Imperial House - the residence of the Emperor.

In fact, just looking at the difference between the Imperial Temple and Edo Castle, you can clearly feel the weakness of the royal family in the Shogunate era.

To put it simply, the Imperial Palace is just a larger and more luxurious park.

It is 700 meters wide from east to west, 1300 meters long from north to south, and an area of ​​110,000 square meters.

The area looks quite large, but its defense ability is really worrying.

Not to mention Sannomaru, Ninomaru, and Moonmaru have ladder defenses. There is not even the most basic defense facilities such as moats and oars, but there is only a circle of walls - and this wall is not high.

Just build a slightly longer staircase and you can easily climb over the walls of the imperial station.

In short, the two are not of the same level at all. Compared with Edo Castle, the Imperial Palace is really just a large park.

Regarding the matter of "how to defend Kyoto", Qingdeng (Gyeonggi Prefecture Envoy) and Matsuhei Yoongbo (Kyoto Guardian) have always had very clear functional divisions.

At the beginning, when these two positions were specially established, Tokugawa Ishiki made quite clear provisions on the specific rights and responsibilities of the "Gyeonggi Governor's Governor" and the "Kyoto Guardian's Office".

The former is responsible for guarding the capital and maintaining public security in Kyoto.

The latter is responsible for monitoring the Western countries and defending the imperial office.

In other words, the imperial office does not belong to Qingdeng's management.

This is true in Kyoto. As long as Qingdeng is wholeheartedly guarding the capital and maintaining the public security of Kyoto, he has to consider many things.

Matsuhira Etsu is a loyal minister of the shogunate, and his loyalty to the shogunate is beyond doubt.

But while being loyal to the shogunate, he also respected the court very much.

With great hard work and great contributions, coupled with this respectful and humble attitude, the Emperor has always favored Matsuhei Tomokazu and regarded him as one of the only objects he could trust.

On the eve of the "Coup on August 18", the Emperor, who was deeply disgusted with Changzhou's arbitrary behavior, also handed over the "Langle Edict" to Matsuhei Rongbao. It was thanks to this "Langle Edict" that Qingdeng and others were able to have the righteousness of "exiting Changzhou".

The Emperor's trust in Matsuhei Toruo can be seen.

In this regard, the latter has always been Minggan Wu Nei.

In order to repay him, he specially selected elite soldiers from the Aizu army and deployed them inside and outside the Imperial Office, trying to make the Imperial Office the safest place in Kyoto.

The special relationship between Matsuhei Tomosa and the Imperial Office has given him another title in the market: "Guardian of the Royal City".

Since the "Coup on August 18", the court has been quiet, with no big changes, no longer jumping up and down like when Changzhou was in power - and this depends on the emperor's "ruling by inaction".

The current emperor's political stance is consistent - maintaining the status quo.

He is not hostile to the shogunate, so he is more welcome to the shogunate.

He had no intention of changing the tradition of "sacrificing oneself is the only one who is the only one who is the only one who is a polite to Tokugawa", and he just wanted to continue to be a "carefree puppet".

However... he was happy to be idle, but it did not mean that the rest of the court was like this.

Whenever there is chaos in the world, ambitious people will emerge like spring after rain - this is common sense in the world.

Just tonight, on a seemingly ordinary night, black shadows headed straight towards the Imperial Hall...!

...

...

Iwakura Hikari - one of the few capable people among the imperial court.

Whenever this person is mentioned, his comments are always similar - his wrists are hard enough! His heart is cruel enough!

At the beginning, after the shogunate issued a proposal to "combined Gongwu" and caused a huge sensation in the court.

At that time, Changzhou took control of the imperial court.

Under the influence of Changzhou, the imperial court's ministers fiercely opposed the "combination of Gongwu and Wu" and shouted wildly.

What are the words "a general is not worthy of marrying a princess", what are the words "How can a noble princess marry far away from the wilderness?"... all kinds of absurd remarks are all in one go.

Only a very small number of ministers, including Iwakura, judged the situation and keenly saw that the "combination of Gongwu" was in line with the interests of the court.

In order to promote the "gongwu fusion", he worked hard and did a lot of dirty and tiring work.

For those ministers who disagree with marriage, Iwakura Shishi personally interviewed them, either bribed them or threatened them directly as "demolished".

