Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 153 I Can Also Be Your Brother-in-law

The first rays of light in the morning carefully passed through the thin clouds and gently fell on Cheongju Castle, covering everything with a hazy golden veil. The breeze blew gently, the leaves rustled, and the birds sang a natural morning song.

The air is filled with the fresh scent of earth, mixed with the faint fragrance of flowers, and every breath should make people feel relaxed and happy.

Ikeda Terumasa walked quickly through the corridor, but he didn't think so. He just wanted to wake up Oda Nobunaga as soon as possible.

He walked through the outer corridor, inner corridor and sliding door, entered the bedroom, and passed through the small compartments in the hall. Cheongju City was built relatively early, with a history of over a hundred years. It did not adopt the new academy-style architectural layout, but a divided living environment in the hall.

Ikeda Terumasa finally knelt down in front of Oda Nobunaga's bedroom and called out a little louder, "Your Highness, there is an urgent report from Shinshumaru-sama."

There was no sound in the dormitory, so Ikeda Terumasa repeated his words again.

This time there was finally a response from inside the room. Oda Nobunaga uttered a "hmm", and Ikeda Terumasa knelt down, opened the door and moved in. He saw that his lord had sat up and was pressing his temples in pain. Oda Nobunaga had just moved to Kiyosu Castle and had recently taken in a large number of powerful families. In order to appease the people, he drank too much at the banquet last night and now had a headache.

Ikeda Terumasa hurriedly went to get him a fur coat to put on so he wouldn't catch a cold, and ordered the maid to prepare tea. After a while, Oda Nobunaga finally sobered up and asked, "What happened again?"

Ikeda Terumasa hurriedly handed over the secret letter. This was urgent information sent back from the Shirakawaguchi front by the Shinshumaru Kaidanshu, which was the "ninja" force reorganized by Oda Nobunaga from mountain bandits and river pirates.

Oda Nobunaga instinctively glanced at the mud seal, and seeing that there was no problem, he took out the letter and looked at it. Without even glancing at it twice, he angrily crumpled the paper into a ball and slapped it on the tatami, making a muffled sound like a fart. Ikeda Terumasa quickly picked up the letter and smoothed it out. He glanced at it and a look of surprise flashed across his face, but he quickly went to get an iron box and put the letter in it. He did not express his opinion, but his thoughts were surging in his heart.

The main forces of the Imagawa family stationed at the Shirakawaguchi line returned one after another the day before yesterday. It was estimated that they suffered heavy losses. However, according to further information obtained by the banquet attendants, Harano had actually withstood the fierce attack of the Imagawa family. The two sides had negotiated peace about ten days ago. Harano had successfully established a foothold in the middle section of the west coast of Chita County, and would become an independent force from now on.

This was a bit unbelievable. Originally, according to most people's opinion, Yuanye should be in great danger. After all, no force would allow outsiders to run to their "heartland" to establish a territory. Such people would be killed 100%. Moreover, with Wanjin's small size and a group of three or five hundred men, crossing the sea to a wilderness to fight against the powerful daimyo who occupied the three countries was tantamount to seeking death. Now even the Oda Danjotada family could not afford to provoke the Imagawa family. Even if Chita County was lost and a quarter of Kasugai County was eaten away, Oda Nobunaga had to endure it with his temper and only defended but did not attack. This shows something of his ability.

Anyway, if Ikeda Terumasa asked himself, he would definitely not be that crazy.

But he didn't dare to say anything. Hara took advantage of the opportunity when Furuno Castle was attacking Kiyosu Castle with all his strength, and rushed to Chita Peninsula with his whole family without saying hello. When he was discovered, Oda Nobunaga got very angry and kicked over the table on the spot. He immediately sent someone to tell him to get back, and cursed him and wanted to give him a good beating. As a result, Hara directly refused and wrote a nonsense letter back to express his desire to move to Chita Peninsula. This made Oda Nobunaga furious, and he kicked over the table again, and his face was gloomy for seven or eight days.

During this period, Yuanye's name even became a taboo in Qingzhou City, and no one dared to mention it.

Ikeda Terumasa knelt there and silently waited for Oda Nobunaga's orders, while Oda Nobunaga walked back and forth in the room angrily in his fur coat, and then stood at the window and looked into the distance for a long time. Then he slowly calmed down, turned around and said to him with a gloomy face: "Call Wan Qianyo and Inu!"

These close retainers lived with Oda Nobunaga, so it was not difficult to find them even though it was still early in the morning. Soon, Niwa Nagahide and Maeda Toshiie arrived one after another.

After the two of them gathered, they came together to meet the emperor, knelt at the door to greet him, and entered the bedroom together. Oda Nobunaga's face was no longer angry at this time. When he saw them, he ordered: "You two are familiar with Nohara, so get ready and go to Chita County."

Niwa Nagahide and Maeda Toshiie were confused and didn't understand what was going on.

Oda Nobunaga waved to Ikeda Terumasa, who immediately took out the crumpled intelligence and showed it to the two of them. After reading it, both of them were shocked, especially Maeda Toshiie, whose mouth opened in shock - he was ready to plead for him after Haruno escaped from the defeat, and try to get Oda Nobunaga to forgive his "defection".

