Regarding the personnel turmoil at the top of the shogunate that occurred in the second year of Ansei (1855), Naohide was actually very helpless - after returning from overseas, he did five major things for the shogunate, but it still did not change the fate of Abe and others.

These five major events are "blocking Lucia", "warning of earthquakes", "importing ordnance", "spreading Western knowledge" and "developing the Northland".

It stands to reason that these achievements have been extraordinary. They can save millions of losses in small deposits of natural insurance and hundreds of thousands of people. The external situation has also improved a lot. However, the authority of the shogunate is still questioned, and Abe and other high-level officials are still

Demotion after demotion, resignation after resignation, this really disappointed Naohide.

Take "Blocking Lucia" as an example. If it had not been for Naohide, in the seventh year of Kaei (1854), "in the ninth month of the Japanese calendar, four Lu ships entered the sea, and Kyoban was shocked and Kinki was uneasy."

Then, the shogunate carried out a large-scale mobilization. "The Hikone clan sent 4,000 troops to station in Kyoto, and the Honnoji clan, Koyama Yoshin shō, and other clans captured all the Rōgai clans, Kagoshima, and Kumamoto's troops marched eastward. (The shogunate) also ordered Wakayama to build a platform in Katada.

Tokushima built the Yura Rock House, and Akashi built on the Akashi. Miyazu, Tanabe, and Mineyama all implemented strict sea defenses to support each other."

In addition, in June of the same year, there was a "big earthquake in the Kinki countries". Natural disasters and military disasters were combined, adding to the misery, making the people of Kinki, an elite area, miserable.

But now, in September 1854, under the guidance of the White Lord, the four warships brought to the Far East by the Russian envoy Pujiatin, plus the Okhotsk District Fleet, were all sent to the bottom of the sea by the Anglo-French Allied Forces, so

This catastrophe was eliminated in advance.

As for the "Fuso Lucia Marriage Agreement", it is impossible to talk about it, and there is no need to talk about the territorial dispute over the northern part of Yunwu Qiandao.

To sum up, just this matter has reduced the pressure on Fuso and the shogunate!

As for the remaining four things, "warning of earthquakes", "importing ordnance", "spreading Western knowledge" and "developing the Northland", they either reduced losses or increased strength, which were of great benefit to the shogunate and related daimyo.

benefit.

But to Naohide's surprise, the high-level personnel turmoil in the shogunate still happened as scheduled. This is really a stubborn disease that is difficult to cure, and it is difficult to get rid of it. With the energy of internal fighting, wouldn't it be nice to farm the land well and vigorously develop the orchid science industry?

!

There is an important reason why Naohide supports Abe's servant from the bottom of his heart - although many ministers think that Naohide is a member of Lao Naka Abe, Naohide knows that he is not.

The reason why Naohide supports Abe is that he has extraordinary abilities - people say that Abe is a "catfish" who only knows how to patch things up in politics and tries to make things up when there is a fight, but Naohide doesn't see it that way.

Even without Naohide, Lao Zhong Chief Abe still initiated the Anzei Reform in 1854 and also put forward 37 opinions. Not to mention others, three of them were groundbreaking, fully demonstrating his vision, means and courage.

The so-called "weak" evaluation is nothing more than a misunderstanding caused by Abe's clever methods and soft governance.

"Adjust the relations between the Kyoto court, the Edo shogunate, and the daimyo in various places, and bring them into agreement with Fuso." This first measure pointed directly at the shortcomings of the shogunate system at this time - the pioneers of the future collapse, Satsuma and Choshu, were not the same.

On the surface, it is under the banner of the small imperial court in Kyoto, with the support of the British behind it.

The second article, "Dissolve the trade guild 'Zhu Zhongma', curb the rise in prices, and allow free trade among the vassals" seems to be no different from the Tianbao Reform measures eleven years ago, but after thinking about it, it is terrifying - Zhu Zhongjian

Zhongjian is a commercial guild. Originally, the products from various vassals and imperial territories could only be sold to members of Zhuzhongjian, and then these merchants continued to sell them.

It is terrible and lamentable because Tianbao Reform was forced to disband Zhu Zhongjian, while Anzheng Reform took the initiative to seek change. The two are not the same at all:

The background of the Tianbao innovation was the "Tianbao Massacre". The great famine caused prices to skyrocket, and it was necessary to promote trade at that time;

In 1854, there was no such unfortunate thing as the seven-year harvest failure in Fusang. This was proposed by the ministers headed by Abe. It was a means to achieve "unity for Fusang" and the price paid for uniting the daimyo from all over the country - the dissolution of Zhu Zhongma

It undoubtedly greatly eases trade

Exploitation in the middle - realizing the dream of "getting rid of the middlemen and preventing anyone from earning the price difference", this is undoubtedly a good thing for the imperial lords of the shogunate and the territories of the daimyo in various places.

