Chapter 208 12. I Have My Own Ingenious Plan to Inspect the Land

Two days after Uncle Tsunayoshi left, the soldiers from Ejiri who came enthusiastically filled the playground under the city.

It was not that they loved Yamanouchi Yoshiharu so much and supported the rule of the Yamanouchi family. Do you expect a small peasant who can't read a single word to have such a high level of awareness? That is impossible and does not exist. Everyone came here not to give Xiao Pingtai three points of face, but to give two hundred Yongle coins a face.

The soldiers and the people who were originally resentful and dissatisfied with the continuous military service and the continuous raising of troops suddenly heard the good news that Xiao Pingtai promised that as long as people came, regardless of the military branch, each person would be given 200 coins of departure expenses. With the mentality of coming to see the situation first, they gathered in twos and threes to Ejiri.

In addition, Matsushita Ichima also knew the importance of the matter, and worked very hard to lobby people from various countries and powerful families. The skeptical people carried guns and swords, those with armor put on armor, and those without armor also tried to get themselves a battle hat or headband. The village heads also brought tenants, those with horses rode, and those without horses walked. One by one, the small streams merged into the river and the sea, and finally gathered at Ejiri Castle.

When they arrived at Ejiri, the first batch of more than 700 people who had been gathered to participate in Imagawa Yoshimoto's army to Kyoto more than ten days ago were already waiting according to their place of origin. It didn't take long before the travel expenses promised by Kobayata were moved out from the treasury in the city one basket after another.

Money is dirty and smelly. It takes a long time to wash the smell on your hands after touching it a few times. But money is good and fragrant. No matter who smells the smell of money, their eyes will gather. The baskets of money exude an attractive "fragrance" and "fragrant". Everyone swallowed their saliva involuntarily, and their eyes were shining.

Under Kobayata's gaze, the comrades in Ejiri took out the military service books and began to call out the names loudly. Volume after volume, they all represent the authority of Yamanouchi Yoshiharu. Of course, the military service of Ejiri is a completely confusing account that no one can explain clearly. In order to conceal the property and income, the local nobles, including the self-cultivating farmers, secretly hid part of it. Therefore, the specific mobilization of individual soldiers often depends on the local nobles to estimate the number themselves, and then they will take the people to the battlefield with them.

Fortunately, Kodaira Tai visited the grassroots and investigated the geography a few years ago, and roughly sorted out the village by village, but even so, the so-called military service account of the 4,000 people in Ejiri will still have a large error.

Sure enough, Heiroku called them one by one, and except for those who died in the attacks along the way and those who died in the attack on Narumi Castle, there were still about 200 people standing there blankly. They came to respond to Yamanouchi Yoshiharu's military service, but they were all nameless and there was no record of their service. Even they were considered non-existent, and those who were not on the tax service book did not exist in the eyes of the daimyo.

Then this group of people were at a loss at first, but soon they started to make a fuss, because all those whose names were on the military service form had really received 200 Yongle coins and were counting them happily, but they were not named. Could it be that they had no money to pay for the same war?

Xiao Pingtai said nothing, but finally got his way, and these soldiers hidden under the books finally surfaced. Although the leading country nobles felt that something was wrong, they saw that the Langdang in their own villages were blushing and clamoring about the money. They didn't dare to say much, after all, there were still 200 people in the field, and one person's spit could drown people.

Then Xiao Pingtai pretended to be a good person on the surface, and announced loudly that anyone who came to register on the military service form could get 200 coins immediately, and it would be issued after registration. As soon as this was said, the 200 soldiers below cheered, rushed to Hei Liu, and reported their names. Maybe everyone was called A Da A Er, and there were ten or eight names like Xiao Yilang and Fujikichilang. But Ada from Village A, Aer from Village B, plus their hometowns, can always be identified as individuals.

The crowd watching the show was also stimulated by the enthusiasm of distributing money. It turned out that today was the first time in history that rewards were distributed before the battle, and no matter whether it was a foot soldier or a small soldier, all of them were 200 Yongle coins.

Two hundred coins must not be a big deal in the eyes of any samurai, but no one would despise money. Although the local heads and local servants of each village have families and businesses and are all at the level of public servants, they also put down their faces and lined up to get money. It would be a waste not to take it. Two hundred coins can be used to eat two hundred strings of dumplings, which is delicious.

Those whose names were on the military service form were all happy. They immediately took the money and lined up, and those without names also took the initiative to register.

Not only that, because the money was distributed very happily, everyone went back to the village to inform the fellow villagers who did not come. They called friends and had a great time.

In one day and one night, more than 8,000 people gathered under Ejiri Castle. With the death of the Shangluo Army, the actual total number of Ejiri soldiers could reach 9,000 (including the 700 at the beginning). According to the principle of three draws and two dispatches, Ejiri should theoretically dispatch 6,000 soldiers, but relying on the inability to inspect the land, Ejiri only dispatched 4,500 soldiers during the decisive battle with the Takeda family.

In other words, Ejiri actually concealed more than 1,500 soldiers. From the military service, it can be inferred that Ejiri actually concealed at least 10,000 kan of real estate and income.

Kobayata was secretly happy. Others could not push for the inspection of the land, but I used a mere price of less than 2,000 kan to find out all of you. Are you happy to get the money now? Next year, none of you can escape. Send me 5,700 soldiers!

As a member of the Jiangjiri clan, Matsushita Ichima has now completely understood that Koyata is really bad, so bad that pus is flowing. The Jiangjiri clan has been cheating and crying for their parents for generations, and they have tried every means to hide this little wealth. Now, it's all exposed. He has 1,500 kan on his account, but he actually concealed more than 600 or 700 kan of real estate income. The amount is extremely huge, the concealment is particularly serious, and the social impact is extremely bad.

Damn it, I have been a soldier all my life, but in the end I actually drank the foot washing water of Koyata, a naked man in his twenties.

But Koyata is now the governor of Jiangjiri Castle, in charge of all the affairs of the half country of Totomi. Unless he launches a rebellion, who dares to die and disobey him.

How could Koyata not notice the bad faces of several powerful people, but he has no time to care about it. Yamanouchi Yoshiharu will do the work of appeasing them. Kobayata only needed to order the 8,000-strong Ejiri tribe to quickly form an army, replenish some weapons, and give everyone a meal of rice balls to fill their stomachs.

The next morning, he drove these high-spirited and eager troops to Futamata Castle. The news that Uncle Tsunayoshi had cooperated with Iwase Motomasa to conquer Takatenjin had already arrived.

In the entire Totomi Province, only Kakegawa could stop Kobayata's army!