Since Okubo paid a visit to Mr. Egawa Tanan, the number of samurai who come to Horiya Yashiki in Shinjuku Town to enjoy the autumn breeze has gradually decreased. Even if there are, they are much more polite, and most of them hope to introduce businessmen to the Shirozu Shrine. Okubo was puzzled and went

I would like to ask my father, Jiemon, what happened recently, and why are people so friendly to me? Has it finally been discovered that I have become handsome?

"You recently went to the survey office to wait for news, and no one told you? You are famous now." Jiemon heard from Haha University that he and Mrs. Fukuko had known about it for a long time. They thought that their son had known about it, so they never said anything.

Mention this - Fusang tradition, you should give your son a hard push at home to prevent him from being proud and complacent. Only outside is the right place to show off your son.

It turns out that since the last meeting, Mr. Tan'an had the opportunity to promote Okubo on his behalf, saying, "A newbie in orchid studies, extremely smart" - Mr. Tan'an is a giant in orchid studies, so Okubo has naturally become famous in the circle of orchid scholars.

After becoming famous, the number of samurai who came to study and the number of people who invited Okubo to banquets and lectures gradually increased - after all, orchid studies have become very popular in recent years. It is said that even the official school Changheihuang is offering orchid studies courses, although the head of Lin University came forward to clarify

, "This matter is false, Changpinghuang is Zhu Xi's dojo, how can it be tainted by miscellaneous studies." However, the prosperity of Lanxue can be seen.

But Okubo had something on his mind, so he politely declined them all. But there were two invitations that he could not refuse, because the invitations came from the Tosa Yamauchi family and the Uwajima Date family - the Yamauchi family had a lot of support for the White Lord, and they had to save face.

Yes; and Ninomiya Keisaku of the Uwajima Domain is the master-uncle of the family head Naohide, so it is not easy to refuse invitations from elders.

Although the Uwajima Domain had no trade relations with the Shirolord Shojo, Crown Prince Fukutaro's first wet nurse was Ninomiya Ina. Ninomiya Keisaku, who was the feudal lord's close friend, was Ina's father, and he also learned from Naohide's other teacher, Ito.

Don't worry about Mr. Xuanpu. Ninomiya and Mr. Xuanpu are brothers in the same school, so they should be considered Naohide's uncles, so Okubo went to the banquet on time after receiving Mr. Ninomiya's invitation.

Ninomiya Keisaku was Okubo who was hosted by Nakayashiki of the Uwajima Domain.

Like Mr. Xuanpu, he had studied under Dr. Siebold, a famous orchidist and considered a senior in orchidology. This time he was accompanying the feudal lord to Edo for a pilgrimage.

After meeting, Mr. Ninomiya felt very ashamed and apologized to Okubo repeatedly.

Of course, the apology is not because I invited Okubo so late - Okubo is the mayor of the shogunate office, and the two families have nothing to do with official matters. As for personal friendship, Mr. Ninomiya and Okubo are strangers. It is normal not to invite him. What is there to apologize for?

of.

The reason why Mr. Ninomiya apologized was that Naohide had been inviting Uwajima to send merchant ships to the north, but Ninomiya Keisaku had never found a suitable merchant to go to Hakuzu. He said that Uwajima and himself had benefited a lot from Naohide, and he hoped that Okubo would convey his message to Naohide.

of apology.

In the first year of Hongka (1844), Naohide went to Uwajima during his study tour and taught Mr. Ninomiya the technique of artificially cultivating pearls. At that time, Mr. Ninomiya turned around and dedicated this technology to Date Munejo, who had just taken over as the head of the family.

, and thus got a good position.

After nearly eight years of development, Uwajima's pearl business has become famous. In this era, there is no such thing as "cultured pearls are not as good as natural pearls". In addition, under Naohide's guidance, the idea of ​​"pearl powder nourishes the skin" is flying everywhere.

Uwajima, who has an exclusive business, naturally makes a lot of money.

A rising tide lifts all boats, and Mr. Ninomiya's status is getting higher and higher. He always wants to find opportunities to repay Naohide, but Uwajima and Kitajima have nothing to complement each other in business. Both places have developed fisheries, so they can't exchange fish with each other.

Shall we do it? "Here, try it. The dried fish from Uwajima is salty. The dried fish from Shirozu is also salty, but the flavor is different when you taste it carefully~" - Keep it and others will look at it as a fool.

