Vol. 1 Chapter 1.2 – Late March, 1565

Seeing the scene unfold before her eyes, Shizuko could only let out a dry laugh.

Oda Nobunaga was far more proactive than she had imagined.

Everything had happened so suddenly and she found herself completely overwhelmed by his torrential momentum and decisiveness.

She glanced at the man beside her.

He was a man around his fifties seated on horseback, yet his face showed little sign of being diminished by age.

His name was Mori Sanzaemon Yoshinari, one of the military commanders Nobunaga trusted most.

It was said that no matter how dire the circumstances became, he remained by Nobunaga’s side and gave him peace of mind.

It was also said that Mori Sanzaemon Yoshinari was the first retainer to whom Nobunaga ever entrusted a castle.

‘But he really looks like such a humble old man… Though I’d probably get killed if I actually said that.’

Turning her gaze forward again, she saw roughly thirty men and women prostrating themselves before them.

It was one of the countless farming villages that could be found anywhere in this era.

However, there was a reason they had come here.

“Once again in this year, the annual tribute you have paid amounts to less than half of what was required. Just what is the meaning of this?”

One of the soldiers spoke while looking down at an elderly man who appeared to be the village headman.

Just as he said, this village had been consistently poor at paying its annual tribute.

They had failed to deliver even half of the required amount and the situation had worsened with each passing year.

Eventually, it had reached a level that could no longer be overlooked and Nobunaga had intended to wipe out the village.

But then, he had encountered Shizuko.

‘So my orders are to make this village pay the required amount of annual tribute…or have them produce enough crops to ship out in large quantities.’

After Shizuko had been brought into the castle and Nobunaga declared that he intended to take her into his service, his retainers naturally opposed the idea.

Of course, Nobunaga seemed to have anticipated that reaction.

With a grin, he had declared.

“I have no interest in old customs. If something is useful, I will use it… But if it proves useless, I will discard it without mercy. Shizuko possesses agricultural knowledge from Nanban. Let her use that knowledge to show me the extent of her abilities.”

That alone silenced every objection.

If Nobunaga himself intended to test her, there was no way his retainers could complain.

Some of the warriors were also relieved by the fact that he had no intention of making her serve as a military commander.

‘I mean, there’s no way a woman like me could imitate a samurai in the first place… Actually, I’ve never even held a sword before!’

She had a feeling that her older sister would happily grab a sword and charge straight onto the battlefield, but unfortunately, Shizuko herself was no military enthusiast.

She was simply an ordinary person, an average girl who happened to possess a fair amount of agricultural knowledge and practical farming experience.

“Ordinarily, this failure would warrant execution by beheading but Oyakata-sama is exceedingly merciful.”

At that, the soldier turned his gaze toward Shizuko.

Realizing that he wanted her to step forward, Shizuko timidly moved to stand beside him.

“This person, Ayanokouji Shizuko, shall become your village head. From this point forward, you are to follow her instructions in cultivating your crops.”

“Eeeeh!?”

Cries of shock rose from the farmers.

And understandably so.

The person being introduced to them was nothing more than a young girl.

It would have been unreasonable to expect them not to be surprised.

‘Well…I’d say the same thing if I were in their position.’

“Are you dissatisfied? If so, then we shall take your heads instead.”

Just as Shizuko was thinking that, the soldiers suddenly drew the swords at their waists.

Faced with a choice between life and death and nothing else, Shizuko was freaking out internally but if she made a strange expression now, they might become suspicious of her, so she did her best to remain calm.

“N-No, no, no! I would never dream of objecting!”

“Good. Then begin at once.”

‘Eeeeh!? Right away!?’

There were plenty of things she wanted to object to, but since Shizuko had no choice in the matter to begin with, she could only do as the soldier said.

“A-Ahem. First, please show me the fields. Next, I would like to inspect the living conditions. Finally, please allow me to make one circuit around the village.”

She had no choice but to do it.

If she had no idea how to return home, then for now, her only option was to remain under Nobunaga’s protection.

