Chapter 690 Qingdeng offers suggestions! Qingdengs one plan to bring chaos to the world!
【6100】
The leader of the Shoron sect (pro-shogunate force) of the Choshu Domain was named Muri Tota.
As a veteran official with many years of service, Muri Tota embodies many typical traits of conservative officials.
Old-fashioned and stubborn, they do not accept new things and only understand the world according to their own old ideas.
He has always been strongly opposed to any words and deeds that attack the shogunate
Therefore, his relationship with Takasugi Shinsaku, Katsura Kogoro and others can be described as incompatible.
However, regarding the edict to "begin fighting the barbarians on May 10th," Muri Tota, Takasugi Shinsaku, Katsura Kogoro and others reached an extremely rare consensus - Choshu would never obey the edict!
Both sides know very well that if they rashly get involved in the war against the foreigners, Changzhou will fall into an abyss of eternal destruction!
In order to avoid such a situation from happening, Takasugi Shinsaku tried his best to dissuade Hisaka Genzui and ordered him to give up his "righteousness".
However, Kusaka Genrui no longer listened to his opinion.
"Takasugi, don't stop me. I have made up my mind. Unless you kill me, you can't stop me." He said this.
"...Kusaka, we once practiced martial arts together and studied sword skills together. Is the sweat and blood we shed in the past just for today's internal fighting?"
As he spoke, Takasugi Shinsaku raised his hand and grasped the knife at his waist.
Coming from the same family, the two people who used to be in love with each other ended up fighting in the same room...
If it weren't for Katsura Kogoro's desperate efforts to stop them, the two fellow disciples would have almost drawn their swords at each other.
The current political structure of the Choshu Domain is roughly as follows - the anti-makuta "Justice Faction" has overwhelmed the pro-makuta "Serumon" faction.
Among the "Justice Faction", the "Radical Faction" led by Hisaka Genzui overwhelmed the "Slicker Faction" led by Takasugi Shinsaku and Katsura Kogoro.
After years of management, the Choshu Domain has completely gone crazy.
From temples to folk, from cities and towns to villages, the air inside and outside Changzhou is full of fanaticism.
People always call it "repelling the foreigners".
Even young children and old people in the countryside will gnash their teeth and feel indignant when talking about issues such as the Western Barbarians and the Shogunate.
The entire Changzhou Domain has become a solid fortress and a warm harbor for the Zunfang faction.
Fighting the barbarians became the biggest political correctness in the Choshu domain.
Anyone who dares to raise objections is a traitor to the country and will be punished by heaven.
To this day, the hardliners headed by Hisaka Genzui have occupied the mainstream public opinion of the Choshu Domain.
Sober people like Takasugi Shinsaku and Katsura Kogoro who see the reality clearly are in the minority.
The current situation of the Choshu Domain is very consistent with the modern famous saying - nationalism is a double-edged sword. When used to deal with foreign enemies, it is always disadvantageous; when used to "injure oneself", it is equally disadvantageous.
He tried to unite the scholars and people by "repelling the foreigners", but was eventually countered by "repelling the foreigners".
It is no exaggeration to say that the Choshu Domain is now out of control.
No matter how capable Takasugi Shinsaku, Katsura Kogoro and others are, they cannot resist the fierce public opinion.
As for "That's it, Hou"...that is, the current lord of the Choshu Domain, Mori Qingqin, he performed stably as expected.
When Hisaka Genrui and others presented the "rejection of foreigners", Maori Qingqin immediately said: "Well, that's it!"
In this way, the entire domain reached a "common opinion" - fight against the foreigners! Fight against the foreigners! Fight against the foreigners!
On May 10th, give Xiyi a head-on blow!
Kusaka Genrui summoned all the combat power he could mobilize and prepared to fight Xiyi to the death!
Finally, on May 10, the American merchant ship Pembroke anchored in the Tanoura Strait.
At first, Noto was hesitant to pursue Mori.
Kusaka Genrui quickly made up his mind for him: shelling immediately!
They used coastal forts and Gengshen Pills and Guihai Pills for bombardment.
Their will to fight was unwavering, and the shells were fired as if they were free of charge.
