Fusang calls traitors riqiezhe, that is, people who attack their companions with swords.

At this time, there were four people sitting in Satsuma Kamiyashiki. The master Shimazu Saibin, the envoy Ohara Shigenori, and the two elders of the shogunate Nakawakisaka Anzai and Itakura Katsushige.

Wakisaka and Itakura informed Qi Bin that "the shogunate wants to appoint Qi Bin as Laozhong." As soon as the news came out, the four of them looked at each other, no one spoke, and the atmosphere suddenly became heavy.

Why don't you speak?

Because these four people all know that the Ohara belt's edict contains "three strategies", one of which is, "the five coastal feudal lords, Date, Shimazu, Yamauchi, Maeda, and Mori, have outstanding merits, but

"Participate in national affairs as one of the top five", but now the shogunate actually took the lead and appointed Shimazu Saibin as Laozhong before receiving the imperial envoy.

There is no such coincidence in this world. Someone must have leaked the news in advance, so the shogunate took a preemptive strike to neutralize the small court's intention to win over Qi Bin.

So everyone has the same idea, that is:

"Fuck! Sure enough, there is someone who is in charge, but who is this person? Which force took action?"

In fact, not only did Ohara and Qi Bin, who came with him, look confused, but the two senior middlemen who came to visit, Wakisaka and Itakura, were actually quite surprised:

Just two days ago, on June 6, the second year of Bunkyu (1862), Matsudaira Keinaga convened the first Lao-Chinese evaluation meeting when he took office as the "big boss". At the meeting, Keinaga proposed the appointment of Date and Shimadzu.

, Yamauchi, Maeda, and Mori were the five old middle schoolers, and they were all stunned at that time.

It turns out that if the "big boss" does not come out, then the senior ministers in the shogunate will be the top ministers.

This position has always been selected from the daimyo of the past, and there is also a tradition that the candidate's territory cannot be too large or too small, usually more than 25,000 koku and less than 100,000 koku——

This territory is too small, and its own strength and prestige are insufficient, so the position of Lao Zhong is unstable; but if the territory is too big, there is a danger of gaining power.

In order to smoothly ascend to the throne, the former chief of the old army, Mizuno Tadokuni, once reluctantly changed his family from the Karatsu clan to the Hamamatsu clan. Both of them had an apparent height of 60,000, but the Karatsu clan was rich and had an actual height of more than 100,000 koku. Tadakuni ignored it.

His retainers tried to dissuade him and he changed his territory, but he did successfully become a middle-aged man later.

Therefore, Qingyong's proposal to propose the five coastal companies as Lao-Chinese immediately shocked all six Lao-Chinese.

Because there are so many faults, I can’t say anything at the moment - “Where should I start to refute?” Isn’t this embarrassing?

But Keinaga is not a fool, and it makes sense for him to dare to say this - if Naohide hadn't interfered, Keinaga, who was in charge of the shogunate in July, would have dared to change his long-standing "elder brother" service position to "

The fierce "political president"!

Therefore, he waved his hand and asked the attendant to invite the chief minister Izawa Masayoshi to come in.

"Meizakushou, please tell everyone."

Seeing Ize come in, the six senior middlemen were all shocked.

why?

Although the old man is noble, the actual power of the shogunate is in the hands of Hatamoto. Moreover, as the direct subordinates of the shogun, these people regard themselves as the hawks and dogs of the Tokugawa family. Not to mention that they do everything right with the old man.

Being submissive is really out of the question.

Not to mention anything else, there were some quarrels between the daimyo and the daimyo, and they drew their swords to kill each other. The most famous one, the eldest son of the old Nakatanuma Eiji, had achieved the high position held by Wakatoshi. His father was still in real power at that time.

That's not the case. Hatamoto Sano Masato said he should be hacked to death - even though he was held responsible afterwards, it was of no use, everyone was gone.

Moreover, as the pinnacle of the flag's official career, this post has the title of Omatsu, and the post of Ban is the stay-at-home position. Both of them are not close to the general's loyal confidants and cannot be held.

