Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 91 This is what it means when your dad just died!
When Hirate Masahide died, Hara did not care too much about it at first. After all, this man did not have any special achievements passed down. The reason he was famous was more because he was the teacher of Oda Nobunaga, the "Sixth Heavenly Demon King" and "the number one person in the Japanese Warring States Period."

But in fact, the impact of Hirate Masahide's death far exceeded Hara's imagination. The news of his suicide spread throughout Owari Province in a short time. People from the eight counties of Owari came to mourn him in an endless stream. In terms of the number of people present, the funeral was not inferior to that of the "Tiger of Owari" Oda Nobuhide.

Harano had never dealt with Hirate Masahide before. Looking at the endless stream of mourners in front of him, he realized that he had neglected it. He quickly asked Aman and only then did he find out the status of the Hirate family in Owari Province. The Hirate family was a powerful family that migrated from Echizen Province together with the Oda family. The ancestor of the Oda family was the shugodai, and his deputy was the ancestor of the Hirate family. The two were serious colleagues, but later the Oda family split and the world became increasingly chaotic, the Oda Danmasata family rose, and the Hirate family became vassal of the Oda Danmasa family.

If we only consider the righteousness, status and legal principles, the Shiba family is the first family in Owari, the Oda family is the second family in Owari, and the Hirate family should be considered the third family in Owari.

This family has a very deep foundation. In addition, Hirate Masahide is sixty years old this year. He has been an official since he was thirteen years old. He is elegant and noble, careful and gentle in his actions, and knowledgeable and talented. He is proficient in renga and Chinese studies. Most of the families in the eight counties of Owari have been cared for by him to some extent, and many family heads have been instructed by him. Over the past few decades, he has accumulated a very high reputation. No one has said anything bad about him, even Aman, the chatterbox, did not bring up any negative information about him, and there was some respect in his words.

Let's look at it this way. When Hirate Masahide committed suicide, Oda Nobunaga's loss was several times greater than expected. It was not just the loss of a family elder who supported him.

"That's true. If it weren't for the old man Hirate Masahide who fought to the death to protect him and personally persuaded Saito Dosan to marry his daughter, Oda Nobunaga would never have been able to sit firmly on the position of heir to the Dan Masatada family and might have been deposed long ago!" Aman agreed with his opinion and sighed repeatedly, "And if it weren't for this old man who kept the retainers in check and helped him clean up his mess, his retainers would have hung up and beaten this big fool lord long ago. So, Oda Nobunaga is really in trouble this time."

Yuanye nodded slightly, but didn't sigh about anything. Anyway, since he traveled through time, he never saw Oda Nobunaga having a smooth life. He was always in trouble and was really in a mess.

He was already somewhat used to it, and couldn't really sigh. He walked towards Hirate Masahide's funeral hall first, "I'll go and burn some incense, too!"

He was just following the crowd. After all, all the samurai in Takeuchi Shonai came spontaneously. Even though many of them were just clerks of Tan Masatada's family and had never seen a big shot like Hirate Masahide, they all formed a team spontaneously to come and pay their respects and called him by the way. He didn't want to appear too different, so he just followed along.

He had no friendship with the Hirate family, and his condolences were simply condolences. He lit a stick of incense, and the family members kowtowed to him. He kowtowed in return and that was it. Then he walked out the door and hesitated for a moment. He thought that since he was already here, he might as well stop by Asano's house to sit and have a cup of tea, deepen his "relationship" with Asano Nagakatsu, and maximize the value of his trip.

So he took Aman and Aqing on horseback and headed for the Asano family's residence. But when they were almost there, a man suddenly called out to them from the side of the road, "Lord Nohara?!"

Yuanye took a closer look and recalled that he was Mura Hachiro, a buddy of Maeda Toshiie. Then Maeda Toshiie poked his head out of the izakaya next door and greeted him, "Nohara-sama, what a coincidence, come in and have a seat!"

Yuanye had nothing to do today, and seeing that he also wanted to ask about the current situation of Oda Danjotada's family, he went in.

Maeda Toshiie asked for a small private room in the izakaya, and his younger brother Sawaki Yoshiyuki was also present.

The three of them were already acquaintances, and Maeda Toshiie didn't care about etiquette, so Yuanye sat down without much politeness. Maeda Toshiie remembered that he didn't drink, so he asked for a pot of hot tea for him, and told Murahachiro to invite Aman and Aqing to have something to eat and drink.