However, due to old weapons and lack of actual combat experience, not a single shell hit the Pembroke.
Despite this, the Pembroke's crew was so frightened that they quickly left the battlefield and fled elsewhere.
This was the first time that the Choshu clan repulsed a Western ship.
The first battle was won and morale was greatly boosted.
The patriots of the Choshu Domain exaggerated it into a hearty victory, which greatly inspired the morale of the army.
Immediately afterwards, on May 23, the Chofu Domain (a branch of the Choshu Domain) discovered that the French notification ship Kien-Chang stopped in the Chofu Strait while traveling from Yokohama to Nagasaki.
The Choshu clan was on standby to prepare for an attack. When the Jianchang entered the strait, it bombarded it and the Jianchang was damaged.
At that time, the crew of the Jianchang still did not know that the Pembroke was attacked, nor did they know that Changzhou was determined to resist the invaders.
In order to negotiate, they allowed the civilian officials to land, but the feudal soldiers continued to attack, and the civilian officials were injured and four sailors were killed.
Subsequently, the Jianchang quickly left the strait, and the Gengshen Maru and Guihai Maru continued their pursuit. The Jianchang suffered considerable trauma and fled to Nagasaki the next day.
After two battles and two victories, all the patriots in Changzhou were very proud and ran around telling each other: We have won! We have defeated the Western Yi! The Western Yi are just a bunch of cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong!
At first glance, Choshu's feat of blocking the Shimonoseki Strait and bombarding Western ships is indeed a thrill.
However, people with insight... no, anyone with a little bit of brains can see that the Choshu Fan has made a big mistake!
The reason why people have such a consensus is that on May 10th, other forces except Choshu - including the shogunate who made the political promise of "starting to fight against the foreigners on May 10th"
——All remain silent!
It has been like this for the next few days and to this day.
The songs are sung, the dances are danced, and the horses are danced.
It was calm, as if nothing happened.
Changzhou performed an embarrassing one-man show.
For such a situation to arise, Qingdeng's suggestions are really indispensable.
Kiki Hitotsubashi caused such a big trouble, irresponsibly making a promise to the court, and then irresponsibly running away on his own, leaving Seito and others to wipe his ass.
In the past few days, Qingdeng and others have been thinking hard, looking for ways to break the situation.
He is a general with military power. Once a war against the barbarians is really launched, the people and troops who will go to the battlefield will be him and his Shinsengumi.
Qingdeng would not waste the precious combat power he had worked so hard to cultivate on such a meaningless war.
Although he felt very unhappy, for the sake of his own interests, he had to work hard to deal with the aftermath of Hitotsubashi Keixi.
It's funny to say that just when everyone was looking sad...suddenly, Qingden suddenly realized it!
True strategy requires only the simplest means.
He realized: Why should we think about the aftermath?
Can't we just ignore this matter?
Because the vassals will definitely not pay attention to this matter!
To put it simply, it is to use the tried and tested method of evading responsibility - to expand the responsibility! Make everyone involved! Make everyone have shit on their body!
As long as the water is muddy, the scope of damage is expanded, and everyone is dragged into the water, then the problem will naturally be solved!
The whole class has handed in their homework, but you are the only one who has not handed in their homework, so you are the one who is in trouble.
If no one in the class turns in their homework, then the person in trouble is the teacher!
The shogunate and the feudal lords did not hand in their homework, leaving the imperial court to be the embarrassing teacher.
Qingdeng didn't believe it - would the vassals dare to obey the imperial edict?
Do you dare to resist the foreigners?
You owe a lot of debt! You can't even afford to offend Osaka businessmen, how can you afford to offend Western countries?
Even the shogunate doesn't have that ability, and other vassals certainly don't have this ability!
It has been nearly 10 years since Japan was founded. Regardless of the people at the bottom, most people at the top have a basic understanding of the world situation overseas.
How powerful the Western countries are, each vassal country has already known clearly.
Qingdeng dared to conclude that the vassals would never resist the foreigners!
If this is the case, then we will follow up!
