Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 71 Run, run quickly, run far away!
Yuanye strolled back to his tent, followed by a dejected Aman.

She was the banker and started gambling. She won a little in the beginning, but she took a gamble at the critical moment and failed to get a pair of eights. She failed to put together the "Mountain Whale Carrying an Iron Cannon (Tiger Head + Bench)", and was forced to pay for all the players, and lost everything.

She was very sad about this and felt that life was meaningless.

Yuanye glanced at her, but he had no way to deal with her. The relationship between the two of them was more like that of friends. Even if she didn't learn to be a naughty child, Yuanye couldn't spank her or scold her. He could only take his time - he planned to go back to Ah Qing to tell her about it, and once again strengthen the supervision of her money.

Then, he would spend some time, find an opportunity, and think of a way to see if he could completely cure her bad habit.

Otherwise, he would not feel at ease if he had a gambler around him.

He made up his mind, took his eyes off A-man, and looked at the current Inaba camp.

Oda Nobunaga and other samurai celebrated their victory in the shogunate with all kinds of eating, drinking and having fun. The foot soldiers were not idle either. They lit bonfires in the wild, gathered together to drink sake, cook meat, gamble, laugh and chat loudly, and some even set up stalls, shouting loudly to sell all kinds of looted "trophies", creating a "small market".

Yuanye took a look and found all kinds of miscellaneous things, including large painted screens, small pottery for holding water, broken kitchen knives, scattered clothes and accessories, and even chickens, ducks, pickles and the like. Moreover, there were quite a few people visiting this "small market", and there were also a few "respectable people" wearing straight-collared and shoulder-length clothes, who kept paying for cheap goods - judging from their appearance, they looked a bit like the fat owner of Kikyo-ya in "The Wise Man, Ikki".

Yuanye was either healing his wounds or sleeping, so he didn't notice when these "bosses" came. He pointed at Aman and asked, "Who are they?"

Ah Man took a listless look and said gloomily, "It's a black merchant."

"Black business?"

"A black shovel is a wooden shovel used to bury corpses, and a black shovel merchant is of course a merchant who specializes in dealing with corpses." Ah Man had just suffered a great loss, and he didn't have much patience to tell him this common sense, but he still reluctantly said, "So many people died in the war, and they smelled the smell and came here. They buried the corpses to make some money from Oda Nobunaga, then stripped the dead people's clothes, looked for damaged weapons and armor, and took them back to sell. That's about it."

That's it!

Yuanye nodded. Before, he was still thinking about what to do with the bodies of the dead soldiers. If they were left there, an epidemic might occur. He didn't expect that the ancient people were not stupid. There were people who specialized in this field and had already started doing business. The Japanese samurai really only cared about fighting wars, and other things were taken care of by other people. An industrial chain was formed.

There was no point in him knowing this kind of person, so he did not ask any further questions. However, he slowed down his pace and looked at this "small stolen goods market". He saw that many things were faintly stained with blood that had not been wiped off. He felt a little uncomfortable, but he could not do anything about it and could only watch.

Soon, he came to the end of this "small market". The light gradually dimmed. He saw a group of people tied up with straw ropes and crowded together. There were men, women, young and old, and there were nearly a hundred people. He couldn't help but wonder, "Who are these people?"

Ah Man looked up, then lowered his head and said nonchalantly, "They are probably the townspeople in the castle town of Kiyosu Castle, a bunch of idiots who didn't run away. I guess someone didn't get any good stuff, so they just captured them and planned to sell them somewhere and split the money later."

Yuanye:......

He thought he had adapted to this terrible era, but he didn't expect to encounter all kinds of terrible things that broke the bottom line. It seemed that in places he hadn't seen, there must be more beastly things that modern people couldn't accept - he didn't dare to think about it too much, as it would make him feel sick. He really wanted to go back to the modern era.

It’s a great time travel for a dog!
He didn't do anything unforgivable, why should he be punished like this?
He shook his head, sighed secretly, and continued to walk towards his tent. However, after walking a few steps, he heard faint sobbing in the darkness. He paused, sighed again, and asked Aman: "Where will they be sold to?"

