Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 8: Living Worse Than a Dog
The next morning, just as the sky was getting light, Yuanye was awakened by the cold.

You may say the winter in Kanto, Japan is cold, but at 5 or 6 degrees it is hard to freeze people to death. But you may say it is not cold, but this temperature is definitely not comfortable for humans, especially when sleeping at night with clothes covered.

In medieval Japan, even sleeping was a torture.

Yuanye got up, missing his quilt, heater and air conditioner, and checked Meng Ziqi's condition. He found that he was still in a coma and was deeply disappointed, but there was nothing he could do but continue to wait.

As soon as he made a little noise, a corner of the straw curtain in the earthen room was lifted up. Yayoi, whose face was red from the cold, looked inside and bowed his head and asked respectfully, "Lord Nohara, are you going to get up now?"

Yuanye didn't expect that the little girl was waiting at the door so early. He was a little surprised and quickly responded.

Yayoi simply rolled up the straw curtain and hung it above the door frame, then brought hot water and a kapok towel, soaked them and wrung them dry, intending to help him wipe his face and hands.

"I can do it myself." Yuanye was a little uncomfortable and quickly refused.

Since he could remember, even when he was a child, he washed his face and brushed his teeth by himself, and he really didn't have many such experiences. After all, his father was a drunkard, and he didn't care whether he said anything or not, and he often beat and scolded him when he was drunk, and his mother was said to have run away with someone early, and he didn't even have any impression of it - he spent most of his childhood at his uncle's house and Meng Ziqi's house. He was relatively independent since he was a child, and after he became independent, no one really helped him wash his face.

Yayoi was a little hesitant, thinking that it was different from what her mother taught her, but she didn't dare to force her help.

Yuanye didn't care about her. After washing his face, he carefully wiped Meng Ziqi's head, face and neck, then took back his coat and covered him with a quick-drying shirt. As soon as he was done, Yayoi rushed to pour water. Yuanye didn't stop him. He took out a tooth cleaning gel instead of brushing his teeth - this bottle can only last for more than a month. Later, he would have to consider how to keep his teeth healthy. There is no place to find a dentist these days.

He put on his shoes while thinking about it, and put on his backpack. When Yayoi came back and saw it, she was surprised and said, "Mr. Nohara, breakfast will be ready soon. Are you going to..."

"No rush for breakfast, I'm going to go out for a walk."

"Ah, this..."

Yayoi was a little confused, but she didn't dare to stop him. After thinking for a while, she followed him carefully. Yuanye didn't care. He walked straight out of the village, crossed the bridge, and walked along the Odai River towards the mountain.

Thirty minutes later, he stood on the ridge and looked back at the Ise Mountains. There was a faint mist in the mountains, but it was still far from the thick fog he had encountered at the beginning, when he could not see clearly even three feet away.

"Lord Nohara, are you going into the mountains?" Yayoi still followed him and asked with some concern, "There are bears, mountain whales and wolves in the deep mountains. Can you do it by yourself?"

Mountain whales are wild boars. At the beginning, the Japanese emperor banned the eating of meat, mainly four-legged animals, which led to the extinction of domestic pigs in Japan. Wild boars were also forced to change their names and become a kind of fish - at that time, the Japanese believed that whales were fish.

Another similar example is the rabbit. The rabbit became a kind of bird, and its big ears became its wings. Even in modern times, Japanese rabbits are counted by their "feathers".

Among them, the Onmyoji of the Heian period also played a role in fueling the trend, causing the Japanese to consider eating animal meat unclean (analogous to eating corpses, Onmyoji believed that corpses were unclean, shrines were unwilling to build cemeteries, and funerals were always handled by monks). This made it a custom for the Japanese people not to eat animal meat, which lasted for nearly a thousand years. This also led to widespread malnutrition among people in ancient and medieval generations of Japan, with one person measuring 1.4 meters per square meter.

Of course, this is just a custom. When people are extremely hungry, they will eat anything. It does not mean that they do not eat meat all the time. This is especially true for the samurai class. They eat meat and even regard meat as a kind of medicine and tonic.

Therefore, there was a significant gap in height and weight between the samurai class and the civilians in Japan. There were many "tall people" - a person with a height of 1.7 meters was considered a "tall person" in Japan. Yuanye was 1.79 meters tall barefoot, which was definitely a "tall man" among "tall men" in Japan, and was definitely at the top of the height echelon.

