As soon as Chiho Kirino and his party entered the porridge shed, the children who were waiting to receive the porridge suddenly surrounded them and stretched out their hands.

Chiho Kirino watched the distribution of the rice balls, trying to get all the children to receive the rice balls, when she suddenly noticed that some of the children who received the rice balls did not eat them immediately, but turned their heads to look at the sky in the distance.

Chiho Kirino noticed the children's gaze, and she turned to follow their gaze, just in time to see a white line rising from the ground flying high into the gray sky, and then suddenly blooming.

Chiho Kirino watched this scene in amazement, and it wasn't until a distant "bang" came that she came back to her senses.

Adults were amazed at the vision, wondering what the samurai of the Satsuma Army were doing, while the children were more amused, and every time a white line flew into the air and bloomed like a flower, turning into white smoke and making a crisp and beautiful sound, the children would jump and clap their hands and cheer.

"What is this?" A samurai lady asked in surprise.

"It's ...... Rockets, right? Another samurai lady replied.

Chiho Kirino also guessed that these things that flew into the sky and exploded should be rockets, she remembered that when she was a child, she had seen the launch of the British-made "Congreve" rocket in her father's military camp, and she was no stranger to rockets, but the scene in front of her still made her feel strange.

She suddenly remembered what Lin Yiqing said when she was leaving, and the strange smile she suddenly understood.

Could it be said. Lin Yiqing is using rockets for artificial rainfall?

In fact. As she guessed. Lin Yiqing is indeed carrying out artificial rainfall.

"Hanpeng, what is the reason for this rocket to shoot extremely fine salt powder into the air to produce rain?" Saigo Takamori stood on the hillside, watching one rocket after another shoot into the gray smoke and explode, turning into clouds of white mist, and asked Lin Yiqing curiously.

"The general knows that there are floating clouds in the sky. It is made up of cloud droplets, which are so small that they are suspended in the air and cannot fall. Only after being converted into precipitation particles such as rain and snow can they fall to the ground. To convert clouds into rain, cloud droplets must be converted into precipitation particles. Salt powder can absorb moisture, if you sprinkle very fine salt powder into the clouds, they can absorb moisture in the clouds and quickly grow into large cloud droplets, and then they can form a rain to fall. Lin Yiqing said with a smile, "In addition." The explosion of a rocket can create an air flow that causes a cold air mass in the sky to meet a hot air mass formed by a fire on the ground. Water droplets can also be formed, which can contribute to rainfall. ”

"I see." Saigo Takamori listened to Lin Yiqing's explanation and sighed, "I didn't expect Hanpeng to have such an opinion on astronomy and meteorology. ”

At this time, all the samurai around Saigo Takamori heard the conversation between him and Lin Yiqing, although they also understood Lin Yiqing's explanation of the principle of "artificial rainfall", but they still couldn't believe it in their hearts, and they all looked up at the sky and watched the changes in the weather.

In a short time, the Satsuma soldiers in charge of the launch had finished firing all the rockets, and the land was silent, and everyone was staring at the smoke-filled sky, except for the crackling sound of the still burning city from time to time.

"After burning for so many days, Kyoto is close to the sea, the sea breeze is strong, it is easy to blow and dissipate the air, and the cold and hot air masses are not easy to meet, but this Kyoto has been burning for so many days, and it is in the basin, so it can form a large hot air mass......" Lin Yiqing looked at the clouds in the sky, and said secretly in his heart, "At this time, there is another 'cannon cloud', and the cold and hot air meet, so it should rain anyway...... The rain that saved Sima Yi in the upper valley should be similar to here......"

At this time, Lin Yiqing, when facing nature, suddenly felt the insignificance of his power as a human being.

After a while, the weather still did not change in the slightest, Lin Yiqing secretly screamed in his heart, he thought that the effect of salt powder should not be as good as silver iodide (but where to get silver iodide in this era), and was about to find a reason to prevaricate this matter, but he heard a faint sound of thunder in the sky.

