Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

Takigawa Kazumasu was just in time to rush to southern Ise to clean up the mess, making sure everything was done perfectly. He made sure no trace of Nobunaga was involved, that he was just a bandit. He even planned to actually kill one or two small gangs and pin the crime on them.

With his capable assistant Sakuma Nobumori, Nobunaga suddenly found himself with much free time, and many tasks that he would normally handle were delegated to Sakuma. Sakuma seemed quite diligent at this point, so he quickly took over and began coordinating with Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Oh my, Nobumori, if he keeps working this hard, he'll earn at least a million koku, right?

Shichibei gradually had more free time as the overall situation in Okazaki stabilized. Because of the standoff, or even a sit-in war, the usage of almost everything became fixed, and it wasn't a bad idea to leave it to the Kawamura-ya staff.

There is no longer a need for a central coordinator to mobilize personnel and resources from all towns and villages in the Kinai region, as well as from the various branches of Kawamura-ya.

I can take some time to go back to Gifu. There are two things to do. The official matter is to begin a full-scale takeover, reorganization, and reorganization of the more than 10,000 people who were defeated on the battlefield of Mikatagahara. More than 7,000 of them are dead. Takeda Shingen even sent over the heads of the main samurai, but the ordinary soldiers were buried on the spot after they died.

If someone has family members, and there are still people in their family who can carry a gun, then they should be selected immediately to carry a gun, and they should be employed according to their original salary and benefits. In addition, a certain amount of compensation will be given as funeral expenses.

Those without family members die in vain; their household registration is cancelled, their houses are registered, and then new cannon fodder foot soldiers are recruited to live there.

Those who have family members, but none of them have male members, are the most pitiful. Without male members, they are worthless to Nobunaga; he gives each person two rice taels, and then it's goodbye.

Of course, there is another way: to receive half or a third of the original salary and wait for "distribution." What does that mean? It means waiting for Nobunaga to recruit new cannon fodder foot soldiers and lower-ranking samurai, the kind without families, so that single men and women can quickly continue to produce offspring for Nobunaga, making it easier for them to carry the spear later.

(This approach is similar to Konishi Yukinaga's two instances of total annihilation on the Korean battlefield, but each time he successfully pulled out 4,000 men.)

This isn't really asking anyone to do something unreasonable. It was the Warring States period, after all. Survival was the primary goal, and everything else was negligible.

Other personal matters included going home to see his wife and children, and incidentally, Ota Gyuichi also sent Kitabatake Tomokyo's six daughters to the Kawamura family. It's possible that Kuwayama Shigekatsu also invited the physician, Shigeki Kusai, to Gifu to treat Oda Nobuhiro at Kiyosu Castle.

It's been two months since the Battle of Sanfangyuan ended. Most of the wounded soldiers who survived have survived. Those who can return to their units have returned, and those who can't, well, there's plenty of arable land in Nobi. Here's a piece of land for you to go home and farm.

Hashiba Hideyoshi's father was wounded while carrying a gun for Oda Nobuhide and went home to farm. But he died within two years. Hideyoshi was still young, and his mother, O-Naka, had no choice but to remarry one of his father's associates, giving birth to Hideyoshi's son, Hidenaga.

When Shichibei arrived at Kiyosu, he heard that Oda Nobuhiro was already able to sit up, so he was taken back to his home in Gifu by oxcart. Kiyosu, which was originally full of wounded soldiers, now had very few people left.

That's good, it saves the doctor from having to make an extra trip.

At the foot of Gifu Castle, Kawajiri Hidetaka and Nagano Nobukatsu, who were assisting Oda Nobutada in defending the castle, had already completed the most basic registration of the soldiers who could retreat to Gifu. The work was still in progress and not yet fully finished.

Kawajiri Hidetaka worked so hard, no wonder he was eventually granted the entire province of Kai. Those who could be granted a province under Nobunaga all had a certain degree of initiative in their work. Of course, it was also because he was Nobutada's apprentice, and he had to earn face for Nobutada in front of Nobunaga.

