On August 16, the fifth year of Ansei (1858), Naohide set out from Edo and returned to the north, preparing to take office as Hakodate.

Before he left, the shogunate had not yet obtained the mediation commitments of England and France regarding the war between Fuso and Lucia.

Therefore, in the eyes of outsiders, it is inevitable that Lucia will invade the Northland again, and Naohide Hori is an unlucky guy who was taken out by the "big boss" Ii Sobu.

Because of this, many ministers are not optimistic about Naohide's future - Lucia has already failed twice in the White Lord, and people will wake up no matter what the third time. And the lack of big ships is Fuso's fatal weakness, and Naohide will probably be disgraced.

, and then was convicted by the shogunate, "This person cannot escape the fate of destroying his family and destroying his family."

However, some people are pessimistic and some are supportive.

Everyone knows that the North will start a third war with the Lu people, so many active "anti-barbarians" are going north one after another, preparing to join Naohsiu's command and fight to the death with the Lu people.

But how to treat these "supporters" has become a big headache for Hakodate.

The origins of these people are diverse and strange. They include subordinates of wealthy merchants, low-level retainers who escaped from various families, ronin who lost his job, sons of wealthy merchants and farmers seeking official opportunities, and even retainers of the Duke of Kyoto and retainers of daimyo.

Among them, the men of wealthy merchants are the best to deal with.

These people knew that Hakodate was about to open for trade. In the future, this would be one of the three ports for trading with the Nanman people, and there would be many opportunities to make a fortune in the future.

Therefore, these people say they are here to support the fight against the foreigners, but in fact they are here to explore the way forward.

They are all like liars. Not only do they say nothing, but they also have evil intentions. They are either prepared to sell the materials to the practice at a high price, or they are simply trying to make a big deal out of nothing, hoping to get some kind of commitment from the practice. Anyway, no one will come.

Rejection——"Whether it's the land in the town or the special rights for certain goods, I'm here to fight off the barbarians. Samurai-sama, please show some mercy."

As for the lower-level retainers who escaped, they can basically be classified into the same situation - these people were originally studying abroad, either in Edo, Osaka, Nagasaki and other well-informed places. They heard about "Northland's defeat of Lucia"

"Two times, and then the third war is coming." These young people were so excited that they came over by boat.

As for the sons of rogues and wealthy merchants and farmers, most of them actually just want to come from the north. As for the desire to resist the foreigners, they may have it - anyway, under this banner, they will be looked down upon wherever they go, so why not do it.

The most troublesome thing is the ministers and retainers of the daimyo. These people conceal their original identities on the surface, and then they are arrogant, hesitant and roundabout when talking.

Tell each other everything."

How could Naohsiu have such free time at that time!

He took charge of Hakodate and issued three military orders in Edo:

First, we must strive to keep both the safe box museum and the white master;

Secondly, for the remaining Ezo lands, if lost, they must be recaptured within one year;

As for the Northern Ezo Territory, the requirements for the southern territory are the same as those for the Ezo Territory, while the requirements for the northern territory are more relaxed. "If there is an invasion from outside, we must not give up harassment!"

On that day, many senior ministers, Omatsuke and Wakatoshi were present, and these important officials of the shogunate showed their cards to Naohide:

"The situation is critical now. The reason why I chose you to serve in the north is to resist the invasion of the Lucians! Everything else can be put aside, but the military strength must not be neglected!"

Naohide knew that after the two battles of White Lord, he was so powerful that the shogunate appointed him as the Northern Territory Advocate. He wanted to use his years of business influence to let people like the White Lord Advocate perform their best.

However, in contrast to the difficult-to-complete military order, Edo also gave support:

First, only one hundred thousand taels of gold can be allocated each year, and second, Naohide is delegated power, "Xu Fengxingsuo will self-recommend the candidate for the head of the group and send him to Edo. He will also be allowed to build his own group of 2,000 people in Beidi."

What is fixed time?

In fact, it is a team based in a certain place.

"Xu Beidi established its own Dingfan", which means that the military power of the execution office was released.

You know, Naohide didn't have this power when he was the leader of the White Lord. In fact, the standing army of the White Lord before was not organized. Except for the group leaders, the group leaders were official servants of the shogunate. Counting ordinary ashigaru, they were all

It's Min Yong. When will Edo issue an order, everyone will have to go home honestly.

Go farm.

The Hakodate Administrative Office does have a regular establishment, but there are only a group of more than 400 people.

This time, the number of fixed troops was expanded to two thousand at a time, and it was "self-built" by the envoys. The shogunate was forced to red-eye by Lucia! - You know, the shogunate has five standing armies, among which the strongest

The big group only has 5,000 people in twelve groups.

Of course, the 2,000 people in the four groups of the Northland fixed group approved by the shogunate this time are incomparable to the "sons" of the big group:

One is that the staff provided is low, and the head of the group is just a representative family member of the imperial family tree. As for Ashigaru, they are all "holding seats" who cannot inherit the father's inheritance;

The other is "self-financing of ordnance".

To put it bluntly, the 2,000 people in the North are destined to be the big guns in the upcoming war.

However, don’t be too picky when asking for food.

After Naohide lived idle for a year, he finally understood that he had no future in Edo. Although he was already a high-ranking Hatamoto yoshi, the shogunate had a strong sense of family status, and no one cared about him as a low-born person.

