Chapter 174: Another Troubled Period Begins
Oda Nobuhiro’s life was like a tragedy with a rather comedic flair.
When he was young and served as the Castle Lord of Anshō Castle, he had been spirited and ambitious. However, after Anshō Castle was breached, he became a captive of the Imagawa Family, and everything changed. After he was exchanged back with Tokugawa Ieyasu, he almost disappeared from public view, becoming the epitome of a loser. By the time he finally managed to pull himself together and wanted to return to the stage, he realized all his tragedies stemmed from his own incompetence, his own fragility—he wasn’t even cut out for rebellion, performing worse than his half-brother, Oda Nobuyuki.
He secretly colluded with Saito Yoshitatsu, or rather, Saito Yoshitatsu secretly enticed him, intending to seize Kiyosu Castle during the transfer of provisions and then, with Saito Yoshitatsu attacking from the front and him from the rear, Oda Nobunaga would be caught in a pincer, allowing him to leap to become a regional power, or even the new Head of the Family for the Danjō no Chū family.
As a result, even when he led his vassals and followers to suddenly revolt within the castle, he couldn’t even make Oda Nobunaga panic. The Castle Guard Deputy of Kiyosu Castle, Sawaki Fujiemon, the adoptive father of the Castle Guard Deputy of Nagoya Castle, Sawaki Yoshizane, led a counterattack with only a few vassals, and his vassals and followers scattered like birds and beasts, utterly defeated. He himself fled without a trace.
The next day, Yuan Ye saw the new report and couldn’t help but sigh, lamenting that this fellow was truly incompetent to a certain degree; he had ambition but no ability, and his rebellion was like a big joke.
He felt that if a person lived like Oda Nobuhiro, it would be better to just commit suicide.
And with Oda Nobuhiro’s farcical failed rebellion, the Saito army also unhesitatingly turned back to Mino. It seemed Saito Yoshitatsu could afford to lose his scheme and wasn’t planning to go all out and force a crossing, showing no regard for face, and ambled back.
Or rather, cooperating with Oda Nobunaga’s eldest illegitimate brother’s rebellion was his main objective for coming. Now that his main objective was achieved, and he had disgusted Oda Nobunaga, he was temporarily satisfied and would return to await the next opportunity.
Yuan Ye came this time and did nothing but watch a farce. However, he felt that Owari had entered another period of turmoil—Saito Yoshitatsu wasn’t well-known in later generations, and he didn’t know him well, but he seemed more insidious than his father, Saito Dosan. With this man lurking in Mino, Owari would definitely not be peaceful.
However, the battle had ended here. Seeing that there was nothing else, he took his leave and headed straight back to Xin Wanjin.
But before he had even settled in Xin Wanjin, A Man came to him with the latest news. However, he didn’t think the news was important, casually tossing it onto his desk before calling A Qing for more money. Her reason was that the old man was difficult to support and spent money lavishly, having already used up the previous allowance, and needed a supplement—A Man’s monthly stipend was managed by A Qing, given her history of excessive drinking and gambling. Even though she was older and more sensible now, and not as reckless as before, they still didn’t dare let her handle large sums of money.
At this stage, if she needed money, she had to first explain the purpose to A Qing, or reach into Yuan Ye’s pocket for some loose change to tide her over.
Yuan Ye ignored how the sisters supported their grandfather and glanced at the news excerpt, saying with slight surprise, “Oda Nobuhiro isn’t dead…”
Oda Nobuhiro’s surprise attack on Kiyosu Castle… if that could be called a surprise attack, after his failure, he fled in a panic to a temple outside Moriyama Castle, intending to shave his head and become a monk to escape disaster. But of course, it was useless. As soon as Oda Nobunaga returned to Kiyosu Castle, he had Nobuhiro arrested. However, out of consideration for Niwa Nagahide, he didn’t kill him, merely confiscated his fief and stripped him of his “guardianship” over all his children. In particular, his daughter A Zhu was directly adopted by Oda Nobunaga as his daughter, becoming a direct descendant of the Danjō no Chū family—A Zhu was Niwa Nagahide’s lawful wife, and now Niwa Nagahide had become Oda Nobunaga’s son-in-law.
Looking at these latest news excerpts, Yuan Ye felt his eyes were opened again. In this era, you could actually “steal” a daughter? As expected of the Japanese Warring States period, anything bizarre could happen…
But if that’s the case, then he should be Niwa Nagahide’s… uncle-in-law?
Niwa Nagahide was the same age as Maeda Toshiie and the Monkey, and they were very close friends. Then wouldn’t he also be the Monkey’s… elder?
His thoughts wandered for a moment, and he felt his seniority had suddenly increased. Meanwhile, A Man, under the guise of “supporting the elderly,” managed to pry a few silver tacks worth several Guàn from A Qing, enough for her to live it up for a few days. Satisfied, she stuffed them into her pocket and casually said, “It doesn’t matter if that kind of trash is kept alive; whether he dies or not is irrelevant.”