To avoid ending up like Kitabatake Nobuo, who was exiled back last month and is still in solitary confinement, unable to get out anytime soon.

Let's not lock him up until he goes insane. Since Nobunaga only said he was under house arrest, let's give him a house with a yard. Let him walk around the yard at least three to five times a day. After all, he was born to Lady Ikoma, and Nobunaga and Lady Ikoma had some affection for each other.

You said it yourself...

They released Kitabatake Nobuo from his confinement hut. Nobuo reportedly howled in the yard for half an hour, perhaps he had gone crazy from being cooped up.

Alright, let's get back to the matter of reorganizing Nobunaga's forces. Those like the Mino Triumvirate and Saito Toshiharu, who was adopted into the Sato family, have all returned to their territories with their remaining troops. Shichibei doesn't need to manage them; the main responsibility lies with the Nobunaga's personal guards, page guards, Ōmi-shu, Ōmi-shu, and foot soldiers.

The two leaders of the Mother Cloth Clan, Maeda Toshiie and Sasa Narimasa, are currently in Okazaki. They can simply look after and comfort the injured members of the Mother Cloth Clan; as long as they are alive, it is a success.

Most of the retainers stayed with Nobunaga; those who died in battle, and those who were wounded, were recuperating at Okazaki Castle. They did not return to the main family residence at Gifu Castle. Good, I'll tick it again.

The "Great Body Corps" refers to Ikeda Katsumasa's group. That guy really had a strong and capable army; he escaped Mikatagahara unscathed. No wonder he was the commander-in-chief of the Kanesaki retreat in history. Of the more than two hundred retainers who followed him, over thirty were killed or maimed, so it certainly took a toll on their strength.

However, Nobunaga provided him with a large sum of money to support him, and he could also recruit ronin from the Kinai region to serve him. Who knew when he might return to Settsu? Those who serve him now will surely become high-ranking officers of the Ikeda clan in the future.

Later, Amago Katsuhisa, supported by the Amago Shingu faction, joined Nobunaga and became one of his top retainers. At that time, Nobunaga provided them with money and provisions, and even directly gave them foot soldiers to help them retake San'in. Many local ronin were willing to join forces with similar groups.

The "koshinshu" were foot samurai from various backgrounds; hundreds had died, and many more were wounded or sick. But they had nothing left but their lives to risk for Nobunaga as koshinshu—what else could they risk their lives for?

Register clearly and continue to accommodate and recruit. As long as the chaos continues, there will always be poor samurai who have lost their homes coming to Nobunaga for refuge.

Finally, there were the foot soldiers. Two or three thousand of them died in a flash. The archer squads, arquebusier squads, and polearm squads were all decimated. The foot soldier squad leaders and captains died by the sea, the number was incalculable.

Alright, since Oda Nobuhiro is unable to attend to affairs, Sakuma Nobumori is at the Okazaki front, Niwa Nagahide is at the Makishima Castle front, and Mori Yoshinari is at the Yamato front, this reorganization will be entirely handled by Shichibei.

No matter how Nobunaga reorganizes, as long as his regular foot soldiers are already fully reorganized by the time he goes to war next time, that's fine.

Following this supreme directive, Shichibei promoted all the remaining foot soldiers who had served for more than two and a half years to either foot soldier platoon leaders or foot soldier captains—roughly the difference between leading ten men and leading thirty. Any foot soldiers above one hundred men were to be reported to Nobunaga.

Although it was actually Shichibei who made the decision, Nobunaga would just glance at it and, apart from those he explicitly wanted to promote, basically sign off on them.

This was actually a great deal of power. After all, Nobunaga's regular foot soldiers numbered in the tens of thousands. When they were suddenly broken up and reorganized, Shichibei, who was in charge, decided the fate of many people.

