I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Then, on May 23, the Chofu Domain (a branch of the Choshu Domain) discovered that the French reporting ship Kien-Chang had stopped in the Chofu Strait on its way from Yokohama to Nagasaki.

The Choshu Domain was on standby in preparation for an attack. When the Jianchang entered the strait, it was bombarded and damaged.

At that time, the crew of the Jianchang were still unaware of the attack on the Pembroke, nor did they know that Changzhou was determined to expel the foreigners.

In an attempt to negotiate, they allowed civilian officials to land, but the feudal troops continued their attack, resulting in the civilian officials being wounded and four sailors being killed.

Subsequently, the Jianchang quickly left the strait, while the Gengshen Maru and Guihai Maru continued to pursue it. The Jianchang suffered considerable damage and fled to Nagasaki the next day.

With two victories in two battles, the patriots of Changzhou were overjoyed and spread the news: We won! We defeated the Western barbarians! The Western barbarians are nothing but a bunch of cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong!

At first glance, Choshu's feat of blockading the Shimonoseki Strait and firing at Western ships was indeed exhilarating.

However, any discerning person... no, anyone with a modicum of sense could see that the Choshu Domain had made a huge mess of things!

The reason people reached this consensus was that on May 10th, all the forces except Choshu—including the shogunate, which had made the political promise to "begin expelling the barbarians on May 10th"—remained silent!

This has continued for the past few days and continues to this day.

Singing continues, dancing continues, and horseback riding continues.

The wind and water were calm, as if nothing had happened.

Changzhou put on an awkward one-man show.

Qingdeng's advice played a crucial role in making this situation possible.

Yoshiki Ichihashi caused such a huge mess by irresponsibly making promises to the court and then irresponsibly fleeing on his own, leaving Seido and others to clean up his mess.

In the past few days, Qingdeng and others have been racking their brains, trying to find a way to break the deadlock.

He was a general with military power, and if the war to expel the barbarians were to be launched, then the people and troops that would have to go to the battlefield would be him and his Shinsengumi.

Qing Dengcai would not waste the precious fighting force he had painstakingly cultivated on such a meaningless war.

Despite his displeasure, he had no choice but to put in his best effort to clean up the mess for Yoshinobu Hitotsubashi, all for the sake of his own interests.

Ironically, just when everyone was frowning in worry... suddenly, Qingdeng had a sudden realization!

True political maneuvering requires only the simplest methods.

He realized: Why should we think about cleaning up the mess?

Why don't we just ignore this matter?

Because the various feudal lords certainly wouldn't pay any attention to this matter!

Simply put, it's about using a tried-and-true method to evade responsibility—expanding the scope of responsibility! Making everyone involved! Making everyone smeared with shit!

As long as we muddy the waters, expand the scope of the damage, and drag everyone into the mess, the problem will naturally be solved!

Everyone in the class handed in their homework except you, so you're the one in trouble.

If no one in the class hands in their homework, then the teacher will be in trouble!

Neither the shogunate nor the various domains were doing their homework, leaving the imperial court to be the awkward teacher.

Qingdeng refused to believe it—that the various vassal states would dare to obey the imperial edict?

Do you dare to expel the barbarians?

You're drowning in debt! You can't even afford to offend the Osaka merchants, how could you possibly afford to offend the Western nations?

If even the shogunate didn't have that capability, the other feudal states certainly wouldn't have it either!

Japan has been open to the world for nearly 10 years. Leaving aside the lower classes, most of the high-ranking officials have a basic understanding of the global situation.

The various vassal states were already well aware of the immense power of the Western nations.

Qing Deng dared to assert: The various vassal states would absolutely not repel the barbarians!

Since that's the case, then we'll follow suit!

Therefore, Qingdeng quickly finalized his strategy—

To prevent the various vassal states from later using the excuse of "not having received the relevant imperial edict" to send out all their fast horses and sedan chairs to inform all the vassal states that the imperial court had issued an edict to "begin to expel the barbarians on May 10th," and that all vassal states must obey without fail!

In particular, we must send special notices to those domains that usually clamor the most for the expulsion of foreigners—such as the Tosa Domain and the Mito Domain!

Qingdeng deliberately played a word game.

By changing the subject of the announcement to "the Imperial Court" and never mentioning that the date "May 10th" was the fault of the Shogunate, the Shogunate subconsciously implies to others that this is the Imperial Court's intention and has nothing to do with the Shogunate.

Aoto's suggestion quickly gained the unanimous approval of Tokugawa Iemochi, Tenshōin, and others.

Fast horses and sedan chairs sped towards the various vassal states.

With the envoy arriving in person, even if the various vassal states wanted to pretend to be deaf and dumb, they were powerless to do anything about it.

Thus, the shogunate and the various domains all bore the heavy responsibility of "expelling the barbarians," becoming ants on the same rope.

When May 10th arrived, as expected, the situation was exactly as Qing Deng had predicted—no one took any action.

Nobody bothered to repel the barbarians.

Even the Tosa and Mito domains, which usually talked about "expelling the barbarians," remained completely silent.

