Chapter 110: Guano and Ripe Guano
A Man departed for Atsuta, and after more than ten days of travel, she returned directly to Wanjin on a boat one warm afternoon.
Upon receiving the notification, Yuan Ye hurried to the seaside to greet her. From afar, he saw her leaping and shouting in the knee-deep seawater, ordering her followers and three unfamiliar people to transport a large amount of dried kelp and seaweed onto the beach. It seemed she had done some small business on the island to open up connections, bartering for raw materials needed by the soy sauce workshop.
Wanjin’s pier and jetty had not been built yet, so they could only transport goods in this manner, which was very inefficient. Yuan Ye quickly waved his hand and, with the followers he brought along, went to help, while also sizing up the three people he didn’t recognize.
Among these three people, one looked older, around fifty years old, and a little over 1.5 meters tall. He wore a faded gray-blue *chokushi* and *hakama*, with a sheathed short sword tucked diagonally at his waist. His skin was dark, and his back was slightly hunched, but he was very strong, with bulging chest and arms. His movements were extremely steady as he carried goods in the waves, not even swaying much when hit by them.
The other two seemed to be a mother and son. The woman looked to be in her thirties, not quite 1.5 meters tall, with a rather comely appearance. She must have been a beauty in her youth. She wore the common attire of working women of this era—a *kozode* and *ōhakama*—but she didn’t seem to adapt well to moving in the seawater. Even when she wanted to help, she couldn’t do much, and instead, the little boy beside her had to support her from time to time.
Soon, all the goods were transported to the beach. A Man waved at the boat and shouted, “Get lost, you dung beetles!” The sailors on the boat laughed heartily, weighed anchor, and set sail towards Atsuta, likely new friends she had made on this voyage.
She saw off the hired boat, then, ignoring the seafood, she grabbed the three people and walked up to Yuan Ye, introducing them to each other: “This is Yu Da, and his wife A Ju, and their child Chiyomaru. And this is the head of the Yuan Ye Family, Lord Nohara Saburo.”
Yu Da could tell Yuan Ye was a “Samurai,” but he didn’t expect him to be the lord of this place, nor did he expect a lord to personally carry goods in the seawater. He was taken aback for a moment, but he quickly reacted and began to kneel and bow—not very willingly, his bow was hesitant.
Yuan Ye didn’t care about such formalities and, being in his Yuan Bei Yuan Xuan De state, quickly helped him up, saying kindly, “You are an elder, there’s no need for this.”
Yu Da took the opportunity to stand steady, looked at him silently, and said in a very hoarse voice, as if he hadn’t drunk water for many days, “Then please excuse me, Lord Yuan Ye.”
“Let’s go to the village to rest first!” Yuan Ye wasn’t good at such pleasantries. He looked at A Ju again and saw her face was faintly pale and green, looking very tired. He immediately suggested they go rest.
Yu Da didn’t seem like a talkative person either, and the windy seaside wasn’t a good place to talk. He immediately supported his wife, brought his son, and followed Yuan Ye back to the village. Upon arriving at the village, Yuan Ye arranged rooms for them and asked them to wash up and rest first, while he listened to A Man’s report.
“Of course, he’s reliable!” A Man gave him a very affirmative answer and said directly, “I visited several large islands and found several people you mentioned. This one has the most prestige and insight. He also has a wife and child, and a group of relatives on Kami Ken Island, making him easier to control. So I brought him back first.”
She paused and elaborated, “When he was young, he was a water bandit in the Seto Inland Sea and also worked as a junior shopkeeper on merchant ships. He was said to be quite famous. Six or seven years ago, something happened, and he couldn’t stay in the Seto Inland Sea anymore, so he took his wife back to their hometown. However, Kami Ken Island was too poor and the environment too bad, and his wife’s health deteriorated. That’s when I persuaded him to bring his whole family here. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so easy.”
“He was a water bandit before?” Yuan Ye was slightly surprised. He had been here for a long time and hadn’t met anyone from that profession. Today, he had broadened his horizons.
“He definitely was a water bandit. Everyone with some skill on the island has been in that line of work. He’s already the best. At least he doesn’t rob anymore and lives by fishing. A Man misunderstood, thinking he was being discriminatory about professions, and quickly explained, “If you’re looking for someone who hasn’t robbed, that’s impossible. And those people aren’t necessarily any better. Many people don’t rob simply because they lack the ability to rob, not because they are inherently kind.”
“That’s not what I meant… Never mind, does he have any other requests?”
“He’s very satisfied with the reward. After all, your offer was very high, worth gambling with his life. However, I also promised him that you would help treat his wife’s illness, and if he works diligently, you will give him a piece of excellent paddy field in the future. Nothing else.”
Yuan Ye nodded, not caring about these minor conditions A Man had agreed to on the spot. As long as he could pass his assessment later, his abilities were sufficient, and he was a useful person willing to work for him wholeheartedly, Yuan Ye would naturally not be stingy. Moreover, loyalty always needed to be cultivated, and he was willing to spend more money and time on it.
