Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 250 Simple Task

About twenty miles northwest of Lujin Port, there is a large village called Songshan Village.

Built against the mountain and with cultivated fields along the river, the village has a population of over 2,000 people in more than 500 households. It is fortified with walls, watchtowers and other defensive facilities, making it the largest village in the area. Bandits generally dare not target them.

But of course, they were nothing compared to a professional army like the Wanjin Army.

In particular, the Kitabatake clan had been forced to retreat to the Nozu area and besiege the castle. This area had been effectively abandoned. As soon as the Wanzu army arrived, they automatically opened the gates and surrendered without even thinking of resisting. They were very obedient.

When Nabetaro and his group arrived at Matsuyama-sou, they found a peaceful and tranquil village. All the villagers were ordered to stay at home, keep their doors closed, and not move around freely. They were not even allowed to shout.

In short, martial law has been imposed here.

Nakataro glanced at it casually, then showed his identification to the guard and soon met the flag captain of the garrison.

Martial law cannot last forever and will eventually be taken over by the civil administration system. Nakataro and his men are here to take over the management of Matsuyama-sou in order to free up the field troops.

The handover was completed quickly, and the small unit could break camp and continue forward. However, the young flag captain glanced at Nabetaro's group, which consisted of only about twenty people, including two women, and politely asked, "Chief Minami (Nabetaro's self-given surname), would you like me to have one or two flags stay for another two days?"

"No need, we can handle it." Nagataro patted his short-handled arquebus and the domaru on his body, and politely declined with a smile.

The flag captain nodded and said nothing more. He quickly gave the order to set off. The hundred-man flag team loaded their supplies onto the carts, drove the draft horses, and sang military songs as they caught up with the main force.

Nakataro stood by the roadside to see them off, watching the flag team leave. He felt a little nostalgic for his own military life back then. It was quite boring being locked up in the military camp all day. For a while, he would count down the days until he could be discharged. But after leaving, he missed that simple, fulfilling, and regular life.

Moreover, the current Wanjin Army is very different from what he was like back then. They are all good young men around twenty years old, unlike back then when they were of different ages, heights, and weights, and many of them were ugly and undesirable.

The Wanjin Army at this time, in terms of manpower alone, is several times stronger than they were back then.

He stood at the village entrance for a while, reminiscing, then turned to his subordinates and said, "It's time for us to get to work. Unload the grain and prepare to distribute the rations!"

They didn't come empty-handed; they brought a batch of beans, buckwheat, taro, and other grains that are difficult to store for long. During famine, nothing is more reassuring than a bushel of grain. As long as the villagers cooperate, they can gradually receive enough rations to last until next spring's planting, preventing them from rebelling. There hasn't been an uprising here yet, not because they don't want to, but simply because the Kitabatake clan's army was nearby, and the villagers dared not.

Moreover, because thousands of Kitabatake's men had been stationed nearby, this place was even more short of food than many villages, and most of the food was forcibly plundered by Kitabatake.

Nakataro's subordinates all obeyed and left, while Nakataro began to wander around the village at his leisure.

The Songshan Manor remained quiet, with no one showing up. However, since Guo Taro had several years of "rural work experience" after his demobilization, he could still detect that many people were "spying" on him, and he could even sense the hatred, confusion, and fear in their eyes.

The hatred was directed at him as a "warrior"—he wore armor, carried a sword, and had a cannon on his back; his clothes were quite fine, and he looked like a warrior.

The villagers are confused because they don't know what will happen next, and many of them don't even know who he is. Some of these villagers will never leave the village in their lives, and most of them have never even heard of Wanjin.

The fear stemmed from the worry that this "new samurai lord" would plunder indiscriminately, since they were, in a sense, "losers," and in this era, it was only natural for victors to rob the vanquished; anyone who didn't was considered mentally challenged.

Of course, these gazes might be imagined by Nakataro, but he himself came from a village background. After being demobilized, he was assigned to Nanbu City and was responsible for rural work for several years. He participated in a series of tasks such as land distribution and agricultural tax collection. He had been dealing with all kinds of villagers and knew them very well. He believed that these villagers were thinking about these things right now.

