A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

Will it be easy to go from being the chief magistrate of five counties in the Yuanjiang River to being in charge of about 1,600 people?

of course not!

The more than a thousand people on the battlefield can be considered a dissatisfied regiment leader at best, and half a country in Yuanjiang can be considered at least half a mayor. The difference in the amount of tasks seems to be quite big.

In fact, they are all illusions, because the current era is an era of military and political control. In later generations, the military's auditing, logistics, personnel, equipment, training, and supplementary departments will be divided into dozens of departments. But now that Xiao Pingtai is doing this writing, from top to bottom, from beginning to end, you, Xiao Pingtai, have to do it all by yourself.

Moreover, everyone should be more or less aware of the urinary properties of the great names of the Warring States Period. All good things will be put into his own direct banner, and he will not consider anything else at all. This is just like Crown Prince William's troops in World War I, from airships to Prussian lancers, from armored trains to machine gun crews. As long as Germany had a few good soldiers, they would all go to their own regiments.

In Yamauchi Yoshiharu's banners, there are all those who use guns, sticks, knives, fire cannons, shoot bows and arrows, sail boats, ride horses, and even have an abacus and write novels!

Salaries range from more than a thousand guanwen at the top to 50 guanwen at the bottom, and the military types are also all kinds of strange. Including the most common spears, naginata, bows, iron cannons, and tachi, as well as iron rods, gold scrapers, nodachi, slings, and slingshots. Let’s not talk about him. There is also a heroic warrior who is said to be able to defeat ten people. He uses a wooden stick! Damn it, you are really useful! His big wooden stick, which is more than three feet long, goes down with a bang. It doesn't matter if he has a helmet on, he will hit you with all the yellow, white, and red ones.

You samurai guys, can you stop trying to come up with some tricks?

Of course, aside from the more than a hundred Hatamoto samurai who were affiliated with Yamauchi Yoshiharu, the remaining ashigaru were much more unified. They were basically spear ashigaru, bow and arrow ashigaru, and a small number of iron cannon ashigaru. But do you think everything will be fine? impossible.

Of these more than 1,500 ashigaru, 800 were kept by Yamauchi Yoshitari himself at his own expense. The rest actually belonged to more than a hundred warriors. This was all due to the nobles' obligation to expand the army, and the hatamoto samurai made up the money according to the amount of their salary. In other words, even though the ashigaru is always available, there is no way to concentrate on training.

This is all superficial shit, and there's a lot more subtle stuff. For example, Koheita, because he was rich, the more than fifty people he recruited in accordance with the nobles' obligation to expand the army were Teppa Ashigaru, three lower-level samurai, and several flag-bearers and servants. In peacetime, the maintenance, training, equipment, and supplies of these soldiers depend entirely on Xiao Pingtai alone.

And can each of the samurai have as much financial resources as Koheita? There are wealthy samurai, and naturally there are poor samurai. Even a samurai with a good income like Uncle Tsunaliang could only raise thirty bow ashigaru, ten iron cannon ashigaru and twenty spear ashigaru.

Both of them have more than a thousand knowledge and actions. Not only are their military types different, but their armors are also different. Regardless of whether Koheita's ashigaru is good or bad, at least it still has basic equipment such as cheap tōmaru, jinkasa, and grass pleats. But Uncle Tsuna's bow and arrow ashigaru and iron cannon ashigaru are not armored! That's right, the old boy is reluctant to arm the ranged soldiers! Only the spear ashigaru involved in the melee was armored.

Then there was a real war, and the 1,600 bannermen in the mountain, who looked so majestic and famous for a while, had their flags fluttering and their spears like a forest. In fact, they only look good on the surface. Many of the expanded ashigaru are usually tenant farmers in the Hatamoto samurai village and servants at home. Except for the armor on the head, the armor ranges from good to bad, from good to bad.

This is the true state of standing troops. As for mobilizing troops? Let everyone speak on their own merits.

In the early days, Uncle Tsunaliang had more than 50 pieces of land on paper, and he was able to live a comfortable life. He only had a horse and a suit of armor. This is considered a good one among Feng Gong people. The worse Feng Gong people go into battle on foot and become poor infantrymen.

So it boils down to one word, poor!

The intensity and intensity of the war continues to increase, and now sometimes even five months of the year are fought. The strongest men in the country are outside, so agriculture will inevitably be affected. Even if the war is won, the other side has been fighting you for five months, and the agriculture in his territory has also been ruined. Then even a burst of looting may not be able to make up for the losses in your home.

The final result was to watch the Yamauchi family fight for years and expand their territory day by day. In fact, the soldiers were gradually falling into poverty. The best example in history is Takeda Shingen. He went from a mere 50,000 gu to Kai's country, fought for more than 20 years, and finally became a world power with nearly 500,000 gu. But as his territory expanded, he became poorer and poorer.

Even if Jinshan has output, this income cannot make up for the "damage" caused by the war to its own territory. The backbone of a feudal country has always been agriculture. If agriculture is affected, no matter how many battles are won, it will just fall into a vicious cycle of feeding war with war.

However, agricultural technology is also innovating and improving nowadays. Second-stage cropping and green manure have been greatly promoted. Unless modern technology is used to produce fertilizers on a large scale and cultivate improved seeds, agricultural improvements will actually be very limited.

Especially if everyone works hard to grow some food, they must first ensure that the people in the entire territory eat it, and then sell part of the best rice to replenish military funds. In the end, how much food could a daimyo with a territory of 100,000 kan save for fighting the war? Not even thinking about grabbing it.

Then the more we fight and plunder, the greater the "destruction" of agriculture within our territory will be, until all surrounding enemy countries' agriculture is destroyed by the war. In order to find new places to plunder, the Takeda family had to go to the point of no return when they hit the Oda family head-on.

Another one is the shortage of manpower. There are only 10 million people in Japan. (To tell you something, Japan is larger than Germany.) Although there are many mountains, there are also many plains along the coast and rivers, and people have already developed terraces. At present, there are still many people but little land. Even if new fields are developed, there may not necessarily be enough manpower to cultivate them.

Although there is a certain amount of horse farming in Shinano Country, horses cannot tolerate rough feeding, the cost is too high, the country as a whole is very poor, many people do not have enough to eat, and it cannot afford to promote it.

On the first day that Xiaoheita took office, he looked at the books and the entire army and knew that this task was definitely not easy. If you stick to the old ways and just maintain the status quo, then it is very simple, just follow the example of your predecessor Konishiharazaemon. Salaries are paid on time, and war ensures adequate food. The soldiers can feel satisfied and feel that their lives can go on.

But we want to strengthen the training of these standing soldiers, improve their equipment, and change their concepts. To turn them into soldiers who can fight hard and for a long time, it will take a lot of effort and effort.

Koheita immediately decided to have a good talk with Yamauchi Yoshiji.