On July 6, the second year of Wenjiu (1862), Gongfang Yanjiamao paid homage to a bridge to congratulate him as a "general queen". In this regard, ministers generally believed that Kyoto and the small imperial court went too far.

But on July 14, the shogunate issued the first issue of the Dii Newspaper, which published the retirement edict of the Imperial Palace:

"Since the sixth year of Jiayong (1853), Fusang has been in turmoil... I always look at the warnings in front of me, and I am terrified. But I think the fault lies with one person.

This tradition is located in Xin. It is advisable to be self-denial, propagate the trend, be aware of the negative yin and yang, achieve the brightness of the three lights above, and harmonize all living beings below.

If old evils are eliminated, public opinion is spread widely, and talented people are employed regardless of high or low status, we can save the foundation of the great public and private crisis.

I hope that we will not let down the legacy of our ancestors, the hopes of every family, and the expectations of all people, and we will strive to be the same."

This edict was written in February, when Shogun Iatesada retired to seclusion and abdicated, so he left this document to his heir, Iemo, to encourage him to continue his efforts.

This is originally a ritual text, and important occasions can be passed by just reciting them. Without this, it would not be solemn.

But now that the shogunate has published it openly, its intention is worth pondering:

If you take a closer look, you will see that this is not an edict to punish oneself. Before Jia Ding retired, he took all the sins since the founding of the country onto himself. It can be said that he has good intentions.

Not only that, this newspaper also published the grand order of the current Duke Xiang Jiamao, which was the first major move of the new general:

"As a child, I flattered Hong Ye, but could not promote the trend and went against the yin and yang. As a result, the people and the townsfolk were starved and even ate each other. I will always mourn and sigh, as if I was attached to the deep water. The fault lies in the failure of virtue to help.

Since the time of Guichou, we have encountered unprecedented national calamities, and our ancestors have suffered from them for many years, and the troubles and worries are known to the public. Therefore, I have made up my mind to renew my efforts to restore the foundation of the national crisis.

If you want to activate the virtuous, there will be no branches, no branches, no differences in appearance, and the same relationship with the world.

Therefore, we hope that we can encourage each other to eliminate the bad habits of arrogance and laziness in the past, serve the country with sincerity, and work hard to serve the public!

Heaven and earth can be used as lessons and should be known to everyone."

Shogun Iemo actually didn't say much. Apart from the usual rhetoric, he only said one thing, that is innovation, and innovation currently only has one major thing, recruiting talents regardless of their family background!

This family was convicted first by the imperial edict, followed by Iemo's reform order, but both mentioned the promotion of talents regardless of rank, so the criticism of Hitotsubashi Kei was weakened - after all, the two generations of generals did not care, this

If outsiders feel aggrieved, they are somewhat suspected of being troublesome.

Ke Qingxi breathed a sigh of relief, but ordered Ohara Shigetori to quit:

Originally, the Kyoto court gained its current momentum only by criticizing the shogunate.

But now that the shogunate is blaming the fault on one member of the Grand Gosho family, the others, especially the shogun Iemo, have gone into battle lightly.

Moreover, what does it mean to recruit talents "without any differences in appearance, generation, or appearance"? To put it bluntly, isn't it just an invitation to buy people's hearts? There are only so many people's hearts. If the shogunate pulls in too many, then the court will not get as much.

It's missing.

Therefore, Ohara felt very unfair.

But apart from the injustice, he still had some fear in his heart:

In the past ten years, Gongqing has gained a little bit of the capital he has today by manipulating things.

But as soon as this newspaper came out, a big killer weapon appeared out of nowhere. If you want to control the situation in the future, I'm afraid it won't be that simple.

According to Qi Bin, the head of the Shimazu family, this newspaper was published all over the country and would be received by every prince's family, the shogunate's office, and the agency office.

How could Ohara not understand this edict? The official newspaper said it was for important samurai to see, but with word of mouth spreading, I am afraid that all the people in the world will also get wind of it.

Therefore, it may not be easy to discredit the shogunate in the future.

