Naohide was actually very helpless about the high-level personnel turmoil that occurred in the second year of Ansei (1855) - after returning from overseas, he did five major things for the shogunate, but it still did not change the fate of Abe's attendants and others.

These five major events were "Stopping Lucia", "Warning of Earthquakes", "Importing Ordnance", "Disseminating Western Knowledge", and "Developing the Northland".

It stands to reason that these achievements are extraordinary, and the money can recover the loss of millions of Tianbao small judgments, people, can save hundreds of thousands, and the external situation has also improved a lot, but the authority of the shogunate is still questioned, and Abe and other high-level officials are still demoted, and the resignation of officials, which is really a big disappointment for Naohide.

Let's take "Blocking Lucia" as an example, if there is no Naohide, in the seventh year of Kaei (1854), "in the ninth month of the Japanese calendar, four ships of Lu entered the sea, Keisaka was shocked, and was uneasy. ”。

Then, the shogunate carried out a large-scale mobilization, "The Hikone Domain sent troops to Kyoto with 4,000 tuns, the Honnoji Prefecture Yamayodo Shosho and the various feudal clans outside the Choraku, and the Kagoshima and Kumamoto soldiers led eastward. The shogunate also ordered Wakayama to build a platform in Kada, Tokushima to build Yurawaya, and Akashi to build in Akashi, and ordered Miyazu, Tanabe, and Mineyama to strictly defend the coast and support each other. ”

In addition, in the past six months of the same year, the "countries, the land of the great earthquake", natural disasters and military disasters were mixed together, and the situation was worse, and the people of, who were the essence of the area, were not happy.

But now, in September 1854, under the guidance of the White Lord, the four warships brought to the Far East by Lusia's envoy Pugatin, plus the fleet of the Okhotsk district, were sent to the bottom of the sea by the Anglo-Buddhist forces, so the catastrophe was eliminated in advance.

As for the "Fusang Lucia Peace Pact", it is impossible to talk about it, and there is no need to talk about the dispute over the sovereignty of the northern part of the Yunwu Thousand Islands.

To sum up, just this one thing has relieved a lot of pressure on Fuso and the shogunate!

As for the remaining four events, "warning of earthquakes", "importing armaments", "disseminating Western knowledge", and "developing the northern lands", they either alleviated losses or strengthened their strength, which was of great benefit to the shogunate and related daimyos.

But to Naohide's surprise, the high-level personnel turmoil in the shogunate still happened as scheduled, this is really a stubborn disease that is difficult to treat, and it is difficult to get up - with the energy of this infighting, farming well and vigorously developing the orchid industry, isn't it fragrant?!

As for Naohide's support for Abe's attendants from the bottom of his heart, there is an important reason - although many of the courtiers think that Naohide is the old middle Abe's person, Naohide knows that he is not.

The reason why Naohide supports Abe is that he is extremely capable - it is said that Abe is a "scoop catfish", and he only sews and mends when he is in power, and he wants to bridge when he encounters a fight, but Naohide doesn't see it that way.

Even if there was no Naohide, the chief Abe of the old middle also took the lead in initiating the reform of security in 1854, and also put forward 37 opinions, not to mention other things, three of which were groundbreaking, fully showing his vision, means and courage, and the so-called "weak" evaluation is just a misunderstanding caused by Abe's clever methods and soft governance.

The first measure of "adjusting the relationship between the Kyoto Imperial Court, the Edo Shogunate, and the daimyo in various regions, and acting in unison with Fuso" directly pointed to the shortcomings of the shogunate system at this time—the pioneers of the future fall of the shogunate, Satsuma and Choshu, were not openly under the banner of the Kyoto small imperial court and relied on the support of the English people in the back.

The second clause, "Dissolve the trade guild 'Zhuzhongma', curb the rise in prices, and allow free trade among the feudal domains" seems to be no different from the measures taken by Tenpo to reform eleven years ago, but after thinking about it, it is terrible and lamentable—Zhuzhongma is a merchant guild, and the products of each domain and the imperial domain can only be sold to the members of the Zhuzhongma first, and then these merchants continue to sell them.

It is terrible and lamentable, because the dissolution of Tianbao Innovation is a last resort, and the Anzheng Reform is an initiative to change, and the two cannot be said the same at all:

The background of the Tenpo Revolution was the "Tenpo Massacre", which caused prices to skyrocket due to the Great Famine, which was necessary to promote trade at that time.