There weren't many people around; it was just a hundred foot soldiers, and even then, they were often understaffed because of the constant fighting. It was essentially just a reinforced platoon, not a particularly impressive task.

Those samurai with legitimate families started with much more. Those without families or power couldn't even get close to Shichibei, a close retainer of the Oda clan. Ultimately, Shichibei acted impartially, relying entirely on skill and merit.

Either they have high seniority, having served Nobunaga for a long time, or they are highly skilled, with enough power to defeat any challenger.

It was that simple. In about a week, the remnants of the army were reorganized. In addition, several hundred people who were willing to serve the Oda clan were added. That's all the people we recruited for the castle town for now. We'll fill the vacancies slowly. The most important thing is to set up the existing framework so that it can be put into operation directly next time.

Putting everything else aside, Shichibei is the owner of a large trading company that manages thousands of people, although he's a branch manager and a sub-manager, with layers of management. But this isn't a war, just a reorganization, so Shichibei is a piece of cake to take down.

When there was no war, Shichibei was noticeably more composed. Oda Nobutada and Kawajiri Hidetaka, standing behind Shichibei and watching, were both amazed by Shichibei's efficiency and deeply felt that it was no wonder Nobunaga valued Shichibei so much.

It's not as simple as just his father Nobunaga being an ATM!

After the vassal division account was revised, Shichibei ordered a new copy to be made and sent by fast horse to the front line in Okazaki. Another copy was kept in Gifu Castle and reported to Oda Nobutada for review.

After finishing everything, he finally had time to sit down and talk to the six girls who were temporarily being cared for by his family, as well as the young general and his mother. They chatted briefly; apart from the eldest who had already learned to speak, the youngest was only a few months old. Sigh, knowing the inside story, Shichibei could only lament that they weren't born in a better era.

Just as he was about to ask how the top-notch old doctor from Kyoto, whom he had hired for a hundred taels of gold, was doing, the young general brought up another matter with Shichibei.

The Hirate brothers both died in the Battle of Mikatagahara, leaving their direct line without a single son. Nobunaga didn't even mention adopting a son to inherit the Hirate family.

For a time, the Hirate clan's business was left uninherited, and their territory was left unattended. Later, Nobunaga finally realized the situation and ordered the confiscation of the Hirate clan's territory, with the remaining retainers becoming Oda Nobunaga's direct retainers.

There was only one small plate that Nobunaga did not accept. The Hirate brothers had three daughters (who later married into the Noguchi, Sugimoto, and Sugisan families respectively), and Nobunaga designated Shichibei to adopt them.

It was clearly stated that it was adoption, unlike the temporary care mentioned for Kitabatake Tomokyo's six daughters. Adoption means that these three girls can henceforth be called Kawamura-san, forming a de facto kinship.

ha?

In just a short while, my family suddenly has nine more daughters?

What about the three daughters of the Hirate brothers? They were quickly brought up as well, and sure enough, the eldest was only just learning to speak. Come to think of it, Hirate Hirohide was only nineteen when he died in battle, so how old could his daughters be? Two or three years old at most.

Oh dear, raising one is the same as raising two, so please bear with it. They are all girls from the old Owari, old Oda, and old Shimo-Shiki districts. When Oda Nobunaga comes to power, these three will have good husbands to marry into.

Let's go back to your adoptive father, Oda Nobuhiro. Oda Nobuhiro was the young general's adoptive father. The young general lived in Nobuhiro's house for two years and had some affection for him.

After Nobuhiro returned to Gifu, she visited him twice. Once to accompany the doctor, and once to check on the doctor's treatment. Given Nobuhiro's condition, it would take a hundred days to recover from a broken bone; he'd probably need half a year to rest.

If he could get up and carry a gun for Nobunaga again after six months, then he must have had incredible vitality. He was different from Takayama Shigetomo, who was nineteen years old, had half his neck broken, and was back in action after four or five months.

He's over forty years old; he's incredibly lucky to have survived.

