Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

Looking at him like this, I'm really afraid he'll collapse one day. He's also the father-in-law of Tsutsui Junkei. If he collapses, Matsunaga Hisahide of Shigiyama Castle will definitely be in trouble.

“The Koji clan of Boshu has already shown their intention to completely subdue them,” Oda Nobutada said slowly.

"Huh?" Everyone turned to look at them.

Actually, there weren't so many twists and turns; news of the Oda clan's complete defeat of the Takeda clan spread throughout Japan. Upon learning this, Kodera Yoshitaka, residing in Himeji Castle in Banshu, repeatedly urged his lord...

Teramasa-no-kami (a high-ranking official in the Imperial Court) said that the Oda clan already had the momentum to conquer the world, and he had to immediately and clearly stand on the Oda side.

If you side with the Maori, not only will you lose your territory in the future, but your family name may also be cut off.

Convinced by his words, Kodera Masamune immediately dispatched him to Gifu to meet Nobunaga and Nobutada. However, Nobutada was suppressing the local people in Kai, while Nobunaga was helping his eldest son, Nobufusa, in Suruga and negotiating with the Hojo clan.

After waiting for more than two months, Nobutada was the first to retreat to Gifu, and Kodera Takataka was able to pay him a visit and express his intention to surrender.

They were no longer under the banner of the Muromachi Shogunate, obeying the orders of the regent in the name of a local power. Instead, they served as retainers, obeying the commands of their lord.

"If we find a place to stay, we should arrange for someone to go to Harima as soon as possible." Since Oda Nobuhiro now has 450,000 koku in Shinano, Shichibei doesn't need to worry about anything in Harima and can just speak normally.

"Who will go?" Nobunaga surveyed the room; everyone was already on duty. Moreover, the Mori clan's influence had already spread into the five districts of western Harima. Going to Harima to assume their post now would practically mean facing a mobilization force of ten thousand men alone.

The Mori clan, numbering ten thousand. The difficulty of this task is unparalleled among all the forces within the Oda clan today.

Only those who are renowned ministers and generals, possess considerable charisma and leadership, and are prepared for a fierce battle with the Mori clan, are qualified to play at Himeji Castle in Harima.

"I am willing to go!" Just as everyone hesitated and remained silent, Hideyoshi took the initiative to stand up and was the first to express his opinion.

The 3,000-strong army of Nagahama had just withdrawn from the battlefield of Koshin. Although there had been no fighting for the next two months, being away on campaign was certainly not as comfortable as being at home. Now they were being sent to Harima, which would truly be a grueling ordeal.

"Fujikichiro!" Nobunaga nodded with great satisfaction when he saw Hideyoshi step forward, and pointed directly at Hideyoshi with his folding fan.

"Your subject is present."

"I hereby grant you the province of Harima, with a stipend of 420,000 koku!"

"Hehe."

Hideyoshi responded loudly, almost with all his might. He kowtowed to Nobunaga, his head hitting the floor with a resounding thud. His fiefdom was increased from 120,000 koku in Nagahama to 420,000 koku in Harima, yet not a single person in the room felt any envy.

The situation in Harima is that the Mori clan is strong and the Oda clan is weak. Going to Harima now means being prepared to fail before even achieving your goal. On the surface, it's a large-scale operation offering 400,000 koku of rice.

Whether or not Hideyoshi can conquer this entire country depends on his abilities.

This was vastly different from the Shinano province granted to Oda Nobuhiro. Although Shinano faced the Uesugi clan, its territory had already been thoroughly ravaged by Takeda Shingen. Nobunaga Nobutada's passage through Shinano was followed by another severe crackdown. By the time Kousaka Masanobu committed seppuku, there were few major troublemakers left in Shinano.

Harima not only faces the threat of the Mori clan, but also the Akamatsu and Bessho clans, the governors of Daigo. Although the Akamatsu clan, the deputy governors, has long been weakened and lost its former power, it should not be underestimated when it comes to dealing with them.

By getting involved in the boiling pot of Bozhou, Hideyoshi was truly riding on the back of a tiger.

"I will send Amago's party to assist you, and I will also send Jiro with you," Nobunaga continued to instruct.

