A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

The Imagawa clan's attack hasn't happened yet, and Koheita doesn't want to think about a bad war, but the summer harvest is right in front of him, so this is the top priority.

Fortunately, there were no famines in the Nanxin Plains and Enshu this year, so the summer harvest was not affected. Speaking of this, I have to say that many people think that Japan collected rice and copper coins as taxes during the Warring States Period. This is actually a very biased perception.

Takeda Shingen, the most famous statesman in the Warring States period, implemented the system of dividing the size of the tribute into three parts. In addition to no longer forcing farmers to pay tribute in one go, they allowed separate collections within a year. Since the natural topography of the Kai Basin allows only a small area of ​​plain land to grow rice, it is impossible for everyone to grow rice. So he changed to produce on the spot and levy it on the spot. If you plant wheat, you will harvest wheat, and if you plant radishes, you will harvest radishes. They will all be levied according to the proportion of six citizens and four citizens. Farmers are no longer forced to pay rice.

This has enabled the originally inactive agriculture to be greatly developed and farmers' enthusiasm for production to be mobilized. Takeda Shingen thus saved enough military rations to conquer the Shinano area for several years.

At the same time, the collection of monetary objects such as Dongbei money does not stick to the traditional collection of only copper coins. Takeda Shingen actively encouraged farmers in his area to carry out handicraft production, and promoted the processing of bamboo, wood, stone, fruits and other products.

In this way, farmers who had little money at all and could not even go to towns and cities once a year could use various handmade products to pay taxes. Then Takeda Shingen obtained handmade products from farmers at a price lower than the market price, and then put them on sale. Not only did farmers avoid the pain of exchanging currency, but Takeda Shingen's income increased a lot.

In other words, as a casual analogy, Takeda Shingen originally had a population of 150,000 people who paid Ding qian, and three qian per person was 450,000 yuan. But instead of accepting cash, I received various goods and sold them, and in the end I might earn 600,000 yuan. Isn’t that very witty.

On the other hand, before large-scale land inspections were promoted, the actual output and income of the territory were often completely inconsistent with the estimates. Before Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the Edo shogunate's large-scale land reclamation, many places were reflected in how much money the total annual output was worth. Later, after the Shigao system was gradually promoted, it began to be standardized. But it is still unavoidable that the Yonezawa clan's official height is 300,000 koku, but its actual height is 510,000 koku. The apparent height of the Satsuma Domain is 700,000 koku, but the actual height is more than 300,000 koku, plus an additional 70,000 Ryukyu sugar and tribute trade income from China.

In addition, after the Battle of Sekigahara, the Mouri clan reduced their seals to the two countries of Nagato and Nagato on a large scale. The seals were reduced from more than 1.2 million daimyo to 369,000 koku, but they quickly passed the inspection. Increase the territory by more than 30,000 stones. Then the tree branches and bark used for making paper, the salt fields used for drying salt, and even the small handicrafts made by each household were calculated into stone heights. In the end, they succeeded in feeding the samurai who originally had more than 1.2 million stone.

If you want to go into detail, there are really too many, but to sum up, don't judge a famous person's income by looking at his or her superficial level. During the Warring States Period, these famous names were no less than our current professional managers. Basically, those who are remembered in history were those who found countless ingenious ways to increase their income bit by bit.

Also, since we talked about collecting money, we can also talk about the samurai who desperately collected money to support them. Many film and television works and novice and low-intelligence articles mislead people. When someone becomes an official, he or she will receive a salary of 500 stone. Please note that this is just a job salary. That is to say, this is what I will give you because of your official duties. If you can no longer do it someday, then I am sorry that your whole family will starve to death and it is none of my business.

This was also when Toshiie Maeda was working as Nobunaga's valet with a salary of 200 years, he said that if I died in the battle, Osomatsu would have no choice but to go back to Arakoko Castle and live on the income of Arakoko Castle. The division here is very clear. The Maeda Toshiie family has two incomes, Nobunaga’s 200-kan banner salary, and Arakko Castle’s 3,000-kan Shiroku Chikyo. Even if the Maeda Toshiie family died in the battle, the money from Arakoko Castle still belongs to their family. Unless the Maeda family dies, it will be passed down from generation to generation and will never change.

Another example is the scene in "Feng Lin Huo" where Kansuke begged the Takeda family's general, but his adoptive father stole the head and used it for his own son's official career. It is obvious that his adoptive father has no territory that can be passed down from generation to generation, and only has a salary to serve as an official. If his own son cannot become an official, he will become a wanderer. Sora has a samurai background, but no income.

There is also Yuan Huyin, the one known as Oni Mino. He was once released by Takeda Shingen because of religious issues. There must be many such famous samurai that his next boss wants to take over, right? As a result, he naturally went to Hojo Ujiyasu, still being an Ashigaru general, and still not receiving the place of knowledge and practice passed down from generation to generation.

This is why it is almost impossible for a commoner in the Warring States Period to become a samurai. After all, the sons he gave birth to within the samurai have not yet been able to digest all of them. This vested interest group must be extremely repulsive to new people coming in to grab jobs. This is also the reason why Heita Kohei has no knowledge and practice of fiefdom even after he became a samurai. Tsunayoshi gave him fifteen kusen as a standard samurai salary, and Yamauchi Yoshiharu gave him 30 kusen as a warrior.

Theoretically, Koheita is also a 180 koku samurai, but this is just the salary he earns alone. In the end, he is still a social animal, and he will be driven away if he is no longer useful. The aforementioned Hosokawa Harimei obtained the 500-ken Tomoyuki territory through a gun and a ride, and thus became a shareholder of the company. Even if the company was merged, he still has shares. As long as the territory is secure, their family will be able to enjoy it from generation to generation. With a certain amount of money, you can still have food and clothing even if you don't work as an official.

And more so-called samurai are just like Heita Xiao, who earn money by working hard. The kind who give you a village when you come up must be a low-level samurai. The daimyo lord Dengyong, a low-level samurai, will definitely only give you a salary. , not even a shred of hereditary territory will be given to you (forget about the fact that half of Ishida's territory is worth 100,000 stone, near Dengyong Island. They are recruiting professional general managers for the company, can it be the same?).

Because Furuta Oribe participated in the battle to pacify the Takeda clan, participated in the bloody hand-to-hand combat at Takato Castle, and persuaded a branch city of Takeda to surrender, Nobunaga finally received Nobunaga who gave him a village of more than 200 koku, and he happily promoted it everywhere. At this time, he was nearly forty years old and had been in office for more than twenty years. After struggling back and forth, his total salary was only 300 guan, of which only more than 50 guan was allowed to be hereditary from generation to generation.

Therefore, Xiaopingtai is not in a hurry and takes his time. Those important ministers only have a small amount of hereditary territory.

This week we can get more than a thousand people, and next Tuesday we will have more than 20,000 words, which is really impressive.