"It's hard work."

"The appointment of the official has also worked hard."

Hearing such a conversation, it seems to be a conversation between a feudal lord in control of one side and an official of the imperial court, but in reality, it is not the same at all.

It's a joke between an izakaya owner and a regular customer – "Gozen-style" means the customer in front of him, while "Imperial Officer" is even more outrageous, and the craftsman "Machi-jin" pronounces it similarly to "Imperial Officer", and the owner deliberately confuses the two to counter the customer's ridicule of "Imperial Style".

Yajiro Iwasaki laughed, he liked this tone, which is why he often visited this izakaya.

Murata Takashi shook his head, very helpless about his old friend's tirelessness, the environment and food here are good, but the atmosphere is too frivolous. However, the townfolk shop of the white lord has always been like this, and the same is true for changing one, so it can only be attributed to "one side of the water and soil to raise one person".

In the eighth year of Jiaei (1854), due to his concern for his son Yingmin, Murata Takayi finally moved here from Zhou Fangguo's family and became a Lan doctor at the Baizhu Medical Center.

Originally, he planned to share the hardships with his son, but the result was much more than he expected - he didn't know about other places in the Northland, but the white lord was very comfortable in other aspects except for the longer and colder winters, and the food, clothing, housing and transportation were much better than before, even the old friends and old neighbors were not there, and the son was often running around, and sometimes it was inevitable to be lonely.

But the next year things were better - the new neighbors Yajiro Iwasaki's family also came to Hakuro to join his son. Yajiro is a person who can't stand loneliness, and often pulls himself around to have fun.

The son is quiet and doesn't have many friends, so he only made friends with Yajiro with the idea of making colleagues for him, but after a long time, the friendship deepened, but he unexpectedly got along well, and his life was much better.

At this time, Yajiro Iwasaki was on the rise, and he didn't notice the look of his old friend at all.

Two days ago, his son Yataro was promoted to the White Lord Town, and his joy has not passed, and he still can't suppress his excitement in his heart, "I didn't expect the Iwasaki family to have today, it's really blessed by the ancestors!" ”

Although his wife, Mirina, told him not to show off outside, he still likes to come to places where there are many people in izakayas, and "I can't say that I can't listen to it" - every time he hears someone mention the town commissioner Iwasaki-sama, he will happily take a big sip of beer, which is so refreshing!

Thinking of this, his throat was a little itchy, so he quickly pulled Murata into his seat and ordered loudly, "Good wine and good food should be sent quickly!" ”

"Who is so rude?"

The guests frowned, but after turning their heads and looking at the clothes of the two, they were all taken aback - they couldn't afford to be provoked if they wore good Wu clothes.

"Straw sandals, cloth shoes, leather shoes, the foot is the identity; Wu clothes, short clothes, half clothes, clothes can recognize people. ”

These two sentences are widely circulated in the white lord and are an important basis for everyone to identify themselves:

Leather shoes are the most popular in the white master, most people will wear them after making a fortune, one is comfortable, and the other is convenient to work - as soon as you see leather shoes, you know that this person is the old man of the white master.

As for the half-coat, it was the standard for the upper class civil servants of the white lord - originally they were all short-dressed uniforms, but after being promoted from the acting official to the commissioner's office, they were uniformly changed to half-coats, which is said to be modeled after Edo.

As for straw sandals and Wu clothes, generally immigrants who have just arrived in Baizhu wear dirty straw shoes on their feet and shabby Wu clothes on their bodies; But after a few days of placement, the people were completely renewed, and cloth shoes and short clothes were distributed free of charge by the Charter, both men and women.

However, some newcomers are reluctant to wear out their new clothes, and sometimes they will wear the old Wu clothes they brought.

But the people who wear Wu clothes are not all poor ghosts who have just come here, and after immigrants have money, most of them will deliberately buy a brand new Wu costume to wear to show off.

Usually at this time, everyone will smile, who has never been poor - however, wearing Wu clothes is not conducive to action and labor, so there are not many people who usually wear it like this.

But these two are obviously not in this case, because the small sleeves on their bodies are actually made of fine silk!

The lord Zhixiu advocates frugality, and he only wears cotton and linen, which is effective up and down, so the white lord rarely sees silk clothes, and these two dare to wear it like this, it must be the old minister of the Jiangchuan family, these people are yin and yang, and they can't touch the mold!

