Chapter 116 Imminent, Heavenly Might Unleashed, Exchange Page

Chapter 116 Imminent, Heavenly Might Unleashed, Exchange Page

"What do you mean?" Zhang Chang'an also found it strange. Although Kyoto had a coalition of forces from the shogunate's vassal states, it was not wartime, and the total number of troops was no more than two or three thousand.

They want to blockade Kyoto, which is understandable in itself, but do they have that many troops? If they want to blockade all the passages to Kyoto, how many people will be left in Nijo Castle?

Xiao Ju shook her head helplessly: "We didn't understand either. They initially said they would blockade, but after they had the crowd under control, they immediately started to sabotage the boats and dismantle the railway, and block the city gates."

But after doing all that, the defending troops in all directions had basically withdrawn. In other words, it wouldn't take much effort to force our way out now.

Zhang Chang'an remained silent for a moment, lost in thought. After confirming that Xiao Ju had no further information, he immediately stood up and walked towards Sakamoto Ryoma.

Sakamoto was standing in the corner of the room, whispering something to a middle-aged man with a short beard. When Zhang Chang'an approached, the middle-aged man walked away, leaving Sakamoto Ryoma alone.

Upon seeing the two of them, Director Kondo immediately came over to find out what was going on.

"Mr. Zhang?" Sakamoto looked at him. "What's wrong?"

Zhang Chang'an didn't beat around the bush: "How much do you know about the situation outside?"

Sakamoto glanced at Tachibana behind him: "Mr. Tachibana is a capable person; he knows about the same things as us."

"What are your thoughts?" Zhang Chang'an's expression was quite serious.

"You probably already figured it out." Sakamoto glanced at his expression and realized he had guessed, then lowered his voice: "They're not planning to blockade Kyoto."

Zhang Chang'an looked at him and continued, "They wanted to cut off the escape route for the people of Kyoto. The waterways were destroyed, the railways were dismantled, but in the end, they didn't send anyone to guard them, because they weren't afraid of us escaping."

As Kondo listened to their conversation, he glanced at the Shinsengumi and anti-shogunate members in the room.

Ryoma then added, "I just don't know why. If we went to the Choshu Domain or the Satsuma Domain, we would find countless people like Katsura, and perhaps even many more radical patriots."

They spared the Shinsengumi as well, only using artillery and other things they could afford to consume.

But if we unite, it won't be long before we become a major problem for them.

Listening to his analysis, Zhang Chang'an filled in the last piece of the puzzle: "You're right. They're not afraid of us running away, because what they're most worried about right now is that we all gather together and attack Nijo Castle."

Ryoma was puzzled when he heard this, until Zhang Chang'an explained the strange people and the Shogunate's plans to him.

At the same time, Director Kondo also realized the reason behind it.

"So," Zhang Chang'an deduced simply, "they transferred all their troops, including all the weirdos, to defend Nijo Castle. As for the people outside, they should run if they can. Anyway, the waterways are gone, the railways are gone, how far can they run on foot?"

Ryoma immediately realized: "If that's the case, then their target isn't us at all. We can't make everyone in Kyoto believe that there's a huge conspiracy that requires them to immediately abandon their businesses and leave their homeland."

Therefore, as long as we destroy the railways and ships, we will absolutely not be able to take away most of the people of Kyoto.

Their plans always succeed.

As Ryoma said, not to mention the common people, even those anti-shogunate faction members in the house, if told the truth...

If you were to say that the shogunate now possesses a mysterious machine that could cause their mindset to regress directly to that of the early shogunate, where loyalty to the shogunate was deeply ingrained, making them their ancestors, most people would probably think it's nonsense.

Longma pondered for a moment, then realized the key point: "But this also means that their plan can be launched very soon, at the latest in a day or two."

Kondo then added, "So what we need to do now is not to evacuate the people, but to take action before the plan begins—"

The three men glanced into the room. Hijikata Toshizo leaned against the wall, his hand on the hilt of his sword, his eyes and mouth full of exhaustion. Saito Hajime was still resting with his eyes closed, and many of his wounds had not yet stopped bleeding.

Okita Souji gently patted the back of a young soldier who was coughing up blood in a low voice. Among the anti-shogunate faction members, some were silent, some were talking in hushed tones, and some had shifty eyes.

They didn't know the truth, but they were the only ones who could accomplish this task.

"I'll let the Shinsengumi rest as soon as possible, and then mobilize them. Those who have escaped here will basically have no objections to this matter anymore," Chief Kondo said, slowly turning around and walking towards the Shinsengumi members.

"These anti-shogunate people are unaware of this plan, but as long as they don't have no chance of winning, if you tell them to attack the shogunate, they will definitely follow suit," Ryoma calmly concluded.

However, he immediately added, "But these are just people I know well, and relying solely on them might not be enough—I'll try to think of a way."

Zhang Chang'an listened to their mobilization, but didn't react much.

"Mr. Zhang, what are you going to do?" Longma turned to ask him.

Zhang Chang'an, who had already started walking out, said quite matter-of-factly, "Me? Going home."

As he walked out, he turned back again to add, "I need to take care of some things."

-

"Crackling sound" Perhaps because the incident didn't care about ordinary people, it was unusual that it didn't affect the ordinary people in Kyoto much.

The problems that have arisen in our ancestral workshop are smaller than those during the last uprising by reformers.

When the workshop door was pushed open, everything inside was the same as when I left.

Zhang Chang'an closed the door behind him and locked it. The room was dark, so he didn't turn on the light. He simply walked to the inner room based on his memory and squatted down in front of the hidden compartment.

The hidden compartment was still there. He reached in and pulled out the sludge removal device. The metal casing was slightly cool to the touch. He immediately took out a tube of blue jade from the side, filled it in, then took a deep breath, took off his shirt, and sat cross-legged.

The second dredging was much more skillful than the first.

He didn't even flinch when the needle pierced the blood vessel in the center of his chest.

The oil slowly came into contact with his blood through the syringe, and a strange sensation spread to his limbs along the direction of the blood.

However, there wasn't much oil residue left in his body, so this was just a supplementary cleansing, and therefore the reaction was naturally minimal.

Zhang Chang'an didn't wait long before slowly exhaling a breath of stale air, waiting for the device to take effect. His body immediately felt much lighter than before, and the slight, lingering feeling of resistance disappeared completely.

He looked down at his arm, and the veins on the muscles and inside his wrist had finally returned to their normal color.

But before he could remove the syringe, before the cleaning was finished, Zhang Chang'an decisively looked at the wall in the room, and the family tree automatically appeared under his will.

The yellowed pages turned to a new page, revealing a few lines of text: "Newly unlocked Ancestral Heritage Sequence, now open for you, '43rd Unknown Ancestor, [Heavenly Might Night Uncollected] Class Exclusive Exchange Page:'"