Yuan Ye didn't care. He took two sips of tea and asked casually, "Have you gone to pay your respects to the Minister of State Affairs, Ping Zhong?"

Maeda Toshiie casually filled his glass and said directly, "Of course I've been there. I had nothing to do after that, so I came here to have a drink."

"Nothing to do?" Yuan Ye was a little surprised. Logically speaking, these two young people should be with Oda Nobunaga all day long. "How come you have nothing to do, Lord Kamisuke?"

Maeda Toshiie trusted Hara no Yama and didn't mind revealing Oda Nobunaga's whereabouts. He sighed and said, "His Highness wants to build a Masahide-ji Temple for the old master Hirate and erect a monument of merit. He personally took the chief carpenter to select a site. Moreover, he is in a bad mood and doesn't want to be in a mess around him, so he gave most of us a holiday."

"Masahideji?"

"Yes, it will probably be built in the area of Ogi Village in Kasugai County, where Mr. Hirate was born."

"I see..." Yuanye nodded slightly. No wonder he hadn't heard from Oda Nobunaga in the past few days. It turned out that he was doing these things. It seemed that he was very sad about the death of Hirate Masahide and attached great importance to Hirate Masahide's funeral. He even wanted to build a temple specifically to worship him.

To be honest, this is much better than how he treated his biological father. When his biological father died, he made a scene at the funeral, and even burned incense upside down, not giving his biological father any respect at all.

While he was pondering, he suddenly heard someone next door vaguely mention the word "His Masusuke-dono", and was still sighing at Hirate Masahide's loyalty. He was willing to die as a warning and wrote the "Five Remonstrations" to persuade his lord to return to the right path. He was really a model of a samurai...

The people who were talking seemed to be a few old-school local warriors. They had been drinking, so their voices were not small and they didn't hide anything at all.

There was nothing to be secretive about. This was just praising Hirate Masahide and was a very normal casual chat. However, Maeda Toshiie heard it vaguely and immediately got furious. He stood up as if he wanted to rush over and beat him up, but his younger brother Sawaki Yoshiyuki pulled his sleeve hard and he sat down again angrily, but he still looked indignant.

Yuanye looked at him, then listened carefully to the discussion next door, and asked him, "What is this "Five Admonitions"..." Sawaki Yoshiyuki sighed and answered for his brother, "It's a new rumor. It says that Master Hirate died in order to persuade His Highness. Before his death, he left behind a document to persuade His Highness. It contains five pieces of advice. The content..."

He was not in a position to talk about the content. He was now also a minor retainer of Oda Nobunaga, and it was inevitable that he would be suspected of criticizing his master if he talked about it. But even without him saying it, Yuanye could probably guess that it was probably about advising Oda Nobunaga to stop making trouble, stop being so independent and reckless, and to respect the important ministers in the family, respect his mother, and love his younger brother.

Yuan Ye asked, "So, Lord Hirate did not leave any letter of remonstrance?"

"Of course not!" Maeda Toshiie said loudly, but soon his sleeve was tugged by Sawaki Yoshiyuki, and his voice dropped again. "Master Hirate is not dying to make a remonstrance, how could he have left a letter of remonstrance!"

"Not a death petition? Then why did Lord Hirate..." Yuanye didn't expect that there was another story behind this. After all, apart from a death petition, he really couldn't think of why Lord Hirate Masahide would commit suicide when he was fine.

"that is because……"

Maeda Toshiie opened his mouth to answer, but was immediately stopped by Sawaki Yoshiyuki, who embarrassedly explained to Nohara: "I'm sorry, Lord Nohara, His Highness has issued a gag order and you are not allowed to reveal it."

Maeda Toshiie shook his head and said, "Lord Nohara is fine. He is not an outsider."

Sawaki Yoshiyuki hesitated for a moment, remembering that Oda Nobunaga seemed to be very concerned about Harano, and would ask about him from time to time. Moreover, Harano had participated in all the battles and saved many lives. Even though he had not officially joined Oda Danjotada's family, he seemed to be one of their own.

At least he is half one of his own, and even if Yuanye knew about this, it would not harm his lord. His lord concealed the truth more out of selfish motives. He was actually against it, but all the small people could not defeat their lord Oda Nobunaga.

