Since Okubo met Mr. Egawa Tanan, the number of samurai who came to Shinjuku-cho Horiya to fight the autumn breeze has gradually decreased, and even if there were, they were much more polite, and most of them wanted to introduce merchants to the White Lord Office, Okubo was puzzled and went to ask his father Jiemon, what has happened recently, why are you so much more friendly to me? Could it be that the fact that I became handsome has finally been discovered?

"You recently went to the survey office to wait for news, and no one told you? You're famous now. "Jiemon listened to Haha University, he and Mrs. Fukuko already knew, and thought that his son already knew, so he never mentioned this stubble-Fuso tradition, and he had to spur his son hard at home, so as not to be complacent, and only outside was the right place to show off his son.

It turned out that since the last meeting, Mr. Tanan had the opportunity to preach for Okubo, "Orchid rookie, intelligent and abnormal" - Mr. is a giant of Orchid Studies, and Okubo is naturally famous in the circle of Orchid scholars.

After becoming famous, the number of samurai who came to study and the number of people who invited Okubo to banquets and lectures gradually increased - after all, Lanxue has been in great momentum in recent years, and it is said that even the official school Changping Spring has to open a course in Lanxue, although the head of Lin University came forward to clarify, "This matter is nothing, Changping Spring is a Zhuzi dojo, how can miscellaneous studies be tarnished", but the popularity of Lanxue can be seen.

But Okubo pretended to have something in his heart, so he politely declined one by one. But there were two invitations, and he couldn't thank them, because the invitations came from the Tosa Yamauchi family and the Uwajima Date family - the Yamauchi family supported the white lord a lot, and he couldn't help but give face; And Ninomiya Keisaku of the Uwajima Domain is the uncle of the head of the family, Naohide, and it is inconvenient to refuse the invitation from the elders.

Although the Uwajima Domain had no trade dealings with the White Lord, the first nurse of the prince Fukutaro was Ninomiya Ina, and Ninomiya Keisaku, who was close to the feudal lord, was Inako's father, and from Naohide's other teacher, Mr. Ito Genpu, Ninomiya and Mr. Genpo were brothers in the same sect and should be regarded as Naohide's uncle, so Okubo went to the banquet on time after receiving Mr. Ninomiya's invitation.

Keisaku Ninomiya was an Okubo entertained at Nakayashiki in the Uwajima domain.

Like Mr. Hyun Pu, he had studied under Dr. Siebold and was a famous Lan doctor, and he was considered a senior of Lan Xue, and he went to Edo with the feudal lord to make a pilgrimage this time.

After the meeting, Mr. Ninomiya was very ashamed and apologized to Okubo again and again.

Of course, the apology is not because Okubo was invited so late - Okubo is the town of the shogunate, and the two families can't be related to official affairs, but in terms of personal friendship, Mr. Ninomiya and Okubo don't know each other, it's normal not to invite, what is there to apologize for.

The reason for Mr. Ninomiya's apology is that Naohide has been inviting Uwajima to send merchant ships north, but Ninomiya Keisaku has never been able to find a suitable merchant to go to Hakujo. He said that Uwajima and himself had benefited a lot from Naohide, and hoped that Okubo would convey his apologies to Naohide.

In the first year of Honghua (1844), Naohide visited Uwajima Island and taught Mr. Ninomiya the technique of artificially cultivating pearls, which Mr. Ninomiya dedicated to Date Munejo, who had just taken over as the head of the family, so as to create a good position.

After nearly eight years of development, Uwajima's pearl business has become famous. In this era, there is no such thing as "cultured pearls are not as good as natural", and under the guidance of Naoxiu, the view of "pearl powder for beauty" is flying all over the sky, and Uwajima, which holds an exclusive business, naturally makes a lot of money.

The tide is rising, and Mr. Ninomiya's status is getting higher and higher, and he has always wanted to find an opportunity to repay Naoxiu, but Uwajima and Kitachi don't complement each other in business, both have developed fisheries, so they can't exchange dried fish with each other, right? "Oh, you taste it, the dried fish of Uwashima is salty, and the dried fish of the white lord is also salty, but the flavor is different from the taste of Europe~" - the custody is regarded as a fool by others.

