Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 22 Shimadzu
"So, where can I buy medicinal herbs around here? I want a wider variety!" It was originally just a question, but after chatting with Aman, who was always a busybody, for a long time, Yuanye still couldn't find the medicinal herbs. He started to get angry.

"Buying herbs, I've never paid attention to this before. Usually no one buys them, everyone just picks some herbs for themselves to use." Ah Man ate his meal, even though he thought he was mentally retarded, he really tried his best. He scratched his face and recalled for a long time before saying, "It's unlikely to be available nearby, probably have to go to Shimazu to buy it."

Shimadzu?

Yuanye had an impression of this place. The wild boy Aman had mentioned it before and also drew it on the map. However, after careful study and secretly comparing it with the map on his mobile phone, he found that the port was gone in later generations. He didn't know whether it was due to the natural accumulation of silt or filled up by Japan's land reclamation in later generations. Anyway, the natural bay was gone. He always thought it was just a small place and never paid much attention to it.

He immediately asked, "Is it prosperous there?"

"Of course it's prosperous!" Aman said without hesitation, "That's where the Oda Danmasatada family made their fortune. If it weren't for Shimazu, how could Oda Nobuhide, a lowly mid-level deputy official and head of a family, dominate Owari for so many years with just a small Katsubata Castle!"

"Oh?" Speaking of the Oda family, Yuanye became interested and quickly poured her a cup of tea and handed her the tea bowl. "Come on, tell me in detail."

Aman raised her eyebrows. She liked this point about Yuanye. He especially respected her as a "talent", which made her feel very comfortable.

She took the tea bowl happily, sipped a sip of tea, smacked her lips, and then said slowly: "Okay, since you want to listen, I'll tell you, but it's a long story!
Oda Nobuhide's father was Oda Saburo Nobumasa, and his residence was Katsubata Castle in Kaisai County, Owari Province.

According to my grandfather, the Katsubata Oda family was not that strong at the time, only slightly stronger than the current Arako Maeda family, with a strength of about 10,000 koku, and they lived entirely at the mercy of the Seisu Castle family. But the old man Oda Nobumasa was very powerful, and my grandfather said he could be considered a great man of his generation. "

She took another sip of tea, took a breath, and her expression became a little more serious. "About forty years ago, uh, I'm not sure, I wasn't born yet, and I heard it from my grandfather. He often farted when he was drunk...

About forty years ago, the old fellow Oda Nobumasa had a unique vision and took a fancy to Shimazu next to Katsubata Castle. He also realized that the imperial court was weak and powerless in name only. He took advantage of the internal strife within the Kiyosu family over the right of succession to bribe and lure the local nobles, some ronin and river pirates in Shimazu, and started a riot in Shimazu, driving away the deputy officials appointed by the imperial court... well, it's also possible that he just killed them, anyway, the result was almost the same. Then, in the name of suppressing the rebellion, he suddenly rushed over and swallowed up Shimazu while no one could react!

This kind of thing was actually common. At that time, the world was becoming more and more chaotic, and everyone started killing each other, but the old guy Oda Nobumasa happened to have great business talent.

According to my grandfather, he established a code of conduct in Shimazu, requiring all merchants to trade equally, not to bully the weak, not to force purchases and sales, not to kill each other in the city, and he also killed all the bad people, ronin, bandits and river pirates in the vicinity, and restricted the villagers and fishermen from robbing and killing merchants and cargo ships. In order to open up routes to Ominato and Kuwana, he sent his wife to a temple to become a nun, and then went there to marry a new wife with a large sum of money. In the end, he managed Shimazu into the leading trading port in Ise Bay, which was only slightly worse than Sakai-machi. "

It turns out that a small port that has disappeared in modern times has such a story. Yuan Ye asked: "What happened next?"

"And then the old guy Oda Nobumasa died." Aman has a talent for languages. After hanging out with Yuanye for the past few days, his accent has become more and more like his, and he has even learned a lot of new words.

"Dead?" Yuan Ye asked in surprise, "How did he die?"

"They say he died of illness, but in reality..." Ah Man raised his eyebrows and gave a look that said "you know what I mean." "As a warrior family, they are reluctant to divide up the territory, but they also like to have a large population, so they have a lot of children, which always leads to the issue of inheritance. The old man got a new wife and had a new legitimate son, who I heard was very favored, so he suddenly died with the youngest legitimate son.

