Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 3 Hibizun Village
A seriously ill and dying person was miraculously rescued. All the villagers were very excited and kept chattering. Even carrying a stretcher could not stop them from talking.

Hibitsu Village, this was the place name that Yuanye asked about, and he successfully realized his wish. Before he asked for a place to stay, he just said that his friend had fallen and injured himself. Jubei and the woman who had excitedly thanked him before took the initiative to invite him to stay overnight in the village.

Yuanye didn't even dare to say a word of courtesy and quickly followed the villagers. Dozens of people lit torches and carried bamboo spears, carrying Ci Jiulang and Meng Ziqi on stretchers. They walked down the mountain for another three or four miles and came to a river.

The name of the river was Odai River. The group walked along the river for a while and arrived at Hibitsu Village after crossing a simple wooden bridge. The village was surrounded by a thick wooden fence with simple defense capabilities, but the size of the village was difficult to tell. It was too dark and the lighting range of the torches was limited.

Once we entered the village, more and more people started to gather. Many women and children came out to watch the fun. They were surprised to find that Cijiulang was carried back again. They whispered to each other, but no one dared to offend Yuanye, the "nobleman" in gorgeous clothes - he was conspicuous. His coat was made of waterproof and dustproof material, which was particularly shiny and sparkling under the torches, and looked very expensive.

Yuanye looked around silently, and his mood became heavy again.

The village before him was full of big gray huts. Based on his limited knowledge of Japanese history, these were thatched houses with pillars planted on flat ground. They were ancient dwellings that no longer existed in modern Japan and only had written records. He could now give up even the last bit of hope, as he had traveled through time and space.

I don’t know if I can return to the modern era. My silly son has been unconscious for almost a day and I can’t wake him up. I think his head is really damaged. If there is no modern medical treatment, then…

With a heavy heart, he was sent to a small fenced courtyard by Jubei and others, who invited him into a thatched cottage, lit an oil lamp for him, helped him settle Meng Ziqi, and then they all withdrew, as if they did not dare to stay close to this distinguished man, as if they were worried about causing him displeasure.

Yuanye had no choice but to feed his friend some water. Seeing that he could swallow but couldn't wake up, his headache got worse.

He didn't know what to do. He could only hope that his friend had just a serious concussion and would recover on his own after a long sleep. But what if it was some other problem, such as intracranial hemorrhage compressing the brain and turning him into a vegetative state, then he really didn't know what to do.

With the medical conditions in ancient times, this disease could not be cured, right?
He sat with his friend for a while, shook his head, and turned to look at the medieval Japanese houses.

Door... There is no door. The "house door" is a thick curtain made of straw, which can be lifted to come in. As for the layout, it can be divided into two rooms.

The first room he entered was a mud room, with a fire pit surrounded by stones in the back, a clay pot hanging above it, and a stove made of mud next to it. According to the restoration of the flat-ground thatched house he had seen in the museum, this was the "earth room", which was not only a kitchen, but also a place to store farm tools, grain and other sundries. Livestock and poultry would also be temporarily kept here when the weather was bad.

The other room is the "earth seat", which is used for entertaining guests and sleeping. It is where he is sitting now.

The ground here is raised with gravel to prevent moisture - it would be better to use stone slabs, but the poor villagers probably don't have enough energy and physical strength to chisel stones, so they can only make do with gravel - and then spread a layer of rice husks and rice bran to prevent feet from getting hurt, and then spread a mat made of straw on top of the rice husks and rice bran to make it smooth.

Yuanye reached out and tried it, and it felt quite soft when pressed, like a poor version of tatami.

The etymology of the Japanese-specific word "Dogeza" should come from "Doza" and "Doma".

People of noble status sat on the earthen throne, while people of low status had to kneel in the mud between the earthen seats. It was probably only later that the term was extended to mean apology or sincere apology.

After looking at the earthen base, Yuanye turned around and looked at the "pillars" in both the earthen room and the earthen base.

This type of dwelling is called "ground-planted pillar-style thatched building" because of these two rows of "supporting pillars". One end of the pillar supports the beam, and the other end is buried in the ground, so it is called "planted pillar style", but the name does not matter, what is important is the distance between the pillars.

The distance between two pillars is called "ma" in Japan, which is a unit of length and has been changing with each era. Based on the information he saw in the museum, he can roughly judge the era he is in now - in the Kamakura Shogunate period, one room was about eight feet, in the Muromachi Shogunate period, one room was about seven feet and two inches, and in the Edo Shogunate period, one room was about six feet and six inches.

The "chi" here refers to the "Goguryeo chi", which is approximately equal to 0.269 meters in modern times and is considered a special chi used in medieval Japan.

Yuanye estimated that the distance between the two pillars was a little more than 1.9 meters, which is seven feet and two inches, so...did he travel to the Muromachi period with his stupid son on his back?
It would be nice if I could find someone to ask directly, but isn't it a bit stupid to ask these villagers directly what era they are in?

