Eleventh year of Yonglu, February.

It is the season for Hida corn sowing, and this is the second planting, which is much larger than the previous trial.

The year before last, because of the war between Li Xiao and his sister Xiaolu and Jiangma's family, it led to a great famine in Hida.

Li Xiao gave relief on the one hand, and on the other hand, he gathered some of the people who had lost their fields and carried out a trial planting of corn introduced from Nanban.

Since Hida is a highland mountainous terrain, it is suitable for corn cultivation, so it grows well in the local area.

The harvest of the first year was an effective solution to the famine that continued in Hida.

Although the samurai class generally ate rice every day, and the common people did not eat rice, they also loved the combination of millet and radishes, which was better than corn.

So corn is only used as a supplementary food to fill the stomach, but most people don't think about replacing their staple food for thousands of years.

However, by the 11th year of Eiroku, corn cultivation in Hida had also expanded, and most farmers still used corn as food to prepare for famine.

Because the variety of corn is passed on from Nanban, the locals call corn Nanban.

PS: In the Japanese regional dialect, corn is called 267 times, generally called Tang millet, but the Kansai region is also called Nanban millet.

Li Xiao unconsciously introduced corn to Japan more than ten years in advance, and the first time corn was introduced to Japan in history was in 1579.

It was introduced by the Portuguese, and it was first cultivated in Nagasaki and Shikoku regions, and then gradually spread. During the Meiji period, it was cultivated in Hokkaido.

However, unlike the role of corn in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, corn has not become a mainstream food in Japan, but only as a food source.

PS: Today, it is one of the world's largest importers of corn, but most of them are not used for direct consumption.

At present, the second year's corn planting has been carried out at the beginning of spring, and Li Xiao specially issued a decree that no annual tribute will be collected in the first three years for all wasteland that has been cleared, and it will be collected after three years.

In this way, the people have been strengthened to open up the wasteland.

This preferential decree attracted more people to move into Hida, partly because of the tax exemption for land reclamation, and partly because of the separation of soldiers and peasants in the territory of Hida Li Xiao, so the people did not have to be requisitioned to fight wars when the farmers were busy as in the past, delaying production.

And in Li Xiaoling, there is also a big discount, that is, when the general service is requested, Li Xiao also uses the method of paying people to carry out labor.

Therefore, although under Li Xiao's rule, it is still the annual tribute tax method of the three princes and two people, but in fact, the burden is lighter than that of the surrounding celebrities.

The current economic situation of Hida is showing a thriving trend under Li Xiao's rule, and under the estimation of Chang'an, the annual income of the entire Hida this year will increase by as much as 20% compared with last year.

In addition to the promotion of corn in agriculture, the second is trade on trade routes.

Because of the salt cut off in Imagawa-Hojo, Hida became the second important channel for transporting salt to the Takeda family after Echigo.

Li Xiao is still implementing, using his own royal merchant salt house to implement the monopoly of salt trading.

Salt was traded in Josei Castle, and most of it was shipped to Shinano to sell salt.

In this way, although Li Xiao's travel cost is much higher than that of Echigo, Uesugi Kenshin's sale of salt to the Takeda family is not just a famous move, in fact, he offered the price of salt, but it was not cheap at all.

The person responsible for transporting salt from Echigo to the Takeda family was also the Echigoya family's royal merchant.

Compared with the salt house, the Echigo house is relatively wealthy, and the left doorman of Kurada Goro, like Shiota Akisada, is also a part-time samurai as a businessman.

He was also one of Uesugi Kenshin's retainers, and was in charge of the Uesugi family's finances after Okuma Asahide defected to the Uesugi family.

Therefore, the salt house merchant and the Echigoya of the left doorman of Kurada Goro have to compete in price, and this cost is definitely inferior to the other party.

Shioya Akisa could only negotiate with Kurada Goro's left doorman in person, and the two sides decided to sell the salt at a price acceptable to both parties.

Under the competition between the two companies, Li Xiao still made a certain amount of money by selling salt to Jiafei through the salt house merchants.

However, Li Xiao also knew that there were not many such opportunities, as long as he waited for Takeda Shingenichi to capture Suruga and get the mouth to the sea, then salt would not have to be imported from Hida and Echigo. …,

After last year's salt trade, Li Xiao still accumulated a lot of military spending, plus his shares in the salt house business, and suddenly the funds on hand began to become rich.

In addition, Li Xiao also began to secretly transport food and supplies to Chengsheng Castle through the road between Shengang Castle and Chengsheng Castle, which had just been expanded last year, to prepare for the attack on Yuezhong.

On this day, Li Xiao returned to Chengsheng City after inspecting the large cylinder foundry of Rui Costa.

Since the expedition is imminent, he must spare more time to accompany Yuzhen Xiaohata, who has just given birth to a son for Li Xiao.

In the castle tower of Joseijo Castle, Yuzhen Kohata, who is already a **, is wearing a loose robe, sitting on the edge of the cradle, looking at the little life inside with affection.

Yuzhen Kohata saw that his expression was so focused that he didn't even notice that Li Xiao walked in the door.

When Li Xiao saw this, she almost looked up to the sky and sighed, sure enough, what she said was right, after a woman gives birth to a child, she will transfer most of her love from her husband to her child.

