Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 89 This eventful time has begun again!

It is impossible for the rain to continue falling, otherwise the Japanese would have become extinct long ago.

After seeing the sun appear for three consecutive days, Yuan Ye knew that the rainy season was about to end. This was nearly a week shorter than he expected. It seemed that the climate had changed a lot in the past five hundred years, and even the rainy season had shortened by nearly 15%.

After the sun started to rise normally, the daytime temperature also rose. The rainwater accumulated during the previous rainy season began to evaporate rapidly, and the Guanzhong region of Japan officially entered the hot and humid midsummer season.

This is a bit terrible. Yuanye is from the north and is naturally afraid of heat, and the humidity and heat are even more unbearable.

He looked up at the scorching sun and silently calculated the homework assigned by Ah Qing. He did not slack off and continued to swing his eight-sided iron stick on the spot. The moves designed by Ah Qing for him only emphasized height and strength. They were very simple to practice. They were just sweeping, swinging diagonally and smashing hard, and then matched with corresponding footwork and force techniques, and nothing else.

This was completely different from the martial arts he had imagined, and it had no aesthetic appeal at all, but Ah Qing insisted that he practice this way, so he could only listen to the expert. It was Ah Man, the chatterbox, who explained a few more words, saying that he had long legs and arms and was very strong. As long as he mastered these three moves and wrapped himself up like an iron man, he would be able to go to the battlefield and at least be a foot soldier.

Anyway, as long as he swings hard, ordinary soldiers and even most low-level warriors will find it difficult to get close to him before they run out of strength. Even if he meets a good opponent, they have to avoid him if they don't want to die with him. This little time is enough for A Qing to stab the enemy to death twice.

They were so confident that Yuanye just believed them for the time being. He just thought of it as a way to keep fit, so he finished his homework honestly, then wiped the sweat off his face and quickly went into the "air-conditioned room" to cool off - a traditional method of air conditioning.

He hired a well carver and asked him to bring his family and friends to dig two wells dozens of meters deep in the backyard. Then he designed a set of animal-powered capstan water-lifting device to raise the icy cold well water (the water in the deep well is kept at a constant temperature of 4-10 degrees all year round) into a water tank, and then continuously poured it into several ceramic pipes from the water tank. The ceramic pipes then passed through the roof, walls and floors to cool the room. The cold well water in these ceramic pipes would not be wasted after completing its cooling mission. It was a kind of "tap water" that could be used by everyone in the house for daily washing and bathing, or for livestock to drink. Any excess would be directed back into the underground.

In general, this kind of "primitive air conditioning" is very simple, but it has the advantage of low cost. In addition to the one-time investment, it only needs two cows to keep turning in circles to provide power, and at most a cowherd can be added. In the long run, there is not much consumption.

Of course, this is a very basic version. In the future, he can refit all the rooms, replace the ceramic pipes with copper pipes, and replace the mud glue paint with threads. Anyway, there are still many places that can be upgraded. It’s just that he found that the annual income of 5000 guan was not enough to spend, so the plan of completely renovating the house was temporarily shelved. He could only do two rooms first, at least to get through this summer.

One of the two air-conditioned rooms is for Meng Ziqi to prevent him from getting prickly heat from lying in bed all day, and the other is for his own use. However, A'man is a wild boy who has no respect for elders and no regard for hierarchy. He will take advantage of any opportunity he can get. Ever since he found that his room is particularly cool - 35 or 36 degrees outside, and 27 or 28 degrees in his room, the sensations are completely different, he immediately shamelessly stayed there and refused to leave.

She set a bad precedent, and others began to follow suit, hanging out in his room whenever they had nothing to do. Within a few days, his room became the Nohara family's daily leisure place.

This time was no exception. He walked into his air-conditioned room sweating and found Ningning, Yayoi and Aqing all using the air conditioning - Aqing and Yayoi were doing inventory and reconciling accounts, while Ningning was doing homework next to them.

When Ningning saw him coming, her eyes immediately lit up. She dropped her homework and pulled a rope before Yayoi. The bamboo tube at the other end of the rope immediately dropped down, and a pool of cool well water immediately spread out, splashing into a long stone trough - Yuanye couldn't rub the faucet with his hands yet, so it was a bit stupid, and he could only make do with this for now.

Ningning let go again, and the bamboo tube automatically stood up and stopped discharging water. She then took the cotton towel, soaked it in the cool well water, wrung it dry, and handed it to Yuanye respectfully, saying with filial piety: "Master, thank you for your hard work. Please use it!"

After spending some time together, she also discovered that Yuanye really didn't seem to have that kind of interest in her. She didn't know whether she should be happy or disappointed at the time, and she couldn't figure out what Yuanye was thinking. She was somewhat wary in her heart, thinking that he had some cunning conspiracy, but she soon discovered that Yuanye seemed to really treat her as a disciple, teaching her very seriously and answering all her questions, which made her moved again - she was just precocious and intelligent, not born with knowledge, and reading could increase one's knowledge, broaden one's horizons, and strengthen one's mind. The benefits can be said to be endless, and she still understood this, but good books are hard to read and wise teachers are hard to find.

Now she regarded Yuanye as a wise teacher. No matter whether it was astronomy, geography, poetry, craftsmanship, or mathematics and business, no matter what she asked him, he could always explain it clearly and explain the ins and outs. Although he could not be called a genius, at least he could be said to be well-informed.

The most important thing is that Yuanye is willing to teach her and does not look down on her because she is a woman, which makes her particularly happy - it is too difficult to learn something these days, not to mention that she is a woman. Any teacher will not spend too much time and energy on a woman, it is not worth it at all.

