In late June, Okubo, who had stayed in Edo, was overjoyed when he received a notice from two adults asking him to pay a visit.

These two adults are the great backers of the White Lord's Office, one is the Kanjo Ginmi Servant and Haiphong Kakegawa Tanan, and the other is the new shogunate Gome Fu Oguri Tadashun.

On the first day of Okubo's arrival in Edo, his father, Okubo Jiemon Toshiyo, went to the two houses to deliver a prayer note on behalf of his son, who was busy with official business, and when the two adults had time to spare, Riji immediately came to visit—theoretically Okubo should have come to the door in person, but as soon as Jiemon met, he told him that it was inconvenient for the two adults, and that Mr. Tanan was building Odaiba in Shinagawa, and Oguri-sama was also there to help, and the idlers refused to visit.

The Okubo family has been going smoothly since they followed Naohide. When the son first defected, he was promised to serve as the town commissioner, which surpassed his father's previous efforts in Kagoshima.

And the Jiemon couple is not bad, Toshiyo was appointed as the head of the "tea ceremony" in the house, responsible for the affairs of the Hori family in Edo, and the capable Mrs. Fukuko also hit it off at first sight with the head of the family's wife "Oku-sang" Eiko, last year Eiko went to the white master, and before leaving, Mrs. Fukuko made Mrs. Fukuko the wet nurse of "Wakatan like that" Fukutaro - 6-year-old Fukutaro has long been weaned, and the so-called "wet nurse" is the meaning of guardian.

The shogunate ordered Naohide to re-emerge, and the little Fukutaro naturally returned the position of the head of the family to his father, and lived a good life of eating and drinking again, and Fukutaro was almost "seven or eight years old, and the dogs were disgusted", and it was very naughty to chase cats and dogs all day long, but "brine tofu is one thing and one thing is down", as long as Mrs. Fukuko, who acts like Yingzi, appears, he will instantly become a good child.

Okubo's eldest sister also became the wife of Naohide's cousin Yahiko under the introduction of Eiko.

Yahiko is the eldest son of Naohide's uncle Taro Takemae.,It's Toranosuke's elder brother.,The name is "Pig Nosuke", commonly known as "Takemae Taro" - no way, the Takemae family was a farmer for generations before becoming a samurai.,After becoming a royal family, the common name of the head of the family can't bring a certain soldier and a certain guard or something.,You can only use "Taro" as the general name of the head of the family.。

Although the Takemae family lived in Shinjuku, they are now the family of the royal family, and like the Hori family, they did not move away because they were reluctant to give up their old neighbors. Marrying into the Takemae family, the second emon couple is very satisfied, according to the shogunate decree, the marriage must be the right family, marrying to the flag family is definitely not possible, then marrying the royal family genealogy is the best result - Naohide and Eiko are more special, before Naohide was promoted to the flag book, he had a marriage book with the Nakamura family, and he was also registered in the shogunate before, so if you don't say that Yingzi has a good life, she picked up a flag son-in-law in vain, until now, Nakamura Shoichi and his wife are triumphant.

Naohide's uncle Taro Takemae was satisfied after becoming the genealogy generation of the royal family, and he retired last year, Yahiko took the position of father, and Okubo's eldest sister also became a respected "Ruodan".

The son got ahead, the daughter also had a good home, and he got married to the head of the family, and Jiemon never mentioned it back to Kagoshima again, and he enjoyed it all day long after running before and after running in Edo for the affairs of the Hori family. But the Hori family is a nouveau riche, and the roots in Edo are shallow, and the only upper class relationships that can catch up are the Egawa family and the Oguri family, so the second emon hooks up every other day, and the big and small affairs of the two families are clear!

Naohide's chaotic incursion has caused more and more impacts, and it is still not obvious in Mr. Egawa Tanan and Oguri Tadashun.

Taro Saemon Egawa was supposed to turn over after the visit of the black ship next year and become a coastal defense. However, in this world, because of his contribution to agriculture and the joint operation of the windmill monopoly and the charcoal honeycomb coal business with the Oguri family, Mr. Tanan was commissioned in 1846, and then in 1850, because of the success of the Nirayama ironmaking and his exploits over the years, he was appointed to serve as Haiphong in 1850, three years ahead of schedule.

And Oguri Tadashun has changed even more.

Originally, Oguri became the Mimetsuke around 1860, but in this world, he became the Nagasaki Mesuke in 1850, and this year he was promoted to another level, and at the age of twenty-six, he served as the Mimesuke, which was still suppressed by his father - the head of the Oguri family, Tadaka, was the distant country of the shogunate, according to common sense, not both father and son in a high position, but Tadaka refused to live in seclusion, he was an old bureaucrat who had rolled in the oil pot, and he had always coaxed the shogunate up and down to be happy, and the Oguri family was a famous family of the Tokugawa family, Therefore, after exchanging a large number of benefits, the old and middle schools also went by him.

Because of the windmill business, Oguri and Egawa began to form an alliance, and later after ups and downs, the relationship between the two families became closer.

