After failing to board a black ship, Yoshida Shoin was released back to his hometown. He was first imprisoned in prison, and then in the second year of Ansei (1855), he was pardoned and sentenced to confinement.

During this period, he borrowed the Matsushita Village Private School from his uncle Tamaki Fuminosusum and his uncle Kubo Gorozaemon, studying and giving lectures.

In addition to studying, Yoshida Shoin will also arrange martial arts, swimming and other physical training for his disciples, as well as teach military science and practice formations to prepare for future actual combat.

It is worth mentioning that the connotations of the idea of ​​respecting and exalting that Yoshida Shoin initially followed and the currently popular idea of ​​respecting and exalting are different.

The keynote of Yoshida Shoin's theory is that the emperor is a descendant of Amaterasu, and the line has never changed for eternity. Now the emperor appoints a shogunate to govern the princes and rule Japan. As subjects of the emperor, we should not overthrow the shogunate who are also subjects of the emperor;

As a feudal lord, we should try our best to persuade the shogunate to correct its mistakes.

On the other hand, as long as the shogunate respects the emperor, it will naturally get the allegiance of the emperor; and the princes who respect the shogunate will naturally get the allegiance of their retainers. In other words, respecting the king does not mean overthrowing the shogunate, but it is a set of theories to consolidate the social ethical order.

However, in the fifth year of Ansei (1858), shortly after Ii Naobi took office, the shogunate bypassed the court and signed trade treaties with the United States, the Netherlands, Russia, Britain, and France without authorization, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the court.

The Toto clan issued a secret edict, reprimanding the shogunate for signing the contract without authorization, and asked Mito and other clans to work together with the shogunate to fight against the invaders. After being discovered by the shogunate, Ii Naomi used this as an excuse to directly launch the "Ansei Prison" and vigorously suppressed it.

After the "illegal printing incident" of the "Ichitsubashi faction" broke out, Yoshida Shoin went out of his way and directly threatened that the general who conquered the barbarians was a thief in the world. If he did not conquer the shogunate, he would only cause criticism in the world.

He doesn't just talk but doesn't do anything, he actually plans various actions to bring down the curtain.

He advocated using radical means such as assassination and sabotage to deal with the shogunate, which angered the shogunate.

In the sixth year of Ansei (1859), the shogunate asked the Choshu clan to escort Yoshida Shoin to Edo for trial. He was killed soon after.

Because Yoshida Shoin was originally a very radical person, the students who came from his disciples were naturally more radical than the others.

Among the many disciples of Yoshida Shoin, three are the most outstanding - Takasugi Shinsaku, Katsura Kogoro, and Hisasaka Genzui.

Shortly after the death of Yoshida Shoin, under the leadership of these three people, the power of the Choshu clan grew rapidly.

Under the call of these three men, the partisans of the Choshu Domain were notoriously radical.

They advocated war against the Westerners and always believed that "holding this Tiangang sword and smiling at the foreign gunmen, the foreigners are nothing but shit" and "as long as you show the spirit of a warrior who is not afraid of death, even an armored warship on the ocean can be killed with a sword"

He vowed to expel all Westerners from the Japanese land without leaving a trace. In addition, he would also severely punish the shogunate who bowed to the Westerners.

After Shufu Nosuke's "Justice Faction" merged with Takasugi Shinsaku and others, they were also infected by this radical atmosphere.

Under their leadership, and the iron-waste Maori Qingqing's words of "Okay, so be it!", the Choshu clan completely turned to "respecting the king and resisting the barbarians" and became the most solid fortress of the respecting and resisting camp.

In the spring and summer of last year (1862), Shimazu Hisamitsu, who personally led 1,000 soldiers of the Satsuma domain to Kyoto in order to seize political dominance, briefly took control of Kyoto and then led his entire army eastward to force the shogunate to accept his "establishment of five major forces".

"Old", "supporting Keiki Hitotsubashi and Haruge Matsudaira as generals and then political presidents respectively" and other propositions.

With the departure of Shimazu Hisamitsu and the Satsuma Army under his command, there was a power vacuum in Kyoto. Choshu Domain seized this opportunity and exploited every opportunity to march into Kyoto and hijack the emperor and the court.

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Please give me a monthly ticket! Please give me a recommendation vote! (Leopard Head Cries)

Leopard Leopard, can you even write less than 5,000 words for a chapter explaining the background of the plot? It’s really Zayu ~ Zayu ~ (Zhayu Leopard)

You can review Chapter 3 of this volume. The content of this chapter has many echoes with the content of Chapter 3 of this volume. Reading them together will help you understand the plot background.
Chapter completed!