After many efforts and compromises, Wagongiya was finally successfully married to Kanto.

At that time, there was such a Japanese song: For the sake of the king and the people, dissipate with the dewdrops of Musashino.

Wagongiya's appearance of bursting into tears became widely circulated.

On the occasion of the wedding, the imperial family sent six capable generals to Wagongiya, and Tomomi Iwakura, who was promoted to Major General Ukonoe Gon, also followed. Not only to protect Wagongiya, but also to directly convey the imperial court's requests to the shogunate.

It can be said that he has the great responsibility of supervising the actions of the shogunate.

The original intention of "combination of public and military forces" was to eliminate the barriers between Edo and Kyoto, enhance national power, and suppress the pro-protest movement.

However... it was still difficult to ease the relationship between the two parties through the marriage between Tokugawa Iemo and Wamiya. Instead, it aroused the resentment of the king-respecting and barbarian faction.

"The public family and the military family become one family" - this makes no sense to the faction outside the imperial court who respect the king and resist the barbarians.

They believed that there was no need for the imperial court to flatter the shogunate, thus triggering a more intense respect movement.

They collectively referred to four members of the public family including Iwakura Tomoshi who worked hard for Wakura's marriage, as well as the female officials Imajo Shigeko and Horikawa Noriko (Iwakura Tomoshi's sister) as the "Four Traitors and Two Concubines" and listed them as "Tenchu"

"object.

In Kyoto, the ronin of the Zunban faction, those who broke away from the feudal vassalage, and dissatisfied public figures allied with each other and began an increasingly radical Zunban movement. A strong bloody storm broke out in the streets and alleys of Kyoto.

Following the "Nanji Faction" and the "Ichitsubashi Faction", new mutually hostile political groups - the "Public Military Combination Faction" and the "Respect the King and Reject the Barbarians Faction" - came onto the stage of history.

Compared with the "Nanji·Yitiao Bridge Controversy", this time the party struggle is more intense and cruel, and it has almost escalated into a war!

The first one to take action was the Choshu clan, which had been silent and waiting for the situation to develop.

The Choshu clan produced a smart man named Nagai Gaara with a salary of 150 dan.

He looked at the world situation and believed that domestic unrest must be prevented. Based on this, he came up with the "Navigation Strategy", the main contents of which are as follows:

[Abandoning treaties and fighting off foreigners are both child's play. It is better to actively accept the treaty, the court and the shogunate to be consistent with the military, and strengthen our country's military equipment. Therefore, we must send inspection teams overseas to learn from the strengths of foreign countries and change the hearts of our country, and then think about various issues.

A method. This is a navigation strategy]

"Navigation strategy" means long-term planning.

Nagai Gaara proposed this strategy to the lord of Choshu Domain, Mori Norikin, and was approved by the other party.

Therefore, Mouri Keqin submitted this plan to the imperial court in an attempt to strengthen the connection between the imperial court and the shogunate and resolve the chaotic situation.

Emperor Tohito, who hated foreign countries, appreciated this very much, and the public also felt that this method was feasible.

After gaining power, Nagai Araku came to Edo and submitted the plan directly to the shogunate cabinet officials.

The shogunate officials also greatly appreciated this and adopted this plan. Finally, the relationship with the imperial court was eased through Wagongiya's marriage. If we take this as an opportunity to make full use of this strategy, the situation will be smooth.

The case also received support from another powerful figure in the Choshu Domain, Shu Fumasanosuke, and the domain also reached a consensus.

In this way, the Choshu clan entered the political center and became one of the players in this grand chess game with "the ownership of the country" as the bet.

It is unknown whether Choshu’s purpose was to use this plan to mediate between the shogunate and the imperial court and then gain political dominance. In short, Choshu entered the stage of history.

If the "Navigation Strategy" can be carried out smoothly, the marriage of the Imperial Palace will be successful, and the movement to respect the king and resist the foreigners will be suppressed. Both the imperial court and the shogunate will take advantage of the situation to give up their confrontation and ease relations.

But for the "Respect the King and Reject the Barbarians" faction, they will naturally not accept this plan.

Hisaka Genzui of the Choshu Domain, Honma Seiichiro of the Echigo Domain, Saigo Takamori of the Satsuma Domain... the capable people of the "Respect the King and Reject the Barbarians" got in touch with each other and began to plan and promote a larger-scale respect movement.

