A Time Traveller's Guide To Feudal Japan Chapter 104 - Ploughing

Before even the breaking of dawn, Gengyo was stood on the land that connected Toyone and Tobishima. He leaned heavily on a stick he had found whilst wondering through the forest, and his mind was alive with thoughts.
Oddly, he felt a good deal of excitement for this task ahead. He had never attempted something like this, and looked forward to seeing the speed in which they could get everything done.
He knew - from the experience of working in the field, doing the hoeing by hand - that the villagers would be far happier to see the oxen at work. It would take a bit of practice to get the plough driver to keep his ploughing straight, but it would be quick enough that it would not dramatically affect their progress.
The river cut through nearby, and the sound of it's rippling waters was almost meditative on his mind. He had not been able to sleep the night before, but that was not rare. As of late, he did not sleep when he wanted to, but merely when he had to. It was more akin to passing out than going to sleep.
He admired the rising sun as it peaked it's head up past the mountains, covering the world in its warm glow. The feeling of its rays on his skin was pleasant, but he did not have the time to enjoy it for long, as the first lot of villagers were already arriving.
It seems they were unaware of quite how they were going to be doing this work, as they arrived with hoes in hand. Old men, old women, mothers, children, and crippled men. All sorts were able to work, despite not being fit enough to go to war.
He spotted a familiar face amongst them.
"It has been a long time, Baba-san."
The elderly man smiled warmly upon seeing him.
"There has been quite the amount of happenings, has there not master Miura?"
It felt extremely nostalgic to see his old face again, and it reminded him of all that had happened. It was quite the journey he'd undergone.
"Haha, it feels strange to hear you call me that. I would rather we dropped the formalities, else I imagine we'd both feel rather uncomfortable, would we not?"
"That does sound a bit more favourable for me. I'm old, and set in my ways. It's difficult to adjust. There was a time when they called you the weakest boy in the village, but look at you now eh?"
Gengyo smiled lightly at that.
"I appreciate that. But I do not have a lot to show for all that has happened, apart from this new position of mine."
He let out a sigh, as he felt the crushing weight of his responsibilities renewed.
"But in time, perhaps, I will be able to look upon myself proudly. But as of yet, I'm still just a peasant."
The old man raised his thick eyebrows at that, and let out a smile, but said nothing.
"Back to work in the field, eh fellas!?"
Morohira's arrival was announced loudly, as he swaggered over to them, swinging a hoe, full of energy.
"You came as well, father? I didn't ask you to – I wanted you to be resting."
"Eh? Me? Resting? When that lot are coming as well? I think not lad."
He pointed to a hill in the distance, which a familiar group of men had just ascended. With the rising sun at their backs, they were quite the powerful image.
The rest of the villagers turned to look at them too. Somehow they commanded such a degree of attention.
"We're ready to work, Miura."
Kitajo said, grinning.
"And your leg?"
He patted it firmly, before doing a series of jumps.
"As good as new."
"And what about you, Sasaki? Are your injuries still bothering you."
In response, the big man picked up Kitajo – much to his protest – and hefted him upon his shoulder, as though he weighed nothing more than a small sack of rice.
"All good boss."
He said giving the affirmative.
"And you?"
He asked, turning to Ii and his friends.
"We've been ready for days. It gets boring in that mansion, man. Got to do something – even if it's just hoeing fields, y'know."
He nodded, pleased with their condition, before turning to the rest of the villagers who had gathered, and were waiting for his direction.
"Good morning, everyone. Do you all know why we're here?"
"To plough this f.u.c.k.i.n.g field, eh fellas!?"
Morohira shouted, much to the amus.e.m.e.nt of everyone else. Even Gengyo had to crack a smile.
"Aye, we'll get this land all done before the end of the season. Are you all confident?"
A man from Tobishima raised his hand up tentatively.
"Uhm… Master Miura, even just doing the ploughing for land of this size, before the end of the season will be impossible."
There were a few murmurs of agreement that went round. It was unheard of to do the ploughing so quickly.
"Take a look behind you, and then let me know whether it's possible or not."
Coming up over the hill behind them were the six oxen, laden with three ploughs, lead by Jikouji who was grinning wildly, excited to see these new tools go to work.
"Ahahahaha! F.u.c.k me dead! We'll get in done in like ten minutes now!"
Rokkaku bellowed loudly, greatly amused by the sudden appearance of the lumbering beasts.
Gengyo looked at the Tobishima man expectantly, waiting for a reply.
"…I'm sorry for doubting you."
He nodded in response to the man's words, accepting his apology. He didn't hold it against him in the least, he had merely wanted to prove a point to the rest.
