Chapter 200: Want to go to sea!
“Lord, aren’t you planning to change your common name yet?”
On the boat to Old Wanjin, A Man, bored, continued to nag about what she considered important while eating large shrimp, “With our current strength, it’s no longer appropriate for you to be called Sanlang, is it?
Even that Maeda Toshiie fellow has changed his name to Sozaemon. You’re still using your childhood name, which makes you feel a head shorter than him. Why don’t you take this opportunity to go to Kiyosu and have Oda Nobunaga help you ask the court for a better official position, like Chita-no-kami, for example? That would sound more imposing.”
Yuan Ye casually peeled shrimp too, but he didn’t eat them. After peeling, he put them into A Qing’s bowl and casually said, “There’s no need. A name is just a name; it doesn’t matter what it is. Whether it sounds imposing or not is completely unimportant.”
“But you’re still using Sanlang as your common name; it doesn’t suit a lord of a province at all!” A Man had tried to persuade him several times before, and this time was no different. Chewing on a large shrimp, she mumbled, “It won’t cost much anyway. That old geezer Emperor is rumored to be secretly selling paintings and calligraphy for money; he’s quite poor. Have Oda Nobunaga put in a word for you, and if you give him a few hundred kan, he’ll surely be happy.”
“I already said there’s no need. Spending even a single coin on this is too much.”
Yuan Ye didn’t want to serve in the Japanese court, not even nominally. He also felt A Man was an eyesore here. He and A Qing were secretly dipping large shrimp in soy sauce and eating them, peeling for each other, creating a warm atmosphere. Then A Man came over, sat down, and started eating, directly ruining the little romantic spark between him and A Qing.
Well, after Yuan Ye’s careful research and analysis, A Qing should be almost sixteen. She had grown taller again and was even more beautiful. He felt he wasn’t far from officially being out of the single life. During this time, he had been seizing leisure moments to cultivate their relationship.
He somewhat wanted to chase A Man away, to stop her from being a third wheel. He directly said, “Alright, alright, I won’t change it if I don’t want to. You should mind your own business about this. If you have this much free time, you should focus on important matters. We’re going to Kiyosu Castle this time; be careful not to get ambushed.”
This wasn’t a precaution against Oda Nobunaga. Oda Nobunaga was actually a very pragmatic person. Wanjin was the Oda family’s “arms supplier.” Even though their relationship was currently strained, the possibility of Oda Nobunaga orchestrating an assassination when he was actively inviting him for a meeting was very small.
His primary target for precaution was the Owari local lords. He had previously seized all the land of the Chita local lords and killed several families who dared to resist. Given the complex kinship ties among the Owari local lords, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he now had enemies everywhere in Owari. Therefore, for this trip to Kiyosu, he was more wary of the local lords than of Oda Nobunaga.
In short, if he didn’t also want to mend relations with Oda Nobunaga, he wouldn’t have come on this trip at all. Thus, he had to pay extra attention to safety.
A Man didn’t want to leave; traveling by boat was too boring. She just wanted someone to talk to. She sat there without moving and said carelessly, “Don’t worry about that. I can’t speak for other places, but as long as we’re in Owari, we’ll know about any disturbance the moment it happens. No one can sneak attack you, so rest assured!”
“You should go and think about it again, discuss it properly with your subordinates!”
“Don’t you trust me? Really, there’s no need. I’ve made arrangements along the way, and all the informants I need to use have been activated. I’ll stake my head on it, there absolutely won’t be any problems.”
Yuan Ye was speechless. This unlucky girl didn’t understand the atmosphere at all. With her here, A Qing wouldn’t even speak much. Moreover, these shrimp were specially prepared for A Qing so she could grow taller. You, with your short legs, eating so much is just a waste…
However, he felt awkward about directly telling A Man to get lost. He picked out some shrimp, putting the good-looking ones into A Qing’s bowl first to prevent A Man from ruining them all. Then, he genuinely started talking about business, sighing, “Alright, fine. Is there any news from Tōtōmi or Suruga? What do they think about the Matsudaira family’s defection to the Oda family? Are there any signs of them mobilizing troops?”
