Chronicles of The Hardships of Komachi in The Sengoku Era

It took a little effort and manpower to refine the sugar. So Shizuko decided to ask the villagers who seemed free to help her with the work.

Finely crush the sugar cane stem and squeeze the juice, to which is added oyster ash made by baking oyster shells and other shells as a precipitation aid.

Then the supernatant of the liquid made of impurities precipitated is removed and boiled to make crystals.

In modern times, further enrichment is carried out through centrifuges and the like, but neither such equipment nor substitutes are available in the warring world.

(You can do it if you make it bike-like... but whoever turns it would be hell...)

It would be possible if you turned it around with force moves, but you don't need to do that and it's not worth the effort.

Because even brown sugar falls into the category of luxury goods enough for the Warring States.

"Mayor of the village. This juice is so sweet."

"It's too much to drink. When the quantity drops, the innkeeper gets mad."

Shizuko replies bitterly to the squeeze-licking peasant grunt.

From time immemorial, liquor and sweetness were treated as offerings to God, and ordinary people could not speak for themselves because of rare things.

Even if done, sweetness does not extend far to sugar and honey with sweet (Amazura) frying juice, water candy, persimmon frost, etc.

Nevertheless, unlike salt, sweetness such as sugar was not a necessity seasoning for life.

Since fruits were even more common as sweet snacks, pure sugar was closer to a preference.

(Surely sugar was used to exaggerate power or something?

During the Warring States era, sugar could not be produced in Japan and relied on imports from abroad.

The quality and colour of sugar is unknown, but in the Muromachi era, it was priced at 250 sentences for a kilo of sugar (about 675 grams), which makes it a fairly luxurious product.

So having a large quantity of sugar can let you know that there are connections overseas and that you have huge assets.

"Something's getting sticky, village chief."

"It's about time. Please replace it with the container provided."

If you evaporate the moisture and cool and solidify the concentrate, you can make brown sugar.

When coarse heat is taken from the liquid that is sequentially poured into the mold frame, it is later transferred to a cold place like a natural refrigerator.

Unlike upper white sugar, brown sugar, which contains minerals, is as nutritious a sweetener as honey if you calculate your intake.

(In case you think about it, you want to keep some sugar)

Seeing the sights poured one after the other into the mold frame, Shizuko thinks about how much to keep.

Basically, sugar is not an essential nutrient. Rather it is better for your health to live without taking it.

Because energy as pure "sugar" can be consumed enough with rice and miso.

So the use of sugar becomes "medicine" all the time.

In fact, sugar has the properties of taking away moisture contained in foods and the like, thereby reducing the activity of micro-organisms.

It seems like a joke when it comes to treatments for applying sugar to the wound, but there is a proven track record that American doctors have achieved a certain effect when they have tried it for seven years.

The reason for this is that the sugar absorbs moisture, so bacteria growth is suppressed and natural healing of the wound is not inhibited.

The best is supposedly granulated sugar, but brown sugar can do enough.

It's not luxurious enough to use it that way, but I wanted to possess it to some extent just in case.

(It is true that Tosa's (Kochi prefecture) ex-parents of Nagasobe (Kabe) gave Nobunaga Oda thirty kilograms (about 19 kilograms) of sugar in the "Lord Nobunaga". Considering that, I wonder if the amount of dedication should be about three kilos)

There was someone who spoke to Shizuko who was thinking about it.

"Dear Shizuko, may I have a moment?

It is colour. She couldn't keep up with her head comprehension and had been silent until now because she couldn't grasp the timing, but she was finally able to grasp the opportunity.

"What? If it's sweet, I'll make it for you later?

"That's not why! Since when have I become a cannibal!?

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry. So, what is it?

Dishonorable lettel affixed and outraged colors, but coughs small to regain calm.

She said this with enough voice to only be heard by Shizuko.

"It was said to be sugar... but which juice was in that mold frame is sugar? I saw it once, but it felt like powder.

"Ah......"

Brown sugar is easy to say, squeezed sugar cane, boiled, chilled and hardened.

I guess the boiled liquid along the way didn't tie in my head that it was really sugar for color.

"After that, if it cools and solidifies, it'll be the sugar Cai knows about. You know cooling the water makes ice, right?

"It's... yes"

"Same as that. Now that it contains water, it just looks like juice. If the water falls out, it'll be powdered sugar that Cai knows about."

"Really?"