Therefore, he didn't care about these stares and was fully confident in solving these problems and gaining the villagers' approval, since Wanjin had ready-made solutions that he could apply.

It was precisely because of his experience that he and hundreds of lower-level officials were transferred here to stabilize the rear of the Wanjin Army as quickly as possible.

Yes, there were many such villages on the Chita Peninsula back then. After Wanjin forcibly drove out the samurai clans, Haruno led his men to gradually take over these villages, constantly adjusting policies and accumulating a lot of experience. Even the current situation in Matsuyama Village is very similar to the situation Haruno and his men faced back then—one was suffering from wind, drought, and flood disasters, and the other was suffering from insect plagues. Both were short of food, so they could completely follow a template, and both could follow a very mature template.

After taking a quick look around Matsuyama Village, Nakataro had a general idea of ​​the situation and felt that his mission was quite easy. At least this wasn't one of those villages with severe brainwashing—those were the most difficult to deal with. Back when he destroyed shrines and temples in Wanjin on the Chita Peninsula, he had encountered armed resistance from brainwashed villagers. In the end, he had to break up the entire village and forcibly resettle the villagers to suppress the evil flames, which was quite troublesome.

Fortunately, Songshan Village is different. There are definitely believers in the gods, but they seem to believe in all sorts of things and can't really unite, so they can't go completely crazy.

The government of Wanjin, or rather, the government of Haruno, still attached great importance to rural work. After all, medieval Japan was a standard and purely agricultural society, and farmers were the main force of social production. Without properly settling the farmers, society could not be stable at all, and there would be no way to develop industry and commerce.

If the primary industry can't be managed well, then there's no point in talking about the secondary and tertiary industries. Yuan Ye has at least gone to university, so he has that much sense. Moreover, as a time traveler, he can adopt a "take-what-you-need" approach, directly modifying and transferring existing modern experiences. It would be hard for him not to succeed.

He had no choice but to move. Rural work is tough; you can encounter all sorts of bizarre things, and it's not something one person can handle with their own wisdom alone.

Yuan Ye directly copied the practices of modern countries like South Korea and the Soviet Union. He copied everything from how to reduce annual tribute, how to allocate directly managed fields, how to run state-owned farms, how to collect agricultural taxes, how to prevent shirking responsibility, and how to prevent policies from being exploited by those with ulterior motives. He even copied the final, mature version, skipping all the detours in between.

Historically, there have been instances of taxes being reduced and land being distributed, yet no grain was harvested; or taxes being widely perceived as unfair, sparking resistance; or taxes gradually becoming concentrated on a few individuals; or even fostering laziness. These kinds of things have happened before. Solving these seemingly insignificant but potentially life-threatening problems truly requires countless flashes of inspiration and is extremely difficult.

These things are rarely understood in modern times. Haruno was also very stumped when he encountered practical problems. He tried his best to recall and slowly experimented before he finally solved them. In the process, he also brought out a large number of grassroots cadres like Nakataro.

In a sense, Nakataro and his gang, like the Wanjin Army, are important pillars of Wanjin. Even though they may seem insignificant and are not noticed in daily life, they are actually Wanjin's most valuable asset.

Now, it's time to cash in on your wealth.

Soon, the bells rang in Songshan Village, and with the "work team" shouting along the way, the villagers hesitated for a moment before leaving their homes and gathering in the open space at the village entrance.

The crowd was uneasy, with noticeably fewer women, especially young women, and those who did come out were all covered in soot and dirt, as if they wanted to smear their faces with soot. Pottaro didn't seem to care. Standing on the earthen platform, he first gave a brief self-introduction, then said directly, "Fellow villagers, please don't worry. I've gathered you here to say three things."

First of all, from now on you will all be residents of Wanjin.

