Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 107 Wanjin Fengxing
Yuanye wrote a letter to Niwa Nagahide, Maeda Toshiie and others, asking them to help find Endo Chiyo's aunt. The relationships between these local powerful families were complicated, and they were perfect for finding people. Then he arranged for Endo Chiyo and his servant to stay as guests first, and then he stopped investing his energy in them and continued to advance his plan.

Half a month later, the charcoal kiln, soy sauce workshop and Nohara's laboratory were initially built, and the Nohara family regained its ability to generate revenue, no longer in a state of only outflow but no income.

After another half a month, the dyeing workshop was basically completed and began to try dyeing some color samples that were easy to collect, such as blue and black, but the current output was not large.

Endo Chiyo stayed in the Wanjin camp, watching this scene curiously, feeling that this was a way of reclaiming wasteland that she had never seen before. No one here was engaged in any work related to planting, allowing the precious spring farming time to slip away at will, and no one had touched the wasteland at all. Most people just kept bringing in various raw materials and constantly shipping out new and exotic goods. The rhythm was weird, but there was a different kind of vitality.

The number of people in the camp was also increasing. Every time a team went out and returned, they would always bring back a few or a dozen people. These confused people would soon be fed a full meal, and then they would be organized into the construction team to start doing some rough work such as building houses, digging ditches, and cutting wood.

The management of the camp is even more strict. It seems that everyone in the camp is clearly required to appear at a certain time and place and do certain things. Everything is linked to each other, as if there is an invisible whip always whipping them, making them rush to and from the camp. Even eating is like a race against time. It is far from being as relaxed and free as in ordinary villages. When to go to the fields is entirely based on instinct.

Even she, a guest, was tactfully reminded of the scope of activities. There were many places that she could not enter or leave freely and she could only occasionally take a look from afar.

She stayed there doing nothing for more than a month, watching a large number of crude and ugly houses go up, watching thick smoke rising all day long, watching people being bought in continuously, and watching more and more busy figures in the camp.

Until then, Yuanye seemed to remember her again and sent someone to invite her. As soon as she met him, she found that Yuanye's expression was very serious, and she instantly had a bad premonition.

Sure enough, as soon as she sat down, she heard Yuanye say apologetically: "I'm sorry, Miss Chiyo, I have to tell you a bad news. Your aunt... passed away due to illness at the end of last year."

Endo Chiyo was stunned for a moment, but she was not sad at all. After all, she had never met this aunt, so it was impossible for her to have a deep relationship with her. However, she was inevitably a little depressed to find such a result after searching for so long. After a while of silence, she asked softly, "Then my aunt's family..."

"Don't worry about that. Everything is fine at your aunt's house. Your uncle, Lord Yamanouchi Iemon-no-sama, and your two cousins are currently working for the Iwakura Oda family. I can send someone to take you there." Yuanye had just received the reply. In modern times, a few phone calls would take no more than half an hour to get things done, but in ancient times it would have taken more than a month to exchange letters. But as long as the problem can be solved, it doesn't matter if it takes a while.

But after he finished speaking, he waited for a while but didn't hear Endo Chiyo thank him, so he couldn't help but ask curiously: "What's wrong, Miss Chiyo, is there anything wrong?"

He felt that he had done his best and should have done it perfectly. There should be no faults. Endo Chiyo hesitated for a while, as if she had finally made a decision. She suddenly asked him, "Lord Nohara, this may be a little presumptuous, but... can I stay and live in your territory?"

"Live here? You're not going to your aunt's house?"

Endo Chiyo shook her head gently: "Since my aunt is no longer here, then... there is no need for me to go anymore."

Yuanye was surprised for a moment, and suddenly realized that she had been desperate and couldn't even eat, so she thought of going to her relatives for help. But now the situation has changed. She has 50 kan in cash in her hand, and she can get another 1,000 kan in reward next year. She is already a rare wealthy woman in Owari. It seems unnecessary to go to her relatives' house to beg for food. God knows what the situation is there.

In this case, she might as well stay here. Staying here, even if she has a huge amount of money, she will not have any personal safety problems. It can be said to be a wise choice.

However, at present, apart from Aman and Aqing, the two retainers forced in by Oda Nobunaga, and the thirty Oda family members temporarily borrowed, there are no outsiders in Wanjin. Even if there are more people coming, these people are all bought family members who have a personal dependence on him and are at the two ends of the feudal loyalty chain with him.

Then they suddenly took her in, and she became the first free citizen here.

But it doesn’t matter. Having more residents is good and it can boost the economy in the future!
As for the fact that Yamauchi Kazutoyo has lost his wife...Yamauchi Kazutoyo can find another one, finding a wife is not difficult!
Yuanye was not demanding by nature. He understood why she suddenly wanted to stay and had no objection. He smiled and said, "Of course! If you like, you can stay. Well, when the house is sold in the future, you can buy one yourself. We don't have any restrictions in this regard."

"Then, sir, can I work for you?" Endo Chiyo seemed to have thought about these issues before. She immediately made a new request and said with anticipation, "I saw Miss Qing working for you before. I wonder if I can do it?"

