Chapter One Thousand and Thirty-Five: Five years of longevity, horse-breeding Sukeichiro, poor Japanese countrymen
"Sukeichiro, come here to eat porridge!...Have you not finished feeding the horse yet? Oops! How can this big Jurchen horse eat so well?"
"Well, Chief Watanabe. This Jurchen horse is very strong, even stronger than the owner's deer hair! It probably weighs a thousand kilograms, which is equal to ten people. It must eat enough for ten people every day.
There are twenty or thirty pounds of grass beans!…”
"Buddha! This horse actually weighs a thousand kilograms? Can it eat twenty or thirty kilograms of grass a day? Gee, it's almost twice as much as a Honshu horse, right?..."
"Yes! It is twice as heavy as a Honshu Kiso horse, and it eats more than twice as much! It can eat twenty or thirty kilograms of grass a day, and drink forty or fifty kilograms of water. And eating grass alone is not enough, I have to at least feed it
It has two kilograms of dried soybeans or dried peas... This food is better than any other in the village! Fortunately, this time I came out, I had already prepared to raise the big horse, and I brought more bean feed..."
The simple stable, built of wood, dead branches and leaves, stands beside the small glacier for easy access to water. It is almost the best building in the entire camp. And a tall Jurchen horse, and two smaller horses
The Yakut snow horses are kept separately in warm stables.
The strong Jurchen horse occupies the center of the stable. It has already shown its majesty and has driven the two snow mares to the corner so that it can monopolize the small stove where the horse breeder feeds. At this moment, it is lowering its head.
, chewing a mouth full of soybeans, squeaking and chewing. When he saw Watanabe Masumi walking by, he just glanced sideways, snorted disdainfully, and then flicked his tail with a "pop"
, urging Sukeichiro to continue.
"Hey! This arrogant guy, look at me with provocative eyes...Buddha! If Murakami hadn't stopped me, I would have had to give you a good ride!..."
Watanabe Masumi licked his lips and looked greedily at the tall horse. He was once a general of the second family, a direct descendant of the samurai family of the Ryuzouji family, and naturally he also rode the Kyushu horse in Japan.
, Kiso horse. However, compared with this majestic Jurchen horse, those short and domestic horses are like ten-year-old children. Compared with twenty-year-old adults, they are not even worse than one or two.
"Buddha! Two hundred years ago, when the evil Yuan invaders invaded, did they ride such strong horses? By the way, in "The Mongolian Attack Paintings", there were such tall and galloping war horses! There was also a difficult resistance in it.
, the Kyushu warrior families who suffered heavy casualties..."
"Huh! Thanks to the blessing of the Buddha and the power of the divine wind, the evil Yuan Kou was buried in the sea of blood in the Nine Netherworld! ... And the Lord Shao'er's family was granted the title of shogunate by virtue of his military exploits in resisting the Yuan Kou.
Zhenxi followed, succeeded Dazaifu Dazai Shao Er from generation to generation, and even developed from the guardian of Higo country to Chikuzen, Bunzen, Hizen, Higo, Iki, Tsushima... enough to protect Kitakyushu of the six countries!..."
"Ah! A real hero should ride a big horse, wield a sword, kill evil spirits, and achieve great achievements! Then he should boast about his family name, establish a legacy for generations, bully powerful people from all over the world, and be worshiped and respected by future generations!..."
Thinking of this dusty history, Watanabe Masumi's eyes flashed, and he felt unstoppable desire and envy in his heart. It seemed that once he made up his mind to return to secular life, those ambitions for fame, delusion, and greed could not be stopped. From his ordinary life
Years of memories popped up in my mind. However, when I think about the current head of the Ryuzouji family, I think about my fierce and ruthless brother...
"Blessed by Hachiman Bodhisattva! Stop, stop!..."
Watanabe Masumi pursed his lips, prayed in a low voice, and shook his head with a wry smile. Then, he sighed, grabbed two handfuls of soybeans, and fed the other two Yakus amidst the dissatisfied sneeze of the big Jurchen horse. A special little mare is coming.
"Hey! You can't ask for a big horse, you can't ride it... But even if you ride such a medium-sized horse, it is much better than a small horse!..."
