Chronicles of The Hardships of Komachi in The Sengoku Era Chapter 21

Translator: manshiro    Editor: Sage Yomeri, DC  Proofreader: N/A  TLC: ShimizuA

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Arc 2 - Ninth Year of Eiroku Era, Owari Province Agricultural Reform

Late October, 1566

Shizuko was worried about a certain natural phenomenon that would happen in a few days. In the modern era, it would've been something to leisurely observe with one's family, but in the Sengoku era it probably would be categorized as an ill omen. Shizuko was worried whether the villagers would be frightened by it.

(The earth, the moon, and the sun… would they understand an explanation like that?)

Explaining it would be quite easy. But the villagers lacked the basic knowledge to understand that explanation. She was worried whether them not explaining the phenomenon would be enough to assuage their fears. On the other hand, this astrological event would occur between 22:45 and 02:18 Japan time1. In this era however, almost nobody would notice it. Once the sun goes down, there's simply nothing to do but to sleep.

(But what if someone stays awake by chance and sees it?)

In the end, after racking her brain for some time, Shizuko decided on explaining it in a fairy tale fashion just in case someone did see it. Her plan was to keep it on a children's fairy tale level, but mix some facts into it, to calm any possible unrest. Having come to a conclusion, Shizuko immediately sat down and started writing down a made-up story on the sand board she was using as a notebook replacement.

(Mrs. Sun is hiding behind behind Mr. Moon, or something like that.)

While Shizuko was drafting up a fairy tale like story, Aya was cleaning the room Shizuko was using to store her luggage. Although it couldn't really be called cleaning as Shizuko was meticulous in her work and didn't really let it get dirty. She would be finished after lightly sweeping the room.

Even though it was Aya's mission to investigate Shizuko's talent, she basically still had to wait on her. While it seems having to do household chores while investigating would be hard, but in fact, this way was more convenient. After all, Aya could rifle through Shizuko's belongings as much as she wanted under the guise of cleaning. And as Shizuko didn't suspect her of doing something like that, she easily left the cleaning to Aya.

Shizuko occupied three rooms. She used the first one as a storage, the second as a workshop, and the last one as her private room. This house, which was bigger than a normal farmer's, was Nobunaga's reward for the crops she had offered to Nobunaga in her first and second year since coming to this era. The house she was given was a normal one, but despite that, it had a simple fence around it, a garden that was turned into a place for drying food for the most part, a shack for Wittmann and his family, as well as enough rooms to count on both hands. At this size, a helper to take care of the house became necessary, which was used as a pretense to send in Aya.

But not everything went well for Aya.

First of all, there were always three wolves present somewhere in the rooms Shizuko used.  When she tried to do anything under the cover of cleaning, they would react to the slightest noise and come into the room. Aya felt as though she was being watched, which was indeed the case as the wolves observed her.

But their motive was different from what Aya was thinking as they were only concerned about the hierarchy and were wondering "what is an underling like her is doing in the boss' room". Under these circumstances, Aya managed to find two strange things.

The first one was a wooden box which was tied shut with a sturdy rope. The other one was the medium-sized crossbow Shizuko used for hunting.

The wooden box was placed in a room Shizuko used, and even if she wanted to open it, doing so would be difficult with Aya's meagre strength. Since the rope was tied quite tight, there would be no other way to open it than to cut the rope. But doing so would make Shizuko notice that Aya was sneaking around and investigating her. Aya decided that there was no other option than to prudently wait for a good opportunity to confirm the contents of the box.

The crossbow on the other hand was easy to obtain. It wasn't monitored as strictly as the wooden box and just stored together with all the other hunting gear. Even when she had carried it around under the pretense of cleaning, Shizuko didn't say anything. Only a warning that she should be careful when handling it, since it was a [weapon]. That Shizuko had called it a [weapon] was the reason for Aya's strong interest in the crossbow.

