Japan's terrain is mountainous, multi-river, multi-hilly, and densely forested. Except for a few plains, even the official roads are rugged. Sometimes it is necessary to use boats to transport people to the other side. It can be said that doing business in this era is both dangerous.
And hard work.
Fortunately, the first half of the journey was relatively smooth, and there were no bandits or bandits blocking the way. After successfully selling several batches of goods, Boss Shimada made enough money for the trip, and no matter what circumstances he encountered in the future, he would not suffer any losses.
Because of the risk, he privately summoned the gangsters and signaled that if they encountered a large group of thieves who could not resist, they could give up the goods and protect everyone before they could escape.
Boss Shimada's worries were not unreasonable. At this time, they had arrived at the former Kai Country, the hometown of the young ronin Jujiro Yoshimatsu. Thirteen years ago, a peasant incident that shocked the world occurred here, and the mountainous Kai grain
The output was extremely low. The harsh policy of the shogunate, which imposed six out of ten taxes, made it difficult for all farmers to survive. No family could produce a bushel of surplus grain. In addition, a once-in-a-century "cold summer" occurred that year, resulting in widespread grain harvest failure. The shogunate
Not only did they not open warehouses for relief, the local Fengmachi office colluded with wealthy merchants to raise the price of rice to more than 10 times the usual price!
Villagers who really couldn't survive, and city vagrants and ronin who couldn't bear it, jointly attacked the merchants of Kofu Castle and looted the rice valley. Seeing the riots getting worse, the panicked shogunate immediately summoned the Numazu Domain of Suruga Province and the Takato Domain of Shinano Province and sent out a large army to suppress it.
, bloodbathed these rebellious villages and ronin. Countless people had to hide in the Kai Mountains and became bandits, making a living by robbing passing merchants and travelers. Coupled with the more serious unrest in Osaka next door, the bandits have not decreased at all in recent years.
, on the contrary, it grew stronger and stronger, causing the strange phenomenon in the mountains called "there are more bandits than trees".
Fortunately, most of the bandits were gradually wiped out by the shogunate in more than ten years, and what was left was mostly a few, a dozen, or at most a few dozen people. Unable to bypass the caravans here, most of them chose to join forces
Get up and be protected by the ronin hired by each family. In this way, the weak bandits dare not take action easily, while the powerful bandits are afraid of losing both sides, so they usually negotiate and leave some property as "taxation".
Peace and quiet until the next chaotic area repeats the process again.
In fact, there are almost no peaceful places on the journey from Kai to Harima. The only difference is the degree of chaos...
At this time, everyone in Shimadaya was together with the other three trading companies, guarded by more than twenty ronin. Sure enough, it had been a day since they entered the Kai Mountain area, but they still had not encountered any looting.
Over the past few days, several ronin in Shimada House have become very familiar with each other, including Goro Nagamoto, who was scared to death. He discovered that Kazuha Sorayama was not the legendary demon king who took pleasure in killing people. In fact, he felt that this master swordsman
He is extremely well-educated, walks silently, eats silently, and sleeps silently... No matter how bad the food and accommodation conditions are, he frowns at most and does not make any special requests. He will pay at his own expense if he is replaced by this person.
My lord, you have already abandoned the caravan and gone on your own.
What he didn't know was that Kazuyo Sorayama didn't want to! But as far as he knew, the places he passed were still under the direct control of the shogunate, and the military forces of the various vassals along the way were strong. Only after passing Harima could one enter those vassals that looked like daimyo.
In addition, since I have no access to the road, I would never be able to find the remote accommodations I pass by. The most important thing is that there is no way to supply supplies except hunting wild animals, but how good is our Master Kongshan's killing skills?
, the level of cooking is so poor, even the wild dogs would probably not care about the meat he grilled...
The sun always sets very quickly in the mountainous area, and there is no possibility of a hotel here, so everyone found a flat mountain space to put their goods and prepare to spend the night in the wild. This is also a common thing on the way to business. The items in each business house
The preparations are quite complete. In fact, they are just iron pots for cooking and some mats spread on the ground. As for the most dense bamboo forest in Wanchui Mountain, you can easily use materials from anywhere.
Honmura Shannan, the leader of the ronin who was experienced in wild survival, took Jujiro Yoshimatsu, who was familiar with the terrain, to hunt nearby, hoping to catch one or two wild game to improve his food. At this time, the meat ban was already in name only among the people. In fact, even that unlucky man
The former shogun Tokugawa Ieyaki himself also liked pork. Not long after, the two returned to the camp happily with two pheasants.
The sun had completely set, and everyone gathered around the bonfire with half-filled bamboo tubes filled with white rice. They ate delicious pheasant soup and pickled vegetables. Kazuha Sorayama sat in the darkness away from everyone with his own portion of food.
Everyone along the way has long been accustomed to his unique approach.
Just after finishing half of his meal, Kongshan Yiye's ears twitched, and suddenly he heard vague footsteps coming from the distant mountains and forests. He used his senses enough to find that a team of no less than a hundred people had appeared in the jungle around several commercial houses.
