Nowadays, the Qi Zhao family that is resisting the barbarians is very powerful, and the general Iemo is also related to Wagoniya. Therefore, in the second year of Bunjiu (1862), the current Laozhong, six Laozhong and three Daimatsuke all support them on the surface.

It is a combination of public and military forces to fight against the foreigners.

But what about actually?

Among the ten people, the most senior among them were Kuze Hiroshu and Matsudaira Nobuyoshi. These two people, together with the deposed Nobumasa Ando, ​​promoted the maritime strategy. The maritime strategy was also a combination of public and military affairs, but it focused on the founding of the country and opposed rashness.

Fight against the barbarians.

However, given the current situation, one of the two knows his mistakes and can correct them, while the other just continues to remain silent. No one believes them if they say they sincerely support the fight against the foreigners.

The remaining eight people do not have the baggage of the two unlucky guys above - they do not support Kuze and Matsudaira, but it does not mean that these people agree to use force to fight the barbarians:

Take Isawa Masagi and Okubo Tadahiro, for example. The former served as Nagasaki governor, and later when the Kurofune visited for the second time, he served as Uraga governor. This person participated in the signing of the first peace agreement at the founding of the country.

Ah, and Izawa also contributed a lot to the opening of Kanagawa (Yokohama) port. Judging from his past performance, he was not a member of the group that used force to resist the barbarians;

As for Okubo Tadahiro, he was not only the coastal defense official when Kurofune visited, he was also the head of the Banshu Institute of Foreign Studies (formerly known as the Institute of Foreign Studies). In the past, he was much more active than Izawa Masagi in the founding of the country;

Finally, this founding faction must include Matsudaira Keinaga - as the current "elder brother" who is the first minister of the imperial court. Although Qingyong is a member of Qi Zhao's lineage who advocated fighting against the foreigners, under the influence of his close friends, he is now a

A founding theorist through and through.

Speaking of which, Lao Nakawakisaka Yasaka was originally considered a member of the founding faction, but because he repeatedly rebelled, no one dares to confirm this stance.

Well, even if Wakisaka is expelled, with one laozhong, six laozhong and three daimofuri, there are still five people in the founding faction.

Five to five, isn’t this a tie, but in fact it’s really not!

Although the remaining five people do not belong to the founding faction, the problem is that there is only one among them who really wants to use force to fight the barbarians, and that is the new veteran Mizuno Tadayoshi.

But rather than talking about Mizuno fighting against the barbarians, it is better to say that whatever Kuze supports, he opposes - this is the adopted son of Mizuno Tadakuni, and the former Tadakuni's first Tadakuni was taken down by Kuze's brother-in-law, Abe Masahiro. They are old enemies, so Kuze

If he is a founder of the country, then Mizuno must be a rebel.

The remaining new bosses, Itakura and Inoue, as well as the remaining Daimatsu Komai Asa On, these three usually do not show off their skills and only practice Taipingquan, so they may have a stance of resisting the barbarians, but to be firm,

That's also very suspicious.

Calculating it this way, it’s not five to five. It’s actually five to one. There are five founding parties in Keinaga and one in Mizuno is an anti-barbarian faction. Then the three of them are neutral, and one of them, Wakisaka, is undecided. He has hooked up with the Maori family. For the time being, it counts.

Fight the barbarians.

Hey, this isn't right. It doesn't mean that the resistance against the foreigners is very fierce now, and the Qi Zhao family has made a huge turn over. Why is it that despite the change of ministers, the founding faction still has the upper hand?

Actually it’s not surprising at all, why?

Of course it's because the shogunate tree has deep roots over two hundred years ago.

Any team that has been formed for a long time has a particularly obvious characteristic, that is, the inheritance is orderly.

Newly appointed, there are four senior middlemen, one daimoku, including the "big boss" Qingyong, and six of the ten top ministers are new, but these people did not pop out of the stone at once -

Without Brother Monkey's ability, this ordinary person would have to go through many levels to get promoted.

