Earth's Xiaoice Age began in the 13th century, peaked in the 17th century, and eventually slowed down in the early 19th century. As a result, the climate in Northern Ezo at this time was much colder than in later generations.

The white lord is on the north side of the Soya Strait – "Soya" is an indigenous Ainu word meaning "town with rocks". The Soya Strait is a place where the warm and cold currents of the north and south meet, and there are abundant fish resources. Moreover, there is a small piece of flat land near the location of the white lord, so it is a small treasure land.

When Naohide arrived at the White Lord, it had just snowed here, but there was no large ice floe in the sea.

The White Lord is a rudimentary bazaar with dirt roads, a small rudimentary dock, a dozen wooden houses, and dozens of shacks.

The cold winter is approaching, and the merchant who paid the money to the Matsumae family and is in charge of the trade here has already run away, presumably to spend the winter in Matsumae, leaving only a few guards and Ainu servants who take care of fishing gear and houses. As for the Ainu, who usually worked for merchants, they all returned to their tribes because they had no work to do.

After Naoxiu went ashore, he saw such a bleak scene.

After patrolling around the neighborhood, Naohide lost his temper and ordered all outsiders to be driven away.

"Daikan-sama ordered the requisition of Yashiki for the winter", Naohide's retainers were like wolves, and drove the people who stayed behind to the guide ship of the Matsumae family - none of the guards who could mix in the northern land were good, but looking at the iron cannons in the hands of the samurai, they finally gave in.

The people of the Matsumae family looked at Naoxiu as a blessing, quite disapproving, this disembarkation is a fart, everyone is driven away, I see how you spend the winter!

The samurai of the Matsumae family wanted to leave a few people to help, but Naohide didn't agree, and at the urging of him, the guide boat also left. The people of the Matsumae family can also understand that the white lord is especially desolate in winter, and the white expanse is really clean, and anyone who sees their territory is this bird-like can't accept it for a while.

Those who are left behind are their own people. The people who followed Naohide to the white master, except for Mr. Miyama, were all close to Naohide, more or less received his favors, and they were all retainers of the Hori family who wrote an oath, although they were depressed, but they also began to organize supplies and unload goods under the command of Okubo - as for Naohide, after entrusting things to Okubo, he found a room to sleep in, and looked like he was dying.

In the evening, the wooden house was simply cleaned, but the goods were only unloaded a little, and at dinner everyone was not in a high mood, and there was silence around the fire, and there was no trace of the interest when they first arrived in Matsumae.

Only Naoxiu was the exception, he rested for a while in the afternoon, and at this time he was full of energy, and he praised the food well.

Because it is taboo to take women on long-distance voyages, and when Matsumae was in Matsumae, Naohide also forbade the hiring of local women, so the meals along the way were all Katsugoro, Hayabusa, and Yuei were in charge of the kitchen - Katsugoro and Hayato inherited the tradition of the Hori family and were proficient in the art of cooking, while Yuei had an inexplicable attachment to food when he was young, and everyone ate food made by three people along the way.

Although the first meal of the white lord can be seen to be a lot of effort, dried vegetable miso soup, salted herring roe, sea pickles, soba noodles, and Tosa crane sake that is not allowed to be drunk on the boat, but everyone still can't lift their spirits, and they misbelieve people's words and are mistaken people's children, this matter is very urgent, can anyone tell me what to do now?

Okubo was about to speak, but was stopped by Naohide raising his hand, and he poured himself another glass of wine, and Naohide began the first official lecture of the Shiraishi Daisho.

"All the gentlemen are good talents, follow Zhixiu to the north, which shows loyalty" Zhixiu finished speaking, bowed his head and gave a deep salute.

"The Lord is serious, it's just his duty." The retainers spoke and returned the salutes.

"Naoxiu came to the white master, with a heavy responsibility, and he couldn't be unprepared. Tonight, you will look at the means of the straight show, and in the future, you will watch the show of your strengths! Zhixiu's voice was clear and passionate, and he got up and pushed the door out. Katsugoro and Hayato were prepared, picked up the torches and followed closely, and the rest of the people rushed out.

When he arrived at the dock, he peeled off the cover and poured hot oil, and Naohide personally lit the three piles of wood that had been piled up during the day

A shake.

