During the Meiji Restoration in Japan, heroes emerged and left many deeds that can be sung and wept, the most memorable of which is the langshi of the "new selection group", whose stories are still sung by many literary and artistic works.
In 1853 and 1854, There were two "black ships coming to sail" incidents in Japan, and the fleet led by The commander of the Us East Indies Fleet, General Perry, threatened Japan for two consecutive years. After that, the Great Powers flocked to the country, and the Tokugawa shogunate was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties that humiliated the country, such as the Treaty of Kanagawa.
The influx of a large number of cheap industrial products from the West has seriously impacted japan's agrarian economy, and the people's lives have fallen into difficulties. The bullying of the great powers ignited the anger of the Japanese people, and the "Shogi" wave swept the whole country, and the emperor at that time also firmly supported the "Shogi", but the shogunate that controlled the Japanese regime knew that they were not opponents of the foreigners at all, so they were vague, vain and condescending on this issue.
As a result, the incompetence and weakness of the shogunate were clearly seen, and the prestige and control of General Tokugawa in Japanese society were much worse than before, and various political forces took advantage of the rise. Some of them called for the "founding of the country" and took the initiative to embrace Western civilization, believing that only by adhering to Japanese culture and working hard to learn Western culture and science and technology could they find a way out, and put forward the idea of "peace and soul of foreign talents"; some of them resolutely demanded "the unity of the public and the military" and completely expelled the foreigners; some advocated the "integration of public and military forces," that is, to let the public family represented by the emperor cooperate with the shogunate headed by the shogun to promote the "honor of the king", in fact, to allow the emperor, who has been vacant for hundreds of years, to re-participate in Japanese politics. Decentralize the power of the shogunate. A fierce struggle was waged between these political forces, and those "pioneers" regarded the "founding faction" as traitors and carried out "heavenly curses" on them on the streets at every turn.
Against this backdrop, a large number of Ronin poured into Kyoto to support the forces they supported, often drawing their swords at the slightest disagreement. Some Ronin even took advantage of the opportunity to rob their homes in the name of "Shogi", and Kyoto's security became very poor. However, at that time, the emperor's imperial court had neither an army nor a police, and the safety of Kyoto and the imperial palace was guarded by the garrisons of the princes in Kyoto, and each clan had a liaison office in Kyoto, each of which defended its own interests, and the power was intertwined, and there was no department to concentrate on managing the ronin who ran amok in Kyoto.
In February 1863, under pressure from the imperial court and powerful domains such as Satsuma, the shogun Tokugawa Ieshige was forced to agree to enter The Capital to meet the Emperor and discuss the plan to destroy the emperor.
At this time, Kiyokawa Hachiro, a swordsman of the Hokutatsu lineage, approached Matsudaira Keinaga, the president of the government, and suggested that the situation in Kyoto was chaotic, and that for the sake of the general's safety, it was necessary to stabilize the law and order there first, but if the army was sent directly, it would be mistaken for a threat to the imperial court, so it was better to organize some ronin to form a "ronin team" and let them go to Kyoto to fight the front station, even if there was a conflict with radicals, it had nothing to do with the shogunate.
Matsudaira Keinaga heard this and gave him this task, so Kiyokawa Hachiro posted a notice in Edo to recruit ronin and go to Kyoto to defend the general. Soon, a "Ronin Team" of more than 200 people was formed, including the sword master of natural streaming, the owner of the trial guard hall, Isamu Kondo, the master of the natural flow of the temple, and the natural flow of people, Tokata Tokata, as well as several other disciples.
Isamu Kondo
On February 8, 1863, the "Ronin" team, led by Kiyokawa Hachiro, departed from Edo and arrived in Kyoto on the 23rd, staying at Shintoku-ji Temple in Kyoto. However, what the Ronin members did not expect was that Kiyokawa Hachiro was actually a "Shogi faction", and the purpose of his proposal to form the "Ronin Team" was to use the support of the shogunate to master a force of his own, and then go to Kyoto to join the imperial court and implement the "Honorable King's Ryū".
That night, Kiyokawa Hachiro gathered his team members to lecture and showed his bottom card, indicating that he would write to the emperor, turn the whole team into the emperor's army, and help the imperial court supervise the shogunate to send troops to "Shogi". Qinghe Hachiro's idea was completely unexpected. Kondo and others were samurai who had served the shogunate for generations, and they were loyal only to the shogun and were never willing to help the imperial court put pressure on the shogun. So they contacted Serizawa Duck, the Shinto Mindless Stream Sword Master of the Mito Domain, and together they broke away from the Ronin Team. They found Matsudaira Ronho, a fellow member of the Tokugawa family and who was serving as the guardian of Kyoto, and told him what had happened and clarified their loyalty to the shogunate.