Amago's re-establishment of the army, stationed at Yamashiro by Nobunaga, has, in the past year or so, been using Nobunaga's money to expand his forces to three thousand men. These three thousand men are readily available and can be mobilized, essentially forming a standing army. They will remain until they retake Izumo and reclaim their former territory.

Yojiro was the head of the Ukita family (Ukita Akira, Sakazaki Naomori). Nobunaga clearly wanted to play the Ukita card and win over the powerful Ukita family, a powerful clan in Bizen Province and half of Mimasaka Province, to his side.

If Hideyoshi could gain the support of the 10,000-strong Ukita clan, his situation would improve significantly. After all, Hideyoshi himself had several thousand men, the Amago faction a few thousand, the Kodera clan two to three thousand, and the Ukita clan a mere ten thousand. Together, they would have 25,000 men, enough to rival Kobayakawa Takakage, the commander of the Mori clan's Sanyodo army.

"I will not fail in my mission." Hideyoshi sat up and solemnly promised.

“Very good. I also bestow upon you the gold-lacquered and vermilion-painted Tang-style umbrella and horse emblem.” Nobunaga glanced around and then bestowed his own horse emblem upon Hideyoshi.

Wow, everyone around was astonished. Nobunaga had two well-known horse emblems: one was the Tang-style umbrella horse emblem, and the other was the Yongle Tongbao horse emblem. These were considered Nobunaga's symbols, and he bestowed both upon Hideyoshi.

This is roughly equivalent to Tokugawa Ieyasu bestowing his large golden fan and horse emblem upon someone in history, or Toyotomi Hideyoshi giving away his thousand-piece gourd basket.

Nobunaga leaped to his feet, folded his Tang umbrella, and strode over to Hideyoshi, seemingly with the intention of continuing the family line, and bestowed his horse emblem upon Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi was very excited and said that he would definitely pacify Harima Province and make full preparations for Nobunaga's subsequent westward march.

Shichibei didn't feel much, since Hideyoshi's time in Harima would be difficult for at most a year. It might even only take half a year, until Nobunaga had rested enough before he could send out his main force to conquer Mori.

Once Nobunaga's main force is deployed, what will happen? The Mori will only get beaten up and will definitely not have a good outcome.

However, Nobunaga's main force, having suffered four major losses by being divided among Nobutada, Nobutaka, Nobusumi, and Nobufusa, does indeed need a new round of expansion.

The 80,000 koku of Sawayama, originally part of Nobuhiro's territory, and the 120,000 koku of Nagahama, originally part of Hideyoshi's territory, will now be taken back and become Nobunaga's direct control. Nobunaga's main force, unless it recruits 30,000 men and trains them diligently for a year, will likely not be able to achieve its goal.

Formation.

Of course, only taking a few thousand elite regular troops into battle is...

It can be done anytime, anywhere.

"Oh, by the way, Shichibei's reserve unit will be temporarily assigned to you for a year." He was about to say...

"It has nothing to do with me," he suddenly heard Nobunaga pointing at him from above. "Yes, sir," Shichibei quickly replied.

This matter was already clarified in Kai; Shichibei had taken over 700 men there. Nobunaga's attitude was very clear: send them to the front lines against the Mori as artillery.

Ashes. Only those who survived were loyal retainers of the Oda clan; those who didn't were simply killed. Especially those hatamoto guards of Takeda Yoshiyori—in Nobunaga's opinion, beheading them all on the spot would have been the easiest solution. But considering the upcoming battle against the Mori clan, these elite soldiers were indeed good cannon fodder, so he spared them.

After these people have settled down briefly at Azuchi Castle, they will have to be sent out to fight. Don't blame heaven or earth; that's just how it is in the Warring States period.

Upon hearing this, Hideyoshi immediately turned around and greeted Shichibei. Shichibei naturally returned the greeting without any further pleasantries.

We ourselves certainly don't need to go to the front lines in Harima to fight; we can just leave the troops to our good brother-in-law, Hashiba Hidenaga. Let Hidenaga command the troops to help Hideyoshi establish a foothold in Himeji Castle, and by next August...

We can withdraw it again next month.

