Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 170: Letter of State

Oda Nobunaga was like a policeman in a movie, arriving at the scene after the incident was already over. By the time he crossed the Kiso River and reached Kawanami, the area between the Kiso and Nagara Rivers, his father-in-law had been dead for several days.

He brought more than 5,000 people, which was basically the maximum force that the Danjo family could mobilize under the pressure of the Imagawa family and the Matsudaira family on the eastern front. Originally, he wanted to think about Ogaki Castle in Mino, but Ogaki Castle was already in sight. Faced with Saito Yoshitatsu's army that had expanded again and had exceeded 20,000 in number, he stopped for a while and did not dare to initiate an attack.

As the brother-in-law, he did not dare to beat his elder brother-in-law, even though his elder brother-in-law had just beaten his father-in-law to death, and he never expected that his father-in-law would be defeated so quickly.

But he did not leave for the time being. He led his army to stay where he was and wait and see the situation, hoping that Saito Yoshitatsu would not be able to control so many Mino powerful families and civil strife would break out, so that he could take advantage of it, and preferably still capture Ogaki Castle.

Unfortunately, Saito Yoshitatsu was able to overthrow Saito Dosan, one of the "three great conspirators of the Warring States Period". He was far better than his teacher and was by no means a mediocre person. He was still able to unite Mino and there was no sign of disintegration.

On the contrary, after resting for several days, Saito Yoshitatsu led his army south along the Nagara River, and his intention to actively seek war was quite obvious.

Only at this point did Oda Nobunaga completely give up and no longer want to fight this purely attritional battle. He led his army to turn around and return the same way. It was a waste of all his efforts and he didn't gain any advantage at all.

What's worse is that his two pillars of support for a long time, his father-in-law Saito Dosan and his uncle Oda Nobumitsu, have died one after another. In a sense, he now only has Hara no Yamaguchi as a reliable ally, and his territory is small and sparsely populated, so he is almost alone.

Oda Nobunaga was not in a very good mood, but Harano was in a good mood. After all, his selfish desires were almost satisfied. Taking advantage of the brief window of time when the Saito father and son were in internal strife and had no time for him, he did a few good jobs and transported nearly two thousand people to the Sunomata area one after another, and then slowly transported them back to Shinwanzu, which temporarily alleviated his shortage of manpower.

When Saito Yoshitatsu saw that they were retreating without pressing on, he followed them from a distance. After driving them across the Kiso River, he turned back to Inabayama Castle. After all, Mino had officially "changed dynasties", and he still had a lot of things to do, so he had no time to pay attention to Oda Nobunaga, his cheap brother-in-law.

At this point, the battle was over, and the alliance between the Oda Danjotada family and the Saito family also ended. If they met again in the future, they would be enemies.

…………

When Yuanye came, he was the vanguard, and when he went back, he became the rear guard. He stopped in the Sunomata area and started to transfer people. However, transporting people through inland rivers was quite troublesome, and it was far less convenient than sea transportation. He could only transport dozens of people each time, and it would take him at least ten days to transport all these people to the coast. Fortunately, everyone along the way gave face to Oda Nobunaga and would not attack him or blackmail him, otherwise things would be ten times more troublesome.

The manpower shortage is related to the future of Xinwanjin. These new immigrants are very important. Yuanye must ensure that all of them are brought home. He was worrying about this very much when a junior officer came in urgently to report: "Sir, there is someone outside the camp who claims to be the grandfather of Sir Aman and wants to see him for something important."

"Who?" Yuanye looked up in surprise, and Aqing, who had been sitting beside him and making tea for him, stood up suddenly. The cold expression on his little face could no longer be maintained, and he also looked surprised.

The officer immediately repeated: "That man said he was Lord Aman's grandfather."

Yuanye didn't expect that the grandfather that A-man couldn't find would come here on his own. To be honest, if A-man and A-qing didn't have gourds on their heads, he would have suspected the old man... No, it was the old man who was captured by a snake spirit. He even dreamed of fighting the snake spirit with A-man and A-qing.

However, while his mind was wandering, his body was not idle. He instinctively stood up and ran outside. Ah Qing finally reacted at this time. The surprise on his little face turned into joy, but he did not rush to run to the front of Yuanye. He just followed behind him to greet them. Ah Man was not in the camp. He was taking people to transport the new immigrants back, which was also to open up a road to prevent any small groups of river pirates from causing trouble along the way.

Yuanye ran all the way to the camp gate and saw a short old man standing there from afar, with two dusty little girls standing behind him. There was a small group of Wanjin soldiers around who were keeping a close eye on him to prevent him from making any unusual movements.

"Is it Mr. Izumi Heiji?"

