Owari Yumeki Golden Day

After all, Shichibei only paid for the construction of Sunomata Castle, so giving him enough money would be considered a reward. But if he gave him territory, what would the other samurai who risked their lives to kill others think?

"I'll take my leave." Shichibei interrupted Nobunaga's thoughts.

Don't even think about giving me a raise; it's unnecessary. I'm just a businessman, I don't need all this knowledge and action. Just give me the franchise, and that'll be all. Of course, if Nobunaga really gets his way someday, giving Shichibei the tax-collecting rights would be a good idea, too.

Whether it was collecting agricultural or commercial taxes, it was a heaven-sent job. With Oda Nobunaga's sword at their back, they collected taxes. Nobunaga set a certain number, and any excess went to Shichibei. It was hard not to get rich.

Even though tax farmers are the ones whose hands are stained with blood, I can still live a simple life of oppression. Why should I feel any psychological burden? Besides, if I don't oppress, someone else will always come. So why not do it myself? Our Shichibei still has a bit of humanity left in him, like a human being.

Look at those tax farmers in Egypt next door. As the most important grain-producing area in the entire eastern Mediterranean, Egypt's population has been able to decline steadily over the years, and it is really "thanks" to the tireless scraping of these tax farmers.

When it comes to tax farming skills, Egypt's tax farmers are definitely the best of this era and can compete for the top three spots.

Our Shichibei certainly wouldn't work so hard to scrape. "Farmers are like sesame seeds; the more you squeeze them, the more oil they yield," is a saying the Japanese themselves say. Shichibei is also confident that he can do better than them.

Seeing that Qibing had misunderstood his intentions and was about to kowtow and leave, Nobunaga immediately knocked on the tatami mat with his folding fan, signaling Qibing to stop kowtowing and raise his head to listen to him. Qibing naturally stopped when he heard the knocking and looked at Oda Nobunaga.

"How about this, how about you be the governor of Kaito County?" Nobunaga was not asking, but his tone sounded like an order.

59. Give 20 cavalrymen

Haidong County's leader?

Shichibei suddenly looked up at Nobunaga. This appointment was truly too extraordinary. After all, Shichibei had never even performed the duties of a general magistrate or officer, and he didn't have enough retainers to collect taxes for the entire county. There was no way he could be the deputy governor of a county.

He was immediately silenced by this appointment. Generally speaking, a county representative must be a general, and in times of war he must summon the local servants, local leaders and generals of the entire county to fight.

In particular, Nobunaga would be gathering his friends in the next few days, dragging along his maternal uncle, son-in-law, brother-in-law, and other uncles to beat up his nephew. If Shichibei were to become the governor of Kaito County, he would definitely have to lead the troops.

How can a rookie like me lead an entire county’s worth of soldiers?

Kaito County wasn't large, but with Tsushima Town, a major town, its mobilization capacity was quite high. With full mobilization, over a thousand people could easily be mobilized.

Just imagine a rookie like Shichibei commanding more than a thousand people. It is simply unimaginable and will definitely be a disaster that will shake the world.

"You just need to 'protect', and Sakai Ukon will be responsible for sending troops." Nobunaga gave an answer.

The so-called Kaito County Representative's responsibilities were divided into two parts: Shichibei was in charge of civil affairs, and Sakai Masanari was in charge of military affairs.

Masanari Sakai was a wealthy native born in Owari. His family was a powerful relative of the Kiyosu Oda clan, the Sakai clan. Masanari Sakai's family held considerable influence in Owari and had joined Nobunaga relatively early on. Many of his clan members served under Nobunaga, including Nobunaga's magistrate, Sakai Toshimasa, a distant relative.

This man was quite brave in battle. During the Battle of Anegawa, Sakai Masanari was the vanguard of the Oda army. Although he was eventually defeated by Isono Tomomasa, Shibata Katsuie and Kinoshita Hideyoshi were also defeated.

Let’s talk about “protect me” again. This is a very old term and will soon be abandoned by the times, but the Muromachi shogunate is still alive, so it is used.

What does this mean? Didn't Japan also have its own Northern and Southern Dynasties, where wars raged between them? The shugo and shugodai of each region fought each other year after year, each for their own master. To finance these wars, military funds were needed.

