Chapter 605 11. Simple but Cunning

The outcome of this brief confrontation with Nobunaga is not yet clear, but the annual tribute of Kai will be collected!

Not only Kai, but the entire Yamanouchi domain will collect annual tribute, but Kai is the most important. As long as a few rounds of annual tribute and miscellaneous taxes can be collected smoothly, the Yamanouchi family's rule in Kai will be established.

So even though Kai has been through war this year, the Yamanouchi family did not announce the exemption of annual tribute, but reduced the annual tribute by half.

Let the people of Kai know that the dynasty has changed. Although there is still a Takeda Katsunobu, Kai is now a Yamanouchi family. Even the position of Kai guardian, which has been held by the Takeda family for more than 20 generations, has been replaced. The current Kai guardian is Shimotaro.

Nobunaga's matter will be discussed later. Kobayata left Fuchū Castle and went to Kai in person.

Konishihara Saemon's Kai Fuchū Castle was not completely repaired. There was only a hastily restored water moat and earth wall, and even the fireproof shell mortar had not been painted on. There were not enough turrets and watchtowers in the castle, and the palace was only half built.

The defensive power of such a castle is questionable, much worse than the previous Tsutsujizaki-kan. And Takeda Shingen's Tsutsujizaki-kan, which is known as "people are castles and people are walls", was originally the capital of Kai rather than a military castle.

If winter snow falls and the mountain roads are blocked, if something bad happens in Kai, Yamanouchi will be too late to save it and can only stare and watch.

"Why is the progress of repair and preparation in Kofu so slow and so far behind?"

"The situation in the countryside is not stable, and many people have been sent out, so there are not enough people in the castle." When it came to collecting annual tribute, Konishihara Saemon was also in a dilemma. Anayama Meiyuki provided a lot of materials, including wood boards and stones, but there was a shortage of manpower.

Kai was originally a powder keg, and at this time, it did not dare to recruit large-scale civilians, so it could only let the recruited foot soldiers do the work half-soldier and half-worker. Others hired people who were willing to work, but the number of workers was always insufficient.

Especially for projects like rammed earth, a lot of manpower is needed. If you mess around, the earth wall will collapse after a few rains. Now it is not easy to build a circle of earth walls outside the main castle of Gotate firmly.

"If it doesn't work, build a fence outside the city, three or five layers of fences, and don't ask for deep moats, just a shallow trench with a depth of half a room."

"That's fine, I'll do it when the annual tribute is collected!"

"There is another thing. We can exempt the annual tribute that was in arrears in the past, but this year's has been halved. No landowner or petty name is allowed to default. We must be meticulous and collect every penny."

"Just one point, the annual tribute received by the Takeda clan (actually the Anayama clan) seems to be six public officials and four civilians. It doesn't match my family." Looking southwest, that's the direction of Kai Shimoyama Castle.

"As long as there is no riot, it's fine. If there is riot, let him make it bigger and hurt his bones if it is controllable."

"I hope everything goes well. Kai can't cause trouble!"

The two walked and talked, and looked around the earthen wall outside the palace. Kobayata pounded the wall from time to time to confirm that the entire earthen wall was well rammed and there was no problem.

As long as it is well painted with mortar, it can not only prevent fire but also prevent erosion by heavy rain. Kai is obviously blocked by Mount Fuji, but it was hit by typhoons several times in the history of the Warring States Period, and even tornadoes, such extreme and severe climates, are unique.

In addition to being brave and good at fighting, the people of Kai are essentially farmers. The mercenary, cunning and shrewdness of the farmers in the Warring States Period are no different from farmers in other places.

Because when Takeda Shingen was alive, Kai implemented a system of separate taxation for large and small cuts. It was not purely collecting rice, but collecting what the land actually produced to pay the annual tribute.

The retainers of Takeda who were used to collecting taxes were all cut off by Kobayakawa a few months ago, but it was hard for the Yamanouchi family who were assigned to the land.

Originally, some people paid buckwheat, some paid soybeans, and some paid wheat, which was annoying enough. But when the Yamanouchi family inspected the land, they calculated the amount of rice they could produce directly based on the visual estimate.

For example, a certain piece of land actually produced one stone of soybeans. The land inspector estimated that it could produce one stone and two dou of rice, so it was written as 300 coins per mu of crops. In Yamanouchi, where Shinano miso can be produced, one stone of soybeans is a little more expensive than one stone of rice.

Then according to the policy of the Yamanouchi family's five officials and five civilians, the annual tribute was 150 coins of Yongle money (halved to 75 coins), but what they carried was not the rice estimated when they picked up the land, but soybeans!

Okay, let's argue about it. Should the soybeans be converted according to the price of Shinano or the price of Kai?

Moreover, since the Yamanouchi clan generally allowed the people to pay the annual tribute in half, half in money and half in rice, while the Takeda clan allowed the people to pay in kind. The Yamanouchi clan was caught off guard and did not have enough storage to store these annual tributes in kind.

It was really more noisy under Kofu Castle than in a vegetable market!

The Yamanouchi clan haggled over every penny, and the farmers of Kai were also haggling over every penny!

People could quarrel for an hour under the castle because the liters used by the Yamanouchi clan were slightly different from those originally used by the Takeda clan of Kai.

If the Yamanouchi samurai were really upset, they would kneel on the ground and stick their necks out.

Go ahead and chop them! The surroundings were all wealthy farmers of Kai, or the Kai foot soldiers who were once famous in the East. If you chop one of them, thousands of Kai foot soldiers will be armed to collect the bodies an hour later.

Compromise! Compromise again!

Everything is aimed at completing the collection of the annual tribute on the surface!

The people are tough and brave, and all of them have experienced many battles. They are so cunning when paying the annual tribute, and their calculations are more shrewd than those of the merchants in Luoyang.

It is really amazing that Takeda Shingen can subdue these people!

However, no matter how noisy they are, the 1,000 Yamauchi hatamoto standing in the city are still very intimidating. The long bows with strings and the shiny gun barrels all declare the strength of the Yamauchi family.

And Anayama Meixue, whose son was taken hostage to Fuchū Castle, also knew that this was an opportunity to gain the trust of the Yamauchi family. She took the initiative to help the Yamauchi family collect the annual tribute that year, and appeased the local lords and military servicemen in various parts of Kai, so that these wealthy farmers would pay taxes well.

After more than ten days of turmoil, the annual tributes of the four counties of Kyoto, Yasho, Tsuru, and Yamanashi were all collected.

As for the miscellaneous taxes, i.e., the land tax, the dobetsu tax, the dun tax, etc., since Takeda Yoshinobu burned all the books, it was a complete mess. All the money was declared by the property owners themselves, and they said how much was what they said, and it was unknown how much tax was evaded.

In short, the Yamanouchi clan completed the first annual tribute collection in Kai, and the Yamanouchi clan established its rule over Kai.