"Well…"
Seeing this scene, the horseback group leader Sukeichiro opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but he didn't dare to speak.
He was an ordinary villager in Ezo. Although he worked hard to become the leader of a horseback group with his ability to raise horses. However, the gold content of this horseback group leader was far less than being able to command a group of Korean sailors. He decided to Masumi Watanabe, head of the Sailor Group for cargo procurement.
The Oyizaki family is full of calculations, but they are just a powerful local man with five thousand koku and a large number of people in the country. And he, the so-called leader of the horseback group, does not have a single samurai under his command. To put it bluntly, he is just a senior horse breeder!…
Therefore, in front of Watanabe Masumi, who seemed to have a good family background and a wonderful court background, Sukeichiro couldn't raise his head at all and shouted loudly or said something. After a moment, he could only lower his head and whisper Two reminders.
"Forage leader Watanabe, although there is a lot of soybeans on the ship, the winter here is still here. After the snow, it will be difficult to collect forage, and the horses are a bit picky... The precious soybeans and peas must be kept close to the big The horses eat first!… As for the two snow horses, they are accustomed to the climate of this snowfield and can eat lichen, moss and grass roots, so they don’t have to worry about going hungry…”
"Um?"
Hearing this euphemistic admonition, Watanabe Masumi, a monk soldier, narrowed his eyes and looked stern. He slowly fed the two handfuls of soybeans in his hands, and then lovingly touched the necks of the two snow horses. The two snow horses Ma also came close to him, licked Masumi Watanabe's face, and purred twice in a friendly manner.
"Law, law!"
"Ha! What a good horse that understands human nature! Sure enough, the Chinese horse is better than the big horse, and it is also easier to get..."
Watanabe Masumi smiled happily, then turned his head and glanced at the horse breeder Sukeichiro, who was bowing his head. He looked at the other person's respectful smile for a while, said a low "hmm", and then took back his hand to feed the horse. , asked aloud.
"Sukeichiro, are you familiar with these large and medium-sized Yamata horses? How many years have you raised horses before?"
"Uh... Captain Watanabe, I have been raising horses with my master since I was twelve years old. I have been raising horses for sixteen years! At first, I raised Kiso horses from Honshu. Later, my master got old and could no longer raise horses, so I I’ll take charge of the owner’s good horses…”
"Hey! I started raising you when I was twelve years old and have been raising you for sixteen years...you are only twenty-eight years old?"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Hearing this, Watanabe Masumi's eyes widened. He looked ten years younger than himself, but looked at Sukeichiro who was just as old, and couldn't help but shake his head. Feeling.
"Buddha! It looks like raising horses is really hard work!..."
"Yes! A horse eats and drinks dozens of kilograms a day. You have to feed them from early morning to midnight, and stay with them as much as possible. In addition to feeding them, you have to trim their hooves, take care of their skin and hair, and clean them every day. Horse stables, repeated training of running commands...those meticulous tasks are always busy and endless. It's not easy to get old if you don't get a long sleep in one day!"
The horse breeder, Sukeichiro, smiled and said he was tired, but there was no hint of complaint on his face.
"But! No matter how tiring it is to raise horses, the whole family can still have enough to eat. In winter and spring, the old beans that the horses don't like to eat can be brought back to the family for sustenance... This is much better than the villagers in the village who eat leaves, grass and roots.
pinch!…"
"Uh! The old beans that horses eat? The villagers who eat leaves, grass roots?..."
Hearing this, Watanabe Masumi, a monk soldier, touched his nose and didn't know what to say. He knew that what Sukeichiro said was right. The Japanese people did have a long tradition of eating leaves, bark, grass roots, and even insects.
This is of course not because of the delicious food, but because the taxes in the countryside of the Warring States were too heavy, almost four or five times that of the countryside of the Ming Dynasty. "Five publics and five citizens" and "six publics and four citizens" actually collected 70 to 80% of the tax.
That is a very common thing! And there are few paddy fields in the fields, and the output of dry fields and mountain fields is very low. If you don't eat these, you will definitely starve to death. If you eat them, you may starve to death two years later, or die from poison...
