Owari Yumeki Golden Day

His elder brother, Kinoshita Tokichiro, was born into a humble family of foot soldiers, but he was able to successfully infiltrate the Owari samurai group by marrying Ningning, just like Zhuge Liang’s marriage to Huang Yueying helped him infiltrate the Jingzhou scholar group.

The practice of dividing small groups based on factors such as region, reputation, and status has existed since ancient times. Shichibei was a typical veteran of Owari, Oda, and the Lower Four Commanderies. This status was excellent. Just now, Sakuma Nobumori defended Shichibei and did not add insult to injury at all. This was because, no matter what, Shichibei and he were considered to be samurai from the Lower Four Commanderies of Owari.

Kinoshita Tokichiro was able to get close to this group, but the group was less accepting of him. Now that Kinoshita Koichiro had seen Shichibei, who happened to be a relative, he naturally wanted to show some favor on his brother's behalf.

From now on, he will serve under Nobunaga and establish good relations with the Owari samurai group, which will also be beneficial to his brother.

Thinking that dying full was better than dying hungry, Shichibei accepted Koichiro's invitation without a second thought and went to his house for dinner. It was just a bowl of rice with chazuke, what was that?

The two servants followed him and went to Kinoshita's house. In fact, it was also the home of Kinoshita Tokichiro. As the head of Nobunaga's hundred-man foot soldier, Tokichiro already owned a 200-square-meter house at the foot of Komakiyama Castle.

With no battles, no shifts, and no drills to be done, Kinoshita Tokichirō was naturally home. Seeing his brother bring a friend home, Tokichirō was delighted and quickly asked who it was. He was greeted by Shichibei, the headmaster of the Tsushima clan, the headmaster of the Kawamura clan. He smiled and hurriedly entered to greet him.

It sounds like he is old Oda, so how can I not join in?

While settling Shichibei and his two servants, Fujikichiro and Koichiro exchanged a quick chat and figured out Shichibei's identity. Shichibei also observed Fujikichiro. Fujikichiro's main feature was his baldness, which was quite severe even in his twenties. As for being ugly, he wasn't really that ugly.

It was probably around the average level of samurai today, at most a little darker. But who isn't dark-skinned these days? Even the whole group in Kai were as black as charcoal.

Didn't he marry Ningning? He should be compared with the warriors of his time.

The former Shichibei looked at Maeda Toshiie, who was not much fairer, but looked a little more heroic, which was probably what Nobunaga liked. Who cares, anyway, Nobunaga looked down on people like Shichibei.

Oh, and it was a good opportunity to catch a glimpse of Ningning, one of the Three Ladies of the Warring States Period. I'd already met Shichibei Aichi before, and now was my chance to see another. Japan didn't have such strict etiquette, and Ningning had already brought out tea for Shichibei.

Emmm...

Anyway, she is not a great beauty, that's all.

After a while, Fujikichiro brought the wine and they clinked glasses. They were both humble samurai, and a glass of wine was a joy in life.

After a few drinks, Fujiyoshiro naturally asked, "Aren't you a horse messenger? After the summer harvest this year, you're not planning to attack Mino, so what are you doing in this city?"

What? It's killing me.

"What?" Not to mention Shichibei was extremely shocked, Kinoshita Tokichirō was also extremely puzzled when he heard Nobunaga's order to inspect the land.

Why would a land survey be necessary when there's nowhere to go but upstairs? While it's true that according to Japanese Warring States custom, a land survey was necessary after defeating Inuyama Oda Nobumasa, who held sway in Kamiowari, that should have been done by the family elders or magistrates, not by Shichibei.

If this task was given to Fujiyoshiro, his first reaction would definitely be that Nobunaga must think I am useless and want to find a reason to kill me.

"I don't know what to do." Shichibei said truthfully.

Firstly, Shichibei had no idea how to inspect the land, and secondly, he had neither the money nor the person to inspect the land.

"Logically, the lord shouldn't give you such an order, right? Did you anger him?" Kinoshita Tokichiro was a servant and was used to guessing Nobunaga's intentions.

"No..." If Nobunaga had really been angered by teaching the candle-making method to the Takeda samurai, wouldn't Nobunaga have simply ordered Shichibei to commit seppuku?

Furthermore, judging by the expressions of Niwa Nagahide and Sakuma Nobumori, they concluded that Shichibei had not angered Nobunaga, but rather that he was being difficult. They wanted to tease Shichibei and make him suffer.

"Hmm..." Having said that, the three of them put down their glasses at the same time.

