"Your Highness An Fangshou, please do whatever it takes!"*2

Naoxiu looked at the two gentlemen lying across from each other and was immediately confused. Is this something that can be done casually? Who dares to take care of such a big leak?

Especially you, Saigo Takanaga, who has thick eyebrows and big eyes. At the end of October of the second year of Bunkyu (1862), I left Edo and returned to Shirozu. At that time, Saigo came to see me off. Didn’t I tell you specifically to make a fortune in silence?

, have you forgotten everything in less than a year?

Moreover, what you Saixiang did was really a bit of a trick to your teammates. Choshu is looking for death himself. You Satsuma can stand up for him, but come to Bai Zhu for help. You earn love and affection, and leave the trouble to others. Why?

!

But Naohide thought that this year his son had already gotten married to Kikuhime. After all, this was the intention of the children's in-laws. He had no choice but to puff up his face and couldn't say anything. Finally, he sighed:

"Okay, Naohide, do your best."

Yoshida Nobukata and Saigo were overjoyed when they heard this. They got up and winked at each other very proudly.

Changshu Yoshida, you can have some snacks!

In fact, Naohide could also understand that Changshu was unlucky, but Yoshida took the opportunity to expand his strength, and now he has become an important minister with real power. He has the opportunity to show his ambition, so he should be happy.

But Naohide felt that Yoshida was a little distracted, and the trouble was actually not that easy to solve.

It turns out that on April 23rd of the third year of Bunkyu (1863), Shogun Iemoge announced in Kyoto that from May 10th, the All-Fuso War would begin to fight the foreigners. He would negotiate with Western countries and gradually cancel foreign trade.

As soon as the news spread, people who were suffering from soaring prices immediately became excited.

Encouraged by this, Changshu bravely fired the first shot - on May 10th, the Mi merchant ship "Pembroke" was bombarded by Changshu when passing through the Shimonoseki Strait.

.

When the news reached Kyoto, the small imperial court, which had always advocated fighting against foreigners, rejoiced and "gifted the red and white royal flag to Qingqin (the lord of the Choshu domain) to facilitate the supervision of Yan."

In line with the idea that watching the excitement is not too big a deal, the imperial court also requested assistance from neighboring vassals:

"If you hear that Chang Fan has launched an army, and there may be some stand-bys who are very hostile to Chen's decree, you should all work together to eliminate the chaos quickly."

Therefore, the Hizen Nabeshima family established the Kuroda feudal clan and sent envoys to Nagato, saying: "If there are bandits again in your country, reinforcements will be sent."

Encouraged, Changzhou became even more excited, and then on May 23rd and 26th, he bombarded the Buddhist Junxia and the Languo Medusa continuously.

But then, Changzhou began to be unlucky:

On June 1, the American battleship Wyoming came to take revenge.

Originally, this battle was supposed to be a defeat for Choshu. Not only was the platform (fort) severely damaged, but the ships were also seriously damaged. Two ships, the Renwu Maru and the Gengshen Maru, were sunk. Only the Guihai Maru was lucky.

Escaped; while the Mi people's losses were only more than ten dead and wounded.

But didn't Naohide sneak in? Choshu used the Napoleon cannon bought from the shogunate and beat the Wyoming into pieces within a 1.5-kilometer engagement range. As a result, he actually won a complete victory.

The Kemi people were unwilling to suffer the disadvantage of being dumb, so they summoned their friends and called the French people over again.

On June 5th, the Buddha's "Semiramis" and "Tancred" came to help, and the two sides had another game.

This time, there was no bonus for the opponent to underestimate the enemy. Changzhou and three rice and Buddha warships fought to a draw, with both sides suffering casualties.

During these three shellings of merchant ships and two confrontations with the war fleet, Changzhou boasted that he had "battled with Mi, Lan, and Buddha ships in five battles, each with a victory or defeat."

When the news came out, Fusang was in an uproar. He felt that the Nanman ghosts were not that big of a deal, and they regretted that they had signed an unlucky trade agreement. They should have used force to fight off the barbarians long ago.

But it stands to reason that if there is no disadvantage, how can Changzhou be considered unlucky?

Of course it was because, next, the younger one was beaten and the older one came.

The Mi, Lan, and Buddha all suffered losses, so of course the British could not sit still. On June 27, seven British ships, along with three repaired Buddhist and Mi warships, totaled ten warships.

Zhou Xiaguan.

This time, Choshu could no longer hold on. After running out of ammunition and food, the coalition forces came ashore and demolished the stage. Regardless of whether they were Napoleon cannons or other bronze cannons purchased from the shogunate, all were taken away.

Moreover, the feudal soldiers who were fighting in formation were also defeated by the foreign barbarians. If it were not for the exceptionally strong peasant soldiers trained by Yoshida Nobukata and others, this cold gun attack was so good that Shimonoseki Town was almost swept away.

Empty.

As for why the British have seven battleships in Fuso, there is actually a reason:

Although the raw wheat incident did not happen due to Naohide's intervention, in December last year, Takasugi Harukaze led twelve little brothers and burned down the British mansion under construction in Shinagawa Gotenyama.

This was the second time the mansion was burned down. In addition, the second Tozenji incident occurred in May of the second year of Bunkyu. At that time, the British also killed two guards, and the murderer was the shogunate.

The guards sent here, isn't this a slap in the face?

Therefore, in February this year, England transferred many warships, with the original intention of intimidating the shogunate. Unexpectedly, the shogunate was quite honest, but in May Choshu jumped out on his own.

Anyway, I have nothing to do, so why don't I take a trip to help my younger brother?