"So, this land here will get ploughed, and we'll get planted. I'm sure you all appreciate how valuable this land will become to us, given the size and the fertility of the soil. You will all be paid a sizeable amount for your work in these coming days, and when harvest season comes, you will all have a share."
Those were favourable conditions indeed. Not a single man or woman who had come out that morning to work regretted their decision. Any worries they had about food in the coming year were instantly abated.
"Here we are, Miura!"
Jikouji said heartily, arriving with his army of oxen behind him. The strength of the beasts was unimaginable. They had wheeled the hefty ploughs down here, and they looked as though they had done barely any work at all. They merely snorted out of their noses, and began picking at the lush grass beneath their feet.
"Beautiful work, as usual, Jikouji."
He'd harnassed the oxen to the ploughs good and proper. There was no sign of any rubbing from the walk over here, and the beasts appeared to be quite comfortable with their load.
"Baba? Have you ever used a plough?"
The old man shook his head.
"That I have not."
"Has anyone else here used a plough?"
The villagers were all quiet.
"Mm… That's fine. Baba, would you like to operate one of the ploughs? You'll learn how to use it in no time. Pick another two people to work alongside you."
Baba nodded. He'd been hoping to give the ploughs a turn, and had to struggle to hide his smile as he was given complete authority over them.
"I'll do it as well!"
Jikouji said, a little too desperately. Clearly, his keenness in wanting to operate one was not a recent thing.
"Sure. Then we just need one more."
He half expected Rin to put her hand up, but then he realized that she was not even here. She was standing guard back in the mansion. Nor was Fuku here either. The death of Masaatsu had hit her hard.
He felt a slight bit of guilt thinking about them. He had not spent much time as he should have with his family as of late.
"I'll do it!"
Ii put his hand up.
Somehow Gengyo did not trust that grinning face of his. But he could not think of a good enough reason to refuse him, so he relented.
"…Fine."
"Hell yeah!"
Ii shouted, celebrating his victory.
"I'll leave you three to it then. For the rest of you, I have another job."
He walked over to the banks of the river.
"Can I borrow that?"
He asked of a villager next to him, pointing to the hoe.
Using the hoe, he traced a line from the banks of the river, all the way to where he imagined one side of the ploughed field would be.
"We're going to dig along here. Make it about three paces wide, and four paces deep, so that it is slightly below the water level of the river."
"Ho… So this is how you intend to get the field flooded quickly."
Gengyo nodded in confirmation.
"That's right."
He began digging himself, and soon the rest joined in, understanding what he meant. The villager whom he had borrowed a hoe from took Baba's instead, since he did not need it.
The ground came away fairly easily, but it was tough work, especially since there was so much dirt to haul. In the meantime, they watched Baba and the other two experimenting with their ploughs.
It was easy enough to get the oxen to pull, but keeping the ploughing straight was the difficult part. Ii shouted out in rage as he had a perfectly straight line going on, before he tripped on a rock, and a huge curve was put in it.
But soon, they had it mastered, and were sending the oxen up and down, as they steered the plough.
There were some cheers from the villagers as they saw the first proper line of field being done. The blades dug in deeply, and overturned the grass so that it was hardly visible anymore, and all that was left on top was a perfect layer of upturned soil.
It was calming to watch, and the progress was steady. Very quickly they had created a perimeter for the future field, and Gengyo stopped his digging so that he might think about the flooding more clearly.
Currently, they had dug a ditch where the water from the river would gather, once they took down the final part of the bank, and allowed it to burst through.
But that was far from good enough to ensure that the entire field would be flooded equally. He needed to raise the water atleast three feet high, and then have it go off into channels around the field, before they allowed it to flood in at several different points.
If it was done on at one point, they would be too much stress placed on those seedlings, and they would likely perish. A single point would not matter if the water supply was gentle, but if he was taking it from the fast-flowing river, it certainly would not be.
It was an interesting problem, and one he rather enjoyed pondering over. It had been far too long since he had to resort to mathematics and physics in order to solve something. Everything as of late had been a battle of wits, full of uncertainties.
Pressure, was the obvious answer for moving water uphill. Except, he didn't have the materials needed to create pipes that could withstand the amount of pressure required, nor did he want to spend the time making pumps.
His thoughts fell to the Romans, and their aqueducts. Whilst on a much smaller scale, he was trying to achieve a very similar thing. And then it hit him, the obvious answer, one that he should have thought of much sooner.
A water wheel.
It was the perfect solution for the materials he had available. It would only require some wood, and some buckets.
Whilst being the perfect solution, it did render their recent digging attempts obsolete. He felt a little guilty in telling them their work had been for nought, but it did not matter too much. It was better to come to this conclusion now, rather than later, when the work was already complete.