First of all, Shichibei was from the old Owari family and a hereditary retainer. Given that the Oda retainers were clearly insufficient, he should have been given more responsibilities. Even Kinoshita Tokichirō was promoted to the rank of Hundred Ashigaru. For someone like Shichibei, it would have been reasonable for him to be promoted to a Gunshi or Gundai.

Secondly, Shichibei hadn't angered Nobunaga and had served his country diligently, even helping Nobunaga repair his stables. When Nobunaga summoned him to battle, Shichibei would immediately pack up his belongings and follow him. In terms of the principle of ruler and subject, the two of them had no problem.

Finally, Nobunaga was a man of great generosity, rewarding people for good work and never stingy with money. There was no reason why he would let Shichibei inspect the land, but then be so stingy, not giving any money or sending any people. This was completely out of Nobunaga's style.

Think about it, he took out more than 3,000 kan from Asai Nagamasa and 5,000 kan from Takeda Shingen so quickly, he is really not a stingy person.

Then why are you so stingy?

Hey, this reminded Shichibei, it couldn't be that because I earned 180 kan last year, he wanted to punish me this year and make me spend all the "stolen" 180 kan.

But what good would it do to have money? With hundreds of thousands of people and a hundred thousand kan worth of land and property, even if he had the money, Shichibei couldn't hire hundreds of officials who could write and calculate, and were familiar with the situation in Kamiowari, to inspect the land.

Although money seems to be the key factor, human resources, especially those who are proficient in writing and culture, are also crucial.

"It's not even summer or autumn yet. We can't even go directly to the fields to observe the rice flowers. How can we inspect the land?" Xiaoyilang also expressed his opinion.

The summer harvest hasn't even arrived yet, let alone the autumn rice harvest. These days, when determining the output value of a plot of land, one must first look at the rice yield, then the wheat and other grain yields. If you can't even determine the rice yield, what's the point of doing the inspection?

Don't assume that just because they're all paddy fields, one mu of land consistently produces 400 to 500 kilograms of rice. If accounting were that easy, there would be no distinction between good, medium, and bad fields, no distinction between fertile and barren fields.

"That's right, that's right, that's right." It was so hard to find two smart people who were not stupid and could sit down and analyze things. Shichibei really wanted to complain loudly.

"Let's think about it from another perspective. Everything the lord is doing now is to capture Mino. If inspecting the land at this time leads to an uprising, it is definitely not what the lord wants to see." Xiaoyilang said slowly.

Nobunaga's rambling, giving money to Asai Nagamasa and Takeda Shingen to stabilize the peripheral forces of Mino, was not just for the purpose of seizing Mino. All the things at the moment were not as important as seizing Mino.

With this as the premise, how could Nobunaga possibly inspect the land?

Land surveys would undoubtedly cause dissatisfaction among the local lords and retainers, and even a slight incitement from anyone could lead to a large-scale uprising. Just now, in neighboring Mikawa, a large-scale Ikko-ikki and Do-ikki erupted because of Matsudaira Ieyasu's excessive demands on the locals. This is a lesson learned from the past.

"You mean the lord doesn't want to inspect the land?" Shichibei suddenly grasped something in his mind.

You asked me to inspect the land, but I don’t want to inspect the land. This conclusion is so contradictory that it’s hard to understand.

"It's not the land inspection!" Koichiro thought of it faster than Shichibei.

"Huh?" Shichibei and Fujikichiro were both stunned. What the hell?

"Since conquering Mino is the top priority, what is needed is nothing more than military power and money. Money is secondary, and integrating the military power of Owari is the primary one." Koichiro directly pointed out Nobunaga's idea.

After the war in Kamiowari, some samurai abandoned their territory and fled, some followed Inuyama Tessai to Kai, some died in battle, and some followed Tsuda Nobuyasu to join Nobunaga.

It seems that the military service situation in the Kamiowari area is now in a state of chaos, and there is no clear account to carry out overall mobilization.

So this land to be inspected is not the same as that land to be inspected. Nobunaga just wants a military service account corresponding to the existing land.

He didn't care whether the land had concealed its output or the village had concealed its population. He just asked for a revision of the new Kamiowari military service account.

Even if only 5,000 people are booked later, having this account is better than not having it.

"I understand!" Shichibei finally understood what Nobunaga meant.

No wonder they didn't give money or people, because this didn't require any people or money at all, just notifying the local authorities. This thing is not the land inspection in the sense of later generations, but the so-called "pointing out the inspection land."

That is, you count and declare it yourself, and the records are summarized and recorded to clearly indicate the correspondence between military forces and land.

It's more like revising the military service records than inspecting the land. It doesn't matter if you concealed the facts, it doesn't matter if you hid them. I won't bother with you now.

