Chapter 235: Perhaps, We Can Really Try!
The wintering grounds of the Zhai Er Tribe, in the hilly area to the west.
A Man took off her cumbersome fur coat and climbed a small hill with the old hunter Zha Ping Nong. From afar, they saw a small river.
At this time, Ezo Island was still in late winter, and the river channel had not yet thawed. Some shivering Wa People commoners were dragging wooden sleds along the ice surface to transport goods to the riverside.
There were all sorts of messy things, but most of them were heavy goods like taro, radishes, and tools for logging and digging.
By the riverside camp, there were some Samurai followers carrying longbows and wearing dōmaru. However, their conditions for keeping warm were much better than those commoners dragging sleds; they were wrapped tightly in various furs.
A Man observed cautiously for a moment and asked the old hunter Zha Ping Nong, “Are these… Wa People trying to pioneer here?”
She had brought precious goods before, but there were not many people in the valley to welcome her. Upon asking, she learned that the Wa People had suddenly been discovered nearby, and the elders and young adults in the valley were holding a meeting to discuss countermeasures. The old hunter Zha Ping Nong’s expression also turned grim instantly, and he immediately ran to investigate, so she followed.
Looking now, it seems the Kakizaki family is using the late winter river channel to quickly transport pioneering supplies. Once Ezo Island enters spring and the land thaws, they will begin large-scale construction, felling trees and digging earth on-site to start building.
According to Samurai customs, they would likely first build a sturdy residence, possessing basic shelter and defense capabilities, and then build a stockade wall around it, burning the wilds along the river to clear out fierce beasts and open up farmland.
Within a year or two, this would become a new village, which could then supply the Kakizaki family with blood and pay annual tribute.
“Yes, these Wa People have come again…”
The old hunter Zha Ping Nong’s expression grew even more grim. He was also very familiar with the Samurai’s methods of expanding territory. He even knew how those Wa People in the distance had arrived.
As the saying goes, a small temple breeds great evils, and a shallow pond hosts many turtles.
The northeastern region of Honshu Island is very barren, and the development level of this era is very poor. However, many Myoshu, such as the Nambu Family, Ando Family, Tozawa Family, Shiba Clan, Kaki Family, and Kasai Family, are still engaged in continuous warfare, creating a large number of ronin whose families have fallen.
The Kakizaki family took this opportunity, offering terms: as long as a ronin could gather a group of commoners and establish a village, the Kakizaki family would acknowledge their land ownership and recognize them as vassals of the Kakizaki family.
Thanks to such policies, many low-ranking samurai who could not survive on Honshu Island have, for various reasons, come to Ezo Island hoping to make a comeback. They also tried to deceive commoners from Honshu Island to come and pioneer, offering similar terms of land – for any commoner willing to pioneer, these earth warriors would also allocate a piece of land.
Nowadays, a small piece of land is enough to make people desperate. Moreover, the northeastern region of Japan has been in continuous warfare with extremely high miscellaneous taxes. Many fleeing farmers who cannot pay their annual tribute are willing to risk their lives to see if they can defy fate.
As a result, the Kakizaki family’s territory expands significantly to the east and north every late winter and early spring, with little loss to themselves. After all, even if they fail, it is the external ronin and the fleeing farmers they deceived who die. The Kakizaki family is not harmed, and sometimes they can even make a small profit, gaining population and wealth for free.
Now, the new immigrant villages of the Wa People have advanced to a location not far from the Zhai Er Tribe’s wintering grounds. Both sides can barely be considered neighbors. Even though there is still some distance, in at most two or three more years, the new immigrant villages will cross the Zhai Er people’s wintering valley. The Zhai Er people will not even be able to think about returning in the autumn to store food, avoid the wind and snow, and spend the winter peacefully.
Furthermore, after large-scale burning of the wilds and the opening of farmland around the rivers, it is questionable whether the Zhai Er people will still be able to gather enough berries and wild vegetables, and catch enough fierce beasts and fish in this area.
The old hunter Zha Ping Nong is a native who has had more dealings with the Wa People. After all, he often goes to the Wa People’s villages to trade furs and meat for salt and iron. He can be considered a “wise person” among the Zhai Er Tribe. Just thinking about the future, the rough hands holding the birch bow, the veins bulged one by one.
