On August 15, the fifth year of Ansei (1858), many guests came in and out of the Edo Hide house, but the atmosphere was not lively.

To people who don't know the inside story, it seems like something unfortunate has happened to this family.

But the fact is completely opposite. The owner of this family has just been appointed as the head of Hakodate by the shogunate. He is about to take office, and all the guests come to see him off.

"Brother Yiqing, please think about it carefully. Naoxiu needs the guidance of a talented person, please."

"It's too flattering, and I really deserve it. I'm grateful for your care over the years!"

Seeing that Yoshida Nobukata was very determined, Naohide had no choice but to agree to his request.

In the seventh year of Kayei (1854), Yoshida and his disciple Kaneko Shigenosuke failed to sneak into the black ship, and were later sent to Shirozu by Mr. Tanan.

In the autumn of the next year, Naohide thought about it again and again, and finally decided to help him realize his dream - after all, he was one of the top three heroes of the Reform, and talents were rare, so he asked Little John of Sanjiang Matheson to send him to London to study abroad.

At that time, in addition to Yoshida's disciple Kaneko Shigenosuke, there were also five foreign students of the White Master - Kondo Chojiro and four other green young men.

Now three years have passed, and Yoshida and others have returned after completing their studies.

Originally, Naohide wanted him to play in the Northern Territory, but Yoshida insisted on returning to Choshu, so Naohide thought it would be okay. After all, it would be a pity if the famous Matsushita Village School was really destroyed by him.

Since there were still guests waiting, Yoshida and Kaneko bowed and left after receiving the consent. Naohide, on the other hand, continued to be busy and did not send the last guest away until the evening.

Finally having some free time, the thirteen-year-old Fukutaro couldn't help but vomit, "In the past, when my father lived idle, he didn't have so many social activities."

Naoxiu knew what he was thinking, "My son couldn't bear to leave with Yingzi. He wanted to spend more time with him, so he hated the harassment from these people."

So he smiled slightly, took Futaro and went to find Lord Eiko together.

Speaking of which, Naohide has been living in Edo for almost a year.

In December of the third year of the Ansei period (1856), the father-in-law of the Noge family was married to the princess of the Shimazu family, Atsuhime. As a minister, Naohide, who was then the leader of the White House, was also recalled by special order.

The next spring after the incident, Naohide returned to White Lord.

But I didn't expect that one thing leads to another. In the autumn of that year, Naohide went round and round and returned to Edo. However, this time it was not him who was recalled by the shogunate on his own initiative, but Naohide who came back on his own initiative. And if he didn't come back, he would get into big trouble.

Got it!

It turns out that Lord Bai and Lucia had a fight!

The reason is that after the Crimean War officially ended in 1856, in view of the fact that the Okhotsk District Fleet was completely exhausted, Russia sent four sailing warships from Europa to Kamchatka the next year.

Originally, it was possible to bypass Mizhou, but Emperor Alexander II felt that it would be better to go to the Far East via the Cape of Good Hope and the Sea of ​​Tianzhu, which would show that Lucia and the European powers had reconciled as before.

But having just experienced a big fight, it would be a bit too naive to think so.

Sure enough, when the fleet arrived at Xiangjiang, the British Xiangjiang Squadron sent a ship to accompany it. The name was "protection", but it was actually surveillance and demonstration.

It wasn't until they arrived at Hakodate in Fuso that Hibune stopped following him.

Originally, the Lucian fleet was suffocating due to the demonstration against the accompanying British ships, but when they arrived at Hakodate and were refused entry to the port by Fuso, their anger could no longer be suppressed.

But Lucia and Fuso have no relevant agreement, so it makes sense for Hakodate to follow Hori Toshi's decision.

At that time, the British ship was on the side, so the Lu people had no choice but to endure it.

But then at the northern end of the Shiretoko Peninsula, the Lucian fleet encountered the Fuso merchant ship again. At that time, they were jealous and asked the other party to stop the ship for inspection.

No one is a fool.

Seeing that the opponent was approaching fiercely, the Fuso merchant ship turned around and fled in the direction of Bai Zhu.

Lucia became even more energetic when she saw the other party escaping. She chased and fired at the same time, and so she chased the white master.

After the merchant ship docked, the Lu people still refused to give up. After approaching, they used naval guns to drive the merchant ship into the seabed.

The atrocities angered the White Lord defenders at that time, and the two sides started a fierce battle.

When Zhixiu arrived, the dock had already turned into a sea of ​​flames - Bai Zhu only had two rifled cannons and a few old bronze cannons in name, and there were many businessmen from other places at the scene, so he did not dare to take out other ordnance.

So it was at a disadvantage.

Lord Bai has never suffered such a big loss.

Naohide was furious on the spot, ordered the ban to be lifted, and launched an all-out counterattack.

But who would have thought that Murata Nagatoshi issued the exact opposite order, requiring everyone to retreat, including no ships, docks, or warehouses!

Murata was a major land force and a talented military strategist, so Naohide had no choice but to agree.

The subsequent development of events proved that they were right - the Lucians still refused to give up when they saw the White Lord withdrawing from the front line. They actually organized sailors to attack the shore.

But the white master suffered a loss because he didn't dare to go all out at the beginning, not because he really couldn't beat him.

From south to north, Bai Zhu is divided into dock areas.

