In order to bring glory to the family, he worked hard to practice both civil and military arts.

It was not until the age of 20 that I began to come into contact with various social realities that I could not see in school, and I gradually realized that my past aspirations for fame and integrity were only based on a competitive spirit.

After realizing this, Oshio Heihachiro felt extremely ashamed and realized that he was just a young boy who was still far behind in terms of academic accomplishment and life realm.

After this epiphany, Oshio Heihachiro began to study Confucianism with great concentration and improve his intellectual quality - this was Oshio Heihachiro's first life transformation.

However, Oshio Heihachiro, who embarked on the path of Confucianism, became more and more confused the more he studied.

At that time, the atmosphere in Japanese Confucian academic circles was one of keen pursuit, exaggeration prevailed, and serious disconnection from reality. After deeply studying Confucianism, Oshio Heihachiro not only did not feel that his intellectual quality had been improved, but instead felt increasingly confused and chaotic. …

By various coincidences, Oshio Heihachiro discovered the "Moaning Language" written by the Ming Dynasty Confucian Lu Xinwu, and through it he learned for the first time the great spiritual wealth left by the "one sage through the ages" Wang Yangming: Yangming's philosophy of mind.

As if he had found a treasure, Oishio Heihachiro began to concentrate on practicing Yangming's mind science. After countless years of study, he finally achieved the goal of using sincerity as the goal and conscience as the means, rejecting the temptation of the outside world, and clarifying the original intention of the heart - the law of heaven.

situation.

This is Oshio Heihachirou's second life transformation.

Although Yangmingism is a highly idealistic theory, it is actually a pragmatism that advocates virtue as the first priority - the so-called "unity of knowledge and action" philosophy.

Oshio Heihachiro developed it on this basis and closely integrated it with reality to become a kind of knowledge that is useful to society.

Oshio Heihachiro, who was a master of learning, initially only gave lectures after official duties.

Later, as his reputation gradually improved, he had more and more disciples.

In order to have a better teaching environment, Oshio Heihachiro opened a school in his home in 1823, named it "Xinshindong", formulated eight oaths for admission, eliminated empty theories, and strictly implemented the purpose of Oshio School -

pragmatic.

In addition to the disciples of the martial arts family who were born in the samurai class, many of the disciples of Xishindong were farmers who came from farming families near Osaka.

Although Heihachiro Oshio was a samurai, he did not have any class concept. He had a strong affection for farmers and often visited rural areas in the suburbs to mingle with the poor people at the bottom of society.

He has always insisted that farmers are very simple, and if they are educated, they will have the state of mind of a saint.

In addition to "respect", Oshio Heihachiro also had infinite sympathy for the farmers who suffered from natural and man-made disasters, so he hated the corrupt Edo shogunate and the privileged businessmen who were connived by the Edo shogunate.

Oshio Heihachiro's resentment towards the Edo shogunate grew day by day.

This strong dissatisfaction against the incompetent Edo shogunate finally "exploded" in 1837...in the winter of that year.

The trigger was the Tianbao Famine (1832-1833), which killed millions of poor people.

In the first year of Tenpo (1830), there was a major earthquake in Kyoto in July, and the Yodogawa flooded in September.

The Yodogawa flood occurred in March of the second year of Tenpo (1831).

In the third year of Tenpo (1832), agricultural harvests in various places were poor. By the fourth year of Tenpo (1833), there was a great famine across the country. In addition, natural disasters such as the Dewa flood, the Ou flood, and the Kanto storm continued to cause the price of rice to continue to rise.

The sudden appearance of famine plunged the poor into dire straits.

In order to buy or exchange rice, many destitute victims even had to ask their wives and daughters to sell rice on the roadside.

The Edo shogunate tried to provide disaster relief... but their disaster relief efforts were like a human's appendix - whether they had it or not.

When the poor were in dire straits due to food shortages, Oshio Heihachiro, who always sympathized with and helped the poor, stepped forward and sold his entire collection of books to obtain 620 taels of gold, which he distributed to 10,000 poor households.

However... this little money is always a drop in the bucket.

Oshio Heihachiro saw that more and more poor people were starving to death, but the Edo shogunate was helpless. Although he spent his entire family on relief, it was of no avail.

The resentment against the Edo shogunate has grown to an extreme... Finally, Oshio Heihachiro decided to take a desperate risk and rise up! ...

This scholar, who initially only worked hard to bring glory to his family, has now completed the final transformation of his life - he decided to risk everything to repair the cracks in the sky with one hand.

He led his disciples to secretly manufacture cannons, gunpowder and other weapons in preparation for the uprising.

The uprising was originally scheduled for February 29, but due to the traitor's informant, the uprising had to be brought forward.

Oshio Heihachiro and his disciples mobilized the poor people and marched into Osaka holding high the banner of "saving the people" and started a fierce battle with the shogunate army in Osaka City.

Due to limited manpower and material resources, the homemade weapons used by the rebels were actually quite crude... but the corrupt shogunate army was still beaten to a pulp.

After hearing the news, the Edo shogunate quickly recruited troops from nearby vassals such as Amagasaki, Kishiwada, and Koriyama to reinforce Osaka.

Although the rebels fought tenaciously... they were still defeated by the shogunate army, which had overwhelming manpower and military superiority.