As for the charcoal and rice that the white lord urgently needs, first, the yield of Uwajima is not high, and the second is that the freight is not suitable for the white lord - from this point of view, the relationship between the two sides is not deep enough, and Tosa's Caiya has been sending this and that to the white lord, what do people say?

However, Naohide told Okubo that Mr. Keisaku Ninomiya was an honest man, and the feudal lord Date Munjo was said to have a good character, and Sojo was a rare orchid daimyo who had a close relationship with Kagoshima Shimazu Saibin, and the main room was still the sister of Saga Nabeshima Saimasa, so Okubo was very enthusiastic about Mr. Ninomiya.

The two desperately tried to find a way to trade, and finally reached an agreement as follows: the white lord sent merchants to Uwajima to purchase pearls and sell souvenirs, and Uwajima sent people to the northland to fish.

After talking, both of them were a little embarrassed: Mr. Ninomiya thought that how many real pearls could be purchased by someone like Lord Bai, and this breeding technology was still given by the other party, so he always felt that something was wrong; Okubo's embarrassment is that Uwajima is quite hot to see Tosa selling furs next door, but the white lord must guarantee the monopoly rights of Toya in Shikoku, so he can only refuse.

It's hard at the beginning, so let's do it for now.

Compared with the awkward chat with Ninomiya, Okubo and the Tosa family's old Yoshida officer Wei Yuanji get along much more happily - although the two have never met, but the relationship between Tosa and the white lord is so good, the business of Caiya and Katsura Hawaya is done, and there are many samurai from Tosa who were originally born in the white lord.

Yoshida Kanwei, like Mr. Ninomiya, also went to Edo with the head of the family to make a pilgrimage explanation, but he suddenly heard that there was a rising star of Ranxue from the white master, and it was good to see it.

Yoshida Kanbei and Naohide got acquainted very early, Naohide's previous private school in Kochi Town was established by him, and his career development has a lot to do with Naohide, plus the head of the family, Yamauchi Toyonobu, wants him to deepen the relationship with the white lord as much as possible, so he is very enthusiastic about Okubo, so that the servants have looked sideways - the lord usually pays attention to majesty, what is this called Okubo?

Yoshida's reputation is "majestic and steep", in fact, it is a euphemism that does not look down on people, he and Okubo and Oguri Tadashun are all the way, and others don't even pinch each other's eyelids.

But Wang Ba looked at the mung bean, he and Okubo didn't talk a few words and felt speculative, if it weren't for the difference in identity and reserve, the two almost worshiped the righteous brother on the spot.

Yoshida Kanbei was originally a sergeant of the Yamauchi family, because he had known the current head of the family Toyonobu early, and he was the confidant of Toyonobu's own brother, the twelfth lord of the domain, Toyoshi, so after the death of Toyoshi's father and son, he naturally became Toyonobu's arm - in the first year of Kaei (1848), soon after Toyonobu took the throne, he promoted Kannewei from Aki County to Kochi Town, and this year he was promoted to the ruler of the old family to hold the power of the domain.

Different from the original world of Naohide, because of the appearance of Naohide, Toyonobu and Kankanwei attracted the upper echelons of the clan represented by the old Fukuoka Miyachi through Caiya and Kosan Ko, and everyone made money together, which was not a happy one, and now the upper samurai of the Tosa Yamauchi family all support Toyonobu, so they did not give the retired eleventh feudal lord Yamauchi Toyoshi any opportunity to meddle in the feudal government, so now Yamauchi Toyonobu is in Tosa.

At the same time, Yoshida Kanbei's life is also very beautiful, and he is friends with the shogunate Mimefu Koguri Tadashun, so this time in Edo, there is no unsightly shogunate flag that dares to play tricks on him.

The proud Yoshida Kanbei was at home in Edo and met many famous people. Because of the speculation he talked about with Okubo, he must have asked Okubo to attend his party with these celebrities.

Okubo had something on his mind, where did he have the heart to attend a gathering of literati and scholars, and he was not interested in touting each other with a group of strangers, so he politely declined.

At this time, it is the beginning of July in the fifth month of the Western calendar, according to the original plan, the result of the white lord going north to attack the Lusia has been settled, how to win or lose, and whether the Lusia people will retaliate later, these are all in Okubo's heart, can he rest assured.