Factory areas, commercial areas, public areas, residential areas, camps and factories. This kind of planning considered being attacked by warships in advance, so the commercial area was four or five kilometers away from the dock.

It stands to reason that there are still some properties in the warehouses and factories in the dock area, but the Lucians were not trying to steal money at all, but to vent their anger! So they chased them all the way to the commercial area, and finally fell into the ambush circle set by Murata.

The White Lord has a standing army of four hundred, and these four hundred men are usually stationed in the White Lord.

In addition, all the people of the White Lord were soldiers, and both men and women in their prime were required to participate in training. Every family had at least one flintlock gun.

That careless Lucian man can still do well!

In a big battle, the Lucian navy that came ashore was beaten to a pulp and fled.

However, the Lucian navy admiral was not decisive enough and actually wanted to pick up the crew members that Murata had intentionally let go on the ship.

There is no such thing as a good thing.

Under the siege of dozens of rifled guns from the White Lord, the two ships docking at the port soon caught fire.

It stands to reason that the remaining two ships could escape, but in the end only one armed supply ship escaped - another warship approached for support and was also lit by candles during the exchange of fire with shore artillery.

In the end, only one supply ship among the four Lucian warships escaped. The other three were severely damaged and unable to sail. They did not last long before surrendering with a white flag because of the excessive fire.

But the White Lord was very angry at the atrocities of these people, so no one went to rescue them. These people could only jump into the water and swim to the shore. In the end, the three ships sank to the bottom of the sea due to the excessive fire.

The total number of Lucian warships participating in this battle included a fourth-class sailing battleship, a fifth-class sailing cruiser, one sloop and one armed supply ship, with a total of 111 guns and a crew of more than 820 people.

Among them, more than 400 people died in battle or drowned, 372 were captured, and only 40 people escaped on the supply ship.

The White Master also suffered heavy losses. The dock was in a mess, and most of the warehouse and factory areas were burned down. Fortunately, they were well-trained and suffered less personnel losses. There were more than 40 civilian casualties and 14 team casualties.

The three cargo ships docked at the dock at the time were not spared.

In order to appease people's hearts, Fengxing announced that all losses would be compensated by the government. Afterwards, Master Bai paid more than 10,000 gold for this.

But things are far from over yet.

The Lu people's supply ship ran to Hakodate to ask the English for help. Seven days later, an English steam-sail hybrid battleship came to deal with the aftermath.

After negotiation between Naohsiu and Captain James, the White Lord sold the captives to the English for twenty pounds per person - in fact, no copper coins were confiscated. Naohsiu was deliberately trying to sow discord between the English and the Lucians.

Later, three British sailing warships also arrived, and after transporting all the prisoners away at once, Master Bai finally returned to normal.

When such a big event happened, Hakodate's minister Hori Toshi also came to Shiro.

He advised Naoxiu:

"Although the battle has been won, the attitude of the central government of the shogunate is unknown. You must go to Edo immediately. It doesn't matter whether you stand under a bush to plead guilty or be cautious. In any case, your attitude must be respectful to avoid being taken advantage of by villains."

Naohide thought it was reasonable, and he listened to others' advice to eat enough, so he simply made the following arrangements, and then set off to Edo to plead guilty.

The battle took place on August 15, 1857 in the Western calendar, and Naohide arrived in Edo in mid-September.

Knowing that such a big event had happened, the central government of the shogunate was shocked!

What, you sank three of the four ships in Lucia, half of the more than 800 people were killed, and most of the rest were captured.

I don’t even dare to say that wildly!

Fortunately, there was a letter written by Hakodate Hori Toshi as evidence, so the important ministers were half-convinced. But how to deal with the aftermath became a problem again:

In October of the third year of Ansei (1856), Gongfang Yijia decided to appoint Masatatsu Hotta as the president of foreign affairs. In December of that year, before Gongfang Yijia decided to marry Atsuhime, he named "Masatsushi" to avoid taboos.

"Du" was renamed as "Zhengmu".

Hota Masumu is both the leader of Laoshong and the president of foreign affairs, so he is responsible for how to deal with the Lucians.

Besides, he couldn't let him out.

Apart from himself, there are currently only two shogunates who are capable and qualified to undertake foreign affairs. One is the original chief Lao Naka, now the victorious Lao Naka Abe Masahiro, and the other is his mortal enemy, Mito Lao

The feudal lord was Tokugawa Saiaki.

Even if Hotta is killed, Qi Zhao will not be allowed to intervene:

The relationship between the two has always been bad. When they met, they would throw knives at each other with their eyes, and they would often argue in person.

In addition, in May of this year, Qi Zhaoyi sent an exhortation to the Tokugawa clan, "The Tokugawa clan of all feudal lords established two positions: the elder and the middle. The elder was sometimes abolished, and the elder and middle always had the power to govern. He also wrote that all close vassals take turns to discuss politics."

This is a naked seizure of power!

In the past, I just despised my own political ability, but now I have gone one step further and directly become the "elder brother" and become my father. This is intolerable!

But the other Masahiro Abe can’t count on it either:

This year, that is, in June of the fourth year of Anzheng (1857), I will give him the old

Masahiro Abe, who holds the title of chief minister, suddenly fell ill and is still dying on the tatami. If the imperial doctor Ito Xuanpu hadn't come to the rescue, Abe would have died long ago.
To be continued...