"Well, there's actually a finer manufacturing process, but this is the limit for me as an amateur on a boulder."

Shizuko is shy of her head, but it was a great word for Colour at the point where she could refine the sugar in the first place.

Colour looks again at the frame being carried into the dark.

I couldn't visually guess how much, but I was sure it would still be a fortune.

Cai doubted his head that the place where he was sent was actually different from the world.

"I wonder if my last offering of the year will be dried soy, brown sugar, then dried persimmons, etc. Cai, make sure you know when to take the stuff around there."

"... Yes"

"Well, I don't have any tools for brown sugar, and I'm not used to making it, so I was wondering if it's a little less. We need to increase the refinement rate from next year."

I also understood the colors that needed to be reported, but the problem was the amount of offerings.

I don't know how much brown sugar I can do, but Shizuko doesn't seem to think I can do that many.

What we're finding now is twenty-five dried persimmons, fifty dried shiitake mushrooms, and two hundred kilos of soybeans.

(I hope they don't get mad at me for reporting this...)

Colour haunted my mind for a while about how to report, especially since there was too much soy.

Then about a week later, by the time I was finishing refining brown sugar and putting it in the kettle, Nobunaga sent me a circular.

The contents were that Shizuko as well as Colour would come to the castle and send escort soldiers to carry this offering.

It was a long time before Shizuko went to Nobunaga's castle because he had left it to Cai these days.

Having left after all the preparations, the two arrive at the castle with nothing to do on the road.

Shizuko was forced to change into her outfit every time, making her look familiar, but this time she was not left alone for a long time.

Nobunaga showed up in an hour or so. With a little surprise, Shizuko greets him one way.

"This offering is very clear."

Best of all, Nobunaga said that to Shizuko with a small grin.

Shizuko is flabbergasted by the sudden compliments, but Nobunaga doesn't mind continuing his words.

"Dry shiitake mushrooms, sugar to be funded by the military. Soybeans needed for raising military horses. Our army has gained tremendous strength. It would be a major stepping stone for Minoxi's offensive."

At first, Shizuko could not understand what she had been told, but the words finally caught up with the understanding of her head.

Until now, the items offered were crops that did not qualify as military supplies. The only thing that falls under the category of military supplies is rice.

However, soybeans, brown sugar, and dried shiitake mushrooms, which are this offering, could almost be described as military supplies.

You can trade at a high price, so you can get a lot of military money, and you can use it for status symbols that can boast of your own power.

Not only during the Warring States period, but also in the East and West, until modern times, rare goods were important items to inform one's financial and power.

In the West, in Europe, it's spices.

In Europe in the late Middle Ages, spices such as pepper (pepper) were so valuable that they were exchanged for gold of the same weight.

Pepper in particular occupied the most important position among the spices.

Because pepper serves three purposes: preserving, deodorizing and seasoning.

In the Europe of Carnivorous Culture, it was a magical spice until the refrigerator was invented.

But the pepper, at the time, could only be grown in the tropics and subtropics, and basically European humans had it in their dealings with Muslim merchants.

Naturally, the more merchants relay, the higher the price will jump over the first transaction price.

So much so that there was anecdote that pepper was being bought and sold at a price that was sixty times the price of the first transaction.

It should also be noted, for the record, that the cause of the dawn of the Great Navigational Era was also due to the demise of the Eastern Roman Empire by the hands of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in the mid-fifteenth century, the loss of means of trade and passage with Muslim merchants and the closure of the way for Europe to obtain spices.

Of course, the West as well as the East, and Japan were no exception.

In the past, Japanese cuisine was more important than flavour, and "the right color" was an important element in cooking.

There are still delicious dishes to eat, but the overall direction was more about appearance than flavor.

Precious items such as sugar, spices and shiitake mushrooms were needed for this purpose.

"The cultivation of shiitake mushrooms that no one has ever been able to do, and your successful hands are stunning. The same dried dried dried dried persimmon was also brilliant. I'm not bound by food, but your dried persimmons were a treat."

Nobunaga says so with a nod, as if to tell himself.

Shiitake mushrooms were kaolin flowers until the successful artificial cultivation of shiitake mushrooms, which had been considered impossible until 1942, when Mr. Hatsuko Mori, Ph.D. in Agriculture.

There was also an artificial method of cultivating shiitake mushrooms during the Edo period, but it was a very distracting way of scratching the logs that had been felled and only making it easier to grow shiitake mushrooms.

