Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 209: Having ideas is not a bad thing

A few days later, shortly after lunch.

Okabe Iroko's wife Ado got off the bus in front of the Wanjin Theater.

Today is a day off in Xinwanjin - it was only after they came to Xinwanjin that they knew there was such a thing as a day off in the world, or it should be said that it was only after they came to Wanjin that they knew that common people could also rest, and Xinwanjin is always very lively on days off. At this moment, there were people crowding in the square in front of Wanjin Theater.

There were small vendors doing business, jugglers performing on the roadside, and tourists from other places coming to watch the fun. In short, the place was very mixed and noisy, but it had a lively atmosphere that was not found in other places and was not annoying at all.

Ahu looked around and felt that she liked the place a little, but she quickly called her sister Atsu - who was also Okabe Igen's wife, and the two sisters married the same husband - and her daughter Aju, and asked them to follow closely, and then she followed the dog princess's maid in a dignified manner through the side door into the theater.

Well, there’s a new play premiering at the Wanjin Theater today, and the Dog Princess invited them to watch the show.

This was their second time to come to the theater, but they still felt that Wanjin was really generous to build such a large house specifically for watching plays. It was like a small rock fortress and its shape was quite peculiar.

The theater is open-air and looks like an oval or capsule from a bird's-eye view. It is divided into two semicircles, east and west, by the passage and backstage in the middle. The stepped auditorium is on the east and west arcs.

This building was originally designed by Yuanye, but with his modern habitual thinking, he originally planned to build a large square house with a roof, which was almost like the movie theaters in the 1980s and 1990s. Later, the "troupe leader" Yuzhu Yanshiro couldn't stand it anymore, and bravely asked Aman to find Yuanye to make suggestions - with a roof, natural light cannot be used during performances.

If they kept lighting torches, not to mention whether the effect was good or not, their troupe would have to spend a lot of money on lighting costs over time.

Yuanye then realized that this was the Middle Ages. He vaguely remembered that when Shakespeare was a playwright, the troupe he served seemed to be performing outdoors, and the audience stood to watch the play.

He was not the type of person who would refuse to correct his mistakes, and he knew that he was not cut out to be an architect, so he simply withdrew his design and let Yuzumi Hikoshiro handle it on his own. The construction team of Shinwanjin only needed to build the house, and Yuzumi Hikoshiro and other actors would decide what kind of theater was needed. He only needed to make minor suggestions on things like the sound amplification.

In the end, after all the trouble caused by Uozumi Hikoshiro, the Shinwanjin Theater became like this. However, he was also well-behaved and still announced to the outside world that the designer of the theater was Yuanye.

Today's new play premiered in the East District. Ahu brought his sister and daughter all the way to the box in the East District and met the Dog Princess.

Before she could bow and greet, the Dog Princess took the initiative to hold her hand and asked her to sit down, and motioned for Acao and Aju to sit down as well. Ahu had come into contact with the Dog Princess several times during this period and knew that she had a softer personality, so he didn't try to be too polite and just sat down as she wished.

The dog princess was now twelve or thirteen years old, and looked a bit like a girl, but still very small. After pulling Ahu to sit down, she smiled and asked, "Mrs. Ahu, is everything okay at home?"

A-do said gratefully, "Thanks to Your Highness, everything is fine... Ah, I haven't thanked Your Highness yet. Zuo Jiro and A-do are both enrolled. It really troubled Your Highness."

Mainly, she was grateful for allowing her daughter Aju to enroll in school. Okabe Yiyan felt that it didn't matter whether her daughter went to school or not, and it would be better for her to learn to do housework at home. But the Inu Princess didn't care and just stuffed her two children in. Currently, the two children are in the first grade of Wanjin Third Primary School. Their grades are quite good. They will be able to skip a grade after adapting to school life in one or two months. The two children already know some words and are ten years old, which gives them an advantage over ordinary students of the same age.

The Inu Princess did not take credit for it. She just smiled and said, "That's nothing, Madam Ado. The child should have gone to school. This is what my Lord Saburo said."

"I also want to thank Lord Nohara." Ado said sincerely.

"You're welcome, Madam Ado. Lord Okabe has also helped us in Wanjin a lot. His Highness Saburo has always asked me to take good care of you."

The dog princess is no longer shy because she has been well-trained by Yuanye in the past two years, but she still doesn't know how to speak tactfully. Yuanye asked her to take care of Okabe Yiyan's family when she had nothing to do, and she did it honestly. She sent all kinds of food, clothing and daily necessities and said it directly.

Ahu didn't mind. She felt very relaxed and not afraid at all in front of someone like the Dog Princess. She turned around and pulled her daughter Aju over - a ten-year-old little loli, so that she could show her face more in front of the Dog Princess and deepen their friendship.

