Pillars of the Wu family

There used to be a wasteland under Kasugayama Castle, where the children of the nearby castle town used to love to play. Since the Kira family built the new town three years ago, it has been surrounded by a wooden fence and transformed into a garrison and military training. In the arena, the tall arrow oars and the small castle all indicate that this is a military facility, and all the group training that cannot be accommodated in the small teaching place on Mount Kasuga can be done here.

When Yamaoka Tokinaga straightened his back and observed Yoshiki Kira standing on the edge of the teaching field from the corner of his eye, he tried his best to behave like a qualified Magui general. Today is the day to review the training results of the Magui. Since accepting the burden of training horses three years ago, except for the days when he went out to fight, Yamaoka Tokaga spent all his time here.

After three years of scouring the sands, [-] young people with excellent riding skills and a certain talent for archery were selected from nearly [-] school-age teenagers in Echigo. Food, using the best equipment, and surrounding a nearby hot spring for them to bathe and relax. The medical team led by Qu Naose Shoumao will come here every half a month to give the teenagers a physical examination. For the poor children in the future, this is a wonderful life like a dream.

Of course, how much effort is needed to get as much reward as possible. In the first month, the training time of four hours a day gradually increased to six hours. From running with weights to wrestling training, to riding and archery training, every day Their schedules are full, and the teenagers can't remember how long they haven't been home.

A group of 36 young knights lined up and rode horses and galloped on the trail. Each of them held a bow and drew an arrow to aim at the target 50 meters away, and the bowstring trembled.Some people completed a round of shooting actions one after another.This section of the [-]-meter-long trail.Each young knight has to complete three required riding and shooting actions.

Difficult special training can reflect the professional quality of a samurai. Some teenagers calmly complete riding and shooting again and again. Each movement corresponds to a different rhythm. After running more than half of the distance, he hurriedly bent his bow and shot randomly, but couldn't even find the target. In the end, he could only retreat to the corner in a daze with his head downcast.

It took fifteen groups of people a quarter of an hour to complete a round of riding and shooting, and they watched the arrow targets densely packed with arrows in the distance.Yoshitoki Kira applauded the outstanding performance of the young knight: "Good job! It took two years of hard work to reach this level, which is very good! Back then, Zenjiro might not have their level?"

"Uh... Lord Master! Don't mention the past, okay?" Yamaoka Shichang wiped the cold sweat off his head in embarrassment.

Only a few years later, Yamaoka's image has changed a lot. Two dignified mustaches have grown on his mouth, and the messy samurai uniform has been tidied up neatly and decently, which is much higher than the unkempt appearance a few years ago. At that time, Kira Yoshishi didn't care about his image, and walked out of the shooting range with a few followers to continue the investigation below.

With the continuous influx of refugees from all walks of life in Echigo, the population has increased by 20 in more than three years. Today, Echigo is a country with a population of 50. comparable to it.

Although the population continues to increase.However, the number of pre-armed population receiving armed training has not increased much. The reason is the population shortage caused by the excessive land development of Echigo.The new fields of Kira and Nagao alone are facing the contradiction of 10,000+ labor shortage. A large amount of land has been developed but there is not enough manpower to plant it. We can only sprinkle grass seeds and simply fertilize and harvest pasture. This is a huge impact on land resources. waste.

In order to solve the contradiction of labor shortage, the originally planned pre-armed training system had to come to a standstill, and the surplus labor force in rural areas and towns was organized to accept the unified dispatch of the followers, and formed several teams to go down to the fields to do farming.

This is just an expedient move that can solve the urgent problem but cannot solve the fundamental problem of labor shortage. The townspeople have also complained about this unreasonable tax system. Even if they can get a certain amount of food income after autumn, they are not very satisfied. In the beginning, most of these townspeople did not want to be farmers anymore, so they came to the castle town, port town, and Monzen town to make a living. Now that their lives are so good, who wants to leave the business in the town and go to the countryside to do rough work.

So at the beginning of last year, the followers of the Kira family began to prepare related issues, how to solve the adverse effects brought about by the shortage of labor force and unable to meet the agricultural production. After more than a year of discussions, several drafts were changed and finally a new decree was formed to withdraw and merge the new villages. It is still unknown whether the crop rotation method can achieve the desired effect. At present, it is only tried out in the Guanchuan area, and the degree of promotion will be determined by the effect.

The teaching ground is divided into several parts. The outermost wooden fence and arrow sculls are guarded around the clock. The interior is divided into shooting range, battle field, training ground, house, soup shop, pharmacy, canteen and other facilities, covering an area of ​​ten town steps At the beginning, because of the ownership of this piece of land, Yamamoto Tokiyuki quarreled with Honjo Mino for several days, and it took a lot of effort to get it over.

