At the beginning of April of the second year of Ansei (1855), Nagasaki commissioner Oguri Tadashun visited Izu Shimoda Port, and after talking with Shimoda commissioner Egawa Taro Saemon, he strengthened his determination to "exchange Fuso gold for foreign silver".

Mr. Tanan knew that since the shogunate had summoned Oguri back, it might be that the central government had already made up his mind about it, and this policy would be implemented nine times out of ten, but he had never received any news before. Oguri came to report on purpose, just to avoid suspicion and estrangement caused by future incidents.

Although he had expected this day since Oguri Tadashun was appointed as the Nagasaki commissioner, he still sighed afterwards when such a thing happened:

Xiao Li's father and son are now pursued by a distant country, and their momentum has surpassed the Jiangchuan family too much, in the past, it was people who cooperated with themselves, but now it is their turn to cooperate with each other.

Since the two visits of the black ship, the shogunate was in turmoil, and he retreated bravely and returned to Izu Province from the center, and from the outsider's point of view, he was a wise man to protect his life, but few people can understand his own painstaking efforts to develop Western industries and save the shogunate.

Before the big event is about to go, Xiao Li Neng specially came to make an announcement, which shows the hospitality, and he can't ask for more.

He mentioned a few words to his son, and Youngmin nodded yes - since participating in the White Master's Secret, Youngmin's mentality has changed unconsciously, the pressure has matured, and he has grown a lot, so he can understand all this.

Although everyone is a close ally in governance and business, they each have their own scruples, and many things cannot be said, such as the "Petropavlovsk Siege", which he did not fully explain, this time he only informed Oguri, "I heard that Lusia was attacked by the Anglo-Buddhist army in the north and suffered heavy losses. ”

"Who hasn't had a little secret", what Naohide said, now I have a deep understanding - the shogunate is deep in twilight, and there are too many scruples about doing things, and it is not easy for everyone.

Loaded on the ship This time, two rifled guns and thirty breech guns given by Oguri Tadashun, with more than 200 vassals and subjects given by his father and younger brother, Yingmin embarked on a voyage back to the white lord - these ordnance were not misappropriated, but the return @ point of Xianheng Yangxing, which was equivalent to the "drifting" of Fusang.

According to Xiao Li, Xianheng & Co. made a move last year to buy more and give more away, and gave away a batch of ordnance for free.

That's said so, but Oguri provided the latest Western weapons to the white master, although the amount was not large, and it also took some risks, so Yingmin also appreciated it, and prepared to find Naohide to find a way to compensate for it after returning to the Northland.

On the fifteenth day of the fourth month of the calendar, Yingmin returned to the White Lord, and the whole voyage took twelve days, and the retainers who followed him to the Northland were amazed by this, "Isn't it said that the North Ezo Land is remote, but it has arrived in such a short time, and the rumors are really unbelievable." ”

This is the advantage of going far away, and some changes are not felt at home.

When Naohide returned from overseas in 1849, he brought with him a small clipper, which was initially copied by the Uraga Navy and used as a high-speed communication ship.

Because the clipper ship was long and narrow, it was not suitable as a warship, so the shogunate did not block it, and at first it was the ship-returning merchant who began to imitate it, and then it became a trend, according to Naohide's words, it is now a "big road cargo".

When the wind is calm, the clipper ship is only about twice as fast as the Saikosai ship, but when the wind is strong, the speed difference is huge, and the fastest time can be seven or eight times the speed, in the past, it took about 40 days to go from Edo to Hakujo and take the Tokai Road, but now it is only a little more than 5 days at the fastest.

As for the one-way journey from Kyushu Island to the White Lord, the Debate Boat used to take about 70 days, but now it generally only takes more than 20 days in the monsoon season, otherwise Satsuma and Saga would have stopped trading with the White Lord for a long time - a round trip will take half a year, who can bear this.

And the speed is so fast, and it is also due to the warm ocean currents in the open ocean, which is the white lord carefully exploring the open sea route

Outcome.