For example, among the four newly-appointed veterans, Mizuno Tadakei was promoted from Wakatoshi, Itakura Katsushige, and Inoue Tadashi were originally part-time priests of the temple, but only Wakisaka Yasuzaka turned around, relying on business and speculation, and rose from idleness.

A sudden resurgence in the family——But Wakisaka has also been the chief of the old school, and he is not afraid of anyone in terms of qualifications.

As for the new Okubo Okubo Tadahiro, as a famous minister, he has held important positions many times, and his service position before his promotion was also an important position held by foreign countries.

Among the six people, only Qingyong, the eldest, rose to the top in one step.

But Qingyong had competed with Ii Naomi for the title of eldest brother before, but he didn't win at the time, so if you really think about it, this was not a rash promotion.

Therefore, relying on orderly inheritance, although new wine is put in old bottles, this new wine is also made in old jars.

So, the ten people participating in the evaluation meeting today, although on the surface they all agree with fighting the barbarians and supporting the integration of public and military forces, they actually have their own positions. In the final analysis, if they want to govern with a unified government, as long as the shogunate is still there, let's just dream.

Of course, these old foxes have their tails hidden deep and have their own plans in mind. Therefore, no one knows that this combination of public and military forces under the banner of resisting the barbarians, judging from the tendencies of the current shogunate, this

It's over before it even started - what nonsense!

It stands to reason that since most of the ruling parties do not want to fight against the barbarians but want to integrate the public and military forces, then why not directly support Kuze?

, what about Ando’s navigation strategy?

If you mess around like this, isn't this just a waste of effort?

This question can be answered clearly in one sentence, that is "door view"!

Qi Zhao was shouting fiercely against the barbarians, but in the first line, Matsudaira Keinaga, Shimazu Saibin, Date Munejo, and Yamauchi Toyonobu, these people actually advocated the founding of the country, but Qi Zhao was the leader, so everyone had to follow him

Just leave.

Moreover, it can be said that everyone is against the foreigners - Qi Zhao prefers to use force to resist the foreigners. These people also agree, but they just ask for the founding of the country to increase its strength first.

At the end of this period, the founding faction and the anti-barbarian faction were almost completely defeated and ridiculed. Even the founding faction was actually an anti-barbarian faction, but they just felt that the time had not come yet and their strength did not allow it.

Of course, these people are all born nobles, so they think they are extraordinary, and they all want to govern according to their own ideas. As a result, after gathering friends to form a party, they find that there are more wolves and less meat, and there is only one steering wheel, so they start fighting.

For example, if we really want to say that this major change of ministers was caused by political opinions, it is better to say that it was caused by the situation, political opinions and political disputes:

In terms of form, after the founding of the country and trade, prices skyrocketed and the people were in dire straits. When the government and the public looked back and thought about it, they discovered that Qi Zhao had a reputation for foresight!

When the black ships visited that year, Qi Zhao put forward the "Five Pests Theory" - also known as the "Trade Theory is Harmful and Unhelpful":

Things imported from other countries are useless things, and things exported from Fusang are useful things. Useful things are exchanged for useless things.

It is the first harm;

Increasing exports will lead to insufficient use of hibiscus, which is the second harm;

Insufficient supplies will cause prices to boil.

It is the third harm;

The actual beneficiaries are a very small number of businessmen, while the people are the real losers, which is the fourth harm;

Even if gold and silver can be exchanged for exported goods, it is still difficult to make up for the lost part, which will inevitably lead to people not being able to make ends meet, which will eventually lead to five evils.

Looking back now, I can see that Qi Zhao did not say anything wrong at all!

Of course, at that time, the country was opened for trade because it could not defeat the Western countries, so I won’t mention it for now.

Nowadays, both the government and the public are suffering from foreign trade, so everyone thinks that Qi Zhao still has the foresight, so we have to take a closer look, what else did this person say, and is there any solution to this?

