I formed the strongest swordsman group

"The jet-black luster...Miss Souji, apart from that, does 'Wanliangang' have any other characteristics?"

Although Elodie's strangeness made the director feel strange, she didn't think much about it and answered truthfully:

"Well, let's think about it... Qingdeng seemed to have told me before that weapons forged with 'Wanliang Steel' would be extremely tough and sharp, even the 'Supreme Great Karma' would be hard-pressed to match."

"..."

Elodie remained silent, pursed her lips in thought.

The Souji, whose curiosity was aroused, couldn't help but ask:

"Elodie, what's wrong? Are you very interested in 'Wan Liangang'?"

"..."

Elodie remained silent, her head lowered, still immersed in her own world.

Seeing this, the Director-General couldn't say anything more and could only wait quietly.

Fortunately, the other party didn't keep her waiting too long.

Abruptly, Elodie raised her head suddenly, as if she had made up her mind, her eyes shining with perseverance.

"...I'm sorry, Miss Souji, I'll excuse you now!"

Before she finished speaking, she stood up and ran towards the corridor in three steps and two steps at a time, making a "thump" sound on the floor.

Souji sat there blankly, staring blankly at the blond girl who was leaving quickly, and murmured:

"What's going on...?"

…

…

Judi, Qingdeng’s office—

At this moment, except for Qingdeng, there was no one else inside or outside the room.

Behind the desk, Qingdeng sat cross-legged casually, leaning on the elbow rest next to him, lowering his head to read the letter in his hand, frowning slightly.

Recently, he and Tokugawa Iemo started to have particularly intensive correspondence.

Not long ago, they worked hard on the issue of "military reform" and finally reached a preliminary consensus.

Without waiting for a moment's rest, they immediately started the next important topic: "Changzhou Expedition"!

There is a saying that "it is better to chase down the poor bandits with the remaining brave men, and not to be a famous scholar."

After several consecutive wars, Changzhou's national power has declined significantly.

If we don't take advantage of this opportunity to launch an attack, when will we wait?

Although it has been determined that the war will begin, when the Western Expedition will be launched and how the attack will be carried out are still open to question.

Regarding the timing of the attack, Qingteng’s opinion is to wait until the beginning of next spring before launching the offensive.

The reason is simple. The climate in spring is neither hot nor cold, the logistics pressure is less, and the soldiers are in better physical condition.

However, Tokugawa Iemo put forward completely different opinions from Qingnobo.

He advocated officially launching the Western Expedition in the next month...that is, at the end of November!

To be honest, Qingdeng did not agree with his opinion.

Using troops in winter...just the cold-warming clothing of the soldiers and the poor road conditions caused by wind and snow are a huge logistical burden.

However, Tokugawa Iemo's consideration was not without purpose.

First of all, Changshu is now at its weakest.

Since we have decided to take advantage of its illness to kill it, the sooner we send troops, the better.

Once the time drags on for too long, there is no guarantee that something unexpected will happen.

Considering this aspect, the best policy is to send troops as soon as possible and achieve a quick victory.

Furthermore, if we wait until spring next year before launching an expedition, "spring plowing" is an influencing factor that must be considered.

As the saying goes, "The plan for a year lies in spring."

Spring is the time when farmers plant new seedlings.

In this western expedition, the shogunate and the feudal lords will launch a huge army of 200,000 people!

In this way, many civilians must be mobilized to engage in logistics work.

These civilians who were forcibly recruited to transport grain were serving as corvees and received no wages at all.

Even if the shogunate and the feudal lords wanted to show kindness and obediently pay the wages, their shabby finances could not support such horrific expenditures.

If there are more people going to transport grain, there will definitely be fewer people working in the fields.

As a result, next year's grain production is bound to plummet.

In the feudal era, a reduction in grain production was no small matter...it might lead to big trouble.

Although sending troops in winter will increase the logistical burden, the pressure is limited.

Japan is not Russia, and "Winter General" is not so scary. There is neither waist-deep snow nor terrifying low temperatures of dozens of degrees below zero.

Therefore, sending troops in winter is not an unwise move.

Throughout Japanese history, there are many precedents for sending troops in winter.

All in all, both of their claims are reasonable.

In the end, Aoto agreed with Tokugawa Iemo's proposal—to begin the Western Expedition at the end of November this year!

After finalizing the attack time, the two began to discuss the next step: how to attack?

Such complex issues cannot be communicated effectively through simple letters.

To this end, Tokugawa Iemo sent an invitation to Aonto: Tachibana-kun, come back to Edo! Let’s talk face to face!

