Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

When talking about his strengths, Takigawa Kazumasu was quite proud, as there were no forty-eight families in Kita-Ise. If you counted all the small local tyrants with only a few hundred kan of land, there would only be a little over forty families.

Regarding Shichibei's mention of the so-called "Forty-Eight Families of Kita-Ise," he stated that he had never heard of it. Unbeknownst to them, this was yet another instance of the widespread forgery of military chronicles during the Edo period, where some clever writer, drawing inspiration from the 48 techniques of sumo wrestling, arbitrarily added drama to Kita-Ise.

There were only five or six truly significant powers. Moreover, they were all opportunists; when the Rokkaku clan invaded northern Ise, they all sided with them. The Rokkaku were at a disadvantage in their struggle against the Miyoshi clan, and were defeated twice by the Asai clan. Finally, the "Kannonji Incident" broke out, and their power shrank drastically, naturally erasing their influence in northern Ise.

Right now, Kita-Ise is a prime target. This is because the various clans of Kita-Ise haven't formed a loose, unified alliance like the Kokujin-shu of Nishi-Kōjō. They are still engaged in internal strife and haven't banded together to defend against external threats.

He was simply blessed with extraordinary talent.

Alright, the two of them have now arrived at Iwakura, the Iwakura Castle of the Oda clan. Iwakura Castle is now a ruined castle, it was destroyed by Nobunaga, so if they don't demolish it, they'll just wait for him to rise again.

Moreover, the stone and wood from the demolished Iwakura could be reused repeatedly. Many temple halls or gates in later Japan were purchased by temples or donated to them after the demolition of the various domains' castles during the Meiji Restoration.

Moreover, when Nobunaga attacked the castle, he carried out a so-called "burning attack," which involved burning many buildings inside. Now, the site is just ruins, and in another ten or eight years, it will most likely be leveled by the locals and turned into farmland.

No, we can't level the land for the common people. After Nobunaga attacks northern Ise, we'll need to build a post station here.

Shichibei didn't dismount, but instead followed Sakuma Nobumori's example, urging his horse to measure the size and circumference of the Iwakura Castle site with its legs. Although called a castle, Iwakura Castle was actually only a little over a hundred meters long and wide.

Consider that in the early Sengoku period of Japan, a castle of this size was the residence of a local governor or magistrate. The fact that the two sides fought for thirty to fifty years around such a castle, which was only a hundred meters long and wide, without a clear victor, gives us an idea of ​​the intensity of the wars at that time.

When Yamauchi Kazutoyo's father was defending Iwakura Castle, he probably thought that his family's castle was so large and strong that it was the strongest castle in the whole country (Owari Province).

Seeing Shichibei riding his horse across the castle site, measuring its circumference, Takikawa Kazumasu immediately understood that Shichibei was planning the size and layout of the post stations along the streets. He then rode up and praised Shichibei for his diligence.

Sigh, what kind of diligence is this? Once you've received Nobunaga's orders, you have to work for him. Actually, Nobunaga isn't the best boss, but he's not bad either; at least he pays you handsomely if you work hard for him.

Nobunaga paid 500 kan for the repair of the post station in Sunomata, but Shichibei only spent a little over 200, leaving 300 kan remaining. With such a generous budget, the laborers were naturally willing to work hard.

"You flatter me, you flatter me..." Shichibei smiled.

"Shichibei is now quite a figure who serves the Odate-sama," Takigawa Kazumasu said, his words seemingly deliberately emphasizing his intellectual status.

There's a sense of deliberate effort in the choice of words and sentence structure. Although it's normal speech, it just doesn't feel "common" enough.

"I am just a small merchant, but I am fortunate to have your trust, my lord."

"I heard that Prince Sumeragi's younger brother married your sister?" Takigawa Kazumasu said with a hint of emotion.

"Yes, just a short time ago."

"what……"

Kazumasu's sigh was quite long. He was already over forty, so it was naturally impossible for him to ask Shichibei for a wife from the core samurai group of Shimotsuki. Perhaps he was lamenting that if he were ten or twenty years younger, he might have had the same opportunity.

It's understandable. After all, in the future, the daughters of the old Oda, the old Owari, and the old four counties of the samurai will be in high demand throughout the land until Nobunaga dies suddenly.

In total, there are probably only two or three hundred households whose daughters meet this standard.

