Tokugawa Iesada was born in Edo Castle on April 8, the fourth year of the Bunsei reign (1824). He was the fourth son of the 12th shogun Tokugawa Iekei.
Survive.
Jiading was physically weak when he was a child, and was cowardly by nature. He hated talking in front of others. Only his wet nurse Uta Qiao could communicate with him. Modern research believes that Jiading suffered from brain-damaging paralysis.
This person appeared very frequently in later Japanese TV dramas and was a tragic figure.
In the third year of Xianfeng's reign, Jiading, who had just succeeded to the throne, encountered difficulties.
The incident of the black ship's arrival caused panic within the shogunate. Moderates and hard-liners argued over whether to accept the credentials of the United States and whether to establish the country. By the time Perry led a fleet to invade Edo Bay, the debate subsided and the decision was made.
Accept the credentials first. But the excuse must be reported to the Emperor so that the Americans can come back to negotiate the next year.
On July 9, Bailey led more than 300 people, including officers, Marines, and military bands holding the Stars and Stripes, to land. He handed Uraga an autographed letter from the President of the United States to honor, agreeing to come back next spring.
On this matter, the Tokugawa family who had just taken over had no decision at all. Just when the shogunate was worried about the next spring, the official fleet of the Qing Dynasty arrived.
This is the official trade fleet of the Liangjiang Governor-General's Office.
There had never been an official fleet of the Qing Dynasty to trade with Japan before. The ones that could come were basically small smuggling ships from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and they would only trade in Nagasaki.
The shogunate attaches great importance to this. At this time, the Qing Dynasty is still the unquestionable power in East Asia. If it can get help from the Qing Dynasty, Japan may be able to overcome this difficulty.
The Qing fleet carried envoys, and then Masahiro Abe, the Lao-Chinese leader of the Tokugawa shogunate, negotiated with the envoys on behalf of the shogunate.
Compared to Western countries, Masahiro Abe preferred to associate with Qing people, because Japan's seclusion policy did not exclude Qing people. It only targeted Western countries.
There are historical reasons for this. The Dutch set foot in Japan hundreds of years ago. Foreign missionaries developed believers in Japan, which once numbered hundreds of thousands. These people learned to resist the class divisions of the shogunate, and later a major uprising broke out.
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Therefore, the shogunate was extremely disgusted with these Western foreigners and felt that their entry into Japan would affect the foundation of the shogunate's rule.
But the Qing people were different. They would not interfere in the internal affairs of the shogunate.
Masahiro Abe negotiated trade matters with the Qing envoys. Being able to trade with the Qing could restore the gradually declining strength of the samurai family.
In recent years, the Satsuma and Chosu vassals have risen by secretly trading with the outside world. Therefore, Masahiro felt that rather than leaving the benefits of the transaction to others, he should not capture them in the hands of the shogunate.
Due to the lax armaments exposed in this crisis, Abu Masahiro specially negotiated the detailed rules of the arms trade with the Qing envoys.
The Qing envoy promised to sell weapons to the shogunate, and even sharp weapons such as iron cannons were willing to be sold to Japan.
This allowed Abu Masahiro to see the hope of solving the Black Ship Incident. That was to use the power of the Qing Dynasty.
Later, merchant ships from the Qing Dynasty came several times and transported a large amount of goods to Edo. These goods were sold to various places in Japan through several major families in Edo, making the several major families in the shogunate make a lot of money.
Along with these goods came a large number of weapons and armor. There were even 500 iron cannons (front-loading muskets returned by the Huai Navy). This finally allowed the shogunate to organize an army of 8,000 men.
Of course, most of this army uses cold weapons.
But with these troops in hand, the shogunate finally felt confident. If the Americans came again, they would not be so passive.
…
Tokugawa Iesada, who was always playful and did not like to communicate with the outside world, this time for some unknown reason, did not ride his bicycle in the Grand Olympics today, but actually took the initiative to greet the Qing fleet.
Since the trade with Huaihai Navy, many novel things have appeared in Edo. Rickshaws and bicycles were the first to become popular. Even the daimyo are now unwilling to sit in that stuffy and short sedan.
Iesada went even further. He built a cycling stadium in Edo and let the shogunate's samurai race on bicycles.
Another time, he played with a lighter and burned down a house.
…
Even so, Jiading was still happy with it. Every time a Qing businessman arrived, he would send someone to ask if there was anything new.
Seeing the golden dragon flag hoisted high on the fleet mast, the Japanese defenders along the Edo coast gave the green light.
Suddenly, Jiading, who was sitting on a chair and looking towards the sea with a telescope, put down the telescope in his hand. He stretched out his hand and pointed to the sea. He raised his head and opened his mouth wide, "Ah... ship, ship!"
Jiading worked hard for a long time and finally spit out the word "boat".
Everyone followed the sound and saw that a forest of sails really appeared on the sea in the distance. Unlike the American ships, the Qing ships all had white sails and gray hulls.
In the middle of the fleet were two columns of eight cruisers. There were three smaller cruisers guarding each side of the column.
Followed by two ships, they were about the same size as the ships in the U.S. fleet last time. Black smoke was still pouring out of the chimneys.
The Japanese had never seen such a large fleet before. The big bosses in the shogunate were all shocked and their mouths opened.
Atsuhime, a girl from the Satsuma family, was living in Shibage Yashiki near the sea. She was waiting to become the third Odaisho (the shogun's head wife) of the family.
Atsuhime is a smart girl who has been adopted as an adopted daughter by Tokugawa Qibin since she was a child. Qibin has always wanted to train her to become an imperial minister. As time went by, the position of the imperial minister also became Atsuhime's.
