The blue water looks from afar, but it is not so pure when it comes ashore; The originally silent sound of the waves was also drowned in the noisy voices at this time.

The retinue wanted to go to stop the noise, but was forbidden by the master, "That's Miyi's whaling crew, don't be troublesome"!

In August of the third year of Ansei (1856), Hakodate Governor Hori Ritsuki looked up at the sun overhead, and was a little irritable.

"Horiden welcomes you personally, I dare not be ashamed."

Looking at Egawa Youngmin's smiling face trotting over, Hori Rishi's mood improved in vain, young and full of vitality, it is really enviable, I hope my subordinates can be like this.

"Unorthodox!"

Youngmin didn't care when he heard this laughing and scolding, he ran to the box hall when he had nothing to do in the past two years, and he didn't think somuch of Horiri's old-fashioned style for a long time - according to Naohide's words, "If you don't say it right, it's sullen, and the more you oppose it, the more you like it." ”

Besides, I am a banner of 400 stones, and it is etiquette to be willing to listen, and if I don't want to listen, you can ignore it! - Since becoming the head of the family on his own, Youngmin has completely let go of himself, and he can't see the slightest hint of caution in Edo.

As the white lord pursued, he shouldn't have left the North Ezo land easily, but this time he couldn't come, the small blast furnace of the Hakokan ironworks was ignited, and Hori Ritsu was not at ease, so he specially asked him, the former head of the ironworks, to come over to help check the gates, and even went to the dock to greet him, giving him enough face.

But even if Hori Ri has a cold attitude, Youngmin's power to change still has to come out, because the white owner of this industry also has a share.

The Hakodate Ironworks were nominally established by the shogunate, but in fact they were three joint ventures, with the Matsumae family and the Hakujo Shokusho all contributing to it, and the Hakodate Shogunate's master craftsmen and craftsmen from Edo, who were transferred from Nirayama Ironworks, were all subordinates of Egawa Hidetoshi.

Youngmin held back a smile, last year he agreed to a lot of conditions for Hori Ri Hyun in order to obtain the jurisdiction of Soya for the white lord, but now this Hakodate minister asks himself in turn, which is really funny!

"It's not hard to see people carrying burdens, and I don't know how difficult things to go through. It's a bitter taste, where is the Lanxue industry so good. ”

In February of the second year of Ansei (1856), the shogunate designated most of the Ezo region as the imperial domain, and in the following fourth month of the Japanese calendar, Date Keibang, Satake Yoshimu, and Tsugaru Shunsei sent troops to the northern land, plus the original head of the land Snake Matsumae family, and the four families assisted Hakodate in guarding Ezo.

Without high-efficiency fuel, high-yielding seeds, cattle and horses, or heavy machinery, the large-scale development of alpine zones is a fool's dream!

"The shogunate sent more than 1,000 people from the Shimizu clan and Shishu to reclaim the land in Ezo", and as a result, there was a big mistake as soon as the people arrived at the box house, which was also lacking and I didn't expect it, and there were a lot of people who were not adapted to the water and soil, if it weren't for the white lord to help according to the agreement, Hori Ri Xuan, the box hall was going to be a big ugly person at that time.

Also, last year, the two supplies of the British Xiangjiang Detachment in Hakodate were also paid in advance by the white master, otherwise, after the food was really swept away, the whole Hakokan would have to eat soil for a few days!

After that, Hakodate pursued Hori Riki finally realized that Edo was too far away to be reliable, and the Matsumae family was also an embroidered pillow with a bag of grass, and only the white lord with few people was the most reliable.

Therefore, he deliberately wrote a letter requesting that Egawa Hidetoshi be transferred to Hakodate, but Edo did not approve it, but the two offices of the Hakodate and the White Lord could "watch and help each other and communicate with each other", so the White Lord and Hidetoshi could also run to Hakodate - as long as Hori Rishi agreed.

It's a win-win situation between the two places, Hori Rishi was a veteran Mimetsu before he arrived in Hokkaichi, and he has a wide range of contacts, so it may not cost much to ask for supplies and money from Edo, but it is relatively easy to get a decree to support him.