The terrain here is excellent, just on the gentle high slope between the foothills of Mount Kasuga, the land is complete and flat, facing Mount Kasuga to the west is one of the many intersections outside Otemon, and the east and north are surrounded by lower-lying castle towns Surrounded by it, the south is blocked by a natural cliff with a height difference of seven or eight meters. Not far below the cliff is a farmland, and farther away is a village with smoke from cooking.

Tokiyuki Yamamoto trained a new army on the training ground, with only 2000 people. From basic queue training to fighting, wrestling, running with weights, etc., he used the training methods left by the Nanman instructors. He only trained for two years. The army currently has a good quality, and the concept of prohibition and loyalty to the Kira family has been thoroughly implemented.

"It should be said that the ethos of Echigo's martial arts is very good, and these children's talents are also very good. After another year of training, they can form combat effectiveness. The veteran is going to find some opportunities to let them go through some battles and see the blood..." Toki Yamamoto Yuki dragged his lame leg and tried to keep up with Kira Yoshitoki, and Mogami did not forget to explain his training philosophy.

As an unruly and maverick warrior with rich experience in various countries, it is not surprising to absorb and summarize the different ideas of the southern barbarians. Now at his age, he is unable to support the heavy burden of government affairs, so he took the initiative last year Proposed to fade out of the political circle.Focus on cultivating qualified warriors and military research.

Yoshitomo Kira also found himself walking too fast.He hurriedly stopped and waited for his teacher to catch up.Looking at the old Tokiyuki Yamamoto, and then looking at the immature faces on the training ground, Kira Yoshishi couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion: "In the blink of an eye, the master's hair has become like frost, and the family has grown from a three-foot child. , Time is really ruthless!"

Recalling that Tokiyuki Yamamoto spent five years building [-] elite soldiers, and now he has organized [-] outstanding soldiers in just two years. It can only be said that the times are advancing, and the Kira family is getting stronger and stronger.But Kansuke Yamamoto, who was once omnipotent, is still old after all.

"The old minister also feels that he is really old! Recently, his sleep has been getting shorter and shorter, and his back is sore and his legs are sore when it rains on cloudy days. The old injury on his back is especially serious, man! It's just that the older you are, the more useless you become. Tokyuki Yamamoto smiled wryly at himself,

In a blink of an eye, Tokiyuki Yamamoto was 56 years old. This age is considered a standard old man in the Warring States Period, but he has no children and no one to rely on. In the past year, he moved out of the Kuayuan where he lived alone and came to the teaching ground to train new troops. at the appraisal meeting.He spoke less and less, like an old man in his twilight years.Most of the discussions passed in naps.

"I heard that Shi Jiang is writing military memorabilia? I don't know how it is written? Can you read Shi Jiang's masterpiece in advance?"

Speaking of military memorabilia, Yamamoto Tokyuki did not hide the pride in his eyes: "It is not called military memorabilia, but the notes made by the veterans over the years have been sorted out, deleted and revised. From the tenth year of Yongzheng (1513), The Imagawa clan personally launched the Yuanjiang invasion and began to record, writing all the experiences of the ministers in Sanhe, Yuanjiang, and Suruga when they were young. After sorting it out, we are currently sorting out the part from returning to Sanhe to the present, and it will take about one to two years to sort it out."

Kira Yoshitoki also understood his teacher's thinking, writing books and saying that it is always a matter of cultural people, Yamamoto Tokiyuki just didn't believe this, when he was in Kira's house, he often practiced calligraphy with the copybooks of eminent monks, Accumulated practice has allowed him to write quite impressive Xingkai.

The Kira family has never advocated the use of pseudonyms for writing. In the words of Kira Yoshitoshi who often talks about it, the characters made by the pseudonyms who cannot understand Chinese students are not enough. Regarding the attitude of the master about cultural reform, Hosokawa, as a cultural person Fujitaka, Langoka Tanbo and the others could only smile wryly.

It is recorded in "Gushiji": "However, in ancient times, the meaning of the words was simple, and it was difficult to compose sentences in words. It has been because the words of the expositors are not enough. Therefore, today or in a sentence, the pronunciation is used."

Since the formation of pseudonyms in the middle period of Nara, after experiencing the systematic influence of "Manyoshu", the history of pseudonyms has formed a strong inertia for more than 800 years. Even illiterate farmers can use pseudonyms to write a petition and ask the lord. It is too difficult for them to learn the complicated system of Chinese characters when they meet the tax in a disaster year.