So if we succeeded, we gained enormous profits, but if we failed, it was also the ultimate cultivation of the sprint of family separation.

"I'll give you what you want for this reward. Say anything."

Nobunaga says with an upbeat face.

What I want, Shizuko couldn't think of anything aggressive when she said it. But if you resign here, you will crush Nobunaga's face.

I received a fine house as a reward for rice. I also have colors as a helper. More than that, she couldn't think of anything she wanted.

But what she couldn't think of was' what she wanted '.

"… I have a favor to ask of you as you cross the border."

"I don't mind, you can say whatever you want."

"Currently, our village is undergoing agricultural land expansion. But we're still short on manpower. So I'd like to borrow your husband for about a month."

Shizuko's village is expanding agricultural land in general, but it can't be as wide as I think because it is still used in combination with normal work.

From the villagers' point of view, it was fine, but as a static child, I felt like expanding to a size I could afford.

It's warring times when you have trouble feeding when you're in a year of inaction. Therefore, excess crops need to be redeemed or stored as emergency food.

"The number of husbands is about 200."

After saying that, Shizuko bows her head.

I thought I had overstated my greed for boulders, but decided it would be more efficient to borrow large numbers at a time than to request them sequentially.

You can't lose your hand because the fields you make this time will be the basic size when you make crops in the village in the future.

And I thought Nobunaga was in a good mood like this, and he had few opportunities to reward me generously.

"That's how many people we need. Is there a reason why you're here?

"Yes. Last year and this year, crops in our village became abundant. But it won't last forever. One day there will be a year of inaction. We are thinking of stockpiling emergency food so that we do not panic at that time. But with the current harvest, we can't even make the minimum reserves we need."

……

"It will only be convenient for the village, but please forgive me"

"Come on, not my greedy daughter."

I want manpower to expand fields, not territory or hardware.

Nobunaga, who did not seem very rewarding, but was not willing to say it anyway more than he wanted.

"Fine, I'll authorize you to use 200 wives as you wish."

With a small laugh he said that to Shizuko.

After that, we had a little conversation and the sight with Nobunaga was over.

Later I tried to put the castle behind me because I was just going home, but before that I was stopped by Kasei Mori.

He had business with Colour, he said no to Shizuko and took her.

Shizuko, who had no hurry and had no need to leave soon, decided to wait for her.

Sitting back in an uninterrupted position, she uses the ground to wrap things up.

I got a brilliant 200 husband, but the story wasn't going to be that easy.

Instead of rebuilding an original field, we need to build a field from scratch.

Then we have to make a good plan. Because if you do poorly, you'll just let 200 people play for a month.

(… Let's take charge of 3 ha of agricultural land per inhabitant. There are about 80 of them now...... because there will be more in the future)

Further expansion of agricultural land was for another reason, in addition to making preserved food.

The villagers who were there for nearly two years, and the peasants who were allowed to settle this year, live under the guidance of Shizuko for nearly a year.

Although there were various problems, in the last two years the village developed like no other.

Having settled on such clothing and lodging, they consult Shizuko about a similar story recently.

That's what I want to bring my scattered family to this village.

I almost sold the children and sent them to earn money, but if I sold this harvest, I would get the money to call them back.

But I can't do anything on my own, so I talked to Shizuko.

It is gratifying that the next generation of children will return, even as Shizuko.

But there's not only the good side, there's the bad side.

As it stands, I don't have trouble feeding the villagers in the workforce, but that's not why I'm in the luxury.

In a bad way, I'm exhausted to see if I can feed a child who just eats and doesn't become a workforce.

(Well, suddenly it's hard to accept. I have the convenience of the other person...... 10 people at first anyway. Let's make that six girls and four boys, too. If there is no problem there, in the form of a slight recall)

The children decided not to accept it at once, but to call it back one by one.

Because the more children there are, the greater the damage will be when the problem occurs the first time.

If you do poorly, the village itself will collapse.

"Put that in the calculation...... 3 ha converts to 100 people and 300 ha is needed. But we need rice as well as other things, so the actual field gets bigger...... Oh, speaking of which, we also need to have an artificial mating of rice. But that's gonna take ten years... hmm..."

"What are you talking about as bumps?

The boy's voice suddenly flew from behind when he wrote letters on the ground and turned them off, and when he wrote them and turned them off.