Chapter 266 41. Murakami Takeda as an Opponent

In ancient times, agriculture depended on the weather. No matter what you planted, you had to rely on God. What you prayed for was good weather and good harvests, and to ensure the four seasons of farming.

But now Shinano is very dry, and every farmer is asking for water. Where does the water come from?

Xiaoping Tai didn't know.

The main agricultural areas in the Koshin region are actually all plains and valleys formed by lakes and rivers such as Suwa Lake, Chikuma River, Tenryu River, Kamashi River, and Fuefuki River.

The terrain of Koshin is also surrounded by mountains, forming one fertile valley after another between the mountains. Along the valleys, one after another famous warlords were born.

But how big is the valley? Even if it is reclaimed into paddy fields and grown with rice, it can't feed the 200,000 or 300,000 people in Shinano at the moment. Therefore, those fields that are not close to water sources and the burned fields on the hillsides have been developed. These places usually grow crops such as radishes and taro. [Note 1]

With difficulty in using water, the yield is naturally not high. It's better than nothing, and it can always subsidize the family.

However, the long-term agricultural development has enabled the people of Shinano to find a way to get water from the ground.

Under normal circumstances, when there is a drought and water shortage, it is nothing more than mobilizing the people to dig deep wells and pump groundwater. Those with some skills will get some pumping equipment and the like. Most novels must have the Yellow River Lanzhou waterwheel.

The methods are very limited and pale. Whether they are useful or not depends on one's opinion. The ancient landlords were not stupid. Their brains were not stupider than those of today. They knew whether they were useful or not.

So are they really helpless in the case of drought? Of course not. The ancient working people had many ways. They struggled in such a harsh environment and were full of skills.

Look, Xiao Pingtai saw that the heads of various villages organized farmers to go up the mountain. They also chose the kind of hillsides with lush vegetation and thriving. And they only chose the sunny slopes, not the shady slopes.

When all the people are on the slope, they choose a small open space on the hillside and line up from the hillside. It doesn't matter if they can't line up. Everyone just picked up a shovel and dug a trench one meter deep and half a meter wide.

Then the trenches dug by dozens of people were connected to form a long trench from the mountainside to the flat ground at the bottom of the slope. Of course, this is not the end. Now everyone knows that this is a canal for diverting water, so it is natural to connect the ditch to the fields or canals.

But these farmers did not do this. They did not even set up a water gate. They just hastily pulled a line from the bottom of the slope to connect to the fields.

But this ditch was not connected to the mountain spring or undercurrent. Why did the farmers dig it? Xiao Pingtai was completely confused and had no idea at all.

The farmers were very familiar with it. The baskets of pebbles picked from the river beach were dumped into the ditch. From the mountainside to the bottom of the slope, a layer of pebbles 20 to 30 centimeters thick was densely laid. Then all the mud just dug out was backfilled, as if the ditch had never been dug.

When the men finished the physical work, the women took over. As mentioned above, Shinano is also within the range of the Kanto red soil layer. Farmers dug out these highly viscous red soils and sieved out large particles such as stones.

The sieved clay and water were made into semicircular tile-shaped mud blocks. Then they were sent into straw firewood for burning, and crude pottery tiles were easily obtained.

Two pieces of pottery tiles together form a cylindrical water pipe, and the simplest and cheapest water diversion tunnel was born.

The ends of these pottery tiles were extended into the cobblestone area at the bottom of the slope, and the gaps between the pottery tiles were also covered with clay to prevent the rough water pipe from leaking as much as possible.

Not many pottery tiles were used to arrange a water diversion channel from the hillside to the fields or ditches. A layer of soil was covered on the outside of the pottery tiles to form a soil ridge to prevent someone from accidentally destroying it, and then wait for the water to come.

Where does this water come from?

Of course it comes from nothing!

The reason why the sunny slope was chosen is because it is still the rain-receiving side. Whether it rains or snows, there is always more on this side.

At the same time, we chose the area with lush vegetation because the vegetation in the mountains and forests has the function of conserving water. The huge and dense root system of the vegetation can maintain the soil and water of the whole slope, so that the whole slope is full of water, and the vegetation will not die of drought.

No matter how dry it is this year, there will still be a few drops of rain after autumn, and there will still be frost in late autumn and early winter. Before long, the snow in Shinano will always fall, just more or less.

These are all water! It's a pity that human power can't collect them!

Human power is sometimes limited, but the power of nature is infinite!

The water in the natural state is collected by the vegetation inside the slope. This water flows to the lower place, and the water also flows to the empty place!

The slope that conserves a lot of water resources will slowly gather the nearby running water to the cobblestone layer in the ditch because of this special ditch. The running water will flow out of the mountain and finally be introduced into the water pipe made of pottery tiles to become agricultural water. 【Note 2】

Kobayata was so excited. You guys are so awesome. You guys are doing this, and you are not afraid of floods and droughts.

There is no need for Kobayata, who has few options, to intervene and help. The people of Shinano have already started to produce and save themselves. Time travelers are useless. They should just go home and take a shower and sleep.

In short, Shinano's agricultural system is very complete. It can rest in self-regulation without intervention.

Not long after, the first snow of winter in Shinano fell. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. At least it snowed, and there would be no big problem before the spring.

Every household began to prepare for the New Year. Life must go on.

But along with the falling snow, a piece of news came. Because of the messy dispute between Uesugi Terutora and Uesugi Kenshin over the family name. Many people in Kanto began to be confused and shaken, and this matter also affected the people in the small counties of Shinano.

Originally, the people in the small counties respected Uesugi Terutora very much. He was good at fighting, and they were not afraid of being finished if they followed him.

But this year, Uesugi Terutora did not march to Kanto, and some of these people were grumbling in their hearts. Could it be that Uesugi Terutora was stimulated? Was he disgusted?

Then their old acquaintance Sanada Yukinaga took advantage of the snow and the world's peace of war to divide and win over. Half of the people in the small counties actually turned to the Takeda clan, and even Sanada Yukinaga restored Matsuo's 1,200 kan family business.

Takeda Harunobu finally cleaned up the mess in Suruga and immediately turned his attention back to Shinano.

The change of flags in the small county and the half-county meant that the last buffer between Takeda Harunobu and Murakami Yoshikiyo also completely disappeared.

[Note 1]: Due to years of war, people in Northern Shinano were displaced, and in fact many paddy fields were not cultivated. Unlike the long-term stable situation under the rule of Takeda Shingen in Southern Shinano, we cannot wait and see.

[Note 2]: This matter cannot be searched in Baidu Encyclopedia or Chicken Feeding Encyclopedia, and there is no such entry at all. But it is indeed a dry field water conservancy method handed down from ancient Japan. The author learned about it from a Japanese program called "Nakai Master Says".

At the same time, this method is not only circulated in Shinano Province. According to Japanese records, it is actually circulated in Shimotsuke Province and Hitachi Province in Kanto. It was originally developed as an irrigation water source for black bean fields near the hillside. Its history can be traced back to the Nanboku Dynasty, or even earlier.