"The lucky ones".

Just give two things to prove it:

First, Naoxiu had been living idle for a year, but not even one of his important ministers took the initiative to talk to him!

Second, Naohide has written many times, requesting to go to Niushan to help Mr. Tan'an make ordnance, but nothing happened. Occasionally, he could get a reply with only three words: "Got it!"

Therefore, being able to return to the Northern Territory and pursue it as a powerful person is a good thing Naohide can only dream of - in fact, Naohide's original plan was to "lay dormant until Oguri Tadjun came to power and then make a comeback."

Therefore, seeing that the conditions were acceptable, Naohide issued a Fuso Military Order "Pledge of Allegiance".

But he agreed happily at the time, but afterwards he almost turned gray with worry.

On August 27th of the fifth year of Ansei (1858), Naohide arrived at Hakodate by boat, and had an account with Hori Toshihi, the former Hakodate chief minister who had been demoted. Naohide and his friends were shocked!

You know, when the shogunate returned most of the Ezo land to the direct jurisdiction of the imperial territory in the second year of Ansei (1855), it compensated the original lord, the Matsumae family, with 30,000 koku of territory and 18,000 ryo of gold per year - that's all.

The retainers of the Matsumae family were still not satisfied, thinking that their family had suffered a great loss.

According to Shiro's estimate at the time, the taxes collected from merchants such as transportation gold were large. Adding in the annual tribute from the subjects and the exploitation of the Ainu people, the Matsumae family's annual income could be converted into nearly 50,000 small gold deposits.

——In other words, the compensation from the shogunate was equivalent to only 60%.

Considering that the Matsumae family retains the territory of Fukuyama Castle, the income of the Hakodate Office will of course be less.

But Hori Toshi, you are both an iron smelter and a coal miner, so your income should be at least the same as the Matsumae family's original income, that is, an income of 50,000 gold a year should be adequate.

However, what stunned Naohide was that the account book clearly stated, "In the five years of Ansei, the annual income of the Hakodate Office was more than 35,000 gold" - only 70% of the expected amount!

After careful inspection, Zhixiu discovered:

The original business tax of more than 30,000 yuan is now only half collected;

I made money from iron smelting, with an income of nearly 20,000 gold a year;

As for the original land output, it is basically zero now;

The annual tribute of the Ainu people originally amounted to three to four thousand taels, but Hori Toshi exempted it in the name of loving the people.

Moreover, Hori Toshi is very confident:

Of course, tax revenue will be reduced. In the past two consecutive years of joining forces with Lucia, businessmen have of course run away a lot, and this income will naturally be reduced;

In terms of land output, only the Matsumae family's Fukuyama Castle area was well developed, but now it is not under the control of Hakodate, so naturally it will not receive annual tribute;

And the Ainu people, didn’t you propose to treat them kindly?

"Besides, three or four thousand taels a year is indeed too much exploitation. I think one or two thousand taels is about the same. Besides, the Ainu people have been very respectful in recent years, so I waived the money."

Naoxiu had a thousand words in his heart, but in the end he just sighed, "High, it's really high!"

In fact, he also felt guilty - the income from Hakodate's practice was not high, and the White Lord's forces were digging a lot of holes.

Let’s talk about the coal mines. Hori Toshi was originally going to be government-run. However, most of the large coal mines in Ezo Land were occupied by Shiro in advance.

The operator, Carnival, obtained the exclusive authorization to operate on the condition of guaranteed supply:

The shogunate's tax on minerals was very strange. One method was the share-sharing system. Generally, you could give me two percent of the finished product.

Knorr House promises to provide all the charcoal needs of Hakodate Iron Works free of charge.

At that time, Hakodate was enshrined by Hori Toshihi, and he was overjoyed when he heard the news. This was possible. In addition, Carraku House promised to provide free coal supply to the main staff of the enshrinement office, so he used a stroke of his pen to turn over several large coal mines.

Hand it over!

The Ainu people are another big kang dug by Carraku House for Hakodate.

There are about 23,000 Ainu people in Ezo, and more than 5,000 of them make a living by working for merchants in Hakodate, Matsumae Town and other places.

But what Hori Xi didn't know was that most of the remaining Ainu people fell into the control of the White Lord.

A few years ago, the White Master naturalized all the Ainu people in the southern part of the Northern Ezo Land. After that, these naturalized Ainu people, under the command of Karakuya, went to the Ezo Land to "help"

tribesmen.

Nowadays, more than half of the adult men of the Ainu tribe in the eastern part of Ezo Land, which was originally isolated from the outside world, work for Karakuya. Even the remaining people are actually under the influence of Karakuya - fishing and hunting.

They are still fishing and hunting, but the livelihood of the tribe has been deeply penetrated, and gathering and planting have begun to rise.

Even the White Lord Ainu, who appear as monks, doctors or capable people, have already taken control of the real power of many tribes.

In fact, the actual income of the Ainu people has begun to increase, but the Hakodate Office did not notice it!

In fact, Hori Toshihi can be forgiven for not knowing the inside story - the Hakodate Office was only officially established in 1854, and basically did nothing that year except planning the Hakodate. In the three years from 1855 to 1857, the shogunate did not invest much, and Hori

Li Xi and others were busy visiting the area around the Hakodome. After the conflict with Lucia in 1857, he paid more attention to places other than the Hakodome.
To be continued...