In traditional Shinto, there is no distinction between ghosts and gods – powerful ghosts are even worshipped, and by offering hard-earned livestock and food, people submit to them in the hope that they will be content to be worshiped and not cause harm to the world.

In the fifth year of Ansei (1858), the nominal supreme minister, the "elder" Ii swept the head, and like his ancestor Kamii Naomasa, he also won the title of "Red Oni"!

Naomasa, the ancestor of the Omi Kunihikone Domain, received this title because of his ruthless military management, and during the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573-1603), the Tokugawa clan rebuilt the Akaken Army, following the example of the Kai Takeda clan. He governed the army strictly, and both enemies and friends were afraid of him, so he was named "Red Ghost".

After taking charge of the shogunate, he also showed extraordinary ruthlessness by emulating his ancestors:

On April 23, the fifth year of the Anzheng Dynasty, Jing Yi was appointed as the "elder".

On June 19 of the same year, without receiving an edict, he instructed two shogunates, Inoue Kiyonao, who was then the head of Shimoda, and Tadashi Iwase, a foreign trader, to sign a trade agreement with the Mito.

Although this was a last resort - at that time, the Yarrow War was at the end of the first stage, and the Tang people were forced to sign the "Jinmen Agreement" after the disastrous defeat, and the Mi people threatened each other with this military might, but undoubtedly, this move further upset the balance of the shogunate at that time.

You must know that since the first visit of the Mito Kurofen in the sixth year of Kahoega (1853), in the face of the pressure of the Western countries to knock on the port, two opposing factions have gradually formed within the shogunate—the hardliners of the old Mito feudal lord Saishoichi and the moderates led by the chief elder Nakata Masamuchi.

Among them, the Qi Shoichi faction demanded that "they should not hesitate to go to war when necessary", while Hotta Masamu, Ii Naobi, and others believed that "it is not possible to use unscrupulous troops to destroy the life of the shogunate", and the struggle between the two sides became increasingly fierce as the Western countries pressed forward step by step.

The Gongfang family must have a weak personality, and there was no one to serve as the "elder" at the time, so there were not enough authoritarian figures to reconcile the contradictions between the two factions - of course, there were still people who wanted to reconcile in the middle, and the Abe attendants in the victorious Fang Lao were trying their best to bridge it. But Abe couldn't do that in the position of chief lieutenant, and after his abdication, he was even more powerless to maintain the situation.

What's more, on June 17, 1857, Abe was critically ill, and although he escaped death under the influence of Naohide's butterfly, he resigned because of his discouragement.

Without reconciliation, the situation slipped into the abyss step by step, and there was no turning back.

After that, Qi Zhao and others played the card of the Kyoto small court, using the Fuso Imperial Family, which was originally restricted by the shogunate but had a respected status, to restrict and oppress the opponents who held the real power of the shogunate.

But no matter how fierce the political struggle is, the principle of fighting but not breaking the government has been maintained - that is, everyone still uses the usual means to fight each other, collect chips that are nothing more than prestige, fame, and strength, and then compare the size of the winning and losing.

Among them, the edict from the small imperial court in Kyoto has become a rule that both sides must abide by - first, the imperial family is the nominal boss after all, and the legal system is the largest; Second, the Westerners are menacing, and it is difficult for the shogunate to deal with this, so it is not possible to raise a small court with a strong momentum.

Of course, neither the infighting ministers nor the daimyo who are eager to fight for power on the side actually take the imperial ministers very seriously—the appearance of nothing for hundreds of years is just a papier-mâché façade.

But since it has become a rule that everyone agrees on, the price of breaking this is very high!

On June 19, 1858, he signed a trade agreement with the Mi people without obtaining an edict, which was the same as the eating case, and it was undoubtedly a declaration that "I tear my face and don't want to continue playing"!

Once the rules of governance are broken, it will be difficult to establish them again - the basis for mutual trust does not exist, and the two hostile sides will undoubtedly consider all kinds of sinister situations, and the so-called lower limit is also.

The so-called poor dagger is talking about such a critical situation.

Sure enough, the actions of the shogunate Daiji I, who took the first step, became more and more dangerous:

On June 21, the shogunate first pasted it - the five old and middle school collectives of the shogunate at that time jointly signed a statement, saying to the small court in Kyoto that "it is a last resort to sign an agreement with the rice people without an edict", and two days later, the shogunate dismissed the old middle school Hotta Masamu (chief) and Matsudaira Tadagu.

