Echigo has another year of abundant harvests, and the glorious results of 2.1 million koku once again prove that this is not a meteor that crosses the night sky, but a star that constantly emits heat, and a legend of Echigo is quietly circulating in the vast land of Hayoku in the east, Hokuriku in the west, and Kanto in the south.

Legend has it that the land there will be a good harvest when it is planted with grain, and the lord there is very kind and willing to accept farmers from other places, and many people who have lost their land due to disasters or other reasons are moved, no matter how much grain he grows, it is a great thing that he is willing to accept farmers from other places is enough to make them applaud with joy.

In this era, many lords are very repulsive to outsiders, especially the small wealthy clans, landlords and local village groups hate them even more, the total amount of land is limited, give more to the outsiders and less for themselves, even if the land is not enough, you can give birth to sons for future generations, and it is unreasonable to give outsiders anyway.

It was a great thing for the Kira family to break this precedent and attract displaced people from other places to enter Echigo, so many displaced people immediately rushed to tell each other, and soon gathered in piles and rushed to Echigo.

Echigo's bumper harvest also spread to Kinai, including the proud record of the two military victories of Kira and Nagao this year, which also became a hot topic in Kinai, while Ashikaga Yoshiteru, who lived in the Nijo Imperial Palace in Kyoto, was very annoyed, and the angry Gongkata His Royal Highness could only take bottles and cans to vent his anger.

The promise that he took as a perfunctory word turned out to be very hopeful, and it was only three years to completely open up the unfavorable situation of Echigo, and in another three years, who would say clearly what it would become, remembering the impulse a few years ago to destroy the friendship between the monarch and the minister. Ashikaga Yoshiteru can only be angry at himself for being too impulsive. You can only vent your anger by smashing things.

The Miyoshi family in Kinai finally stopped. After the Harima expedition, there were no new actions for two years, and Miyoshi Nagakei himself focused on internal affairs, and by learning to imitate the policies of the Kira family, he organized the castle town of Kinai and even Shikoku Honku, and made an abbreviated version of the Sakamoto Rakushi ordinance and quietly implemented it in Utatsu Port.

What is even more surprising is that the Miyoshi family reorganized its military service system, improved and fully implemented the system of sending relatives and children, and began to quietly re-establish military service. Actively strive to transform the Sengoku Daimyo into a complete meaning.

Kinai was not entirely smooth sailing, as an unpleasant incident occurred in the Otsu area of Shiga Prefecture this summer, when the retainers of the Rokkaku clan intercepted ships at the mouth of a river near Otsu to forcibly collect taxes.

This apparent crossing of the line angered Nakajo Tokihide, who saw it as a further enhancement of the repeated harassment of the Rokkaku family in recent years, and if Rokkaku Yoshiken's inflated ambitions were not curbed in time, Otsu and Omi would fall into his hands.

Therefore, after receiving complaints from merchants, Yodogawa Mitsucho led the Kira Navy to make a big move. As soon as possible, the tax officer of the Hexagonal family was seized and the tax collected was sealed. Confiscated the ship that caused the accident and sank several small ships of the Rokkaku family who came to the rescue, Rokkaku Yoshiken was unwilling to suffer this loss, so he wanted to start a military confrontation with the Kira family, but as a result of the confrontation, Shihide pulled the 10,000 army to Otsu to wait for the battle, and the Rokkaku family retracted back and did not dare to take the lead.

The embarrassed and embarrassed Rokkaku Yoshiken was unwilling to forget it, so he simply stabbed the matter to the shogunate to ask for a ruling, the shogunate had no authority on a Shimizu Yamen, and the status of Nakajo Shixiu and Rokkaku Yoshiken was not equal, and Rokkaku Yoshiken thought that he would definitely take advantage of himself if he made trouble.

As a result, Ashikaga Yoshiteru waved his pen and slapped fifty boards each, and the Rokkaku family was wrong for encroaching on Otsu's tax rights, and the Kira family was also wrong for sinking the Rokkaku family's ship, and the Rokkaku family was not allowed to export taxes on the Uji River near Otsu after the punishment of the Rokkaku family, and the Kira family compensated a few small ships and ended hastily.

After the incident, Nakajo Tokihide wrote a letter to Kira Yoshitoki, on behalf of the retainers, strongly requesting that the military service of the two Omi counties be increased, since the population of the two Omi counties was only 6,000, and the Tongxin and ronin groups were only 10,000, so it was impossible to effectively protect the security of the two counties.