And Yumi Kohata, Yuzhen Kohata and their sisters are really good, and they explained this definition to Li Xiao.

This made Li Xiao feel a little jealous.

Seeing that Yuzhen Xiaohata was looking intently, Li Xiaomo was silent, and quietly walked behind Yuzhen Xiaohata and wrapped his hands around her waist.

Yuzhen Kohata didn't expect Li Xiao's appearance because she was too focused, and when she noticed it, she felt that a pair of wide hands had wrapped around her waist.

The surprised expression on Kohata Yuzhen's face flashed, and when he felt that it was Li Xiao, the expression on his face changed to a trace of tenderness, and he whispered, "You're back." ”

Li Xiao snorted and said, "You are too fascinated by it." ”

Yuzhen smiled and said, "Yes, I can't see enough of it all day long." ”

Li Xiao nodded, slightly crumpled Xiaohata Yuzhen in his hand, and said: "This time to attack Yuezhong, it may take a long time, you go back to Jiafei first, accompany your sister, you two sisters also have a companion, besides, you haven't seen each other for a long time." ”

A trace of worry appeared on Kohata Yuzhen's face, and he asked, "Could it be that it takes a long time to attack Echichu?" Will there be a big war to be fought? ”

Li Xiao laughed and said confidently: "Don't worry, the Shenbao family is not an opponent yet, I am worried about this Hokuriku Province, only Uesugi Huihu is alone, but he will not be in Yuezhong at that time, as long as Uesugi Huihu does not appear, no one can help me." ”

After a pause, Li Xiao said again: "However, this attack on the Shenbao family is not easy to say, and it will be a bitter battle if it is delayed for a long time, so I will let you return to Jiafei." Remember? I still owe you a wedding in the Ming Kingdom. As soon as the war between Vietnam and China is over, I will be in Kai. ”

Seeing that Li Xiao still remembered this, Yuzhen Kohata showed a sweet smile on his face and said, "Well, okay." I'll take Sheng'er back to Kai, and please be careful with everything. ”

Li Xiao nodded, and suddenly said, "You said that this wedding must be held in front of your sister, so it has not been carried out until now." And I've been fighting in Mino Hidatsu for the past few years, and I can't get out of it, so I actually owe you a lot in my heart. ”

Xiaohata Yuzhen turned his head, looked at Li Xiao with bright eyes, and said with a smile: "If you say that, it's too polite, and it's not something we should say." I want to have a name as soon as possible, and I want to see my sister as soon as possible, but what I want most is to be able to be by your side. ”

"You know what? Although my sister is your main room, she has not been by your side for many years, so she must be entangled in her thoughts about you. And I'm different, being able to be around you, that's nothing like that. So I'm happy. ”

Li Xiao saw Xiaohata Yuzhen looking at him, his eyes were infinitely affectionate to him, and he couldn't help but be moved in his heart.

At the same time, he thought of Yumi Kohata, and indeed as Yuzhen said, he also felt indebted to Yusada Kohata for so long. She is alone, helping herself with a pair of children in Jiafei, although as Li Xiaozheng, she will not suffer much, but she will definitely not feel good in her heart.

However, Yumi Kohata has never complained to herself.

And maybe this is what he calls imperfect, in the eyes of outsiders, Li Xiao is the old man of the Takeda family, holding heavy troops, out of the town, with great achievements, even Oda Nobunaga, Uesugi Kenshin and other heroes, but in fact, he also lacks the happiness of family companionship in his heart. …,

Thinking of this, Li Xiao felt even more indebted, and he couldn't help but miss Yumi Kohata's face, as well as his son, and the daughter who had not met since birth.

Yuzhen Kohata saw that Li Xiao was fascinated by his thoughts, and guessed that he was thinking of his sister, and couldn't help sighing.

Li Xiao felt the strangeness of Xiaohata Yuzhen in his arms, and said: "Sheng'er is not my sister-in-law, so you can keep me by my side and take care of it personally, I want to wait for him to be old and personally instruct him in military marksmanship, I think in the future he will not be inferior to the Zheng'er taught by Huzai Zongyi." ”

Kohata Yuzhen listened to Li Xiao's words and said worriedly: "Actually, no matter what, I only hope that Sheng'er can be safe, if you become a samurai, there will be risks in the future battlefield." ”

Li Xiao laughed when he heard this, and said: "Child, Sheng'er, as my son of Li Xiao, will not inherit my family business in the future, but it will not be mediocre." You Zhen, born in troubled times, if you want to calm things and expect others not to infringe on your head, it is absolutely impossible. So if he wants to protect himself, he must master his strength. ”

When Xiaohata Yuzhen heard Li Xiao say this, he had no idea, so he could only say: "I will listen to you in everything." ”

Li Xiao nodded, lowered his head and kissed the forehead of Kohata Yuzhen Guangjie, and at this time, a person approached and reported downstairs: "Report to the lord, Lord Honda Masanobu who sent the envoy to Katsuko Temple has returned." ”

When Li Xiao heard this, he could only put down Xiaohata Yuzhen, and said apologetically: "I can't accompany you, I have something important to do." ”

Xiaohata Yuzhen nodded slightly, and when Li Xiao left and walked downstairs, there was a trace of reluctance in his eyes......,