Matsudaira Ryūho was touched by their loyalty, and he was also worried about the chaotic security situation in Kyoto at that time, so he authorized them to form another "Roninshi Team" serving the shogunate, which was called the Nongsheng Roshi Group because they were stationed in Mibu. Isamu Kondo, Kamo Serizawa, and Nishiki Shinmi are the directors, and Togata and Keisuke Yamanami are the deputy directors. To show their majesty, they wore uniform shallot feathers painted with a white mountain motif on the hem. They also designed the team flag, and the red base was embroidered with a huge gold "Cheng" character.
After Kondo and their separation from the Roshi, Kiyokawa Hachiro, at the behest of the imperial court, prepared to return east to Edo, clamp down on the shogunate and guard against foreigners. On March 27, he returned to Edo. Kiyokawa Hachirō's actions infuriated the shogunate, and they were determined to get rid of it. Because Of hachiro Kiyokawa's martial arts skills, it was not easy to kill him, so the shogunate also made a careful plan, and they sent six first-class masters led by Sasaki Tsunzaburō to assassinate Kiyokawa Hachirō.
On April 13, Kiyokawa Hachiro Kiyokawa went to visit his old friend Yamaoka Tetsufune at the Azabu Kamiyama Domain, and on his way back, when he walked to the Azabu Ichinobashi Bridge, he met Sasaki Tsunzaburo, who was the top killer at the time, and the leader of the later Group of seeing back, one of the three masters of the Meiji Restoration, Sakamoto Ryuma, died under his sword.
Sasaki pretended to come forward to greet him, and Kiyokawa Hachiro was unprepared because he knew him. As they spoke, another killer, Hashito Wakami, attacked from behind Hachiro Kiyokawa and slashed him with a knife, and Sasaki immediately stepped forward to make up for it and cut him off.
After completing their preparations, the Group began patrolling the streets of Kyoto, using harsh means to maintain law and order and severely punishing all wrongdoing.
There were two factions within the Mibu Roshi Clan, one was the disciples of the Trial Guard Hall led by Isamu Kondo, and the other was the Mito Clan samurai led by Serizawa Yamo and Shinmi Nishiki. Since Kondo was only a junior samurai, also known as a corporal, Togata was not even a samurai, but Serizawa Wasazawa was a descendant of the lord of Serizawa Castle and had a higher status. In the hierarchical Japanese society, Serizawa Duck obviously overpowered Kondo, so he took over the actual control of the Nongyu Roshi group, and Kondo was basically overridden, which caused serious dissatisfaction among the Katanawa forces.
Serizawa is arrogant and arrogant, and he does not pay attention to anyone except Matsudaira Ronho. However, this Serizawa duck who is looking forward to self-esteem has also encountered difficulties, that is, there is a serious shortage of funds. Since the Nongsheng Langshi Group was not formally organized, but only a security guard or auxiliary police, Matsudaira Ryoho allocated them not much money, and after recruiting manpower, customizing team uniforms and other expenditures, there was very little left, and almost no food could be eaten. Serizawa Duck went to Kyoto many times to guard the Yamen to ask for money, but those superior samurai simply looked down on these ronin and dragged on. In desperation, he thought of extorting merchants, so he led the team members to the door of the merchants all day to find trouble and extort protection fees in various names. Kyoto merchants for a time everyone endangered themselves, and when they saw the Ronin group, they hid.
Seeing that Kyoto had run out of oil and water to squeeze out, they thought of the rich Osaka again, so they led a team of people and horses to Osaka, ready to catch a big fish. Osaka merchants suddenly became very loud, although they hated Serizawa Duck, but in the face of this gang of fierce gods and evil ronin, they dared not speak out. However, a group of sumo wrestlers in Osaka are not afraid of them, because these people are also practitioners of real kung fu. Finally, the two groups met in a narrow road on the street, and the sumo wrestlers had the strength to go forward and single out, but they did not expect that the black-hearted Serizawa duck did not talk about any rules at all, and when he drew his knife, he cut it, and the unarmed sumo wrestler was killed and injured several times. The name of The Serizawa duck has since shocked all of Japan.
