At the same time as making arrangements for spring ploughing, Kira Yoshitoki also integrated the resources of the Biwa Valley, which was originally created with the intention of integrating the trade of the three major commercial centers of the Yodogawa River Basin, Sakamoto, Kyoto, and Sakai Town, and with his great advantage of mastering the water transportation of Lake Biwa and Yodogawa, he could obtain any kind of goods into the region.

After returning to Sakamoto, business travelers who went to Hokuriku and Ou for business could directly sell the returned goods at Biwaya, and Biwa would evaluate the market price and eat the goods, and then use the developed water transportation and various sales channels in to break down the goods and sell them, and make a profit from them.

In addition, Biwa House is an agent for many specialties of the Lake Biwa area, such as tea, iron cannons, paper, fish, and other products of Ha O and Hokuriku, whether it is linen, green cocoon, pottery, wood, and other specialties, all of which are eaten by Biwa House, and the horses of Ha Oku and Hokuriku have been completely monopolized, and every time the best horses are shipped, they will be left as horse breeds, and all horses are personally selected by each family, and transported to Kyoto and Sakai Town through Yodogawa and sent to various places.

As long as you maintain a good relationship with Pipaya, you can save a lot of money on the cost of trafficking horses, and at the same time, you don't have to worry about the risks of horses dying of illness, being taxed by black-hearted daimyos, and being robbed by sailors along the way.

Gradually, the powerful influence of the biwa house penetrated deep into Kinai and affected the authority of the Naya people in Sakai Town, so the wealthy merchants of Sakai Town came to the door, and this time Imai Munehisa, Kanaya Sone, and Tsuda Soda came separately. Imai Munehisa of Naya started as a leather maker and a dokura. Qianwu Zongne's real name is Matsue Zongne. It was also started with a loan from Tsuchikura, and Tsuda Soda was meeting for the first time, and when the three of them wanted to meet Kirayoshi, they were received by Hosokawa Fujitaka.

They hope to establish a comprehensive cooperation with the Biya House, in addition to the fixed trade routes of the Naya people, the goods purchased by the Biwa House from Yuao and Hokuriku are eaten uniformly, and they hope to give certain preferential treatment, their meaning is nothing more than to cut off the small thoughts of other small merchants. Eat all of Sakamoto's goods in one go, and let them continue to follow the rules of Sakai Town.

It's a good idea, the goods of the pipa house are sold to anyone, but it's impossible to think of them without paying a price.

In Sakai Town, Naya said what the people said, and when it came to Sakamoto Town, it was Biwa House that said, and this time it was Naya who asked for help, so they could only put down their postures and talk earnestly, and Hosokawa Fujitaka and Matsui Tomokan, Ninagawa kinaga, Odate Harudada, Mitsui Toraka, Ina Tadashi and other practitioners patiently circled with them.

The talks lasted for three full days, and in the end, they could only accept the house, and finally allowed the pipa house to join the ten people of the house. Become one of the rulers of Sakai Town, and at the same time, Bipaya must give priority to the sale of hoarded goods to members of the Naya clan. The final agreement was slightly different from the requirements of the Naya, and the priority was not a complete monopoly, which also gave Biwa House and other commercial houses in Kinai more opportunities to choose, and Biwa House became a famous commercial house in Kinai by virtue of this, and a monopoly group was formed.

With the monopoly of all the business in the Lake Biwa and Yodo River basins, Biwa House was able to easily maximize its profits, and with the identification of the Sakai Machi Naya people, the Kyoto Guild also approached Biwa House to ask to join, and with the support of the chambers of commerce in both places, it extended its tentacles to the whole of.

Now Kira Yoshitoki is indeed very rich, and he is even richer than he imagined, and the income of the money house has not changed, and it is still stable at the level of 1,000 guan per month, and there is no problem with earning more than 12,000 kan a year.

The secret business of the copper house has grown to 300 net profits per day, with the new addition of more than 1,800 sand turning skills more and more proficient, the pure profit can also increase to a certain extent, whether it can reach 500 per day is not easy to say, this trend can not continue indefinitely, once the money in the market is empty, the original Yongle money is all melted down, the windfall profits of the copper house will disappear, but the process will be very long, probably a few years or even longer.

