Chapter 165: Return to Tranquility (I)

In the summer of the eighth year of Eisadada, I returned to Kyoto from the Kanto region. In the following year, after more than half a year of deliberation and planning, Hidekei and the rest of the elders and the elders reached a consensus, and then, in the name of the shogun, issued a law on the division of feudal domains and a development decree in Edo Castle.

These two decrees were issued precisely to solve the problem of a surplus of samurai in each domain and a large number of làng people in the country.

Under the Partition Law, the shogunate allowed each feudal lord to divide the domain to a non-descendant heir, and any relative who was granted a title of 10,000 koku or more would receive a seal issued by the shogunate, and become a quasi-daimyo lower than the daimyo and higher than the family elders. The way to divide the territory can be divided into three types, the first is the new territory, which is to allocate a part of the resources and funds, so that the relatives can gather the landless samurai in the family and the làng people in the territory to develop the new field outside the territory, and set up another case to become the quasi-daimyo of the first clan; The second is the Nitta Division, which divides the newly developed territory within the domain to the relatives and establishes it as a semi-** Nitta branch domain, and the territory of this kind of Nitta branch domain is only included in the inner high, exempt from all obligations to the shogunate, and each domain still bears general labor and war military service according to the table height at the time of the division; The third is the internal division of knowledge, which belongs to the formal division of the feudal domain, neither from the clan **, nor granting specific territories, but only receiving rice from the clan family equivalent to the harvest of the feudal stone, so as to maintain the complete form of each feudal domain (similar to the Tokugawa Shogunate Imperial Three Princes), but compared with the other two types of feudal domains, this kind of branch feudal clan also has much greater rights in the domain, and can participate in key decisions such as the succession of the feudal lords, the marriage of each feudal domain, and the establishment of heirs, and replace the feudal lord to serve in the relevant shogunate positions, and when the feudal lord is young, he naturally serves as an afterthought.

Another development order was established in conjunction with the law of dividing feudal domains, that is, to provide new domains that could be developed and divided among the feudal domains. The seat of the new domain was Ezo Island, north of Mutsu, and for this reason, Hidekei specially played the imperial court in the name of the shogunate, and changed the name of Ezo Island to Hokkaido, modeled after the naming method of the Seven Provinces of Goki.

Of course, I had given Hideki some hints about this before returning to Kyoto, otherwise he and the rest of the important ministers might not have thought of that place. After all, in this era, Ezo Island is still a place outside the world, and it is only used to exile felons and leave them to fend for themselves, and basically they will be "destroyed" quickly. It was not until the early years of the Meiji era, after the so-called "Republic of Ezo" was eliminated in the Boshin War, that the imperial court turned its attention to it, giving it the name "Hokkaido" and dividing it into 11 countries and 86 prefectures.

The reason why so many countries have been carved out of Hokkaido is because it is so big. Hokkaido's total territory is second only to Honshu Island and the second largest of Japan's four major islands, accounting for more than 20% of the country's total area, which is twice that of Kyushu Island's Seikaido. So, if Hokkaido can be divided into nine sub-countries, why can't Hokkaido be divided into eleven countries?

In order to take control of this vast new domain, Hidekei and others set up a town guard office in Hokkaido, following the precedent of developing and garrisoning the Mutsu region, and the clan was responsible for the development of the entire Hokkaido. However, unlike the Mutsu Shogun, they did not intend to set up a shogun, but created a new name as a shogun, so as not to affect the authority of the shogunate in Hokkaido.

Unlike the military service positions, which can be hereditary, the official positions of "envoys" such as procurators and town guards cannot be hereditary according to the provisions of the legal order system.

According to my original thoughts, the best candidate to serve as the town guard should be Yoshijing. His Hokuriku Province has a very similar climate to Hokkaido, and he can adapt to it very quickly. However, Hidekyo sent a handwritten letter asking me for the position of Hokkaido town guard. In the letter, he gave two reasons: one was that Yoshikei had little experience and might not be able to cope with the myriad affairs, and it would be difficult for him to mediate disputes between the feudal pioneer groups, and if he could do so, he would completely dominate Hokkaido for decades, which would be very detrimental to the authority of the shogunate; The second is his own sī reasons, now that the situation of the shogunate has stabilized, the elders and middle elders have completely dominated the center, and as the head of the family and the chief elder, his personal power can be comparable to that of the Hojo ruling power of the Kamakura shogunate, but he is unwilling to take on such a position, and he is deeply uneasy about cooperating with me to overthrow the shogun, so he hopes to leave the center and develop Hokkaido for the rest of the year, so as to prove that what he did is completely out of loyalty to the shogunate.

