Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

The other sisters aren't on Komaki Mountain, which saves so many people from worrying. Aji is still tugging at Shichibei's clothes, looking them over from side to side. "Take them off quickly, they're half-dry and half-wet, wearing them for too long will make you catch a cold."

Yes, yes, yes, very early in the morning, I jumped into the water without even having breakfast, then went horseback riding and long-distance running. My clothes were constantly wet and then dry, and I was wearing them the whole time.

As I pulled it down, the loincloth became soaked.

He casually draped a long robe over himself, and now that he was relaxed, his stomach was growling with hunger. As for the two men, they were already slumped on the haystack; they had run back on two legs, which had nearly killed them.

There's still a bowl of leftover rice from lunch, you three can eat it. Aci brought over rice and bowls and chopsticks, and Koichiro brought over a pot of hot tea. The three of them were practically starving, so they didn't serve themselves any rice, just shoved the rice into their bowls, taking whatever they could get, and eating a couple of mouthfuls of cold rice to tide them over.

"Koichiro, where is your brother?" Koichiro poured tea into his bowl, and Shichibei remembered to ask about his brother.

"Big Brother went to find Xiao Liu." That was indeed the answer.

After the New Year, Hachisuka Koroku went upstream to buy logs, but the workload of manufacturing tens of thousands of planks that could be quickly spliced ​​together was too great, and he didn't know if it was even half done yet.

"Do you know exactly where it is?" Shichibei thought to himself that the task of building the castle in Sunomata would definitely fall to Fujikichiro in the end, so he had to find out first.

Sakuma Nobumori's plan was undeniably sound, and he executed it with great effort, yet it still failed in the end. Nobunaga must be very troubled now.

"I know, I delivered the wine once." Kinoshita Koichiro nodded naturally.

The matter has already been made clear: if Sunomata's castle construction succeeds, Fujikichiro will definitely have the money to repay Shichibei. If it fails, well, Koichiro can be sold to Kawamura-ya as a son-in-law.

Shichibei felt it was a good deal to buy Kinoshita Koichiro for a few hundred kan. After Koichiro and Aji got married and he was sold to the Kawamura family, we'd have to change his family name.

Kawamura Koichiro Hidena.

"What's going on at the shop while I'm away?" Shichibei nodded, saying he would find some free time in the next day or two to check on the Hachisuka Party's camp.

"It's nothing. Someone from the Takeda clan came and arranged the date for this year's horse delivery, so we should prepare in advance," Koichiro said after thinking for a moment.

Around May, the Takeda clan will transport the horses they intend to sell this year to Komakiyama Castle. Takeda Shingen will certainly prefer a cash-on-delivery transaction. It's quite normal for him to send someone to inform Shichibei in advance about this.

"What rumors are circulating about Kai?" Since we're having dinner, let's chat about it.

“Yes, yes, yes.” Koichiro suddenly became excited when he talked about this.

Upon inquiry, it was learned that Takeda Yoshinobu plotted a rebellion, but the rebellion ultimately failed due to the betrayal of Iitomi Genshiro. It is said that Iitomi Toramasa, a senior retainer of the Takeda clan, committed seppuku, while Takeda Yoshinobu was placed under house arrest in a temple.

The Iitomi family, a stronghold of the Takeda clan, was extinct. Iitomi Genshiro was adopted into the prestigious Yamagata family of Shinano Province, and changed his name to Yamagata Saburobei Masakage, serving as a chief retainer of the Takeda clan.

In this way, the biggest obstacle to Shingen's invasion of Suruga within the Takeda clan disappeared. The remaining main retainers were all promoted by Shingen over the years, and they all followed Shingen's will, making it almost impossible for them to oppose Shingen's strategies.

"This is indeed a big deal..." Shichibei had finished his ochazuke and was now drinking tea to cleanse his palate.

Such messages didn't need Shichibei to relay to Nobunaga; the Toyama clan, specifically responsible for negotiating with the Takeda clan, handled matters directly with the Takeda clan. Any issues the Takeda clan had would be communicated directly to the Toyama clan before being relayed to Nobunaga.

Because Suwa Katsuyori married the daughter of the Toyama family, who lived within the Tsutsuzaki Castle, such a momentous event couldn't be concealed. Even a prestigious family like the Iitomi family of Kai was wiped out.

It should be noted that when Iifu Toramasa raised an army to oppose Takeda Nobutora, and fought back and forth with him, Nobutora was still unable to sever the Iifu family name.

Sigh, we can't and shouldn't interfere with the affairs of the Takeda family. Let's just focus on our own family business.

The next morning, Shichibei went to see Kinoshita Koichiro, intending to go and check on Fujikichiro and Hachisuka Koroku. Koichiro insisted that going empty-handed wouldn't do, and that he should bring some sake.

Bring some sake for the Hachisuka party; they'll surely work even harder at whittling wood. These days, ordinary people really don't have many avenues for enjoyment; how many farmers dream of being able to eat a bowl of rice?

Drinking is definitely a great pleasure.

When they're happy from drinking, they can work even harder at whittling wood.