He put down the bamboo tube, picked up the tachi and walked to the fire where several ronin were sitting around and kicked Nagamoto Goro who was eating sweetly. Seeing Sorayama Kazuha's behavior, the ronin leader Motomura Shannan immediately reacted and asked in a low voice vigilantly.
"Is anyone here?" Ichiyo Sorayama nodded.
Honmura Shannan whispered: "Jujiro, go and investigate and report the situation immediately; Wuro, inform each business house one by one to prepare, and the rest of the people will follow me!"
Several people came to the Shimada House together and gave a brief introduction to the situation. At this time, Jujiro, who went to investigate, said with a worried look: "The situation is not very good. There were no less than fifty people in the direction when they came. So,
With the behavior of those bandits, we should have been surrounded by now. It seems that several groups saw that we were outnumbered, so they joined forces to make a deal. Damn it."
"Have you seen clearly what weapons they have?" "Most of them don't have swords, but they hold bamboo spears. They insist on fighting. There are more than 20 masters and all the young men from the four trading companies adding up to more than a hundred people. It's not like we don't have them."
Odds of winning.”
"What is supposed to come will come eventually." Boss Shimada sighed, "If you can negotiate, try not to do anything. No matter the outcome, you will die if you do it! If the killing goes too far, I'm afraid it will arouse the anger of all the bandits nearby.
, then we will not be able to take this trade route now or in the future. If there is nothing we can do, we will leave the goods and run away. Do you understand?" The guys in the business house nodded repeatedly, and several ronin looked at each other, and they were very happy.
I agree with Boss Shimada, after all, no one wants to die!
Not long after, several merchants who learned the news joined forces and temporarily added several bonfires, illuminating the mountainous clearing brightly. Everyone used the carts carrying goods as city walls to hide in the circle, and the wanderers raised fires.
Knife in hand, watch out for the darkness around you.
Seeing that the caravan was heavily guarded, the bandits gave up the idea of a sneak attack. After a whistle resounded throughout the mountains, countless torches suddenly lit up all around. There were at least fifty torches in each direction in the four directions of east, west, south, and north.
It turned out to be no less than two hundred!
Everyone in the business house illuminated by the fire was shocked. If the number of people is equal and they still have the courage to fight, in this era, even the trading company clerks who have no martial arts are not good people, and they will more or less make a few gestures; but compared with
We have twice as many bandits, so resisting them is a dead end?
There was a smile on Kazuyo Sorayama's mouth under his mask. Bandits are not all stupid people!
He can be sure that this group of bandits will never exceed a hundred people. They can deceive people with torches, but they can't breathe. They must have inquired about the detailed number of people in the caravan in advance, and found that they were not sure of winning, so they simply tried a trick. If
If we can successfully get several trading companies to keep their goods, they probably won't choose to take action. Maybe someone will come out to negotiate soon...
"Hey, merchants inside, listen, our heroes in Gulu Mountain always only seek wealth and not life. The leader promised that as long as you keep your money and goods, you can all leave." As expected, an unusually rough voice came.
.
The owners of the four commercial houses looked at each other. Finally, Boss Shimada bravely shouted: "My dear fellows, the shogunate has forced too much. It is not easy for us small merchants to travel. There are also young and old in our families who need money to support us. I think
How about each family leaving some belongings..."
"No! Didn't you hear what I said? Either leave all the items and let you go, or stay with everyone!" The bandit responded domineeringly, leaving no room for bargaining for the merchant.
Boss Shimada responded bitterly: "Hero, please give us some time to discuss." Seeing that his threats were effective, the rough and arrogant voice shouted proudly: "Okay! But the leader said, if within a moment,
If you are still hesitating, then we will make a decision for you, do you hear it, it will take a quarter of an hour."
Among the several merchants, Shimadaya was the only one who didn't care much even if he lost all his goods. However, in the general situation where everyone had to advance and retreat together, he could only follow everyone's actions.
Although one of the bosses had a trembling voice, he said in a very firm tone: "No, absolutely not! This batch of goods is a usury loan I borrowed from the government at a risk of my life. If I lose everything here, I, I might as well die here."
, Anyway, if you go back alive, you will be forced to death by the government!" "Oh, I don't agree to keep all the goods. There was no such rule in the past. Have the heroes in the mountains changed?" "Shimada-san, what do you think?
?”
Boss Shimada did not answer, but looked at the ronin leader Motomura Shannan and said: "Motomura-san, why not send someone to negotiate with them? We are willing to give away a certain amount of goods in accordance with the rules, but it is not feasible to keep them all. You can say
Be more tactful."
As a ronin, of course you have to respect your employer's wishes. Although he didn't agree very much, he still nodded: "I will go with Jujiro, but there is no guarantee that we can persuade him. After all, the other party has many more people than us, so everyone must do a good job.
Prepare for a bloody battle. The bosses had better take valuables that are easy to carry with them. Once they are killed, it is more important to save their lives first..."
Everyone looked at Ronin with hope, it was up to him whether he would fight or make peace!