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Chapter 46 The advent of ancient evil (Part 1)

Sawara is a small vassal state that has existed for at least six hundred years.

Due to the unique geographical conditions, this place has always been a place that is difficult to conquer and unlikely to expand externally. Therefore, the successive feudal lords of Sawara have always adhered to the concept of staying in a corner and only wanted to protect their own three-acre territory.

The external regime changes had minimal impact on Sawara. Although the shogunate did send people to contact them, in most cases they only needed to express that they "know and recognize who the new general or emperor is."

What? You asked them if they don’t have to pay tax?

This matter is a bit complicated to explain. To sum it up in one sentence: from the Kamakura shogunate to the Muromachi shogunate, and even to the later Tokugawa shogunate... taxation has always been a huge problem facing the Japanese government.

Think about it, the ancient Central Plains dynasties often encountered various problems in taxation when their farming industry was relatively stable, their currencies were basically unified, their transportation was relatively developed, and their imperial power was strong...

In a place where the country is basically mountainous, agriculture is not that developed, not to mention the currency, even the language is a bit confusing, and the daimyo feudal lords in various places even have their own land tax enfeoffment rights, their shogunate can operate outside the territory they directly control.

How much tax will be collected?

If you have the time to collect taxes, you might as well spend it on foreign trade, and you might earn more.

In short, for the people living in Sawara, it makes no difference whether it is the Kamakura shogunate or the Muromachi shogunate outside, as long as they don't disturb them and live their own lives.

The rule of the Sahara family here has therefore lasted longer than many dynasties.

In the library of the feudal lord's residence, you can even find some documents describing local folk customs and legends during the Heian period. Some of the records themselves were written by ancestors of the Sawara clan and were kept as "family secrets" and

Other documents are kept separately.

And the source of these "secrets" seems to be the most incredible "first paragraph" of the record, which roughly tells this story...

This happened more than five hundred years ago.

That year, natural disasters had occurred in the Sawara area since the beginning of the year, resulting in a sharp decrease in the output of crops during the autumn harvest. Seeing that winter was approaching, there was a food shortage in the domain. The then domain lord Masahiro Sawara quickly sent a transport team with a fortune

Go out for food.

But because several nearby vassals were also affected by the disaster to varying degrees, even if they were willing to exchange some grain for Sawara, the price would be ridiculously high, and the amount that could be exchanged in the end would not be enough, so the transportation team could only go as far as the distance

Go to distant feudal lords to exchange for food.

And it took them more than half a month to leave.

Half a month later, the transport team finally arrived near Sawara just before winter arrived, but at this time another snowstorm that had never happened in a century came...

Heavy snow closed the only road into the domain, blocking the transportation team from Sawara.

Although Sahara Masahiro in the domain had consciously saved a certain amount of grain reserves as early as the end of summer to prepare for emergencies, it was obviously still a drop in the bucket to allow the entire domain to survive the winter.

In this way, Sawara ushered in a terrible winter.

In the beginning, when people still had food left at home, they still had at least some energy to go out and pick up some firewood in the cold wind every day to ensure that there was a fire in their homes to keep warm.

However, as the days passed and the food became less and less, people gradually realized that they would not be able to survive the whole winter if this continued, so some people ventured out to sea to fish in this bad weather... But no one went out.

One can come back alive.

After another half month, just when the people had almost eaten their own food and the food reserves distributed by the feudal lord, the blizzard that had been slowly weakening unexpectedly ushered in a second wave.

Within three days, almost everyone in the domain had to hide in their homes without even firewood, shivering, enduring the double torment of hunger and cold.

By the middle of the twelfth lunar month, countless people had died of cold and starvation in the Sawara Kingdom. Even the family of the feudal lord, the Sawara clan, could only eat one meal a day, with only a few mouthfuls of porridge and a few pieces of dried fish.

days.

In this case, it is not difficult to imagine what will happen next.

When survival faces a crisis, order will inevitably collapse.

If it were you, if you saw your family, your children... suffering from hunger, crying to you that they are so hungry, and their bodies getting weaker and colder, would you still care whether you could commit theft or robbery?

Not to mention stealing or robbing, when the time comes, I'm afraid you will even dare to kill people, or even cannibalize them.

In that era when both materials and technology were underdeveloped, the damage a natural disaster could cause was so terrifying.

At this time, Sahara Masahiro, who was seeing his domain turning into a hell on earth... finally went crazy in despair.

Already in desperate situation, he began to pray for the power of ghosts and gods.

One night, he secretly took his little boy, who was less than a year old and had not even been given a nickname, from his wife's pillow. Then he put on his fur cloak, hid the baby boy in his arms, and braved the wind alone.

Snow came to a valley in the domain surrounded by mountains on three sides. There was water in the mountains, the water was up to waist level, and it looked like a lake but not a lake.

Because of its secluded environment, this valley has always been used as a place for worship activities within the domain. There is a shrine in the center of the valley. However, this is not the kind of shrine that people can enter and exit. Instead, it occupies a small area and is built on shallow water.

, a sacrificial seat specially used for worship.

The ponds in the valley were all frozen at this time, but Sahara Masahiro was good at martial arts. He held a light and stepped on the ice, and the whole journey felt like walking on flat ground.

Before arriving at the shrine, Masahiro Sahara put down the lantern, and took out the baby who was already weak from the cold from his arms. He looked at his little boy with a determined look, and then coldly held the baby with both hands.

He raised it high above his head, in the dark night where the wind and snow were flying.

"I Sahara Masahiro, I am willing to dedicate this son to you!

"If there are ghosts, gods, demons and Buddhas in heaven and on earth who can save me, Zuoyuan, I can take them!"

He shouted these few words with a trembling voice, but the roar was covered by the sound of wind and snow, and it did not spread far even in this valley terrain.

In the dark night, he stood like a strange, skinny tree, and the little lives held on its branches were rapidly withering away, and he didn't even know if there was any point in doing so.

"If you rescue me, please protect me, Sahara Masataka. After today, every twelve years, my Sahara clan will be willing to give you a son, and you can take his flesh, blood, spirit, and soul!"

Perhaps he felt that he did not have enough bargaining chips with ghosts and gods, so he did not receive a response. A few seconds later, Sahara Masahiro added this sentence.

Unexpectedly, just as he finished speaking, the change actually happened...


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