Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

As the elder brother of Nobunaga and the head of the Oda clan, Nobuhiro had a strong voice in the Oda family. In addition, he was now granted a fiefdom of 450,000 koku, so his every word and action was being watched.

"Hmm..." The father-in-law and son-in-law could only stare at each other, feeling utterly helpless as they sat and pondered.

This situation was actually happening in the homes of all the chief retainers and army commanders. Tokugawa Ieyasu was whispering with Honda Masanobu, Azai Nagamasa was whispering with Kaihoku Tsunachika, and Niwa Nagahide was whispering with Mizoguchi Hidekatsu and Awaya Katsuhisa, all of them analyzing what this redistribution was all about.

Nobunaga's thoughts, Nobumori's thoughts, and the changes in the situation after the disbandment of the Mori Army are all matters that need to be considered and analyzed.

"Do you think the lord might be trying to appease him?" Since Shichibei had heard Nobumori complain about it, and the task he was assigned was indeed a difficult one, how could Nobunaga, with his intelligence, not have noticed?

"Appease?" Oda Nobuhiro shook his head.

"Um? "

"Previously, Uemon was ordered to conquer Ki Province, which was actually permitted by law."

"The old territory had 50,000, so Ki Province must have at least 300,000." (At this time, the people of Ki Province were quite powerful and had not yet taken control of the land.)

What Oda Nobuhiro said makes some sense. Nobunaga had in fact promised Sakuma Nobumori a vast territory of 600,000 koku, which was directly under Nobumori's control. Including his retainers, it exceeded 1.2 million koku. It was the largest and most powerful army in the Oda clan, unmatched by anyone else.

Although this is still just wishful thinking at this stage, Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi are still enjoying it, aren't they? Mitsuhide's Tanba is fighting, and Hideyoshi's Harima is fighting; they're both enjoying their "money" just the same.

Following this line of thinking, everyone is just making empty promises, so what is there for Xinsheng to complain about?

Military campaigns were arduous and expenses were enormous; Hideyoshi had already incurred a huge debt with Shichibei upon assuming office. Mitsuhide also faced a debt with Shichibei; everyone has their share of debts.

“But…” Shichibei felt that something was not right.

Because Kishu could not be captured in a short time, and Honganji Temple could not be captured in a short time either, the failure to capture it was all just empty talk. Moreover, Negoroji Temple in Kishu had already surrendered to Nobunaga, and his family claimed to have a temple levy of 720,000 koku.

Aside from the temple territories that may have been seized or occupied elsewhere, those in Kishu alone probably account for a quarter of the Kishu governor's estate.

If we conquer Kii Province, we might have to cede a district to Toyama Jiroshiro. How much will Nobumori lose then? If we conquer Honganji, we definitely won't lose anything. Six hundred thousand koku is just a nice-sounding figure.

“So it’s definitely not about appeasement, and appeasement doesn’t require appeasing hundreds of thousands at once.” Oda Nobuhiro’s eyes suddenly flashed.

"What did you think of?" Shichibei quickly shifted his position and sat down next to Oda Nobuhiro's feet.

"If you want to take something, you must first give it to it."

Shichibei gasped upon hearing this. Had Nobunaga already harbored resentment towards Nobumori? Was it only because Nobumori was still needed to oversee the campaign against Hongan-ji that he was acting this way?

On the surface, granting Sakuma Nobumori land to strengthen his military power and bestowing upon him new knowledge of his samurai corps was a final test. If Sakuma Nobumori could press on and capture Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple, Nobunaga's anger would be greatly diminished.

If they can't break through, then this current bestowal of titles will be their death warrant. Nobunaga has already been magnanimous and has repeatedly shown restraint.

His actions were not enough; they were tantamount to challenging Nobunaga's authority.

"W-wh-wh, w-wh..." Shichibei hadn't expected the relationship between Nobumori and Nobunaga to deteriorate so quickly and so drastically; it all felt unreal. Wasn't it supposed to be that as long as there was expansion, internal conflicts could be resolved, or at least suppressed? How come in reality, the conflicts are practically being brought to the forefront?

"What do you think?" Oda Nobuhiro couldn't say he was absolutely certain, but at least his guess wasn't entirely unfounded.

"Gulp." Shichibei just swallowed hard, not daring to take another bite.

If Nobunaga and Nobumori have already secretly begun to clash—no, it should be said now that they are openly at odds—then the future situation is truly unpredictable.