But this was none of Yuanye's business. He didn't care whether the Japanese were short or not. Seeing that there was no sign of fog in the mountain, he turned around and walked down the mountain again, saying to Yayoi, "Don't worry, I'm not going into the mountain, I'm just taking a walk."

Yayoi was only a little over one meter tall, and she trotted up the mountain with him on her short legs. She hadn't even caught her breath yet, but Yuanye stood on the ridge for two minutes and then had to go down the mountain again. He felt more and more confused and even a little dizzy - caused by malnutrition.

But she had no choice but to follow him back.

Yuanye was not disappointed that he did not see the mountain fog rising again. He just took a look with a glimpse of hope, and was ready for a protracted war - if the mountain fog rose again, he would immediately go back and carry his stupid son into the mountains to try his luck whether he could return to the modern world. But now there was no fog, so he had to start implementing the survival plan!
When he reached the vicinity of Hibitsu Village, he saw the environment that he had not been able to see clearly last night because of darkness.

The village was surrounded by a rough wooden fence with a crude wooden watchtower in one corner. There were a large number of fields surrounding the village. Those near the Odai River were relatively neat, but became more fragmented as one moved towards the hills.

It is late winter now, and the paddy fields are basically dry and filled with grain stumps (the small piece of rice left after harvesting). I don’t know whether the winter paddy field technology has not been passed on here, or whether this place is not suitable for this agricultural technology.

There are rows of bamboo racks beside the fields, with many bundles of straw hanging on them.

These are also important means of production. I think after the rice is harvested in autumn, the rice straw is hung here to dry and can be used whenever needed without worrying about rotting or mold.

This is also the main feed for cattle, horses and other livestock in the coming year. It can also be used for making straw bags (a straw container for food, also called straw bags), repairing houses and making torches.

Yuanye became interested as he watched, and asked Yayoi, "How many fields are there in the village?"

Yayoi immediately replied: "Arita 78-cho 2nd section."

原野愣了愣，一时不太习惯室町时代的各种单位：5平方尺为1步（高句丽尺），360步为1段（6×60或12×30，也因形状称为1条），10段为1町，1平方町为1坪，6坪为1里。

This was the unit of land area determined by Japan when it implemented the Bantian system based on the Tang Dynasty's equal-field system. It was also called the Jori system and was basically used until the end of the Muromachi period. It underwent several changes and was renamed several times, but the overall difference was not significant.

Yuanye calculated in his mind for a while and felt that the area was a bit small and it seemed that it could not support so many people in the village.

Yayoi seemed to have noticed something, and added cautiously, "Sir, there are more than 310 mahā and 140 mahā in the village."

Yuanye reacted and realized that at that time in Japan, "田" only referred to paddy fields, dry fields were called "畠", and non-grain planting land was called "園".

Among them, fields are further divided into upper-upper, upper, middle, and lower grades, and the yields can differ by more than double. There are similar grades for "畠", but they also include abandoned land and fallow land, while "園" and "宅" are the remnants of the "bantian" system. "宅" is residential land, and "園" is land used to grow cash crops such as mulberry, hemp (sesame, flax, ramie, hemp, etc.), cotton, lacquer, bamboo, and indigo (a general term for various dyes).

Yuanye had no intention of delving into Japan's medieval agricultural planning policies, so he just asked curiously, "How was the harvest? Did you pay taxes...um, landowners...a lot of annual tribute?"

"It's OK..." Yayoi was a little more cautious when talking about this topic. She secretly observed his expression and whispered, "My father said that now it's five officials and five civilians."

"Do we have to hand over 50% of the harvest?" Yuan Ye nodded in understanding. Compared with the 30% tax rate of personal income tax, consumption tax, urban construction tax and other miscellaneous taxes in later generations, % tax is a bit high, but it is better than he imagined. So he asked with concern, "The rest should be enough for food, right?"

Yayoi was about to say something but stopped herself, confirming once again that Yuanye was indeed a noble man who had no idea of the sufferings of the world.

Yuanye noticed her expression and asked curiously, "Isn't that right?" Yayoi whispered, "Sir, you haven't calculated the cattle and rice, the rice for rent, the land, the military rations, and the direct farmland."

