"There is, of course!"
Yoshikawa's eyes widened in disbelief. This young-looking Dongfang Mao had an astonishingly large order.
But once his surprise passed, he immediately agreed.
After all, he still had a shipment of goods ready to be sent to the Land of Fire, more than enough to meet Dongfang Mao's needs.
"Esteemed guest, please come with me."
At Yoshikawa's gesture, Dongfang Mao followed him to the spacious back courtyard, where more than a dozen freight cars stood neatly in a row, an impressive sight.
Yoshikawa pushed open the door of one of the cars. Inside, an array of armor and weapons was laid out in neat rows, their cold metal gleaming. He stepped aside and said with a smile,
"Please have a look, esteemed guest. I guarantee you'll be satisfied with the quality."
Dongfang Mao gave a slight nod, picked one of each type of weapon and armor he needed, and examined them carefully. He found no fault with either the craftsmanship or the quality of the materials.
Having made up his mind, Dongfang Mao looked back at Yoshikawa and smiled.
"As expected of the Land of Iron. Mr. Yoshikawa, I have nothing but praise for the craftsmanship. But this is a very large order for you, isn't it? I wonder if you could offer me a discount."
At that, Yoshikawa's eyes darted about as he considered the matter. After a moment, he stroked his somewhat sparse beard and said,
"You should know that we in the Land of Iron generally make little more than the cost of our craftsmanship on exports. But since this is your first deal with us, I'll consider it a gesture of goodwill. The goods come to 18.4 million, but I'll charge you 17 million."
It wasn't much, but every little bit saved was a gain. Dongfang Mao nodded, then took a scroll from his robes.
"Mr. Yoshikawa, here's the payment. As for the goods, just have your men unload them onto the ground."
Yoshikawa looked at the scroll Dongfang Mao had spread out on the ground. He knew what he was looking at, and his eyes immediately lit up.
"A Space Scroll? Are you from a hidden village, esteemed guest?"
"Heh, I'm just helping an elder buy a few things."
Dongfang Mao replied with a chuckle, without confirming or denying it.
At that, Yoshikawa looked at Dongfang Mao differently.
After a moment's hesitation, he continued,
"How about this? I'll take another two million off the price. That makes it 15 million in total."
"Oh? Wouldn't that put you at a loss, Mr. Yoshikawa?"
Dongfang Mao was delighted, but kept his expression composed.
Yoshikawa, for his part, put on a suitably pained look.
"Indeed. If I didn't feel such an immediate kinship with you, esteemed guest, I wouldn't dream of accepting a deal like this. And if you're satisfied with the goods when you get back, don't forget to come to me for more. Here are some addresses for my residences in the two countries. If you need anything, you can send word."
As he spoke, Yoshikawa pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to Dongfang Mao.
"Of course. As long as your goods are up to standard and serve us well, we'll be sure to give you our business."
Smiling, Dongfang Mao took the slip of paper, and the two exchanged a few more pleasantries.
Then Yoshikawa's servants came to unload the goods.
While they were busy, Dongfang Mao looked around idly. Suddenly, his gaze caught on a long, dark tube in the southwest corner, cast from solid iron.
Dongfang Mao froze. Wasn't that a freaking cannon?
"Mr. Yoshikawa, what's that?"
Yoshikawa looked puzzled, then followed Dongfang Mao's pointing finger. A look of understanding crossed his face.
"Oh, that? I once went to Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning to do business, and had the good fortune to see their village's armaments: a Chakra Cannon. I was very interested in it, so after I returned home, I tried to make a copy. The craftsmanship turned out well, but I couldn't figure out how to combine the cannon with Chakra.
"So it became nothing more than a showpiece. I brought it along this time in the hope that someone might be interested, but as you can see, no one has been."
Yoshikawa shrugged, looking a little helpless.
Dongfang Mao's expression grew unreadable as he listened. Then he said,
"I'm quite interested in it. How much are you asking, Mr. Yoshikawa?"
"You want this?"
Yoshikawa looked surprised. He rested his chin in his hand and thought for a moment before replying,
"Though I made it mostly out of personal interest, I still spent over five million on it all told. If you want it, I'll charge you 1.5 million, just to recoup a little of my losses."
Dongfang Mao mulled it over, then nodded.
"Deal."
He wasn't planning to do anything with the Chakra Cannon. He didn't have the know-how, and it was too limited in its use—only ninjas could operate it.
He just wanted to see if he could make a gunpowder cannon instead.
If he could, and then produce them on a large scale, his people would no longer be helpless against ninjas. Cannons would also be invaluable for attacking and defending cities.
But that was for later.
His strategy for dealing with Tsukimiura was to launch a surprise attack and use deception, achieving a lot with little. He had no need to lay siege to the place, so for now the cannon would just sit unused in his scroll.
After settling the deal with Yoshikawa, Dongfang Mao left with a scroll full of weapons, then went to a grain merchant from the Land of Fire on the neighboring street.
With the Land of Rice Fields suffering from disasters lately, grain prices had soared. A catty of grain now cost about 15 taels.
There was nothing Dongfang Mao could do about it. He spent another ten million taels to buy 670,000 catties of grain, enough to feed over a thousand people for six months, even with intensive training.
After setting aside his last 3.5 million for emergencies, Dongfang Mao first returned to the inn and informed Tsunade. Then he left the city alone and headed back to Desolate Village.
When he returned to Desolate Village, Dongfang Mao saw Yasuke training more than thirty unfamiliar faces on the open ground by the village gate.
Dongfang Mao walked over without a word and watched from the side, arms folded.
"Spread out!"
"Form up!"
Yasuke stood at the head of the formation and shouted.
These refugees, who had only just eaten their fill, naturally had no idea what discipline meant. At Yasuke's command, they immediately stumbled about and fell into chaos.
Yasuke snorted at the sight, stepped forward, and slapped the worst offenders one by one before kicking them to the ground.
The others, who had escaped with only minor mistakes, looked around in alarm, drenched in cold sweat.
Dongfang Mao didn't stop Yasuke. He watched coldly from the sidelines.
Yasuke and the others had been beaten into shape by Dongfang Mao in much the same way. He had even beheaded a few of the most stubborn ones before they learned to follow orders. Now Yasuke was simply carrying out his will.
Back then, Dongfang Mao had clearly never been content to lead a rabble that did nothing but rape and pillage. He had insisted on strict discipline.
And to enforce military discipline, the first thing was to make the men obey. To do that, he had to use his fists to shut them up and make them listen.
That was what a retired soldier he'd met at a bar in his previous life had told him.
Though this method was one of the military's less savory traditions, there was no denying it worked.
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