In addition to asking for this position, Xiujing also recalled in the letter that he had been loyal to me for thirty years, as if to summarize his own life. Then I knew that he would have to leave the center, and that he would probably never return to Kyoto, and that I might not be able to see him again in my lifetime.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel a wave of loneliness in my heart. Yes, everyone is old, and the retreat of retreat, the passing of the past, is gradually withering like the fallen leaves of late autumn and early winter. Among the first three elders, Shigeharu Takenaka was the youngest, but he was the first to die; The eldest bee, Suga Masakatsu, realized that his time was running out last year, and he had resigned from the name of the judge and returned to the Kaga domain to live in seclusion; And now even Xiujing is beginning to think about the reputation behind him, his age is one year younger than me

There is also Emperor Shokincho, who is already 72 years old this year, but because of the name "Eisadada", he still tries his best to support him without abdicating and living in seclusion. The last time Prince Seihito invited me to a banquet at the Katsura Palace, he vaguely mentioned this issue to me.

I know that this is not because he is in a hurry to succeed to the throne, but because of the physical condition of Emperor Masakincho. Historically, the emperor should have abdicated three years ago, and he himself should have died of illness before that. However, the name of Yongzhen is written by me personally, and it has a special meaning for me, unless I speak in person, otherwise it is difficult for the royal family to rashly start and change the yuan.

Perhaps, it's time to put an end to my personal era

I decided to go to Kanto again, one is to meet Xiujing again to see if I can change his decision; Second, he formally established Keijiro's name and made arrangements for the sons of Shinkei.

Shinkei currently has three sons and two NV, the eldest son Keijiro was born in Kyoto in the third year of Eisada and was given the name by me personally; The second son is Keisaburo, who was born to Kai Ji in the fifth year of Yongzhen, I met last year, a very lively and favored child; Born in the same year, there is also the eldest NV Wakahime, whose mother is Tenmanhime of the Máo family, but unfortunately Tenmanhime is too young and her body is not as strong as Kai Ji, so this child is congenitally deficient and unfortunately dies a few months after birth; The second NV is the daughter of Dong Ji, born in the seventh year of Yongzhen, and her name is Jing Ji; Finally, the third son, Keigoro, who was born at the beginning of the year, and his mother is the Shimazu family's sister-in-law, Nvyùhime, who was pregnant when I traveled to Kanto last year.

Of the current three children, Keijiro is naturally the successor to the position of general, there is no doubt about it; Keisaburo's mother's family came from the Narita clan, and the head of the family, the Narita clan, had no children, so I decided to let Keisaburo inherit his family name, and the elder brother of the clan Narita Narita served as the head of the family (historically succeeded as the heir of the clan chief), and at the same time established the Narita family as the Reneda family, and the territory expanded to Musashi Province 200,000 koku; As for Keigoro, he has now been sent to Satsuma Province to be raised as the adopted son of Shimazu Yoshihisa, and will inherit the family name and family business of the Satsuma Shimazu family in the future, which has been unanimously guaranteed by the three feudal domains of Satsuma Shimazu, Bichu Shimazu and Ueno Shimazu, and Yoshihisa has also chosen a rǔ mother for him, who is Shimazu Suihisa's nv Yuno-hime.

Yunoohime's husband is the second son of the Shimazu family in Sasku and the adopted son of Shimazu Suihisa, Shimazu Tadashi, and the mother of the loyal neighbor is Shimazu Yoshihisa's eldest NV Miheihime, Keigoro through this rǔ mother, not only strengthened the karma between him and his adoptive father Shimazu Yoshihisa, but also was able to win over the Shimazu family in Sasku and the Hioki Shimazu family in Shimazu years, it can be seen that Shimazu Yoshihisa has put a lot of thought into this, and he has indeed recognized Keigoro as the heir.

As for Jing Ji, I'm going to let her marry into the Mogami family in order to win over Mogami Yoshimitsu. In that case, one of Mogami Yoshimitsu and Satake Nobuhide would be able to arrange for one of them to enter the center to assist the shogunate in strengthening its control over the Mutsu region, and at the same time facilitate the development of Hokkaido's major policies.

Yoshiyasu, the eldest son of the Mogami family, is a very outstanding young samurai, and he was born with pure filial piety, and it is not a grievance for Jing Ji to marry him. When Hideji was executed in history, Yoshimitsu Mogami was implicated (NV is Hideji's side room), and Yoshiyasu took the initiative to go to Bodhi Temple to pray day and night for his father's safety, and even Yoshimitsu was moved by it and thanked his son in person; Later, in the Battle of Dewa, Mogami Yoshimitsu was besieged by the Uesugi family, and it was also relied on his support to turn the corner...... Although Yikang is now officially in the Yuan service, he is twelve years older than Jing Ji, but this does not affect the relationship between the two. The current shogunate's second chair, the old Izino Nao, is much older than Masamuro Kazuya, and now he is not Wawa Mimi, and he gave birth to his sister-in-law Toramatsumaru two years ago?