"Yataro and Xuanzhen stayed behind to guard, and the rest went back with me to drink." Seeing this scene, everyone looked at each other, that's it? Show me this after all the rhetoric? Only Okubo was thoughtful between the light and the darkness of the fire.

Back in the house, everyone couldn't eat anymore, and after Naohide persuaded him to drink a few times, he saw that everyone was uncertain, and waved everyone to go back to rest.

In the early hours of the morning, more than a dozen dogs brought by the ship barked wildly, and everyone hurriedly came out with iron cannons to check. I saw that there were about people walking back and forth at the dock, and in a panic, Okubo greeted in a loud voice, "The Lord asked you to go to the dock to help." ”

It turned out that Toranosuke took John and others, the bow of the rice country, and waited in the waters near the white lord for a few days, and finally saw the code and quickly lifted the anchor, but he was afraid of an accident at night, so he didn't dock until dawn in the early morning.

Yataro and Xuan Zhen were instructed by Naohide in advance, and watched the lights continue to shine in groups of three, which woke up Naoxiu, and when everyone arrived at the dock, the crew of the rice boat had already begun to unload.

Captain John was very worried, and he heard from Toranosuke that the white lord would soon freeze the harbor, so he wanted to unload and leave early.

Although the outsiders were driven away, Naohide didn't dare to be careless, after all, there were conflicts with people and Ainu from time to time, if they were raided when unloading, the scene was too beautiful to imagine, and the crew of the rice boat was more tired, so it was better to rest first.

The dock of the white lord is very simple, there are no booms or anything like that, and it is not easy to start construction in winter, and the two gangs of Naohide and John have gone through a lot of hard construction, and the speed of unloading is faster.

The steam sail hybrid ship is also the first voyage, in order to prevent accidents, hundreds of tons of carrying capacity in the United States is not fully loaded, to Xiangjiang, Nagasaki unloaded, now there are only dozens of tons of materials on board.

But on these dozens of tons of materials, the two gangs worked for five days to unload, during which God gave face, only one snow, otherwise the time would have to be pushed back, so angry that the hair was ruthless, and vowed to build the boom and wooden track next year, and never to be guilty of this crime again.

After unloading the cargo, Captain John hurriedly took the ship away, Naohide was more worried, and persuaded them to leave again in the spring, John said that he had brought a whaling ship to this area before, and the ship had replenished coal in Nagasaki, so there was no need to worry, and the crew was also very satisfied with the triple salary, and the morale was guaranteed, so it was over.

After Naoxiu led people to send away the rice boat, he then held the first evaluation meeting of the white master.

The first thing is all a gag order. Unlike Nagasaki, Naohide wants to play the barbarian treasure trick again in the white lord, and the Edo shogunate must be crazy.

To Naohide's surprise, he felt that the authority of the shogunate was still there, and many people would not be able to figure out this secret trade, and it was inevitable that there would be some internal tongues, but after private communication, in fact, everyone was very receptive to it, according to the words of everyone, "The white lord is so desolate, fortunately, the lord has great powers, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable."

Also, it's not the same as I've seen it, after arriving at the white master, everyone is a little scared, before coming to the ambition, to see, it's completely different from imagination, just say to warm up at night, the house is burning a brazier and can't sleep.

The fetching of water was even more difficult, and the only well was frozen, and according to the departing merchant guards, it was a saltwater well, which could not be drunk in normal times, and was an early failed attempt. Now the nearby river is also frozen, and the water that Naohide and others drink is all broken ice to get water. It snowed two days ago, so everyone simply took snow and water, not to mention, it was much more convenient than breaking the ice.

After taking the nature lesson, everyone felt that the materials given by the rice boat were not only urgent, but also the foundation of life. Besides, when the sky falls, there is a tall man on top, and everyone can't figure out the collusion between Naohide and Mi Chuan, whether it is the secret hand of the shogunate or Naohide's vast powers, anyway, even if something happens, Naohide will cut his stomach first, and it is estimated that the most likely result for everyone is exile, but can they still find a place of exile that is more desolate than the white lord? Can't think of it.

In addition, the chain of loyalty in the Edo period was also based on each family, and the so-called lord of the lord is not my lord, which means that the retainers of the Hori family should first be loyal to the head of the family, Naohide, and as for the shogunate, it is the lord of Naohide, and how to be loyal to the shogunate is Naohide

The retainers only need to consider the interests of the Hori family.

