Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 215 Open the door, do business!
Yuan Ye was also a little confused about the sudden changes in Wanjin. He was just following the old model and habitually supporting industry and commerce, and he never expected the public to react so strongly—in his opinion, it would take another three to five years before he could see any signs of this happening.

Perhaps this is a kind of "factor clustering effect"?
When certain conditions are met, without human intervention, these conditions will naturally undergo a "chemical reaction" to produce the corresponding results.

Now, Wanjin is being stimulated by policies, and the market is expected to expand, leading to a surge in labor demand. This will further trigger the migration of rural populations, creating a multiplier effect that causes a large number of zero-value laborers with "marginal output of 0" to transfer to emerging industries and commerce, resulting in a surge in the overall labor efficiency of society.
The surge in labor efficiency leads to increased worker income, which in turn triggers an expansion in demand, resulting in a "premium distribution" of wealth. This leads to an upgrade in the consumption structure, with many rural families shifting from "survival-oriented consumption" to "development-oriented consumption," thereby further promoting the development of industry and commerce.

The next step is capital accumulation and technological expansion? Expanding production or improving technology and processes to further increase production efficiency and create a virtuous cycle of "profit-investment-growth"?
Until the market realizes the expected outcome?

Essentially, this is a reallocation of labor, land, and commodity production between urban and rural areas, aiming to maximize resource efficiency through market activation.

Yuan Ye didn't quite understand it and regretted that he shouldn't have just focused on getting credits in his political economy class back then and spent all his time catching up on sleep. Now, he realized how little he knew when he needed it. He couldn't even make a proper judgment on this most basic urban-rural dual development model and was completely confused by it. But the fact that Wanjin could develop was ultimately a good thing. He probably just needed to be wary of it...

The Malthusian trap: should we guard against man-made famines? And over-urbanization leading to large-scale slums? Or should we be wary of price scissors causing rural abject poverty?
We should also pay more attention to social issues such as economic disputes. At the very least, the laws and regulations in this area should be further improved, and it would be best to set up a separate department to handle these matters.

As the leading "economist" in Wanjin, Yuan Ye cautiously observed the sudden surge of vitality in Wanjin, constantly taking notes and generating new ideas. He felt that this year's tax returns should look quite impressive.

Of course, the core of all this lies in whether the "expected market" can deliver on its promises.

If the market fails to deliver on its expectations, all of this is just a mirage, and it will all disappear in the blink of an eye. Eighty percent of these workshops will go bankrupt, and a large portion of the workshop owners may even have to hang themselves.

Therefore, this "sales expedition" should not be taken lightly. Even if there is not much gunfire or many deaths, this battle can still determine the future of Wanjin.

If it fails, Wanjin will be reduced to its original state and will not recover for the next five to ten years.

Wanjin couldn't catch his breath, so Yuanye didn't have the strength to land in Kita-Ise and seize territory. Without territory, he couldn't continue to develop, and without development, he couldn't complete his final plan. All the suffering he endured during this journey would have been for nothing!
…………

Things always progress step by step. Haruno originally only wanted to support Hirashima Kichijiro and others to go out and take advantage of this voyage to complete another side mission, but now the situation has completely changed, or rather, with the rapid development of the situation, he needs to invest more effort to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

At this point, Yuan Ye's own accumulated resources were certainly not enough, so he didn't stand on ceremony and immediately sought the assistance of his two allies, asking them to lend him a boat.

Well, in this era, Japanese warships and merchant ships were all cut from the same mold, all of them being Atakebune, Sekibune, and Kobayashi-sen. He didn't need soldiers; he just needed to lend him the ships and ordinary sailors. He planned to modify these ships and organize a large armed merchant fleet, with these ships both hauling cargo and assisting in combat.

The main reason is that there are too many small and medium-sized business owners involved in this sale, and they are working overtime to produce goods. As a result, the demand for transportation has suddenly surged. Wanjin Shipyard cannot build enough suitable ships in a short period of time, so they have to borrow them.

Once this hurdle is overcome, things will be fine. Wanjin Shipyard is expanding; give them some time, and they will gradually increase the number of ships.

Oda Nobunaga was quite generous. He was currently using Harano's construction team to help build a castle in Komakiyama. When he saw that Harano's wife had even sent him to borrow a ship, and asked if it was for selling goods, he casually lent him more than ten ships, not caring at all whether the maritime trade in Atsuta Port would be affected.

Or rather, he wished that the wilderness was far away from Atsuta Port, so that people wouldn't keep coming in and out of Atsuta Port, and he didn't believe that Wanjin could really steal all the business from Atsuta Port.

Matsudaira Motoyasu was also relatively easy to talk to. Haruno shifted his focus to the sea, thinking that spending time and energy selling goods in distant places was a hundred times better than hoarding heavy troops in the northeast corner of the Chita Peninsula and watching the mouth of the Mikawa River. Without hesitation, he fulfilled the alliance and, after a search in Mikawa, obtained more than twenty dilapidated boats of varying sizes for him.

