Chapter 124: Come on, let’s have a medieval war!
Yuan Ye’s hatred for Hayashi Hidesada remained high. After all, he had previously holed up in Takeuchi Manor, hiding within the direct territory of Oda Nobunaga, the “Sixth Heavenly Demon King,” hoping to survive until the mountain mists returned, allowing him to go back to the Modern Era. However, Hayashi Hidesada had taught him a lesson: relying on historical knowledge to survive and hiding in a place you believe to be safe is useless. If you truly want to live, you must rely on sheer strength.
He never forgot this “kindness.” Even after A Man returned alive from the brink of death, his animosity towards Hayashi Hidesada had not diminished much. At most, he no longer had to consider A Man’s “dying words” and search for every chicken belonging to the Hayashi family to kill, saving him some time.
As the old saying goes, if Hayashi Hidesada didn’t want him to live, then Hayashi Hidesada shouldn’t expect to live either. Even if only to set an example for other local lords to learn from and deter them from provoking him, he had to settle this old score and beat the egg yolks out of the Hayashi family.
Of course, it wasn’t possible now. His strength was insufficient, and he wasn’t yet capable of settling old scores. He needed to wait a while longer, and the timing wasn’t right either. Oda Nobunaga would absolutely not allow him to attack Hayashi Hidesada at this moment.
Similarly, Hayashi Hidesada couldn’t do anything to him for the time being.
Hayashi Hidesada had just failed in his rebellion. Even though, due to Owari’s dire external situation, Oda Nobunaga did not wish for a group of Owari local lords led by him to defect to the Imagawa Family and Matsudaira Family, and thus did not “exterminate his entire clan,” he was still allowed to serve as a Senior Retainer for the Oda Danjō no Chū family. This was a compromise forced by external pressure, and he was still deeply disliked internally.
Therefore, as long as Hayashi Hidesada wasn’t insane, he absolutely would not pass through sensitive areas like Nagoya Castle or Atsuta Port to attack Oda Nobunaga’s “saltpeter workshop” in Wanjin. This workshop was protected by Oda Nobunaga’s Warrior Officials and elite Followers. Such an act would be tantamount to a second rebellion, spitting in Oda Nobunaga’s face. At that point, even if Oda Nobunaga prioritized the bigger picture and many local lords pleaded for him, Oda Nobunaga would surely kill him.
As for Hayashi Hidesada, driven by the death of his own nephew, disregarding the future of his family and going mad to the point of coming to Wanjin to kill him…
He wasn’t afraid of that either!
The personnel trained by the new “Director of the Eastern Depot,” A Man, were primarily monitoring two families: the Oda Danjō no Chū family and the Hayashi family. If Hayashi Hidesada truly went mad and came to kill him, he would simply take his core personnel and flee. It wouldn’t matter if Wanjin was destroyed; it would only delay him by a few months, and he could start over.
As long as he had advanced technology, he could start over countless times and build territories anywhere; it was completely irrelevant. But if Hayashi Hidesada dared to act like that, he would absolutely not get a second chance. He wouldn’t even have to fight to the death to eliminate the menace that was Hayashi Hidesada.
Yuan Ye didn’t care about his resentment towards Hayashi Hidesada at all. He wasn’t the same as when he first arrived; ordinary matters couldn’t scare him. After bidding farewell to Maeda Toshiie, he went to attend the Magistrate meeting as usual, listening to senior magistrates like Niwa Nagahide drone on about trivial matters.
Most of these trivial matters had nothing to do with him. With nothing else to do, he sat there contemplating matters of the army.
Hayashi Hidesada couldn’t do anything to him now. Even sending assassins would be impossible; they would at least not dare to kill him openly under Oda Nobunaga’s nose. That would be gambling with the lives of everyone in the Hayashi family. However, he had an idea. Enemies meeting, eyes burning with hatred, the more he encountered Hayashi Hidesada, the more he wanted to expedite his revenge plan. This battle would take at least one to two months. By then, the workers in the workshop would have worked for half a year, and their discipline and suitability for becoming soldiers would be apparent. It would be time to move to the next step.
He was only good at making soy sauce and synthesizing dyes, as it was his specialty, and he excelled at it with full confidence. However, when it came to military matters, he was completely clueless. Despite attending school for so many years, the school had never taught him how to fight. At most, he had read some battle accounts in web novels, giving him a sliver of military experience. If those accounts weren’t just random nonsense, then he could be considered to have some military experience. But even with this sliver of experience, it was barely enough to be called theoretical knowledge, likely inferior to Zhao Kuo.
Well, actually, Zhao Kuo was quite formidable; he was just too unlucky to become a timeless laughingstock, which was somewhat unfair.
If he truly possessed Zhao Kuo’s level of skill, he wouldn’t be so worried.
As for the battle he had fought in Takeuchi Manor, that was a street brawl involving one to two hundred people. He survived entirely due to his height, long reach, and full steel armor. He hadn’t accumulated any command experience at all. That battle was like a street gang fight over territory; he had blundered his way from one end of the street to the other. It was entirely different from building an army from scratch.
He truly lacked confidence in this regard, but fortunately, he was now in an ancient feudal army, and he could learn. His learning ability had always been excellent!
After the Magistrate meeting, he didn’t pay much attention to the transport capacity assigned to him, leaving all these miscellaneous matters to his two Warrior Officials to handle. He then used his status to roam around, observing and learning details he hadn’t paid attention to during previous campaigns.