Actually, this is a misunderstanding - Takashi Murata's silk kimono was given by Naohide to show the importance he attaches to Youngtoshi; And Iwasaki Yajiro's was urgently purchased by himself before he came to Northland, for fear that others would look down on his identity as a Tosa villager.

After a while, the food and drinks were served, and the cold beer and delicious sashimi made Iwasaki exclaim with joy, and Murata's expression was relaxed.

August is the hottest season for the White Lord, but how hot can the Northland be?

But I don't know what's going on this year, it's been hot like that in previous years, but this year it's been extremely hot, and according to Yomiuri Waban, "The weather in Jehoso is abnormal this year, and I'm afraid it's caused by an earthquake." ”

Last year, Yajiro witnessed the Nankai earthquake in November of the first year of Ansei (1854), and he talked about the situation of that day vividly, and the people around him unconsciously listened attentively, and he became more and more proud, shaking his head but not noticing that Murata Takayoshi had secretly eaten all the food and drink.

When he finished speaking, he found that the beer was gone, and when he asked for it again, he found that the ice was gone again, which made him half angry - the owner said, "The weather is hot, and the ice in the cellar is selling too quickly, and the customer has waited for a while, and someone has been sent to pick it up." ”

There was no way, Yajiro had no choice but to settle - he was so fond of the contents of the cup that it was impossible for him not to drink it.

Moreover, this beer is said to be a specialty of the Northland, and it is made from wild hops found in Ezo, and it has a crisp taste, which is very different from sake, and it is Yajiro's favorite item, ranking only below his son Yataro and his wife Mirin.

Yajiro is a drinker, but the amount of alcohol is shallow, and he will be dizzy after a while, Murata Takashi hurriedly met the account and asked the shopkeeper to help him go home - Yajiro likes to play drunk, Murata can't stand this, so it's serious to hurry home.

Watching the two leave, the owner of the shop, Horii Hanbei, sent it out diligently, this Iwasaki is a big customer, although it has only been these two months since there are new customers, but he can't stand the diligence that comes, and he is willing to spend money, he must be treated earnestly!

As soon as Horii returned to the store, he found that the customers had run away, and in his shock, he realized that there was a big business on the wharf - the whaling ship of the family house had a harvest and was entering the port, so everyone ran to see the excitement.

Seeing that no one was paying attention, Horii pursed his lips, "What's so nice about this thing, it's just a big fish." Have you seen tens of thousands of seals? We've seen it! ”

After cleaning up, Horii, who was idle, poured himself a cup of taro yaki, tasted it slowly, and couldn't help but laugh out loud as he looked at his izakaya.

"People are gone, don't be afraid, after watching the whales, everyone will come back to brag, and then the business will be more prosperous. I think that at the beginning, when I said that I would open an izakaya, I was opposed by the whole family, but now the business is booming, which proves that my vision is still as good as ever. ”

Horii's real name is Taro, and he was born in Shita, and he immigrated to Hakuro in 1851.

Originally known as "Pido", he was discriminated against as a person who engaged in "uncleanness", such as slaughtering livestock, tanning leather, burying corpses, executing, and scavenging.

Thinking of this, Horii smiled, "being discriminated against" is easy to say, but in fact, it is full of bitterness, and people who have not experienced it can't imagine it at all:

No one wants to deal with you at all, and no one sells you anything you buy, so you can only live in the remote village of Four Corners to fend for yourself.

"The identity of the townspeople is only one-seventh of the average townholder, and if six more people are killed, only one low-class townsperson can be executed."

It's all raised by my father's mother, why am I born inferior!

So, even though Horii was doing well in Sijiao Village, where he had good skills in slaughtering and tanning, he heard that the White Master was recruiting people, and that "it is okay to be filthy and non-human", and after seeing with his own eyes the safety tokens that his neighbors had brought back, he immediately took his family on the boat.

At that time, Naohide promised Edo's filthy bulls and non-human heads, "every immigrant will pay three taels of gold, and the accompanying family members will also count the money, regardless of men, women and children, and pay by half", but the filthy bulls and non-heads are afraid of annoying Naohide, resulting in this businessless business not being able to do for a long time, so the requirements of "robustness" have become more intensified, "The old man can't get on the boat, and the children can't do it, it's best to be a single strong man and strong woman." ”

As a rule, they don't have to give half of the money to the immigrant families - North Ezo is so remote that no one would think about it

Go, but the tall and strong Taro didn't want anything, so he got on the boat without any problems.

