Mount & Blade: Warband in the Sengoku period of Japan

Kita Shin'ai placed the letter she had finished reading on the chessboard in front of her, then casually took a chess piece from the chess box and placed it on the paper to weigh it down as it trembled slightly in the breeze.

"Lord Harumasa must be very happy now."

"What do you mean?" Chen Daoyuan asked calmly, picking up the teapot beside him and filling the cup in front of Bei Xin'ai.

A glimmer of wisdom beyond his years flashed across Bei Xin'ai's still somewhat youthful face: "My lord, I heard that you seized more than eighty horses from Gejuan Pavilion this time?"

"Um."

"What do you think of the quality of these horses?"

Chen Daoyuan recalled that, apart from Special Zhou, most of the other horses were high-quality warhorses capable of serving as cavalry mounts. The skinny horse he had taken from Makibori Torajiro was only considered to be of medium to low quality.

"very nice."

Kita Shin'ai picked up her cup, took a sip of tea, and smiled, "Horse farms like this are nothing in the territories of the Seven Households, Six Households, and Five Households in the north. Near Lake Ogawahara, there are several large horse farms with nearly two thousand warhorses."

"so what?"

"Therefore, Lord Harumasa is not concerned about this loss, but he is also very concerned about it. He is not concerned because the loyal five, six, and seven households will provide him with more than a thousand cavalrymen. What he is concerned about is that the not-so-loyal nine households have lost 20% of the four or five hundred cavalrymen they originally had."

"So, perhaps Harumasa Nanbu doesn't not want revenge, but rather he doesn't want the Nine Household Department to seek revenge?"

Kita Shin'ai finally nodded and began to speak in plain language: "That's right. In Nanbu Harumasa's eyes, the Shiba clan is weak and incompetent, just a piece of fat meat that he can use at any time. What he hates most is not the resistance of this piece of fat meat, but that his clan brothers want to take a share of this piece of fat meat."

"So what does this letter mean?" Chen Daoyuan pointed to the letter placed on the chessboard.

"It seems that he has suppressed the resentment of the Ninth Household Department. Now, this letter is intended to appease the Shiba clan and prevent the Ninth Household Department from causing trouble again."

Chen Daoyuan laughed: "That's perfect. I also need the Nine Household Departments to stop causing trouble and give us some free time. Hmph, once this period is over, Nanbu Qingzheng might be surprised to find that the fat meat in his eyes has suddenly started to grow iron and steel spikes."

Bei Xin'ai also laughed and said, "Is that so? Then I'll wait and see."

"No need to wait and see, pack your things and come south with me." Chen Daoyuan said, "I don't have time to manage the daily life of a village, so I'll leave those things to you."

Bei Xin'ai raised an eyebrow, seemingly somewhat surprised: "My lord, you've been granted a fiefdom?"

"I guess so. There wasn't an official title, but I'm in charge of that place."

Bei Xin'ai straightened her posture and bowed respectfully to Chen Daoyuan, saying, "I understand, sir. Leave it to me."

The next day, Chen Daoyuan packed his belongings and, together with Bei Xin'ai, Yi Xia, and several attendants, bid farewell to Liang Chuan Xin Si and left Da Fang Zhai, heading south.

After passing through Takasui-ji Castle, Chen Daoyuan soon arrived at the village assigned to him by Shibo Quangao.

The village is located on the edge of the Kitakami River, not far from Takasui-ji Castle. It appears to be slightly larger than Ōbō-zhai, but the larger parts are clearly newly built, obviously the preparations made by Shiba Senko for Chen Daoyuan.

After some investigation, Chen Daoyuan was not very satisfied with the geographical location of the village called Mikahochi... A little further south, past another village, lies the border with the Hiekara clan. From a strategic perspective, placing the industrial center here is indeed somewhat unstable.

However, there was nothing that could be done. The Hiekkan clan was a local clan that had been neighbors with the Shiba clan in the Kitakami River Valley for two hundred years. There had been frictions and alliances, but they had lived in relative peace and could not be easily disturbed.

However, once Chen Daoyuan's small blast furnace was set up, this Bai Guanshi became a target for verifying the results of steelmaking.

The construction in Sankabori Village has already achieved some progress. Chen Daoyuan's fortress has been completed, and the houses of the craftsmen and laborers who have moved here are almost finished.

It has to be said that houses are built very quickly in Japan.

On the other hand, the industrial facilities that Chen Daoyuan requested were not so satisfactory.

Japanese craftsmen had by this time mastered the technology of building irrigation waterwheels, but they did not know how to use transmission technology to power the waterwheel's water as the power needed for the blower and forging hammer.

Fortunately, Chen Daoyuan hadn't forgotten all the basic engineering knowledge from the ROTC courses. He spent two days cooped up in the newly built fortress and managed to sketch out simple design drafts of the drive linkage and camshaft.

When the foreman, Yagoro, saw the two sketches and understood the function of the design through Chen Daoyuan's explanation, the fanaticism in his eyes was even stronger than that of Ryokawa Nobutsugu when he saw Chen Daoyuan cut down more than a dozen people and repel hundreds of soldiers.

He handed over the project to build the water power plant to Yagoro and let Kita Shin'ai take over the management of the village.

Chen Daoyuan decided to set off to search for iron ore.

Shiba Kengo assigned Chen Daoyuan to Mikabori because the place was originally a source of iron... however, it was iron sand mined from a few small tributaries of the Kitakami River, which was far from enough for blast furnace ironmaking.

