Owari Yumeki Golden Day

26. Shichibei Class Begins

What are you five going to do?

Everyone's holding a brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. What are they preparing for? Seeing Shichibei's confusion, Yonekura Nobutsugu, who considered himself a semi-acquaintance of Shichibei, immediately began to explain. He asked, "Could you please tell us in detail the process and materials used in making the candles yesterday?"

This is strange. Didn’t I have a serious discussion with you yesterday? Why are you still asking me this today?

Yesterday was yesterday, and today is today. I've forgotten what we talked about yesterday. Can you explain it today and I'll write it down? Yonekura Nobutsugu was very sincere, and Shichibei, thinking that he would need him as a "translator" when buying horses later, had no choice but to agree.

I don’t know how to describe the five Takeda warriors who came today. They have a state that is hard to describe. To use a certain term in later generations, they have no spiritual energy.

It's not that he has a cute, spiritual aura, but rather that his mind is like a line, completely straight, devoid of any intelligence, and devoid of any self-reflection. He could even be described as a complete idiot, hopelessly stupid. If he were on a later internet keyboard, Shichibei would probably have already started cursing.

But now there is no way to scold them. If you tell them that the fruit of the wild sumac tree contains wax, they will ask what the fruit looks like. This question immediately stumped Shichibei, because he also learned this from a novel in his previous life.

Just tell them that they don't necessarily need the fruit of the wild lacquer tree. The mountains of Kai Shinano are so big, you can go look in the forest, find all kinds of inedible fruits, steam them one by one, and use the exhaustive method to find out which inedible fruit is rich in wax.

Such a simple truth actually made these five people's eyes light up. It was incredible. Without that trick, this person was just stupid beyond words.

Forget it, let’s not just talk in this room. How about we go to the woods outside the city this afternoon and have some on-site teaching?

Anyway, the Fuchu Plain in Kai is so small that it can't grow more than 100,000 koku of grain in a year. If we start riding, we can reach the mountain in no time.

It's no wonder that when Shichibei suggested they go out and watch and talk, the five Takeda warriors responded quickly. Sitting in a closed room and listening to a lecture wasn't as enjoyable as riding horses outside.

Walking, walking, walking, Nobutsugu Yonekura lent Shichibei a horse, and everyone followed the Kamamashi River up the mountain. The Kamamashi River is only 60 kilometers long, and most of it is a mountain stream. Whenever there is a heavy rain in Kai, the Kamamashi River will immediately flood.

It has to be said that Kai is a poor place, with a bad terrain and few resources. If someone else came here, they would have been a piece of meat on the chopping board long ago.

"Look, take this reed for example." Shichibei pointed at the reeds beside the Kamashi River that had not yet fully sprouted new buds. They were half gray and half green, some falling over, some crooked, and looked terrible.

"Reeds can be burned!" Finally, at least Nobutsugu Yonekura figured it out and knew that they could be burned.

"No, no, no, reeds are not just for burning. When I was at Lake Biwa in Jiangzhou, I saw farmers along the shore cutting reeds, weaving them into reed mats, and selling them." Shichibei answered without hesitation.

"Yes, yes, yes! You can use it as a curtain."

"Besides that, is it completely impossible for you in Kai to farm in winter?" Shichibei looked at the poor mountainous area.

"The snow was so deep that it blocked the door. It was so deep that it could cover half a person."

"Why don't you cut and gather the reeds in late autumn and use them to make paper?"

Reeds are certainly not the best material for papermaking; they're even considered inferior. However, they can be used to make ordinary paper, as their fibers are dense. The only drawback is that reed papermaking requires an additional bleaching process.

Bleaching techniques are no secret; even in Japan, they've been around for ages. Bleaching raw silk and ramie is a crucial part of the production process. And the material used isn't anything rare; it's simply lime.

For Japan, a country plagued by frequent earthquakes and nestled in a seismic zone, lime is the least valuable and most abundant mineral. It's widespread not only along the coast but also inland. It's all land, ripped from the seabed by earthquakes, and it's densely packed with limestone.

There's no need for Shichibei to teach you something as simple as burning lime, right?

If you don't even know how to burn lime, how did you apply the lime walls of the Tsuzuzaki-kan?

Reeds are pounded and steamed into a pulp, to which lime is added and stirred constantly. This chemical reaction removes impurities. Once the pulp turns white, the impurities are skimmed off and the excess water is discarded. A bucket or vat of relatively white pulp is then ready for papermaking.

If you want to pursue pure white, forget it. It is 1565 now, and you have to wait at least another 350 years.

After papermaking, the paper needs to be aired to form. Kai is cold in the winter, with little sunshine, which is probably one of the reasons why no one thought of making paper in Kai before.

