As an important step in the reform of Bunkyu, in the eighth month of the second year of Bunkyu (1862), the shogunate relaxed the requirements for visiting the pilgrimage and giving an account.

As a result, the people in the prefectural government of the various princes rejoiced and evacuated Edo one after another, and the market was in a great depression for a while.

In order to save the economy, at the suggestion of the elder Keinaga and others, the shogunate began to encourage private farming and business in order to regain popularity, and at the same time, the shogunate also led by example and began to prepare a series of government-run industries.

If it weren't for the appearance of Naohide, until now, there would have been only a few official Lanxue industries in the shogunate:

In 1853, a Western-style cannon casting yard was established in Edo-Yushima;

In the same year, the Edo Ishikawashima Shipyard, which imitated Western sailing ships, was established with the craftsmen of the Mito Domain as the main force.

In 1857, the reverberatory furnace in Izuyama began production;

In 1861, the Nagasaki Shipyard, which opened in 1856, was upgraded to a modern shipyard with forging, iron-making, and fabrication workshops—of course, steamships could not be built, but they could still be repaired;

As for the last major achievement, in February of the 2nd year of Bunkyu (1862), preparations for the construction of the Edo Sekiguchi Works began, and production was not until the end of the year, and its main work was to imitate Western firearms.

It was really such a little progress, starting from the first knock on the port in 1853 by the black ship of the Mi people, to 1862 before the Bunjiu reform, not counting the achievements of the princes in various places, the shogunate was busy for nearly ten years, and the results were lackluster.

But now it has been twenty years since Naohide entered the chaos, and his wings are flapping rapidly, so the speed of industrialization of the shogunate has been greatly improved:

In 1850, Jiushan, Jiushan reverberatory furnace and small blast furnace were completed;

After Mr. Egawa Tan'an worked diligently, in 1854 he imitated the Napoleon cannon bronze cannon that Naohide took out in advance, and from 1855 to 1857, with the help of the mechanics of Xianheng Foreign Company, the bottom-blowing acid converter method was successful in steelmaking, and before the similar in 1858, he took the lead in building the pre-rifled rifled gun.

At the same time, through the diffusion of Nirayama Ironworks' technology, the shogunate built the Yokohama Ironworks in 1853, which not only made steel, but also imitated machine tools and ordnance.

The Nagasaki Shipyard was upgraded to a Western-style shipyard in August 1860.

In addition to these, Naohide also took charge of upgrading the ironworks and shipyards built by Hori Rishi in Hakodate, and now it is impressively able to produce its own snuff bottle breech guns and assemble dozens of tons of all-steel ships - of course, because it is difficult to explain the source of the technology, other industries in the North are still lurking underwater.

With such a foundation, Qingyong and other new groups of rulers are naturally much tougher, and now they want to exert their strengths, which is also a matter of course.

However, in view of the fact that in the past, the shogunate's self-run industry was rampant with "running and dripping" and "eating and taking cards", not to mention the miasma, and long-term losses, therefore, this time the government-run industry has to change its course to some extent:

For the Yokosuka Iron Works that tested the waters, the shogunate followed the example of the Westerners and actually got a commission to run it, and this "head take" position has already been set up by Hashimoto Tsunori, the henchman of the elder Keinaga.

In addition, in order to win over the princes, the door was also opened, and each family was allowed to buy shares, and even all the production, the shogunate no longer monopolized, and could be distributed according to the share of capital contribution.

Thanks to the blessing of the white lord Matsudaira's family Shangluo, now the snuffbox breech gun is also famous, and the princes heard that the newly established iron smelting house had this kind of iron cannon production, and their interest really increased.

Now that Fuso is in turmoil, this new type of ordnance is a sought-after item:

In view of the aggressiveness of the Western powers, the shogunate issued an edict on June 20, 1859, allowing the shogunate banner, daimyo and their retainers to purchase guns and guns on their own, and even trade with foreigners.

Since then, the princes have begun to purchase ordnance on a large scale, and they are all preparing for a rainy day.

However, the price of Westerners' ordnance was high and subordinate, so each family spent a lot of money.

Now the new ironworks can produce their own new types of ordnance, which are cheaper than those that are sold, who doesn't know, so the powerful princes are eager to try.

And as Hashimoto, who is the "head taker", he is naturally hot.

Those who stayed after tonight's dinner were all representatives of the families who were interested in participating, hoping to get some inside information from him, so that they could go back and discuss with the head of the family whether to buy shares.

Fujita Biao, the mastermind of the previous celebration, talked about Okubo Riyoshi about the reclamation of Ezo, and everyone was a little impatient. Fortunately, the owner, Naohide Hori, came forward and turned the conversation to Yokohama Quanye Bank. This bank was the first business jointly operated by the shogunate, and it had a great influence on the specific operation of the new ironworks, so everyone listened patiently.