The edict made Ohara restless, so he desperately urged the shogunate to give a reply to the edict so that he could return to Kyoto as soon as possible to report the changes in Edo.

But the elder Qingyong and other senior middlemen tried to shirk away from it. There were three things in this edict. Qingyong and Qingxi came to power. But the general went to Luo, and the establishment of the five big brothers has not yet happened. What are you anxious about? It’s delicious.

Just wait two more days for the drink.

But this time, things went bad:

Nowadays, there are so many rogues in Kinki that they burned down the Fushimi Shrine of the Shogunate in April. If Shimazu Saibin hadn't suppressed him at the Fushimi Temple House at that time, things would have been almost out of control.

But then Qi Bin was not

Having accompanied the imperial envoy to Edo, Tadashi Sakai, the lord of the Himeji Domain who was left behind to act as acting director of Kyoto, felt a little overwhelmed and finally caused trouble:

On the 21st day of the seventh month in the Japanese calendar, the rogue beheaded Kujo's retainer Shimada Masatatsu, and his head was placed in Shijo Qi. He listed his crimes and said: "Masatsu and the traitor Nagano's master were in the same plan. He will be punished by heaven."

At this point, the target of Tenchu ​​finally spread from attacking Westerners to domestic people, and the killings of Fuso rogues became popular for a while. From then on, Tenchu ​​became a common phenomenon at the end of the Tokugawa period, spreading from Kyoto to all parts of Fuso, as long as there were serious political differences.

, everyone drew their swords against each other, and people died violently everywhere.

This Shimada Masatatsu was Shimada Sakon. He was a retainer of Kanshiro Kujo Naotada and had good relations with Nagano, who was the chief envoy of Ansei Prison. Nagano was a confidant of Ii Naomi, the chief envoy of Ansei Prison.

The news reached Edo, and the central government of the shogunate was indignant. Is this the law of heaven? Guan Bai Kujo Naotada was one of the few pro-shogunate faction in the court. If he fell, the shogunate would have no place to cry.

!

In Naohide's original world, although the shogunate was not yet at the end of its rope, it was almost running out of fuel. Therefore, it was unable to deal with the riots in Kyoto and had no choice but to let it go.

But with the intrusion of Naohide, the situation of the shogunate was much better. At the very least, the military force and economy still had some old foundation, so the Edo Central Committee decided not to ignore it.

Think about it too:

Originally, Qingyong, Qingxi would not be able to take office until the beginning of July. After a lot of intrigues, the top leaders of the shogunate would not be able to reach an initial agreement until the leap August. But by then, the overall situation in Kyoto had been decided, and it was too late to interfere.

But now Keinaga has been appointed as the elder of the shogunate in early June, and he has hooked up with the old middle-aged man Kuze Hiroshu, the big head Fu Izawa Masayoshi, the left-behind Ihori Ken and others in advance. At the same time, the father-in-law Iemo is because of his father's family.

He is definitely not dead, he has support behind him, and he is not overly suspicious of Qingyong.

Therefore, after two extra months, and with money and weapons, the situation will naturally change.

The eldest brother Qingyong, the general later met Qingxi and all the old and middle-aged people jointly proposed:

"Kinki is uneasy and Kyoto is in turmoil. Please send good generals to Luo to protect the royal family and the ministers and stabilize the current situation."

In fact, the ministers had long disliked the Duke of Kyoto, but since it was the Qi Zhao family who first advocated the idea of ​​honoring the king, and the Qi Zhao family was now very powerful, they had no choice but to hold their noses and endure it.

Now that Qi Zhao and the others have come out and said they want to put an end to the chaos, what else can they say? Just one word, "Do it!"

Therefore, the prince, Iemo, ordered that the head of the Matsudaira family, Aizu Hoshina, Yongyao should be appointed as the new Kyoto chief executive, and he immediately went to Luo.

Matsudaira Yōho was one of the four Takasu brothers. After the Sakurada Gate Incident, he strongly advocated not attacking Mito. He was regarded as a best friend of Qi Zhao's family.