When I looked for it, I found it, it was "respecting the king" and "rejecting the barbarians".

Therefore, due to popular public opinion and the fanning of the flames by those who are interested, the idea of ​​"repelling the barbarians after the integration of the public and military forces" has gained such momentum - of course, the Qi Zhao family has extraordinary strength and is qualified to be praised.

It’s not like no one raised objections during this period, such as navigation strategies, etc., but they were all rejected:

"How dare you question what Qi Zhaogong said? Besides, I haven't tried this before, so how do I know it won't work?"

When the shogun Iemoge took over the throne and later married the royal princess, the situation was already established, so even if the ministers objected, they did not dare to show it. In short, they just pretended to do so.

This is the current situation. Among the ten rulers, not even one is determined to use force to fight the barbarians, but on the surface they all support the combination of public and military forces to fight the barbarians. It is really interesting.

If the situation is like this, then political opinions are not important, and it is better to engage in familiar political disputes.

Those present here, carefully divided, can be divided into the "remnants" of Tai Lao Jingyi's line, the conciliator of Kuze's line, the supporters of Qi Zhao's line, and the neutral ministers.

The "remnants" of the elder Ii's line include two elders, one of whom is Omatsuke, Matsudaira Nobuyoshi, Wakisaka Anzai and Komai Asahan:

Here, Matsudaira Nobuyoshi and the Ii family were related by marriage and were very close to each other at that time;

As for Wakisaka, even though she later had an affair, Wakisaka was Ii's right-hand man before;

As for Komai Asahi, he was not an Omatsuke during Ii's time, but he worked very hard at that time, so he couldn't run away.

After that came the Conciliation Faction of Kuze's line. Originally, Matsudaira Nobuyoshi could be counted as one of them, but now he has lost power, so only Kuze is left in the Conciliation Faction.

Nowadays, Qi Zhao's line has the most supporters. The eldest son, Keinaga Matsudaira, plus the three new senior midfielders, Katsu Shizu, Mizuno Tadashi and Inoue Tadashi, have a total of four - in fact, Wakisaka is now included in this group.

Department, but no one dared to trust him. There was no other way. He had bounced back too many times and had a criminal record.

The remaining neutrals are the two Omatsuke, Izawa Masagi and Okubo Tadahiro. These two have inherited the tradition of Otana Hatamoto. Whoever supports whom in the center, and if you want to be loyal, it is also for the public.

To sum up, the ratio of the number of the "remnants" of Jingyi, the Kuze Conciliation Faction, the Qi Zhao family and the neutral ministers is 3:1:4:2. Among them, the "remnants" of Jingyi all live with their tails between their legs, and their numbers are too large.

use.

But it would be nice if political disputes could really be calculated based on numbers.

For example, Mizuno Tadashi, who is from the same school,

No Tadahiro was promoted by Ii as the "employee of the side". Although Tadashi did not obviously turn to Ii, he also had a lot of glory with his side servant Tadahiro at that time. But now the veteran Mizuno Tadahiro has turned to Ii.

He joined the line of Qi Zhao, Jing Yi’s mortal enemy.

For another example, Tadashi Inoue, an old man who is now leaning towards the Qi Zhao family, is related by marriage to Itakura and Wakisaka, but his deceased wife was Matsudaira Tadashi's daughter - Tadashi and Kuze's brother-in-law Masahiro Abe

Deep friendship.

So, despite the fact that everyone looks down on Wakisaka Anzai and thinks he is an inquisitor, in fact, Wakisaka is a bit rough and direct. This eldest brother, not to mention the second brother, has never stabbed someone with a knife - even now

No, I will definitely do it in the future. I often walk by the river and my shoes won’t get wet.

The current leader in power, Matsudaira Keinaga, is facing this situation:

Not only were the small imperial court and the shogunate at odds with each other, but the shogunate itself was also in shambles internally - they looked harmonious, but in fact each had their own agenda.

But you have to eat the melons you picked yourself no matter what.
To be continued...