Of course, when Edo ordered the restoration of Zhunakama, which had been disbanded in the Tenpo Reform, in 1851, many wealthy merchants from each domain at that time also joined in, and it was no longer a single family of merchants controlled by the shogunate.

But after all, most of the members were wealthy businessmen led by the emperor, so the shogunate took the initiative to dissolve Zhu Zhongjian, which was full of sincerity!

What Naohide admires the most is Abe's courage.

"The shogunate vigorously studied Western skills and rewarded local daimyo and private individuals to develop Western industries." This decree was proposed less than half a year after the signing of the "Fuso-American Peace Agreement"! - You know, the Westernization Movement was proposed in Sino-British

In the 19th year after the Battle of the South China Sea, even if the Fuso ship turned around, or it was due to national conditions, the gap between half a year and 19 years was still too big.

However, Abe's servant, who Naohide had high hopes for, finally gave up his position as chief Laozhong. Fortunately, the winner was still in charge of finance and agricultural affairs, which is not satisfactory.

However, unlike the unlucky Abe attendant, Naohide was unscathed in this storm. You must know that he is considered by outsiders to be a die-hard Abe.

According to Hidetoshi who was envoy to Edo, there were indeed people who wanted to impeach Naohide, but it was quickly subsided. According to Oguri Tadjun, the Nagasaki official who was on duty in Edo, this was because several big bosses did not agree:

There is a big "stain" in Naoxiu's career, that is, he studied abroad.

It stands to reason that after Kurofune's visit, the backlash from Fuso and the shogunate was huge, and the voice of opposition to the foreigners never ceased. People like Naohide should have been found out long ago. Not to mention committing seppuku, he should at least live in seclusion and be cautious.

But the problem is that those who knew the inside story back then were limited to high-level officials, and these high-level officials deliberately ignored the matter for various reasons. Among the high-level ministers who experienced the incident at the time, Toda Tadayoshi, who was least accustomed to Nao Hide, had long since passed away, and

The rest of the people are not interested in doing anything about slapping themselves in the face;

And the newly appointed chief of the old school, Hota Masamushi, has a favorable eye for Naohide - he has never dealt with Naohide, but Naohide is a good friend of Oguri Tadjun, who is very fond of him, and Naohide also has a bonus.

At the same time, another big hilltop in the imperial court, the old lord of Mito, Tokugawa Saiaki, was also very optimistic about Naohide. The reason is that more than ten years ago, Saicho wrote a letter requesting "the development of Ezo land", but Naohide went north to develop further.

Northern Ezo Territory, which greatly suited Qi Zhao's temper.

So Naohide survived the storm unscathed.

Not only that, in the new year, that is, this year, the shogunate also commended Hori Naohide and promoted him to a high official position.

Naohide, who is far away in the world, can be remembered by the noble and meddlesome shogunate bosses, thanks to the Languo Merchant Office:

On December 23rd of the second year of Ansei, the shogunate and the Ran Kingdom signed the "Fuso Ran Kingdom Peace and Marriage Agreement", with a total of 27 articles - similar to the previous "Fuso U.S. Country Peace and Marriage Agreement", which relaxed the control of Nagasaki Dejima.

control, and added the content of trade.

However, Languo Commercial House and Fusang have been doing business for more than two hundred years, and it has not caused any turmoil.

So far, Fuso has signed agreements with three Western countries - the Americans, the English and the Lanzhou people.

After the signing was completed, the shogunate remembered an unlucky person, the Lucian envoy Pu Jatin, who had disappeared for almost two years.

According to the news from Xianheng Foreign Company, the Lu people have been hit hard in the past two years. The northern territories were wiped out by the Anglo-Buddhist coalition forces, and Pujiating never showed up. It is probably that the situation is in danger. Although Xianheng Foreign Company has become four

Haiyangxing, but still uses the old name when dealing with the shogunate and Bai Zhu. This is to prevent someone from Fuso from leaking secrets.

It is certainly a good thing that Pu Jating does not appear, but while celebrating the occasion, the important ministers in Edo are also worried about the comeback of Lucia.

In addition, Hakodate has opened its port at this time, so the defense of the Northland cannot be lax, and the strength of the two Northland enforcement offices must continue to be strengthened.