As for the charcoal and rice that Shiro is in urgent need of, firstly, the output of Uwajima is not high, and secondly, the shipping cost to Shiro is not appropriate - from this point of view, the relationship between the two parties is not deep enough, and Tosa Saitaniya has been going to Shiro

The Lord sent this and that, what did people say?

However, Naohide had warned Okubo that Mr. Ninomiya Keisaku was an honest man, and the feudal lord Date Munejo was said to be of good character. Moreover, Munejo was a rare orchid-loving daimyo. He had a close relationship with Shimazu Saibin, Kagoshima, and his wife was still a samurai.

He must win over Nabeshima Saimasa's sister, so Okubo is very enthusiastic towards Mr. Ninomiya.

The two desperately tried to find a way to trade, and finally reached an agreement as follows: Lord Bai sent merchants to Uwajima to purchase pearls and sell special products, and Uwajima sent people to the Northland to fish.

After the conversation, both of them were a little embarrassed: Mr. Ninomiya thought how many real pearls Shiro could purchase with such a small number of people, and the breeding technology was given to him by the other party, so he always felt something was wrong; Okubo's embarrassment was that Uwajima saw the sales in Tosa next door.

The fur was very attractive, but the owner had to guarantee Saitaniya's exclusive rights in Shikoku, so he had no choice but to refuse.

Everything is difficult at the beginning, so let’s do this for now.

Compared with the awkward chat with Ninomiya, Okubo got along much more happily with Motokichi, the old Yoshida officer of the Tosa family. Although the two have never met, the relationship between Tosa and Shiro is so good, Saitaniya, Katsurahama

The business of the house is going on, and there are also many samurai who were originally from Tosa serving as officials in Shirozu.

Kanbei Yoshida, like Mr. Ninomiya, also went to Edo with the master of the family for a pilgrimage. As a result, he suddenly heard that a rising star of orchid learning had come from Shiro, and it would be nice to meet him.

Yoshida Kanbei and Naohide got to know each other very early. He helped to establish Naohide's former private school in Kochi Town. His career development was closely related to Naohide. In addition, the head of the family, Yamauchi Toyonobu, asked him to deepen his relationship with Shiro as much as possible. Therefore,

He was so enthusiastic about Okubo that the servants looked at him with suspicion - The master is usually very dignified, so what is the origin of this name Okubo?

Yoshida's reputation is "majestic", which is actually a euphemism for not looking down on people. He, Okubo and Oguri Tadjun are all the same thing, and he won't even look at others if they don't have real information.

But when the bastard looked at Mung Bean, he and Okubo felt that they were in love without a few words of conversation. If the difference in status and reserve had not played a role, the two of them almost became sworn brothers on the spot.

Kanbei Yoshida was originally a sergeant of the Yamauchi family. Because he had known the current head of the family, Toyonobu, for a long time, and he was a confidant of Toyonobu's brother, the twelfth generation lord Toyohi, so it was natural that he became a member of the Yamauchi family after the death of his father and son.

Toyonobu's arm - Soon after Toyonobu came to power in the first year of Kayei (1848), he promoted Kanbei from the chief minister of Aki County to the chief minister of Kochi Town. This year, he was promoted to the governor to take charge of the feudal administration.

It is different from Naohide's original world. Because of Naohide's appearance, Toyonobu and Kanbei have won over the upper-class forces in the domain represented by the family elder Fukuoka Miyauchi through Saitaniya and Sect Industry. They all make money together. It is not a happy life. Now Tosa

The upper-class samurai of the Yamauchi family all supported Toyonobu, so they did not give the retired 11th generation feudal lord Yamauchi Toyotoshi any chance to interfere in the feudal affairs, so now Yamauchi Toyonobu is speaking out in Tosa.

At the same time, Yoshida Kanbei's life was also very beautiful. He was good friends with Oguri Tadjun, the shogunate's chief minister, so this time he came to Edo, and no unscrupulous shogunate had the guts to play tricks on him.

The proud Kanbei Yoshida enjoyed himself in Edo and met many famous people. Because he and Okubo talked about speculation, he made sure to let Okubo attend his gatherings with these famous people.

Okubo had something on his mind. He had no intention of attending a gathering of intellectuals. He was not interested in complimenting each other with a group of strangers, so he politely declined.

