Author: Jin Manlou
In 1868, the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan, was forced to back down by the Western powers, which eventually provoked great anger among the samurai who were already dissatisfied with it.
Later, under the slogan "Emperor Shōgun", the Japanese samurai who opposed the rule of the shogunate, led by Satsuma and other clans, launched an attack on the shogunate.
In January of that year, the two sides fought fierce battles at Toba and Fushimi on the southern outskirts of Kyoto, resulting in a great victory for the Shogunate and the collapse of the shogunate army.
In addition to the great defeat, Tokugawa Keiki, who was commanding the battle in Osaka, was also like a deflated leather ball, and suddenly lost the will to fight.
After only one day, Tokugawa Keiki abandoned Osaka and the army, known as the "Golden Castle Yuike", and fled back to Edo with the flagship Kaiyang with the old Itakura Katsushige, the lord of Aizu Domain, Matsudaira Ronho, and the lord of Kuwana Domain, Matsudaira Tsuneyoshi.
The commander fled, and the remnants of the shogunate army in Osaka Castle dispersed.
After the victory at Gyeonggi, the Fallen Curtain Faction did not hesitate to do anything about it, and immediately issued a "Decree of Requisitioning Keiki", announcing the removal of all tokugawa Keiki's positions, the confiscation of his domain as the domain of the imperial court, and the deprivation of the territory and official positions of the Aizu and Sangming factions.
In order to gain recognition from the European and American countries, the Meiji government also sent emissaries to present the letters of state to the ministers of various countries, the main of which stated: From now on, the emperor will personally adjudicate domestic and foreign affairs, and the treaties concluded by the "maharaja" (shogun) in the past are now inherited in the name of the emperor.
In this regard, while maintaining their apparent neutrality, the British and French countries, which supported the Sassā and Nagato domains and the shogunate respectively, secretly fought (in order to sell arms and seek influence in Japan).
After March, the Fallen Curtain faction formed the Eastern Crusade Army, which claimed to be 50,000 soldiers and horses, and Prince Qichuan Gong was appointed as the governor of the Eastern Crusade, and Saigo Takamori and others were staff officers.
Before the expedition, the Emperor personally awarded the pennant and the knotted knife, wishing the flag of the Eastern Expedition victory and triumphant return.
After that, the Eastern Crusade Army did indeed progress rapidly, and one of the "SamukushoBi", Kuwana Domain, fell without a fight, and Suruga, the birthplace of the Tokugawa clan, soon fell into the hands of the Fallen Curtain Army.
At the end of April, the Eastern Expeditionary Army gradually besieged Edo.
In this situation, the shogunate was also divided into two factions, the main warrior, the main lord, and under the persuasion of the shogunate's heavy minister Katsukai, Tokugawa Keiki finally decided to surrender Kaeshiro, and the Eastern Crusade army was bloodless and peacefully took over Edo.
At this point, the overall situation of the War of The Fall of the Curtain had been decided, and the Tokugawa shogunate, which lasted for 265 years, was overthrown (the Qing court ruled for 268 years, which was very close).
As for the last shogun, Tokugawa Keiki, he went to Mito and Shizuoka to live in seclusion, and still gave his domain 700,000 stones (later renamed Tokugawa Ieta).
After this failure, Tokugawa Keiki stopped thinking about politics and died in 1913 at the age of 77 (the longest-lived shogun in the Tokugawa shogunate).
After the fall of shogunate rule, Japan's civil war was not over.
At the time of Edo Kaijo, the former shogunate infantry followed Keisuke Otori's 2,000 elite troops to flee to another Samuku shogun aizu domain, and his lord Matsudaira Ronho was not willing to lose, and after he fled back to the domain, he reorganized his armaments, reformed the military system, and prepared for a decisive battle with the fallen shogunate.
At this time, the northeastern clans such as Mutsu, Deyu, and Echigo did not want to be involved in the war, nor did they want to accept the new government, and later simply formed the "Anti-Sa alliance", announcing that they would "clear the side of the king" and eliminate the "pseudo-official army".
Tokugawa Celebrates
As a result, the Fallen Curtain Army continued to march to the northeast, and along the way, the momentum was broken, and finally even the most stubborn Matsudaira Ronbo had to surrender Kaesong.
While the Tohoku War was in full swing, the former shogunate navy chief Takeyoshi, the shogunate's old Itakura Katsushige, and other shogunate retainers led eight remnant warships such as Kaiyang and more than 4,000 Sendai clan soldiers escaped from Shinagawa Bay and sailed to Ezo (Hokkaido) to declare independence.
From the beginning of the army to the final victory, the War of Fall lasted a year and a half, and since 1868 was the year of The Pentatsu, this war is also known in Japanese history as the "Pentasuta War".
Through this civil war, the Fallen Shogunate eventually eliminated the "Shogunate System" that lasted for nearly 700 years, which laid a solid foundation for the substantial unification of Japan and its transition to a modern state.
After the war, when the samurai from the Satsuma Domain and choshu Domain seized the real power of the Meiji government, where would these ambitious "Noble Scholars" take Japan?