He did not try to stop him, thinking that it would be good to eliminate the influence of the rumors on half of his own people. Maeda Toshiie did not care what he thought, and directly said to Yuanye: "The reason why Mr. Hirate committed suicide has nothing to do with your highness. It was all caused by Hirate Nagamasa. Didn't you notice that the bastard didn't show up today? The bastard has been locked up!"

Tie Shou Chang Zheng?

Yuan Ye knew that this was Hirate Masahide's eldest son and heir, who had been put in a sack and beaten by Oda Nobunaga's men in the city before, but he had never seen this person before, and he didn't know if he was there in the funeral hall before. But it didn't matter, he just wondered, "What does this have to do with him?"

"It's a big deal! He was secretly communicating with the Imagawa family. He was the one who leaked the secret when our detachment was ambushed at Shirakawaguchi." Maeda Toshiie gnashed his teeth when he mentioned this incident. He took a gulp of wine and said, "Otherwise, if more than 500 people entered the battlefield as planned and suddenly launched an attack, even if the Imagawa family was more powerful, the outcome of the Battle of Shigehara would still be uncertain. As a result, this bastard not only killed 400 to 500 of us, but also caused us to lose an entire county. He really deserves to be cut into pieces!"

"So it was him?" Yuanye finally understood a little. No wonder Oda Nobunaga had lost so badly in the last battle. "Who discovered that he was a spy? Could it be..."

Maeda Toshiie sighed, "It was old Hirate. When he found out something was wrong, he tied up that bastard Hirate Nagamasa and sent him to Your Highness, and he also wrote a letter of apology. Your Highness felt something was wrong at the time, so he took us to the old man's house on horseback, but it was too late. Old Hirate was already in the tea room..."

After a pause, he added in a low voice, "So, don't misunderstand Your Highness. Master Hirate does get angry with Your Highness sometimes, but he has never been disappointed in him. Those rumors are probably... some people in Suemori City are taking the opportunity to make trouble. They have always liked to ruin Your Highness's reputation in private. Also, you only need to know this. Your Highness doesn't want the old man to live a clean life and bear a stigma after his death. Your Highness said that the old man has only merits, not faults!"

Yuan Ye was not a talkative person, so he naturally had no objection and nodded immediately: "I understand, I won't mention this to anyone else."

Maeda Toshiie also nodded, indicating that he believed him, and then took another sip of wine, and sighed in confusion: "Old Master Hirate is gone, and I don't know what will happen in the future..."

When Hirate Masahide was alive, Oda Nobunaga still had a bridle. No matter how the common people tried to persuade him, it was useless. Only Hirate Masahide could say a few words. And even if Oda Nobunaga insisted on his own ideas, with Hirate Masahide around, many things could be buffered. But now Hirate Masahide is suddenly gone, even this straightforward man began to feel scratching his head, as if he was beginning to worry that Oda Nobunaga would completely let himself go, and from then on, let his horse run wild and really start to fly into the sky and hide in the earth.

Yuan Ye shook his head. Only when he was truly in the historical context did he realize that some things were so complicated that they could not be explained by a few lines of words written by some later scholar. He could not predict the future well now - everything had its own story, and it did not match up with many statements made by later generations at all. The little "historical materials" he had were almost useless.

He did not answer Maeda Toshiie's depressing question, but asked about the situation in Suemori Castle. He found that except for some minor actions, Suemori Castle seemed to be relatively stable. Then he asked about Niwa Nagahide and found that Niwa Nagahide had gone to Sakai Town to purchase iron cannons and had not returned yet. Probably the production there was also very sparse, and it was not an easy task to collect 300 iron cannons with guaranteed quality and quantity. It was very likely that he would not be able to return this year.

After chatting for a while, he said goodbye and left, taking Aman and Aqing with him to continue walking towards the Asano family, but he was still thinking about Hirate Masahide - no wonder Hirate Masahide committed seppuku, it turned out that he was apologizing for the Hirate family causing the Dan Masatada family to lose a county. Moreover, Oda Nobunaga was quite humane when he was a teenager. He would rather endure the infamy than put the blame for the defeat on his teacher, lest the teacher's family would be liquidated.

Perhaps to him, Hirate Masahide and his wet nurse, Mrs. Ikeda, who had been with him since he was two years old, were more like parents to him than Oda Nobuhide and Mrs. Tsuchida!

If that's the case, then Oda Nobunaga's father just died!

(End of this chapter)