His eldest son, Oda Nobuhide, who was only sixteen or seventeen years old at the time, ascended the throne without even holding a funeral for him, and even had a fight with the main family in Kiyosu Castle because of this.

It seems that the main family said that he had not come to power legitimately, and wanted to depose him according to his father's will. He accused the main family of interfering with the inheritance rights of the branch family, having bad intentions, and trying to annex the branch family. In the end, the two sides fought for more than a year, and the main family, the Kiyosu Oda family, was defeated and married a daughter to him, which was considered as admitting defeat and making peace. "

Yuanye nodded slowly, but Aman hadn't finished talking yet, and actively added: "This is also the reason why Oda Nobuhide was so shameless and almost sold his ass to attack the Furuno Castle... No, he might have really sold his ass, otherwise Imagawa Ujitoyo wouldn't love him so much and let him bring a large number of retainers into the city just by pretending to be sick.

Well, anyway, this is why he had to launch a surprise attack on the city of Gunye."

After she finished speaking, she looked at Yuanye expectantly, hoping that Yuanye would ask her to explain so that she could pretend again. However, Yuanye responded after a slight pause: "Is it for the Atsuta Port south of Furuno Castle? He wants to connect Atsuta and Shimazu on land?"

Aman looked at him in surprise. She didn't expect that a prodigal son like him would react so quickly. Her grandfather had asked her the same question in the past, but she didn't react at all. She never thought that Atsuta and Shimazu, located on both sides of the Ise Bay, had any connection.

But there is no need to expose her own weaknesses. She did not praise Yuanye by saying "Your brain is actually quite useful". She said directly: "That's right. There is no strategic location to the north of Atsuta Port, and there is no powerful local clan. Only the shabby Atsuta Manor can be considered a person. It is still divided equally between the Matsuoka and Chiaki families, and only when added together can it be considered a person! Uh, there are also the Sasaki family and the Kato family, who can also be considered half a person, anyway, they are very weak, and there is no one who can fight. So whoever can control the Furuno Castle can control Atsuta Port.

Thanks to his dead father, Oda Nobuhide already owned the trade route of Saikaido, the Seto Inland Sea coast, and Shimazu. If he occupied Atsuta Port, he could open up the trade route of Atsuta, Mikawa Bay, Suruga, Kanto, Hokuriku, and even Ezo, covering most of the world. And he did it. He really got Furuno Castle by selling his ass, successfully controlled Atsuta Port, and beat the Hayashi family, who were at the junction of Owari and Mikawa at the time and wanted to develop westward and had always drooled over Atsuta Port. It was at that time that Hayashi Hidetada defected to him. "

"I see! So, it was thanks to these two ports that Oda Nobuhide was able to increase his power and subjugate the entire Owari Province?"

"Of course!" Aman waved her hand, "Do you know how much money he can make every year just by collecting shipping fees (similar to tariffs) from the two ports of Atsuta and Shimazu?"

"How many?"

Speaking of this, Ah Man's face was filled with jealousy, his eyes began to turn red, "My grandfather said that it was at least 40,000 strings of cash! Every year! In good times, it could be 60,000 strings of cash a year!"

Yuanye completely understood the mystery of the rise of the Oda Danjo family and nodded slowly: "It is indeed a lot."

It turns out that Oda Nobunaga was a second-generation rich man, no, he was a third-generation rich man. I never saw this mentioned in Taiko 2 before. I thought his ancestors had left him a very bad situation, and he turned it around with his own ability, which was harder than starting from scratch. But...his ancestors were very rich, and he was almost at the finish line when he was born. At least, the fact that he could become the "first person in the Warring States Period" had a lot to do with his ancestors' accumulation.

"It's a lot!" Aman was very dissatisfied with Yuanye's nonchalant attitude. He felt that he, a young master, had no idea what kind of powerful force 60,000 kan represented. He waved his hands and emphasized to him, "The entire Owari Province only has 260,000 koku. He just lied down and collected money and got an extra 80,000 or 90,000 koku of territory. That guy also connected Atsuta and Shimazu with cities on land, and desperately set up checkpoints to collect money. Every year, there are mountains of gold and silver, and tens of thousands of koku of invisible territory!

