In the Yonezawa Basin in the Ou region of Northeastern Japan, known as the Snow Country, the most comfortable summer of the year is finally ushering in. There is no trace of white snow in the mountains around the basin, they are all green.
At this moment, Uesugi Tsunakatsu, the lord of the Yonezawa Domain, stood on the castle tower of Yonezawa Castle, a shabby town located in the southern part of the basin, and looked around. What he saw was also an illusion of wealth... The Yonezawa Basin is certainly wealthy. Yes, although the climate here is cold, the snowfall in winter is even more terrible. The snow is enough to bury the house! But the melted snow can also fully nourish the snow in the basin, making the Yonezawa Basin a prosperous land rich in rice.
In addition to the sweet and delicious Yonezawa rice, Yonezawa Kuroge beef is also a rare delicacy. The meat is soft, tender and plump, and it also has beautiful frosty oil flowers. It is definitely a rare and delicious meat in Japan.
However, these two specialties are of little value to the Uesugi family, the famous samurai family that rules the Yonezawa Basin. Japanese nobles in the Edo period did not like to eat meat, and it was difficult to sell any beef. No matter how delicious Yonezawa rice is, its output is only so small. Yonezawa Domain's stone height is only 300,000 koku. Although through a series of self-deceptive reforms, it claims to have an actual output of 510,000 koku, this is just an excuse to increase exploitation.
The standard for farmers in Japan to pay tribute rice is six to the public and four to the citizens, or five to the public and five to the citizens! In other words, if a farmer works with his back to the sky for a year, the theoretical output will be 50% to 60%... and Japan is not a country with few people and wide land. It has many mountains and few plains. The land suitable for cultivation is very limited. So if we really have to pay 50% to 60% of the actual output, how will the farmers live?
Therefore, Japanese farmers also have to pay some expenses and hide the yield of their fields as much as possible so that they can have more food.
When it comes to "benevolent kings" with large territory and few retainers, such as those close to the Tokugawa family, most of them turn a blind eye to this kind of thing.
But the farmers in the Yonezawa area were unlucky. They met the Uesugi clan, a famous samurai family who was in decline... When Uesugi Kagekatsu was the boss of the monkey family, he was a famous man worth 1.2 million koku! As a result, he was on the wrong team in the Battle of Sekigahara and was severely beaten by Tokugawa Ieyasu, whose seal was reduced from 1.2 million koku to 300,000 koku. Under such circumstances, Uesugi Kagekatsu wanted to be the "best employer", refusing to lay off employees until death, and moved all 6,000 retainers to the large Yonezawa domain to live a hard life.
Divide 300,000 shi by 6,000, and each family has exactly 50 shi... The actual income is 30 shi after a 40% discount. It would be enough to eat if divided equally, but the problem is that it is impossible to divide it equally!
There are superiors and inferiors among the samurai class, so how can we practice egalitarianism? Moreover, there are many necessary expenditures for the domain finance! From time to time, the shogunate would give some jobs to the lower sects, and also instituted a particularly expensive system of handing over and attending court meetings. The lords, heirs, and important ministers of each lord had to travel between Edo and the main sect! Without these necessary supports, how much income can Yonezawa have to support 6,000 retainers?
This is not 6,000 people, but 6,000 samurai families. How can we afford to support them without increasing exploitation?
Therefore, the Uesugi family, a famous samurai family, no longer needs the reputation of being benevolent and caring for the people, so let's exploit them as hard as possible! Through hard development (actually inspecting the land), the stone height was finally reached to 510,000 stone! The annual tribute collected every year has reached more than 300,000 koku... But no matter how hard the Uesugi family tried, they could not get rid of the hat of "Japan's poorest feudal lord"!
Japan is the poorest!
The Uesugi family, a famous samurai family, once owned the Sado Island gold and silver mine. The extremely wealthy Uesugi family had been famously poor for three generations during the Keian period of the Edo period!
Three generations are the poorest in Japan!
How poor are the Uesugi family? So poor that they don't even have debts... Are they considered poor if they don't have debts? It depends on the situation. The Tokugawa clan has no debts now. Tokugawa Iemitsu still left 6 million taels of savings and lent a lot of debt to the feudal lords below. Of course, he is not poor.
But the situation of Uesugi Tsunakatsu, the third generation lord of the Yonezawa clan, who has no debts, is completely incomparable with Tokugawa Iemitsu... He has no debts because he is the poorest in Japan, so no one is willing to lend to him!
