"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, and even the 'Supreme Great Karma' would be hard-pressed to match it."

"..."

Elodie remained silent, pursed her lips in deep thought.

The director's curiosity was aroused and he 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.

Upon 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, with a determined light shining in her eyes.

"...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 "dong-dong" sound on the floor.

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

"What is 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 have started an extraordinarily 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 academic overlord".

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 next spring before launching the offensive.

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

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

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, Changzhou is now at its weakest.

Since we decided to take advantage of its illness to kill it, it was natural to send troops as early as possible.

If 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 to launch the 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 case, it is inevitable to mobilize many civilians 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 some kindness and obediently pay the wages, their shabby finances would not be able to support this horrific expenditure.

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, Aomori 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 in detail!

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

It was just as he wanted - Aomori was indeed willing to return to Edo.

It is necessary to discuss such an important military issue in detail 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, somehow, 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 had a helpless smile on his face while thinking to himself.

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 all 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 is 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 Division 9, and ordinary people cannot 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, Qingden 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.

"Elody, 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, Qingdeng also thought about changing his name to "Alice".
To be continued...