He then turned to another question he cared about: “Have you interacted with the local prominent figures? Has anyone expressed a desire to move here?”
“No, a few pounds of rice couldn’t fool them. They don’t trust me, so how could they just leave with me? But I’ve made an agreement with them: they can exchange their fish catch and seaweed here for salt, cloth, ironware, and medicine. They were very happy to just do business and wanted to trade with me immediately. I exchanged some goods with them, losing about dozens of *kan*. The sailors on the boat laughed at me for being a big fool.”
A Man was unhappy about being laughed at, as she was very concerned about her reputation, extremely vain, and highly competitive. Furthermore, losing dozens of *kan* pained her. Those shabby seafood could be bought in coastal fishing villages for even cheaper than on the island. Samurai could mobilize a large number of villagers to labor and collect seafood, getting these raw materials for free and then reselling them, with no cost at all.
As long as you are willing to buy them long-term, they will definitely be happy to do so, and the price will be easy to negotiate.
“It doesn’t matter, face is worthless, and losing a little money is fine, as long as they are willing to come,” Yuan Ye didn’t care about being called a fool. As long as it benefited him, he didn’t care whether he seemed foolish or not.
He was very satisfied with A Man’s actions this time. She had perfectly achieved all his expectations. She was indeed his top capable subordinate, a real treasure!
He praised A Man profusely, then took her with him to invite Yu Da’s family to a meal and to further understand Yu Da’s abilities.
The banquet was lavish, but with him present, Yu Da’s wife was quite reserved. After all, women didn’t sit at the table on formal occasions in those days, and it was rare for someone like Yuan Ye to invite the whole family to a meal, so she couldn’t help but feel constrained.
Yu Da, on the other hand, had seen more of the world and was more resilient, quite at ease. Furthermore, Yuan Ye’s emphasis on his family seemed to please him greatly. He answered Yuan Ye’s detailed questions about trivial matters at sea without any impatience, clearly explaining how to judge direction by the stars, how to detect currents and undertows, how to predict weather to avoid storms, and how to safely navigate around reefs.
Yuan Ye listened patiently as well. He didn’t understand navigation and could only judge the other person’s confidence level by their demeanor and expressions to gauge their ability. After Yu Da finished explaining how he led a group of fishermen to kill a whale with harpoons, he finally got to the main point, asking in a hoarse voice where Yuan Ye wanted to go.
Yuan Ye certainly wasn’t going. The ocean was too dangerous for him, let alone charting a new route. Even going to an uninhabited small island on the outskirts of the Japanese Archipelago was still very dangerous in this era. Therefore, he himself would not board the ship but would provide everything needed for exploration, asking this Yu Da to lead people on a trip to dig up a boatload of guano or processed guano.
Yes, he wanted to dig up guano and guano stones.
Guano stones are hard lumps formed by the long-term accumulation of large amounts of seabird excrement and undigested fish bones and other food scraps. Under the action of bacteria on organic matter, they form.
Generally speaking, guano stones include limestone, calcite, gypsum, chlorite, dolomite, and other minerals. The composition of guano stones varies depending on the geographical location. Sometimes, a large amount of natural saltpeter can be found in guano stone mines, as guano is also excrement, and its essence is not much different from human and animal feces.
Yuan Ye now needs saltpeter to exchange for a free forward base, and he doesn’t want to popularize the technology of saltpeter production through saltpeter fields in the Japanese Medieval Period. Europe already has it. The great development of European firearms consumed saltpeter, and before the discovery of large saltpeter mines in South America, it was basically all produced by piling up dung in saltpeter fields. However, this technology has not yet spread to Japan. Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Yuan Ye does not intend to expose this easily popularized technology, as it would severely affect his earnings and personal value.
So, he plans to dig up the guano stones that Japan will only excavate three to four hundred years later and use them. This will ensure that he monopolizes this highly profitable business for a long time. Even if the shipping route is exposed, it doesn’t matter. Guano stones cannot be directly used as saltpeter; they require a series of chemical processes to obtain saltpeter. Moreover, digging up guano stones is a secondary objective. The unprocessed, unsolidified guano on the surface is more suitable for him and easier to use for saltpeter production.
Well, he’s not digging up this guano now, but it will be dug up in Japan’s modern era. In fact, a significant reason why Japan invaded the Ryukyu Islands and occupied this territory was to seize guano stone mines for the production of gunpowder and explosives. The guano stones on the islands affiliated with the Ryukyu Islands have high phosphorus content, making them good raw materials for explosives.
Seeing Yu Da ask, Yuan Ye didn’t hide his purpose. These stones and guano were useless to others. He directly took out the hand-drawn map and pointed to the ocean southwest of Ise Bay, saying, “I need you to go here. There are many coral-formed ring islands here, and the stones and soil are what I need. You must transport as much as possible back and record the route.”
Yu Da didn’t speak. He didn’t even ask what Yuan Ye wanted these stones and soil for. He slowly estimated the distance, considered the risks, and after a while, looked at his wife and son before slowly nodding, “I need a good ship and fifteen men.”
