Chapter 229: A Private Gathering
Yuan Ye only stayed in Wanjin for a few days before taking Inu-hime and a thousand Wanjin soldiers to Komaki Mountain Castle, located in the village of Komaki in Kasugai District.
This was Oda Nobunaga’s new castle, but it had just been completed and lacked a strong sense of habitation. It was more like a large fortress complex than a castle, with military considerations prioritized, featuring more supply depots and barracks than residences.
Due to his status, Yuan Ye was housed in a branch castle, while Inu-hime was personally escorted into Komaki Mountain Castle by Niwa Nagahide, as if returning home to visit relatives.
Perhaps Oda Nobunaga wanted Inu-hime to meet Ikoma Yoshino, his “true love sister-in-law”?
Yuan Ye couldn’t be bothered to manage so much. He prepared some specialties from the Kanto, Northeast, and Hokuriku regions for Inu-hime to take back to her family to save face. He also sent two boxes of Ezo specialties—sea otter pelts—to Oda Nobunaga and Ikoma Yoshino.
These were quite rare in Owari, but practically commonplace in the Ezo region, costing only one or two silver pieces for three or four pelts. They were perfect as gifts, possessing practical value. They could be used to make armor instead of deer hide, or to craft game items that women enjoyed, such as backgammon.
Yuan Ye rested in the branch castle for a day, and the next day Oda Nobunaga invited him for a meeting.
The meeting location was arranged in the wilderness, ostensibly for hunting. However, Oda Nobunaga’s entire family was present—this “entire family” referred to his household at Komaki Mountain Castle, meaning Ikoma Yoshino and her second son and youngest daughter.
Well, Oda Nobunaga had given his eldest son, born to Ikoma Yoshino, to Nohime as a gift to foster goodwill. The child was now Nohime’s and resided in Kiyosu Castle.
After Yuan Ye and A Qing entered the tent, they saw Oda Nobunaga enjoying family time, personally holding his daughter and dipping chopsticks in rice porridge for her to suck.
Fortunately, it wasn’t alcohol. Forcing a child to drink alcohol was something Oda Nobunaga was definitely capable of.
However, this was still a rare sight.
In this era, men held high status and did not care for children; all responsibility fell to women. Oda Nobunaga’s ability to play with his child was considered unconventional for the time. Even if he had fed the child alcohol, he would likely have earned the title of “good father.”
Of course, it was also possible that he would be seen as weak-willed. Doting on children was not a shining quality for a Local Lord in this era.
Oda Nobunaga saw Yuan Ye arrive and didn’t stand on ceremony. This wasn’t a formal occasion, and he had always been unconventional, disliking excessive formalities. He simply shifted his body, gesturing for Yuan Ye to sit himself, and then, in a good mood, showed him his daughter in his arms, saying with a smile, “What a pity. We could have been related by marriage, but now you have no chance.”
He already had six or seven children, and Yuan Ye, though only two or three years older, had none. Judging by his smile, he had likely won a victory.
He also suspected Yuan Ye might be infertile and had been considering whether to give him a son as an adopted heir to ensure the stability of Chita District in the future. He had just welcomed another illegitimate son this year and was troubled by where to place him; sending him to the Yuan Ye Family in the future seemed like a good option.
Of course, such matters were inconvenient to bring up now, but he had already sent Ikoma Yoshino to ask Inu-hime about the situation. After all, Wanjin’s security was always excellent, and he couldn’t figure out what was truly happening within Yuan Ye’s household, not even knowing how many concubines Yuan Ye had.
He had no choice. As the Daimyo of Owari, he had to consider the stability of his subordinate Local Lords and allies. From the perspective of this era, lacking a clear heir was the greatest source of instability.
From the current strategic perspective of the Oda Family, their long-term focus would be on the north of Owari. He would be the last person to want chaos in the south, and he was even worried about Yuan Ye suddenly dying.
Yuan Ye hadn’t thought that far ahead. He wasn’t even thirty yet; why rush to have children? Besides, his previous circumstances didn’t allow it. Inu-hime and A Qing were too young, and he truly couldn’t bring himself to do it.
