Regarding the matter of the princess of the Natokugawa family of the Hori family, if it weren't for the scruples of the matter, the two elders and Ando really wanted to support it.

Why?

Of course, it's because of the strength of the straight show.

But how did the two old men know this?

That's a long story.

On March 3, 1860, the seventh year of Ansei (1860), that is, the Kamitsu Festival of Fuso, the head of the shogunate Daiji Isabu was stabbed to death outside the Sakurada Gate, and the situation was almost out of control at that time - the Mito Tokugawa family, which was the Mito Tokugawa family of the Gosan, actually instructed the ronin to murder the shogunate government, isn't this a rebellion? If this is not dealt with, then where is the authority of the shogunate?

However, before Ii used the Ansei Prison to cut off dissidents, which was very unpopular, and after his death, only orphans and widows were left in the Hikone Domain, so all parties in the shogunate used the excuse of "focusing on the overall situation" to announce that the eldest Ii died of a sudden illness, and actually covered up the matter.

And among them, it was the foreign royal who took the old man Ando Shinmu at that time.

However, Ando knew that he was weak and alone, so he quickly brought in the former elder Kushi Hiroshu - on the first day of the leap month of that year, Hisayo, who had resigned due to disagreement with Ii Masa, was reinstated as the chief of the old middle school, and was promoted to the chief of the old middle school on April 28 shortly after.

After that, Hisayo and Ando joined forces to take control of the shogunate.

In fact, Iyi, Hisashi, and Ando are all founding factions:

The emergence of the Founding Rebellion began in the 6th year of Kaei (1853) when the Black Ship was held, marked by the then Chief of the Old Central Army, Masahiro Abe, who believed that "it is not permissible to open an unscrupulous army and die for the sake of death", which was opposed to the position of the Qi Zhao faction of the Armed Rebellion.

However, not all of the founding factions were in a-for-tat confrontation with Qi Zhao's faction, and there were Abe in the past and Jiushi in the future, and they all tried to reconcile with the armed faction - they were just unwilling to start a rash war, but they actively supported the rest of the armament.

In fact, Qi Zhao himself did not insist on raising troops, he just had a particularly tough attitude towards the outside world - "whether it is war or peace, it is advisable to make a decision as soon as possible", this is Qi Zhao's original words, he has never said that he must fight.

But ordinary people are anxious, and they will "scold no good mouth, no good hand", not to mention that at this time, the life of the family, the rise and fall of the family and whether it is in power are directly related, so the fighting methods of the two factions are frequent and escalating, and new and old hatreds are accumulating more and more.

In particular, in June of the fourth year of Ansei (1857), Masahiro Abe, who had been reconciled in the middle, fell ill violently, and after that, he resigned and completely picked his son, and the struggle between the two factions of the founding of the country and the armed force began to completely get out of control.

In April of the fifth year of Anzheng (1858), the head of the founding faction, Jing Yi, took office, and the two sides began to formally break - Jing Yi and Qi Zhao were both stubborn and self-serving, and according to the words of later generations, who was afraid of who.

However, after the baptism of the Ansei Prison (1858-1859) and the Sakurada Gate Incident (1860), the top brass on both sides repented:

Although "the punishment is not as good as the doctor", and there are many deaths and injuries among the courtiers, the heads of the families are not dead, but the shogunate is about to fall apart;

And at this time, there were still Westerners eyeing the side, and at the same time, the small imperial court in Kyoto also jumped up and down, and even the daimyo of all the foreign families began to disobey the yin and yang.

If this continues, maybe the Tokugawa shogunate will be overthrown, but this is not possible!

Therefore, from April of the first year of Wanyeon (1860), the ruling Hisashi began to reconcile the differences between the two factions.

But the people of the world are not completely black and white, in addition to the two factions of the founding of the country and the armed rebellion, there are many ministers and daimyo who are silent, but these people are still strong, and they can't be ignored - at this time, Fusang is in turmoil, and the chief elder Jiushi of course wants to expand his basic plate.

But no matter how the small abacus is pulled, Jiushi can't ignore the Hakodate Office, after all, this is the only one who has really fought with Westerners and won.

Moreover, the Naohide forces thought that they had been hiding well all along, but in fact, the shogunate center had long been aware of the anomaly in the Northland:

The shogunate has always wanted to develop Ezo, but it has failed several times. But why can't others do it, you can show it straight, there must be something strange about this thing.

The first to notice that something was wrong was, of course, Naohide's two allies, Egawa Tanan and Oguri Tadashun.

But in addition, the shogunate is not without vigilance, this person is the former Kan Ding and Haiphong Hangchuan Road Shengmo.

