In September 1856 of the Western calendar, after the ironworks was successfully ignited, Hakodate Minister Hori Toshihi finally made up his mind and submitted a memorial at the same time as the White Lord, requesting that the "savages" of the North be granted the status of official subjects.

The "savages" here refer to the Ainu people.

The number of Ainu people in Yi Di is roughly estimated to be more than 23,000 - it is said that there were 30,000 to 40,000 at the earliest, but after more than 200 years of oppression by the Matsumae family, only this many are left.

The reason why Hori Toshi did this is very simple: fame and fortune.

Now that the shogunate has cut off Hakodate's additional investment, and it is estimated that the cost of subsequent immigration will also be covered, then Hori Toshi has to think differently and develop his own financial resources - in fact, Hori Toshi made a misjudgment, and will wait until the shogunate calms down next year I will continue to invest heavily in the future. In Naohide's original world, the construction budget for Goryokaku, Benten, Tsukuda and Okinoguchi Odaiba alone was as much as 410,000 taels of gold!

What Horixi thought was that it was the merchants who were exploited and took the lion's share of the savages, and by converting the Ainu people into official subjects, they would have to pay gold and land rent, and also perform labor services on time, and most of the increased income would be It will fall into the hands of the Hakodate Office.

However, there were many reasons why he didn’t do much in the past. In addition to worrying about the backlash from merchants and civilians - wouldn’t it be too hard for Ainuge to become a formal citizen? There are two other reasons:

The first is "Those who are not of my race must have different hearts." Although the shogunate was much more tolerant than the Matsumae family, it still felt that something was wrong when they really regarded the Ainu as one of their own.

But the White Lord has already practiced this. As long as the naturalized Ainu are treated fairly, it won't be a big problem - as life gets better, the original tribal leaders will naturally lose their appeal.

Another thing is, if you become a registered citizen, you will have to give people a way out.

Originally, the Ezo land only had fisheries, and farming required hired labor, so most of the Ainu people could only let them fend for themselves. But is it different now? Digging iron sand and opening coal mines requires a lot of manpower. Instead of this money, It is better for the merchants to run away, so it is better to run the office on their own - Hori Toshi's idea is to run it as an official business, and no water, water, or water will be left to outsiders.

Merchants can exploit the barbarians as much as they want, and the place of worship will be ruined. If you dare to do this, if it causes trouble, then your Hakodou practice will be over. Therefore, in order to make the Ainu people obey better, it is necessary to It is definitely a clever plan to give people something to look forward to, and to officially receive the citizenship at no cost.

And this reputation is also very nice. "Returning from the soil and returning to the current world" will not only make the Ainu people grateful and virtuous from generation to generation, but I, Hori Toshiki, will also have a great name in the history of the future!

Hori Toshi is not distracted - he has considered all the difficulties.

The so-called "granting the status of official subjects to the savages of the Northland", according to the memorials written by him and Naohide, was carried out gradually. It was necessary to be able to speak Fuso and have a legitimate occupation, so that the Ainu could be slowly absorbed in batches. If it goes well, go faster, if it doesn’t go well, go slower, there is no risk!

Now that Hakodate's iron smelting is successful, the digging of iron sand and the opening of coal mines must be accelerated. Recruiting more Ainu people is imperative, so this matter cannot be delayed any longer.

Hakodate followed Hori Toshih, fearing that he alone would be weak, so he insisted that White Lord follow Hori Naohide and also go to Edo at the same time - you have to go to Edo for your ideas!

After returning to White Lord, Egawa Hidetoshi expressed his contribution to Naohide:

It’s indeed a good thing that Hori Toshi’s requests are listed at the same time!

The White Lord wished for this. After several years of hard work, at the end of last year, more than 2,500 Ainu people in the southern part of the Northern Ezo Territory were all naturalized. After that, Naohide repeatedly applied for the qualifications of the citizens on their behalf, but Edo could not live or die. Let go, the reason is exactly the difference between Hua and Yi.

Now that Hori Toshi is leading the charge, it is natural for Naohide to add to the fire.