Furthermore, Takigawa Kazumasu's eldest son, the future Takigawa Kazutada, is only a little over ten years old. Although they could be engaged, it's still a bit early, and besides, as a mercenary leader, he's really embarrassed to propose marriage to Shichibei for his son. His own status is rather low.

"Let's go." Shichibei had finished surveying the site of Iwakura Castle and, having a clear understanding of the area, prepared to continue on his way.

"Do you do all these things yourself, Shichibei?" Takigawa Kazumasu asked, putting aside his感慨 (feelings of admiration/reflection) and showing some curiosity.

"Kawamura-ya is actually short-staffed," Shichibei said frankly.

Do you know about the five hundred followers of Na'u?

56. Yi Yi helped me recruit partners.

Five hundred people of one mind gathered in Nawu.

This is a term that needs some explanation. First, "Nanoya" is not a shop name, but a company name. For example, the Shichibei family was known as Kawamura Denmaya. The famous Mitsukoshi Department Store in later Japan was originally the Mitsukoshi-ya Gofuku-ten (Mitsukoshi-ya Clothing Store) during the Edo period.

In modern times, "naya" refers to a warehouse. In Sakata, in the Tohoku region of Japan, there are large-scale naya buildings from the Edo period that have been preserved.

In the present day, large merchants who own extensive port warehouses and deal in grains, alcohol, soy sauce, miso, and seafood, while also engaging in transportation logistics, marine insurance, and loan guarantees, are called "Nayashu".

Having large warehouses indicates that a businessman possesses substantial capital, a robust sales network, and dedicated security personnel, all of which demonstrate his strength.

If we add a major premise before "Nayashu" (the group of people who live in the town of Sakai), namely "Sakai-machi Nayashu" (the group of people who live in the town of Sakai), then it refers to Imai Munehisa.

Imai Munehisa was qualified to become a storehouse lord because he was the daikan (deputy governor) of the Imperial Court and the Shogunate in Sakai Kita-sho and Sakai Minami-sho. That's right, Imai Munehisa also had a fiefdom governor. As the daikan of the two Sakai shosho, he built a huge storehouse complex, providing storage services for the entire Sakai town.

He then ventured into the weapons manufacturing and financial credit industries, gradually expanding his power and becoming a leader of the Sakai Gaishan. Those who served him were known as the "Naya Five Hundred of Co-op Soldiers".

The number 500 is an approximation; it doesn't mean that Imai Munehisa actually had 500 subordinates. It's just a figure of speech.

When Takigawa Kazumasu brought this up, he was asking Shichibei why he didn't follow the example of other big bosses and recruit talented ronin samurai, farmers, and townspeople to serve under the Kawamuraya. This would have expanded the Kawamuraya organization and created an efficient business system, eliminating the need for him to handle everything personally.

Sigh, do you think I don't want to?

We're in Owari, right? In Owari, any decent talent is recruited by Nobunaga, and most of them voluntarily go to serve him. Nobunaga's territory is constantly expanding, and following him means receiving rewards, even titles and honors. Once you're employed by Nobunaga, it's like entering a period of rapid advancement in life.

Compared to the salary offered by Kawamura-ya, or even equity, the hereditary fiefdom of Tokiyo is clearly more appealing.

Besides, becoming a samurai meant being a superior person, wielding worldly power. Whether it was administration or the judiciary, everything was manipulated by the samurai. How could a merchant ever be so carefree?

The reason why no large merchant groups in Owari or Omi emerged alongside the rise of the samurai groups in history is related to the fact that Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who were born into powerful families, frantically recruited talents from both countries to enrich their samurai groups.

Especially in this day and age, the Japanese accent problem is so severe that it's completely incomprehensible outside of one's home country. This issue will persist until 2024. Suppose someone goes to Aomori, Japan, and looks for elderly people; even native Japanese speakers would have difficulty understanding their Japanese.

Due to this significant language barrier, coupled with a shortage of talent, merchant groups in Owari and Omi were completely unable to expand.

So don't even mention having Shichibei recruit townspeople from other areas. Townpeople from other areas are out of place and won't be able to integrate into the Kawamuraya. Unless they are samurai with a certain level of education who can speak some standard Mandarin or Tokyo dialect, they might have less trouble communicating with the people of Kawamuraya.

Would a samurai like that become a merchant?

As for those cultured people you asked about? They were either high-ranking officials or monks, so it's even less likely.

Running a school? Shichibei had considered this idea. Five years of elementary school would basically make him usable. But there's a crucial question: why should he be allowed to use him?

