In late June of the Japanese calendar (early August of the Western calendar), two major events occurred in Edo: one was that the shogunate suddenly appointed a large number of coastal defense officials, and the other was that Odaiba was suddenly closed - according to the townspeople, large tubes began to be brought in, and some

Ashigaru begins the drill.

Regarding the latter news, Okubo knew more than ordinary townspeople - the Zaoya-gumi's ancestors were all from the "Oban-gumi", the shogunate's standing army, and most of them are still serving in the Oban-gumi, so they are much better informed.

This time the shogunate spent money.

Originally, the "fixed division" of the shogunate's land standing army was the "third division" or the "fifth division" - the third division was the main force, consisting of the "big division", "academy division" and "small surname division", and the fifth division was the main force.

In addition to the third group, the banfang also adds the new group and the small ten-person group - in fact, there is also a "royal group", but because it is mainly composed of imperial family members, it is not taken seriously.

This time, a new "Odaiba Team" was formed under the Odaiba Team. Elite soldiers and generals were recruited from the Fifth Team, and samurai disciples were recruited. They mainly practiced Odaiba on a daily basis, and were usually stationed near Odaiba.

Okubo had never cared about this aspect before. After receiving the news, he was shocked and said, "I didn't think about building a team until the stage was built." It's like having to eat before thinking about planting rice. This is a bit too funny.

He arrived at the Egawa family's residence in the evening, and happened to meet Oguri Tadjun, Oguri, who was also there. Mr. Tan'an knew that Okubo was thoughtful and asked him to participate in the discussion.

Originally, there was only one Egawa Tarozaemon in charge of coastal defense in the shogunate. To put it bluntly, this position was for Mr. Tanan - the old man had always been obsessed with coastal defense, and the senior middlemen gave him such a position in order to appease Ekawa who had made great achievements.

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The coastal defense officer can participate in foreign affairs and coastal defense, and is regarded as a senior advisor to the shogunate.

One of the most important things that Mr. Egawa did when he took office as the Coast Guard in 1850 was to promote the construction of the Odaiba. As a result, the old man was too invested in this, and it was only after the construction of the Odaiba was completed that he discovered that he had been plotted.

Oguri Tadjun only returned to Edo in April this year. He was transferred from Nagasaki Mesuke to Omesuke. He had just taken office a few days ago, and after taking office, he was sent to the construction site to supervise the construction of Odaiba, so he did not notice it.

There is an undercurrent in this - As for Oguri's father Tadaka, although he has written many times to remind the two of them, because Tokoku Tadaka is away from home, the information he has is not comprehensive, and the relationship between father and son has only eased in recent years. Therefore,

Xiaoli also ignored his father's reminder.

As a result, this major adjustment of service positions in the shogunate severely dealt a blow to the Egawa and Oguri clan.

The cause of the incident came from two legendary letters - one from Xianheng Foreign Company, and the other from Curtius, the "Kapitan" of Languo Merchant who had just arrived in Nagasaki.

One major event was mentioned in both legendaries, that is, the American warships were definitely coming.

Kapitan is the nickname of the director of the Languo Commercial Post, and Curtius is the new Kapitan. He arrived in Nagasaki on a Languo merchant ship in mid-June of the Japanese calendar this year (the end of July in the Western calendar).

The relevant shogunate officials were immediately informed of this major incident.

As a result, before Nagasaki Chief Osawa Anzai and Nagasaki Mesuke, who were on duty this year, could discuss the results, the merchant ship of Hamoyo Company also entered the port. The submitted story described the matter in more detail, and also provided a possible rice ship.

The quantity and specifications are now settled, so don’t think about it anymore. The two legends said in unison that this must be true. It’s better to report it to Edo as soon as possible.

Since Naohide returned from overseas, the shogunate's attitude towards Ranxue has undergone a huge change.

In the past, Lanxue tended to talk about things, and there were very few real objects. Even the Lanshu they obtained were based on their appearance. The people of Languo, who had been doing business for many years, did not know whether they were concerned about the opinions of shogunate officials who were well versed in Confucianism or were not interested. The Lanshudong they provided was a piece of

The west block is completely unsystematic.

Of course, this cannot be entirely blamed on the Lan Guo Merchant House. The shogunate never made any specific requirements.

is one of the reasons.