"Do you start recording from the era of the Suruga lord Imagawa clan? That is really an amazing period of history! Speaking of a few decades ago, there were a lot of heroes, and I don't know what it will be like in this generation of the main family." The two slowly Walk slowly to the sidelines of the training field and watch the young recruits demonstrate complex tactical changes.

Tokiyuki Yamamoto pinched his messy beard and said with a smile on his face: "My lord is Wuwei Gong and Zhenfudian, and he was a first-rate hero at that time. Why should you envy those who have passed away? Now I am the power of a country. Supplemented by the support of the two counties of Jinjiang, it will exceed the sum of the three kingdoms of the present Chuan family, and the prosperity of the family business in the future is just around the corner."

"It's just a momentary sigh!" Yoshitoki Jiliang glanced at it with his eyes, and was surprised to find a few familiar figures in the dense queue: "Huh? Isn't that Nagao Joharu? Watanabe Shouzuna is also in there, Isn't he Gang Yuanfu?"

"The owner of the museum is talking about the two of them! That Kankuro has come to the old minister's place every now and then since he saw the new army going out for exercises last year. He insisted on coming in and not leaving. The old minister was so entangled that he had no choice but to agree... Gengoro was personally delivered by his father on the second day of his Yuanfu, and he specifically asked the old minister to be more restrained, what a smart man!"

In Kira's house, no more than two palms can tell the significance of this new army. Except for the important ministers and chief executive officers who participated in the formulation of the plan, there are only a few top-ranking reserve generals. It can be seen that there are many ways, high-intensity endurance, fighting strength training, the best supply of supplies, and an all-round training and treatment system.This is obviously to cultivate elite thinking.

Yishui's sixteen or seventeen-year-old kid.The youngest, such as Shouzuna Watanabe, was only 14 years old.This kind of potential is scary to imagine. It is no wonder that Watanabe Takatsuna rushed to see off the children. It is not known how many people will come to see off the children in the next year or so.

Compared with Saijobei ten years ago, these children are much taller, and almost none of them are short under 1.6 meters. It is still unknown how powerful the new army will be after three years of training, but one thing is certain, It is absolutely no problem to be stronger than Saijo Bei back then.

"How is the physical fitness of these boys? Are the strength and physical strength up to the standard?" He used the new word "standard" to measure whether the physical fitness of the new army "reached the standard."This kind of assessment must first start with the new army. The new army that cannot march armed is unqualified. There are examples of monkeys returning twice. The first consideration for the new army during the Kira Yoshihime period was whether their strength and physical strength were qualified.

"There is no problem. The current standard is that if you can run a cross-country run with a weight of five catties and one mile within a moment, it is considered a pass. In the spring training half a month ago, all members achieved the goal of passing. The standard will be further improved in the next step. improve."

One mile is roughly equal to four kilometers. If you wait for 15 minutes, you can run four kilometers in 22 and a half minutes with a five-pound load. This is definitely an amazing level in this era.Given that Echigo's younger generation has greatly improved in physical fitness, it is not too unusual for the best to achieve this result.After all, it is the level of picking one out of dozens of people.

"This result can also be run down, but it is not enough to continue to increase the load, and the distance can also be increased appropriately."

When the two were talking, today's training was basically over. Yoshihiro Kira looked up at the sun and it seemed that it was only three o'clock in the afternoon, and asked: "Training is over so early? Didn't I hear that the training intensity you arranged is very high? Today Only trained for three hours?"

"There are some special reasons today, and it's because of the new style of Cuju advocated by the owner..." Tokyuki Yamamoto smiled at him without saying a word.

At this time, more than 2000 people ran to the newly opened court to play with balls made of leather. The twenty or so boys who grabbed the court first screamed excitedly, and the rest of the group were not discouraged. Run to the nearby open space and set up a formation to play. This kind of game has very low requirements on the venue, and it can be played in the streets and alleys. Just put two bamboo poles or stones to count as a goal, and it doesn't matter what sidelines are offside.

Yoshishi Kira had the cheek to pretend he didn't see it: "Cuju is Cuju, it's an elegant thing anyway!"

"Cuju is a very elegant thing, and the new style of Cuju seems to be a bit far from the elegant thing." Tokiyuki Yamamoto caught a glimpse of the entrance of the training ground and attracted many samurai to stop and watch. Judging from their attire, he knew that they were samurai from the Nagao family. Every afternoon The three-point tee-off became a new recreational activity. For the ancient times that lacked entertainment, this game was indeed very attractive.