I've studied at your school for five or seven years. Wouldn't it be better for me to go and serve Oda Nobunaga and become a superior person? After all, Oda Nobunaga is always short of people and always needs people to join him.

Shichibei couldn't form a strong personal bond with the students at the school to guarantee they wouldn't run away after completing their studies. Even the employees in our shop only had seven or nine-year apprenticeship contracts. After the contracts ended, most apprentices chose to stay at the shop, but that was voluntary.

Inase Yoshinari is the one who switched jobs from Boss Ito to come to our company. Boss Ito trained him for seven years, and although he also exploited him as a child laborer for seven years, he taught him literacy, arithmetic, accounting and other skills, which are priceless these days.

So, Shichibei has no intention of running any school at all. What's the point of training someone for five or seven years for free, without even being allowed to exploit their labor, only for them to leave in the end?

With that money, why not poach the employees trained by the big bosses in Tsushima and Atsuta? They'll all eventually fade into obscurity anyway. Like the Tsushima clan, who quickly perished in the Edo period due to the gradual silting up of the lower Kiso River, losing their convenient water transport.

Although the Tsushima Ushito Tenno Shrine still exists and Monzencho is quite prosperous, a town without water transport support is bound to have a development ceiling.

"The Sasaki family in Hunan has been in turmoil for the past two years, and their people are quite scattered. You might want to give it a try." Takikawa Kazumasu just mentioned it, and whether it would work out or not was not up to him.

"His family..." Shichibei gave a simple response, not particularly enthusiastic.

The Rokkaku family was indeed in turmoil, but they could have gone to serve Azai Nagamasa, or Asakura Yoshikage, or even Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Don't laugh, Ashikaga Yoshiaki wasn't acting alone. He was surrounded by hundreds of people; these poor wretches weren't even qualified to receive him.

Hatakeyama Akitaka, now known as Hatakeyama Akitaka, serves Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Hosokawa Fujitaka, Isshiki Fujinaga, and others serve Ashikaga Yoshiaki without pay.

Even after Ashikaga Yoshiaki was exiled by Oda Nobunaga and fled to the Mori clan's Bigo Tomo Castle, he still had hundreds of followers. However, a considerable number of samurai among the shogunate retainers were absorbed and absorbed by Akechi Mitsuhide, which enabled Akechi Mitsuhide to mobilize and organize a massive army of several thousand men.

If it weren't for benefiting from the legacy of the Muromachi Shogunate's retainers, Akechi Mitsuhide might not have had the resources to rise to such prominence.

The Muromachi Shogunate was now in a state of decline, but its power remained strong. Many people were willing to work for Ashikaga Yoshiaki, even bringing their own provisions, hoping to become the future Shogun. Compared to Shichibei, who had little reputation, Ashikaga Yoshiaki was clearly a more worthy candidate for their allegiance.

"Quite a few have fled to Koga," Takigawa Kazumasu remarked, noticing that Shichibei didn't seem particularly enthusiastic.

Historically, the Rokkaku clan suffered several major defeats at the hands of attacks, and each time they fled to Koga to await a better opportunity. For example, when Oda Nobunaga defeated Rokkaku Yoshikata and his son Yoshiharu, the father and son also fled to Koga.

The same thing is happening now. After Goto Kentoyo was killed, the samurai associated with the Goto family began to flee. Some went to join his family, while others went to Koga to lie low.

A small portion of them followed mercenaries like Takikawa Kazumasu, doing dirty and strenuous work to earn a meager income to support their families. After all, this way they wouldn't have to leave Hunan for long and could "wait for the opportune moment" there. Once the tide turned, they could launch a counterattack, defeat Rokkaku Yoshiharu, and their families could rise again.

"Hmm?" Shichibei understood the implication.

To be honest, even temporary work would be good. After all, I'm a businessman; surely I know the principle that if there's profit, we'll cooperate; if there's no profit, we'll part ways? In the business world, there are no such things as eternal friends or unwavering loyalty.

If some of the lower-ranking samurai who fled the Rokkaku family are willing to work at Kawamura-ya, not as a samurai but as a clerk, handling paperwork, accounts, or managing sales, then even temporary work would be fine.

"Leave this to me." Seeing that Shichibei was finally moved, Takikawa Kazumasu, who was eager to befriend Shichibei, immediately chimed in.

"Well, then I'll accept your offer." It's a big no-no to speak too intimately with someone you don't know well, but Shichibei really does lack available manpower.

