Hru ya Mukashi (translation) (2)

"Ad Interim Trust of Tosa State"
So read official signs, which had been put up in front of the castle as well as at street corners of the castle town.
The fact was, however, Tosa men didn't use violence here in Matsuyama. Tosa's commander was Ogasawara Tadahachi, who was known to be a frank man, commanded his men strictly, and tried not to hurt Matsuyama samurai's feelings.
Rather, Matsuyama State was saved by him, when Choh-shuh men, one group of the Loyalist Army, came over the sea, and landed at Mitsuhama, Matsuyama's sea port.
"We shall revenge the grudge of the past year's Punitive Expedition to Choh-shuh."
Thus, Choh-shuh men came here vengefully from the outset. Ogasawara Tadahachi, however, soothed them, prevented their entry, and sent them back to the sea. On their retreat, Choh-shuh men deprived Matsuyama State of its largest asset, a steam ship.
The hardest problem for Matsuyama State to deal with was their financial problem rather than these insults. The reparation of 150,000 ryo [nominally half a ton of gold] was almost impossible to pay from the State's financial condition.
The compensation drained the State finance, and made the samurai's livings extremely poor.
Families such as Akiyama Family, 10-koku-salaried o-kachi, were wretched worst.
They had got 4 children already. Bringing them up was already hard. Another boy baby was born in March in the first year of Meiji (the 4th year of Keioh) [1868], when this "Tosa State Occupation" broke out.
"Shall we rather abort?"
So told Heigoroh, the head of the family, to his wife O-sada when she was pregnant. Townie families and peasant families have customs to cull out. Just ask a midwife to cull, and she will drench the baby to death when she is giving it its first bath. As samurai families didn't have such a custom, they, however, couldn't carry the plan out. After all, he got born. As a result, they made up their mind:
"Better yet, shall we make him a bonze?"
Shin-san, at the age of 10, happened to hear that, came in front of his parents, and said, "Uchi [I] would say, that is not so good." From sometime, Iyo Dialect has been considered the most relaxed dialect in Japan.
“Uchi would say, Father. Uchi would rather not like you to make the baby a bonze. Before long, uchi would study, and would make as thick money as tofu.”
The word uchi [homie?] is used by girls in Kansai, while it seems to be used even by samurai boys in Iyo.
To “make as thick money as tofu.”
Such simile sounds like a relaxed Matsuyama dialect all over. Matsuyama grown-ups say they would like to make money as thick as tofu, piling up State’s bills. Shin-san seems to have picked that up.