Chapter 104: Born with a Cheap Life, I Just Can’t Die!
Wanjin, a place on the coast of Ise Bay, facing the Pacific Ocean, which had only been named for less than two days, was completely deserted.
Yuan Ye looked around at the desolate silence, felt the slightly salty sea breeze gently brush his face, then glanced at the fine sand beach not far away. He bent down and dug around with his short sword at his feet, picked up a small handful of black-grey soil, looked at it, and then let it fall from his fingers.
The wasteland was indeed wasteland, and the soil quality was very poor, being heavy clay soil with poor aeration and permeability, making it difficult for plant roots to obtain rainwater and oxygen. If one truly wanted to farm here, they would need to mix in decomposed soil and sand from the forest in proportion, and after one or two years of deep plowing and cultivation, it might be possible to turn it into “paddy soil.”
However, that didn’t matter. He wasn’t here to reclaim wasteland; this was just a forward base, as long as he could develop without constraints.
At the very least, no one here would stop him from making charcoal and recruiting followers.
As for safety…
He didn’t need to worry too much for now. The local lords with some power in the Lower Four Districts of Owari had just been severely beaten by Oda Nobunaga. It was unlikely anyone would dare to go mad and attack a project that Oda Nobunaga was paying close attention to within the next three to five months.
This was a rare window of opportunity, and he had to seize it to complete the resumption of work and production, and to possess stronger self-protection capabilities than before, only then could he talk about the next step, and talk about the future.
He was observing the terrain there, and while his mind wandered to various random thoughts, the people behind him caught up. He turned and directly ordered, “Let’s set up camp here!”
Maeshima Shichiro looked around and felt that this place was good. It was close to the water source and the terrain was flat enough. He immediately called for the family retainers to surround the carts and begin unloading. The newly arrived retainers Nakajo Heijiro and Marubashi Gomon, under Yuan Ye’s orders, led their followers to spread out and scout for any dangerous beasts nearby.
Yuan Ye, taking A Qing with him, continued to walk step by step, intending to go to the small bay to have a look and select a site to build a small pier that could temporarily dock one medium-sized ship.
This was essential. Without this ship, he wouldn’t be able to quickly acquire saltpeter…
That wasn’t entirely accurate. It meant he wouldn’t be able to acquire saltpeter quickly according to Plan A. He would then be forced to use Plan B, which was to use the saltpeter field method that first appeared in 14th-century France and was popular in the mid-15th century. That would require him to invest a large amount of manpower and resources to dig lime and excavate pits, making it difficult to attend to his own affairs in the short term, which was not ideal.
Moreover, the saltpeter field method was very easy to imitate. Oda Nobunaga could learn it with a few surreptitious glances, which would greatly reduce his personal value and affect his future plans.
Therefore, unless he absolutely couldn’t deliver the goods and risked Oda Nobunaga reclaiming the land, he didn’t want to implement Plan B. He preferred to make things more complex so that he could keep the key technology in his own hands. The main reason he wanted this wasteland was to satisfy his own needs. In fact, the saltpeter Oda Nobunaga wanted could be obtained with just one ship, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
Of course, whether to choose A or B was still uncertain and depended on the situation, but starting now was definitely the right move.
…
The arduous life of reclamation began. Yuan Ye directed his more than a hundred subordinates to wreak havoc on nature, burning the wilds, clearing bushes, felling trees, expelling wild beasts, leveling the land, building shelters, and simultaneously determining the locations for important structures such as the soy sauce workshop, dyeing workshops, charcoal kilns, lime kilns, and irrigation channels.
After five or six days of hard work, the camp was basically habitable. He began to consider building the soy sauce workshop first to quickly restore cash flow, so that he would have more funds on hand to hire more craftsmen and speed up construction.
There wasn’t much of a problem with this, as the soy sauce workshop had very low requirements, and Maeshima Shichiro and the Momoi Brothers were all experienced. The initial preparations could be directly handed over to them. However, as he was discussing with these three people while pointing at an empty lot, he suddenly noticed that something seemed to be happening in the distance.
The followers on guard duty nearby—followers borrowed from Oda Nobunaga by Niwa Nagahide—had stopped two people and a cart, and there seemed to be a small dispute.