That makes sense, let's buy it then. In the end, all this money will go to Kinoshita Tokichiro anyway. We don't need to engage in the "nine out, thirteen back" scheme, but we can't avoid the principle of clear accounting even among close brothers.

Koichiro took the money and ran off to buy sake. Sake was readily available near Komakiyama Castle, and there was quite a lot of it. It was also easy to transport, since the sake was transported in wooden barrels these days, so there was no fear of breaking the jars.

As for your question about alcohol consumption tax? That's irrelevant to us consumers. These days, tax is levied based on the number of bottles in the liquor store. The more bottles you have, the more tax you pay. As for things like concealment, substitution, and bribery, those are deals between liquor store owners and tax officials, and have nothing to do with us.

Two boatloads of wine? That's quite a generous gesture.

Upon seeing the two boats of sake, Shichibei exclaimed that the quantity was far too much, but considering that the Hachisuka party probably had hundreds of people working on planks, buying dozens or even a hundred barrels of sake didn't seem like such an excessive thing.

Since you've already bought so much alcohol, then...

After whispering something in Koichiro's ear, Koichiro was initially beaming with excitement, but when he realized that he was in front of his brother-in-law, he quickly composed himself and pretended to be clueless.

Okay, okay, stop pretending. We're all adults, what are you pretending for?

Of course, there were also brothels beneath the city walls, and where there are brothels, there are courtesans; this profession has existed since the dawn of human civilization. There will always be people who have this need and this idea.

Although Shichibei had no interest in courtesans, after all, what beauty could a country bumpkin like her have? Back in Iifu-go, Yamagata Masakage sent us two maids to wash our feet, but we didn't have any interest in them at all.

However, Shichibei has high standards, while those bumpkins of the Hachisuka faction might not. With wine and food, plus women on both sides, that kind of life is something they probably never dared to dream of in their entire lives.

This kind of thing had to be done secretly, so Shichibei hired three more boats and, taking advantage of the fact that there were few pedestrians on the street at midday, pulled all the newly awakened courtesans onto the boats.

The madam of the brothel even demanded half the money upfront before she would go out on any missions. Even Shichibei's intervention was useless; what if he managed to abduct dozens of courtesans?

Okay, okay, you're right.

By evening, the five ships had reached the Hachisuka clan's camp in a place called Ushiko in Kagami District. Don't laugh, it really is called Ushiko.

One can only sigh, what a wonderful name!

Niuzi is divided into West Niuzi and East Niuzi, separated by the Niuzi River, which is completely covered by logs, making the water almost invisible. It is clear that Niuzi Village is indeed whittling wood for Fujikichiro.

Outside the village, there were warnings not to enter without permission, but only after Koichiro appeared were five boats allowed to enter. Everyone knew he was Fujikichiro's younger brother, so there was definitely nothing to be wary of.

Then he saw Hachisuka Koroku and Fujikichiro, their faces covered in sawdust and their hair covered in sawdust. He wondered why Shichibei and Koichiro had come.

Why?

Today's entire bill will be paid by Mr. Fujikichiro!

Dozens of "flashy" prostitutes came down from the boat, and then the two shop assistants called on the people from the Beesuka gang to come to the boat to carry the muddy liquor.

Homemade rice wine is definitely cloudy. Someone even wrote a poem saying, "Don't laugh at the farmer's cloudy rice wine; they're all bumpkins, why drink fine sake? That's enough." Sake is so expensive; even the wild boars of Hachisuka couldn't afford fine bran.

Fujikichiro was an extremely clever man. Without offering any explanation, he turned around and greeted the hundreds of members of the Hachisuka Party, "Come, come, everyone, come and drink, come and have fun. It's on me, it's on me."

So what if all the debts are on his head? He's already resigned to his fate. He's not bothered by a lot of lice or a lot of debt.

As long as Sunomata succeeds in building the castle, he will have fame and fortune.

The group of country bumpkins from the Hachisuka faction immediately cheered, chanting Fujikichiro's name. Some eagerly opened sake barrels and drank it down in large gulps. Others, driven by lust, didn't even wash their hands before embracing the courtesans.

Unconsciously, Fujikichiro's popularity within the Hachisuka Party rose to a new level.

After all, all these Kawanami people who made a living on the Kiso River wanted was enough to eat and wear. If following Fujikichiro would ensure their food and clothing, they wouldn't mind joining Fujikichiro or Nobunaga, who was behind Fujikichiro.

"It's great to be rich..." Somehow, Fujikichiro came over to greet Shichibei, and this was the first sentence he said.

"Haha, that's for sure. Money can move anything in the world." Shichibei nodded in agreement.

So what's the situation now? Shichibei informed Fujikichiro of Sakuma Nobumori's failure to build the castle. Fujikichiro just nodded, holding his wine glass.

With Shichibei's financial support, the Hosuka gang abandoned shipping and road robbery and instead mobilized to cut wood. However, cutting wood was a laborious task these days, and it would take another two months to complete the tens of thousands of different planks needed for Sunomata Castle.

That means you can start building the city in two months?