However, he was not as generous as Oda Nobunaga. He did not lend the ships for free; the rental fee for these ships had to be paid by Wanjin in kind, and if the ships sank, Wanjin would also have to pay compensation.

Haruno didn't care. After acquiring the ships one by one, he leased them to workshop owners like Hirashima Kichijiro through public auctions. He also gathered the guards they recruited, trained them for a period of time, and promulgated and implemented the "Regulations on the Management of Swords and Guns," which was a way to control high-powered weapons to a certain extent.

After all that trouble, it was late summer when the typhoon finally passed, and everything was ready. The cargo fleet began to set sail from Xinwanjin Wharf in batches.

The atmosphere at the dock was very heavy. After all, almost all the private workshop owners from Xinwanjin had participated in this voyage. The workshop owners who boarded the ship carried iron cannons on their backs and had solemn faces. They were determined to fight their way out for their products, which had a bit of a tragic feeling. These people had borrowed a lot of money from Yuanye to expand production. If they failed to sell their goods, many of them did not plan to live and intended to jump into the sea to end their lives.

In this do-or-die situation, many people's wives and children had red eyes, and their relatives and friends also looked serious. They couldn't say much to comfort them, but could only keep promising to take good care of their families and give them another encouragement so that they could move forward without hesitation. This expansion boom in Wanjin has affected everyone from top to bottom. Most of these relatives and friends have also invested money and are waiting for dividends. They definitely don't want these workshop owners to die at sea.

After a tearful farewell, the fleet set sail amidst three conch shell sounds, and the ship began to sail. Meanwhile, on the dock, people set up incense tables and made offerings to the "Three Gods of Sumiyoshi".

These are sea gods from Japanese folklore, also known as the "Watatsu Three Gods." It is said that if you believe in them and give them enough money, your ship will be blessed and will return safely from the sea. They are quite popular on the Chita Peninsula, but now very few people visit them. Many people immediately distance themselves from these people and look around, whispering among themselves—it's fine to pray for this in private, but it's dangerous to do it in public.

As expected, these people were taken away by the police along with their incense tables before they could finish their prayers. After all, Wanjin does not welcome gods and Buddhas. The shrines of the Sumiyoshi Three Gods on the Chita Peninsula were burned down by order of Harano himself, and the head of the Saji family, who served as a priest, was killed by Aman himself. The Sumiyoshi Shrine and related organizations have been identified as illegal entities in Wanjin.

Well, after the Battle of Okehazama, the Saji family occupied Ōno Castle on the eastern side of the Chita Peninsula and refused to cede it. They also incited local shrine worshippers to riot, attempting to force Harano to concede and recognize the Saji family's rule over the Ōno Castle area.

Haruno granted their wish and burned down the branch of Sumiyoshi Shrine on the Chita Peninsula. He also killed all the male members of the Saji family, thus completely annihilating this powerful clan that was very influential on the eastern side of the Chita Peninsula. The believers who had rioted with the Saji family were all driven to Oda Nobunaga's territory and left to fend for themselves.

In any case, the wilderness would never allow any organization to share in the benefits of the Chita Peninsula, not even traditional beliefs with a following among the people.

He intended to establish this place as a base; he couldn't leave a bunch of bloodsucking leeches around. Incidentally, the Saji family was quite famous historically, considered one of the pillars of Oda's navy. Their patriarch, Saji Nobukata, married Oda Nobunaga's sister after the Battle of Okehazama—who is now known as Inu-hime, Haruno's wife.

Haruno was unaware of these things. His history wasn't that good. He simply thought the George family was a stubborn clan that refused to leave, and easily wiped them out. He even seized their fleet. Now, nearly 50% of the ships in the Wanjin Navy, including the Seki and Kobayashi, used to belong to the George family. At the time, the George family didn't expect Haruno to be so powerful. They didn't flee at all, but instead gathered all their strength to resist in the vicinity of Ono Castle, attempting to seek peace through war. As a result, they suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Ono, were completely wiped out in the castle, and all their possessions went to Haruno. It was truly tragic.

It's an inevitable trend; they can only be considered unlucky, otherwise there's no other explanation.

…………

Yuan Ye was unaware of the farce at Xinwanjin Wharf, and even if he knew, he wouldn't care. That was a matter for the police department, not for him. He was just waiting at sea.

The "Chita" is too big and has too deep a draft, so it is inconvenient to dock at a commercial pier like Shinwanzu Wharf. Its current anchorage is on a small island in Ise Bay.

That island was considered a naval base for the Wanjin Army. In the past, some islanders lived there to avoid annual tribute and military service, but Yuanye went there, planted the "gourd flag," and the island became his, and no one objected.

Since the "Zhiduo" cannot enter Xinwanjin Port, Yuanye has been stationed on the "Zhiduo" early on, leading the Wanjin navy to drift in the open sea, waiting for the armed merchant ships to load cargo in batches and meet him. After receiving the last batch of merchant ships and confirming that everything is correct, he gave an order, and all the ships raised their sails and anchored, and began to head south along the coastline.

"What a spectacle!"

