Chapter 63 Seven, Iwasaki Dezhi

Yataro Iwasaki and Ryoma Sakamoto reunited. Yataro is very strong.Because of his strong personality, this man had an unusual life.He embarked on a unique life path, which deviated from the vassal state and was not Qin Wang.Since he left Longma in the second year of Wenjiu and fled back to his hometown, he resigned from his post as a small vassal official, threw away his knife, and took up an abacus to start a timber merchant.This should be considered a bold change for the samurai.This year, he was thirty years old. Times are about to change.After a few days in Kyoto and Osaka in the second year of Wenjiu, this extremely energetic person has already made up his mind.He believes that outdated decorations such as shoguns and daimyos are about to die.If ordinary people judge that the times will change, most of them will devote themselves to King King Movement, but Yataro has insight into the more distant future.

The age of the merchant is coming, he predicted. In Tosa, it is difficult to do big business.Here, important industries such as timber, paper, dried fish, whaling, and camphor were monopolized by the feudal government without exception, and the scope of the government's permission for private businessmen was pitifully small. Yataro first raised funds and bribed officials in charge of local properties in the feudal government, hoping to break the monopoly and obtain huge profits.The idea was good, but things didn't go well.He failed, ran out of money, and even became a farm laborer.

However, times have not kept him down.He wore the double swords again and appeared on the stage as a small official in charge of the property of the vassal state. As mentioned earlier, a huge building, the Kaiseikan, was built on the banks of the Kagamigawa River in Kochi Castle.It can be said that this is the monopoly bureau of the feudal kingdom. At the same time, it also operates schools and Western-style hospitals that teach Western medicine. It has a translation bureau and invites foreign teachers to teach the children of the feudal clan to learn English and French. The place where Yataro Iwasaki worked was the newly established yamen of Kaiseikan.The department is the Bureau of Natural Resources. Since he was born as an underground wanderer, he is just a trivial official.

In the yamen, meetings were held for several days in a row. "How to operate the Kaicheng Museum" is a daily topic.After all, this yamen is the central institution that can make the vassal state grow into a vassal of Western-style industries.Although it is an extremely important department, because no one is familiar with this kind of thing, no one knows what to do.So we had to hold a meeting to discuss. Things like meetings are just a way for some incompetent people to kill time.Since ancient times, there has never been a career that has been achieved through discussion.This is Yataro's idea.To find a way and do business, as long as one person's mind is enough, even if a hundred fools gather together, they are just wasting time and wasting tea.So who was he referring to by "one's mind"?Yataro was referring to himself.He's just so vain and ambitious.But sadly, he is just a petty official.

He can attend the meeting, but a humble official like him has no right to speak, that is, he acts as the secretary of the meeting and records the contents of the meeting. He said all stupid things, and Yataro felt very boring listening to the speeches of the sergeants sitting in the upper seat, and he even felt a kind of humiliation.Still shouldn't be an official, he thought to himself.Even the most incompetent guy, just because he was a sergeant, became the leader, and shouted at the top of his voice, thinking that he had done his duty by doing so. This kind of world should be destroyed as soon as possible, Yataro thought helplessly.However, Ryoma and others should be the ones to mourn for this troubled world.He felt that he should spread his wings and fly high in the new world, and he managed to suppress the humiliation in his heart by virtue of this thought.

One day, at a meeting, a fat man named Kiyosaburo Kawasaki who was sitting at the top seat inadvertently glanced at Yataro who was sitting at the bottom seat. "How? You must have some ideas, you might as well take this opportunity to talk about it." Fatty said slowly, shaking his fan.The arrogance of this incompetent person made Yataro extremely angry.He calmed down a little, bowed his head and saluted: "Forgive me for taking the liberty, I was able to listen to the opinions of the adults. I can't help but be impressed by your foresight. A lowly person like a villain really has no right to talk."

Afterwards, he handed in his resignation, claiming that he was "incapable of the heavy responsibility", and returned to his boarding house in the city. "I can't discuss important matters with those guys who have been rich for generations." Ryoma once said so. "Salary is like bait for birds. What great things can those birds that have been kept in cages for generations?" Ryoma believes that nobles like Sergeant Sergeant are usually arrogant and arrogant, but in fact they are stupid, incompetent, cowardly and cowardly, just like useless people.He said: "Wild birds are the ones who can achieve great things." Yataro Iwasaki worked as a small official in the Local Products Bureau, just like wild birds had to deal with birds in cages.