Nearly in tears over how quickly she had been forced to comprehend and adapt to her circumstances, Shizuko took her first step forward.

Shizuko inspected the fields, the houses and other aspects of the villagers’ living environment, and then the area surrounding the village.

From this, she learned a number of things.

‘The soil in the fields isn’t bad, but…since the land slopes toward the river, whenever it rains, the nutrients in the soil probably get washed away.’

First of all, a fairly large river ran through the middle of the village.

The river divided the village into two areas: the western side contained the houses and settlement, while the eastern side was used for fields and growing crops.

The settlement side was flat, but the farmland had a slight slope.

There were, in fact, several traces where water had flowed across the ground, carving grooves that ran toward the river.

At this rate, no matter how much they cultivated the land, the most important part—the soil itself—would only continue to become more depleted.

‘Fortunately, the slope isn’t that steep, so we can deal with it by making raised rows. But the soil itself is the real problem, so first we’ll need to make compost.’

She planned to begin planting roughly one week after preparing the fields.

Until then, they would need to make compost, but obtaining enough materials for it was the problem.

‘There are only two cows in the village. They’re probably something like communal property belonging to the villagers. But two cows alone won’t be quite enough.’

Livestock manure from cattle, pigs and chickens could be mixed with supplementary materials such as rice straw and rice bran, then piled together outdoors.

Since household waste could also be mixed in, Shizuko thought that making compost from livestock manure was something they absolutely ought to do.

‘Maybe it would be better to have them prepare a large tub and make it in there. We can keep it near where the cows are, so the location shouldn’t be a problem…’

“How goes it, Shizuko-dono?”

“Uhyai!”

While she was lost in thought, someone suddenly called out from behind her, causing Shizuko to let out a strange squeak.

Her face reddening slightly, she turned around and saw Mori Yoshinari sitting atop his horse.

“Y-Yes, sir! First, we will need to improve the soil. If we do not properly prepare the land, we will simply repeat the same failures as before.”

Hurriedly dropping into full dogeza mode, Shizuko rattled off her explanation at high speed.

Although Mori Yoshinari wore a gentle smile, he was still a military commander of the Sengoku period.

As someone raised in the modern era, Shizuko felt an almost unbelievable pressure emanating from him.

“Oyakata-sama has high expectations of you, Shizuko-dono. Work diligently so that you may live up to those expectations.”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

Mori Yoshinari nodded at Shizuko’s reply, then called out to the surrounding soldiers.

“We return to the castle!”

“Yes, sir!”

With that command, Mori Yoshinari and the soldiers departed from the village.

However, not all of them left.

A small number of soldiers remained behind.

‘Ahh, they’re probably here to keep an eye on me. I mean, there’s no way they’d suddenly trust me right from the start… obviously.’

Thinking about it almost as though it were someone else’s problem, Shizuko began organizing in her mind everything she needed to do from this point onward.

Since all the villagers were gathered together, she first had them give brief introductions.

From this, she learned that there were twenty men and ten women.

Among the men, one was a blacksmith, while three were craftsmen capable of woodworking for construction and similar tasks.

The village headman alone was relatively old, being in his early forties, which meant there were only around fifteen men who could be considered able-bodied laborers.

‘Groups of five…One group for improving the soil, one for gathering timber, and one for making compost. The craftsmen can work on making substitute tools, I guess. Even if farming tools exist in this era, this village simply doesn’t have nearly enough of them.’

When Shizuko looked over at the villagers, every one of them was thin and emaciated from malnutrition.

The former village headman was said to be in his forties, yet he already looked as though he were approaching old age.

‘This year, I’ll make sweet potatoes the main crop. They’re nutritious enough to be relied on during famines… which means…’

“U-Um, Village Head? What should we be doing…?”

“Ah, sorry. In that case, everyone except the woodworkers and the blacksmith, please form groups of five.”

“Understood.”

Perhaps they had already been made painfully aware that they were all in this together, because even when Shizuko, a woman, gave them orders, none of them showed any displeasure.

『Failure means death』was, in a sense, the ultimate threat.