In 1854, there was no such unfortunate event as the 7-year failure of the Fuso harvest, which was proposed by the shogunate led by Abe, and it was a means to achieve "unanimity in raising Fuso", and it was also the price paid by uniting the daimyo in various places

Exploitation in the middle - the realization of the dream of "killing the middlemen and avoiding someone from making the difference" is undoubtedly a good thing for the imperial domain of the shogunate and the territories of the daimyo in various places.

Of course, in 1851, when Edo ordered the restoration of the Shogunate-controlled merchants, who had been disbanded during the Tenpo Reform, many of the wealthy merchants of the various feudal domains joined in, and it was no longer the sole power of the merchants controlled by the shogunate.

But after all, most of the members are still wealthy merchants of the imperial leadership, so the shogunate took the initiative to dissolve Zhu Zhongma, full of sincerity!

What Naohide admires the most is Abe's courage.

"The shogunate vigorously studied Western skills and rewarded local daimyo and private people to organize Western industries", this decree was proposed less than half a year after the signing of the "Fuso Mikuni Peace Agreement"! - You must know that the Westernization Movement was proposed in the nineteenth year after the Sino-British War in the South China Sea, even if the Fuso ship made a small U-turn, or if it had its own national conditions, the gap between half a year and nineteen years was also a little bigger.

However, Abe's attendant, who was pinned on by Naohide, finally gave up the throne of the chief of the old middle, but fortunately it was still the winner who was in charge of finance and agricultural affairs, which was unsatisfactory.

However, unlike the unlucky Abe attendant, Naohide was unscathed in this turmoil, you must know that he is considered by outsiders to be Abe's hardcore.

According to Hidetoshi, who was sent to Edo, there were indeed people who wanted to impeach Naohide at that time, but it was quickly quelled, and the reason was that according to the Nagasaki commissioner Oguri Tadashun, who was on duty in Edo, because several bigwigs did not agree:

There is a big "stain" on Naoxiu's career, that is, he has studied abroad.

It stands to reason that after the visit of the black boat, the backlash of Fuso and the shogunate was great, and the voice of the rebellion has not been cut off, and Naohide should have been found out a long time ago, not to mention the seppuku apology, at least it should be secluded and cautious.

But the problem is that only the high-level officials who knew the inside story back then, and these high-level officials deliberately ignored the matter for various reasons - among the high-level ministers who experienced this at that time, Toda Tadawen, who was the least accustomed to direct appearance, had passed away a long time ago, and the rest of the people were not interested in this matter of slapping themselves in the face;

And the newly appointed chief of the old and middle school, Hotta Masamu, is even more interested in Naohide's blue eyes - he has never dealt with Naohide, but Naohide is a friend of his favorite Oguri Tadashun, and under the love house and Wuxia, Naohide also has a bonus.

At the same time, another big mountain in the middle of the court, the old lord of Mito, Tokugawa Qi Zhao, is also very optimistic about Naohide, the reason, more than ten years ago, Qi Zhao wrote a letter asking for "the development of Ezo land", and Naohide went north alone to develop the farther North Ezo land, which greatly matched Qi Zhao's temper.

So Naohide was unscathed in this turmoil.

Not only that, but in the turn of the year, that is, this year, the shogunate also commended Naohide Hori and promoted him to a high level of stone and official positions.

Naoxiu, who is far away in the sky, can be remembered by the nobles and troubled shogunate bosses, thanks to the Languo Merchant House:

On the 23rd day of December of the second year of Ansei, the shogunate and Rankoku signed the "Fuso Rankoku Peace Agreement", a total of 27 articles - similar to the previous "Fuso Mikuni Peace Pact", which relaxed the control of Nagasaki Dejima and added trade content.

However, the Languo Commercial Hall and Fusang have been in business for more than 200 years, but they have not caused any turmoil.

So far, Fuso has signed agreements with three Western countries - the Mi people, the English people, and the Lan people.

After the signing was completed, the shogunate remembered an unlucky ghost, that is, Lucia's envoy Pugartin, who had been missing for almost two years.

According to the news of Xianheng Foreign Company, the Lu people have been hit hard in the past two years, and the northern territory has been swept away by the Anglo-Buddhist coalition army, and Pu Jiating has not appeared, and it is estimated that it is more auspicious than bad - although Xianheng Foreign Company has become a four-sea company, it still uses the old name when trading with the shogunate and the white lord, which is to prevent anyone from leaking secrets in Fuso.

Of course, it was a good thing that Pugarting did not appear, but in addition to the celebrations, the important ministers of Edo were also worried about Lucia's comeback.

