Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 101 It’s really hard to be the head of Oda Nobunaga!

Soon after Oda Nobunaga won a great victory over Shibata Katsuie and Hayashi Hidetada near Shinogi Castle, his entire army continued to advance and began to approach Suemori Castle, while sending envoys to persuade them to surrender.

Two days later, the gates of Suemori Castle, which was guarded by only miscellaneous foot soldiers, were opened. Oda Nobuyuki and Shibata Katsuie knelt at the gate to show their surrender.

Oda Nobunaga was very magnanimous and let bygones be bygones. He still recognized Oda Nobuyuki as his younger brother and Shibata Katsuie as the head of the family. However, he packed up the relatives of the two, as well as Oda Nobunaga's mother Tsuchida and his sisters, and stuffed them into the army and took them back to Furuno Castle. By the time they returned to Furuno Castle, Hayashi Hidetada had once again become the head of the family of Oda Danmasatada, but he was no longer in charge of the important writing duties.

Ah Qing couldn't accept it. He clenched his fists tightly, wondering how these culprits who killed so many people could be forgiven. He asked Yuan Ye, "Why?"

Yuanye had anticipated this, and gently pried open her fist, sighing, "Because they are the great clans of Owari, and the relationships among the clans of Owari are complicated. It would be easy to kill two of them, but that would mean that Oda Nobunaga would not forgive the rebellion of the clans of Owari, and would have to continue the fight until one side is wiped out.

However, the current situation in Owari could no longer tolerate greater turmoil, and there were many foreign enemies such as the Oda Kiyomasa clan, the Imagawa clan, and the Matsudaira clan, so they reached a new compromise. "

Ah Qing couldn't understand what politics was. After a long pause, he said blankly, "Then what about Sister Ah Man's revenge..."

"Of course we have to avenge Ah Man. We can't rely on outsiders for this kind of thing." Yuan Ye said softly, "Don't worry, we can take our time. Lin Xiuzhen won't die in a short time."

Ah Qing slowly calmed down and gently shook Yuanye's hand to show that he believed in him. At this time, Yayoi's excited voice came from outside the house: "Saburo-sama, Maeda Magoshiro (Toshiie)-sama is here, and he has sent Taolulang and the others back!"

Yuanye was stunned for a moment, then quickly stood up to greet him. The arrow wound on Maeda Toshiie's face had not healed yet, and half of his head was bandaged. Behind him were more than a dozen wounded thugs, including the Momoi brothers. When they saw Yuanye, they immediately burst into tears. It seemed that they had suffered a lot during this period.

Yuan Ye hurried forward to comfort him, then looked at Maeda Toshiie, who explained, "His Highness scolded Lord Lin Xiuzhen and asked him to hand over all the captured people. These are your people, but... there are only so many left."

"Thank you very much."

"Nothing, Lord Lin Xiuzhen also captured many of His Highness's men, just by chance." Maeda Toshiie thought for a moment and said, "As for the money and livestock you lost before, Lord Lin Xiuzhen also handed over some of the stolen goods. Those are all with Lord Niwa, and will be distributed to the damaged families and the widows of the deceased... You can go back and look for him, but it's hard to say how much you can get back."

"I understand. Thank you, Your Highness, for me." Yuanye didn't care much about money. It was good enough that Oda Nobunaga remembered to help him get the person back.

"Okay, I'm leaving!" Maeda Toshiie had finished his work and was about to leave without even sitting down.

Yuanye saw him off and asked, "How is Sawaki Touhachiro's injury recovering?"

This time, the Maeda family suffered heavy losses from their bets on both sides. Their second son died, and their fifth son, Sawaki Yoshiyuki, had his right forearm cut off. With the medical conditions of that era, even if Yuanye tried his best to help, there was no guarantee that his fingers would remain as flexible as before, and there was a great possibility that he would no longer be able to hold a knife.

Maeda Toshiie sighed and said uncomfortably: "It's similar to what you said before. I'm afraid it will be difficult for me to go into battle in the future..."

Yuanye also sighed with him, reminded him to remind Sawaki Yoshiyuki to come for a follow-up visit, and then stopped and watched him leave.

After he returned to his temporary residence, he found A-Qing asking about what happened to the Taojing brothers after they separated that night. He only heard Tao Liulang say in a sad voice: "...A-Man asked us to escape first, so we ran along the river bend separately, but I was caught before I got far, and then... Then I saw from a distance that A-Man was shot dead."

This was expected. After all, it was really difficult to survive in that situation. But guessing it was one thing and really hearing the bad news was another. Yuanye still felt a pang of pain in his heart. Even if it was not as heartbreaking as the legend, it was not much different. But he was able to keep calm. He went over and gently hugged Ah Qing's trembling body, to prevent her from being provoked and rushing out to fight Lin Xiuzhen.

He remained calm, holding Ah Qing to prevent her from moving, and asked Tao Liulang: "What about Ah Man's... body?"

"I don't know. I just took a look from a distance and then was dragged away."

Ah Qing wiped her tears and calmed down a bit. She said to Yuanye, "I'll go to the river bend to look for my sister."

"Go!" Yuan Ye saw that she had calmed down, so he didn't stop her. He continued to ask Tao Liulang, "And you have been imprisoned by the Lin family until now?"

