Chapter 23 25. The Gods Seek to Profit From the Chaos

Kobayata dragged Koichiro to understand the rice price in the town. Sure enough, the price of 14 koku had risen to 12 koku. It was a time of spring famine, and now the rice stored by the people last year was basically exhausted.

It is estimated that the rice from Echigo will not be imported into Ueno for a while, and the rice from Shinano is even more difficult. Murakami Yoshikiyo is sweeping the north of Shinano. He has been fighting for several years. Now there is a tendency to unify the north of Shinano. He is trying his best to plunder rice and prepare for war. He will definitely not allow it to be exported to other countries. Although the southern Musashi is hostile, there is constant communication between the wars, and some food has flowed in.

Kobayata estimated that the price of rice is very likely to rise again, but it is more affected by the war. If the Kanrei family is defeated, the defeated soldiers and the soldiers of the Hojo army will be arrested. The townspeople will definitely buy rice and hide in the mountains. The generals of the Kanrei will also requisition rice to defend the city. At this time, it is not buying, but it is very likely to be robbed directly. In short, the price of rice has risen sharply in the past few days.

As for the finished medicine, it flourished in Echizen-chugoku, which is now Toyama Prefecture. But now, most of them are sold by merchants in Echizen Tsuruga, Wakasa Obama and Kyoto.

Mainly hemostatic and myogenic, as well as antidiarrheal medicine. Hemostatic and myogenic medicine does not need any explanation, it is just for external injuries. Antidiarrheal medicine is a good thing. The army gathers a large number of people and horses, and if you are not careful with food and water, you will have diarrhea for three days at the least, and a plague will spread throughout the camp at the worst. Even Bian Que can't save it. Unfortunately, there is no large supply, so this thing does not need to be involved for the time being.

There is also wood. In wartime, wood is used to build fortifications, set up camps, make protective equipment, and even lay wooden boards along the way when the road is difficult to travel. After the war, regardless of winning or losing, villages and towns that have experienced random capture and burning need wood to rebuild, and castles also need wood to repair. To a certain extent, wood at this time is not much less important than rice.

But this business also requires a supply and a large yard, which Xiaoping Taiyi could not do at that time. After visiting powerful merchants in the town with Koichiro, they found that everyone was not optimistic about the Kanrei army and wanted to protect themselves.

Koheita sat back and waited for the battle report from the front.

But the battle report that night was surprising. The Kanrei army, which had been defeated in every battle, gathered 32,000 troops and clashed fiercely with the Hojo army of 25,000 at the Kamiryu River. Perhaps they knew that this was the Kamiryu River and behind them was the Hirai Castle, and the Kanrei army bravely attacked the Hojo army in waves.

It was originally a fight between two weaklings, and the foot soldiers who would call it a day after the battle (acting) were beaten to their doorstep. Seeing that their own little piece of land was about to be overturned by the Hojo, these weaklings who were weaklings when they fought in Ueno Province actually burst out with hundreds of percent of their combat effectiveness.

The Hojo army was caught off guard by the excited Kanrei army. The three armies were in chaos. The famous general Nanbata Hayato and the lord of Hachigata Castle, Fujita Yasukuni, died in battle. The Hojo army was defeated and returned to Musashi Oshinobi Castle.

This is not in line with the plot. The plot should not be that the Kanrei was beaten to death by the Hojo and then ran away.

But on second thought, the Hojo army, which is famous for night battles and surprise attacks, will definitely not retreat so easily. It should be more like a hungry wolf that failed to hit and returned to its nest to lick its wounds, while accumulating energy to prepare for another fight.

And now the Kanrei army, who is drinking and singing on the bank of the Kamiryu River, looks like he has created a miracle. There are flaws all over his body. Isn't this a last gasp before death?

Kobayata was so sure, so he secretly told Koichiro to continue to inquire about the price of rice. On the second day, the price of rice and other commodities fell sharply. After all, after the victory of the Kanrei army, the soldiers would return home with rewards, and the lord would not need to collect supplies, and the Hojo would not arrest them randomly.

The townspeople who were originally preparing to pack up and run away also settled down, and the local nobles who were slightly on the sidelines at first also marched into Kamiryu River. It is said that this time the Kanrei will take advantage of the victory to attack Musashi Province and seize Matsuyama Castle and Kawagoe Castle. The original local Kanrei retainers also secretly communicated with the Kanrei.

Kobayata only thought that he would not look at the current fun, even if he would make a list in the future. He secretly took out gold and began to purchase rice, wheat, mirin, salt, pickles, etc. from various stores and ordered Koichiro to secretly transfer these supplies to Hirai. At the same time, he used famine relief salt to exchange for food from rich farmers in various villages and nearby small towns.

After transferring all the supplies to the vicinity of Hirai and hiding them roughly, Kobayata and Koichiro went to Kamiryu River to pretend to be small merchants selling medicinal wine and turbid wine.

Arriving at the Kamiryu River, they immediately found that the Kanrei army camp was in chaos, with all kinds of people gathered here, and the Kanrei did not properly control the soldiers. Soldiers from different orders mixed together, and the camp was full of laughter and music.

There were even prostitutes doing sex trade nearby, and at this time, the Kanrei army had gathered a huge and bloated force of 40,000 people. It was like a sumo wrestler who looked extremely strong on the outside but was like air on the inside, and fell down with a push.

Koheita and Koichiro immediately turned around and left, knowing that the future facing this huge army would be very terrible.