From the visit of the black ship in the sixth year of Kaei (1853) to the beginning of the fifth year of the shogunate's Ansei (1858), the political situation in Fuso was turbulent, and the Qi Shoichi family made a lot of moves in it.

The political situation is simply that "the original helmsman dies and the new helmsman cannot convince the public, which in turn leads to internal strife".

On June 22, the sixth year of Jiayong, ten days after the end of the first visit of the black boat, the then Gongfang Xiangjiake passed away due to his worsening illness. However, the successor shogun was weak, so the shogunate was actually dominated by the shogunate, and the power fell into the hands of the old middle school led by Masahiro Abe.

Due to successive man-made disasters (persecution by Western countries) and natural disasters (three consecutive years of earthquakes), the long-standing shogunate was at a loss for what to do, and had to relax its control in the face of the crisis.

It is a pity that the old order has been destroyed, but the new order of the ruling has not been established for a long time - as long as the sweetness of power has been tasted, no one is willing to let go.

In the process of rebalancing power, the conflict between the parties continued to escalate, and the "culprit" that triggered this change, the former chief old man Abe Masahiro and his family, were also unable to calm the dispute, so he had to prepare to retire in disgrace.

In October of the second year of Ansei (1855), Abe resigned as chief lieutenant on the grounds of the Great Edo Earthquake and was replaced by Hotta Masamu - Abe originally wanted to get out completely, but before that, he had been the chief lieutenant for ten years, with high prestige and huge potential, and all parties needed him to balance the situation, so he couldn't get out. In desperation, he had no choice but to transfer to the winning party and continue to stay in the old middle school assessment committee.

The strength of the struggle of all parties comes from strength and "righteousness".

In terms of strength, the height of the Shogunate's imperial domain (including the banner capital) was about 6.8 million koku; The domain of the Daimyo was 6,700,000 stones; The pro-clan is about 2.6 million koku; And the outer daimyo is nearly 10 million stones.

The Daimyo and Banner of the Dynasty, who originally controlled the political situation, accounted for half of the total number of Fuso, and the positions of the shogunate were in the hands of these people, so the relatives and the outside naturally fell behind.

But nominally, the relatives and generals are closer than others, after all, they are the same ancestor.

However, it has been nearly 250 years since the Tokugawa family established the shogunate, so although the family still bears the surnames Tokugawa and Matsudaira, the bloodline has gradually drifted away from the shogun's main family. Therefore, in the eyes of some genealogical daimyo and banners, the relatives were only nominally noble.

However, the shogunate ruled the world with Confucianism, and with the influence of tradition, the righteousness, that is, the name, was extremely valued:

The hereditary domains of the daimyo and banner were passed down by family name, and the shogunate was also awarded according to the rank of the family.

Take Oguri Tadashun as an example, his family is a large body banner of 2,500 koku, so as long as his talents are similar when he becomes an adult, he will naturally have a high-ranking position in the shogunate waiting for him.

The clan itself was even more proud of the Tokugawa Goreneda and regarded himself as a relative of the Tokugawa family.

In the past, the daimyo of the clan had always participated in shogunate politics through interaction with Kokata, who in the final analysis, still belonged to the Tokugawa family, and Kokata naturally held the supreme power. Theoretically, all shogunate decrees required the final approval of the shogun, and the Tokugawa lineage naturally influenced the shogunate by being close to the Kokata.

However, because the shogun's family was determined to be weak, in fact, the influence of each family on the shogunate had been weakened in recent years.

Although there were two representatives of the five elders who were pro-domain, there were still some people in the pro-clan who were dissatisfied after Jiading succeeded to the throne - in the second year of Honghua (1845) and the first year of Jiaei (1848), Matsudaira Noritsu and Matsudaira Tadayu were promoted to Laozhong, and when Jiading succeeded to the throne in the sixth year of Jiaei (1853), the two were still in Laozhong.

In fact, this is understandable - although each of the feudal clans is a branch of the Tokugawa branch, the bloodline has long been estranged after nearly 250 years of independent development, so these two old middle schools from the daimyo of the feudal clan cannot, are unwilling and will not represent the interests of all the feudal clans.

In addition, the death of the Western countries and the death of the Imperial Palace caused great political chaos, so many pro-feudal daimyo could not wait to participate in politics in person—the daimyo had the right to go to the castle every month to discuss matters, but in fact, the degree of participation in politics was very weak.

One is that the pilgrimage confessed and asked to be replaced the next year, and the daimyo himself could only resign himself to fate if he was not present;

The second is that even if he participated in the discussion of the city, he only participated in the expression of opinions, and had no right to decide, only the right to suggest, and the real power was still in the hands of the old middle school evaluation committee - the public party must not be very fond of managing things, so the rights of the old and middle schools have increased greatly.