A Man was not involved and was not as angry. She had seen Samurai fighting each other since she was young and was used to it, even considering it natural.
This way of thinking, these historical imprints, even influenced later generations. Modern Japanese people appear very polite, and individuals are very courteous to each other, but this is just a superficial appearance. To ensure the survival of their “small collective,” they are capable of doing anything; it is a kind of “small collective egoism.”
For example, “poisoning” food to make the company earn more money, cutting corners in production for company profits, discharging wastewater directly into rivers and oceans to save money for the company, and even committing crimes is not a problem…
There are countless such incidents, but the individuals involved do not feel any guilt, nor do they consider it a crime, because it is done for the “collective.” If a representative is chosen from the “collective,” a simple bow is enough.
A Man was accustomed to this set of practices and didn’t care about these things. She just curiously asked, “What are your plans? Are you going to leave here?”
She remembered Yuan Ye once said that these people had been driven step by step from Kyushu Island to the southwestern corner of Ezo Island for thousands of years. Now that they can no longer stand their ground in the southwest corner, she guessed that these people might continue to move east and north, into the interior of Ezo Island.
Well, when she and Yuan Ye passed by the Mount Fuji area by sea, Yuan Ye had shown off his historical knowledge with great interest, saying that the name “Fuji” was given by the Ainu people, and that if nothing unexpected happened, the Ainu people would never be able to see this sacred mountain that held special significance for them again.
At that time, A Man habitually doubted, thinking Yuan Ye was talking nonsense again. But now that she had learned the Ainu language, she found that “Mount Fuji” indeed seemed to be named by the Ainu people – “Fuji” is a transliteration, and in the Ainu language, it means “furnace.” Perhaps the Ainu people in the past, seeing the active volcano constantly emitting smoke, gave it this strange name.
The muscles on Old Hunter Zha Ping Nong’s face twitched. The scar from a black bear scratch in his youth turned blood red for a moment, then slowly faded. He said dejectedly, “Yes, we can only leave. We… are no match for the Wa People.”
“Not a match?” A Man looked again at the temporary camp, judging it to have only one or two Samurai and seven or eight followers, and dozens of commoners. With the strength of the Zhai Er Tribe – a tribe of over a thousand people, it would not be difficult to gather three to four hundred young men and women, and it would take less than five minutes to kill these few people.
Old Hunter Zha Ping Nong knew what she was thinking and shook his head: “It’s easy to drive away these dozens of people, but they will soon bring more people, and they will be people with iron armor. It will be difficult for us to kill them, so we can only give them the place.”
A Man raised her Dou Dou eyebrows in understanding.
Killing the unarmed with armor is indeed no more difficult than killing chickens. Throughout history, there are countless instances of dozens of armored warriors chasing and slaughtering tens of thousands of unarmed peasants, which is not uncommon and is completely different from modern times.
In an era without firearms or with ineffective firearms, humans had few good ways to deal with someone encased in tens of pounds of iron. They could only run.
As for those who say that if I just go up with a hammer, I can make an armored warrior spit blood and die immediately… those people should go and slide tackle a tiger; they would die more gracefully that way.
A Man could understand. After all, about a hundred years ago, many Ainu tribes had united to expel the Kakizaki family, but they were charged by dozens of heavily armored Samurai and hundreds of armored followers. Even thousands of natives attacking could not win, and they failed.
But she immediately asked curiously, “Don’t you have armor? After so many years, haven’t you tried to get some Ō-yoroi or something?”
Old Hunter Zha Ping Nong shook his head: “They are unwilling to sell it to us. Even when they sell us swords, they only sell short swords and small arrowheads… According to them, the blade cannot be longer than one and a half feet, and the arrowhead cannot exceed half a tael. If it exceeds this, the blacksmith who sells the sword will be punished.”
He paused and added with a sigh, “Actually, even if they were willing to sell, we wouldn’t have anything extra to exchange for such heavy iron armor.”
“Can’t you make it yourselves?” When Yuan Ye was penniless, he started making armor to arm his troops to save money. A Man felt this matter was not that difficult.
“We don’t know how,” Old Hunter Zha Ping Nong shook his head again.
