Chapter 48: Bean cake
Japan, taking Tang China as its model, dispatched envoys to learn about the Tang dynasty’s equal-field system and the Tōyō-Sei tax system. They implemented the Handing Over and Receiving Land System in their own country, establishing the equal-field system. However, as the imperial family, nobility, and court nobles exploited legal loopholes and used their power to engage in widespread land annexation, within a few generations, Japan’s self-sufficient farmers began to go bankrupt.
By the mid-to-late tenth century, the equal-field system, which nationalized land, could no longer be implemented. The imperial court had no more land to distribute, yet Japan’s sixty-six provinces saw the emergence of numerous private manors.
These private manors often possessed special privileges, such as “rights of non-taxation and non-entry,” meaning they neither paid taxes nor were subject to the jurisdiction of the local Shugo Daimyo, effectively becoming independent small kingdoms. Their internal structures were also quite complex, featuring a three-tiered control system of “Main Family, Branch Family, and Manor Official,” distinctions between “donated manors,” “direct manors,” and “cultivated manors,” and details like “land surveys,” “recorded land,” and “internal land surveys,” as well as “exempted land” and “fixed land.” Ultimately, it details how samurai used cunning tactics to seize these manors…
If these were to be explained in detail, they could fill three chapters in a novel, or perhaps a popular science book titled 《Manors: From the Konden Eien Shizai Law to the Onin War》. However, readers would surely not enjoy it, and might even point at the writer and curse – “Your old habit of being a half-baked eunuch has returned, you’re just padding the story again, believe it or not, I’ll kill you!”
However, Takeuchi Manor should be such a long-standing relic, possibly existing for five or six hundred years, originally a private manor belonging to the imperial family, nobility, or powerful figures.
This private manor stands by the lake, with a tributary of the Nagara River flowing through it. Due to the low-lying terrain, a body of water has formed. The manor’s paddy fields surround this body of water on the west and north sides. The east side is a wetland, formed by the overflow of lake water during summer floods, covered in withered reeds and numerous still water pits.
There are also a large number of waterfowl. From time to time, flocks of birds can be seen taking flight, circling in the sky before disappearing back into the reeds. It is a good place for hunting.
The main part of the manor is built southwest of the body of water, adjacent to the tributary of the Nagara River. The layout is also very orderly. On the side facing the river, there is a large watermill. On the side facing the road are rows of warehouses and workshops for easy transport. In between these two is the residential area. Although most are still thatched cottages, they are at least arranged neatly and there are paved stone roads, unlike Hibitsu Village, where houses are haphazardly arranged, some even squeezed into every available space. As for the dirt roads, one’s first concern when going out at night is to avoid twisting an ankle.
Standing on high ground, Yuan Ye only took a few glances before admitting that this place was indeed much better than Hibitsu Village, appearing to have better living conditions and to be more prosperous.
A Man also looked very satisfied and immediately looked up at him, saying, “You’ll live here from now on. There are definitely more chickens raised here, and the fish are fatter. You can also often hunt wild geese and ducks. It’s much better than that ruined village!”
A Qing stood quietly, saying nothing, but looking at the rippling lake, the many waterfowl, and the abundance of small animals, she seemed to like it here as well.
Yuan Ye still didn’t rush to make a decision, only saying, “Let’s go see the house first!”
No one objected. The group walked further into the manor. The defenses here were also stronger than at Hibitsu Village. There were many followers of the Oda Danjō no Chū family, wearing dōmaru, with katanas at their waists, and wearing iron-plated conical hats. They were clearly elite forces trained over a long period, not the militia ashigaru who only knew how to cheer from the sidelines.
It’s just that these followers generally appeared to be younger, mostly sixteen or seventeen years old, with few old soldiers seen.
These young Oda followers stopped their group. After verifying their documents, they respectfully let them pass and assigned one person to guide them into the manor. They found the manor official, a samurai under Oda Nobunaga, but not a direct samurai like the personal pages or riding guards. Instead, he was a member of the support vassal group sent by his father, Oda Nobuhide, considered a warrior official.
Well, after Oda Nobuhide’s death, if Oda Nobunaga successfully took over, these individuals would truly become Oda Nobunaga’s men after reaffirming their loyalty.
This warrior official was in his forties, named Mutsu Tomotomo, with the tsūna Kiyobee. He wore a topknot hairstyle and appeared to be a very serious and rigid traditional samurai. His actions were meticulous. After carefully examining the “black seal document” and confirming its authenticity, he even took out a reference book to compare the seal – this was completely unnecessary, as Yuan Ye was not there to get money but to look at a house and might stay here, so forging it would be meaningless.
However, Lord Kiyobee still went through the entire procedure with strict adherence before leading them to a large house by the river, telling them to look around freely while he waited outside.
