Owari Yumeki Golden Day

Owari Yumeki Golden Day

Author: Edohime

Like the morning mist rising, like the morning dew falling. Even a castle as magnificent as the waves can be easily destroyed by the power of money.

Volume One

1. I now enter Tsushima

"What instructions did the Bridge Lord give you?"

Murai Minbe, who was taking notes, seemed to have thought of something. He put down his pen and did not look at the box full of Yongle Tongbao coins. He just looked at Kawamura Shichibei quietly.

"He only asked me to deliver the arrow money and lead ingots safely." Shichibei answered respectfully with his head lowered.

Shichibei had been in Owari for two whole days, ever since he was called "kucha~~." He wore it, but the appearance was unacceptable. Why was he supposed to be 5 feet 42?

Bah, how can I make a name for myself in the future when I’m only 1.42 meters tall?

Naturally, he didn't understand the meaning of Murai Sadakatsu's question. To rush from Tsushima to Komakiyama Castle and deliver the arrow money paid by the Tsushima people to Nobunaga, he must be someone the Tsushima people trust.

The decision makers in Tsushima were the four families and seven factions headed by the Ohashi clan, led by Nobunaga's brother-in-law Ohashi Shigenaga. Relying on the Ohashi clan, the Oda clan had suppressed the Tsunekawa clan, the Hattori clan, and the Kawamura clan.

Even the chief priest of Tsushima Gyuto Tenno Shrine began to accept the Oda clan's support and became completely subservient to Nobuhide and Nobunaga under their coercion.

Murai Sadakatsu asked about Shichibei simply because he thought he might be a member of the Tsushima clan, otherwise why would he be entrusted with such a heavy responsibility. If he was a member of Ohashi Shigenaga's clan, then he would naturally be treated with courtesy. If not, then he could just pretend he hadn't asked; a few words wouldn't be worth the trouble.

Obviously, Shichibei and Ohashi Shigenaga are not related, otherwise they would have to use some honorifics.

"Okay, let's do the deal." Since he was not a relative of Ohashi Shigenaga, Sadakatsu Murai handled the matter impartially.

Nobunaga built Komaki Castle and suppressed Inuyama and Oda Nobukiyo's power. As members of the Tsushima clan under Nobunaga's command, they naturally had to pay a temporary tax of arrow money. It depends on your perspective, but the total payment was only 260 kan, no more, no less, and Nobunaga also had some intention of sustaining his efforts.

The tax item "arrow money" itself is temporary. It literally means bow and arrow money. Why do we need bow and arrow money if we are not going to fight?

As for the lead ingots, there's nothing much to say; they were purchased from Sakai by the Ohashi family for Nobunaga and shipped along with the goods. As an increasingly important military material, Owari didn't produce them, relying entirely on imports.

Yongle Tongbao coins don't need to be counted; simply weigh them. If the weight is right, it means the money has arrived. Then sign a receipt and have Shichibei return it to Ohashi Shigenaga.

The inspection of the lead ingots was handled by another samurai, Murai Sadakatsu, who called him Kyuuemon. Though new to the scene, Shichibei was no slouch and quickly stepped forward to introduce himself. He wasn't exactly arrogant, calling himself Sugaya Nagayaori, Nobunaga's stablemate. Well, he was taller than Shichibei, at least taller, richer, and more handsome.

Since she could be Nobunaga's groom, she probably wouldn't be that ugly, at least according to Japanese aesthetics.

A lead ingot was immediately taken from the scene, melted over a fire, and dripped into a ball. Once confirmed, Shichibei's mission was complete. He could return home with peace of mind, ask Ohashi Shigeharu for the horse money, and then have a good, heart-wrenching conversation. Why should others be at least 1.5 meters tall, while I'm only 1.42 meters?

"Are you the Taoist priest of Tsushima?" After inspecting the lead ingots, Sugaya Nagaya asked casually.

"Yes, I do run a business." Shichibei felt good after traveling through time this time.

At this time, Japan was still in the turbulent era of the Warring States period. The broad definition of samurai was very broad, and it was definitely not the narrow definition of samurai in later generations. For example, Shichibei, although a transporter, also owned 60 kan of Karitaka.

You say he is a samurai, but Shichibei doesn't need to wear armor and charge into battle. You say he is not a samurai, but Shichibei meets almost all the requirements of the later definition of a samurai.

The 60 kan of Karitaka was given to the Kawamura family by their predecessor, Oda Nobuhide. Theoretically, the original owner was first the imperial court in Kyoto and later the shugo, the Sasaki family, of Owari. Several hundred years ago, the Kawamura family's ancestor was a pastoral official within the Owari provincial government.

He was responsible for the breeding of five draft horses at a post station in Owari, and was also responsible for managing 60 kan of grassland and land allocated to the imperial government. After the Ritsuryo system collapsed, the emperor's horses and land inexplicably became the Kawamura family's.

