Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 106: Probably Endo Chiyo

"How rude!"

Yuanye returned to the reception area and apologized to the guests as soon as he entered the shack. After all, it was really rude to leave Aman's savior here for such a long time. Chiyo was frightened and quickly swallowed the food in her mouth with force, and a trace of shyness flashed across her little face uncontrollably.

She hadn't had a proper meal for more than two months. Yuanye had specifically instructed Yayoi to entertain her well, so Yayoi naturally did not dare to neglect her. The food served was very exquisite and delicious. She couldn't help but eat it so intently that she didn't even notice Yuanye coming back. It was not decent at all.

But she quickly reacted, forced herself to calm down, gently put the dishes away, and smiled politely: "Lord Nohara, you are so polite, thank you for your hospitality."

"No, no!" Yuanye said politely, but couldn't help looking at her twice more. He suspected that she was the heroine in the Taiga drama "Crossroads of Fame", that is, Endo Chiyo, the distant cousin and future wife of Yamauchi Kazutoyo, an important official under Monkey.

If she was really Endo Chiyo, she would be a legendary figure and left many anecdotes among the Japanese people.

For example, she quietly saved money to buy famous horses, helped her husband to steal the show at the Kyoto military parade, and at the critical moment before the Battle of Sekigahara, she persuaded the entire Yamauchi family to stand on the side of the Tokugawa family, and wrote the article "Kasa no O no Bun" to the old turtle Tokugawa Ieyasu, completely gaining the trust of Tokugawa Ieyasu and laying a solid foundation for the Yamauchi family to be granted 200,000 koku of Tosa Domain.

There are many similar stories, especially in the Shikoku region of Japan, where there are many small stories about how she used her wisdom to manage the territory and develop the Tosa Domain. Most of them portray her as a smart, open-minded, decisive and virtuous wife. Even if she is not as famous as other "Warring States ladies" such as Ningning and Asong, she is still a successful ancient woman, very unusual.

Of course, folk legends are not reliable, and Japanese Taiga dramas are prone to fabricated stories. No one can say for sure what kind of person she really is. Yuan Ye took a closer look at her simply out of curiosity about a "celebrity", but he didn't want to delve into her origins, after all, it had nothing to do with him.

He didn't even think about verifying whether this "Chiyo" was "Endo Chiyo". After exchanging pleasantries out of courtesy, he asked Yayoi to bring up a small cowhide bag and placed it directly on her desk. Endo Chiyo untied the bag string with a little surprise and looked inside. She saw a silver glitter inside. It was actually a bag full of silver Ding - a kind of privately minted silver coin popular along the coast of the Seto Inland Sea during the Warring States Period in Japan. It was finger-shaped, each Ding weighed one tael, and could be exchanged for one kan of Yongle money.

Endo Chiyo's eyes lit up instantly, and she immediately tried the weight of the bag with some effort but calmly, and determined that there were 57 silver coins in it, which could be exchanged for 50 Zhengguan Yongle coins. She couldn't help but smile, and her curved eyes were shining with stars, but she reacted immediately and willingly bowed her head to thank Yuanye: "Thank you so much, Lord Nohara!"

With these fifty kan, she would be sure to survive. At least she wouldn't be forced to run around with Kotaro, going hungry for three meals a day, like in the past two months, without even a place to stay.

Yuanye shook his head, took out a document from his bosom and handed it to her, saying with a smile: "I should be ashamed. It should be one thousand strings of cash, but I am not able to do so at the moment... As you can see, I am reclaiming wasteland and need money a lot, so I can only give you this much to help you out in an emergency. Please give me a year for the rest, and I will pay you back as promised in one year at most."

Endo Chiyo took the document hesitantly, opened it and found it was a formal contract with a signature. It stipulated that one year later, as long as she came to the house with this contract, she would get 1,000 strings of money. Alternatively, she could choose to come once a month and take away 50 strings of money each time until she got 1,000 strings.

After reading the contract, she was stunned for a moment, and felt that Yuanye didn't need to do this. In fact, it was a pleasant surprise for her to get 50 strings of cash, and she didn't want more at all.

She believed that Yuan Ye could see this, and couldn't think of any reason for him to do this, so she couldn't help but ask, "Why... are you doing this?"

"This is what you deserve, and it's what Aman promised you!" Yuanye answered simply. He didn't care whether he would be regarded as a fool by her, nor was he trying to establish a character of "keeping his promise".

To be honest, after A-man died for him, he regretted it very much and hated himself for not being able to do better. If someone had told him at that time that he could get A-man back alive by using only three or four tons of scrap copper of unlikely purity, he would never hesitate for a second and would immediately try every possible way to get the copper.

Now that someone has really sent Aman back, he must have been willing to pay for those tons of copper.

After all, A'man died for him, so the money should have been paid by him. He should regard this thousand strings of money as buying his own life!

In addition, fulfilling the agreement is also for Aman's consideration.

Although Aman is not reasonable and is reluctant to spend money, she only thinks about getting something for free, fearing that she will be at a disadvantage. However, she is essentially a wild child who keeps her word, values gratitude and loyalty. It is impossible for her to really kill her savior. She will probably struggle for a while, but will still do her best to give her more money and try her best to fulfill her promise.

