At the beginning of the month, Naohide's official position of "An Fang Shou" was deposed. Mao Min, the head of the Baizhu clan, wanted to fight for his father's injustice, so he claimed to be ill from then on.

Since Mao Min is "ill", Lord Bai cannot celebrate Mao Min's birthday with much fanfare. Therefore, the guests who come are either well-informed or are relatives and friends from the North:

Let’s take the six “Kunishi-involved” retainers present, for example, Tsunuki Hashimoto, the mastermind of the celebration, Saigo Norimu, the family elder of Yōho, Saigo Takayaga from Satsuma, Hanheita Takeichi from Tosa, and Niu Ni from Uwajima.

Miya Keisaku, and even Governor Qingxi's confidant Sakuma Xiu, these are all Naohide's old acquaintances, and even Takeshi was Naohide's student.

Therefore, Naoxiu was also puzzled by the commotion downstairs. On the day of the banquet, who was trying to show off the master's face?

This was not only his idea, but the remaining ten guests of honor were also a little worried. Naohide was deposed, and it was a sensitive time for the Matsudaira family, the white master, so don't let the entourage he brought cause trouble.

Just when everyone was surprised, the shoji door opened and someone came in to report.

Seeing that this person was going to approach Naohide to report the details, Hashimoto Tsunayuki spoke:

"Why are you so cautious?"

Naohide knew that big things were about to happen now, so Hashimoto also paid special attention to small things. He had to ask his subordinates to make the situation known to the public:

The atrium of the Four Seasons Building is a patio, surrounded by private rooms (private rooms), and stairs are built around the atrium. As a result, when Gengoro Kitazome, the leader of the White Team, was going downstairs, he accidentally fell down due to drunkenness.

It happened that he was seen in this embarrassed state, and some guests made sarcastic remarks, and Beitian became angry and took action.

The old man Ryoma and the sailor Fantou Hegami Xuanming have already begun to mediate the matter.

Naohide was happy when he heard that this was the case. The Shiki Tower was not Ikedaya, so why did Gengoro slip and fall for no reason?

Kitazo Gengoro is not well-known, but his other nickname "Gama" is very famous.

Without Naohide's intrusion, Kitazoe Gengoro would have died in this year's "Ikedaya Incident", and thus ranked among the "Seven Martyrs". Even later generations will even fictionalize that he fought with the Shinsengumi Kondo Isamu, and then from there

The famous scene of a tragic fall from the second floor.

But when he thought of this, a cold air flowed down his back and went up to the top of Zhixiu's head. He quickly made a gesture to tell his family to be on guard - there was a mixed crowd today, and if someone were to assassinate him, it would be a lot of fun.

Then, Naoxiu wanted to let the matter go lightly. Why should this day of celebration be so eventful?

But, how can anything in the world be so cheap?

Hashimoto wanted to know which party was causing the trouble, so he motioned to Naohide to let his subordinates reveal the details.

As a result, after hearing the inside story, some people here couldn't help but get excited:

It turned out that the trouble was caused by people from the imperial court, led by a lecturer from the Gakushuin. The straight-faced Afang Mamoru had just been deposed, and someone came to slap him in the face again. The feud was about to become serious.

There are two ministers here, Iwakura and Saionji. Are they the people you brought here who are causing trouble?

However, Iwakura saw that Naohide had no intention of getting involved, so he simply ignored the others' playful looks and acted as if nothing had happened and he was calm and composed.

Seeing Iwakura's appearance, Hashimoto also felt a little regretful. He nodded to Naohide, picked up the glass and drank it all in one gulp.

But everyone was fine, but Gongqing Xiyuan Temple refused to give up:

Just now, Choshu Kido Junichiro begged him for help, and now he was still lying in front of him. There was such a great opportunity to escape, so why not take advantage of it!

So, in the name of mediation, Xiyuanji got up and ran away.

Naohide wanted to follow, but was tripped up by Iwakura's toast. After that, he felt that there was Ryoma outside.

The host did not get up again. The principal, Saionji, ran away, and Kido returned to his place.