"Hahahaha..." Xiao Yilang looked like he had figured something out. He was indeed quite smart.

"Thank you very much, thank you very much. Xiaoyilang, are you married?" Shichibei suddenly thought of this and walked forward to grab Xiaoyilang's hand.

"Not yet..." Xiaoyilang's thoughts were of course the same as his brother's.

He also wanted to marry a wife from a samurai family in the Owari samurai group, so that he could strengthen his connection with the Owari samurai group and further integrate into the Owari samurai group. If this generation intermarried, the next generation would intermarry again. By the third generation, their Kinoshita family would have become a standard Owari samurai family. Who would treat him as an outsider?

"Good, good, good, good, good." Shichibei was very happy. This was definitely a great thing.

Besides Xiaozhu's sister, Shichibei has four younger sisters. If nothing else, at least Kinoshita Koichirō isn't a short-lived ghost who can only live to 38.

35. New Owari Division Account (titled by Zhu Xiucai Sanjin)

After leaving Kinoshita's house, Shichibei immediately notified the five shop assistants to come to the shop and asked them to bring writing brushes, inkstones, and paper. He also informed Sakuma Nobumori and asked him to publicly convey Oda Nobunaga's order for the land survey of the four upper counties of Owari in his capacity as the Oda family elder.

Not only did they have to post a notice at the foot of Komakiyama Castle, but they also had to use the draft horses they had previously recruited for Nobunaga to pass the message from village to village in Kamiowari, informing the landowners in each village, town, and fort, also known as the name owner, to rush to Komakiyama Castle to declare their land.

If you do not wait for the deadline and do not declare it now, all the unowned lands discovered during the inspection will become Nobunaga's direct territory.

Shichibei never went on inspections in the countryside, nor did he even conduct any paperwork review; that would require the wisdom of later generations. Now Shichibei only needed to create a corresponding account of people and places.

The office is set up at the gate of Komakiyama Castle. Since you, Nobunaga, didn't even have an office, I have no choice but to work at the city gate.

When Sakuma Nobumori received the report from Shichibei, he was surprised at first. Why did Shichibei start doing this? But when he saw that Shichibei said it was a land declaration, he understood.

So this is what Nobunaga was thinking...

Why didn't I think of that? Shichibei's brain is incredibly quick. That's secondary; the main point is that he was able to understand Oda Nobunaga's temperament and thoughts.

Smart people are not rare these days; if you look for them, you can always find a few. But those who can understand Nobunaga's thoughts are even rarer.

What a pity, what a pity, I don’t have a daughter for the time being.

Forget it. Now the Owari Samurai Group obviously has a bright future. It would be nice to help Shichibei and make a good relationship with him.

Soon, Sakuma Nobumori obtained the land inspection document with his signature from Nobunaga. The original was posted at the foot of Komakiyama Castle, and the copied attachments were signed with his own signature and distributed to various places in the four upper Owari counties.

All the owners are ordered to come to the city to give an account within five days.

Land inspection? Land inspection was coming. It would cause a city-wide uproar. Throughout history, whenever the word "land inspection" was mentioned, there would always be a stir. The bigger ones would even involve expelling the garrisons, attacking prefectures and counties, and even burning the capital, demanding a more benevolent government.

After seeing the notice and receiving the notification, I felt that this matter was incomprehensible.

They didn't even send anyone to the village, and asked us villagers to go to the city to report it ourselves? This is called land inspection? Isn't it just a matter of me reporting it at will?

It is not known whether he received a hint or figured it out on his own, but he wanted to show his loyalty to Oda Nobunaga. As soon as the announcement was issued, Tsuda Nobuyasu ran to the city gate with his retainers. Seeing Shichibei setting up two shields and working, he could not wait to step forward and identify himself.

Then he reported exactly how much land he owned in which village near Inuyama, Niwa County, and how many kankoku there were around the land. According to Shichibei's previous understanding, Tsuda Nobuyasu might have even reported a lot more.

Because according to the normal mobilization price today, the number of kankyo he reported himself was almost the same as the number of troops his father had mobilized to resist Nobunaga in Inuyama.

You must know that among them, there were more than a hundred who died in the battle, and dozens taken away by his father.

More importantly, Nobunaga also theoretically confiscated part of their family's territory. The reason was that Inuyama Tessai had run away with some people, and their family did not need so much knowledge and action.

Adding and subtracting everything, this guy is really loyal. He is willing to bring his own food and carry a gun to fight for Nobunaga.