My grandfather said that guy only has tens of thousands of stones on the surface, and it seems that he doesn't have much territory, but in fact, his invisible strength is 130,000 stones, maybe 160,000 or 170,000 stones, and all the power is controlled by him alone. All the powerful families in the eight counties of Owari Province combined cannot defeat him. "

Moreover, he relied on his few filthy riches to get an official position as a loyal official, pretending to be a high-ranking official in the palace, looking down on others all day long, saying this and scolding that, and always reporting someone who disobeyed him to the court, insisting that the person was a traitor, and forcing others to follow him to beat him up. Those who did not go were also traitors, and he would call on others to beat them up. He is very shameless!"

Yuan Ye raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked, "Did Dan Zhengzhong buy his position? Isn't it inherited from his ancestors?"

"Inherited from ancestors is a bullshit! His ancestor was a dung ball-sized Katsubata no Kami, a dung beetle-like thing!" Ah Man had a look of disdain on his face. "Every year he sent Hirate Hidemasa to Kyoto to give money to that puppet emperor. He gave 4,000 kan every time the emperor renovated his house, 1,000 kan for a shrine, and 500 kan for a Buddha statue. He also gave him swords, horses, and tea sets on a daily basis. He almost sent his wife as well. The shameless old emperor began to feel embarrassed and sent ministers from afar to thank him. He also wrote poems to praise him, calling him 'the wonder of Owari', and asked the imperial ladies-in-waiting to write him a letter of thanks in person. In the end, he even gave him the official title of Dan Masatada.

My grandfather said that although this Dan Zhengzhong was only from the sixth rank and looked insignificant, he was a Dan Zhengtai official (similar to the Censorate), and he could scold high officials and princes at will, and he could point fingers at everything and accuse others at will. He was very noble and of high class, and he was a member of the palace. It was usually only given to the children of officials. If he hadn't given enough money, how could he, a country bumpkin, get the chance."

Perhaps out of jealousy, or perhaps out of hatred for the rich, Aman became more and more disdainful as he spoke, "Most people don't know this, and they still think he's so powerful, that he's of noble status, and has natural talent. They call him Owari no Tora, and think he's a famous general. Ugh!
In fact, if I were to sit in his seat, I could be as awesome as him!
With so much money, he could support a bunch of retainers and buy a lot of armor. Every time he went out to fight, others would have 10% or 20% of their troops with armor and 80% or 90% of their troops without armor. His troops with armor accounted for almost half! With more than 40% of them wearing armor, it was as easy for the armored to kill the unarmored as killing a chicken. How could he not win? ! "

The more she spoke, the angrier she became, as if she wanted to fly a thousand-mile sword to take Oda Nobuhide's head, but as she spoke she became happy again, gloating over other people's misfortunes, "No, now he can't win, he lost all his life's savings in Mino, and now he's been beaten so badly!
"It's what he deserves, a complete waste! But if another family was beaten like him, losing all the time, they would have been destroyed long ago, but he just can't die and can still hold on, all thanks to his filthy money!"

Although she and the fake samurai Yuanye seemed to get along well, and they talked and laughed without any taboos in their daily lives, in fact, she had always been quite hostile to the samurai class. Now she was gloating over other people's misfortunes without any concealment, laughing loudly to the sky, and was very rampant.

She was not very talented in martial arts. When she rescued Aqing, she, who had practiced martial arts since childhood, was kicked over by Aqing, who had only practiced martial arts for three months. She could not get up for a long time and was humiliated by the defeat. So she had always wanted a cannon, but cannons had just been introduced to Japan not long ago and there were not many people who could make them. They were very expensive and she could not afford it at all. Even if she saved money with her life and sold herself and her sister, she still could not afford it. As a result, a big fool like Oda Nobunaga could make tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of kan every year without doing anything, and he could just take out one hundred and sixty kan to buy one as a toy!

Whenever she thought of similar things, she became furious, thinking that the world was unfair and not worth it, and she wanted to stab those damn warriors.

She was a typical lumpen proletariat, with a natural hatred for the upper class. She had always wanted to make fun of Yuanye, laugh at him for being an ignorant fool, and wanted to make a bet to cheat him of his money. Most of this was due to this mentality - probably a rebellious psychology caused by inferiority, self-pity, and resentment towards the unfair distribution of wealth.