But this can't fool Qi Zhao and his family.

Thinking about it, "The elder, the old and the middle important positions are all controlled by you, and it is useless to change someone!"

Originally, this move was launched by Qi Zhao and others to restrict the opponent, but now it is not easy to use, and it will not be allowed to be rubbed and flattened in the future.

Therefore, on June 24, Qi Zhao took his son Keito (lord of the Mito domain), together with Tokugawa Yoshikatsu (lord of the Owari domain) and Matsudaira Yoshinaga (lord of the Echizen domain) to Edo Castle to inquire about the signing of a trade agreement without an imperial edict!

But his original political enemies also felt wronged, "The edict was originally a moth made up by you, and it was a chaotic government" - it was originally "the Kyoto small court 'entrusted the big government to the shogunate'", and now the imperial family can actually point fingers at the shogunate and lure the wolf into the house, this is not what chaos is!

But Qi Zhao and the others are not convinced, the major affairs of the shogunate need to be agreed to, everyone recognized it before, but now they suddenly regret it, isn't this a mess, so how will everyone play in the future governance?

The two old middle middle Hotta Masamu (chief) and Matsudaira Tadagu were deposed, and the original leader withdrew, and now Qi Zhao's political enemies are naturally headed by the head of the Dailaoi Izao department.

So Jing Yi immediately came forward and personally reprimanded Qi Zhao and the others!

Speaking of which, this Mito and Owari are the top relatives of the Tokugawa family of the shogunate, the "Gosanga", and the Echizen feudal lord Matsudaira Keinaga himself is not to mention that he is also from the Tian Yasu, one of the top relatives of the "Gosankei", who is not inferior to the "Gosanga", so it is not trivial to go to the castle to interrogate the identities of these four people.

Although Jing Yi's identity is the "elder" of the supreme minister, he is also suspected of trespassing by scolding these people in person.

Although the Ii family is a top pedigree daimyo daimyo, it is the only one that has a daimyo identity before the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, and Ii is a famous family in the world, the origin of the Fujiwara clan, and the ancestor is one of the "eight nobles in the world" of the Kamakura shogunate (1185-1333), but now as a retainer of the Tokugawa shogunate, this humiliates the main family Yurenzhi in person, which shows the rigidity of the head of the Ii sweeping department!

After that, the name of "Red Ghost" spread far and wide.

At that time, however, the name was only circulated among the shogunates, until the sixth year of Ansei (1859). Finally, the daimyo of "Ii Red Oni" is known to both the government and the opposition.

Originally, in the name of "illegal landing", Qi Zhao and his family lived in seclusion and cautious caution, even if they were completely knocked to the ground.

But who would have thought that this matter would make waves again!

On June 21, the fifth year of Ansei, the five elders of the shogunate at that time did not collectively sign a joint statement, saying to the Kyoto Imperial Court that "it is a last resort to sign an agreement with the Mi people without an edict." When this letter arrived in Kyoto, it caused a panic in the Fuso royal family - so decent, the edict was not actually resisted in this way, so wouldn't the great government have no chance to participate in it again?

As a result, the Kyoto Imperial Court issued a letter to the shogunate, asking Qi Zhao and others to go to Luo to explain what had happened.

Of course, nominally, it was said that the top Tokugawa relatives such as the "Imperial Three Families" and "Imperial Three Secretaries" and a number of shogunate bigwigs would be invited to Kyoto together, but Sima Zhao's heart was well known to passers-by.

Qi Zhao and the others were officially ordered to be punished by the shogunate on July 5, and someone must have reported the news before, so when this decree was issued, the small court already knew about the matter, and it was nothing more than to overturn the case for Qi Zhao and others.

Of course, the head of the shogunate's old Ii Sweep would not tolerate this happening, so he ignored this decree and replied with a casual excuse - "Qingshu and Qi Zhao are both guilty and imprisoned." His heirs are all young and weak, and they are not enough to praise the court. ”

As a last resort, it is better to maintain a certain degree of continuity in governance, because this will not lead to uselessness

suspicion. Mutual trust is like a vase, if you smash it and want to put it together and use it, this is more difficult, at least this time it didn't work.

