Chapter 270: Chapter 117: Aoto Swordsman Group’s First Operation!

Because the street of Hirokouji is quite wide, it often develops into a bustling commercial avenue.

In Edo, there are seven well-known, most prosperous Hirokouji streets: Ryogoku Hirokouji, Kintai Bridge Imperial Gate Inner Hirokouji, Asakusa Imperial Gate Inner Hirokouji, Eternal Bridge East and West Hirokouji, Shinbashi West Side Hirokouji, Naka Bridge Hirokouji, and Yokkaichi Hirokouji.

In terms of bustling activity, Ryogoku Hirokouji is the most among these seven Hirokouji streets.

On both sides of the street, merchants line up one after another, including famous brand merchants known nationwide.

Numerous street performers on the roadside demonstrate their talents, performing various exciting shows for the passersby.

To draw an analogy... Ryogoku Hirokouji is Edo’s Champs Elysees Avenue.

On such a bustling street, the merchants certainly store huge sums of money.

The Anti-foreigner Group plans to attack this commercial avenue tonight, seizing the money from every merchant on Ryogoku Hirokouji to fund their future military expenses for Anti-foreigner activities!

Upon hearing that the Anti-foreigner Group intends to execute such a crazy plan tonight, everyone in the room... including Aoto, could not help but feel chills down their spine.

Directly looting Ryogoku Hirokouji... This is madness!

Yet, such a crazy plan closely resembles the kind of action these extremely radical "Anti-foreigner Warriors" would take...

Hirota Takasaburo only learned about the group’s insane plan last night from a minor leader responsible for managing him.

According to the minor leader responsible for managing him, Hirota was assigned to participate in the logistics of the plan.

Once the frontline comrades successfully complete the looting mission on Ryogoku Hirokouji, the logistics personnel are responsible for transporting the stolen money from Ryogoku Hirokouji in batches.

Hirota, whose thoughts are not as radical as the rest of the group, found it completely absurd to rob innocent people’s money to fund military expenses, no matter how much he contemplated.

After a sleepless night, pondering deeply all night long, he ultimately decided to rush to the Magistrate’s Office at dawn to report the group’s atrocities.

Hirota Takasaburo stated that his rank was not high within the group.

The group’s fixed strongholds, important personnel’s residences... He was unaware of these high-value pieces of information.

Usually, under the command of the group leader Shinno, meetings were not held at fixed locations.

The meeting place was either in desolate, uninhabited areas or abandoned houses.

Thus, naturally, he didn’t know more details about this insane plan.

He doesn’t know where the group is preparing to gather the forces to attack Ryogoku Hirokouji, doesn’t know how to plan for a post-successful retreat, doesn’t know the exact attack time...

...

After listening quietly to Hosoi’s statement, the room fell into dead silence.

Everyone, with varying expressions, looked at each other...

"... Lord Governor." A Dōshin of Secret Patrol uttered hesitantly, breaking the silence of the room, "Can this Hirota Takasaburo be trusted?"

"This question, if you ask me, who should I ask? Hirota only came to my North Guard Station this morning, how could I be fully acquainted with him!" Hosoi glared slightly irritated at the Dōshin who asked the question.

"Attacking Ryogoku Hirokouji tonight... the timing is too tight..." Nishino, sitting opposite Aoto, frowned deeply, "We don’t even have time to verify the authenticity of the information...!"

"Moreover, the information provided by Hirota Takasaburo is too scant."

"Besides knowing that the Anti-foreigner Group might attack Ryogoku Hirokouji tonight, the rest of the information is unknown."

When saying this sentence, Nishino intentionally strengthened the tone for the word "might."

"We cannot rule out the possibility that Hirota Takasaburo was sent by the group to deliver false information to us."

"Deliberately feeding us false information, deceiving us into focusing the Magistrate’s Office’s attention on Ryogoku Hirokouji."

"In fact, their target might not even be Ryogoku Hirokouji, but somewhere else entirely!"

Nishino’s comment made the atmosphere in the room even heavier...

In the face of severely lacking information and insufficient time to verify the authenticity, the information provided by Hirota Takasaburo... is indeed difficult to be fully trusted.

Intentionally giving out false information to deceive the enemy and disrupt enemy judgment—this is a strategy that has been tested time and again throughout history.

"Mr. Nishino, what you mentioned, how could I not know?" Hosoi sighed deeply, "But it’s better to believe it exists than not."

"If the Anti-foreigner Group really attacks Ryogoku Hirokouji... We can’t afford this consequence at the Magistrate’s Office!"

"I have already reported this to the Senior Councillors along with Atsukawa."

"The Senior Councillors have issued strict orders to our South and North Guard Stations: do everything possible to prevent any violence the Anti-foreigner Group might initiate."

At this point, Hosoi sighed heavily.

"We shouldn’t completely believe... but we also can’t completely disregard the information provided by Hirota Takasaburo."

"After discussion with Atsukawa, we’ve decided—tonight we’ll coordinate with the South Division, splitting into two routes!"

Hosoi’s face turned stern, his tone heightened.

"The ’Three Times’ of the South Division is tasked with guarding Ryogoku Hirokouji tonight! Preventing the Anti-foreigner Group from truly attacking Ryogoku Hirokouji!"

"Meanwhile, the ’Three Times’ of our North Guard Station will deploy throughout Edo, monitoring various areas, vigilant against the possibility that ’attacking Ryogoku Hirokouji’ is merely the Anti-foreigner Group’s deliberate stratagem!"