The matter also began in the summer of the third year of Ansei (1856):

White at the time

The main reclamation has achieved initial results, there are more immigrants, and the business contacts between Hakodate and the white lord are becoming more and more frequent, and it is too difficult to hide it, Naohide and others have no choice, and they take the initiative to ask for an increase in the number of Shi Gao - it is better to take the initiative to expose it than to be found fault by the shogunate in the future!

When Hidetoshi Egawa returned to Edo, he asked for 30,000 koku in height, which was handled by the Kawasaki Seimo at the Kandingsho.

Although the accounts of the white lord are "clear", who is the person of the Kawaji, a famous official of the shogunate, the more he ponders afterwards, the more wrong it becomes - in order to resist Lucia's southward advance, the Hakodate office is a strong investment of the shogunate, but you are a wild office, how can you prosper?

So he asked the shogunate to track it down.

But in the real world, there are no ninjas who ride the clouds, and the white lord is remote enough, and outsiders are not good at activities, so several waves of hermits (secret agents) have not found out any secrets - it will be hellish if they can find out, the secret trade is in other ports, the industry is in Fengyuan, and the white lord is just a disguise.

However, the hermits were not without gain, and they reported, "The white lord has a lot of Western goods, and the local townspeople say that they bought them from Nagasaki." ”

But I can't follow this clue, and the reason is that the Nagasaki government doesn't cooperate:

In order to hide people's eyes, Naohide purchased a considerable number of items through the Nagasaki Governor Oguri Tadashun, but Oguri was through the channel of the Hamheng Foreign Company, and the Hamhiro Foreign Company was doing a big business with the shogunate at that time to "exchange Fuso gold for overseas silver", which can be checked casually!

And Nagasaki pursues this up and down to share the fertilizer in the trade.,Who knows what you want to check.,So if you can check, you have to do everything you can to excuse it.,

The matter was over, and all that was known was that the white lord had indeed bought the orchid from Nagasaki, but the quantity and price were not clear.

Actually, if you really want to check, you can write a note for big money, but why?

The place is originally a place that is easy to offend people, and there is no reason to go or go there, and it is not that you have nothing to do with it.

Therefore, Naoxiu didn't know that he had inadvertently escaped a catastrophe.

However, in the autumn of the fourth year of Ansei (1857), the First Battle of the White Lord broke out, and Rusia suffered a great loss in the Northland, and the shogunate launched a secret investigation into the White Lord.

But it's the same as last time.,Because there's no ninja who can escape.,So I still haven't found any problems.,The conclusion is,"The white lord is engaged in Western industries and strange costumes.,And there is a suspicion of changing customs.。

But this matter is a hairy matter, at most it is a crime of transgression, and it is not worth mentioning at all compared to the invasion of Lucia, so it is not taken seriously by the old middle school at all.

As a result, the second battle of the white lord broke out the following year, and at this time it was the head of the Da Lao Jing Yi who was in charge.

Jing Yi is a ruthless man, and he sent a message:

"Why is this white lord strong, don't go back to Edo if the patrol envoy and the hermit don't know it."

I'm afraid of everything, in addition, this time there is a righteous and bright patrol envoy to follow, and finally found out the "bottom line" of Zhixiu - even if you can't find out, you have to make up one for Shangguan.

"Forming a party for personal gain, accumulating strength", this is the final result of the investigation.

Specifically, most of the people of the White Lord were accepted as retainers of the Hori family by Naoxiu Zhengdaguang and brightly; Moreover, all the people in the local area are soldiers, and firearms are popularized in every household.

After the document was submitted, the old man Yi laughed instead of anger:

"Without this means and the city, Naohide Hori wouldn't be able to do anything."

"Extraordinary people, extraordinary things", Jing Yi agreed with this sentence very much, so after he got the results of the investigation, he reused Naohide and asked him to go back to Northland as a Hakokan commissioner.

In fact, Jing Yi didn't have any good intentions, he took the top cylinder of Zhixiu, and when the wind and waves were calm in a few years, he would cut Zhixiu's leeks.

But people are not as good as heaven, and later the Anzheng Prison became more and more intense, and the opening of the three ports in June of the sixth year of Anzheng (1859), he had no time to stare at Zhixiu.

Therefore, until the first year of Wanyan, Jing Yi was stabbed to death, and the shogunate never had the intention of tossing the box pavilion.

But in April of the first year of Wanyan (1860), he was replaced by Kushi Hiroshu in charge of the shogunate, and after he roughly sorted out the political situation, he began to be obsessed with Naohide and Hakodate - Ii was conceited and talented, and felt that he could play Naohide in the palm of his hand, but he was obviously trapped; And Jiushi is Zhuge the only cautious way of thinking in his life, and he feels that the box pavilion has the possibility of getting out of control.

