February of the second year of Wanyan (1861) was the year of Xinyou's reform, so the Yuan Dynasty was changed to "Wenjiu". The term comes from "Book of the Later Han Dynasty? Xie Gaizhuan", which means "using both civil and military forces to develop a long-term plan".

In other words, at that time, the small imperial court in Kyoto had already made the determination to fight off the foreigners with force.

Therefore, after the wedding of Iemo and Kazunomiya on February 11 of the second year of Bunkyu (1862), how to combine the public and military forces, and how to use force to repel the barbarians, these two points became the top priority of the shogunate.

The combination of public and military affairs is fine, but regarding the use of force to fight off the foreigners, the views of the small imperial court and the shogunate are actually very different:

Emperor Fusang and most of the ministers wanted to drive away the Westerners completely and turn Fusang into a royal paradise again;

The shogunate knew a lot about the Western powers and knew that it was unrealistic to eat up a fat man in one bite. Therefore, it only hoped to "gather people's hearts, rectify their weapons, and then restrain the foreigners from advancing further."

The gap between the two concepts is so big that it naturally creates hidden dangers for the merger of public affairs.

But in the second year of Bunkyu (1862), the prospects for the integration of public and military affairs seemed quite good, and the important ministers of the shogunate were actively planning for this.

At this time, the Western powers were all attracted by the North-South War between the Mi people that broke out in April 1861. How could they care about the internal affairs of the remote island countries in the Far East? Therefore, the Fuso envoys were not under any pressure, and they did not notice it due to carelessness.

Strange at this time.

On the twenty-eighth day of the third month of the lunar calendar, the outgoing Mi minister, Harris, met with the new minister, Mr. Jiamao, under the arrangement of the old minister Nobuyuki Ando.

It stands to reason that the general will receive foreign envoys after his new appointment, which is the intended meaning of the question.

But the problem is that the culprit that caused the shogunate's current decline in authority was the founding of the country, and the first trade agreement in the fifth year of Ansei (1858) was brokered by Harris. This person is the culprit!

Therefore, some people impeached Ando afterwards, thinking that he "deceived the emperor and flattered foreigners." The result was good. On April 11, Ando's boss was dismissed.

It was only then that the leader of the Central Committee, Kuze Hiroshu, was shocked to discover that there were so many people in the Central Committee who were dissatisfied with him and Ando!

People know how to be noble, and since it is "noble", it is difficult to achieve. Therefore, Kuze and Ando never dreamed that he would end up like this. Basically, it can be described as "the people betrayed their relatives".

Naohide was still in Edo at this time, and he was shocked when he heard the news:

Because of his intrusion, the Tsushima Incident did not happen from February to August of the first year of Bunkyu (1861). Why did Ando still fall into this situation?

It stands to reason that without Lucia's aggressiveness in occupying Tsushima Island, and the veteran Ando in charge of foreign affairs has not been widely criticized for this, his position should be much more stable, but now Ando is still dismissed, which is really strange.

If you don't know about foreign affairs, you can ask John, the British governor of Hakodate. If you don't know about internal affairs, you can only rely on inquiring.

As a result, Tadaka, the retired father of Ihori Ken and Oguri Tadjun, who stayed behind, told him, isn't this normal:

First, why is there such a big momentum for the merger of public affairs?

In addition to the promotion of Qi Zhao's group, the main reason is not Wan Yan Minting's fault.

In May of the first year of Manen (1860), the shogunate minted new coins, which caused a sharp drop in the price of silver. Countless people in Kinki and the Western Kingdom were harmed. Many daimyo, including those outside the shogunate, broke away from the shogunate. Isn't this the result of Kuze, Ando

What does the host do?

Second, the small imperial court has always been able to crazily gain prestige under the banner of resolutely resisting the barbarians. In the final analysis, the people were in dire straits after the foreign trade was launched in June of the sixth year of the Anzheng period (1859), so whoever resisted the barbarians would get popular support.