As a result, Qingdeng quickly finalized his strategy——
In order to prevent the vassals from using "not receiving relevant edicts" as an excuse in the future, they sent out all the fast horses and all the fast sedans to notify all the vassals and tell them that the imperial court had issued a "May 10, start to fight against the foreigners"
All the vassals obeyed the edicts without making mistakes!
Especially the feudal kingdoms that clamor the most against the barbarians on weekdays - such as Tosa Domain and Mito Domain - we must focus on informing them!
Qingdeng specially played a word game.
Changing the subject of the announcement to "the imperial court" and never mentioning that the date "May 10" was the fault of the shogunate subconsciously hinted to others that this was the intention of the imperial court and had nothing to do with the shogunate.
Aoshito's suggestion quickly won the unanimous approval of Tokugawa Iemo, Tenzouin and others.
One after another, fast horses and fast sedan chairs rushed to various vassal states.
When the envoy arrived in person, the vassals could not do anything even if they wanted to pretend to be deaf and dumb.
In this way, the shogunate and the feudal lords all shouldered the heavy responsibility of "repelling the foreigners" and became grasshoppers on a rope.
When May 10th came, sure enough, the situation was exactly as Qingdeng expected - no one took any action.
There was no one to resist the foreigners at all.
Even the Tosa Clan and Mito Clan, which usually talked about "repelling the barbarians," did not make any movement.
Qingden had already expected the silence of the two vassals.
Previously, the Mito clan was the absolute main force in the Zunban movement.
The "Sakurada Gate Incident" that led to the murder of Naomi Ii and shocked the whole country was led by the loyalists of Mito Domain.
Logically speaking, Mito Domain's Zunhou patriots have both a distinguished "resume" and amazing achievements, so they should occupy a leading position in the current Zunhou movement.
But, as the old saying goes: Party strife is really everywhere!
The Mito Domain was destroyed by party strife.
The specific process is quite complicated.
In a nutshell - the conservatives and radicals in the Mito domain fought internally, resulting in heavy casualties. The elite power was completely lost, and they were no longer able to participate in the Zhengtong movement.
It was precisely because of the decline of the Mito clan that the Choshu clan came to power.
Tosa Domain... no, to be more precise, the Tosa Kinnoi Party led by Takeichi Hanheita sincerely wanted to repel the barbarians.
However, their voices were suppressed by Yamauchi Hall.
Yamauchi Do—36 years old, former lord of Tosa Domain, currently living in Edo.
Qingden had met with Shannetou several times and had drinks with him several times.
Qingnog has only one comment about Yamauchi-do: a seasoned politician!
Although he is very young, he possesses the quality that a politician should have and is also the most difficult to possess: he only cares about interests and not about emotions in everything.
Although Yamauchi Dou has abdicated and is still living in seclusion in distant Edo, he is still the former lord of the domain and has a decisive influence in the domain.
Because he was easy-going and loved drinking, he often got drunk with the young warriors in the domain, so the younger generation in the domain liked him and loved him very much.
In short, under the suppression of Yamauchi Hall, the Tosa Domain did not participate in the anti-barbarian operation on May 10.
As a result, in the end, only the Choshu clan was determined to block the Shimonoseki Strait and bombard Western ships on this day.
Regarding the behavior of the Choshu clan... to be honest, it was beyond Qingto's expectation.
Qingneng really did not expect: How could the Choshu clan give up its great advantage for nothing?
Logically speaking, the best solution for the Choshu clan should be to sit back and watch, conserve their own power, drag the shogunate into the muddy waters of resisting the foreigners, and consume the shogunate's power.
Changzhou has already achieved half the success of this plan that is completely beneficial and harmless.
Hitotsubashi Keiki's bizarre operation caused the shogunate to be burdened with the heavy responsibility of resisting the foreigners and fell into an extremely unfavorable situation.
Next, Changzhou should be able to win easily.
As a result, how come they dropped the ball at the most critical moment?
In short, no matter what, for Ayoto and others in the shogunate camp, the Choshu clan's decisive behavior is indeed an unexpected surprise!
All the other forces are keeping to themselves, but you, Changzhou, are the only one who has jumped out to cause trouble.
Western countries that are accustomed to being bandits will definitely not give up.
It is conceivable that Changzhou will suffer fierce revenge from Western countries in the future.
