At this moment, the door to the kendo room suddenly opened! Du Fei quickly retracted his head.
A vigilant Jiumu Changhui was seen slashing at him with a bamboo knife! But when he saw clearly that it was Du Fei outside the door, he put away his sword: "Why are you? What are you doing here?
"
"What's the matter? Master! Do you know each other?" Xiangliang Yiyang looked worried: "You guys chat, I have something else to do."
"Farewell, my lord!" Kumu Choe knelt down and bowed to Sagara Yoshihiro who was about to leave. Since Sagara Yoshihiro had a master-disciple relationship with him, he only had to half-kneel.
Upon seeing this, Du Fei knelt down and watched Sagara Yoshihiro go away. After seeing him go away, he whispered to Kumu Change: "It seems that he trusts you very much, even telling you such a thing."
Jiu Mu Changhui sighed softly, and then said: "This is not the place to talk, come with me!"
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dividing line
Du Fei took a sip of the bland tea brought by Jiumou Changhui, and couldn't help frowning and said: "Although your swordsmanship is superb, your tea making skills are really bad."
"Haha, people who practice martial arts admire simplicity and don't like to pay attention to these extravagant ways. Thank you very much for what happened last time." Jiu Mu Changhui held the small pearlescent eggplant that Elikan gave him in his hand and looked at it with his mouth.
Li kept praising: "What a masterpiece! Even though I'm not good at tea ceremony, I couldn't put it down after seeing it. The master's work is extraordinary and refined!"
Du Fei saw that the atmosphere had relaxed a bit, so he quietly asked about the business difficulties of Xiangliang's family.
I saw Jiu Mu Changhui let out a long sigh, looked at him slowly with sideways eyes and said, "Did you hear it? That's what happened."
It turns out that the business difficulties of the Xiangliang family are no longer a matter of one or two days. Since Xiangliang Yiyang kept building the city and fortifications, you must know that building the city is the most expensive thing in terms of money and manpower. Not only does it cost money, but also
Using a large amount of manpower from their own territory, the Sagara family, which was originally relatively wealthy, quickly became financially strapped.
However, these words alone were not enough to put the Xiangliang family into such a predicament. The most terrible thing was that a fire struck! The outer city was burned beyond recognition, and a large amount of money had to be spent on repairs.
Therefore, in order to get rid of the economic difficulties, Sagara Yoshihiro repeatedly increased the taxes on the people and merchants in the territory. This move of killing the goose and taking out the eggs led to the further deterioration of the situation. Some overwhelmed merchants and people fled the territory of the Sagara family one after another.
Not only did the tax increase fail to increase revenue, but the tax revenue also decreased due to the decrease in population. In Yatsushiro Town alone, one-fifth of the original population of 40,000 households was lost in just a few months.
"It turns out that's the case. No wonder he is so angry about that veteran minister's corruption. But if he just said he would raise taxes again, wouldn't that make the situation worse?"
Du Fei felt a little weird: "You know clearly that increasing taxes will cause people to lose people, so why do you still want to take this step?"
"There is nothing he can do. If he can't even pay the retainers' salaries, the Xiangliang family will soon fall apart. It is said that in order to raise money, the lord sold many of his collections of calligraphy and paintings." Kumu Change's voice
Suddenly he became mute and his head lowered.
At this time, Du Fei felt that his original decision was very correct. He clearly had the opportunity to become a daimyo and own a city, but he resisted the temptation and did not accept it. Because he knew that without strong financial support, even if he owned
No matter how large the territory is, it will be in vain.
The current Sagara family is a living example. Although they have been entrenched in central Kyushu for many years, their business fell into such an embarrassing situation if they were not careful!
Because once you become the lord of a country and a city, you must support a large group of people. To be more precise, you must support at least one thousand to two thousand soldiers, plus those large and small retainers. Of course
If you have any idea, you have to spend money to support a bunch of concubines.
In this way, the monthly tax is really very urgent. Unless it is a big name with an unusually large territory.
This is only when there is no war. Once there is a war, there will be no settlement.
This is why the daimyo in various places are very polite to businessmen, this special class. Businessmen are often very rich. Once these gods of wealth are willing to spend some money to sponsor, the life of the daimyo will be easier.
Du Fei was also thinking about this problem: This is undoubtedly the most difficult time for the Xiangliang family. If he helps them out of the predicament at this time, it will be a huge favor. The Xiangliang family will definitely be very grateful to him.
However, as a businessman, every investment must be pursued in return. Du Fei really can't think of anything that the Xiangliang family can give him in return. The territory is small and the military strength is weak. If it were not for the high buildings and big city, they would have been destroyed long ago.
