In early July of the first year of Manen, after the new land was divided, the warriors of Bingo Fukuyama Domain rushed back to the city under the leadership of their masters - the autumn harvest was approaching, and there were many things going on, especially since the price of rice had soared, so they did not pay attention to the autumn harvest.

But no.

A few days later, when the political affairs subsided, Shigetaro Eki, the side servant, remembered that he had a guest whom he had not seen, so he hurriedly invited the great monk Xiunian to his residence.

Speaking of which, Jiang Mu did not mean to neglect Xiu Nian. After all, their friendships were different, so how could they be compared with ordinary messengers.

On the Shangsi Festival in March this year, the head of the elder Jing Yisao was assassinated and died. Although the shogunate tried its best to cover up the incident, the inside story gradually became known to everyone. Stimulated by this incident, each Fuso family was ready to take action, and the envoys who were ordered to collude

There is an endless stream of people, and many people come to Fushan - after all, the old family leader has been in power for many years and has great potential. How can anyone who cares miss this?

However, Abe Isemaru was disheartened and avoided seeing all the envoys. The only ones he received were the envoys sent by Gongfang Yang. However, he also declined the invitation to go out again because of his "broken body and his courage."

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But I never expected that in early March, under the recommendation of Nobumu Ando, ​​the old middle school, Kuze Hiroshu, the former chief of the old middle school, Shimonoseki Juku Domain, would be reinstated. By April 28, Kuze would be promoted to the old middle school.

First seat.

Kuze's Okugoden was also a princess of his own family, and his construction ideas were similar to those of his own main hall, so that the outside world thought that Abe Isemomo was behind it. But Shitaro, as a close confidant, naturally knew that this was not his own handiwork.

But I can’t come forward to clarify this kind of thing, which is really frustrating!

Fortunately, Xiunianzhuzhi came, and I had to talk about my concerns.

After receiving the invitation, Xiunian Shi Shiran came to Jiangmu's mansion. The accompanying travelers also brought some specialties, which were all Shitaro's favorite things.

In fact, Shitaro's original hobby was the tea ceremony, and the artistic conception of "one period, one session" was so elegant. However, as the times became increasingly difficult, especially after returning to his family's territory, he was busy with work and became less interested in this leisurely and elegant hobby.

Take the contents of the cup.

However, our family is financially weak, and drinking too much sake goes against the frugality advocated. Shitaro had no choice but to drink sencha instead. Unexpectedly, the price of this tea also increased a lot after trade last year. It's not that Eki can't afford it, but it caused material disputes.

After all, it was not good, so he also deliberately reduced his enjoyment in this aspect.

In the past, when the main hall was in charge of the shogunate, as a confidant, Eki Shitaro had constant social activities, which was really a pleasure! But now that he is almost frugal in food and clothing, sometimes when he thinks about it, it seems like a dream.

And every time Monk Xiunian came, he always brought some hobbies, which made Jiang Mu envious.

After driving away the rest of the crowd, only Shitaro and Xiunian were drinking together, and the atmosphere suddenly became relaxed.

"Hmm~, this beer is pretty good, why didn't I see my employer bring it to me before?"

"This beer also requires food to brew. Last year, when the Haikou opened in Hong Kong, the ban was relaxed. I missed it last time, so I will definitely bring it to Mr. Jianzhai for a taste this time."

Shitaro looked envious when he heard this.

This smart man doesn't need to say it clearly. The implication of Xiunian's words is that he made a lot of money selling beer to Westerners in the box shop. Now I'm afraid word of mouth has spread, so he sent it and sold it well. And to earn foreign money, now this

That’s the thing!

Looking at his expression, Xiunian knew that this man was jealous again, so he quickly comforted him:

"Fushan has abundant sunshine. If this wine is produced in the future, it will definitely be better than beer."

Hearing Putao, Fantaro glanced sideways at Xiunian and said, "This monk is very capable. Although I defended myself day and night, I failed to defend myself in the end and let this guy come up to me."

In the autumn of the fifth year of Ansei (1858), Abe, Shitaro and their ministers returned to Fukuyama from Edo.

A few days later, the acting official of Nirayama, Egawa Tarozaemon Hidetake, sent someone to visit him and presented him with a small deposit of 40,000 Tianbao. This monk, Shunen, was the envoy.