On August 18, 1939, the shogunate supported the "August 18 Coup" in Kyoto, and the Two Clans of Huijin and Satsuma joined forces to drive the Choshu forces of the Zunzhi faction out of Kyoto. During the coup d'état, the Nobu Roshi group stood firmly on the side of the shogunate, patrolling the front gate of the imperial palace during the day and the southern gate of the imperial palace at night, and brilliantly fulfilled the task of defending the imperial palace. This spirit of loyalty was praised by the emperor, and Matsudaira Ronho included them in the official establishment of the imperial court, rewarded them with silver, and gave them a new name, the new selection group, which meant to change the previous bad reputation, and everything began from scratch. Since then, they have become the regular army under the guardianship of Kyoto. Encouraged by this, Serizawa Duck's behavior became even more arrogant and unscrupulous, and soon caused trouble.
On August 30, 1863, Serizawa took his cronies Shinmi Kin and others to a hotel in Osaka called Yoshidaya and asked the prostitute Koin to accompany him. But Xiao Yin already had customers this day, and the owner of the shop was very embarrassed and begged Serizawa Duck to come back another day. But Serizawa Duck didn't listen at all, he was mad at that time, beat the boss violently, and smashed it in the store, until he let Xiao Yin accompany him as he wished.
This matter was reported to Matsudaira Ryōho, who was very dissatisfied with Serizawa's misdeeds, repeatedly reprimanded without success, and this time staged a bandit act in Yoshidaya, Ryōho was furious, so he ordered severe punishment. Seeing that this time things have become big, Serizawa duck also panicked, in order to pass, he actually forced Shinmi Nishiki to come out to give him the top tank, under the constant coercion of Serizawa duck, Shinmi Nishiki cut his abdomen in despair to apologize, Serizawa duck finally gave Matsudaira Ronho an explanation.
What Serizawa Duck did made Kondo intolerable, and he regarded the honor of a samurai as his life, and he could no longer allow Serizawa Duck to ruin the reputation of the Mitsuo Roshi group. He secretly consulted with Togata, Okita Soji and other disciples, and decided to cut it off.
On September 16, 1863, while the entire shin-choi group was drinking at a hotel called Kakuya, togata suddenly pretended to be mysterious and mentioned Yoshidaya to Serizawa, suggesting that Matsudaira Ryūho had further punishment. Serizawa duck suddenly tensed up, he knew that Togata Shizo was well-informed and resourceful, he said so, he must have heard some wind noise, so he did not have the heart to drink, called Tokata Shigeru and two cronies, Hirayama Goro and Hirama Shigesuke, hurried back to the residence Yagi family to discuss countermeasures.
Tufang is three years old
Tokata proposed to drink and talk, taking the opportunity to get the three of them drunk, and he quietly withdrew after seeing Serizawa duck lying down with his concubine Ame in his arms. At this time, the outdoor wind and rain were in full swing, and Yamanami Keisuke, Okita Soji, and others who had already been ambushed outside the wall immediately jumped over the wall and broke into the house, and Hirayama Goro became the first ghost under the knife in his sleep. Serizawa duck is worthy of being the top swordsman of the Shinto mindless stream, and he also wakes up a little in his deep sleep. Feeling that something was wrong, he immediately rolled out of bed naked, which allowed him to dodge a knife that came from the darkness, but this knife cut off Amey's head, and when her head rolled down, Hirama Shigesuke crawled out with a rolling belt. Instead of chasing after them, they immediately surrounded Serizawa Duck. Togata announced to Serizawa Duck: "At the secret call of the imperial court, fight against the rebellious thief Serizawa Duck!"
Serizawa hurriedly touched his long knife, but did not get it, only grabbed a "rib difference" in his hand, and the Okita Soji he was facing at this time was the first master of the new selection group, and he was awarded the "Exemption pass" at the age of 19, that is, he had the highest skill certificate of kendo. After the two sides silently confronted each other in the terrifying darkness for a few moments, Okita Shoji swung out his knife, and Serizawa Duck was flustered at first, and second, the weapon was not in hand, and he was unable to block Okita Soji's thunderous blow, and he was killed immediately.
After Serizawa's death, Kondo took over the new selection group in its entirety, and immediately purged Serizawa's cronies, and within a month, all of them exploded in the streets, and Shigesuke Hirama, who escaped from the eight wooden houses that night, became the only survivor of the Serizawa faction.