Yuan Ye had long heard of this old man, and thought that he was a master who could train such good fighters as Aman and Aqing. When he wanted to meet a master, he immediately took out the persona of Yuan Beiyuan Xuande, and began to greet politely without even catching his breath. He also raised his hand to help the other party to show his sincerity. However, his hand was empty, and he took a closer look and found that Quan Heiji only had one arm - Aman used to say that her old man could "explode anus with one hand", and he originally thought that the old man was amazingly powerful, but he didn't expect that he really only had one left hand. And Quan Heiji is not just a "one-armed swordsman", there is a deep old scar on his right face, like a twisted centipede, his eyelids are sunken and empty, and he is also a "one-eyed swordsman".

At the same time, his current condition was not very good. His lips were chapped and his hair was messy with a few strands of white hair mixed in. Sweat stuck to his cheeks which were covered in dust and blood. He looked somewhat embarrassed and tired. It was estimated that he had experienced a lot of fighting along the way. The cloth wrapped around the handle of the sword on his waist was all black and stained with blood terribly.

Even though he looked haggard and tired, his left eye was still bright, and there were laugh lines at the corners of his eyes when he smiled. He looked very gentle, bowed his head and said to Nohara, "Are you Lord Nohara in person? I am Izumi Heiji Konan." - He was from Konan, Koga County, so he called himself Izumi Heiji Konan.

"It's me, old man, you can just call me Sanlang..." Yuanye was very polite, and even changed his posture to help him. At the same time, relying on the instinct of a Mongolian doctor and the smell of blood and rot in his nose, he was very sure that Quan Heiji was injured, and the injury was not light. After saying half a sentence, he quickly changed the topic and said, "Please go in and talk first!"

"Thank you very much, Lord Nohara." Izumi Heiji didn't expect that Nohara, as a local tyrant, would be so humble. But he did have something important to find Nohara about, so he lowered his head slightly and followed him inside. Asahi and Ayu were also in a very miserable state, with blood on their bodies and dirty faces. Even the old hat on Asahi's back was cut off in half by a sharp blade, as if he had escaped death.

Ah Qing ignored the two little things and silently supported Izumi Heiji. Izumi Heiji looked at her carefully, a little surprise on his face, but soon he smiled and patted her hand lightly, indicating that he was fine.

The group entered the temporary camp, and Yuanye quickly ordered people to get medicine and prepare tea and food, but Quan Heiji quickly stopped him and said sternly: "Master Nohara, let's talk about business first!"

Yuanye was slightly surprised, but still asked someone to prepare, and asked him to sit down, then he asked: "I wonder what's the matter, old sir?" If he was looking for protection or dealing with pursuers, then there was nothing to say. Given his relationship with Aman and Aqing, no one could touch this old man today. If anyone dared to come, they would be killed by concentrated fire.

Izumi Heiji didn't waste any words, mainly because he was running out of energy. He reached out and took out an oil-paper bag from his arms, opened it in front of Yuanye, took out two letters and handed them to him, and said with a wry smile: "Originally, I should have delivered these two letters to His Highness Kamisuke and His Highness Nohime in Kiyosu Castle, but I saw the secret code left by the two children Aman and Aqing at the ferry before, and I am inconvenient now, so I have the audacity to ask you to take the trouble!"

Yuanye took the letter, but didn't rush to open it. He asked softly, "This is..."

"This is the letter of patriotism and the will of His Highness Dosan." Izumi Heiji looked at the two letters with a sigh on his face. "After the battle of Tsuruyama, His Highness Dosan knew that he would not be able to escape, so he wrote this letter of patriotism and entrusted the country of Mino to His Highness Kamisosuke. He also left a will to His Highness Nouhime and ordered me to deliver it, but..."

But Saito Yoshitatsu was not happy about this, as his men had been chasing them. If he had not found Hara no Yamada by chance, he would have had to rush to Owari with injuries and would have most likely died.

Yuanye nodded gently, then looked at the two letters. The letter to Oda Nobunaga was sealed with a wax seal, making it difficult to open, but the suicide note was not sealed, so he took out the suicide note and took a look. Inside was a last poem:

If one person attains enlightenment, all nine generations of the clan will ascend to heaven. Alas!
I put down my pen and shed tears, it was just a dream.

Saito Yamashiro suffered from old age, sickness and death throughout his life during the Lotus Sutra, and finally attained Buddhahood on the battlefield.

Isn’t it fun?

After the battle tomorrow, even if my limbs are incomplete, I will become a Buddha, and leave the nothingness of this world, like the morning dew that disappears without a trace.

Yuan Ye was speechless after reading it, and felt that Saito Dosan's literary level was not very good, but he turned his head and took a look at the "State Letter", and felt that this thing was of great weight, and thought...

With this thing, Mino and Owari will probably continue fighting, and who knows how many more people will die.

(End of this chapter)