In early October 1861, Fuso's first railway was officially opened. The line was from Shirozu in Kita Ezo to Toyohara, with a total length of about 20 kilometers (five Fuso miles).

Naturally, everyone in Hakodate participated in such a grand event with great fanfare. Naohide, Ekawa Hidetoshi, Hori Toshihi, Okubo Roshichi and others came to celebrate. Even Saigo Takanaga, who was inspecting the Northland, came to join in the fun after hearing the news.

Didn’t Naohide prepare to hand over his service duties to Hori Toshi last year? Why is he still in the Northland?

It's a long story, but it can be summed up in one sentence, "No zuo no die" - it turns out that after "hard work", Hori Toshihi finally destroyed the Hakodate Philosophy he had obtained.

In fact, if you really think about it, Hori Xi is responsible, but Naohide is not without mistakes.

In late July of the first year of Manen (1860), Hakodate Chief Naohide and Hakodate Metsuke Horihiro returned to Edo to report on their work. However, what they never expected was that the situation was completely different from what Naohide and others had imagined:

Naohide thought that he and his group were causing trouble in the north, and even if Edo didn't notice it, it was still on guard, so he decided to resign in order to make progress.

But in fact, Naohide's current reputation in Edo, no, in the whole of Fuso, if not at its peak, is still highly anticipated. Especially this year, he has become a legendary figure like "Kan Gong" Kusunoki Masashige. Therefore, don't

It is said that Hakodate has always been submissive, but even if it is a bit out of line, the shogunate cannot easily touch him.

Speaking of which, this is all a result of a guilty conscience.

Starting from July 1, 1859 (June 2, Ansei 6th Year), Nagasaki, Kanagawa (Yokohama), and Hakodate officially opened trade with foreign countries.

The Northland has already had plans for this. On the surface, but secretly, there are endless schemes like this, and they have the prestige of defeating the Lucian invasion. Therefore, there is no trouble in Hakodate or even the entire Northland - of course, this is for trade.

This is also an important reason why most of the main force of foreign businessmen are our own people.

After all, Hakodate is much more remote than the other two ports, so most of the foreign businessmen visiting here have connections in the North, and few come here to test the waters rashly. And when it comes to connections, who can compare to Songjianghui?

Li and Xiangjiang Huitong—these were the ones who had been doing secret trade with Lord Bai before the port opened!

After years of hard work, both companies have gained considerable momentum in the Far East. Therefore, after the opening of Hakodate, the foreign merchants formed a pattern in which Huitong was the leader of the British foreign merchants, and Huili followed the Mi people's lead.

Under such favorable circumstances, wouldn't it be a joke if Zhixiu made another mistake? Therefore, the loss of gold and silver is not much. Although prices are soaring, the basic food supply is stable. If the rice rises, you can eat noodles and cereals - Ou,

You have to eat rice, you can’t afford to offend, you have money and you are justified.

Therefore, ordinary citizens expressed their calmness, because they rarely ate rice before immigrating to the North. Now they can eat enough white flour and grains, and can eat fresh and salted fish as they like. What more do they need bicycles? Bicycles appeared after the trade in 1859.

The price of these foreign gadgets is quite high, but they are very popular among foreigners in Hakodate. After all, raising a horse is much more troublesome than oiling it. Of course, riding a carriage is still the first choice, after all, it is majestic.

In short, the stability of Hakodate is the result of years of vigorous farming and fishery development, as well as the achievement of Naohide and others' efforts to control the grain trade.

But Edo and even Fuso did not have this condition.

Not to mention after the opening of the port, but also before the opening of the port, prices rose rapidly due to various natural and man-made disasters. Once the port opened, okay, prices, especially food, almost skyrocketed.

Not only the townspeople, but also the common people (peasants), craftsmen (craftsmen) and even middle- and lower-level samurai were seriously affected. Although rice was distributed, people could not live just by eating rice. Everything was expensive, and people were needed.

Alive.