The sudden time travel made Yuanye feel very stressed. He had a lot of questions to ask, but he didn't know how to ask them or who to ask. Just as he was in a mess, the straw curtain was lifted, and the middle-aged woman who had thanked him before, Jijilang's wife Ah Ping, came in with a little girl holding a wooden tray. She bowed her head and said respectfully, "Excuse me, sir, I have kept you waiting for so long."

"Nothing." Yuanye stood up and came out from the earthen seat, slowing down his speech and smiling politely, "Sorry to bother you, is your husband okay?"

"I'm no longer feverish. I'm resting in the side room." Ah Ping tried to understand his words, bowed repeatedly, and spoke politely, "Thank you so much. Please take a seat."

Yuanye smiled and nodded, then turned back to sit on the earthen seat. The little girl also took off her straw sandals and followed barefoot. She moved a lacquered wooden table like a case from the side of the earthen seat, took out a pottery jar and tea bowl from the wooden tray, poured him a cup of hot tea, and whispered, "My lord, please have some tea."

"Thank you." Yuanye nodded at her and smiled gently. The little girl was stunned for a moment, then gave a shy smile in return. The expression on her little face was visibly relaxed.

Ah Ping in the earthen room had already lit the fire in the fire pit and the stove. The little girl hurried down to the earthen room and took a long bamboo tube to help blow the fire. When the fire was burning, Ah Ping went to get rice to put into the pot, and also strung the processed fish on bamboo sticks and inserted them on both sides of the fire pit to roast.

Probably, the time she disappeared just now was because she was preparing ingredients for dinner. While she was busy making dinner, Jubei's bald head seemed to wander outside the door for a while, as if he felt everything was normal, and immediately disappeared, and did not dare to come in to chat.

Yuanye had nothing to do while guarding his friend, so he looked down at the flat stoneware tea bowl, smelled it, and determined that it was brown rice tea - brown rice is rice that is a little coarser than modern brown rice, and its color is white with yellowish green. So brown rice tea is made by dry-frying this bluish-white or light yellow brown rice and then storing it. When needed, it can be brewed with hot water to drink instead of tea. It is still used in Japan in later generations.

But Yuanye did not move. Even though he was a little thirsty, he did not touch the tea. Most of his attention was on Jijilang's wife Ping. He watched her cook. Ping was very skillful and quickly prepared the meal. The little girl brought it to him on a wooden plate.

A bowl of brown rice. It is not like the small bowl used to feed cats in Japan. This bowl is quite normal now. The method is similar to the Chinese laogan rice. It is first boiled and then steamed. It smells good, with a strong rice aroma.
A big bowl of rice soup, which is the rice soup from the first cooking of rice, has some rice grains in it, but the color is slightly yellowish;

A dish of grilled fish. The fish was not big, probably grass carp or pike. It was not grilled well and didn’t come out very well, but it was good to get fresh fish in winter, so poor cooking skills didn’t matter much.

Finally, there was a dish and a sauce. The dish was kelp and radish, the sauce was probably soybean paste with plum sauce, and there was a boiled egg on the side. In addition, a portion of mushy rice porridge was cooked for Meng Ziqi, the patient, which should be a byproduct of the first round of rice cooking.

Seeing that the food had been laid out in front of Yuanye, Ah Ping knelt down on the ground and bowed his head, saying politely, "Sir, my humble home is poor, so I can only prepare some simple meals. Please forgive me."

Three dishes and a soup was considered a luxurious meal in this era. She had prepared it with all her might. The fish, kelp and plum sauce were all borrowed. However, no matter how she looked at Yuanye, he looked noble. His body shape, skin color, the straightness of his teeth and his aura were all nobler than the country warriors she had seen. She was a little unsure about the standard of hospitality, fearing that the other party would get angry, and she was really nervous.

She waited until Yuanye nodded, smiled and said "thank you" before she felt relieved and left the house, leaving her daughter alone to serve her. From beginning to end, she did not look like an ordinary peasant woman.

Maybe it’s because the “village chief’s wife” has more experience, but I don’t know what the position of “servant” is and whether it can be considered as the village chief.

Yuan Ye thought about it and helped Meng Ziqi sit up, intending to feed him some rice soup first. The little girl was kneeling on the edge of the earthen seat with her head bowed, but she was very smart when she heard the noise, and immediately stood up and walked forward to help.

Yuan Ye thought that there would be no problem with the rice porridge, so he fed his friend some. Seeing that he could swallow slowly and his complexion seemed to have improved, he felt relieved. After settling his friend down, he turned his attention to the little girl who was about to step aside and asked in a gentle voice, "Are there any bowls and chopsticks left?"