Tao Liulang and Jing Qilang nodded together, and then Tao Liulang stuttered: "The Lin family has been asking us about the soy sauce workshop. We...we didn't tell them and they beat us, but...we didn't say anything, uh, and then we were locked up."

In the past, they only knew how to lead people to cook and transport ingredients. They had no idea what Yuanye had added during the process. They couldn't say anything even if they wanted to. They could only consider that they were beaten several times in vain.

It's just that you can't say it like that, you still have to say it in a heroic way, after all, being captured is not a glorious thing. Yuan Ye understood, but didn't care, and immediately asked: "Only the people from the Lin family asked you, no one else?"

"This... is not clear." The Taojing brothers looked at each other and shook their heads in unison. They were both stunned at the time and were not familiar with the Lin family, so they could not tell whether there were outsiders present or not.

"Is there a bald guy?" Yuan Ye asked again. He was suspicious and suspected that there was some kind of deal between the Arashi Guanyin Temple and the Lin family. If so, then he would have to add another person to his list of enemies.

The Taojing brothers looked at each other, recalled for a moment, and shook their heads in unison: "It seems not."

Yuanye nodded slightly. It seemed that the monks had nothing to do with it at the moment. It was just that the Lin family was greedy. That was why they chased him madly that night and were determined to fight him to the death. Five thousand strings of cash a year was indeed not a small amount. It was equivalent to the output of seven or eight villages. It was normal for the Lin family to want to get it.

In the past, he was very afraid of such things happening, afraid of being robbed by local powerful families or temple families, so he usually hid in Takeuchi Villa and never went out. Unexpectedly, he still couldn't escape it in the end.

He made another note of the Lin family, and then found that the Taojing brothers looked very frightened when he was hesitating, so he quickly comforted them with a few words and told them to rest and recover from their injuries. He remembered all their previous efforts and the risks they had taken, and as long as the Fanyeyuan family could exist for one more day, he would never treat them unfairly.

Then he ordered his men to carry them away and bandage them with medicine. He went to comfort the dozen or so men who had returned alive, and promised that the bounty and conditions promised by Aman before his death were valid, and he would fulfill them one by one in the future, and would not let them die in vain.

After he finished taking care of these chores, he thought for a while, found an account book and went to find his temporary superior, Niwa Nagahide. Niwa Nagahide was very happy to see him coming. Yuanye had helped him a lot during this period of time. Without him, many things would not have been able to be sorted out so quickly.

He was not very busy at the moment and was in a good mood. He ordered someone to pour tea for Yuanye, then asked with a smile: "Master Sanlang, are you here for the lost property?"

They had been dealing with each other all day long during this period, and both of them had gentle and generous personalities. They were familiar enough to call each other by their common names, but Harano was much older than Niwa Nagahide, so Niwa Nagahide still used a respectful title.

Yuanye nodded and said with a smile, "I heard about it from Master Maeda, so I came to take a look."

Niwa Nagahide also knew that Yuanye had suffered heavy losses before, and had already prepared for him. He went to the desk to get a list and handed it to him, "There are too many monks and too little porridge, but... of course we have to take care of our own people first. Take a look at these first!"

Yuanye took it and took a look. The list was very long, with a lot of random things on it, including rice, buckwheat, cattle, horses, donkeys, copper coins and so on. Overall, the things he got were worth about two or three hundred strings of cash.

This amount of stuff is certainly not enough to make up for his losses, but even if Lin Xiuzhen surrendered and was forced to give up a lot of stolen goods, it would definitely not be enough to compensate all the victimized warriors and widows. This can only be regarded as an explanation in a political sense. The fact that he was able to get so much already showed that Niwa Nagahide was taking care of him.

Of course, if he wanted more, Niwa Nagahide would probably give him a little more, but that was unnecessary.

He glanced at it and put the list away, then smiled at Niwa Nagahide and said, "Thank you very much."

"No, this is all the orders of His Highness." Niwa Nagahide did not take credit for it. Only Oda Nobunaga would do such an unconventional thing. He actually ordered Lin Hidetsugu to compensate the victim in a humiliating manner. Otherwise, according to convention, there would be no such thing as compensation. He deserved it because his house was robbed in the previous war.

"Thank you very much, Your Excellency." Yuanye followed his words and took out the account book and gave it to him, just to talk about work. "This is the amount of saltpeter collected during this period. See if it is enough."

Niwa Nagahide was very concerned about this matter. He immediately took the account book and looked through it carefully. Finally, he looked at the summary and said disappointedly, "Is this all?"

"That's all we have for now." Yuan Ye asked calmly, "Is the gap still too big?"

"It's too far away. This is less than one-third of what His Highness asked for." Niwa Nagahide was very disappointed. He carefully read the account book again and found that Yuanye had already thought of the places he could think of. He couldn't think of where else to get saltpeter. He hesitated and asked, "Is there no other way?"

"Not for now." Yuanye was not in a hurry. It was not a good deal to rush for help, and the request he was going to make was difficult for people to accept. Everyone had to be extremely anxious so that there wouldn't be too much resistance.

This is not difficult. Oda Nobunaga is very good at making his retainers anxious and worried. All he has to do is wait.

Niwa Nagahide finally understood how Hirate Masahide felt. It was really difficult to be the head of the family for Oda Nobunaga. He couldn't help but sighed, "This is troublesome!"

(End of this chapter)