After all, in her eyes, Yuanye was also a standard upper-class nobleman. She felt unhappy just by looking at him, but Yuanye treated her very well. He gave her clothes and food, and respected her, a wild child who could be killed at will. Unlike ordinary warriors, she felt an inexplicable gratitude in her heart, so she could only laugh at him from time to time to balance the two mentalities.

These were all subconscious things, she herself was not aware of them, she laughed for a while, waved her hand and got back to the point: "Okay, okay, let's not talk about that unlucky old guy Oda Nobuhide, he's almost done anyway, but Shimazu has gathered most of Japan's products, even rare things from Ming and Nanman can be found, this is true.

So, no matter what you want to buy in Owari, no matter how strange it is, as long as it exists in the world and you are willing to spend money, you can definitely buy it there, even small medicinal herbs are no problem!"

"Well, then we have to make a trip to Shimazu... Is it far?" Yuanye didn't care whether Oda Nobuhide would be scolded or not, and he was even more indifferent to Aman's contempt for the Japanese upper class. After hearing this, he continued to think about business.

Aman replied, "If you walk, it will take about four or five days. If you take a boat, you can make a round trip in three days. There are mountains between Haixi and Haidong counties. You have to walk a long way south and then turn back. The road is very winding and difficult to walk. Moreover, the road is not safe. Now that Oda Nobuhide has withered, the road is very chaotic. If you are a samurai family, they will secretly set up checkpoints to collect money. If you have never dealt with them, they may not give you face. You will probably bleed a lot if you go there, and it will be even worse if you come back. But if you don't go through the samurai's territory, you will probably be troubled by mountain bandits and river pirates. If you are not a person who often walks this road, you will still bleed a lot."

"But I still have to buy the medicine, it's just..." Once a plan is made, it must be executed. Yuanye pondered for a moment and considered taking two men with him and hiring the two Aman sisters to go together. The electric baton can still be used a few times and can almost guarantee personal safety. He has no choice but to pay some bribes, but he certainly can't take his silly son with him. He is a little worried about leaving his silly son at Yayoi's house for a long time.

Seeing that he was in a difficult situation, Aman did not volunteer.

If Yuanye gave her money to buy medicine, she would be confident that she would not go there and never come back. She still kept her word. She was not so shameless, but she was afraid that when she got to Shimazu with money, she would lose control and try to turn her bicycle into a motorcycle, trying to make a profit and earn a cannon. If she lost everything again, she would be too ashamed to face people again.

Fortunately, she was quick-witted and experienced, so she knew a lot about the mess. She thought about it for a moment and came up with a solution. She immediately suggested, "You don't have to go in person. As long as you are willing to spend a little more money, you can find a flooded merchant. Those guys go to Shimazu from time to time to get some flooded goods, refurbish them and sell them in the countryside to make money. They will definitely have no objection if you bring back some medicinal herbs on the way."

"Flooding merchants?" There were so many strange professions in the Japanese Warring States Period. Yuanye had never expected that there was an industry that resold inferior products to the countryside.

Well, maybe it’s not simply reselling inferior products, it may be passing off inferior products as good ones, which is closer to fraud.

But this was none of his business. He thought this was a good idea and immediately asked, "Do you have any familiar flooding dealers? How much is the price? How much more expensive will it be?"

"It's probably 20% to 30% more expensive than Shimadzu. Those guys also need to eat, so they definitely need to make some money. But it's definitely cheaper and less troublesome than going there on your own. They have a good relationship with the pirates, and they've been dealing with them for a long time, paying their dues regularly. There's no cost to make a few more trips."

Ah Man thought for a moment and said, "As for the Shuiyan merchants I know, there are a few fellow villagers... Well, my grandfather has a few fellow villagers who do this kind of business that even dung beetles despise. If you are willing to use them, then write down what medicinal materials you need and I will help you find them."

"Thank you for your hard work." Yuan Ye thought he could try it out first and buy a little to see the price and quality. If everything was good, he could just keep buying in the future. It was better than abandoning his stupid son and running hundreds of miles with a few gangsters when he had little ability to protect himself.

(End of this chapter)