After all, many retainers such as Hayashi Hidetada, Oda Nobuyuki, and Shibata Katsuie were not executed for treason, and Harano was only half of his own. Even if he "defected", it would only hurt feelings, but the greater good would not be lost. He should at least be given a chance to reform. But his words were all in vain. Facing the Imagawa family that beat Oda Danmasa from western Mikawa to the central part of Owari, Harano did not lose and held on.

Niwa Nagahide also couldn't understand how Harano did it. More than a year ago, Harano was still taking refuge in Takeuchi-sho, but he was beaten to the point of losing everything and had to be carried away. He almost died. But he just borrowed a piece of territory and was able to engage in a head-on battle with the powerful daimyo who occupied the three kingdoms?

How would the powerful families in Kasugai County feel about this? They were now across the river from the Imagawa and Matsudaira families. Even though they were not the enemy's main attack direction, they were still in a state of panic. They were either thinking about surrendering or wishing to move their families to Kiyosu Castle or the west of Furuno Castle. They were completely different from the Nohara family, like people from two different worlds.

After reading the intelligence, both of them were surprised. After a while, Niwa Nagahide asked tentatively, "My lord, do you want us to persuade Lord Nohara to come back... or do you want us to find out what happened?"

If it was the latter, it would be fine. We have an old friendship, so it would be fine. But if it was the former...

Although he had good eloquence, he did not think he could complete such a difficult task. Yuan Ye had taken his entire family to the peninsula to fight, and his determination to leave Dan Zhengzhong's house was obviously very firm. How could he possibly come back?
Oda Nobunaga did not answer for a moment, but just looked up at the painted ceiling of the dormitory for a while, and after a while he looked at the two and said, "No, I plan to marry Atun to him."

Niwa Nagahide, Maeda Toshiie, and Ikeda Terumasa were all shocked, but Oda Nobunaga had thought it through and would not allow them to object. He waved his hand and said, "I have made up my mind. Let's do it!"

The three of them looked at each other for a moment, and Ikeda Terumasa cautiously reminded: "My lord, Princess Buta has been betrothed to Master Tomifuku Heizaemon..."

"Really?" Oda Nobunaga was stunned for a moment, then he remembered that this was a decision he had made not long ago. The situation in Kasugai County was not good either, and many local nobles were shaken, so Oda Nobunaga decided to marry a powerful noble in Kasugai County to strengthen his ties in the area. Before, he was only concerned about being angry with Hara no Yama and forgot about this matter. He thought he was quite good to Hara no Yama, treating him as a fellow, and was very tolerant of him for not giving him a nickname. He even gave him the Chixing Territory, and planned to make him a local noble after he built a city in the future, and let him settle down in Owari and pass it down from generation to generation. As a result, this guy ran away without even saying hello.

He couldn't help but be angry, but...

He changed his tone and said, "Then let's go with A Quan. I plan to marry A Quan to him. You guys go over and take care of this matter."

Inuhime hadn't been betrothed yet, so there was no problem with using her for marriage, but Niwa Nagahide and the other two looked at each other, and Niwa Nagahide asked carefully, "My lord, do you want to discuss this with the others and ask Lady Tsuchida what she thinks?"

Marriage is a family affair. Niwa Nagahide estimated that once the news of Harano's successful "defection" spread, the old-school retainers would definitely shout and kill him. After all, these people had always disliked Harano, and believed that an outsider, a wandering samurai who ran a business without any dignity, had robbed their Chixing territory and deserved to die.

Moreover, the saltpeter business was indeed very tempting. Several of the magistrates had suggested to him in a tactful way that the saltpeter workshop should be taken back and managed directly. After all, only those who had made great contributions and extraordinary achievements were worthy of the Zhixing territory. It was inappropriate for Yuanye to take it directly, which would be very corrupting of tradition. Only by handing over the saltpeter workshop could it be compensated and be legitimate.

Of course, this is not for the Oda Danjotada family, but for themselves.

As far as Niwa Nagahide knew, the families behind several of these people had already sent people out to sea to search for the strange stone that could produce saltpeter. However, they could not get the "Nohara family's secret recipe for saltpeter production," so they hoped to get it with the help of Oda Nobunaga, so that they could make money easily - a pound of saltpeter was worth several kan of money, which was equivalent to the output of two or three acres of paddy fields. Who wouldn't be jealous?

Now, look what happened. They just parted ways. It would be strange if those people were not furious after losing such a large sum of money. If they really wanted to arrange a marriage, there would definitely be a lot of criticism. Besides, Oda Nobunaga's mother was not dead yet. She was just locked up by Oda Nobunaga. Such a big matter involving his daughter's marriage should be discussed with her first.

In short, this matter is quite complicated. As the head of internal affairs, Niwa Nagahide has many concerns, but Oda Nobunaga has never taken those old-school retainers seriously. He said directly: "No need, just do it! Make use of your friendship and get this done no matter what!"

Even though he often had strange ideas, he was actually a very realistic person. He knew how to govern and compromise, and he would not just kill people. Now that Yuan Ye was going to fly solo, getting angry was useless, and he could only think of ways to make up for it. Nothing was more reliable and faster than forming an alliance with an independent small force.

It's okay if Yuanye doesn't want to be his foster son or close retainer, he can still be his brother-in-law!
(End of this chapter)