Chapter 645: Tribute
Goro's or Coral Palace's ship soon arrived at Narukami Island.
"The changes on Narukami Island have been getting faster and faster in recent years." Goro said with emotion, "Especially around Inazuma Castle. I remember that three years ago this was just an ordinary village with low houses. Although people ate well, the living environment was very ordinary."
"Now people here have also been influenced by Inazuma Castle, and houses that mix stone and wood have become popular."
"It is said that houses built with wood and thatch cause great pressure on the fire brigade, so houses that are a mix of stone and wood have gradually become popular in Inazuma Castle. Now it is said that houses made of a mixture of stone, steel and fire-resistant precious wood are more popular in Inazuma Inner Castle." said the hatamoto general who responded from the side.
"It is said that the shogunate and the Tenryo Bugyo had secretly renovated the house into that shape a long time ago. This is also the reason why there has not been a large-scale fire in the shogunate in the past hundred years."
"We don't have such a need on Kaigi Island. Fires ." Goro scratched his head and said.
"I really envy you guys from Umigi Island." Hatamoto Wujiang said, "There was a fire in my house five years ago, and one third of the wealth accumulated by my family for seven generations was burned down in an instant."
The hatamoto general shook his head and said, "My case is still considered good. Some people would burn down the family heritage accumulated by generations in one fire."
Now Goro truly understood these people's urgent need for stone houses.
After all, how much does it cost to build a stone house? At most, it is just a few years' salary for a warrior. If the house is bigger, at most you will have to suffer a few more years, but once it catches fire, the loss will be huge.
Stone houses can effectively protect personal and family assets and reduce losses.
Although the fire prevention technology of wooden houses before Inazuma was very good, the price of the wood varnish applied on the houses for fire prevention was incredibly expensive, and only the nobles of generations could not afford it.
Moreover, the fire resistance of this tree lacquer is limited. Once a real fire occurs, this thing will be useless.
Stone is obviously much better. It is a naturally non-combustible material and cannot be burned by ordinary fires.
Soon his men counted the quantity and quality of the tribute, and returned the few coral pearls with slight flaws to Haigi Island.
"Then I will take my leave." The hatamoto general nodded to General Goro and said goodbye.
He needed to escort these tributes into the shogunate's warehouse, and at the same time count the tributes from other regions that quarter.
Except for some areas that have no special products, such as Kankino Island, other famous areas with special products need to pay tribute to the shogunate.
However, the tribute from Haigi Island, which pays tribute once a year, is always of the highest quality and in the largest quantity.
For example, Renlian Island pays tribute every year with one or two newly compiled books on farming and one or two books on Inazuma Sea research, while Qinglai Island pays tribute with a large number of processed high-quality medicines every year.
After paying tribute, most of the supplies will actually be distributed by the shogunate.
For example, the coral pearls from Umijima Island, almost every samurai would come into contact with them, because the coral pearls were rewarded as positions, and only a small number were rewarded as individuals.
Most of those high-quality medicines were awarded to Inazuma, who were high-level fighters above the hatamoto generals.
The next step is to go through the process, including submitting tribute, receiving the general's reply, receiving encouragement, rewarding and seeing off.
"It's really tiring." Even Goro, who has the blood of a monster, feels exhausted both physically and mentally. "And General Raiden puts a lot of pressure on me..."
"I really don't know how the Coral Palace masters handled it."
"But I think I didn't make any mistakes. I can finally report to Lord Coral Palace."
"Hmm~ Next are some relationships that need to be dealt with. Let me see... who are they... First, the Three Priests..."
…
"I didn't expect that there would be a king of coral pearls this year." Ren Lian Lingyi was amazed as he played with a fist-sized round coral pearl in his hand.
Then he reluctantly returned it to General Lei Dian, "Such a large pearl must have been carefully nurtured by a Yokai-level Mirage Monster for twenty years."
The Mirage Monster is a monster that is unique to the Inazuma Umijima area. Like Umibozu, it was a monster that was once controlled by the Kumo Shrine.
Unlike the sea monster Umibozu which is about to become extinct, there are actually quite a lot of descendants of the Mirage Monster. They are like pearls and clams scattered all over the island of Umigi and have extremely high requirements for the water quality of the island.
The pearl oyster is an eight-year-old creature. Its normal lifespan is only eight years. It can produce coral pearls from the second year of its birth.
Such pearls are divided into March pearls and May pearls.
It is the main provider of raw materials for the Coral Palace skin care products industry.
Next are the one-year pearls. These pearls have become magical (containing the water element) and are precious commodities that can be sold to tourists visiting Kaigi Island.
After that comes the three-year bead, the five-year bead and the seven-year bead.
Among them, the three-year pearls and the five-year pearls were important commodities for foreign export, while some of the good-quality five-year pearls and most of the good-quality seven-year pearls were tributes to the Inazuma shogunate.
Of course, these old and deformed pearls will not be wasted and will be sent to skin care factories to be used in the production of high-end skin care products.
"The mirage monster is really a difficult monster to deal with." General Lei Dian said with emotion, "Back then, Sasayuri and Chiyo were responsible for defeating several families of mirage monsters..."
"It is said that if a mirage monster becomes a big monster, it will have the ability to absorb wishes and beliefs. I wonder if it is true." Ren Lian Lingyi asked curiously.
Before Ren Lian Lingyi was born, there were no big monsters in the Mirage Monster Clan. Even now, the Mirage Monster Clan only has high-level monsters.
As for the high-level mirage monsters, they will basically only cultivate one gem, so even a general will not fight for the gems that those guys have cultivated with their lives.
Of course, after death, these mirage monsters will consciously offer their pearls and shells to their protector, the Coral Palace. The Coral Palace will use some of them as ritual objects, and the rest will be offered to the Inazuma shogunate.
However, mirage monsters rarely die, and their numbers are very small. Basically, only one will be presented to the shogunate once every few decades or even hundreds of years.
"It's true." General Lei Dian confirmed what Ren Lian Lingyi said. "Those mirage monsters will use mirage energy and wish power to build the illusion that the wisher expects. Not long after the Mingshen Taisha was established, when there was no one to restrain monsters, many people were drowned by mirage monsters in their own illusions."
"It was Orobath who killed the strongest of the Mirage Monster Clan. Later, the Coral Palace lineage gained inspiration from the coral polyps and finally succeeded in enslaving the Mirage Monster Clan."