"Oh dear..." Oda Nobuhiro didn't know what to say. Things had developed this way, which was certainly not a blessing for the Oda family.

"Never mind, it's all just speculation." Shichibei helped Oda Nobuhiro remove the eyepatch from his one-eyed dragon. He was already busy enough attending a funeral today, and now he had to deal with these things after getting home late.

Yinghao Zhengjiujian

After Shichibei's suggestion, Oda Nobuhiro temporarily gave up. He called out to the outside, telling them to eat dinner first, and after finishing, he asked Shichibei if he wanted to stay the night. Stay for what? I can't take a full bath at your house.

He turned around and went back to Kawamuraya. All of Shichibei's main generals had gone to Harima to help Hideyoshi conquer the country. He didn't even have anyone to consult with. He should have known better than to give Takenaka Hanbei or Todo Takatora to Hideyoshi all at once.

The situation at home has suddenly changed due to Mori Yoshinari's death. Although Shichibei is not exactly at a loss, the feeling of uncertainty is really unpleasant.

Because of Mori Yoshinari's passing, the New Year celebrations ended abruptly. All the legion commanders and lords returned to their respective territories to secure their positions and prepare for the battle of Tensho 5.

Shichibei could not stay in Kyoto for long; he had to prepare to welcome the wealthy merchants who were coming from all over the country. Shichibei spoke to Nobunaga about this again. Although Nobunaga had already agreed, there was one matter that still needed to be handled through Nobunaga.

As previously mentioned, it was planned to cast ten-tael Tensho Daiban coins and one-tael Rare Shouban coins for everyday use. This was around the New Year.

Examining Iruma

This was precisely the time when Nobunaga intended to bestow large amounts of rewards, gifts, and alms. Therefore, before the New Year, Shichibei rushed back to Kyoto and presented Nobunaga with a large quantity of gold coins.

Nobunaga wasn't particularly moved by these gold coins. He had given gold as rewards before, but back then it was always by weight, so there was always a fixed amount. Compared to the so-called "chess piece gold" of Kai, it was just "one-tenth of a tael of gold" in Kai Province. Now, giving people gold coins with fixed weights of one or ten taels was indeed a first for him.

The other day, I was promoted to Grand Minister of the Interior, and it was agreed that I would present repair materials, so the Tensho Daiban (a type of official document) was used. When making donations to temples, shrines, and court nobles, the Tensho Daiban was also used, while ordinary court nobles and samurai used the Koban (another type of official document).

After delivery, the recipient was explicitly informed that there was no need to melt it down for recasting or cut it open for use. It should be delivered directly to Kawamura-ya, whether for exchange for copper coins or silver.

Either is fine. Moreover, there is no charge for recasting; if you say it is one tael of gold, you can exchange it for one string of Yongle Tongbao coins.

For individuals or small groups, dealing with the gold or silver content of currency is a very troublesome matter. Both the Ming and Qing dynasties had this problem. In fact, the Qing dynasty had over thirty silver-making shops outside Qianmen, specializing in bringing silver from all over the country to the capital to be recast into "Beijing silver."

Jiang Tianjian

This single transaction alone could generate at least a 3% recasting fee. One hundred taels of silver, for nothing, and already 3% less. Such losses during circulation greatly increase the inconvenience for commercial development.

However, some found it convenient. For example, the officials in charge of currency in the Ministry of Revenue of the Qing Dynasty transported large quantities of Mexican silver dollars to the capital through Guangzhou, which had a higher silver content than Beijing silver. The Thirteen Factories collected the silver dollars by weight, and they also weighed them when they were delivered to the capital. Finally, they melted them down and recast them, and the Qing Dynasty could even extract a "seigniorage" from the transaction.

Now, Shichibei will be the one to earn the seigniorage.

These nobles, temples, and samurai, thanks to the communication between Shichibei and merchants from the Kinai and Nobuo regions before the new year, circulated freely in the market, accepting and buying from all kinds of shops. This greatly facilitated shoppers using these gold coins, making them appreciate their convenience and marvel at the universal acceptance by all shops. Marvelous? There's no need to be.

Among the merchants of Kinai and Noo-shi, who would dare to disrespect Shichibei and refuse to accept gold coins bearing the Kawamura-ya stamp? That would be courting death.