Damofu is nominally under the management of Lao Zhong, but it has the power to directly report to the generals, so it must not be taken lightly.

Therefore, Qingyong and Damufu Yize colluded so quickly, which is terrifying to think about.

Izawa Masaki came in with a smile, said hello and started pouring beans:

"On May 21st, the Kyoto court established a new official position called the 'State Secretary'. There were approximately twenty-seven ministers in office, and most of them participated in the 'Eighty-eight Ministers' Incident'. And this time

Ohara Shigenori, the envoy who came to Edo, was one of them.

This is the news just sent by the Osaka Clippers yesterday."

It stands to reason that after the news was informed to the eldest brother Qingyong, he should immediately report it to the senior middlemen, but now the six senior middlemen had no time to complain because the news was too exciting!

Although the establishment of official positions seems to be the right of the small court - the official positions are under the control of the royal family, in fact it is not the case at all:

Since the founding of the Tokugawa family, the "Regulations on Prohibition and Consolidation of Public Households" has stipulated that "the ministers of Taizheng, ministers of the right and left, and those responsible for the affairs of state must select those who have the ability to use utensils."

The meaning of this sentence is that the shogunate has the right to decide whether there is a "use" or not.

Judgment can be used to intervene in personnel appointments.

As for major changes in government affairs, such as the establishment of new official positions, it is not done without the consent and written signature of the ministers of Taizheng, left and right ministers and regents. This decree is illegal - in other words, the shogunate can interfere in the government affairs by relying on the ministers who are close to them.

.

But now, the official position of "Secretary of State Affairs" suddenly appeared. The shogunate didn't know about this. No one told us. The merger of public and military affairs is about to happen. How could the Kyoto court be so ignorant of the general situation!

Listen, this "Queen of State Affairs" shows that he wants to intervene in major affairs in a fair and open manner. It's exaggerated, Tiezi.

Moreover, most of the candidates are people from the "Eighty-eight Ministers of the Imperial Court Incident". Can these be serious people?

Isn't it because of these people that the shogunate violated the imperial edict to trade with Western countries? They disagreed life and death, and in the end, the shogunate himself has to bear the blame for this foreign trade.

Speaking of which, the six veterans, Kuze Hiroshu, Matsudaira Nobuyoshi, Mizuno Tadayoshi, Itakura Katsushige, Wakisaka Anzai and Inoue Tadashi, although they are not of the same mind, they have achieved it. Even if they support the integration of public and military affairs, it is not

You definitely can't sit down with the imperial court.

So everyone is staring at Itakura Katsuki, which means:

"What's going on? You are the king's Qi Zhao, please tell me quickly."

Itakura was so angry that his eyes turned black and he thought to himself, why is this happening?

"Although I was adopted into the Bitchu Matsuyama Domain, I am the biological son of the lord of the Kuwana Domain, Matsudaira Sadenaga.

Because the current head of the Kuwana family, Sadake, is one of the four Takasu brothers, he and one of the four brothers, Owari Tokugawa, the two heads of the family, Keisu and Shigetoku, are close, so they are regarded as a lineage of Sai Zhao.

But when you really swing it, everyone is dirty - not mentioning this long time, Matsudaira, the four of us who are new to the position, who is not hooking up with Qi Zhao and his family now, otherwise why would we be in the position:

For example, Inoue Tadashi, you are married to my Itakura family, and you were also related to the Wakisaka Anzai family - of course, we are really close to each other. I am close to the Qi Zhao family, so you have to follow me;

Mizuno Tadasei, not only did you marry the princess of the Inoue family, but also because of the transfer of the title, you colluded with the Inoue family. The previous head of the family was Tadakuni Mizuno who was ousted by Kuze's brother-in-law Abe Masahiro. Otherwise, how could we get together?

As for Wakisaka Anzai, you are a cunning person. If you weren't related to the Itakura family and the Inoue family, and you were kicked out by Kuze, who would care about you. And when it comes to the inside story of the imperial court, you Wakisaka should be the one with the most knowledge.

It’s clear!

