In April of the first year of Yuanzhi (1864), ten years had passed since March of the seventh year of Jiayong (1854), and it was almost eight years since June of the fifth year of Anzheng (1858). According to the sixth year of Anzheng (1859)

June is almost five years.

What these dates mean is:

In 1854, the "Fusang Mi Renren Agreement" was signed, and Fusang was officially founded;

In 1858, the "Fuso-Mi people repair and trade treaty" was signed, formally committing to foreign trade;

On July 1, 1859, the three ports of Nagasaki, Kanagawa (Yokohama), and Hakodate were opened, and Fuso trade officially began.

Over the years, Fuso's foreign strategy has repeatedly wavered, causing countless disturbances. In April of the first year of Yuanzhi (1864), it finally achieved a general outbreak:

As a symbol of the radical anti-barbarian faction, in the name of serving the imperial edict, Changzhou brazenly went to Luo to remonstrate with troops on the day of the "Kui Festival"!

This was the first large-scale feudal melee in Fuso Kinki after 249 years since the Battle of Osaka in the 20th year of Keicho (1615).

At this point, the "peaceful age" maintained by the Tokugawa shogunate for more than 200 years has completely entered the sunset stage.

The target of Choshu's invasion this time was "Kyoto", known as Heian Kyo in ancient times. It is located in a mountainous city with mountainous areas in the west, north and east, and the south is relatively flat.

Saga, Yamazaki and Fushimi Streets are located between the southwest and due south of Kyoto respectively. The Choshu troops attacked from three directions, with the idea of ​​winning in chaos.

However, there were originally only 2,000 troops and horses, and there were still three directions, which was somewhat beyond our capabilities:

Fushimi Street is the widest, and the Choshu clan placed its main force of thousands of selected vanguards here, with Raijima Matabei as the vanguard, and General Fukuhara Motosu as the rear guard - although nominally, the Choshu warriors were escorting the crown prince, Mori Sadahiro.

He went to Beijing to defend himself, but in fact, due to the dangerous situation of the war, Tadahiro never entered Kinki from the beginning to the end, and only the shadow dancer was fooling people.

In the direction of Saga and Yamazaki, a thousand troops from the Qi Force were deployed, led by Hisaka Yoshisuke and others.

The reason why the formation is arranged like this is because Changzhou cannot trust the combat power of the Qibing Team:

The Selected Front Team was composed of Choshu samurai and ashigaru warriors, with sophisticated equipment and sufficient supplies, while the Qibing Team was similar to a rural soldier organization.

Although the Qibing Team proved their strength in last year's Battle of Shimonoseki. After the Selected Front Team was defeated head-on, it was the Qibing Team that showed its might and drove away the landing Three Kingdoms Allied Forces through guerrilla warfare. But in the eyes of the Selected Front Team,

, the team relies on harassment, and in terms of head-to-head strength, it is still not top-notch.

But in the "Aoi Festival Rebellion" in April of the first year of Yuanji (1864), it turned out that the Selected Front Team was far worse than the Qibing Team:

Armed with a small number of snuff bottles, a large number of Minnie muzzle-loading guns, and Napoleon muzzle-loading cannons, the vanguard force did not even break through the streets of Fushimi from the beginning of the war to its defeat;

On the contrary, it was the surprise team, although they didn't even have a few bronze cannons, but with the muskets in their hands, they actually fought their way into Xiajing, Kyoto.

Of course, after the analysis by all parties, this may not be the fault of choosing the vanguard - facing "Fuso's most powerful soldier", the soldiers of Bai Zhufan used volley guns, machine guns and breech barrels. Who can defeat this!

But despite this, no one can deny the record of the surprise troops. After all, they relied on the muskets in their hands to once overwhelm the Aizu soldiers and horses on the opposite side. You know, the Aizu soldiers had snuff bottles and Napoleon cannons in their hands. The weapons of both sides were

There is also a generational difference.

Moreover, in terms of numbers, the opponents of the Select Team and the Raiders are even more disparate:

The vanguard team had a thousand men to fight against eight hundred, so they were defeated by one blow even though they were more powerful than they were.

As for the surprise army, there were nearly 1,000 soldiers fighting 10,000 soldiers. The opponent was initially 2,000 Aizu soldiers. Later, Kuwana, Hikone clan, Awa, Bizen, Inshu, Yonezawa and other princes' soldiers and horses swarmed forward. I'm afraid even the gods and ghosts faced this.

