Chapter 264 39. Everything Is Ready Except the East Wind
Before I start, I would like to explain that the failure of soybean harvest in Shinano and the failure of miso production in Shinshu are real events.
The writer once saw in a document of a Buddhist temple in Kanto in 1567 that the price of miso soared to 1,700 Yongle coins per stone, that is, the price of miso per liter was as high as 17 coins, which was a huge difference from the usual price of 4 to 5 coins.
Later, the writer found out from a machine-translated chicken feeding encyclopedia published by a historical inventor that severe droughts occurred in many eastern provinces such as Shinano and Kai in the previous two years.
Another piece of information comes from the "Kai Kokushi" about the continuous droughts that led to the people's miserable lives. Some lords were forced to use precious Yongle coins to buy food from other places to save the people in their own territories.
This thoroughly verified that the huge fluctuation of miso prices did happen in the history of the Warring States Period.
This was a disaster for the people, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Kobayakawa who had predicted this event in advance.
What Xiao Ping is worried about now is the storage yard. The rice warehouse in Fuchu Castle, Yamanouchi is very large, but unfortunately it is a government treasury, how can private individuals use it. Secondly, he had foreseen the little grain that Yamanouchi Yoshiharu collected this year, and he did not sell it at all, but stored it all in preparation for famine.
Xiao Ping was at a loss, scratching his head anxiously, and went around to ask the grain merchants in Fuchu Castle, Yamanouchi about renting a warehouse.
However, the local merchants in Yamanouchi [Note 1] have long been as shrewd as ghosts, and they have also discovered that the drought in Shinano this year is very severe.
Now, not only the grain merchants in Yamanouchi, but also the grain merchants in Suwa, Matsumoto, Kuzuo, Zenkoji and other places have begun to prepare secretly. Originally, after the autumn harvest this year, the northern Shinano had a large-scale reduction in production. The price of 1 kan 4 koku of rice has soared to 1 kan 2 koku in late autumn and early winter.
As expected, those who could survive the chaos of the Warring States period were all shrewd people. Xiao Pingtai had no choice but to focus on the warehouse specially built for persimmon lacquer.
Previously, Xiao Pingtai had spent hundreds of kan to buy Taigu stone from the territory of Utsunomiya, the guardian of Shimotsuke. Now the stone has arrived, and a lot of warehouses have been built.
Generally speaking, ordinary warehouses are built with ordinary wood, using the hip roof frame structure, and then hiring thatched craftsmen to build thatched roofs.
The advantage is that it is fast to build and very cheap, and even any miscellaneous wood boards can be used. And thatched roofs are not as bad as everyone imagines. In modern Kanzaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, there is a thatched roof house that is more than 80 years old. In the middle, people were hired for large-scale maintenance only once, and there was no problem at all.
The Taigu stone that Xiao Pingtai specifically wanted to use has nothing to do with Taigu County in our country. It is a kind of stone formed by the accumulation of algae in the ocean millions or even tens of millions of years ago, and it has extremely strong fire resistance.
In modern times, it is generally used in churches, temples, government departments, statues and other places. Because Taigu stone itself has a relatively "soft" nature, it is very easy to cut and shape, and to carve various patterns and images. The most famous building that uses Taigu stone as the exterior wall is the infamous Japanese Parliament Building.
But in ancient times, what Kobayakawa valued was its special properties of being easy to cut and having very high fire resistance. It could not be used to build city walls because it was very soft after all. But perhaps because it is a stone formed by algae, it also has good air permeability, which can prevent the warehouse built with it from being stuffy and extremely cold in a closed environment.
One more word of nonsense, the same stone, the difference is so big that it is unimaginable. Not all stones can be used after being mined. Many writers on Qidian.com searched on Baidu Maps and found that there was a quarry in the local area, and they dared to say that they would use it to build a stone wall and a stone city.
Haha!
The most suitable stone wall is the Tanba stone that is not produced in Tanba Province. It is very square after being mined, suitable for stacking, and hard enough. Others include granite called Mikage-ishi, which is suitable for bathhouse floors and is "soft" and not that hard when stepped on, such as Towada-shi.
There are countless types of stones. If they all have the same properties, what chemical elements are needed to classify them?
Gossip aside, more than half of Kobayata's persimmon lacquer warehouse has been built. It was originally intended to store five years' worth of persimmon lacquer. Now that persimmon lacquer is just starting out, there is no need for so much. It is just right for storing soybeans, salt and barrels.
After solving the site problem, Kobayata waited for Sukezaemon, who was already busy, to come and make purchases.
The speed of the Tokaido line return ship is quite fast. It only takes ten days to go back and forth between Sakai and Totomi. Sakai is also one of the food distribution centers in Kinai at the moment, and the market is full of soybeans brought from Shikoku and Chugoku.
Sukezaemon is good at dancing with his sleeves, and he has many friends who help him. With the golden signboard of Naya, the speed of acquisition is super fast. It was also because the beans in the west were so abundant this year that the price of each stone was finally cut by 30 sen by Sukezaemon, and it was received for only 170 sen.
The price of beans in Shinano has risen to 400 sen per stone, and there is a trend of continued rise. Of course, it is not only beans that are rising, but all grains are rising wildly.
Unlike the rising grain prices, the weather in Shinano is getting colder day by day. Except for frost, this year's winter snow has not fallen yet.
Now, let alone the blind, even the fools have discovered that there is a high possibility of a large-scale locust plague, drought and disease next year.
If there is insufficient snowfall, wheat planted in paddy fields and barley planted in fields will inevitably find it difficult to obtain sufficient water for germination. At the same time, due to the lack of snowfall, the climate is dry and relatively warm, which provides locust eggs with a very suitable opportunity to hatch. The locust plague next year can be foreseen!
The second is fever! Due to drought and water shortage, even if crops are hard to germinate and grow after watering, one after another light black or dark green spots like mold will appear on their leaves.
If it is only infected on the leaves, it will be fine. If it is infected on the ears, then there is no need to see it. The whole plant of the crop will be scrapped. Nothing can grow, and it can only be harvested for straw and burning.
Moreover, fever is also called plague, which is very contagious. As long as a few plants on a piece of land are infected, it will take only a few days for all the crops on the whole piece of land to be infected. In the end, large-scale crop destruction across countries and counties is not uncommon. [Note 2]
Xiao Pingtai now has to earn blood and tears money!
【Note 1】: It is a sitting merchant, not a sitting merchant. The meaning of sitting merchant is local merchants, which is different from traveling merchants. The scope of sitting merchants is very wide. As long as the merchants are doing business locally, they can be called this, no matter what business you are doing.
【Note 2】: Fever mainly occurs in rice, and wheat fever is relatively rare. Secondly, the main causes of the disease are rainy and humid or accumulated heat and high temperature. Guangdong Province in my country is particularly serious and frequent.