Chapter 112: Director of the Eastern Depot and Resources
After Yuan Ye sent off “Ship No. 1,” he returned to his office, took out the “Construction Progress Report” submitted by Wanjin Magistrate Endo Chiyo, glanced at it a few times, and after a moment of thought, wrote a note, signed it, and sent a little maidservant to her with it, asking her to put the “Saltpeter Refining Workshop” into the construction queue, lest the expedition be successful and they have a large pile of processed bird droppings to deal with.
The saltpeter task could only be put on hold for now, as they couldn’t proceed without “Ship No. 1” returning. He flipped through other reports, confirming that Wanjin was operating normally.
Indeed, Endo Chiyo was very capable, truly worthy of being the “SSR Wise Helper” of countless folk legends. Her performance was even better than he expected. All of Wanjin’s work had been orderly during this period. Most trivial matters were filtered by her, so they didn’t bother him at all, saving him a lot of time.
Of course, this was also because he had already made all the plans and established all the rules and regulations early on, and Wanjin currently only had over three hundred people. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a difficult task, but she still deserved praise for doing a good job. Her status as a daughter of a samurai also played a significant role. Whether it was warrior officials, subordinate officials, or veteran followers, most of them would give her some face and wouldn’t be too disrespectful in front of her. Coupled with her high emotional intelligence and always smiling demeanor, she was indeed a good candidate for a head steward.
Since she was doing such a good job, Yuan Ye had no desire to micromanage. He didn’t intend to casually issue an order like, “Move the No. 3 lumber pile in the workshop area five centimeters to the left,” letting her continue to perform. Instead, he sent a newly hired, still somewhat dazed little maidservant to call A Man.
A Man quickly came over, and before she could sit down, Yuan Ye asked, “How is the matter I entrusted to you?”
A Man didn’t idle after finding the captain of the saltpeter digging ship. She was ordered to establish the “Wanjin Eastern Depot,” and she was the first Director of Ceremonial under Yuan Ye. Moreover, she had an advantage over ordinary Directors of Ceremonial: she naturally didn’t have to undergo that procedure.
A Man, the “Wanjin Director of Ceremonial,” was now a figure of some importance. She had a commanding presence. After touching his tea bowl, she took a couple of sips and then said, “There are six people now. As you requested, all… departments? Is that what they’re called? All departments have one person now. I’ll see if I need to add more later.”
As she spoke, she took out a piece of paper from her bosom, crumpled as if ready to be used for wiping, and handed it to him. “This is the list.”
These people were A Man’s trained subordinates, part of internal surveillance. Wanjin currently had only over three hundred people, so naturally, the administration was harmonious, and everyone was loyal and dedicated. Otherwise, Yuan Ye could have arrived on the scene within five minutes to kick their butts. It was a situation where they had no choice but to be loyal. However, it would be hard to say when the numbers increased in the future. No organization in this world is without its flaws, so an internal oversight mechanism and timely correction capabilities were necessary.
Half of A Man’s current work as “Director of Ceremonial” was dedicated to this, allowing Yuan Ye to understand the entire territory while reviewing reports. Moreover, this wasn’t espionage; her title of “Director of Ceremonial” was a joke. She actually only had investigative authority and could only discover problems, not arrest or torture anyone.
As for the department responsible for internal correction, anti-corruption, and counter-espionage, it didn’t exist yet. After all, the enterprise was just starting, everything was flourishing, and no one had made any fundamental mistakes. If something did happen, he could handle it personally. This department wasn’t urgent.
Simply put, everything was in its initial stages, and the organizational structure needed to be gradually completed.
Yuan Ye glanced at the list briefly and noticed it was written in the secret language of the “Life Preservation Style.” He didn’t bother to translate it at the moment and asked A Man, “What about external affairs?”
