At the beginning of October 1861, the first railway in Fuso was officially opened, and the line was from Shikuju in the northern Ezo land to Fengyuan, with a total length of about 20 kilometers (Gofuso-ri).

Naturally, everyone in Hakodate participated in such a grand event with great fanfare, and Naohide, Hidetoshi Egawa, Hori Toshiki, Okubo Toshiyoshi and others came to celebrate, and even Saigo Takanaga, who was inspecting the northern region, rushed to join in the excitement after hearing the news.

Isn't it said that Naohide was ready to give up his position to Hori Rixi 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 Riki finally lost the box house he had in his hands.

In fact, Hori Rixi is responsible, but Naohide is not without mistakes.

In late July of the first year of Manyeon (1860), Hakodate was appointed by Naohide and Hakodate Tobori Toshihei, and the two returned to Edo to report together, but what they never expected was that the situation was completely different from what Naohide and others imagined:

Naohide thought that his group of people were making trouble in the northland, even if Edo didn't notice it, but there was always a heart or two of vigilance, so he did the resignation of the official to retreat into advance.

But in fact, Naohide's current reputation is in Edo, no, even if it can't be said to be in full swing in the whole of Fuso, it is also expected, especially this year, it has become a legendary figure like "Nangong" Kusunoki Masari. Therefore, not to mention that Hakodate has always been submissive, even if it is a bit out of line, this shogunate can't easily move him.

Speaking of which, this is all an oolong made up of a thief's heart.

On July 1, 1859 (June 2, Ansei 6), Nagasaki, Kanagawa (Yokohama), and Hakodate were officially opened to the outside world.

The Northland has a plan for this, and this trick is endless, both openly and privately, and with the prestige of defeating the invasion of Lucia, there is no chaos in Hakodate or even the entire Northland - of course, it is also an important reason that most of the main foreign merchants who come to trade here are their own people.

After all, Hakodate is much more remote than the other two ports, so most of the foreign merchants who came here had a way to visit the Northland, and few came to test the water recklessly. And when it comes to the way, who can compare to Songjiang Huili and Xiangjiang Huitong - this has been doing secret trade with the white lord before the port opened!

After years of painstaking management, both of them have a lot of momentum in the Far East, so after the opening of the Hakodate, foreign businessmen formed a pattern in which foreign businessmen in England were headed by Huitong and Mi people were the first to look forward to Huili.

In such a favorable situation, isn't it a joke that Naoxiu loses his footing again, so the loss of gold and silver is not much, although prices are also soaring, but the fundamental food supply is stable, and you can eat noodles and eat grains when rice rises-Ou, you have to eat rice, you can't afford to provoke it, you have money and you are reasonable.

Therefore, the ordinary people expressed their calmness, because they rarely ate rice before they immigrated to the Northland, and now the white flour and miscellaneous grains are full, fresh fish and salted fish can be eaten at will, and what kind of bicycle do you need - bicycles are foreign things that appeared after the trade in 1859, and the price is quite high, but it is very popular among Hakodate foreigners, after all, raising horses is much more troublesome than oiling. Of course, taking 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 cultivation of fields and the development of fisheries, and it is also the achievement of Naohide and others to control the grain trade with all their might.

But Edo and even Fuso don't have this condition.

Not to mention after the opening of the port, that is, before the opening of the port, because of all kinds of natural and man-made disasters, the price of goods has risen rapidly, this opening of the port, well, prices, especially food, are about to rise to the sky.

Not only the townspeople, but also the common people (farmers), craftsmen (craftsmen), and even middle- and lower-class samurai were seriously affected.

In addition, the shogunate and the feudal domains increased their military investment, and the finances were even more important

It worsens, so that reduced knowledge and partial knowledge occur from time to time. Not to mention the lack of rice, what is even worse is that each family has also streamlined their staff, and the number of ronins has increased suddenly.

Under the guidance of intentional or unintentional, these problems were blamed on Westerners, and in this case, the civil uproar became more and more intense.

And the samurai at all levels, especially the courtiers of the major famous families, are more and more dissatisfied with the foreigners' flaunting of their martial arts - these bigwigs of the shogunate, who are majestic on weekdays, can see the foreigners in their low voices and grovel, which is eggplant picking up soft, and I think we can't be bullied.

Especially in the Kansai family, in the past, Kanto gold and Kansai silver, silver coins and copper coins were circulated in these territories, but as soon as the Wanyan coinage was implemented in May, Shengsheng was cut leeks by the shogunate, and the losses were heavy, how can it be so easy to calculate!

As a result, the prestige of the shogunate plummeted, and even the important ministers became the object of ridicule among the people.

Let's take the deceased Daikoi Isa, for example, although the shogunate tried to cover it up, the news of his assassination still spread.

At that time, the market arranged his like this:

"You shouldn't use a net to catch a duck. So what should I use? With a sedan chair. This is a satire that the head of the Hikone Domain's guard was slaughtered like a duck.

There are also "The samurai master is thrifty, and the sick don't need pillows", "Although ginseng is easy to use, it can't cure the patient who has no mouth", and "The last words say that this is really okay with the buttocks", these are satirical to the shogunate saying that Ii is recuperating from his illness but in fact the person has been beheaded.

But unlike the "culprits" such as Jing Yi, who signed a trade agreement, Naohide was the first big hero to defeat the foreigners, so of course he had to be treated differently.

Not to mention, since the visit of the Mi people in the sixth year of Jiayong (1853), the first battle of the white lord in the fourth year of Anzheng (1857), Naoxiu defeated the Lusians, which is really a rare move by Fuso in recent years - although in the second year in the white lord defeated the Lu people again, but the first time, it is always special.