The small court in Kyoto, which was afraid of being liquidated by the shogunate, finally began to eat in fear and anger, anyway, you do the first year of junior high school and I will do the fifteenth, and the eldest brother will not say the second brother!

On August 8, 1858, the secret decree of the small imperial court was sent to the two generations of Mito feudal lords, Qi Aki and Keito, which read:

First of all, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the shogunate's signing of treaties with Western countries without obtaining an edict;

Then, it was asked that "the public and the samurai should work together; The shogunate and the feudal domains should eliminate disputes in major state matters of foreign and domestic affairs; Regardless of whether they are close or not, the shogunate, the feudal clan, the daimyo of the pedigree, and the daimyo of the outer style should work together to make efforts not to be insulted by foreign lords, and so on."

The so-called public family is the royal family and the minister; And the samurai, in Fuso, refers specifically to the shogunate.

Because according to the theory of the sexagenary branch, the fifth year of Ansei (1858) was the year of Wuwu in the Heli calendar, so this secret decree was called the "Wuwu Secret Decree", and the events caused after it were also called the "Wuwu Difficulty".

The people who escorted the "Wuwu Secret Decree" are said to be two "righteous men", that is, Tsukizhao and Saigo.

Monk Tsukiteru was originally the abbot of Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto.

In the 7th year of Kaei (1854), after the signing of the "Fuso Miren and Relatives Agreement", the then 42-year-old Yuezhao resolutely resigned from the abbot position, traveled to the Kanto and Northeast countries, and wrote "Journey to the East", which was dedicated to Konoe Tadashi, one of the three princes of the Kyoto Imperial Court at that time.

The "Journey to the East" records the information recorded by Yuezhao's travels around the country, including the situation of each country and the feudal domain, the conduct and hobbies of the feudal lords, and the tendency to use force to conquer the people.

Actually, this is an intelligence manual!

At that time, the right minister Konoe Tadashi was a close confidant of the imperial family, and he had an extraordinary relationship with Qi Zhao - his mother was born in the Owari Tokugawa family, and the main family was from the Satsuma Shimazu family.

In addition, although the two imperial offices of the eleventh and thirteenth shoguns were princesses of the Shimazu family, they both became the adopted daughters of Konoe in order to maintain the tradition of marriage between the princess and the top minister.

Especially the family's Imperial Observatory Atsuhime, whose father-in-law is Konoe Tadashi, speaking of which, he is still the father-in-law of the family!

And the secret envoy who traveled with the monk Tsukisho was Naohide's old acquaintance and a friend of Okubo Riji, who was Saigo Takanaga, a retainer of the Satsuma Shimazu family.

In the third year of Kaei (1850), taking advantage of Satsuma's "Yura War", Naohide successfully recruited the Okubo family who were in trouble. But at that time, he also persuaded Saigo to change office, but Naohide failed - Takanaga was not affected by the civil strife of the Shimazu family at that time, so he refused Naohide's persuasion.

The following year, Shimazu took over as head of the family.

Taking advantage of Qi Bin's desire to build a small blast furnace and a reverberatory furnace to make iron, Saigo successfully recommended himself and obtained relevant information from the hands of the white lord at that time.

Moreover, at the same time, he also obtained parenting secrets from Naohide and Eiko - this pair of Shimazu family head Qi Bin, who suffered from too many children dying too much, is undoubtedly a rain from heaven.

Together, these credits made Saigo Takayong begin to emerge in front of Qi Bin.

But I don't know how to do it, Naoxiu lured Xixiang to embark on the road of Lanxue industry construction and finally failed, and finally Xixiang still embarked on the original life trajectory - as the head of the family, Xixiang began to run around Fusang for Qi Bin's foreign affairs strategy.

Of course, compared with Naoxiu's original world, Saigo entered Qi Bin's vision in the fourth year of Jiaei (1851), which was three years earlier than the original, so it developed better.

Tsukiteru and Saigo sneaked all the way, and on August 8, 1858, the fifth year of Ansei (1858), they finally succeeded in delivering the "Wuwu Secret Decree" to the hands of the two generations of reclusive feudal lords of Mito, Qi Aki and Keito.

However, I'm afraid that these two people didn't expect that this matter would eventually become the beginning of the "Wuwu Difficulty", and finally cast the name of the "Red Ghost" of the shogunate's big old Ii Sweep Division!