In addition, Hakodate had already opened the port at this time, so the defense of the northern land was still slack, and it was necessary to continue to strengthen the strength of the two northern land offices.

So, the Edo retainers took the time to study it and found the box

The museum has to continue to invest, and the white lord is much more worry-compared to the box pavilion that has always asked for this and that, although the white lord also complains from time to time, but Naoxiu doesn't need money, as long as the law supports it, this is much cuter.

It's not that I don't know, but I'm shocked.

Naohide has been conscientious for many years, and he didn't use much investment from the shogunate to run the white lord well, so the important ministers at that time had the intention of rewarding him.

In addition, Youngtoshi would come to the event, so this intention finally turned into practical action - in April of the third year of Ansei (1856), when Egawa Hidetoshi went to Edo to pay tribute to furs, he learned of the Great Edo Earthquake that had occurred in October last winter, so Youngtoshi donated money on behalf of Naohide to show his loyalty.

After discussing with the White Lord Eiko, who had returned from the same boat to see his son, he offered 3,000 taels of gold in the name of the office, and another 1,200 taels and 800 taels in the name of the Hori family and the white lord Egawa, to help the shogunate with disaster relief.

Although there are only 5,000 Tianbao small judgments in total, the old middle school is very happy - the family of the Hori family is only 600 stones, according to the calculation of the four gongs and six people, 1,200 taels of gold is the total income of the Hori family for five years, no matter how much Naoxiu has made in the north, this attitude is still quite correct.

As soon as the old middle school was happy, they promoted Naohide Hori and Eitoshi Egawa to high and official positions:

The Hori family changed from 600 koku to 1,200 koku, and Naohide's official position was also defended from the sixth to the fifth - although the official position was sealed by the small court in Kyoto, at this time, the shogunate did not approve it as long as it was requested;

And Yingmin also borrowed light, and the white lord Jiangchuan's family changed from 400 stones to 600 stones, and he also got a general introduction.

As for the reason for promotion, no one dares to disagree with it:

The white lord took the initiative to ask to increase the height of the stone of the institute, from the original 5,000 stones to 30,000 stones.

You must know that the stone height of the office has changed, and the taxes paid every year will also increase, which is not a joke casually.

Someone was willing to take the initiative to send more money, so how could the shogunate refuse it, so after the survey office reported, the old middle school immediately agreed, and they didn't ask for more, so it was tentatively set at 30,000 stones.

The annual tribute has become, on the basis of the original 2,000 seal skins, and the annual tribute is increased by 3,000 taels.

In fact, there is another story here:

For the sake of prudence, Kanding Xingchuan Road Shengmo also specially asked Jiang Chuan Yingmin for verification.

"The white lord is only 4,000 people, and the stone is 30,000 high, it's too exaggerated, right?"

But before he finished speaking, Chuan Lu was startled himself, you must know that five years ago, Naoxiu was known as going north alone, how did these 4,000 people come from?

"I'll do it myself first", Chuan Lu touched the sweat, although he was shrewd and capable, but he didn't pay attention to the small commission of the white lord before - the survey commission is 4, and there are 6 Kanding Yinwei Servants, 12 Kanding Group Heads, 90 Domination Commissioners and 250 Kanding, the structure is huge, plus two years ago, Mr. Tan'an was still Kanding Yinwei Servants, and he intended to cover it up, so although the White Lord developed rapidly, it didn't attract the attention of the high-level before!

Seeing this, Yingmin explained that the main reason for the majority of white immigrants is that there are three points, "ruthless enough, righteous, and many brothers", no, no, it is "naturalized many savages, has been vigorously immigrating, and has been hitching a ride on the Hakodate immigration in the past two years."

In fact, by the end of 1855, the population of the White Lord had swelled to 7,821 people, but Naoxiu was afraid of causing a bigger sensation, so the number reported was only more than 4,200.

And this year and later, there will be more immigrants, plus the business contacts between Hakodate and the white lord are becoming more and more frequent, and it is too difficult to hide it, Naohide and the others have no choice, so they take the initiative to ask for an increase in the number of priests Ishitaka - it is better to take the initiative to expose than to be found fault by the shogunate in the future!

After listening to the explanation, Chuan Lu felt that in the past, there were two thousand naturalized natives, and then three hundred immigrants per year, and one thousand two in four years, plus these two years of hard work, this number was so-so-so - however, after that, he paid special attention to the official documents of the white lord, and a few years later, it almost caused a big storm.

Now the remaining question is, "How can 4,000 people produce 30,000 stones?" ”