Leveraging Tsushima's thriving trade, the Kawamura family, with their draft horses, quickly became the "roadmaster" of Tsushima. While not yet a member of the Tsushima clan's core decision-making circle, they were a force that the Four Houses and Seven Parties sought to win over.

If it weren't for Oda Nobuhide, it would only take one or two generations for the Kawamura family to become vassals of the Ohashi family, and even hereditary vassals.

Now, Shichibei is still theoretically a direct vassal of Oda Nobunaga!

His father sent a letter of peace to my father, and now he sends a letter of peace to me. If this is not a loyal minister, then what is a loyal minister?

However, unlike the generally known direct vassal, Shichibei's "military service" was that when Nobunaga was going to war, he had to provide two pack horses, two grooms, and two monks, and that was all.

And there are only twelve days in a year.

Within twelve days, Shichibei had to bear the expenses of food for himself and his horses. After twelve days, Nobunaga had to pay Shichibei for hiring horses and provide horse feed and military rations.

Hey, I don't know how that deceased cheap father negotiated with Oda Nobuhide. Nobuhide's settlement letter and military service account were so clear that Nobunaga felt that his father's account was too useless. If he really wanted to go to war, he would ask Shichibei for 50 Yongle Tongbao coins a day to settle the military service account.

Therefore, Shichibei only had to pay 600 coins per year, and they were no longer required to serve in the army. It's a bit like the shield money the British king levied on his nobles; this feudal system, regardless of Eastern or Western traditions, has some commonalities.

"How many horses do you have at home?" There is more than one horseman in Owari, and each of them raises a different number of horses and is responsible for different post routes.

"There are more than thirty of them, and twenty-two of them can be used directly." Shichibei has some family wealth, but that's all.

It is said that Kato Clan, the head of the Michuden horse in Atsuta, owned over sixty horses, making him a truly wealthy man. Furthermore, he was also Oda Nobuhide's merchant chief and had overseen the renovation of Furuno Castle.

"It's not a small amount..." Sugaya Nagaya nodded.

"Thanks to you." What? Is there any work for me?

"Haha, you'll have good business later." Patting Shichibei's shoulder, Sugaya Nagayari left with a smile.

He also signed the receipt, his signature flamboyant and flamboyant, but Shichibei didn't understand it. But there was no need to understand the signature anyway; just having a receipt was enough for him to check his account at home.

But what was this good business he was talking about? What kind of business was worthy of Nobunaga's horse-carriage patting me on the shoulder? Using a small pack team for war? How could that be considered a good business? Besides, fighting Oda Nobumasa wasn't necessarily a major battle.

Each side can just bring in a couple of thousand men to fight. No logistics are needed. Send troops to Xiaomushan in the morning, finish the battle at noon, and go home to sleep at night.

There are less than 20 kilometers in total.

2. Where does the dowry come from?

Returning to Tsushima along the post road, Shichibei felt more relaxed. In Komakiyama, we were the ruled class, but in Tsushima, we were part of the ruling class.

Although Tsushima was controlled by the four families and seven factions, Shichibei could still sit in on the meetings of the Huihe people. Being able to attend meetings was also a form of power.

Denmamonya, or Shichibei's shop, stood on the banks of the Tsushima River (Tenno River, Gyuto Tenno), or rather, the coast. Tsushima at that time was vastly different from Tsushima four hundred years later. The later Tsushima was far removed from the coast, as long-term land reclamation not only extended the coastline but also filled in numerous ditches and small rivers.

In the future, with the advent of roads and railways, transportation will naturally be less of a problem. However, currently, Tsushima's internal and external transportation and transportation routes all rely on shipping.

The big ship owners who sailed on the Tsushima taroko ships were the real wealthy families. In the game "Nobuo Risshiden 5," Ito Sojuro, a wealthy merchant in Kiyosu Town, was one of them.

As for the "tawarako" (rice boat) you're asking about? It's not that complicated. It's just a transport ship that measures how much rice it can carry. A large one is called a "big tawarako," and a small one is called a "small tawarako."

Ito was one of Oda Nobuhide's merchants, just like Kato of Atsuta. They were both well-known in the Owari business community, serving as both samurai and business owners, and their status in the Oda household far surpassed that of many future lords of a country or a city.

Well, what does it have to do with me? It’s good enough that our Shichibei can preserve our family of 60 kan.

The Wenwu is a shop in front and a house in the back. In the front is a stable for raising draft horses, in the middle is a small open space with no garden or vegetable patch, and in the back are the warehouse, woodshed, hay shed and Shichibei's house.

