A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

Regarding the recommendation of the six reserve fund appointees, it is no longer limited to the hundreds of middle- and high-level samurai present, but is open to everyone who has the Yamauchi clan military service status of Ashigaru and above.

In line with the principle of fairness and openness, all men who can wear a collar and carry a gun for Yamauchi Yoshiharu have the right to vote and be elected. The samurai immediately went to the countryside to promote the merits of Yamauchi Yoshiharu to all military servicemen and above, saying that don't be afraid if you have no money in the future, Yamauchi Yoshiharu will lend it to you without interest.

The whole mountain was abuzz at that time, and the loan industry that flourished in the Edo period had already appeared in the Warring States period. The interest often reaches 30% or more of the principal, and the repayment period is also short. Many low-level samurai families owed money, and many were forced to lose their families.

Even the people of Yamashiro Kingdom and Kinai launched a large-scale moral government campaign, demanding that all arrears of annual tribute and usurious loans that could not be repaid be waived. In the end, the shogunate and shoguns were forced to promulgate the German government decree, which was one of the largest peasant movements in Japan in the medieval times.

Now Yoshinori Yamauchi is disbursing money to establish a reserve fund. And facing all the soldiers who died for the Yamauchi family, for a time the reputation of Yamauchi Yoshiharu was far ahead of the previous generation, and the power of the Yamauchi family was even greater than before.

In fact, this election is very unfair. There are only forty or fifty men in the Yamauchi clan's royal family, and they can elect one person. The Yamauchi clan's military service members have more than ten thousand, and they can only elect one person. It is a bit like the French Third Estate. On the surface, there are many representatives. In fact, the aristocrats and religious representatives who make up the minority of the population each have one vote, and the representatives of the urban residents who make up the majority of the population also have only one vote.

But on the surface, this is a huge progress in an era. It represented that for the first time under certain circumstances, the grassroots peasants who had been oppressed and cruelly ruled enjoyed the same political power as the heirs of great names like Yamauchi Yoshikatsu.

Since there are not many members of the Yubodai family members, Yukinenlei members and Hatamoto members, everyone will hold a meeting internally or raise their hands, and the candidates will come out immediately.

There were 1,500 standing Ashigaru members, and finally, under the supervision of Yamauchi Yoshiharu, they all gathered on the playground. First there was a loud roll call, and then the roster was drawn. For the first time, they were asked to choose a person they thought was fair and just to enter the reserve fund to serve as the surveyor.

More than half of them were illiterate. They only knew that Yamauchi Yoshiharu wanted them to choose people. These people did not realize the sacredness and importance of the vote in their hands. When the voting started, they almost all looked at their ashigaru-gumi leaders and captains. The ashigaru captains were samurai, but most of them were low-level samurai who were used to obedience. They also looked up at their ashigaru generals. The Ashigaru generals spread out their hands and looked at Heita Xiao.

Then everyone suddenly realized that our Zixiaolu is the only one that can play Zhengda Zhonggang's family. Everyone has long heard that Xiao Pingtai suggested setting up a reserve fund, so why not choose a hammer?

This made Xiaoheita completely realize that in this era, samurai groups were basically still able to read and write. But further down the level, the literacy rate depends on one's own ability, and they won't understand even if you talk to them. Anyway, I only know that Yamauchi Yoshiharu will lend them money without interest. Yamauchi Yoshiharu is a good lord and will work for him.

As for universal large-scale elections, they are insignificant in their eyes. They will think that just you samurai generals can make the decision for us. We don’t have any opinions. We think you’re doing a good job, but it’s troublesome to choose people.

"The people are ignorant and insensitive."

If it were some male protagonist Long Aotian, he would definitely criticize him so much that he would say the eight characters above.

However, things like universal suffrage cannot be accomplished overnight. Now Xiaopingtai still tries to try it on the property-owning class and above the peasants, but the results are quite unsatisfactory. Although other people were very satisfied with the Ashugaru's election of Heita, and thought it was normal, Heita was still a little frustrated.

At the same time, everyone also saw the trouble of so many people conducting elections in ancient times with low productivity, so Xiaoping Tai simply proposed the Representative Election Law. Every one hundred ashigaru or military service members elect one representative, and that representative proposes the candidates for these electors.

Yamauchi Yoshiharu also expressed his approval, and indeed thousands of people were noisily choosing when to choose. That is to say, Xiao Pingtai just convinced everyone, and then everyone followed blindly and successfully chose Xiao Pingtai. If after a few terms, there is no candidate who can convince the public, it will be very noisy.

Therefore, the election of military service members was changed to a representative electoral system. This was the first time since the destruction of the medieval manor system and rural commune system that the political power of "nationals" was restored. Compared with the numb standing ashigaru, the enthusiasm level of rural military service members is quite different.

During the Warring States Period, the peasant class had begun to awaken. One of the most famous examples was the Tokusei Ikezhong mentioned above, and the other was the Hokuriku Ichikuzu who, inspired by Xiangzong, despised the power to protect the land and actively fought against the lords.

There is a scene in "Puppet City" that is also very realistic. The Narita clan only has 500 soldiers in the city. For this reason, they discussed with the "national" tax-paying farmers under the city. When everyone heard that they wanted to resist the Toyotomi army, they immediately disagreed and refused. Get armed and go into the city to defend it. Of course, when we finally heard that it was to defend the city for the male protagonist, everyone agreed.

Some of the Chinese tax-paying farmers, who are both numb and at the same time very "sharp", realized the importance of this election and enthusiastically elected the candidate they thought was the most fair and just candidate.

Representatives from each village came to the gate of Shanuchi Fuzhong City with the hope of the whole village, because they knew that they were going to elect a farmer representative who would truly participate in the distribution of power.

The final result was as expected. A low-level official who had a reputation for being brave and good at fighting on the battlefield and also willing to help the people was elected in the dispute. And he is just an infantryman with a family fortune of thirty-one and two hundred cents!

A small infantryman who couldn't even equip a horse and struggled in the mud with armor and a gun during the war.

But as soon as his name was recommended, Yamauchi Yoshiharu immediately thought of it. Just like when he remembered Uncle Tsuna's name, Yamauchi Yoshiharu's memory is particularly good in this regard. He also held the hand of the low-level official and recounted the story of how this person fought for his head in a certain month and year.

The family was moved to tears, saying that they would never let down the villagers and Yamauchi Yoshitari's instructions, and would strictly abide by discipline and manage the reserve fund for the Yamauchi family.

Since then, all six Yamauchi feudal lords’ reserves have been elected.

After experiencing a "universal suffrage" that could be regarded as the most advanced of the times, the people once again regained peace under Yamauchi's rule.

But at this moment, there is a surging undercurrent in Kinki!