Already in the large room

I don't have the ability to make you bigger and stronger, but I, Kawamura Shichibei, have a great deal of ability to prevent you from succeeding.

Every merchant, association, trade union, and town official in every commercial town sent a representative or himself to Sakai to meet with Shichibei to discuss the matter. Given the deeply entrenched feudal system in Japan, the merchants who refused to accept the goods didn't even need Shichibei's intervention; the local wealthy merchants would simply kill them.

The market issue has already been resolved through external means. The remaining issue, concerning Shichibei and Nobunaga, will need to be addressed through internal communication. Shichibei hopes that Nobunaga will transfer all the gifts and miscellaneous income he receives to him, thus ensuring the smooth circulation of gold koban from Nobunaga's perspective.

In the past, when local daimyo came to the capital to buy official positions, they could not carry extremely heavy copper coins. So they would bring gold dust (Date) if they had local gold dust, falcons (Ando, ​​Daihoji) if they had falcons, silver if they had silver (Mori) if they had silver horses (Shimazu) if they had horses.

Yes, the Takeda and Imagawa families brought gold to Kyoto, but the Shimazu family has a record of presenting fine horses to the shogun.

Leaving aside living animals and gifts, these external offerings...

The gold and silver offered to Nobunaga's account were not under Shichibei's management, and Shichibei also hoped to bring them under unified management. This was to avoid a situation where everyone outside was making a big fuss, but Nobunaga ended up not using the Tensho Koban (a type of Japanese currency).

Just then, Shichibei was heading to Sakai, so he decided to take all the gold and silver from Nobunaga's treasury. Nobunaga didn't mind, as long as Shichibei settled the accounts with him. He didn't care much and told Shichibei to talk to Murai Sadakatsu.

Just before leaving, Nobunaga said something that seemed to come out of nowhere: Shichibei has served under Nobunaga for so many years, but he has only been granted a fief of 50,000 koku in Tsuruga. He said that if there is an opportunity, Shichibei will be granted the title of lord of a castle with a fief of 100,000 koku.

ah?

Chapter 389 The Final Convergence of the Mori Mountain

No, are you going to draw me cookies?

Shichibei's primary occupation was always that of a Ōkata (a high-ranking official), a small merchant. Giving Tsuruga 50,000 koku was actually more than enough. Having a piece of land there allowed the samurai who pledged allegiance to Shichibei to earn a hereditary title, which gave them peace of mind. Shichibei was even more pleased with himself in using them.

If you offered a million koku, Shichibei would probably be overjoyed. A hundred thousand? That would be worse than nothing. Those extra fifty thousand koku would require sending people to manage them, diverting Shichibei's attention. And most likely, they wouldn't be with Tsuruga; the fragmented territory would require an enormous amount of administrative manpower and resources.

For Shichibei, there were hardly any significant benefits. With 50,000 koku of Tsuruga, Shichibei's status was already sufficient to enter the core military and political circles of the Oda clan. With more territory, people wouldn't all be trying to win him over; instead, they would have to use other methods to try and understand Shichibei's position and thoughts.

Fifty thousand koku, no more, no less, and everyone thought Shichibei was the most honest and kind person in Owari.

Instead of this additional reward, it would be better to give it to Sakuma Nobumori. According to Shichibei's foresight, before the construction of Azuchi Castle, Nobunaga held Sakuma Nobumori in very high regard, considering him the commander of the first army under the Oda clan. After Gifu Castle was handed over to Nobutada, all of Nobunaga's family members moved into the Sakuma residence, demonstrating his complete trust in Nobumori.

Even if Sakuma Nobumori had some complaints or grumbles, it wouldn't be a big deal. Nobunaga never cared about what you said, only what you did.

If you do a good job and work hard, then Nobunaga will love you.

In Shichibei's view, the main reason for the split between Nobunaga and Nobumori was that Nobumori did not follow Nobunaga's wishes and carried out a large-scale burning of the Ishiyama Honganji Monmae Town, which was of inestimable value.

Secondly, after acquiring new territories, instead of significantly expanding the army, he used the income from these new territories for lavish spending on food, drink, gambling, and prostitution. He believed he could rest on his laurels and enjoy a life of leisure.

Finally, around the time of the Battle of Echizen, he berated Nobunaga, retaliating with sarcasm and boasting of his great achievements. And in the historical Mikatagahara incident, despite betraying Hirate Hirohide, none of the Sakuma family's brothers or hereditary retainers perished in battle.

