Lieutenant General Yuan Ji, who was listening on the side, couldn't hold back the doubts in his heart for a while, and couldn't help but say: "The relationship between the minister of Kotoku Daiji Temple and the Satsuma clan has always been good, why did the two clans want to deal with him?" This, this doesn't make sense. ”

Mu Tianbo immediately replied: "That's because these traitors were caught by us, if we hadn't found them last night, they would have gone to Nara today in the name of foot merchants, who would know that it was the two clans who helped these traitors." ”

Yuan Jiren believed this statement and remained silent, but the right minister and the Emperor Taishang on the side were still only half-convinced. Although he desperately wants to seek justice for his cronies, before the incident becomes clear, Masahito does not want to offend the two powerful daimyos.

He could only say in a calm tone: "Just relying on the origin of the road strip and the knife to prove that the two feudal lords were the main messengers who killed the ministers of the interior, I am afraid that it will be difficult to convince the public, and if the two feudal domains come up with evidence to refute the imperial court, it will also greatly reduce the prestige of the imperial court."

Is this one of your men? He is very meticulous in his work, and he can find so many clues for us after the death of the traitor, which really solves a lot of our troubles, and you should reward him well. ”

Mu Tianbo subconsciously glanced at Zhengren, and found that the look on the other party's face was indeed praise, so he relieved his heart and said: "This is the attendant officer assigned by the Osaka shogunate to the son-in-law, who explains some Japanese etiquette and customs to the son-in-law on weekdays, and handles some daily affairs. He was a samurai from the Kumamoto Domain, one of the students sent by Osaka to Daming, and was rewarded by His Majesty the Emperor at the Army Military Academy. ”

With Mu Tianbo's introduction, Gamo Naorou also calmly saluted Emperor Zhengren, without revealing his sense of guilt as a murderer.

After hearing Mu Tianbo's introduction, Masahito took a serious look at Gamo Naorou, who was far away from him, and found that the other party's figure was not only tall, but also dignified, without the slightest feminine and obscene atmosphere, which made him suddenly have a good impression.

Masahito couldn't help but say to Gamo Naorou: "Excuse me, I didn't expect it to be a talent praised by His Majesty the Emperor, so you can step forward and sit closer and tell me what you think about this matter." ”

Gamo Naoyu agreed, took five steps forward and sat down again, then nodded to Masahito and said, "Regarding the murder of the Minister of the Interior, the opinion of the lower ministers is the same as that of the Duke of Qian, if it wasn't for our timely pursuit last night, these traitors may have been far away from Kyoto by now."

So if such a situation arises, who will the imperial court blame for the murder of the Minister of the Interior? Is it just a few cries of the murderer's self-defeating identity? That's too rash. If these murderers were so open-minded, they would not have used such despicable means as assassination, and they would not have thought of leaving Kyoto disguised as merchants afterwards.

Then, after eliminating the suspicion of the king's rebellion, the biggest suspicion of the assassination of the Minister of the Interior is probably the two shogunates of Osaka and Edo, which were in conflict with the imperial court on weekdays. After all, there is no excuse or benefit for others to assassinate the Minister of the Interior.

When the imperial court placed the suspicion of assassinating the Minister of the Interior on the two shogunates, who was most favorable to this situation? Naturally, it is those who respect the king. The break between the imperial court and the shogunate not only gave them legitimacy to oppose the shogunate's rule, but also allowed them to use the name of the imperial court to incite those people at the bottom. The subordinate thought that this was the inside story behind the assassination of the Minister of the Interior. ”

Masahito pondered for a long time before he said: "According to your opinion, it means that behind these venerable people, there is the support of the Satsuma and Choshu domains, but how can this be proved?" ”

Gamo Naorou said without hesitation: "Since the Satsuma and Choshu feudal domains are playing this kind of trick of thieves shouting and catching thieves, the imperial court should make a plan and ask the Osaka shogunate to send troops to quell the rebellion of the king-honoring elements in China. When quelling this rebellion, the two feudal domains of Satsuma and Choshu can take the lead, and if the two feudal domains do not comply, it will be tantamount to exposing their own deeds. The Imperial Court could have ordered the Osaka Shogunate to send troops to fight against the two feudal domains. ”

Zhengren pondered for a long time and couldn't speak, but Ichijo Zhaoliang on the side couldn't help but ask, "If the two feudal clans obey the order to send troops, what should they do next?" ”

Gamo Zhirou thought for a while and replied: "Then you can only accept the reality, but at least in this way, the face of the court can be saved, and the princes of the world will no longer take the lives of the ministers and the royal family." ”

The last paragraph of Gamo Naoyu's words moved the ministers and Emperor Masahito present, and compared to the grievances of the Minister of the Interior, everyone's life safety is the point that everyone is most concerned about. If those bastards taste the sweetness and come to Kyoto to make trouble at every turn, will the ministers hide at home in the future?

After ordering Gamo Naoyu's resignation, Masahito and the ministers discussed for a long time, and finally, with the support of most of the ministers, decided to follow Gamo Naoyu's idea.

On the surface, according to the shouts of those traitors when they killed people, he admitted that the Minister of the Interior was killed by the nobles, and ordered the Osaka shogunate to crusade against the rebellion of the nobles in the Chugoku region. Secretly, the Osaka shogunate asked the Osaka shogunate to thoroughly investigate whether the killing of the minister was related to the two feudal domains, and if so, they demanded that the two feudal domains hand over the responsible persons. In short, leave this trouble to the Osaka shogunate first, and return Kyoto to peace.