Well, ten years old is not young these days, and she is already worrying about her daughter's marriage. Now she feels that Wanjin is a good place, and she wants her daughter to marry to the new Wanjin in the future. So no matter from which angle, it would be good for her daughter to have more influence in front of Princess Quan.

She and the Dog Princess talked to Aju for a while, and only let her go when Aju became so shy that she started to stutter.

A-Do turned to the Inu Princess and asked curiously, "I heard that Lord Nohara...will be coming here today too?"

This is not spying on secrets, this is the theater's own promotion. Uozumi Hikoshiro has been shouting about this play for a few days, fearing that others don't know that Nohara will come to see the premiere. It is estimated that after the premiere, the promotion will be marked as "This is a play that Nohara loves deeply" in order to sell a lot of tickets.

A-Hu thought it was a bit absurd. In this day and age, an ordinary theater owner dared to use the lord as a gimmick. It was a bit fake. So she asked, and the dog princess was not surprised. She pointed to the side and said with a smile: "His Highness Saburo has arrived. He is in the box next to you."

Ah Hu was surprised. He didn't expect it to be true, but he immediately said apologetically: "Then do you want to..."

Princess Inu immediately shook her head and smiled, "There are a lot of people over there right now, I'll be fine here." After a pause, she saw that A-Hu didn't quite understand, and pointed to the audience seats below the box, patiently explaining, "A lot of old Wanjin people came today, many of whom have been with His Highness for six or seven years. They all want to go next door to say hello, and His Highness Saburo is chatting with them."

Following her finger, A Hu glanced at the audience seats below and found that they did not seem to be ordinary audiences. Judging from their clothes, they were at least well-off. They were indeed a group of "old Wanjin" - she had learned this term after more than a month here. Most of these people were the ones who had started out with Yuanye. At the very worst, they were also the first few batches of families that Yuanye bought back in the old Wanjin. They were all veterans.

Usually, this group of people are also the ones who are doing the best in Xinwanjin now. At the very least, they are the supervisors of a workshop, technical backbones, or some businessmen with good management skills.

Of course, there were also many people who did not do well in the previous batches, but those people have naturally become part of the crowd and will not appear here. They are no longer qualified to show their faces in front of Yuanye.

Ah Hu wanted to make friends with these "old Wanjin people" for a while, but it was not convenient for her to go there, which was a bit regretful. …………

Nohara was indeed meeting some of his "old subordinates" in the next box - all the old Wanjin people had worked for him, even digging ditches for him in the past. Even though most of these people had never fought with him or even been directly commanded by him, they still liked to say things like "I did XXX with Lord Nohara back then..." and pretended to be his "old subordinates."

This is the case with the Hirashima Kichijiro in front of us. He was originally bought by the Wild Party leader Maejima Juichiro from the Atsuta Port as a slave. However, because he was too short, he was not selected for military selection even though he worked honestly in the workshop.

After completing his service, he gained his freedom and left the iron workshop. Relying on the skills he had learned and his hard work, he borrowed an interest-free loan from Yuanye, hired a few helpers, and opened a private iron workshop specializing in making farm tools. He then called himself "Lao Wanjin Man".

He deserves this title. His workshop has now grown larger and he is a well-known workshop owner in Xinwanjin. He has gradually started to get involved in the manufacture of weapons, armor and cannons. He is considered one of the leading big brothers of private iron workshops in Xinwanjin.

He had heard that Harano was coming to see the play, so he specifically asked Uozumi Hikoshiro for a ticket for the premiere and sneaked in. He wanted to show his face in front of Harano and give him some suggestions. Otherwise, if he wanted to meet Harano through formal channels, it would not be as easy as before. For domestic affairs, he would be lucky enough to meet Endo Chiyo. Even if he could give Harano his suggestions, they would most likely become a line of insignificant text.

He waited in line for a long time, and after a quick greeting, he carefully put forward his suggestion. Yuanye was slightly surprised after listening to it, and said thoughtfully: "You mean you want to sell the goods to Beilu yourself? You don't plan to sell the goods to Wanjin anymore, and you plan to cancel the previous contract?"

Wanjin's economy is currently dominated by the "government (Yuanye)". Profitable industries such as dyeing, salt making, porcelain, gunpowder and ironware are all controlled by the "Wanjin Government". Ordinary people have no way of getting involved. Private workshops either do work that the "government" is too lazy to spend energy on, or pick up the leftovers of the "state-owned government".

The same is true for foreign economy, because Wanjin currently relies mainly on Atsuta Port to sell goods, and Atsuta Port is controlled by the Oda family. Without the banner of Yuanye, the "kansen fee" alone is enough for small businesses to make a living. Those big merchants will also place orders directly with Wanjin, so small workshop owners in Wanjin generally sell their goods directly to the "Wanjin Government", which then sells them to the outside world.

