In 1854, Katsurin Taro was promoted to be the official translator of foreign orchid books, specifically responsible for the translation of Tibetan books (Western books).
In 1855, Katsu Rintaro joined the coastal defense inspection team to investigate the defense system from Ise to Osaka Bay.
In the same year, he entered the Nagasaki Naval Training Institute to learn navigation skills and served as the chief of naval training cadets, whose functions were similar to the captain of the naval cadets.
Because he is proficient in Dutch, he also serves as a teaching supervisor, responsible for the communication between the military cadets and the Dutch instructors.
He studied at the Nagasaki Naval Training Center for 5 years. After graduation, he returned to Edo and served as a teacher at the Warship Drilling Center, Hatotori, equivalent to the director of the teaching department of the Naval Academy.
In January 1860, that is, more than 2 months ago, after the shogunate signed the "Japan-U.S. Friendship and Commerce Treaty" with the United States, it decided to send an envoy to the United States in order to exchange letters of ratification of the treaty. Katsurin Taro was appointed as the shogunate's newly purchased from the Netherlands. ’s brand new battleship: Captain of Hamrimmaru, escorting envoys across the Pacific.
A few days ago, Aonto mentioned the mission of Kōkatsu Rintaro and others during a chat with Inoya and others.
After more than two months of arduous sailing, Katsurin Taro successfully returned to Japan not long ago.
As soon as he returned to China, Katsurin Taro was appointed as the head of the Boshu Diao Institute (the boss of an institution specializing in the study and teaching of Western knowledge) and the artillery professor of the Kōwushi Institute.
The current shogun, Tokugawa Iemo, greatly appreciates Katsu Rintaro's talents.
Aoto had heard from some colleagues: Tokugawa Iemo seemed to intend to return Katsurintaro to the navy, make Katsurintaro fully responsible for the establishment of the shogunate's navy, and let Katsurintaro be the first "Marshal of the Navy" of the shogunate.
Of course, the above are all rumors. No one knows whether Tokugawa Iemoji really intended to let Katsu Rintaro be the "Marshal of the Navy".
But Tokugawa Iemo was right to appreciate Rintaro Katsu very much.
Not only Tokugawa Iemo thought highly of this person, but the current "Queen Mother": Tenzouin Atsuhime also favored the talented Katsurin Taro.
It only took just six years for a low-level official to become a strong contender for the title of "Marshal"... Such a speed of promotion, let alone Edo Japan, where the hierarchy was strict, would be unparalleled in any country. It's shocking.
Whatever your status and family status are, then you can only be an official of any level - this sentence describes the political culture of the Edo period.
Some positions are even directly restricted to people from a certain family. For example, the "royal sword tester" of the shogunate can only be held by the feared "Hitoshi Clan" for generations: members of the Yamada Asaemon family. Come and take charge.
Unless a lower-level imperial family member like Qingteng with 100 shi family salary is appreciated and promoted by a big shot like Katsurin Taro, no matter how dazzling his achievements are, he can only go around and die in the lower-level position of "Tongxin" .
"Original Tachibana Aoto" once met Katsu Rintaro by chance in the Kitaban Station, so Aoto felt that this person looked familiar after seeing him. After hearing Nagakura's muttering just now, Aoto finally recalled this Who is the middle-aged man?
In addition to his legendary political resume, some of Katsu Rintaro's anecdotes are also quite famous.
He would often visit the residences of various high-ranking officials and daimyo, holding a huge globe that he treasured very much, and use the globe to promote the "necessity of founding the country."
It is said that his words are quite routine.
First, he thrust the globe into the person's face and asked, "Do you know where our country of Japan is?"
No matter how others answer, he will point out Japan's position on the globe with a serious face: "That's right! Our country Japan is this small island country hanging in the East. Then you know the United States and the continent of Europa? Where is it again?"
After introducing the position of each major country and the size of their rule one by one, Katsurin Taro will start to get down to the topic, preaching how vast the world is and that integration with the world is the trend of the current era, and then implement the "Lockdown Order" "It's too undesirable, Aba Aba Aba Aba..."
