The appearance of Tokugawa Saiaki, the former lord of Mito, aroused widespread suspicion among the shogunates who participated in the discussion of the wind storytelling.

Qi Zhao has always been at odds with Gongfang Jiaqing, and it is rumored that Qi Zhao privately treats his confidant critic Jiaqing as a useless person, and Jiaqing has always been wary of this hard-line Imperial Three Daimyo, believing that he is "ambitious".

Tokugawa Saiaki (1800-1860), known to later generations as the man who began the rebellion, personally opened the prelude to the Tokugawa family's great rebellion at the end of the Edo period, and the Mito doctrine that had been promoted by his Mito domain for a long time also developed into the banner of the late shogunate king, which led to the emergence of a large number of people who fell behind the shogunate.

Qi Zhao did not follow the usual path from the time he succeeded to the lord of the Mito domain.

In the twelfth year of Bunsei (1829), the eighth lord of the Mito Tokugawa family, Qi Yu, died of a sudden illness, and the important ministers of the family wanted to support the son of the then shogun Qi to inherit the position of the head of the Mito Tokugawa family, but the thirty-year-old Qi Zhao instigated the samurai and the people in the territory to make trouble, and finally the shogunate had no choice but to let Qi Zhao inherit the position of the head of the family of his dead brother - Heng no Cheng was the Tokugawa Qijiang, and later became the twelfth head of the Kishu domain in the Imperial Three Family, and the reign was 1846-1849.

After taking office, Qi Zhao knew that he did not like the shogunate and could not take advantage of the shogunate like the other imperial families, so he had to work hard to be self-reliant: he actively reformed the feudal government, established the largest feudal school at the time, Kodokan, and promoted a large number of lower-ranking samurai to participate in the feudal reform.

During the Tianbao Famine (1833-1839), Qi Zhao's actions were smaller, except to take over the entire territory, refresh the government and reduce the expenses of the feudal office.

In July of the 8th year of Tenpo (1837), Saisho put forward the slogan of the Four Yoshi, calling for the implementation of the "Yoshitsu of the Warpūkai" (Daikanji), the "Yoshiro of the Lord" (harmony between the upper and lower levels), the "Yoshiro of the School" (the education of the samurai), and the "Yoshira of the Total Succession" (the abolition of the shogunate's demand for the establishment of Mito).

In 1838, the Mito clan built the warship "Hitachi Maru", but it was dismantled by the shogunate because it exceeded the load of 500 koku and violated the "prohibition on the construction of large ships".

From 1839 onwards, Qi Zhao became increasingly emboldened, and he carried out drastic reforms in the feudal administration, including:

Agrarian reform of 1839: merchants were forbidden to deal in land, and wealthy farmers were cracked down on, and yeoman farmers were supported.

In 1840, the Tokusei Decree exempted the feudal government and the samurai from their debts to the merchants, and reduced the number of direct personnel and the direct expenses of the feudal office by granting the samurai domains.

In 1841, the school was expanded and renamed Kodokan, and it was actively cultivating human resources.

In 1843, the privileged territories of the temples in the territory were confiscated en masse, while Shinto was aided to suppress the backlash.

At the same time, he actively reformed the military system, training feudal soldiers under the name of "Bird Hunting", and at the same time questioned a series of decrees of the shogunate, such as calling for the abolition of the "ban on the construction of large ships", the development of Ezo land, and the promotion of talents, and the official letter demanding the reduction of Ooku's expenses and the confiscation of the temple's concessions.

In 1843, in view of the outcome of the Battle of the South China Sea between England and China, the shogunate revoked the "Expulsion Decree of Foreign Ships" in the eighth year of Bunsei (1825) and issued the "Fuel and Fresh Water Supply Order" in order to ease relations with the Nanban countries. Qi Zhao was furious about this, and wrote to the public, demanding that this decree be canceled and that all the Nanban ships that appeared in Quanfuso Guangxiu Odaiba be attacked.