"Hey! Buddha bless you!..."
As a former samurai who collected taxes from the villagers, the monk Watanabe Masumi lowered his eyes, prayed to the Buddha, and changed the subject.
"Sukeichiro, I can see that you are a good horse breeder! How much stipend can you get per year for raising horses for the Oyizaki family?"
"Well, Bodhisattva is merciful, and the master of the house is also very kind! I have twenty dan a year, and I can get some old beans that horses don't like to eat, which is enough to feed me and my two younger brothers! Sanlang still has a future, of course
The samurai who has become a squire also has ten stones..."
"Well, twenty shi? Is it twenty shi per salary, or twenty shi per land?..."
"Captain Watanabe, are you kidding me? How can I, a horse breeder, get a salary of 20 kilograms? That is a treatment only for superior samurai..."
"Oh! It's twenty stone to seal the land, and that's 40% of the salary, which is eight stone of rice... If one mouth is one and a half stone a year, it's really barely enough for five people... No, there are three men in your family who can eat.
Parents, wives and children, how can this little rice be enough?"
"Uh... Leader of the Watanabe group, I haven't married yet, my father died early, and my mother can't eat much... The family plans to keep the money and rice to give to the most promising Saburo, to say that he will be a good samurai family! Maitreya Buddha will bless him!
…”
"...That's it!..."
Listening to the hardships faced by the people of Japan, Masumi Watanabe blinked his eyes and said nothing. Then, he glanced at Murakami Kitichi, who was not far away, concentrating on making porridge, and asked softly in a lowered voice.
"Sukeichiro, you will raise horses for the Uyizaki family, and this will be the case for the rest of your life... But if you come here and raise these big horses from the north for the adults in the temple... I can make the decision on behalf of the big merchant Morino Kiyoshi, and I promise you at least
Five times the salary, 40 shi!…”
"Ah?! Maitreya Buddha! How...how many?"
“40 shi of salary, 100 shi of land!…”
"hiss!…"
Hearing this unbelievable number, the horse breeder Sukeichiro took a breath of air and was speechless. Until he finished feeding the soybeans in his hand, the Jurchen horse bit his palm twice in dissatisfaction.
Then he suddenly came to his senses and hurriedly took out the last handful of soybeans.
"Sukeichiro? How about it? As long as you agree to come, the rest will be done by the big business owner Morino Kiyoshi of course!..."
Watanabe Masumi, a monk soldier, smiled and looked at the trembling horse breeder Sukeichiro, who was trembling with his head down. Sukeichiro was trembling, and after feeding all the beans, he pursed his lips and looked at Watanabe, who looked confident.
"Watanabe...sama..."
"Um?"
“Kowtow to Maitreya Buddha, thank you!…”
"Um…"
"I...I can't agree..."
"Um!…"
Monk soldier Watanabe stared at the horse breeder Sukeichiro with his eyes wide open. The other man shrank back and trembled all over, but his voice gradually became firmer.
"Blessed by Maitreya Buddha! I have to stay at home... I still have my mother and two younger brothers, under the care of the master of the house... I have to give my brother a good daughter from a samurai family. The master of the family has already agreed! As long as I go to sea this time
If I go back alive, let Murakami-kun help me negotiate a deal!…"
"A good daughter of a samurai family... rose from commoner to samurai..."
Monk Soldier Watanabe pursed his lips and did not speak for a long time. For these lowest-level villagers, being able to become a samurai in their own hometown and obtain a samurai family status truly changed their class and changed the fate of future generations!
In comparison, working in a strange foreign land, no matter how much salary you get, you are just a horse breeder, and you will still be a humble commoner until you die...
“Buddha bless you!…Okay!…”
After thinking about all this, Monk Soldier Watanabe shook his head slightly and stopped trying to persuade him. He reached out his hand and patted Sukeichiro heavily on the shoulder. He smiled faintly at the uneasy look in his eyes.
"Sukeichiro, you've finished feeding your horse, and Murakami's venison porridge has been cooked! Let's go and eat meat porridge together! Haha! This is really good stuff. You've probably never cooked delicious Yue rice.