Logically speaking, although this errand was an order from the general Iemo, it was actually the idea of ​​one of his own, Qing Yong and Qing Xi, so Rong Bao should accept the order happily.

But everything has surprises. Qingyong and Qingxi felt that Rongbao had no problem, so they made the decision directly for him, but Rongbao didn't think so:

In fact, the root cause lies in this deceitful military service - the Aizu Domain was ordered to go to Luo, and the number of domain soldiers was set at three thousand, but this man was eating horse chews, and the Aizu Domain actually had to deal with it himself.

Bringing your own dry food and then going to put out the fire is not a scam!

Therefore, after receiving the news, the family elder Saigo Norimu, Tanaka Tosa and other retainers rushed from Aizu and urged the family head not to do this - unfortunately, the nearly 300 kilometers of road, these few traveled day and night, arrived in less than four days, almost

Tiring both horses and people to death.

In fact, this also reflects the situation at the time. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1854 and the opening of the port in 1859, Fusang has been in turmoil, prices are boiling, and people are living in dire straits. People from all over the country are swarming, and there are constant voices of resistance. Therefore, everyone is in danger and feels that the future is bleak.

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The retainers group also said the same thing when they advised Rong Bao:

"Although Aizu has 230,000 koku, it is not asking for trouble to support an expedition of 3,000 men, and there is no definite number. We don't know how long it will take and how much food is wasted."

Besides, the root cause of the prodigal troubles lies with the imperial court and the ministers. If this root cause is not solved, why should we go into this muddy water?"

But there was nothing Rong Bao could do. Now that Qi Zhaoyi was in power, he couldn't hold him back - he was only twenty-seven years old, and he didn't understand the sufferings of the world, so he was a bit naive.

Seeing that Rong Bao insisted on being loyal and loyal, the retainers were helpless - Rong Bao was quite generous and very popular.

Therefore, the retainers group did not engage in any tricks in front of them or behind their backs. Otherwise, they would collectively make trouble and go back to recruit vassal soldiers to drag it out for a year and a half. The law would not punish everyone, and Rong Bao would not have a temper.

In the end, Rong Bao, who knew he had picked up a hot potato, and his retainers hugged each other and cried:

"This matter is all about justice. Let us, the emperor and his ministers, die together in the capital."

Crying is useless. As soon as Lai Mu from Xixiang rolled his eyes, he thought of a weird idea:

This Baoke Rongbao is Songping Rongbao, and Baoke is the Miao character of the ancestor of the family, Baoke Zhengzhi.

Masayuki is the third son of the second-generation shogun Tokugawa Hidetada. Because Hidetada's wife was jealous, Masayuki was raised outside since he was a child. Later, he was adopted by the Hoshina family. Masayuki has always been grateful for the kindness of the Hoshina family, so he was named Hoshina by future generations.

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But by the time his son Masei became the lord of the domain, the Aizu domain had already returned to the Matsudaira surname. However, he still regarded himself as Hoshino in order to show his kindness. He not only took advantage of his relatives, but also used the guise of kindness to others.

, simply.

This old Xixiang Laimu adheres to the vassal tradition and is very clever. His idea is to die together, but he has to be someone who supports him:

"Shouldn't Aizu bring his own bean bags to support the military service? We can't just jump into this fire pit by ourselves. We have to find someone to share the joys and sorrows with."

Is Rong Bao naive? He thinks it makes sense when he hears it:

The minister refused to send troops on the grounds that the Fifth Division could not move lightly, leaving Qi Zhao and his troops to dig holes and fill them themselves, but this did not mean that they could not find foreign aid.

But who should I look for?

First of all, this teammate must not be a weakling, otherwise it will be terrible if he cannot count on anything.

And, you have to have money.

Otherwise, if you don’t have anything to eat or drink, you still have to subsidize it from your own family, and you have an extra father for no reason, then why bother?

And the most important thing is to be united with the shogunate and Qi Zhao. Otherwise, being strong means being strong, but when there is a disagreement, it would be great fun if the two families fight first.
To be continued...