At that time, during the critical period of the shogunate's tenpo reform, the then chief elder Nakamino Tadakuni issued two "Shochi Decrees" in June and September, calling for the exchange of fiefdoms, preparing to recover all land that was not directly controlled by the shogunate within 10 li around Edo and 4 li around Osaka, and compensating the original lords, including the Daimyo and Hajimoto, with a remote area of territory—about 3.9 kilometers in one day.

As soon as the "Shochi Order" was issued, the shogunate was divided, and most of the daimyo and banners of the dynasty, including Abe Masahiro, who was the old junior at the time, were busy attacking the old Naka Mizuno, so many of Tokugawa Saiaki's fierce letters did not receive attention.

In September of the 14th year of Tenpo (1843), Mizuno, the former chief of the old manchu, was deposed, and Tokugawa Saiaki, who was regarded as Mizuno's political ally, suddenly became the target of public criticism.

In the first year of Honghua (1844), the shogunate forced Sai Aki to live in seclusion on the grounds of the Mito Domain's "iron cannon salvo**" and the previous disturbances of Buddhist believers in the Mito domain, and at the same time was ordered to be "cautious", and the position of head of the Mito Tokugawa family was handed over to Sai Akira's eldest son, Keito.

However, because Qi Zhao's previous innovations in the Mito Domain were quite effective, and he was energetic and dared to criticize the shogunate, and at the same time, Qi Zhao was the head of one of the three imperial families, so his influence was very great, and he was called "virtuous marquis" by the people of the time, and there were many

Fans, such as Matsudaira Yoshinaga, as the lord of the Fukui domain, asked Saiaki for advice on how to handle the feudal government before returning to Echizen in the summer of 1843.

Qi Zhao did not stiffen, and not only continued to have a large number of supporters within the Mito Domain, but also had many sympathizers within the shogunate.

And in 1845, the old Nakabe Masahiro, who became the chief, finally realized the pain of his predecessor Mizuno Tadakuni, when Mizuno was scorched inside and outside and trapped outside, and there were Nanban ships constantly knocking on the port outside, and the strength of the external daimyo, especially the western daimyo continued to grow, and the influence was expanding day by day, and the shogunate was a mess inside, not to mention the financial holes, and the shogunate still went their own way, although everyone worked together to defeat the fierce Mizuno Tadakuni, but then they were busy with internal power struggles, and they couldn't do anything serious, and the shogunate did not have any obvious improvement at all.

It looks like a ball of harmony, but it's actually a miasma of black smoke, and it's not as good as when Mizuno was in power, so many of the daimyo and big body banners who are determined to innovate began to express their dissatisfaction with him to a greater or lesser extent.

Isn't there a saying that says, "No worries about trouble inside, no strong enemy outside, and the country will perish", plus the reclusive Tokugawa Saiaki kept writing letters to Mizuno, deeply discussing his "mistakes", and expressing his admiration for Mizuno's old Chengmou country, so Abe's attendants put Qizhao as an important chess piece on the chessboard of the shogunate.

Within the shogunate, there were forces such as the pro-feudal clan represented by the Imperial Three Families and the Imperial Three Secretaries, and the Daimyo Daimyo and the Daishiki Banner, and the relationship between these forces was complicated, and they were not completely based on their origins, but they were linked to each other.

In 1845, Masahiro Abe, who became the chief lieutenant, was stunned to find that he had become the faint target of the elders, so he urgently needed to set up new targets and opponents for the conservative elders and shogunates, so he began to activate Tokugawa Sai Showa and Egawa Taro Saemon.

Egawa Taro Saemon is a representative of Ranxue, and he has a provocative aura at the moment when Confucianism is respected, and Abe really needs the upright Egawa to come out and do practical things, so in 1846 Abe promoted him to Kanjo Ginmi - in Naohide's original world, Egawa was not reused until 1853 when the black ship visited for the first time, but now because of the appearance of Naohide, the Egawa family and the Oguri family have formed an alliance, and the merits are more dazzling than the original, so they have been reused in advance.

At the same time, Masahiro Abe also began to lift Qi Zhao's punishment and make various preparations for Qi Zhao's comeback.