By August of next year, Nobunaga's main force will have been rebuilt long ago, and there won't even be a need for Shichibei's reserve force to stay in Himeji for so long.

"By the way, Shichibei, how many cavalry do you have in your reserve force?" Nobunaga wasn't too sure about Shichibei's mobilization capacity, because Shichibei didn't mobilize based on the size of his territory, but rather on how many people he could support at the time. Furthermore, he never conducted a full mobilization; a small pack animal caravan wouldn't need so many people.

The newly recruited 700-plus men will go into battle with one servant. The 600-plus cavalry will also go into battle with one groom. Shichibei will recruit and support approximately 2,000 guards for the post stations, stables, and ranches. Nobunaga will allocate approximately 3,000 cavalry, plus laborers, junior soldiers, and flag bearers.

"Nine thousand cavalry."

Chapter 377 Takataka greatly admires the Oda family

Nine thousand cavalry?

No, Shichibei, you seem to be a little too rich.

Sitting beside Nobunaga, Oda Nobutada, excluding the peasant soldiers of Noo, only had about 20,000 men that could be mobilized at once. With another two years of recruitment, that number might reach 30,000. Azai Nagamasa, located in Echizen, was also reorganizing his army due to the large-scale expansion of his new territory, and it was not yet fully formed. Apart from these, only the already formed Sakuma Nobumori army had nearly 20,000 men that could be mobilized at once.

After Mitsuhide pacified the entire Tanba region, he only had 13,000 troops ready to be mobilized. To put it bluntly, Nobunaga, due to personnel allocation, couldn't even muster a standing army of 10,000.

Not only did Nobunaga crane his neck and lean forward to peek at Shichibei, but all the legion commanders present turned to look at him. "Only 50,000 koku in Tsuruga? Are they really that rich?"

It's not Tsuruga Tomomi, it's Kawamura-ya Tomomi.

"You've really struck it rich..." Nobunaga unfolded his folding fan, this time not just for decoration, but to shake it very seriously.

"It all depends on my lord's conquest of the land." Shichibei said very frankly. Without Nobunaga's help in conquering the land, how could Shichibei have achieved his partial dominance?

Disabling power?

"Tsk tsk tsk..." Nobunaga sighed.

Why does it feel like I've built my empire, only to have someone else reap the benefits? But thinking about Shichibei's tireless service, working just as hard as anyone else, Nobunaga felt no anger at all.

"This time, we'll have to rely on Shichibei a lot." Hideyoshi and Shichibei had known each other since the early days of the Cold War, and their relationship was quite good.

However, Shichibei's main relationship was with Hidenaga, since Hidenaga was his brother-in-law and their eldest son was Shichibei's nephew. The relationship between maternal uncle and nephew was naturally close.

“Of course, of course.” Shichibei readily agreed.

"Then so be it." Nobunaga snapped his folding fan shut and gave the order to the crowd.

The meeting adjourned. All those present were legion commanders who had rushed back from various regions while attending the meeting in Gifu. Asai Nagamasa and Akechi Mitsuhide had both returned, but Oda Nobuhiro and Takigawa Kazumasu had not come to Gifu due to their new territories. Their absence was understandable; being on the front lines, they were indeed unable to attend.

Everyone made plans, just to make the date right, so that within a few days, everyone would be the host. It would either be a feast or tea, and so on.

Make sure to invite all your colleagues.

Others might have a sense of order, inviting their closest relatives first and others later. But with Shichibei, everyone came to invite him, eager to be first in line.

Finally, Shichibei said, "Forget it, let's all put together a day and come to Kawamura-ya. Please make sure you can come; I promise I'll treat everyone well."

Everyone agreed, indicating that they could.

"Nonsense," Hideyoshi said, sweating profusely. He quickly ran over to Shichibei and handed him a handkerchief, explaining that he was about to take up his post at Himeji Castle in Harima and that it would be difficult to meet again, so he wanted to chat tonight.

Speaking of Himeji, Shichibei asked him if he had seen Kodera Takataka in Gifu. The Kodera family had assigned him to be a servant, and he was completely lost in Harima, so he had to rely on the Kodera family's support.