He hadn’t completely given up on his ambition to conquer Western Mikawa. Upon hearing that Matsudaira Motoyasu intended to ally with Oda Nobunaga, he had already ordered A Man to send people by fast boat to Suruga to spread rumors, hoping that the Imagawa family would deal with Matsudaira Motoyasu, or somehow exert pressure to make the Matsudaira family abandon their alliance with the Oda family.
“There’s no accurate news yet. Our strength in the Suruga region is still insufficient. You didn’t allocate much funding to me in the past two years, so it’s still difficult to gather information within the Imagawa family now.” A Man first complained that Yuan Ye had become stingy in the past two years, diverting funds from many “Life Preservation Styles” to disaster relief, all of which was wasted.
After her complaint, she returned to the main topic, “But from the scattered, messy information that has come back so far, the Imagawa family has no intention of mobilizing. That Imagawa Ujizane （The new head of the Imagawa family, his common name is also Kazusa-no-suke, but his Kazusa-no-suke is an official position, unlike Oda Nobunaga who is impersonating it ） I don’t think he’s very capable. He’s good at composing poetry and playing kemari, but he’s far from being as good at serious matters as Imagawa Yoshimoto. He probably won’t deal with Matsudaira Motoyasu.
Moreover, the foolish things he did before have offended all the local lords in Eastern Mikawa. Now, the local lords of Eastern Mikawa hate him to death. Even if he wanted to deal with Matsudaira Motoyasu, he wouldn’t be able to do so through Eastern Mikawa in a short period.”
Yuan Ye sighed. This news wasn’t entirely unexpected. Based on his performance over the past two years, the new head of the Imagawa family, Imagawa Ujizane, was indeed a bit foolish.
Or perhaps it’s not right to call him foolish. As one of the inheritors of the “Higashiyama Culture,” this person had profound Confucian scholarship, was skilled at composing poems and songs, and had received the true teachings of the Asukabe style. Judging solely by his kemari skills, even if he wasn’t among the top three in Japan, he would definitely be in the top five. He could be called a “national player” of Japanese football.
For such a person, calling him foolish would be going too far, but he was indeed not a good leader.
After Matsudaira Motoyasu declared independence in Western Mikawa, he actually believed that Matsudaira Motoyasu’s wife and children （Sena Hime married Matsudaira Motoyasu at the age of 12, and at this time had one son and one daughter, namely the legitimate son Takechiyo and the legitimate daughter Kamehime ） were still in his hands, and Matsudaira Motoyasu could not escape his control. Instead of directly sending troops to attack, he only ordered the local lords of Eastern Mikawa to offer hostages again to control Matsudaira Motoyasu’s expansion and strengthen his rule over Eastern Mikawa.
However, many family heads of the Eastern Mikawa local lords had died due to Imagawa Yoshimoto’s involvement in the Battle of Okehazama. At that time, there was also internal turmoil. Very few people promptly handed over hostages. As a result, this made Imagawa Ujizane lose face, believing that his authority as the new head had been challenged. Without informing any senior retainers or important retainers, he ordered his attendant vassal, Okabe Igen, to slaughter all the more than ten hostages previously sent by the Eastern Mikawa local lords.
This was practically an act of political suicide. Their relatives were inexplicably killed, and the Eastern Mikawa local lords’ old and new grievances surged in their hearts. Even though they feared the “Three-Nation Alliance” and were afraid of provoking the Takeda and Hojo families to intervene, preventing them from attacking Tōtōmi in retaliation, it was unthinkable to expect them to assist the Imagawa family in suppressing the Matsudaira family.
Some local lords even had fierce conflicts with the Udono family, the Imagawa family’s agent in Eastern Mikawa. The Udono family, in order to clean up Imagawa Ujizane’s mess and avoid public outrage, did not dare to retaliate. They were now holed up in their castle, trying to de-escalate the situation, and were equally powerless to punish Matsudaira Motoyasu.
Yuan Ye had learned about all of this before. He had only sent A Man to Suruga with a sliver of hope to deliver information and spread some rumors about Matsudaira Motoyasu, hoping to attract Imagawa Ujizane’s attention. However, Imagawa Ujizane was like mud that couldn’t be plastered onto a wall; he still didn’t want to act against Matsudaira Motoyasu.