This trading method has been going on for several years, and Yuanye has also given those small workshop owners many hidden benefits. Unexpectedly, someone suddenly had objections.

Aman, who had been doing nothing nearby and was asking Aqing for more pocket money, immediately looked over when he heard this and began to look Kichijiro Hirashima up and down with a look of suspicion and scrutiny, as if he was wondering if he was a conspirator and rebel.

The more I look at it, the more it looks like that. If he dares to prevent Yuanye from making a profit today, he will most likely rebel tomorrow. I think we should arrest him and torture him later...

Hirashima Kichijiro noticed the look of Aman, the "living devil", and cold sweat broke out on his head. But he hesitated for a moment, thinking that Yuanye had never killed a civilian in all these years except for chopping heads in the Wanjin Army. He mustered up the courage and said with difficulty: "Yes, Your Highness, that... your contract is very good, but... the current iron price in Wanjin is too low, and the purchase price from Lord Endo is also very low... that... so, I... we..."

Ah Man moved over and asked, "But you should still make some money, right?"

Hirashima Kichijiro swallowed his saliva and whispered, "Yes, there is still money to be made, but after more than a year... there is almost no money to be made."

This is Yuanye's fault. During the famine, Yuanye ordered the development of iron fields on a large scale in the Chita Peninsula. He also found iron sand mines deposited in several small rivers. He dug up the iron sand that had been accumulated by nature for thousands and tens of thousands of years, causing the price of iron in Wanjin to plummet.

At the same time, in order to recover quickly after the disaster relief, Yuanye ordered the "state-owned iron workshop" to sell off all kinds of ironware at a low price. As a result, the market was temporarily close to saturation, and their small private ironware workshops could not bear it - the price of ironware orders given by Endo Chiyo was lower every month, and the quantity required was also less every month. They also had a workshop of people to support!

So, they joined together and planned to terminate the agency contract with Yuanye to see if they could sell the products to farther places themselves to make more money.

This can't be helped...

Ah Man raised his eyebrows, having determined that there was something wrong with him. His eyes became dangerous and he said bluntly, "It's good enough that you make some money. If you don't have Wanjin, your shit won't even produce any oil when thrown into the water. Now that you have some skills, you want to work alone? Let me tell you, there is a limit to being ungrateful..."

"Shut up!" Yuan Ye felt that she was in the way, so he stretched out his hand and pulled her aside, and said to Hirashima Kichijiro gently, "Don't listen to her, I know about this. I really didn't consider this aspect before, but with your current ability, it should be difficult and dangerous to ship the goods to a distant place for sale by yourself, right?"

He thought for a moment and then said, "How about this, I'll discuss with Ms. Endo and see if we can let you set up a separate sales point in Atsuta Port. What do you think?"

"But the price of iron in Atsuta Port is also very low, and all the money has been earned by those wealthy merchants. Besides, it is impossible for us to outsell your workshop. Your price is lower than ours..." After saying this instinctively, Kichijiro Hirashima immediately reacted and looked at the gentle expression on Yuanye's face. He felt a little ashamed for a moment - he was really too greedy, and the more he spoke, the more ungrateful he seemed.

Indeed, if it weren't for Yuanye, he would have either still been a servant or died a long time ago. Now Yuanye was willing to let them make money and eat in peace, but they were still picky and thought they didn't make enough money. They were really greedy, and it was not unfair for them to be killed.

Moreover, after saying so many things and making such a request, his courage was exhausted. He immediately changed his words and said repeatedly: "Your Highness, you are right. I think that is a good idea... Let's do as Your Highness says!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he stood up and said goodbye, "Your Highness, I am so sorry. I will not waste your time any more."

"Don't be anxious. You don't have to do what I say." Yuanye had been busy with disaster relief, and after that, he was thinking about building ships to expand his territory. He really didn't pay much attention to business matters in the past two years. He pondered and said, "I'll think about this matter carefully first, and I'll discuss it with you later."

"Yes, yes! I wouldn't dare, wouldn't dare!" Hirashima Kichijiro just wanted to leave quickly now. He no longer had the mind to consider what Yuanye said. He hurriedly responded and left the box.

Ah Man watched him leave, then turned to Yuan Ye and asked, "Do you want me to deal with these people?"

Yuan Ye glanced at her and said speechlessly: "Be quiet, this is not a bad thing!"

Unconsciously, Wanjin's industrialists and businessmen have also grown. He didn't pay much attention to it before. Maybe since he has nothing to do, he should pay more attention to them.

It is not a bad thing that these people have their own ideas. The development and establishment of Wanjin is not just his own business.

(End of this chapter)