At that time, the power of the emperor, temples, shrines, and nobles in the local areas had declined significantly, and the shugo was often the leader of a country. Therefore, the shugo forced the implementation of a "half-finance" policy on the local estates of the emperor, temples, shrines, and nobles.

That is to say, half of the income of these manors must be handed over to the guardians or guardian agents, and then the guardians use this money to go out to fight.

After the Northern and Southern Dynasties ended and the two sides were unified, and the Muromachi shogunate nominally controlled the entire country, it was reasonable to say that this temporary tax should have been abolished.

But everyone also knows that once money is in your pocket, you can never give it back.

So this money was renamed "Guardian". In name, it was to guard the soldiers sent to protect the income of these manors and to assist the officials of the manors to suppress local rebellion when necessary.

Gradually, the shugo daimyo directly sent people to manage these estates, and only handed over part of the estate's income to the emperor, temples, shrines and court nobles.

Well, within a few decades, even the estates of the Ashikaga Shogun were included in the scope of the shugo. The Ashikaga Shogun's power in all of Japan was soon usurped by the local shugo and shugo deputies.

Everyone knows the Hosokawa family. They were the most active in seizing the estates of the Ashikaga Shogun. They directly asked the Shogun to "guard" the estates of several provinces in Kinai. Then they gave the Shogun a symbolic amount of money every year as income for the estates.

How much? One thousand strings of cash.

Yes, the Hosokawa family paid the shogun 1,000 kan a year for their estates in four or five provinces in Kinai, and the Ashikaga shoguns had to accept the money with a smile. Otherwise, they would have to kneel down and beg Brother Hosokawa to pay.

By the way, in history, when Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi or Tokugawa Ieyasu returned their estates and imperial residences to the emperor, the nobles and the shogunate, they meant paying the "guardian's request" again.

It has nothing to do with returning the manor land to the imperial court or the shogunate. How could these cunning people allow the old forces to regain direct control of the land and the military force indirectly generated by the land?

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Nobunaga suddenly gave the imperial court a large estate worth several thousand kan. In fact, he only gave the imperial court three to five hundred kan every year, which was just a token of his appreciation.

Who asked the imperial court and the shogunate to beg for food on their knees now?

Nobunaga now appointed Shichibei as the governor of Kaito County, giving him administrative, judicial, and military powers. Military power was stripped away and given to Sakai Masanari, leaving Shichibei in charge of administration and justice. Judiciary matters involved adjudicating local disputes over territory and inheritance, a task similar to the one-instance, two-instance system in Japan.

If Shichibei was dissatisfied with the first trial, the common people would ask Oda Nobunaga for a second trial. Once, Takeda Katsuyori was bathing in a hot spring when some peasants came to his door to complain. Takeda Katsuyori had no choice but to accept their petition and make a judgment for them.

Therefore, judicial decisions were not a big deal, and there were generally few judicial cases that needed to be decided. Small matters were handled by the village lords themselves. Any disputes involving territory would basically be brought to Nobunaga's desk, and Shichibei's decision was not final.

What ultimately fell into Shichibei's hands was basically administration.

Simply put, it was the collection of annual tribute. The annual tribute from Oda Nobunaga's direct territory was not mentioned, as it was required to be collected. However, the annual tribute from the old manor territories was separated and accounted for separately.

A few years ago, Nobunaga went to Kyoto to try to obtain the position of guardian of Owari. One of the conditions he negotiated with Ashikaga Yoshiteru was the Owari guardian fee. If you grant me the guardianship, I will pay the fee again.

It turns out that Ashikaga Yoshiteru is quite arrogant, but I am not.

This shugoku money was left alone, with no clear destination. Not long ago, Nobunaga had considered supporting Ashikaga Yoshiaki, so this money should have gone to Ashikaga Yoshiaki. But now Ashikaga Yoshiaki had defected to Echizen Asakura Yoshikage and ignored Nobunaga's flirtation.

Based on this, Nobunaga decided to transfer the money to Shichibei as funds for his official activities as the governor of Kaito County.

Then, I'll use this official activity fund to recruit samurai for support. Tell those ronin, your salary comes from which village, which village. Work hard with me, and sooner or later, that village will come, haha...