Just then, someone from Nobuhiro's family arrived, saying they hoped Shichibei could help them get the medicine. While there are old Japanese doctors around Gifu Castle, there are no old pharmacies. The castle was all newly built by Nobunaga; where would a century-old pharmacy come from? Just like in Hiroshima, where are there any century-old shops, and even if there were, they wouldn't be authentic.

Moreover, if you want a complete selection, you can only go to large ports and towns, and right now only Shichibei has that capability.

Well, it's his cheap father, what am I supposed to do but save him? Shichibei asked that doctor, Shichikusai, to write out a prescription and specially sent someone by fast ship to Sakai and Kyoto to get it, to get thirty doses to take first, and to get more if needed.

Chapter 286 Shingen Takes the Initiative to Propose Peace

Right now, Shichibei saw that Oda Nobuhiro was actually able to sit up with the help of his family and drink some simple seven-herb porridge. Those old Japanese doctors were probably quite skilled, and he figured they had some surgical expertise.

These days, with everyone killing each other, surgical skills have definitely improved a lot. But doctors with such superb medical skills, capable of dislocating arms and legs, are still rare. Shichibei had several old Japanese doctors given a few large sums of gold as gifts. Although we don't need them now, it doesn't prevent us from using them in the future.

We might not need it ourselves, but our friends and family definitely will. It's no wonder doctors are considered essential teammates in post-apocalyptic survival games; they are truly necessary.

By the way, their apprentices were also given a small silver coin as a gift. The large silver plate was cut open, and one coin could be given to several apprentices.

Who knows if a famous doctor will emerge from here in the future? A small donation of ten or eight yuan can be a good deed, so it's easier to ask for help when we meet again.

The doctor from Kyoto, Shichibei, carefully examined the medicine that Shichibei had brought back from Kyoto and Sakai. He even tasted it himself and gave Oda Nobuhiro two doses before nodding in approval. He said to continue with this medicine for another half month, after which normal recuperation would suffice.

As for the eyes, I am powerless to help them.

Hey, no problem. My cheapskate dad's become a one-eyed dragon, so he'll be known as "Owari One-Eyed Dragon" whenever he goes out. Who knows, he might even get a nickname or special skill in the game someday. No big deal, his left eye's perfectly fine. He won't spend a penny; he'll let Shichibei pay for all his medical treatment.

The father-in-law was perfectly comfortable spending his son-in-law's money.

However, since Nobunaga has already sat up and started drinking porridge, there are some things Shichibei needs to ask. It's understandable that Nobunaga sent Kitabatake Tomonori's six daughters to him; they're essentially the daughters of a "rebel," raised casually until they're married off. After all, Shichibei also raised the daughter of the real rebel, Ryūō.

But the main line of the Hirate family has died out, so why were those three daughters given to Shichibei as adopted daughters? Shouldn't they have immediately found a young boy, chosen a girl to marry, and then made him their adopted son-in-law to inherit the Hirate family business?

Speaking of this, Oda Nobuhiro countered with a question: "If I were to immediately lead a thousand men as the left flank of the main army to charge at Takeda Shingen, could you do it?"

That's definitely not possible; Shichibei doesn't have that ability. There are a few men under Shichibei who might be able to, but they would have to assist Shichibei in managing his already four thousand-strong force.

That settles it then. The Hirate family has been a senior retainer of the Oda clan since the time of Oda Nobuhide, serving as the chief retainer of the Oda family. Previously, the three brothers each led three to five hundred men, so it wasn't apparent. Now that the Hirate brothers have died in battle, their combined wealth is no less than thirty thousand koku. The number of men they can mobilize is estimated to be several thousand.

Furthermore, along with the deaths of the Hirate brothers, a large number of Hirate retainers also perished in the battle, with the death toll exceeding three hundred. Now, if a son-in-law were to be chosen to join the Hirate family, what an extraordinary talent that son-in-law would have to be!