“There are also six or seven people for external affairs, but they are all stupid dung balls and not very useful for now.” A Man took out another piece of wiping paper and handed it to him. “Besides placing two in your shop in Nagoya Castle, the others can only act as traveling merchants in various places for the time being. It’s impossible to infiltrate the Oda Family or the Hayashi Family yet.”
Yuan Ye took the list and glanced at it. Without looking closely, he filed it away with the previous one and locked it up. He said, “No rush, we still have time. But don’t slack off either; we still need to recruit personnel. By this time next year, we should at least be able to avoid being ambushed, and have enough preparation time for whatever happens.”
“Sigh, I’ll do my best and see. There are too many idiots, and smart people aren’t easy to find. Controllable smart people are even harder to find.” A Man sighed. She had been selecting and training personnel during this time, feeling that these people were even dumber than A Qing. She was constantly racking her brain. She preemptively stated the difficulties to shirk responsibility in advance, lest Yuan Ye hold her accountable later.
“In short, hurry up!”
Yuan Ye said one more sentence and let her go. After all, intelligence work could only be done slowly, and sometimes it depended heavily on luck. Rushing it wouldn’t yield good results.
He then asked with concern, “What’s the situation outside now? Has anything special happened?”
“No, if anything had happened, I would have reported it to you long ago!” A Man first denied it, then spoke generally, “Oda Nobunaga is still urging the local lords to build roads and implement his so-called Rakuichi system. Nothing else is happening. The local lords just suffered a defeat, with many casualties. They’ve been quite obedient lately. The Imagawa Family and Matsudaira Family are also quiet. The frontline is peaceful, with no small-scale conflicts. So, that’s it, nothing is happening.”
Yuan Ye nodded gently. Peace was good. It would be best if these people didn’t cause trouble for the rest of the year and remained quiet until next year. However, he was very concerned about Oda Nobunaga’s situation, as he was the biggest BOSS in Owari and had a very erratic and somewhat neurotic way of thinking. He immediately followed up with, “How is the Rakuichi system working?”
A Man thought for a moment and said uncertainly, “It feels okay. The castle town of Nagoya Castle seems livelier than before. Quite a few people have actually moved there, and there are more traveling merchants. Perhaps this Rakuichi system is actually useful, and he’s not just messing around.”
Had it already shown initial results in just over two months?
It seemed that the Japanese monks had suppressed independent artisans and small merchants too harshly in the past. As long as these people saw a glimmer of freedom, they would disregard everything else, even enduring the infamy of “Oda the Big Fool” and future uncertainties.
This could be considered a favorable situation. The richer Oda Nobunaga became, the stronger he grew, and the stronger he grew, the richer he became. He was on the verge of entering a virtuous cycle.
This was not good news for Yuan Ye. Oda Nobunaga’s rapid expansion of power put him under pressure, and he also felt a bit envious. He wished he had a large castle where he could issue decrees and attract a large labor force, engage in Rakuichi Rakuza, and play with free trade. However, the other party had an inherited foundation, while he did not, so he could only sigh in regret.
He felt a slight envy for the good life of a third-generation rich person. Feeling that there was nothing else, he prepared to dismiss A Man to go back to work. But A Man didn’t leave in a hurry and asked him with concern, “When do you plan to recruit more followers? We’re not short on money now, I feel like it’s about time, right?”
She had narrowly escaped death at Takeuchi Manor and was a bit scared. Seeing that Yuan Ye had re-established his foundation and was about to enjoy prosperity again, she was very concerned about safety, fearing that something might happen again and ruin her good life. She quickly reminded him. However, Yuan Ye had a comprehensive plan and immediately shook his head, “I don’t plan to recruit followers anymore.”
“No more followers?” A Man was surprised. “What if something happens again?”
“It’s just no followers; we still need an army.” Yuan Ye had nothing to hide from her. Her blood wasn’t shed in vain. He immediately revealed his entire plan. “After some more time, I plan to select personnel from the workshops to form an army. These people have already worked in the workshops for a period, so they will have a certain foundation in obedience and discipline. I will personally train them to form the army I want.”
