Chapter 241: Seven Injuries Fist
With Inuyama Castle captured and Saito Tatsuoki isolated and alone, Yuan Ye’s more than two thousand men were merely a decorative addition to Oda Nobunaga’s forces. Oda Nobunaga had no intention of sharing any more rations with them. After giving him a portion of the spoils of war, he subtly suggested that Yuan Ye could return home.
Indeed, the spoils of war Yuan Ye received were mainly a portion of Inuyama Castle’s population. The land, castle, and wealth belonged to Oda Nobunaga, but Yuan Ye took some of the people with him, considered a shared benefit among allies after a victory.
Nakamura Mikurō also achieved his dream. For his merits in instigating rebellion and building bridges, he was granted the villages of Kagami-no, Kinu-kami, and Neze near the Kiso River as his domain. However, this area had been at war for the past two to three years, and most of the villagers had fled, leaving the fields severely neglected. The three villages combined couldn’t even yield 500 koku, so it could only be said that the future held promise.
Nevertheless, Nakamura Mikurō had at least taken a significant step forward, as he now had his own territory, which would allow him to support troops and be considered a semi-independent force.
These three small villages, historically, were the foundation from which the Monkey (referring to Toyotomi Hideyoshi) began his rise. Mikurō was also quite generous, directly distributing all the village land to the families of the “Kawana Group” for cultivation. He strictly implemented a “five-tenths tax” (five parts to the government, five to the people) and, following Yuan Ye’s example, actively led the “Kawana Group” into the water transport business.
He was genuinely engaged in business, setting extremely strict rules, encouraging enthusiastic service, and strictly prohibiting his subordinates from robbing or extorting traveling merchants. He also forbade throwing traveling merchants into the river without payment. He even brought gifts to visit Yuan Ye again, low-priced Wanjin specialties, preparing to transport them to the Kinki region via the Nagara and Kiso River networks to seek high profits.
Having followed Yuan Ye for a few days, he understood that money was essential in this era. He decided to focus on making a substantial amount of money first, fully equipping himself with armor and weapons, before seeking further achievements.
Perhaps it could be considered that sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood.
The other participating Owari Local Lords and Oda Family vassals also received their due rewards. Those who performed well were granted land and manors, while those who performed less well had their annual tribute waived for a few years. Matsudaira Ieyasu （, having completely broken ties with the Imagawa Family, abandoned the character “Moto” given by Imagawa Yoshimoto and changed his name to Ieyasu ）. The 500 men sent by him also received a large sum of wealth and happily returned to Mikawa, having overthrown the Oda Nobukiyo family, allowing everyone to have a prosperous year.
Of course, even with so many rewards distributed, Oda Nobunaga was still the biggest winner. He was also very shrewd, believing he could defeat Saito Tatsuoki with his own strength. He quickly sent his allies away to prevent them from continuing to share in the benefits.
After capturing Inuyama Castle and securing important strongholds along the Kiso River, he did not rest. He immediately led his army north, beginning to attack strategic points in Mino such as Ochizuka Castle and Kajita Castle. It was likely he would follow the same strategy, first clearing the outer areas of Inabayama Castle before taking the Saito Family’s core territory in one fell swoop.
Oda Nobunaga’s warfare was actually quite steady. He often lost, but his losses never crippled him. His strong rear-area economic base quickly compensated for any losses. Conversely, his opponents were often worn down by his gradual advances, forced into attrition warfare, and eventually disappeared inexplicably.
In a sense, Oda Nobunaga and Yuan Ye had similar personalities. Each had their own unique ideas, acted very cautiously, and preferred to focus their energy more on matters outside of war.
Launching an attack was merely to reap the final fruits; victory or defeat had already been decided before they even attacked.
They might not be considered famous generals, but they usually survived until the very end.
…
Oda Nobunaga crossed the Kiso River and invaded Mino territory with great force. The Saito Family and the powerful local lords of Mino did not sit idly by. After several powerful local lords, heads of families, or former patriarchs visited, loudly reprimanded, and explained the situation, Ando Morinari reluctantly retreated to Kitagata Castle and returned Inabayama Castle to Saito Tatsuoki.
However, his son-in-law, Takenaka Hanbei, was furious and vehemently opposed the retreat. This ultimately led to a direct falling out with Ando Morinari. He also worried that Saito Tatsuoki would hold him accountable for his actions within Inabayama Castle upon his return, so he fled directly.