For example, under his guise of immigrating on a large scale last year, the white lord actually achieved it without hiding it - the countries in June of the previous year

The Great Earthquake, the Great Earthquake and Tsunami in the Tokai, Higashiyama, and Nankai Provinces in November, caused countless victims, but the white lord did not show the sign and was not easy to recruit, but in the name of the shogunate, the credibility of recruiting people was much higher, and many bankrupt people and townspeople gritted their teeth and got on the ship.

Of course, Hori Rishi's endorsement of the white lord was not done in vain, and the Hakodate office also took a lot of advantage, at least the supplies to the English fleet did not have to be repaid - Yingyi was not a good bird, and he did not give gold or silver the second time, and completely took a bunch of stolen broken copper and iron and Western furniture, calligraphy and paintings to settle the bill, and the white lord lost at least three or four thousand taels of gold at the market price.

As for this Hakokan Iron Smelting Facility, this time it was really not Hori Rishi who scraped the white lord's oil, but the white lord took the initiative to help - this was the price of the exchange for the Soya Collar back then.

In fact, the white lord is also willing, because Naoxiu and Yingmin have the idea of borrowing chickens to lay eggs - Naoxiu has long wanted to build an ironmaking institute in the north, but the accumulation of the white lord is not enough, especially the difficulty of talent training, resulting in the fact that the white lord ironworking institute can only do mechanical processing now, and still does not have the ability to make large-scale iron.

Originally, this chicken had someone else, that is, the original lord Matsumae family.

But the Matsumae family is a waste!

A few years ago, the white lord promised to assist the Matsumae family to establish an iron-making institute, but the Matsumae family, who was known as the name of several generations of Lanxue, not only could not muster enough talents, but also retreated when they were killed, and actually picked a son halfway.

From 1849 to 1853, when the new city of Toyama Castle was built, the Matsumae family cheered up, and with the help of the white master, they got out the green bricks and pozzolanic cement, but after discovering that sugar beets could be used to make sugar, they threw aside the fireproof bricks that had been successfully developed, and never considered small blast furnaces and reverberatory furnaces again.

At the instigation of Hidetoshi, in the spring of 1855, he obtained permission from the shogunate to build an ironworks before he could take up his post, and thus succeeded the Matsumae family and became the second chicken of the white lord to make ironworks.

Later, under the guidance of the white master, the Matsumae family also joined in with the intention of investing in waste utilization in the early stage.

Coupled with Youngmin's face, Hori Ritsu brought in some master craftsmen and craftsmen from Mr. Nirayama Tanan. After some hard work, in August of the third year of Ansei (1856), the construction of the Hakodate ironworks was completed, and the fire was waiting to be ignited.

Because of the large amount of money invested in the early stage, the ignition was successful and successful, and Hori Ri ignored his temperament, and he was overjoyed and almost lost his temper at that time.

There is a reason why he is so happy, because Edo informed him this year that Hakodate's investment must be reduced:

In October of last year's Japanese calendar, the "Great Edoji Earthquake" occurred, and although the shogunate had been prepared to evacuate many people in advance, and asked those who stayed behind to rest by the straw piles in the open field, it was already winter, and there were always people who were so unwilling to obey the law, so there were still thousands of casualties, and the fire caused a major fire.

Finally, under the strict orders set by the public government, the standing army and the Obangu were all on standby, so in the end it did not become a fire that swept the whole city, but at that time, there were many houses collapsed, and it was also winter, so the damage was quite large.

In the past few years, there have been earthquakes and tsunamis in succession, and the shogunate has no food left, so the extra investment in Ezo has been cut down.

At this point, if Hakodate Honori Rishi still wants to recruit immigrants and develop the land, he will have to rely on himself.

He thought about it, the only way is to dig coal and make iron, so the two coalfields of Hakodate Iron Smelting Station and Kushiro and Ishikari are now his life~ Root - there is not much land development in Ezo, but the fishing industry is prosperous, but the Matsumae family has only gathered more than 40,000 people in a few hundred years, so it can be seen that the fishery at this time is not reliable. Therefore, coal and iron are worth looking forward to.