To be honest, Taro was just desperate at the time, he just didn't want the children to sink with him.

However, the result was much better than he thought - the white lord was desperately short of people at the time, as long as he was honest and willing to work, he could stay, and Taro became a full-fledged samurai soon after because of his strong body and hard work.

Speaking of which, because of the vegetarian ethos and malnutrition, people at this time generally grew short, and the butchers in the Zhan Duoli, because they could eat meat, if they were lucky, there were some tall and strong ones - of course, most of the Fil Duo were still very unsatisfactory.

After becoming an ashigaru, Taro immediately changed his name to "Hanbei", indicating that his family was born as a samurai.

But he can't read, so it's difficult to take the Miao character, or Naoxiu gave the name "Horijing" - after the white lord and these civilians obtained the Miao character, most of them asked their bosses to give their names, because they were all retainers of the Hori family, so the Miao words such as Horijing, Horitian, and Horiki emerged in endlessly.

The wish of more than a dozen generations was realized, and Horii Hanbei burst into tears, and he vowed to protect the Horiri family for generations. In the following series of actions, he was also conscientious, and he also received a large amount of dividends.

In November 1851, the white lord was restructured, requiring Ashigaru to also be literate, which can make it difficult for Horii to be bad, he is not afraid to contribute, and he will not be ambiguous to kill him for the head of the family, but he is literate, he doesn't recognize words from birth, and 2000 words really want his old life.

As a result, at the end of 1852, after passing the examination with great difficulty, Horii retired from the military - Horii was afraid that the white lord would increase the assessment and cause him to lose his samurai status, just at that time, the white lord encouraged farmers and merchants, saying that he could retain his samurai status if he retired, and Horii took the opportunity to propose to retire and start business.

But later, Horii learned that "the shogunate stipulates that samurai are not allowed to do business unless they are licensed", but the wood is already in the boat, so he can only reluctantly accept it - anyway, the rules of the Hori family are that samurai can, and Edo can be managed so far away that they can come to the northland!

Horii is very in awe of learning, and the white master township school has always opened the door for adults to study, he retired from the army and continued to study, and he was inexplicably wonderful, and his literacy was not much, but he was basically able to read and write, and he was quite talented in calculations.

So in 1853 he gave up the leather tanning business and opened Horiiya in favor of this Horii Ya Izakaya - leather tanning was a lot of business, and it was easy for others to remind others of his original identity, and he didn't want to do it for a long time. When he was a teenager, he always wanted to drink at an izakaya, but he was kicked out, so this time he took the opportunity to fulfill his dream.

Everyone's thoughts were similar to him, street acting was a non-human job, so immigrants rarely returned to their old jobs, resulting in little entertainment for the white lord at that time, so the izakaya business was very good.

Horii laughed out loud while thinking, and it happened that at this time, the children had returned from the village school, and when he saw that his father was giggling again, he turned his head to the back kitchen to find his mother—the teacher said that this was a mental problem, and he couldn't afford to hide.

"The dog cub is back, Lao Tzu wants to check his homework!"

The self-proclaimed knowledge of the book and the etiquette of the Horii Hanbei yelled, and then began to frown, this kid is progressing faster than himself, and now it is very difficult to check his schoolwork, how can this be broken? Do you want to continue tutoring, but what about the store, can my wife take care of it alone with an Ainu helper?

At this time, the crowd of whale watchers returned to the izakaya, "Finally, I can't waste a day off, and I'm sorry for the hard work of the first four days if I don't get drunk."

It wasn't until dusk that the izakaya sent off the last guest—the man's wife didn't come to arrest him, or didn't find the right place.

And at this time, Horii Hanbei also took the idea, this store is out, and you can collect the rent yourself, so that you usually have time to study, and you can continue to personally supervise your son's progress, and when he is also admitted to the ashigaru, the Horii family is a real samurai family.

But what should I do if I sit and eat empty, and I will do something after studying in the future?

Let's talk about it then, anyway, the white lord can't starve to death, it's a big deal to go farming! You know, you can't farm, but now that you're a samurai, you're definitely fine.

When Horii Hanbei was planning for the future, there were countless people who were as confident in the future as he was, and this was the confidence of the pioneers!