Chapter 234 8. Uncle and Nephew Staged a Fight

Today, Yamanouchi Fuchu Town is very peaceful. The rising sun is not too hot, but the people who get up early are already busy.

Women carry buckets to the well in the middle of the street to fetch water. The older samurai children go to the Yamanouchi hanshu to study. The children of ordinary families who have spare time are sent to the Terakoya to learn a few words. Men carry shoulder poles or tools, go to work, go to work.

Patrollers along the street hold sticks, samurai on horseback step on the bluestone road to serve the city, and the townspeople in the shops have already set up signs to attract customers at the door.

The peaceful and peaceful atmosphere did not last long, and a roar broke this beautiful summer morning.

"Smelly boy, if you run again, I will break your legs into three pieces."

"If you don't run, I'm a fool!"

That's right, the young man who was only wearing a pair of shorts, bare-chested, disheveled, and without shoes, running barefoot is our hero. The famous head of the Yamanouchi clan of Shinano Province, with a 1,302-kan kan, was from the Sukoji Dansho-daitada Tsuna family of the Fujiwara Kita family Kanin-ryu.

The man behind him, holding a wooden stick, had his hair braided and was at least wearing a single piece of clothing. But the man with a fierce look, barefoot and brisk, holding a long wooden stick for beating the quilt, was the famous head of the Shinano Kunita clan, with a 1,052-kan kan, and the captain of the Totomi Toyota County, Sukoji-zaemon, Tsunayoshi.

Behind the two of them, there was Tatsuzo holding clothes and rice balls, and the old family carrying two pairs of straw sandals.

All kinds of people on the street had stopped at this moment. This scene was too rare. When could you see two famous samurai with more than a thousand kan fighting on the street. One was half naked, and the other was shoeless. They cursed each other while running, and Uncle Tsunayoshi even grabbed all kinds of things that could be seen and thrown them at Koheita.

Tongxin, who was maintaining order on the street, was at a loss for a moment. He had never seen two big men of this level running around on the road like this. As for the townspeople, they dared not to intervene. How could they dare to intervene in the affairs of samurai?

We turned the clock back to three days ago. Xiao Pingtai inspected the construction site and applied for manpower. Things were arranged and he was free for a while. He went to the iron cannon forging house to ask the iron cannon craftsmen about the problem of the matchlock. They could make foreign guns, so twisting a rope was a piece of cake.

During the chat, Xiao Pingtai heard that some matchlocks were soaked in urine before use, which was said to extend the burning time. This reminded him that it was said that in Europe, acid was not used in many cases, but human urine was directly soaked as a combustion aid.

Because there was no tap water in this era, and the water sources in Europe, whether in cities or rural areas, were very bad, and no one was willing to drink water. Everyone's daily drinking water was almost solved by alcohol, including wine and beer. Due to daily drinking, there were substances in their urine that were not much different from potassium nitrate solution.

This reminded Xiao Pingtai that the grapes in the Shinano Kai region were also famous in later generations. If we can cultivate some of them now and make some wine to sell, it can be considered a big business. We can give it a try.

When thinking of grapes, Xiao Pingtai thought of the persimmon trees that were everywhere in the mountains of Shinano Province. The persimmon cakes in Koshin are also a famous specialty now, and they sell well.

Xiao Pingtai certainly didn't think of selling persimmon cakes. How much can persimmon cakes sell for? And there are no very good persimmon varieties. The money earned by the small farmers who make them by hand is not enough for Xiao Pingtai to maintain a few iron cannon foot soldiers.

Xiao Pingtai thought of a Chinese medicinal material, which is also an extremely good paint.

Even in modern times, raw lacquer is still an expensive paint, and the market has always been in a state of supply and demand. At the same time, taking lacquer and making lacquer is a very hard and dangerous job (there is a certain toxicity when scraping raw lacquer), plus natural factors such as the planting area. As a result, the price of lacquer, a very important paint, has remained high in Japan.

At the same time, Xiao Pingtai thought of many buildings in Kyoto, Japan. If you have been there, you will definitely find that many public and private buildings in Kinai often use stone walls and lattice grilles. In order to pursue a simple and rustic flavor, some even burn wooden boards until they are charred and then use them as the exterior walls of the house.

Among them, the very famous Luojing lattice grille is not painted with raw lacquer. The black-like, simple and natural color is definitely not the original color of the wood itself. It is impossible to paint only on the outside of the wood for a long time. It will fade quickly under the sun and rain.

So what can replace raw lacquer paint and change the color at will for the needs of the building?

Let's not talk about it!

Since Xiao Pingtai thought of this, he did it. Although Xiao Pingtai's annual income of 3,000 kan is actually very high, the expenses are actually very high. The annual expenses in Kyoto are about 1,000 kan, and the maintenance of the samurai foot soldiers under his command also requires 1,000 kan. Then there are his daily expenses, and he can't save much money throughout the year.

Xiao Pingtai counted and found that the funds he could use immediately were only about 1,000 kan. This amount of money was definitely not enough for Xiao Pingtai's plan, so Xiao Pingtai thought directly of Uncle Tsunayoshi and set his sights on him.

That night, Xiao Pingtai quietly found his aunt and tried to trick her. Don't you know how Xiao Pingtai makes money? Just develop some special products, right? It's impossible to double your income in one year, but wouldn't it be like playing to double your income in two or three years?

Besides, we are all family members, how can we cheat Uncle Gangliang? In the past, candles could earn three or four hundred guan of cash a year, which is a good example! Now Xiao Pingtai has a new plan, but the capital is not enough. In line with the principle of keeping the rich water in the fields, we should pool our money together and start the business when the capital is enough, right?

Aunt was fooled by Xiao Pingtai and took out her private money and Uncle Gangliang's coffin book without thinking.

My goodness, there was actually a thousand taels of gold hidden in the secret compartment under the floor. This is not a coffin book, it is enough to make hundreds of coffins. Uncle Gangliang is an old stingy guy, and I guessed that he cried poor every day on the surface, but he saved so much money behind the scenes.

Xiao Pingtai immediately took the money away and used it to order wooden barrels, tung oil, lime, hemp rope, wood, waterwheels, and cotton cloth. He also marked out a new plot of land by the Lianchuan River, and commissioned Yamanouchi merchants to go to Utsunomiya, Shimotsuke Province to purchase Taigu stone for Kobayata.

This money was quickly squandered by Kobayata!

In the past few days, the Yamanouchi samurai meeting was about to be held, and samurai from all over the country returned to Yamanouchi. Uncle Tsunayoshi was tired from the journey the night before, and he went to bed early after eating and taking a bath to rest.

Early the next morning, his aunt, who helped him get up, told him that Kobayata had borrowed his 1,000-tael gold coffin book.

Uncle Tsunayoshi was not in a hurry at the time. He also heard in Totomi that Kobayata seemed to be planning a matchlock business. This kind of weapons and equipment business is easy to do and profitable. He estimated that Kobayata did not have enough capital, so it was understandable to borrow his own coffin book.

But his aunt said that she didn't know what Kobayata was going to do with it, so she said that he didn't have enough money, and the matchlock business was not undertaken by Kobayata. Instead, it was directly run by the Yamanouchi family, and Yamanouchi Yoshiharu had already allocated 3,000 kan.

Uncle Tsunayoshi was now anxious. He picked up a wooden stick at hand and rushed straight to Xiao Pingtai's room.