And what is good is that in the seventh month of that year, Naohide and Hori Toshiki returned to Edo to report on their work, and directly proposed to the shogunate to start paying New Year's tribute with a height of 60,000 stones.

According to Jiushi's thoughts, this is obviously the fact that Hakodate has full wings - he really guessed correctly, the strength of the Northland has to be expanded externally before he wants to pay money to buy peace.

But there is a saying that wise people are worried, and Jiushi Guangzhou feels that since Zhixiu has a little strength, he can't move lightly.

He guessed this correctly, at that time, Hakodate had already made a general mobilization through the drill, and if Naohide, Hori Rixi, and Egawa Youngtoshi couldn't do the position of Hakodate, then it would be a mess if it wasn't good.

At that time, Jiushi also deliberately tried it:

The table is 60,000 stones, and according to the calculation of five gongs and five people, the annual tribute is 30,000 gold a year, but Jiushi asked Hakodate to take 50,000 gold every year, and Naohide and Hori Rixi actually agreed!

And if the annual tribute is 50,000 gold, the box house is the territory of 100,000 stones.

Of course, now that the price of rice has risen sharply, it is really calculated according to the price of rice, and the box hall has to pay more, but the box hall does not produce rice, so the annual tribute is still calculated by one gold and one stone of rice.

Of course, the shogunate did not suffer a loss, and Hakodate converted it into aquatic products or other physical objects, and the people at the Kandai were very happy to see the price set anyway.

For a long time, he thought that the box hall might not be able to hold 100,000 stone - this guess was also correct, even after excluding the customs duties, the privately dug gold mines, and the balance of the Hochson's treasure, the estimated income of the box hall in 1860 had reached 140,000 days. And if it is calculated according to Wan Yanxiao, it is as high as nearly 500,000 gold!

What is the concept of 500,000 gold?

Even according to the current high price of rice, it is equivalent to about 105,000 stones, and if you are five dukes and five people, it is 210,000 territory - the initial industrialization is so powerful that there are no friends!

This number is about the same as the estimate in the heart of Jiushi.

To be honest, Jiushi is indeed a little excited, but after all, he has been an old middle school for many years, not to mention that he has now become the chief of the old middle school, this vision and mind are indeed different:

Naohide took the initiative to propose Hori Toshiki to take over as Hakodate, indicating that this person has no intention of separating himself at present;

The establishment of a foreign school and the expansion of the operation of the ironworks, without considering ulterior motives, also meant that there would be more exchanges with Edo.

And taking the initiative to pay New Year's tribute, at a time when foreign goods are flooding and all the annual tributes have dropped sharply, this also seems quite loyal.

Therefore, the worry of "forming a party for personal gain and accumulating strength" has also been diluted a little in Jiushi's heart - he coincides with the previous old Jing Yi, "Without this means and the city government, Naoxiu Hori can't do anything." ”

However, Hisashi was not as confident as Ii, and he was really ready to agree to Naohide's request at that time, press Naohide in Edo, and then let Hakodate Totohori Toshiki be promoted to the commissioner, so as to slowly normalize Kitachi.

But later, Hori Riki greatly collided with the old middle Ando Shinmu in his words, and the war on the Yarrow intensified at that time, so for the sake of safety, Hisashi finally let Naohide return to Hakodate.

But he didn't make any moves, and before Naohide left Edo, he made an idle move, "The shogunate center has agreed that Hakodate can boldly try various Western industries. ”

Here's a slap in the face:

It can not only allow Naohide to take out the good things that he is tucking into, so that it is convenient for Edo to explore the details; At the same time, you can also borrow chickens to lay eggs - as long as you have it, if Edo wants Hakokan, can you not give it? Unlikely, at most a bargain.

And it turns out that "the cat is old and treacherous, the horse is old and slippery, and the rabbit is old and the eagle is difficult to take", and this trick has really come out of a lot of good things:

In the autumn of the first year of Bunkyu (1861), Hakodate sent a batch of ordnance, two small steamers, and ten Western carriages to Edo.

Although these were counted in the Hakodate's annual tribute that year, the shogunate still took a big advantage, because money couldn't buy it. Besides, after receiving it, Jiushi sent someone to the box house to learn how to make it - he was able to endure and knew not to kill chickens and take eggs.

But this batch of goods partially exposed the strength of the box house:

The ordnance was just a matter of returning, and the rifled gun shogunate had long been able to imitate it, only the breech snuff box gun had considerable features;

However, although the small steamer is indeed small, with a displacement of only 160 fuso stones (about 29 tons), it is the first self-produced steamship in Fuso, so it is particularly eye-catching.

It was also from this time that the two old Nakahisa and Ando officially regarded Naohide Hori as a personal figure.

But Ando never dreamed that for him personally, the Western carriage was the most important thing!