The letter Aonto is reading now is Tokugawa Iemo's "invitation letter".

Just as he wanted - Qingnobo was indeed willing to return to Edo.

It is necessary to discuss in detail such an important military issue in person.

The last time he returned to Edo was a long time ago.

He could just take advantage of this opportunity to go back and visit old friends such as Kondo Shusuke and Chiba Jutaro.

At this time, for some reason, when the idea of ​​"visiting an old friend" passed through Qingdeng's mind, he suddenly recalled the graceful figure of a certain widow...

——His Royal Highness Tianzhangyuan... Thinking about it carefully, she and I have indeed been apart for a long time...

Qingdeng thought to himself with a helpless smile on his face.

Then, he let out a sigh of relief and put down the letter in his hand.

Immediately afterwards, he leaned most of his body weight on the elbow rest to relax the nerves in his body.

His recent mental condition is indeed not very good.

The reason was that he had so many things to do that he didn't even have time to breathe.

In addition to the "Changzhou Expedition", there was another thing that made him frown.

That was Elodie's father.

Nitta Tonosuke was sent to follow and monitor Maher - this happened several days ago.

Logically speaking, Nitta Tonosuke's "surveillance report" should have been delivered early in the morning.

However... As of today, Qingdeng has not received its report.

The meaning behind this is naturally self-evident...

Nitta Tonosuke is one of the most elite ninjas in the ninth division, and ordinary people can't do anything to him.

Even he had an accident... Elodie was right, Maher was indeed suspicious!

According to Elodie, Maher is just an ordinary person with good physical fitness, not a martial arts master with great skills.

In this case, the person who killed Nitta Tonosuke was probably a bodyguard or something like that.

Thinking of this, Qingdeng became more and more concerned about Maher's true purpose of coming to Japan.

It was a pity to lose an outstanding elite ninja for nothing, but Qingto couldn't bear to be sad.

Now he only thinks about how to remedy the situation, how to find Maher, and find out the truth behind it.

Just when Qingdeng was thinking secretly, the waiter's announcement suddenly came from outside the door:

"My lord, the room chief wants to see you!"

Qingdeng couldn't help but look surprised when he heard this.

- Elodie? Why is she here?

Although he was doubtful in his heart, he was not slow at all and said immediately:

"Let her in!"

"yes!"

After a while, the familiar sound of footsteps reached Qingdeng's ears.

Wow—accompanied by the sound of the door being opened, the long, pale blond hair tied into a high ponytail for ease of movement jumped into Qingden's eyes.

"Elodi, why did you come here suddenly?" Qingden asked, looking down at the other party's arms.

I saw Elodie holding a huge bundle, which looked very heavy and I didn't know what it contained.

At first, Qingden also thought about changing his name to "Alice".

However, it is indeed quite difficult for him to suddenly change his name to something else after being called "Elodie" for so many years.

After getting the other party's permission, "Don't worry, you can call me by any name you want," Qingdeng chose to keep things as usual and continue to call her "Elodie."

Faced with Qingdeng's inquiry, Elodie smiled slightly:

"Master, it's nothing serious, I just...want to give you something."

"Send something?"

Upon hearing this, Qingdeng subconsciously looked at the big bundle in his arms again.

"Master, do you still remember the dream I talked about a while ago?"

As Elodie spoke, she bent down, placed the large bundle in her arms on the ground in front of her knees, and then sat on the ground respectfully.

Qingdeng immediately said:

“‘Live a chivalrous life as free as Robin Hood’—of course I remember.”

Elodie nodded.

"Yes."

"Although this dream was childish and out of tune, I was very serious about it back then."

"Even to this day, I occasionally fantasize about being Robin Hood II."

"Master, if I remember correctly, I should have told you that in order to realize my dream, I not only asked my father to arrange more swordsmanship lessons for me, but I also stole special steel passed down from generation to generation in my family, hoping to use it to Forged into a magical weapon that belongs only to me."

Having said this, Elodie stretched out her hand and slowly untied the big bundle in front of her knees.

"It is difficult to verify where this piece of steel came from."

"I only know that our family has acquired this piece of steel a long time ago and regards it as a precious family treasure that has been passed down from generation to generation."

"My father had no interest in it, so he casually placed it in the cabinet in the study. This gave me the opportunity to steal it secretly."

"Father, I'm afraid he still doesn't know that the family heirloom is in my hands to this day."

"When I was very young, my grandfather often told me various stories about this family treasure by the fireplace."

"Although the content of the story is all kinds of weird, there is one thing that I always keep in mind - weapons forged from this steel will have a jet-black luster! And they are extremely tough and sharp!"

