In the middle of the autumn breeze of the sixth year of Kaei (late September 1853), as soon as Oguri Tadajun, who had visited the north, returned to Edo and found that something was wrong—the shogun Iekei had actually died, and then the old lord of Mito, Qi Zhao, became very popular.

He belonged to Qi Zhao's group that did not deal with him, so Oguri hurriedly ran to Edo Castle to recover his life, and by the way, he found out about the situation.

The position of Mimetsu is full of shogunate characteristics, obviously the shogun's henchmen and minions, but the nominal boss is the deputy of the old man, Ruonian, and in practice, it is under the co-ordination of the big metsu, and he usually has the right to apply to the public for an audience or a secret play, maybe this is the price of "low" and high power - I am afraid that people from this department who can act secretly will make trouble.

Oguri ran to meet Lord Ruo Nian on duty first, and said that the mission was completed well:

In addition to the Honmaru, Ninomaru and Sannomaru, there are six towers, sixteen castle gates, and seven Odaiba, which look imposing and are an important defense against the Lusians and other Nanban ships - because of Naohide's help, the Matsumae family produced and purchased a large amount of lime, cement and green bricks, so it was completed more than a year ahead of schedule.

And the attitude of the Matsumae family has always maintained the same respectfulness - the shogunate established the white lord commission, although it was not explicitly stated, but in fact it was the entire northern Ezo land was set out, otherwise why did this time deliberately subsidize the Matsumae family's territory of 3,000 stones, the head of the family Chongguang welcomed the shogunate's will, and said, "There is a northern land where the shogunate's direct leader is located, and he sleeps fragrantly, and he no longer has to worry about the southern barbarians calling."

If you hear it, it's not the Matsumae family, right?,Oguri quickly explained.,I don't think it's like it.,I heard that the Matsumae Town, where the White Lord is located, continues to buy a lot of goods.,Among them, the retainers of the Matsumae family grabbed a lot of benefits.,So although there is a backlash, it's not the mainstream.。

"It's still a lack of experience", Lord Wakanian on duty didn't point out the absurdity to his face, but he scoffed at Oguri's statement in his heart - two tigers, no, tiger dogs compete for food, how can there be no opinion, it's just that the shogunate is powerful, and the Matsumae family can't find a step for themselves.

In fact, if the year of the Lord really thought wrong, although not completely wrong but the difference is also far away, it turns out that the Matsumae family is indeed angry with the white master, and feels that "the place where the couch can not allow others to snore", but this is no longer the case, at least the mainstream attitude is a lot gentler towards the white lord - even if it is not a liking, but at least it is barely able to cooperate.

Why have attitudes changed so much?

Although Matsumae and the White Lord did not officially start a war before, the retainers of the two families often fought each other when they met, but now the relationship has eased, what happened during this period?

This started with Okubo's visit to Matsumae last spring on behalf of Hakumo.

At that time, in order to ease the relationship with the Matsumae family, the white lord proposed a lot of compensation conditions, including in addition to the production method of pozzolana cement and blue bricks, he also offered to help the Matsumae family develop planting and animal husbandry, and the white lord also welcomed the merchants of Matsumae to go to business.

The Matsumae family developed from the 12 halls of southern Hokkai, and there are many internal factions, so although the Matsumae family is a prince, it is by no means a strong name - although the heads of the family have been gathering power in recent generations, but the shogunate has not done anything, why can you Matsumae family do it?

Because of the internal disunity, being tough on the white lord has never been the first choice of the Matsumae family - the land of the white lord projectile, but behind it is the behemoth of the shogunate, and the small ones are the old ones, and they can't afford to fight.

Therefore, after the white lord took the initiative to express his closeness, the opinions of the retainers led by the old Matsumae Guangzhong prevailed, and the head of the family, Matsumae Chongguang, clapped, "Don't say anything, it's serious to get benefits." ”

There were a few twists and turns.