The shogunate and the imperial court wanted to reconcile, but the rebellion movement below was always difficult to contain, and the situation became increasingly chaotic.

On January 15, the second year of Bunkyu (1862), Ando Nobuzai, the leader of the Lao-Chinese clan, was attacked by six patriots from the Mito and Utsunomiya clans at the Sakashitamon Gate.

Due to the lessons learned from the "Sakuda Gate Incident" and heightened defenses, Nobumasa Ando defeated the assassins with only minor injuries.

All the assassins were killed and the incident was temporarily put to rest.

However, Ando Nobumasa was injured and left the center of the shogunate cabinet, and Nagai Gaara's work was temporarily suspended. The work that had been finally advanced was suspended due to this assassination attempt.

In addition, Changshu, which originally maintained a consistent feudal status, also began to have disputes.

At first, it was agreed that the country should be run through a combination of public and military forces, and Choshu was involved. However, the King-respecting and Barbarian faction among them raised the flag of rebellion, gradually grew in strength, and began to destabilize the Choshu clan.

Zhou Buzhengnosuke also began to change his previous opinions and made friends with Hisaka Gensui of the Zunwang and Expelling the Barbarians faction.

At the same time, the lord of the Choshu Domain, Mori Kinkin, suddenly stated that the "navigation strategy" was not feasible and that the future development of the Choshu Domain needed to be re-examined.

In this way, the almost successful "Navigation Strategy" was completely bankrupt, and Nagai Gaara was held accountable and was considered to have done unnecessary things. Many people from the King-Respecting and Expelling Barbarians faction strongly demanded that Nagai Gaara commit hara-kiri and apologize.

Due to the Changshu Domain's change of attitude, the ongoing public-military merger was in vain.

At this time, another powerful "chess player"—Satsuma Domain—stretched out his fangs.

In the fifth year of Ansei (1858), Shimazu Saibin... the 11th generation lord of the Satsuma Domain, the foster father of Tenchoin, and the culprit who caused Tenchoin to marry a disabled person, died of illness.

Shimazu Saibin, who had no heirs, left a last note when he died. He believed that if the position of lord of the domain was handed over to his younger brother Shimazu Hisamitsu, trouble would be difficult to end.

Therefore, he decided that Shimazu Hisamitsu's son Shimazu Tadayoshi would succeed him as Lord of the Satsuma Domain.

In fact, his operation is no different from directly passing the ball to Shimazu Hisamitsu.

Shimazu Hisamitsu became the father of the feudal lord, which was no different from him becoming the feudal lord.

Shimazu Hisamitsu, who inherited the mantle of Shimazu Saibin, began to govern as the father of the country and led the Satsuma Domain.

He is a very open-minded person who can understand current affairs.

He saw that the current reality in the country was that the "respecting the king and rejecting the barbarians" faction had the upper hand, and even if they offered enlightened opinions, they would not accept them.

Therefore, at first glance, Shimazu Hisamitsu's attitude was that of a "respecting the king and repelling the barbarians faction", but in fact he had the idea of ​​​​a "combined public and military faction".

In addition, he is also a careerist who hopes to occupy a leadership position.

After Nagai Gaara's steady strategy collapsed, he led 1,000 feudal soldiers and came to Kyoto with cannons to suppress the unstable or attempted ronin in Kyoto, arresting all the scheming king-repelling faction and imprisoning them in the Satsuma Domain.

and hotels, and thoroughly clean them out.

His purpose in doing this was to consolidate his position and increase his voice in the court.

Saigo Takamori, who took a leading position in the "Lord of the King and Expulsion of the Barbarians" faction of the Satsuma Domain, was also exiled to Tokunoshima by him.

However, even though Shimazu Hisamitsu has done such a great job, some people still don't know what he is thinking, and some people regard him as the leader of the "Respect the King and Repulse the Barbarians" faction.

Shimazu Hisamitsu led the army to Kyoto, and the Satsuma people were very high-spirited. They thought: "This is a good opportunity. Now we can appoint Lord Hisamitsu as a general, stand out in Kyoto, drive away the forces of the shogunate, and let our Satsuma domain seize the world."

They even made a plan to take the emperor to Mount Hiei and start an all-out war with the shogunate once something happened.

The weird ideas of these guys scared Shimazu Hisamitsu so much that he immediately took action to suppress their actions.

