The 11th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, the young Tokugawa Ieqi's hand was gently tapping the beat on his thigh, echoing the rhythm of the waka on the stage, looking intoxicated. On his left and right, there are a lot of retainers, including the military generals who are responsible for managing the general's direct command and the retainers' royal family, as well as the performer who is in charge of all the ceremonial matters in the palace, of course, his henchmen and henchmen.

Of course, there were a few loyal little surnames sitting around him, but at this moment, although Jia Qi's hands should match the rhythm of the song, his eyes fell on the little surnames who were sitting next to him and pouring sake for him. This little surname named Hasegawa Ranmaru seemed to feel the gaze of the general, and the corners of his mouth raised slightly.

This made the young, energetic Tokugawa Iechi can't help but feel that his lower abdomen is starting to heat up again, thinking of the ...... with Hasegawa last night

"General, Lord Matsudaira Nobuaki is here, it seems that there is something urgent." At this time, next to him, another little surname said softly. "Huh?" Tokugawa Ieqi couldn't help but be slightly stunned.

"General, a messenger from the Qing State is here." After the dancers and idlers were dispersed, the elder Matsudaira Nobuaki fell on the floor and respectfully reported to the Tokugawa family.

"Nani?" A pair of Tokugawa family Qi's eyeballs almost fell to the ground, and they blinked for a long time before they let out a loud sound.

Matsudaira Nobuaki hurriedly repeated it again. "The Qing State in my Dayue Benxi sent an envoy to come." Matsudaira Nobuaki was also a little nervous, after all, not long after he served as a lieutenant elder, as the "legacy of leniency", because of the honorific incident, he had not been able to fully gain the trust of the general, so he seemed very cautious in everything, for fear of angering the general.

In the sixteenth year of Ming Zhengde, the absurd Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao died of illness due to falling into the water, and there was no heir after his death, and his cousin Zhu Houxi ascended the throne for Ming Shizong (Jiajing Emperor). Soon after Ming Shizong ascended the throne, he had a fierce conflict with the minister Yang Tinghe and others on the issue of agreeing on the name of his biological father, Xingxian Wang. Yang Tinghe and others resolutely opposed Sejong's desire to honor the king as the "imperial examination", and demanded that the father of Zunwuzong, Xiaozong, be the "imperial examination" and his biological father as the "imperial uncle". The controversy lasted for three years, and after Sejong had reached the end of his wings, he reprimanded Yang Tinghe and others and won the victory in this "Great Rites Dispute", showing his monarchical authority and arbitrary status.

As a country that has been influenced by Chinese culture, a similar incident occurred in the Wa Kingdom. The controversy over the Great Rites of the Ming Dynasty led to the abrupt demise of a series of policies of Yang Tinghe, and the "honorific title of one piece" led to the political loss of political power of the leader of the "leniency reform".

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The origin and process of the incident are strikingly similar to the "Great Rites Controversy" in the Ming Dynasty: in the eighth year of Annai Yong, that is, in 1779, at the age of 22, Emperor Gotaoyuan died, and was succeeded by the son of Prince Norihito of the Imperial Palace. This Emperor Guangge had the same dream as Emperor Jiajing: he wanted to honor his biological father, Prince Norihito, as Emperor Taishang. Therefore, in 1788, the eighth year of the Tenmei Dynasty, the imperial court notified the shogunate of this suggestion, and the old Nakamatsuna Taishi, who held the power of the shogunate, rejected this request of the imperial court in accordance with the provisions of the "Prohibition of the Laws of the Forbidden China and the Public Family" and the ancient rules that had always been prescribed. Enraged, the Emperor immediately summoned the ministers and forcibly passed a resolution: Prince Norithito was honored as Emperor and a decree was issued.

For the first time in the generations of the Edo shogunate, the imperial court did not give face to the shogunate. Under the auspices of Matsudaira Dingxin, the shogunate immediately punished several ministers to show their attitude, but in order to appease the emperor, the shogunate decided to give Prince Norihito a bonus as compensation for the loss of his honorific title.

The matter did not end there, and soon, the 11th shogun of the shogunate, Tokugawa Iesai, who was now sitting in the shogun's palace, also jumped out, and he also made a "Jiajing-style" request: he hoped to give his biological father, Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family, the title of "Great Imperial Palace". "Daigosho" is the title given to the shogun after his abdication.

After thinking about it, Matsudaira felt that there was a precedent for the shogunate to reject the imperial court, and in order to show fairness, he also decided to refuse the shogun's will, and this time, he offended the shogun Tokugawa Ieqi.

In the Edo period, you could offend the emperor 10,000 times, but you must not offend the shogun. Tokugawa Ieki remembered Matsudaira Dingnobu's "performance" this time, and in 1792, in the fourth year of Kansei, Laxman of Russia sent six people, including Dr. Kotoya Kodai, a drifter from Russia, to land in Nemuro in Ezo (Hokkaido) with letters of state and objects, and asked for trade.