It went back and forth several times.
Although he was very familiar with Kumu Nagae and got along well with her, it didn't mean that he wanted to throw money into the pit of the Sagara family.
At this moment, the eldest son of the Xiangliang family - Xiangliang Yoshikami hurriedly entered the door: "Oh no, master! The soldiers in the northern camp have mutinized! They say they are dissatisfied with the arrears of their salary."
After hearing this, Kumu Nagae's face tightened, and she hurriedly followed Sagara Yoshin before she had time to explain anything to Du Fei.
Seeing this, Du Fei felt that it was pointless to stay alone, so he followed the two of them away.
He saw the two people in front of him walking awkwardly, so Du Fei had to follow closely, for fear that if he missed a step, he would lose his way again.
I only heard a burst of noise not far ahead, mixed with a few crisp sounds of smashing things.
I saw hundreds of people gathered in front of me. The soldiers had thrown away their bamboo hats. They all yelled at a few officers who looked like men. Some of the bad-tempered ones even started to push their officers.
Around them, some Xangliang women holding spears began to gather, and a mutiny was about to light the fuse!
"Stop!! ---" Kumu Choe shouted! At this time, dozens of his disciples from the Shinin Sashin-ryu also arrived, and together with the Sagara women's clothes in the inner city, they surrounded the troublemaking soldiers.
But those soldiers did not flinch because they were surrounded. The leader, a big black man with a hairy face, took up a high position and shouted at Jiumou Changhui: "Master Jiumu! Although we admire your swordsmanship,
But if the lord still doesn’t give us an explanation, we will immediately switch to other daimyo! Why are we owed half a year’s salary? We must give us an answer today! Brothers! Do you think so?”
The hundred and ten people immediately shouted loudly! Some even picked up their own weapons and confronted the women's clothing crowd surrounding them.
Seeing this scene, Du Fei couldn't help but secretly sweat for Jiu Mu Changhui. This kind of situation is the most difficult to deal with. If he is cruel, he may anger other soldiers and a small mutiny will turn into a big mutiny. But if it happens again and again,
Be patient, the excessive behavior of these soldiers who were carried away by anger will still cause other people to be restless.
"Let Sagara Yoshihiro say a few comforting words!" Du Fei quietly came forward and whispered to Jiumou Changhui.
But Shijiumu Changhui seemed not to hear it. His facial expression was a little stiff and his lips were moving constantly, as if he wanted to say something but had not made up his mind to say it yet.
Forget it, help them. Du Fei couldn't bear to watch his old acquaintance endure this kind of suffering for a long time, so he suddenly hit the big drum used for the performance in the yard with his hand!
The sound of the drum was shaken by Du Fei and his tyrannical hands, and suddenly there was a deafening loud noise! Those people who were jumping and making noise immediately closed their mouths and tightly covered their hands that were stinging from the shock.
ears.
Du Fei's face suddenly became serious: "Everyone! Who just said that he would switch to other famous people? Leave your name! Put down your weapons! You can leave now! But I want to tell you a piece of news, the salary will be distributed tomorrow night!"
Everyone was stunned, including Jiumu Changhui. The soldiers who made trouble suddenly felt regretful: they were about to pay out money and they were falling out with their master at this time.
The happiest people were the women in uniform, because they also had no salary for three months. If they had not served the Xiangliang family for generations, they would probably have joined the troublemaking soldiers.
Du Fei stared at everyone closely and guessed clearly what they were thinking at this moment: "As soldiers of the Xiangliang family, you must be locals? Your wives, children, parents are all here, and you actually said that you want to join us
Other daimyo!! So will you one day follow other daimyo to attack your hometown?"
None of the soldiers who made trouble had anything to say. Firstly, the money matter was settled, and secondly, Du Fei's words were quite penetrating and directly hit the vital points in their hearts.
The big black man stood up again: "Sir, we don't mean to cause trouble, but we still have to support our family. If there is a drought this year, if I don't send money back, my family will starve to death." After saying this, he actually choked up: "
As people from the Higo Country, of course we will not switch to other people! We are just saying angry words. We are not the kind of people who would betray their masters for a little money, but when the salary is paid, we have to give it to us anyway.
Explain!"
As soon as he finished speaking, other soldiers began to complain. The tense situation suddenly eased.
"Don't worry, everyone! This delayed salary payment is definitely an accident! Something like this will never happen again!" Du Fei's words made the soldiers happy, and some of them even cheered loudly.
Jiu Mu Changhui, who was stunned, reacted at this time, leaned close to his ear and said: "Don't be too harsh, be careful as your skin will be blown, and it will be more troublesome to clean up!"