typeface
large
in
Small
Turn off the lights
Previous bookshelf directory Bookmark Next

Chapter 62 The Mysterious Sakai Town

Honda Yahachiro has become much more honest since he experienced the last blow. During the day, he followed Yamamoto Kansuke to learn city building and management techniques. When there was moonlight at night, he ran outside to read by the moonlight. He studied very diligently and hard. Compared with before,

Kira Mansongmaru is too strong.

"Only this kind of perseverance can become a famous counselor in the Warring States Period!" Kira Mansomaru sighed. He can only admire such a smart, studious and hard-working person. Compared with Honda Yahachiro, his younger brother Honda Sanya can

It was much worse. He followed Takigawa Keijiro to Saijo Bei and hung out all day long. He insisted on learning marksmanship from Gun Hanzo Watanabe Takazuna. When he saw that the young Nakajo Hidetaka had excellent swordsmanship, he

Run over and learn the Nakajo family's art of war.

I don’t know if it was because his careless and carefree character appealed to the Mikawa samurai, but Takigawa Keijiro, an outsider, was quickly accepted by everyone, and even his father Takigawa Masushige also benefited. With the two of them,

He is young, careless and naive, but he looks like a familiar face in Mikawa Samurai.

It is said that Takikawa Keijiro asked Watanabe Takatsuna for a trial match when he first came up. Watanabe Takatsuna did not refuse his challenge. Of course, he was defeated with one shot every time. Every time he stubbornly got up, he was knocked down again.

On the ground, Watanabe Takazuna couldn't stand it anymore and finally told him that although the basics of spear skills were good, it was not enough. He was too young and lacked strength. He would have to practice for a few more years.

Watanabe Takatsuna also told him that the Watanabe family's ancestral spearmanship comes from Kinai. The spearmanship in Kinai is respected by Nandu Beiling. The best spearmanship should be learned at Kofukuji Temple and Enryakuji Temple. I heard that Kōfukuji

The swordsmanship of the temple's treasure house Inei was very famous in the Kinai, so Takigawa Keijiro secretly hid in Yamaoka Zenjiro's absence and begged Kira Manshomaru to take him to Yamato to have a look.

"But my family has no plans to go to Yamato Country!"

"I heard that the beauty of Heijo-kyo in Nara is no less than that of Heian-kyo! My lord, let's go take a look first and then take Princess Katsu around for a tour someday!" Takikawa Keijiro looked carefree and without any thought, and he didn't expect to be able to say something else.

He said such thoughtful words, but he had to admit that this proposal was indeed a good one.

"Okay! It's just this once, we won't do it next time!" Kira Manshomaru thought about it for a moment, and then readily agreed.

"Thank you, Master!" Takigawa Keijiro ran away happily, seemingly to inform his friend Honda Miya.

The Uji River is a tributary of the Yodogawa River and is the only river flowing out of Lake Biwa. It joins the Katsura River that flows through Kyoto and the Sonobe River downstream, and the Kizu River that flows through Yamato Province to form the Yodogawa River.

The Yodogawa River has many tributaries at all levels and the drainage area is very wide. This largest river in Kinki flows through the Osaka Plain along the south-west course, and finally flows into Osaka Bay at the end of the plain.

Sakai Town is located at the corner of Osaka Bay, at the intersection of the three kingdoms of Otsu, Kawachi, and Izumi. Sakai of the Three States became his name. Since the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the shogunate was restored, and Luen Yuan Ashikaga Yoshimitsu paid tribute to Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty.

After becoming a vassal, the joint trade between China and Japan emerged, and this small port in the prefecture rose rapidly due to its unique geographical advantages.

Then, as the Hosokawa family took over the power of the shogunate after the Onin Rebellion, Sakai Town became an important port for the Hosokawa family to control the Kankai trade, injecting greater economic stimulation into the new town, and gradually transformed it into the most important business in the Kinki region.

The port has almost a monopoly on Kyushu, and the economic activities of Western countries through the Seto Inland Sea and Kinai, and its commercial status even exceeds that of Kyomachi in Kyoto.

As the largest port in Kinai and an emerging commercial city, the scale of Sakai Town definitely far exceeds the scale of all castle towns in the Warring States Period. You can feel the strong commercial atmosphere just by being close to the periphery of the city. The entire city was built by a man named Nawu It is managed by numerous autonomous chambers of commerce.

