Owari Yumeki Golden Day

The throne of the Shogun of the Muromachi shogunate was most likely to be decided between Ashikaga Yoshiei and Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

With a clear candidate to bet on, a small meeting must be held to discuss this matter. Nobunaga was a powerful name who was determined to expand his power and compete for Kyoto, so he was particularly concerned about this matter.

Unfortunately, Shichibei's status and position were not enough to allow him to attend the meetings of the Oda clan's important ministers. If Shichibei ever achieved the rank of Samurai Taisho, perhaps he would be able to attend.

It was only after the discussion started that Shichibei heard it from Kinoshita Koichirō. Well, Shichibei had specifically summoned his younger sister, Aji, to Komakiyama Castle to look after the accounts. Of course, this was just a formality; in reality, he had asked her to meet Kinoshita Koichirō to see if there were any sparks.

Anyway, Kinoshita Koichirō was extremely happy because Shichibei was a hereditary retainer of the Oda family with a net worth of 260 kan, and he controlled the four counties of Owari, Oda, and Shimo.

Even if she was ugly, Xiao Yilang would recognize her. Besides, Aci was an ordinary daughter of a samurai family who was smart and straightforward, could write and count, and could also take care of horses.

That’s enough. Stop being picky. You won’t find it again if you miss it.

Taking advantage of Oda Nobunaga not fighting, Koichiro ran to the stables every day. Even a fool could tell something was amiss with his constant running. Not to mention that girls tend to understand this kind of thing earlier than boys.

Let’s wait and see. It would be best if there is some emotion. After all, a forced melon only quenches thirst but is not sweet.

Later, the result of the discussion in the city was to accept Ashikaga Yoshiaki's letter and give him 200 kan of cash, a katana, and a horse. Anyway, let's deal with it first, what if this guy is also assassinated?

As for Sakaimachi, we should quietly send someone to investigate. If Ashikaga Yoshieijun is a puppet of the Miyoshi Three, with no autonomy at all, and unlikely to be used by the Oda clan, then so be it.

If Ashikaga Yoshiei had some ambition and was able to disrupt the situation in Kinai and Kyoto, he would have to bring in a lot of gold to sponsor this candidate shogun.

A little chaos in Kinki is at least good for Oda Nobunaga now.

Because of the chaos in Kinai, the Rokkaku clan's main attention will be focused on Kyoto. At least they will have no time to pay attention to Mino, and Saito Tatsuoki in Mino will be even more helpless.

But having said that, a small problem still arises.

During a previous meeting of senior officials of the Oda clan, they discussed whether they should listen if the shogun-in-command wrote a letter specifically to mediate the conflict between the Oda clan and the Saito clan.

The theory was absolutely correct. Hosokawa Fujitaka did bring a document in which Ashikaga Yoshiaki hoped that Oda Nobunaga and Saito Tatsuoki would maintain peace and that he would strongly support him in going to Kyoto to succeed to the throne.

To listen or not to listen?

Perhaps unlike many people's impression of Nobunaga, Nobunaga hesitated and did not dare to throw away Ashikaga Yoshiaki's documents as if they were toilet paper.

After all, Nobunaga is still only the ruler of Owari. Although he has become the king of Owari from the big fool of Owari because of killing Imagawa Yoshimoto in battle, this cannot change the current situation that his strength is limited to one country.

When his strength was not yet strong enough to overturn the table, Nobunaga was still playing chess well on the chessboard.

However, this also sowed the seeds of a very serious consequence. Because Nobunaga came from a humble background and subsequently lost the shogun's righteousness, he forcibly honored the imperial lineage. The imperial court, which had previously sold a right horse head for only 40 kan, suddenly gave it even greater respect.

You must know that not long ago, the emperor died and there was no money for a funeral. The weather was so hot that the body swelled and could not be put into the coffin.

Most of the nobles also fled, seeking refuge with the numerous daimyo who were willing to pay to support them. Some, like Saionji and Ichijo, even went directly to the villages to manage their territories themselves to prevent themselves from starving to death.

If this trend continues, within one or two hundred years at most, the entire emperor and court will tend to collapse, or completely degenerate into a clergy.

However, in order to gain a certain degree of justice for the world, Nobunaga suddenly began to respect the imperial court. This gave the imperial court and the emperor a break. Even more coincidental, it was Toyotomi Hideyoshi who later conquered the world, whose status was even lower than that of Oda Nobunaga.