On April 23, the second year of Bunkyu (1862), more than 30 members of the "King of the King and the Fighting of the Barbarians" gathered at the Funajuku Temple House in Fushimi to discuss future countermeasures.

Shimazu Hisamitsu believed that this could never be tolerated, so he sent nine highly skilled domain soldiers there. He instructed: "Don't attack everyone, only target people in your own domain."

As a result, the leaders of the Satsuma Domain's "King-Resisting and Barbarian Faction" were annihilated in one fell swoop.

Shimazu Hisamitsu sent people to massacre members of the "Honor the King and Repulse the Barbarians" faction of the feudal clan... The decisiveness of his actions and the cruelty of his methods shocked the world.

This incident is known as the "Teradaya Incident" by the world.

The owner of Teradaya is named Toshi, a charming mature woman in her early thirties.

After the "Teradaya Incident", she calmly ordered the servants to replace the damaged tatami mats and paper doors, and clean up the blood stains on the floor. Her calm and calm appearance left a deep impression on people, and she can be called a hero among women.

Shimazu Hisamitsu, who used a series of iron-fisted methods, completely took control of the security of Kyoto, and the entire Kyoto was under the influence of the Satsuma clan.

Subsequently, Shimazu Hisamitsu proposed to the imperial court that the imperial envoy must be sent to Edo again to thoroughly explain the imperial court's thoughts. He also proposed the conditions he said in order to negotiate with Edo again and clarify the leadership of Kyoto.

.

The imperial court agreed to the case and sent a figure named Ohara Takatoku to Edo. In order to protect him, Shimazu Hisamitsu personally led 1,000 feudal soldiers to Edo.

In this way, the conflict between the shogunate and the imperial court based on the power of Satsuma began in Edo.

On June 7, the second year of Bunkyu (1862), Ohara Takatoku, Shimazu Hisamitsu, and 1,000 feudal soldiers from the Satsuma Domain arrived in Edo.

At the initiative of Shimazu Hisamitsu, Ohara Sotoku proposed the following conditions on behalf of the court:

First, in order to discuss the matter of repelling the foreigners, General Tokugawa Iemo must come to Kyoto to discuss the issue with the imperial court.

Second, set up the five elders (the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma clan, the Mori clan of the Choshu clan, the Yamauchi clan of the Tosa clan, the Maeda clan of the Kanazawa clan, and the Date clan of the Uwajima clan). Political affairs need to convene a meeting of the five elders to make decisions.

Third, reform the shogunate politics and promote the fight against the barbarians. However, we cannot rely on the shogunate cabinet to carry out this task. Therefore, Yoshiki Hitotsubashi was appointed as the assistant to the general, and Matsudaira Harugaku of the Fukui Domain was appointed as the political president.

[Note·Assistant general: When the general is young, he replaces the general in performing government affairs. Similar to "deputy general"]

[Note·Political President: A position created to assist the general in handling political affairs inside and outside the shogunate, equivalent to the elder]

Regarding the first request, since the third generation general Tokugawa Iemitsu went to Kyoto, no general has gone to Kyoto to meet the emperor, so Tokugawa Iemo was allowed to go to Kyoto.

Regarding the second requirement, the five proposed lords are all powerful foreign daimyo. Shimazu Hisamitsu's original intention was to improve the status of the Satsuma clan and weaken the authority of the shogunate.

As for the last third request... Satsuma Domain has always belonged to the "Hitobashi faction" camp, and Shimazu Hisamitsu himself is also a die-hard "Hitotsubashi faction" person.

That's why he strongly requested that Hitotsubashi Yoshiki be promoted to general assistant, and Matsudaira Harugaku, who was also a die-hard "hitotsubashi faction", was promoted to political president.

The first two requests were easy to argue with, but only the third request was strongly opposed by the shogunate officials of the "Nanki Sect" and the women of Daoku.

Hitotsubashi Keiki's biological father was the late former lord of Mito Domain: Tokugawa Saiaki.

Tokugawa Saiaki believed that the women of Ou were too extravagant and wasteful, so when he was still alive, he always strictly required the women of Ou to be thrifty, so he was collectively disgusted by the women of Ou.

Under the "Hate House and Crow" situation, the women in Daou hate Hitotsubashi Keiki very much.
To be continued...