But in the same year of Wanyan, the shogunate signed new trade agreements with Frankia and Prussia in June and December respectively.

Destroy the foundation?

Especially recently, criticism of signing contracts without permission has become louder again.

This was the reason why the Qi Zhao family fought against their political opponents. Seeing that the public and military forces were about to merge, naturally no one was willing to stand up and offend them, who were about to stand up. Some even took the initiative to join the Qi Zhao family, adding fuel to the flames and accusing the shogunate of being "disrespectful" in matters concerning the imperial edict.

!

After hearing this, Naohide had a question mark on his face. These decisions were not made by Kuze and Ando alone - these two did not have the courage to sweep away the boss, so why didn't the important ministers who participated in the matter come out to support them?

As a result, both Hori Ken and Oguri Tadaka were very surprised. Isn't it normal to suppress the low when the situation is high? What's there to be surprised about?

The two of them hinted to Naohide and Iemoge that the new Duke would naturally be an emperor and a courtier. Could it be that Kuze was left to celebrate the New Year with Ando?

Naohide was shocked at that time. If Kuze and Ando abdicated, the new ones would be able to guarantee their loyalty. What a fuss!

Besides, Keiki Hitotsubashi and Iemoge of the Qi Zhao clan had competed for the crown prince position, so why should the Qi Zhao clan show their power?

But first there was Hori Ken and then there was Oguri Tadaka. These two were veterans of the world, so I couldn’t help but believe what Naohide said.

Seeing that the building between Kuze and Ando was about to collapse, but from the bottom of his heart, Naohide wanted to keep Kuze and Ando.

why?

One is that he knows that since the elder Ii came to power in the fifth year of Ansei (1858), the center of the shogunate has been changing people like a revolving door. If Kuze and Ando were to abdicate this year according to the original trajectory, the fall of the shogunate would also start in 1862 this year.

From the beginning of the year to the beginning of 1868, except for 1865, there was a big exchange of blood between the old and the middle, and the frequency was the same as eating and drinking, which was greatly detrimental to Fuso's political situation.

Naohide didn't have any real feelings for the shogunate, but he got a headache when he heard about the eternal lineage of the royal family - the feeling is "descendants with infinite scarcity are born to be superior to others", why are they all born from their fathers?

Besides, the Naohide family has no connection with the Fuso royal family, so even if they join forces, they won't be able to find a way out.

Therefore, stabilizing the shogunate government was the final plan of the Naohide clan.

The second one, of course, is Kuze and Ando, ​​whose governance is quite admired by Naohide.

It’s not that they are experts in internal affairs. In this regard, the two of them can only say that they are barely doing it:

Although the decision to mint the Wanyan coin was made when Ii was still alive, it was Kuze and Ando who actually implemented it. It is so unethical to devalue the currency three times in one go.

Even if he did nothing and just lied down and announced that the gold-silver ratio was changed to 1:15, it would still be so strong - at least the shogunate had an attitude of sharing the suffering of the people.

Moreover, the Wanyan coinage can be said to be a legacy of the predecessors, but in the first month of Wenjiu (1861), four copper coins were issued, which was completely the opportunity they took to plunder the people - despite the pressure of the outflow of copper coins,

But you can't work that hard.

Of course, Naohide can also understand that the outflow of copper coins cannot be solved immediately. Asking himself, he has no good solution - issuing banknotes is of course good, but the execution is questionable, and secondly, it may cause inflation.

.

As for the fifth grade Edo order issued in the leap month of the first year of Manen (1860), although it was intended to control exports, the unified purchase and marketing was indeed not done well.

In any case, these two have no expertise in economics.

But "everyone's shortcomings must lead to his strengths." The governance level of these two people is still good:

First of all, there was no major turmoil after the Sakurada Gate Incident in 1860, and there was no major war after the assassination of Ando in Sakashitamon this year. Regardless of the reason or pressure, this is not a case of putting the overall situation first.

Secondly, these two still want to make a difference.

