April of the first year of the Genji era (1864) was a full ten years after March of the seventh year of Kaei (1854), almost eight years from June of the fifth year of Ansei (1858), and almost five years from June of the sixth year of Ansei (1859).

The meanings of these dates are:

In 1854, the "Fusang Mi Ren and Relatives Agreement" was signed, and Fusang was officially founded;

In 1858, the Fuso Mi people signed the Treaty of Reconciliation and Commerce, formally committing to foreign trade;

On July 1, 1859, the ports of Nagasaki, Kanagawa (Yokohama), and Hakodate were opened, and the Fuso trade began in earnest.

Over the years, Fuso's foreign strategy has been repeatedly shaken, which has added to countless turmoil, and in April of the first year of the Yuanji era (1864), it finally won a general outbreak:

As a symbol of the radical Yiyi faction, in the name of the secret decree of the edict, Changzhou brazenly admonished the Luo soldiers on the day of the "Kwai Festival"!

Since the Battle of Osaka in the 20th year of Keicho (1615), this was the first large-scale battle of the princes in Fuso after 249 years.

At this point, the Tokugawa shogunate, which had maintained a "peaceful and prosperous era" for more than 200 years, also completely entered the stage of sunset.

The target of this Choshu expedition, Kyoto, formerly known as Heiankyo, is located in the mountain castle country, with mountainous terrain in the west, north, and east, and relatively flat in the south.

The streets of Saga, Yamazaki, and Fushimi were located between the southwest and south of Kyoto, respectively, and the Choshu soldiers and horses attacked from three directions, and the idea was to win in the chaos.

However, there were only 2,000 soldiers and horses, and there were still three directions, which was somewhat beyond our reach:

Fushimi Street is the widest, the Choshu Domain will be the main force of the 1,000 people here, Majima Matabei is the forward, and the general Fukuhara Motohiro sits in the rear - although nominally, the Choshu soldiers are escorting the prince Mori Dinghiro to Beijing to defend themselves, but in fact, because of the danger of the soldiers, Dingguang has never entered from beginning to end, only the shadow dancers are fooling people.

In the direction of Saga and Yamazaki, a thousand people from the odd army were deployed, led by Yoshisuke Kusaka and others.

It's just that this is arranged, and it's completely the combat power of the odd soldiers that the Changzhou side can't trust:

The selection team is composed of Choshu samurai and ashigaru, with excellent equipment and sufficient supplies, while the odd soldier team is similar to the village soldier organization.

Although in the Battle of Shimonoseki last year, the Odd Soldiers proved their strength, when the Selector was defeated head-on, it was the Odd Soldiers who exerted their might and drove away the landing Triple Alliance through guerrillas. But in the eyes of the selection team, the Odd Soldiers relied on harassment, and they still did not enter the stream when they counted their hard-hitting strength.

However, in the "Aoi Festival Rebellion" in April of the first year of Genji (1864), it turned out that the selection team was far worse than the odd soldiers:

With a small number of snuff bottles, a large number of Mini breech guns, and Napoleonic breech guns, the selection team did not even break through the streets of Fushimi from the beginning of the battle to the rout;

On the contrary, it was the odd soldier team, although there were not even a few bronze cannons in their hands, but with the smoothbore gun in their hands, they actually killed in Kyoto's Shimokyo alive.

Of course, after the analysis of all parties, this may not be the fault of the forward team - in the face of the "No. 1 strong soldier in Fusang", the soldiers of the White Lord Domain used bead guns, machine guns and breech barrels, who has fought this!

But despite this, everyone can't deny the record of the Odd Soldiers, after all, they relied on the smoothbore guns in their hands to once overwhelm the Aizu soldiers and horses on the opposite side. You must know that the Aizu soldiers had snuffbox guns and Napoleonic cannons in their hands, and there was also a generation difference between the two sides' armaments.

Moreover, in terms of numbers, the opponents of the Selector Team and the Odd Soldier are even more disproportionate:

The selection team is 1,000 people to fight the white master and 800, and it is to fight more and be defeated by one blow;

As for the odd soldiers, nearly 1,000 people fought 10,000, and the opponent was 2,000 Aizu soldiers at first, and then Kuwana, Hikone Domain, Awa, Bizen, Inshu, Yonezawa and other princes swarmed up, I am afraid that even the gods and ghosts will not be able to escape the fate of defeat in the face of this situation.

However, the strength of the Changzhou Odd Soldiers and the Election Team is only a topic caused by this "Aoi Festival Rebellion", and what shocked Fuso and even the ministers of Western countries was the various controversies caused by this battle:

First of all, many people are incomprehensible that Choshu is hitting a stone with an egg.

Later, according to the statistics of well-wishers, there were more than 80 princes in Kyoto at that time.

Among them, there were 2,000 soldiers from the Kyoto guardian Matsudaira Rongho Aizu, more than 1,000 soldiers from the Kuwana Domain of Matsudaira Dingkei, and 1,000 soldiers from the Hikone Domain, which was ordered by the shogunate to garrison.