So, the Edo ministers took the time to do some research and found that the box

The museum has to continue to invest, but Shiro is much less worried - compared to the Hakodate Office, which is always asking for this and that, although Shiro complains from time to time, Naohide doesn't need money, as long as the law supports it, this is much more cute.

.

It’s not that I don’t know, it’s just that I was shocked.

Naohide had worked diligently for many years and managed Shirozhu successfully without much investment from the shogunate. Therefore, the important ministers at that time had the intention to reward him.

In addition, Hidetoshi would come to trouble, so this intention finally turned into actual action - in April of the third year of Ansei (1856), when Ekawa Hidetoshi went to Edo to pay tribute to furs, he learned about the Edo Massacre that happened in October last winter.

There was an earthquake, so Yingmin donated money to Naoxiu to show his loyalty.

After discussing with Bai Zhuxing Yingzi, who came back to see his son on the same ship, he donated 3,000 taels in the name of the shrine, and another 1,200 liang and 800 liang in the name of the Hide family and Bai Zhu Jiangchuan to help the shogunate in disaster relief.

Although the total amount is only 5,000 Tianbao small gold, the middlemen are very happy - the Jue family's family status is only 600 shi, and based on the calculation of four public and six people, 1,200 taels is the total income of the Jue family in five years.

No matter how much income Naohide made in the North, his attitude was still quite correct.

As soon as the senior middlemen were happy, they promoted Naohide Hoshi and Hidetoshi Egawa to a high official position:

The Hoi family changed from six hundred koku to one thousand two hundred koku, and Naohide's official position also changed from the sixth position to the fifth position. Although the official position was granted by the small court in Kyoto, at this time, the shogunate only needed to make a request.

, there is no disapproval;

And Yingmin also borrowed the money, and the price of the Jiangchuan family increased from 400 dan to 600 dan, and he also got a senior manager.

As for the reasons for promotion, they are solid and no one dares to object:

Lord Bai took the initiative to ask for an increase in the stone height of the enshrined place, from the original five thousand stones to thirty thousand stones. If you are not convinced, you can also "expand the territory" like Naohide!

You must know that if the status of the observance office changes, the annual taxes paid will also increase. This is not something to be joked about casually.

If someone is willing to take the initiative to send more money, how can the shogunate turn them away, so after the report was submitted to the survey office, the senior middlemen immediately agreed, and they did not ask for more money, so they tentatively decided on 30,000 shi.

The annual tribute was changed to, on the basis of the original two thousand seal skins, an additional three thousand taels of annual tribute was added.

In fact, there is another story here:

For the sake of caution, Shengmo, who decided to follow the Chuanlu route, asked Jiangchuan Yingmin for verification.

"The White Lord only has four thousand people and a stone height of thirty thousand. Isn't that too exaggerated?"

But before he could finish, Chuan Lu was shocked himself. You know that five years ago, Naohsiu claimed to be going north alone. How did these four thousand people come from?

"I'll figure it out myself first." Chuan Lu sweated. Although he was smart and capable, he had never paid attention to the small office of Baizhu before - there were 4 appraisers and 6 appraisers and 12 appraisers.

The group leader has 90 dominators and 250 appraisers. The structure is huge. In addition, Mr. Tanan was the appraiser of Ginmi Service two years ago and deliberately concealed it. Therefore, although the development of Baizhu is rapid, it has not attracted the attention of senior officials before!

Upon seeing this, Yingmin explained that the main reasons for the large number of immigrants from the White Lord were three things: "They are ruthless, loyal, and have many brothers." No, it was because they had "naturalized many savages, and they have been immigrating vigorously, and in the past two years, they have caught up with

Hakodate Immigration's Smooth Boat".

In fact, by the end of 1855, the population of Baizhu had expanded to 7,821, but Naohide was afraid of causing a greater sensation, so he reported only a little over 4,200.

Moreover, this year and in the future, there will be more immigrants, and the business contacts between Hakodate and Shirozhu are becoming more and more frequent. It is too difficult to hide it anymore. Naohide and others have no choice, so they take the initiative to ask for an increase in the number of Shigao Shigao - take the initiative

It’s better to be exposed than to have trouble with the shogunate later!

After listening to the explanation, Chuan Lu felt that it made sense. There were two thousand naturalized natives, and then three hundred immigrants every year, which would be one thousand and two in four years. Plus the hard work in the past two years, this number was so-so - but after that, he

He paid special attention to Master Bai's official documents, which almost caused a big storm a few years later.
Chapter completed!