This led to Toyotomi Hideyoshi doubly respecting the imperial court, which greatly increased the status of the imperial court and made it become the existence that "rewarded" Toyotomi Hideyoshi with the power to govern the world.

By the time of the Tokugawa shogunate, this trend was irreversible. Although Tokugawa Iemitsu tried to overthrow the imperial court, the court's prestige had already been established and it was once again revived.

This laid the groundwork for the emperor's miraculous return to power.

Well, this matter is really just a matter of timing and luck, and Shichibei can't say anything. I'm just curious, is Nobunaga really planning to revise the armistice agreement with Ryusei, temporarily suspending the fighting and allowing both sides to support each other's people?

Who knows? Kinoshita Koichirō doesn't know. His brother Kinoshita Tokichirō doesn't know either. At this moment, no one can understand Nobunaga's thoughts.

At this moment, Ah Ci came over with tea, and Kinoshita Koichiro quickly stretched out his hands to receive it, smiling as he did so, like a dog licking its lips. Oh, Shichibei was wondering in his heart, this guy has taken a fancy to my sister, but I wonder if my sister likes him back.

He looked up at Ah Ci and snorted at Xiao Yilang. Xiao Yilang quickly smiled and kept bending his head, always glancing at Ah Ci from the corner of his eye.

The eldest sister is a fishing type, and the second sister should be a tsundere.

Tut tut...

Holding the teacup, Kinoshita Koichiro waited until Aci left before turning back to look at Shichibei. Seeing Shichibei sizing him up and down, he felt a little embarrassed. However, Shichibei had already tacitly agreed to this, so he just licked it.

"Nanabe, Koichiro, you are here after all." Kinoshita Tokichiro lifted the door curtain and looked inside.

"Toukichiro is here, please sit down." Seeing that it was Kinoshita Toukichiro, Shichibei took the initiative to make room for him.

As future in-laws, you should start being polite now. After Kinoshita Tokichiro sat down, he seemed to be unable to sit still, looking around all the time, perhaps because he had something to hide.

"What? You want to buy horse grass?" Shichibei asked tentatively.

"Well, no, no, no, it's not horse grass." Kinoshita Tokichirō seemed to have made up his mind. After calming down, he turned to Shichibei.

"uh-huh?"

"Seven-year-old, can you lend me five hundred kan?"

41. Sumata's plan to build a city in one night

From the outside, the Kawamura family seemed to be prospering, with their presence spread across Owari, hundreds of horses, and hundreds, if not thousands, of acres of land. They must have been a wealthy family with at least a few thousand kan in capital, right?

In fact, family members know their own business, and Shichibei now has at most two or three hundred kan in his pocket.

This was only possible because of the four war horses sold by Yonekura Nobutsugu, the sale of some riding horses, and the income from the stable business in the past two months.

But if I wait a few more days and harvest this crop of alfalfa and barnyard grass, I can earn more than a hundred strings of cash. If I scrape together some money, five hundred strings of cash is not impossible.

The main thing is, you are a foot soldier with a salary of 100 kan, what do you want to borrow 500 kan for?

And it’s obvious that you don’t have the ability to repay!

There was no need for Shichibei to question it; even his younger brother, Koichirō, was shocked by Fujikichirō's idea. That's not how you borrow money. Is 500 kan even money? 500 kan could buy a city, and he was asking people to surrender.

Yes, you have to buy a city.

What surprised them even more was that Fujikichiro's answer was to buy a city. However, he didn't buy it directly with money, but spent money to gather people's hearts and build a city with them.

ha?

A word suddenly popped up in Shichibei's mind - Sunomata One-Night Castle.

However, he didn't show any unusual expression, just waiting for Fujikichiro's explanation. As the head of the ashigaru, Fujikichiro was supposed to take turns guarding the castle, and this time it happened to be his turn.

Serve as a door god for Nobunaga.

After Hosokawa Fujitaka sent Ashikaga Yoshiaki a letter, hoping that the Oda and Saito clans would reconcile and march to Kyoto, Nobunaga was very hesitant. However, Nobunaga was not a hesitant person. Although he remained hesitant in the big picture, he had to make arrangements in the small details.

At this point, the Oda forces had already entered Nakano, the area between the Nagara River and the Kiso River, temporarily becoming Oda territory. However, to maintain this territory, they had to build a fortress along the Nagara River to shield their new territory.

Nobunaga was still hesitant about whether to continue the war with Saito Tatsuoki, but he certainly didn't want to give up the land he had already swallowed.