For example, how to train and command spear Ashigaru, why, in addition to normal spears, the Little Ho-tori Magistrate also brought two other types of spearheads? When to switch to the bamboo leaf spearhead, and when to use the ginkgo leaf spearhead? Yes, and he also had to consider urban warfare and siege warfare…
For instance, how to train and command archer Ashigaru, how to allocate the three common types of arrows, how to ensure soldiers carry spare bowstrings daily without losing them, and which carrying tools for arrows like quivers, hollow shafts, and arrow boxes were most suitable?
Furthermore, how to organize marches, how to organize encampments, how to prepare bamboo fences, how to organize siege warfare, and what points needed attention in all of these…
In short, organizing a group of people so they could fight a battle smoothly and win was absolutely not as easy as ordinary people imagined. It was an extremely complex task, even in ancient times, with an overwhelming number of intricate details.
Yuan Ye began asking acquaintances for advice in Nagoya Castle. After the troops were dispatched, he seized every opportunity to run around, observe, and learn. After all, if he truly wanted to have an army entirely his own, an army that perfectly suited his desires, he couldn’t rely entirely on others for training. He at least needed to understand all the intricate details so that he wouldn’t be easily fooled or become a laughingstock in the future.
He would even have to go to the battlefield himself in the future. As the first generation of the Yuan Ye Family, he couldn’t just lie down and have enemies surrender out of fear. His reputation had to be built battle by battle. Figures like Emperor Taizong of Tang and Emperor Taizu of Ming personally led troops into battle and even charged forward when necessary, so he certainly couldn’t avoid it.
He was mentally prepared for this and willing to take risks. At least in the early stages of any conflict, he would definitely be on the front lines and wouldn’t sit in the rear, entrusting his entire fortune to others.
As for why he didn’t employ a dimensional strike, developing flintlock guns, grenades, cannons, and other such weapons to sweep through everything…
Forget about that. In this era with such poor living conditions, even if he did his best to improve things and ensure healthy food and drink, it was uncertain how long he would live. There was no possibility of dying from food poisoning tomorrow, or developing a terminal illness from heavy metal poisoning next year. If he were to develop these things, and then the Invasion of Korea War in Japan couldn’t be avoided, and the monkeys swept through Shanhaiguan…
He couldn’t bear that responsibility and didn’t want to become a great sinner in history, to the point where even his ancestors would rise from their graves to beat him. Therefore, he could only make limited improvements when forming his army. Overall, he still had to fight using the weapons available in this era.
This was a matter of principle, something unavoidable. If he had to blame someone, it could only be himself for his bad luck in being transmigrated to this godforsaken place.
However, it didn’t matter. Using medieval weapons was fine. It wasn’t that having medieval weapons automatically meant having a medieval army. There were still many areas where he could make adjustments, and he still had a significant advantage.
He treated this expedition as advanced study. Instead of staying in the rear to do his primary job, he actively sought opportunities to learn and ask questions. Fortunately, his luck was good; Oda Nobunaga’s campaign was not going smoothly and was dragging on, giving him ample time to learn.
Oda Nobunaga’s campaign was indeed not going smoothly. After coercing the local lords of the Lower Four Districts of Owari with “justice” to send troops, he easily captured several key rock fortresses leading to Kiyosu Castle and soon advanced to the city’s outskirts. Then, things took a turn for the worse.
The Kiyosu Army knew Oda Nobunaga was not to be trifled with, and having killed Shiba Yoshimune, they were indeed at a disadvantage in terms of “justice.” Few dared to openly support them, and their strength was weaker than before. They had decided to defend the castle from the outset. Furthermore, they didn’t just passively defend; they stationed some men at Anjishin Ganji. Relying on the solid “defenses” of Anjishin Ganji and its advantageous geographical location surrounded by water on two sides, they echoed Kiyosu Castle while continuously sending out small units by boat to disrupt Oda Nobunaga’s supply lines, specifically targeting weak and old soldiers like the Little Ho-tori and Rookies and Ashigaru.
This move seemed to have caught Oda Nobunaga by surprise. He couldn’t focus on the siege. However, he didn’t hesitate. He left a small contingent to watch Kiyosu Castle and then turned to surround Anjishin Ganji, initiating a two-pronged assault.
The Samurai within the Kiyosu Army knew it was time to fight for their lives. If Oda Nobunaga truly captured Kiyosu Castle, they would have no good outcome. Even if their lives were spared, they would become Rōnin. Their resistance was quite fierce, and when the defenders became tenacious in this era, battles quickly became protracted.
The campaign was not going well, and Oda Nobunaga was furious. Several people were severely reprimanded every day, and even Yuan Ye was not spared. Due to the excessive consumption of gunpowder, which was running out, Oda Nobunaga was displeased that he had only produced a few hundred catties of saltpeter in several months, less than what he could buy himself slowly. He specifically summoned Yuan Ye and scolded him. It was likely that seeing Yuan Ye was about to become an Owari local lord and could no longer flee, Oda Nobunaga no longer treated him with the same politeness as before.
Yuan Ye didn’t care. He endured the momentary anger. Taking advantage of his good relationship with Maeda Toshiie, who was now working in the “Military Police” and could move around conveniently, he would occasionally bring gifts, have Maeda Toshiie introduce him, and visit Samurai like the Spear Ashigaru Commander and Archer Ashigaru Commander who had fought many battles. He would carefully ask them about various difficult questions, and then return to ponder the compilation of his “Training Manual.”
By the time Oda Nobunaga finally captured Anjishin Ganji and slaughtered all thirty-odd Samurai who dared to resist, Yuan Ye had gained a great deal. The “Training Manual” was almost complete, and he just needed to put it into practice back home to see the results.