That wasn’t just an old cow eating young grass; it was an old cow chewing on grass seeds!
He couldn’t be bothered with Oda Nobunaga’s nonsensical ramblings. He glanced at the daughter in Oda Nobunaga’s arms, smiled gently at her, and asked Oda Nobunaga, “This is Gotoku, isn’t it?”
Gotoku Hime, Oda Nobunaga’s most beloved daughter, but her name…
Gotoku had nothing to do with virtues like “benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness.” It referred to a portable cooking utensil, specifically the iron stand with five legs beneath a kettle. One could only say that Oda Nobunaga named his children quite casually.
This wasn’t unusual. Oda Nobunaga had often done this before. For example, his illegitimate second son was previously named “Maki Honmaru” (Scroll Book), reportedly because when the child was born, he was looking at a ledger and casually gave the child the nickname “Maki”—a method of ancient bookbinding commonly used for ledgers.
However, that child was no longer called that. After Nohime took the child, she found “Maki” too vulgar and unpleasant. She took the character “Ki” from her own former name, “Kichō,” and changed the child’s nickname to “Kimyōmaru.”
There was also “Chasenmaru,” likely named because Oda Nobunaga was attending a tea party at the time. Then there was “Sanshichimaru,” named because the child was born on the seventh day of the third month, but at first hearing, one might mistake it for a topical ointment, which was strange. And then there was Yukihime. This one was passable, sounding like a girl’s name, but Oda Nobunaga certainly hadn’t thought that deeply; he probably just named her casually because it was snowing at the time.
In any case, Oda Nobunaga’s naming convention for children was like this: he paid no attention to anything, just naming the child after whatever he was doing at the moment. Perhaps children were not valued in this era; didn’t every Daimyo have seven or eight children?
Some had dozens. With so many, they became less valuable, and one didn’t need to pay too much attention.
“Of course, it’s Gotoku. Your people are constantly coming and going in Owari; why do you even need to ask?” Oda Nobunaga was in a good mood at this moment, but his words were still sharp, implying disdain for Yuan Ye’s “Life Preservation Style” constantly inquiring about the Oda Family’s affairs.
However, he was just speaking casually. All Daimyo and Local Lords did the same thing; they would become uneasy if they didn’t know their neighbors’ movements. It was just that Yuan Ye’s operation was on a larger scale, with more people sent to Owari, which wasn’t too outrageous.
Of course, the main reason was that he had no intention of plotting against Yuan Ye and didn’t care at all about Yuan Ye observing what the Oda Family was doing.
He directly handed Gotoku to Yuan Ye, letting his “uncle-in-law” hold her. Yuan Ye, taking Gotoku Hime, was momentarily at a loss.
Having lived so long, he had no experience holding a child. Fortunately, Gotoku was just over a year old and could already walk a few steps, so she wasn’t a tiny infant. He didn’t need to worry too much about hurting or crying her, but…
Her soft, small body and innocent, ink-like large eyes momentarily softened Yuan Ye’s mood.
Continuing the bloodline and passing on genes was a human instinct. He had been in this unfortunate era for nearly ten years and saw no hope of returning to the Modern Era. Perhaps he should really consider having a child…
Yuan Ye held Gotoku Hime for a bit. Seeing Gotoku Hime smile at him, he couldn’t help but reach into his clothes and pull out a small nugget of gold for her to play with. It had been acquired during a “Sales Expedition” when someone bought it. Because this natural gold mineral was rare and carried auspicious meanings like warding off evil, it had been presented to him. He wore it as a small ornament and now took it out for the child to play with.
Yuan Ye and Oda Nobunaga played with the child for a while. When Gotoku Hime became sleepy, she was handed over to her wet nurse. It was then that Oda Nobunaga got down to business, inquiring about his previous sales expedition.
Yuan Ye didn’t mind and told him about his experiences along the way, not even bothering to hide the trade with the Imagawa Family and the Hojo Family. After forcefully opening up shipping lanes, securing port docking rights and trade rights for Wanjin merchants along the route, and ensuring they wouldn’t be robbed by water bandits, Wanjin’s reliance on domestic Japanese sea merchants had greatly decreased. Atsuta Port was no longer as important to Wanjin, and he didn’t care if Oda Nobunaga was angry.