This is like being on the blacklist of dishonest people since he was born, and his Huabei quota will always be zero. How poor he must be!
Uesugi Tsunakatsu, who never dared to expect to be in debt in his life, finally withdrew his gaze from the rich countryside of Yonezawa Basin, sighed softly, and then heard one of his nicknames say: "Lord, lunch is ready , it’s the same as yesterday’s dinner and lunch, rice, natto, green vegetables, pickled plums...and Yonezawa Kuroge beef.”
So poor! Tsusakatsu Uesugi sighed. Because he was poor, he, the feudal lord, never had any good food. Almost every meal was a "Wagyu set meal"!
Even when he went to Edo to visit the shogun, he had to bring Yonezawa rice and pickled Kuroge Wagyu beef, and he even said he loved the food of his hometown...
The younger man said again: "My lord, Takeda Genzaemon is here."
Hearing his name, Uesugi Tsunakatsu actually laughed: "Haha, this poor guy Takeda is here again!"
The man who came turned out to be a poor man too! And he was also from a poor family. His Miao name was Takeda, and he was born in Koshu. He was the great-grandson of Takeda Shingen, the Tiger of Koshu who always opposed Kenshin during the Warring States Period. His name was Takeda Shinji. Genzaemon, on the other hand, is a "common title for pretending to be an official", which is a title used by samurai to increase their worth.
Although Takeda Shinji comes from a famous family, he is just a 1,000-koku sergeant now and cannot boast too much. I can only pretend to be a gatekeeper, and I can brag so miserably!
It is precisely because Takeda Shinji had such a miserable life that Uesugi Tsunakatsu particularly liked him - look, the descendants of Takeda Shingen, who once fought life and death with Kenshin Gong, are so poor... Japan Could it be that the lord of the First Poor Domain, Tsusakatsu Uesugi, was in a bad mood?
No matter how poor he is, he is still the Lord of the Yonezawa Domain!
So Uesugi Tsusakatsu immediately asked someone to prepare another "Wagyu set meal" and some rice wine, so that the unscrupulous descendants of Uesugi and Takeda could drink wine and eat Wagyu beef, and then brag about their ancestors together.
But when Uesugi Tsunakatsu saw the sneaky look on his good friend Takeda Shinji's face, he was a little stunned.
What bad thing did Takeda do again? Why do you have such a nervous expression?
"My lord, see you, Takeda Shinji!" Takeda Shinji's voice was a little low, as if he was suppressing it on purpose.
"Oh, Takeda Genzaemon, what's wrong with you?"
"My lord, please retreat to the left and right. I have something important to tell you."
Important matter?
Takeda Shinji was in charge of intelligence work in the Yonezawa Domain - because there was another lineage of the Takeda clan that was granted the title of Gao family by Tokugawa Ieyasu and served as an official in Edo. In addition, Hoshina Masayuki's adoptive mother Mitshoin was Takeda Shingen's daughter. Due to this relationship, several members of the Takeda family also served as retainers under Hoshina Masayuki, so Takeda Shinji was relatively well-informed.
Uesugi Tsusakatsu dismissed the people around him, and then looked at Takeda Shinji.
"My Lord, His Highness has passed away!" Takeda Shinji immediately reported a big news.
"What? Dead?" Uesugi Tsunakatsu frowned, "Is there going to be a funeral?"
You have to follow the rules when hosting a funeral! No money!
"My lord, the shogunate decided not to announce the funeral secretly and concealed the death of Duke Iemitsu for three years!"
Fortunately...Uesugi Tsunakatsu breathed a sigh of relief. Let's not worry about it in three years!
"Lord," Takeda Shinji said in an almost fanatical tone at this time, "the world is going to be in chaos! The opportunity to restore the homeland of Lord Kenshin and Lord Shingen is coming!"
"Nani?" Uesugi Tsunakatsu didn't seem to understand, "Takeda Genzaemon, what did you say?"
"Lord, the world is going to be in chaos! The opportunity for the Uesugi family and the Takeda family to revive is coming!" Takeda Shinji said urgently and quickly, "Emperor Kobuin will fight back to Japan soon. The Uesugi family and the Takeda family will We can definitely use this opportunity to regain our homeland, and you will no longer be the poorest in Japan!"