Not to mention, Katsu Rintaro's eloquence is still very good.
He just relied on his stereotyped rhetoric to convince many people, causing senior shogunate officials and feudal lords from the centrist or anti-barbarian factions to turn to the founding faction one after another.
Seeing Rintaro Katsu holding the globe and not knowing where he was going, Aomori guessed: He must be planning to promote his founding ideas to someone else.
Katsu Rintaro was recently appointed as the artillery professor of the Kōbu Institute, so it was not surprising that he would show up at the Kōbutsu Institute.
Including the time when "Original Tachibana Aoto" met Rintaro Katsu by chance at the Kitaban Institute, this was the second time Aoden encountered Rintaro Katsu by chance, and it was also the first time he saw Rintaro Katsu going out holding his famous globe.
"It turns out that he is really that Katsu Rintaro..." Nagakura grinned and smiled, "It is exactly the same as the rumors I heard... He is a person with an ordinary appearance."
"The samurai around him should be his bodyguards, right?" Harada interjected at this time, "The number of bodyguards is really exaggerated, and all of his bodyguards look like ruthless characters."
"After all, it has been less than a month since the shocking change outside the Sakurada Gate." Todo said with emotion, "A minister like Mr. Katsu who advocated the founding of the country should increase his bodyguards. .”
Since the "Sakuda Gate Incident" incident in which Elder Ii was assassinated, various important ministers of the shogunate...especially those who usually advocated the founding of the country have actively or passively increased the number of their own guards.
Regarding the sudden encounter with Rintaro Katsu, Aoshino and his friends always looked at him from afar with the mentality of "Oh, he's that famous person in everyday life."
None of them are fans of Rintaro Katsu.
So after Katsurin Taro left, Aomori and others lost interest in checking him out.
He withdrew his gaze and continued towards the sushi restaurant that Harada highly recommended.
"Harada, how much longer do we have to walk to get to that delicious sushi restaurant you mentioned?" Nagakura raised his hand and touched his shriveled belly.
"It's coming, it's coming. You'll be there just after turning the intersection in front of you. Let me tell you, that sushi restaurant not only has delicious sushi, but they also have a very cute dog there, which you can eat while eating sushi. Touch the dog." Harada smiled naively.
…
Led by Nagakura and Harada, two live treasures with unrestrained personalities, the group headed towards the sushi restaurant in a lively manner again.
And just when Ayoto and others were setting off on the road again, the Katsurin Taro whom Ayoto and the others had just been sizing up suddenly turned his head and looked straight at Ayoto and his group who were drifting away from them...
But because Rintaro Katsu was already far away from Ayoto and the others, he could only see blurry figures from behind.
"Mr. Sheng." After seeing his appearance, he asked doubtfully, "What's wrong? What are you looking at?"
"Huh? It's nothing." Katsurin Taro turned his head and laughed a few times, "I just suddenly noticed that the group of warriors over there were taller than the other, so I couldn't help but take a few more glances."
After saying that, Katsurin Taro gathered his eyes and mind.
"You have to speed up your pace a little bit." Katsurin Taro tightened the globe in his arms and said to the guards beside him, "Don't let Marquis Fukui wait too long."
"Mr. Katsu." The guard who just asked Katsu Rintaro "What are you looking at" spoke again, "The residence of Marquis Fukui is a bit far away from here. Do you want to call me a sedan?"
"Hahahaha, no need to do it." Kosamo Taro laughed a few more times, "Recently, some have been abstrained to exercise, and the body has become a lot of weakening."
"This is not possible. Without a healthy body, no ambition can be achieved."
"I plan to try to walk on two legs wherever I go from now on."
"and--"
Katsurin Taro now changed into a half-joking tone.
"Not riding in a sedan chair... also makes it easier for me to run away when I meet an assassin on the street."
When Katsurin Taro said this, he happened to pass by a rather small tea house with his guards.
