Although there is still a blizzard since the beginning of spring, this can not stop the general trend of the weather warming, as the sun slowly moves northward into the spring season, as the snow gradually melts and the traffic arteries leading to Echigo are restored to smooth, and the business travel is several times denser than in previous years, this change represents the world's high recognition of the prosperity and development of Echigo.

Since the Kira family won two successive victories last year, the number of tourists visiting Echigo has increased, and more merchants have seen Echigo's strength and determined to open up trade routes there.

The Kira family was the first samurai to abolish customs duties and private toll taxes in various places, as long as they entered the territory of the Kira family, whether it was Shinano Ueno or Echichu Echigo, there would never be a situation where they set up cards to collect various reasons for exacting taxes, just as merchants in maritime trade liked to dock at Naoetsu Port, and merchants who traveled through the Kanto Tohoku Continent were more willing to enter the Kira domain to do business, even if the competition was fierce, it didn't matter if the price was lower, and it was still more profitable to deduct the cost than to enter other territories to do business.

Echigo's prosperity led to the economic development of Shinano and Ueno along the trade routes, and the two governors, Ina Tadake and Mitsui Toraka, planned to place villages as close as possible to the side of Echigo Street to benefit the people as much as possible, and at the same time, the lodging houses under the jurisdiction of Biwa were also opened throughout the streets of the five countries, ensuring that there would be a large village and supporting lodging facilities every dozen kilometers.

A well-established security mechanism, the abolition of exorbitant taxes and the humanized design of the business route have ensured that the business district of the Kira family has left behind the various samurai families in the Kanto region at the starting line. After all, not every daimyo can make such drastic and major changes. There is no outstanding internal affairs talent, and there is a lack of supporting and perfect implementation systems. And the lack of money of the most important daimyo is a threshold that cannot be bypassed.

This is a game that can only be played by rich people, and only the Hojo family can try to do it in the entire Kanto, but even the Hojo family, which has Hojo Shiyasu and a large number of elites, will not be able to make such a major internal adjustment for a while, just like Echigo's new grain can be planted in the land of Kanto and Koshin and become low-yield and inferior crops. 、

There is always a problem with each decree, and the mature set of decrees in Sakamoto Town cannot be copied and implemented in Echigo, because the climate, cultural customs, and geographical environment of Kinai and Echigo are completely different, and Naoetsu is positioned as the largest port in the eastern country with developed handicraft industries such as textiles and printing and dyeing. Unlike Sakamoto Town, which has the headquarters of the money house and the piwa house, it is positioned to follow in the footsteps of Sakai Town and Kyonomachi.

Located in the upper reaches of the Sekigawa River, a group of dozens of people under the mountain are slowly marching along the Sekigawa, this caravan is completely different from the ordinary caravan, because the team is full of young men and everyone is carrying a sword, and all of them are riding horses full of vigor and galloping, it is obvious that this is a group of samurai who entered Echigo from other places, and only ten carriages in the whole team are considered to be heavy, and these horseback samurai are heavily guarded around the carriages.

There were many ships coming and going on the Seki River, and from time to time you could encounter caravans passing by on the banks of the river, and both the passing caravans and the nearby boaters were unimpressed by the caravans of samurai. The samurai who traveled to and from Echigo were innumerable, and the Kira family never forbade anyone to enter or leave. With Echigo's strong force, there is no need to worry about security at all.

At the head of the caravan was a tall and burly warrior, about twenty years old, with a cupola tea, arrows hanging from the front and back of the saddle, a bow with a sword hanging from his waist, a string of colorful necklaces hanging from his body, and a straw stick in the corner of his mouth like a cynical charmer.

The young samurai's name was Maeda Toshiie, a samurai from the Owari Oda family, who had been trained under Oda Nobunaga's saddle horse since he was a child.