Yataro made up his mind to go back to the country.While he was packing his luggage, someone came to visit.It was his boss Yamazaki Shengliu who came. Yamazaki is in charge of assignments and internal affairs of the administration.Although this person is a sergeant, he is more or less courageous and a sensible person.Most importantly, he recognizes the ability of Yataro who came from a humble background. "Yataro, you should reconsider." He took the trouble to keep Yataro, but Yataro was very firm. "A place like the Fan Hall is not a place for humble people like us to use."

Yataro shook hands and returned to Jingkou Village. Later, reforms were carried out in the feudal clan, and the young, promising and vigorous Goto Shoujiro became the elder of the family, and the selection criteria for personnel in the feudal clan gradually changed from being a family member to meritocracy.Later, Goto began to develop the vassal industry, and the demand for talents became greater and greater. "I need Iwasaki Yataro." Goto discussed with Yamazaki Shoroku and Takahashi Katsuemon, who understood Yataro, but the two of them were in a dilemma. "I'm afraid Yataro won't come out of the mountain."

This underground wanderer has too much self-esteem, and I am afraid that the humble position will not be able to invite him.Therefore, this matter will be dropped.However, the matter of attracting Ryoma's trading company happened later, and at the same time another matter was also put on the agenda, that is, the establishment of a trading company established in Nagasaki.The company was named "Tosa Trading Company".The head of the firm is served by a Nagasaki resident vassal dispatched from the feudal domain.The left-behind residential service actually competes with the ministers of the vassal states. They are set up in Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka. They have always been selected from among the sergeants and are important positions.The functions of the three offices are different. The Edo side is mainly responsible for coordinating the relationship between the vassal state and the shogunate, and responsible for related negotiations and negotiations; the Kyoto side is responsible for coordinating the relationship with the imperial court; the Osaka side is responsible for trade-related matters. affairs.As for Nagasaki, it is natural to send a capable official who is proficient in trade.