While the ministers were discussing countermeasures with Masahito, Kosuke Yoshikawa also reached an agreement with the representative of the Edo shogunate in Kyoto in Nijo Castle. Nijo Castle, which used to be regarded as a symbol of the Tokugawa clan's military strength in Kyoto, has now become a large empty mansion. Forced to reach an agreement with Osaka, Edo had to evacuate a large number of people from Kyoto and return the security of Kyoto to the Imperial Court, which forced many parts of Nijo Castle to be sealed due to lack of manpower.

During the Aizu turmoil, a local conflict between the Aizu Domain and the Osaka Division ended in a crushing defeat for the Aizu Domain. This conflict not only caused the Edo shogunate to lose face, but also made Tokugawa Iemitsu realize that Kyoto, which was less than two days away from Osaka, was actually under the control of the Osaka shogunate, and that the Osaka shogunate could take control of Kyoto as quickly as possible if it wanted to.

Since it was impossible to compete with the Osaka shogunate for control of Kyoto, it was necessary to limit the possibility of the Osaka shogunate using force to take advantage of Kyoto, and in order to avoid finding an excuse for the Osaka shogunate to send troops to Kyoto, Tokugawa Iemitsu simply ordered all the guards in Nijo Castle to be withdrawn to Edo, leaving only some civilian officials, so that the Osaka shogunate would lose the excuse to plant troops in Kyoto.

So when Yoshikawa Kosuke went to Nijo Castle to visit the officials of the Edo shogunate in Beijing, he saw such a declining Nijo Castle. Kosuke Yoshikawa's request to Edo on behalf of the Osaka shogunate was quickly agreed to by the Edo shogunate's representative in Beijing. Although the Edo shogunate's control of eastern Japan was a severe crackdown on the king-worshipping elements, the king-honoring elements in eastern Japan did not seem to be as active as in western Japan.

However, it was precisely because of the severe crackdown by the Edo shogunate that the organization of the Emperor of Eastern Japan went underground, and the organizational structure became tighter, and the struggle experience became more abundant, and they often received material support from the Emperor and the Emperor of Western Japan, so the damage was even greater.

In contrast to the East Japan Zun Wang Yi organization, which used assassination at every turn, the East Japan King Zun Yi organization preferred to distribute small leaflets in the market to incite citizens to protest. Of course, this also has to do with the fact that the East Japan region does not regard the king's reverence as criminals.

Therefore, Yoshikawa Kosuke's proposal to the representatives of the Edo shogunate to jointly suppress the rebellion was quickly accepted. The first thing the Edo delegates put forward was to ask the Osaka shogunate to seize the various pamphlets that had been printed in Osaka by the dignitaries to discredit the Tokugawa clan. According to the representative's cryptic disclosure, the three shoguns were extremely angry about the content of the Tokugawa clan in these pamphlets, believing that they were completely fabricated.

However, because the Osaka shogunate refused to seize such pamphlets, the Edo side was helpless for a while, and could only watch the thieves smuggle the printed pamphlets to all parts of eastern Japan by fishing boats, and became the best-selling pamphlets among the middle and lower classes**.

For Yoshikawa Kosuke, the successful completion of this negotiation has relieved Osaka of a worry, and it can allow the Osaka shogunate to devote itself to solving the affairs of the Satsuma and Choshu domains. Yes, for Yoshikawa Kosuke, the officials of the rich country and strong military faction in the shogunate, the biggest goal of this incident at the moment is to break the leading position of the Satsuma and Choshu feudal domains among the princes, so as to formally concentrate the administrative, judicial, and military power of the shogunate in the hands of the five lords, and abolish the power of the five elders and the representative council of the various feudal clans on the five lords.

Only after this step was completed could the Osaka shogunate further reform and establish a new political system similar to that of the prime minister's cabinet of the Ming dynasty, and move away from the situation in which the daimyo and high-ranking samurai dictated politics.

After reaching an agreement with the representative of the Edo shogunate in Beijing and successfully obtaining an edict from the imperial court authorizing the Osaka shogunate to deal with the assassination of the Minister of the Interior and the suppression of several rebellions in China, Yoshikawa Kosuke realized that he and his comrades had almost completed the plan.

However, he didn't have to be happy for long before he heard an unexpected news, he looked at Mu Tianbo in disbelief and asked, "Grandpa wants to participate in this war to quell the chaos?" Isn't that a bit bad, you're still married. ”

Mu Tianbo replied nonchalantly: "Kyoto is indeed very good, but it will be boring if you stay for a long time." I'm not an old man in my seventies or eighties, so how can I spend all day in Kyoto looking at the leaves.

Moreover, it is obvious that the power of the navy will be used in this peaceful war, and without me coming forward to negotiate, it will be difficult for you to get the Ming Navy to cooperate with you. Therefore, I went out to Beijing to relax, and by the way, I learned the key points of sea operations and landing operations, which can be regarded as accumulating some experience for next year's cruise to North America.

And I'm not asking for you, I'm informing you of my decision, understand? ”

Yoshikawa Kosuke was also speechless about this, if it was possible, he didn't want Mu Tianbo to participate in this war, after all, as the husband of Prince Xingzinai and the prince of the Ming Dynasty, Mu Tianbo's identity was too high, if it fell into the hands of the enemy, this war would be extremely variable, but he also knew that he couldn't stop the other party, so he could only hope that Governor Zhou could persuade the other party.