Curious, he asked Maeshima and the other two to continue their work and went to take a look himself. As he approached, he saw a strong and robust man of eighteen or nineteen years old arguing and demanding to see him. Beside him stood a young girl in a kozode, about thirteen or fourteen years old. Behind them was a dilapidated cart pulled by human power, piled with some ragged luggage and a large pile of straw. A dirty foot was sticking out from the straw pile, and the foot was very familiar…
It was indeed very familiar. He had often seen someone pick at this foot after eating. When he had first transmigrated, he had spent a long time persuading the owner of this foot to wash their feet before sleeping at night. The memory was very vivid…
“Lord!”
As he was staring at this dirty foot, his heart pounding faster and faster, feeling a sense of unreality, a follower noticed his arrival and quickly turned to greet him. The eighteen or nineteen-year-old man’s gaze also shifted to him, sizing him up with a somewhat bewildered look before asking, “Are you Nohara Saburo?”
“It’s me!”
Yuan Ye finally snapped out of his daze, instinctively replied, and started walking towards the cart. But the man immediately grabbed the hilt of his sword and shouted, “Wait, give us the money we were promised first!”
Yuan Ye didn’t have time to deal with him now and directly called out to the cart, “A Man!”
There was no reaction from the straw pile. Yuan Ye’s heart sank slightly, and he immediately called out again with more force, “A Man!”
Finally, there was movement from the straw pile. A pair of hands emerged, fumbling and pushing aside some straw, followed by A Man’s groggy voice, “Is it time to eat?”
Yuan Ye’s heart rate finally slowed. His emotions were complex and indescribable, a feeling of extreme ups and downs. He was excited to see A Man and could hardly believe she had returned, but then she didn’t respond when he called her, making him fear she had been brought back as a corpse.
A Man also recognized his voice at this point. She pushed aside more straw and called out happily, “It’s you! I finally found you. What were you running around for all day? I couldn’t find you anywhere, I thought you were dead! Hurry, help me up, my wound hasn’t healed yet, and I can’t sit up by myself!”
Yuan Ye quickly stepped forward, but the man forcefully pushed him aside and angrily shouted again, “Give us the money first!”
“How dare you!”
Yuan Ye’s borrowed followers were not just for show. They were borrowed precisely to provide protection in the wilderness, preventing them from being wiped out by a band of thieves. At this moment, they indeed served their purpose. Seeing Yuan Ye being attacked, they immediately leveled their spears, stopping the man’s rude behavior.
Yuan Ye quickly waved his hand to signal them not to be tense, to avoid an actual fight. He calmed himself down and was about to ask the man what money he was talking about when A Qing, holding a bronze hoop staff, ran over quickly. She had likely seen the conflict while busy at the camp and, worried about his safety, had come to check.
She was more familiar with A Man than Yuan Ye. Even though A Man’s feet were facing them now, and she was buried in the straw pile to avoid the wind, only extending her hands to wave, A Qing recognized her at a glance as she approached. She stopped in disbelief, as if afraid she was dreaming, and asked blankly, “Sister? Sister… you’re not dead?!”
She had searched for A Man’s “remains” near the small river bay for a long time without success and had been sad for a long time upon her return. She never expected A Man to be resurrected so suddenly, leaving her mind somewhat blank.
A Man was very happy to hear she had also arrived. Lying down and unable to move didn’t stop her from spouting nonsense. She began to offer hindsight, laughing wildly and arrogantly, “Hahahaha, of course I’m not dead! See, wasn’t I right? I have a naturally tough life and can’t die no matter what! Now look, it’s true!”
“Sister!”
A Qing finally couldn’t hold back her tears of joy. Her mobility restored, she immediately rushed towards the cart, wanting to get a closer look at A Man. The man, showing no tenderness, still held up his hand and shouted, “Are you done talking? I told you, give us the money first, then the person!”
A Qing suddenly dodged sideways and instinctively prepared to hit him with her staff. No one was going to stop her from seeing A Man at this moment. But the young girl beside the man finally spoke, softly saying, “Don’t be like that, Kotaro. Let them see her first!”