If you want to draw a pie in the sky, you have to have a pie hanging there so that you can keep people working hard.

The only question was whether such a small sum of money could be used to recruit ronin to serve Shichibei. Furthermore, the money essentially belonged to Nobunaga, so if Shichibei stopped serving as Kaito County Governor, the money would be gone.

Don't be afraid, Nobunaga raised his hand to signal Qibingwei to come forward and sit in front of his couch. Then, when Qibingwei was a little puzzled, he said something very straightforwardly.

I'm optimistic about you!

I don't sell ditches!

Seeing that Shichibei suddenly shrank back, obviously because of his anus, Nobunaga raised his folding fan and hit Shichibei on the head. Who would be interested in you with your appearance?

Nobunaga's idea was simple: to use the money from Kaito County to place ten or twenty samurai, but these samurai were not recruited by Shichibei himself. Instead, he sent them directly to Shichibei's army to serve as his subordinates. Their working relationship remained with Nobunaga, and their work unit was Shichibei's.

In other words, this is called sending people to the branch office to support its business.

"Oh, why didn't you tell me earlier? It would have been over if you had told me earlier." Shichibei's anus had just loosened up, but it had just shrunk, and the loincloth was getting stuck. And now it was hot, so it was getting stuck in his crotch. Shichibei kept adjusting his butt, trying to get the loincloth out.

Seeing Shichibei so embarrassed, Nobunaga thought to himself that he was embarrassed. What was there to be embarrassed about? It wasn't like he was really going to use the ditch.

"Let's do it!" Nobunaga stood up and left, and the order was conveyed.

"Hehe." Shichibei was squeezing his crotch. Nobunaga was about to leave, so he had no choice but to immediately lower his head and respond loudly.

He didn't react to what happened for a moment and was busy fastening his loincloth. When he reached the door of the imperial palace, he slapped his forehead and screamed.

I became the village chief!

Of course, the palace of Komakiyama Castle was not like honeycomb coal, nor was it like a broken silk bag, where any gossip could be spread all over the world in half a day. However, by the time Shichibei returned to Kawamura House at the foot of Komakiyama Castle, the news that Shichibei had been appointed as the governor of Kaito County had already spread from the castle.

How could Shichibei become a county governor, a position only held by a general? This was the question that puzzled everyone, including the important officials of the Oda family.

By the afternoon, when the details were clear, Sakuma Nobumori sent someone to invite Shichibei to dinner. "The family elder invites you to dinner, will you eat?"

Shichibei, still unaware of the situation, had no choice but to rush to the Sakuma household for the feast. While it was called a banquet, a typical meal at a samurai household these days usually consisted of two dishes and a sauce. Because Shichibei had been invited, the feast became three dishes and a sauce.

Sakuma Nobumori, who was waiting for Shichibei with a glass of wine in hand, thought of something: Shichibei's fiancée was now the adopted daughter of Nobunaga's nephew, Oda Nobuya. Once the marriage was completed, Shichibei would become Nobunaga's grandson-in-law.

The relationship is a bit distant, but the status is real.

If this were just a single, isolated incident, it wouldn't mean much. After all, the Oda family's gene for having many children was incredibly strong. Oda Nobuhide fathered over twenty children and courted marriages all over the world. Shichibei hadn't even managed to have a proper daughter, let alone one. Right now, he wasn't even considered the daughter of Nobunaga's cousin.

But first he became Nobunaga's grandson, and was taken care of by Nobunaga, who also assigned him twenty more cavalrymen. The feeling was quite different.

Kinoshita Hideyoshi was promoted to the governor of Sunomata Castle and received support from two powerful local forces, the Hosuka Party and the Tsubouchi Party. This was a natural and normal way of managing a newly conquered territory.

Hosuka Koroku and Maeno Nagayasu became Hideyoshi's allies and guarded Sunomata Castle with him, which not only strengthened the two parties' subordinate relationship to the Oda family, but also enhanced the defensive strength of Sunomata Castle.

But Shichibei is just a royal merchant, so why would he want to strengthen the power of his retainers?

The combination of the two meant that Nobunaga wanted to recruit a powerful retainer. In this day and age, whoever had more samurai and mobilized a stronger military force would be the most powerful.