However, despite Youngmin's quick return, he still missed the long-awaited event - the second "Siege of Petropavlovsk" has begun.

There were early signs of this - last year the combined British and Flannish naval forces destroyed all the important ports of Lucia in the North Pacific, and extorted 150,000 pounds worth of gold, and the Admiral Plath said that this could be had, "Come back next year, grab it again." ”

However, although Admiral Plass asked Little John to carry a letter to Xiangjiang last time, the official document was a sealed secret letter, so the two had no way of knowing the specific date of the appointment.

However, Egawa Hidetoshi was not wronged - Naohide didn't go either, and after the two met, he sighed for a long time, saying that he had been preparing for half a year, and he could only be cheaper Nakahama Manjiro, the head of the water army, - Naohide wanted to guard his home, and this time only Manjiro followed Little John to participate in the war.

However, the news on the battlefield can still be received - the cargo ships of Sanjiang Foreign Company continue to transport supplies from the white lord to the front line, and the news has naturally not been interrupted.

Plath was indeed a believer, and on May 31, 1855 in the Western calendar, Anglo-Buddhist warships gathered in Kamchatka.

Last time, the coalition only had 7 warships, but this time it was increased to 25 at once, including 6 steam warships - not only the British Pacific Fleet poured out, but after John Jr. returned to Xiangjiang, he heard that it was a beating of water dogs, and the Xiangjiang detachment also rushed to join in the fun, so he was stunned to gather three English naval formations in the Far East.

The admiral of the Xiangjiang Detachment was an acquaintance of Oguri Tadashun, who was Shi Tailin, with whom he signed the "Fuso English Peace Agreement".

The coalition forces attacked in two directions, according to the agreement, the British Pacific fleet came from the colony of Quebec in North Mi, and the Xiangjiang detachment led the Francis from the Xiangjiang River to the north.

Led by the merchant ships of Sanjiang Foreign Company, the Xiangjiang detachment arrived at Hakodate in early May.

At this time, the new Hakodate commissioner Hori Toshiki was still in Edo, so the scene was in a hurry, and finally someone came up with the idea to invite Naohide to preside over the overall situation - the Matsumae family was reluctant to come forward, but the white lord was his own person after all, and he might be willing to help.

Naoxiu has been waiting for a long time.

Although he is not allowed to leave the territory without reason, isn't it urgent to follow the power now, so Naohide took advantage of this excuse to hurry up.

Others may think that dealing with the Nanban is a chore, but Naohide enjoys it - this is a good thing that is hard to find with a lantern, and how can he not be entertained by a free right-hand man.

Be prepared, the white lord has long been ready, a steady stream of materials poured into the box house, for a while the guests and hosts were happy, and the people left behind by the box house also praised Naoxiu, "Sure enough, he is a hero who can open up the north alone, acting decisively, behaving moderately, and having extraordinary strength!" ”

The captain of the detachment, Stairlin, also praised Naoxiu - no, this is God of Wealth, Sanjiang Foreign Bank subsidized himself a huge amount of money, and the annual dry stock dividend amounted to 15,000 pounds, and it is said that a considerable part of the benefits came from the territory of the person in front of him.

Now there is a long-haired rebellion in China, and the annual trade volume between England and China is only one million pounds, and the water retreats and the ship is low, so everyone has no oil and water to fish, so this fifteen thousand pounds is really a lot, and it is estimated that even if Fusang opens the country for trade, he will not be able to make so much for a while.

Stellin is a gentleman with integrity, and he will do things when he receives the money, so he doesn't care how Sanjiang & Co. earns this money - anyway, London is not looking at Fusang yet, and there is no official document saying how to take Fusang, so collecting some subsidies is not against ethics at all.

The detachment had come to fight and make a fortune, so it didn't stay for a few days at Hakodate, and when John said that his maritime merchants were ready, the fleet pulled anchor and set sail.

After leaving the Tsugaru Strait in the east, he met four small steam warships in the open sea, and under their leadership, the fleet went north to Kamchatka along the cloudy Kuril Islands.