After her family was destroyed, she wandered all the way from Higashi-Omi to Minami-Owari. She knew that the time was now in turmoil and it was difficult to maintain stability. As long as war broke out again, people without value would inevitably be abandoned, even those who were rich. So working for Harano became a good choice.

He was honest and kept his promises, had good character, and was quite capable. Most importantly, based on her observations over the past month, he was very casual in appointing people and didn't care whether they were male or female. For example, the cold-faced girl named Aqing beside him and the group of maids headed by Yayoi were often assigned to take charge of certain tasks, such as checking and registering new arrivals or inspecting the quality of completed work.

She felt that she could do it, and could even do better than these people and be more valuable than them. As long as she had her own value, no matter what happened to the Nohara family in the future, at least she would not be abandoned at will and would still have protection.

She looked expectant, and her eyes were full of eagerness. Yuan Ye was slightly surprised. He didn't expect that she was so brave at such a young age and suddenly started to apply for a job in person. However, a pragmatist like him really didn't care much about gender. As long as they could really work, he didn't care about men or women, even transsexuals. Moreover, he was really short of literate people now, otherwise he wouldn't have sent Aqing, Yayoi and others out to be foremen.

He immediately became interested and became more enthusiastic, asking, "It's really my honor. I wonder what Miss Chiyo can do?" If she wanted to work in the inner house, then forget it. He had no shortage of maids in the inner house. What he was mainly in need of were cattle and horses.

"I can read, do a little math, and dye cloth."

"You know arithmetic and you can also dye cloth?" Yuanye was surprised for a moment. Knowing how to read is normal, after all, even if the daughter of a military family does not go to school properly, she still has to know how to read. But arithmetic and dyeing cloth are obviously not things that a young girl should learn.

Endo Chiyoko's face was slightly gloomy. "My mother...was not in good health before, and I have been the housekeeper since a few years ago, so I taught myself some arithmetic. In addition, our village is rich in lake indigo, so I...occasionally took people to dye coarse cloth and secretly sold it to passing merchants to supplement the family income."

So that's how it is. Suffering can really train people. No wonder she will be able to control the financial power of the Yamauchi family in the future and even influence the family's stance. It turns out she has been so capable since she was a child!

Yuanye looked at her with admiration, but did not believe her directly. He drafted a topic for her to write a document and gave her two arithmetic problems, asking her to roughly calculate the area of a certain piece of land and estimate how much earth would be needed to dig a canal, as well as how much manpower and time would be needed.

Although Endo Chiyo didn't know what a job interview was, she knew it was very important. So she cheered up, sat at her desk, and completed the "test questions" carefully, checking them over and over again.

When Yuanye took it in his hand, his eyes lit up slightly, and he found that her handwriting was very good, much better than that of Aman, Aqing, Yayoi, the Taoi brothers and other night school students. Moreover, her calculation ability was also quite good. Even without counting rods, she managed to solve the rather complicated word problem at the back just by mental arithmetic.

This is quite rare in this era. She can be called a professional. Many serious warriors cannot compare to her.

Yuanye's attitude instantly became more amiable. He nodded repeatedly after seeing the answer: "Not bad, not bad!" Then he said to her seriously after a moment's hesitation: "If you don't mind, Miss Chiyo will serve as Wanjin Magistrate in the future. How about an annual salary of ten kanwen?"

Wanjin Bugyo was a position he had invented, which was actually an official in charge of miscellaneous affairs. However, there was no one doing this job now, and Aman's injury had not healed completely and he was still lying down. Aqing was too cold-tempered, and he had been following Aman, a wild child with many evil ideas, since he was a child, so he developed a character that did not like to make decisions. He could only follow orders and could not do anything.

The Momoi brothers and Yayoi have limited abilities and knowledge, and are equally indecisive and incompetent. Maejima Jiro is now busy being the "transport captain", running around collecting raw materials and delivering goods, and has no time.

As for the two yorikunis sent by Oda Nobunaga... they are not trustworthy. Being foremen is their limit. It is not convenient to let them participate in too many important matters.

So, before, all the chores were taken care of by Yuanye herself, and she has been too busy for a long time. Now that Chiyo has suddenly appeared, the general chores can be assigned to her. After all, she also managed the Endo family before. Even if the scale is small, at least she is an experienced talent.

As for whether it works, we can wait and see. If not, we can remove her. After all, we are really short of people now.

Harano made the decision, and Endo Chiyo didn't expect that just when she tried to ask, Harano actually accepted her and was willing to give her an annual salary, which was equivalent to recruiting her as an official. He also gave her the power to carry out the decision, showing extraordinary trust in her.

For a moment, her heart seemed to skip a beat, and she felt as if something had sprouted in her heart. She was a little excited for a moment, but she had good self-control and immediately calmed down. She showed a decent smile to Yuanye, bowed and saluted, "Thank you so much, Lord Nohara, I will work hard and will never let you down!"

(End of this chapter)