In this way, Changzhou, which bravely fired the first shot against the barbarians, was defeated by the three countries of Britain, Formosa and Mi.

Moreover, the Westerners were so arrogant that they had to push their limits to win. The lion actually asked for 620,000 pounds (about 3 million U.S. dollars).

In Naohide's original world, a year later in September 1864, the Shikoku fleet bombarded Shimonoseki, and the compensation demanded was this amount.

This coincidence can only be attributed to the robbers having the same idea.

This amount of money is equivalent to about 2.57 million gold from Wan Yan Xiaojian, which is equivalent to more than 1.9 million Chinese silver taels, which is quite a lot. Even if Changzhou is killed, he will not be able to get this money.

What should I do if my brother has no money to compensate?

Of course he asked his elder brother for it.

Therefore, the Three Kingdoms fleet diverted to Osaka and submitted a compensation request to the shogunate.

But when they arrived in Osaka, Westerners knew that Shogun Tokugawa Iemoge had set out on his way back to Edo on June 13, so the ten warships continued their mighty march eastward to collect debts.

If a person sits at home, disaster will come from heaven.

Iemo went to Luo on February 13th and arrived in Kyoto on March 4th. He was tortured to death by the combination of public and military forces. As a result, as soon as he got home in mid-July, before he could take a breath, this Westerner came to ask for the account. Who do you think I should recruit?

Who did you offend?

He and Qingyong had been holding back their stomachs in Kyoto, and this time they completely exploded:

"It's not a life-threatening thing to ask for money. The imperial court wants to fight off the foreigners. It's better to 'give the red and white imperial flag to celebrate the marriage to facilitate supervision and encouragement' and let the Westerners ask the imperial court for money!"

All the ministers persuaded him to death, so no big trouble happened.

But no one has a good idea on how to answer Westerners correctly:

Edo was originally opposed to using force to resist the barbarians. Even though it was forced by the imperial court and various families in Kyoto, the order to resist the barbarians on April 23 said, "When the enemy attacks, we must fight and sweep them away. If we advance, we must not start a war."

Now the Changzhou Maori family took the initiative to provoke, and then was beaten to death. This has nothing to do with the shogunate.

Theoretically, whoever dug the hole should fill it. Let the foreigners go to Changzhou and the small court to ask for money.

But having said that, if you really don't care, then the feudal system will be completely destroyed - if you can't take the responsibility, how can you take the lead?

Besides, foreigners with blue eyes cannot see gold, and Changshu will definitely not be able to come up with the money, so they will have to rely on the shogunate.

But the shogunate couldn't afford such a large amount of money at the moment.

Everyone discussed and discussed, wishing that we could break the pot, so we might as well use force to fight against the barbarians - if we can beat them, everything is easy to talk about; if we can't beat them, just do whatever we want!

But after the complaints are over, things still have to be dealt with.

At this time, the foreign minister also inquired with the foreigners and found out that in fact, the foreigners did not have to ask for the money. They offered an exchange condition:

In the Ansei Trade Agreement of that year, in addition to the three ports of Nagasaki, Yokohama, and Hakodate that have now opened ports, it also stipulated the opening time of the two ports and two cities.

To put it into perspective, the port of Niigata was opened on December 9, the sixth year of Ansei (January 1, 1860), the Edo market was opened on December 2, the first year of Bunkyu (January 1, 1862), and the port of Hyogo was opened.

, Osaka opened its doors on November 12, 1863 (January 1, 1863).

Among them, Niigata Port was easily abandoned due to the deceitful waterway between the shogunate and the foreigners. But in Hyogo, Edo and Osaka, the foreigners kept a very close eye on it.

However, after the opening of the three ports, there was a huge uproar. Even if the shogunate was killed, they would not dare to continue to implement the agreement.

Therefore, in December of the first year of Bunkyu (January 1862), the shogunate sent an envoy to Europe to request an extension - the envoy was Oguri Tadayoshi, the deputy envoy was Matsudaira Yasunao, and they were sent by Kyogoku, a group of thirty-six people.

When the mission came back in December last year, they announced that they had obtained the approval of the local English government for an extension, so the Western powers had no choice but to agree to the extension.

But now, thanks to the Shimonoseki incident, everyone has collectively repented and demanded that in addition to Niigata, Hyogo, Edo and Osaka should immediately open their ports.

Either lose money or open a port. Anyway, you have to choose one of the two paths.

It hurts to lose money; when it comes to the opening of the port, isn't it funny? In April, we announced the ban on foreigners, and then opened the port in July. This is such a sharp turn that no one's waist can bear it.

In the end, with no other choice, the shogunate center came up with a solution that was not a solution:

First of all, this matter was caused by Choshu, and the Mori family could not hide, so they asked the head of the family, Qingqi and his son, to come to Edo quickly to deal with the matter together.

Secondly, if you pay the sky-high price on the spot, £620,000 is too much.

If you have a good talk with foreigners, this should be reduced to some extent, right?

Finally, now that the public and military are combined, this trouble has to be left to the small court in Kyoto. It just so happens that when the general sees Qingxi, he is also there, so it is better to give them a headache.

However, there are great risks in this report to the imperial court. What if Kyoto directly lifts the table and asks the shogunate to use force to fight the invaders?

Now that things have happened, General Iemao and Da Lao Qingxi have accepted their fate. Rather than being killed by their pig teammates like this, it would be better for them to break up and do whatever they have to do.

These are what happened in mid-July of the third year of Wenjiu (1863).

Edo's aggressive move meant that anyone who wanted to use force to resist the barbarians would do so themselves. The shogunate was determined not to do so, so things became interesting.
To be continued...