The house consisted of three low-slung wooden houses with wooden verandas outside. Not only was the living area large, but it also had larger front and back yards. The yards were planted with bamboo groves and trees. It looked very old, quiet, and elegant. It could be described as quite good, except that it was completely empty inside, with no furniture. The walls were mottled and unsightly, the floorboards were somewhat rotten, and dust and cobwebs were everywhere, making it look very dilapidated.
A Man was quite satisfied with the exterior, thinking there was even a stable and the well water was clear. However, after looking around inside, she was greatly disappointed. Turning to Yuan Ye, she said, “Look, I told you to spend less money, but you didn’t listen! Now it’s ruined. Your remaining money is only enough to fix the floorboards, you can’t even afford a few pieces of furniture.”
“Shut up, stop talking nonsense. You eat a lot too!” Yuan Ye cursed casually, but he actually thought it was good. He had originally planned to build a house he liked to improve his living conditions. Now that the house had a good layout and was large enough, renovating it would be perfect.
More importantly, this place belonged entirely to him. He could dig out the ground and set up a chemistry laboratory without anyone interfering.
After looking around, he went to find Okuruku Kiyobee. A Man followed him, complaining in a low voice to A Qing, “He’s changed. He doesn’t respect me like he used to. He used to listen to me talk all day, but now he tells me to stop talking nonsense!”
A Qing gave her sister a cold glance, lowered her eyelids, and said nothing. “Sister, if you hadn’t saved my life, I would have stopped respecting you long ago. No one in this world can live with you for a month and still respect you. Please be aware of that!”
Yuan Ye ignored A Man’s grumbling behind him. She was just like that, always chattering, and it was best to ignore her. He went straight to Okuruku Kiyobee at the entrance and politely asked, “Lord Kiyobee, this house looks like it hasn’t been lived in for a long time. What was this house used for before?”
This was common sense when buying a house, asking if it was a mortgaged property, a foreclosed property, or about the previous owner’s situation, to ensure clear title and avoid unnecessary trouble. Although Okuruku Kiyobee was rigid, he was not difficult to talk to. Yuan Ye asked, and he answered truthfully, “It was the residence of Lord Kinoshita’s family. It has been vacant for over a year.”
“Oh, so Lord Kinoshita moved away?”
“Lord Kinoshita has passed away.”
Yuan Ye was stunned for a moment and suddenly had a bad feeling. He cautiously asked, “Did this Lord Kinoshita perhaps use a matchlock gun… by Oda Saburo?”
Okuruku Kiyobee nodded slightly, his expression not very pleasant. It seemed he harbored great resentment towards such a lord.
Yuan Ye was also impressed. He had initially developed a good impression of Oda Nobunaga. It was one thing not to want to lose independence and personal freedom, and another to have a personal opinion of Oda Nobunaga. He actually admired Oda Nobunaga quite a bit, as he was truly generous and had great bearing. Unexpectedly, this fellow could pull off such a stunt, first killing his vassal and then giving the vassal’s residence to him.
This was no longer a matter of generosity; this was not human behavior!
Yuan Ye didn’t know what to say for a while. After a long pause, he hesitantly asked, “What about the rest of the Kinoshita family?”
“The Kinoshita family has temporarily died out,” Okuruku Kiyobee said with a dark expression. “Shortly after Lord Kinoshita died at Nagoya Castle, Lady Kinoshita was unable to maintain the residence and left a ‘quitclaim document（property deed）’ in exchange for some money, to be used by her daughter later to find a husband and re-establish the family name. She remarried.”
Yuan Ye was not surprised that Lady Kinoshita left. That Lord Kinoshita probably didn’t have a high status and didn’t own much land. After his death, his annual salary disappeared. If his wife didn’t remarry, not only could she not maintain the residence, but she might starve to death over time. This was a common phenomenon in this era, and she had no choice but to remarry. However, he was genuinely concerned about the property rights, so he asked again, “What about her daughter…”
Okuruku Kiyobee hesitated slightly and said uncertainly, “Lord Kinoshita had two daughters. The elder one… is about five or six years old, and the younger one is probably only three or four. They are likely living as adopted daughters with their mother’s family.”
Yuan Ye nodded slightly. The property rights were not a problem. A five or six-year-old couldn’t find a husband anytime soon, so they wouldn’t come to cause trouble and try to reclaim the ancestral home. Over time, it would become even less likely. It was just that Oda Nobunaga had caused such misfortune! Not only did he kill someone with a matchlock gun, but he also caused the family to be separated and the family name to be almost lost. No wonder the other vassals felt a sense of dread and were full of resentment.
However, these were all bad deeds committed by Oda Nobunaga, unrelated to him. He dismissed it with a mental remark and then looked at the house again. After thinking for a moment, he asked Okuruku Kiyobee, “If it’s convenient, may I walk around the manor freely?”