With the addition of the shogunate, each domain increased its military investment, and its finances were therefore more

The situation worsened, so knowledge and half-knowledge often occurred. Not only did the income increase, but what was even worse was that each family also streamlined its personnel, and the number of rogues suddenly increased.

Intentionally or unintentionally, these problems were blamed on Westerners. Under such circumstances, the public's opposition to the foreigners became more and more powerful.

The samurai at all levels, especially the accomplices of famous figures, were increasingly dissatisfied with foreigners showing off their power. These big bosses in the shogunate, who were usually majestic, could be seen groveling and groveling when they saw foreigners. They were picking on the weak of eggplants and felt that we were easy to bully.

.

Especially for the Kansai families, in the past, Kanto gold, Kansai silver, and silver coins were circulated in these territories. However, as soon as the May Wanyan coinage was implemented, everyone was cut off by the shogunate. The losses were heavy. How can we just forget it so easily?

!

As a result, the prestige of the shogunate plummeted, and even important ministers became the targets of public ridicule.

Take the deceased elder Ii Sobu as an example. Although the shogunate tried hard to cover it up, the news of his assassination still spread like wildfire.

At that time, the market arranged him like this:

"In fact, you shouldn't use a net to catch ducks. What should you use? Use a cage (a sedan)." - This is a satire on the Hikone clan who failed to protect the family and was slaughtered like a duck.

There are also "The samurai master is so frugal that patients don't need pillows", "Although ginseng is useful, it can't cure patients without mouths", and "Is it really okay to say it with your butt in your last words?" These are the sarcastic comments made by the shogunate

Jing Yi was recuperating, but in fact the person had been beheaded.

But unlike Ii and other "culprits" who signed a trade agreement, Naohide was the first great hero to defeat the foreigners, so of course he should be treated differently.

Not to mention, since the visit of the black ship of the Mi people in the sixth year of Kayei (1853), in the first battle of the White Lord in the fourth year of Ansei (1857), Naohide defeated the Lucians, which is really rare in Fuso in recent years.

It was an act of pride and pride - even though I defeated the Lu people again in Bai Zhu the following year, the first time was always special.

"Where it was still called the Battle of the White Lord, it is now called the 'White Lord's Victory'!"

According to Okubo Jiemon, people often came to visit Hidee Yashiki, and many ronin came to seek refuge. Although in order to avoid causing trouble, he asked people to come forward on the grounds that "the head of the family did not dare to do anything outside."

I declined, but these people didn't worry. They cheered loudly outside the yard and left with satisfaction - it looked like they had done something great.

"No, Hakodate is seriously short of people. It's right to refuse them face to face. Later, you can secretly encourage them to start a business in the north."

"Don't worry, head of the family, someone will naturally contact you."

Upon hearing this arrangement, Naoxiu nodded and smiled.

To be honest, Naohide couldn't be more satisfied with Jiemon and even Okubo and his son - his son worked hard every day in Hakodate, and he took care of his son loyally in Edo. If he finds fault again, this is still

person?

In 1858, after Ii Sobu became the eldest brother, the rewards and punishments of the first White Lord War were finally implemented, and the Ekawa family became the flagship. Although the reward was Rikichi, the Jiemon couple only had Rikichi's son.

, naturally the whole family enjoyed the blessing together with Liji.

However, Naohide could not take Hatamoto's father as his retainer, so he dismissed Jiemon from his position as "Horike Tea Head". But in fact, Okubo and his wife still stayed in Edo Horie's Yashiki Prince Teru Fukutaro.

This has helped Naohide a lot - Northland is a carrot and a pit, and there are suitable people, but it would be too wasteful to go to Edo to take care of a child. Naohide and Eiko have always been grateful for this kindness.

, I just couldn’t find a chance to repay him.

Therefore, Jiemon has actually been serving as the "house manager" of the Hori family in Edo, and all the ups and downs of Edo depend on him to collect and organize them before sending them to the north.