But compared to him, the other prominent figures who had rushed to the city to file their claims seemed rather cunning and deceitful. Shichibei, after all, came from a small merchant family, so he had some ability to read people's expressions. Some lied, some pretended, but he could see it all clearly.

As he was recording, Shichibei suddenly understood something.

Those who are now willing to honestly declare their land to Nobunaga at least have as much land and property as those who did when Oda Nobumasa was in power. Regardless of their loyalty or not, at least they are submitting to Nobunaga's rule on the surface.

At this time, who wants to play tricks and challenge Nobunaga's land inspection order? That is equivalent to not even willing to submit to Nobunaga in appearance. From head to toe, they are completely rebellious and a traitor.

Make a decision.

Nobunaga doesn't ask for your unwavering loyalty, but at least you have to pretend to be a good minister. This simple declaration actually divided the lords of Kamiowari into three groups.

The most loyal ones overreported, willing to follow Nobunaga to achieve great things. Normally, they reported according to the facts, and if you come to support you, he will come to support him. This is the true nature of the Warring States period, and it is understandable. Be wary of those who underreport, whether they have ulterior motives or other plots. The list is now ready.

Of course, there is another type, which is to sentence the person to death immediately as soon as Nobunaga has time.

That is to secretly occupy those unowned fields and directly encroach on Oda Nobunaga's interests, which is equivalent to betraying Nobunaga. In the Warring States period, if you betrayed, you would definitely not suffer any good consequences if you were caught.

This nature is much worse than the nature of Shichibei's development of the sandbar.

At the same time, Nobunaga deliberately let Shichibei, a minor figure, handle the land inspection, so that outsiders would think that Nobunaga was fully focused on the strategy of conquering Mino and that he only needed to register the land casually without paying much attention to it.

It's true that Shichibei's identity was quite perfect. As a hereditary retainer of the Oda clan, his background was perfect. However, his salary was low, he had no reputation for bravery, and he had no achievements, so he was easily looked down upon.

He is simply the perfect person to do this job. If someone else comes, the masters will have to think about it for three to five minutes more and try to figure out whether Nobunaga has other intentions.

Seeing that the owners who came to apply two days ago had finally passed the review and were re-registered into the Oda family's accounts no matter how they applied, the people who came to apply later became more and more bold, using all kinds of tricks and deceptions.

No matter what they said, Shichibei was only responsible for recording the truth.

After five days of work, they finally decided to ride on horseback, following the streets and rivers, to inspect all the registered villages and fortresses. This was not for verification, but simply to reconfirm the surrounding locations reported by the owners.

Then, the lands that no one has claimed will be recorded, and these unowned lands will become Nobunaga's direct territory, and will be used to reward the samurai who are willing to fight for Nobunaga in the future.

After integrating the two, Shichibei roughly calculated that the population figures were wrong, and the total amount of local land assets was also wrong. They were both less. Undoubtedly less.

I don't know if this is the result Nobunaga wanted. Anyway, Shichibei just handed in the revised account of the territory limit.

36. A flower can only bloom in sixty pieces

"Nanabe, you did a great job!"

Nobunaga flipped through the newly compiled land register and looked at the unowned lands. It was obvious that his real intention in sending Shichibei to inspect the lands was to clarify the relationship between the lands of Kamiowari and the military service bearers.

Who would farm the land and pay the taxes were all matters for the future. Right now, he just wanted to know how many men he could mobilize immediately after the autumn harvest in Kamiowari to go with him to Mino to fight Saito Ryuoki.

"I don't dare to take credit for it." Shichibei had secretly slandered Nobunaga countless times outside, but he still had to act like a good boy in front of Nobunaga.

"Good is good, merit is merit." Nobunaga raised his folding fan and signaled Shichibei to stop pretending.

“…” The boss spoke, and you are right, yes, yes, yes.

"What do you want?" After ordering his men to put away the limit account, Nobunaga asked Shichibei very directly.

"Would you allow me to set up stables throughout Oo Province?" Shichibei was not polite. It was one thing for Nobunaga to be generous, but it was another thing for him to be too late and not wait for the right time.

We should take advantage of this idea and his enthusiasm to boost our business. It would be a pity to only take on the business from Tsushima Town. Moreover, Kato Nobunaga in Atsuta has been severely weakened. Now is a good opportunity to become the leader of the Owari clan.

"Is that all?" Nobunaga might have felt that this was not a reward.

This is actually quite good, as Nobunaga is effectively handing over the entire Owari horse-training franchise to Shichibei. This way, we can join the Tsushima Town Kaiheshu and become prominent figures in Tsushima.

"Don't dare to go beyond that."