“Of course, Lord Yuan Ye, please feel free!” Okuruku Kiyobee agreed immediately. Yuan Ye was now considered a resident here. Regardless of whether he actually lived here, his household registration was here, so he could naturally move freely. However, after agreeing, he didn’t offer any further pleasantries or express any welcome before turning and leaving. It seemed he was not only rigid but also unsociable.
Yuan Ye didn’t mind. He led A Man and A Qing to wander around the manor, investigating the situation to see if it was habitable and suitable for people. After looking for a while, he felt it was quite good. The farmers here were generally healthier than the villagers in Hibitsu Village, with some color in their faces. Their lives were relatively prosperous. They didn’t seem too afraid of him, a samurai with “maidservants,” and appeared to have seen some of the world.
Then they continued to wander to the workshops and warehouses. They were not allowed into the warehouses; the Oda family’s followers guarded them strictly. The watermill was too primitive and not in operation, so Yuan Ye didn’t want to see it and was too lazy to go around. Finally, listening to the sounds and smelling the bean odor, they found an oil press. The craftsmen inside were pressing soybean oil using ancient methods: digging wooden troughs, placing beans inside, and repeatedly striking wedges with heavy stones driven by human power to squeeze oil from the soybeans.
Well, it wasn’t just soybeans that were pressed; seeds like hemp seeds and rapeseed could also be pressed. It just happened to be pressing beans. Perhaps some building was to be constructed, and they were preparing materials to mix paint.
However, there was nothing remarkable about this; it was just an ordinary oil press workshop, and the strong bean odor in the air was quite unpleasant. A Man lost interest after just one glance and was about to urge Yuan Ye to leave when she saw Yuan Ye rummaging through some sacks.
She went over to take a look and found that the sacks were filled with bean cakes. There was nothing unusual about it, and she asked curiously, “Why are you looking at this?”
Yuan Ye casually flipped through the bean cakes, thoughtfully asking, “If you were to buy bean cakes, how much would they cost?”
A Man casually replied, “These things aren’t worth much. Depending on the year, beans are about four to five hundred mon per koku. The bean cakes left after pressing the oil are only a little over a hundred mon!” Immediately, she realized that Yuan Ye lacked common sense and quickly added, “These things are very hard to eat, have a strong fishy smell, and are impossible to swallow. Eating too much will cause blood in your urine, so don’t do anything foolish!”
She suspected that Yuan Ye was running out of money and had finally decided to save money by buying bean cakes to replace rice. However, Yuan Ye only lacked knowledge of this era; he wasn’t truly lacking in common sense. Bean cakes were indeed not fit for human consumption. Eating them as a staple food would overwhelm a person’s kidneys, potentially causing blood in the urine. Even many livestock disliked eating bean cakes alone; they needed to be mixed with other things.
For example, horses don’t like them much. They are happy to eat beans, but not so happy to eat bean cakes. Horses are very intelligent, like humans, and can distinguish between “fresh meat” and “dried meat or canned meat.” If you feed a horse bean cakes non-stop like in novels, without any moisture, be careful, it might kick you.
Donkeys and mules are a bit dumber and can manage. Pigs need to be cooked before eating. Without boiling the large protein molecules, they might suffer from indigestion and diarrhea. What truly loves bean cakes is cattle. Cattle have multiple stomachs; they regurgitate what they eat, chew it again, and then swallow it. They can digest it slowly. The large protein molecules do not pose a burden to them, and their digestion rate is high, reaching over 70%.
Yuan Ye wasn’t very good at biology, and there might be minor errors in such common knowledge, but he generally understood. He would never buy bean cakes to eat as a meal; they could kill people. He wasn’t that crazy. He just thought of other things and felt that perhaps they could be used to make money – not by opening a tofu workshop, which wouldn’t earn much. He was thinking of something that could be mass-produced, was hassle-free, and could generate quick profits.
Of course, this was just a hypothesis. He would have to go back and think carefully about whether it could be realized and whether the product would have a market.
However, having something was better than nothing. Villages like Hibitsu lacked these conditions and couldn’t obtain various cheap raw materials. He was completely unable to utilize his strengths there and was like an idiot on a daily basis.
Yuan Ye’s scales began to gradually tip. The only downside was 【Daily Task, second item】. He really wished he could return to the modern era; he felt uneasy if he didn’t check if Mount Ise was shrouded in thick fog every day.
He weighed his options, his gaze slowly falling on A Qing. After a moment, he felt he shouldn’t bully the honest child and immediately shifted his gaze to the back of A Man’s head.
Tell me, if he bought A Man a horse, made her practice riding diligently, and had her wake up at 4:30 AM every morning to ride to Mount Ise before sunrise to check for thick fog, and then immediately gallop back to report, would she be willing?