(A completely unfamiliar construction… Shizuko-sama had called it a bow, but I have never seen a bow such as this before.)

Shizuko had three different crossbows she owned.

The first one was a crossbow with a very simple structure, the second one was the biggest of the three and had the strongest pull, and the third one was what a so-called compound type crossbow with pulleys. 8. Upon a large piece of cloth spread out on the ground, branches with unthreshed soybeans were slammed into a deep bucket.

With that alone, most of the beans are threshed, but for a small fraction this won't be enough. In addition, the husks and pieces of the branches will accumulate. Even worse is that larva emerge from bug-infested husks. Dealing with those individually would be a waste of time, so once some beans have been threshed, the entire mix is given into a wide and shallow bucket.

After that, human wave tactics are used to separate the beans from everything else. At this stage, soybeans fit for eating and those with bug-bites or other defects are separated.

But doing all that alone takes quite some time, so the work was separated between separating the soybeans from the rest and separating the good soybeans from the bad.  Finally, after another day of sorting, the amount of good soybeans was about 480 kg. From these, Shizuko selected the ones to use for seeding next year, leaving the remaining amount of soybeans to be used for food at just 400 kg. The husks and bugs they had sorted out became compost material to make fertilizer for next year.

"Muahaha, what a nice harvest. Next year I want to harvest ten times as much."

"Wouldn't you need ten times the workforce then…."

Looking at the buckets filled with sorted soybeans, Aya looked slightly skeptical while Shizuko had a bright smile on her face. For the people of this time it might have looked like a mountain of treasure, but to Shizuko it was just a pile of soybeans.

"Now, let's turn them into miso and soy sauce."

"(Soy sauce…?) Please do so after sending half the sorted ones to the lord as a tribute. And what exactly is that monstrous silver grass9?

"I know, I know. We'll need to take care of the sugarcane next. Let's go turn it into brown sugar."

Saying this, Shizuko tackled the last big harvest and processing of the year: the sugarcane.

Editor's note: Please read the footnote below since this chapter has quite a lot of inaccuracies.

Footnote:

TN: .ED: The crossbows described that Shizuko introduced are three variants, in the order of how they were mentioned:

The first one is a primitive draw-type crossbow. This has a draw strength of 100-150 lbs

The second is a larger crossbow which is spanned with a series of pulleys. This would be by the description alone be a windlass-type crossbow, a large crossbow that was used at the time for siege warfare. This has a draw strength of up to 1,500 lbs.

The last crossbow is what is assumed to be a compound bow, with at least two pulleys on the tips of the crossbow to amplify the kinetic energy in the bowstring. These are what you'd see in modern crossbows, with draw strengths of nearing 200-300 lbs, which probably accounts for her disappointment.ED:The Japanese at this time actually DID have the techniques for creation of these parts. In fact, Nobunaga at the time in 1549 ordered the creation of 500 tanegashima muskets of the initial design and started the research on how to improve the weapon further (to include combat in the rain, night combat, etc). In fact, the hardest part to create initially was the rifling of the barrel, and not the intricate small parts (a feat fixed with the invitation of a foreign blacksmith to teach how to work it). A system of cogs or pulleys wouldn't have been a problem; it's just that the Japanese were only seeing the benefit of it JUST NOW.ED: this is a HUGE understatement. A windlass has a work ratio of about 78:1, and an approximate max draw of about 1,500 lbsED: Another mistake. The heavy windlass crossbow has an effective range of up to 180 meters/ 200 yards.ED: I'd like to point out however that this is purely on a SUBJECTIVE basis, and analyzing her location and time period, it would've been BETTER to give everyone crossbows than matchlocks. TL: No fucking clue about thisED: This step is not needed AT ALL in reality. Soybeans are harvested dried, being left in the field for the moisture to leach out, to about 13% moisture. As Shizuko worked in her grandfather's farm before, she should know about this. TN: Japanese pampas grass (Miscanthus sinensis); silver grass; zebra grass

Chapter end