The Ainu people have lived by gathering since ancient times, supplemented by fishing and hunting. They never needed armor in their daily lives, not even leather armor. Fierce beasts are afraid of injury, and even fierce beasts generally do not fight humans to the death. As for encountering cornered beasts like wild boars or bears, a single charge or slap from their immense strength would make wearing armor or not wearing armor almost the same for humans. It would be better not to wear it to be more agile.
Tribal wars among the Ainu people are also rare. Most Ainu tribes are far apart. Occasionally, there are minor skirmishes over hunting grounds, but large-scale battles are very rare, and there is no demand for armor.
Therefore, the Ainu people have never developed armor-making technology, nor do they know how to smelt iron. Even tanning hides is something they learned from the Wa People nearly a hundred years ago, but it was only to sell furs at a slightly higher price, and they never considered making leather armor.
As a people, the Ainu are truly weak! They are not few in number, but they are scattered and disorganized, with each group numbering only about a thousand people, otherwise they cannot gather enough to support their tribes. They have no swords, no guns, no armor, and know nothing about self-preservation. No wonder they have been beaten all the way into the icy lands.
In a sense, this is somewhat deserved.
A Man understood the situation. She saw Zha Ping Nong’s genuine look of disdain, but she had interacted with the Ainu people for half a year and knew that these people also had their strengths.
Take the old hunter in front of her, for example. Although he seems to have a good temper and personality, he can truly navigate through forests and climb mountains, traversing treacherous terrain as if on flat ground. His wilderness survival skills are exceptionally excellent, and his archery is terrifyingly strong. He is a powerhouse who dares to hunt bears and kill wild boars alone. He wouldn’t normally take such risks, but if he were determined, he would have the ability.
In fact, as long as they are not fighting in formation and everyone is wearing cloth and hunting each other in the mountains and forests, in a one-on-one situation, probably none of the Wanjin would be this old guy’s opponent, and they wouldn’t have much chance of winning against other Ainu hunters.
These are people who grew up crawling on ice and snow, hunting wild beasts, and are strong individuals selected by nature in harsh environments.
In other words, these Ainu hunters, if given sufficient equipment and trained in discipline, would be extremely excellent warriors, not much inferior to Samurai who have practiced martial arts since childhood and live for war.
A Man pondered for a while and felt it was an opportunity. She directly asked the old hunter Zha Ping Nong, “Then if you had armor, would you not need to run? Or do you need something else? Enough swords, guns, arrows, matchlock guns, gunpowder, and grain?”
Old Hunter Zha Ping Nong was startled and asked in surprise, “You are willing to sell us iron armor? How much?”
“As much as you want!” A Man first boasted, but such time-consuming and labor-intensive military heavy equipment, even with Wanjin’s advanced production system, did not have much stock. She quickly added, “I’ll sell you a few dozen… uh, over a hundred sets first. There shouldn’t be any problem – real iron armor, which even strong bows at close range can’t penetrate, and at fifteen paces, even ordinary matchlock guns can block it. You’ll likely survive.”
“So many?” Old Hunter Zha Ping Nong was startled again and began to re-evaluate Wanjin’s strength. After all, in this era, only Samurai could afford a set of real iron armor. Over a hundred heavily armored Samurai would be enough to dominate a region, and everyone would have to be polite to them.
But he soon hesitated, “We might not have that many hides… No, we can’t afford that much iron armor at all.”
Their main products now are furs, but furs on Ezo Island don’t fetch a good price. An otter skin is only worth about thirty mon, a deer hide fifty to sixty mon, a wolf pelt around eighty mon. Bear hides and fox hides can be slightly better, selling for about three to five hundred mon, but they are rare, and whether they can be obtained depends on luck.
A set of real iron armor, with all parts complete, sells for over a hundred kan in the northeastern region, which is about ninety thousand mon, equivalent to about three thousand otter skins. Even bear and fox hides would require one to two hundred.
And that’s for one set. If they were to exchange for a hundred sets of iron armor, even if they skinned all the wild animals around the Zhai Er Tribe, it wouldn’t be enough.