After some discussion, Kira Yoshitoki and Yamamoto Tokiyuki decided to agree to the request for additional military service, but the requirements for additional military service were also very demanding, and the number of additional military services was set by Kira Yoshitoki for 5,000, and these 5,000 people had to be selected from among the Omi population, and then they were transported by boat to Echigo to be personally guided and trained by Yamamoto Tokiyuki.

The training period is tentatively set at one year, and it is believed that the Roxagonal family will not find fault within a year, in addition to determining the increase in military service, the Tongxin Congres and the Ronin Group can be expanded from 2,000 to 3,000 each, and the recruitment power of this semi-militarized organization is handed over to Nakajo Tokihide, and the Hattori security chief will be responsible for monitoring the whole process, and will make a report and hand it back to Echigo.

In this way, Omi's armed forces will exceed 12,000 men, and counting the 5,000 troops trained by Echigo, there are 17,000 men, which is still a very considerable number of armed forces, and with the actual situation of the two Omi counties and the food burden, they can only bear the armed forces of about 20,000 people.

There are three reasons why there is no large-scale new grain planting in Omi County, the first point is that the land is scarce, cattle and horses have to be farmed less, and the effect of planting will be very poor if there is not so much fertilizer to support it, and the second point is that the climate temperature and precipitation are quite different from Echigo, and the planting effect will be very different, and the effect is not as good as that of traditional rice planting.

For example, the Takeda family, the Hojo family, and the people of Echichu, Kanto, and Yuoku who were unwilling to fail obtained many seeds of new grain through various channels, and began to secretly plant them last year.

If you want to grow potatoes, pumpkins, corn and even all high-yield crops well, the most important thing is to have sufficient fertilizer support. As a result, the new grain planted will not yield much by the time of the autumn harvest. And the fruit is small and ugly. It's a big difference compared to Echigo, and what's worse is that the land is exhausted, and the barren land is not fallow for two or three years, and you don't want to plant anything.

Although they cautiously tried to plant not much land, no matter how small the mosquito was, it was still meat, and the people from all over the country, who were not wealthy, were once pitted, and they no longer dared to fight for new food, such as Takeda, Hojo, Mogami, Ashina and other powerful daimyo became more interested. Tireless exploration and research on the development of agriculture in Echigo.

A war delayed many things, Saito Asanobu and Aju's wedding has been delayed until October 20 to be successfully held, as early as last year, the date of the wedding was set to September 20, but in September Saito Asanobu was still busy in Ueno, how can there be time to prepare for the wedding, the wedding date can only be postponed to more than a month, anyway, the wedding has been prepared for half a year, at most let the guests be more than a month late, and it did not affect the quality of the wedding.

As early as more than a year ago, after the two parties finalized the marriage date, Kira Yoshitoki and Aju held a small ceremony to recognize righteousness. Atago Kikuhime, who was born in Murakami Genji Kuga, became the righteous sister of Kira Yoshitoki, who was born in Kawachi Genji Ashikaga. This move also opened up a precedent for recognizing righteous relatives.

Therefore, Kira Yoshitoki, as a member of Aju's mother's family, came to watch the ceremony, attended this noisy and festive disclosure banquet, and looked at the happy smile of his sister, who was nine years older than him, when she married Saito Asanobu, Kira Yoshitoki finally settled a knot in her heart, and secretly prayed: "Mother, Sister Aju has found her own love, and the child has also found her own love, you can enjoy happiness in heaven with peace of mind!" ”

As Aju's maiden family, the Atago family sent her brother to watch the ceremony, this noble son came empty-handed, ate and drank for nothing in the spring mountain castle for more than a month, and then participated in a lively wedding with a smile, and the thickness of his skin was indeed not comparable to the samurai of Echigo.

Whether it was the samurai of Echigo or the Kita-Shinano, the people of Ueno sent envoys to send a congratulatory gift, whether it was a few pieces of money or some swords, susurbilities, etc., it was always a friendship, and the principle of courtesy was common throughout the ages.

Before leaving, the son-in-law of the Atago family also received two hundred eigaku money from his brother-in-law Saito Asanobu himself, and Kira Yoshitoki also gave him two hundred eigaku coins, which made the smile of the three non-senators almost deformed.

