Yamata no Orochi shook his head.

"No, it's not 'blood cough'."

"I have never coughed up blood, so it cannot be a 'blood cough'."

"The doctors can't tell exactly what the disease is."

"They said I got sick from overwork."

"Forget it, just death is nothing to be afraid of."

"Because I know I am terminally ill, every extra day I live feels like I have earned something, which adds a strange sense of joy, hahaha!"

After saying that, he laughed out loud with a calm expression.

There was no fear of death in the laughter.

Looking at the magnanimous laughing Yamata no Orochi, Katsura and Takasugi had a faint look of admiration on their cheeks.

To be honest, they still couldn't believe that this big fat man, who was so fat that he couldn't breathe even if he walked a few steps quickly, could actually be the leader of the Law Enforcement Party...

In their imagination, the leader of the Fa-Zhu Party, who led countless talented people and caused trouble to the shogunate, should be a tycoon who could dominate the sea and the sky.

In fact, even today, they still don't know the specific reason why fierce men such as Otakemaru and Shuten Doji only follow him.

However, the words Yamata no Orochi said just now, as well as the performances he showed, made Katsura and Takasugi slightly change their view of him.

They had to give high praise to his optimism.

Knowing that he was terminally ill, not only was he not timid at all, but he responded with a smile - this is not something that everyone can do.

…

…

From the end of October, the shogunate and the imperial court launched a series of actions.

First, the imperial court once again designated the Maori family as enemies of the court and deprived Maori Qingqi and his son of their ranks and official positions.

At that time, Mouri Qingqin's rank was from the fourth rank to Lieutenant General Sakonoe Quan; Mori Sadahiro was from the fourth rank to Major General Sakonoe Quan. Now, all these honorary titles of theirs are gone.

The shogunate took back the taboos and names of Mori Keichika and Mori Sadahiro (Moori Keichika's son), and canceled the status of daimyo.

Therefore, the two changed their names to "Maori Jingqin" and "Maori Guangfeng".

[Note: Partial taboo: The upper-ranking person in the samurai society gave the lower-ranking person a taboo of their own name to establish a master-slave relationship. The word "Qing" for Mori Qingqin comes from the 12th generation general Tokugawa Ieyei, and Mori decided to use the word "Qing".

The word "Sada" comes from the 13th shogun Tokugawa Iedada.]

Since the establishment of the Edo shogunate, each generation of governors and crown princes of the Maori family have been given the titles of "Matsudaira Daisen Doctor" and "Matsudaira Nagatoshou" by the Tokugawa family, which is a status symbol.

Nowadays, these honors have been confiscated, and he can no longer be called Matsudaira, but can only be called Maori Taisen and Maori Nagato.

Not only that, the feudal residences of the Mori family in Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka were confiscated, and the daimyo and his retainers were prohibited from leaving the feudal territory.

There is a periodical called "Wu Jian", which is like today's current affairs news magazine, allowing ordinary people to understand political trends.

Since the Maori family was accused of being an enemy of the DPRK, all reports and news about the Maori family have been deleted.

Anyone can see that this is the shogunate building momentum for the "Changzhou Conquest"! It launches political criticism in advance to minimize and weaken Choshu.

It is not difficult to judge that Tokugawa Iemoji really planned to drive out the Mori family!

If not, it wouldn't be possible to achieve this.

Thanks to the dual efforts of the shogunate and the imperial court, Changzhou has been demoted to both the imperial enemy and the secret enemy.

Before the battle even started, the Tokugawa army took advantage of the moral advantage.

For this war, Tokugawa Iemoji really put all his energy and painstaking efforts into it.

In fact, the Changzhou conservatives’ proposal for surrender was not without purpose.

It has to be said that they were very aware of the weak character of the shogunate.

After Tokugawa Iemo announced the launch of the "Changshu Expedition", anti-war factions with considerable energy and loud voices immediately emerged within the shogunate.

These guys who strongly advocate anti-war have said: Soldiers are a major event of the country, the place of life and death, and the way of survival. We must pay attention to them!

But we can’t fight! Fighting is time-consuming and expensive!

It is really not worth the expense of labor and wages just to clean up the small Changzhou.

If you want to make Changzhou surrender, you can use other methods.

For example: pretending to attack, assuming a posture of approaching the city, and forcing Changzhou to surrender.

After the Maori family submits the transfer form, they will symbolically reduce their fiefdoms and give each other a step down, so that both sides can get along with each other, and the matter will be over.