In Kasugayama Castle Town, two young men from Ueno were sitting listlessly in a tavern in a daze. The investigations in the past few days have yielded nothing. Several people in that house disappeared the next day. Didn't get any meaningful information either.

Unwilling to fail, Nagano Yegu made up his mind to sneak into the house at the risk of danger, but in the end there was nothing of value. Those people seemed to have evaporated from the world, and there was no trace of them. The two thought of telling the news to the Kira family. , As a result, I went to Chunri Mountain City early this morning to talk about this matter, but was turned back by the guarding samurai as a liar.

"Those bastards don't believe our words! If something big happens, they deserve it... Okay! Don't stare at me with your eyes, it's scary!" Xiaoban Nobuzhen looked depressed and annoyed. The legitimate son of the Xiaoban family was dismissed as a liar and a lunatic by a few warriors guarding the gate. If his friends in his hometown found out about it, he would lose face.

Nagano Ye stubbornly insisted: "We can't just let it go! Let's try our luck at the Guanling Palace?"

"What? Are you still going there to touch a bag full of hair before you come back? I want to go to you! I didn't stay here to touch the bag, but to see the mountains and rivers of Echigo." Xiaoban Nobuzhen mercilessly refused his request.

The experience of the past few months is enough to make any optimistic person feel disappointed for that Guandong leader. Every day, he hugs the main room, sings the wind and enjoys the moon, teases the young son, or simply drinks and buys drunk with Nagao, compared to a month ago He still looks like a nobleman, but now he's so decadent that he doesn't look like that.How could they listen to the reminder that the two of them didn't even believe the guards at the gate.

"That's right! Guan Lingdian must not listen to it. He must still be obsessed with giving away his family's foundation in exchange for a chance to return to Ueno?" Nagano Yegu was tangled and clutched his head in a daze.

"It's just nonsense! Even if Kira and Nagao are willing to send troops, they will never help him take back Hirai Castle. Who can't see that this Guanlingdian is an idiot? Help him take the city and send it out sooner or later. "

"Forget it! Don't think about that, let's go out for a stroll!" After all, they are still young at heart. When they want to go out to play, the two hit it off immediately. They left the house and stayed on the street for a while. Go farther next time? Haven’t been to the countryside yet!”

Nagano Yegu looked at the time at three o'clock in the afternoon, and said in embarrassment: "It's getting late. Maybe you can't come back when you go to the countryside?"

"If you can't come back, just go to the nearby countryside. Anyway, we will go to the countryside sooner or later. Can't we stop going out just because we can't come back?" Xiaoban Xinzhen tried his best to encourage, and Nagano Yegu thought about it carefully. Reasonable, so I readily agreed.

To the east of the castle town of Kasugayama is the lower reaches of the Sekigawa River Basin. Naoetsu Town is located here. Going upstream along both sides of the Sekigawa River is the main territory of Nagao. Oye transferred the territory of the nearby slightly larger wealthy lords to Xintian in a distant country little by little.The entire Guanchuan Plain has become a situation dominated by two families, and all this will not affect the old servants in the grass-roots farms.

The so-called Su Lao Di Shi.Also known as Sulao underground people, the ground attendant is another name for underground people. Their status is equivalent to the status of village elders and village chiefs. They are usually held by respected elders. Because of the preservation of the ancient manor system, The formation of the first batch of land servants originated from the status of rich peasants in the manor and the sons of middle and low-level warriors.

This kind of person has no chance of becoming a great samurai, and can only live in the manor from generation to generation, relying on superficial martial arts and some armor accumulated by their ancestors, to defend their homeland with bows and arrows, until the manor system completely collapses, and the guardian system is established. Landlords form their own grassroots armed forces, and they are the most grassroots units in the samurai group called "Lang Party" in the Genpei and Kamakura eras.

Then, as the situation changed, the Kamakura shogunate fell, the Muromachi shogunate rose, the guardian daimyo system was established, and the samurai family rose and fell. Only these grassroots servants were not affected, and they continued to defend their traditions for hundreds of years. home.

These people are different from the big names of the wealthy families who are not involved in production. They have formed a deep connection with the land in the farm early on, and they usually work with the farmers. The identity of the rich peasant in front of the servant.

With the existence of this relationship, he stood up to actively protect the safety of the village during the chaos of the Muromachi era. Therefore, he was spontaneously elected by the villagers as the elder of the village. Villages without military protection are easy to be ambushed by wild animals, bandits, or even unscrupulous people. It is definitely a tragic thing for the lord to be targeted, and the result of self-defense without force in troubled times.

