Chapter 31 34. Talking About Warriors at the Summer Harvest Festival

The attack of the Imagawa clan has not happened yet, and Xiao Pingtai does not want to think about a bad war, but the summer harvest is just around the corner, which is the top priority.

Fortunately, there was no famine in the Minami Shinbun Plain and Enshu this year, so the summer harvest was not affected. Speaking of this, it has to be said that many people think that rice and copper coins were collected as taxes during the Warring States Period in Japan. This is actually a very biased perception.

The most famous domestic politician in the Warring States Period, Takeda Shingen, implemented the system of dividing the big and small into three parts, in addition to no longer forcing farmers to pay tribute at one time, allowing separate collection within a year. Due to the natural terrain of the Kai Basin, only a small piece of plain can be used to grow rice, and it is impossible for everyone to pay rice. So he changed to local production and local collection. If you plant wheat, you will collect wheat, and if you plant radish, you will collect radish. All are collected according to the ratio of six public and four civilians. No longer force farmers to pay rice.

This has greatly developed the originally inactive agriculture and mobilized the enthusiasm of farmers for production. Takeda Shingen thus saved enough military food to conquer the Shinano area year after year.

At the same time, the collection of currency and other physical objects such as Dobetsu money was not limited to the traditional collection of only copper coins. Takeda Shingen actively encouraged farmers in the territory to develop handicraft production, and promoted the processing of bamboo, wood, stone, fruit and other products.

In this way, farmers who had little money and could not even go to the town once a year could use various handicrafts to pay taxes. Then Takeda Shingen received handicrafts from farmers at a price lower than the market price and sold them. Not only did the farmers avoid the pain of exchanging currency, but Takeda Shingen's income also increased a lot.

In other words, for example, Takeda Shingen originally had a population of 150,000 people who paid dingqian, and three coins per person was 450,000 coins. But instead of collecting cash, he received various goods and sold them, and finally he might get 600,000 coins. Isn't it very clever?

On the other hand, before the promotion of large-scale land inspections, the actual output income of the territory was often completely inconsistent with the estimate. Before the large-scale land inspections by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the Edo Shogunate, many places were reflected in the total value of the annual output. Later, the system of koku was gradually promoted and standardized. However, it was still unavoidable that the Yonezawa domain had a nominal 300,000 koku, but a real 510,000 koku. The Satsuma domain had a nominal 700,000 koku, but a real 300,000 koku, but with an additional 70,000 Ryukyu sugar and tribute trade income with China.

In addition, the Mori clan reduced their fiefdoms to the two countries of Suho and Nagato on a large scale after the Battle of Sekigahara, from a daimyo with a fiefdom of more than 1.2 million to 369,000 koku, but they quickly increased their territory by more than 30,000 koku just by land inspection. Then the tree branches and bark for papermaking, the salt fields for drying salt, and even the small handicrafts made by each household were calculated in koku, and finally they successfully supported the samurai who originally had a fiefdom of more than 1.2 million koku.

If you want to talk about it in detail, it is really too much, but to sum it up, don't judge a daimyo's income by the superficial kanko or koku. These daimyo in the Warring States period were no worse than our current professional managers. Basically, those who left their names in history used all kinds of clever ideas and countless ways to increase their income bit by bit.

Also, since we are talking about collecting money, we can also talk about the samurai who desperately collected money to support their families. Many film and television works and low-intelligence articles mislead people. So-and-so gets a salary of 500 koku as soon as he enters the government. Please note that this is only the salary. In other words, you will be given this if you serve the government. If you can't do it one day, then I'm sorry, your whole family will starve to death and it's none of my business.

This is also what Maeda Toshiie said when he was Nobunaga's attendant with an annual salary of 200 kan. If I died in battle, Osomatsu could only go back to Arako Castle and live on the income of Arako Castle. It is very clear here. Maeda Toshiie has two incomes, Nobunaga's 200 kan flagstone salary, and Arako Castle's 3,000 kan hereditary salary. Even if Maeda Toshiie died in battle, the money in Arako Castle would still be theirs. Unless the Maeda family died out, it would be passed down from generation to generation and would never change.

For example, there is a scene in "Wind, Forest, Fire and Mountain" where Kansuke asked for the samurai general of the Takeda family, but his adoptive father stole the head and took it to his own son for official service. It is obvious that his adoptive father did not have a territory that could be passed down from generation to generation, but only a salary for official service. If his own son could not serve as an official, he would become a ronin. He was born as a samurai but had no income.

There is also Hara Toratune, who is called the Onimino. He was once exiled by Takeda Shingen because of religious issues. Such a famous samurai must have a boss who wants to take him in. As a result, he naturally went to Hojo Ujiyasu and was still a foot soldier general, and still did not get the hereditary nobility and nobility that was passed down from generation to generation.

This is also why it is almost impossible for a commoner to become a samurai in the Warring States Period. After all, he has not been able to digest all the sons born within the samurai. This vested interest group must be extremely repulsive to newcomers coming in to grab their jobs. This is also the reason why Kobayata has not had a nobility and nobility until now after becoming a samurai. Tsunayoshi gave him 15 kan as the annual salary of a flag-bearing samurai, and Yamanouchi Yoshiharu gave him 30 kan as the annual salary of a yoji.

In theory, Kobayata was also a samurai with 180 koku, but this was only the salary he earned alone. In the final analysis, he was still a social animal, and he would be driven away when he was no longer useful. And the aforementioned Hosokawa Saijo obtained the Chigyo territory of 500 kan through the Ichiban Gun and Ichiban Jo, which made him a shareholder of the company. Even if the company was merged, he still had shares. As long as the territory was secure, his family would have a share of money from generation to generation, and they could have enough food and clothing even if they did not enter the officialdom.

And more so-called samurai are just like Kobayata, earning their lives by working hard. Those who give you a village right away are definitely low-intelligence rookies. The daimyo lord will only give you a salary when he recruits a low-level samurai, and will not give you any hereditary territory (let alone the case of Ishida Mitsunari recruiting half of his territory to Shima Sakon with 100,000 koku. He is recruiting a professional general manager for a company, how can it be the same?).

Furuta Oribe participated in the battle to pacify the Takeda clan, participated in the bloody melee at Takato Castle, persuaded a branch castle of Takeda to surrender, and finally received a village of more than 200 koku from Nobunaga, who happily spread the word about him everywhere. At this time, he was nearly 40 years old, and had served the public for more than 20 years. After struggling back and forth, he only earned a total salary of 300 kan, of which only more than 50 kan was allowed to be inherited from generation to generation.

So Kobayata was not in a hurry, take your time, those hereditary ministers only had a small amount of hereditary territory.

If we can get over a thousand entries this week, by next Tuesday we will have eight updates and over 20,000 words, which is very impressive.