Currently, Wanjin faces no external threats, and its defenses and the loyalty of its people are sufficient. There is no need to leave Aman to guard the home. She has also set off with dozens of elite members of the "Survival Clan." Now, sitting on the railing of the "Zhiduo" ship, she sees hundreds of ships of all sizes cutting through the waves and marching in formation on the sea. She can't help but exclaim in admiration, feeling quite smug and thinking that this could be called a "nation-destroying fleet."

Yuan Ye glanced at it a couple of times, feeling that his hard work over the past few days had paid off, but said casually, "It will be even more spectacular in the future."

These ships weren't all from Wanjin; some were borrowed from allies, and others were privately hired by workshop owners from Atsuta Port. They were all different sizes and very irregular, which didn't fit his engineering-minded aesthetic. Once he collected this year's taxes, he would enter a period of large-scale shipbuilding. At that time, he would need at least ten main ships like the "Chita". Only then could a fleet of them be considered a magnificent sight.

Even in modern times, it would be considered spectacular. After all, no one would build such a ridiculously large wooden box containing a bronze ship in modern times. It would truly be a wonder to see it.

He and Aman admired the fleet for a while. It seemed that they were all in good condition after setting off, with no ship showing any signs of falling behind or the formation becoming chaotic. At this moment, Aqing gently tugged at Yuanye's clothes, indicating that the seafood was ready—a pirate set meal, a very crude cooking method, which involves putting various shellfish, crabs, and shrimp in a wooden bucket and then pouring boiling water over them to scald them.

This is a traditional way of eating that poor people in ancient times came up with. It has no oil, no salt, no flavor, and is not nutritious. It is not eaten with grains. If you keep eating these things, you will get thinner and thinner, or even die. However, the daily diet in the wilderness is very healthy. It does not lack this kind of oil and water. If you just want to eat the fresh taste, I have tried it a few times and it is not bad.

Of course, we won't consider parasites or anything like that. If we have to consider everything, then we might as well just eat rice every day and not bother thinking about indulging in our cravings.

But even if it's true, it doesn't matter, he can cure it. Now his "Elderly Death Squad Workshop" produces various deworming pills, which are sold within Taiwan at a price that barely breaks even, as a form of public welfare.

After Yuanye sat down, he started eating. Aqing sat gently beside him and peeled shrimp for him. He would also feed Aqing from time to time and gesture with his eyes for Aman to get lost and stop being a third wheel.

If Aman doesn't leave, Yuanye is no longer her lord, so why should she leave?

She ate more than Yuanye, chattering as she ate, wanting to get some wine. In the end, she even ate most of the watermelon that was served simply to replenish water and had no sweetness at all—the fresh water on the ship was terrible. Even though it wouldn't smell bad while sailing near the coast, it still had a strange taste. The watermelons that Yuanye had been asked to grow were really useful. Eating a piece every now and then could reduce the amount of water she needed to drink, and even if it was a little bitter, it was still better than drinking the strange-tasting water.

Now Aman often takes boat trips and has gotten used to eating watermelon instead of drinking water. As for her past complaints about growing watermelons in the wild being a complete mess, she has forgotten about it.

The matter of the fleet's formation and navigation was not something that Yuan Ye and his men needed to worry about; it was naturally handled by the naval instructors and officers, such as Yu Da and Wanjin. They ate seafood and watermelon along the way, drifting along the coast to the tip of the Chita Peninsula, and then turned eastward, soon arriving at the port of Shizutsu on the Atsumi Peninsula.

This area used to be the territory of the Imagawa clan, but since the Battle of Okehazama, the Imagawa clan has declined in all aspects, and this place has been occupied by Matsudaira Motoyasu. Or rather, the local lords have changed their allegiance and joined the Matsudaira clan. When over a hundred ships arrived at Wanjin at once, they looked like a huge, dark mass from afar, which almost scared the lords to death. They only had the strength of two or three hundred lords, which was considered a scrap in a major battle. Surely they didn't need so many people to fight them?

They were relieved to find out that the Nohara and his companions were just passing through and would be stopping here to rest. They had fulfilled their alliance with the Nohara and Matsudaira families by providing them with some fresh water and rice, even if it was unnecessary.

Haruno wasn't doing business here. If he wanted to trade with the Matsudaira family, he could just take the land route without having to go around the peninsula and cross the bay. He was just here to reorganize the fleet, address some of the problems that had surfaced during the short voyage of the large fleet, and send out an advance team to scout ahead.

The Wanjin navy, having trained for so long, knows the situation in the waters near the Zhiduo Peninsula, but they can't go any further. In addition, to avoid being ambushed by large groups of pirates, a reconnaissance team is definitely needed.

There's no other way in this era; we can only move forward step by step, which is definitely not as convenient as modern times.

At the same time, stopping here is also to collect nearby hydrological information, so that it won't be difficult to find a place to make a forced landing in the future.

The Wanjin fleet rested here for more than a day before setting sail again, carrying arquebuses and cannons, heading towards their first business target—the Imagawa family.

Open for business!
(End of this chapter)