But you're mixing the lime, aren't you? The heat generated by the burning lime is perfect for drying the paper. Use your clever little brains! With this ready-made heat source, make use of it. Don't waste it.

Build a two-story building, burn lime on the first floor, and release heat on the second floor. Put bamboo and wooden boards on the second floor and put the paper on top. It will be dried in no time and it doesn't take much manpower.

Even if the reed paper he made was just average, could he sell it for money?

I guess.

It's safer than going out in the middle of winter to kill and set fire, or you can earn more than staying at home weaving straw sandals and horse shoes, weaving those two pairs of shoes all day long.

A pair of straw sandals was only worth a dozen or twenty coins, but a roll of paper with a hundred sheets was worth over two hundred and fifty coins. Of course, this was good paper made from mulberry or paper mulberry bark. Your paper was a bit inferior, so it would be fine to sell it for one hundred and eighty coins.

A skilled farmer could never weave ten pairs of straw sandals in a day, but a skilled papermaker could make thousands of sheets of paper in a day.

You guys can compare it among yourselves.

"Surprisingly, surprisingly, surprisingly..." The young man at the end felt it was unbelievable. It turned out that this broken reed could be made into money?

"Oh, what's the big deal? It's just following the will of nature." Shichibei figured that he would have no chance of coming into contact with the Takeda samurai in this lifetime, so he simply didn't ask for their names.

If you ask me if there are no paper-makers here, I'm kidding. Didn't your Lord Shingen's father, Shintora, get exiled to Kyoto? Let him find someone in Kyoto who can make paper, give him thirty kan of hereditary zhixing, and see if he'll come to Kai with you.

Since you are a daimyo, the dignified Kai Takeda clan, you should act like a human being. Don’t you have such a little trick?

The five warriors were on horseback, holding a small notebook, writing everything down, afraid of forgetting a single word of Shichibei's words. Shichibei just kept his word and chatted with these Takeda warriors.

It's safe to assume that since Niwa Nagahide still hasn't sold Oda Nobunaga's adopted daughter, Shichibei still has a long way to go in Kai. It's better to go shopping than just wait.

Who knows, he might find something interesting in Kai or Shinano and make a quick buck from it.

What a shame, we ended up chatting by the river until evening. It was also because these Takeda warriors were so stupid, asking everything, and all of them were stupid questions. It took Shichibei at least an hour just to explain things to them.

We can’t go up the mountain today. Let’s meet tomorrow.

Seeing that it was indeed getting dark, the group returned to the city. Since it was dark early in the spring in Kai, it was unsafe to stay outside. After respectfully settling Shichibei down, they presented him with a deer leg, saying they had nothing to offer, so they offered it as a token of gratitude for his guidance.

It's good! It's not good to have meat. Fresh venison, simply grilled and sprinkled with a little salt, is delicious. It's definitely better than ochazuke and daikon radish. Even Niwa Nagahide came to eat it.

He even asked Shichibei, "You've made friends so quickly in Kai, you're so generous, I'm giving you a deer leg." Shichibei just smiled and said, "What friends? They're just people who sit down and chat when they have nothing to do."

Niwa Nagahide didn't think much of it. Shichibei was a businessman, and making friends was a natural thing for him to do. If businessmen didn't communicate, what would happen?

That night, Takeda Nobumasa sat beside Takeda Shingen. The two of them held wine trays and each held a copy of their study notes, reading with great interest. Takeda Shingen thought to himself that he was a "civil affairs expert" who paid close attention to farmland irrigation, forests and grasslands. He had never imagined that there were so many things in his territory that had yet to be developed.

Shichibei was right. In the middle of winter, the Takeda army would either go out and rob and kill people, or stay at home and hibernate. It would be a complete waste if they didn't use the precious time to make money.

"How much is the salary of Kawamura Shichibei in the Oda family?" Takeda Shingen put down the wine dish, thinking.

"I have received sixty strings of cash." Yonekura Nobutsugu, who had just been pouring wine for Xinlian, put down the bottle and answered truthfully.

"Just sixty kan?" Not only was Takeda Shingen a little surprised, even Takeda Nobumasa found it unbelievable.

Because even the one in front of him, Nobutsugu Yonekura, his family was a lord with a salary of 450 kan. His father had seven sons. If the salaries and income of the seven sons were counted, his annual income would exceed 500 kan.

The Takeda clan had to pay an annual salary of 500 kan for each of their eight members, and these eight samurai would certainly fight for Takeda Shingen. However, it was clear that the Takeda clan had no shortage of pig samurai who could fight, but they were extremely short of people like Shichibei, who had simple and direct economic talents and could open up new sources of income for the Takeda clan.