Sure enough, as John Jr. said, this year is a warm winter - in previous years, June in the North Sea was still a drift ice period, but now

Drift ice was already scarce, and there was no major trouble during the voyage.

In the early morning of May 20, the detachment successfully made a surprise attack on Petropavlovsk.

Admiral Stellin was surprised to find that there were several sailing ships in the bay - didn't last year's battle report say that the fleet of the Okhotsk district had been completely exhausted, and that all the merchant ships of Lucia had been sunk, and that there were still fish that slipped through the net?

But there's no time to think about it, it's over the fight, and it's better to figure out what's going on after the victory.

At this time, the morning fog had not yet dissipated, and the two sides were fighting like this, but it was not known where the shells flew.

After fighting for a while, Admiral Shi Tailin of the Xiangjiang Detachment finally found out that something bad was wrong, these sail warships were actually hanging the star-striped flags of the rice people!

In this great war that swept Europa, the rice country was an outsider neutral country, how could the rice warship appear in the port of Lucia?

He has the heart to stop, but it is easy to fight and difficult to stop, the war between the two sides is in full swing, where is there a chance to stop.

Shi Tailin put his heart sideways, the sun does not set, the water army will fight when he sees the enemy, and he will win the battle - anyway, he is reasonable. Neutral merchant ships can enter ports, but warships enter belligerent ports, which is a bit nonsense. Petropavlovsk is not a prosperous shipping center like Xiangjiang, and it must be strange for the American warship to appear here!

By this time, the fog had gradually begun to dissipate, and the warring parties had clearly known each other's identities, but the battle continued, and even the Flannish warships did not stop!

The coalition forces fought 9 to 5, plus the 4 small steam ships found by Sanjiang Yangxing, although there was the support of the shore batteries, but in the end the Mi fleet collapsed - it is not an opponent at all at the same level, the Mi warships are all hundreds of tons, but the capital ships of the coalition are more than 2,000 tons of behemoths.

After sinking 2 ships, the remaining rice ships had to raise the white flag and give up resistance under the thick smoke.

However, the coalition forces still did not stop, just now the rice ships first broke through to the open sea, and then turned to the port, relying on the shore batteries to trap the beasts and fight, and now the battle between the warships is over, but the batteries are still firing!

However, after a winter, Petropavlovsk's defenses did not improve, and at the end of the day, the batteries on the shore were swept away, and Admiral Stellin also figured out the origin of the Mi warships.

It turned out that there were five rice ships in total, belonging to the official "North Pacific and China Sea Expedition", which set out from Norfolk Port in June 1853, rounded the Cape of Good Hope through the Tianzhu Sea to Xiangjiang, then went north to Songjiang, and then went east to Naha, Izu Shimoda, and finally to Kamchatka.

Originally, it was useless to attack the neutral fleet Styrin, but as he had predicted, the rice people crossed the border - the English sailors found contraband, and there were a large number of Ruthia ordnance on the remnants of the rice ships, and after careful interrogation, it was found that these people were involved in the Kamchatka retreat organized by Lucia.

Stellin looked up to the sky and laughed, "Wrong hit, wrong shot!" No wonder it took a while to resist before surrendering. It's my fault to sneak attack, but if you participate in the military operation of the enemy army on which the sun never sets, you are killing yourself. ”

Knowing that the retreat had just begun, especially since the Governor of Eastern Siberia, Muravyov, was still stranded here, he ordered the harbor to be blocked and waiting for reinforcements to come to the urn to catch turtles.

On May 31, 1855, Admiral Plath led the arrival of the Pacific Fleet, and the number of allied warships reached an astonishing 25, and the second "Petropavlovsk Siege" officially began.

The impact of the war was so far-reaching that later generations commented that "Lucia thus lost forever the opportunity to obtain ice-free ports in the North Pacific".

"One nail is missing, and one horseshoe is missing; lost a horseshoe, lost a warhorse; Lose a warhorse, lose a battle; Lost a battle, ruined a dynasty. ”

The growth of the forces represented by Naohide finally led to huge changes.