"Niu Mi, Xi Mi, Jia Di Zi, Bing Shi and Zhi Ying Tian?"

Yayoi secretly observed Yuanye's expression again, and seeing that he was just curious and had no signs of being angry due to ignorance, she carefully said: "The village needs to borrow cattle from the temple every year, and after the harvest, we need to pay the temple with cattle and rice, about one stone and two dou per cow."

In this era, before planting, the soil must be turned over to remove grain stumps, weeds, etc., and then water must be stored before a new round of planting can begin. This is hard work and an important factor affecting the harvest. Unless there is enough strong labor at home, it is better to use cattle to do it, but raising cattle costs a lot of money a year - even if the cattle do not work, they will eat 4 kilograms of straw, or 15 kilograms of green grass, or 3 liters of beans or buckwheat a day.

Not to mention working it, it has to be fed with hay, grass, beans and wheat at the same time, otherwise it will start to lose weight like crazy.

In addition, a large amount of salt is needed to allow the cows to perform heavy physical labor continuously. About 100 grams of salt should be given a day, sometimes even up to 200 grams. Under normal use, about 30 grams should be guaranteed every day, otherwise the cows will not be able to work, will get sick, or even die in front of you.

Adding up all these problems, raising a cow in a year is not a small amount of money, and it is very easy for it to be stolen. Most farmers dare not raise one, so they have to rent it.

After Yayoi explained in detail, Yuanye understood and asked again: "Where is Ximi?"

"Sometimes the village encounters a famine and cannot store food before winter, so they borrow food from the temple. No matter what they borrow, they have to pay it back with rice." Yayoi explained carefully, "Most of the time, they have to pay back two for one, and sometimes they can pay back three for one. If they can't pay it back in one year, they will pay it back in two or three years, but they have to add some interest every year."

100%-200% interest? Or compound interest?

Are monks so black-hearted? Where is the Buddha's mercy? But it seems that monks in all countries lend money at high interest rates, and it is not just Japan that is the case. No wonder monks are beaten in all countries and dynasties...

Yuan Ye complained in his heart and continued to ask: "What about the land and military rations?"

"The rice we have to pay is a reward to the samurai for their hard work in managing it. It is not included in the five gong and is shared equally by the whole village." Yayoi said more carefully, frequently observing Yuanye's expression, "Military rations are the rice temporarily collected during the war, which is also not included in the five gong. It is... it is our way of showing filial piety to the samurai for protecting us."

Management fees collected from lower- and middle-level warriors? Temporary war taxes?

Yuanye hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Where are the direct-operated fields?"

"Directly managed fields are fields that the main family has conscripted laborers to cultivate, and all the harvest belongs to the main family." Yayoi continued to explain to the "young master who doesn't know the sufferings of the world", pointing to the best paddy field on the river bank and said, "More than 30 cho there are directly managed fields. My father is responsible for leading people to cultivate them, and all the harvest every year is counted as annual tribute."

Yuanye was speechless.

Well, it was the feudal lords in medieval Japan who knew how to play games. They were even more evil than the capitalists. In addition to all kinds of exorbitant taxes and levies, they also directly conscripted people to work on the land and took all the profits for free. Their hearts were so black that they couldn't even reflect light, right?
Yuanye shook his head, looked at the dry fields far away from the Odaijikawa River, and asked again: "Where is the Hata? In addition to the five officials and five people, is there anything else that needs to be paid?"

"No, but many dry fields have poor harvests. If we convert it into rice, it will be even less. There will not be much left after paying the annual tribute." Yayoi may be because his father is the low-level official in charge of the village's crops and annual tribute, so he knows all this very well. "In addition, our village also has to pay feathers, fish glue, lacquer, lacquer seeds, straw bundles, hemp, hemp seeds, dried radish, dried turnips, bean paste, bamboo, wood... and some other things every year, I can't remember them at the moment, I'm sorry, sir."

She spoke in a lower and lower voice, and even though she was only ten years old, even though she was still a child, when she talked about these things in detail, it was as if a heavy mountain had pressed down on her heart, making her feel depressed involuntarily.

Yuanye became more and more speechless and remained silent. For a moment, he lost interest in exploring the customs and practices of medieval Japan.