However, since Naohide returned home and brought a large number of physical objects and books, Xianheng Yangxing also continued to import. Naohide and Gakujiro both started from the perspective of Fuso, and the things they sent back were very practical and systematic. Therefore, the shogunate's attitude towards Orchidology

Interest increased greatly.

Take shipbuilding as an example. Although the shogunate still did not relax the "ban on large ship construction", based on the clippers brought back by Naohide, the shogunate built several ships for use as high-speed communication ships. At the same time, the manufacturing methods gradually spread to various feudal clans.

Although they have not completely replaced the Benzai boats, the number of them has increased over the past few years.

This time it was a letter sent by a clipper ship. Within five days, the letter had been placed on the desk of Laozhong Chief Abe.

After receiving the bad news, Mr. Abe was of course unhappy. Of course he had to share the unhappy things with his colleagues, so he quickly summoned the senior middlemen and relevant people to discuss how to deal with it.

At this time, the Kazushige was still a secret of the shogunate, and even the daimyo and the shogunate's own Tokoku ministers were not allowed to hear about it. However, Tarozaemon Egawa was the Kaibo official, so he also saw the Kazukishu, but the initial discussion was only

For senior middle school students to participate, Mr. Tan'an is not qualified enough.

But soon Mr. Tanan joined the discussion, and Oguri Tadjun Ometsuke was also involved - this was because the discussion inevitably expanded.

It turns out that the senior middlemen are all old and cunning people who have experienced thousands of things, and of course they are not willing to express their opinions easily. But it can’t be done without results. The government also got the news and sent people every day to urge them to come up with their opinions.

So since everyone is not talking about it, let’s find people who dare to say it. So the old middlemen distributed the Feng Shuo Shu to the next level, that is, Wakatoyo, Omatsu, and Sanhouxing (Temple shrine, Edo town, and designation).

, Nagasaki pursues this level of coastal defense.

But these people below are not just for food. They still say some ambiguous words. At first they sound very reasonable, but after careful listening, they don’t make any decisions.

Only Egawa Tarozaemon shouted loudly, "What are we going to discuss? We can discuss whether to trade or not, but hurry up and transport the large tubes and other ordnance brought by the rice ships to Edo, don't delay the business!"

As a result, before Mr. Tanan could finish his words, he was beaten up in the queue. Omefushi Horiken came out and scolded him, "Is that a rice boat? It's obviously a Tang Dynasty boat! Jiangchuan, you have some political sensitivity, okay?"

Although Mr. Tanan was scolded, the proposal was passed. Indeed, the meeting was about to be held, but Otsutsuki had to be lucky, so he who was practicing the Mugi system in Nagasaki hurriedly sent a letter to Nagasaki's Ataka Osawa, who was in the country,

"I received the Feng Shuo Shu. Thank you for your hard work. But the big bosses are still discussing the follow-up matters. So, hurry up and send the goods sent by the Tang Dynasty to Edo."

The senior officers were unwilling to express their opinions, but the subordinate officers at the lower level were imitating him and refused to speak out. Egawa Tarozaemon wanted to say it, but the matter was very important, and he had just been caught in the wrong place by Toshiken Omefukuhori.

After a while, he couldn't talk any more.

The current public servant is the twelfth generation general of the Tokugawa family, Ie Kei. This man's life is not good. His father is the famous long-lived general Ie Qi (1773-1841).

He took over as general only eight years ago (1837) at the age of forty-five. This was not because his father felt pity for him because he was old, but because the situation at that time was so bad that he was pushed out of the way.

Iesai was a famous prodigal son, as famous as Shimazu Shigego and Nabeshima Saida, and lived an extremely luxurious life. These three caused great harm to the shogunate, Satsuma Domain and Saga Domain.

It was the end of the "Tenbao Massacre" (1833 to 1839), and the people were in dire straits. The small imperial court in Kyoto also came out to enhance its presence. The critic Qi and the senior middlemen of the shogunate sat down and ate vegetarian meals. The public opinion at that time was furious, so the family

Qi moved Jiaqing back to the front desk to lift the vat.

After the Grand Imperial Palace's Jiaqi retired, he has been holding the real power of the shogunate. It is not easy to wait for his father's death. The father-in-law Jiaqing is already forty-nine years old. How ambitious is he at this time?

His ambition was also worn away, so he entrusted all the affairs of the shogunate to the senior middlemen headed by Abe. His principle in handling political affairs was to "put nothing at stake first".