Reminded by Shichibei, Hideyoshi, who was still calculating how to maximize Shichibei's nine thousand men, immediately changed his mind. He really should meet this Kodera Kanbei.

Let's go, let's go meet him.

We had arranged to have dinner at Hideyoshi's house that evening, before dark...

During this lull, Shichibei summoned Inase Yoshinari. Before leaving Kai, Takigawa Kazumasu borrowed 10,000 kan from Shichibei, with the IOU formally issued to the head account of a villager in Irukawa. The main reason was that Takigawa Kazumasu said he would use the warhorses of the "Imperial Horseman" of Ueno to settle the debt; this account needed to be carefully calculated.

The so-called imperial ranches were official ranches established by order of the Yamato court under the Ritsuryo system. Imperial ranches were established in Shinobu (16 ranches), Kai (Hosaka ranch, Mayino ranch, Kashiwazen ranch, etc., 3 ranches), Ueno (9 ranches), and Musashi (Ishikawa ranch, Ogawa ranch, Yui ranch, Tatsuno ranch, etc., 4 ranches), totaling 32 ranches in Shikoku.

The pastures in Shinano and Kai were managed by the Left Pasture, while the pastures in Ueno and Musashi were managed by the Right Pasture. During the peaceful era, Akuhara Pasture and Onomai Pasture were newly established in Musashi.

Every August, after Musashi adds two more pastures, the number of tribute horses from Musashi increases by sixty, bringing the total number of horses offered to Musashi to three hundred per year.

Over the centuries, these imperial ranches were all seized by local powerful families. The Shichibei family, who were once ranch officials under the Owari provincial government, amassed these assets through a massive transfer of power.

It became the private property of the Kawamura family.

The Sanada family, and its senior retainers the Mochizuki family, both originated from the officials of the sixteen prefectures of Shinano. Logically, Shichibei and the Sanada Yukitaka family share the same ancestry. However, Shichibei was more capable, rising to the rank of prefect in a small county in Shinano. Shichibei's father was less capable, leaving behind only seventy kan of official rank before his death.

Like its neighbor Shinano, Ueno has a large number of mountain pastures, which explains why it was able to produce elite cavalry such as Obata Akabane (by Japanese standards).

Now that Takigawa Kazumasu has arrived in Nishi-Keno, he immediately prepares to seize this important military and economic resource from the remaining retainers of the Takeda clan and the local powerful families.

Previously, the Takeda clan had no export channels, but now Takikawa Kazuya is different.

In this way, he could use the vast territories conquered by Nobunaga to sell the precious warhorses of Ueno to all parts of Japan.

There's never a shortage of market for fine warhorses. While Japanese warhorses weren't particularly large, Japanese samurai weren't exactly tall either. A Japanese horse paired with a Japanese rider—if the Japanese themselves considered it magnificent, then it was magnificent.

Moreover, warhorses were always purchased according to market conditions, without any prior arrangement.

There is no fixed price. You might buy it for thirty strings of cash, or you might buy it for one hundred strings of cash. It is said that a famous horse of the hundredth rank can easily leap over one hundred steps, and its price is one hundred strings of cash.

The profits involved are substantial. If Takigawa Kazumasu can quickly take control of the ranches in Ueno and provide Shichibei with more than fifty warhorses every year, that single transaction would be enough for Shichibei and him to make a steady stream of loans.

He dares to sell, and I dare to buy; I'll buy as many as he has!

Instruct Inase Yoshinari to immediately send people to Minowa Castle in Ueno to set up stables and post stations. We need to start preparing for our entry into the Kanto market.

While outsiders considered the Kawamura family's nine thousand cavalry a major undertaking, Inase Yoshinari, within the family, believed that a stable supply of horses was the truly important matter. Without hesitation, he agreed to the proposal and immediately began making plans.

Kawamura-ya's cash flow was already somewhat tight, but Nobunaga's raids in Kai, Shinano, and Suruga amassed nearly 120,000 kan of silver, not only covering much of Nobunaga's accounts from the previous year but also replenishing Kawamura-ya's cash flow. With such a massive investment in stockpiling silver, developing copper and zinc mines, and minting copper coins, a significant amount of money definitely needed to be recouped.