Chronicles of The Hardships of Komachi in The Sengoku Era

Translator: manshiro    Editor: Arocks141    Proofreader: Arocks141    TLC: Arocks141… Seems fine so far

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If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator"s site: yado-inn (dot) com. We have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry.

With the beginning of February, things got busy.

As the lumber had finally dried, Shizuko could start burning it to make charcoal and imparting the related skills to Nisaku and his companions.

From Mori Yoshinari she received a request for 30 simplified crossbows, which she fulfilled by producing 30 cranequin drawn crossbows with a less complex makeup (than her compound crossbow).

In addition to the 200 workers promised by n.o.bunaga, he had also sent a development plan.

Furthermore, Niwa Nagahide who had delivered the plan apologized for the inconvenience, causing Shizuko to accidentally apologize back, leading to a lengthy exchange of apologies from both sides.

Like this, the february that should have originally been filled with tranquility was packed full with work.

As for Shizuko, after talking to Niwa Nagahide she got the impression that "although the Oda clan retainers were infamous for being hard to handle, he seemed to be surprisingly reliable".

The development plan n.o.bunaga had given her contained the plans to expand the production facilities for military goods.

The peasants during this time basically paid their taxes in the form of rice or soybeans to their local lord, temple, or the Shogunate in return for their protection.

Up until now, n.o.bunaga had similarly protected the peasants of his domain in exchange for tribute.

But after leaving the administration of the village to Shizuko for two years, he had come up with an idea.

Namely, to stop relying on unorganized peasants to grow crops, but to have the Oda clan control the entire production chain from planting to harvest.

To find out the viability of this idea, Shizuko"s village would need to be greatly refurbished.

As this would become an area with before unseen production capabilities, he also had a garrison built in the village alongside the other changes.

However, Shizuko was not responsible for the design and construction of this garrison, which would be handled by master carpenter of the Atsuta shrine in Owari, Okabe Mataemon

As a side effect of this plan, it was also decided to enlarge the village.

The village with its barely 100 inhabitants, would grow immensely from the influx of 160 farmers who would serve as reservists in war times, as well as a dedicated guard force of 300 which would be stationed there.

And, of course, it wouldn"t only be the able bodied men, but also their family, including wife, children and parents.

As such, the plot of land the village had occupied so far just wasn"t enough anymore.

n.o.bunaga however had already factored in Shizuko"s worries, and had Niwa deliver a certain order to her.

If there is no land, make some.

n.o.bunaga had noticed that there were no other farming communities near Shizuko"s village, so he decided that before the village develops any further and attracts more population, he would just fill this s.p.a.ce ahead of time with his own p.a.w.ns instead.

Like this, he could limit the possibilities of spies getting into the village, or if a spy did manage to enter, he could lock down the village before the spy can escape.

In the first place, n.o.bunaga had no intention to concentrate all of his production capabilities in a single spot.

In order to spread out the risk, he thought about splitting the population into three or four satellite villages around Shizuko"s.

And these villages would all be directly administered production facilities for military goods.

As such, they wouldn"t be paying their taxes on a per village basis, but rather all the villages would be grouped as one big facility that would have to pay a corresponding amount of taxes.

The minimal amount n.o.bunaga expected of them were 500 bales of rice (around 30 kg per bale, about 15 tons in total), 800 kan of soybeans (around 3 tons), as well as 8 kan of brown sugar (about 30 kg).

But the taxes wouldn"t stop at that minimal amount. Regardless of how much Shizuko and the villagers would produce, half of it would go to n.o.bunaga, while they could keep the remaining half.

Some other goods also fell under this 50% taxation, however vegetables such as sweet potatoes or pumpkins, as well as chicken eggs were exempt from taxes.

To meet n.o.bunaga"s minimum demands, Shizuko revised her plan to expand the farming area from the original to 300 ha.

She allotted 2 ha per person, 1 ha for rice, and the other 1 ha for soybeans. As the soybeans would be grown as companion plants, their actual cultivation area would only be 50 a.

She planned 5 ha of land for sugarcane per village, and decided to leave the decision about whether to cultivate vegetables, cereals and eggs up to each village.