Looking around, the merchant travelers said boredly, "Is this Echigo?" It doesn't look much different from Owari! ”

"There's still a difference! That's ...... It's cold! Ahh Ikeda's companion seemed to be sick all the way, and his snot seemed to be in pain, and several of his companions made fun of him, causing Ikeda to complain, "Can I be blamed for this?" I didn't expect a heavy snow just to the middle of the letter, we trekked all the way from Fukashi Castle to Sekigawa took almost half a month's effort, and finally came to Echigo before the snow melted clean, I knew that it was better to stay in Fukashi Castle for a few more days, and I wouldn't get sick when the snow melted clean and then came out...... Ahh

Maeda Toshiya grinned, patted him on the shoulder and said, "It's hard to get sick like this after a long trip, and when you return home, you will be laughed at by the samurai, Katsuzaburo's body still needs to be practiced more!" You'd better go to the carriage and rest for a while, it's enough to have one person with my gun here!" ”

"That's what you said! I'll go back and rest for a while, I can't stand it! When you go to the spring mountain town, I Hengxing invites you to drink! Ikeda picked up a handkerchief to wipe his nose, then waved at the leading samurai and hurried back to the carriage to rest, who didn't seem to mind that he was lazy.

As the caravan gradually marched northward, it only took half a day's work to reach the meeting point of the Yashiro River and the Sekigawa River, where the caravan was to cross the Sekigawa River by boat to the downstream, when a young samurai with a thin body like a monkey came out of the carriage and shouted to the leading samurai on horseback: "Your Highness the Rike family, come here!" ”

Maeda Toshiya was slightly stunned, turned his face to this person and said, "Aren't you sick?" Why don't you go back to rest, what do you have to say? ”

Kinoshita Hideyoshi said with some embarrassment: "My Hideyoshi's illness has improved a lot!" It's really embarrassing to worry His Royal Highness the Li family, I just want to ask His Royal Highness the Li family how far to the spring mountain city, we have lost too much time along the way, and some food is not enough to eat, as the guide and executive of this mission. I, Hideyoshi, should be fully prepared as soon as possible. ”

Sasa Seimasa got out of another carriage. Half-truths complained: "Hey, hey! It's too irresponsible for Fujiyoshiro to fall ill as soon as he arrived in Fukashi Castle! And it is clear that only the road from Owari to Shinano is clear. It's too incompetent for someone who has never been to Kita-Shinano to do it! I waited for the money to get a guide from Shinano to come to Echigo, shouldn't this money be borne by Fujiyoshiro! ”

"Uchizosuke's words are serious! Fujiyoshiro is just a small commissioner, isn't it too much to let him pay for the guide? Maeda Toshiya saw Kinoshita Hideyoshi's face full of shame, and he couldn't look at it.

Kinoshita Hideyoshi nervously explained: "That's because I have only been to Minami Shinano, and when I was in the release of Lang Kai, I quietly followed behind the Takeda Daizen army and touched Nakashinano, and I was also going to Echigo to see the scenery of the northern country, but because Kawanakajima was fighting a joint battle, I hurriedly went back, causing trouble for the monarchs!" I, Hideyoshi, am very sorry! ”

"But that's ...... too"

Niwa Nagahide stepped out of the last carriage and said with a smile, "Uchizosuke Hall should also be more considerate of Hideyoshiden's difficulties!" After all, I haven't had a single important minister in Owari go to Echigo. If it weren't for the urgency of the lord's urging, we could have tried to follow the caravan to Kyoto and then to Tsuruga Port, and then take a boat to Echigo Naoetsu, but that would have delayed more time. ”

Ikeda Hengxing also came out and said: "That's right, Kinai also fought a battle in Rakuchu last year, and I heard that the Miyoshi repair doctor fought Kyoto with an army of 60,000 people, and finally fought for a summer and still didn't defeat the Rokkaku Kyoshoden and Nakajo Dewa Shouden, so it will be very dangerous to go to Kyoto at this time!" ”

"So Fujiyoshiro doesn't have to worry too much, Uchizosuke Hall didn't mean to embarrass you. Doing a good job and trying to repay the lord is more useful than a thousand words, work hard! Niwa Nagahide's gentle words of reassurance quickly worked. Kinoshita Hideyoshi gave up the entanglement just now, and instead pulled Maeda Toshiya to ask this and that.

The caravan stopped at the ferry for half an hour to cross the Sekigawa River, and after traveling for an hour, it gradually found that the population was becoming denser and denser, and there were many Shinbori rivers near the Sekigawa River, and large villages living in thousands of people appeared in clusters, and what was even more rare was that each village was exceptionally clean and tidy, and there was no trace of potholes on the smooth road, and there was no perennial sewage cross-flow scene, and the peasants' dress was similar to the standard of the townspeople of Cheongju Castle.

