On June 8, 1854, Naohide led a large group of troops to set off from Baichu, and captured Miaotun on June 22. The next day, Nakahama Manjiro led four steamships to defeat the Lucian people's Wulong River supply fleet, and gained a great victory.

The undefeated White Lord team only returned to White Lord on July 8th.

Naohide was caught as soon as he got off the ship. Bai Zhu, the deputy assigned to Naohide by Edo, grabbed Naohide's sleeve and complained loudly:

"The ungrateful and shameless people dare to turn around!"

Naohide didn't dare to offend him, so he had no choice but to beg for mercy, turned around and signaled to Naoyoshi Hori to take charge of the scene, and then he and Mongye walked away in unison.

This white master is very committed and straightforward, so he cannot be offended. His father is his mentor, he is solid, he is from a noble family, and he is very kind to him, so he can only coax him - this man is Mr. Tan'an's eldest son.

Kunosuke Hidetoshi, the future head of the Jiangchuan family, the hereditary Daikan of Nirashan, and the former head of the Nirashan Iron Smelting Works.

Egawa Hidetoshi was the White Master who arrived on May 6 this year, and was brought back by the White Master's envoy Banze Murasaki - yes, Sonoshima obediently went to Edo in mid-October last year. As for his

Hedong Shiro's wife, Okubo was allowed to accompany her, and the fire in the backyard was extinguished.

Why didn't Yingmin just stay in his hometown, Jiushan, instead of going to the "bird-free" Northland?

Because he is in big trouble!

On November 23rd of the sixth year of Kaei (December 23rd, 1853 in the Western calendar), the new Duke Nogesada was appointed as the general to conquer the barbarians. When everyone was celebrating in Edo and outside, Egawa Hidetoshi added a third son to the family.

A blockage! - It turns out that an accident occurred at the Jiushan small blast furnace on November 20th. The tuyere burned through and a large amount of red coke spewed out. There were heavy casualties on site, and the blast furnace had to cease fire.

The news happened to reach Edo on the day that Iedada ascended to the throne. No one dared to announce it at that time, but somehow, it still reached Gong Fangyan's ears on the 25th - Iedada was very calm.

, I didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t help but the people around me thought this was very unlucky, and they insisted on giving me an explanation.

The head of the Nirayama Iron Works is Hidetoshi, and the person in charge of the next one is Ekawa Tarozaemon, the designated Ginmi serviceman. Well, Mr. Tanan and his son have not escaped.

In fact, the cause of the accident is very complicated, and Jiang Chuan and his son are also hard to explain:

A year ago, the shogunate implemented the New Deal and planned to build two more ironworks - Yokohama and Yokosuka Ironworks. To build new ironworks, it is natural to need relevant talents, so the head of the original Niruyama Ironworks, Yoshikuni, took on this important task.

After that, he beat the old man from Niruyama to pieces. The Yokohama Iron Works opened its furnaces this year, but Nirasan was in dire straits.

Because too many backbones were lost, minor accidents occurred frequently at the Jiushan Iron Works, and finally turned into a catastrophe on November 20th!

Moreover, this is inseparable from the start of operation of the Yokohama Iron Works - there was not enough iron ore in the first place, and now it is divided between two iron works. To make matters worse, the small blast furnace starts and stops, which does not meet the design requirements.

In addition, the important ministers of the shogunate are also involved - several princes also wanted to open iron smelting plants before, and asked the shogunate senior and other important ministers for help. Although each family said they only needed one or two people, the total number was quite large.

All are drawn from Jiushan!

Egawa Hidetoshi was called to Edo for questioning by the shogunate. Originally, he wanted to talk about the grievances involved, but he was sternly scolded by Mr. Tan'an, "If a man makes a mistake, he will tolerate it. How can you blame others."

As a result, the blame was placed firmly on the heads of Jiangchuan and his son.

This time, the senior middlemen were indeed quite fair. Although there were many people who added fuel to the fire and fanned the flames, the suggestions given to the public in the memorial were only "Eitotoshi should resign and live in seclusion for one year of self-reflection, and Egawa Tarozaemon should be fined for two years."

.

Unexpectedly, after the report was submitted, the document issued was even more tolerant. Mr. Tanan did not need to be fined, "just be more careful in the future", and Yingtoshi was even promoted - to work as a white master in the North Ezo region, that is,

Deputy execution.

As a result, Egawa Hidetoshi was driven by Mingsheng and secretly to the White Lord.

Yingmin arrived on May 6th this year (the 12th day of April in the Japanese calendar). He was overjoyed when he arrived. Although Naoxiu's letter to Mr. Tan'an said that the white master was good, Yingmin didn't believe it.