This is the fifth month of the Japanese calendar and the beginning of July of the Western calendar. According to the original plan, the results of the White Lord's northward attack on the Lucians have been settled. What will be the victory or defeat? Will the Lucians retaliate later? These are all in Okubo

He was wondering if he could feel at ease.

Moreover, Naohide regarded him as an unparalleled national warrior, and sent him as an envoy to Edo this time just to protect him. Okubo was very moved by this.

Originally, Naohide arranged for his wife Eiko to go to Edo together in the name of visiting her son, but Eiko refused. She said: "My life is hanging in the balance. My husband and his wife are in danger."

My family is fighting hard at the front, how can I abandon everyone and run away? We must live and die together."

After hearing this, Okubo also wanted to stay, but Naohide insisted on letting him go for two reasons:

First, this trip to the north has a high chance of success after careful planning in the early stage, but you must be prepared for the opponent's revenge in the later stage. Okubo, go to Edo and take a closer look at what the shogunate is preparing for in Edo Bay, so as not to be attacked by others.

;

Second, the right people do the right things.

Naohide is more suitable for me to fight on the battlefield, but you are more proficient in strategic planning, Okubo. If the execution center fails and even the white master cannot hold it, you will have to clean up the mess later - Naohide and Okubo have a fight, and overseas

The business will be entrusted to Gakujiro and Toranosuke, and they will continue to support you. In addition to doing a good job in providing pensions to the White Lord, you must also make good use of this power, whether it is to join Oguri Tadjun or return to Kagoshima. In short, colonization

The burden of enriching the people and strengthening the army and defense will be left to you.

"Murata is a little naive, Ryoma is still young, and both of us are overseas now. Manjiro and I went to the national disaster together. Looking around, I can only entrust you with the important task. For Fuso's plan, please take good care of yourself, Okubo-kun."

At that time, Naohide even made Okubo cry. Okubo also felt that his talent was not in leading troops in combat, so who else could he give up on me if he went to Edo to be prepared?

Therefore, he had a secret mission to Edo. Now he is living like a year, looking forward to the latest news from the White Lord every day - but Naohide's agreement with him is "no news is good news". The earliest is September in the Western calendar.

It would be no later than October before a ship could arrive in Edo to deliver the information.

It was early July, and there were still two or three months before the agreed time. Okubo had no choice but to wait patiently, but his mood was inevitably affected, so he was too lazy to go out and socialize with irrelevant people.

Waiting and waiting, not only was there no news from Bai Zhu, but even the survey office did not give any reply. Okubo was so anxious that the blisters on his lips kept rising one after another.

As a result, after longing and waiting, two pieces of bad news came in late May on the Chinese calendar (early July on the Western calendar).

The first one was that a fire broke out in Edo Castle and completely burned down Nishi Maruyo, the residence of the Shogun Crown Prince.

The second news is that the Lucian ship actually came to the port and went to the fields.

Okubo learned this when he went to Mr. Tanan's house to greet him, which scared him into a cold sweat.

But this is the wrong time. According to Lord Bai's inference, even if the Lucians retaliate, they will probably take revenge in August or September of the Western calendar. Could it be that the calculation is wrong? This war may be dangerous.

Mr. Tan'an saw that he looked wrong and comforted him by saying that although Shimoda Odaiba had not yet been equipped with the new Western cannon, the merchant ships that came this time were requesting trade in the name of transporting Fuso drifters and had already been sent away.

Okubo ignored the suspicion and continued to inquire, "Where did this merchant ship come from?"

"Let me ask you clearly, I am from Songjiang, China."

Okubo felt relieved when he heard this. This was the wrong direction. The Lucians coming from the north were the ones who raised the army to investigate.

Mr. Tanan was very pleased to see that he was worried about national affairs, and even invited Okubo to the Odaiba construction site of Uraga Suido to have a look. Okubo did not go in the end in order not to cause trouble to Mr. Tanan.

So Okubo continued to wait. After waiting for a month, he finally received two new messages.

In late June of the Japanese calendar (early August of the Western calendar), the shogunate suddenly began to arm the newly-renovated Edo Bay Odaiba - Okubo knew that this was a large number of 3-inch rifled guns sent to Fuso by Hamhyo Corporation.

Almost at the same time, the shogunate suddenly appointed a large number of coastal defense officials, including Tsutsui, Hori, Nagai, Iwase, Okubo (Tadahiro) and many other high-ranking officials whom Okubo didn't know about. Not to mention, they even included the old man of Mito
Chapter completed!