Even in this situation, there is no way to escape the fate of defeat.

However, the strength of the Changshu Elite Troops and the Selected Front Troops was only a topic caused by the "Koiji Rebellion". What shocked Fuso and even alarmed the envoys of Western countries were the various consequences caused by this battle.

dispute:

First of all, many people find it difficult to understand why Changzhou is attacking a stone with an egg.

Afterwards, according to statistics from people who were interested, there were more than 80 princes in Kyoto at that time.

Among them, Matsudaira Yoshiho Aizu, who was guarding Kyoto, had two thousand soldiers. The newly appointed Kyoto Governor, Matsudaira Sadaki's Kuwana domain soldiers had more than one thousand soldiers, and Hikone domain who was ordered by the shogunate to guard Kinki had one thousand soldiers and horses.

In addition to the two thousand curtain soldiers and one thousand white main soldiers led by General Iamao Shangluo, this alone

As for the shogunate, there were 7,000 troops in Kyoto.

If we also include the peripheral Osaka Sadban, Osaka Kaban and nearby princes, then if we calculate it like this, Choshu would be crazy to challenge tens of thousands head-on with two thousand?

Secondly, the performance of all parties in Kyoto during the Aoi Matsuri Rebellion was also quite suspicious.

Originally, it was said in advance that Emperor Fusang would attend the Sunflower Festival in person.

But in fact, before the formal ceremony, the ministers and princes were surprised to find that there was no one in the royal chariot. At this time, Guan Bai Ertiao Qi Jing slowly told everyone that Emperor Fusang could not come for some reason, and this time he was temporarily

He performs sacrifices on behalf of others.

The problem is that the general's carriage is also empty.

In addition, none of the six participating nationalities, Qingxi, Keinaga, Yongho, Shimazu Qibin, Yamauchi Toyonobu, and Date Munejo, were actually present.

And not only these people have not arrived, the new Kyoto chief minister, Kuwana Matsudaira Sadanoge, Hikone who is guarding Kyoto under the shogunate's orders, Awa, who has a slightly larger number of troops in Joro, Bizen, Inshu, Yonezawa, Yodo clan, etc., all their leaders have not yet arrived.

arrive!

Therefore, when fires broke out all over Kyoto, everyone attending the Aoi Festival knew that something big was happening.

However, Chunjiang Plumbing Duck Prophet, there was an atmosphere of tension inside and outside Kyoto before, and every family was trying their best to restrain their manpower. Now this is just a dagger, so there is nothing to make a fuss about.

Even so, everyone discovered afterwards that during the "Kuiji Incident", except for the anti-barbarian warriors, almost everyone stood on the opposite side of Changzhou. This incident still aroused surprise:

"Flags that originally had different opinions and different positions were able to work together to attack Changzhou. No matter how you think about it, I find it a bit unacceptable!"

But it’s okay not to accept it, after all, that’s the truth.

Although afterwards, Duke Saionji and Fujita Tiao, the mastermind of the "Forbidden Imperial Guard Governor" Hitotsubashi Kei, were found to have been killed by rebels in the Choshu camp, but they said "I was ordered to go to appease them, but unfortunately they failed to rebel."

"Mutilated", the matter will be settled.

As for why when the rogues were setting fires everywhere in Kyoto, a large number of soldiers from various feudal clans spontaneously went to Nijo Castle where Shogun Iemo was stationed, and tensions were high at that time. This must be a misunderstanding.

Even the political president Keinaga's Echizen Fukui Domain suddenly showed up in Kyoto with 5,000 soldiers and horses. Whether they were marching from the west bank of Lake Biba to Kyoto in a hurry, or whether they had set up an ambush long ago, there is no need to delve into this.

Anyway, even though Changzhou was so frantic that he was throwing eggs at stones, and even though the war in Kyoto was unpredictably unpredictable, the result was a harmonious one:

In the end, almost all the forces in Beijing participated in the attack on Changzhou. Poor Changzhou's two thousand people died in the battle and were caught, and almost no fish escaped the net.

Afterwards, the "Governor of the Forbidden City Guards", Hitotsubashi, was overjoyed, and the "Guardian of Kyoto", Matsudaira Yoho, and the "Kyoto Chief of Staff", Matsudaira Sadaki, greatly praised the imperial court.

The Matsudaira family, the white master who defeated the main vanguard force in Changshu, also had an extraordinary glory - the head of the family, Shigemin, was promoted from the nondescript "Nanhua Prefecture" to the "Minister of the Ministry of War" under the fourth rank, and the old man of the pen family, Naohide Hori, was restored to official rank.