"Who knows? The women will probably be sold to brothels, taverns (which also run as brothels), and the men will probably be sold to mine or open mountains. These people are useless. They can't fight in wars or farm. Only their bodies and strength are worth some money." Aman didn't care. She had seen too many such things. Only a young master like Yuanye would ask such a stupid question.

Yuanye was silent for a moment, shook his head again, turned his head to look around, and asked towards a campfire: "Whose...are these people?"

The foot soldiers who were originally laughing and talking loudly around the bonfire fell silent for a moment, and then a guy in his forties walked over quickly, bowed and said, "Sir, it's from us, which one do you like?"

Yuanye glanced at him in the dim firelight and found that he was a miscellaneous soldier who was probably pulled out of the fields to fight in the middle of the spring ploughing. He looked quite honest and simple - an honest farmer who was trafficking people without any feeling and seemed quite skilled at it. It was a bit of black humor.

He shook his head and asked, "How much is it in total?"

"You want them all?"

"How much?" Yuanye was in a bad mood and didn't have the patience to talk nonsense with him.

"Wait!" Ah Man reacted. It seemed that Yuan Ye's brain was cramping again and he was about to do something stupid again. He quickly pulled him and asked, "A bunch of old, weak and disabled people, why did you buy them? You just got some money and you're burning it again?"

"We need manpower to make soy sauce." Yuanye made up an excuse, "If we do it alone, Yayoi and the others won't be able to handle it. If we do it for a long time, something bad will happen."

"Then there's no need to buy these guys!" Ah Man still felt that it wasn't a good idea. "These guys couldn't even run away, and they're probably useless at work. You might as well buy those captured foot soldiers from the Qingzhou Army. They're definitely better at work than these guys."

Yuanye sighed and shook his head, "I just happened to see them, let's just take them!"

Ah Man looked at the group of "old, weak, sick and disabled" and advised him again, "It's really not possible. Only about 10% or 20% of them can do heavy work. It's not worth it." "Just make do with them!"

Yuanye had made up his mind and did not listen to any advice. He asked the old farmer again, "How much?"

The old peasant hesitated for a moment, stole a glance at his face, then looked back at his "fellow villager" and quoted a price: "Since you want them, then... there are eighty-nine people in total. I'll give the children to you. Just give eighty strings of cash. What do you think..."

Less than one tael? The price of half a donkey?

Yuan Ye felt uncomfortable seeing the human trafficking, and was willing to spend some money to calm down, but he didn't want to be taken advantage of, so he calculated the price in his mind, and recalled that Ah Man used to talk nonsense and brag at home, and he seemed to have said that Yayoi was only worth four kan of coins, so he looked at it this way...

As he was thinking about it, Ah Man was already very unhappy. Yuan Ye, the prodigal son, had one idea after another all day long, and always ignored her "honest advice" and insisted on buying these inferior goods. She couldn't be happy even if she wanted to - she was already very depressed because she lost all her money, and now she was even angrier.

The little tuft of hair on her head shook, and she took the initiative to take over the bargaining work to avoid a bigger loss. She smiled and waved to the old farmer gently: "Come here, come here... Come closer! Yes, come a little closer..."

The old peasant foot soldier didn't understand what was going on, so he leaned forward in confusion. Ah Man raised his eyebrows, turned his face upside down, and immediately stopped smiling. He raised his hand and slapped him hard, cursing, "How dare you ask for 80 strings of cash from these old, weak, and disabled people? You dung beetle, you must have eaten too much shit and gone crazy!"

She couldn't stop Yuanye from spending money recklessly, and she vented her anger on the old peasant foot soldier who was asking for an exorbitant price. The slap was so loud and heavy that the old peasant foot soldier turned around on the spot. His face was swollen and his head was buzzing. There was a slight commotion at the campfire behind him, and many of the soldiers and foot soldiers stood up with expressions of shock and fear on their faces.

Amandoudou showed no fear at all. He drew out his short-handled hatchet and pointed it at them, cursing, "Why, you don't accept it? Believe it or not, I will come over and chop you to death right now!"