In addition to selling various building materials, building bridges, paving roads, and building new towns, Sanheya also began to be engaged in the business of processing wood products and making furniture.

At present, the construction of Shinmachi in Shiga and Takashima counties has basically ended, and after a period of windfall profits with a monthly income of 500 eiraku money, it has returned to normal income video, and it is about 150 eiraku net income a month, and the income is less than nothing.

With the profits of the middlemen, the profits also increased rapidly every day, and in addition to the product management in Ha-Oku, Hokuriku, Omi and other places, including ironware, woodware, handicrafts, swords and armor, clothing, cloth, shoes and hats, mustard and other products, were integrated into the biwa house, and the various expenses of procurement, transportation and warehousing were removed, and the monthly net income of the biwa house was still 600 kan yongraku, which was double that of a few months ago.

The real role of the Biwa House is not to make money, but to monopolize the huge influence of trade, just imagine that the merchants of Kinai gradually became accustomed to the convenient Biwa House to provide cheap goods, once the Biwa House cut off the trade route, how much the merchants of Sakai Town and Kyoto will be affected, this reason Sakai Town and Kyoto wealthy merchants are slightly aware of this, so they rushed to woo the Biwa House is the reason.

Kira Yoshitoki was also afraid that the Biwa House would be too powerful to control, so in order to strengthen his control over the Biwa House, he specially ordered the Hattori ninja to inspect the Sakamoto head office, Kyoto, and Sakai Town, and at the same time select people with both moral and moral qualities as middle managers.

At the end of the year, the towns of Sakamoto, Katata, and Otsu were built one after another, and more than 35,000 residents were resettled in the three new towns, making the total population of Sakamoto town more than 35,000, and the population was close to Kyoto and Sakai Town, making it the third largest urban agglomeration in Kinai.

In addition, Kataminato, Shinmachi, and the newly built Katashita Castle Town have a total of 11,000 townspeople and Otsu 8,000 townspeople. The level of urbanization in Shiga County has been greatly improved. Rely on the craftsmanship taught by Ming craftsmen in precious months. The new brick and timber structure and the reinforced triple earth were more than half the cost of the slab houses, and the reputation of the triple houses was also gained by the establishment of the new town.

The newly built Katata Castle was experimented with using a new style of castle building, with the combination of bricks and stones as the external structure, and the internal structure of the castle tower still maintained the architectural idea of mainly wood, and the stone tower was upgraded to a real castle wall, and the city wall was equipped with battlements and shooting oars to facilitate the stationing of soldiers, and the interior retained complex fortifications such as the Mikazuki Hori, the Tiger Mouth, and the Made. Despite its small size, Yamamoto was directly involved in the design and construction of Katata Castle, and in his words, only 500 men could easily withstand an attack by an army of 10,000.

During a casual conversation during his visit to Katata New Town, Kira Yoshitoki asked, "How much does this new city cost a total of 3,000 Kan Yongle money?" This is much more expensive than building Sakamoto Castle in the first place! The scale is also smaller than Sakamoto Castle!

Tokiyuki Yamamoto patiently replied: "The construction of Sakamoto Castle relied on the requisition of the general service, and when this Katata Castle was built, it happened to coincide with the expansion plan of the new town, so the old minister advocated that the craftsmen of the Sanheya should be the mainstay, supplemented by hired townspeople, and when the construction plan of the new town was completed, the Katata Castle was also built." This may be more expensive, but it can avoid the impact or even damage to the castle town when the castle is built in the future. ”

"Hmm. The master wouldn't really make this fortified city invulnerable, would he? ”

"How is that possible...... Such a powerful fortified city does not leave flaws, and the old minister can't be at ease! Tokiyuki Yamamoto said with a smile.

"Well, my family is also creepy when I see it, the lack of effective siege equipment is indeed difficult to break, the cost of using baked jade is too great, it will always cause huge losses!" Kira Yoshitoki said as he wondered who the jodai of this new city should be.