Therefore, she felt that this was her chance. If she could learn something, it would not be a problem to revive the family business in the future. After taking more than a dozen classes, she was really willing to be this little apprentice. She felt that it would be worth it even if she had to pay a certain price for it in the future.

Her mentality and actions changed immediately. She began to look forward to class time and became more well-behaved. She really treated Yuanye as her master and even rushed to do small things like wringing the towel, and she was very happy to do it.

Yuanye was very happy to take the towel and wipe his face. After all, the towel was wrung out by the "Nüzhong Taige" herself, which was not available to ordinary people. It must be more valuable.

He wiped his face, praised Ning Ning, and then sat cross-legged in front of his desk, thinking about what other methods could be used to obtain high-purity reducing agent solution without being too expensive. Before, he had been stuck in the laboratory every day, and he had tried several dye formulas by chance, but the coloring was still unstable and the color was often dirty. It should be a problem with the purity of the compound, which caused different impurities to participate in different chemical reactions in different processes, so it still could not be used on a large scale.

I guess I have to wait for a while and think of some simple ways to clear the impurities in the reducing agent. Then I should be able to proceed to the next step and try dyeing a batch of cloth on a large scale.

If successful, the dyeing workshop's income should far exceed that of the soy sauce workshop. After all, the fabric market in this era is much larger than the seasoning market. If the color is good enough, maybe it can even participate in foreign trade and make money from the Portuguese.

Once enough capital has been accumulated, perhaps we can find a way to develop an iron mine, gather or train a group of blacksmiths, and try to transform ourselves into arms dealers.

He was just thinking about how to build a big ship to train the ocean-going navy, when Ah Man rushed in sweating profusely and started complaining as soon as he entered the room, full of unhappiness: "This unlucky weather is like a steamer, it's going to steam me to death!"

After she finished complaining, she ordered Yayoi to pour her sour plum soup, which had to be chilled with well water. She then rushed to the well water sink and washed her face vigorously. Sour plum soup had nothing to do with Yuanye. It had always existed in this era. Yayoi bought a lot of plums during the rainy season and prepared to make plum jam according to custom to eat in winter, some of which was used to make sour plum soup.

After A-Man had finished his tossing and turning and finally cooled down, he ran to sit next to Yuan Ye and reported to him what was going on outside. The first thing he said was bad news: "There will probably be another war!"

Yuanye was not surprised. He was more or less used to the rhythm of the times. As long as the conditions were right, the warriors were either fighting for territory or already in a fight. Now that the rainy season was over and the weather was hot, the muddy pits had dried up and the late rice had been planted in the fields, the warriors would definitely move around and fight each other.

He put down his pen, missed the peaceful life of the past month, and sighed, "Who is it this time?"

"It's the Imagawa family." Aman got the first-hand information from the Furuno Castle. "I heard that the Imagawa family is mobilizing food and troops to the Shirakawaguchi line. They are particularly active in the Shimane area. It seems that they are planning to attack Shigehara Castle."

"This is good. I knew about the Imagawa family's actions as soon as they started!" Yuan Ye was looking for a map, feeling relieved. This time, he was finally able to take precautions before the enemy made a move. Oda Nobunaga had really grown up. He was no longer ready to counterattack after the enemy made a move like he did the previous two times. Even after the enemy had been making a move for a while, he had not yet come up with a response strategy with his retainers, and the front line had to take a beating for several days.

"It should be because of Shinshumaru. The Xiangtanzhong he formed seems to be quite capable." Ah Man didn't dare to contact people related to Xiangtanzhong. She was a little afraid of Shinshumaru and didn't want to cause misunderstanding and get killed in vain, so she could only guess, "They should have started to infiltrate Mikawa Province. At least they have no problem monitoring the situation at Shirakawaguchi."

Yuanye felt the same way. The rainy season was a good time for Oda Nobunaga to hold banquets. It was estimated that even if the Imagawa family did not come to fight Oda Nobunaga, Oda Nobunaga would be planning to seek revenge on the Imagawa family.

As he was thinking about this, he took out the map and found Shigehara Castle, which was also located at the base of the Chita Peninsula. The Oda Danjotada family had already lost Narumi Castle during the rebellion of Yamaguchi Kyotsugu. If they lost Shigehara Castle as well, they would probably no longer be able to subdue the local powerful families on the Chita Peninsula, and it would be impossible for Chita County not to change color.

And Aman pointed at the map and gave him additional information, "Shigehara Castle was built by the Yamaoka family, whose head is Yamaoka Yasuhei (Hayato). Their strength is similar to that of the Arashi Maeda family. They can dispatch more than ten samurai, more than a hundred gentry, and five or six hundred miscellaneous foot soldiers. They alone cannot stop the Imagawa family."

"Then Oda... How does Lord Kamisuke plan to respond?" Yuanye changed his words. Because Ningning was there, he did not call Oda Nobunaga by his name.

"There is no news yet, but I guess they will fight back. The Dan Zhengzhong family cannot afford to lose Chongyuan City again. The loss will be too great."

Yuanye nodded, sighed, and whispered, "Then start preparing. I guess we can't hide. There's a 99% chance that we'll have to go there."

This troubled time has begun again. This battle will most likely last until the autumn harvest. I just don't know if Oda Nobunaga can stand up this time, deal a heavy blow to the Imagawa family, and defend Chita County.

There should be no problem. After all, he has fought in two major battles and should be a mature general.

(End of this chapter)