Chapter 103: Temporary Territory
For a samurai, land is power, and matters concerning land are never trivial.
After a moment of silence in the room, a vassal saw Oda Nobunaga stroking his newly grown mustache and pondering, seemingly unable to make up his mind. He couldn’t help but open his mouth to object, but how to obtain saltpeter remained a difficult problem.
Among all the civil affairs officials, only Yuan Ye expressed that he could try. It was easy to object, but what if Oda Nobunaga continued to press for the task, or asked the objector to complete it…
Several magistrates who had opened their mouths closed them again, not daring to speak for a moment, but still staring at Yuan Ye with extremely subtle gazes, revealing faint vigilance, jealousy, and dissatisfaction.
Is he trying to reach the sky in a single step?
This wandering samurai from out of town has considerable ambition, trying to use his influence to get a big piece of the pie?
He’s got it all figured out!
Yuan Ye ignored them, not caring how they viewed him, and was not too concerned about whether he could acquire land this time. He only needed to let Oda Nobunaga know that he was capable of producing saltpeter.
Yes, as long as he could achieve this first, it would be enough.
He vaguely recalled that historically, Oda Nobunaga, in order to obtain enough gunpowder, personally visited wealthy merchants in Sakai, attempting to solve the problem by spending a large sum of money. He was ridiculed as a bumpkin from the countryside and was eventually forced to curb his arrogance, becoming a tea ceremony student of a Sakai magnate and bowing to the wealthy merchants before finally securing a stable supply of what he wanted.
He felt deeply humiliated upon his return and harbored resentment. After successfully entering Kyoto, he immediately began to retaliate. He refused even the wealthy merchants of Sakai who wanted to buy peace with money, changing his mind several times, playing tricks on them, and humiliating them whenever he pleased.
Therefore, Yuan Ye was not in a hurry. This matter would definitely succeed. Oda Nobunaga was a person who could not stand being slighted. If it didn’t work this time, when he was provoked, he would disregard everything and give Yuan Ye the land if he could obtain saltpeter in Owari, even if all his vassals knelt and wept in opposition.
Of course, even so, this matter would still be difficult, and it would surely be opposed by most of the vassals of the Oda Danjō no Chū family, and it would easily drag on for too long, affecting his development.
He waited for a while, and seeing that Oda Nobunaga had no intention of making a final decision, he felt that directly asking for a good piece of land might be difficult. Even Oda Nobunaga found such a matter hard to accept. To get the land sooner, he immediately took a step back: “If that’s really not possible, undeveloped land is also acceptable. I can recruit some personnel to help myself.”
Undeveloped land?
After the previous exorbitant demand, his new condition was undoubtedly much easier to accept. Among the vassals who had hesitated to speak, two or three of them showed slight relief, realizing that he didn’t seem to be eyeing the valuable Takeuchi Manor and wasn’t a competitor trying to rise through influence.
Oda Nobunaga’s hesitation also lessened. If the problem could be solved, a piece of undeveloped land wouldn’t be impossible. Even if Yuan Ye used this as an excuse to secretly reclaim the land, the fields he opened would still be part of Owari and could not possibly fly away. Moreover, if Yuan Ye truly succeeded and wanted permanent ownership of that land, he would have to become a local lord of Owari, which would mean becoming his “yori” and calling him Lord. In that way, this troublemaker would finally be brought into the Oda Danjō no Chū family system.
Oda Nobunaga had already agreed in his heart, but granting land was ultimately a major matter, even undeveloped land. It could easily shake the foundation of the Oda Danjō no Chū family’s current rule. So he looked at the magistrates below and asked, “What do you think?”
Niwa Nagahide and the other civil affairs officials exchanged glances. Some still felt unwilling. Many people fought desperately on the battlefield but couldn’t obtain a piece of land, yet Yuan Ye would get it just by saying “I’ll try,” even if it was undeveloped land, which still felt unpleasant. However, they had no reason to object further, as opposing it would almost certainly mean the task would fall to them. They could only remain silent.
Oda Nobunaga was very pleased, feeling that these new magistrates were indeed much more useful than the old vassals. If a similar situation had occurred before, it would have erupted into arguments here, with everyone vying to tell their Lord how to do things.
It was good like this now. The new magistrates were honest and smart. He planned to be bolder in the future.
He directly instructed Niwa Nagahide, “Go get the map!”
Niwa Nagahide immediately ordered someone to fetch a map and spread it out before him. He began to choose a location for Yuan Ye within the direct territories of the Oda Danjō no Chū family. After looking around, he pointed to an uninhabited area downstream of the Odaigawa River and said, “Here it is! The soil and water here are good!”
