Rumours coming in daily from the south made it more and more apparent that sooner or later a determined resistance would be offered to the mandates of the shogun, no matter who the incumbent or what the purport of their recent letter might be. Yet the shogunate had in no wise prepared to meet it, and the delay hoped for as a result of the frank and unequivocal resignation of Hitotsubashi was much needed by Daikomitsu and Okotsuba in making a last heroic effort to gather and utilise the fragments of their strength. Tetsutaisho took no active part in these endeavours, neither did he offer any strong resistance or disencouragement; nor was his failure at that time so much felt. He was a fighter, not an organiser; still his actions had a bad influence upon the samurai (which constituted the shogun's army), as it also embarrassed the remaining members of the triumvirate in the use of a free hand and undisturbed purpose. The feeling of uncertainty arising from his indifference caused more hindrance than any other, and Daikomitsu grew puzzled to know just what Tetsutaisho would do when it came to the final test. Both Daikomitsu and Okotsuba knew very well that the commander-in-chief's influence with the army rose above that of any other man, and that without his leadership the samurai would be hard to hold intact. Yet they could not think of surrendering entirely to his careless if not boastful ideas, so they undertook to make their preparation for war harmonise with his notions, in so far as it became necessary in order to hold his support. The letter containing the resignation, upon its arrival at Kyoto, so surprised the leaders of the southern combination that they forthwith began the reorganisation of the government upon the lines laid down at a previous assembly of the daimyos. They felt that the first step toward a complete rehabilitation had been successfully effected, though not entirely secured without having gained the sole and unqualified possession of the person of the mikado. It had been a universal custom for the shogun to keep a body of samurai posted at the gate of the Kyoto palace as a safeguard to the security of the mikado, and now that the combination looked upon the latter as their sole supreme ruler they no longer deemed it safe or desirable to intrust in any measure his protection to a guard of the enemy, nor to allow them access to the palace. Hence on the third of January Saigo seized the gates and dismissed the detachment of samurai there stationed, while the council issued in the name of the mikado, an edict abolishing the office of shogun, forbidding the bakufu entrance to the palace enclosure, and warning all against interfering in any way with the royal court or council.