The shogunate asked him to go to Matsumae and told him that he would have to go through Nagasaki. Laxman accepted the shogunate's permit to enter the port of Nagasaki and returned to Japan.

Matsudaira Sanobu, who was in charge of the affairs of the shogunate, realized the importance of coastal defense and instructed to strengthen the defense of Edo Bay, and mobilized the Daimyo and Banner to the four countries of Izu, Anbo, Kamiso, and Shimoso, to build fortresses, and put forward military plans, which involved the change of territory of Hatamoto and the Daimyo of Sethiro, and threatened their economic interests. Tokugawa Ieki took this opportunity to force Matsudaira to resign.

After Matsudaira Tainobu stepped down, Matsudaira Nobuaki, Makino Tadashi and other "widows of leniency" continued to dominate the shogunate and continued the policy of leniency. However, Matsudaira Nobuaki and Makino Tadashi and others did not have the courage and determination of Matsudaira Dingxin, let alone refuse the Tokugawa family to intervene in government affairs.

Now, the Tokugawa family is appointing a large number of cronies to seize power from the middle and elders, and the so-called era of leniency has reached the verge of collapse.

Now, all major matters, Songping Dingxin must be decided by the general, and this time the Qing envoy suddenly appeared in Yueben, this behemoth located in the west of Yueben, so that Songping Dingxin had to be cautious, and more importantly, the news brought by the Qing envoy really made his heart full of shock.

"Are you saying that the invasion of the Ryukyu Kingdom by the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma Domain has been discovered by the Qing Kingdom, and their envoys have come to Xingshi to ask for the guilt?" Tokugawa Ieki soon learned the whole process from the mouth of Namatsunaira Dingxin.

"Exactly, General." Nobuaki Matsudaira replied as he leaned on the floor.

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"Satsuma Domain......" Tokugawa Iesai gently tapped his thigh with the folding fan in his hand, narrowing his eyes. For the Tokugawa shogunate, the shogunate's weakest control was the island of Kyushu and the Choshu domain adjacent to the island of Kyushu, and those daimyo who were said to have stood on the opposite side of Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Battle of Seki-no-Hara.

In that year, although Tokugawa Ieyasu experienced the Battle of Sekigahara, he defeated the Western Army led by Ishida Mitsunari, a retainer of the Toyotomi family. Tokugawa Ieyasu took over the throne and laid the foundation for the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate.

However, from the beginning to the end of the war, only more than 3,000 people were killed in this general battle, which involved a full 150,000 people, so it can be said that the strength of the daimyo who rebelled against the Tokugawa was not compromised too much.

However, Tokugawa Ieyasu immediately began to re-divide the princes. First of all, the punishment of the generals of the Western Army, the territories of Ukita Hideya, Nagamune Ibu Morikin, Ankokuji Huiqiong, Maeda Toshimasa and others were confiscated, but the territory of the Shimazu clan remained basically unchanged, because Kyushu Island was a barbaric island for the daimyo of Yumoto, and Tokugawa Ieyasu taught the heroic tenacity of the Satsuma samurai, so he didn't dare to force it too much.

However, the Shimazu family of the Satsuma Domain's original ambition to unify Kyushu also declined, but it was not him who was the most unlucky, considering that the territory of the general of the Western Army, Mori Terumoto, was reduced from 1,210,000 koku to 370,000 koku for the poor Baba. Uesugi Keikatsu transferred to Hameizawa, and his territory was reduced from 1.2 million koku to 300,000 koku. There was also Satake Yoshinobu, who confiscated his 540,000 koku territory in Hitachi Mito and transferred it to 200,000 koku in Hakubota.

All of them were sealed to remote, poor and backward areas, and these daimyo of the former Western Army hated the Tokugawa Shogunate, but the shogunate couldn't just find an excuse to clean up these guys, if the ruling class of the Tokugawa Shogunate was described as a tree, if the Tokugawa Shogunate was the backbone, then these daimyo were branches and leaves, dependent on each other to survive.

Therefore, the shogunate could only be vigilant against these hostile daimyos, but it could not exterminate them at will.

What the Tokugawa shogunate did not expect was that although the land in southern Kyushu was not very fertile, the Shimazu family, a powerful feudal clan in Kyushu, could use the port to trade and even smuggle with the Qing Kingdom, Ryukyu, and the Philippines.

Of course, that is another time and space, and now, because of the arrival of Liang Pengfei, history has begun to change a little bit in the history of the Wa Kingdom, and this change will become bigger and bigger, and the starting point is started by Ling Longyu, the envoy sent to the Wa State by Liang Pengfei a month before he sent troops.

At this time, Ling Longyu, who was waiting for the middle elder to come again, was also very nervous, this task not only proved Liang Pengfei's trust in his ability, but also represented Liang Pengfei's signal to meddle in the Wa Kingdom, so he not only had to complete it, but also completed it beautifully.

He also had to remember that on the first day of his journey, Liang Pengfei left him to talk in secret for nearly two hours, and the things that Liang Pengfei said to him, Ling Longyu knew, and soon, they would be put to use.

(To be continued)