"Let's send Yataro." Goto broke the 300-year-old tradition and decided to appoint a virtuous person without precedent. Yataro readily accepted the appointment. In a word, Iwasaki Yataro's appointment as a Nagasaki left-behind servitor can be regarded as the largest extraordinary appointment in Tosa's history. "It's better to go to see Lord Yan earlier." All the retired sergeants in Kochi City said so.It's unreasonable that both rural scholars and underground rogues are now holding important positions in the feudal kingdom! However, Yataro is not happy about his fortune, because he has great ambitions.Although his grand ambitions are still in a state of confusion, and even he himself doesn't know what it will develop into, he knows that there is a huge fire hidden in his heart.Times are changing, be patient.From time to time he persuaded himself.No matter how you look at it, being a Nagasaki left-behind civil servant is not a great success, but if you regard it as a step to the future, maybe it can still play a role. On the boat bound for Nagasaki, Yataro kept a straight face.He went to the post this time, and he accompanied the feudal lord's servant Fukuoka Fujiji and his party.The purpose of Fukuoka's trip to Nagasaki is to establish the rules of the Sea Aid Team with Ryoma. Yataro and Fukuoka don't talk much.Fukuoka was quite concerned, and said, "Iwasaki, it's okay for you to talk to me." Fukuoka thought that although Yataro had become a sergeant, he was from a humble background after all, and he took the initiative to talk to him, thinking that he was out of kindness. Yataro sneered, but still ignored it.The other party's superficiality naturally made him contemptuous, and he felt that he had been insulted. Because of his strong self-esteem, his expression was dark all day long. "Iwasaki, you must be very happy to be appointed as a left-behind residential servant this time." I don't know how many days it was, Fukuoka asked this question. At this time, Iwasaki still had a grim expression, his face almost turned purple. "Iwasaki, I live on Earth." "how do I say this?" "It's not a pleasure to be a small left-behind residential servant." The word "above the earth" is a buzzword nowadays.On February 16th of this year, Saigo Takamori of the Satsuma clan came to Kochi by boat, and had an audience with the old clan's Rongtang, completely refuting Rongtang's belief in the concept of the state that was dominated by Zuomao. In the end, Rong Tang nodded approvingly and said: "I think I, Tosa, received Tokugawa's kindness more than your vassal, but now we have reached the point where we have to jump out of the shackles of a vassal family to judge the current situation. Recently, I finally understand that I live in This is on the earth." Rong Tang considered Xixiang's claim. After Yataro Iwasaki arrived in Nagasaki, he stayed at Saitsuya, an inn where the Tosa feudal lords often stayed, and immediately began his activities as a commercial officer in Nagasaki.He checked the account books, talked earnestly with the businessmen he frequented, and even visited foreign firms with business contacts and met with foreigners.Naturally, many contacts and exchanges with his predecessor Goto Shoujiro were indispensable. After several times, he gradually understood an amazing fact-Goto was so profligate to an outrageous extent! The vassal state's finances were already extremely scarce, but Goto ignored it completely and spent a lot of money in Nagasaki.As for the money, it naturally went to fine wine and women.What an unreasonable guy.Yataro was so annoyed that he already regarded Goto as a monster. In Nagasaki’s Fireworks Lane Maruyama, as long as you talk about "Tosa's family boss", how can those big money-spending tycoons be compared!He was like an immortal who wielded a golden gavel and could conjure ten thousand taels of gold at any time.And this person turned out to be a young man of twenty-eight or nineteen years old, I really don't know whether he is bold or bold, or he was born without courage. Goto bought the guns and guns of the generals in Nagasaki and Shanghai indiscriminately, but the most he had paid was the 30,000 taels worth of camphor, and the rest was spent on Maruyama's luxurious entertainment. Even foreigners' money was not paid. "We need to buy a warship." Every time he used this as a reason to ask the vassal state for funding, and then used the allocated money to spend it in Maruyama.Pour out all the gold and silver from a large wooden bucket, how can this kind of playfulness not be eye-popping! Yataro hastily sorted out the account books and calculated various expenses. When he looked carefully, he couldn't help but get dark: the purchase of warships, guns, books, medical equipment, etc. totaled 419,435 taels. When it comes to various miscellaneous expenses, allowances, banquets, and overseas trips, the annual fee is as high as 11,816 taels!In addition, there is a net debt of 180,000 taels borrowed from domestic and foreign businessmen, and as many as 5,000 taels have disappeared! "What are you going to do?" Yataro asked Goto.Goto said "I don't know", then grinned and said, "Now you understand why I promoted you?" It turned out that Yataro was promoted to let him clean up the mess so as to conceal it from the domain. The banquet fee was one thousand taels more than the personnel expenses. Yataro felt that this was unreasonable, so he went to Goto, showed him the account book, and complained.As a result, Goto said instead: "What? Did you spend such a small amount of money?" Goto has his reasons. "The most important thing