Looking at the small bowl of porridge on the ground in front of him, Ogata let out a long sigh.
Whispering softly:
"I really want to eat meat..."
Although Ogata is a samurai, his life is actually very hard.
In terms of living standards, they are not as good as some farmers.
Although the samurai were the ruling class of the Edo period, there were actually many levels of samurai.
The most senior samurai is naturally the shogun.
During the Edo period, Japan's nominal national leader was the emperor, but the de facto supreme ruler of the country was the Tokugawa shogunate.
The samurai who were one level below the shogun were the daimyo of each domain.
The so-called "vassal" can be understood as the fiefdoms of vassals, and the senior warriors who ruled these vassals were called "daimyo".
During the Edo period, the "shogunate feudal system" was pursued.
The shogunate system is a system established by Tokugawa Ieyasu that is jointly ruled by the shogunate and the vassal state.
Under the shogunate system, the shogun is the supreme ruler of Japan, and the shogunate is the highest political organ of the country.
The shogunate ruled the vassal states across the country. The rulers of each vassal were daimyo and were loyal to the shogunate. The shogunate implemented a system of alternating visits to them.
The daimyo still had great independence, and they had administrative, judicial, military and taxation powers in their own territories.
To use a vivid metaphor - the shogun is similar to the Chinese Emperor Zhou, who is the lord of the world.
The names of each vassal are similar to the princes who were entrusted by Emperor Zhou, and they have extremely high autonomy in their respective fiefdoms.
The shogun directly controls a quarter of the country's land.
The other three-quarters of the land were all entrusted to the daimyo.
Even lower than the daimyo were the samurai who had no fiefdoms.
Even the warriors without fiefdoms were divided into quite a few levels.
Ogata is a relatively low-level samurai.
Ogata is a junior samurai of Hirose Domain.
Hirose Domain is a domain in the Izumo region. It is a small domain with a small fiefdom and no sense of presence nationwide.
Ogata can only receive a salary of 50 shi per year.
A stone is a unit of volume.
The so-called annual salary of 50 koku means that Ogata can receive 50 koku of rice from the feudal government every year.
One stone of rice is probably enough for an adult man to eat for one year.
It sounds like Ogata's annual salary is very high. The rice he receives every year is enough to feed 50 adult men for a year.
However - in fact, Ogata's salary is so low that he may not even be able to support a family of three.
Because Ogata still needs money to buy daily necessities such as firewood, rice, oil, and salt.
Therefore, he must use his wages, that is, this pile of rice, to convert them into money.
If you exchange rice with a merchant for money, you will inevitably be subject to price reduction by the merchant.
If you go back and forth like this, it will be difficult to feed a family of three with only 50 kilograms of rice.
However, because both of Ogata's parents died, he was the only one left in the family.
Therefore, if one person lives alone, a salary of 50 koku is still enough for Ogata to survive.
It's just that--it won't be a life that's too nourishing.
Ogata basically had to eat gruel for three meals a day.
If he doesn't eat gruel every time, Ogata may be in danger of starving to death...
Struggling on the line of food and clothing - this is a portrayal of Ogata's life as a lower-level samurai.
Although even if Ogata is rich, he can't afford meat.
Because ancient Japan didn’t eat meat at all.
You can't buy meat even if you have money
Among the ancient Japanese recipes, the only ones that had anything to do with meat were fish-based aquatic products.
It would not be until more than half a century later, after the founding of Japan at the end of the Bakumatsu period, that the Japanese would gradually begin to eat meat.
…
…
From moving the chopsticks to putting down the bowl and chopsticks, Ogata only opened his mouth 4 times.
I only opened my mouth 4 times and finished the small bowl of gruel.
After eating the warm porridge, the torturous feeling of empty stomach slowly dissipated.
Although I no longer feel hungry, I also don’t feel full.
After eating, Oujiang fell into a state of doing nothing.
This is the Edo period, the end of the 18th century.
Naturally, there were not many entertainment activities for Ogata to entertain himself.
Although if you insist on having some fun, you can still find many pleasant things to spend the night in this day and age.
But these pleasant things, without exception, require a lot of money.
Ogata, who lived in a poor family and could only rely on gruel for every meal, naturally could not have the money to go to any rich "nightlife".
Ogata, who had nothing to do, simply sat in a corner of the house holding the only two valuable things in his house - his two knives, staring at the empty home in a daze.
After inexplicably traveling to the Edo period, Oconi competed in three sword duels in succession. His nerves were always in a state of high tension and he had no time to think about other things.
Now that I'm home and have nothing to do, my nerves that had been tense have gradually relaxed.
As soon as his nerves relaxed, all kinds of strange thoughts popped up in Ogata's mind one after another.
"Why did I suddenly travel to Japan's Edo period..."
Ogata murmured in a low voice at a volume that only he could hear clearly.
Before traveling to the Edo period, Ogata's memory was fixed on the scene of him reading in his study.
Ogata likes reading, especially historical books, and is very interested in European history.
Although I love European history, I also have a certain understanding of Japanese history.
Ogata only remembered that he was reading a book in the study. He suddenly felt sleepy while reading, so he closed the book and lay on the table to take a nap.
When he opened his eyes again, he came to the Edo period and became Ogata Yoshi, competing with others in the Sakakihara sword hall.
Ogata didn't even know whether the era he was living in now was the Japanese Edo period on earth.
The era he lives in now is a parallel world, or the Edo period of Japan in another earth - it is not impossible for this kind of thing to happen.
However, according to the memory in his mind, the historical development trajectory of the era he is currently living in is completely consistent with the historical development trajectory of the Earth's Edo Period.
It was Tokugawa Ieyasu who won a great victory in the Battle of Sekigahara and established the shogunate in the Edo area, bringing Japan into the Tokugawa shogunate era.
This year is the first year of Kanzheng. If we change it to the AD calendar, it is 1789.
The "Tianming Famine" that caused countless casualties had just passed not long ago.
The currently reigning shogun is Tokugawa Ieashi, the eleventh generation shogun who just took the throne.
All the memories about history that "Ogata Hara" brought to Ogata are completely consistent with the history of Japan that Ogata learned from books on Earth.
Judging from all the information currently known - the era Ogata is currently living in should not be the Edo Period in a parallel world.
But this conclusion is not absolute.
After all - maybe something will happen tomorrow that is completely inconsistent with the history of Japan recorded in books on Earth.
How did he travel through time, how did the system in his brain come about, and whether the era he was in now was the Edo era in the parallel world - after thinking about this question for a while, Ogata decided
gave up.
Because these questions are all things you are thinking about, and you may not be able to think of a reason for them.