In order to convince Tokugawa Iemo, they all hung up their book bags and quoted from classics.

From Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty's three expeditions to Goguryeo, which exhausted the country's power, to Toyotomi Taikaku's expedition to Korea, there were widespread complaints.

All in all, there is only one thing they want to express: this battle must not be fought!

If it was the foolish and incompetent former general Tokugawa Iesada, he might have let these guys fool him.

However, Tokugawa Iemo was not Tokugawa Iesada, nor was he the kind of mediocre man without any independent opinions.

Tokugawa Iemo dared not compare himself to the ancestors of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. He never believed that he had any extraordinary talents, but he was well versed in the principle of "beating a drowned dog".

After experiencing the tragic defeats of the "Shimonoseki War", the "Ikedaya Incident", and the "Kyoto Summer Battle", today's Choshu is in its weakest period in three hundred years.

If we don’t attack now, when will we wait?

Today, Changzhou is a flag - the flag of the Zhengxing Movement.

Tokugawa Iemo finally figured it out: Only by eliminating the unstable element of Choshu and breaking this flag can we completely suppress the absurd Zongzheng movement and bring peace to the world!

Furthermore, he really hated the appearance of these "anti-war factions".

Although they were well-mannered and looked like loyal ministers and righteous men, Tokugawa Iemo could clearly see that every one of these guys was full of benevolence, justice and morality, and they were full of male thieves and female prostitutes.

Do they really care about the shogunate and consider the future of the shogunate before they strongly oppose the war?

After being a general who conquered barbarians for so many years, Tokugawa Iemo finally understood one thing: You must never trust all the princes without authorization, let alone think that they are good people!

The reason why they opposed the attack on Changzhou was purely because it would not be beneficial to them.

Even if this battle is won, the only ones who will benefit are Tokugawa Iemo who initiated the battle, and Aoto, Matsudaira Yōho and others who personally directed the battle.

If this battle is lost, the authority of the shogunate will suffer a devastating blow, which will further affect the fame and fortune of his family.

Since this matter has no benefit to me at all, and on the contrary, I have to bear a lot of risks, then why should I get involved?

If they frankly admitted, "Yes, I am selfish and I only think about my family," then Tokugawa Iemo would feel better.

But these guys obviously only care about their own personal interests, but they insist on showing themselves as loyal ministers and good generals, which makes Tokugawa Iemoge very angry.

To put it bluntly, the longer he stayed in the position of general, the more he hated these hypocritical bastards.

I will never do the real thing, but it will be a positive thing if it is not helpful.

Faced with the strong obstruction of the "anti-war faction", Tokugawa Iemo launched an uncompromising struggle.

"I have made up my mind, and I will not return it until Changzhou is destroyed!"

He devoted himself to promoting the implementation of the "Changzhou Expedition" and even engaged in fierce verbal battles with "anti-war factions" in Daguang on several occasions.

[Note: Ohiroma: A famous room in Edo Castle. New Year's homage to the shogun, the shogun's announcement of government decrees, the publication of samurai's laws and other official activities of the shogunate are all held in this room. 】

It’s still the same saying: political power comes from the barrel of a gun.

The two most shining stars in the current shogunate government are Aoto and Katsurintaro.

One of them founded the Shogunate Navy, and the other founded the Shinsengumi. At the same time, they commanded the Hachioji and thousands of others.

These two fierce men were both Tokugawa Iemo's trusted confidants. It is not an exaggeration to call them Tokugawa Iemo's right-hand men.

In this way, under the intimidation of the two pillars of Aoto and Katsurintaro, although Tokugawa Iemoji's power cannot be said to be a powerful one, it cannot be shaken by these empty talkers.

The ministers could oppose Tokugawa Iemo, but they had to consider the consequences and costs of doing so.

No one wants to form irreconcilable differences with the number one man in the shogunate's army and the number one man in the shogunate's navy.

In this way, just like Katsura and Takasugi persuaded the conservatives, Tokugawa Iemoge also successfully suppressed the anti-war forces, unified his thinking, and barely integrated the various forces within the shogunate.

As soon as the "August 18 Coup" ended, Tokugawa Iemo put the "Choshu Expedition" on the agenda.

After more than a year of careful efforts, manpower and materials have been put in place.

All the work currently being done is just the end of this long war preparation.

Time passes...

Finally...the day of dispatching troops has arrived!

…

…

The first year of Yuanzhi (1864), November 18th——

Somewhere in the wilderness on the western outskirts of Kyoto, a certain tent——
To be continued...