The Shiba clan's ninjas searched the nearby mountains for more than half a month but failed to find the large iron mine that Chen Daoyuan had mentioned. With no other option, Chen Daoyuan had to come himself to handle the matter.

In Chen Daoyuan's memory, the Kamaishi Iron Mine was located in the southeast of Iwate Prefecture. So, he set off from Mikabori with a local hunter who would act as his guide and two attendants, and headed southeast into the mountains along a small river.

They traveled for two days, reaching the Tono Basin, where they rested for one night at Yokota Castle, owned by the Asonuma clan, before continuing southeast.

Further southeast lies the eastern entrance to the Tono Basin, the treacherous Senjin Pass. Chen Daoyuan was already considering giving up. Even if iron ore were found here, the Asonuma clan would be in the way, making it incredibly difficult to transport back...

But since he was already there, Chen Daoyuan decided to go further and cross Xianrenqiao. If all else failed, he would walk to the beach and take a look at the coastline and geography, treating it as a vacation.

Then, when the group crossed the Xianrenqiao Pass, the simple compass that Chen Daoyuan carried reacted. The compass needle began to deviate from due north and moved towards the northeast.

Chen Daoyuan naturally understood what was going on, and immediately followed the pointer, walking upstream along the stream beside the mountain path.

Soon the group arrived at the source of the stream. Chen Daoyuan gave a wry smile as he looked at the valley filled with dark red stones and the compass needle spinning wildly in his hand.

This must be the Fushi Iron Mine... But now that the ore has been found, how do we get it out?

Unbeknownst to many, this was historically the biggest problem in the development of the Kamaishi iron mine. Located on the eastern slope of Senjin Pass at an altitude of over 900 meters, the mine was discovered during the Edo period. Despite the efforts of local feudal lords, it was difficult to overcome the barrier of Senjin Pass and transport the ore to the densely populated Kitakami River Valley. The only option was to transport it eastward along mountain roads to Kamaishi City by the sea, where blast furnaces were built for smelting, and then the steel was transported away by sea. It wasn't until 1950, when the Senjin Tunnel, considered an engineering marvel at the time, was completed and the Kamaishi Railway was fully opened, that the problem of transporting the iron ore was finally solved.

After digging up some mineral samples on the spot, the group could only leave dejectedly and return to Mikabori by the same route.

Carrying the ore he had dug out, Chen Daoyuan arrived at Gaoshui Temple Castle to see Shibo Quan Gao and see if the old fox had any ideas.

Spokenko examined the ore Chen Daoyuan had presented with great interest, scrutinizing the pure black stone in his hand before asking, "So, this ore is at Immortal's Pass?"

Chen Daoyuan nodded: "That's right, it's Yamaguchi Higashipo."

"Immortal Pass..." Spokenko pondered for a moment, "Actually, it's not that difficult to bring it back."

Chen Daoyuan frowned. This old man probably had never been to Xianrenqiao in his life. The terrain there was extremely dangerous, and the transportation difficulties were not something that could be easily overcome.

Just as he was about to retort, Spurgeon put down the ore he was holding, took a roll of paper from beside his desk, glanced at it, and said, "These days, I've also asked the blacksmiths in the city about this ore. The blacksmiths actually know what it is; it's magnetite, isn't it?"

Chen Daoyuan nodded: "Exactly."

Shiba Kengo picked up the ore again and tossed it in his hand: "According to the blacksmith, the Ming Dynasty has a secret method to refine this magnetite into pig iron, while Akitsushima does not have such a secret method. Therefore, magnetite in Japan is just a waste mine, isn't that right?"

These words were like a wake-up call; Chen Daoyuan immediately understood what Sibo Quangao meant.

The grand vision he had previously painted for Shiba Tsugaku was centered on blast furnace iron smelting. However, this technology was not actually a rare invention from another time. On the contrary, in the Ming Dynasty across the sea, blast furnace iron smelting had already been systematized and industrialized, and the world's top-level mass-produced steel industry had long been established... It's just that Japanese craftsmen were limited by various constraints and could not learn it.

For example, there is a lack of good blast furnace refractory materials, restrictions on iron ore raw materials, and the path dependence of traditional iron smelting... So don't say that the Japanese enthusiasm for flip phones, fax machines, and floppy disks is a modern habit; they have had this tradition for hundreds of years.

Having figured this out, Chen Daoyuan had already guessed what Shiba Quangao wanted to say.

"In that case, let's tell the Asonuma clan about this mine and have them organize people to mine stones at Senjin Pass. We can then use the trade route between Shiwa County and Tono County to exchange rice for stones with them."

Chen Daoyuan was somewhat worried: "Can this Asonuma clan be trusted?" He had inquired about it when he passed through the Tono Basin. It was said that the Asonuma clan was quite close to the Nanbu clan and was a local clan nominally subordinate to the Nanbu clan.

Shibo Quan Gao scoffed, "Let's not even talk about how the relationship between the Asonuma clan and the Nanbu clan is nothing but a pretense. Even if they knew this magnetite was of great use, so what? Did the Asonuma clan and the Nanbu clan know how to smelt magnetite? Is the rice of my Zibo County not as sweet as this dark stone?"

However, Spogong gave Chen Daoyuan a deep look: "Although my Zibo County is rich in rice, it is still heartbreaking if what we get in return is not strong steel."

Chen Daoyuan bowed deeply and nodded: "I will certainly live up to your expectations."