now is to let people feel that Tosa is worthy of being a great feudal clan, and he can be so extravagant. It is very important for us to form this kind of public opinion. If everyone says that Tosa is stingy, we will not be able to achieve great things." "But, if this continues, it will go bankrupt!" "Isn't it your job to prevent bankruptcy?" Yataro was speechless for a moment. Now that Goto's extravagant fun has become a necessary expense, Yataro can only tighten his belt in other expenses, even if it is a penny, he has to think twice.This approach made Yataro's reputation gradually bad.There is a scholar, Zhong Jiang Zhaomin, who has been known for his strange behavior throughout his life, and has been like this since he was young.He was born in Shinmachi, Kochi City, and people called him "Atsusuke" when he was young.When the assassination of Yoshida Toyo happened that year, the discussion about respecting the king and fighting the barbarians was the most heated, but he thought it was a "shallow noise", and instead of participating with his friends, he focused on studying behind closed doors.At the age of nineteen, he made up his mind to learn French, which was not yet noticeable at the time, so he came to Nagasaki. At the beginning, he boarded in the dormitory of the Haiyuan team.Whenever he thought of Ryoma in the future, he would always say: "At that time, he was very poor, but he was very detached. Among the people I met in my life, there is no one who impressed me more than him." Zhaomin had a sudden whim one day, and wanted to go to Edo to study from scratch, but suffered from lack of travel expenses.The trip to Edo required twenty-five taels.He mentioned this incident to Ryoma by chance, and Ryoma told him, "Yataro is in charge of the treasury now." So Zhaomin went to borrow money from Yataro. Yataro shouted, and said coldly: "How can I lend twenty-five taels to you, a scholar who is less than twenty!" Zhaomin was also furious: "You mean I'm not even worth twenty-five taels? I never want to see you again!" He dropped these words, turned and left.Later, he went to Goto Shojiro and wrote a poem explaining the meaning of borrowing money. Goto grinned and threw him twenty-five taels. A picky person like Zhaomin has a good evaluation of Goto, but he has a grudge against Yataro. It seems that Yataro will not be able to get rid of this sea of ​​suffering. What makes Yataro feel absurd is not just the matter of extravagance and waste for Goto Shojiro.In addition, the officials under him are always disobedient. "Guys from underground ronin!" The subordinates held such an attitude.Although they are subordinates, their status is sergeant.Although Yataro is a Nagasaki left-behind civilian serviceman, in the final analysis he is just a "fake sergeant" who has been promoted exceptionally, so he does not have enough weight and prestige as a boss. "How am I supposed to do this!" Yataro was an irritable person.The other Tosa Goshi also had the same anger as Yataro, and it was because of this anger that they were able to devote themselves to the Qinwang Movement.The Qinwang Movement wants to subvert class society, and from this point of view, it is a revolutionary movement. But what makes Iwasaki Yataro different is that no matter how angry he is, he will not participate in the revolution. He is a person who is completely immersed in practice. He announced to Goto: "Master Meng did not give up and promoted the villain, but if this continues, I will not be able to handle affairs. Since I am unable to act, no matter what I do, it will be futile. Since it is futile in the end, it is better to do nothing." Do." From then on, Yataro no longer went in and out of the temporary government office of Caitsuya. Every time he snatched a sum of money from the treasury, he would go to Maruyama to squander it-he began to follow the example of Goto. As a result, his subordinates and the members of Longma's sea rescue team were naturally extremely dissatisfied with him, and voices of blame came surging.However, Yataro didn't seem to care. "Kill Yataro!" Some of the subordinates even said so. Yataro's real intention was to elevate his status to match his position, but after all, he couldn't say those words from his own mouth. Goto smiled wryly while paying attention to Yataro's movements, but he didn't mean to blame him for his profligacy and waste at all.Judging by his appearance, he even seems to be happy that he has found a like-minded brother. He even suggested: "Yataro, the women in Nagasaki are affectionate and righteous. You might as well have a concubine." At first, Yataro thought it was a joke, but Goto was serious.The day after he finished speaking, he called Yataro. "What do you think of Lao Song?" Goto asked. Yataro couldn't help being taken aback.Old Matsubara was a geisha hired by Maruyama Xinzhulou, and Goto redeemed her body and became her master. "She's an old friend of your lord's." "Women don't distinguish between old and new! As long as they enter the bathtub, they will always be new." "The villain dare not." "You don't have to be afraid. I often go to Geisha Asa's place recently. So if you are willing to accept Lao Song, you will do me a big favor." Ya Taro accepted Lao Song.This woman named Laosong later changed her name to Aoyagi and stayed by Yataro's side all her life. Soon, Yataro obtained the equestrian samurai qualification under Goto's mediation, and now he has become comparable to Goto's family.He also gradually became more comfortable in managing his subordinates.Since then, Yataro has really come alive. Surprisingly, Yataro