After the uprising was suppressed, the Edo shogunate cast a dragnet across the country to hunt down Oshio Heihachiro and others. It was finally found out that Oshio Heihachiro and his adopted son were hiding in a separate house of Miyoshiya Gorobei's family in Hyoukakecho, Osaka City.

inside.

The Osaka Town Order immediately sent a large team of troops to surround the house. Knowing that he could no longer escape, Oshio Heihachiro lit the prepared explosives, blew up the house with a loud bang, and set himself on fire to death.

After the flames were extinguished, the shogunate officials pulled out two charred corpses with completely unrecognizable features from the ruins.

The Edo shogunate, who thought they could finally rest easy, made plans to bring peace to the people - but no one bought it.

The fierce battle between the rebel army and the shogunate army in Osaka caused countless houses in Osaka to be burned down, and a large number of town residents became homeless and displaced. However, instead of hating Oshio Heihachiro, they respected him as "Mr. Oshio" and "Mr. Heihachiro".

”.

After all, their eyes are not blind - they can still clearly identify who is really good to them.

Out of admiration and commemoration of Oshio Heihachiro, countless literati and poets came out one after another.

In the "storytelling world", in April and May of that year, storytellers from Kyushu compiled stories about Dashan's deeds, which became very popular.

In the "theater world", it was not until the 9th year of Tenpo (1838) that kabuki songs praising Oshio began to appear in Kyushu. However, to avoid suspicion, the era was changed to the Muromachi Shogunate period. The names of the characters were also changed, Oshio Heihachiro became Oshio Teihachi.

In this play, Koshio Tehachi upholds justice for heaven, and the town performs all the ugly things. Generally, drama performances last for 20 days, but the drama about the Oshio Uprising lasted for more than 100 days and was still full. People came from dozens of miles to watch the play.

Not surprising.

The legend "Mr. Dashan is not dead! He is still alive" has never disappeared - this legend is not groundless.

After Oshio Heihachiro detonated the bomb, the shogunate officials only found two indistinguishable charred corpses from the ruins... If the dead person was Oshio Heihachiro's stand-in, it is not impossible.

Some people say that Oshio Heihachiro fled to Jiu Mountain in Yin Dou; some people say that Oshio Heihachiro fled to Kyushu; some even directly say that Oshio Heihachiro crossed the sea to the mainland, or even said that he took a black ship to the West.

…

Until now, many people firmly believe: Mr. Oshio is still alive! And he will come back! He will lead them poor people to fight against the evil Edo shogunate again!

Oshio Heihachiro has basically become a symbol of faith, and his name still has extremely exaggerated popularity and influence even today, 23 years later.

The Koriyama Domain, which has a height of 150,000 koku, was one of the domains that sent troops to reinforce Osaka and suppress the uprising of Oshio Heihachiro. Judging from the age of Tada Koemon...if he was born in the Koriyama Domain, then he is indeed possible. Participated in the Osaka battle 23 years ago.

This lunatic who talks nonsense actually has such a past... When the director learned about this, he couldn't help but ask:

"Since this man is a military commander who has outstanding martial arts strength and has made dazzling achievements on the battlefield...then why has he fallen into this situation today?"

"Well... I heard a little about Tada Koemon's deeds from a friend a while ago."

Dongcheng sneered "hum hum" a few times.

"It is said that he accidentally made some mistakes and was demoted to a ronin by the lord of Koriyama Domain three years ago and was expelled from the domain."

"Wrong?" the general manager asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know about that."

Dongcheng shrugged and then continued:

"Well, this is a common thing."

"Moving to the right is as difficult as climbing to the sky, but moving to the left is as easy as climbing to the sky."

"Nowadays, a large number of vassal states are so poor that they can only survive by borrowing money from the giant businessmen in Osaka."

"Even the finances of those powerful lords are not much better."

"In order to save financial expenses, we often had to use various excuses to deduct the salaries of the feudal officials, and even directly demoted the feudal officials."

At this point, Dongcheng sneered a few more times, and then changed into a tone full of teasing and a sinister tone:

"No matter how much you have done for your lord, when the situation calls for it, your lord will abandon you without any hesitation."

"Hmph, huh, this can be considered a tragedy for us so-called 'warriors'."

After saying that, Dongcheng clapped his hands, dusted his knees, and stood up quietly.

"Ju, you are also a member of the government, and you should be very familiar with the investigation process, so I won't say anything else."

"You have had close contact with Tada Koemon, so now I have to ask you and your friends to go to the shrine for a while. We want to ask you about the incident in detail."

Qingdeng showed a helpless smile: "Please be sure to ask your subordinates to move faster when asking questions, so as not to waste my and my friends' time too much."

"That's natural." Dongcheng nodded.

"Ah, Master Dongcheng, can you allow me to go to Beifansuo later? I have to deal with an urgent matter now."

The "urgent matter" Qingden mentioned was naturally referring to sending Elodie home.

It was Qingdeng who quietly brought Elodie out, so he naturally had to take the responsibility of sending Elodie back to the residence, beard and tail, and back to the warm quilt in her room.

Qingdeng was a member of their "Three Chapters", and he was not an unknown person that he was not familiar with. Probably out of his trust in Qingdeng, Dongcheng said without hesitation: ...

"Sure. As long as you can report to Beifan Station before noon tomorrow."

Qingdeng: “I can’t thank you enough.”

…
To be continued...