"Sukeichiro, come here to eat porridge!...Have you not finished feeding the horse yet? Ouch! How can this big Jurchen horse eat so well?"
"Well, Watanabe is the leader. 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 local 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, when I came out this time, 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, stood beside a small glacier for easy access to water. It was almost the best building in the entire camp. A tall Jurchen horse and two smaller Yakut snow horses were nestled 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 into the corner so that it can monopolize the small feeding stove of the horse breeder. At this moment, it was lowering its head, chewing a mouth full of soybeans, crunching and chewing slowly. When it saw Watanabe Masumi walking by, it just glanced sideways, snorted disdainfully, and then flicked its tail, 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, the monk warrior, licked his lips and looked greedily at the huge horse as tall as a person. He was once a general of the Shao Er family, and he was a direct descendant of the samurai family from the Ryuzouji family. Naturally, he also rode Kyushu horses and Kiso horses native to Japan. However, compared with this majestic Jurchen horse, those short and domestic horses are like ten-year-old children. Compared with twenty-year-old adults, the difference is not even a little or two.
"Buddha! Two hundred years ago, when the evil Yuan invaders invaded, did they ride such strong horses? By the way, there was such a tall and galloping war horse painted in "The Mongol Attack Painting"! 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 majesty of the divine wind, the evil Yuan Kou was buried in the sea of blood in Jiuyou! ... And the Lord Shaoer'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 for generations, and even developed from the guardian of Higo country to the guardian of 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, overwhelm the powerful 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 stop coming out of his heart that had been dull for many years. 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!..."
Masumi Watanabe pursed her lips, prayed in a low voice, and shook her head with a wry smile. Then, he sighed, grabbed two handfuls of soybeans, and fed the other two Yakut mares amidst the dissatisfied sneeze of the big Jurchen horse.
"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, Ichiro, the leader of the Maji team, opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but he didn't dare to speak.
He was born as an ordinary villager in Ezo. Although he worked hard to become the leader of the horse team due to his ability to raise horses. However, the gold content of this horse crew leader is far inferior to that of the sailor crew leader Watanabe Masumi who can command a group of North Korean sailors and decide on the purchase of goods.
The Oyozaki 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 horse training group, doesn't 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, Suichiro couldn't raise his head at all and yelled or said something. After a moment, he had no choice but to lower his head and whisper a few reminders.
"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 fodder, 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 used 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, the monk warrior Watanabe Masumi narrowed his eyes and looked stern. He slowly finished feeding the two handfuls of soybeans in his hands, and then lovingly touched the necks of the two snow horses. The two snow horses also came close to each other, licked Masumi Watanabe's face, and purred twice in a friendly manner.
"L-Law!"
"Ha! What a good horse that understands human nature! Sure enough, the middle horse is better than the big horse, and it is easier to get..."
The monk warrior Watanabe Masumi smiled happily, then turned his head and glanced at the horse breeder Sukeichiro, who was bowing his head. He looked at the respectful smiling face of the other party for a while, said a low "hmm", then took back his hand feeding the horse and 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 became 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?"
Hearing this, Watanabe Masumi's eyes widened. He looked at Sukeichiro, who was ten years younger than him but just as old, and couldn't help but shake his head with emotion.
"Buddha! It looks like raising horses is really hard work!..."
"Yes! A horse eats and drinks dozens of kilograms a day. You need to feed them from early morning to midnight, and stay with them as much as possible. In addition to feeding them, you also need 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 bean paste that the horses don't like 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. I don't know how much better it is. pinch!…"
"Uh! Eat old beans that horses eat? Villagers who eat leaves, grass roots?..."
Hearing this, the monk soldier Watanabe Masumi 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", "six publics and four citizens", and even the actual tax collection of 70 to 80% are all very common! 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 you may die of poison...
"Hey! Buddha bless you!..."
As a former samurai who collected taxes from the villagers, Watanabe Masumi lowered his eyes, prayed to the Buddha, and then 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 head of the family is also very kind! I have twenty dan a year, and I can get some Chendou ingredients 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..."
"Hmm, 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 twenty dan? That is the treatment only a superior samurai gets..."
"Oh! It's 20 shi to seal the land, and 40% of the salary is eight shi of rice... If one mouth is one and a half shi per year, it's really barely enough for five people... No, your family has three men 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, saying he will be a good samurai family! Maitreya Buddha's blessing! …”
"...That's it!..."
Listening to the hardships faced by the people of Japan, Watanabe Masumi blinked his eyes and remained silent. Then, he glanced far away at Murakami Jidong, who was concentrating on making porridge not far away, and asked softly in a low 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 stone stipend, 100 stone to seal the land!..."
"hiss!…"
Hearing this unbelievable number, the horse breeder Sukeichiro took a breath of air and was so stunned that he couldn't speak. It wasn't until he finished feeding the soybeans in his hand and the Jurchen horse bit his palm twice in dissatisfaction that 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 horse breeder Sukeichiro, who was trembling with his head down. Sukeichiro shivered and finished feeding all the beans, then 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 widened. The other party shrank and shivered, 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 an agreement!…"
"A good daughter of a samurai family rises from a commoner to a samurai..."
Monk Soldier Watanabe pursed his lips and didn't speak for a long time. For these lowest-level villagers, being able to become a samurai in their own hometown and obtain the family status of a samurai would truly change their class and change 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's blessing!...Okay!..."
After thinking about all this, Monk Soldier Watanabe shook his head slightly and stopped trying to persuade him. He stretched out his hand, patted Sukeichiro's shoulder heavily, and smiled faintly in the other's uneasy 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. Have eaten it!…”
(End of chapter)