Moreover, Naohide regarded him as a peerless national warrior, and this time he was sent to Edo specifically to protect him, and Okubo was very touched by this.

Originally, Naohide arranged for his wife Eiko to go to Edo with him in the name of visiting his son, but Eiko refused, saying, "A house hangs in the balance." Husband and great

The family is desperate in front, how can I abandon everyone and run away, I must live and die together. ”

Okubo also wanted to stay after hearing this, but Naohide insisted on letting him go for two reasons:

First, this time the northward journey has a great chance of winning after careful planning in the early stage, but the retaliation of the opponent in the later stage must be guarded against, Okubo, you go to Edo to take a closer look at what the shogunate is preparing in Edo Bay, don't be attacked by someone;

Second, the right people do the right things.

I'm more suitable for the battlefield battle, but in terms of strategic planning, Okubo is more proficient. In case the commission loses and even the white lord can't hold it, you have to clean up the mess behind - Naohide has made a deal with Okubo, and the overseas business will be entrusted to Gakujiro and Toranosuke, and they will continue to support you, and you must not only do a good job of the white lord's pension, but also make good use of this power, whether it is to defect to Oguri Tadashun, or return to Kagoshima, in short, the burden of colonizing and enriching the people and strengthening the army will be handed over to you.

"Murata is a little naïve, Ryoma is still young, and both of them are now overseas, Manjiro and I went to the national disaster together, looking around, only the king can be entrusted with a heavy responsibility, for the sake of Fuso, please Okubo-kun to protect this body."

At that time, Naohide said that Okubo cried, and Okubo also felt that his talent was not in leading the troops to fight, so who would go to Edo to prepare for me?

Therefore, he had a secret mission to Edo, and now he lived like a year, and every day he was looking forward to the latest news from the white lord - but Naohide and his agreement was that "no news is good news", and the earliest in September of the Western calendar, and no later than October, then a ship could come to Edo to report the information.

It was the beginning of July, and there were still two or three months left before the agreed time, so Okubo had to wait patiently, but his emotions were inevitably affected, so he didn't bother to go out to socialize with irrelevant people.

Wait, wait, wait, not only did there be no news from the white master, but even the survey office did not give any reply, Okubo was anxious, and the big bubbles on his lips were unsettled and rose again and again.

As a result, I looked forward to two bad news in late May (early July of the Western calendar).

The first was a fire in Edo Castle that burned Nishimaru-wan, the residence of the shogun's son.

The second news is that the Lucia ship actually knocked on the harbor and went to Shimoda.

This is what Okubo learned when he went to Mr. Tanan's house to greet him, and it scared him out of a cold sweat at the time.

But this time is not right, according to the white lord's inference, even if the Lucian people retaliate, it is most likely in August or September of the Western calendar - is it wrong? This military may be sinister.

Seeing that his expression was wrong, Mr. Tanan comforted him and said that although Shimoda Odaiba was not yet equipped with a new Western-style cylinder, this time it was a merchant ship that had asked for trade in the name of sending Fuso drifters, and had already been sent away.

Okubo also continued to investigate the root cause despite suspicion, "Where did this merchant ship come from?" ”

"I asked clearly, from Songjiang, China."

Okubo was relieved when he heard this, this direction was wrong, and the Lucia people who came from the north were guilty of the crime.

Mr. Tanan was very relieved to see that he was worried about state affairs, and invited Okubo to visit the Odaiba construction site of the Uraga Suido, but Okubo did not go in order not to cause trouble to Mr. Tanan.

So Okubo continued to wait, and after waiting for a month, he finally waited for two new news.

At the end of the sixth month of the Japanese calendar (the beginning of the eighth month of the Western calendar), the shogunate suddenly began to arm the newly repaired Odaiba in Edowan, and Okubo knew that it was the Hasahiro foreign company that had sent a large number of 3-inch rifled guns to Fuso.

Almost at the same time, the shogunate suddenly appointed a large number of coastal defense hangers, including Tsutsui, Hori, Nagai, Iwase, Okubo (Tadahiro) and a large number of large body flags that Okubo did not know, not to mention, but also the old feudal lord of Mito, Qi Zhao, who immediately stunned a large number of people in Edo - what is going on? Could it be that a large number of southern barbarians have come over?