When he returned to Sakamoto, he immediately convened his retainers to hold a small assessment and announced his appointment: "The position of Usayama Castle Castle is not a way to delay for a long time, and this family appoints Nakajo Tokihide, who will return next month, as the castle generation, and the newly built Katada Castle is served by the Ina Tadashi family, and the defenders of the two places are recruited from the local area, and the military expenses and food are paid by the family, and Usayama Castle is more important, so three hundred defenders will be arranged, and Katata Castle only needs two hundred defenders." ”

"Your Majesty respectfully obeys the order!" A cadre of retainers bowed on the ground.

The expressions of several of them are very interesting, Hosokawa Fujitaka is a strange expression of both disappointment and relief, Matsui Yukan's face is full of disappointment, Ninagawa is slightly resentful, Odate Haruta is very calm, Mitsui Toraka is not about himself, Ina Tadashi is surprised and grateful, only Honda Tokimasa is frowning and thinking, and when he leaves, he seems to have realized something.

When the retainers gradually dispersed, Yamamoto Tokiyuki, who was left alone, said with relief: "It seems that the owner of the pavilion has understood the way of balance!" ”

"This appointment must have been brewing for a long time, right? The family has limited room to choose, several important positions can not be moved, and the weight of the movement is not enough, the family deliberately delays the appointment of the castle generation is to give the upcoming Nakajo Tokihide a position, this is not difficult to guess, Katata Castle must be selected from the government anyway, and the new staff of the shogunate cannot be moved, so there are only the Ina Tadashi family from Mikawa, and Mitsui Toraka, who was born in Omi, these two people. ”

"The owner has really grown up! After careful consideration, it seems that the old minister has nothing left to teach the hall master. With a look of relief and disappointment, Yamamoto stood up and walked out the door.

Ji Liang Yoshishi hurriedly got up and chased after him, and said: "Don't say such things as the master craftsman, there are still many things to learn in this family, and the master craftsman needs to be reminded from time to time!" ”

"I will not forget the work of the old minister, please rest assured!" Yamamoto Tokiyuki bowed slightly and retreated.

The Kira family now uses to pay the annual salary of the retainers and craftsmen as high as 8,000 kanwen in Yongle money, for example, Yamamoto Tokiyuki's annual salary has risen to 500 kanwen in Yongle money, which is paid in the form of half copper money and half rice grain.

Therefore, the annual income paid by the Kira family to Yamamoto Tokiyuki was 300 koku money, 600 koku rice, 1 koku salt, 20 koku of various vegetables, 500 poultry eggs, 5 kombu, river fish and other aquatic products, and the standard of living was far higher than that of all the samurai families of the Warring States period in Japan at the same time.

These properties are converted into a market price of more than 800 guanwen, but the living conditions may even be better than the 8,000 stone of the big wealthy family, after all, a lord of the rich family has 8,000 stone Zhixing. According to the standard of the public six and the fourth. By the end of autumn, the maximum amount of grain that can be obtained is 4,800 stones. It is also necessary to consider that the time of year is different, and if the weather is abnormal or even drought and flood disasters are reduced, the average may be between 4,000 and 4,800 stones.

And this 8,000 stone grain also has to raise a group of retainers to give land Zhixing, how to say that the genealogy retainers group also has to occupy 3,000 stone to 4,000 stone Zhixing, and the rest is his direct leader, only about half, he also has to organize no less than 300 standing armed forces in the collar according to the stone height of the direct leader to bear military service, and finally the grain must be exchanged for copper coins for daily expenses. After all, grain is not as easy to carry and circulate as copper coins.

There are also banquets to entertain retainers, and meritorious retainers have to give money and food rewards, and even when there are military merits, they have to increase the land seal, and in the end, the living expenses of the lord are not even less than 1,000 stones.

Even if he has 1,000 stone of grain, which is worth about 300 yuan of Yongle money, and there are no benefits of fruits and vegetables, poultry eggs, and aquatic products, not to mention 600 stone of grain, they can only eat their own pickled radish, miso soup and rice, and if they want to improve their food, they can only go fishing and eagle hunting.

In this regard, he was not as fortunate as Yamamoto, and he did not have the burden of supporting his retainers and samurai. There is no need to maintain standing armies and obey the command of the master's family, and all kinds of benefits that cannot be eaten can be taken out as favors or simply sold in castle towns. Life is delicious.

