Ah Man looked at him speechlessly for a while, then turned to A Qing and complained, "Did he get kicked in the head by that donkey again? I told you ages ago to butcher that donkey and eat it, but you wouldn’t listen, you just had to keep it at ho... Now the dung beetle’s rolling poop, we’re dood, he’s been kicked completely stupid!"
A Qing tilted her head slightly, also not understanding why Harano wanted to do this, but she didn’t care about the Samurai status at all, could have it or not, lowered her eyelids and said nothing.
Harano ignored Ah Man’s crazy talk, looked at Maeshima Shichiro, and politely asked, "Maeshima... or should I call you Lord Maeshima? What do you think about this?"
If Maeshima Shichiro insisted on not giving up his Samurai status, then Harano could only give him a large severance package and see him off with full honors.
Maeshima Shichiro was very hesitant, but if not for Harano, he’d still be a re clerk in the Oda Family. He’d never really been a proper Samurai, and given his honest, simple nature, he wasn’t as worked up as Ah Man—he just hesitantly asked, "Um... Your Highness, if I’m no longer a Samurai, then what am I? Am I... a commoner?"
"You’ll be a Wanjin citizen," Harano replied directly. "Consider yourself one of the first citizens of Wanjin!"
"Citizen?" Maeshima Shichiro mulled over the word. He was well-versed in Sinology and knew it ca from the book Han Feizi, originally aning "a person who serves the country," different from "the private followers," emphasizing obligations to the state rather than rights.
As for the distinctions between "duty-based" and "rights-based," "personal attachnt" and "personal independence," "passive obedience" and "active participation," "ethical community" and "contractual community," he just couldn’t grasp them—in fact, neither could Harano, who was just imitating what he’d seen done elsewhere, simply feeling that it was the right thing to do.
Maybe, soday in the future, he’d have a sudden epiphany and realize why he had to do this, but not now. For now, he was learning by doing, feeling his way across the river by touching the stones beneath his feet.
He might trip and fall, but he’d still move forward; anyway, it was better than standing still.
Maeshima Shichiro was the sa: he understood so things, not most, but even if he didn’t fully understand, he didn’t want to leave Wanjin. He was respected here, paid well, never needed to use privileges anyway, and had zero interest in things like practicing swordplay on passersby, gathering a Lang faction, or getting a stipend or land.
As for passing on special privileges to his descendants... that was all way too far off for him.
He hesitated for a while, then gave in, lowering his head. "If this is your wish, Your Highness, then... though I am unworthy, I am willing to beco... a Wanjin citizen, and serve... the country."
"Welco, Mr. Maeshima," Harano switched to a more respectful title and smiled. "And don’t worry—nothing else will really change, everything will go on much the sa. Besides, if you like, I can even give you number 001 when we make the first Wanjin ID cards."
"Your Highness, you better keep number one for yourself!" Maeshima Shichiro forced a smile and didn’t change his address for Harano. Probably still unsure about the whole situation, suspecting, like Ah Man had said, that Harano was having another wild idea or making a fool of himself—as an Oddity, this was exactly his style, and even Oda Nobunaga wasn’t much better than him.
Having settled things with Maeshima Shichiro, Harano turned to Ah Man: "Ah Man, what about you?"
"Whatever, do what you like with your damn ideas!" Ah Man was no longer a Household Retainer and couldn’t care less about her words anymore, and said maliciously, "If you don’t let be a Household Retainer, I’ll have to re-negotiate about you marrying A Qing in the future. As the eldest sister, it hasn’t been easy raising her—she’s put through a lot, so you’d better compensate again."
She didn’t actually care about being a Samurai; living with Harano, being life-and-death companions, the title ant nothing in the end. She was eating off Harano and there was nothing he could do about it—she’d saved his pathetic life, was nearly turned into a pin cushion for him, so living off him for life was only right.
"Get lost already!" Harano, business concluded, didn’t bother being polite with her. His and A Qing’s romance was "true love," and besides, A Qing’s nearly hitting 1.6 ters was all his doing, nothing to do with Ah Man—if Ah Man hadn’t always stolen her food, A Qing might be taller still.
