Chapter 12 Deciding to Go It Alone
When it was just getting light, Yan Xu had the cold, hungry and semi-comatose Fujimu taken away to have his wounds treated and to be fed some hot soup. Now that he had become valuable, he couldn't die so hastily.

The Shimazu family and the Sagara family, these are the two daimyo who are currently at war, but Yan Xu prefers to call them village heads and doesn't even bother to go back to check the information.

They can only mobilize a thousand people to fight in a group, and they can't last long. How can they expect Yan Xu to give them a high evaluation?

Even so, it is still a considerable threat to Yan Xu now.

First of all, he doesn't have a solid stronghold, no exploitable people, no loyal warriors, no rich network of contacts, and no extraordinary powers of his own. So even if he has a system cheat, he can't do everything by force, and therefore his deposits can't hold up.

After thinking for a long time, Yan Xu originally wanted to choose an alliance first, which was the method with the lowest cost and the safest one.

The Shimazu clan had been fighting with the Sagara clan for nearly two months, investing too much manpower and resources. In addition, the autumn harvest was approaching, so they had to end the battle in a short period of time, otherwise they would collapse. Therefore, they would not refuse anyone who brought help.

Yan Xu believed that as long as he joined, helping one side win would be a piece of cake.

But then he thought that letting both sides end the fight in a short period of time would be disadvantageous to him, and it might even draw attention to himself. After all, he was too different.

So Yan Xu finally decided to become a third-party force, providing weapons and food to both sides and supporting both sides to continue fighting.

However, this requires a certain level of strength, otherwise one will just become a target of plunder.

He had no shortage of foot soldiers and had long been prepared to expand his army, but Yan Xu had not considered the issue of supernatural powers before.

Since there are monsters in this world, Yan Xu is not sure whether the legendary swordsman who can kill monsters, the onmyoji who can control the shikigami, and the priests, shrine maidens and monks exist, but there is a high probability that they exist, so he must master his own extraordinary powers as soon as possible.

Without any name or status, it was not realistic to gain the loyalty of these extraordinary people. At least the real masters looked down on his current makeshift team, so Yan Xu decided to start with the ninjas.

The nameless and unprivileged ninjas walking in the dark have a low status in Japan, and the recruitment conditions are the lowest. Moreover, he now has a recruitment target, which is the ninja organization where Fujiki belongs.

The ninja organization that Fujiki belongs to is called Mori. It has a short history, having only been passed down for three generations. Especially since the leader of this generation is a woman, it has become increasingly decadent.

What made Yan Xu excited was not the fact that the leader of the ninja organization that Fujiki belonged to was a woman. Even though he really wanted the female ninja to show him in person how to deal with monsters, he would not change his mind because of this.

Yan Xu made this decision mainly because the ninja organization that Fujiki belonged to had no one to pledge allegiance to and did not even have a base. They could only wander around and do odd jobs to earn bounties, so it was not difficult to recruit them.

This is the reason why Yan Xu spared Fujiki's life, otherwise he would have killed him and destroyed his body. He didn't want to be targeted by the ninja.

Fujiki had a good physique. After treating his wound and drinking a bowl of thick soup, he fell into a deep sleep. He had no symptoms of inflammation or fever, but it was uncertain when he would wake up, so Yan Xu prepared to deal with other things first.

Accompanying twenty foot soldiers and the two brothers Taro and Jiro, Yan Xu crossed the wooden bridge and came to Inaya Village for inspection. After all, this would be his territory from now on.

Because of the underdeveloped productivity and lack of tools, the houses in Daogu Village are very simple, just wooden frame and thatched roof pavilions, surrounded by mats to block the wind. This thing will definitely burn quickly. As for living in it, only those who live there know. Although I saw it once yesterday, after a careful understanding today, Yan Xu felt that he was here to be the director of poverty alleviation.

Right now, there are only dozens of people in the entire village, all of them are the elderly, the weak, women and children. There is not a single adult man, because all the men have been taken away to the war by the Yamada family, causing the value of the entire village to be almost negative, and it would be a loss to take over.

Moreover, he originally wanted to be like those protagonists who traveled to ancient times and find a beautiful orphan girl who was considerate, capable and good-looking in the village, and play with her to cultivate her. But who wanted to see only monkeys, so he became even less motivated.

Compared to the villagers who just knelt there and trembled, the village chief was much more proactive. Especially when he saw Yan Xu was not in a good mood, he worked hard to talk about the past glory of Daogu Village, like a lousy salesman.

In fact, the village chief is the wise man and is more positive about joining Yan Xu. As for the reason, it is only the word wealth.

The village chief knew very well that no matter who won or lost between the two daimyo, the fate of Daogu Village would not be good.

If the feudal samurai arrive, heavy taxes are inevitable. Moreover, the samurai have bad tempers, kill people at will, and do not engage in production. It is unknown what the end of the Inagari Village will be.

It would be even worse if the feudal warriors had not arrived. By the time the autumn harvest came, there would be countless bandits waiting to plunder, not to mention the threats posed by monsters and beasts.

But Yan Xu was different. Even the farmers under his command wore new uniforms, and the foot soldiers were fully equipped with weapons and armor. They also had ruddy complexions, and it was obvious that they had no shortage of food. At least their lives' food had not been taken away, and that was enough.

Thanks to the efforts of the village chief, Yan Xu soon realized that the biggest problem facing Daogu Village now was the lack of manpower, or to be more precise, men.

Yan Xu rubbed his chin, looked at the group of old and young people and widows, and immediately had an idea.

Now he has fifty foot soldiers, forty farmers, and ten farm women under his command. The ratio of men to women is seriously unbalanced. He can let those farmers take over these widows and become fathers. In this way, the entire Daogu Village will be completely in his hands.

Moreover, the summoned foot soldiers and farmers were not only loyal to him, but also had normal needs like normal people at other times. When he was at the pig farm before, the room of the ten farm women was quite lively at night, with the sound of poker cards being snapped, so he came up with this idea.

It only took one day to match and divide the land and register them. After all, there were only about a hundred people, and whatever he said was what it was, and no one objected. How complicated could it be?

After everything was settled, Daogu Village regained its population of its peak period. Men could be seen carrying farm tools to the fields, women repairing thatched huts at home and cooking soup and meals, and even elderly people with no one to rely on could receive food to take care of orphans. Everything was in order, and all Yan Xu had to pay was some coarse grains and farm tools.

At this time, Yan Xu was standing beside the paddy field, scratching his head.

The most valuable thing in the entire Daogu Village is the paddy fields near the river, because rice is the focus of tax collection. The Yamada family can have the confidence to fight on the battlefield because of the strength accumulated in these paddy fields, so they cannot be left abandoned. Therefore, Yan Xu has to recruit farmers to cultivate the fields.

However, there are Kappas in the river. If we are not on guard, there will probably be casualties. This is why the Inagaki Village asked two ronin to kill the Kappas even though they couldn't even get enough food.

(End of this chapter)