Seeing this sight, Maeda Toshiie also came to his senses, and when he saw the hard-working farmers working the endless land, he couldn't help but sigh, "Is this the strength of Echigo?" The village is built like a town, and the peasants live like a town, how do they do it? ”

No one answered his question, and the villagers in the neighborhood were accustomed to such questions or contemplative expressions, and since the outbreak of Echigo's tall in the early years of Koji, every newcomer has asked a similar question, and the world is asking what method the Kira family used to do all this quietly, and many people were attracted to the foggy Echigo.

Kinoshita Hideyoshi stared at the peasants who came and went in the fields with bright eyes, as a poor child from the countryside of Owari climbed up from a lowly position step by step, he knew better than anyone else to measure the development of a territory is all in the life of the peasants, in his opinion the life of the samurai in the whole world is almost the same, only the peasants everywhere will be poor and rich.

Legend has it that the peasants of the Hojo clan in the Kanto region were the happiest, and the four princes and six people could get 20% more grain for the peasants, and only the peasants in Kinai could match them, but he did not believe that the peasants of the Kanto region could live like the townspeople, and a closer look at the kiya in the village seemed to be completely different from the traditional straw house, but it is unclear what the difference is.

At the same time, in another carriage, Niwa Nagahide also fell into deep thought at the same time, and said secretly: "This is Echigo's economic strength!" In the strong and vibrant countryside, I did not see numbness and pain in the faces of the villagers, but with a rare expression of happiness and contentment, which should not only appear on the faces of the samurai? Why do you feel happy? ”

In the evening, the twilight was getting thicker, and a caravan of dozens of horsemen slowly came to the Naoetsu outside the lower reaches of the Sekigawa River, and they were once again shocked by the huge urban agglomeration, from the riverside to the farthest point as far as the eye could see, all the towns were all the same, at first glance, the towns of Naoetsu were not strange and large, but they did not give people the feeling of being disorganized, but there was a sense of patchwork that people were used to.

Kinoshita Hideyoshi's whole body trembled with excitement, and he said in surprise and excitement, "There are at least a few hundred towns here, right?" Wrong! There should be thousands of them, and Naoetsu Town has Minato-cho as the core, and there must be a larger group of towns in the port, so isn't it dozens of times larger than Kiyoshu Castle Town! ”

The samurai of Owari were all immersed in the shock of the sudden appearance of the urban agglomeration, and Ikeda Tsuneko suddenly shouted: "Look! That's a team of horsebacks! Is the red one Kira Akabei? ”

"Look at their momentum, it's definitely the Red Dragoons, that's right!" Maeda Toshiya stared at the hundreds of red-armored samurai who slowly crossed the river with wide eyes, and the samurai led by him was holding a blood-colored spear that made people's eyes hot, Maeda Toshiya almost subconsciously wanted to touch out the big gun, and the next moment he remembered that the long-handled weapons were all placed on the carriage, and he slapped on the saddle angrily and was annoyed to death.

At this moment, the hundreds of horse-riding red dragoons accelerated and changed the direction of travel with the momentum of the wind and clouds, and the queue of hundreds of horseback samurai was neatly aligned like a school of fish in the water, and there was not the slightest mistake in the gallop of the sudden change of direction from left to right, and the scene formed by the outrageous powerful execution was simply beautiful, and the eyes of the Maeda Toshiya were about to burst out, and the samurai of Owari couldn't even say a word.

A wave of assault hundreds of distances passed in a blink of an eye, and the next moment a whistle was heard, and the red dragoons slowed down their march and turned into stars, and then they relaxed and smiled and marched towards Kasugayama Castle at the western end of Naoetsu Town, and the cavalry general who led the army seemed to notice the caravan that had been standing still, took off his shirt and smiled at them in a friendly smile, and then rode slowly past them.

When Maeda Toshiya saw the appearance of this young general, he exclaimed in surprise: "Keitaro! How did you end up here...... Wrong! You're not Keitaro! Keitaro isn't so tall and burly, you're ......"

"What was your name? Keitaro? Takigawa Tokiyoshi suddenly reined in his war horse and stared at Maeda Toshiya's expression, and swept over this line of dozens of elite horseback samurai, and asked patiently: "Listen to your accent, it's not an Eastern samurai, where are you from Tokaido?" What is your name? And what's the name of Keitaro you just called? (To be continued......)