Ah Man flipped him the middle finger, got up and left, but after a few steps suddenly thought of sothing and turned around: "We’re easy, you can ss around however you want, but what about Princess Dog’s three Yoriki Warriors? Are you going to make them give up their Samurai status too? Should I call them over now?"
"No, wait until the order’s officially issued," Harano shook his head. "Just be ready—if anyone objects, throw them into Atsuta port, no need to be polite."
Ah Man and A Qing were insiders, Maeshima Shichiro was an old subordinate—privileges for them went without saying. For everyone else, it didn’t matter; if they didn’t want to comply, send them away, if they dared make trouble, tie them up and throw them out, and if they really started sothing, well, a killing or two was no big deal.
"Got it!" Ah Man agreed and left, not needing any special prep. The three Yoriki Warriors who’d co with Princess Dog were already under close watch—one order and they’d be tied up, no problem at all.
......
Harano finished off the last Samurai in Wanjin, then t with Endo Chiyoda, Izumi Hichiji, Otai, Stone Bodhisattva, Qi Sanlang, and other middle and senior officials and officers; after consulting with them, he officially announced the Wanjin Equality Order, along with regulations like the Household Registration Act, Wanjin Personal Property Protection Act, Wanjin Property Rights Administration asures, Wanjin Abolition of Corporal Punishnt Notice, Contract Law, Employnt Managent asures, Education Act, and other specific statutes.
Of course, all these had been independently drafted by Wanjin’s new "jurist," Harano, then supplented by Endo Chiyoda, Izumi Hichiji, and others before being imdiately implented on a trial basis. Overall they were extrely rough, with loopholes everywhere, but at least the basic frawork was there, and the rest could be filled in and anded over ti.
Everything’s hard at the beginning—anyone who thinks they can get it all right in one go is a pure idealist, and those types never get anything done.
And so, with decrees rolling out like sumr rain, for a mont, Wanjin’s... didn’t quake—nothing much happened at all. Other than Princess Dog’s three Yoriki Warriors being escorted off by Ah Man, Wanjin remained calm and peaceful.
Harano had been undermining Wanjin’s feudal personal dependency from the start—apart from Ah Man and A Qing, who weren’t even real Household Retainers, he didn’t even want to keep a Lang Faction, so he’d always been Wanjin’s sole Lord, sitting atop the feudal loyalty chain.
Now, proactively renouncing his "arbitrary killing rights" over everyone, openly declaring "I will respect and protect everyone’s lawful property; including myself, no one can arbitrarily dispossess another," and since this process didn’t hurt anyone’s interests, of course there was little opposition.
Nearby Samurai Daimyo—mainly Oda Nobunaga and Matsudaira Mototaka—didn’t comnt either, really couldn’t be bothered. Even after Harano expelled the Yoriki Warriors sent by Oda Nobunaga, Oda Nobunaga didn’t so much as fart, probably thinking he’d gone nuts again.
Likewise, since Harano had never casually seized commoners’ property before, most of Wanjin’s people simply didn’t notice these "epoch-making" decrees. No one fell to their knees or wept, singing Harano’s praises as a living saint or anything like that.
Harano waited with bated breath for trouble, but wound up waiting for nothing. anwhile, Ah Man, no longer a Household Retainer, reverted to her old ways—at breakfast, she roasted him rcilessly for being a simpleton always doing pointless, exhausting things.
But she actually started hanging out with the Wanjin Army more, and often reminded Harano to keep an eye on them, afraid he might even relinquish control of the military—so long as the Wanjin Army stayed under his hand, she didn’t care what else he did. If things went off the rails, she’d lead the charge and slaughter all the troublemakers: problem solved.
Totally not bothered at all.
She had pretty good crisis awareness, while Harano just thought she was full of crap—he never intended to democratize the military anyway. After all, power cos from the barrel of a gun, he’d heard that since he was little. The military, no matter what, had to follow his orders—the army didn’t need brains, just needed to follow commands.
After spending nearly three months patching together all kinds of legal odds and ends, he finally mashed out a barely two-finger-thick Wanjin Civil Code, then began shoving Endo Chiyoda and others around again, refining the governnt structure, subdividing departnts finer and finer.
Little by little, Wanjin stopped looking like a Samurai clan domain—and started to look quite bizarre.
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