Indeed, during the six months Takenaka Hanbei was in charge of Inabayama Castle, to prevent any inside collaborators from opening the gates late at night again, he arrested a large number of people and killed many. Additionally, to expand his military strength, he levied heavy taxes, collecting tribute up to five years in advance. Even the local monks couldn’t stand him, writing letters calling him despicable, shameless, and greedy, wishing for him to leave quickly.
Now that Ando Morinari had partially succeeded in his “Gekokujō” (overthrowing superiors) and then changed his mind to prioritize the “greater good,” Takenaka Hanbei was in a difficult position and might have died. He simply packed up and left, fleeing directly to Omi and seeking refuge with Azai Nagamasa.
It is said that Azai Nagamasa greatly admired him in later generations, considering him the foremost wise man in the realm. He also praised the “return of Inabayama Castle” as a highly principled act, granting him an annual salary of 3,000 koku. However, he was eager for a quiet life. After staying in Omi for a period, he discovered that Saito Tatsuoki had no intention of pursuing him. He returned to his hometown, Bodaiji Castle, to live in seclusion, detached from worldly affairs, content to rest. Eventually, he was moved by Kinoshita Tōkichirō’s “three visits to the thatched hut” and emerged from seclusion to become the “Japanese Warring States’ Zhuge Liang.”
In reality, Azai Nagamasa was not insane, nor was he foolishly extravagant with money. Even someone like Yuan Ye, who diligently developed the economy and personally went to sea to fight to encourage exports, only dared to offer an annual salary of 500 koku to his closest confidante, savior, and most trusted subordinate, A Man.
If he were to offer 3,000 koku, his payroll would explode, making it impossible to pay his other subordinates.
Oda Nobunaga was also a big spender. For his trusted samurai like Ikeda Tsuneoki and Maeda Toshiie, he generally offered annual salaries of only four to five hundred koku; none exceeded a thousand. If it were over a thousand, he might as well have given them land and let them earn their own money.
People like the historical Monkey (Hideyoshi) were even more stingy. For example, when Yamauchi Kazutoyo first joined the Monkey, his annual salary was only 20 koku. He couldn’t even afford a good horse and had to rely on Endo Chiyo privately selling her dowry and doing business to get him a fine horse and good attire, which caught the Monkey’s eye during a grand military review in Kyoto.
In any case, Yuan Ye didn’t believe it. He had no interest in this “genius strategist.” Upon discovering that Mino had united again, he glanced at the relevant intelligence and put it aside.
It’s good that they united. Let them fight Oda Nobunaga for a longer period. After all, once Oda Nobunaga takes Mino, according to his alliance with Matsudaira Ieyasu, he will begin to expand westward. And westward, Ise Province, which borders Owari to the west, will be the first to bear the brunt.
Yuan Ye couldn’t recall the exact year Oda Nobunaga captured Inabayama Castle; his historical knowledge wasn’t that precise. However, he vaguely remembered that Oda Nobunaga moved soon after taking Mino, so it couldn’t be many years away.
Therefore, he had to act before Oda Nobunaga captured Mino. It was like playing Go; he had to occupy the vital positions in advance, at least securing the area adjacent to Ise Province and Owari Province, thereby containing Oda Nobunaga. Otherwise, he would be imprisoned again.
Assuming the enemy’s strength generously, and including the time it would take for engagements, next year… no, spring has already arrived, so it should be this year. After the autumn harvest this year should be the final time node, at the latest by next year.
Time was still a bit tight. After returning to Xin Wanjin Port, Yuan Ye couldn’t rest and immediately checked on the progress of the matters he had ordered while stationed at Matsukura Castle.
After checking everything, he felt it was going well. Wanjin was currently in a period of rapid growth, with clean governance and high efficiency in all aspects. The schemes he had brewed were perfectly executed, and significant progress had been made.
With the assistance of the Wanjin Navy, Wanjin had established stable trade channels with some small local lords and local warriors along the coast of the Ise Peninsula. They were actively delivering Wanjin products, primarily refined salt, directly to their doorsteps. Simultaneously, they were actively acquiring “witchcraft supplies” such as owls, frog legs, and beehives that Yuan Ye needed. Someone even had a flash of inspiration and invented a “quota system.”
Want to get more salt, dyed cloth, and porcelain at a low price?
Yes, three owls can get you an additional one-stone low-price quota. Otherwise, twenty beehives or one hundred frog legs will suffice. Please hurry and acquire them from inland!