First, there was the expansion of the Military Academy. Although it was also planned by Jing Yi, it was not easy to implement it because it was in the hands of these two people.

As for marrying under the palace and uniting with Gongwu, the two of them have been handling it till now.

Moreover, Kuze and Ando did not blindly submit to the outside world - although they signed two new trade agreements in 1860, in order to delay the opening of Edo, Hyogo, and Osaka, they were not on the 12th of the first year of Bunkyu (1861).

Yue also sent Takeuchi Yasunori, Oguri Tadatsun and others as envoys to Europa.

Moreover, in the same month, these two men also sent Kanrimmaru, who had returned from the United States, to the Ogasawara Islands to set up boundary markers and leave manpower behind to show that this was Fuso territory, so that foreigners would not keep prying eyes.

As for April of this year, Makino Tadayasu was appointed as the messenger of Goryeo, trying to expand mutual trade and even join forces to deal with foreigners.

Chitose Maru's visit to China Hong Kong is also expected to start at the end of April.

Even the first batch of government-sponsored students abroad are also waiting for news from Lan Guo. Once confirmed, a total of 15 people will go to Lan Guo to supervise the manufacturing of the purchased warships and learn Western academics at the same time - originally from the mission's visit to the United States in 1860

I wanted to buy a ship, but the war between the North and the South broke out last year, so I bought the ship from another country.

Since the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, this was the first time that people had taken the initiative to send people to study in the West. I didn't have the courage to do this.

Besides, others don’t know that Naohide doesn’t know that in the Lu Zhan Tsushima incident that was supposed to happen last year, Kuze and Ando never compromised, and relied on using foreign forces to control foreign countries, and finally asked Yingjili to come forward to solve this problem.

Therefore, it can be seen that Kuze and Ando’s external strategies are quite bold and pragmatic.

Moreover, these two were pretty good to Naohsiu. Not to mention Princess Shang Tokugawa, in 1860 they granted the Northern Territory a license to vigorously develop Western industries.

To sum up, Kuze and Ando, ​​who were in charge of the shogunate, can be regarded as continuing the previous strategy of Masahiro Abe, which was to "coordinate internally, encourage orchid studies and industry, and rectify military preparedness; be consistent externally, but do not launch unintended troops."

Therefore, Naoxiu has always felt:

"Keeping Kuze and Ando is better for Fuso and Kitchi!"

But unexpectedly, due to a strange combination of circumstances, Ando's boss was dismissed as scheduled on April 11th, which made Naohide angry.

After the two seniors Hori Ken and Oguri Tadaka decided to follow, Naohide wanted to take action resolutely, but well, his current status is rather embarrassing:

It turns out that he is a member of the Tokoku shogunate, and as an important minister, he can still comment on the political situation;

But now, he is a retainer of the Matsudaira family. Although everyone knows that he is the biological father of the head of the family, Matsudaira Shigetoshi, the names of ruler and minister have been decided. From the perspective of the shogunate and various princes, "You, a retainer, want to point fingers."

Why are you rowing your feet?" - Although Hori Ken and Oguri Tadaka knew Naohide's strength and didn't care about his change in status, others couldn't.

The reason why the shogunate has no major objections to his son Fukutaro (Matsuhira Shigetoshi)'s founding of the country is this:

Not only did he reward, appease and win over the Hide family, but he also actually pitted Naohide's father and son against each other, which put him in a position that was neither embarrassing nor embarrassing - the Hide family had established a country, but in the future Naohide himself would have to participate in the shogunate affairs.

It was done through his son. He was a powerful minister, so he could play at his own home, but the road to the shogunate had been cut off.

But Naohsiu is cheating, so why not be prepared for this?

Therefore, in May of the second year of Wenjiu (1862), Kuze Guangzhou, the leader of the Lao Zhong Dynasty, who was originally going to be punished and killed, suddenly found that his painting style had suddenly changed, and the situation where everyone was shouting and beating him actually eased.

How did Naohide do this?
Chapter completed!