The man named Kotaro hesitated and moved aside, but still stood by the cart, his hand on his sword hilt, as if afraid they would snatch A Man and run.
A Qing didn’t have time to argue with him. She went over and pushed aside the straw, using her body to shield A Man from the chilly sea breeze, and carefully helped A Man sit up. A Man winced in pain and complained with great dissatisfaction, “Be gentler!”
“Okay, Sister!” A Qing was now completely obedient to her, and her strength lessened by another third.
Yuan Ye could finally get close. Looking at A Man’s familiar dou dou eyebrows, thinking about their time together over the past year, and then about her life-saving efforts, he really wanted to give her a big hug. However, it wasn’t convenient, so he squatted down and asked, “Are you badly injured?”
“You always say such useless things!” A Man had never learned the meaning of politeness and immediately began to complain and boast, “I fought against hundreds of people alone, cutting down twenty or thirty. Exhausted, I was then shot with over a hundred… uh, dozens of arrows from seven or eight paces away, bleeding profusely like a blood gourd before breaking through the encirclement. Of course, I’m badly injured!”
“Cut down twenty or thirty…”
Yuan Ye was speechless. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say. The excitement of their reunion had diminished considerably.
A Qing was also stunned for a while. After a moment of hesitation, she said softly, “Sister, Momorokuro and Ichishiro were rescued a few days ago.”
A Man was greatly surprised and exclaimed, “They’re not dead? What were the Hayashi Family doing, failing to kill even those two?”
“Sister, it’s a bit complicated to explain, but they are indeed not dead.”
“Is that so…” A Man scratched her face, looked at her, then at Yuan Ye. Even with her thick skin, she felt a bit embarrassed. “Well, I’ll tell you about the experience of breaking through the encirclement later. In short… I’m seriously injured, it was truly a near-death experience! It’s just that I’m smart enough; anyone else would have definitely died!”
Yuan Ye didn’t want to make her too embarrassed. He could understand her bragging a bit after surviving a near-death experience. He immediately said, “Of course! No matter what, it’s good that you’re back. Nothing else is important!”
“Yes, Sister, it’s good that you’re back!” A Qing echoed repeatedly.
Hearing them say this, A Man became displeased. She emphasized with her dou dou eyebrows, “I’m not bragging. Anyone else would have definitely died. Only I had the ability to come back alive, not by luck!”
“We believe you!”
“It’s true, I survived by my own skill!”
They continued to talk endlessly. Kotaro, who was guarding the cart for fear of A Man being snatched away, became impatient and shouted at A Man, “Are you done talking? We brought you here as agreed, where’s the money?!”
After shouting at A Man, he saw Yuan Ye stand up and look over, and immediately shouted at him, “We pulled this guy out of the river. She promised us that if we brought her to you, you would give us one thousand kan! You won’t take her away without paying!”
A Man was stunned for a moment, but she did remember the matter of payment. She had indeed promised to pay one thousand kan for her life. After all, she had been floating in the river with a urine bladder, on the verge of death. Seeing an opportunity for rescue, she would have dared to ask for ten thousand kan, or even a hundred thousand kan, to save her life. Later, fearing that these two wouldn’t treat her wounds, they had simply thrown her by the roadside, and she had repeatedly reiterated her promise, but…
Now that it was time to pay, one thousand kan for her life… it felt a bit not worth it. Even if she were chopped up and sold piece by piece, she couldn’t possibly sell for one thousand kan.
Her dou dou eyebrows twitched. She looked at Yuan Ye, A Qing, and the five or six armored followers around. Her eyes immediately flashed with ferocity. She felt it would be better to kill these two and bury them. However, as the ferocity in her eyes began to rise, she remembered that these two had saved her life after all. Killing her saviors seemed a bit too unscrupulous…
The ferocity in her eyes flickered back and forth. Reluctant to part with the money but unwilling to ruin her reputation, the young girl beside the man spoke, directly scolding Kotaro in a low voice, “Don’t say such things. Saving a life is what should be done; how can you demand payment for a good deed?”
Then she turned to Yuan Ye, tilting her small face up, and asked him with a smile, “Lord Yuan Ye, don’t you agree?”