Therefore, the nominal head of the pro-domain, there are people in the three royal families and the three royal secretaries who are ready to move.

In particular, the Mito Domain, which has convenient conditions and has a unique advantage, is that Mito is a close domain of the Jofu. In other words, the head of the Mito Tokugawa family was legally required to assist the shogun in Edo all the time.

However, it was Mito himself who messed things up before.

The old lord of Mito, Tokugawa Saiaki, was ordered by the shogunate to "live in seclusion" and "be cautious" in the first year of Honghua (1844) because he did not get along with the incumbent prince at the time, and because he offended many people because of political discord. And Qing Du, who took over as the head of the family, was only thirteen years old at the time, and his opinions were not taken seriously at all.

However, Qi Zhao's latent power is huge - he has many sons and daughters, and his sons have succeeded him as princes, daughters and other daimyo marriages. Moreover, Qi Zhao has a straightforward personality and extraordinary talents, although he has offended many people, there are also many people who support him.

For example, Date Sojo, the lord of Uwajima, who was famous for his negotiations, almost established Qi Zhao's son-in-law - they were all engaged, but Qi Zhao's daughter suddenly fell ill and died before the marriage.

For example, Keikatsu, the head of the Owari Tokugawa family in the Gozo family, was made famous by Qi Zhao, so the head of the branch domain was appointed as the head of the family, and he himself was of Mito blood—his ancestor was an adopted son from the Mito domain, so Keikatsu was very close to Qi Zhao.

For another example, Keinaga, the head of the Fukui Matsudaira family who was close to the domain, admired Qi Zhao very much, and asked Qi Zhao for advice on how to govern the domain before taking office.

Qi Zhao, who had a huge latent force, originally turned over after the death of the general Jiaqing in the sixth year of Jiayong (1853), and was co-opted by the chief Abe attendant of the old middle school at that time, and restarted to participate in shogunate politics in the name of coastal defense.

However, because of Naohide's incursion, the shogunate had some foundation when the black ship visited, so Qi Zhao, who advocated a tough attitude towards foreign affairs, re-emerged before the death of Gongfang Xiangjiakei.

However, Qi Zhao was still equally unhappy in the shogunate - in Naoxiu's original world, because of his tough attitude towards the outside world, Qi Zhao was considered by many people to be "a man who wants to open a scheming army to kill the life of the shogunate". After Naohide entered the chaos, the shogunate learned more about the outside world, so there were fewer people in the shogunate, especially the old man and the big body banner, who supported Qi Zhao, and this time it was further regarded as "talking on paper, ambitious and talented".

But Qi Zhao's hard-line views were popular, and he was seen as prescient and respected for a decade before Kurofa's visit for his advocacy of strengthening coastal defenses — the result of the shogunate's lockdown decrees and information secrecy policies. Many people did not know the real gap with the Western countries, and they only saw the shogunate succumbing without a fight, but they could not understand the reason for the shogunate's decision, so they had expectations and favorites for Qi Zhao, who dared to fight.

And the daimyo on the fringes of the shogunate power also supported Qi Zhao for various reasons:

Needless to say, the reasons why others support Qi Zhao are mainly because of the same political views, burning cold stoves and taking advantage of opportunities to make profits.

The daimyo along the coast were very frightened by the invasion of the Western powers, and many of them hoped that the shogunate would lead the shogunate to protect their own domains, and naturally had a favorable opinion of the hard-liner leader, Sai Zhao, who had united many daimyo under the slogan of common defense against humiliation, and the shogunate did much worse in this regard.

Although the shogunate also demanded that each family strengthen their coastal defenses, and at the same time relaxed the ban on the construction of large ships and the purchase of ordnance, and also put forward the slogan of raising the Fuso, these were all recorded in the name of the Qi Zhao family, and it was believed that he promoted it single-handedly, and there was even a saying among the people that the Qi Zhao family was a reformist and the old and middle school were diehards.

There are a number of reasons for this impression:

First, Qi Zhao is famous in this area - Qi Zhao was the first to propose the construction of coastal defense, and he was also the earliest test builder of large ships. Moreover, he was brave in his work, and many of the initiators or instigators of the decree were Qi Zhao. Over time, Qi Zhao and his family were regarded as innovators, and their fame grew.

The second is that the shogunate was indeed very unpopular—before the visit of the black ships, the shogunate imposed a lot of restrictions on the armaments of the various domains; After the black ship visited, many of the shoguns were worried that each family would use this to increase their strength, so they relaxed and added many restrictions, such as the long time limit for declaration or the number of restrictions.