Of course, this is priced according to Ezo Island’s prices. In Owari, a tattered wolf pelt could sell for over a hundred mon, a good quality wolf pelt for three to four hundred mon. Bear and fox hides, as long as they are in good condition, could normally sell for three to five kan. It can only be said that ancient commodity prices are regional; something that sells for one mon here might sell for one kan there.
In fact, it’s the same in modern times. When the United States sells airplanes and missiles to other countries, they are often tens of millions of dollars. In this era, real iron armor is similar in nature to modern fighter jets and missiles; they are the foundation of a nation. If you can’t make them yourself, you have to buy them at a high price.
Even China has done things like exchanging hundreds of millions of shirts for one airplane. It can only be said that similar things are hard to avoid.
A Man naturally knew that the Ainu people were all poor. They had no habit of saving. They would eat heartily today, finish everything, and then go out to search again tomorrow. If they couldn’t find anything, they would starve. It was somewhat absurd.
Of course, now that the Ainu people have moved to Ezo Island, their living habits have changed somewhat. It’s a bit better in autumn. They know to hide some food in caves to prevent spoilage and save it for winter. It’s likely that a group of people starved to death or froze to death before, teaching them a lesson. But fundamentally, not much has changed. They still have no habit of saving. If there’s an urgent matter, they can’t produce anything. They are not good customers at all.
However, she was not worried about this and directly said, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t have money or fur. You still have people! You can exchange people for weapons and armor!”
Old Hunter Zha Ping Nong’s expression changed slightly: “People? You want us to sell our tribesmen?”
A Man casually waved her hand: “Of course not. We are friends, how could we turn your tribesmen into family retainers or slaves? I, A Man, am a person of integrity. I would never do something so unrighteous, something that would result in having children with no backside!
What I mean is, you can send your surplus young adults to Wanjin to work and earn money. Anyway, this place of yours is not great, and many people are hungry one meal and full the next. It’s better to go work for us… or help us fight.
We’ll cover transportation. If each person works for three to five to seven to eight years, they can probably exchange for a set of armor. Or you can get some dōmaru to make do. That stuff is cheap. It’s not a problem for one person to earn a set a year. You can also eat two meals a day. Our leader is a generous person, spending money like dirt, treating money as nothing, like a fool. Now Wanjin can basically guarantee two meals a day, and we haven’t heard of anyone starving to death in over a year. Your people will definitely not lose out if they go.”
“Work and fight for you… to exchange for iron armor?” Old Hunter had lived for most of his life, and this was the first time he had heard of such a strange thing. He dared not believe it and did not agree. He instinctively found an excuse: “But if we have iron armor and weapons, our young adults will also need to defend the territory and won’t be able to go to your place…”
“I already said our leader is a generous person. A hundred sets of iron armor is nothing. I’ll make the decision to give you them first. If you really want to fight, you can send people to Wanjin after the fight. Or, you can send a small number of people to work as a deposit, say thirty to fifty, or twenty to thirty people. With my face, no one will mind.”
As long as A Man could trick the Ainu people into going to Wanjin, no matter how many, it would be considered completing part of the mission. Moreover, it could provoke the Ainu people to fight the Kakizaki family, which also aligned with Yuan Ye’s “troublemaker” strategy in the Kanto and Northeast regions. Therefore, she was very accommodating and showed great sincerity.
Of course, if these friends did not treat her as a friend and dared to cheat her out of her goods, which were high-priced goods worth over ten thousand kan, then she could not be blamed for going back to Yuan Ye and calling thousands of people to capture them all and send them to hard labor – Wanjin’s mines and pits were also short of people, but there were fewer criminals, so they were forced to offer super high salaries to hire people to do dangerous work, and there was no shortage of places to house criminals.
Old Hunter Zha Ping Nong was tempted. The Wa People were pressing closer and closer, and small and large villages were extending inland step by step. Even if his tribe was willing to hide, how long could they hide?
Should they go to other tribes’ territories to live and compete with them for food?
Before, it was too disadvantageous to fight, and they couldn’t win, so they had to retreat step by step. But now, A Man from Wanjin suddenly appeared on Ezo Island, willing to provide excellent armor and weapons on credit. Then the Zhai Er people were not without the courage to protect their land and food.
Perhaps, they could really try!