This design brought the maximum total farming area for rice and soybeans to 390 ha. But, of course, reaching 100% efficiency would be impossible.

Considering the impact of battles on the health of the reservists, she expected an efficiency of around 80%.

Furthermore, by having cultivation areas for the main products rice and soybeans in every village, the effect of possible pests or a blight could be minimized.

The disadvantage of such an approach was that the production locations were scattered, requiring a garrison in every village.

With an operation this big, it was questionable whether the manpower would be sufficient, but it also meant that the returns could also be just as big.

Looking only at the production of rice, the combined farming area of all villages would sum up to 260 ha. From every 1 ha, accounting for crop failure and pests, 30 bales of unpolished rice could be expected, which, a.s.suming 80% efficiency, leads to the abnormally high production amount of 6240 bales.

Even after offering n.o.bunaga 3120 bales as tribute, they would still have just as much left in their hands. Distributing the approximately 3000 bales among the about 300 villagers would leave each family with ten bales each, while the remainder would be stockpiled for emergencies.

"Yes, our minimum target this time is 500 bales. But you don"t need to think too deeply about it. If we just work the same way as last year, we will easily make it. But as the other villages have a lot of work to do with developing the land, I want our village to produce 10 bales per person."

"Understood, village chief. Well, compared to last year it feels a lot more achievable… I guess?"

"Umm, we should produce 10 bales each. Normally it would be…umm."

"Three bales for each of the reservists. Well, in return the people of the new villages also need to go to war."

"Thinking about it like this makes me feel a lot more at ease."

Understanding that this year would be somewhat relaxing, the villagers" expressions brightened up.

However, the abnormal speed with which the village had developed had also cast the invisible pressure of n.o.bunaga"s expectations upon it.

After all, despite being mindful not to negatively impact the farmwork, Niwa Nagahide had quickly surrounded the villages with a moat and built a splendid gate at its entrance.

Furthermore, n.o.bunaga"s soldiers would patrol the surroundings of the villages 24 hours, 365 days a year.

Aside from the expansion of the fields and the construction of garrisons, another building was erected close to, or rather right next to Shizuko"s mansion.

Its owner was Oda n.o.bunaga, in short, his vacation villa. He even had the building connected with the corridor between Shizuko"s house and the Onsen/Hot spring.

Shizuko would have wanted to object, but realised that it would be useless, so she only let her shoulders slump down.

If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator"s site: yado-inn (dot) com. We have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry.

And like the wind, the days pa.s.sed by, and before Shizuko knew it two months had pa.s.sed, and early march came together with the beginnings of spring.

The defenses around Shizuko"s village were halfway complete, and the other villages were also almost completed. And as roughly 80% of the big farming area had been completed, a certain piece of information was brought to Shizuko.

On that day, Kimyoumaru had come to Shizuko"s mansion with a more cheerful look than usual on his face.

"What!? West and East Mino have fallen!?"

"Hey!! You don"t need to shout!?"

"Ah, sorry…"

Having shouted at Kimyoumaru, Shizuko quickly covered her mouth with her hands.

After looking around and confirming the absence of suspicious people, Kimyoumaru sighed heavily.

"Don"t just suddenly raise your voice. What would you have done if a spy heard that?"

"(I don"t think they"d get past the ears and noses of the Witmann family though…) I"m sorry."

The wolves had marked two kinds of territory. Their hunting grounds as well as the area in which their security was a.s.sured.

The hunting grounds were large, spanning all over the mountains surrounding Shizuko"s village, while the other area was only Shizuko"s mansion.

As such, they would immediately notice any unknown human posing a threat if they entered the village.

Kimyoumaru had received that treatment by the wolves, but had apparently forgotten, or rather, had wanted to forget it.

Either way, if it was just Shizuko"s home, a "stranger" entering unnoticed was more or less impossible.

"This means only central Mino is left. But that"s the hard part, isn"t it."

"Right… After all, everything we can do will be in plain view of Inabayama Castle."

Shizuko muttered, remembering the time she had visited Gifu Castle (Inabayama Castle) when she was younger.