In addition, the shogunate had a lot of black box operations, such as sticking to the channels of the Lan Kingdom Merchant Hall and the Xianheng Foreign Company.

The feudal clans complained about this, so they pinned their hopes for change on the Qi Zhao family.

The burning of the cold stove is because of the joy of the bridge - the Gongfang family must have no heirs, and the market of the West Pill is constantly rising. As Qingxi's biological father, Qi Zhao naturally rose to the top.

As for taking advantage of the opportunity, it's even simpler:

Originally, the daimyo had always been a marginal figure in the shogunate.,So there's no share of good things.、Hard work can't run away if you want to.。

And the assertion of Qi Zhao's family has given hope to these appearances - Mito, where Qi Zhao is located, has always advocated that Mito respect the king said.

Although it is still the set of the shogunate respecting the small court in Kyoto, and then the feudal lords respecting the shogunate, but after all, it is a chew on a single shogunate - in the future, the outer daimyo is wronged, and if it is really not possible, you can go back to the small court and think of other ways, after all, there is one more way.

As for those who want to get rid of the shogunate completely, after more than 200 years of accumulation, there is really no one who has the courage to do so at this time.

With the support of many relatives, friends, allies, and foreign daimyos, coupled with his noble status as a top pro-vassal of his own rank, Qi Zhao, who acted bluntly, naturally began to dictate to the shogunate.

In the first year of Ansei (1854), the shogunate signed the "Peace Pact" with the Mi people and the English - there should have been an agreement with Rucia, but Naohide assisted the Anglo-Buddhist forces to successfully sweep the Far Eastern territory of Lucia, resulting in the disappearance of the envoy Pujiating, and this agreement was naturally not signed.

From the fourth month of the second year of the calendar, Qi Zhao and many daimyo put pressure on the shogunate center, believing that the two agreements had seriously damaged the interests of Fuso, shook the foundation of Fuso, and demanded that someone be held accountable for it.

Indeed, these two agreements are alliances under the city, especially the second visit of the black ship, the Mi Admiral Perry provoked many times with force, and everyone was dissatisfied when they were signed, so they just swallowed their anger.

In this year, both the rice ships and the English ships visited Fuso frequently according to last year's agreement, causing some disputes and turmoil, and initially showing the adverse consequences of the agreement, which caused many daimyo and shoguns to change their original views, and the popularity of the Qi Zhao family also soared.

But there was no turning back when the bow was opened, although Qi Zhao and others did feedback and signed the agreement at that time, but after a year, Qi Zhao and his family turned out the matter again, and it can only be said that the drunkard's intention was not to drink, but to have other plans.

In fact, on April 10, the seventh year of Jiayong (1854), shortly after the signing of the "Fuso Rice Country Peace Agreement", Masahiro Abe, the chief of the old school, wrote a letter to resign and apologize, but he was retained by the public party.

This time, Qi Zhao's family attacked this matter again, and Abe naturally had no shame to stay in office and asked for resignation again.

However, the result of the matter was that on the 4th day of the eighth month of the Japanese calendar, Abe remained as the chief of the old middle school, and the two old middle school Matsudaira Noritsu and Matsudaira Tadayu, who had clearly supported the signing of the agreement, were dismissed.

The results are so confusing that they naturally lead to speculation:

It is said that "Abe's attendants and the old lord of Mito reached a secret agreement and prepared to settle the matter"; It is also said that it is because Qi Zhaoyi specified in the book that he impeached Matsudaira Chengquan and Matsudaira Tadayu, but anyway, there are different opinions.

After pulling out the radish and pulling out the mud, there were many daimyo and shogunate ministers who supported the signing of the agreement that day, and after the news spread, these people also began to write letters one after another, arguing for the two old people who were dismissed.

There are two reasons for this recurrence:

First, the pilgrimage confessed that he came to Edo the next year, and when Qi Zhaoyi was in the book, many daimyo and distant ministers were not in Edo, so they didn't know about it;

The second is that I don't care too much about what I know.

After all, before the agreement was signed, the shogunate had held a special meeting to discuss the matter, and it stands to reason that unless there was a big mistake or a big mistake, no one should be held responsible for the matter.

Especially when Abe Laozhong had already resigned as the chief and apologized, it would be a bit unsympathetic to pull this again.

Therefore, many people think that this matter will be over, and at most it is a fine to make a show, so many people don't care.

But Matsudaira Noriquan and Matsudaira Tadayuma were deposed for sin, which was somewhat unexpected.

As a result, from August 1855 onwards, the aggressiveness of the Qi Shoji faction led to the resistance of opponents, and the battle between the shogunate began to escalate.