Yuan Ye withdrew his wandering thoughts and nodded gently, feeling it was indeed true that a person who could make a rebellion into a joke was not worth worrying about whether they lived or died. However, this also indicated that Oda Nobunaga was not yet tyrannical; he was still in a stage where mutual benefit was possible—his senior retainers and brothers rebelled one after another, and he hadn’t killed a single person yet. In this era, that was considered quite magnanimous. He could also be more at ease dealing with him.
Yuan Ye pondered, then flipped through the other messy news, such as commodity prices, farming conditions, and troop deployments—routine matters. Finding nothing else of importance, he instructed A Man, “Dispatch a group of people to Mino. We need to start paying attention to Saito Yoshitatsu’s movements.”
He felt that Oda Nobuhiro’s rebellion was merely Saito Yoshitatsu’s “trial run.” For a long time to come, the Wanjin Army’s main opponents would be the Mino army led by Saito Yoshitatsu, and they would have to deal with his various schemes and tricks. Therefore, Mino should also be brought under surveillance.
At least until Saito Yoshitatsu died. But he couldn’t remember when this fellow died, nor how he died. He only vaguely recalled that this fellow should have died before Okehazama, as after Okehazama, Oda Nobunaga shifted from defense to offense against Mino and began a large-scale invasion. The enemy at that time seemed to be Saito Yoshitatsu’s son, Saito Tatsuoki—this person seemed to be a complete waste, and was seemingly defeated by Oda Nobunaga in a few moves, allowing Oda Nobunaga to directly annex Mino, completely seizing the Nōbi Plain, a great granary, laying a solid foundation for advancing to Kyoto and even dominating the world.
A Man didn’t directly refuse his request but scratched her head with a troubled expression and hesitated, “There aren’t many spare personnel right now. Should the ‘Life Preservation Style’ continue to expand its staff?”
The Life Preservation Style was Xin Wanjin’s current combined “Eastern Depot” for internal surveillance and “Ninja Unit” for military intelligence. Due to recent personnel shortages and a focus on territorial development, expansion had basically stopped. Now that a new situation had arisen, Yuan Ye didn’t hesitate and said directly, “Continue expanding. Send me a list of the required personnel and supplies to review. If there are no issues, I’ll allocate them to you.”
This was serious business. A Man’s Dou Dou eyebrows perked up, and she immediately accepted the order, “I understand. I’ll think about it when I get back.”
“Don’t just think about it yourself,” Yuan Ye said after a moment of thought. “How is your grandfather… Mr. Izumi Heiji’s recovery progressing? Does he have any plans to come out and work?”
“You want the old man to return to his old profession?” A Man was slightly stunned, then realized. However, she hesitated, “His injuries have mostly healed, and he’s quite familiar with Mino, but… let’s just forget it. He’s so old, and he’s lost so much vitality this time. He’s half-crippled now. I want him to die in Xin Wanjin, to grow old and die peacefully.”
She paused and added, “Or he could drink himself to death. Then I’ll get a big barrel of wine and bury him in it.”
A Qing, who had been sitting silently nearby, also looked up with a cool gaze, seemingly concerned about the matter. Yuan Ye was forcibly silenced for a moment—Damn it, what kind of burial is in a wine barrel?
Was it for preservation? Or some secret method of the Life Preservation Style’s medicinal wine?
After a moment of silence, he quickly waved his hand, “I didn’t mean that. I have no objections to him retiring in Xin Wanjin. We have enough for him here; he doesn’t need to risk his life anymore. I just thought if he wanted to do something, perhaps he could consider being a consultant.”
“Consultant?” A Man asked curiously, “What the hell is a consultant?”
“It’s a position where you don’t have to do anything, don’t need to work too hard, and just need to offer some advice when major issues arise?” Yuan Ye just wanted to utilize the old man’s extensive experience in the martial world. He didn’t need him to fight; he had plenty of matchlock guns now, and anyone who didn’t comply could just be blasted with them.
A Man seemed to understand. She stroked her chin and pondered for a moment, “Will there be a monthly stipend?”
“Yes, at the same standard as the two of you!”
A Man immediately nodded, “Alright, I’ll ask him later!”
Yuan Ye mentioned it casually. After all, even in the Modern Era, this old man should be retired. He didn’t want to force an elderly person to serve and added, “If he’s unwilling, then forget it. Everything else will proceed as usual.”
“I understand.”
A Man casually replied and got up to leave, preparing to find the old man and ask his opinion. She felt her grandfather’s health wasn’t that bad and he could live another ten years or so. Perhaps he could contribute his remaining years and earn some more money to leave her as an inheritance.
After she left, Yuan Ye flipped through other documents, checking the progress of work during his absence from Xin Wanjin. He found that his subordinates were all performing their duties well and didn’t need him to issue orders like “move the field ridge five inches to the south” to cause trouble. He then left the office and returned to the rear residence to rest.
His rear residence was very quiet during the day. After all, he only had one wife now, and she was a soft bun who usually wished she could bury her head in the ground like an ostrich, incapable of making much noise. She was as well-behaved as a proper princess.
Of course, he didn’t know what princesses married into other families were like. Perhaps princesses of this era weren’t too arrogant. If he had the chance in the future, he planned to research this topic to satisfy his curiosity—On the Princesses of the Japanese Warring States period. Perhaps when he returned to the Modern Era, he could even publish a groundbreaking paper and earn some academic credits.