According to this rough calculation, the working people in medieval Japan could only get about 20% of the wealth for their labor after a busy year, or maybe even only 10%. This was something he had not thought of before.

He had only known from books that the burdens on farmers in the feudal era were heavy, but he had never imagined they were so heavy. It was truly the case that "farmers had no rice to eat, weavers had no clothes to wear, and their lives were worse than those of a dog."

but……

How can Japanese peasants be so patient? More than 80% of their wealth has been taken away, so why haven't they rebelled? If it were China, if they dared to collect taxes to this extent, someone would have raised an appeal long ago. No matter who the lord or emperor is, even gods and monsters would be dragged out and their heads would be chopped off!
Anyway, he can't accept it. No matter who dares to exploit him like this, he will definitely resist!

He endured it for a while and didn't say the words "How did you endure until now?" After all, he was just a traveler in time and space and had no intention of killing himself in Japan.

He just silently glanced at the little girl in front of him who had a gloomy expression and a pale face. He stopped talking about the things that made her feel bad, changed the topic to a lighter one, and began to ask her about some farming knowledge in medieval Japan.

After all, Yayoi was still young, and her attention was quickly diverted. She soon cheered up again. Perhaps she had become accustomed to the numb life of living like a dog, and began to explain to him in detail how their village farmed - currently the Nobi region of Japan adopted an alternative two-cultivation system.

Early rice is planted before the plum rain season, and another crop of rice is planted when the plum rain season is about to end. At the same time, buckwheat, various beans, radishes, turnips, and taro (not much) are planted in the dry fields at any time. Then the paddy fields and dry fields are harvested before the typhoon season begins in July. When the typhoons gradually subside in mid-August, the second crop of buckwheat and beans, as well as a batch of turnips and radishes are planted. After the harvest, agricultural production is stopped and the wintering begins.

Well, buckwheat is not wheat. One is from the Polygonaceae family and the other is from the Gramineae family. They just have similar names. The two crops are actually not related. Compared with wheat, buckwheat is not very tasty. Its advantage is that it grows fast and can be harvested in more than two months. It is a good supplement after the typhoon season. Therefore, buckwheat was also an important crop in Japan in the Middle Ages.

The later Japanese tradition of eating buckwheat noodles during the New Year may have originated from this. There is an article called "A Bowl of Yangchun Noodles" in the Chinese textbook of Hua Xia Middle School, and the Yangchun noodles in it refer to buckwheat noodles.

Yuanye listened and thought, enriching his own knowledge of this strange era. He also repeatedly praised Yayoi for knowing so much and being amazing. This made Yayoi more and more shy, and her mood began to improve involuntarily, as if all the sufferings mentioned before were temporarily forgotten.

She really enjoyed chatting with Yuanye and always felt that he was different from other warriors, but she couldn't tell exactly how.

Maybe, it was because Yuanye was willing to praise her, willing to joke with her, and willing to treat her as a human being?
She couldn't explain it, she didn't understand. She just felt that Yuanye was a very good samurai, different from other vulgar samurai.

The two of them chatted all the way back home.

Yayoi's mother, Ping, was completely confused. She was cooking when her daughter and the guest disappeared, leaving only an injured person sleeping soundly. Now she was relieved to see them come back together, and quickly invited the guest to dinner.

The food was still so simple, still mainly consisting of brown rice, radish and sauce, but having just heard about the heavy burden of farmers in medieval Japan, and then looking at the food, and then looking at Yayoi, who was pale and skinny and looked like a chick, and Aping, who also had a sallow face, Yuanye felt a little guilty, and he really couldn't open his mouth when looking at the food.

He had originally planned to stay at the Yayoi family for a while. On the one hand, he wanted to learn more about the current situation and be prepared for any eventuality. On the other hand, he wanted to let his stupid son recuperate and see if he could wake up naturally. But now everyone was in such a miserable state that they couldn't even afford food, and he couldn't afford a penny. If he continued to eat and drink for free, it would feel like he was committing a sin.

If the Yayoi family goes bankrupt, he and his stupid son won’t know where to go.

Therefore, he felt that the survival plan might need to be slightly revised. He should first make some money, at least to ensure that he would have enough food and clothing!

(End of this chapter)