Although the white lord is tightly sealed, but because of the complicated way of the people involved in the early stage, the news of Seal Island still leaked, although the Matsumae family does not know the specific harvest of the white master, but the huge amount is undoubted, even if Okubo and Matsumae family Lao Hirotada agreed that Seal Island will be exclusive to the white owner, but this money is moving, I heard that the white lord allowed the merchants of Matsumae to trade, and all the people and horses went north together to make a fortune.

Here, Naohide and others must thank the shogunate, because of the "ban on the construction of large ships", the Matsumae family did not have any decent big ships, and the thousand stone ships at that time also required the shogunate's permission to build, so the Matsumae family and various merchants could not make up a few big ships, so the search for Seal Island in the north ended up in vain - it was a waste of great energy, and the hair was not caught.

Thinking about it, the exploration of North Ezo was still done by the shogunate faction Miyashizo and others, and Seal Island would not run, and the Matsumae family did not find it for hundreds of years, which is naturally for a reason.

Although there was a direction for the people and horses who went north this time, because the white lord closed the port at that time - Naohide took a large group of people to uproot the outpost of the Lusians, and he didn't worry about his hometown if he didn't close the port, so the Matsumae families didn't find Neiying, and after searching on the vast sea, they had to return to their lair in frustration after eating almost all the food.

In fact, even if the white lord does not close the port, these people can't find the inner response - Seal Island is the inside story of the white lord, all the people who have seen Seal Island are the backbone of the white lord, and the rest are the rice people of Xianheng Foreign Company, and the others only know that they are in the northeast, the specific location, they all say the northeast, isn't this clear enough!

After these people returned to Matsumae Town, they naturally scolded the white lord for his treachery, and by the way, he scolded Matsumae Hirotada, the old man who came forward to negotiate.

But then these people found out, hey, it turned out that you don't have to go out to find Seal Island to make money - Naoxiu brought back more than 1,000 people from the mouth of the Wulong River, and integrated the nearby Ainu tribe, this person eats horses and chews, naturally needs a lot of materials, and among the several merchants who came to the white lord, the nearest starting point is Edo, and it is quite inconvenient to come and go, so the white lord naturally has to purchase materials from the nearby Matsumae Town, and the payment can only be seal skin, and the material sales can make a profit, and the sale of seal skin can make a profit, and make money on both sides, As a result, the merchants of Matsumae Town made a lot of money.

But after all, the white lord has a small population base, and in order to control the relevant information, the white lord can't buy too much in Matsumae Town, so although the merchants in Matsumae Town make money, the amount is actually not large.

What really changed the attitude of the Matsumae family was the planting that had no expectations—the manufacture of pozzolana cement and green bricks was a franchise, and the scale was not large, and all of them were used to build Matsumae Castle; Animal husbandry, the technology is given, but the original Matsumae family's livestock base is too small, and it is not valued and not promoted, so it can't show any obvious effect in a short time, but the planting has really brought a huge surprise to the Matsumae family.

Sugar was a luxury in the Edo period.

Due to the climate, sugarcane is only grown in Shikoku, Kyushu, and Naha, and most of the sugar production is occupied by the Satsuma Shimazu family, and the Shimazu family strictly controls prices in order to make huge profits, so the price of sugar remains high.

In order to eat sweet, the people of Fuso can only use maltose instead, but this thing is time-consuming and costly, so even ordinary samurai can't mix a few mouthfuls of candy from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

This time, the white lord gave the beet seeds, and the old man Matsumae Hirotashi planted some suspiciously, but after the harvest, the sugar was boiled according to the white master's guide, which immediately caused a sensation.

Speaking of which, the Matsumae family is also wasted enough, although there are such and such congenital deficiencies, but it has only been developed for hundreds of years to make up more than 40,000 dingkou, and it is also a serious lack of enterprising spirit - the Matsumae family expressed opposition, there are no high-yield crops, coal and machinery, you can do it.