With the end of the Cargill Rebellion and the famous Tuyikui incident that broke out in Kyoto, villages all over the world followed this system one after another, so the establishment of the grassroots unit Su Lao Di Shi is almost an inevitable trend.

Walking on the streets along the Guanchuan River, the high embankment isolates the wide river. If you climb up the high slope, you can still see the magnificent scene of the river rushing. Originally, they really wanted to climb the embankment to express their love for the mountains and rivers. Magnificent emotions, helplessly, but the old farmers guarding the alfalfa on the embankment did not give them face, and drove them away like flies with a bamboo pole.

Xiao Banxinzhen turned his head to look at the hunchbacked old man in the distance, and said with a look of surprise: "This old man is really interesting, he is not afraid at all when he sees us carrying Taidao."

Naganoye said disapprovingly: "He was ordered to guard the embankment and the pasture grass. Before getting the permission order, no matter who wants to climb the embankment, he must be driven away, even if it is the Palace of Martial Guards. How can you take care of it if you kneel down and kowtow?" Embankment?"

Walking in the countryside, you can see endless paddy fields as far as the eye can see. This is a new agricultural decision of the Kira family. It is to ensure that the planting area of ​​Echigo high-quality Koshihikari rice is not less than [-]% of the total cultivated area. It is tantamount to warning the Echigo samurai not to expect too much The luxury of replacing all rice with new grains.

This issue also caused a lot of discussion in Echigo. The result of the discussion was that selling new grains is likely to make no money, and greedy Chinese people are even more unwilling to release the secrets of new grain planting to other countries, and neither Kinai nor Kanto has any The trend of new grain sales. The main buyers of grain are merchants and samurai daimyo. They are all traditional groups that do not eat new grain.

"So we need to grow rice, leave a small part for the samurai to eat, and sell all the rest to the Kanto, right? It really is a good plan!" Nagano Yegu is more and more fond of using Echigo's buzzwords, what "anticipation" and "system" Words such as "standard" and "plan" often come out of his mouth, and Nobusada Kobata, who is pressing the road with him, is not surprised.

Beside a paddy field, a child was driving a group of ducklings to look for food on the ridge of the field. When he saw two strangers standing by the paddy field, he smiled indifferently. This situation has been happening since two years ago. Appeared, and appeared more frequently last year.

There were some weird strange warriors who stood in front of the tall cornfields for a whole day in a daze, without drinking, eating, or talking, and then walked away silently until the sun went down, probably the same for these two strangers.

"What's so interesting about the paddy field." Xiao Banxinzhen looked around and urged impatiently: "If you want to see it, why not go to the corn field, I heard that the corn seedlings grow taller than a person, hide inside to be sure." Can't find anyone."

"Look at the ditch dug next to the paddy field. What's in it?" Nagano Yegu pointed to the bubbling ditch in the paddy field.

Rows of neat young seedlings inserted in the paddy fields are nothing unusual. What is strange is that there is a row of deep river ditches at the corners of the paddy fields. Some small fish fry, sprinkled with some small bugs and duckweed.

"Huh? Isn't this a small fish? Digging a ditch in the rice field to raise fish? What's the point?" Nobuzhen scratched his head strangely and shook his head. Although the samurai of the rich family basically didn't do production, they had never eaten pork. I have also seen pigs running. Every year during the busy farming season, I would follow my father to wander around the fields. I must understand when the season is farming time, what happens in which season is the abnormal weather, and how farmers farm the fields.

If you don’t know what your own people are doing, this lord is unqualified. An excellent lord can even call out the names of every old servant, know the general interpersonal relationship in each village, and be able to do as much food production in any year. Unexpectedly, to survive in this troubled world, if the lords don't have two brushes, they can't handle these cunning old servants at all.

There are actually very few lords who don't touch the spring water with their fingers, know nothing, only eat, drink, play, and spend their days. The probability of appearing is probably not much different from the probability of a generation of heroes. There are too many tragic examples of being overthrown by Yimen and Genealogy, exiled or even dead.

For example, a reckless person like Otomo Yizhen has to think about how much the conversion to Catholicism will have on the retainers and the subordinates. As a family governor, there are still relatively few people who are completely ignorant, and of course this is not the case.

For example, Ichi Kanesada, who succeeded Tosa Ichijo Family Governor for nearly seven years, is a standard dandy daimyo who knows nothing but eating, drinking and having fun. That is, his adoptive father, the Ichijo Family Governor, who used to be a left minister, Guan Bai, Nailan With the assistance, Tosa Ichijo's foundation was not destroyed. (To be continued..)