In addition to Yamamoto Tokiyuki as the old man of the pedigree family, the middle-level elite samurai of the Kira family, that is, the samurai of the Ashigaru Shogun, basically have a salary between 100 and 200 kan, and the same half grain and half money pay for the benefits of all kinds of salt, poultry, eggs and aquatic products, and the only thing they have to spend is to buy clothes to wear, buy horses and armor, and the expenses of daily drinking and feasting, which is easy for the samurai of the Kira family.

The samurai who will lose the family in a month, eat, drink, and visit the whale house all day long, and they can't spend 20 Yongle money, and how can they have time to go to those places, the Kira family has always been diligent and thrifty, except for Kira Yoshishi's advocacy of eating more poultry eggs and aquatic products to enhance the physique, neither good and poetry clubs, nor do they like extravagant drinking and feasting, ape music, tea ceremony is just a taste, but also let the samurai reduce the pressure of their daily expenses to a minimum.

In addition to the middle-level elite samurai, there are also some grassroots samurai, including the head of the samurai, the head of the samurai and the Mayu samurai, the Akabi samurai, etc., with 20 to 80 koku samurai, the basic standard of living is far more than the level of the 300 stone small wealthy family, which is also an important reason why the samurai of the Kira family are envied by the shogunate.

That is to say, the samurai have the division of leadership, but they are only the relationship between the main general and the force, which can weaken the retainers to the greatest extent to borrow the power of the main family to develop their own power, of course, the rich retainers can hire ronin as their own staff, this is not under the management of the Kira family, and then the grassroots below are the standing light of 3 people to support rice.

Kira family to raise a lot of soldiers, with the three rivers of the preparation of relatives and friends to run, to support the rice of the three rivers has skyrocketed to 2620 people, a person to support the rice is according to the consumption of 5 rice a day, a year is equal to 1.8 stone, more than half of the 2620 people have participated in several joint battles, more or less have obtained some merits, the highest merit at present has 5 people to support rice, equal to the income of the ground servant hard work for a year.

Every year, he spends 15,000 stone of grain to pay for supporting rice, and the reward of the small competition is also a combination of food and reward, and high-intensity training also needs to consume extra food, in short, raising 2,620 elites, it costs about 20,000 stone of grain a year, which is enough to raise 10,000 townspeople to eat a year's support rice, and also makes Kira Yoshitoki deeply realize how much it costs to raise soldiers.

It is much easier to keep a foot light than to go to the field to farm the field attendant, although the land attendant seems to be more cost-effective, but whenever there is a drought or flood and the harvest can only be resigned to fate, and you have to bear 2 to 3 places of military service, how uncomfortable life is needless to say, and the ashigaru samurai of the Kira family don't have to do anything, they only need to complete the prescribed training, they are also the basic plate of the main armed forces of the Kira family.

In order to create a new type of iron artillery team, Kira Yoshitoki decided to get rid of all 300 Sakai barrels in his possession, and he sold them to the Oda family of Owari for 60 kanbun, and Oda Nobunaga was happy to buy the Sakai barrels at a good price and wrote a letter to Kira Yoshitoki. Thanks to him enough to be a friend is a man. Oda Nobunaga, of course, didn't care who used these iron cannons. It may be happier if you know the source, and it sounds like a good name after the test of the deep grass battle.

Of course, the price of the new iron cannon is relatively high, the cost price of each new iron cannon is as high as 50 yuan, which is equivalent to 12 yuan of Yongle money, and the price when it is sold to Kira Yoshishi is 70 guan of iron money, which is also considered a small profit, and Ji Liang Yoshishi purchased 500 new iron cannons in one go, spending a total of 8750 Yongle money.

The new iron cannon added a support frame to enhance the stability of the shot. It can be fixed during defensive battles, and at the same time, the caliber of the gun is further reduced, and the barrel is extended to 1.2 meters, so the total weight of the new iron cannon has also increased to about 13 catties, and the weight of the gun body is increased at the same time, and the weight of the lead bullet fired is also replaced with a heavy lead bullet of 25 grams, and the effective range is increased to 80 meters, and the maximum range is an astonishing 200 meters.