With this arrangement, I felt that I could completely let go, so I called Naotora and first informed her of my decision, and further told her: "When I return from Kanto and preside over the succession ceremony of Prince Seihito, I will officially become a monk and pray for the blessings of the mother and child of the Hoshin-in Hall, the Forget-Worry Temple, and the Tosa Daena-in Temple." ”

"Is Your Highness going to be officially ordained?" Zhihu asked me rhetorically, without much surprise in his tone, obviously expecting my decision, "Have you already decided where to shave?" ”

"It's right here in the Dongshan Imperial Palace," I looked around the courtyard, "the Imperial Palace is not very large, and it is just right for me to become a monk." I also love the scenery and the surroundings. ”

"So, the Higashiyama Imperial Palace is going to be changed to Higashiyama Temple?" Zhihu continued to ask, "Then what about the concubine and Xia Jin?" ”

"You'll just return to the Yuanjiang Territory," I said the plan that I had already considered, "Xuanzhi's responsibilities in the center in the future are very heavy, I'm afraid I won't be able to take care of the territory and the upbringing of my heir Toramatsumaru, I will go to Kanto this time, and I will ask him to send Toramatsumaru back to the territory, and you will be his descendant to preside over the feudal government...... As for Xia Jin, she can return to Zhou Jing and Akiko, and she must be well taken care of. If she misses me, it's also convenient to come and visit. ”

Zhihu was silent for a moment, sighed and nodded: "Your Highness has arranged it very properly, it seems that your mind has been decided, so you have spent so much effort...... Since this is the case, the concubine body will not say anything, but I just hope that His Royal Highness will take care of himself. ”

"Yes, I will, and so will you." I smiled slightly.

When it comes to mind and purpose, among all of you, Naohu is the only one who is the most similar to me, and can fully understand my feelings

Since she also agreed, then the ties around me are completely non-existent.

……，……

Half a month later, I entrusted Xia Jin to Zhou Jing and set off for Edo with Naoto. He was accompanied by Hidekage's eldest son, Hideko, who gave the position of the Kyoto Shodai to Keimasa, and entrusted the feudal administration to the elder of the clan and cousin Kamune Ibu Hidemasa, and went to take over the position of chief middle-aged elder vacated after the promotion of Wasuka Keikatsu to the elder.

Under the Pine Corridor of Honmaru in Edo Castle, I once again saw Shinjing and Hidekei. Shinkei only saw me once, and when he heard that I was here to preside over Keijiro's succession, he immediately left the room and didn't come out of Ooku until I was serving Keijiro. Xiujing's mood is a little better than last year, maybe because he has unloaded the burden on his shoulders and the big stone in his heart, but when I mentioned our age, our respective choices, and the distance between Hokkaido and Kinai, although he had already realized something, he couldn't help but feel moved again.

"I know, I know...... Brother, this should be the last time we will see each other in this life," he shook my hand emotionally and replaced it with a self-title that he had only used when we first met, "In retrospect, it was the decision I didn't regret in my life when I left Tosa with my brother and worked hard under my brother. ”

"So, will you be able to listen to me again?" I felt a little hope, "I know you don't want to be in charge of the government anymore, so how about returning to Kyoto and retreating like me?" In this way, you can visit each other from time to time to enjoy the tea ceremony, or enjoy the snow scenery of Kyoto, and enjoy the autumn leaves and cherry blossoms of Kyoto. ”

"The autumn leaves and cherry blossoms of Kyoto ......" Xiujing's face showed a look of remembrance, and it took a while to regain his composure, and then he slowly shook his head, "Your Majesty may not have a chance to see you." Since you have chosen to go out and are deeply favored by the Lord's family, you must be loyal to the last breath...... This is the persistence of a samurai and the duty of a retainer."

I knew it was the result. He is a person who really insists too much on the so-called samurai principles and duties.

In the original history, although Changzong and my family designed to kill his father, and even he himself almost died, but after inheriting the Zhongshan Tian family, he still worked hard as the elder of the family to serve the main family, and even after the Changzong family was changed, he was still more than 60 years old, with the two sons of Xiuchang and Xuanshi, and the shì who never left the young family head was chaste.

Compared with Xiangzong's pro-Tailai, I don't know how much I treat him, not only to give him a vast territory and lofty status, but even to trust the entire center, and he will naturally redouble his efforts to serve the public, in order to repay me for this favor.

: In real history, Xiujing also had a younger brother, Xiuzheng, who joined the Nakayama family with him. When he left Tosa with his relatives, he gave his younger brother the position of head of the family, and he restored the Miao character of the Xiangzong Ibu family, leaving the direct bloodline in his homeland. However, this younger brother is completely ignored in the book, and the name of Xiangzong I Bu Xiuzheng was inherited by his cousin Ruyuan monk Huanyu)