Tokugawa Iekei was the 12th shogun of the Edo shogunate. His father was Tokugawa Ieki, and his mother was the Hotta clan of the side room (originally the Hatamoto Oshida clan), and the second was located in Rakugokata (Yuraku-no-fang).

Kansei 5th year (1793) was born in Edo Castle. In the eighth year of Tenpo (1837), Iekei's father, Tokugawa Ieki, ceded the role of shogun to Iekei, and Iekei became the twelfth shogun, and Iekei was also forty-six years old at this time. Although Tokugawa Isachi did not die, he still wielded great power as the Great Imperial Palace. In the face of the increasingly powerful suzerainty of the Celestial Empire in the west, Tokugawa Iekei was not a discerning general, and Japan learned Western cultural knowledge through Lanxue very early on, and had its own basic understanding of the world. When it came to the Jiaqing generation, especially the achievements of the Chinese Empire as the suzerain, the achievements in the world made Japan envious.

Before he became a shogun, Tokugawa Iekei often visited the docks in Edo, watching the passing merchant ships and the warships of the suzerainty flying the five-color flag, and he was inspired to spread the Tokugawa family's family crest to the world. By the time of Tokugawa Iesai's death in 1841, Iekei had taken full control of the shogunate, and he began the "Tenpo Reform" with the reappointment of the chief Mizuno Tadakuni, the chief minister of the samurai family.

In order to rebuild the shogunate's finances, Tadakuni proposed various reforms. However, many of these reforms were contrary to the trend of industrialization, such as restricting the movement of people to cities, dissolving the "shochuma" (guilds, equivalent to business alliances), and declaring the shogunate's direct domains. The shogunate's internal reform measures were essentially aimed at curbing the development of the commodity economy and maintaining and strengthening the ownership of feudal lords, so they failed to alleviate acute social contradictions, but instead led to economic chaos and caused discontent among all social strata.

Later, in order to unify speech, Zhongbang suppressed enlightened scholars such as Takano Nagahide and Watanabe Kazan, and they were not liked by the new forces.

In the 14th year of Tenpo (1843), the shogunate was forced to step down from Tadakuni and the following year, and the Tenpo reform suffered a setback after the shogunate issued a major rejection of the daimyo and banner domains around Edo and Osaka as a destination. However, Tokugawa Iekei was not reconciled, and he always believed that reform was the only way out for the shogunate and all of Japan.

Compared with the reform of the shogunate, the reform of other Japanese feudal domains has made considerable achievements. In the opinion of the General Staff, the reform of the Satsuma Domain (Kagoshima Prefecture), Choshu Domain (Yamaguchi Prefecture), and Hizen Domain (Saga Prefecture) was more significant. The Satsuma Domain was heavily indebted before the reform, but after returning to Satsuma from the Empire, Hirogo carried out more specific and comprehensive reforms in Satsuma, and with the support of the Celestial Empire, the reform of Hirogo was more emboldened. He introduced advanced agricultural technology from the empire's farms to increase yields, developed a commodity economy, and implemented a monopoly system of brown sugar feudal sales. Militarily, he obtained new types of munitions from the Celestial Empire, built advanced cement forts, and even learned from the Celestial Empire to implement the cultivation of industry, and the Satsuma Domain also had a somewhat modern atmosphere because of the reform.

The reforms of the Satsuma, Choshu, and Hizen domains stimulated Tokugawa Iekei. In 1850, Tokugawa Iekei met with 20-year-old Okubo Ritsu at the castle tower when he had just returned from the Celestial Empire. Okubo Ritsu was born in the Satsuma Domain, when he was ten years old, he was sponsored by a merchant of the Celestial Empire to go to school in Tianjin, he spent ten years from elementary school to university, and Okubo Ritsu, who grew up under the Five Colors, became a loyal supporter of the emperor (referring to Hayashi Hiroshi), especially when he graduated early, the emperor sent a congratulatory message to make him ecstatic, and he embarked on the voyage back to China with tears in his eyes. After a short stay in Kagoshima, like many international students, he planned to go to Edo to the shogunate to achieve his goals.

In the main hall, Jiaqing looked at these students with flat heads, although he was not used to it, he still pretended to be eager, and after a greeting, Jiaqing asked the students present about the reform.

Faced with this serious question, a group of people turned their heads one after another, but no one dared to stand up, looking at the mosquito-like communication below, Jiaqing waved his hand and said, "Forget it, you guys go down!" ”

This is Okubori's announcement that the opportunity has come, and he stepped forward and said, "General, the only way for Japan to be strong is to change the law. ”

"How?" Tokugawa Iekei asked, straightening up.

"Follow the example of the Heavenly Empire, rejuvenate the country through colonization, strengthen the country and strengthen the army, and change the law and system."

"Go on." Tokugawa Iekei was interested, and he felt that the young man in front of him could help him achieve great things.

"Colonization and prosperity is to sell the samurai's industry to merchants, so that merchants can become bigger and stronger to make money for us, and to strengthen the country and army is to introduce the advanced firearms and military systems of the Celestial Empire to arm our army. The most important thing is to change the law and change the system, that is, to revise the existing unreasonable law and revise the law in imitation of the Celestial Empire. ”

"Yes, you're good, that's how it should be. Take them down to rest. Tokugawa Ikei was satisfied, and he had actually decided to let this young man preside over his next reforms.

The next day, Tokugawa Iekei officially appointed Okubo Ritsu as the old chief of the Tokugawa family to preside over the next reforms.

This shogunate reform, which affected Japan's future national situation, began with a vigorous start. The first thing Okubo Ritsu did was to gather students who had returned from studying in the Celestial Empire like him and formed his own team.

The debts owed to the shogunate by the merchants were forgiven, and the factories and workshops built by the Tokugawa shogunate over the years were auctioned off to the merchants. Okubo then turned to his alma mater, Tianjin University, for help, and invited a group of retired Chinese customs officers to Edo to help the shogunate establish a complete customs tariff (everyone knows what this is for). Eventually, Okubo Ritsu abolished a series of old laws of the shogunate, and with the cooperation of other international students, he initially formulated a new commercial and civil law. Originally, he wanted to reform the army as well, but the obstruction of the old school and the hesitation of Tokugawa Iekei forced him to dismiss this idea. However, as a concession from Tokugawa Iekei, he still did everything possible to buy back two advanced steam gunships from the Celestial Empire to form the shogunate's navy.

Although militarily, the military of the shogunate still lagged behind and even lagged behind the Satsuma domain, but economically the shogunate made a great improvement, and the number of factories and railways emitting black smoke was increasing in Edo. With the rapid development of Edo, Okubo Ritsu became more and more famous among the various domains, and the new daimyo of the Satsuma Domain, Shimazu Saibin, frequently sent people to Edo to ask Okubo Ritsu to return to Satsuma to work. But Okubo Toshitsu refused, he knew that it would be useless to return to Satsuma, Satsuma's reform had lasted for more than ten years, and he couldn't change anything if he went back, and he could only make great achievements in Edo.

Lin Hong is clear about the changes in Japan, what he wants is the balance between the shogunate and the various feudal domains, he has been committed to establishing his influence in Japan, and now the object of the emperor who is almost shouted in Japan has become Lin Hong, the emperor of Japan has become the king of Japan, and the plan is that Lin Hong will include Japan in the internal domain, Japan can have a government but the head of state must be Lin Hong, just like Lan Fang