Chapter 11 13. Tributes From All Directions to Kyoto
Sure enough, a few days after the village chief finished speaking, Fuchu Castle became busy. Local specialties including citrus, paper, rice, horses, lacquerware, silk cloth, etc., dozens of loads of things were packed up.
It brought together many famous products from the eastern countries, especially the citrus of Kai, which has always been a tribute in ancient times.
Haven't you seen that in the Twenty-Four Filial Piety, Lu Ji gave tangerines to his mother, and top nobles like Yuan Shu used tangerines to entertain guests. It can be seen that this thing is both time-sensitive and valuable. (The exception is lychee. When the Shimazu clan successfully cultivated lychees, when the lychees were about to ripen, the whole branch was broken off, sealed, and sent to Kyoto and Edo by flying horses. The emperor and the general praised it endlessly)
So think about it. People in ancient times were also quite pitiful. They treated tangerines and lychees as treasures. Shake your head and throw away those messy thoughts in your mind. We continue to return to the Yamauchi family's team to Kyoto.
In addition to the local specialties, there is also 1,500 taels of chess gold, which is carried by a strong warrior (I am not bragging, the Japanese tael is only a quarter of the Chinese tael, and it can be carried). The team is transported by more than a dozen horses and twenty porters, and the rest are Xiao Pingtai and other guards, about 30 people.
Xiao Pingtai thought that the poor family is rich on the road, and maybe he could make some money by walking along the way, buying and selling, so he took the 30 kanwen property with him on the road.
First go south along Lianchuan to Jiangjiri. This road was traveled not long ago, and there is no risk. Moreover, the bandits and villains along the way have changed their appearance in the last battle, and now they are all high-ranking samurai.
The whole Jiangjiri is now extremely peaceful. Even if there are a few restless ones, they must be thinking of going to the temple to save the young master Shirakawa, so don't let it be too calm.
When we arrived at Ejiri Castle, the castle lord Isshiki Miyauchi added a few more people to the team, carrying candles, seafood, porcelain and salt, saying that these were his New Year gifts for the young master, a little token of his appreciation.
As expected, he has made it to a high position, and he will not miss any opportunity to curry favor with the next big boss. Soon the ship was arranged, which was a very good senkoku ship (the kind of Ise ship that transports goods). Take the ship to Tsumita in Ise Province, and then go to Yamato Province to reach Kyoto. The control of the Ise Provincial Governor Kitabatake clan is still good, and the situation in Minami Ise is not bad.
Kobayata observed the output and demand of local cities and towns along the way, and found that the merchant guilds controlled by the old forces such as temples and shrines often controlled the local bulk commodity trade, and the customs stations set up by local daimyo collected taxes at all levels.
It is quite difficult to try to rely on reselling bulk commodities to get rich. No wonder even in the Edo period, the lord of Yonezawa Domain, Uesugi Harunori (Uesugi Takayama), made money by revitalizing the industry. That was after the country was nominally unified, the local blockades were removed, and there were complete Ichirizuka and Sekijuku streets.
In short, they arrived in Kyoto safely all the way. The former capital is now dilapidated but quite large. Since the Onin Civilization Rebellion, daimyo from various places have successively come to Kyoto by force, and they have been burning, killing and looting. Now Kyoto is only in a precarious atmosphere.
However, this has nothing to do with Kobayata, he is just a small guard samurai. Arriving safely at Yamanouchi Residence in Kyoto, he also met the young master Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu, who is only seventeen years old this year, but has already served as the fifth-rank samurai.
Born in a samurai family, he is surprisingly tall, nearly 1.7 meters tall, strong and walking with the wind, but he also reveals the elegance of Kyoto. When he met these samurai, it was like a spring breeze. It is estimated that he did a lot of things like taking off clothes and pushing food to eat, and he was particularly skilled.
Soon he checked the local products sent from home, and when he saw the gift from Isshiki, he also saluted the samurai of Isshiki to express his gratitude.
However, the samurai also presented two hundred taels of gold to Yamauchi Yoshikatsu, which surprised Yamauchi Yoshikatsu, and told the samurai that he felt Isshiki's respect. After checking, he ordered people to take out money to buy fresh fish, tea, Japanese confectionery, steamed buns, sake, etc.
Then he ordered all the samurai to take a bath and ordered the servants to buy new straw sandals for everyone to change. Kobayata was stunned. He was poor and had always been a small farmer. He didn't even have a decent Wufu!
Yamauchi Yoshikatsu saw Kobayata's panic, and saw that Kobayata was dressed in a poor way, so he knew that this was a newly promoted samurai, and turned around and ordered his followers. Kobayata asked the servants of the mansion if there was a second-hand clothing resale store. Fortunately, he brought some money and it was still in time to make up for it.
After everyone dispersed, a servant quietly found Koyata and brought him a half-old Wufu, saying that it was given to him by the young master.
Koyata tried it on and it was slightly larger. It should be what Yamauchi Yoshikatsu had left, but it was better than nothing. Then I thought of Yamauchi Yoshiharu and his son. They were really smart people. They really loved their samurai and foot soldiers. Such people are really good at ruling the country in troubled times.
Tomorrow I will meet the Shogun Ashikaga Kubo. What is the atmosphere of the so-called people of the world?
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