Saigo Takamori felt something cool fall on his face, and he stretched out his finger and wiped it lightly on his face, feeling a hint of wetness on his fingertips.

"It's raining! It's really raining! Someone shouted.

In an instant, 10,000 filaments rippled in mid-air. It's like a misty light veil, covered with a black field. A silky light rain fell from the sky, the raindrops were so small, and the rain curtain was so dense, covering the mountains with a white veil like cicada wings. The rain silk was very thin and soft at the beginning, like the catkins floating in spring, the fog-like rain, the rain-like fog, the wisps lingered. The rain was dripping, horizontal, vertical, oblique, dense, like beads with broken threads, and like a huge piece of silk, fluttering between heaven and earth. The rain is getting heavier and heavier, and a huge bead curtain is hung between heaven and earth, a misty piece. In an instant, the raindrops formed a line, and with a "boom", the heavy rain poured down from the sky as if the sky had fallen. The rainstorm is coming! As the wind blew, the rain curtain came from behind the mountain, and in an instant the sky and the earth turned into a white expanse.

Chiho Kirino held an umbrella and stood in the rain, looking at the white expanse around her, almost unable to believe her eyes.

The lightning thundered, the torrential rain roared, and it leaked down fiercely like a heavenly river, and at this moment, she was really a little worried, worried that the whole earth would be swallowed up by the torrential rain.

She turned her head to look around, and there were people running to hide from the rain. Many children laughed and ran to the foot of a big tree, but the tree did not seem to shelter them at all, and it shook to the east and west, so that the rain turned them into chickens one by one. But they were not frustrated at all, but let the rain hit them, jumping, laughing. Through the pearl rain curtain, Chiho Kirino saw in the distance, the colorful umbrellas of the people on the hillside formed a rainbow flowing slowly in the rain curtain, and the people without umbrellas hurriedly looked for shelter from the rain. The rain became heavier and heavier, and the ground was no longer wet with small dots. It's a shiny piece by piece. And then it merges into a shiny swath...... No more dry ground can be found. The wind is holding the rain stars. As if looking for something on the ground, they slammed into each other from east to west.

At this moment, a loud explosion like a thunderous explosion came from the direction of Kyoto Castle, attracting people's attention.

Chiho Kirino turned to look and saw that the flames that had been rushing into the sky with thick smoke began to dim, and a large cloud of white vapor rose up, making an earth-shattering roar, and many broken walls could not withstand the impact of water vapor generated by the rain and flames. They collapsed one after another, and the resulting ash smoke was quickly dispersed by the water vapor, and fell to the ground along with the rain, forming a large area of mud.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the fire was extinguished. And the rain didn't stop.

A samurai held up an umbrella and ran to Saigo Takamori's side to shield him from the rain, but Saigo Takamori shook his head and reached out to stop him. Instead, let the rain fall on you.

"General, you ......" The samurai was afraid that he would catch a cold. Just as he was about to persuade, Saigo Takamori laughed.

"How can such a good rain wash away the dirt of my body and mind, not make me feel comfortable?" Saigo Takamori turned his head to look at Lin Yiqing and said with a smile, "Hanpeng, your ability to call the wind and rain is really admirable!" ”

"The general has an overreputation, Lin is just doing his best and obeying the destiny of heaven." Lin Yiqing smiled slightly and complimented, "The general's love for the people, moved the heavens, and sent this rain, the so-called heaven and man induction, if there is no general's heart, I am afraid that no matter how strong the manpower is, it may not be able to promote such a rain." ”

"Hehe, Hanpeng, don't blame me for all the credit." Saigo Takamori's eyes turned to the city where the fire had been extinguished, and he sighed, "The fire has been extinguished, and my heart is finally gone." ”

After a while, the rain became lighter, and people stood in the rain talking and laughing, and the children squatted by the small puddles like mirrors, looking at each other and laughing, pointing and teasing. People are wearing brightly colored umbrellas, looking from the hillside, only to see the umbrellas moving in the rain, colorful, like a beautiful watercolor painting. The rain poured down the steep slope like a small river, and in a short time the rain stopped, and the low-lying areas of the city became a vast ocean. People look at the city of Kyoto as the fire has been extinguished, and the joy of the festival dilutes the gloom and misery caused by the fire.