But the mastermind of Keqingxi, Fujita Biao, suddenly said, "The destruction is imminent, but this bank is helping foreigners to trade, I'm afraid it's not appropriate."

：

As long as this foreign trade is not broken, then this persuasion bank will be of great help;

Besides, the Hitotsubashi family and Mito from Fujita are not all shares in the bank, which is not appropriate, but it is a little late.

Seeing that there was some coldness, Sakuma Xiangshan wanted to come forward and turn around, but at this time, Tsunaki Hashimoto couldn't bear it:

"Who is the guest of honor today, you are too noisy!"

He coughed and finally made his debut.

As soon as he made a move, he slammed Fujita:

"It's not trivial, now that the court and the public are inconclusive, Mr. Donghu is a little alarmist."

Hearing this, a mysterious smile appeared on everyone's faces.

It turns out that Fujita has been adhering to the concept of force against the Qi Zhao family, but the wind direction has changed a little recently, and the call for force has weakened.

Originally, the small imperial court stirred up the storm under the banner of rebellion, but this year it began to gain the upper hand, forcing the shogunate to retreat.

But who knows, at the beginning of June, Matsudaira Yoshinaga was inaugurated as the shogunate, and the situation actually became confusing again.

As one of the main generals of Qi Zhao's family, Qingyong is actually a founding faction, advocating moderation, this is not a cheating father, but a cheating father.

Originally, the small court was outside, and Qi Zhaoyi was included, and the two colluded, which caused the shogunate's extreme passivity, but after Qingyong took power, he deliberately turned back, and this situation was good-looking.

From the time of the edict in June, the shogunate was almost always ahead of the small court.

At that time, the imperial court asked the public to take Shangluo, Keiki and Keinaga Bingzheng and set up the five big guys, but the shogunate even eliminated the matter and easily resolved the matter:

Gongfang Shangluo, what about promising you, February of the third year of Wenjiu, that is, February of the following year, doesn't this free up time;

Qingxi and Qingyong Bingzheng, among which Qingxi was seen after the general who took office when the edict arrived, but Qingyong became the "elder" long before the edict arrived, and this edict was an afterthought, so the power was greatly reduced;

As for the selection of the five greats from among the princes, well, everyone came to Edo to discuss how to choose, and as a result, the shogunate borrowed a wave of imperial power.

And in October, it was even funnier, and the small court sent two groups of envoys to Edo, but they didn't get a good deal.

A group of people tried to make a fuss about the Ansei Prison and asked the shogunate to grant amnesty to the world, but when they arrived, they learned that the shogunate had pardoned all the prisoners who were not directly related to the Wuwu secret in advance, such as Tsunaki Hashimoto and Takanaga Saigo, who had already appeared in Edo with a swagger.

The other group of envoys was even worse, and their demands to "determine the date of the rebellion" and "set up a personal army to guard Gyeonggi" were directly rejected by the shogunate:

"If the king does not secret, he will lose his country, and if the minister does not secret, he will lose his body, and if he does not keep secrets, he will become harmful. After this general goes to Luo, he will naturally report to the royal family, so now ask if it is a little inappropriate to ask the plan.

And 'set up a pro-army to guard Gyeonggi', now that Aizu and the white lord are in Luo, is it not good enough? ”

The big hat of leaking is buttoned down, and it faintly involves the authority of the royal family, so few people really want to wear it.

Speaking of Aizu and the white lord Shangluo, the envoy was even more bitter and couldn't speak:

The 3,000 people of Aizu were funded by the white lord, which can be called a shotgun for a cannon, plus a thousand tigers and wolves in the north, as soon as they entered Kyoto at the end of September, they swept away the troublesome ronin.

The two families do things reasonably, and every time they do it, they either have evidence from the people of Kyoto, or there are Western photos, and the wooden bullet can't kill people, and the criminals can be pulled out at any time for verification, so there is no excuse to take the opportunity to slander.

Moreover, the two families also announced the shogunate's policy of "free immigration to Ezo and land acquisition for the next three years", which greatly stabilized the people's hearts - if this day can be passed, what is the trouble, is it good to hurry to Osaka and go to the northland.

So, before these ministers went out, Kyoto also returned to peace.

Now the shogunate asks why it has to set up pro-soldiers, which is really difficult to answer, and you can't just say, "It's not good to fight the shogunate without soldiers."

Moreover, the envoy also knew that the shogunate was very dissatisfied with the movements of the small court, and of course this fire had to be sprinkled:

In August, when the ronins gathered in Kyoto, the voice of the king was endless, and the court was crazy, and as soon as the head was hot, the former Guan Baiying Si Zhengtong and the "four traitors and two concubines" were punished.

As for Takashi Masato, who was deposed in June, Sekihaku Kujo Shotada, who was deposed in June, was not only close to Kujo, but also had been hooking up with the shogunate before.