He can lead thousands of people with ease, and can conjure dozens or even hundreds of low- to mid-level warriors out of thin air to reorganize the army and improve the overall combat effectiveness.

Other families would cherish their sons like their own lives, would they be willing to give them away? Instead, they'd send some nobody to wield a territory that could mobilize thousands of people, only to leave it there unused and unable to mobilize soldiers for war.

Therefore, Nobunaga first converted the Hirate clan's territory into direct control and temporarily incorporated their retainers into his own forces. He then sought out a suitable candidate from among his own page men or servants who could lead thousands of men into battle and already had a small team of dozens of men under their command.

He could then ascend the throne again before the spirit tablet and marry a daughter of the Hirate family, thus seamlessly continuing to draw upon the thousands of Hirate family members to fight.

Otherwise, why do you think Nobunaga explicitly said she was an adopted daughter? It's because he wanted her to be raised well, to survive, so that he could find someone to take over the 20,000 to 30,000 koku of the Hirate family later.

Ow...

So that's how it is. Nobunaga and Hirate were such good friends, yet he directly severed Hirate's family line. That's incredibly heartless and ruthless. It turns out he wanted to continuously conscript these thousand or so men for military service, fearing they wouldn't be able to fight for him for eight or ten years. It's like temporarily incorporating these Hirate retainers into Nobunaga's personal guard or his own men, so they could continue killing.

Another example is our old acquaintance, Oda Suruga-no-kami, now known as Nakagawa Shigemasa. He served as a member of the Akame-no-shu (Red-Clothed Guards). Nobunaga thought he was capable enough, so he sent him out to inherit the Nakagawa family.

So, does that mean Maeda Toshiie might inherit the Hirate family? Oh wait, that damn lolicon Maeda Toshiie has already married Matsu and has a legal wife.

When I get back, I'll secretly look through it. There should be two copies. Actually, there's another draft in the Oda Nobunaga retainer account book at the Kawamura family.

"Go back," said Oda Nobuhiro, "I'm going to lie down now. You should go home and rest." Shichibei, however, said, "No rush. Come, my good father-in-law, sign this IOU."

"How can you call it a loan between a father-in-law and son-in-law? What nonsense are you talking about?" Oda Nobuhiro turned around and lay down.

"Hey! Don't do that." Shichibei thought to himself that his debt was probably going to become a bad debt, and hurriedly tried to go and check the old man's account.

As a result, Old Deng instantly "fell into a coma." You can't wake someone who's pretending to be asleep, let alone someone who's pretending to be asleep to avoid debt.

Only Oda Nobuhiro silently prayed, thinking to himself that it wasn't his fault; he had lost two hundred men in this wave, and he would have to spend money to rebuild and recruit more. He was already being lenient by not asking Shichibei for another loan; he wasn't really trying to renege on his debt.

"Father, father, father..." Shichibei wailed.

Instantly, Oda Nobuhiro's wife and daughter, along with the young general, rushed over, thinking something had happened.

With so many people around, Shichibei couldn't let the old man pay the IOU anymore, so he could only stuff it into his pocket. He said his father felt dizzy and had gone to sleep again; I wanted to see if he was sleeping well.

The family thought the right eye socket had developed a chronic condition, so they rushed to see a doctor. What could they possibly see? They could only see that Oda Nobuhiro was a very good actor, pretending to be asleep.

Alas, with the matter settled in Gifu, Shichibei couldn't get Nobunaga to sign the IOU, so he had no choice but to lead his men back to the Okazaki front. Nobunaga was in a very different state now, completely relaxed, without any tension, even hunting wild boar with his good son-in-law, Tokugawa Nobuyasu.

The reason is simple: Takeda Shingen sent envoys to discuss the restoration of peace with Oda Nobunaga.

Takeda Shingen offered to return the entire eastern Sankawa region to Tokugawa Ieyasu, in exchange for Tokugawa Ieyasu ordering the commanders of Kakegawa Castle and Takatenjin Castle to retreat, with all personnel to be returned.