If she really can't afford it, she will probably make some random promises to compensate, like if Miss Chiyo is going to be hacked to death one day, as long as she sends a message, she will save her and give her life back.

If she goes, A-Qing will definitely go with her, so it will become a buy one get one free deal, and the situation will continue to lose more and more.

In order to avoid these uncontrollable things from happening, and to directly end the cause and effect, he still felt that it was better to fulfill the promise for A-man, so that at least A-man would feel very happy and could be arrogant in front of Miss Chiyo, and would not become a despicable villain who did not keep his word and could only shirk his responsibility in frustration - A-man and A-qing still cared about their credibility. If they lost the bet, they would admit it with their heads, even if it was a compromise, but they still admitted it. Since A-man was willing to gamble her life for him, he should naturally help A-man clean up her mess and protect her credibility.

Anyway, one thousand strings of coins was not a staggering fortune for him. For a time traveler, problems that could be solved with money were never a problem. It was just that he had just moved here to build the forward base, and there were too many places to spend money, so it was a bit tight. In a few months, he could just take out a thousand strings of coins and pay it off.

So, it didn't matter at all. What's more, the situation was urgent that night. A'man was furious. In order to trick the rest of the people into following her to divert the pursuers, she talked nonsense and made all kinds of nonsense promises. She dared to say anything and owed him a lot of debts. This was not a big deal - he still owed the Lang party a large sum of pensions, rewards, and a house, a good piece of land and a wife for each person.

If you really count all these, it costs more, but he still has to pay. However, just like Endo Chiyo, he has to wait until he gets the saltpeter out. Then each person will be given a stone of saltpeter and the bill will be settled directly!

Well, I can do it by purifying a dozen or twenty more stones of saltpeter. It won't delay his plan of development and growth, nor affect his ability to improve.

But there is no need to explain this to Endo Chiyo. This is a matter between him and Aman, and it is difficult to explain to outsiders.

What he said was very calm and simple, but Endo Chiyo was shocked. She didn't expect that Yuanye would actually be willing to spend 1,000 kan on Aman. Even though Aman was unable to move his chatterbox on the road before and kept talking nonsense, trying to assure Yuanye that he would pay, she never dared to believe him. The highest she expected was 50 kan, and that was based on the premise that Aman had always said that Yuanye was very generous.

As a result, Yuanye actually paid it, even if he was prepared to pay in installments.

But she really couldn't understand why Yuanye did this, and she couldn't understand why Aman, who was seriously injured and unable to move, still insisted on pointing and gesticulating, talking endlessly, as if he would die if he didn't speak, and why this annoying wild child was so valuable. However, she couldn't ask in detail, and could only guess in her heart - maybe there was a romantic relationship between the two of them, but to have feelings for Aman, a guy with a bad temper, a pair of strange eyebrows, and definitely not a beauty, this taste was too unique.

She was suspicious and looked at Yuanye carefully again to make sure that he was not joking. However, she did not dare to put the contract away. This was a huge sum of money for her. Even though she knew that Yuanye had no conspiracy and that there was no need to go through so much trouble to deal with someone in trouble like her, she still hesitated and did not dare to put it away.

Yuanye didn't care. After all, he gave it to her and Aman didn't break his promise. That was enough. If she wanted to use the paper to wipe her butt later, it was her freedom. It was none of his business. He then played the role of a good host and asked with concern, "Ms. Chiyo, what are you doing in Owari this time? If you need any help, please feel free to ask."

Endo Chiyo came back to her senses, and this time she did not hesitate for long, and immediately sighed and said: "Don't be embarrassed, sir, I came to Owari... to seek refuge with my relatives."

"Oh, I don't know..."

Endo Chiyo really needs help now, and Yuanye is a first-class person who is willing to admit Aman's nonsense. She doesn't think such an upright gentleman would harm others, so she immediately confessed: "It's my aunt. Her original family name was Ohara, but I have never found her where she is now. Have you heard of her? She married to Owari about seventeen or eighteen years ago."

"Is that all you know?"

"That's all I know." Endo Chiyo sighed again, feeling a headache.

She only knew that this aunt had a very good relationship with her mother, and would occasionally ask merchants from Owari to send messages to her. However, she was still young at the time and didn't care at all about which family this aunt married. As a result, more than two months ago, the Rokkaku family suddenly attacked, her father died in the battle, and the village was burned. Her mother, who was in poor health to begin with, could not bear the blow, and died of coughing up blood on the way to escape that night, without leaving any last words.

When she was left with nowhere else to go, she thought of her only remaining relative. She dared not stay in the war-torn area, so she could only bring her only husband to seek refuge in Owari, but Owari was also at war. She hid and asked for a long time but could not find her aunt. As a result, she was about to starve to death after searching for a long time.

Yuanye nodded slightly, and felt that she seemed to be the legendary "Chiyo", and maybe she was really the cousin of Yamauchi Kazutoyo. However, he didn't know where Yamauchi Kazutoyo was now, so he needed to look for him carefully.

He felt that he could help with this matter, and it wasn't too much effort, so he comforted her, "It's okay, knowing this is enough. I'll ask someone to help you find out, maybe there will be some news."

Well, after paying the money, the cause and effect are cleared. Then I will help her find her cousin and send her over, and the matter will be completely resolved.

This can be considered as good people being rewarded, and her saving A-man was not in vain.

(End of this chapter)