye on him at all times."

"If he refuses to rest, use some 'rough means' to force him to go back to bed."

After finishing this topic, Yamanami Keisuke turned to the next topic:
"Tachibana-kun, there is no new news from Choshu. They are still preparing for war and strictly preventing outsiders from entering the domain, so it is difficult for our spies to infiltrate."

"Well, keep monitoring and don't let your guard down."

"Yes! Then, the next item..."

……

This brief state briefing did not last long.

About 10 minutes later, Yamanami Keisuke seemed to remember something and started thinking.

Then, he put away the booklet in his hand that he used to record affairs, and then looked at Qing Deng with a smile on his face:

"Ju Jun, the last item - is there any new progress in your marriage?"

As soon as he finished asking the question, Qing Deng changed his calm expression and revealed a peaceful smile.

"It can be considered as considerable progress."

"After repeated consultations, we finally decided to hold a grand wedding on New Year's Eve!"

*******
*******
Asking for a monthly ticket! Please vote for recommendation! (Leopard head crying.jpg)

The next chapter is the wedding! (豹嗨.jpg) This book is nearly 440 million words long, and Qing Deng just got married... Too tragic.