After the Assay Guard Pavilion faction took control of the new selection group, the Tuofang Shisan presided over the formulation of the harsh family law "In-game Law Degree", and the team members had to cut their stomachs if they violated any of them. From then on, the new selection group had a strict organization and iron discipline, and would leave their names written in blood and fire in that turbulent history.
After the August 18 coup, the radical zun faction was expelled from Kyoto, but they were not reconciled and planned to make a comeback, and they made a bold plan.
Every year, Japan holds a month-long "Gyoen Matsuri" to pray for the blessings of the heavens and to eliminate disasters. During this period, the officials and the people will rejoice in this festival. Choshu's honored warriors planned to choose a windy day before and after the "Gyūen Festival", set fire to the area around the imperial palace, and take advantage of the chaos to assassinate Matsudaira Ronbo, abduct the emperor to Choshu, and then blackmail the Son of Heaven to order the princes to vigorously carry out the honor movement.
In order to realize this plan, they smuggled many weapons into Kyoto in advance and hid them in a contact point called a hotel called "Tsukiya" in Kawagencho, Kyoto. The owner's name is Toshiya Kiemon, and his real name is Kotaka Shuntaro, a radical shōgun. However, the inn was broken up by the shin-kuni, and Kotaka Shuntaro confessed his plan to kidnap the emperor under severe torture, and Kondo was shocked to hear the news, and while flying a report to Matsudaira Ryoho, he searched around for the hideyoshi people.
When the people of the Zun faction learned of Kokō Shuntaro's arrest, they knew that the plan had been leaked, so they decided to act ahead of time, and on the evening of July 8, 1864, they all gathered together and prepared for the uprising.
The new selection group also received information that the Zun faction would launch a surprise attack tonight, but it was not known where they were assembling. Kondo knew that if the Zun faction succeeded, Kyoto, which was full of wooden buildings, would be reduced to ashes, and he was determined to prevent this disaster no matter what. After an urgent analysis with Togata, Kondo thought that the Ikedaya near the Sanjo Bridge was very likely, but Togata thought that the Shikokuya near Yasaka Shrine was more suspicious, so he decided to divide the army into two ways, Kondo took 9 people to Ikedaya, and Togata took 22 people to Shikokuya.
As a result, Togata made a fuss at Shikokuya, and he knew that Kondo must have met all the men and horses of the Zun clan in Ikedaya, and was in an extremely dangerous situation, so he led the team to rush to Ikedaya desperately.
After Kondo rushed into the Ikeda house, he found that the Zun faction was indeed on the second floor, several times the number of his men, and the two sides immediately began a bloody battle. The new selection team rushed in with Isamu Kondo, Soji Okita, Shinpachi Nagakura, and Heisuke Fujido, and the rest lay in ambush at the gate.
Okita single-handedly picked out five enemies, hacked three people and seriously injured two people, vomited blood and fell down, it turned out that he was suffering from tuberculosis, and after a fierce battle, he finally could not support it. Fujido Heisuke was stabbed in the forehead, his vision was blurred by blood, and he was forced to exit the door, Kondo Andagu and Nagakura Shinhachi were blocked inside, and the team members outside could not go in to rescue, and at the critical moment, Togata finally arrived and solved the crisis. As a result, the Zun faction was hacked to death and four were hacked to death and four were captured alive. Among them, the planner and organizer of this operation, Minoru Yoshida, although escaped, but was seriously injured, knowing that he could not escape the subsequent search, so he cut his abdomen. After the success of the Meiji Restoration, his comrades-in-arms said regretfully: "If this boy is still alive, then he should be the prime minister who deserves today!"
Another escaper was Katsura Kogoro, the core figure of the meiji government and one of the three masters of the Meiji Restoration, Kido Takayoshi.
After the "Ikedaya Incident", the new selection group became famous, and the people of Kyoto thanked them for saving the ancient capital of Kyoto from destruction.
In the historical background of that time, the decaying shogunate had become a stumbling block to the progress of history, and it was a historical necessity to overthrow the curtain and carry out restoration. However, the newly elected swordsmen acted as thugs of the shogunate and suppressed the restorationists. The results of going against the tide of history are bound to be crushed, and their results are tragic. However, they were not nailed to the pillar of shame of history, but were revered and praised by people, and for more than a century, their deeds were passed down in Japan as stories of heroes, and they are still talked about today, perhaps everyone has a heroic complex in their hearts.
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