Counting the two thousand curtain soldiers and one thousand white main soldiers of the general Jia Mao Shangluo, just this

The shogunate had 7,000 soldiers and horses in Kyoto.

If you count the peripheral Osaka Dingban, Osaka Kaban and the nearby princes, then if you calculate it like this, Choshu will challenge tens of thousands head-on with 2,000, isn't it crazy?

Secondly, the behavior of Kyoto's various parties in the Aoi Festival Rebellion was also quite suspicious.

Originally, it was said in advance that Emperor Fuso was going to attend the Aoi Festival in person.

But in fact, before the official ceremony, the ministers and princes were surprised to find that the palace was empty. At this time, Guan Bai Erjo Qi Jing slowly told everyone that for some reason Emperor Fusang could not come, and this time he was temporarily acting as a sacrifice.

The problem is that the carriage of the general is also empty.

In addition, the six countries participated, Keiki, Keinaga, Rongboka, Shimazu Qibin, Yamauchi Toyonobu, and Date Munejo, in fact, none of them arrived.

And not only did these people not arrive, but the leaders of Kuwana Matsudaira Dingkei, who was the new director of Kyoto, Hikone, who was ordered to guard Kyoto, and Awa, Bizen, Inshu, Yonezawa, Yodo Domain, etc., who had a little more soldiers and horses in Kamiluo, did not arrive!

Therefore, when Kyoto was on fire, everyone who attended the Aoi Festival knew that something big was going on.

However, the prophet of the spring river plumbing duck, there was a tense atmosphere inside and outside Kyoto before, and everyone was desperately restricting the manpower, and now this is just a dagger to see, but there is nothing to make a fuss about.

Despite this, but later everyone found out that in the "Aoi Festival Change", except for the Ronin, almost everyone stood opposite Changzhou, and this incident still caused exclamation:

"The families with different opinions and different positions can unanimously work together to scold Changzhou, no matter how you think about it, I feel a little unacceptable!"

But you can't accept it, after all, that's the case.

Although after the incident, Fujita Biao, the mastermind of the Minister Xiyuan Temple and the "Governor of the Forbidden Imperial Guard" Hitotsubashi Yoshiki, the two were found to have been killed by the rebels in the Choshu camp, but the sentence "I was ordered to pacify, but unfortunately it was not successful, but I was brutalized", and the matter was over.

As for why the ronin set fires everywhere in Kyoto, there were quite a few soldiers from various clans who spontaneously went to the vicinity of Nijo Castle, where Shogun Ieshige was stationed, and the tension was at the time, which must have been a misunderstanding.

Even the Echizen Fukui Domain, the president of political affairs, Keinaga, suddenly appeared in Kyoto with 5,000 soldiers and horses, whether this was a rapid march from the west bank of Lake Biba to Kyoto, or whether it had been ambushed a long time ago, and there is no need to delve into this.

Anyway, although Choshu was frenzied and hit a stone with an egg, although Kyoto was unpredictable at that time, the result was a harmonious atmosphere:

In the end, almost all the forces in Beijing participated in the attack on Changzhou, and the poor 2,000 people in Changzhou died in battle, and those who were caught were caught, and there were almost no fish that slipped through the net.

Afterwards, the "Governor of the Imperial Guard" Hitotsubashi Yoshiki, the "Kyoto Guardian" Matsudaira Yoho, and the "Kyoto Shodai" Matsudaira Dingkei praised the imperial court.

And the white lord Matsudaira family, who defeated the main selection team in Choshu, was also extremely glorious - the head of the family, Mao Min, was promoted from the nondescript "Nanhua Taishou" to the "Secretary of the Army" under the fourth position, and the old Hori Naohide of the pen head family was also reinstated as "Anfang Mamoru".

Then, at the beginning of May, when I was cleaning up the mess, another piece of good news came:

With the "assistance" of the former hires Yoshida Jukata, the former Yubi Asada Kosuke, the former Ome Fu Nagai Tokiyo, and the former former Governor of the Odd Soldier Troop Takasugi Haru, the head of the Choshu family, Mori Kei, the head of the Choshu family, began to eliminate the radical rebellion in the domain with the remaining Odd Soldiers as the backbone.

As for the seven ministers of the imperial court who fell into Changzhou, although one died of illness, Nakayama Tadamitsu, didn't he secretly run to Changzhou in the defeat of the Tianzhu Group the year before, so this made up another seven, and they were all arrested, and together with Maori father and son, Luo pleaded guilty on a boat - it was a notice from Changzhou, and everyone knew that Ze Xuanjia, who had raised troops in Shengye, also sneaked back to Changzhou.

Speaking of this, the ministers and princes were all frightened:

I thought that after the "Aoi Festival Change" in April, Choshu and the shogunate would have to do another one. Unexpectedly, Changzhou collapsed by itself.

How is this possible?

Changzhou Shinto is prosperous, and the atmosphere of the upper and lower forces is strong, although the elite soldiers are all pulled out to participate in the "Aoi Festival Change", but there are still three catties of nails in the broken boat, considering that Yoshida Jufang and others have lost ground before, this reversal is too easy, right?