Perhaps the role played by Shichibei alone is greater than that played by ten Yonekura families.

"Hmm..." Shingen reluctantly put down the study notes in his hand and picked up the wine dish again.

So the next day, fifteen samurai from the Takeda family appeared in front of Shichibei. They were very respectful and treated him like a teacher. They even got water for him to wash his face and a toothbrush for him.

No, what's going on today?

Seeing Nobutsugu Yonekura taking the lead, Shichibei asked him, "You started with three, then five, and now you have fifteen. Why are you here? I'm not here to teach you anything. Isn't it enough for someone to listen and take notes?"

Nobutsugu Yonekura lowered his head and responded, then said that these were all members of the Takeda family who admired Lord Kawamura's talent and wanted to visit him. They had no other reason but to admire him purely.

tsk...

Forget it, Shichibei isn't asking for anything. Just come up with a better excuse next time. We're on Takeda's property now, so it's best not to ask so many questions.

The Takeda samurai who shouted "Actually" at the end yesterday attentively brought hot tea to Shichibei and served him Kai's salted beans. It was obvious that he had been a close associate of a young man, and it was easy to see from his attitude.

"What's your name?" Shichibei handed over a wooden bowl filled with cold rice.

"My name is Muto Kihei, and I'm a close attendant of the Imperial Court." The samurai was still smiling at Shichibei, and his smile was quite bright.

"Oh..." We are quite familiar with each other four hundred years later.

"Since you are a close student, how come you have time to come?"

"My brother is on duty for the past ten days, so he has some free time." Muto Kihei also picked up a small pot of soy sauce and asked Shichibei if he wanted some.

"I see." Shichibei pretended to be asking casually, and after refusing the soy sauce, he started to eat the soaked rice.

Let’s go. After drinking your Muto Kihei’s rice porridge, I can’t just not teach you anything. Yesterday’s was a gift, and today I’ll give you some practical tips.

The group, either on foot or by horseback, once again climbed up the mountain along the Kamashi River. This time they did not linger among the reeds, but on dry land at the foot of the mountain.

The snow was gradually melting, but the dry land at the foot of the mountain, where irrigation was difficult, was still covered with remnants of snow. Shichibei pointed to the dry land and asked the fifteen warriors who had accompanied him what they could grow there.

The answers varied widely: some said they planted beans, some said they planted buckwheat, and some said they planted upland rice. Well, those were pretty mundane answers. Shichibei then asked them if the yields on this kind of land were truly terrible, with no harvest at all.

The answer is of course yes. There is not enough irrigation water, and the soil at the foot of the mountain is thin and full of gravel. The harvest is just for fun, and it is good enough if you can plant one, two, and three harvests.

One might ask, why is the soil so thin? This is related to Japan's climate. Heavy rains, hundreds of millimeters a day, create streams throughout the mountains, washing away the mountain's rocks and other debris.

Unfortunately, the river's short runoff could not hold so much water in such a short time, so Kai suffered from frequent floods. These floods swept the topsoil from the mountain foothills into the basins downstream, leaving the land at the foot of the mountains with a very thin soil layer, making it completely unsuitable for normal agricultural cultivation.

Hey guys, do you think this kind of land is suitable for growing buckwheat and beans?

Although the dozen or so Takeda warriors were stupid, at least they listened and naturally shook their heads to indicate that they were not suitable.

"So, we have to grow more valuable crops."

27. Teach Kai a large group

What to plant?

Shichibei paused deliberately, hoping to elicit some relatively plausible answers from these "students" of Kai Takeda. In those days, middle and lower-class samurai knew all about farming, from when to plant rice to when to harvest it. Even if they hadn't done it themselves, they'd at least seen it.

As a teacher, you need to teach students according to their abilities and adapt to local conditions. Since the students have all done farm work, and in this era, the only way to make a fortune is through agriculture and handicrafts, you need to get them used to thinking about ways to do things in this way.

Buckwheat and soybeans, as mentioned earlier, are not suitable for this type of land. Kai's rivers flood every year, stripping away the soil's fertility. Even planting soybeans won't fertilize the land.

The soil is barren and mixed with a lot of gravel, so it really shouldn't be developed into farmland.

"We can plant chestnut trees!" Muto Kihei dismounted, looked around, and dug some more soil.

"That's right! Kibei's answer is correct." Shichibei immediately encouraged.

Although the chestnut tree answer wasn't particularly brilliant, nor did it have much economic value, it was at least an idea. On such land, one should try to plant bamboo and trees to stabilize the soil and water.