Even with the well maintained roads of the modern era, climbing up to and descending from the castle was like walking up a steep and rocky slope.

But as the air is clear, the entire Mino plain can be seen from the mountaintop.

n.o.bunaga"s advancing forces would be spotted immediately, and the castle would be perfectly prepared by the time the army arrived at its doors.

"… Well, yeah. It looks like we will have to take this one slow and steady."

"And it"s not as if anything I could say or do would really help there. Rather than that, I would like to have salt-"

Said Shizuko while drinking tea.

As one of the most basic spices, salt is essential for the human body as the source for sodium and chlorine.

Finding unsalted food to lack taste is said to be an instinctual human longing for salt.

Salt also played a prominent role throughout human history, and was a valuable good before production via the ion exchange membrane came around.

As such, terms like salaryman (salary being the money needed to buy salt), sending salt to an enemy in need, or being worth one"s salt.

But too much salt can cause high blood pressure and even lead to gastric cancer.

The j.a.panese in particular tend to intake too much salt, making strokes induced by high blood pressure one of the major causes of death for the modern j.a.panese.

"Hmm, salt you say."

"But, after all, being too greedy isn"t good. I know how to make it, but too many interests are invested in salt."

As Shizuko had said, concessions regarding salt have stretched from ancient times to the present day.

A real life example from the 18th century would be the story of a surviving retainer of Asano Tak.u.mi no kami1, Ooishi Kuranosuke2, taking revenge on Kira Kouzuke no suke, known as Chūshingura3.

It is viewed as a story focusing on the loyalty of warriors, but for what reason did Asano Tak.u.mi no kami and Kira Kouzuke no suke fight in the first place?

Salt was said to have played a role in it.

The lands of Akou (nowadays Akouji in the Hyougo prefecture) controlled by Asano Tak.u.mi no kami, as well as Kira (nowadays Kira Town in the Aichi prefecture) ruled by Kira Kouzuke no suke were both well known areas of salt production.

Both clans had a long history of conflict over concessions for salt as well as its production methods. It is speculated that this background might have heavily factored into Kira Kouzuke no suke insulting Asano Tak.u.mi no kami face to face and the resultant slashing of the former by the latter.

"But salt is necessary to make preservable food. Hmmm. But if the production amount increases, it"s going to flow into the market, which the other interest groups won"t take quietly."

In contrast to modern times, having their interest infringed upon meant having nothing to eat for the people of the Sengoku Era.

As such, conflicts over such interests would naturally break out.

The Honganji had taken a stance against Oda n.o.bunaga out of the fear of losing their interests, mobilizing Ikko Ikki rebels around the country, fighting against n.o.bunaga for 10 years in the Ishiyama Honganji War, making it a famed conflict of interests.

"Then… you should consult the lord about it. And… if you are worried about the likes of interest groups, we can just make it an operation of the Oda clan.

"Isn"t that basically like asking "Give me a piece of land"?"

"That might be the case, but haven"t you already been given control over the area producing military supplies for the Oda clan? If you tell him that you want to produce salt, the lord will happily lend some of his territory to you, don"t you think so?"

"Hmm, that"s true. Well, I"ll ask him when I have the chance. I"ve already been quite selfish with my request as of late, so I"d feel bad to continue asking for more."

Shizuko replied halfheartedly to Kimyoumaru, as she didn"t really intend to start the large scale production of salt.

Since she had become the administrator of five whole villages, previously unknown problems have come up.

Wanting to focus on resolving these first, she ranked the production of salt on the level of something to think about at a later time.

(What should I do about the communication network…)

Shizuko just couldn"t seem to find a clear answer for this particular problem.

If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator"s site: yado-inn (dot) com. We have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry.

The new villages were formed as satellites around Shizuko"s village.

Every village was independent, however all matters concerning farming techniques would be those used in Shizuko"s village.

As such, problems that hadn"t been an issue when it had only been a single village started to pop up.

The largest of them was the way to exchange information and communication. In short, a communication network.

To coordinate the farming of rice and soybeans, exchanging information concisely was important.

Thankfully, the soldiers also needed to communicate among themselves, so Shizuko could use some of their messenger horses.

