Chapter 233 7. The Flourishing Industry in the Mountains

Lying on the couch, Kobayata recalled the "unfriendly" smile of the old man Yamauchi Motoyoshi, and his whole body trembled as if he was electrocuted. It felt that the old man's eyes were not right. Could it be that people like matchmakers when they reach a certain age?

Fortunately, Hosokawa Harumiya's daughter A Ling is still young, but after thinking about it, it seems that she is already twelve or thirteen years old, which is barely enough for her to get married in this era. Kobayata couldn't accept such a young girl anyway, and Naoe Kagetsuna had no good excuse to refuse.

No words were spoken that night. Kobayata had to go to the hatamoto office to arrange daily patrols and security personnel. After arranging these, new workshops had to be opened, houses had to be built, and tools and water had to be set up.

At this time, Yamauchi Fuchu Town had expanded greatly, from the original town of 5,000 to 6,000 people to more than 10,000 people. Due to the increase in the standing military force of Fuchu Castle, soldiers and many family members gathered under the city. The development of new specialties also concentrated the handicraft population and commercial population, and the already lively town became more prosperous.

Of course, due to the ever-expanding population, the castle town seems a bit messy, but it still cannot cover up the benefits of development.

Since the castle town is directly managed by the Yamanouchi family, it is not handled by the townspeople. So in a word, it is to concentrate on major matters, and there is no need for the townspeople to vote and discuss anything messy. As long as Yamanouchi Yoshiharu gives an order, the affairs of the castle town are decided.

In the past, the stone slab streets built by Xiao Pingtai with hundreds of kan were basically paved on all the main streets, and other small roads were also paved with stones after ramming the earth. The ditches connecting Lianchuan were also dug out one after another to ensure the living water, fire prevention and sewage treatment in the town.

It seems that due to the military considerations of the rulers of this era, the circle of land closest to Fuchu Castle was completely vacated and designated as samurai houses, and a courtyard wall with some defensive capabilities was built. The outermost layer is mostly small courtyards or long houses of powerful townspeople (who can be armed as servants) and foot soldiers of all sizes in the city, and finally the townhouses of craftsmen and merchants.

The planning is still based on some evidence. After all, the Yamanouchi family is not looking at a small corner of the country, but has the ambition to assist the general in rectifying the world. Yamanouchi Fuchu Town will definitely not have only more than 10,000 people in the end. It is still necessary to arrange the development direction in advance.

Kobayata is of course happy with the development of the town. Although the workshops have to be arranged on the outskirts of the town, he is also happy to find a place by the Lianchuan River to organize a matchlock workshop. There are many conveniences to being close to the river. The first is the simplest water convenience, which can be used at any time. Secondly, small boats can pass upstream and downstream, and many things can be saved from the hard work of carrying.

Then water wheels can be set up to improve work efficiency. Unlike the water mill, Kobayata used water power to beat the collected mountain burdock fluff, and then mixed it into the straw rope and hemp rope. After all, they had to be twisted together closely to increase the continuous burning time of the tinder.

It stands to reason that it is best to find a water flow that is neither too large nor too small, flowing all year round and running continuously when setting up a waterwheel. But the winter in Shinano is also very cold, and the river will freeze from time to time, so the waterwheel cannot be used for three or four months. People cannot control the weather, or it is impossible to control it in this era.

Kobayata thought that he might still need to purchase a few pedal-operated wooden hammers. Although it is a handicraft workshop, it is still very difficult to run a physical industry even in ancient times.

After strolling around like this, he came to the previous candle workshop. Since Yamauchi Yoshiharu held half of the shares, the other big guys and Kobayata shared the other half. In the end, Kobayata was busy and couldn't take care of this mess. Everyone agreed and decided to just run a government-run handicraft industry.

After much searching, they finally picked an old veteran who was almost fifty years old and came from a rural land samurai family. He had been a 25-kan tongxin for thirty years and was a well-known honest man. As a result, before retirement, he was promoted by a group of bigwigs and promoted to join the hatamoto clan, serving as the candle magistrate with an annual salary of fifty kan.

This was a pie in the sky. Not only did he become a samurai, he also served as a magistrate. Since he could make three thousand kan of private money for Yamanouchi Yoshiharu every year, even his son was promoted to join the foot soldiers and serve as the captain.

Seeing the old man with a cheerful face and full of energy introducing the income, expenditure and output of the candle factory to Xiao Pingtai, Xiao Pingtai thought that Yamanouchi Yoshiharu and his team had chosen a good manager. Although there was no innovation, he worked diligently and had no problem maintaining the production and operation of the entire factory.

Outside the factory, people from all over the countryside came to deliver fruits from various trees, carrying baskets on their backs, bamboo baskets and cloth bags. It was very lively. There were special people who carried large scales and used stones as weights to weigh the fruits of the people who came to deliver the fruits one by one.

The scene was very orderly. Some people even walked two days from Hida to carry the fruits. Xiao Pingtai saw that the old man also placed two large water tanks in front of the factory, with a few gourd ladles in them. I think they were for the farmers who came to deliver the materials to drink water. It was a bit humane, which made Xiao Pingtai very satisfied.

However, most of the people who came to deliver the fruits were the elderly, women and children. Don't underestimate the rural women of this era. They can do more than half of the men. Many women carried the loads and the young boys in the family carried the baskets. Then, if you sell a hundred kilograms of fruits, you can get dozens or even hundreds of dollars. You can get a few feet of cotton cloth to make a new set of clothes for your children at home. Everyone has a smile on their faces because they have made money.

The Yamanouchi family was also honest and fair. The whole basket of money was brand new Yamanouchi Yongle Tongbao coins, which were counted and delivered on the spot.

Only then did Kobayata realize that along Lianchuan, there were rows of iron cannon forging houses, coin casting workshops, and candle factories. One handicraft workshop after another was built over the years, producing countless wealth.

Kobayata contributed a lot to this, and even Kobayata personally built it up from scratch, brick by brick. Now looking at the magnificent view, Kobayata felt that this journey through time was not in vain.

After inspecting the site of the new factory, Kobayata instructed Heiroku, who was already working as a yearling in Yamanouchi Fuchu Town, to start recruiting carpenters to build houses. At the same time, a large waterwheel was ordered to build a hydraulic hammer.

Then there was the issue of manpower. Kurosawa Ryoji had a high level of education, so Kobayata asked him to come over to handle the paperwork and calculations. Heiroku also made some preparations and served as the fire matchmaker who actually operated the match. The last one was Kanai Meigoro. Kohei felt that this man was not only good at sword fighting, but also very knowledgeable, so he asked to transfer him to Yamauchi to serve as his advisor.

The makeshift team was set up and they were ready to start work.