But the main product of the chestnut tree today is chestnuts. True, in years of famine, a single chestnut tree could save a life. But in terms of economic value alone, chestnuts are of minimal use. Takeda Shingen wouldn't mind having a few hundred more chestnut trees in his territory, nor would he be particularly pleased by them.

"Gorobei, tell me what you want to say." Nobutsugu Yonekura is also considered the "eldest disciple" of Shichibei, and as the squad leader, he must be called out.

"I vaguely remember that sorghum seems to be able to be grown on this kind of land." Nobutsugu Yonekura thought for a moment.

"Very clever. What's so good about sorghum? Even if there's a flood and the entire land is submerged, as long as the top of the sorghum is not submerged, it can survive. This is a very useful supplement to the objective reality of frequent floods in Koshu in summer." Shichibei did not hesitate to praise and said that Yonekura Nobutsugu's idea was a good one.

This kind of land doesn't yield much, so it doesn't matter what crops you plant. So, of course, you should plant the crop with the highest probability of breaking even, so sorghum is naturally better than beans and buckwheat.

"Come on, let's continue thinking about how to maximize the value of the products produced on this land." Shichibei saw that the discussion was almost over, and the fifteen students were listening attentively.

"Paper mulberry tree!"

There happened to be a paper mulberry tree with leaves still hanging from it not far from the foot of the mountain. This thing was almost as powerful as a weed. In his previous life, Shichibei had seen several paper mulberry trees in a collapsed old house.

They actually grew from the yellow mud between the brick walls of the collapsed old house. This kind of vitality is so tenacious that anyone who sees it would have to say it is tenacious. It is amazing that all kinds of creatures in nature have been able to evolve and develop to this point. It must have taken a lot of effort.

He broke off a stalk of paper mulberry tree, stepped on it, and peeled off the bark. Then he asked a group of students, "What can you do with the bark?"

The students touched the bark, and some even chewed it, then spat out the pulpy fibers.

"It can be used to make paper!" Muto Kihei was the first to react, he was very smart.

"That's right!" Shichibei walked up and patted Muto Kibei on the shoulder.

This type of land should not have been cultivated in the first place. Now that it has been cultivated and a certain harvest is desired, the best approach is not to forcibly transform it with human power, but to follow its natural properties, adjust its development direction, and select the best crops in accordance with the inherent order of nature.

Infertile soils mixed with a lot of gravel should be planted with large numbers of paper mulberry trees. On the one hand, their branches can be cut to make paper, and on the other hand, their tenacious ability to survive can be used to stabilize the land at the foot of the mountain.

If a wise ruler could emerge and completely resolve Kai's flooding problems, diverting the annual summer rainstorms and floodwaters so they no longer flooded year after year, sweeping away the topsoil, then perhaps after ten or twenty years of continuous transformation, these barren soils could be transformed into fertile bean fields.

But this is not something that Qibingwei can control. Qibingwei can only imagine with these students what the future will be like. That is all in the future.

Okay, okay, after all this talk, we can finally go up the mountain.

Wherever there were farmers at the foot of the mountain, there must have been a village head. As soon as Yonekura Nobutsugu revealed his identity, the village head knelt. Leaving the horses in the care of the village head's family, the group hiked up the mountain. There was still some snow on the mountain, but it had been smoothed out by the presence of human footprints.

The people of Kai were not completely unaware of adaptability. At least they would build kilns on the mountain, burn charcoal, and then carry baskets of it down the mountain to sell.

Charcoal requires good hardwood, so the mountain near Tsutsujizaki-kan has long been burned, leaving patches of baldness on the east and west sides. This is also one of the reasons why heavy rains in summer cause large amounts of debris to wash down the mountain.

Of course, charcoal burners will also plant some new trees, but a good hardwood tree may take thirty years, let alone ten, to take shape. But if you burn it in a kiln, it will turn into charcoal in less than thirty hours.

Planting something will never burn it as quickly as planting it.

As they ascended the mountain, they encountered several women from Kai carrying charcoal down the mountain. The men worked the mountains to burn charcoal, while the women carried it to sell. This was a difficult life for ordinary people back then. Seeing Shichibei and his companions, they were curious about what so many samurai masters were doing up the mountain.

Now that they had seen the charcoal kiln, Shichibei asked the students, what are the advantages and disadvantages of burning charcoal? Since they were already here, they were not professors in charge of students, so they just followed their advice.

This time, it wasn't Muto Kihei who spoke up, but a warrior from the Takekawa clan, a native of the mountainous forests bordering Kai. Pointing to the charcoal kiln's vents, he declared that the trees below them would gradually wither and die.

Being able to observe life, he can be considered a good candidate for training.