At this moment, Chiho Kirino, looking at the rainbow after the rain, was full of admiration and worship for her husband.

The news of the Great Fire in Kyoto was extinguished by heavy rain soon spread, and people were amazed and praised Saigo Takamori's love for the people and moved the heavens, so heavy rain fell to extinguish the fire. After the fire was extinguished, the Satsuma army did not leave Kyoto and head north according to the original plan, and the main force remained in Kyoto to help the victims, while a partial division led by Shiro Ikegami took Kobe directly, the purpose of which was to get food from Kobe to relieve Kyoto.

But what Ikegami Shiro didn't expect was that when the Satsuma army approached the city of Kobe, the Kobe defenders had disappeared, the original Kobe defenders were already thin, and after hearing about the Kyoto fire, the morale of the army was shaken, and the commander of the government army in Kobe, Major General Minoru Fukuhara, thought that it was impossible to hold on, so he led the army to abandon the city, and this Kobe defender was much more rational than Chiren, and did not make a crazy move to burn the city like him, but left the Satsuma army a complete Kobe City.

At this point, Japan's famous "three capitals" Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe all fell into the hands of the Satsuma army.

After Ikegami Shiro entered Kobe Castle without bloodshed, adhering to Saigo Takamori's order, first Zhang Bang Anmin, indicating the purpose of King Qin's division, and then according to Lin Yiqing's prior order, he summoned the wealthy merchants in the city and asked them to donate food and property to help the Satsuma army rescue the victims of Kyoto, and the "act of benevolence" of the Satsuma army attracted the praise of the merchants of Kobe, and many people donated food and money to Kyoto, and many foreign businessmen were also moved, and at the same time donated some money and materials, they also expressed their willingness to serve the Satsuma army. We will import food from abroad at fair and cheap prices to help the people of Kyoto who have been suffering from fires."

And all this, the culprit of the Kyoto fire, Prince Arisugawanomiya Chihito, who has been on the way to escape, did not know, he only learned about the relevant news after arriving in Tokyo.

He didn't know what kind of fate awaited him.

Late at night, Tokyo, Imperial Palace.

Emperor Meiji went to Aiko Yanagihara, the head of the Gonori, and Empress Ichimiko tossed and turned, unable to sleep. She simply stopped thinking about how to sleep. Instead, he remembered what happened when he first entered the palace.

The queen as the mother of the nation. It should be a figure that attracts the attention of all the people. Not to mention the door, you must also be talented, moral and intellectual. At that time, the royal family thought that it could be selected from the five regents.

As a candidate for the queen, a total of three young girls were nominated at that time. There are two young ladies in the Ichijo family, Akiko and Katsuko. There is a princess of the Arisugawa Palace. But the two sisters of the Ichijo family, when Emperor Xiaomei was alive, had the intention of choosing their son as the queen in the future. The two sisters' father, the left minister, Tadaka Ichijo, had a close relationship with Emperor Meiji's grandfather, Nakayama Tadano. Zhongneng said when Katsuko was young: "How cute this princess is, sooner or later she will give Yugong ......"

Father Ichijo Tadashika. The ability is not outstanding (among the public at the end of the Bakugaku, that is, the rubber stamp of Minoru Sanjo and the Iwakura Gu, who was born in the "half-family", are regarded as characters), but Ichijo Tadaka has his superiority, that is, he knows how to raise a daughter. In addition to marrying his own daughter Miko to Emperor Meiji, he also strongly advocated that his adopted daughter Mikako marry Tokugawa Yoshiki, the shogun, and became the last imperial office of the Tokugawa family.

The daughter of the courtier's family, there is no one who does not want to be a queen. Pity the hearts of parents in the world, and do not rebirth men and women. For girls with excellent qualifications, they are carefully trained from a young age. All the poetry and book knowledge, manners and etiquette, and appearance and dress are all honed in all aspects.