After she finished her curse, she hit the old peasant soldier with her axe, lowered her head with her neat bangs hanging down, her eyes full of shadows, and said sinisterly: "Eighty strings of cash, you are dreaming! Thirty strings of cash! That's just thirty strings of cash. You can get more than one string of cash each, you should be satisfied, don't treat us like fools!"

She said she would turn hostile without any warning, and she was so rude and domineering that the old peasant was stunned by her. But when he looked at the tall, expressionless Yuanye next to him, who seemed to be in a bad mood, and then at the sharp axe in Aman's hand and the fierce light in his eyes, he swallowed his saliva, shrank back, and gave in after a slight hesitation, "Then thirty kan will do!"

If they drove these people back to Kuno Castle, they might be able to sell them for more money, but it was hard to say. What if there was any action later and the leading foot soldier thought these townspeople were troublesome and ordered them to kill or throw them away? Then their efforts would be in vain, and what's more, they would lose out - in fact, they wanted to rob more, but they didn't get a good job and didn't rob anything, so they captured these people and brought them back to avoid fighting a battle in vain.

The other foot soldiers were stronger than this group of people. They just robbed things directly and didn't cause as much trouble as they did.

The soldiers surrendered, and Aman was satisfied. He put away his axe and looked at Yuanye. After Yuanye nodded slightly, he kicked the old farmer again and said, "It's a good thing for you to help the dung ball. Drive the people to follow me. I will pay you when we get there."

It seemed that these miscellaneous foot soldiers were a bit servile and were easily fooled. Even when Aman kicked and beat them, they still managed to smile and obediently drove the captured townspeople away with Aman and Yuanye.

After returning, Yuanye kept his promise and gave them 30 kan of copper coins and let them go. Then he told the somewhat inexplicable Maejima Heiichiro to temporarily house these unfortunate townspeople and give them some food. He also reminded them lightly: "Don't run away tonight."

This was all he could do for now, so he returned to his little tent and prepared to take a nap to avoid thinking about these troubles. But when he entered, he saw Aman complaining to Aqing and Yayoi in a low voice about him, saying that he had been kicked in the head by a donkey again and was spending money recklessly again.

He didn't say much, but called Ah Qing over to tell her the truth: "Your sister went to gamble again today. She must have embezzled funds. You should investigate her carefully."

Ah Qing was stunned for a moment, then her face immediately turned red. She felt she had failed in her duty, and immediately turned around to settle the score with Ah Man.

Yuanye didn't care what she was going to do, he just lay down and fell asleep.

…………

The next morning, Oda Nobunaga ordered his return to Naguno Castle, but he seemed to have drunk too much the night before and did not set off immediately. Instead, he stayed in the camp and did not make any movement.

Yuanye didn't care. After the large troops set off one after another, he directed his men to transport the wounded by ox carts and slowly move towards the Guye City.

As for those unlucky townspeople, Yuanye asked them to follow at the end of the team and walk slowly. He also gave each of them a rice ball and a bamboo tube filled with water so that they could eat and drink on the way.

Aman was a little worried. In addition to supervising the foot soldiers to work honestly, she would go to the back several times to check, for fear that these people would run away. These people were now the property of the Nohara family. On average, each person was worth 0.15 donkeys. If ten of them ran away, it would be equivalent to losing one and a half donkeys. She couldn't bear to let them run away.

But Yuanye didn't allow her to go and assigned her a task, asking her to scout the way ahead, on the grounds of preventing an ambush. Even though Aman looked at him as if he was an idiot, he insisted that she go.

This is all he can do, and he doesn't even know if what he's doing is right or not, or what other people would do if they were faced with such a situation. There are too many such things, and he simply can't handle them all. But if you say don't do anything, he just happens to see it, and he feels uncomfortable for not doing anything, so this is all he can do.

Maybe it's a good idea to spend a little money and change your mood!
So, run, run quickly, run far away!
He did not even look back along the way, just waiting for the townspeople to escape on their own. After walking along the Odaijawa River for a while, Aman, who had been exploring the way, came back on horseback and reported to him from a distance: "Old man Maeda Toshiharu is kneeling in front of us. What should we do?"

(End of this chapter)