CHAPTER 314: CHAPTER 224: TWO WAYS TO EAT FISH

After staying in Edo Bay for more than a day, Harano finally and reluctantly led the fleet back to Shimoda Port.

They needed to repair the ships—after the naval battle, the "Chita" had suffered some damage, losing plenty of oars and rowlocks at the very least. Over a dozen accompanying warships were also damaged, requiring a drydock to replace hull planks and rudders before they could embark on long voyages again.

Returning victorious, the Wanjin Navy was riding high, and Wanjin merchants were equally ecstatic. The previously empty ships were now filled with goods, mostly "defeat reparations" from the Munemasa Family—Munemasa, essentially pirates themselves, also did business, and now that Harano was blockading their port and demanding compensation, they couldn’t cough up enough cash for now, so they settled part of it with merchandise.

A lot of this was stolen loot, and quite a bit was produce originally traded by the Munemasa Family from Musashi Province and Sagami Province. But now, it was all spoils of war. Harano distributed some as combat rewards, and publicly auctioned the rest to Wanjin merchants, essentially recouping a round of shipbuilding costs.

Of course, the reparations amount was no small sum. Since the Munemasa lost, they should naturally bear all the costs of this fight. Just handing over these goods wasn’t enough. For the next five years, the Munemasa Family would have to pay Harano eleven thousand five hundred kan a year, as a hard lesson—maybe next time, they’d think twice before acting like bullies and picking fights with anyone.

Honestly, the Munemasa Family had brought this whole mess upon themselves. If they hadn’t acted so cocky from the start and told Harano to just get lost, the two sides could have talked things out.

The Wanjin fleet, imposing and mighty, spent another day and night crossing the Miura Peninsula, returning to the Izu Peninsula, then the Wanjin Navy found a small island to shelter temporarily, taking turns to enter port for repairs and to resupply.

Meanwhile, Wanjin merchants took the chance to haul off their "spoils of war" and the goods they’d bought off Houjou family, traveling together back to Wanjin to restock their wares.

Wanjin had won a major victory—taking out sixty to seventy percent of the Satomi Family’s naval power in one battle. Naturally, the Houjou family was more enthusiastic than ever. Quite a few of their senior retainers rushed to Shimoda Port, even inviting Harano to Odawara Castle.

The implication was clear: the Houjou family hoped to move their relationship with Wanjin forward and become proper allies.

Harano wasn’t interested. He made it clear he had no intention of meddling in the Kantou quarrels; the Houjou and Satomi Families could settle their own wars. But never one to walk away empty-handed, he took the opportunity to do some big business deals with the Houjou family’s Advanced Warriors—swapping firearms and powder for warhorses, exchanging copper coins for gold, and dumping more Wanjin luxury goods onto them.

Right—there are gold mines on the Izu Peninsula, and the Houjou family had been working them for three or four generations, stockpiling a lot of gold. The Houjou family was also allied with the Takeda family, major gold producers themselves, so it was easy for Houjou to get "Takeda Gold." That meant gold was relatively cheap in this region. Harano could bring it back as reserves for his "Wanjin Paper Currency," or simply resell it for profit—a win-win.

Of course, this only worked because the Wanjin Navy had defeated the Satomi Navy, marking them as a new power in these waters. Otherwise, for a lucrative commodity like gold, the Houjou family would never consider trading with him.

On this, Harano also cut them a deal: he’d supply the Houjou family with a large batch of goods at below-market prices over two years to support their campaigns against the Satomi family on land—give them some discounts now, and once Houjou’s craftsmen are wiped out by the influx, he could always hike the prices later.

He didn’t set foot on shore, just stayed on a small island not far from Shimoda Port, holding ongoing talks with the Houjou family. He stayed for nearly a month, then regrouped with merchant ships that had hurried back from Wanjin—more ships than before. All the Wanjin people were following Harano’s lead—since he’d taken to the sea, going seafaring had become the hottest thing around. Everyone was building, borrowing, or renting ships, all determined to join the maritime trade.

After all, this business was insanely profitable—factory direct sales, unbeatable just by virtue of price, zero competition. Making money was so much easier than slogging it out back in Wanjin competing with the State-Owned Workshop a hundred times over.

Good thing Harano was willing to bring them along—otherwise, he would’ve ground them into dust sooner or later anyway.

Once he’d regrouped with all these restocked merchant ships, plus some new arrivals, Harano gave the order to set sail again, and the whole armada headed for the Miura Peninsula.

This area was also under the Houjou family’s control at the time. They stopped briefly to deliver a batch of goods for the Houjou—a little extra service from Wanjin. After all, being in business means the customer always comes first. They paused there for a day, before the Wanjin fleet once again dropped anchor in Edo Bay.

This time, the Satomi Family was much friendlier and, as agreed, opened their port, waiving all sorts of crazy fees like customs ship dues and other random taxes. They even clinched a big "government procurement" deal with Wanjin—placing massive orders for matchlock guns and gunpowder, and even wanting cannons and rocket bombs. Apparently, after experiencing the power of firearms at Hundred Heads City, they were eager to jump on the bandwagon, planning to form iron-cannon units more than a decade ahead of history.

Harano didn’t care either way—original matchlocks and Flamboyant cannons were hardly secret tech, so selling them was no big deal.

As for rocket bombs, the Satomi’s own craftsmanship couldn’t even cast the powder sections, so there was no way they could copy them even if they wanted to. Selling them was no problem, and since they were "cutting-edge exclusive weapons," Harano pushed the price sky-high—one thousand kan per piece, and only accepting payment in gold or silver.