Denunciating secret trade is money to take, and you can get 30% to 50% of the trader's net worth, but this is for the common people and townspeople, not for the samurai, and the samurai who denounce the lord's family are not tolerated by the world, even if the shogunate can't publicly promote the informer, otherwise the Tsuji duel incident of the key house and the 47 righteous warriors of Ako will not be so famous. In short, the samurai rebelled against the main family, and it didn't end well.

After the hidden dangers of secret trade were initially eliminated, the rest of the time was to sit in a row and divide the fruits.

Masajiro Omura is the chief of the retainers, and no one can shake this position. The remaining good position is the service of the White Lord.

All of you here are retainers of the Hori family, even if you hold the position of the commissioner, it is also the so-called private minister, but after all, the authority is not false, Naoxiu is already a flag of 200 stones, and if you take a step forward, 500 stones can be called a big body, and the retainers of the big body banner are also well-known, and it will not be a good thing to be an old second seat of the family at that time.

In addition to the original salary, these officials also have subsidies "hand money" and rations "support rice", and in addition, they can usually be used as a prestige in the territory, and the additional income is also a lot.

The White Lord Office is different from other dai offices, the general town office is in charge of the city, and the dai official is in charge of the countryside, but the White Lord Office is more similar to the distant country of the shogunate at this time, although it is a little smaller, but it is fully responsible for Shiraishi and even the northern Ezo land, so it has both civil and military and many positions.

First of all, Naohide promoted Okubo to the position of Hakulord-cho, and Yataro Iwasaki to be in charge of the commerce, fishing, and civil affairs of the Hakujo area.

As for the hand attached by the acting official who is in charge of agriculture, I haven't heard that the white lord has farmland, so this position is temporarily shelved.

After that, Toranosuke Takemae was appointed as the head of the commission, and Naotsushi Hori and Naoyoshi Hori were the leaders of the group, and they controlled the force.

Okada Xuanzhen is the head of the small surname group and masters the internal guard.

Genzaburo Inoue is the head of the survey and controls the finances of the office.

Xuanming on the river is the side of the big housekeeper, and he also serves as the head of the tea and masters the logistics.

Takano Nagaei, who is known as Mr. Miyama, is a medical officer - this has always been guarded by Naohide, and after arriving at the white master, Naohide ordered him to close his door in the name of preparing medicine, and before the rice boat left, even eating and excreting were carried out in the house. But since Mr. Miyama arrived in the White Lord, he has relaxed and no longer pulls people to talk about Western society, which is extremely cooperative and abnormal.

As for the six teenagers of the Zaoya group, they were all assigned to Takenae Toranosuke as a fan soldier and were responsible for security.

"What about me?" The rest of Hori Yuei was very aggrieved.

"Your duty is the most important, and it is a matter of life and death for everyone."

Yuei was in good spirits when he heard it, and as a result, Naohide appointed him as the kitchen manager and was responsible for cooking for everyone. It's okay for Yurong to hear it, he was hungry and scared when he was a child, and he never felt that there was anything wrong with a man entering the kitchen.

In addition to the town commission, the Kanju commission, and the temple shrine were also served, but this service was held by the temple shrine of Edo, and the white lord was all savages here, and there were no temples, so Edo did not send anyone.

In addition, the general distant country government has the Edo faction to coerce and supervise, but it is estimated that they do not look down on the white master, and Edo does not send anyone.

After the assignment of the service, everyone's spirits were greatly boosted, and even the six teenagers of the Zaoya group felt that it would be their turn to have good things in the future.

At this time, there was only a group of Naohide in the white master, and the Kusadai team consisted of Naohide, Toranosuke Takemae, Naotsu Hori, Naoyoshi Hori, Yuei Hori, Yataro Iwasaki, Nobujin Okada, Genzaburo Inoue, Genaki Kawagami, Ritsu Okubo, and six teenagers named Mr. Miyama, Nagahide Takano and the Zaoya group, a total of 17 people.

In the future, after the development of the Hori faction, it was also divided into the Zaowu group, the protégé group, the Western group, the guest group, the private school group, the windmill group, the scribe group, the martial arts group, the local groups and other cross-complex factions, but among them, the veteran group of the White Lord Worship Office, as a subordinate of the Naoxiu family, occupied many important positions, and was undoubtedly the most powerful faction in overall strength.