Secondly, to facilitate future work, everyone will be registered in the household register. Based on this register, each person will receive one and a half dou of grain per month, with children receiving half that amount. Of course, this ration will certainly not be enough, but don't worry, winter is the perfect time for water conservancy repairs, and the front lines also need to transport grain and build fortifications. As long as you're willing to work hard, I guarantee you'll have enough to eat… We'll discuss this in more detail later. Thirdly, the land that the Kitabatake family has long occupied will also be redistributed to everyone according to the household register. The specific rules…”

Regardless of whether the villagers of Matsuyama-sou agreed or not, Nakataro forcibly changed their nationalities and planned to organize them into transport teams and laborers as a form of work relief. After all, it was one thing to transport skilled workers from the Chita Peninsula, but simply transporting laborers was too foolish. It would be more cost-effective to exchange grains—this year, the Kanto and Tohoku regions had a bumper harvest, and Wanjin could exchange industrial and commercial products for miscellaneous grains to be transported directly over, saving time and effort.

The distribution of land was a logical next step. How many cho (unit of land area) could Nakataro and his twenty-odd men possibly cultivate? The land would definitely be distributed. Wanjin only needed tax grain, and even if more grain was needed, other methods would be used, such as exchanging industrial and commercial products with farmers. There was no need to forcibly seize it.

But before Nakataro could finish speaking, the villagers of Matsuyama-sou erupted in a cacophony of gasps, whispers, and inquiries from those behind who couldn't hear clearly. Even though no one dared to raise their voices, the combined noise of over a thousand people completely drowned out Nakataro's. Even though Nakataro held a large tin megaphone that could amplify his voice, he couldn't out-speak so many people and had to stop and start shouting again, "Quiet down! Quiet down!"

However, these villagers were completely undisciplined, and Nakataro's shouts were in vain. In the end, it was only by having several old men and strong men help shout that the commotion was barely suppressed. But everyone still looked incredulous—samurai would give rations to commoners, provide food for labor, and even distribute farmland to commoners to cultivate. They had never heard of such a thing before. Was there some kind of conspiracy involved?

Even the village's prominent figures couldn't believe it. They had previously thought that Guo Taro and his group were planning to collect the annual tribute again, but instead, they uttered such an incomprehensible statement...

One of the elders hesitated for a moment, but seeing that although Nakataro was fully armed, he hadn't drawn his sword to attack anyone during the villagers' commotion, and seemed to have a kind and benevolent nature, he mustered his courage and asked, "Sir, are you really going to give us grain? What's the interest rate...?"

He didn't care about the first point. Whether he was from Wanjin or Zhijin, it didn't matter to him. He didn't even know what country he was from before. But the fact that the other party was willing to give him food was a lifesaver, since there really wasn't much food left in the village.

However, he suspected that the other party was trying to create a new type of loan in order to harvest more rice next year.

If the interest rate is too high, they will still die if they can't pay it back next year.

The villagers quieted down and stared intently at Nakataro, who said directly, "This is basic food rations, there is no interest, and no repayment is required."

"Then... what does the master need us to do?"

"All you need to do is register." Knowing that he couldn't be too complicated when talking to these villagers, Nakataro said loudly, "As long as you acknowledge that you are a Wanjin resident and abide by Wanjin's laws and regulations, you can receive basic rations—it is the responsibility of the Wanjin government to prevent the people of Wanjin from starving, and it is Lord Nohara's instruction, so you don't need to worry about that!"

He paused, then quickly added, "Of course, you still have to work to eat your fill! You're in a special situation right now, which is why you're getting basic rations."

The villagers had no objections; eating and working were their natural duty. They might not have much else, but they were strong enough. Immediately, someone else shouted, "Should we also rent the paddy fields outside the village?"

“That’s right!” Guo Taro immediately said, “We will rent land to everyone fairly, according to the number of able-bodied men in each household.”

The villagers burst into whispers again. The fields by the river were top-quality rice. In the past, Kitabatake would take all the rice produced there, and now the whole village had to make up for the lost yield.

An old man, quite shrewd, thought for a moment and cautiously probed, "Sir, how much is the annual tribute?"