Oda Nobunaga indeed had no intention of being angry. Yuan Ye was merely an ally of the Oda Family, not a vassal Local Lord, so he couldn’t control him that much. Furthermore, the Imagawa Family and the Hojo Family were currently only nominal enemies of the Oda Family and had little to do with him. If anyone should protest, it should be Matsudaira Motoyasu.
Besides, due to the alliance, Atsuta Port couldn’t collect much tax from Wanjin; instead, a significant portion of resources was taken by Wanjin. He had long wished for Yuan Ye to leave quickly.
At the same time, Wanjin brought specialties from Kanto, the Northeast, and Hokuriku back and wanted to transfer them to the Kinki and Seto Inland Sea regions. They would inevitably have to pass through him, or Shimazu Port. Water bandits in the Seto Inland Sea had existed for centuries and were not as easy to deal with as the “Kanto barbarians” or “Northeast savages.” Yuan Ye couldn’t possibly have opened up those shipping routes as well.
Oda Nobunaga was more concerned about the situation east of Owari. His main objective now was to eliminate the traitors in Owari and conquer Mino. All his actions revolved around this strategic goal. He hoped that the east of Owari would also remain stable. Upon hearing that things there had also devolved into chaos, he was slightly relieved but also felt a sense of urgency.
Then he began to demand that Yuan Ye fulfill the alliance and assist him in dealing with Inuyama Castle, directly asking to borrow Yuan Ye’s army.
He didn’t ask Yuan Ye to launch an attack; the Oda Family would handle the high-casualty operations themselves. However, he needed Yuan Ye to secure positions and prevent reinforcements from Mino from passing through easily.
Yuan Ye actively bargained with him. Wanjin was now in a state of intensive production, and the population was somewhat insufficient. Grain could barely meet self-sufficiency, and reserves could only guarantee basic safety. Cultivating economic crops like ramie, cotton, mulberry, and indigo plants had become difficult. Traditional skilled craftsmen like carpenters and blacksmiths were also in short supply. There was even a shortage of women; the high mortality rate of women in this era led to a scarcity of marriageable and childbearing-age women, severely impacting Wanjin’s natural population growth. Yuan Ye was secretly instructing the Wanjin Theater to use plays to publicize the harm of early marriage and early childbirth. Once public consensus was formed, he would enforce a determined marriage age.
Therefore, Yuan Ye was willing to help Oda Nobunaga fight wars, as Owari’s stability was also beneficial to Wanjin. However, it couldn’t be for free. Oda Nobunaga had to provide grain, cotton, raw silk, dyes, and high-quality large timber. He also had to allow Yuan Ye to expand Old Wanjin Port so that he could transport supplies to Shimazu Port more quickly.
The two sides haggled from morning until noon, making concessions before barely settling the matter. They then had lunch together. Oda Nobunaga was very interested in the “Large Atake Copper Ship,” praising Yuan Ye’s ingenious ideas and even considering building one himself. Unfortunately, he was currently at war with Inuyama Castle and Mino, making the Large Atakebune ship useless. In the end, he only ordered a small “copper-plated yacht” to serve as his vessel on inland rivers and to show off his wealth.
Time flowed like water. Oda Nobunaga was also approaching thirty. He now sported a small mustache and had matured considerably. Recently, he could be reunited with his “true love,” spending day and night together, greatly reducing his gloomy demeanor and rarely having fits of madness. Yuan Ye had a good exchange with him this time, feeling that he was less difficult to get along with than before.
To be honest, unlike the “Sixth Heavenly Demon King” described in history, Oda Nobunaga was quite a good friend as long as he wasn’t having an episode. He was sharp-witted, open-minded, and not overly particular. Apart from enjoying a drink, he had no major flaws.
After this private gathering, Yuan Ye waited another two days before Matsudaira Motoyasu and Azai Nagamasa arrived.