Thinking about that, Shizuko organized the plan in her head.

About five minutes later, after seeing that three groups had been formed, she gave her next instruction.

“To make the groups easier to distinguish, I’m going to give them names. From the left, you’ll be Group Kou, Group Otsu, and Group Hei. The craftsmen will be Group Tei. Make sure you remember which group you belong to.”

“Got it! Understood!”

The man standing closest to her, who looked somewhere between a boy and a young man, answered energetically.

“First, Group Kou will work on improving the soil. Basically, you’ll just be digging up the farmland, but I want you to dig a little deeper than usual. Next, Group Otsu will gather timber. Since Group Tei needs the wood to make tools, Group Tei will work together with them. Group Hei will make compost. Please prepare a large tub. I’d like three if possible, but if you only have one, that’s fine too.”

“R-Right…”

“All right, start preparing. Come on, move it, move it!”

“Y-Yes!”

Spurred into action, Groups Kou, Otsu, Hei, and Tei rushed off like startled rabbits to begin preparing for their assigned tasks.

“Um… what should we women do…?”

After the men had run off, the women timidly approached and asked.

“Please prepare one tub and fill it with soil. The soil can come from anywhere. I’ll also need you to prepare some water.”

“O-Okay.”

Doing exactly as they were told, the women went to fetch the requested items.

They probably did not understand most of what she was asking them to do, but Shizuko thought that was fine for now.

‘Right now, it’s more important to make them feel that 『this kind of thing matters』than to make them understand it intellectually… Now then, I need to go get the sweet potato seedlings too.’

Thirty minutes later, once everyone had gathered the necessary items, the villagers assembled again in the same place as before.

There was a tub for planting seedlings, a jar filled with water, three tubs suitable for making compost, a full set of farming tools, and tools for cutting timber.

They were somewhat worn out but Shizuko decided that having them at all was better than nothing.

“All right, we’ll start with the women’s group. But what you need to do is simple. First, make a hole in the soil and plant this…”

As she spoke, Shizuko buried a piece of sweet potato with sprouts growing from it into the soil.

The villagers watched the process with great curiosity as they listened to her explanation.

“Next, water it. This is only for raising the seedlings, so once a day should be enough. After that, place it somewhere that gets plenty of sunlight. That’s all the women need to do. Once you’ve finished, just go back to your usual work.”

“That’s… all?”

“That’s all. I’m counting on you. Next, Group Kou—the soil-improvement team. We’re heading to the farmland. Everyone else, please wait here.”

With that, Shizuko started walking toward the fields.

Several plots of farmland stretched out before her.

However, every one of them was badly depleted and they hardly looked capable of growing crops at all.

‘Four…maybe five fields. But improving the soil is heavy labor, and there’s no way we can restore all of it. I’ll have to abandon all but the two largest fields.’

There were two plots reasonably close to the river where the nutrients in the soil were less likely to be washed away by rain.

Those fields had probably produced the least terrible crops.

That was likely why the village had just barely managed to avoid losing its entire harvest.

From what she could tell, each field seemed to be about one hectare in size (10,000 square meters, or a square measuring 100 meters on each side).

That was more than enough space for growing sweet potatoes and pumpkins.

‘I’ll plant the sweet corn closest to the river, then tomatoes, then pumpkins. That should take care of the first field. In the other field, I’ll plant sweet potatoes and put the sugarcane in one corner. But first, we need to dig up the soil.’

“Ahem… We’ll only use those two fields over there. We won’t grow anything in the other fields for the entire year.”

“Eh? But then won’t we have fewer crops…?”

“It’ll be fine. Improving the soil is extremely hard labor. It isn’t realistic to do it for every field. Instead, we need to concentrate our manpower and secure usable farmland as quickly as possible. For now, please start by turning over the soil.”

The villagers exchanged glances and muttered among themselves, but in the end, they figured they had no choice but to obey. Hoisting their farming tools onto their shoulders, they headed toward the fields Shizuko had designated.