Itakura Katsushige was close to the Owari Tokugawa family, and Owari was one of the core members of the Qi Zhao family. Why did Itakura feel that Wakisaka was closer to Kyoto than he was?

Of course it's because of Wakisaka's status as a nikiri, and speaking of this, the two veterans Kuze and Matsudaira who stayed on are also involved - feelings, these six veterans are more or less dirty.

, either he is now on good terms with the Qi Zhao family, or he has had contact with the imperial court.

It turned out that in order to promote the integration of public and military affairs, Kuze, the original head of Laozhong, once connected with the Choshu Mori family. However, as a result, the Mori family saw that Kuze was going to collapse, so they turned around and sold Kuze; and Wakisaka Yasaka was related by marriage to the Mori family,

So instead he was able to get on the boat of Gongwu Fusion.

The Mori family has been very close to the imperial court recently, so it's impossible for Wakisaka to receive any news.

However, Wakisaka, a man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, jumped from the moderate founding faction to the side of the hardline Ii. After attacking the Kōkō and Sai Zhao clan in the Ansei Prison, he has now turned around and relied on the relationship between the Maori family to promote the integration of public and military affairs.

Therefore, although the Itakura trio formed an alliance with him, no one dared to have a close relationship with this intruder - who knows if Wakisaka will rebel again tomorrow.

If for this reason, Wakisaka didn't tell everyone about the news, it would be understandable - a few days ago, everyone shook hands with the Kuze clan and made peace, so they didn't notify Wakisaka in advance.

, this is very fair.

Itakura winked to show his innocence, and he also turned to look at Wakisaka, trying to divert everyone's attention to this person.

Don't tell me, this trick is really useful. At least Kuze was fooled. He looked at Wakisaka fiercely:

"Riche, you must know this, because according to time calculation, the Maori family's eldest son Sadahiro is already in Kyoto at this time, so you don't have any ventilation?"

"Why do you think this is so innocent?"

Wakisaka was full of grievances, but he couldn't tell the difference, because the Mori family who joined forces with him really tricked Kuze.

As for how Wakisaka and his in-laws, the Mori family, deceived Kuze, it's a long story.

Although Itakura and Kuze have now reconciled after being reconciled by Keinaga of Qi Zhao's family, thinking about the origin of this incident, he still couldn't help but feel a little gloating, "I asked you to mediate in the middle and play both sides. You must have fallen into a trap this time."

It turns out that Kuze knew what he had done before. The minting of Wanyan (1860) made the princes of the Western Kingdom a big trap. The main reserve currency, silver coins, depreciated greatly.

, it’s the same as stealing, how can you not make people hate you?

Moreover, in June of the sixth year of Anzheng (July 1859), the three ports were opened to the outside world. Prices soared and people's livelihood became difficult. Although it was the predecessor, Ii Yi, who was responsible for this, he had already taken over the blame. Isn't this right?

It's inappropriate for me to be the first among seniors to scold others, right?

Therefore, when the Maori family came to the door and said that "the Maori family has a way to put an end to the material dispute," Kuze and Ando, ​​the two ruling senior middlemen, were overwhelmed by being scolded, so they immediately took the bait.

After asking carefully, it sounded like the same thing, so the two agreed to ask Maori to mediate at home.

This suggestion became famous in later generations and was called the "Navigation Strategy". It was proposed by Tokiyoshi Nagai, the direct head of the Maori family. This man was a famous member of the Maori family in Changzhou and came from the same lineage of the Oe family as the head of the family.

I also won the trust of the head of the family Qingqing.

What is this "Navigation Strategy" about?

To put it simply, it is not advisable to use force to resist foreigners. Only by actively engaging in foreign trade to increase our strength can we reverse the situation of being bullied by Western countries.

The relationship between "Navigation Strategy" and the combination of public and military affairs is that Nagai believes:

"Only when the imperial court and the shogunate are in harmony (the imperial court orders and the shogunate implements it) can the national theory be unified, and only then can there be conditions for implementing the maritime strategy."
To be continued...