As soon as the topic changed during the banquet, the conversation turned to the approaching Aoi Festival.

The Spring Festival, the Sunflower Festival and the Shiqingshui Festival are the three imperial sacrifices.

The Aoi Festival is on the You day of April, so speaking of it, it is also a major event that is approaching.

The Aoi Matsuri is a festival originating from Kamo Gozu Shrine, and the sacred symbol of Kamo Shrine is the two-leaf sunflower, which is closely related to the three-leaf sunflower of the Tokugawa family. Coupled with the "Kamo" reputation, Shogun Iemo

He also attached great importance to this and accompanied Emperor Fuso to attend this ceremony last year.

This time, Gongqing Iwakura came here to celebrate Iemo's birthday, but secretly, he came to ease relations.

He hinted to Naohide that as long as Shigemin attended the Aoi Festival, he would guarantee that Naohide would be reinstated to his post afterwards, even if he was not Anboshou, but from another position below the fifth rank.

However, Naohide was noncommittal about this. Apart from expressing his gratitude, he did not show any enthusiasm at all.

So the two of them dealt with each other hypocritically, while the people next to them looked on with cold eyes - to put it bluntly, this was a battle between the court and the shogunate, and the white master, as a chess piece, could only follow the tossing involuntarily.

At this time, Xiyuanji came back in a hurry.

Naohide didn't bother to ask what happened. He just whispered to the attendant and sent the troubled Gakushuin lecturer away quickly. The matter ended there.

The tree wants to be still but the wind doesn't stop.

Naohide wanted to settle the matter, but Saionji wouldn't do it. After only sitting for a while, he ignored Iwakura's dissuasion and asked Naohide loudly:

"Is righteousness not to be respected? People's words are not to be feared? Is the courage of the benevolent to be rivaled?"

After hearing the first two sentences, Zhixiu took it calmly, but when he heard "the courage of the benevolent", Zhixiu could only smile bitterly - legend has it that Chen Buzhan was scared to death. This courage of the benevolent sounds good, but knows how to do it.

Unity and dying generously, but in the final analysis, what is the use?

All his life, he stood up and talked about his character, and when he was about to die, he would repay the king.

Hehe, this sentence is a bit harsh, but when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter if you die, others are willing to do so, but why do you drag others to die together?

It turns out that someone had already told Naoxiu what Xiyuanji did when he went out just now:

The group of people making trouble were not only lecturers from the Imperial Academy, but also Naohide's old acquaintance Miyabe Daizo.

Originally, these people had nothing to do with the White Lord, but Miyabe was born in the Hosokawa family of Higo Kumamoto. Not only was Naohide acquainted with Naohide when he was a boy studying, but he also had an old relationship with the current White Lord Navy Banto Kawagami Genmei - Miyabe had not left the feudal clan in the early years.

At that time, Nagaoka Noboshige, the elder of the Hosokawa family, was very popular. At that time, the palace minister took good care of both the in-laws and the adoptive family on the river.

This time, Genmei Kawakami sailed to take Naohide and others to Osaka, and later followed him to Luo. After learning that Kawagami had arrived in Kyoto, Miyabe often came to hook up with him, and he became familiar with Lord Shiro, so he was invited to join this time.

The Four Seasons Building.

There were many guests today, so Kawakami finished arranging the arrangements for Miyabe and his entourage and left in a hurry. Accompanying Miyabe and others was the team leader Junjiro Ishikawa.

But no one expected that Matsuda Jusuke, Otaka Matajiro and others who came with Miyabe Daizo would not agree with Junjiro, and the conversation became more and more tense during the dinner. Therefore, when Gengoro Kitazou fell down the stairs, he was struck by these

People took the opportunity to make fun of him, which led to a fight.

There is no good hand in beating, and no good words in scolding.

Although Genmei Kawagami, who came after hearing the news, tried his best to persuade, the two sides were still confused. Even when Saionji arrived, the two sides were still blaming each other:

The people brought by Gongbu thought that Lord Bai did not respect them, so they were placed in a remote room on the first floor;

But Master Bai said that the people in the training center were unreasonable in their words, and that the congratulatory guests dared to laugh at the master, which was really rude!

