Okubo Ichizo was born in the first year of Tenbao (1830).

Both of them grew up in humble beginnings, and both were born into lower-level samurai families.

In the peaceful world of the past, a person with such a humble background would have never been able to achieve success.

Fortunately, Shimazu Qibin, who knows people well and is good at taking charge of people, discovered them.

In the seventh year of Kayei (1854), Saigo Kinnosuke became Shimazu Saibin's confidant and participated in the feudal administration.

In the fourth year of Ansei (1857), Okubo Kazzo was promoted to infantry supervisor.

Under Shimazu Qibin's careful training, the two accumulated a lot of political experience, and their talents became increasingly apparent.

In the fifth year of Ansei (1858), Shimazu Saibin suddenly fell ill. His nephew Shimazu Tadayoshi became the feudal lord, and the real power was in the hands of his younger brother Shimazu Hisamitsu.

As the saying goes, "one person, one team."

After Shimazu Hisamitsu came to power, conservative forces within the domain began to rise, and Saigo Kinosuke and Okubo Kazzo, both former ministers of the former dynasty, were gradually alienated.

At this critical juncture, Okubo Kazzo relied on an extreme operation to forcefully reverse the unfavorable situation.

He discovered that Shimazu Hisamitsu loved to play Go, so he practiced chess hard to facilitate communication.

Hearing that Shimazu Hisamitsu wanted to read "Koshiden", he managed to get as many as 28 volumes of "Koshiden" and lent each volume to Shimazu Hisamitsu. He also took the opportunity to put a note in the book to let Shimazu Hisamitsu understand.

own perspective on the situation.

Finally, after unremitting efforts, Okubo Kazzo gained the trust and importance of Shimazu Hisamitsu and returned to the center of the feudal government. The conservative forces that had just risen were suppressed back.

Compared with Okubo Kazzo, Saigo Kinnosuke's experience was quite complicated.

When Shimazu Saibin was still alive, under his instruction, Saigo Yoshinosuke frequently worked for the movement to honor the king and fight against the foreigners.

Saigo Kinosuke's activity attracted the attention of the shogunate.

Therefore, when Naomi Ii launched the "Ansei Prison", he naturally became one of the targets of the ban.

In order to protect Saigo Kinnosuke from being held accountable by the shogunate, the feudal lord pretended to sentence him to exile and exiled him to Amami Oshima. In fact, it was a disguised form of protection for him, allowing him to go to other places to temporarily avoid the limelight - this avoidance lasted for three years.

.

Last year, in the second year of Bunkyu (1862), he was pardoned through the mediation of Okubo Kazzo, who already held great power in the domain, and returned to Satsuma Domain.

Based on various signs, it is not difficult to see that Shimazu Hisamitsu admires the extremely talented Saigo Kinosuke.

However... there is an irreconcilable conflict between the two of them.

To sum it up in one sentence - Shimazu Hisamitsu is from the public-military fusion school, while Saigo Kinosuke is from the king-respecting and barbarian-repelling school.

Although Saigo Kinnosuke is a staunch supporter of the idea of ​​respecting war, he is different from the mad dogs of the Choshu Domain.

In his opinion, the barbarians will definitely fight, but it will definitely not be a head-to-head fight with their steam battleships, Kruger cannons and Gatling guns with samurai swords.

Instead, we open our country to learn advanced knowledge and technology from foreign countries. After we have steam battleships, Krug cannons and Gatling guns on our side, we can then gradually expel the Yi Di.

This is the so-called "learning from the barbarians and developing skills to control the barbarians".

Therefore, Saigo Yoshinosuke's proposition is very clear and runs through all the time, which is to "join the vertical and horizontal", that is, the imperial court and the shogunate, together with the powerful daimyo and their important ministers, establish a unified system for the whole country, bridging the "founding of the country" and "repelling the foreigners"

the opposition between.

In contrast, Shimazu Hisamitsu intended to promote the "public-military integration" led by the imperial court, the shogunate and the Satsuma domain, and tried to make "founding the country" a major national policy. As for "repelling the foreigners", it was not within his political map.

The huge difference in ideas made the two dislike each other.

However, due to Saigo Kinnosuke's high popularity within the domain and his extraordinary talents, Shimazu Hisamitsu finally chose to reuse him.

Okubo Kazzo was proficient in politics, and Saigo Yoshiyuki was good at military affairs.

Therefore, Shimazu Hisamitsu left Okubo Ichizo in the domain to manage the affairs, and sent Saigo Kinosuke to Kyoto to command the Satsuma army currently stationed in Kyoto.

…

…

"There are currently about 1,700 Satsuma troops stationed in Kyoto, and the Choshu Army's strength is around 1,500. We only have 1,000 Aizu troops and 100 Shinsengumi here..."

As soon as Matsudaira Yongho finished speaking, Qingden shrugged and said half-jokingly:

"The difference in military strength is huge..."

Songping Yongbo smiled:

"That's true. Overall, the Satsuma Army is the strongest. However, in order to prepare for the war with the British Empire, the Satsuma Army may evacuate Kyoto at any time."

Qingden raised his eyebrows and murmured:

"The 'Mai Incident'..."

On September 14, the second year of Bunjiu (1862), four British people were riding horses on the Tokaido Road in Shengmai Village.

Among them were Charles Richardson, a businessman who traveled between Yokohama and Shanghai, his clerk Clark, and a British businessman, Mr. and Mrs. Marshall.

On the way, they met Shimazu Hisamitsu and his troops who were on their way back to the country after raising troops to go to Edo and forcing the shogunate to agree to "set up five elders to support Hitotsubashi Keiki and Matsudaira Harugaku" and other conditions.

According to the practice of the Edo period, civilians must kneel down and give way if they encounter the daimyo's queue, but the four British people refused to do so anyway, and this was considered a rude act towards the daimyo.

In the meantime, Mrs. Marshall's horse was suddenly frightened and rushed into the queue. Narahara Yoshi of the Shimadzu Guards immediately pulled out his knife and wounded Charles. The guards who came up immediately chopped him to death and seriously injured the other two soldiers. Only Marshall was injured.

The lady was not injured.

After the incident, the British Empire requested the shogunate and Satsuma Domain to punish the perpetrators and pay compensation.

Although the whole incident had nothing to do with the shogunate, the shogunate, knowing that the British were powerful, still paid a compensation of 100,000 pounds.

However, the Satsuma clan, the perpetrator, refused the British request.

How could the UK, which has conquered the world with invincible opponents and is used to being domineering and tyrannical, endure such a bad temper?

For a time, Zhan Yun made up his mind, and the smell of gunpowder was strong.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see: If the Satsuma clan still refuses to give in, then there will definitely be a battle between the Satsuma clan!

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Please give me a monthly ticket! Please give me a recommendation vote! (Leopard Head Cries)

Katsura Kogoro's first appearance is at the end of Chapter 29 of Volume 2; Takasugi Shinsaku's first appearance is at Chapter 85 of Volume 2.

Shimazu Saibin has died, so for the Satsuma camp, everyone only needs to keep in mind Saigo Kinosuke who is in charge of military affairs and Okubo Ichizo who is in charge of politics.

PS: Most of the contents in this chapter are historical facts, only the following paragraphs are original by Leopard--

Not long after Saigo Kinnosuke ended his first exile, he was exiled for the second time due to conflicts with Shimazu Hisamitsu in his ideas of governing the country.

In other words, in the current timeline of this book (the beginning of 1863), it is impossible for him to control the Satsuma army stationed in Kyoto.
Chapter completed!