Now that the small blast furnace is successfully ignited, Hori Rishi is so beautiful, there is no shortage of iron sand in Ezo, and there is a carboniferous mine, this is

If you want to send it, and if the new immigrants are not willing to open up the wasteland, they can also be placed in the box hall to make iron, and the iron cannon can't make the farm tool head office, he seems to see a golden river from the fire.

But on second thought, he began to have a toothache again.

Which turtles in Matsumae are easy to say, the eyelids are too shallow, and it was said that it would be a small amount of money every year; But the white lord asked to underwrite half of the output, although the price is discussed every year with the market, and the box hall can't suffer a loss, but the price of pig iron and iron products can be the same, which is a lot less input.

But Hori didn't dare to turn his face, because most of the master craftsmen and craftsmen provided by Nirayama Iron Smelting would not stay long, and the rest of the manpower and future replenishments were provided by the white master.

Egawa Hidetoshi was sent to Hokkaichi because of an accident, and Yokohama Ironmaking has heard that there are many accidents, so this ironmaking must be a Rangaku talent, and Hori Rishi is clear about this.

Talents can be cultivated, but Lanxue talents can not be cultivated in a day or two, far water does not quench thirst, and a day without the person of the white master, he will not dare to turn his face for a day.

Hori Ri is not without crooked ideas:

But none of the people of the white lord in the iron-smelting house are attracted - they are all regarded as Naoxiu's personal disciples, as long as Naoxiu does not fall, they are all considered close ministers of the family master. Change the door for no reason, "the clock is not cast to cast copper", the brain is fine.

As for the people who detained the Nirayama Iron Smelter, and even got another batch from Egawa Taro Saemon, he didn't dare to think - since Napoleon cannon was built, Niriyama's status has increased dramatically, and whoever dares to move Egawa now will not be able to get along with the great cause of the shogunate.

Moreover, Hori also heard that Nirayama was engaged in some bottom-blowing acid converter steelmaking method, so that there would be no need to waste expensive copper goods for casting cannons. Among them, the shogunate invested quite a lot, and at this time, he was right with Jiang Chuan, didn't he feel uncomfortable finding himself!

Besides, the white lord and Jiushan are close to him, and the white lord is an ally of the box house, and the pig iron has not yet seen it, and he has "black eyes and silver beads" to see profit and forgetfulness, so he can't say it!

"I don't practice enough", Hori Riyu shook his head and smiled, he still couldn't get home with his kung fu to live and recuperate.

How did Youngmin know that someone had just used his crooked brain, and he thought that Hori Ri was afraid that he would not be able to smelt iron, "Also, the accident of his own iron smelting also alarmed the public appearance, and it is understandable that people don't trust him." ”

He comforted Hori Rixi, suggesting that he was not what he used to be, "Several masters are also old people from Nirayama, I have checked it, and it is foolproof! Again, 'Is it inevitable that scientific practice will make mistakes?' this time will not be allowed next time. ”

It's better not to have this comfort, and the box hall is so frightened that he can't take care of it.

However, the first iron was successfully baked, and not only did there be no accidents, but the quality also met the prediction, which made Hori Ri Hyun breathe a sigh of relief.

Hori said on the spot that he would ask for credit for the people at the Iron Smelter, and that the bounty would be cashed out immediately.

When he returned to the office, he ordered that the supply of iron sand and coke must be guaranteed - it is true that both charcoal and iron sand are produced in Ezo, but the production is not high, and the reason is that the manpower is too problematic.

The original head of the land, the family of Snake Matsumae, honestly handed over the territory, but many samurai families and lords followed the original lord to Ryogawa in Mutsu Province and Tone in Dewa Province, although less than one-tenth of them moved, but there were few people in Ezo Land.

Now that the shogunate has reduced its supply to Hakodate due to the Edo earthquake, and if it mines hard, there are fewer people in that kind of land, so what will happen to the food supply?

Although the potatoes are good, I am still a little worried, is it really as Yingmin suggests? But even if you do it yourself, it's not an easy task.