The implication was that he was allowing Yuan Ye to use his position for personal gain, to secretly cultivate some fields while completing the task. When Yuan Ye eventually transformed into a local lord, he would acknowledge the ownership of these fields by the Yuan Ye Family and directly grant them “myōjō” (official recognition).
Yuan Ye leaned closer to look, then pointed and said, “This place isn’t very suitable, Your Highness. It would be better to be closer to Atsuta Port, so it’s convenient to collect supplies for the attempt. How about choosing this place instead?”
Oda Nobunaga followed his finger and saw a coastal undeveloped area southwest of Atsuta Port, very close to the root of the Chita Peninsula, and even not far from the frontline where the Oda Family was confronting the Imagawa Family and the Yamaguchi Family. He couldn’t help but ask in surprise, “This place?”
This was not a good place to settle down. Although the Shirakawa Entrance line had many rock fortresses built, making it difficult for the Imagawa Family and Matsudaira Family to invade on a large scale, it was normal for small raiding parties to occasionally pass through, so it wasn’t very stable.
Yuan Ye had already made his plans and insisted, “Let’s choose this place! I personally think this is the most suitable!”
“As you wish!” Oda Nobunaga generally didn’t bother with minor matters as long as the outcome was to his satisfaction. He turned and instructed Niwa Nagahide, “Allocate the land to him. From now on, that place will be called… Wanjin!”
He saw a small bay formed by a river winding into the sea not far away and casually gave it a name. Then he found a booklet, flipped through a few pages, and after reading for a while, said to Yuan Ye, “I will also assign Marubashi and Nakajo to you as assistants. Work hard, and I want to see results in half a year!”
By the end of his speech, his tone became stern again, meaning that he had fulfilled all the conditions Yuan Ye requested and even sent two assistants. If he still couldn’t do a good job, then he shouldn’t blame Oda Nobunaga for turning hostile and making Yuan Ye return the land he had received. He also applied pressure, shortening the timeframe from one year to half a year regardless of feasibility.
In short, he wanted to see saltpeter as quickly as possible, to possess a large amount of gunpowder, and to realize his vision of a matchlock ashigaru unit.
Yuan Ye didn’t care. Rushing the work was normal. Even if he failed, even if he couldn’t complete it in half a year, Oda Nobunaga wouldn’t kill him, so it was completely irrelevant.
At this point, his objective had been achieved. He finally had a piece of land where he had the final say, where he could do whatever he wanted, even if it was undeveloped land, it was enough for him!
…
Oda Nobunaga found the person in charge of the task, felt the problem was solved, and left. The magistrates also dispersed, discussing Yuan Ye’s good fortune, feeling that if he could successfully complete this task, he would instantly achieve a dream that many samurai couldn’t achieve in a lifetime – directly owning a fief.
Of course, where there was envy, there was also jealousy. Many magistrates who would never obtain a fief in their lifetime would make sarcastic and mocking remarks.
Yuan Ye remained indifferent, only wanting to finalize the matter quickly. After all, Oda Nobunaga was only responsible for the final decision and never handled minor matters. The specific details still had to be handled by Niwa Nagahide and the other civil affairs officials and vassals.
He spent another two days negotiating with Niwa Nagahide, and finally demarcated the approximate area of Wanjin, and received the two assistants “gifted” by Oda Nobunaga, namely the low-ranking samurai Nakajo Heijiro Nagatoshi and Marubashi Gomon Ietsugu. “Yoriki” was a title with different definitions in different eras. In this era, yoriki were similar to “dispatched workers.” The feudal subordinate relationship remained with Oda Nobunaga, but Yuan Ye could order them to work and even take them into battle, making it a dual management system.
These two men were previously members of Oda Nobunaga’s Guard Unit. Both were sons of Owari local lords who lacked inheritance rights, and both were slightly younger than Oda Nobunaga, Nakajo Heijiro being eighteen and Marubashi Gomon seventeen. They were very polite to their new superior, Yuan Ye, and Yuan Ye naturally treated them with courtesy, as these two were also a form of “supervisors,” akin to those wearing red hats on a construction site.
Once all the miscellaneous affairs were handled, Yuan Ye took his entire family, along with the eighty-nine “old, weak, sick, and disabled,” and thirty followers borrowed from Niwa Nagahide, with Nakajo Heijiro and Marubashi Gomon in charge of their command, and headed directly to his temporary territory, Wanjin.
Yes, this was a temporary territory, merely a stepping stone. His destination was not here.
He would go to a place where he could be the master, rather than being a local lord in Owari.
