Chapter 165: My Sister Can’t Marry for Nothing!
Regarding the marriage alliance with the Oda Danjō no Chū family, Yuan Ye was generally quite satisfied.
The main reason was that the Princess Inu was a much better choice than he had anticipated. He truly hadn’t expected Oda Nobunaga to marry off such a soft bun. It felt like she wouldn’t resist even if he sent her directly into “cold storage,” making her incredibly easy to bully, which rendered many of his precautionary measures unnecessary.
The primary issue arising from this marriage alliance thus became Princess Inu’s retinue.
These individuals were primarily responsible for serving Princess Inu, ensuring her personal safety and daily life. Their composition ranged from samurai and followers to grooms and coachmen, from cooks and tailors to maids and servant girls, a motley crew with everything imaginable.
In theory, all these people had become members of the Yuan Ye Family. The dowry samurai were essentially vassals, and Yuan Ye could even assign them to fight alongside him. This was similar to how Nohime was sent to the Oda Danjō no Chū family when she married; the renowned Mino warrior Ando Morishige was dispatched to attend Nohime and fought several battles alongside Oda Nobuhide.
However, even a fool could guess that among these people, there were definitely spies from the Oda Danjō no Chū family, or at least those who were loyal to the Oda Danjō no Chū family. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gained any benefits, and the princess wouldn’t have been given away for free.
A significant reason why the Daimyo of the Japanese Medieval Period loved marrying off their princesses was to send such a group of people to foster a closer relationship within the allied family and to secretly monitor their every move.
For example, Azai Nagamasa, the “Eagle of Omi,” who married Princess A’ichi, suddenly betrayed Oda Nobunaga when he had a significant advantage, nearly trapping Oda Nobunaga in a “closed-door dog-beating” scenario. A major reason for this was the repeated marriage alliances between the Azai Family and the Asakura Family, resulting in a large number of retainers within the Azai Family who leaned towards the Asakura Family. Their interconnectedness was so strong that even Azai Nagamasa dared not underestimate them, forcing him to make a choice that seemed utterly foolish in hindsight. The Azai Family, like the Tokugawa Family, was an ally of the Oda Family （ at least in name ）. Yet, one followed the Oda Family all the way to establish the Edo Shogunate, while the other was annihilated. Where does one even begin to make sense of this?
The reason Azai Nagamasa’s “closed-door dog-beating” failed was also due to the marriage alliance with the Oda Family. Just as he was preparing to cut off Oda Nobunaga’s retreat, he was immediately discovered by Princess A’ichi’s dowry retainers, who promptly informed Oda Nobunaga. This caused Oda Nobunaga to turn around and flee, only stopping to fight the combined forces of Azai and Asakura near the border of Mino, suffering no significant losses.
As a result, a rather excellent Zaju opera story was adapted during the Edo period: 《Bag of Beans》.
It is said that Princess A’ichi sent Oda Nobunaga a bean bag, tied at both ends and filled with beans, resembling a sausage. Others were puzzled, but Oda Nobunaga immediately understood, grasping Princess A’ichi’s hint that he was about to be attacked from both sides, which led him to decisively retreat and escape danger.
Now Yuan Ye was also experiencing the same situation as Azai Nagamasa. His household had gained an Oda family princess, but the soft-hearted princess was not a problem; he could support her. However, he did not want any of these accompanying vassals, followers, or family retainers gifted by the Oda family, even though he was severely short of personnel.
After all, he himself did not want to recruit retainers, so how could he allow a bunch of “cheap” retainers to establish their own power base on his territory?
Not even under the guise of the princess would that be allowed!
However, Xin Wanjin was currently in a honeymoon period with the Oda Danjō no Chū family, and it would be inconvenient to send them back, as it would be too disrespectful to Oda Nobunaga. Therefore, the first thing he did after the wedding was to meet with three of the samurai from this group. He appeased them gently and then actively suggested creating a small village for Princess Inu as a private estate, persuading them to lead their followers there to oversee the initial construction work, thereby isolating them and making use of their labor.
As for the remaining family retainers, such as servants, maids, and attendant girls, their skills were varied, and there was no easy place to reassign them without causing offense. So, for now, they would be kept in the residence under covert supervision, and gradually dispersed and integrated. For the time being, as long as they were kept away from confidential information, nothing else mattered. He had no intention of sneaking up on Oda Nobunaga, so he wasn’t afraid of them secretly sending “Bag of Beans.”
Princess Inu was indifferent to these matters. After all, apart from her two childhood maids, A Naka and A Shita, she was not familiar with anyone else in her dowry entourage. Therefore, as long as A Naka and A Shita were by her side, she felt almost no change. Moreover, her personality was truly gentle; as long as Yuan Ye did not mistreat her, she was content. She was also quite young, and being sent for this marriage alliance was purely a matter of being pushed into it. She didn’t understand some things and was living quite happily with Yuan Ye.
Yuan Ye expressed his relief. He didn’t have any particular feelings for Princess Inu, at least not yet. Strictly speaking, they were both strangers, and feelings couldn’t arise out of thin air. However, he didn’t want to harm an innocent child and was willing to make some effort to ensure she lived a better life.
Now that she could live happily, Yuan Ye was relieved, and his focus shifted back to his work.