When Shichibei arrived at the Sakuma residence, Nobumori personally stood at the bottom of the steps to greet him. Previously, Sakuma Nobuyoshi had always been the one to greet him. Shichibei was quite perceptive and noticed the difference, after all, he had just been appointed as the governor of Kaito County that morning.

The public name was to thank Kawamuraya for sending more horse grass, but what was the reality? In fact, there was nothing much. Sakuma Nobumori was just vaguely asking what Shichibei and Nobunaga had talked about during the day.

They didn't discuss anything confidential. When Shichibei went to deliver the blueprints, Sakuma Nobumori and the others had just finished their meeting and had even said hello. The route map from Komakiyama Castle to Tsushima Town wouldn't need to be kept secret once Nobunaga began preparing the streets.

Hearing that the content was almost exactly the same as what he knew, Sakuma Nobumori felt that sometimes he really couldn't figure out Nobunaga's approach. He had no choice but to finish his meal with Shichibei first and then think about it carefully.

Today, let's just treat it as maintaining the relationship with Shichibei. I won't say anything else. I'll talk about it after I figure out Nobunaga's intentions.

Confused, Shichibei left the Sakuma family, and the next day he received a formal appointment document, asking him to return to Tsushima to temporarily take charge of government affairs.

At the same time, the twenty men Nobunaga had promised to bring with him appeared before Shichibei. They were still low-ranking samurai, receiving only cash salaries and not yet granted any land. They were somewhat surprised to be suddenly assigned to Shichibei as a guest rider by Nobunaga. However, before they arrived, Nobunaga's personal assistant, Umakai Sasa Narimasa, had informed them that Shichibei was engaged to Nobunaga's granddaughter.

With just this one sentence, the twenty people stopped gossiping. Although the future was still uncertain, it at least wouldn't be too bad.

Shichibei was a bit worried. If forty or fifty people came at once, he might not be able to accommodate them at home. Haidong County didn't have a county government office, also known as a magistrate's office. What kind of high-end building was that?

It has been said that the county governor is usually a samurai general, who usually has to serve Nobunaga in Komakiyama Castle, or organize defense and drills in the castle granted by Nobunaga.

The Kaito County seat was originally Katsubata Castle, but it is now abandoned, so the county governor usually works in Tsushima Town. In other words, he currently works in Kawamuraya.

Then, Shichibei would have to arrange accommodation for the twenty yorikuni and their attendants. He didn't need to take care of their meals, as they had their salaries covered.

Some of the family's servants had been split up, some in Kiyosu and some in Komakiyama, so there were vacancies. However, there weren't enough to accommodate every samurai. Shichibei had no choice but to approach the town supervisor, Uma Hotta, and ask him to temporarily allocate two rooms.

Hotta Uma was very kind and agreed without hesitation. In a short while, he found a vacant house for temporary accommodation and sent someone to clean it up immediately.

Seeing that there were dozens of people following behind Shichibei, the new official took office in Kaito County, Owari Province.

60. Once you take office, you should start working.

When he first took office, he had two tasks: one was to collect the temporary business tax "arrow money" from Tsushima Town, and the other was to assist Sakai Masanari in recruiting 800 men to go to the Sunomata front to fight with Oda Nobunaga.

When it comes to conscription, Shichibei is only responsible for notifying the various villages and towns, as well as the temples and shrines. Temples and shrines are also required to join the "military service" during the general mobilization.

Temples generally provide both prayer and medical priests, depending on the agreement between Oda Nobuhide and Nobunaga when they granted the temple their peace certificates. For example, during the Battle of Azukisaka, Atsuta shrine chief Chiaki personally led the troops and fought on Nobuhide's behalf. Nobuhide was defeated, Chiaki's family suffered heavy losses, and the chief himself was killed in the battle.

Others, like the Aso Grand Priest and the Priest of Suwa Shrine, were both priests and military officers, and had military duties when necessary. Sometimes they were sent to fight in battles, and sometimes they also did other things on the side.

For example, the shrine maidens of Izumo Okami, well, sometimes had to accompany their lords on the battlefield to drink wine. It is said that during the Kawagoe Raid, Uesugi Kenshin even invited the shrine maidens to drink and have fun the night before the battle.