“Therefore, our family calls it ‘Broken Iron Steel’, which means ‘cutting steel and breaking iron’!”

When Qingdeng heard this, he could no longer remain calm, and his facial expression was dominated by strong shock.

"Elodie, could it be that..."

Before he finished speaking, Elodie nodded understandingly, with a smile on her face.

"Although I'm not sure yet, I think our family's 'Broken Iron Steel' is your 'Wan Liangang'!"

The moment she finished speaking, Elodie opened the baggage, and the thing inside was finally revealed - an irregular piece of iron.

At the same moment she opened the furoshiki, the room lit up with a dark halo - it was the luster of the iron block.

At first glance, it seems to be just a big black lump of iron.

But if you look carefully, you can find that the iron block has a faint pearl-like luster.

Even Qingdeng, who doesn't understand materials science at all, can still see at a glance how extraordinary this iron is!

Before Qingden could recover from the shock, Elodie continued:

"Master, I came here this time to entrust it to you."

She paused, then straightened her back and said seriously, word by word:

"Please use this steel to recast the blade of Vairocana!"

The solemn expression and solemn tone... It can be seen that she is not joking, she is very serious.

Qingdeng looked at Elodie, then looked at the "broken iron steel" in front of her knees, and the shock on his face gradually subsided.

"...Elodie, your kindness, I appreciate it. I can't accept this thing."

As he spoke, he shook his head solemnly.

"This is your family heirloom, how can I steal it?"

"Besides... Aren't you going to use this steel to forge a magic weapon that belongs to you alone?"

"In this case, I can't accept it."

Aelodie didn't seem surprised by Qingdeng's answer.

She smiled:

"Master, you are welcome."

"Indeed, this thing is indeed our family treasure, and I do intend to use it to forge a magic weapon that belongs to me alone."

"But, since I am my father's only daughter, I will inherit all the family property sooner or later."

"In that case, how to use this family treasure depends entirely on my personal preference."

"I am just using my property in advance."

At this point, she playfully stuck out her tongue, with a cunning look on her face.

"As I grow older, I have gradually come to terms with reality."

"With my limited skills, I can't be Robin Hood."

"Compared to wielding swords, abacus is more suitable for me."

"I am not a talented warrior like Miss Souji and Miss Sanako. I am just an ordinary person with a little talent."

"It is a waste for a mortal like me to use such divine steel."

"A good sword should be matched with its owner, and so should good steel."

"Rather than letting a pearl be covered in dust, it is better to generously give it up."

"In other words, this is not a 'gift', but an 'entrustment'."

"Master, I entrust my dream to you now!"

"Please use this steel to forge a unique sword, and then become a knight who is feared by the world and famous for thousands of years, and complete my unfinished dream!"

After that, Elodie bowed solemnly and generously, and pushed the black steel in front of her knees forward to Qing Deng.

Qing Deng opened his mouth, wanting to say something but stopped.

He wanted to say something else, but after hearing what Elodie had just said and seeing her expression, the words that were about to come out of his mouth fell back into his stomach.

If Elodie was right, then this piece of "broken iron steel" was very likely "Wanlian Steel".

The "Wanlian Steel" that he had been looking for for a long time but could not find actually appeared in front of him in this way... To be honest, Qing Deng had a sense of illusion that he was "trapped in a dream".

However, he was not surprised by such unexpected developments.

In the real world, no matter how absurd things are, they can happen.

At this moment, he felt Elodie's unshakable determination.

Especially after she said the words "entrust your dream", Qing Deng could only answer one thing——

"...I understand."

Qing Deng sat solemnly, nodded solemnly, then bowed in return, and said loudly word by word:

"'Broken Steel', I accept it!"

...

...

The person who knows swords and steel the most around Qing Deng is undoubtedly Mr. Kiryu, who comes from the Yamada Asaemon family.

After the battle with Hannya, Mr. Kiryu, who was seriously injured, did not return to Osaka, but recuperated in a nearby villa in the western suburbs of Kyoto.

In order to verify whether "Broken Steel" is "Wan Lian Steel", Qing Deng rushed to Mr. Kiryu's house in a hurry.

As soon as he saw the other party, he took out the "Broken Steel" directly to show him.

It would be fine if he didn't look at it, but when he saw it, Mr. Kiryu's two eyeballs almost rolled out of his eye sockets.

Qing Deng asked:

"Boss Kiryu, how is it? Is this 'Wanlian Steel'?"

Boss Kiryu was silent for a moment, then said faintly:

"Jujun, this is troublesome... This steel is too perfect, and I'm afraid no swordsmith can control it nowadays...!"

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