‘Even if everything goes well, it’ll still take at least two months before we start seeing results.’

The soil was depleted but not to the point where the land was completely barren.

Even so, it had deteriorated enough that they could not expect decent yields unless they planted hardy crops such as sweet potatoes and pumpkins.

In the modern era, she would simply buy compost and leaf mold and use them to improve the soil but unfortunately, that was not an option in the Sengoku period.

So they would have to make everything themselves.

‘We’ve got straw, rice husks, rice bran and cow dung, so that part’s fine… I’d really like some horse manure too… Ah, that’s it!’

Having come up with a good idea, Shizuko called out to Groups Otsu, Hei, and Tei standing nearby.

“Wait here for a bit!”

Then she ran off toward a certain place.

Ten minutes later, Shizuko returned wearing a broad smile.

The members of Groups Otsu, Hei, and Tei found it strange but decided it would be pointless to question every little thing she did and simply let it slide.

“Now then, Group Hei will be making compost. This is important work, so do your best, okay?”

“Compost…?”

The members of Group Hei tilted their heads at the unfamiliar word.

“Simply put, it’s fertilizer made by having microorganisms completely break down organic matter. Sometimes people treat it as the same thing as organic fertilizer but they’re actually quite different.”

“I don’t really understand, but… wouldn’t it be easier to just spread the dung directly?”

“Non, non. When dung ferments, it produces gas. That interferes with root growth and can even attract pests. Haven’t you ever had roots rot or suddenly had a huge number of insects show up?”

“Well… yeah…”

“Compost is made after easily decomposable organic matter has been completely broken down, so it doesn’t produce those gases or attract pests. It supplies humus and improves the condition of the soil, helps suppress diseases and pests by introducing microorganisms, and stabilizes the soil by increasing its buffering capacity. That’s why making compost is essential. It takes at least half a year to make, but it’s still something we absolutely need to do.”

After explaining all that, Shizuko noticed that the villagers were staring at her as if they had been bewitched by a fox.

Only then did she realize she had made a mistake by explaining it in terms that were far too difficult.

‘Things like microorganisms and plant diseases and pests… I’m not even sure people in this era know about any of that. But without compost, next year’s farming will suffer.. I just have to convince them that it’s necessary!’

“Listen────”

“I don’t really get it, but the way we’ve been doing things until now clearly hasn’t worked… so we’ll follow what you say.”

Just as Shizuko was about to try persuading them, one of the villagers unexpectedly spoke up first.

No, it was probably less that they truly understood and more that they had decided not to think too deeply about it.

The proof was that they still clearly had no idea why compost was necessary.

Their attitude was basically,『If you say we need it, then we’ll do it』.

‘Well, I guess that’s good enough.’

Explaining things to the last two groups, Otsu and Tei, was much easier.

All she had to tell them was to gather as much timber as possible.

Of course, merely gathering it would not be the end of their work.

If anything, the real work would begin afterward.

‘We’ll need shovels and agricultural forks. Without those, making compost is going to be a real pain. And we also need to build slanted fences to keep out wild boars.’

Wild boars had difficulty dealing with structures that created a strong sense of depth, and they could not easily get over fences built at an angle.

By making a type of fence known as a wire-mesh overhang fence, farmland could be protected from wild boars.

They had no metal wire available, so they would have to make it out of wood, but even that would be better than nothing.

‘The next month is going to be nothing but hard labor every single day… Ugh… I want to take a bath…’

There was no way ordinary people in the Sengoku period could afford the luxury of bathing regularly, so in the end, wiping the body down with water was about the best they could do.

‘The geography around here feels like there might be a hot spring nearby… Maybe I should explore the area sometime.’

They could not spare the labor required to burn firewood and heat bathwater every day, but if there were a hot spring, all they would have to do was channel the hot water over.

If she managed to find one, great.

And even if she did not, exploring would at least help her learn more about the surrounding environment.

After forcing herself to accept things that way, Shizuko also set about the work she herself needed to do.

[Oyakata-sama;“our lord” / “Lord Nobunaga”]