A Man was stunned and even more surprised. She quickly said, “Can we fight without followers? Is this feasible? Don’t mess around with this, or we’ll all lose our heads!”
“I don’t know, but I want to try.” Yuan Ye didn’t pretend to be an expert and insist that his idea would definitely work. The “general + household retainers + military households” organizational model, although mature, had proven to be not very effective in the Great Ming, easily leading to private armies. Now that he had few people and could manage the overall situation himself, this organization wouldn’t be a problem and might even have higher combat effectiveness in the short term. But in the future, when he couldn’t manage everything alone and had more generals under him, he always felt he would be tricked. Therefore, he felt it was best not to go down the wrong path from the beginning, even if it meant taking some risks.
However, he only had some rudimentary ideas at the moment and couldn’t be considered thorough and stable. Even though he didn’t want to hide anything from A Man, it was indeed difficult to explain clearly to her, so he could only say he would try for now.
A Man scratched her face, her Dou Dou eyebrows twitching. She felt his idea was probably unreliable. They had been fighting wars for hundreds of years; how could it be changed so easily? However, there were no external threats for the time being, so letting him try wouldn’t hurt.
She planned to start pointing fingers and offering her foresight after Yuan Ye failed. She left with a “As long as you know what you’re doing” and patted her little butt to leave, returning to her role as “Director of the Eastern Depot” and continuing to kick the butts of future intelligence personnel, still calling them all a bunch of stupid donkeys.
After she left, Yuan Ye wasn’t in a hurry to ponder military matters. The previously free and undisciplined farmers hadn’t been corrected by the regular and tight-knit life of the workshops yet. They still lacked discipline, and their numbers weren’t enough. Selecting soldiers wasn’t urgent; it would take some more time. He was now more concerned about resource accumulation.
He took out a piece of paper, drew a diagram, and pondered his current resources as if playing a strategy game.
Population: Currently only over three hundred, severely lacking labor. However, there were no good solutions for this at the moment. The islanders couldn’t be tricked over easily, and he couldn’t go out and plunder for people now. He could only continue to acquire them sporadically.
Money: The workshops were operating normally, and raw material supply was sufficient. The monthly revenue from the soy sauce workshop and dyeing workshops already exceeded twelve hundred koku. Moreover, they were adjacent to Atsuta Port and had the advantage of high quality, so there was no worry about sales. The market demand was far from being met, and production could be expanded further. Funds would not be an issue in the short term.
Food: There was no shortage of grain for the time being. With only over three hundred mouths to feed, buying enough was easy.
Wood: Wood and its derivatives, such as charcoal, were also not a problem. Japan was currently in an era of sparse population and vast land, with extremely abundant natural resources. There were mature trees everywhere on the mountains. As long as they didn’t go onto someone else’s territory, they could cut them down freely, which was a far cry from when they were confined to Takeuchi Manor.
Sulfur: Japanese sulfur was very cheap. Acquiring it was more cost-effective than mining it themselves. This was also not a problem.
Saltpeter: It was already on its way to be mined.
Leather: This was also not a problem. There were many wild animals at this time, and deer herds were common. Leather resources were abundant. Once they had saltpeter, the nitrated leather workshop could also be built.
…
Yuan Ye listed them all and finally circled “Iron” heavily. After the saltpeter problem was initially solved, iron began to become a scarce resource. The money spent on purchasing iron tools each month accounted for nearly 40% of his income. Furthermore, in the future, he would need a large number of iron armors and matchlock guns, which were also major consumers of iron. Relying solely on purchases wouldn’t work. No matter how much money he made, the economic pressure would be too great.
Moreover, the arms trade was inherently a business with extremely high profits and unparalleled influence, greatly increasing his bargaining power. He definitely had to get involved in this area and must have a stable supply of raw materials.
But in this unfortunate era, in this unfortunate place, how could he obtain enough iron?