Right, the Boso Peninsula had silver mines, and the Satomi family had been extracting silver for generations, amassing plenty. Silver prices here were lower than elsewhere and, being hard currency, silver could be brought back as reserves for paper currency and was also excellent for resale—the Southern Barbarians were coming soon and loved silver, and so did the Great Ming’s smugglers.

The Satomi Family was feeling heavy pressure. After the Houjou family joined the "Three Kingdoms Alliance" and got backing from the Imagawa and Takeda families, they kept expanding in Kantou. So, with no choice, the Satomi were even more generous than the Houjou. After haggling, they really agreed to buy the ultra-expensive rocket bombs for silver, planning to bomb the Houjou family, and even wanted to ally themselves with Wanjin, or pay to hire the Wanjin Army to fight for them.

Harano reiterated—he had no intention of getting mixed up in the Kantou mess. However, he did send a small team of Inner Guard Team officers to act as drill instructors for the Satomi, helping train their Iron Cannon Ashigaru and teach them how to fire rocket bombs—so the Satomi wouldn’t collapse too quickly and deprive Wanjin of a good customer.

If memory served, in another year or two at the Second Battle of National Government Platform, the Satomi Family would suffer a crushing defeat, never to recover, and get beaten down by the Houjou family from then on.

That’s no good—a single dominant force is never desirable. Better to keep the Satomi alive at least long enough to hold onto their current territory.

With all this seafaring, Harano had effortlessly achieved "shit-stirring" mastery—and actually found it quite fun. If he were in modern times rather than the Japan Middle Ages, he’d probably have a huge fan club by now.

......

Harano led the Wanjin fleet to "eat from both sides," taking a bite out of the Houjou family, then another from the Satojo Family. Once the market here was cracked and orders secured, he continued along the coastline heading east.

The next stop was the Satake family.

The Satake family was located around the "sea horse’s chest" or "the base of the sea horse’s long neck." The coastline was relatively smooth with no jutting peninsulas. The quality of the ports was so-so, with the three main ports only about as large as New Wanjin—at most accommodating twenty to thirty ships. Trade was not exactly bustling.

This area was virtually the border between Japan’s Kantou and Northeast Region. Development was scant for the era—after all, Kantou was seen as a wild frontier back then, and things only got worse heading further east.

But the Satake family was quite interesting—one of the "best balance artists" of Japan’s Warring States Period.

For example, the brand-new Family Head Satake Yoshihiko—who took over in the second year after the Battle of Okehazama. Over his lifetime, he arranged thirty-seven political marriages, marrying a Uesugi Family daughter, sending his own daughter to the Satojo Family, and his son to the Ashina Family as an adopted son. Basically, seven aunts and eight uncles, every possible relative was used—no one left out. All his neighbors were kin and things stayed pretty friendly.

Once Oda Nobunaga rose to power, detested by people and dogs alike, all the Daimyo joined the "Oda Encirclement Network" to crush him. Satake didn’t participate—instead, he actively applied for Court posts and cozied up to Oda Nobunaga, gaining Nobunaga’s approval. Nobunaga never considered dealing with him, so Satake got through that crisis safely.

After Nobunaga died, he eagerly courted both Monkey and Tokugawa Ieyasu, and still wasn’t targeted. At the Battle of Sekigahara, he joined the Western Army in name only, but sat tight and did nothing, out-turtling the oldest turtles. In the end, though he was downsized to Akita, he achieved a rare feat: one of only three Daimyo in Japan’s Warring States who never lost their position.

In troubled times, to keep your legacy and family intact was a real accomplishment—a fate far better than ninety-nine percent of Daimyo.

At the same time, the Satake family was hardly warlike—at most, they supported their allies in battle.

For instance, as allies of the Satomi Family, they were a huge help in the first Battle of National Government Platform, allowing the Satomi to wipe the floor with the Houjou family. But the Satake family rarely launched wars themselves; even when they had a hard time with Date family’s One-Eyed Dragon, it was always Date that attacked first, with Satake only defending in response.

Since they weren’t aggressive, the Satake family naturally pursued "civil governance." China’s Yongming School of thought was introduced by Satake to Japan, and they even invited Ming Dynasty scholar Zhu Shunshui to lecture. Later, Satake oversaw compilation of "Great Japanese History," and championed the concept of "revere the emperor, expel the barbarian," giving core ideological support to future overthrow-the-shogunate movements.

In short, by the standards of their time, the Satake family were moderates—with a domain four or five times the size of Oda Nobunaga’s at the time, but little ambition to expand. They just coasted along, easy-going and obliging—mostly because they were broke. While their landholdings were huge, the Satake family was poor.

With a Daimyo lacking aggression, Harano had no reason to throw his weight around—after all, harmony breeds wealth. He hurried to the area around Satake’s core territory, Ota Port, anchoring far offshore and sending messengers with letters to request trade.

The Satake family’s approach was indeed as far from hegemonic bullying as you could get—they promptly dispatched envoys in return, basically agreeing to all Harano’s demands: opening ports for Wanjin merchant ships, reducing and waiving most unreasonable taxes out of respect for Harano’s strength, and promising the personal safety and property security of Wanjin merchants along the Satake family’s coastal areas.

But that was the extent of it—Wanjin merchants weren’t allowed deeper into Satake territory, only operating around the three big ports. At the same time, the Satake family had no intention of recruiting Harano or seeking an alliance, treating him as just another big-time maritime merchant.

Harano didn’t mind—he’d achieved his aim. As long as future Wanjin over-capacity could find a place to be absorbed, he didn’t care whether the customers were warm or lukewarm.

Of course, part of the Satake family’s easygoing attitude was thanks to Wanjin’s defeat of the Satomi Navy—people with strength get respect wherever they go.

Now Wanjin people had the right to freely sail the seas east of Seto Inland Sea. Any Daimyo wanting to deny them business would have to think twice.