Shichibei's adopted father had accompanied Oda Nobuhide to Azuki-zaka to fight Taihara Setsai Zen Master, but they were defeated, and hundreds of Oda clan soldiers were killed in the battle. Originally, it was nothing serious, but then Koheda and Goji were right in the direction of Setsai Zen Master's surprise attack. How could this be a good thing?

He was shot hard in the thigh and back. If he had not had many horses around him, good riding skills, and the old horse's knowledge of the road, he would not have been able to escape back to Owari by holding the horse's neck. He might have even lost his life to the Oda family.

The leg injury was easy to treat, but the back injury probably affected the internal organs. His health deteriorated, and he stayed at home for four or five years before finally dying of coughing up blood.

Roughly speaking, he's been dead for eight or nine years. Later, Shichibei's mother persevered and continued working for eight years, but she also collapsed from overwork. Last year, a flood on the Nikko River triggered an epidemic, and he died.

Then he left five younger sisters to Shichibei!

That’s right, five sisters!

It's hard to understand how an old man with damaged internal organs could still have children, so the youngest sister is only nine years old this year. If you count the two sisters who died in infancy, Shichibei really has seven sisters.

It’s a good thing that he has a good reputation, otherwise why would he be ranked seventh?

Seeing Qibingwei coming back, the five sisters walked to the corridor one by one, knelt down and saluted Qibingwei. Alas, how could they afford the dowry for the five sisters?

The old man lost three horses in their prime at the Battle of Azuki Sakata. Later, medical expenses cost him a fortune, and he bought two mares. His mother, who hadn't known how to manage the horses before the time travel, hadn't been very good at it either, and the horses had been lost quite a bit. By the time Shichibei finally got his hands on them, there were only about thirty horses left.

It wasn't a warhorse. A decent draft horse would fetch five, six, seven, or eight kan, while an old one wouldn't even fetch three. Yamanouchi Ichitoyo's horse, the most renowned of all Oda's retainers, was only worth ten gold pieces, or just over sixty kan.

A sister always needs a dowry of 20 kan to be worthy of the Kawamura family. Thinking of this huge sum of 100 kan, I feel like I've jumped into a pit of fire and water when I traveled here.

Having so many sisters did have its advantages. At home, Shichibei almost just had to sit down and do everything. All the chores were done by his five sisters, serving tea and water, changing clothes and taking off shoes. Shichibei didn't even have to wipe his face himself; the eldest sister would do it for him with a towel.

"Has anything happened at home these days?" Shichibei brought the tea rice.

"Everything is normal." The sister who took the lead was called Ai. She was already sixteen years old. If she didn't get married, she would become an old maid.

As for why she was called Ayi, the old man was uneducated and named his first daughter Yi, which is a homophone of Yi. Similarly, the second daughter was named Aci, because Ci is pronounced similarly to Er.

The Owari country folk's accent is so annoying. Why don't you pronounce it as "A-miao"? "Miao" is more similar to the pronunciation of "Er".

"Yeah." Shichibei picked up the tea rice.

The family and the shop assistants who had accompanied Shichibei on this trip also began to pick up their bowls and began to eat their own chazuke. The sisters poured chazuke for them one by one, adding two slices of pickled melon.

However, being in Owari did have its advantages. At least Owari's rice production was quite large. How large was it? Owari was slightly smaller than Kai, but it boasted five or six prominent factions. Each of these factions likely started out with even greater power than Takeda Shingen. It was truly that powerful.

Of course, there’s plenty of tea and rice.

The prosperity of Tsushima at your feet was due not only to the added faith of Tsushima Shrine, but also to the gathering of bamboo and wood from the upper reaches of the Kiso River, rice from Mino Owari, ceramics from the Chita Peninsula, and a series of other local products, which led to the formation of a large-scale town and eventually became one of the Three Tsushima and Seven Minato.

In places like this where the commodity economy is booming, it is not difficult to make a little money, but making hundreds of coins is not easy either.

After finishing his rice with tea, Shichibei brought the bowl to Ai, who immediately poured half a bowl of tea into it. He used it both as dishwashing water and as mouthwash, and everyone drank it up.

Now that you are here, just adapt to it.

Many shop assistants slept in the shop itself, after all, they had to feed the shopkeepers at night to ensure they were ready for work the next morning. Others, in effect, signed a contract with the shop, spending a certain number of years "learning" there. After a certain number of years, they could come and go as they pleased. They generally received no wages, only food and lodging.

If you stay in the store, you will be paid regular wages.

These men were known as the "Danma-ya" (horse-carriers), and they were all subordinates of Shichibei, the "Danma-kata" (horse-carrier). There were more than twenty of them, some of them hunched over, some of them even shorter than Oda Nobunaga's katana.

Before retiring, Shichibei carefully inspected the horses in the stables inside the house before settling in. Having spent the past two days on the road, now that he was home, he finally had some private time and space to think things over.