In addition to the fact that the naturalized Ainu may become regular workers this time, the success of the Hakodate Iron Works is also of great significance - the output here is half that of our own, and we can save a lot of money in the future.

In the past, Bai Zhu’s pig iron came from three sources

The places, Nirayama, Saga and Kagoshima, let’s not talk about whether they are expensive or not. The distribution of pig iron in Nirayama is controlled by the shogunate, and the share is very small. The remaining two companies have to transport it to Shirozu because of the long distance. After that, the price increased, and it was really painful to spend the money.

Nowadays, transportation to the nearest location saves money, and secondly, there is no need to worry about getting stuck.

In fact, it’s not surprising that Yingmin is worried. Now the relationship between Lord Bai and these families is very subtle:

In 1851, Kagoshima initially started trading with Naohide because the head of the family, Qi Bin, wanted to acquire the technology of small blast furnaces and reverberatory furnaces; as for Saga, it was entirely based on the idea of ​​​​having a date but not a date - the abacus daimyo Nabeshima Sai He mistakenly thought that the shogunate was going to develop the Northland on a large scale, so he made a move in advance.

Of course, Oguri Tadatsun was also an important reason. In 1850, he was promoted to Nagasaki Metsuke and had the responsibility of monitoring the daimyo of Kyushu Island. Therefore, the two families also had the idea of ​​​​ingratiating themselves with Oguri through Naohide. In 1845, Oguri studied as a good friend of Naohide. In Kyushu, he also visited the retainers of both families, so the relationship between the two cannot be hidden from the discerning eye.

After that, each party got what they wanted and hooked up.

It stands to reason that Saga can export coal and pig iron, Satsuma also has specialty cane sugar, shochu, dried sweet potatoes, etc. that can be sold, and the white master is not short of gold, silver and seal skins, so this business should become more and more prosperous.

But the fact is exactly the opposite. The main reason is that the population of White Lord is sparse and the demand is not that big. Also because the sea route is far away, one is in the south and the other is in the north, so the business has been tepid, that's all. —In the past, each company had three cargo ships entering the port every year, but now the number has shrunk to one.

Of course, this is also related to the white master's self-sufficiency in food and the growth of self-built trade routes. In the past, anything shipped could be sold, but now it must be domestic (specialty), and as a domestic product, there is often no need to worry about sales, so Why do they have to be sold to the North?

Fortunately, Oguri had a great career, and Naohide also became a distant country official, so the business was still maintained, otherwise the annual ship would not come.

Naoxiu tried to think of a way, such as using Lanxue books to seduce the two families, but the effect was not good:

The earliest breech-loading guns and copper-cased bullets provided were too far ahead. Saga and Kagoshima had been studying them for several years without success, so the two companies' efforts in this regard faded away.

It is not that other orchid schools cannot provide a direct show of skills, but they have encountered opposition led by Okubo, "Please stop wasting, it is difficult for everyone to start a business. If you continue to toss like this, everyone should disband in advance to avoid death and the destruction of the family." .”

As a result, this road was completely blocked, and the relationship between Lord Bai and the two families gradually faded away.

There are constant natural and man-made disasters in Fusang, so people have a strong sense of crisis, especially when they are controlled by others. The demand for iron materials has been increasing day by day in the past two years, making Yingmin and others very sensitive to this, for fear of running out of goods, so When Hakodate successfully smelted iron, he thought it was a great event and needed to come back immediately to report the good news.

In fact, Naoxiu is also happy. Now is the era of "steel and port". Iron-making has already been completed. Is steel-making still far away? By then, we will build a few iron-clad ships, and we won't have to be so aggrieved.

The reason why Naohide felt frustrated was simple. Although he had been working hard, it seemed to be of no use! - The gourd was overturned, and the Lucians were beaten to the ground in the Far East, but England was in the south again.

Start making trouble.

Last month, Kevin Wilson, the manager of Sihai Travel, sent a secret message, "Plan A failed."

Sihaiyang is the new name of Xianheng Yangxing.