49. Building cities by throwing money around in today's world

Fujikichiro was truly holding back. Nobunaga once again consulted the senior retainers of Owari about how to build a castle in Sunomata. Shibata Katsuie and Sakuma Nobumori both failed. Niwa Nagahide returned from Yajima, but he dared not say that he had a way to successfully build the castle.

The senior retainers were at a loss. It was spring planting season, and it was impossible to mobilize a large army for battle. Nobunaga was very distressed. If they had offered advice to Nobunaga at this time, he would have been overjoyed.

But Fujikichiro just kept it to himself and refused to say anything.

According to him, he would only formally request Nobunaga's task of building the castle after the Hachisuka party had prepared sufficient planks and logs.

Moreover, suppressing it a little now might raise Nobunaga's expectations. Of course, this wasn't Fujikichiro's own statement, but rather something Shichibei gleaned from Fujikichiro's tone.

So they're starting to take advantage of Nobunaga?

Shichibei suddenly understood why Huang Jin pretended to be a fool, a clumsy and useless good-natured person, in front of Jiajing. Occasionally blaming Jiajing made him feel that you had genuine feelings for him, and that's why Jiajing would cherish you.

If you are shrewd and knowledgeable in everything, you will eventually find beauty everywhere, which will only offend Jiajing's taboo.

After resting for a day in Ushiko with Fujikichiro, Shichibei and his group returned to Komakiyama Castle. The area below was quite peaceful. The failure of Sunomata's castle construction was a matter for Nobunaga, the daimyo, and the high-ranking samurai. The common people and the foot soldiers carrying spears didn't feel that the sky had fallen.

They didn't understand the daimyo's strategic goals, nor did the daimyo need them to. All they needed to do was focus on production or fight sloppy wars.

The rest of the time was relatively peaceful, mainly due to two things related to Shichibei. One was that the Kato family was also selling alfalfa near Komakiyama Castle. Now that they had neither horses nor houses, they could only make a living by selling alfalfa.

That's understandable, and they're not engaging in price wars. After all, a bunch of grass costs thirty yuan; how much can they lower the price? They can't afford to lose money just to attract customers. We're all in Owari; there's no falling out or past grudges. We're trying to make money peacefully.

Another thing was that the owners of local brothels and taverns kept coming to Shichibei to settle their bills. Of course, Fujikichiro paid the money, but Shichibei had to pay the bills.

Originally, there was nothing to do with the brothel, but it's all Shichibei's fault for introducing the Hachisuka Party to the West, and now they're all yelling about it. Seeing Fujikichiro, they immediately asked if there were any girls there.

Is that reasonable?

But in order to continue to motivate them to cut the planks faster, we had no choice but to give in to their wishes, and wine and prostitutes were constantly brought to the cows to keep them entertained.

To the point that Fujikichiro himself felt embarrassed and started working as a waiter at Kawamuraya when he was not on duty. After all, the salary he was promised when he became Shichibei was 500 kan, but now it was more than 700 kan, not to mention 500 kan.

If it weren't for the unification of Owari, the horse-riding business would have been completely mixed into Shichibei's hands. Shichibei had been receiving cash inflows all along, but he couldn't withstand Fujikichiro's continuous exploitation.

Well, I have to give Fujikichiro a shout-out; that kid's a real workhorse. At least he's always been a dedicated helper at the shop. After spring rains and fertilizer, the alfalfa grows fastest. The next two harvests grow slower and slower. Fujikichiro came to help and almost went to the fields to cut the alfalfa himself.

They are also very good at farm work.

"Fujikichiro, take a break, sit down and rest." Shichibei couldn't stand it anymore. You're supposed to be the head of a hundred foot soldiers, it's not right for you to be loading carts for people in the shop.

"No need, we've only just begun." Fujikichiro wiped the sweat from his brow on the bundle of straw, showing no sign of fatigue.

“He’s even more capable than a horse…” Aji said to Koichiro and Shichibei, holding his teacup.

"Nonsense!" He's your fiancé's brother, after all. Isn't this comparison too hurtful to him?

In other words, as Aji said, if it were anyone else, Shichibei would have hurt you XXX.

"She's just as good as a cow." As a result, Koichiro actually chimed in with Aji, saying that before the wedding was even over, his heart had already turned to his wife.

Well, you guys really don't treat Fujikichiro like a human being.

"Have some water." Shichibei couldn't just do that, so he picked up a gourd ladle and poured some water for Fujikichiro.

"You sit down, you sit down." Fujikichiro quickly came over to take the ladle, indicating to Shichibei not to worry about him.

Good heavens, you bring your own rations and work like a beast of burden, Kinoshita Tokichiro, you're quite the character. It was my fault, Kawamura Shichibei, who didn't think things through, and now you're stuck here doing all the hard work.

"They drank so much wine, there has to be some explanation, right?" With that in mind, Shichibei sat on the haystack and talked to Fujikichiro, who was carrying hay below.

"Almost there, almost there." Fujikichiro finished drinking the water, but his hands didn't stop working for a second.

"How many people can they mobilize? Even if they don't dig trenches, just building embankments would require several hundred people, right?" Shichibei had personally stayed in Sunomata for several days and had the basic information in mind.