There's probably no future for this job. I'm afraid of dying if I really have to carry a spear for Nobunaga, and working for others is even more impossible. It's annoying.

3. Guarding public affairs is really luxurious

Ohashi Shigenagadono was unwell and unable to meet with Shichibei, so his son Oda Nobuyuki came forward to meet him. Oda Nobuyuki was not a pushover, and after seeing the seals of Murai Sadakatsu and Sugaya Nagayari, he paid the money to Shichibei.

He even asked Shichibei about the situation at Komakiyama. Or to put it more directly, how was the strategy for conquering Inuyama Oda Nobumasa?

He was originally sent as a hostage to serve Oda Nobunaga, but was favored by Oda Nobunaga and was allowed to use the surname Oda. If Ohashi Shigenaga had not been ill, he would not have been able to return to visit his father.

After being away from Nobunaga for just a short while, he was already worried about the military situation on the front line. It seems that he is a loyal retainer of Oda.

I wonder if he will die together with Oda Nobunaga at Honnoji Temple.

Shichibei briefly recounted the news he had heard: Niwa Nagahide had been ordered to pacify the various castles of Oda Nobukiyo's forces, and it was said that this had been somewhat successful. Many of the local samurai who had previously served the Inuyama Oda clan were beginning to waver.

Or to put it more directly, seeing that Oda Nobunaga was rich and powerful, he directly used Komakiyama Castle to attack Inuyama Castle. Oda Nobumasa of Inuyama could not get the full support of the Mino Saito family, and was defeated sooner or later.

In the Warring States Period, moral integrity was a big taboo.

Judge Sasaki did not deceive me.

If you were a local lord or a noble under Inuyama, would you choose the more powerful Oda Nobunaga? If Shichibei were in the same situation, he would definitely choose Nobunaga. Not because of foresight, but simply because of power.

Upon hearing that Nobunaga's side was in the ascendancy, Oda Nobunaga was delighted and sent Shichibei away. He even gifted Shichibei a pair of straw sandals before leaving—a truly simple sight in those days. Mori Motonari thanked the nobles of Kyoto for their help in turning the tide, helping him purchase a samochi (sabori) and giving each family a sword handle.

Because the government officials did not need knives, the price was reduced to 500 coins per person.

So, Oda Nobunaga's gift of twenty-sen straw sandals to Shichibei was quite fitting. It was a big thank you for such a big favor. He was a generous man, not one to take advantage of others.

Leaving the city and returning to the town, Tsushima Town, as the gate town of Tsushima Gyuto Tenno Shrine, prospered day by day. The largest trade item at this time was ceramics produced on the Chita Peninsula, also known as "Tokoname ware."

Even into the Edo period, it remained a renowned local specialty. It's said that Imagawa Yoshimoto and Oda Nobunaga fought for control of Ōtaka Castle in an effort to gain control of the Chita Peninsula. Oda Nobuhide also married his daughter to the Saji family and wooed the Narumi and Yamaguchi families, both in an effort to control the Chita Peninsula and its ceramic production areas.

That’s great, but it’s a pity that all 3,000 linked-room pottery kilns have famous owners.

Everything was normal at home. While the Kawamura family wasn't a large household, they still had seven or eight families visiting and a dozen or so employees. Shichibei didn't need to worry about the regular business. The servants would handle the occasional haul of goods or passengers. Even the accounts didn't require Shichibei's attention; Ai would keep the records meticulously and clearly.

Every night, Shichibei would just do the math again, lock the money and account books in the cash box, and the day's operations would be over.

After handing the Ohashi family's shipping fee to Ai, Shichibei was about to sit down when someone outside called out, "Is Kawamura Touya (Danna) here?" Seeing that the man looked familiar, Shichibei stood up and responded.

There is an important matter, the Tsushima clan is holding a meeting, and Shichibei is invited to attend.

I looked at the date, and it wasn't right. Today wasn't the fourth, nor the sixth.

Why is the market held on the fourth day? Because Tsushima has maintained the custom of holding a Yokkaikan or a Six-Day Market, and a big market is held on the fourth, sixth, fourteenth and sixteenth days of the lunar month.

Many places in Japan later called Yokkaichi or Rokkaichi are derived from this, indicating that this place used to be a place for rural markets and a local commercial center.

Moreover, Tsushima's Yokkaichi is coordinated with Atsuta, and Atsuta is a five-day or eight-day market, which makes it convenient for vendors to set up stalls and travel back and forth, so they can cope with everything.

These are habits that have been gradually formed over thousands of years and will not change easily. Once they change, not only will the vendors be at a loss, but the farmers will also be at a loss.

Perhaps something important had happened, so Shichibei had no choice but to go to the town hall meeting. Attending meetings is a privilege; if you give it up, you will lose it.