Xianheng Foreign Company had been secretly transporting ordnance to Fuso for several years. Considering security needs, Xianheng Foreign Company was dissolved last year, that is, in 1855. It was replaced by Sihai Company, and its headquarters was officially moved to Xiangjiang.

Not only did the original manager, John Sr., switch to British nationality, but he no longer held a position in Four Oceans Bank. The small share of the company was also transferred to his son, John Jr.'s name.

Kevin Wilson is 184

Naohide 7 years ago, Eiko's adopted son in the United States was originally a Celtic orphan. Now he has grown up. Because of his calmness and perseverance, he was appointed as the manager of Shikai Bank by Toranosuke.

He sent a message saying that "Plan A" was a complete failure. Although the result was unexpected, Naoxiu still felt aggrieved. The world now is a complete jungle, and he really shouldn't have any illusions!

But what exactly is "Plan A"?

"A" is the first letter of "Arrow" in English, and "Arrow" is the name of a cargo ship.

In Naohide's original world, it was this broken ship that led to the "Arrow Incident", which in turn triggered the "Arrow War" from 1856 to 1860, which some also called the "War between the Anglo-French Allied Forces"

service".

The "Yaro" is a three-masted cargo ship registered in Xiangjiang. The owner is a Tang Dynasty.

On October 8, 1856, the Yarrow anchored outside Yangcheng. At that time, the Tang Dynasty believed that the ship was harboring a pirate and inspected the ship. It is said that a conflict occurred at that time, after which all the sailors on the ship were detained, and Patrick was also

was lowered.

Afterwards, the British governor in Yangcheng, Basiali, was dissatisfied with the results of the mediation. On October 23, the British navy bombarded Yangcheng.

In the spring of 1857, London made a decision on the "Yarrow Incident", which was to use force to force the Tang people to surrender.

England and France jointly launched a massive attack on China in December 1857. The war did not end until 1860. The final result was that China was defeated and forced to cede territory and pay compensation, and also made major efforts such as "increasing treaty ports" and "reducing tariffs".

Benefit.

Therefore, Naoxiu asked Xianheng Company to buy the Yarrow and destroy it early on, and through the relationship of Little John of Sanjiang Company, in the name of bounty, he promoted the British Xiangjiang Squadron to clear away the pirates in the South China Sea, so as to avoid future troubles as much as possible.

However, everything Naoxiu did was in vain.

In early July, Little John, who returned to Songjiang from Xiangjiang, revealed a secret to Kevin:

Basari, a shareholder of Sanjiang Matheson Company, is now the acting British governor in Yangcheng. He warned the major shareholder Little John to pay attention to controlling business risks.

After understanding and confirming through various channels, Little John was shocked to find that the British bureaucrats, naval officers and businessmen in the Far East all believed that a war with the Tang people was inevitable.

It turns out that Britain's import trade volume with China has been declining year by year, which has caused serious dissatisfaction among all parties in Britain. Everyone blames the "five-port trade" and tariffs, believing that there are more ports for trade and lower tariffs. This situation

It will get better.

It turned out that this year, the "Wangxia Agreement" and "Whampoa Agreement" between the Tang people, the Mi people, and the French people in 1844 expired for twelve years. According to the terms, both parties could revise the treaty, and Britain had China's most-favored-nation status and could

Sit back and enjoy the results.

However, the Tang people repeatedly rejected the requests of the French and Mi people to amend the treaty. Seeing that the road was blocked, the British and Far Eastern people were ready to use force to open the way. By then, the merchants would make more money, and the bureaucrats and navy would also have more money.

With achievements and fame, "everyone is happy".

This was important news that could affect the Far East. After receiving it, Kevin did not dare to neglect it. As scheduled, he immediately arranged for people to deliver the news back to New York and Fuso White Lord in the United States.

After receiving this news, Naohsiu completely understood that "the law of the jungle", being able to bully but not bully, at least in this era, is impossible.

It's a pity that my strength is so weak now that I can't interfere in such a major matter.

Thinking of the "Aror incident", Nao-soo couldn't be happy after Ying-min reported the good news. This made Ying-min misunderstood. He explained Nao-soo and said:
Chapter completed!