Qing Deng had long anticipated the silence of the two vassal states.

Previously, the Mito Domain was the dominant force in the Sojourn Movement.

The "Sakuradamon Incident," which led to the assassination of Ii Naosuke and shocked the entire nation, was orchestrated by the Mito Domain's loyalists who advocated for overthrowing the regime.

Logically speaking, the Mito Domain's loyalists, with their illustrious "resumes" and remarkable achievements, should occupy a leading position in the current loyalist movement.

But, as the old saying goes: factional strife is fucking everywhere!

The Mito Domain was destroyed by factional strife.

The specific details are quite complicated.

In short, the conservative and radical factions within the Mito Domain engaged in infighting, resulting in heavy casualties and the complete loss of their elite forces, rendering them incapable of participating in the Soshin-Ou movement.

It was precisely because of the decline of the Mito Domain that the Choshu Domain rose to power.

The Tosa Domain... no, to be more precise, the Tosa Loyalist Party, led by Takeichi Hanpeita, genuinely wanted to expel the foreigners.

However, their voices were suppressed by Yamanouchi Yodo.

Yamanouchi Yodo – 36 years old, former lord of the Tosa Domain, currently residing in Edo.

Qingdeng had met with Yamanouchi Dodo several times and even had drinks with him a few times.

There is only one assessment of Yamanouchi Dodo: a shrewd and experienced politician!

Although he is very young, he possesses a quality that a politician should have, but which is also the most difficult to possess: he only considers interests and not feelings.

Although Yamanouchi Yodo had abdicated and was living in seclusion in the remote Edo, he remained the former lord of the domain and still wielded considerable influence within it.

Because of his easygoing nature and love of drinking, he often got drunk with the young samurai in the domain, so the younger generation in the domain liked and respected him.

In short, under the suppression of Yamanouchi Yodo, the Tosa Domain did not participate in the anti-foreign movement of May 10th.

As a result, only the Choshu Domain stubbornly blocked the Shimonoseki Strait on that day and fired at the Western ships.

To be honest, this behavior by the Choshu Domain was truly unexpected by Seito.

Qing Deng truly hadn't expected: how could the Choshu Domain have given away such a great advantage for nothing?

Logically, the best solution for the Choshu Domain should have been to remain neutral, preserve its own strength, drag the shogunate into the mess of expelling foreigners, and deplete the shogunate's resources.

This plan, which is entirely beneficial, has already been half successful for Changzhou.

Yoshinobu Hitotsubashi's bizarre actions burdened the shogunate with the heavy responsibility of expelling foreigners, plunging it into an extremely unfavorable situation.

Next, Choshu should be able to win without lifting a finger.

So how did they fail at the most crucial moment?

In short, no matter what, for Seito and others in the shogunate camp, Choshu Domain's stubborn behavior was indeed an unexpected bonus!

All other forces are keeping to themselves, but you, Changzhou, are the only ones who have jumped out to cause trouble.

The Western nations, accustomed to being robbers, will certainly not let this go easily.

It is foreseeable that Changzhou will suffer fierce retaliation from the Western countries.

Furthermore, Hisaka Genzui's stubbornness greatly deepened the rift between the various factions within the Choshu Domain.

Hisaka Genzui's "radical faction" nearly broke with Takasugi Shinsaku and Katsura Kogoro's "slippery faction".

The "popular school" led by Muku Rito also began to stir.

It's not hard to imagine that unless a remarkable figure emerges out of nowhere, Changzhou will soon be plunged into a desperate situation beset by internal and external troubles.

As for the shogunate and other feudal states that did not participate in the expulsion of foreigners... in one word, they "won"!

In two words, it's "winning big"!

If everyone makes a mistake, it means that no one is wrong.

Admittedly, the shogunate's actions were completely hypocritical; it was you who announced the expulsion of foreigners, but afterwards you were the one who abandoned the cause.

But so what?

The other feudal states did not go to expel the barbarians either; even if they wanted to denounce the shogunate, they lacked the confidence to do so.

You say we didn't expel the barbarians, but you didn't either? How dare you criticize us?

And so, because everyone had "shit" on them, they formed a natural alliance, united against external forces... or rather, against the imperial court.

The imperial court was naturally astonished by this situation.

Sanjo Saneyoshi and others never expected that their brilliant move, which should have been a decisive blow to the shogunate, would backfire and kill them!

In an effort to salvage the situation, the imperial court issued an edict rebuking the shogunate for its inconsistency and criticizing the inaction of the various domains.

On the other hand, an imperial edict was issued to praise Changzhou's bravery and loyalty.

The language used by the imperial court to criticize the shogunate and various feudal domains was very harsh and sharp.

However, the imperial court's voice has lost its deterrent power.

In recent years, fueled by the trend of respecting and plundering, and with the strong support of Changzhou, the imperial court's prestige has greatly increased.

Even the Tokugawa shogun came to meet the emperor after more than two hundred years to discuss the expulsion of foreigners, which was quite impressive.

However, this lofty majesty was ultimately just a bubble.