The head of the house, Takahiro Matsuzen, watched

It is said that the annual income of the Satsuma Domain from the sugar is calculated in millions of taels of gold - in fact, this is a rumor, at that time, the Shogunate's annual income was only more than four million two days, how could the Satsuma Domain make such a profit? It's just a folk rumor, but the Shimazu family did make a lot of money.

"Can the Northland produce sugar? So what did we do with fishing, hunting, farming, and oppressing the Ainu? Is the direction completely reversed, don't say anything, hurry up and ask the white master if there are still seeds, how many are harvested, and in the future, we will all plant beets in front of Songqian! ”

Because of the special status of sugar at this time, sugar beet cultivation has brought huge benefits, which is the reason for the easing of the relationship between the Matsumae family and the white lord - because of this, the old Guangzhong of the family also made a special trip to the white master, ready to make an offensive and defensive alliance with Naohide, "Beet planting can only be limited to the Ezo land and the northern Ezo land, and the two sides cannot take the initiative to spread." ”

Naohide said, you said it was too late, this beet seed came from Izu Nirayama - in fact, Naohide asked Xianheng to take the initiative to provide it to the shogunate, and Mr. Oguri and Mr. Tanan got the moon first, "I also want to keep it secret, but my strength doesn't allow it." ”

Matsumae Hirotashi made a big red face and asked Naohide what other special crops he had, and it was good if he couldn't produce sugar and could produce something else, so Naohide gave him a meal of potatoes and hops.

Strange to say, Ezo is the first production area of Fuso in the future, and this rice can be pushed to the lack of water conservancy facilities and the lack of improved varieties if it is not developed, but your head Matsumae Takahiro is known to be proficient in orchids, and it is impossible to say that potatoes have not been promoted.

And there are the only wild hops in Fuso, and there are quite a few of them, and I didn't find this - hey, Fuso drinks sake, so you've passed the test.

Guangzhong has no love for hops, what is beer, is it an alternative horse urine of the Southern Barbarians, but this potato is indeed a big killer, I heard that the yield is very high, so I have to go back and try it - the samurai naturally won't eat such cheap food, but can the leaders and Ainu people make a living from it, stop shouting all day long that you can't eat enough and make everyone's mood not beautiful.

Therefore, the relationship between Matsumae and the White Lord has been greatly eased now, especially in the sixth year of Kaei (1853), Naohide opened a lot of sub-bases, and after hiding all the prohibited items, the merchants of the Matsumae family were able to swagger and appear in the White Lord, so the relationship was more normalized, although the two families could not reach the point of being embarrassed, but if the ironmaking supported by the White Lord could be built in Matsumae, it is estimated that it would not be far behind.

Anyway, no matter what the reason is, in short, the Matsumae family said that they were very calm after hearing the establishment of the 3,000-stone territory for the White Lord Governor's Office announced by Oguri, "Edo is great, our Matsumae family is familiar with this place in Liangchuan, Date County, Mutsu Province, haven't we replaced it before, the old place, rest assured." ”

Mi boat visit, the enemy is current, Xiao Li and the Lord on duty didn't care too much, anyway, the Matsumae family didn't make a fuss on the spot, but what the white lord is like now, Lord Ruonian is very interested.

The shogunate was in the period of peace, culture, and culture (1799-1821) to personally run the Ezo land, when the Lucia people marched south, the shogunate had no choice but to meet it, and finally the French Emperor Napoleon gave the force, and the enemy entered the hinterland of Lucia, and the two families shook hands and made peace, and then the shogunate could retreat.

It is said that the business in the north was very hard back then, the poor mountains and bad water and the Ainu people were very "barbaric", and the shogunate could not achieve anything if the old nose was abolished - if the business was good, it would not let the Matsumae family take care of it again, this Naohide is said to have only brought sixteen subordinates to the north, and there were many of them who were half of the children, and they actually stood on their feet, and they also harvested a lot of seal skins, and Edo was interested in it, and everyone wanted to know, is this Naohide really capable or shit luck?