Chapter 191 34. The Prosperity of the Country and the Prosperity of the People Are Just Around the Corner

The battle in Kanto ended again, but Kobayata's plan to make a fortune had just begun.

Uesugi Terutora naturally retreated from Kanto with hatred this time. He looted, right? He didn't get much. He didn't even get into Minami Musashi. He was trapped under Kawagoe Castle for more than a month, and he almost lost all his capital.

Fortunately, except for a tough battle at Kamikawa and Murakami Yoshikiyo, and a few people died during the attack on Kawagoe Castle, there were basically no deaths in the Echigo clan. Although they didn't get food, at least everyone had enough food for the past two or three months. They could also bring the looted property home to improve their lives and change into new clothes for the New Year. [Note 1]

The Yamanouchi family didn't get much good from this expedition, which showed their presence in Kanto. In addition, since the scale of this war was not as large as the first battle in Kanto, the mobilized troops were relatively small, so the Ejiri clan was not mobilized at all. 【Note 2】

Since there was no need to mobilize the Ejiri tribe this time, there was no need for Ejiri to recruit soldiers to fight. This had nothing to do with Kobayata, the Ejiri castle lord who temporarily led the Ejiri tribe. Kobayata was happy to be free from the war. He was actively trying to train weavers and recruit craftsmen, as well as recruit skilled townspeople and farmers to revitalize Ejiri town.

Sukezaemon, who was favored by Yamanouchi Yoshiharu, was miraculously promoted to deputy chief of staff by Imai Munehisa after returning to Sakai. He brought more than a dozen powerful trainees to represent the business giant Naya and came to Ejiri to open Naya's first store on the Tokoku Kaido. 【Note 3】

Under the secret instructions of Yamanouchi Yoshiharu, Kobayata opened the door for Sukezaemon, and soon Sukezaemon obtained the distribution rights of Ejiri. As for the general distribution rights, it depends on whether he can beat the local merchant groups in Ejiri and then contract more sales than them.

Kobayata did not only sell straw mats in Ejiri. There were so many derivatives, which were in short supply in the Warring States period when materials were scarce. Many farmers were reluctant to wear a pair of small straw sandals, and there were countless teenage children in farmers' families who grew up barefoot. The lord gave a few pairs of straw sandals to the foot soldiers every year, which was considered a kind of welfare treatment, and there was no worry about sales.

Sukezaemon now used Ejiri as an entry point, and the powerful dragon Naya was equivalent to officially declaring war on the local merchants in Ejiri. The commercial struggle was just as fierce and life-and-death, and there were many bloodshed.

It can be imagined that Sukezaemon would have a very unhappy life for a long time before he had a firm foothold and was struggling to make his way. He might even encounter unexpected dangers frequently. However, if he could not make a breakthrough in Ejiri with the help of Imai Munehisa's wealth and business talent, and Yamanouchi Yoshiharu's secret connivance, he would probably be abandoned in a matter of words.

Kobayata would definitely help his old partner in the best way he could, and the rest would depend on him to figure out a way.

Because the first batch of Ejiri wadding was woven very quickly. Except for the dozens of waddings that were not woven well at the beginning due to the unskilled workers and immature technology, the Ejiri wadding produced later was completely comparable to the famous Tsuyama wadding and Usuki wadding in terms of technique and materials.

All of them were woven by machines, and one was woven by small farmers in the off-season, with unstable output and varying quality. One is to weave in a large-scale handicraft workshop with a unified scale and procedure, ensuring that the level of materials is almost the same and the weaving process is exactly the same.

Except for a few weavers with particularly superb skills and very particular materials, they may greatly surpass Ejiri Twill on a certain twill, but they are a minority after all. Ejiri Twill can completely defeat this occasional exquisite product with the advantage of roughly the same quality in scale, which is the advantage of the progress of the times.

The Ejiri merchants who were forcibly suppressed by Yoshiharu Yamanouchi and Kodaira and came to collect their sales share with dissatisfaction found that Ejiri Twill was indeed very good, and their hearts were calmed down a lot. The smart merchants are already calculating how to promote this Ejiri Twill, which is one-tenth cheaper than the market price.

Except for a few merchants with sad faces, because their main business direction is to sell salted fish and seafood or horses and livestock, they have no idea of ​​selling twills. The other merchants have already started to use their little abacus in their hearts, and there are many with golden eyes.

Sukezaemon was in high spirits. He was promoted to the position of deputy chief in his twenties and was appointed as the manager of the Ejiri branch. He was full of energy and ready to make a big move. He didn't know what good idea he had come up with. He actually directly undertook 10,000 Ejiri mats and promised to increase the number in a few months. Such a big move, coupled with the aura of a successful businessman, seemed to deepen the hostility of the Ejiri merchants towards him.

And Kobayata naturally didn't care. He just wanted to sell as much as possible. After all, hundreds of weaving machines can produce more than 200 mats a day. Limited by the output of rush, at least more than 30,000 mats can be produced every year. Considering that most normal Japanese houses have only one floor, the floor area is generally relatively large. The tatami used in the house is casually dozens or hundreds of sheets. The annual output of 30,000 sheets is just a drop in the bucket in the face of such a large market. [Note 4]

In short, everything Kobayata envisioned was realized at an incredible speed.

[Note 1]: This was simply a vicious cycle. When they ran out of food and money, they went to Kanto to rob, and then they were stuck in the quagmire of the Kanto war, and they could not get enough troops and money to go to Kyoto. They had no choice but to go to Kanto to rob again. The time dragged on, and finally Kenshin Uesugi died.

[Note 2]: The reason is very simple. This battle is a favorable one. Everyone is planning to follow Uesugi Terutora and grab some benefits. For such a good thing, the Yamanouchi clan will definitely go first, and the Ejiri clan will have to wait until the tough battle. Everyone can understand this reason. If there is a good thing, they will definitely go first.

[Note 3]: It is called a store, which can be understood as a branch store. As for why it is called a store, it is because merchants who set up stores in other places and maintain local business rights for the head office are called gate merchants, independent merchants.

In addition, gate merchants have another meaning, which refers to merchants who engage in foreign trade. At that time, there was a symbolic gate on the border between Korea and China, called "Kanmon", and those who crossed this gate to do business were called gate merchants.

[Note 4]: Japan should now have two tatami mats per tsubo, and many samurai houses start at fifty tsubo. There are many large-scale samurai houses preserved from the Edo period. There are now 30,000 to 40,000 samurai in the country, and there will be more in the future. This business can be done for many years.