The little girl looked up in surprise, not quite understanding what he said. He repeated it again before she reacted and hurriedly took out a ceramic bowl and a pair of bamboo chopsticks and handed them to him.

Yuan Ye put some rice, fish, vegetables and sauce into the ceramic bowl and said with a smile: "I'm not used to eating alone, let's eat together!"

It was the first time for the little girl to encounter such a thing. Yuanye's accent was too strong, so she could not understand what he meant. When she understood what he meant, she could not figure out what he wanted to do. During the autumn harvest or the conscription of labor and military service, the Arako Castle would sometimes send retainers and samurai to come. As the only daughter in the family, she usually had no choice but to serve as a maid. However, those people were very vulgar and barbaric. They would glare and curse at people if they were not satisfied, not to mention letting her eat something at the same time.

To be honest, if Yuanye had thrown the bowl and cursed why there was no wine, or blamed why he didn't kill a chicken, she would have been more accepting of it. After all, judging from their clothes, those country warriors were far less noble than the one in front of her.

Seeing her at a loss, Yuan Ye pushed the bowl towards her again and said with a smile, "It's okay, eat quickly!"

"Uh, yes, my apologies... Thank you, sir."

The little girl actually wanted to eat it very much. Her daily staple food was buckwheat, beans, wild vegetables, radishes, and turnips, and most of the time they were mixed with rice bran and barnyard grass. She had hardly eaten pure rice since she was born, not to mention fish and vegetable sauce. Her family's daily diet would never be so luxurious. Seeing Yuanye's insistence, she finally swallowed her saliva and responded softly, took the bowl and began to eat carefully.

Yuanye watched her eat the food silently before he started eating.

He took a bite of the brown rice first, which was a bit hard and not very tasty, or even bad. If he could choose, he would still like to eat white rice, but he guessed that this place didn't have polished rice.

The fish was OK, the meat was fresh and quite fatty, but it was a little burnt and the taste was a little too bland. Not to mention the seasoning, it seemed like they didn't use much salt, so the fishy smell was very strong, which was a waste of such a good fish.

Dishes, radish stewed with kelp, the legendary emerald black jade soup. This reminded him of his high school life. The unlucky cafeteria in high school often cooked radish with kelp - theoretically there should be some meat in it, but he never got any when he got food, and he didn't know which dog the meat was fed to.

The sauce is a bit hard to describe, it's sour, astringent and bitter. It's probably because the bean paste and plum paste from last year have been stored until now. Not only does it not have much salty and fresh taste, it also seems a bit spoiled.

Generally speaking, if it were modern times, he would have beaten up the chef after tasting a few bites, but now he was in trouble and had no choice but to continue eating in order to conserve his energy.

He ate some reluctantly, then peeled a hard-boiled egg and ate the egg white. He put the yolk, which he didn't like, into the little girl's bowl and asked with a smile, "What's your name?"

The little girl was chewing her food very slowly and lovingly. The food would be very cheap in modern times, but she actually had a happy look on her face when she ate it. Upon hearing the voice, she quickly put down her bowl and chopsticks, bowed her head, clasped her hands, and sat upright, and answered respectfully, "Excuse me, sir. My name is Yayoi."

"What a nice name. Were you born in March?" Yuan Ye said politely. Yayoi is the ancient name for March. In medieval or modern Japan, it is actually a very common name. There is nothing special about it. If you throw a stone in the countryside, you will have a chance to hit one.

Yayoi pricked up her little ears and concentrated on trying to understand what he said. This time she understood it quickly. An embarrassed smile appeared on her little face, looking a little shy.

Yuan Ye didn't care. He just wanted to chat more to correct his accent and get some information. He immediately asked, "How old are you this year?"

"Ten years old."

"Hmm, ten years old?" Yuanye pretended to think, "What year are people born when they are ten years old?"

He did not expect the little girl in front of him to be able to answer. After all, she was so young and lived in an era where the illiteracy rate was definitely over 95%. It was normal for her to not know when she was born. He could fully understand that. But to his surprise, Yayoi said simply, "Ten Ten, sir."

Astronomical decade?

So now it is most likely the 20th anniversary of Tianwen?

What year in AD is the 20th year of astronomy?

Yuanye's mind raced, he felt like he had seen this era name when visiting a museum, plus the previous judgment of the Muromachi shogunate era... In the fourth or fifth year of the Muromachi Tenbun era, the Hokke sect in Kyoto was in turmoil, and the most famous tea utensil in ancient Japan, the "Nine-nine Tea Cups", was lost for the first time, which seemed to be around 1536. So now it is 1550 or 1551, the end of the Muromachi period?

The end of the Muromachi period is also known as the Azuchi-Momoyama period, which is the Japanese Warring States period. So, have I traveled through time and space to this troubled times carrying my stupid son on my back?
Gan!
(End of this chapter)