In this era, there were many chambers of commerce organizations similar to Nayashu that controlled cities, such as Uji Yamada Town, Ōminato, Kuwanajuku Town in Ise Country, Hakata Minato in Chikuzen Country in Kyushu, Sakata Minato in Dewa Province, etc. Implementing a similar power structure of joint management and autonomy of chambers of commerce, this kind of organization is also called Huihezhong.

The system of Huihezhong is almost similar to Socun. After the collapse of the manor system in the Middle Ages, some rich farmers in the countryside gradually took control of the land. After the disintegration of the manor system, some landholdings failed to occupy these villages for various reasons. , so the emerging land servants and villagers united to form a self-governing body, and several powerful land servants or farmers were selected to jointly manage the village as Su Lao underground people.

They are also dissatisfied with the management of the shogunate and the king. In order to seek autonomy and power, they often instigate or set off riots. For example, the Dezheng Yikui in the first year of Jiaji was caused by this group of Socun. The Socun group quickly gathered an army of 30,000 people and formed an army. The terrifying power of Toichi occupied the major temples in the Kinai and threatened to burn down all the monasteries and monasteries if the shogunate did not issue a moral decree. At that time, the shogunate happened to catch up with the Kaji Rebellion, and the political situation in Kyoto fell into chaos and was unable to resist, so Somura The group can easily get orders from the government, which also fuels the arrogance of the local people.

The similarity between the Hechong congregation and Socun is that the internal system is exactly the same, except that the relationship between farmers and land servants is transformed into the relationship between small businessmen and merchants, and wealthy merchants. Of course, they will not obey the management of the shogunate and the junior high school. Instead, they pay a fixed amount of "yamo" as a protection fee every year to obtain the power of independence and autonomy. For commercial ports like Sakai Town, it can be regarded as a cash cow, and lords from various places, including the Hosokawa family, do not dare to go too far. Therefore, their status is much higher than that of the Socun Group.

Huihe Zhong not only maintains a high degree of autonomy, but also has its own relevant laws and regulations to deal with various commercial disputes. They also have their own law enforcement agencies to deal with crimes such as fraud, robbery, theft and even homicide. Each member of Huihe Zhong is governed by a resident Merchants in these cities jointly selected them. Most of them were the top wealthy businessmen from all walks of life. This group of people was called "the virtuous".

The autonomous joint meeting composed of these "virtuous people" is responsible for managing the daily affairs of the entire city and settling various commercial conflicts and criminal cases. It is probably similar to the famous federal system. The systems and names are also similar. For example, Uji Yamada is called "Yamada Sanfang", Hakata Minato is called "Twelve-person Nianxingji", Shonai Sakata Minato is called "Thirty-six people", and Ominato is called "Huihezhong" ”.

For example, the name of the association in Sakai Town is Nawu Zhong. You can tell from the name that Nawu is a chamber of commerce organization engaged in earth storage and other industries. In other words, they were originally an organization initiated by warehouse loan and pawn merchants. In the past hundred years of changes, the members of the Nawu clan have changed many times. Old families have declined and new families have risen. The original thirty-six members of the Nawu clan have long since changed. Today, everyone knows that the person in power in Sakai Town is There were ten people in the house, but no one knew why there were only ten left out of thirty-six.

Kira Manshomaru and his party of dozens of people disguised themselves as ordinary merchants and were inconspicuous among the caravans coming from various places. Some wealthy merchants' caravans shouted hundreds of people in front of them, used dozens of ships, and hired a group of people.

There are only a few dozen ronin as bodyguards, equipped with bows, horses, swords, guns and armor, and are more elite than many daimyo's armed forces.

"As expected of Sakai Town, it's really amazing!" Both Kira Mansatsu Marukan and the people around him were deeply impressed by Sakai Town. Sakai Town is indeed very powerful. As a typical city surrounded by sea, Sakai Town

The town is surrounded by many rivers such as the Doi River, Uchigawa, Furukawa, Shukukawa, and Shinhorikawa.

Many of these rivers were dug out by merchants from Sakai Town in order to use the dense river network to shuttle back and forth and improve the speed of commercial activities and freight. It is said that the fastest way to get from Sakai South to Sakai North is to take a bus.

Boats, this shows how much this city relies on water transportation. The criss-crossing river network can be seen everywhere with large and small docks. This is the basis for Sakai Town to maintain its vitality, and it also creates excellent conditions for the development of the city.

condition.

Note: This is also the information that Wu Mei can find after consulting the history of Sakai City and related information. It is not just a random statement.


This chapter has been completed!
Previous Bookshelf directory Bookmark Next