Pillars of the Wu family

The Honma family of Sado has been extremely obedient since they surrendered. The lord of Yumo Castle, Honma Takanobu, the lord of Zatai Castle, Honma Taitaka, the lord of Ota Castle, Hideshi Honma, the lord of Kuchi Castle, Honma and Juro, and everyone in the Honma clan Rotating for a season to stay in Hunr Mountain City, showing a very respectful attitude.

In fact, they can’t be disobedient. Sado Port is in the hands of the Kira Navy. Kuki Shigetaka is stationed at Sado Port for at least five months a year. Thanks to the vigorous construction of the Kira family, Sado Port has more than doubled in size. , The pure wooden structure in Sado Port Town has also been replaced with a civil structure, and the thatched wooden house covered with sanhe clay is stronger and warmer than before.

The main force of the Kira Navy was permanently stationed in the new Sado Port, and the Honma family and the people of Sado were overwhelmed. The important port for going to sea was pinched, and the main force of the Sado Navy was wiped out. The people of the country have already resisted, as long as Yoshishi Kira is willing, they can be completely erased.

The pressure of survival forced all the Honma family to submit to Hunr Mountain Castle, accept the Nagao family's military service and taxation, and accept land inspection and agricultural reform. The entire [-] koku land in Sado needs to bear [-] military services, of which [-] The standing staff were arranged to receive training in the Shimoetsu National Standing Corps in Niigata Town.

According to the requirements of the standing regulations of the Kira family in the second year of Hongzhi, the entire Echigo military service account will undergo a new round of reforms. The proposal of the standing army was also brewed half a year ago. One-third of the military service account will be the standing army. Receive long-term professional training, standing ashigaru is not hereditary, but is rotated in the military service account on a two-year basis. During the period of standing military service, board and lodging are paid by each lord daimyo uniformly. Listed separately in the budget.

The main meaning of this standing legion is the fast and mobile professional legion, to ensure that there are standing ashigaru that can be called at any time under any circumstances. The generals of each standing legion are served by the Nagao genealogy. The situation of the Ministry is uniformly determined. This military service system completely covers all levels of the entire Echigo. The professional standing army, professional ashigaru, and semi-professional concentric groups. There are sufficient sources of soldiers for each echelon of reserve teenagers. The main combat power is the former The latter two have little effect for the time being.

Kuki Shigetaka's youngest son, Yuanfu, is named Kuki Takachi. Although he is young, he has been in the water for nearly ten years. As soon as Yiyuanfu served as the leader of the navy team, he was responsible for supervising the ten ships under construction as a representative of the Kira Navy. With the construction progress of the Anzhai ship and the eighty Guan ships, it was obvious that his father didn't just want him to be a navy general.

Gold mining on Sado Island is of little significance to the people of Sado. The amount of gold mining has nothing to do with their penny. In contrast, the agricultural reform is more exciting. Sado Island is affected by the oceanic climate of the Northern Sea of ​​Japan. There has been a lack of achievements in agricultural development, and the stone height of an island in Nuoda is only [-] stone.

However, the actual arable land area on Sado Island is [-] chobu, and the actual arable farmland is [-] chobu, which does not include mountains, forests, beaches, and uncultivable land such as cities, such as the vicinity of Sado Harbor. More than half of the [-] chobu of land are extremely desertified fields. Usually, the meaning and value of this kind of land are too low to be counted and used as cultivated land. [

In addition, half of the less than half of the land is sandy soil and Shita field, a little more than half is the middle field, and the upper field is only more than 100 chobu, so in fact, more than half of the land given to the Kira family is not arable land, only about [-] chobu is. The real farmland, but what the Kira family needs is Sado Port and the rebuilding of the port town, and the nearby farmland is of a bonus nature, so it can be said.

So what is the concept of eleven thousand town steps?The cultivated land area of ​​the entire Echigo is less than 25 chobu. Although this is greatly related to the agricultural development of Echigo, it is initially estimated that the cultivated land area of ​​the entire Echigo is about [-] chobu, of which there are more than [-] in Niigata The arable land in Machibu has great potential for cultivation.

The area of ​​cultivated land on Sado Island is relatively large compared to small islands. Qiqianchobu is [-] plows of cultivated land. A few years ago, Echigo could produce [-] to [-] shi of grain, but on Sado Island There are only [-] shi of grain. Although there are marine climate factors that affect the farming time, the main reason is that Sado does not know how to farm, or even does not farm at all.

Sado, as a place where criminals were exiled, has never been valued by people. In the Kamakura period, the stationed land was also extensively managed. Today, Sado Island is still at the level of slash-and-burn farming. Well, you can harvest as much as you have in autumn. It is not uncommon to receive four or five buckets of grain after harvesting the land in autumn. Some lazy lords grow more weeds than rice, and they don’t know what kind of fields they plant. where.

The Kira family’s agricultural reform was thorough after they entered Sado. They withdrew and merged the new villages and demolished the branch castles. There are sixty or seventy densely packed fortifications on a small Sado Island. There are only four castles that can be called castles, and the others are larger. The ones are considered to be the standard of Tulou cottages, and the smaller ones are not even as good as the bandit Yefu's cottage, which can burn down a small wooden village with a single fire.