Pursue.
At this time, Atsuhime was standing on the platform of Shibagami Yashiki, and happened to see the fleet of the Nanyang Navy. Unlike the people on the dock, Atsuhime just knelt and sat there, watching quietly, without showing any emotion.
Surprised look.
Atsuhime, who grew up in the Satsuma Domain, knew a lot about Orchidology (the Japanese name for Western learning). She also dabbled in Chinese Confucianism. But what she was best at was Japan's "Historical Records". She knew that Japan and China
There have always been close ties.
Moreover, Japan's current culture was formed on the basis of learning and absorbing the Chinese culture of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
It had been hundreds of years since the Chinese imperial court had so formally set foot in Japan. Atsuki felt deeply worried about this, and she could not fathom the blessings and misfortunes involved.
Du Ji is 18 years old, just the same age as Dong Shuheng, but now she is no longer the straightforward and free woman. She can no longer wear men's clothes and go to the homes of lower-class warriors, sit on the floor with them, drink wine and eat food, and have a good time.
Originally she was full of energy, she would do what she said immediately, she could run faster than men, her cute tiger teeth would show when she smiled, and she would immediately regain her energy even if she was depressed.
Now she shoulders the mission of the Shimadzu family and the mission of the soon-to-be Odaisho. These heavy responsibilities have made the 18-year-old Atsuhime more mature and stable.
Back at the dock, not all the Nanyang Navy's fleet docked because the dock in Edo was too small to dock so many ships. Liu Dahai and the others changed to a light cruiser before they were able to dock in Edo.
pier.
The person directly responsible for receiving them was Zou Zhefan, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also had officials responsible for etiquette to contact them, and the two parties exchanged gifts.
Huai Haijun prepared refined salt, seaweed, canned food and other specialties produced by Huai Hai Haijun, while the Japanese asked Lifu to bring up a pile of rice.
Jiading's appearance looks very weird, and he has to raise his head when speaking. If modern people saw this, they would definitely exclaim, isn't this a cerebral palsy patient?
Although they were surprised, no one showed it out of etiquette. Fortunately, the person in charge of the conversation was Mr. Abe. Otherwise, Huai Haijun's interpreter would probably have a big headache.
The Chinese representatives were arranged to rest in the office, but something happened on the first night.
A group of ronin suddenly rushed out, killed the shogunate soldiers guarding the bansuo, rushed into the bansuo and set fire everywhere.
Fortunately, Huai Haijun's own guards guarded the inner floor, guarded the entrance to the mission's residence, and shot and killed the ronin who rushed over.
The sound of gunshots woke up Abe who was sleeping at home. He quickly got up and called the most elite new team to check.
By the time Abe led his troops to Bansuo, the ronin who attacked Bansuo had been eliminated.
It's a pity that there was no one left alive, and those wounded ronin also killed themselves with their ribs.
Now the matter became serious, and Abe bowed down and confessed to Liu Qingbei and others. This happened so suddenly, Abe did not expect that someone would dare to attack the Qing mission in Edo.
At the same time, in Shimazu Qibin's mansion in Edo Castle, a samurai wearing night clothes knelt down in front of Qibin, letting Qibin's whip hit him.
"Baga...who asked you to assassinate the Qing envoy? Are you still a samurai loyal to the Shimazu family?" Shimazu Qibin roared at the samurai in front of him.
Arimura Jizaemon just admitted his mistake without saying a word of defense. He was a core member of the "Seizhong Group", and it was he, Arimura Shunsai and Arimura Yusuke who planned the assassination of the Qing mission.
The purpose was to destroy the cooperation between the Qing Dynasty and the shogunate. Why did this? Let’s start with the rise of Satsuma.
Qi Bin was an enlightened feudal lord. When he officially became a feudal lord, it was during the period after the Qing Dynasty, as a neighboring country, experienced the Opium War. The colonialization process of China by Britain, France and other countries greatly shocked Japan, which was not far away.
, especially Qi Bin himself.
When he first took office, he immediately set out to enrich the country and strengthen the army according to the previous ideas of Lan Xue.
In the domain, under the leading policy of "propagating industry and promoting industry", Qibin started the construction of Japan's first modern Western-style factory group centered on the Kagoshima area, which involved Western-style shipbuilding, ironmaking (reverberatory furnaces)
, construction of smelting furnaces), textile industry, military industry (artillery, landmines, torpedoes), manufacturing (glass products) and other industries, which are collectively referred to as "Jishokkan Business".
Especially in view of the importance of warships reflected in the Opium War, a variety of Western-style sailing ships and warships were successively manufactured, which in turn led to the prosperity of associated smelting, textile, military and other industries.
In addition to the development of hardware, the domain's software-talented people also received new training opportunities. Saigo Takamori, Okubo Toshimichi and others who were originally lower-level domain warriors (countrymen) gradually emerged from this time.
However, this good situation was broken by the rise of Huai Haijun. Huai Haijun directly traded with the shogunate, cutting off Satsuma's largest financial source.
After all, the Satsuma Domain was small and poor, and lacked the conditions for primitive accumulation. In the past, Satsuma relied on the Ryukyu Kingdom for re-export trade and obtained a lot of benefits from it. Now, Huaihai Navy's goods suddenly poured into Japan through the shogunate, which dealt a huge blow to Satsuma.
The Satsuma Domain suddenly lost its market.
Some Samurai warriors were ready to take action. They took advantage of the Qing army's visit to Japan to plan a series of revenge actions. This assassination was just the beginning.