No

"Hearing is false, seeing is believing", the letter said how the reputation of the Ui family has greatly increased in the past two years, and Naohsiu was not convinced. After returning this time, he found that things were really different from the past.

In the past two days since I came back, the ronin who came to seek refuge with me, and the young samurai who came to study in Edo from all the feudal dynasties, all wanted to meet me. They were all from Wuyangwuyang. Naohide was so frightened that he didn't dare to stay in Kamiyashiki anymore, and secretly ran to Shinjuku Town.

Home is here - after Naohide became prosperous, the shogunate allotted him a new homestead. When he became a white master in 1854, a new residence was built for him in Tamachi.

Speaking of which, Naohide also owns three houses in Edo. The more houses there are, the better. For example, in order to avoid suspicion this time, he can sneak back to Shinjuku Town - as the place where he started, he knows that there are very few people here.

A few days passed quickly, and on the big day of visiting the castle in early August, I ran straight to Edo Castle.

It's funny to say that Naohide had been a Hakodate Hatake for a few months. During the Edo Grand Competition, his seat was between Yanagi, but now that he has become the Hakodate Hakodate with real power, his position has been moved to the outer edge of Kikuma.

It dropped two levels.

Naohide knew very few people at the meeting.

But you can't blame him. He didn't know a few noble people before he was born in a lowly family. When he became successful, he stayed in the North all year round. He worked as a Hatamoto courier for a few months, but the lawsuit with Lucia was not settled at that time. Who could

Dare to talk to him - don't be afraid of being covered in blood afterwards.

Besides, just because we met before doesn't mean we are here now.

When the elder Ii came to power, a lot of daimyo and ministers changed. When Kuze's attendant became the first laozhong this year, there was no ambiguity. The daimyo didn't change much, but a large number of ministers also changed. Two of the five laozhong——

Not counting the half he had exchanged himself, he only exchanged two large items for a new one. Five of them were replaced by three old ones and two new ones were exchanged.

In this revolving door of replacements, who does Naohide, who has always had a dark eye, recognize? He is familiar with Oguri Tadjun, who is appointed to be the envoy, but now he is presiding over the opening of the iron smelting plant in Nagasaki.

However, although Naohide knew few people, there were many people who took the initiative to say hello to Naohide - those who were sitting far away nodded and smiled at Naohide, while colleagues from the outer edge of Kikujana began to get close to Naohide one after another.

The advantages are fully utilized.

Naohide had a personal experience of this good reputation today - it stands to reason that although Horihi next to him has a low status, he has a strong foundation. His father is still a stay-at-home man now, but he was made to feel depressed by Naohide.

.

It wasn't until the big evaluation meeting started that Nao Soo was let go.

Then Naohide fell asleep after listening to it for a while. There was no change in this cliche. It was either good here or there, or it was an important replacement for a certain famous hospital. In short, there was not much serious matter.

When it was finally Nao Soo's turn to make his debut, he also boasted:

"Thanks to the great blessings of Mr. Fang, thanks to the wisdom of the old middlemen, and the advice of the Edo adults, everything is going well in Hakodate. Even Russians and foreigners from various countries admire Fuso. Everything goes smoothly for fair transactions."

When Nao Xiu finished shouting, today's evaluation meeting ended successfully.

So countless colleagues came over and invited him to the banquet. Fortunately, an envoy came over at this time and asked Naohide to meet him in the imperial ministry room. He said that the senior middlemen had something to consult, so Naohide was able to escape.

In fact, the old middlemen didn't have anything serious to worry about. First, they were worried about the news about the Battle of Aihui sent by Zhixiu, fearing that the war between the Tang and Lu people would bring disaster to Chiyu; secondly, Zhixiu came to the table, and the old middlemen were a little hesitant about this.

He clarified it himself.

Naohide's above list would later be called the "Hakodate Memorial". It was so famous that it was called "the beginning of the Fuso Restoration". But at the time, it was called a masterpiece of "patting horses, washing feet and holding boots" - it was shameless
Chapter completed!