What use is this kind of junk to him?All demolition became inevitable. There were only four castles left on the entire Sado Island. Kuchi Castle was eventually demolished because it was too small. Honma and Juro exchanged part of their territories for Kawarada Castle, and all the Honma family moved into the new village. Set up a residence hall.

With the withdrawal and merger of the new village, the Zhixing land in Sado Island was further transferred and adjusted. The land obtained by conquering Kawarada Castle was not suitable for management. This time the transfer divided the respective land areas. They are all concentrated together to reduce the possibility of land disputes and conflicts.

The executive officer sent by Kira Yoshitoki reached an agreement with the Sado people. The Kira family will be responsible for reforming the agriculture of all the countrymen and lords on Sado Island, increasing food production to the standard level of Echigo. At the same time, the price to be paid is the development of Sado Island. Nitta will be fully owned by the Kira family.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and Kira’s agricultural reformation in exchange for four thousand town steps of arable land is an exchange between you and me. Even if the Sado people want to refuse, they are unable to develop those wastelands. Their own arable land is completely abandoned, and there is no point in developing wasteland. No.

The initial promise to be fulfilled will increase the grain output of Sado Island to 15 shi within two years. Within five years, the total stone height of the entire island will exceed [-] shi. The difficulty is actually not high. There is no regulation on who owns the land, but on the entire Sado The total grain production of the island, Sado has no dry water, and a small amount of swamps can be solved by building polders directly. At most, the river network for river irrigation can be planned, which is actually very easy to develop.

There is no problem in developing the cultivated land of 11 town steps of the entire island within five years. According to the standard output of one stone, the output of 20 town steps is [-] stone. The development is very good. Or it is very difficult to produce five or six grains of grain in two-season rotation of rice and wheat, and it may take more than ten or even twenty years of careful study of the local climate to do so.

The real big head of Sado Island is not arable land but fishery. Sado fishermen are quite famous in Hokuriku. Experienced fishermen can even catch whales. Kira Yoshishi was determined to develop the fishing industry, so he ordered the followers to post announcements to recruit Fishermen form several fleets to fish at sea all year round.

Not to mention ordinary fishing boats, the shipyard in Naoetsu Port is rushing around the clock to manufacture Antaka boats and closed ships, as well as whaling ships of the Ataka boat format. The draft of this type of whaling boat is about 150 tons. Between 180 tons, there is no problem in catching common whales.

In addition, the Kira family is building a shipyard in Sado, which is expected to be completed next year. At that time, Anzhai Ship, Guan Ship, and various return ships, small early boats, and fishing boats can be built locally in Sado. The support for Sado is also visible.

Another plan that is conducive to the development of Sado is the slaughtering and meat processing industry. This is a relatively secret industry. The slaughtering industry is a kind of thing that is not included in the household registration in r. Making leather is a filthy occupation, and they are called Heyuan people, also known as the peasants. [

The Heyuan people are a very miserable ethnic group. They are not a certain race or a certain surname, but a group of ethnic groups that have existed since ancient times. They were driven out of cities and villages, and they settled down to beg for food, collect corpses, and slaughter livestock to make leather. , helping people dig wells, singing, laughing and meat-selling talents, ape musicians, porters who work as coolies and packers, small businessmen with famous names, gardeners and other occupations.

For example, Zenami, the gardener, is the gardener of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the eighth shogun of the Muromachi shogunate. He designed and manufactured the garden of the Ginkakuji Temple, and Zeami, the ancestor of the Kan family, was also from Kawahara. Someone once met him in person. It is said that he is a Japanese citizen, basically the family of the ape musician is from Kawara.

They are also the best among the Heyuan people. The poorer ones are collecting corpses, begging for food, slaughtering cows and horses, and dismembering dead animals to make leather. Work.

During Yoshiki Kira's reign, through the ninjas of Kira, he quietly gathered Kawara people who were good at slaughtering in the Kanto and Hokuriku regions, and carried out slaughtering and meat processing in a relatively remote and hidden place on Sado Island. It is understandable to let warriors who kill with knives slaughter livestock all day long, once or twice for the sake of appetite. If things go on like this, it is definitely not acceptable to let them only slaughter livestock, which will be regarded as insult and punishment.

This era is a vegetarian, and it is absolutely fine to secretly eat meat, but the premise is that you do it yourself. Falcon hunting is a pretense for all samurai to eat meat. It is a high-sounding word to say that falcon hunting is training bows and horses, such as saving and being stingy Tokugawa Ieyasu loves falconry very much, and has hunted thousands of times in his life. Everyone can understand what the prey did.

Animals such as cattle and pigs in the Echigo Ranch will be transported to Sado Island for slaughter, and the required meat ribs will be cut out and then sealed and transported back to each house number in Echigo for processing and sales. Although the procedures are a bit cumbersome, But for the sake of concealment and safety, there is still nothing to do, and there is no fear of leaking the news with the Kira Navy to cover it. (To be continued.)