Chapter 88: I really hope it keeps raining!
Yuan Ye shamelessly pushed his way to the top, and Nene, in a daze, became his little disciple. He even started to develop feelings for Nene, but it was father-daughter affection – at 20 and 7, that was the only kind of affection possible, what else could he nurture?
In the Japanese Medieval Period, women were considered adults once they underwent the “Tang Shang Dyeing Teeth Ceremony,” usually at even ages like eight, ten, or twelve. Once an adult, they could get married.
For example, the protagonist of the later well-known “Toshiie and Matsu,” A Song, was only nine years old （ (ten by traditional reckoning) ） when she married Maeda Toshiie. According to other sources, she was a year older, but even then, she was still very young.
Another example is the protagonist of “Ikkyu the Wise,” Ikkyu Sojun. In his old age, he took a concubine whom he greatly cherished and even wrote a poem for her that has been passed down to posterity. This concubine was only eleven years old at the time.
Furthermore, Nohime, Oda Nobunaga’s official wife, was about fourteen when she married Oda Nobunaga. However, she was remarried, having already lost a husband before. Her first marriage was likely around the age of ten.
These were not exceptions but common occurrences in the Japanese Medieval Period. In fact, if a woman in this era hadn’t married by fourteen, it was generally assumed she had some deficiency in character or health, and suitors would need to be cautious.
Yuan Ye knew all this; even if he hadn’t been lectured about it by A Man before, he knew now. However, he found it hard to accept. Even though he wasn’t rigid and didn’t intend to abide by 《 marriage laws 》 after transmigrating, he still found it difficult to accept. At least sixteen, fifteen could be negotiated, but any younger was too much, severely violating the education he had received since childhood.
Moreover, Nene wasn’t his type, at least not currently. He preferred women who were gentle and soft-spoken, and Nene was quite far from that. Her current obedient demeanor seemed very much like an act.
In any case, he truly treated Nene as a “little disciple,” deliberately maintaining a distance and acting as a good master.
A Man was shocked and couldn’t understand what he was doing. She went to the stable alone and stared at the family’s second-hand donkey for a long time, seemingly suspecting it had become sentient. She then returned to A Qing and complained endlessly: “I knew he was a bit eccentric, but I didn’t expect him to be this eccentric. These eccentrics are truly strange, wanting to snatch other people’s adopted daughters too. Why doesn’t he just find one himself? It’s not difficult. Why snatch someone else’s? I really don’t know what goes on in his head all day.”
Yuan Ye heard her but didn’t argue with this wild child. At this point, his plan to harm the monkey was essentially complete. It couldn’t be said that the monkey was completely crippled, but at least one of his legs was broken.
He couldn’t do much more at the moment. Besides diligently teaching Nene in her studies and showing her care in daily life to foster good feelings and secure his position as her master, he wouldn’t force anything else.
Meanwhile, the plum rain season finally arrived. A fine drizzle fell incessantly, and the entire Owari suddenly became peaceful and quiet. Even the daily defenses of Takeuchi Manor seemed somewhat lax.
Warfare was impossible during the plum rain season in this era. If the ashigaru had to trudge dozens of miles through waterlogged ditches and mud to reach an enemy city, and the enemy simply stayed behind their walls, the ashigaru would be left to endure a night of rain in the wilderness. By the next day, at least thirty percent would be unable to get up, leading to a complete collapse without a fight.
Furthermore, this period was the busiest for farmers throughout the year. They had to race against time to replant the late rice. Even though Japan now had fast-growing rice, they still had to contend with typhoons, making every second count. Farmers needed to spend all day in the paddy fields, doing as much as they could.
To save time, some lower-ranking samurai would even personally plant rice seedlings. Many of them later earned reputations for diligence and frugality in later generations. Samurai would only do farm work during this month, mostly supervising their followers and retainers to prevent laziness, not truly exerting themselves. However, when later books wrote about “XX, as XX, personally went to the fields to plant rice, getting mud on his feet,” making them sound like pacifists who spent all year in the fields, believing it was pure foolishness.
In short, with the arrival of the plum rain season, the previously chaotic Owari suddenly transformed into a paradise.
No one caused trouble, no one rebelled, there were no schemes or bloody battles. Everyone stayed home obediently, diligently tending to their own small plots of land.
Of course, Yuan Ye was not included in this. He had no capital to engage in agricultural production, nor did he own any land, so the plum rain season had little impact on him. In fact, such a period of absolute safety, where war was impossible, was a great boon to him.
Therefore, he used this time to upgrade the production line of his soy sauce workshop. He also officially incorporated the kelp broth, known as “Wei Ji Xian Soy Sauce,” into the production system, aiming to generate more profit from this high-end product.
In addition, he was experimenting with the traditional synthesis of Shilin dyes and sulfur dyes, preparing to earn money from the “clothing” aspect of “food, clothing, shelter, and transportation.”
Through his long-term observation and random inquiries, he found that in the Medieval Period of Japan, dyeing cloth primarily used the primitive “immersion dyeing method” with natural dyes. This resulted in colors that were not deep or fast, fading after only two washes, and the production efficiency was extremely low. Even though a few workshops used “immersion dyeing + padding dyeing” to produce some high-end products, the production process was still very primitive, leading to low yields, few colors, and extremely high defect rates.
He felt there was great potential in this area. Both the vibrant colors of later generations and the modern processes that resisted fading even after vigorous washing would surely be a knockout blow to traditional dyeing methods. He was confident they would sell well. Moreover, as long as he controlled key reagents like reducing agents and catalysts, he wouldn’t have to worry about other merchants imitating him. Even if the dyes were stolen, it wouldn’t matter, as those dyes were insoluble in water without the reducing agent and were useless in anyone else’s hands.