Meiichi merges

The key point is that none of these situations have happened yet (they argued during the Battle of Kishu). Sakuma Nobumori is just complaining and showing his old face, feeling that Nobunaga is too harsh on the old retainers who have served him for thirty years.

This led to suspicion between the ruler and his ministers, and they even began to suspect Shichibei.

Are you kidding me?

No! Could it be that after the destruction of the Takeda clan, Nobunaga completely let himself go and started to get carried away? Hmm, that seems to be the case, but it's not entirely accurate.

After leaving Nobunaga's residence, Shichibei went to find Murai Sadakatsu. Many of the items in Nobunaga's treasury were completely useless. Seeing Shichibei arrive, Murai Sadakatsu immediately ordered him to follow precedent and dispose of some of the items in Nobunaga's treasury.

In "Dream of the Red Chamber," the Jia family had some large copper and tin objects that they didn't use, which they temporarily pawned for two hundred taels of silver. When Grandmother Jia celebrated her birthday, various households sent her screens. Apart from two good ones that Grandmother Jia instructed her to keep so she could give them away in the future, the others were most likely to be thrown into the storeroom and forgotten for eight or ten years.

Nobunaga's gold collection also contains many such items, for example...

One-sip flow

It's just the New Year, and everyone has presented us with these swords. Over the years, there have been at least eight hundred, if not a thousand. They might not be as many as the swords presented by our subordinates as we would use to reward people during battle. It would be better to dispose of the less desirable ones, convert them into cash, and keep two hundred decent ones for Nobunaga to distribute as rewards.

Anyway, once we win a battle, everyone will congratulate Nobunaga on his victory, or during the New Year, hundreds more tachi will be presented, and the supply will be almost continuous, so there is absolutely no need to worry about not having enough.

Other miscellaneous items, such as gold saddles and silver horse bridles, gold-lacquered bridles, and silver candlesticks, were things Nobunaga didn't even think about when giving them away. If Nobunaga were short of money, he might have thought about getting rid of these things. But now that Nobunaga always had money to spend and was never short of things, these trinkets were just left there.

The only items that were constantly being shipped out were falcons and hounds sent by various countries. These were too expensive to keep, and Nobunaga only needed three or five at a time. They were far less practical than fine horses, which Nobunaga could easily bestow upon his retinue.

Well, Shichibei's reverie was interrupted. Dozens of workers were brought over from Kawamura-ya and began packing up these treasures and curiosities, preparing to take them out for sale.

Lose.

Suddenly I feel like a liquor distributor being forced to buy more liquor.

A day wasted

Dealers, or car dealers...

Forget it, it's not comparable at all. They temporarily borrowed two experienced pawnbrokers from a Kyoto teahouse to move out items and estimate their value. Shichibei doesn't care what Murai Sadakatsu does; he just wants to see the cash on whatever is moved out today.

Merchants who are subservient to feudal tyranny must bear such obligations; there is no escaping them.

One by one, they carried the items out, and Shichibei even spotted a jar. According to Murai Sadakatsu, it seemed to be from the Tang Dynasty. Shichibei felt it looked very similar to a Tang tri-colored jar, a national first-class cultural relic, in the National Museum of China. If this were posted on the internet today, and you told the trolls that this thing was a Japanese national treasure, without telling them that there was one in the National Museum and one in Japan, the trolls would definitely come up and say, "My trash jar is better than this thing."

blind……

No wonder this jar was eventually passed down; it's now in Nobunaga's gold collection, probably bestowed upon some feudal lord as a decorative object. Now, because of Shichibei's little wings, it's going to be sold.

After careful consideration, Shichibei sent someone to summon Tsuruga Ishigami Tsuguyoshi and Ashikaga Princess from Sakai, along with the Song Dynasty officials inside.

First-class

The exquisite treasures and paintings from Tang Dynasty are all specially preserved, and we will continue to pay Nobunaga for them. We will not keep these treasures ourselves. We think that in the future, we will either send them to Itsukushima Shrine or Ashikaga School. In any case, we will find a place in the countryside where these treasures can most likely be passed down until 2025.

Of course, the Japanese also steal and sell; it's impossible for human nature to just sit idly by while guarding a treasure trove. Theoretically, the Shosoin also contains an authentic work by Wang Xizhi, but the record states that the last stroke was borrowed. Was it borrowed, or stolen?