With the use of both soft and hard work of Iwakura Tsubasa, even Prince Arisugawa Shiren, who had been married to Iwakura, surrendered.

The isolated and helpless Hegong had no help and was desperate, so he had to agree to the marriage.

Because Iwakura's behavior is too despicable and cold-blooded, it is called a "gecko" by the world and was once regarded as a traitor by the revered patriots.

Ultimately, it turns out that Iwakura Koshi's actions were correct.

He used "marriage" as bargaining chips to put pressure on the shogunate, forcing the shogunate to make compromises.

In the internal and external troubles, the shogunate was forced to agree to most of the conditions proposed by Iwakura Hoshi.

As a result, he did earn a lot of benefits for the court.

"Promoting the Combination of Gongwu" is the first time that Iwakura Koshi appeared in front of the world, showing outstanding means of being versatile and outstanding political vision.

Compared to other ministers who are unconventional and only know how to recite poems and essays, he is indeed an outstanding figure.

After he set off in the east, he went there as a follower. It was during this period that he met Qingdeng.

Not long afterwards, he left Edo and returned to Kyoto.

Soon, he was affected by the "August 18 coup" and was forced to leave his post and live in seclusion.

After that, there was no news about him.

Today tonight, at this moment, I saw him leading a group of confidants and heading straight to the imperial station!

Their target is Xuanqiu Gate located on the west side of the Imperial Hall.

Xuanqiu Gate - This gate is also called "Public House Gate" or "Tang Gate". It is the first gate for princes, ministers or generals and princes to enter the palace.

In a moment, the gorgeous Xuanqiu Gate had already come into their eyes.

However, I did not see the Aizu sergeant who should have been guarding here.

Iwakura stepped forward calmly, moved to the bottom of Tang Pofeng, and raised his head and shouted:

"It's me, Iwakura Koshi! Open the door quickly!"

[Note: Tang Pofeng: Common decorative parts of the main door roof in traditional Japanese buildings are buildings with sunken sides and protruding in the center, which are bow-shaped like canopies. The appearance is similar to the Chinese Huxia.]

After the words were finished, a "creaking" sound was heard - Xuan Qiu Gate was slowly opened!

Iwakura looked forward with his head raised and walked past the threshold. Then he saw a young samurai in a helmet and armor. This man was the Aizu general who was responsible for defending Xuanqiu Gate.

Iwakura Koshi looked at him and nodded to each other.

The warrior said:

"Please hurry up."

Iwakura Tsubasa said lightly:

“This is nature.”

Then, he stopped talking and led his confidants to the depths of the imperial hall.

At this time, a close confidant behind him accelerated his pace a little, and said to him excitedly:

"Mr. Iwakura, everything is developing as you planned! We broke into the Imperial Site without a single shot!"

Iwakura looked up at the corner of his mouth, revealing a meaningful smile, and then slowly recited the famous quote from "Six Strategies Introductory Proverbs":

"'The world is bustling, all for profit; the world is bustling, all for profit'."

"Most of the 'loyalty' in this world is because the price of 'betrayal' is not high enough."

Just now, there was no complicated reason why the Xuanqiu Gate guard opened the door.

Iwakura Shishi offered a huge sum of money that he could not refuse, allowing him to act as an insider - that's that simple.

Induce others - this is the skill that Iwakura Yuen already knew when promoting the "gongwu fusion".

The larger the organization, the more likely it is to make mistakes and cause ridiculous accidents from time to time.

Sometimes, the superiors have a good intention - for example, the elite troops of Matsuhei Tomokaro were specially deployed in the Imperial Site.

But after the execution layer by layer, it completely changed - for example, Iwakura Toshi easily bribed the guards of Xuanqiu Sect by just using the "money offensive".

The times were arduous, and even the elites in the Aijin army were trapped by money.

"Breaking into the imperial office" is just the first step, and it is far from time to relax your vigilance.

Iwakura looked back on his face and said in a deep voice:

"Action according to the plan! Remember to move quickly! No matter how much you want to waste it!"

After this order was released, their group immediately dispersed and turned into three groups of people and horses, each running towards different areas.

Tonight, they have three tasks to complete-

First, rob the Emperor.

Second, the crown prince was robbed.
To be continued...