Send two of his men on horseback to inform the villagers along the streets. All that was left was to wait for them to gather in Tsushima Town. Sakai Masanari also rode his horse to Tsushima Town and had a long conversation with Shichibei.

He was a fierce general, but not just a warrior; he had some brains. Upon learning that Nobunaga had personally built the Kawamura retainers, he naturally sought to make some friends with Shichibei.

Let’s chat...

Shichibei even entertained this old man and his dozen retainers, spending the entire day enjoying themselves in the Tsushima corridor. Anyway, waiting for the troops to gather would take time, so what was the point of just sitting there?

Sakai Masanari initially wanted to refuse, but Shichibei's kindness was too much to refuse, so he reluctantly entered the corridor. In those days, even high-ranking samurai like Sakuma Nobumori only ate two dishes and one soup daily. Sakai Masanari's family fortune was even smaller than Nobumori's, and he rarely had a happy life throughout the year.

Otherwise, these warriors would just go about hunting people indiscriminately after entering the enemy's territory. It's because they're poor, with two coins to buy a gun and two coins to buy a horse, and they receive their salary year-round, yet they still starve.

If you don't fight and stay at home, you will be starving anyway, so why not go out and kill people and set fires?

Very good, Sakai Masanari was cooperating happily. Shichibei immediately asked Horida Uma to convene a meeting with the Tsushima Kai. For this campaign against Saito Tatsuoki, Nobunaga allocated 600 kan of arrow money. It was a perfect amount, neither too much nor too little, neither costing the bosses any money, yet still allowing them to get some real work done.

Shichibei, who was already a member of the Tsushima Kaiheshu, immediately offered to share 30 kan and take the lead.

Nobunaga had already visited Tsushima, and everyone, including Uma Hotta and Ito, had been informed in advance. Now that Shichibei had taken the lead in acknowledging the debt, it was natural that the arrow money would be shared proportionally according to the size of the family's assets.

Boss Ito even came to chat with Shichibei. Merchants are a relatively active, even positive, social group these days. Naturally, Boss Ito had a keen sense and felt that Shichibei might be promoted to Nobunaga's position as the leader of Tsushima.

Hotta Uma had been working there for quite some time, and it was likely that he would return to Komakiyama to assume the position of magistrate. It was impossible to keep a person in such a lucrative position for long.

The two chatted for a while. First, Nobunaga informed the group, and then the big bosses Shichibei and Ito took the lead. The speed of recognizing the debt and raising the money was quite fast, and the 600 kan was soon collected.

"I'm being too arrogant to call you brother." Boss Ito was really polite.

"No, no, you give the order." Boss Ito and Shichibei's father are of the same generation and are already a bit old.

Logically, a legitimate Kaito County Governor would have certainly displayed his authority over Ito. However, Shichibei's roots weren't in samurai, but in the Tsushima clan's Tsushima merchants. And what was Ito? He was the head of the Tsushima merchants, or rather, the head of the merchant department, since Oda Nobuhide.

Forget it, let me use a more understandable analogy.

Shichibei was an ordinary soldier in the Eight Banners Banner, while Ito was the captain of the banner. Even if Shichibei became a Grand Secretary or a Prime Minister in the future, if someone in Ito's family died, Shichibei would still have to go to Ito's house to beat the drum and hold the mourning stick.

Got it?

The feudal atmosphere in Japan was extremely strong. After Morihiro Hosokawa became the Prime Minister and formed a cabinet, the people of Kumamoto praised him, saying that our Lord Hosokawa had finally conquered the world.

Assuming that Shichibei really becomes rich in the future, the Kawamura family and the Ito family have a long-standing relationship, so they must remember to help the descendants of the Ito family.

Of course, that's all in the future. Right now, Boss Ito is more interested in why Nobunaga chose Shichibei. Speaking of freight, the Ito clan's dozens of tawarako ships offer even greater capacity. Speaking of capital, the Ito clan possesses more than ten thousand kan, perhaps even tens of thousands.

The Kawamura clan even needed Nobunaga to mobilize forces to be able to operate on a larger scale, while the Ito clan only needed Nobunaga to issue an order, and dozens, perhaps even two or three hundred, of its members would gather instantly.