The seclusion in the main hall originally did not want to accept it, but he advised himself, "The official in the main hall is an upright official, and the eunuch's pocket is not deep. The vassal government is in urgent need of revitalization, so for the sake of Fushan's overall situation, it is better to accept it. If something happens in the future, Emu will take charge of it."

Originally, I thought that the other party was just a loser. If I couldn't help in the future, I would just commit seppuku and apologize. But I didn't expect that the subsequent development turned out to be as Xiunian said, "I care about my past kindness and have nothing else to ask for."

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The main hall and himself had judged that although the money was given in the name of the Nirayama Egawa family, the two major allies of the Egawa family, Oguri Tadjun, and Hakodate, Hori Naohide, would definitely not be able to escape. These three families must have something up their sleeve.

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But in the past two years, I have not asked for anything. Even the gold tickets were paid in one lump sum - the first time was 40,000 gold in cash, but the subsequent 60,000 gold were also given on the spot. There was no extension of the gold ticket.

A grasping attitude.

Originally, in May of this year, the shogunate issued new coins. The gold content of the Wanyan Xiaoban gold was only 33% of that of the Tenbao Xiaoban. I thought there would be a dispute about the final payment, but the wealthy businessman Shikiya in the North actually paid a small amount of silver according to the currency value of the Tianbao Xiaoban.

I paid the last 30,000 gold, full of sincerity!

In the autumn of the second year of Ansei (1855), the shogunate began to "transfer overseas silver with Fuso gold". The person who carried out the execution was Nagasaki Minister Oguri Tadjun. The chief minister at that time was Abe's attendant, so this trick was unknown to outsiders, but Shitaro Shitaro knew about it.

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Therefore, the 100,000 gold paid in the past three years, the first two payments in gold and the last payment in silver, did not cause Fushan any loss. This is a great sentiment!

When Xiunian came to visit at the end of May this year, Fantaro told the monk, "Let's talk about what we want to do. Fukuyama can agree to it without any ambiguity."

At first it was said that Shitaro would be the one to resist, but in fact both the emperor and the ministers knew that he could not resist. Of course, if this really doesn't work, you can just ignore it - the wonders of political affairs are indescribable.

But what surprised Shitaro was that Xiunian just smiled slightly:

"A gentleman is not a party member. The purpose of reviving Fushan is to preserve Fusang's vitality. Why should you be suspicious, sir?"

Afterwards, he reported the matter himself, and the hall was silent for a long time. In the end, he only said one sentence, "The future generations are to be feared!"

I repeatedly checked what Xiunian and others were doing in Fushan, and found that they were indeed very prosperous, and they really had no back-up to promote agriculture and Western industries - they would do whatever they wanted to do, and they would never tempt or force them.

On the contrary, there were quite a few people in my family who caused trouble, but they didn't care about it and just gradually alienated these people.

Just like this wine, it will be mass-produced next year, but Xiunian has never put forward any special requirements by recommending high-quality varieties or providing craftsmanship. He wants to guarantee the production and reimburse him, but Xiunian also said "good, good, good" without the slightest intention of interfering.

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As for political opinions, Monk, if you want to talk about it, I will chat with you. If you don’t want to talk about it, then it is also good to transfer to Fengyue.

On the contrary, it was Shitaro himself. He found that Xiunian had a beautiful mind and had dabbled in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. He also had a thorough understanding of the situation in Fuso and everything he said was true. If the main hall had not been so disheartened, he would have recommended Xiunian long ago.

Today, Shitaro invited Xiunian here because he had doubts in his heart:

"Now that Kuze and Ando are in power, the government has made great progress. I don't know what the secret is."

Myo Miao, you big-headed devil, it’s too early to start talking about progress within three months.

"You, Shitaro, are full of knowledge. Where has your knowledge gone? Don't you have dangers in the mountains and seas in your mind? Why do you want to 'discuss the government's affairs' casually?"

Xiunian had a lot to say, but since Shitaro asked, he had to answer - in fact, because Xiunian had studied abroad, he was often reminded by Naohide, and his knowledge was already much higher than that of a celebrity at this time. The so-called "early morning"

"Knowing things in three days, being rich for a thousand years", he himself did not realize this, but Shitaro really regarded Xiunian as a god.

“It all depends on the support of my peers.”