Iwasaki's actions are the exact opposite of his rebellious character, and he is very witty.His first priority is to solve the problem of foreign society coming to press for debts. The biggest creditor is Oort, the owner of the British firm.Yataro visited Oort when he first took office, and the other party said unhappily: "I don't trust Tosa. Goto always talks nonsense. The few times I have dealt with Tosa, it can be said that I have suffered a lot, so I don't believe in Tosa. Know how much to trust you." "Well, as long as you get along with me, you will understand." Yataro said.Later, every time he invited Oort to the fireworks alley in Maruyama, he would treat him with hospitality.However, even at the banquet, Oort would still urge Yataro to repay the loan quickly. "I hope you can trust me." Yataro said, "Tosa will definitely repay the loan. You and I are business partners who can cooperate for a long time. If you always fight with each other like this and rush to collect debts, the matter will not be resolved. Even if we have to delay It will take some time to repay the loan, but Tosa is one of the largest vassal states in Japan after all. Please trust us!" "Goto also always says this kind of thing. Even if you say this a million times, I won't feel relieved at all. And, forgive me, I heard that this step is not a sergeant, so for this step I'm not worried about the taste either." One day, Yataro invited Oort to go on a horseback ride, saying that he would go all the way to Nomozaki, which is located at the tip of the Nagasaki Peninsula and surrounds Nagasaki Port from the east. "Okay. But, is there any accident?" Oort was worried because foreigners were strictly prohibited from entering and leaving that area.Moreover, there had been an incident of raw wheat before, maybe they would be hacked to pieces by the ronin of the Yiyi faction. "No problem, I'm here." Yataro Iwasaki wanted to prove his talent to Oort through this trip.As long as Oort understands that his newly appointed Nagasaki left-behind resident is by no means a mediocre person, future negotiations will be much easier. The two rode horses in parallel and set off. There are large and small islands floating on the sea near the shore of Nomozaki, which are connected with the Goto Islands in the distance. The sea view is very charming. There are guard posts of the shogunate here. "Mr. Oort, please ride past the guard post on horseback. The clerk will definitely yell, but please watch carefully, I will calm this matter down." Oort was also a prankster, so he whipped the horse's ass and galloped past the sentry post.The clerks were naturally arguing non-stop. Yataro rode on a horse, walked up to the clerk slowly, and said, "That man is a rogue foreigner with bad character, and even I can't do anything about him. If you enforce the law impartially, it's not a bad idea to arrest him, but in this case As soon as it comes, there will be a big dispute between the shogunate and the United Kingdom." After Yataro threatened, all the shogunate officials turned pale and said: "We will pretend that we haven't seen anything. Please don't mention it to others. That's fine." After this incident, Oort thought that Yataro was a very talented person. For some reason, Ryoma doesn't like Yataro Iwasaki very much.Sometimes he wondered, but he didn't understand why. Ryoma is known as "measurable as the sea" among the aspirants in various domains, and he never shows his likes and dislikes towards others.It is precisely because of this that people with lofty ideals are willing to gather around him, and everyone around him can breathe easily and give full play to their talents without restraint. In the sea rescue team, there is an Echizen vagrant named Kozo, whose surname is Kotani.Speaking of the Echizen Matsudaira family, they are second only to the Gosan family in terms of family status, so Kozo naturally became an extreme samurai. "Kill Gengzang!" Once, everyone made such a fuss. Longma stopped them: "No one is allowed to touch Gengzang! As long as forty or fifty people gather together, there will always be one or two people who disagree. This is normal. You should feel sorry for your failure to influence I am ashamed of the person who disagrees with me!" It can be said to be as broad-minded as the ocean. Not only that, the team rules formulated by Ryoma originally allowed the players to think freely. "The way of founding a country, warriors fight, practitioners practice, and businessmen must take care of themselves with the way of doing business." The affairs of the sea aid team are multi-faceted-discussion and association, private navy, sailing school, shipping business, internal and external trade. "Let the ambition of each team member grow." This is Ryoma's idea.He believes that it is not necessary to force people who like business and hate war to participate in war. Ryoma integrates these five affairs into one and commands them. However, only when facing Yataro, Ryoma always kept a straight face for no reason.He unceremoniously called the high-ranking official's name directly, and his tone seemed to order a servant. Yataro naturally doesn't like him either.Every time he met Ryoma face to face, Yataro was speechless, but behind his back he always wrinkled his face and said, "I have learned differently from Ryoma, and I do different things. What I do is serious. Trade, but... the dragon horse is doing business with pirates." As soon as the two met, Ryoma couldn't wait to tease Yataro. The strange thing was that Yataro kept his head shrunk, listless, and didn't dare to breathe.