He didn’t need to worry about the recovery of Wanjin’s production; Endo Chiyo and others were doing a good job and were increasingly acting like internal affairs officials. Yuan Ye merely made contingency plans for the future, preparing for a larger population by considering the addition of more specialized civil departments.
Therefore, during this period, he took advantage of the gradual arrival of islanders and built a small shipyard near the Xin Wanjin pier, beginning to attempt shipbuilding himself. However, his previous major was unrelated to shipbuilding, so his contribution was limited. The shipbuilding techniques mastered by the islanders were also very crude. After much effort, the shipyard could only produce fishing boats in the style of Kobaya ships. To truly build warships, he needed to find a “Chief Engineer.”
Only then could some of Yuan Ye’s ideas have a basis for realization; otherwise, they would remain mere fantasies. However, such specialized personnel were difficult to find, at least in the Ise Bay area. He had sent A Man to inquire but found no one. Thus, he could only keep this matter in mind and began to stockpile suitable shipbuilding materials, lest he find a “Chief Engineer” later and be short of large timbers.
In addition, he frequently visited the barracks, as this was the foundation of Xin Wanjin; without this army, he was nothing.
The military discipline of the Wanjin Army remained strict. The soldiers were kept in line, with over five hundred men （ some were injured and retired, and others were replenished ） training was their sole activity. After fighting several battles, Yuan Ye now had new ideas. Also, for his ultimate plan, he began organizing a training corps, intending to assign dedicated personnel to handle the soldiers’ ideological work. After all, relying solely on military discipline for coercion was not secure, and ideological education might be more effective.
Of course, he would not relax military discipline. Even though some junior officers had subtly suggested that the soldiers didn’t need to be so strictly restrained, warning that being too tense might lead to problems, he still had no intention of changing this. This was human nature. Within the East Asian cultural sphere, if there was even a slight loophole in the rules, and some flexibility was allowed, some people would exploit it to create a large opening within a short time, an opening that could be widened to accommodate a hundred-ton truck in three to five years.
Correction must be extreme. If it meant not being considered human, so be it. Otherwise, if someone violated military discipline today and faced no consequences, tomorrow someone would dare to commit rape and plunder wantonly. Even when executing military orders, some would casually steal chickens and ducks. This truly could not be guarded against. He had fought several battles with Oda Nobunaga, and in none of them did his followers and ashigaru refrain from looting; they even openly auctioned off their spoils in the barracks. He did not want his army to become like that.
If it truly became like that, it would be impossible to change it later.
If he insisted on changing it, he feared he would lose his head!
Therefore, after much deliberation, he felt that military discipline was non-negotiable and could not be relaxed even slightly, even if it meant eliminating over thirty of his own men. However, he could adjust the approach by combining strictness with leniency, emphasizing “Love Wanjinism” more, conducting more ideological education, and organizing more activities to enhance a sense of honor, encouraging soldiers to voluntarily abide by military discipline. This might improve the situation.
In any case, he planned to try it out for a period to see the results. After all, he had never been a soldier before and was an amateur in military matters, so he could only learn by doing and draw his own conclusions.
As he busied himself, life returned to its peaceful rhythm. No one came to bother him, and the autumn and winter seasons quickly passed. Time reached the third year since he had fallen into this era. Xin Wanjin’s development was proceeding normally. However, as he had anticipated, with more and more things he wanted to do, the active expansion of production in various workshops, and the approaching spring plowing, his labor force was in extreme shortage, and he couldn’t allocate it no matter how he tried.
He began to worry about this again, wondering where he could find more labor. For a moment, he wished Imagawa Yoshimoto would stop his land surveys and internal strife, quickly march west to the capital, and die quickly, thus clearing the Chita Peninsula for him. He then pondered that his neighbors had many people who looked plump and delicious. He considered whether it would be permissible to lure their people to defect with money and provisions, and whether it would violate their alliance.
He spent several days racking his brain, devising all sorts of malicious schemes. Just as he was suffering from a headache due to the labor shortage, A Man urgently sent him an urgent piece of intelligence: something had happened in Mino; the Saito Father and Son were fighting.
To be precise, Saito Dosan and his eldest illegitimate son, Saito Yoshitatsu, were fighting. Moreover, Saito Yoshitatsu was ruthless, having murdered Saito Dosan’s two legitimate sons and intending to kill his own father, Saito Dosan. Simultaneously, Saito Dosan’s Inabayama Castle had been lost, and Mino was in chaos.
Both sides were now calling for allies, preparing for a battle to determine who was the true ruler of Mino.
Yuan Ye was greatly surprised. He hadn’t expected such a bizarre event to occur just before spring plowing. The Saito Family truly lived up to its reputation as the Viper Family; the viper had been broken out of its mother’s belly by its own offspring. As he was lamenting this peculiar father-son relationship, a messenger from Oda Nobunaga arrived, following closely behind this intelligence. The messenger demanded that the Yuan Ye Family fulfill its alliance and assist the Oda Danjō no Chū family in rescuing another ally, fulfilling their responsibility of mutual support.
Well, his sister couldn’t be married in vain. The brother-in-law was going to save his father-in-law, and the son-in-law also had to send troops.