In 1846, Qi Zhao was relieved of the "prudent" punishment by the shogunate. Qi Zhao, who was highly regarded in the domain, quickly contacted his former cronies and confidants, and in 1849 he had regained power in the domain.

Qing Du, who succeeded Qi Zhao as the head of the family, was eighteen years old at the time, and was severely educated by Qi Zhao from childhood to adulthood, and was very afraid of his father, without the help of the head of the family, the so-called retainers of the gate valve faction were not at all the opponents of Qi Zhao's family that had been painstakingly managed for many years, and these retainers had to ask the shogunate for help, but with the suppression of the chief old man Abe in the center, these people could not make any waves at all, so Qi Zhao began to be active again - but Qi Zhao still could not openly participate in the shogunate.

Naohide returned from overseas in 1849, and in 1850 Egawa achieved great success in ironmaking at Nirayama. Spurred on by Egawa's dazzling achievements, the retained shoguns finally changed their attitudes, and taking advantage of this opportunity, the chief old Naka Abe promoted a large number of relatively enterprising shoguns - the basic plate of Rangaku was very small, and these promoted shoguns were all from Confucian backgrounds, but with a relatively aggressive attitude, and supported the shogunate to carry out further innovations.

In the past 200 years, the shogunate has continued to marry internally, and there are many relatives and friends behind these newly promoted shogunates, and with the support of these people, Abe's basic base has expanded a lot, so that the conditions for Qi Zhao's comeback are basically ripe.

In fact, the chief elder Abe did not have a good impression of Qi Zhao - Abe Masahiro temporarily emerged after the death of Tokugawa Ieqi in 1841, and the battle for fame was a clean and proper handling of the "private relationship**" between Ooku and the monks.

In 1841, after the death of the Imperial Shogun, the "private relationship**" between the Ooku (shogun's harem) and the monks was discovered, and Abe, who was the head of the temple at the time, quickly cut through the mess after a preliminary investigation, and after a summary trial, the monks Hikai and Hisho were executed, and the situation was controlled to a very small extent, and the reputation of the shogunate was well maintained, so he won the favor of the 12th shogun Iekei and Ooku and the high-ranking shogunates, and since then he has embarked on the road to prosperity.

Abe was friendly with Ooku and Buddhism, and Tokugawa Saiaki not only openly had a bad relationship with Buddhism but also once pointed fingers at Ooku's spending, so Abe did not have any good feelings for Ooku personally, but in such a form, Abe had to use Qi Zhao, who had been the head of the Imperial Three Families, to contain the conservative pro-feudal daimyo forces and unite the shogunates who tended to be aggressive.

The Gosanke and Gosankei have always been representatives of the Tokugawa family's kinship.

The three families are Owari, Kii, and Mito, and the three families are Shimizu, Hitotsubashi, and Tayasu.

At that time, the royal three families

Among the three imperial secretaries, including Mito, they are in the dilemma of alternating between the old and the new, so Qi Zhao can stand out as a weighty ally.

The two heads of the Owari Tokugawa family, Tokugawa Saisho (reigned 1839-1845) and Tokugawa Keizang (reigned 1845-1849), died one after another, similar to the succession of the Mito Domain.

The Kii Tokugawa family was even more miserable, and after the death of the two heads of the family, Tokugawa Saishun (reigned 1824-1846) and Tokugawa Saiki (reigned 1846-1849), the newly appointed Tokugawa Keifuku was still a child and could not be counted on.

The Shimizu family, one of the Imperial Three Emperors, originally had a head of the family, but the original head of the family was Tokugawa Keifuku, who was still a child, and now he has become the new head of the Kii Tokugawa family, so Shimizu is now in the state of "Akiyashiki" - the so-called Akiyashiki is a unique phenomenon of the Imperial Three Secretaries, that is, the head of the family is vacant.

Unlike all other daimyos, the territory is 100,000 stones, and the distribution is scattered, usually the shogunate is directly managed, and at the same time, the retainers of the imperial sanqing are generally regarded as the direct ministers of the shogunate, so there is no big problem with whether there is a head of the house, and the phenomenon of "Akiyashiki" often appears - the chief of the old middle Abe does not know it, and this time the state of the Shimizu family's "Akiyashiki" will continue until 1866.