He has seen a lot of things. When he finally arrived at Baizhu, Yingmin found that the environment was not bad, there was plenty of food and drink, and there were many activities, including fishing, hunting, etc.

He is different from Oguri Tadashi - Oguri felt something was wrong when he saw Master Bai's short clothes and long hair, but Yingmin had just suffered a major blow in his life, so he didn't care about it, and he didn't even care about official duties. After he arrived, he went crazy

He spent more than ten days eating and drinking, traveling around the mountains and rivers, and was completely indifferent to official matters.

In fact, this is because Young Min doesn’t know how to get along with Nao Soo:

When he first knew about Naohsiu, Naohsiu was not the banner, just a second half in the mud. But more than ten years later, Naohsiu had become the banner of the six hundred stone family, the leader of the distant country of thousands of stones, and he actually became

How can you make sense of someone else's deputy?

So he had no choice but to travel around and meet Naoxiu as little as possible, and Naoxiu could understand——

Yingmin used to be a young man, but when he grew older, he realized that his father was always being criticized, and he matured a lot. However, soon after Mr. Tanan regained his strength, his career was successful, and his family business became more prosperous, Yingmin fell back into his old ways.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made such a big mistake in the appointment of the head of the iron-making plant.

Moreover, Naohide was busy preparing for the war at the time and had no time to discuss it in detail with Yingmin. Since he was willing to play, it would be better to relax first.

Unexpectedly, Yingmin was not happy for a few days. On May 17, Miren's black ship actually sailed to North Ezo. At that time, everyone in Ezo and North Ezo was shocked.

Naohsiu had known for a long time that Perry had come to Fuso again. This was what Yingmin told him - Admiral Perry of the Mi people was true to his word, and on the 16th day of the first lunar month (February 13, 1854), he took seven ships with him.

The black ship appeared outside Uraga Port again, and then made a dazzling operation with the shogunate. On March 6 of the Japanese calendar (March 31 of the Western calendar), the two sides signed the "Fuso-American Peace Agreement" in Yokohama - "

"He" means harmony, "kin" means goodwill, not marrying a princess.

But what "surprised" Naohide and Hidetoshi was that Admiral Perry actually appeared in Hakodate in Ezochi!

Emin couldn't sit still anymore, and discussed with Naohide, "I have only seen photos, but I have never seen the real thing. Can I go to Hakodate to see the black ship with my own eyes?" - Mr. Tan'an, who is responsible for the surveying Ginmi Service and coastal defense officer

Later, although he still served as acting official of Nirayama, he mainly stayed in Edo. Everything about Nirayama was entrusted to his eldest son, Hidetoshi, so Hidetoshi had never seen Kurofune.

Originally he still had a chance, but he blew it:

The first time the black ship came was from June 3 to June 12, the sixth year of Jiayong in the Heli calendar (July 8-July 17, 1853). At that time, Mr. Tan'an was in charge of coastal defense and needed to come in person.

Uraga, Hidetoshi was serving his duties in Niruyama at that time - at that time he was still the head of the Niruyama Iron Smelting Company. Although Hidetoshi wanted to run to Uraga to have a look, by the time he had arranged his affairs and ran to Uraga Port, the rice ship had already arrived.

gone.

At that time, Yingmin couldn't help but was scolded by his father - if Mi Ren doesn't leave, do you still want to keep him here for the New Year?

When Kurofune came for the second time, Hidetoshi had some free time. However, because of the smear scandal he had brought to the government before, Mr. Tanan strictly ordered his retainers to take good care of him. Although the shogunate not only did not investigate Hidetoshi's fault, but also promoted him to a service position.

But I couldn't ignore it, so Mr. Tan'an gave Yingmin a cautious order, that is, he was not allowed to go anywhere before going to Lord Bai, and he stayed at home honestly.

Although the shogunate asked Hidetoshi to go to Shirozu as a minister, he couldn't leave immediately. It was still the freezing period before leaving Shirozu, so he had to wait until spring - but spring hadn't come yet, and on the 16th of the first lunar month, Miren Kurofune arrived.

Come again.

The Hemi people had been tossing each other for almost two months. On the 27th of March in the Hemi calendar (April 21 in the Western calendar), Mr. Tan'an came home and saw that his silly son was still there. He almost went crazy, "

Why haven’t you left yet?”

"Didn't you tell me to be cautious - not to go out?" In fact, Yingmin just didn't want to go to Shirozu, and the black ship came to visit again, and he also wanted to see what the final result would be - if the Mi people invaded Edo, he

You still have to protect the whole family from escaping!

