Harano fell silent. These days, hardly anyone really knew the value of "beneficial insects and birds." Even if people had a vague guess, they wouldn’t dare be sure. Hell, even he, the one who started all this, couldn’t truly confirm that the "empty ear disease" spreading across the entire Ise Peninsula had anything to do with him.
But so what? As they say, "The righteous don’t manage money, the kind don’t command troops." Whatever, let’s just say he did it!
All he needed to do now was stay put. Just by staying here, he could tie up a huge portion of the Hokitate Family’s forces, stop them from putting their full strength into suppressing the peasant uprising. And as more bellies went empty, more people would rebel, further draining Hokitate’s power, making it impossible for them to gather their whole army and kick him out.
Not to brag, but ever since "empty ear disease" broke out on the Ise Peninsula, he’d felt this fight was already won. Even though the Hokitate Family could muster over ten thousand troops, and maybe even twenty thousand if they joined up with neighboring daimyo, small daimyo, and local strongn, he’d still already won.
Sure, it wasn’t the prettiest victory, but war’s about winning, about real profits, not about saving face. Whether it looks good or not is totally irrelevant.
Of course, he definitely needed ti to gather troops and supplies. After all, he wasn’t here to rob the place—he intended to stick around for the long haul. And that takes proper manpower and food.
At the very least, once he took over the territory, he had to provide disaster relief. He couldn’t really be such a badass that, as soon as he showed up, all those starving rebel peasants would just switch sides grinning from ear to ear.
And besides, this was also to avoid making the sa mistake the Imagawa family did.
Back then, the Imagawa family sent their navy for a surprise attack on the Oda Family’s rear, seizing Kanie Castle—a sheer stroke of genius. But in the end, it did jack shit—because those four or five thousand troops landed all right, but with no grain and not enough supplies, the hungry soldiers had to loot the countryside themselves, so there was no way to push straight to Qingzhou City or Shimazu Port, and they ended up skulking back ho in disgrace.
So, to avoid starving his n until they were useless in a fight, Harano had to build himself a solid rear base before making any big moves. If sothing went wrong and Wanjin couldn’t ship supplies here in ti, he’d be up a creek for sure.
Harano had been preparing for this fight for a long, long ti, so he saw no point in listening to Ah Man, this lunatic who’d co running back out of nowhere, yamring on. When he finished what he was doing, he switched the subject, eyeing her strangely: "Hey, I’ve been aning to ask—aren’t you hot?"
Ah Man had run back in such a hurry, still in full Ainu getup, lips painted an inky purple-black. Although she’d ditched the "bear head hat," she still had a black fox fur slung around her neck—looking weird as hell, and genuinely flashy.
It was late sumr, over thirty degrees, and Harano felt like he was being tortured just by having to wear armor—anwhile, here was this weirdo in a fur coat...
Ah Man was hot, too, but she’d finally gotten her hands on this "treasure." Not showing it off would kill her more than anything, so she wiped the sweat from her forehead and struggled on. She even proudly displayed the fox fur to Harano: "I’m not hot. This fur’s not normal—it’s warm in winter, cool in sumr. Look at this color...see how it shines black? And when I stroke it, it turns purple! Aweso, right? Shows you have no taste. I’m telling you, if I sold this at Atsuta Port, it’d go for at least a thousand kan. Normal people can’t even dream of wearing it!"
Harano gave it a good look. Even for a modern guy who’d seen plenty, he had to admit this fox fur was gorgeous—shiny as ink, with those violet hues flickering in the sunlight. He could call it "rippling and shimring, gleaming like a jewel." Worth a thousand kan was a stretch, but three to five hundred? For sure!
He told the truth: "This fur’s not bad. If you get more, bring them back."
"As if! I was on Yakushima Island for over a year and only got this one piece!" Ah Man caressed the fur with obvious affection, watching its bright purple sheen and feeling it had all been worth it—even almost driving that old hunter Zapinon crazy, or sweating buckets in the sumr.
"If not, forget it." Harano didn’t really care. After all, Wanjin only needed fur for making armor—he wasn’t interested in luxury furs himself. In a place with 186 days of rain a year, muggy as hell, and an average temperature over twenty-four degrees, only soone like Ah Man would choose to wear fur.
"You’re not getting this fur, since I only have one. But I did get a batch of beauties on Yakushima—I’ll let you have a few later!" Ah Man wouldn’t hand over the black fox fur, but since Harano was different from the average guy, she was still willing to toss him a little benefit.
Harano was speechless. In a sense, he was currently Ah Man’s brother-in-law, but here she was, his sister-in-law, offering him concubines... Even in ancient tis, that’d be a bit much.
He hurriedly refused: "Forget it, just spare , I... really don’t need any."
"Man, you really don’t know how to enjoy blessings, but you love to suffer!" Ah Man didn’t seem surprised, just glanced at Harano’s lower body and shook her head, feeling that the cri-committing "tool" was totally wasted on him. If she’d been born with it, she’d have had the ti of her life.
No longer a retainer, this wild kid is getting more and more outrageous. Shouldn’t have kicked you out to begin with!
Harano cursed Ah Man a few tis inwardly, then, not wanting to continue this topic, changed it up: "So, you ca back and brought a few furs and so dog head gold—nothing else?"
"That godforsaken Yakushima, if I got a few good furs and so dog head gold, I’d call it a win. What else could you want?" Ah Man did bring gifts back—she’d given Harano a chunk of dog head gold about the size of a human head, traded for three sets of iron armor and a good blade from an Ainu tribe.
But as soon as she said that, she started rummaging in her pockets, suddenly excited. "But hey, I found sothing even rarer. Check this out."
"What is it?" Harano was intrigued.
Ah Man didn’t answer. She pulled out a little bamboo tube from her pocket, stuck a wide bamboo node to one end, poured so crumbled leaves from a small leather pouch into it, and then got out her tinder box to light it up.
Harano froze, dumbstruck. This... this looked awfully familiar!
Ah Man was nimble, easily lighting the crushed tobacco in the bamboo joint. She took a deep drag through the bamboo, and then exhaled two long white streams from her nose, eyebrows drooping, looking thoroughly blissed out: "Siiiii~~~"
Harano’s face twisted—he almost split apart.
You little maniac. Drinking and gambling weren’t enough, now you’re smoking, too?
You’ve really got so talent. You never learn a single good thing, but when it cos to bad habits, you’re a damn genius!
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