Seeing the greetings on the other person's face, Xiunian had no choice but to explain, "Whether this is a good thing or not, I can't comment on it, but with Jing Yisao's leader, "Zhuyu is ahead", we have just moved this big mountain, so of course everyone is happy."

It was April 23rd of the fifth year of Ansei (1858) when Ii became the eldest brother of the shogunate with more than 10,000 people. At that time, Hota's faction, the chief of Laozhong, and Qi Zhao's faction were fighting fiercely. They were tit-for-tat with each other, and the shogunate was almost paralyzed.

It was the second year of the Arrow War, and English and French warships were sailing along the coast of China.

On May 20, 1858, the first Battle of Dagukou ended, and the allied forces gained the upper hand. In June of that year, the four countries of Britain, Buddhism, Mi, and Shandong initialed the Tianjin Agreement with China, and the war came to an end.

The news reached Fuso - it was mainly the Mi people's special envoy Harris who used this to put pressure on the shogunate. For fear of repeating the mistakes of China, the hard-line Qi Zhao group lost the hearts of Fuso's top leaders. Taking this as an opportunity, Jing Yi killed his boss with a sharp knife.

Cut off the tangled knot and kick political opponents to the ground

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In fact, Qi Zhao is too "outspoken" - it is a good thing to dare to think and do things, but his rough style is quite criticized by others. This kind of behavior is not liked by everyone, so he makes many enemies on weekdays.

Although there was a lot of internal fighting under the shogunate system, in the era of the former chief senior officer Abe, the fighting method was "not to the problem but not to the person", and the fighting method was quite gentle. Abe's former chief senior officer Mizuno Tadakuni was also because his methods were too fierce.

And lost ground.

In the final analysis, although the Westerners kept knocking Hong Kong, no one at Fuso was mentally prepared to face the cruelty during the two hundred years of peace.

Compared with the feuding situation between the Laozhong chief Hota's faction and Qi Zhao's faction, the decisiveness of Ii Sobu after taking office was quite popular with the ministers - of course, Qi Zhao's faction cried bitterly.

In fact, although Jing Yi's method of wiping out his bosses was resolute at that time, it was actually loud and clear. "Only the chief culprits will be punished, and the accomplices will not be ignored" - except for the core of Qi Zhao's group, no one else was punished seriously at first.

But "if you're not afraid of bad things, you're afraid of bad people." Before the storm had passed, the small imperial court in Kyoto added to the fire:

In the eighth month of the Heli calendar that year, the royal family sent someone to Qi Zhao and his son to send a secret Wuwu edict: "The public and military families must work together; the shogunate and the vassals should eliminate disputes on major state affairs in foreign affairs and internal affairs; regardless of closeness or distance, the shogunate,

To be close to the feudal lord, the Dai Daimyo and the Daimyo outside should work together and work together to not be insulted by foreign barbarians, etc."

It seems to be a nice thing to say, but it comes in the form of a secret edict, and coupled with what happened before - the small court issued multiple edicts to hold the shogunate accountable for signing trade agreements with foreign countries without authorization.

This triggered the "Wuwu Disaster" - also known as the Anzheng Prison.

The Wuwu Incident lasted from September of the fifth year of Anzheng (1858) to August of the sixth year of Anzheng (1859). During this period, everyone was shocked to discover:

"Jing Yi's leader is not just targeting Qi Zhao's family and the small imperial court in Kyoto, but also neutral people and even people from the original Jing Yi faction are also affected."

This is a very strange thing to say. No one dares to say that they can figure out what the elder Jing Yi was thinking. Anyway, while killing people, Jing Yi also made his own foundation unstable.

That was fine, but another important event happened at that time.

On June 25, 1859, the second Battle of Dagukou broke out. No one expected that the proud British-Buddhist coalition forces would be defeated miserably.

The news reached Fusang, and after looking at each other, everyone was dumbfounded.

Starting from June 2, the sixth year of Ansei (July 1, 1859), the three ports of Fuso, Nagasaki, Kanagawa (Yokohama), and Hakodate were officially opened to the outside world for trade. Only during this trade did everyone discover what Qi Zhao and others were worried about.

That's right. Not to mention the huge loss of gold, the price of goods has also risen extremely frighteningly.

So after the news of the second Battle of Dagukou came, quite a few people changed their original stance, "If China can win, can Fuso also win? Of course, I don't dare to fight, but be tougher."
To be continued...