On the 24th of March in the Japanese calendar (April 18 in the Western calendar), Admiral Perry of the Mi people has already taken the black ship to Izu Shimoda Port. Mr. Tanan has just returned from Yokohama - and then he has to go to Shimoda.

He told Yingmin to set off quickly and then left by himself, but Yingmin continued to delay, and the ban was lifted. Why not just enjoy the prosperous Edo for a few days, would it be foolish to leave directly.

In this way, Mr. Tanan never returned home, and Egawa Hidetoshi waited until April 7th (May 1st in the Western calendar) before setting off with the White Lord's envoy Banze Murasunochei.

But because he was afraid that his father would go crazy, he didn't dare to go to the fields, so even though Miren Heifune stayed longer this time, Egawa Hidetoshi still didn't get to see him.

But unexpectedly, Kurofune came to Kitakachi Hakodate. He said he couldn't miss it this time, so he said hello to Naohide, "Let me go and have a look?"

In fact, Naohide also wanted to go, but the shogunate had an order not to leave the territory without any reason. Although he had done a lot of bad things, which is not bad, he couldn't break the pot, especially in front of Yingmin, so he could pretend for one more day.

One day, he could only watch helplessly as Yingmin ran towards the dock like a wild horse - Yingmin followed the rules and didn't have so many rules. He could find an excuse to go to Hakodate, "I'm going to help encourage the Matsumae family."

Morale is not good."

The Japanese admiral Perry took the ship to leave the port on June 3 of the Western calendar. After that, Yingmin found an excuse to visit Matsumae and Hakodate. By the time he came back on June 18, Naohide had already led his troops northward - Yingmin would not come back.

Yes, but Prime Minister Sono Sawamura has to come back to report the news. If Kurofune doesn't leave, Naohide won't dare to leave either!

After receiving the news, Naohide led a large group of troops to set off from Baichu on June 8, 1854, and was joined by a steamship on the way.

When Egawa Hidetoshi came back, he was amused. He was leading people to patrol the territory. So his purpose was not to call himself the king if there were no tigers and monkeys in the mountains, so he started patrolling in Baizhu.

After taking a closer look, he broke out in cold sweat. This place was obviously a place of alienation. What do you mean, that is, various behaviors were incompatible with the shogunate——

Although the decrees of the shogunate are very crude, some requirements are relatively clear. For example, "The Laws of the Samurai" clearly stipulates that "the grades of clothes must not be mixed; the emperor and his ministers should be distinguished from each other."

It's just that he wears short clothes and a long hair and doesn't carry a sword, but if you look closely, this is a big problem!

It is said that "the classes of clothes must not be mixed." Bai Zhu's servants did have uniforms, but they were similar to Westerners. They wore them like this on a daily basis. They only changed into Wu clothes when they went to Songqian, and no one thought it was strange.

I originally thought that these were handymen, temporary workers like holding seats - Yingmin was not a fool in Bai Zhu, he had learned a lot of new words, so I had never cared about what they wore, but this time

The town magistrate Okubo also wore this when he was working at the office, so he was shocked - unfortunately, he had been eating, drinking and having fun since he arrived at Shirozu. He had never been to the town magistrate's office before, so he thought Okubo was just wearing casual clothes!

You're such a straight show, you're wearing a half-shoulder shirt in front of me, you're making a fool of yourself!

Let’s say again: “Every king and his ministers have their own differences”:

In the past, when I went out, the townspeople would not kneel down to me. I was quite happy at that time, because when I knelt down, it showed that people knew that I was the second-in-command of Naohide, which was embarrassing.

But Naoxiu is gone, what does it mean if you don’t kneel now? Are you looking down on me?

As a result, Okubo explained that the White Lord abandoned the kneeling ceremony because he "shared the joys and sorrows, the honor and the disgrace" and that everyone was a companion in exploring the Northland together, so the White Lord "did not kneel at home".

Egawa Hidetoshi has only become a little decadent recently, but not to the point of becoming stupid. He immediately became alert. His father had previously told him to "talk less and watch more" when he came to the White House. At that time, he thought it was because his father was afraid that he would be arrogant.

There was a conflict with Naoxiu, but now it seems that it was for something else.

He has seen the so-called "secretly plotting private soldiers and plotting evil" people. Takashima Shiro Taifu was released from Okabe, Musashi Province in August last year. He is now the deputy of the Nirayama Agency. This Takashima is just a gathering of people.

Hundreds of people, and their style is old school - the newly learned words are just polite and virtuous corporals. This "share the joys and sorrows, the honor and disgrace", Naoxiu treats the people under his command so well, it must be "ambition", it is respectable and terrifying!
To be continued...