There was only one table of guests in this tea house, a one-armed samurai and a young samurai with an indifferent expression sitting opposite each other.
The two warriors ordered a lot of tea and refreshments, but the strange thing was that neither of them chatted.
The young samurai lowered his eyes slightly, trying to rest his mind. He almost didn't eat the refreshments on the table. He only lifted the teacup to his lips from time to time and took a few sips.
The one-armed samurai sitting directly opposite him was facing the open door of the tea house.
He swept the refreshments on the table, his lips glossy from eating them.
At first glance, this one-armed samurai seems to be just enjoying a normal meal, but after careful observation, we can find that he has been raising his eyes from time to time to scan the street outside the teahouse.
When Katsurin Taro was joking with the subordinates around him and passing by the tea house, the one-armed samurai immediately shrank his pupils, then hurriedly put down the tea cup in his hand, lowered his voice, and looked at the young man opposite him. The warrior whispered:
"Mr. Kamino, the middle-aged man holding the globe outside is Rintaro Katsu."
Kamino raised his eyebrows, and while putting down the tea cup in his hand, he tilted his head back slightly and looked behind him with the corner of his eye... that is, outside the tea house.
He succeeded in catching Katsu Rintaro's face with his peripheral vision before his figure disappeared from his field of vision.
"I see... Is that person Katsu Rintaro... Very good, I remember his face."
"Um...Mr. Kamino, I'm actually quite confused." The one-armed samurai sighed helplessly, "Why do you have to come and see what this Katsu Rintaro looks like?"
"No reason." Kamino said lightly, "It's just pure curiosity."
"I happen to have some free time in the past few days, so come and see what this subordinate Hatamoto looks like who has leapt to the top in just 6 years."
"Hmph, the more I think about it, the more infuriated I get..."
Kamino suddenly tightened his grip on the teacup, and the teacup made a strange "squeaking" sound under his grip.
"This kind of national traitor who brings disaster to the country and the people and bows to the barbarians and Di is rising in popularity."
"But we, the true patriots, have been unable to expand our ambitions..."
"There are too many traitors in the shogunate."
"Mr. Kamino, should we try to kill the national traitor Katsurin Taro..."
The one-armed warrior raised his hand and slashed his neck.
"There's no rush." Kamino said calmly, "There's no need to hurry up and send Katsu Rintaro to Tenchu."
"Sooner or later we will kill national traitors like Katsurin Taro, but not now."
"Things have to be done one by one."
Kamino drank the remaining tea in the teacup in one gulp, and then placed the teacup heavily on the table.
"Pay the bill and go back."
"It's almost...it's time to go back to the base and see how everyone is prepared for tonight's operation."
A cold glow flashed in Shen Ye's eyes at this moment.
…
…
In the Edo period, sushi was not a very people-friendly food.
The average price of ordinary nigiri sushi is 8 cents each, while a bowl of hot soba noodles usually only costs 16 cents.
But who said Qingdeng has enough money now?
After receiving his salary for this quarter, Qingdeng's current savings have successfully exceeded 300 taels.
If it was just a meal of sushi, Qingto could still afford it.
After arriving at the sushi restaurant that Harada highly recommended, Aomori asked them to order casually and relax.
Although it seemed a bit unseemly to drink alcohol at noon, Qingto still ordered two warm sakes to cheer him up.
Dining together is one of the easiest ways to bond with each other.
After the five flavors of food and three rounds of wine, Qingdeng got to know more about his three new subordinates by observing their words and deeds.
Nagakura Shinpachi has a bold personality.
Sanosuke Harada has a simple and honest personality.
Toudo Heisuke has an upright character.
Nagakura's words and deeds all carry a straightforward and heroic spirit.
Harada always has a silly smile on his face, although it's a bit rude to say so... But the look of his always silly smile gives people the feeling that "this guy doesn't look very smart"...
Fujido's conversation is extraordinary, and it can be seen that he has received a very good education.