……

In the golden autumn of October, the gentle autumn wind blows on the body with a hint of coolness, compared to the scene of ice and snow in Uonuma County, in the vast land of Shimo-Etsu still has the autumn mood that has not yet dispersed, Echigo faces the Sea of Japan to accept the baptism of the ocean, the lowest temperature in winter is minus three or four degrees, the maximum temperature is only 24 or 5 degrees, there are few clouds and little rain in April and May every year, and it is the season of rain and snow from June and July to February of the following year.

Taking into account the weather factors, the progress of the project in the Shimoetsu Niigata area is always unable to raise the speed, and the progress will slow down as soon as there is more rain and snow, and the excavation of the Nihonori River, which has dragged on for nearly two years, has been dug up after hundreds of days and nights of wind and rain, and the general river channel has been dug out, during which 300,000 laborers have been mobilized, and under the supervision and incentive measures of the pursuers, the construction period has been shortened by nearly a year, and the entire river can be exploded early next year.

The 12-meter-deep Shin-Horikawa River will serve as a gateway between the Shinano River and the Agano River, and several other tributaries of the Horikawa River are still under construction, and it is expected that it will take two years before the Niigata area's vast water network is initially completed, and it will become the agricultural center of Echigo, and the future is promising.

Compared with the rapid excavation of the river, the speed of the polder is much slower, and the speed of the project with Li Ding's control can not go up, and the rain and snow weather often slows down a lot, Li Ding once said that the focus of the polder is the water gate and the quality of the polder's embankment, a polder can withstand a major flood once in 30 years to be qualified, in their hometown many polders are still stable for hundreds of years, and they would rather sacrifice speed to ensure the safety and stability of the polder.

One of the important tasks he has to supervise is the review and approval of each payment, and the procurement report of more than 50 times must be forwarded to the survey and commissioner for review, and Hosokawa Fujitaka will come to check the accounts once a month, and Matsui Yushi will also come to check the accounts from time to time.

The paper door was gently pushed open, a small head poked in and looked curiously at the movement in the room, the little boy was twelve or thirteen years old, with two small dimples in his eyebrows and a beautiful smile, and saw that Mitsui Tiger was still buried in his approval, so he quietly got in and approached the tall desk to look at his hard work.

"Gensuke! Yuanzhu ...... Where did you go? A faint shouting in the distance made the little boy tremble.

"Scared?" The deep man's voice reached his ears, Xiao Yuansuke nodded subconsciously, and then turned his head in surprise to see Mitsui Tiger looking at him with a smile.

"Father! I was wrong! The little boy realized that he had done something wrong, and hung his head and did not dare to squeak.

Mitsui Tiger Gao loves this sister-in-law very much, smart and cute, and has a clever energy, just like when he was a child, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't be afraid, come and sit!" Tell us about what you've been studying lately. ”

"Yes! Recently, my husband taught us how to learn "Thousand Character Text", and I will recite it to my father! Heaven and earth, Xuanhuang universe, the desolation, the sun and the moon, the sun and the moon, the cold and the summer, the autumn harvest and the winter hiding, the leap into the year of the law Lu Tiaoyang...... "The little boy used a Jiangnan accent of Chinese, and slowly read aloud the enlightenment readings, which is a great pleasure for Xiucai Li Ding to teach a few children to pass the time.

A young man quietly pushed open the paper door, and when he saw the happy scene of the father and son, he leaned down in some panic and said, "Lord, Mr. Li and Matsui Hall have arrived." ”

"Come in, two of you." Mitsui Toraka rubbed Gensuke's little head and whispered, "You're already a big kid, remember not to be too naughty and make your mother sad, hurry up and go back to see your brother!" ”

"Hmm!" The little boy nodded obediently, as if he remembered something, and asked curiously, "Father!" Can Yoyoshi become a samurai in the future? Will he be my retainer? ”

Mitsui Tiger said with a look on his face: "Why do you ask that? ”

"Because I heard that my younger brother will be a retainer for my brother in the future, and they are all the children of my mother, so it must be pitiful to be my retainer at such a young age!"

"Don't listen to their nonsense, our Mitsui family is the direct minister of the town palace, your brother will also be the direct minister of the town palace in the future, your brother will be the minister of the same palace in the future, so you must love each other and not be separated by others, you must keep in mind the four words 'close to each other', remember?"

"Remember!" The little boy nodded as if he didn't understand, then got up and walked to the door and smiled at Mitsui Toraka: "Father, please rest assured, I will definitely take care of my younger brother!" (To be continued......)

PS: Today is Christmas Eve, and Ume is here to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!