A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

"The people of the Yuanjiang River have rice, soup, and fish. Floods and droughts are convenient. It is located in the middle of the sea channel, with convergence in all directions. It can be called an important auxiliary place for the Eastern Kingdom and an important town of the Sanjin Federation. It passes through the Inakou and goes directly to the Konon Mountains, and connects to the Suruga River through the Oigawa River. It overwhelms the three rivers from above."

"Jiangjiri has vast fields, which are also profitable for fishing and salt. Although it is not the business of a king, it is like the powerful Qin Dynasty that conquered Bashu, and the king of Han granted Hanzhong. Find ways to do it, and manage it slightly, and in three to five years, you can gain the capital of a king." "

(There is a nursery rhyme that describes the conditions of the Imagawa family's territory. The Suruga people live a recreational life, the Ene people fish and cultivate the land, and the Mikawa people lead the war. It fully explains the respective conditions of the three countries of Kaidou.)

Yamauchi Yoshiharu was fascinated by what he heard, and unconsciously moved his cushion closer to Xiao Heita.

"Now, I have just mobilized about 2,000 Ejiri people to prepare the dams and roads along the Tenryu River. I also slightly mobilized my lord's direct leadership and obtained a large area of ​​unusable lowland swamps along the river. These swamps and the Enshu Beach are All the salty fields on the coast can be planted with rushes.”

"Rush?" Yamauchi Yoshikatsu couldn't help but be stunned.

"That's right, it's rush!"

"Is that the rush that weaves the tatami?" Yamauchi Yoshikatsu asked again.

"That's right." Xiaoping was confident.

Rush is an annual perennial plant widely planted in paddy fields. It likes warm and humid growth environment. Planted from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China to Myanmar and Thailand, it is one of the best natural green fibers. At the same time, it can be planted in seawater fields and freshwater fields. Fabrics woven from rushes in the freshwater areas of Taiwan, China were rumored to be famous in East Asia in the last century.

Why has it not been grown on a large scale in Japan so far?

It's very simple, because it needs to occupy paddy fields!

This is the crux of the matter. After finally developing such a paddy field, everyone will definitely use it to grow rice. How can any idiot use it to grow rushes? White rice is the hard currency circulating in the world. It can be eaten and used, and it will never change.

But it is possible here in Yuanjiang, the geographical environment is simply blessed by nature. Do the swamps used as flood discharge areas have sufficient water sources? Very sufficient! Is there enough light and heat? Very sufficient! But just two floods a year meant that it was absolutely impossible for him to develop it into a paddy field. But the time for planting rushes, which ripen three times a year, is just right. Plant the first crop after the winter snow melts and the spring floods pass. It will be harvested when it matures before the summer floods during the plum rain season. Plant another crop after the plum rains are over and harvest after autumn.

In this way, the lowland swamps that were unable to be cultivated due to the flooding of the Tenryu River were utilized. Although only two crops of rushes could be grown a year, the income was more than that from rice.

The scientific name of this kind of rush grown in freshwater paddy fields is Triangle rush. After being woven into tatami, it can be used for more than 30 years (the tatami at the historical site Ohara-tei, a designated tourist attraction in Oita Prefecture, Japan, has been used for 40 years. Still very good), still showing a warm and moist color (beige), very soft to the touch, and has a certain amount of friction. (In an orthodox kendo hall in Japan, the tatami must be woven from triangular rushes. If ordinary tatami is used, it can be determined that it is a pheasant kendo hall.)

The finest rushes grown in these freshwaters are used for weaving and grass art. In the salty fields along the coast that are eroded by seawater, ordinary rushes (also known as rushes) can be grown using saltwater that is undrinkable due to seawater intrusion. Judging from the Pacific monsoon climate in Yuanjiang, it is possible to harvest two crops of rushes a year except for a few periods when typhoons are blowing.

Due to differences in water quality and varieties, the texture of these ordinary rushes will inevitably be rough, but they can be used to weave straw shoes, straw ropes, straw mats, and straw bags. A pair of straw shoes can be sold for two or three dollars, and they are consumable. But there are only a few dozen rushes, which is equivalent to picking up money in vain.

In addition, foot-operated hand-loom mat looms have been used for many years in the Tsuyama area of ​​Mimasakukununi and the Usuki area of ​​Bungokununi. Not only is the machine structure gradually becoming simpler, but the manufacturing process is also becoming increasingly mature. You can immediately send people to the two places to buy several different prototypes and return to Ejiri to dismantle and imitate them.

Then the carpenters selected by the Yamauchi family learned the technology of making mat looms and manufactured simple mat looms on a large scale. Once you have a sufficient number of looms, start a handicraft workshop. It is operated exclusively by the Yamauchi family, and the residents only need to plant the finest triangular rushes.

A complete production system gradually formed. The residents planted rushes and then handed them over to the Yamauchi family as collateral for annual tribute. The Yamauchi family is only responsible for purchasing rushes at low prices, and then completing the weaving of rushes in a large-scale and systematic handicraft workshop.

The low-grade common rushes are allowed to be freely disposed of by the territorial residents. After harvesting the rushes they plant in spring and autumn, in the winter when it is too cold to work outside, the family-style handicrafts weave cheap and rough straw shoes, straw mats, straw hats and straw bags.

Then the citizens were also allowed to use these cheap handicraft products to directly deduct the annual tribute. The Yamauchi family still bought these products at a price lower than the market price, and then sold them to all over the world through the coastal water transporters that extend in all directions from Ejiri Port.

This is the old wisdom of Koheita based on Takeda Harunobu. This person saw clearly that the income of the people of his Kai country was very small, and he did not have enough Yongle money to pay the annual tribute. Then he allowed the subjects to use various handicrafts as annual tribute, thus making both the subjects and the lords benefit.

Yasuya the Hojo clan is very skilled. The Hojo clan also implemented the high-level system at the beginning, but later it couldn't be implemented anymore. Hojo Ujiyasu allowed his subjects to boil their own salt to pay the annual tribute, or pickle salted fish to pay the tax. In many records, the proportion of salt even reaches one-third. The salt was concentrated in the hands of the Hojo family and then trafficked to the interior of Kanto, which also made a lot of money.

The Yamauchi family only needs to control all channels of the entire rush industry from high-end to low-end, and supervise all channels from production to sales. On the one hand, it can maximize the use of unusable swamps and salty fields, and on the other hand, it can increase the income of the people in the territory.

As long as we can eventually produce high-quality products that are not inferior to those of Mimasaku Tsuyamadie, we will slowly develop techniques such as jacquard and dyeing. It is conceivable that it will not take long to obtain a broad enough market, and low-end shoes, hats and mats are used by everyone, and there is no need to worry about the problem of not being sold. High-end stacks, seats, grass art and other products will not have to worry about sales.

Within a few years, the people of Yuanjiang would become rich, and Yamauchi Yoshiharu's pockets would expand even more.

Yamauchi Yoshiharu's face was filled with joy and he clapped happily. But Xiao Pingtai told him not to worry, and he hadn't finished speaking yet.