This year, Oguri Tadashi was transferred from Nagasaki Metsuke to Mimesuke, and because he was familiar with foreign affairs and Rangaku, he was assigned by the shogunate as an overseer, responsible for assisting in the construction of Odaiba by Kakegawa Taro Saemon in Haiphong.

Coastal defense, the full name of which is "coastal defense royal hanging", is responsible for negotiations with foreign countries and coasts

defense and other matters. The shogunate had this position for a long time, but it was slowly abolished after the closure of the country, and the Nagasaki government was in charge of foreign negotiations, but in view of the continuous knocking of foreign ships in recent years, the chief old man Abe turned this office out of the waste paper heap and let it see the light of day - by coincidence, Mr. Tanan sat in this position.

Mr. Tanan lost power only when he was implicated in the prison of the Barbarian Society in 1839, when he and Torii Yoozo were ordered to clean up the coastal defenses of the Izu Peninsula and Edo Bay. After Jiayong three years (1850) made a coastal defense, he did not forget his roots, and the first letter on him was "build Odaiba (fort) and build a big ship".

If it was before, Egawa Taro Saemon would definitely be sprayed all over the face by the shogunate - this iron bucket of rivers and mountains, towering Fuso, why do you do this thing that costs people and money? You old boy must have bad intentions, saying that you want to get stuck in the oil is light, and a plot of misdeeds and a private soldier is appropriate!

But it's not what it used to be.

Naohide went to sea in 1846 and began to deliver books, newspapers, and various information to Fuso in 1847.

After 1849, Naohide and the others continued to provide various information and ordnance to Fuso under the guise of Tomi merchants—from 1850 onwards, the chamber of commerce established by Gakujiro in Kaojiang, "Hamheng Yokosen", was already a legitimate trading partner of the shogunate under the operation of Koguri Tadashun, then Nagasaki Mefuke.

Unlike the Lankoku Shokan, at the request of Gakujiro, the Hamhyung Foreign Company did not aim to make a profit, and sometimes it was completely upside down, and it never concealed anything, and responded to the shogunate's requests, resulting in the shogunate's overseas trends Although they are not well aware of overseas trends, they are also well-informed.

Therefore, even if there have been fewer cases of foreign ships intruding into the waters off Fuso in the past two years, the old and middle school people also know that this is only a temporary phenomenon, and one day the steam gunboat will sail to Edo Bay.

But "building Odaiba and building big ships" is easier said than done, where does the money come from? So the old middle school agreed half of it, that is, Odaiba can be built, and the big ship will be talked about later, anyway, we are not going to fight out, or defense.

But even so, Mr. Tanan's Odaiba plan was faltering.

In the original world of Naohide, Odaiba, also known as Shinagawa Odaiba, based on Mr. Tanan's Kenhakushu, planned to build 11 forts near Shinagawa Minato in Edo, using the boulders of the Izu Peninsula and the earth and sand of Gotenyama in Shinagawa, including the construction of artificial islands. The entire construction began in September of the 6th year of Kaei (1853), and by November of the first year of Ansei (1854), only 5 buildings were built and could not be carried out, because of the huge cost and the lack of use.

It is said that the preparation and construction of more than a year alone cost Mr. Tanan 750,000 taels of gold, and the total annual income of the shogunate at that time was only more than 4 million taels of gold, which was really not enough to afford this additional expense.

And what's even more disturbing is that at that time, the big ships of Western countries were often equipped with several bombardment guns, that is, the Paixhans cannon that appeared in 1823, with a maximum range of about 2800 meters, which exceeded the cannon range of Shinagawa Odaiba, so the fort was built in vain - the outer ships hit the forts, but the forts could not reach the outer ships, so why use the Odaiba to build, in order to be a scenic spot in the future.

But in this world, after a detailed exchange with Naohide, Mr. Tanan's Odaiba plan is much more reasonable.

Originally, the shogunate had always had the idea of building a fort on the Uraga waterway at the entrance to Edo Bay, but Naohide scoffed at it: the Uraga waterway was 20 km long, the average width was 11 km, and the narrowest point was 9 km.

Moreover, the fort was built to equip the artillery, but Fuso's current large barrel was sparse, and the bombardment could not be built, so the fort and artificial island had a fart purpose, so the Odaiba plan should focus on preventing the enemy from landing, rather than sinking or repelling enemy ships, so a road should be built along the coast, a few military stations and dozens of small forts, instead of spending a lot of money on a dozen large and useless fortresses.

This conversation took place in 1850 when Naohide was smelting iron in Niriyama, and at that time Naohide also provided three methods of making large barrels, corresponding to the Mi-type 3-inch rifled gun, the 12-pounder Francis Napoleon gun, and the Mi-type Dahlgren gun, the first two had a maximum range of 3600 meters and 1900 meters, respectively, and the latter had a slightly farther firing range than the bombardment guns of the same caliber.