At the same time, the high-priced acquisition of white ramie cloth and fine linen and cotton materials was also proceeding smoothly. After all, not many people in this world would go against money. As long as the people of Wanjin were willing to place orders and pay a small deposit, some local lords would be tempted to forcibly pull farmers from their fields to soak and strip hemp.
Or, they would forcibly convert some of their grain fields into cotton fields to produce more raw cotton, aiming to make a large profit from the people of Wanjin next year.
This “acquisition operation” had been underway for over half a year. The “witchcraft supplies” transported back had filled the warehouses. Even in the Wanjin night market, “grilled frog legs” and “frog meat stew” had become popular snacks. The production of arrows, beeswax, and strategic honey reserves had also surged, but the cost was considerable.
Indeed, although these “witchcraft supplies” were acquired to secretly strike at enemies, they were not without use. Crossing the Ise Bay diagonally did not take long. When weather permitted, the pickled frog meat could still be eaten upon return. Beeswax could be used in Wanjin to cast cannon molds, which Wanjin was already in short supply of, so buying more was not a loss.
Honey was also an excellent antibacterial and anti-inflammatory medicine, which would not spoil for three to five years, making it strategically significant. Wanjin would normally reserve some as emergency medicine, and it could also be sold as sugar, increasing resident happiness.
However, even so, Wanjin could not digest so many miscellaneous items. Even if storing them would not be a waste, it would reduce cash flow and increase additional expenses. Furthermore, reselling goods like white ramie cloth to Kanto and the Northeast was a pure loss, essentially selling at cost. Wanjin had to subsidize shipping costs for ship owners and traders. In fact, if it weren’t for Yuan Ye’s initiative, those ship owners and traders would not have wanted to engage in this business.
Over half a year, Wanjin had lost a significant amount of money. If it weren’t for Yuan Ye, the first generation leader, forcefully insisting, this inexplicable undertaking would have been abandoned long ago.
This was like using the “Seven Injuries Fist” (a technique that harms the user as well as the enemy). If he couldn’t defeat the daimyo and local lords on the Ise Peninsula, he would at least be unable to recover for three to five years. In fact, Wanjin was already struggling to breathe, and fiscal pressure was increasing.
Endo Chiyo and Maeshima Shichiro had both advised him, indirectly inquiring if the quantity was sufficient and suggesting it was time to stop. However, Yuan Ye did not listen; he wanted to seize the time, and this was a price he had to pay. Instead, he began to raise money internally again.
First, he considered issuing bonds, planning to borrow money from the entire populace for circulation. However, the credit of Wanjin paper currency was fragile and had never been widely promoted. Issuing bonds was unprecedented, and the interest alone was not enough to entice many to purchase them for preservation; people could just as easily hide some gold at home. Thus, bonds could not be sold in large quantities for the time being. He could only turn to selling land.
Of course, he only sold land usage rights, with terms of twenty, fifty, or one hundred years, transferring the usage rights to individuals, including fields.
He held a large number of fields that had been confiscated from samurai and local lords. Previously, these were rented to ordinary farmers for cultivation, from whom he collected both rent and taxes. Now, he no longer wanted these fields, only retaining nominal ownership. He directly sold them to farmers （, allowing installment payments ）, to quickly gather funds. He also encouraged farmers to produce more grain and increase their purchasing power—the effort put into farming one’s own land versus someone else’s is vastly different, as history has long proven.
This was comparable to China’s “housing reform” in the past, where citizens were encouraged to buy the houses they lived in. Yuan Ye was essentially imitating it. In any case, he dared not set the land rent too high, otherwise, if the agricultural population went bankrupt on a large scale, he would also be hanged. So, he simply threw caution to the wind and decided to scrape all the money from the people of Wanjin to cope with the emergency.
He had no choice. Japanese people were very similar to Chinese people; they were also extremely fond of saving money. If they had ten coins, they would consider it good if they could use one for daily expenses. If you don’t offer something tangible and substantial, you can’t empty their pockets, let alone get them into debt.
For a time, Wanjin became chaotic again. Land has always had a fatal attraction in any era. The people of Wanjin became excited again, closed their doors to divide the land, and everyone began to pay money, indirectly sharing the cost of purchasing owls, frogs, beehives, and white ramie cloth at high prices with Yuan Ye.
Yuan Ye was truly going all out for his ambitions in the Ise Peninsula. It remained to be seen if there would be any returns after the autumn harvest.
