I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Kyubei is considered an elder of the Tachibana family.

Before Aoto's mother even married his father, Kyubei came to the Tachibana family to serve his father.

After Aoto's father died, Kyubei began to serve Aoto.

By this calculation, Kyubei has been serving their family for almost 30 years.

Hara Tachibana Seito has always respected this elderly man who has served his family for most of his life and is still working diligently. As a result, the master and servant get along very well.

Qingdeng has no siblings and is not yet married.

With his parents deceased and no other family members, Kyubei is currently Aoto's only family member.

Upon hearing the term "anti-foreign faction" from Qing Deng's mouth, Jiu Bingwei's face immediately turned pale.

"It's the 'Expel the Barbarians' faction again... Those people are really going too far... Young Master, you only worked at the American embassy for a short time, why are they attacking you one after another... If they really want to expel the barbarians, they should go and kill the real barbarians... Ah! Young Master, please come in quickly! I'll bandage your wounds!"

……

……

Of course, bandages didn't exist in Japan at that time.

During this era, Japanese people used something called "linen" to stop bleeding and bandage wounds.

The injury on Qingdeng's leg was minor and would not affect his daily activities. He would recover fully after a period of rest.

As Kyubei clumsily bandaged Aoto's leg wound, Aoto rubbed his furrowed brow vigorously.

—So what's going on now...? I just transmigrated here and found myself in a desperate situation where I could be hacked to death by a bunch of lunatics at any moment?

After searching through Hara Tachibana Aoto's memories, Aoto finally figured out the identities of the three samurai who had attacked him earlier.

They are members of the "Expel the Barbarians" faction!

What is the "Expel the Barbarians" faction?

That's a long story.

More than 1000 years ago, the great Eastern power across the sea had entered the Sui and Tang Dynasties, while Japan was still in the backward era of slavery.

Having witnessed the vast gap between their own country and the Sui and Tang empires across the sea, the Japanese rulers at that time, in their pursuit of wealth and power, resolved in 645 AD to comprehensively learn from the advanced systems and culture of the Sui and Tang empires.

This reform is historically known as the "Taika Reform".

The Taika Reform completely transformed Japan, transforming it from a slave society into a feudal society.

Not long after the Taika Reform, Japan moved its capital to Nara. The period during which Nara was the capital is known as the "Nara period" (710-794).

In 794, Japan moved its capital again to Heian-kyo (present-day Kyoto). The period during which Heian-kyo was the capital is known as the "Heian period" (794-1192).

The Japanese emperors of the Nara and Heian periods, like the emperors of China, were true heads of state, wielding supreme power.

However, in the mid-to-late Heian period, the power of the samurai families began to rise.

The samurai class was originally just a group of rough men responsible for fighting, but towards the end of the Heian period, they gradually banded together, rose to power, and began to control the government, effectively sidelining the emperor.

The samurai group gradually transformed into a new and influential class in Japan: the samurai class!

Finally—by the end of the 12th century—the Genji samurai group completely usurped the emperor's power and seized control of the court.

Due to its unique national circumstances, Japan cannot arbitrarily abolish emperors or change dynasties like China.

At that time, abolishing the imperial family, which had existed for hundreds of years, was an extremely difficult and risky undertaking.

Therefore, Minamoto no Yoritomo, the leader of the Minamoto samurai group, established the "shogunate system".

He obtained the title of "Sei-i Taishogun" from the Emperor, retaining the Emperor and the Imperial Court, but establishing a new government in the Kamakura region.

This new government was known as the "Shogunate".

Because it was built in Kamakura, it is commonly referred to as the "Kamakura Shogunate".

The head of the shogunate was the Shogun, and the position of Shogun was passed down from generation to generation by the descendants of the Minamoto clan.

The nominal head of state and the governing body of the country remain the Emperor and the Kyoto Imperial Court.

However, the actual power holders and the institutions that governed the country were the Shogun and the shogunate located in Kamakura.

From then on, the Shogun became the de facto emperor of Japan, and the title "Sei-i Taishogun" (Shogun) became a title representing supreme power, coveted by countless ambitious individuals.

The Kamakura Shogunate lasted for just over 100 years (1185–1333). This period of rule over Japan by the Kamakura Shogunate is known as the "Kamakura period".

After the Kamakura Shogunate weakened, the imperial court, led by the emperor, attempted to regain control of the country, but failed, and power was seized by another samurai group—the Ashikaga clan.

The Ashikaga clan destroyed the Kamakura Shogunate and established the second shogunate in Japanese history in the Muromachi region: the Muromachi Shogunate. They seized the title of "Sei-i Taishogun" and the power of the state from the Genji clan, while the emperor and the imperial court continued to function as figureheads.

The period during which the Muromachi Shogunate ruled Japan is known as the "Muromachi period" (1336-1573).

Due to its unique political system, by the end of the Muromachi period, powerful local lords rose up and rebelled, plunging Japan into an unprecedented era of war and chaos: the Sengoku period (1467-1603).

This is a chaotic world where various warlords rise and fall, and national hegemony is fought over by one another.

In the end, the Tokugawa clan had the last laugh.

A samurai named Tokugawa Ieyasu successfully unified the country in 1603 and then established the third shogunate in Japanese history in Edo (present-day Tokyo): the Edo Shogunate.

The title of Shogun thus fell to the Tokugawa clan.

And this is the era that Aoto is currently living in—the Edo period, ruled by the Edo Shogunate.