I don't know if it was influenced by his own education, but Todo's behavior was very polite, so polite that it seemed a bit too formal.
Whether it was Aoto or Saito, Nagakura or Harada, Toudou would always use honorifics no matter who he spoke to.
While eating sushi, the informal Nagakura once mentioned to Toudo that there was no need to use honorifics to him, but his proposal was rejected by Toudo.
"Among all the people here, I am the youngest. Mr. Saito, who is the same age as me, has been following Mr. Tachibana for a long time, so you are all my seniors. How can I talk to my seniors in the tone of an ordinary person?" ——Toudo responded to Nagakura.
Seeing that Toudou insisted on using honorifics, Nagakura did not force him to change his habit and allowed Toudou to continue using honorifics when talking to them.
Both Nagakura and Harada had a good capacity for drinking. They drank several glasses of sake without even blushing.
Todo doesn't have such a good drinking capacity.
He only drank a small glass of wine and his face was as red as a monkey's butt.
Perhaps due to the influence of alcohol, Todo, who had always been a bit reserved, relaxed a little.
His words and deeds began to become a little unruly.
"Mr. Tachibana, I am so happy to be able to work under you."
Todo, who was sitting on the right side of Qingteng, said to Qingteng excitedly after belching.
"After hearing that you defeated a group of lunatics who didn't understand what real 'rejection' was, I've always wanted to see you."
"I really admire you! You were able to win a battle with such a disparity in numbers!"
"I have a lot to learn from you! I hope you will give me your advice in the future!"
The look Toudo cast on Qingden was full of admiration and admiration.
His look reminded Qingto of Okita - Okita often looked at him with this look.
Whenever Okita looked at him with such a look, for some reason, Aoto couldn't help but make up an image in Okita's mind of a dog's tail growing out of his back and wagging from side to side.
Maybe it's because the way Okita looked at Aoto with admiration looked too much like a little dog that raised its two front paws at its owner, stuck out its tongue, and begged its owner to play with him - and it was The kind of Shiba Inu that looks a bit silly.
Aizou remembered that Kiryu had mentioned to him: Todo admired him very much. After learning that the man who recruited Okabiki was Tachibana Aoto, he immediately expressed his willingness to join Aoto.
Recalling what Kiryu had said to him, and facing Toudou's gaze towards him, Aoto took a sip of his drink and smiled at Toudou:
"Toudo-kun, you don't need to treat me as some great hero. Just treat me with a normal heart and treat me like an ordinary person."
"That's not okay." Todo shook his head like a rattle, "That would be too rude to you."
Seeing that Todo's attitude was quite firm, Qingto could only smile helplessly.
Both Nagakura and Harada have big appetites, and they can eat more than twenty of such a large piece of sushi.
Everyone has almost eaten the sushi, and everyone has now entered the stage of drinking and chatting.
After drinking some more wine, the conversation unknowingly turned to talking about the reasons why they wanted to join Qingdeng.
"I don't have any special reason. I just want to give it a try because I think it's a lot of money."
Harada let out a big belch, then raised his hand and patted his belly.
"I was born in the Iyo Matsuyama Domain in Shikoku Island. A few years ago, I had to leave the domain and become a ronin because I had to commit seppuku. I lived here in Edo and made a living by relying on my hohoin-style spear skills."
"Because when I work under Mr. Tachibana, I can receive 2 taels of gold per month, which is higher than any other job I have ever received. In addition, I heard that Okabiki does not need to do any mental work. , so I decided to be Mr. Tachibana’s Okahiki.”
"Have you committed seppuku?" Todo's eyes widened.
Harada chuckled, then raised his hands and pulled open the plackets on both sides of his kimono, revealing the very conspicuous one-line scar on his abdomen.
"Did you see it? This is the scar left by my seppuku!"
Nagakura, who was sitting next to Harada, glanced at the wound on Harada's stomach in surprise and asked, "Can I touch it?"
"Of course! Touch whatever you want!"
