A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

Before I begin, let me explain that the soybean crop failure in Shinano and the miso crop failure in Shinshu really happened.

The writer once read from a document from a Buddhist temple in Kanto in 1567 that the price of miso soared to 1,700 Yongle qian per shi, that is, the price of miso per liter was as high as 17 qian, which was compared with the usual four to five qian. The price difference is huge.

Later, the writer once discovered from an encyclopedia of machine-fed chickens published by a certain historical inventor that severe droughts occurred in many eastern countries such as Shinano and Kai in the past two years.

Another piece of information comes from "Kai Kingdom Chronicles" about successive years of drought, which caused people's lives to be miserable. Some lords were forced to spend precious Yongle money to buy grain from other places to save the people in their territory.

From this, we can thoroughly verify that this huge fluctuation in miso prices did indeed occur in the history of the Warring States Period.

This is a disaster for the people, but it is a golden opportunity for Xiaoping Taize, who foresaw this incident in advance.

What worries Xiaoping now is the problem of the storage yard. The rice warehouse in Yamauchi Fuzhong City is quite large, but I'm sorry that it is a public treasury owned by the government. How can it be used by private individuals. Secondly, he had already foreseen the little grain that Yamauchi Yoshinori collected this year, so he didn't take any action at all. He was hoarding it all in preparation for a famine.

Xiaoping had no choice but to scratch her head and head anxiously, and went around to find grain merchants in Yamauchi Fuzhong City to inquire about renting a warehouse.

However, these local grain merchants [Note 1] in the mountains have long been as smart as ghosts, and they have also discovered that the drought in Shinano this year is very severe.

Now not only grain merchants in the mountains, but also grain merchants in Suwa, Matsumoto, Kuzuo, Zenkoji and other places have begun secret preparations. Originally, after the autumn harvest in Shinano this year, Hokushin's production was reduced on a large scale. The price of rice, which was usually four shi, was only at the end of autumn and early winter, and it had already soared to two shi.

As expected, there was no one who could survive the troubled times of the Warring States Period who was not a human spirit. Xiaoping was helpless and could only focus on the warehouse specially built for Shiqi.

Previously, Koheita had spent hundreds of dollars to buy Taigu Stone in the territory of Shimono, the guardian of the Utsunomiya clan. Now the stones have arrived a long time ago, and many warehouses have been built.

Generally speaking, ordinary warehouses are constructed of ordinary wood, using a mountain-top frame to construct the roof, and then hire grass-timbering craftsmen to build thatched roofs.

The advantage is that it is quick to build and very cheap, and you can even use any miscellaneous wooden boards. And the straw roof is not as bad as everyone thinks. There is a house with a straw roof that is more than 80 years old in the modern city of Kanzaki, Hyogo Prefecture. I only hired people for large-scale maintenance once, and there were no problems at all.

The Taigu stone that Xiaopingtai specifically wanted to use has nothing to do with Taigu County in our country. It is a kind of stone formed after the accumulation of algae in the ocean millions or even tens of millions of years ago. It has extremely strong fire resistance.

In modern times, it is generally used in churches, temples, government departments, statues and other places. Because Taigu stone itself has a relatively "soft" nature, it is very easy to cut and shape, and to carve various patterns and images. The most famous building that uses Taigu stone as its exterior wall is the infamous Japanese Capitol Building.

But in ancient times, what Xiao Pingtai valued was its special properties of being easy to cut and having very high fire resistance. It could not be used to build city walls because it was soft after all. But perhaps because it is a stone formed by algae, it also has good breathability, which can prevent the warehouse built from it from the stuffy heat and extreme cold in a closed environment.

No more nonsense, they are the same stone, but the difference is unimaginable. Not just any stone can be used after being quarried. Many Qidian writers searched for a local quarry on Baidu Map and dared to say that it could be used to build a stone wall or a stone city.

Haha!

The most suitable stone for making stone walls is Tamba stone, which is not produced in Tamba country. When mined, the pieces are very square, suitable for building, and have sufficient hardness. Others such as granite called Mikage stone, suitable for bathhouse floors, and Towada stone, which is "soft" and not as hard to the touch.

There are countless types of stones. If they all have the same properties, what chemical elements would be needed to classify them?

Gossip aside, now more than half of Xiaopingtai's persimmon lacquer warehouse has been built. It was originally intended to store five years' worth of persimmon lacquer. Now that Persimmon Lacquer has just started, there is no need to use so much. Just in time to pile up soybeans, salt and wooden barrels.

After solving the venue problem, Koheita sat back and waited for Sukezaemon, who was already busy doing the shopping.

The speed of returning to the ship on the Tokaido line is quite fast, and the round trip between Sakai and Toe Province only takes ten days. Sakai is now one of the food distribution centers in the Kinai region, and the market is flooded with soybeans imported from Shikoku and China.

Sukezaemon is a good dancer, and he has plenty of fair-weather friends to help him. Coupled with the golden name of Nawu, the acquisition speed was super fast. It was also because this year's bean harvest in the West was really good. In the end, Sukezaemon slashed the price of 30 yuan per stone with a knife, and it only cost a mere 170 yuan.

The local bean price in Shinano has risen to 400 yen per stone, and is continuing to rise. Of course, it’s not just beans that are rising, but all grains.

Different from the rising food prices, the weather in Shinano is getting colder every day. In addition to frost, this year's winter snow has not fallen yet.

Not to mention blind people, even fools have discovered that large-scale locust plagues, droughts and diseases are very likely to break out next year.

If there is insufficient snowfall for wheat grown in paddy fields and barley grown in hats, it will be difficult to obtain enough water for germination. At the same time, due to less snowfall, dry climate and relatively warm weather, locust eggs have a very suitable hatching opportunity. This locust plague next year can be foreseen!

Next is fever! Due to drought and water shortage, even if crops are watered hard and finally sprout and grow, light black or dark green spots like mildew will appear on their leaves one after another.

If it is only infected on the leaves, forget it. If it is infected on the ears, then there is no need to look at it, the entire crop will be scrapped. Nothing can grow, so we can only harvest it and make straw for fires.

Moreover, fever is also called plague, and it is very contagious. As long as a few plants on a field are infected, within a few days all the crops on the field may be infected. It is not uncommon for large-scale crop destruction to occur across borders and counties in the end. 【Note 2】

Xiaopingtai is going to earn money from blood and tears now!

[Note 1]: It is a businessman, not a businessman. The meaning of businessman is a local businessman, which is different from a businessman. The scope of business is very wide. As long as you are a businessman operating locally, you can call it this, no matter what kind of business you are.

[Note 2]: Fever mainly occurs in rice, while fever in wheat is relatively rare. Secondly, the main causes of the disease are rainy and humid or accumulated heat and high temperature. Guangdong Province in my country is particularly serious and frequent.