His job is to be a "safe house guard".

Then in early May, when the mess was being cleaned up, another piece of good news came:

The head of the Choshu family, Mouri Qingqin, "repented" and with the "assistance" of the former servant Yoshida Yukata, the former Yubi Asada Gongsuke, the former chief minister Nagai Tokihiro, and the former commander of the Kaiwei Corps Takasugi Harukaze, he used the left-behind troops to

With the Qi soldiers as the backbone, they began to eliminate the radical anti-barbarian faction in the domain.

As for the seven ministers of the imperial court who were in trouble in Changzhou, although one died of illness, Zhongshan Zhongguang secretly went to Changzhou after the Tianzhu Group was defeated in the previous year, so there were seven more, and they were all arrested.

Together with Maori and his son, they took a boat to Luo to plead guilty - it was Changzhou's announcement. Only then did everyone know that Ze Xuanjia, who had raised troops in Ikuno, also sneaked back to Changzhou.

Speaking of this, the princes and princes were all frightened:

I thought that after the "Aoi Festival Incident" in April, there would be another fight between Choshu and the shogunate. But I didn't expect that Choshu actually collapsed on its own.

How is this possible?

Choshu Shinto was prosperous, and there was a strong atmosphere of using force to fight the barbarians. Although all the elite soldiers were drawn out to participate in the "Aoi Matsuri Incident", there were still three pounds of nails to break the ship. Considering that Yoshida Nobukata and others had lost power before, wouldn't this comeback be too easy?

But later, when Maori and his son, Qigongqing, landed in Osaka in early June, everyone understood:

It turns out that the escort was the warships of the three families of Satsuma, Saga, Chizen and Fukuoka!

Now the truth is revealed. It cannot be said that this change in the Mori family is caused by the efforts of the three families of Shimadzu, Nabeshima, and Kuroda.

, Yoshida and others responded internally, saying that the troops sent out were empty and attacked from both inside and outside. No wonder the Maori family collapsed so quickly.

Actually, this was really a misunderstanding. The three princes sent troops, but the main reason was that the Mori family was defeated so miserably in the "Aoi Matsuri Incident", and they lost their temper. In addition, Yoshida, Asada Nagai, Takasugi and others had planned it.

After a long time, the battle was successful.

At this time, because of the "Aoi Matsuri Incident", the general Iemoge, the six participating ministers and various princes all stayed in Kyoto.

The lords of Changzhou, Maori and his son, together with seven ministers, went to Luo to plead guilty. Everyone discussed how to discuss the crime:

As for Nichigongqing, because he was labeled as transmitting a false edict, the "Aoi Matsuri Incident" was punished with several crimes including the previous problems. He was dismissed from office, became a monk, and was exiled to Ezo, the North Country.

Compared to them, the punishment of Maori and his son was much lighter.

Because they were "deceived by retainers" in the past and later "repented", the two men were not actually punished at the insistence of Shogun Iemo and others.

But no one has anything to say about this. This is a lot more punishment than no punishment:

If the punishment is imposed, no matter how much, it can be regarded as sharing the joys and sorrows, and there may not be no hope of turning around in the future;

But with just a few words of indifference, the Maori father and his son were relieved - the ministers of the alliance were in decline, the retainers who fought hard died and were demoted, and nothing happened because of the two of you. What happened inside Changshu?

How do you see it, how do outsiders see it, and how do you win people’s trust in the future?

At this point, the major issues of Shogun Iemo's ascending to Luo were completely resolved. The external tax cuts and the suspension of Yokohama's port lock were tolerated by all parties. The changes in the Three Kingdoms' bombardment of Shimonoseki were also resolved automatically due to the self-insurrection of Choshu.

At the end of June of the first year of the Yuanji period (1864), Shogun Iemo, Political President Keinaga, Shimazu Saibin, Yamauchi Toyonobu, and Date Munejo all left Kyoto, leaving behind "Ikikai-san" to stabilize Kinki.

"Ikkai-san" refers to the "Governor of the Forbidden City Guards" Ichibashi Keiki, the "Guardian of Kyoto" Aizu Domain Matsudaira Yōhoho, and the "Kyoto Governor" Kuwami domain Matsudaira Sadaki.

By this time, the political situation in Fuso had become clear, and the past disputes had finally been settled:
To be continued...