When the Kato family was initially acquired, only their thirty-odd employees and thirty-odd apprentices were incorporated. As for the retainers, there were only eight families. Now there are nine, with the addition of Inase Yoshinari.

Consider it an obligation to Takigawa Kazumasu. Given his current position, it's highly unlikely he's trying to plant any spies in Kawamura-ya. More likely, it's about cultivating a good relationship with Ichiban Shichibei and strengthening his ties with the Owari samurai.

"No problem, no problem." Favors are something you have to repay.

Don't think that owing favors is a bad thing. If both parties have something that the other can use, then owing favors to each other and repaying them will make the relationship stronger and stronger, and the stronger the relationship, the easier it is to get along.

It's truly a bad thing to owe favors when you have no use for others. Relationships will thin out over time, and it's not impossible for them to turn into enemies later.

Upon reaching Tsushima-cho, the two parted ways. Takigawa Kazumasu went to Kanie, while Shichibei returned to the Kawamuraya main store. Kanie was not far south of Tsushima-cho.

With Inase Yoshinari and his family in charge of the main store, everything was fine. Everyone was already used to Shichibei running between Tsushima and Komakiyama. Now that Shichibei had returned and requested two employees to help plan the street routes of Owari, it caught their attention.

What? Nobunaga is going to wage war against the south?

Shhh!

Even if you know the truth, don't open your mouth and tell others. Shichibei needs to find two bold and careful men to go north to Ise and pave the way for Nobunaga.

He invited the two families over and had Inase Yoshinari listen in. Shichibei then relayed Nobunaga's instructions to a small group, essentially on a one-to-one basis. After all, they would be needed to do the work later, and Shichibei couldn't very well go and carry out the infiltration himself.

Last time, when he went to build the castle with Shibata Katsuie, Kotaro Sō, who came running back eagerly, was the first to express his understanding. His "Sō" has absolutely no relation to the "Sō" of Tsushima; the latter's "Sō" is derived from the "Kotaro clan."

Instead of calling him Zongzuo, it would be better to call him Zengzuo, or Kisogawa Zuibao. But these days, people's education level is low, just like Saito Tatsuoki across the street in Mino, who is called both Saito Tatsuoki and Naito Tatsuoki.

Our Otate-sama, Oda Nobunaga, has been rumored for years to be Oda Nobunaga, that's the situation. These days, everyone's education level is about average, so we just get by.

I don't know which generation in the Zong family made a mistake, and then they just stuck with it, and the surname became Zong.

Alright, you're so enthusiastic, so you'll be in charge of sending people to Kita-Ise from now on. Remember to liaise with Takikawa Kazumasu of Kanie Castle; he also has Yamabushi and Nobushi from Koga assisting him.

Zongsuke readily agreed. He was indeed clever, given his childhood friendship with Shichibei, who had grown up collecting horse manure together.

As for planning the street routes, Shichibei had already taken one step, so there was no need to discuss it further; he could proceed directly to drawing the plans. The only troublesome part was clearly marking the length of the routes to ensure Nobunaga understood them.

These days, it's not like we don't have technology that can use the sun, determine angles, and calculate road distances directly using data from mountains or human figures. But Shichibei didn't know it, and neither did anyone at Kawamura-ya. I wonder if this now-advanced mathematical calculation method has been introduced to Japan.

The Japanese use a simple, albeit clumsy, method: they find a rope, no matter how many meters or lengths it is, and measure it section by section, a method called the "rope stretching" method.

When Ishida Mitsunari surveyed the land, he used standardized ropes and rulers to measure the area where the Taiko Repository was located. His ruler was later preserved and became a National Treasure of Japan. After all, it is one of the important witnesses to the standardization of weights and measures in Japan, just like the bronze weights from the Qin Dynasty in China are also National Treasures.

Before Ishida Mitsunari, the chieftains of "ichicho" (towns) throughout Japan were not unified. Under the forceful orders of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a unified standard was barely established, but it was not fully implemented in the end. It was only through the Meiji Restoration and the use of Maxim that the country was unified.

After all, during the Meiji era, people were actually willing to fire machine guns at Japanese farmers...

Shichibei had already come up with a plan for the locations of several post stations. For example, the Iwakura Castle site he had seen before had two layers of water-filled moats next to it, with running water, making it very suitable for building post stations.

Since Shichibei had his own ideas, Inase Yoshinari and the others didn't say anything more and just went for it. After all, it was Nobunaga's order, so they had no choice but to obey.