As for the "four traitors and two concubines", it is to promote the marriage of the four ministers and two female officials under the palace, including

Hisaga See, Iwakura Gushi, Chikusa Arifu, Tomikoji Keinao and Imajo Shigeko, and Horikawa Noriko are six people.

Now that the small court and the ministers are a little inflated, this combination of public and military forces has not yet been completed, and everyone is a little bit unconcerned about the shogunate, and feels that there are too many concessions to marry the palace, and this is to marry a royal princess out, what if the shogunate sets up a female emperor.

Therefore, everyone summed up to set an example, and simply let Ying Si Zhengtong and the "four traitors and two concubines" go home to eat old rice.

But in June, the removal of Kujo Shangzhong's Guan Bai, at that time, it could be said that there was a poor communication with Qingyong and Qingxi of Qi Zhao's family, but doing this in August, isn't this the face of these two shogunates-you have always said that you respect the king, this is the result, even the ministers who support and marry the palace can't keep it, where is the face of the shogunate, how can you govern the government!

As a result, the two groups of ministers who sent to Edo in October were disgraced by the shogunate.

Because the relationship between the small court and the shogunate had deteriorated rapidly, the appeal for the small court to be conquered by force was not well received in Edo today.

Now Tsunami Hashimoto is scolding Fujita Biao, saying that the way of sneering has not yet been decided, and the root is here.

As for Fujita, he didn't have any allies today, and even Sakuma Zoyama, who was the master of Keiki, refused to help him, so he could only endure being scared.

After the first announcement, Hashimoto gushed about his thoughts on the ironworks, which was well received by everyone because of the substance of his words.

Naohide, Okubo, and Ryoma are hiding on the side and stealing fun:

Hashimoto was sent to Hakodate at the end of 1859, and when Ojii hung up in 1860, everyone relaxed the control of Hashimoto, and deliberately created an opportunity for him to hang out at the Hakodate Western-style Institute, the Ironworks and the Shipyard.

This has been carefully taught, and it must have something to say - at the very least, it will be a cat and a tiger.

After talking about the ironworks, Hashimoto talked about another of his errands:

The elder Keinaga and the shogun were overjoyed when they saw it, and they were impressed by the achievements of the Hakodate Institute of Foreign Studies, so they intended to build a new Western university to train more talents in Orchid Studies in addition to the shogunate's foreign book institute.

As for the operation, as in the new ironworks, the share of the trainees is distributed according to the number of shares invested by each company.

And this matter was also put on Hashimoto's shoulders.

As the saying goes, there are still three catties of nails in a broken ship, and the shogunate is the head horse of Fuso, coupled with the expansion of strength caused by the chaotic entry of Naoxiu, the foundation is much stronger than that of the princes, at least there is still an advantage in terms of talent.

Therefore, everyone is also very interested in this, but they think that the shogunate is cunning:

You must know that in the past, although the shogunate gave a small number of places, there was no need for each family to pay directly.

However, everyone also knows that from the point of view of Wanyan coinage, it is really the most expensive to brew drops, this is a stake or something, as long as everyone abides by the rules, this brother will settle the accounts, but it will be more down-to-earth.

In particular, Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa, since they decided to get on the ship, they had to give it a try anyway.

Different from Naoxiu's original world:

Today's Satsuma, because the head of the family, Shimazu Qi Bin, is not dead, and his son-in-law Dai Imperial House is not dead, so Satsuma and the shogunate have a very close relationship.

As for Tosa, it was Yoshida Motoyoshi who ruled the rivers and lakes and held the three heads of the family so that they couldn't smoke, so he decided to do the shomaku.

The funniest Choshu, originally, was that the prince of April, Maori Dinghiro, attached himself to the imperial court, and the head of the family in June, Keiqin, also went to Kyoto, but the neighbor Yoshida Jufang came from his hometown to persuade him, coupled with the deterrent power shown by Aizu and the white lord in Kyoto, so the two of them repented, and now they are coming to Edo to run for the shogunate's five big guys.

Seeing how hot everyone was talking, the three of them were also very happy:

With practical interests as a link, the relationship between the shogunate and the princes was rebuilt. Moreover, now that there are more financial resources and talents of the princes, the Wenjiu reform will go more smoothly.

This less infighting and more practical work will definitely be better for Fusang.

In the second year of Zhixiu's Wenjiu, the Shengmai incident did not happen, so the Western powerhouses did not find an opportunity to exert pressure again; The general's family must not be dead, the Sakurada Gate Change, the Sakashita Gate Change, and the Ansei Prison, these three things are handled relatively gently; And the shogunate has become stronger, so there is a chance to play again.

By the way, cholera and measles, which were supposed to cause a major epidemic this year, did not catch up.

With awe and longing, Naoxiu looks forward to the future:

"With so many changes, what will the aftermath storm look like?"