So what should we do? Regarding peace talks, we should first follow Hosokawa Fujitaka's request and start discussions with Saito Tatsuoki. However, the issue of building a fortress on the Nagaragawa River must also be put on the agenda.

There will be no war after the autumn harvest this year, and the money used to mobilize for war will be invested in building a castle in Sumata on the Nagara River.

Keeping money in your hand is not like giving birth to children. You still need to spend it and spend it on necessary places to generate more money.

Adhering to this belief, Nobunaga finally appointed Shibata Katsuie, hoping that this brave general could go to Nagara River and build a small but strong military castle for the Oda army.

However, after Shibata Katsuie was appointed, the strategy he presented to Nobunaga was very ordinary. Nobunaga gave him some money, and he took the Shibata family's own troops and hired a large number of farmers after the autumn harvest and went to the Sunomata area.

If the Saito army attacked, he would lead his troops to fight against them. If there was no attack, he could build a fort in about ten days. After that, he would just need to repair and expand it, so that he would always have a support.

There seems to be no problem with the overall plan.

Of course, farmers in the Warring States period built castles; they were conscripted every year. These are minor matters. Besides, Japanese castles are all different. Osaka Castle and Edo Castle are also castles. A fortress that the recently debuted Matsudaira Motoyasu traversed in just one hour and twenty-two minutes is also a castle.

There are trenches, fences, and watchtowers. All the basic elements are complete, which can provide soldiers with a basis for guarding.

So, it seems that Shibata Katsuie's plan is feasible. Then why did you, Fujikichiro, come to borrow 500 kan? Shichibei asked Fujikichiro, you must have a reason.

Fujikichiro remained calm, stating that judging from past battles, although the people of Mino might not be completely convinced of the Saito clan, they were still quite capable of resisting Nobunaga's attacks.

The simplest reason is that when Saito Tatsuoki was around, they were very independent and powerful people. When Nobunaga came, no matter how tolerant and magnanimous Nobunaga was, he could not make these people more independent.

Then the people of Mino would definitely tend to maintain the status quo and jointly fight against the Owari invading army that wanted to change the status quo.

Shibata Katsuie's fortification plan would take at least ten days. Nobunaga had already allocated funds for the fortification, leaving him with no funds for a large-scale expedition. He could only wait until the fortification was complete, and then Nobunaga would bring his regular foot soldiers and minor clansmen into the city for defense.

Otherwise, the expenses would be too high and Nobunaga would not be able to bear it.

Raising an army of tens of thousands of people and marching into an enemy country would cost thousands of gold coins a day, no exaggeration. The standing guards, however, did not need to pay any extra money, only need to bring food.

Nobunaga had no money, but Ryuxing did. After the autumn harvest, Ryuxing didn't need to build a city, so he might have been mobilizing troops to prepare for an attack on Nobunaga.

If Shibata Katsuie were heading towards the Nagara River, he would definitely be confronted by the large army recruited by Saito Tatsuoki. It is possible that he would have only a few hundred men and would encounter Tatsuoki's army of several thousand or even ten thousand.

Do you think Shibata Katsuie will lose?

It can be said with 100% certainty that it will fail.

"We're defeated, so what does it have to do with you?" Before Shichibei could even ask, Fujikichiro signaled them to stop. He believed that if they wanted to build a fortress in Sunomata, they had to do it quickly. Ideally, they should complete it within two days, so that the Saito army wouldn't have enough time to react.

After all, as we said before, even if we mobilized the standing ashigaru, it would take two days to reach the stalemate. If it was built within two days, the Saito army would be completely unprepared to launch an attack on the city.

Since ancient times, how could one easily capture a city with an army without ten times the number of troops? As long as a standoff was formed, Nobunaga would be notified at that time, and Nobunaga would arrive with 2,000 regular foot soldiers and small surnames.

You're done!

If you want to build a castle in two days, you must prepare in advance enough wood and ropes to cover the castle, a horse fence at least three kilometers long, as well as shield boards behind the horse fence, or wooden planks for building the wall.

Both of these items needed to be purchased from the Kawanami Shuho Suga Clan and the Tsubouchi Clan, who operated shipping and lumber businesses on the Kiso River. Purchasing thousands of similarly sized logs and thousands of planks directly was a difficult undertaking. Orders had to be placed in advance so they could be prepared.

Since it is an order, money is the most important thing.

"Could this be your own plan?" Shichibei had already helped Fujikichiro connect the logic.

"Since Shichibei has guessed it, you will definitely be included in the list of credits when the time comes." Fujikichiro said calmly and generously.