Xiyuanji was not here to mediate in the first place, he was just asking for trouble. After listening for a while, he became angry:

Those who were teaching at the Institute of Learning, and those who recognized him, naturally kowtowed and saluted him. However, people like Lord Bai, who had been trained by Naoxiu to be lawless, naturally did not take him seriously.

Moreover, when Saionji ordered the two parties to reconcile, Master Bai still refused to give in and insisted on an apology.

Even Ryoma, who came with him, ignored his expression and asked Kawagami Genmei to persuade Miyabe Daizo to "take the people away immediately" - which was actually to chase them away.

The world is vast and the face is the greatest.

Xiyuanji was humiliated, and he was also very angry after hearing some gossip from both sides. After returning home, he started to get angry after sitting down for a while.

In fact, when I first heard about the Gakushuin training, Naohide’s head became bigger than the two:

As for the so-called "training" in the Academy, in fact, many people are simply anti-barbarian warriors. Some ministers gathered them in the Academy and then made these people work hard.

Among these people, the leaders who are effective in doing things are often rewarded with low-level official positions in the court.

Most of the robbers who fought against the barbarians were lower-level warriors or even wild warriors from various vassals. After obtaining official positions in the court, they felt that this was a major event to honor their ancestors, so they acted more fanatical.

In fact, the previous celebration of his appointment as the "Governor of the Forbidden City Guards" also started with a proposal from the lecturers at these institutes to "set up imperial guardsmen."

In the second year of Bunkyu (1862), some rogues who fought against the barbarians wrote to the minister, "Take Yamaseong, Settsu, Yamato, Omi and other countries as the territorial control, reopen the divisions of various countries, set up personal soldiers, and implement the restoration of royal government."

Fortunately, the ministers were not completely confused and knew that accepting the four orders to make the country the leader was a taboo. However, from then on, the small court in Kyoto continued to test the shogunate and asked for the establishment of personal soldiers to protect the safety of Kyoto.

No, it's only when we have a "Forbidden Guard Governor" that we are done.

And not to mention the troubles and troubles of the Gakushuin's lectures, but from the Gakushuin itself, from the beginning of its establishment, it has been the base camp of the anti-bakumin ministers.

In the fourth year of Honghua (1847), some ministers raised funds to set up a academy to teach their children; in the second year of Jiayong (1849), seeing that the shogunate didn't care, the Fuso royal family officially granted the "Gakushuin" the imperial title.

From then on, the ministers who were unwilling to be left alone gathered in the academy - the eighty-eight ministers who participated in the incident of court officials in 1858, and the seven ministers who were in trouble during the August 18th Incident in 1863, either graduated from the academy or were former members of the academy. sponsor or professor.

Although apart from private schools, the ministers only had one other place to study, the Academy. It may be biased to say that the Academy is the problem, but the deep-rooted culture of respecting the king and turning against the emperor is undeniable.

The White Lord is now a member of the Samu clan, so if he is facing off against the Gakushuin, that's good.

Moreover, Miyabe Daizo is not a good person either:

He broke away from the feudal clan due to his participation in the fight against the barbarians. Later, he was valued by the public minister Sanjo Sanimi and was promoted to teach at the Gakushuin.

These three are really beautiful. They are the leaders of the Seven Qing Dynasties who were expelled from Kyoto during the August 18 Incident and are now settling in Changshu, the vanguard of the war against the barbarians.

Although I don't know why Miyabe didn't follow Sanjo, but according to Naohide's understanding, this man's stance of radical resistance to foreigners has never wavered.

Therefore, Saionji launched an attack and asked, "Is righteousness not respectable? Is the words of men not to be feared? Is the courage of a benevolent person worthy of being rivaled?" This must have come from the dispute between the palace staff and their own boys.

Naoxiu has no interest at all in debating with these people.

Why?
Chapter completed!