Therefore, during this period, besides teaching Nene for a few hours every two or three days, most of his energy was focused on synthesizing dyes. However, traditional synthesis always presented various peculiar problems. Even in the laboratory, progress was slow and difficult, often resulting in severely deviated colors. It was impossible to scale up to workshop production for the time being.
This task was quite challenging, much more so than producing soy sauce using the dilute hydrochloric acid hydrolysis method. He was mentally prepared for it and wasn’t anxious, proceeding slowly. He wasn’t idle, and the increasingly meddlesome A Man was even less so. Following his orders, she soon assembled the first batch of ten followers and dragged him out of the laboratory for inspection.
Yuan Ye stood on the corridor and observed them. He noticed they were all sixteen or seventeen-year-old children with still tender faces, all appearing honest and simple. He couldn’t help but ask A Man in a low voice, “Aren’t they too young? And is there a need to recruit people of the same age?”
He wanted to recruit people who could directly engage in cutting people. After all, he had seen Oda Nobunaga fall into this pit before and didn’t want to fall into it himself. Oda Nobunaga could be excused for being young and inexperienced, but he had a precedent to learn from, and falling into it again would be foolish.
A Man, however, had her own ideas. Watching the ten followers standing still in the rain, wearing conical hats and straw raincoats – it had taken her and A Qing three days of training for them to line up without moving – she declared with conviction, “They have to be this young. Any older and they’ll become cunning and unmanageable! These ones are perfect. I picked them out one by one. They are all sons of respectable families, second or third sons, and their families are all poor. If you treat them well for a year or two, feed them well, and occasionally give them a little money, they will be loyal to you.”
She paused and added, “As for your concerns, there’s no need to worry. With just this small group, A Qing can lead them for now. Once we recruit more batches like this, and they start to feel grateful to you, I’ll find some battle-hardened experts to mix in. By then, most of them will listen to you. Even if those experts try to go astray, you can easily deal with them, and they won’t cause any major trouble. It will be very stable!”
Yuan Ye slowly nodded, finding A Man’s words reasonable. It was a good strategy to first gather a group of young, obedient, and easily manipulated honest folk to establish the framework, and then consider recruiting experienced experts. This would prevent the experts from having complex minds and corrupting the atmosphere from the start.
Her experience as an old hand was indeed reliable; others might not have thought so meticulously.
He immediately adopted a new persona and affirmed her work: “You’ve worked so hard. I really couldn’t do it without you!”
A Man’s dou dou eyebrows twitched, and she pursed her lips tightly. She felt that running around in the wind and rain for the past few days was worth it. However, she feigned indifference and waved her hand grandly, saying, “It’s nothing. Since I’m eating your food, I should do some work for you! We’re like siblings, aren’t we!”
Yuan Bei Yuan Xuan De: …
You wild child, you’re truly disrespectful. I’m so much older than you, who is your sibling? I said so many good things before, and you didn’t learn any of them. But you’ve picked up all the occasional nonsense I say. You truly are a natural talent for learning bad things!
Yuan Ye couldn’t help but complain inwardly, but there was nothing he could do. He needed people right now, so he couldn’t be too picky. If she was disrespectful, so be it; he didn’t care about losing face. He continued with the main topic, “What’s your plan for the next step?”
“Here! These are the weapons and armor I’ve prepared for them. Take a look and write me a note, and I’ll go get the money from Yayoi to buy them,” A Man had already thought everything through and was well-prepared. “Then, A Qing will start by giving them basic training, teaching them some techniques, and building up their physical strength. Otherwise, without a strong body, nothing else can be discussed.”
“Don’t they need to practice formations or anything?”
“With such a small group, what formations do they need? They just need to charge with A Qing. If they can win, they win; if they can’t, they run!”
Yuan Ye slowly nodded again, feeling that A Man’s words were quite reasonable. With such a small group, there was no need to be too particular. A simple, brute-force approach would suffice for now. If they needed to be more sophisticated, they would need to accumulate for at least a year, and once the numbers exceeded a hundred, then they could consider other things.
Perhaps by then, they might need to hire a veteran samurai, but there was still a long way to go, so there was no need to rush. First, they needed to get these people accustomed to him, no, to cultivate their loyalty.
Yuan Ye immediately agreed. He glanced at the list of armaments and wrote a note for A Man, telling her to collect the money herself later. However, he hesitated and then asked her, “Say, should I also train with A Qing?”
“Train for what?”
“Didn’t you say learn some techniques? You can get me a suitable weapon too, and I’ll train with them!” Yuan Ye was also preparing for the future. Since it rained every day, with less than three hours of sunshine, and the outside was like a mud pit, there was basically nothing he could do.
Since he had free time, it wouldn’t be bad to spend a little time each day learning a few moves. He wasn’t aiming for great skill, just to slightly improve his close-combat survival rate.
A Man patted his lower back and kneaded his joints, musing, “That’s fine too. You really should get some exercise. You feel very stiff, like a stone. If you keep sitting like this all day, you might die early.”
The matter was settled. A Man patted her backside and left. She didn’t put much thought into his idea of training along. The next day, she brought him a large, crude, eight-sided iron rod. It was likely made in a hurry by the blacksmith, and it was very rough. She told him to use it for now and discuss weapon upgrades once he achieved some results.
Yuan Ye was speechless. He had originally wanted a nodachi, which he felt would be more imposing. Fortunately, he wasn’t too particular, and using this for now would suffice.
Thus, his plum rain season life became mostly spent in the laboratory, various dyeing experiments, hoping for a lucky break. A smaller portion of his time was spent training martial arts with A Qing to exercise his body, along with teaching Nene for a few hours every two or three days to foster their father-daughter bond. It was quite leisurely.
Frankly, this feeling was very good. If only Owari could remain this peaceful forever.
He truly wished the rain would continue to fall!