But the more you are afraid of trouble, the more things will happen. Over the years, incidents of Nanman ships knocking at the port have continued to happen. As a lesson learned from the Battle of the South China Sea between England and China ten years ago, Mr. Xi Jiaqing was afraid that this would also happen to him.

Therefore, anything is allowed except when it comes to the arrival of Nanman ships.

Therefore, the discussion of Feng Shuishu can no longer be delayed - the senior middlemen refused to express their position, and the subordinate officers refused to come forward, so the shogunate had no choice but to continue to expand the scope of the discussion, this time including the imperial guards and the determined Ginmi officers.

Consultant - But up to this point, the shogunate still retained a little sense, and kept secrets about the naming of the Daidai, distant country practices and other practices to avoid causing panic.

The situation has greatly improved after the addition of the Imperial Guards, Kansei Ginmi Service, and others. These people were younger and had a relatively aggressive attitude toward the shogunate, so they quickly formed two distinct factions of opinions:

One group is the hardliners, who demand the restoration of the "Foreign Ship Expulsion Order", which is also the famous foreign ship expulsion order. They say that as long as a Nanbarian ship is found, they will fire and expel it. What can they talk about with shameless barbarians like the United States?

The other group is the moderates, who believe that the "Fuel and Fresh Water Supply Order" issued in the 14th year of Tianbao (1843) is very good. Western ships can add coal to Fuso Port to supply food, vegetables, fresh water, etc. It doesn't matter, but opening the port for trade will

Forget it, these Westerners are trying to push their limits, and if something unspeakable happens, they will be in trouble.

The moderates believe that the Odaiba has been built and Edo can defend itself, so it is easy to deal with the request for trade by rice ships. As before, let them go to Nagasaki to wait for news and drag it back and forth. Otherwise, this matter will not be solved.

Is it over?

And if rice ships are really overbearing, then trade is not impossible. Xianheng Trading Company's method is good. Private trade has a limited quota, and everything is under control.

As for Mr. Egawa Tanan and Oguri Tadatsun, despite the fact that everyone seems to have a good relationship with them, now they have become a minority, and no one agrees with their views - and these two people dare not risk their disapproval.

When I say that the founding of the country is the priority, I just think that the role of Odaiba is limited, and there may still be risks in a real war. Although Edo will not turn into a sea of ​​​​fire, it will definitely suffer heavy losses. Therefore, the best way is to develop the orchid science industry as soon as possible, and wait for itself

When you are strong, you can fight or make peace.

But these words were ridiculed by everyone. This Shinagawa Odaiba was supervised by Oguri, the major of Egawa. If it is not completed, why should it be repaired?

Mr. Tanan was so angry that his eyes were filled with stars. The shogunate only had this condition, no money, no big barrels, no big ships. I worked hard to build the stage, but something went wrong.

Simply speaking, the senior middlemen were more considerate of Jiangchuan and comforted him a few words, but they disagreed with his and Oguri's views, "It doesn't take time to develop the orchid science industry. The rice boat came the next year, just like putting eye drops from the second floor."

, water from afar can’t quench the thirst that is near at all.”

But Egawa Tarozaemon mentioned building large ships, which reminded everyone of a famous person. He is the grand master of the Mito Tokugawa family, Sai Aki. This famous figure proposed lifting the "ban on building large ships" very early.

And it has always insisted on strengthening coastal defense.

The Laozhong and military officials participating in the discussion are all close lords of the Tokugawa family. They set up the daimyos and banners of the dynasty. The founding of the country and trade are related to the major affairs of the Tokugawa family. If there are no representatives of the Usanhiro Gosan family and the Gosanqing family to participate.

Yes, this is somewhat unreasonable.

Therefore, headed by Omefuhori Toshiken, asked Tokugawa Qi Zhao to be invited to the city to discuss matters. The chief attendant of Laozhong Abe agreed. Qi Zhao also arrived quickly and made a wise speech. However, Qi Zhao's rapid arrival aroused the attention of many people present.

The vigilance - Qi Zhao is the previous head of the Mito family, and he is still carrying the punishment of "forced seclusion". If the representatives of the Gosan family and Gosanqing must express their stance, then the current head of the Mito family, Kei Atsushi, is already 21 years old.
Chapter completed!