The villagers immediately fell silent again. If the annual tribute was too much, for example, if one mu (unit of land measurement) not only required "six public and four private contributions" but also had to provide several large logs, bundles of bamboo, mulberry, and hemp, or if they had to bear even higher amounts of "horse loans," "military rations," and "field fees," then being a tenant farmer would be no different from not being a tenant farmer at all.

Naka Taro immediately grabbed a megaphone and laughed, "This issue is complicated, so please listen patiently as I explain. Wanjin no longer collects annual tribute. Not only the land that will be distributed to everyone for cultivation, but also the land that everyone previously rented will no longer need to pay annual tribute. However, agricultural taxes still need to be paid... You only need to pay grain, and you don't need to pay any other miscellaneous taxes."

"How much grain do we have to pay?" someone shouted from the crowd, still looking very uneasy.

Collecting agricultural taxes is an extremely technical task. Every household has different labor conditions, and the harvest varies from year to year. It is normal for a bumper harvest this year to be followed by a complete crop failure next year. If the "five public and five private" system is not implemented carefully, it can cause farmers to go bankrupt and be burdened with a huge debt that their descendants will be unable to recover for three generations.

For example, if there is a disaster this year and the harvest is just enough for the farmers to eat, and you take half of the harvest by "five public and five private" (a system of taking half the harvest from the farmers), and even if this "five" is calculated according to the fixed amount for a good year, the farmers will have no choice but to eat wild vegetables. But there are not enough wild vegetables to eat, so they can only fight back against you.

Or there might be cases where people secretly conceal or underreport their yields, or even the entire village colludes to hide their production, trying to submit as little as possible or not at all. The government doesn't have the manpower and resources to check the yield of each field individually, resulting in direct losses.

Therefore, it is very difficult to formulate a standard for agricultural tax that everyone can accept, that can ensure that farmers do not go bankrupt, and that the government does not suffer losses. Fortunately, Yuanye has already solved this problem in practice. So far, no village in Wanjin has risen up to hang it on a street lamp.

On the contrary, farmers have gradually accumulated savings, which can then be used to support the development of industry and commerce.

Nagataro immediately began to implement the policy of Wanjin: "Regarding the question of how much grain to pay, we are currently adopting a floating agricultural tax. After reserving enough grain for sustenance as stipulated, the tax will be levied. The tax standard is calculated based on 15% of the output of state-owned farms and model households, and will increase accordingly based on the different labor forces..."

This issue is very complicated. Guo Taro also needs to explain to the villagers what a "state-run farm" and a "model household" are, as well as why it has to be so complicated. He talked until his throat was dry.

The villagers listened attentively. They were just ignorant and inexperienced, not stupid. They could still distinguish between good and bad. Even if someone couldn't help but want to discuss it with the people around them, they would be immediately stopped. Only after hearing Nakataro give an example of the agricultural tax situation on the Chita Peninsula did someone exclaim in surprise: "They only pay such a small amount?"

The conditions were so good that the villagers were filled with longing but also skepticism. They felt that with these conditions, they could give it a shot if Wanjin organized them to fight for Nongjin City. However, the people of Wanjin didn't seem to have that intention. It seemed that they just wanted them to live well and farm the land.

In short, this is very strange. Even if all the beautiful women in the village were offered to that so-called "Lord Nohara," they shouldn't be able to get such good conditions.

Nakataro didn't say anything more. There was no point in talking about this kind of thing. We had to see how to do it and take it slow.

He simply grabbed a megaphone and started instructing the villagers to line up to register their household registrations. He would distribute food rations to each household that registered. Without him having to urge or search for them, all the villagers who had been hiding at home came out and obediently started lining up.

After a long day of fussing, they finally managed to get these Ise people to change their registration to Wanjin people. Nakataro then immediately started giving orders: "Alright, there's nothing to do in winter. Our village is like a pigsty, dirty and messy. Let's start a big clean-up now. First, shovel out all the garbage and debris!"

The villagers of Songshan Village looked at the buckwheat beans they had just received and had no objections. They allowed the "work team" to form teams and go off to do their work.

Nakataro wiped his sweat and nodded silently.

The task was simple; the village was easily captured, and it will now be part of the Wanjin system.

(End of this chapter)