But later, after the Maori father and son and the seventh princess came ashore in Osaka in early June, everyone understood:

It turned out that it was the ships of Satsuma, Saga, and Chikuzen Fukuoka that were escorting!

Now the truth is revealed, and it is impossible to say that the change of the Maori family is the three families of Shimazu, Nabeshima, and Kuroda who are working outside

, Yoshida and others echoed inside, this army was empty and was attacked from inside and outside, no wonder the Maori family collapsed so quickly.

Actually, this is really a misunderstanding, the three princes sent troops, but the main reason is that the Maori family was defeated too badly in the "Aoi Festival Change", and this spirit is gone, plus Yoshida, Asada Nagai and Takasugi and others have been planning for a long time, so the battle was successful.

At this time, because of the "Aoi Festival Change", the shogun Ieshige, the six national ministers participated, and the princes of each family all stayed in Kyoto.

The lord of Changzhou, Maori father and son, plus the seventh minister, asked for guilt, and everyone discussed how to deal with the crime:

As for the Seventh Minister, because he was detained for passing on the false edict, the "Aoi Festival Change" was punished for several crimes in the previous question, and he was dismissed from office, ordained, and exiled to Ezo in the Northland.

Compared to them, the punishment for Maori fathers and sons is much lighter.

Because they were "deceived by their retainers" in the past, and later "repented", at the insistence of General Jiamao and others, the two were not actually punished.

But there is nothing to say about this, this is not a punishment is much more than a punishment:

If the punishment is given, no matter how much, it can be regarded as sharing joys and sorrows, and there may not be no hope of reversal in the future;

But what doesn't hurt is to say a few words, and the Maori father and son are sitting on wax - the ministers of the alliance are not good, the fighting retainers are dead and degraded, and there is nothing to do with the two of you. What do you think of this Changzhou inside, how do outsiders look at it, and how to win the trust of people in the future!

At this point, the major matter of the general Jiamao Shangluo was completely resolved, and the foreign tax reduction and the suspension of the Yokohama port lock were endured by all parties; The change of the shelling of Xiaguan by the Three Kingdoms was also due to the chaos in Changzhou, and this matter was automatically resolved.

At the end of June of the first year of Genji (1864), Shogun Ieshige, President Keinaga, and Kunishi participated in Shimazu Saibin, Yamauchi Toyonobu, and Date Munejo all left Kyoto, leaving "Ichikai-san" to stabilize.

"Ichihui-san" refers to the "Governor of the Forbidden Imperial Guard" Hitotsubashi Keiki, the "Kyoto Guardian" Aizu Domain Matsudaira Yoho, and the "Kyoto Shodai" Kuwana Domain Matsudaira Shodai.

By this time, the political situation in Fusang had become clear, and the past disputes had finally been put to an end:

The radical Choshu completely turned around, and the military forces also died down, and only the shogunate and its allies had the upper hand.

As for the shogunate's "10-year plan", there are examples of tax cuts and the suspension of Yokohama's port lockdown, but only God knows whether it will continue to be carried out.

It stands to reason that the rise of the tide of Fuso is due to the boiling of prices after the opening of the port, especially for grain, and the shogunate has so blatantly delayed the slaughter, so that it will not cause a big mess.

But in fact, there is chaos, but there is no trouble in various places:

It was only later that it was discovered that just before the "Aoi Festival Change" in April of the first year of Genji (1864), merchant ships from various backgrounds, including the shogunate, the white lord, Mutsu, and Echizen, Satsuma, Saga, Chikuzen, Fukuoka, Tosa, and Uwajima, began to transport grain to various places on a large scale.

As soon as there is more food, prices will be stabilized, and people's will will naturally be stabilized.

But how did so much food come from?

What the shogunate claimed to the outside world was that Hakodate had opened up the eastern Pacific route with the rice people, and the northern rice grain was naturally endless.

But this fooled the people and the townspeople, and the princes didn't believe it:

Although there are fewer merchants in Fusang due to the war between the north and the south, less does not mean that there is none!

I have inquired, this northern rice is rich in wheat and other things, but the grain from this box is mixed with a large amount of rice, this is not a deception.

Considering that the shogunate sent "Kenshun Maru" to visit Matsue in China from February to April this year, everyone felt that this was the shogunate's cover-up, but in fact, this batch of grain came from China.

But according to the scans of various families, on July 19 of the Western calendar in the sixth month of the calendar, the Hunan army collapsed the Tianjing Taiping Gate, and the rebellion of China's long hair was at the beginning of the peace.

Moreover, it is not transported to Kyushu and Osaka when it is transported to Kitajihakokan, and there are strange routes like this.

But no matter what, don't panic if you have food in your hands, as long as there is a steady stream of cheap food, the shogunate says that this is northern rice, then northern rice is good.

The political turmoil in Fuso was rooted in the worries of various parties, and the shogunate, which was able to provide a large amount of food and showed its ability to solve the difficulties, successfully survived the crisis in the first year of the Genji era (1864).

After the exploration of the three years of Bunkyu (1863) to the present, the Western-style farming industry initiated by Oguri Tadadhirsu also began to show vitality.