In addition, Hisaka Genzui's insistence on going his own way greatly deepened the estrangement between the major factions in the Choshu Domain.
The "radical faction" of Genzui Hisaka and the "slick faction" of Shinsaku Takasugi and Kogoro Katsura almost broke up.
The "Serumon Sect" led by Makuri Tota also began to make moves.
It is not difficult to imagine that unless a fierce man emerges from the sky, it won't be long before Changzhou will fall into a desperate situation of internal and external troubles.
As for the shogunate and other vassal states that did not participate in the fight against the foreigners...to describe it in one word, it is "win"!
To describe it in two words, it is "win hemp"!
Everyone is wrong, which means everyone is right.
It is true that what the shogunate did was to say one thing and do another. You were the one who announced the rejection of the foreigners, and you were the one who ruined it afterwards.
But, so what?
The other vassal states did not fight against the foreigners. Even if they wanted to denounce the shogunate, they lost the confidence.
You said we didn't resist the foreigners, didn't you also not resist the foreigners? Do you still have the nerve to rebuke us?
In this way, because everyone has "shit" in their bodies, they formed a natural alliance and acted unanimously against the outside world...or in other words, against the court.
The imperial court was naturally dumbfounded by this situation.
Sanjo Sanimi and others never expected that a clever move that was supposed to "defeat the shogunate" would actually be killed by the shogunate!
In order to restore the situation, the imperial court issued an edict to reprimand the shogunate for reneging on its promises and criticize the vassals for their inaction.
On the other hand, an edict was issued to commend Changzhou for his bravery and loyalty.
The rhetoric used by the imperial court when criticizing the shogunate and the feudal lords was very harsh and sharp.
However, the court's voice has lost its intimidating power.
In recent years, boosted by the Zunxing trend and the strong support of Changzhou, the power of the imperial court has greatly increased.
Even the Tokugawa generals came to see the saint after more than 200 years to discuss matters of fighting against the foreigners. It was so impressive.
However, this lofty majesty is just a blown bubble after all.
It looks very bright and beautiful, but in fact it will break when you poke it.
The imperial court never got rid of the dilemma of having no money, no food, and no soldiers.
Based on the adulation and support of others, rather than on substantial deterrence... Such majesty is nothing but a castle in the air.
No matter where you are or what era you are in, having materials and an army, these two tangible things, is the way to go!
With the exception of Choshu, the shogunate and the various vassals have formed a united front because of "joint destruction". Will they still be afraid of you as a court?
Sanjo Sanimi and others were furious, but there was nothing they could do.
Not to mention Changzhou.
Just after May 10th, Choshu immediately used the coldest words to angrily criticize the shogunate and the vassals, and also angrily slandered the treachery of the patriots in other vassal states.
The already tense situation in Kyoto has become increasingly thrilling.
Soon, a sudden political accident suddenly occurred.
This accident greatly shook the three-legged power of Maku, Sa, and Chang in Kyoto!
What is unexpected is that the first to be hit was not the shogunate and Choshu, but Satsuma, who had been sitting on the fence.
On May 20, Xiaolu Gongzhi, the sister of Gongqing of the Zunbang faction, was assassinated and died at the age of 25.
That night, Lord Aneskoji was assassinated outside Shuoping Gate on his way back to his residence after attending the imperial meeting.
That night, he went out with two retainers and a servant and was attacked by three assassins.
The retainer who stood in for my sister, Koji Gongzhi, who was holding the sword, was so frightened that he actually ran away with his sword.
Anegaoji Gongzhi could only take out his folding fan to fight against the enemy.
Although he resisted tenaciously, he still suffered severe injuries to his head and chest.
Although he was a high official, his courage was extraordinary. He managed to hold on for a breath and snatched the knife from an assassin's hand.
When the assassins saw this, they fled in fear.
On the morning of the next morning after being rescued and returned home, Anokoji Gongzhi died of his injuries.
Speaking of Gongzhi Jixiaolu, his political position is quite interesting.
In layman's terms, it means "respecting conflict, but not completely respecting conflict".
At first, he, like Sanjo Sanimi and others, was the most staunch believer in respecting the enemy.