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

According to Okubo Jiemon, the Hori family Yashiki was often visited by people, and many ronins came to defect, and although in order to avoid causing trouble, he politely refused to let people come forward on the grounds that "the head of the house did not dare to be good outside", but these people were not annoyed, and after cheering loudly outside the courtyard, they left satisfied—it seemed as if they had done something great.

"Don't, the box house is very short of people. It's right to refuse in person, and you can secretly encourage them to start a business in the Northland. ”

"The head of the family can rest assured, and there will naturally be someone to contact."

Hearing such an arrangement, Naohide nodded and smiled.

Speaking from the heart, Naohide couldn't be more satisfied with Jiemon and even Okubo father and son - people's sons contribute every day in Hakodate, and he loyally brings his son to himself in Edo, and then finds faults, is this still human?

In 1858, after Ii was appointed as the head of the department, the rewards and punishments of the first battle of the white lord were finally implemented, and the Egawa family was also the flag - although the reward was given to Riji, but the second emon couple had a son, and naturally the whole family enjoyed happiness with Riji.

And Naohide couldn't take the flag to his father as a retainer, so he was relieved of the position of Jiemon "Hori family tea head". But in reality, the Okubo couple remained in the Edo Hori family house.

This helped Naohide a lot - Northland is a turnip and a pit, and the right people have it, but it would be too wasteful to go to Edo to take care of a hairy child. This kindness, Naoxiu and Yingzi have always been grateful to their hearts, but they can't find a chance to repay it.

As a result, Jiemon actually served as the "housekeeper" of the Hori family, and he relied on him to collect and sort out the ups and downs of Edo and send them to Kitachi.

No

"Hearing is false, seeing is believing", the letter said how the reputation of the family has risen in the past two years, and Naoxiu is not sure of it, but after coming back this time, he found that it was really not what it used to be.

In the two days since he came back, the ronin who came to take refuge and the young samurai who traveled to Edo to study in Edo and asked to see him, it was from Wu Yang Wu, and he was so frightened that Naohide didn't dare to stay in the upper house, so he secretly ran to his hometown in Shinjuku Town - after Naohide made his fortune, the shogunate gave him a new homestead, and in 1854 he became the White Lord and built a new mansion for him in Tachichi.

Speaking of which, Naohide is also a person who has three apartments in Edo, and it is good that there are many houses, for example, this time in order to avoid suspicion, he can sneak back to Shinjuku-cho - as the place where he started, there are very few people who know about it.

A few days passed quickly, and on the big day of early August, Naohide ran to Edo Castle.

It's funny to say, Naohide used to do a flag book for a few months, and at that time, the seat was in the willow at the time of the Edo Assessment, but now it has become the Hakodate flag book with real power, but the position has been moved to the outer edge of the Kikuma, and it has dropped by two grades.

There were very few people Naohide knew at the Great Morning Meeting.

But this can't be blamed on him, he didn't know a few nobles before he was from a low background, and when he started his career, he was in the north all the year round, and he had been doing it for a few months, but at that time, the lawsuit with Lucia had not been resolved, who would dare to deal with him - not afraid of being nourished by blood afterwards.

Besides, just because you knew it before doesn't mean it's here now.

When the old Ii was in power, the daimyo and the shogunate changed a lot, and so this year, the long-term attendant became the first of the old ones, and there was no ambiguity, the daimyo didn't move much, but the shoguns also changed a large number, and the five old ones changed two - not counting the fact that he himself changed half, the two big eyes were paid and replaced with a new one, and the five surveys went to three old ones and two new ones.

This marquee-like substitution, who can Naohide, who is already black-eyed, know - he is familiar with Koguri Tadashun, the director of Kanding, but now he is presiding over the opening of the ironworks in Nagasaki.

However, although Naohide knows few people, there are many people who take the initiative to greet Naohide - those who sit far away nod and smile at Naoxiu, and the colleagues on the outer edge of Kikuma are close to Naoxiu, giving full play to the advantage of being close to the water and getting the moon first.

This reputation is so good, Naohide only has a personal experience today - it stands to reason that although Hori Lixi on the side has a low status, he has a hard root, and his father is still staying behind, but he is stunned to be set off by Naoxiu.

waited until the big assessment meeting began, and Naoxiu was let go by everyone.

Then Naoxiu fell asleep after listening to it for a while, this cliché has not changed much, either it is good here or there, or it is an important replacement of a certain famous disease, in short, there is not much seriousness.

When it was finally his turn to show his debut, he also blew the conch:

"Thanks to the wisdom of the old people, and thanks to the advice of the lords of Edo, everything is fine in Hakodate, and even Lucia and foreigners from all over the world admire Fuso, and everything goes smoothly for fair trading."

After Naoxiu finished shouting, today's big assessment meeting ended smoothly.

So countless colleagues came up and invited him to the banquet, but fortunately, at this time, an envoy came over and asked Zhixiu to meet at the palace of the royal department, saying that the old people had something to consult, and Zhixiu was able to get out.

In fact, the old middle school didn't have any big deals, one was that they were not at ease with the news of the battle of Aihui sent by Zhixiu, and they were afraid that the Tang and Lu people would fight and affect the pond fish; Second, the straight show is on the table, and the old middle school is a little hesitant about it, and they need him to clarify it himself.

Naohide's above table was later called "Hakodate Shojo", and that fame was simply famous, known as "the beginning of the Fuso Restoration". But at that time, it was called a masterpiece of "patting horses, washing feet, and holding boots" - it was brazen and humble-free, and took the initiative to bleed himself, and all he wanted was the opening of a foreign science institute and the expansion of the iron-making institute.