Nagakura stretched out his fingers and pinched the wound on Harada's stomach.
"You didn't die even after committing seppuku... You are really lucky..." Qingto smacked his tongue. After meeting Harada for the first time in Chishiya and seeing the wound on Harada's stomach, Qingto felt that this wound was like the incision of seppuku. , to his surprise, he guessed it correctly, "Why did you commit seppuku? Did you commit something in the feudal country?"
"I didn't commit any crime." Harada stretched out his fingers to pick his nostrils. "I was just arguing with a certain samurai over a trivial matter, and was ridiculed by the samurai as a 'little official who doesn't even know the etiquette of seppuku.' I was angry for a moment. However, I pulled out the wakizashi from my waist and committed seppuku on the spot to show him.”
"I just stuck the knife into my stomach. Who can't? Even an eight-year-old child knows how to commit seppuku."
Qingdeng: "..."
Saito: "..."
Nagakura: "..."
Fujido: "..."
Everyone stared at the wound on Harada's stomach in silence.
The reason for committing seppuku is so speechless! Even when I looked at the wound on Harada’s stomach, I couldn’t help but find it funny!
"My reasons are similar to Harada's." After dismissing the topic of Harada's seppuku, Nagakura took over the topic of why he wanted to join Aoshito's command, "I am currently traveling around the world, training as a warrior."
"And if you want to practice as a warrior, travel expenses are indispensable."
"So I want to work as high-paying as possible, and try to save enough money as soon as possible to support my warrior training for at least several months."
"I just want to broaden my knowledge." Todo continued, "Teacher Ito told me: It won't work if I keep practicing swordsmanship in the sword hall. While practicing swordsmanship hard, I also have to try my best to broaden my knowledge. Don't do I’m a very closed-minded person, so I wanted to try to do something I’d never done before.”
"I'm a little interested in Okabiki's work, and I admire Mr. Tachibana, so I decided to try to be a concentric Okabiki."
"Hiccup...!" After pouring another large sip of wine into his mouth and letting out a huge burp, Harada grinned and asked Ayoto, "Mr. Tachibana, when can we accomplish some big tasks?" ?”
"I can't wait now. I want to do some interesting big tasks as soon as possible, such as preventing radical 'rejection' thugs from attacking somewhere."
"There are so many big tasks to do." Qingdeng shrugged, "You will officially start working tomorrow."
"I'll teach you how to patrol first."
"It is your most important task to help me patrol the streets."
"Big missions and so on, these are rare and hard to come by. It's not that easy for us to encounter..."
"Tangerine, orange, orange, orange, orange, Tachibana-sama!"
Suddenly, a loud shout sounded outside the sushi restaurant.
Qingden was startled by the huge shout, and then turned around - standing at the door of the sushi restaurant was a young man covered in sweat and breathing in a mess.
"Lord Tachibana Aoden...hahahaha...finally...haah...I found you...!"
The young man took out a seal cage from the monastery and hurried towards Qingdeng.
"Sir Fengxing issued an emergency summons order, requiring all 'three return' officials who are on leave to immediately terminate their leave and return to the Beifan Station."
"Please report to the Beifan Office immediately!"
**********
**********
The new big plot has officially begun.
Asking for a monthly ticket! Please vote for recommendation! (Leopard head crying.jpg)
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Many important characters have appeared in this book so far. In order to make it easier for everyone to know these characters, I will post the ages of the current main characters in this book:
Qingdeng: 18 years old
Saito: 16 years old
Todo: 16 years old
Harada: 20 years old
Nagakura: 21 years old
Kondo: 26 years old
Hijikata: 25 years old
Okita: 16 years old
Kinoshita Mai: 15 years old
Kiryu: 92 years old
Elodie: 12 years old
Chiba Sanako: 22 years old
Elodie de Angouleme: 12 years old
Tokugawa Iemo: 14 years old
Tianzhangyuan Atsuki: 24 years old
*******
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As you can see, everyone at this time is quite young and immature, with few people over 20 years old.
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