If this opportunity was missed, and the Imagawa family wanted to act against Matsudaira Motoyasu again, Oda Nobunaga would definitely help. The Imagawa family would have virtually no chance of winning.
In that case, it seemed difficult to prevent the alliance between the Oda and Matsudaira families. Being confined to the Chita Peninsula was inevitable for him, unless he assassinated Matsudaira Motoyasu as well…
However, this was very difficult. Matsudaira Motoyasu was not like the Monkey, a lone individual with no followers. He had a large number of loyal hereditary vassals around him, making him difficult to assassinate. Furthermore, Oda Nobunaga’s ninja unit was not to be trifled with. Killing Matsudaira Motoyasu in Owari would inevitably leave traces, and it was highly likely to completely enrage Oda Nobunaga. If he didn’t head north to Mino and instead turned south to Chita, the Odaka River defense line would face severe tests, at a very high cost.
Yuan Ye frowned, deep in thought. He felt that going into maritime trade might be unavoidable, and many plans would need to be revised. The next focus should shift to naval construction.
He had completely lost the mood for a date with A Qing. After pondering for a while, he looked up and asked A Man, “Have there been any developments with Okabe Igen, whom I asked you to contact earlier?”
Okabe Igen was the designer of the Multi-Treasure Pagoda at Aragiko Kannon Temple, the designer and chief engineer of Azuchi Castle later on, and also the person in charge of the Shiki-nen Sengu ceremony at Atsuta Shrine. Shiki-nen Sengu is a Shinto ritual, and for Atsuta Shrine, it means rebuilding every twenty years to maintain the shrine’s sanctity, purity, and spiritual power.
The Shiki-nen Sengu ceremony at Atsuta Shrine had always been the responsibility of the Okabe family, and it remained so for Okabe Igen’s generation. However, this person was not just an architect; he was also skilled in shipbuilding, though not many people knew about it at this time.
It would likely be until Oda Nobunaga reached Lake Biwa and urgently needed to establish a fleet on the lake to assist in operations that Okabe Igen’s talent in this area would be discovered.
In short, Okabe Igen was the future chief engineer of the Oda family. Yuan Ye had always wanted to find a shipbuilding expert to develop the shipbuilding industry on the Chita Peninsula, but shipbuilding experts were extremely difficult to find at this time, and even more so for a chief engineer. Finding someone who wasn’t a samurai but could still serve as a chief engineer was as difficult as ascending to heaven. Finally, after extensive inquiries and recalling historical knowledge, Yuan Ye found this fellow, Okabe Igen. He was not a samurai. Although he was an architect and chief engineer, his official position in the Oda family at this time was that of a master carpenter, placing him between an Oda subordinate official and a senior follower, not a high rank.
In those days, craftsmen were not highly valued and were considered lower class. Okabe Igen was considered to be doing quite well.
Yuan Ye had invited him twice last year, offering an annual salary from five hundred kan to one thousand kan, but Okabe Igen had refused both times. He didn’t want to leave the Oda family unless Yuan Ye was willing to grant him samurai status and become a follower of Atsuta Shrine.
Yuan Ye could not fulfill either of these conditions. He could only send A Man to contact Okabe Igen, hoping they could establish a connection and lure him to Xin Wanjin through friendship.
A Man did go, as she loved making friends. But she immediately threw up her hands, full of resentment, “No progress. That guy is stubborn as a mule, impervious to reason. He’s fixated on becoming a samurai; otherwise, he won’t leave the Oda family! If you ask me, why not just kidnap him!”
“Kidnapping… let’s not do that for now.” Okabe Igen wasn’t without backing. Directly kidnapping him would have significant repercussions, and forcing him to come wouldn’t guarantee he’d work diligently. It could only be a last resort. Yuan Ye sighed, “I’ll think of another way later!”
Going into maritime trade wasn’t that easy either. At least building large ships would be difficult for now.
Yuan Ye had completed the first step of his plan, but he felt stuck on the second step. He began to ponder how to acquire large ships again. As he was thinking, the ship soon arrived at Old Wanjin, where someone was already waiting for him at the pier.