In addition to Mito, the bad luck of the Imperial Three Families and the Imperial Three Secretaries at the end of the Bakugo period continued, and the other two of the Imperial Three Secretaries, Hitotsubashi and Tian Yasu, did not escape the bad luck.

Tian An was originally the most stable.

Tokugawa Saimasa, the head of the family for three generations, died in 1848 at the age of 69. However, in 1836, Qi Kuang was ordered by the shogunate to be deposed and lived in seclusion because of his frailty and illness, and his adopted son Qi Zhuang inherited the position of head of the family. It may be that Tian Anjia Shigao is too little, as the twelfth son of the general's family Qi at that time, Qi Zhuang actually went to the Owari Tokugawa family in 1839 to be the head of the family.

Ironically, Keilai who succeeded Qi Zhuang was the son of Qi Kuang, the head of the family of the next generation, and later lived until 1876 at the age of 49, his half-brother Matsudaira Keiyong lived at the age of 63, and their father Qi Kuang died at the age of 70, and his life expectancy exceeded that of Qi Zhuang, who died at the age of 36.

In 1845, he was eighteen years old, and in 1852 he was twenty-five years old, and it stands to reason that he could participate in shogunate politics as the head of the imperial sanqing family, but he was much younger than Tokugawa Saizhao, and it was rumored that he was too easy-going, and he was not half a star worse in popularity.

The eyes of the old Naka Abe finally looked at the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family.

The sixth generation of the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family was Keimasa, who succeeded to the throne in 1837, but less than a year after the death of Keimasa, who was only 14 years old - Katsuyoshikuni, who had been the head of the Nirayama Iron Works, was Keimasa's companion during his visit to Edo at that time, and Katsuyoshikuni was not given the opportunity to become a leader until 1850, when Nirayama Ironmaking was successful, and was recommended by Mr. Egawa Tanan. In Naohide's world, Katsuyoshibang was even more miserable, and it was not until 1853 when the black ship visited that he was given a formal position for the "Opinion on Coastal Defense" he submitted.

After Qingchang's death, he was succeeded by Keisu, but the twenty-five-year-old Keisu also died in 1847, and the Hitotsubashi family was left without a head of the family.

Tokugawa Shomaru, the eighth head of the family, succeeded to the throne at the age of two, but Shomaru died in September 1847. Succeeding Shomaru as head of the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family was Keiki, the seventh son of the old Mito lord Saiaki.

The Hitotsubashi family is considered by the outside world to be the head of the "Imperial Three Secretaries", and the eleventh generation shogun, Tokugawa Ieqi, is from the Ichitsubashi family. At this time, the Nishimaru-like general Shiko Iesho has always been in poor health and childless, so there are many rumors among the shoguns about Keiki's succession to the Ichibashi family, and it is generally believed that Keiki is the back hand of the public family, and if there is an accident in the case, Keiki is likely to take the position of general.

Because the relationship between Tokugawa Saiaki and the contemporary Kokata family has always been not harmonious, many people were surprised when Keiki succeeded the Hitotsubashi family in 1847.

In this regard, the chief elder Naka Abe believed that it was a symbol of the relaxation of relations between the two, and in 1846, when Qi Zhao was lifted from the "prudent" punishment by the shogunate, he did not stop him, so he strengthened his belief in winning Qi Zhao as an ally.

Moreover, Qi Zhao also asked Gongfang in advance to participate in the discussion of the wind storytelling, and at that time Gongfang Xiang began to resolutely disagree, but later changed his attitude in the persuasion of Ome Fu Hori Riken, which is the reason why Qi Zhao was able to appear at the discussion meeting as the main hall of Mito hermitage.

But why did the public who had always hated Qi Zhao turn to agree to his public participation in shogunate? After Abe learned the inside story, he couldn't help but be amazed by Omefu Horiken's statement.