Ichijomiko wasn't originally called by that name. Her name was Katsuko when she was a child, and she was named in June of the 5th year of Ansei. In the whirlpool of "Anzheng Prison", Ichijo Zhongxiang named her daughter "Shou Rong Ji", which is very happy. I don't know if the prayer had an effect, and in the end, Ichijo Tadaka was only slightly punished by "Ten Days of Caution", which was much less than the resignation of Eagle Division and others.

In Japan at that time, the marriage relationship between the upper-class aristocracy and the princes was intricate and intricate like a spider's web. In the turbulent years of the Restoration, their relationship with each other was very delicate. In a sense, when political antagonism and struggle intensify, the relationship between in-laws can act as a buffer. For example, Tokugawa Yoshiki was defeated and retreated from Osaka, and the official army tracked him down. Seeing that Edo was approaching, the first emperor's empress, the wife of the former shogun Ieshige, and the palace came forward to ask for leniency.

When she was a girl, Ichijo Miko suffered from the common disease of the children of the princess's family, malnutrition, and the princess at that time, the food was too fine, and the nutrient intake was seriously insufficient. In order to recuperate for the frail and sickly Miko, the family often let Miko eat fish and eggs, etc., never thought that this move would make Miko's intellectual development far better than that of the children of the Gongqing family of the same generation, her memory is amazing, she is proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and her tea ceremony, flower arrangement, drums and songs are outstanding, and her intelligence and cleverness made the future Meiji Emperor call Miko "Tengu Niang".

And her father's deliberate cultivation is also an important reason for her to be different.

The Ichijo family's mansion is located on the east corner of Karasuma Street, a Karasuma street in Kyoto, with a view of the Imperial Palace to the west. One day, Ichijo Zhongxiang, who was still Minister Zuo at the time, called the housekeeper and ordered: "If you want to build an observatory in the mansion, you can handle it at your discretion." ”

"What are you building for?" The butler asked curiously.

"Let the kids climb up and look outside." Ichijo Tadaka replied.

"Just for fun, right? Now I have to save everything, and I think it's a useless expense. The housekeeper cautiously made a suggestion.

"Not really. The minister's children live in the mansion all day long, and they can't easily see the outside world. Occasionally, when I go out, I am also accompanied by someone in a sedan chair, and I don't know anything about people's daily life. If you continue like this, you will fall behind the situation, and you will be useless when you grow up. I want them to see the state of the world. ”

The housekeeper understood the meaning of Ichijo Tadaxiang, so he built a small observation deck by the wall, and climbed a ladder to go up. Inside were covered with mats, and the windows were lined with fine lattices; As long as the people inside don't make a sound, the outside can't detect it.

At that time, Ichijo Miko often went up to the stage, and when she looked down from the window, she could see all kinds of people and things. Peasants, burghers, apprentices, young monks, mages, warriors, city women, male and female servants...... She couldn't have imagined that there were so many people living in the world, which was amazing. There are rich and poor. Compared with others, she realized that she was honored as a young lady and a princess. There are many retainers and servants to serve, how advantageous the situation is, and what a noble status.

At that time, Ichijo Miko had a beautiful appearance, elegant temperament, gentle manners, and a gentle personality. When I usually walk, the long sleeves of my kimono flutter and swing, just like the fairy in the painting.

Of the three queen candidates, Miko Ichijo is the most contender. The only downside is that he is three years older than Muren. In Japan, it is not very common for husbands to be younger than their wives. But not yet the decisive obstacles. The wives of Emperor Lingyuan, Emperor Tsumachi, and Emperor Hitoko were all older than their husbands. So there is a saying: a big sister is a wife, and there are also wonderful benefits. And so the marriage was a success.

Ichijomiko still remembers the pomp and circumstance when she first became the queen and married into the palace.

For Ichijomiko, Kyoto has given her too many memories, but now, the old city she remembered as a girl has disappeared in the fire. (To be continued......)

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