But with that issue solved, the next one reared its head straight away.

The soldiers had their garrison, so even if there was some delay a.s.sociated with it, an exchange of information could be established.

But for the messages from Shizuko"s village to the others, they needed to be delivered without fail and losing any accuracy.

Otherwise, information on farming techniques could be pa.s.sed on wrongly, which in the worst case lead to a significant drop in the harvested yield.

Then, rather than worrying about taxes, the five villages could be plunged straight into a famine.

Shizuko had thought about sending some of her villagers out to the other villages to teach them, but then the farmwork in her village would suffer.

Sacrificing several fields for the sake of teaching would be putting the cart before the horse as the thing they needed to do was increasing the production.

She would need to find a way to share her techniques with all five villages at the same time.

"Hmm."

Shizuko was thinking about how to solve this conundrum, but nothing came to mind. Yet the deadline was already close by. And small issues springing from imperfect communication were already springing up.

Information that should have been communicated to one of the other villages hadn"t reached it at all. In this case, the villager in charge of it had simply forgotten about the message.

On another day, she had called for all village chiefs to a.s.semble on a certain date, but only about half of them showed up.

The reason they had given was that the date communicated to them had been off by several days.

And these were only the beginning, with most of the problems being related to lack of communication or misunderstandings.

Right now, the problems could still be fixed, but once they would get around to preparing the seeds and seedlings, this poor communication could lead to irreversible mistakes.

"If I only had a telephone or a camera…"

Shizuko grumblingly asked for the moon.

"No, no, this is going nowhere… Let"s take a step back and think about why telephones became necessary in the first place."

Grasping for any hints, Shizuko thought about the reason telephones had come into existence for.

Simply said, a telephone is a device enabling communication someone far away, which uses telephone lines to transmit your voice.

A tool to communicate your thoughts to a remote location, where both sides can transmit and receive information at the same time.

In addition, it is usable without technical understanding, enabling everyone to use it.

The impact telephones had on society was large. In the late Showa era, it became indispensable as a means of contacting companies or shops.

(Directly transmit your thoughts to the other party. Doesn"t look too feasible, since we don"t have electricity. Come to think of it, how does a telephone distinguish between people… ? Ahh, of course, a telephone number… a number?)

At that moment, something made her pause. She decided to go at the problem again from scratch.

The reason why the telephone had been born. Or rather, what exactly a telephone represented.

(There"s something there. A phone… phone… mobile phone… landline… a tool to transmit information. And to distinguish people…!?)

Having a eureka moment, Shizuko hit the floor with her hands in jubilation.

Awakened by the sound, Wittmann and his family, who had been sleeping close by, looked around to find what was going on.

"There was this option! Aycha~n! Aychaaaaaaan!!"

"…I can hear you just fine, without all the yelling. Now, what can I help you with, Shizuko-sama?"

Aya replied to the excited Shizuko from the hallway, with only her face visible through the door.

Normally, that would cool down Shizuko"s enthusiasm, but as she had thought of a brilliant idea this time, it had no effect.

"Prepare some paper and ink! I need to write a letter to the lord! So can you please prepare them quickly?!"

"… I understand. I will get the things, so please calm down."

"What are you saying, I"m still very much calm!?"

(………..what part of you is?)4

Arguing back seemed to be a fool"s errand, so Aya went to fetch the paper and ink with an exasperated expression on her face.

When she came back with them in hand, Shizuko was trying to calm herself down by fluffing Wittmann.

Exactly how she could calm down with that, Aya had no idea.

However, Shizuko seemed happy, Wittmann was in a blissful stupor, and all the other wolves roamed around Shizuko as if to say "me too, me too". Aya decided to leave them to their own devices.

Grinding the ink stick on the inkstone, Aya posed a question to Shizuko without looking at her.

"While we are at it, what kind of letter are you writing to the lord?"

"It"s impossible to remember several hundred people on my own, so I want to change the way I"m managing the village a little."

"In what way?"

As if she had been waiting expectantly for that question, Shizuko answered with a bright smile on her face.

"I"ll make family registers!"