However, according to the current level of craftsmanship in Fuso, Naohide believes that even a relatively simple front-loading smoothbore bronze cannon Napoleon cannon is enough to be made in a short time, not to mention the other two large cylinders, so it is better to buy it first.

The latter two guns have not yet appeared, but the 3-inch rifled guns, after their desperate efforts, are estimated to be in a year or two - in fact, in 1851

Under the supervision of Manjiro Nakahama, the cannon was successfully cast ten years ahead of schedule.

But even with a cannon, the manufacture of shells is a big problem, solid shells are easy to say, flowering shells are troublesome, so you can only buy them first.

"Fake it a", blow it out and then make it. When Naohide returned in 1849, he had already begun to blow the 3-inch rifled gun, and the shogunate was suspicious of this, and Mr. Tanan did not think that his students would lie to the teacher, so the new Odaiba plan was designed according to the 3-inch rifled gun, which weighed 820 pounds, which was equivalent to less than 400 kilograms, and the gun carriage was not heavy, so it was easy to move, so it strengthened Mr. Tanan's belief in building a small fort.

It's this kind of necessary tool for living in the country, where can you buy it? Naohide told him that Oguri Tadashun had his own way, and Mr. Tanan knew that he was a student who never talked big, so he actually believed it.

In 1850, after Naohide went to Hakujo, he asked the old and middle school to start the Odaiba project, which cost a total of 100,000 taels of gold (the large barrel is not included), and the old middle school approved the plan after asking the Nagasaki government at the time and the plan.

The core of this plan is that the 3-inch rifled gun can really hit 3,600 meters, so before the cannon is seen, coastal roads and military stations can only be built.

At the end of August 1851, six rifled guns were sent to Nagasaki, and after a demonstration in Shinagawa Odaiba in September, the old and middle schools officially approved the Odaiba plan.

Neither can it be approved or not. Why?

Because Xianheng Foreign Bank's wind story mentioned that General Orek, the commander of the East Tianzhu Fleet of the United States, may be dismissed, and the reason is that the diplomacy between the United States and Fusang is unfavorable.

General Orek once received an order from the United States to force Fusang to open the port, but the general asked three first-class steam warships to join his command before he could visit Fuso, and the application for ships was not in place, so he never took further action.

The people of the United States were very angry about this, and it was said that General Perry would be sent to take over the position of commander of the East Tianzhu fleet. General Perry's plan for an expedition to Fuso, as early as 1851, was to carry more than three large steamships, large-caliber artillery and explosive shells were necessary, and if necessary, to intimidate the Fuso or simply destroy them; At the same time, stick and carrot together, and be friendly in attitude; In view of Fuso's delaying strategy, it was necessary to avoid Nagasaki and go straight to Edo, the heart of Fuso.

In view of the consistent "respectfulness and obedience" of the Hamhyung foreign company, the arrival of the wind storytelling in Edo caused the panic of the old and middle people, and the rice people were aggressive in the Pacific Ocean, and in the third year of Honghua (1846), Brigadier Betel led a ship through Uraga and plundered Shimoda, how did it not take a few years to come.

Now it is not the same as before, you can pretend not to see when you close your eyes in the past, but now the wind story of Xianheng Foreign Bank and the wind story of Lan Guofeng are clearly stated that the trade volume between the United States and China is increasing year by year, and the number of whaling ships in the North Pacific Ocean is also increasing.

What kind of steam canister gunboat does the U.S. Navy have, which can hit a bombardment barrel from a long distance, and what if the ship really drives to Edo? So this 3-inch rifled gun must be bought, and Odaiba must be repaired, Egawa, if you work hard, you can live on the construction site. Hurry up and repair the fort, hurry, it doesn't look like it!

Poor Mr. Tan'an didn't dare to complain, so he had to work overtime, according to the orders of the old middle school, "You don't have to go home except for the New Year, why do you want your family to send them to the construction site!" ”

Finally, dozens of small forts were repaired this time, and a lot of iron bars, cement, bricks, and soil and sand were prepared in advance. And according to Naohide, Jiang Chuan is really willing to do boulders or something, and he can add them after the main body is completed, and the artificial island can be built slowly if he is willing to build, in short, put up the shelves first.

Hurry up, and Oguri Tadashun, who is the Mime Fu, also helped a little - although Oguri only joined in as an overseer after April of the fifth year of Kaei, but a good supervisor can reduce a lot of difficulties for the construction party, at least Oguri knows how to do it and won't talk nonsense.

Finally, at the end of the sixth month of the Western calendar, Odaiba passed the inspection organized by the shogunate, and although the boulder could be installed if he wanted to, and the artificial island would be rebuilt if needed, the entire Odaiba was basically completed and could be drilled.

When he received the news, he was overjoyed, and when he met with Egawa Taro Saemon, he rewarded him with a famous sword, and called him "the imperial secretary of imperial satisfaction" - "a capable retainer who satisfies me".

The two happily returned home, only to find that Okubo, the white lord's office, was waiting to pay respects, and this was their own person, so they hurriedly invited them to meet!