Another type of cannon sold by Kunituma Village is the Spanish cannon that was improved by Yoshitomo Kira before. It was only to absorb the advantages of the two iron cannons for improvement, and the weight of the gun was only eight catties. Of course, the lead bullet is too light, the effective range is less than 50 meters, with the gunpowder cover can be used in bad wind and rain weather, Dana is the effective range of gunpowder after moisture may be less than 20 meters, this can only be regarded as a small secret, the cost is about 35 pieces, of course, the external retail price is 80 pieces, basically the same as the retail price of the Sakai barrel.

Equipped with this heavy iron cannon, the long-range attack capability of the Kira family will be greatly improved, and at the same time, with the introduction of small competition and new weapons, the overall equipment has caught up with the infantry equipment of Europe, and the iron cannon is convenient or even slightly strengthened.

Each of them served the Kira family with the same salary, and Mikawa was under the command of the Ashigaru general, the horse general, the bow general, and the iron cannon general, of which 500 were the red cavalry, 500 were the iron artillery team, 500 were the archers, 500 were the javelin team, 500 were the gun shield team, 100 were the grenadier team, and 20 were the flag bearers.

First of all, the new iron artillery team supported by 500 heavy iron cannons, led by the iron cannon general Takigawa Mashige, wore black and full, equipped with 1 iron cannon, 1 jade medicine box with 50 fixed gunpowder bamboo tubes, 2 meters of fire rope, 1 support frame, 1 scimitar, and 50 lead bullets produced by the copper house.

Bow general Naito Masari led a 500-person bow team, wearing black and full, equipped with 1 heavy rattan bow, 2 pots of cast iron feather arrows, a total of 40 pieces, 1 scimitar, they served as the main force of the long-range troops of the Kira family, these 500 heavy rattan bows cost Kira Yoshishi 6,000 Guan Yongle money, the price of the ghost is about to catch up with the iron cannon, although the cast iron feather arrow is not expensive, but this thing is a consumable, 20,000 cast iron feather arrows need 100 Guan Yongle money, this is the consumption of a battle.

Ashigaru general Watanabe Takatsuna, selected 500 strong men to serve as a javelin team, wearing black and feet, each equipped with 1 spear, 1 rattan shield, 2 short javelins, and 1 one-handed battle axe, which is also a new class of troops that have been explored, melee is a spear and shield soldier, and a long-range javelin, whether it is a foot or cavalry, it will be a nightmare.

Kato Kato, the grenadier fan, continues to lead the 100-person grenadier team, wearing red and feet, equipped with 10 baked jade, 1 rattan shield, and 1 scimitar, and is responsible for throwing baked jade assault when attacking the battle, just like the grenadier in history.

Ashigaru generals Suganuma and Okochi Tsunataka led a team of 500 spears and shields, wearing red and full feet, each armed with a spear, a wisteria shield, a one-handed battle axe, and a nail-headed hammer staff.

The horseback general is straight and tall, and the red cavalry led by Le Zhentong is 500 people, wearing red and full, each equipped with a large body gun and a scimitar, as the main assault force, and finally 20 people holding the flag, each holding a white background and a black two-lead two-line flag, and a black background and a white five-seven tong patterned flag.

Wearing black and full are the iron artillery team, the archery team, and the javelin team, and the red full are grenadiers, spear and shield teams, and red cavalry, and the general Yamaoka is not counted, and he commands 200 warriors directly under Ma Hui, wearing red and full, equipped with 1 large body gun, 1 scimitar, 1 heavy rattan bow, and 2 pots of cast iron feather arrows, a total of 40 pieces.

This less than 2820 elite are all redressed, costing 40,000 yuan of Yongle money, and the cost of training and maintenance weapons and equipment every month is as high as 300, I really don't know how the Takeda family's red preparation was raised, anyway, he will not be able to hold on to 500 elite cavalry, I think the cavalry of Takeda Harunobu must not be so elite. (To be continued......)

PS: I know, everyone is very concerned about the structure of this reserve, so I wrote it, including how to get a fortune for the samurai who doesn't give Zhixing, in fact, the samurai don't have to be so tightly tied to Zhixing, the protagonist is trying this path.