By the time of the Edo period, in which Seido is currently living, the shogunate system had been perfected to the point of near perfection.

By this time, Heian-kyo had long been renamed Kyoto. The Emperor and the Imperial Court still existed in Kyoto, but they had become mere figureheads, wielding no real power whatsoever.

Simply put, modern Japan has two governments: the Imperial Court in Kyoto and the Edo Shogunate in Edo.

The head of the Kyoto court was the Emperor, while the head of the Edo shogunate was the Shogun, whose position was inherited by the Tokugawa clan.

The former is a mascot, the nominal head of state, while the latter is the true ruler of Japan, the real "Emperor of Japan".

Aoto was unaware of Japanese history or the current year, but based on Hara Tachibana Aoto's memory, he estimated that it was roughly the mid-to-late 19th century.

Seven years earlier, the American steam fleet had forced open Japan's doors.

Given the existence of steam fleets and the invasions by European and American powers, the timeframe is most likely the mid-to-late 19th century.

Not long after the establishment of the Edo Shogunate, in order to ensure national stability, the Shogunate issued the national isolation edict, and Japan entered a state of isolation, maintaining contact only with China, Korea, and the Netherlands.

Under the policy of national isolation, Japan enjoyed more than two hundred years of peace.

Until... seven years ago, in the sixth year of the Kaei era (1853), Commodore Perry of the United States Navy led his fleet to force open Japan's doors.

Because Perry's fleet included black steamships, the event became known as the "Black Ships Incident."

How could Japan, still in an ancient society, possibly be a match for the United States, which had already undergone the Industrial Revolution?

Under duress from the United States, Japan was forced to accept the Japan-U.S. Treaty of Amity and Commerce.

Japan's doors were thus opened.

The Black Ships incident had a tremendous impact on both the shogunate government and the general public.

Some people saw the gap between Japan and the foreign powers and proposed to learn from the advanced systems and technologies of the Western powers, just as they had done a thousand years ago to learn from the great Eastern power opposite them. They called for "reform" and to learn from the barbarians' superior skills to strengthen themselves.

However, the number of people in Japan who currently hold this view of "learning from the West" is pitifully small.

The "isolation edict," which lasted for nearly 250 years, made everyone in Japan, from the powerful to the ordinary people, narrow-minded and arrogant.

Faced with the invading Western powers, the most popular and sought-after ideology among the Japanese people at that time was that all these foreigners were barbaric savages and that they should be driven out without exception!

战斗！战斗！战斗！！

Those who advocated driving out the Western powers used the slogan "Expel the Barbarians." Therefore, those who advocated "Expel the Barbarians" were collectively referred to as the "Expel the Barbarians faction."

The idea of ​​"expelling the barbarians" is the most mainstream ideology today, without exception.

The "Expel the Barbarians" faction, which advocates driving foreigners out of the country, is undoubtedly the majority, while those who advocate peaceful coexistence with the great powers and learning from them are all in the minority.

Although those who advocated "expelling the barbarians" were collectively referred to as the "expelling the barbarians faction," the "expelling the barbarians faction" was further divided into many different schools of thought.

Some people hold more moderate views and advocate driving out Westerners peacefully.

However, the vast majority of "expelling the barbarians" advocate using force to expel all the great powers, led by the Americans, without exception.

Over the past seven years, as more and more foreigners have set foot on Japanese soil, the ideas of some who advocate for the expulsion of foreigners by force have become increasingly radical and extreme.

Even today, a voice has emerged among the "expelling the barbarians" faction: those who admire the West, believe that Western things are good, or work for Westerners are all traitors who worship barbarians and fawn over the barbarians! These traitors should also be killed!

Such absurd and extreme ideas have gradually spread and are being embraced by more and more people.

The three samurai who just assassinated Qingdeng were radical expelling foreigners with such extreme ideas.

Why would radical anti-foreigners target Qingdeng?

The reason for this is that "Yuanju Qingdeng" worked at the US Embassy for 7 days more than a month ago.

*******

*******

New book launch! Please vote for it! Please add it to your favorites!

The Japanese pronunciation of the protagonist Tachibana Aoden is: たちばなあおと.

The Romanized pronunciation is: tachibana aoto.

So Qingdeng's full name looks short, with only 3 Chinese characters, but the pronunciation is quite long, with a total of 7 syllables. The surname "Ju" alone has 4 syllables.

Have you ever seen a hellish start like Chapter 5?

Seven years earlier, in 1853, the sixth year of the Kaei era, the American fleet forced open Japan's doors and signed the first unequal treaty in Japanese history: the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States.

From then on, Britain, France, and other powers, like cats that had smelled blood, came one after another to Japan to sign all sorts of treaties.

Two years earlier, in Ansei 2 (1858), Japan signed a new treaty with the United States: the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States.

In this treaty, Japan agreed to allow the United States to send a minister to Edo, and the American embassy was officially established in Japan.

These foreign embassies naturally became the primary targets of the "radical anti-foreign" faction.

They have launched countless harassment campaigns, large and small, against the embassy and those working there.

At present, the idea of ​​"expelling the barbarians" is spreading more and more widely, and more and more people are joining the movement to expel the barbarians. Attacks on embassies are also becoming more and more intense.

If the minister and others in the embassy were killed by the "radical anti-foreign faction," it would be a serious international problem. Therefore, the shogunate decided to increase the number of guards around the embassy.