It was not until September last year (1862) that he went to Edo and inspected the Edo Bay shore accompanied by Katsu Rintaro, and his thoughts suddenly changed dramatically.
He no longer advocated "immediately expelling the barbarians", but advocated "learning from the barbarians and developing skills to control the barbarians", which was to follow the line of the shogunate.
It is reported that when he inspected the shores of Edo Bay, he accepted the suggestion of Katsurin Taro and boarded the steamship in person. He saw with his own eyes the power of Western countries and realized how stupid the ideas he had previously believed in were, so he gradually changed
own thoughts.
In the eyes of radical-minded people with lofty ideals, incomplete loyalty means absolute disloyalty.
To them, Onokoji Kōchi’s ideological change was a serious betrayal!
Therefore, people suspect that the murderer who assassinated Gongzhi Jixiaolu was a person with lofty ideals!
When the "Sanchai" samurai from the Kyoto Administrative Office were investigating the sword that Anekokoji Kōchi had snatched from the assassin, they found out that the sword was Tanaka Shinbei's sword.
Tanaka Shinbei—a master of swordsmanship in the Satsuma Domain and a current master of Nodachi.
It is said that he participated in many assassination missions, so he was known as "Jinzhan Shinbei", and he was as famous as Okada Izo of Tosa Domain, Kawakami Hikosai of Higo Domain, and Nakamura Hanjirō who also belonged to Satsuma Domain.
Now that it was confirmed that it was Tanaka Shinbei's sword, he naturally became the number one suspect.
As a result, he was immediately arrested and sent to the Kyoto Prison.
During the interrogation, Shinbei angrily denied committing the crime.
But when the interrogator showed him his sword, his expression suddenly changed.
Immediately afterwards, he took advantage of others' unpreparedness, immediately pulled out the ribs, committed seppuku and committed suicide on the spot.
After the murderer saw the ironclad evidence, he realized that he had no way to defend himself, so he committed suicide out of fear of guilt. Under normal circumstances, the case would have been over.
Unexpectedly, things took another twist.
Not long after Tanaka Shinbei committed suicide, someone came forward and said: On the night when Anekokoji Kouchi was killed, Tanaka Shinbei had a sufficient alibi.
That night, he was drinking alcohol somewhere to soothe his sorrows - because his saber was stolen.
It was undoubtedly a great shame and humiliation for a samurai to have his ever-present sword stolen.
He failed to protect the sword well, and the sword was used by others... He felt that he had no shame in living, so he committed suicide.
What's more, the Satsuma clan, which had been riding a wall, had no reason to kill Anekokoji Kōchi.
What is the truth? With Tanaka Shinbei's suicide, it is no longer known.
Unless some new witnesses or evidence emerge, the real culprit who killed Onekokoji will never be found.
Some conspiracy theorists say that the murderer was from Choshu and that he stole Tanaka Shinbei's sword to frame Satsuma.
However, this argument is obviously untenable.
What reason did Changshu have to offend Satsuma?
If Changshu wants to cause trouble, it should be to trouble the shogunate.
What is the benefit to them from attacking Satsuma?
In any case, the murder of Anekōji Kochi and the huge suspicion of Tanaka Shinbei led to a serious consequence - the Satsuma Domain became the target of public criticism.
This is not a warrior, a civilian, or a cat or a dog on the roadside being killed, but a serious minister being assassinated!
This is of a serious nature.
Although all the ministers in the imperial court are a bunch of wimps who only know how to sing the wind and the moon, they are nobles after all.
In this way, the Satsuma clan was reputed as "the murderer of ministers".
In order to give an explanation to his ministers, Emperor Tohito even removed the Satsuma Domain from the responsibility of guarding the palace gates. The Satsuma Domain's influence in Kyoto was greatly reduced.
The three-legged alliance has already begun to waver significantly.
Choshu was busy fighting off the barbarians, Satsuma was burdened by the sudden murder of Anekokoji Kōchi, and the shogunate... Aoshito and others were also busy.
After the incident of repelling the foreigners was temporarily over, the shogunate was finally free to deal with the nine British warships docked in Edo Bay.
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