It was simple. All of Kinoshita Tokichiro's current thoughts were his own. Nobunaga's designated commander for the castle was Shibata Katsuie, who had nothing to do with Tokichiro. Naturally, he wouldn't have given Tokichiro a cent.

Placing orders requires money, so what can I do if I don't have any? The only option is to borrow from someone. There's no way Fujikichiro could come up with 500 kan of gold coins on his own.

When Shibata Katsuie failed to build the city, Nobunaga was looking for someone to build it again. Fujikichiro took the initiative to take on the task of building the city and built it quickly.

Anyone who is Nobunaga would be greatly impressed by Fujikichiro.

In fact, Fujiyoshiro was still nervous before he came to Kawamura's house, but he just observed his younger brother very carefully in the dark outside the door.

Well, what a licking dog.

So he immediately made up his mind and asked his brother's wife's family for a loan. How could that be called a loan? At worst, I could pawn my brother to your family and have him work for free for a few years. I could always pay it back.

Even the moment he pulled back the curtain, Fujikichiro had already calculated his brother's "sale price." It was said that in large towns like Tsushima and Atsuta, the top-tier merchants could even own shares, known in Japanese as "stocks." If a merchant had a hundred stocks, a stockholder could own one or two.

Some big businessmen started out as apprentices working for big bosses, only to be rewarded with a few shares by the big bosses because of their skill. With this, they accumulated capital and connections, and eventually went out on their own and became successful.

Then it’s not too much for my brother to make fifty kan a year. He can make twenty kan a year by carrying a spear for Nobunaga.

Ten years at most. I’ll just hold my brother hostage to Shichibei for ten years and that’ll be the end of it.

As long as he has Shichibei's money, Fujikichiro will be able to convince the Hosuka Party and the Tsubouchi Party to support him. If he has more money, he can even hire them to come to Sunomata to participate in building the city.

All the key nodes of the entire plan can be connected in this way, forming a closed loop. Just wait for the right time next year, and the plan to build the city of Sunomata will be realized.

"I have to say, your plan is very bold." Shichibei nodded slightly, because this was definitely feasible.

As a local power, the Kawanamishu of the Kiso River were a force that could be won over. Besides their shipping business, they also secretly engaged in profitable trade on the river. They were busy, and with the lower reaches of the Kiso River about to be unified by Nobunaga, joining Nobunaga at this time offered them a chance to take advantage.

It was said that the leader of the Hosuka Clan, Hosuka Koroku, and Fujikichiro were old friends. Of course, the Hosuka Clan had hundreds, if not thousands, of members, so relying on old acquaintances was useless. One needed stinky copper coins and fragrant rice to persuade them.

"No matter how good a plan is, it needs sufficient support to be realized." Fujiyoshiro suddenly patted his younger brother, as if he wanted to push his younger brother to Shichibei.

"Hmm..." Shichibei hesitated for a moment.

"When do you want it?" Then he made up his mind.

"There's no rush for now. I'm still on duty. When I'm not on duty next month, I'll go find Xiaoliu and the others." Fujikichiro is not an anxious and rude person at least now.

Shibata Katsuie hadn't even set out yet, so he was really ahead of his time by rushing to do these things. He should first test the waters with Hosuga Koroku and the others to see if they were willing to side with the Oda clan before taking the next step.

What if Saito Tatsuoki had also bribed the Kawanami clan? Right, that was certainly a possibility. When two armies clash, all sorts of tactics are employed. Fujikichiro wasn't 100% sure that Hosugawa Koroku and Maeno Nagayasu were willing to help him with this matter.

After all, if Kawanamishu assisted Fujiyoshiro in building the city, it would be a great offense to Longxing, and he would definitely not end up well.

"As long as you need it, let Koichiro get it immediately!" Shichibei agreed directly.

There was no need for Fujikichiro's collateral or signature, it was purely a gamble based on credit. If the gamble was right, Fujikichiro would receive Nobunaga's reward and would definitely return the principal and interest to Shichibei.

Lost the bet?

If he loses, he will just bet his brother on me.

No loss anyway.

By the time the two old perverts with evil intentions smiled and acknowledged each other, Kinoshita Koichiro had already come to his senses. Damn it, they're selling me out.

But he couldn't think of a reason to object. Just sell it. Sell it to Kawamuraya, and you'll get to see Shichibei's sister every day. It doesn't matter who you work for. Fujikichiro was just a hundred-man foot soldier now. Who could have imagined his future would be so bright? There was nothing special about being a Kawamuraya employee.