Chapter 237: Underestimating the Heroes of The World!
“This Lord Yuan Ye is actually alright; he’s not as unbearable as the rumors suggest.”
After leaving Matsukura Castle, having drunk a bellyful of Wanjin’s specialty fruit wine and taro shochu, Maeno Nagayasu, already six or seven parts drunk, couldn’t help but comment on Yuan Ye, feeling that he wasn’t the greedy, lustful, despicable, shameless, capricious, and tyrannical “eccentric” that the Owari local lords’ evaluations suggested there were some issues with.
Conversely, Yuan Ye, as Oda Nobunaga’s most valued brother-in-law, a steadfast ally of the Oda Danjō no Chū lineage, a minor daimyo ruling the Chita Peninsula, and a wealthy castle lord, could speak gently and treat them, these grassroots samurai, with courtesy and personally offer them drinks. This could be considered a sign of a very good character, possessing the demeanor of ancient sages.
“The world is full of mediocre people; rumors are inherently unreliable!”
Nakamura Mikurō, having achieved his objective, now had a rather good impression of Yuan Ye and echoed Maeno Nagayasu’s sentiment.
Yuan Ye was unconventional. Two or three years ago, he had acted as if he had gone mad, forcibly expelling all warrior families from the Chita Peninsula, killing many famous samurai of Owari, and demolishing seven or eight shrines and three or four temples of various sizes. To this day, he had not apologized or admitted fault, causing his reputation in the Owari area to deteriorate further, almost making him a public enemy of the Owari local lords.
It was only because his army was strong and he had an alliance with Oda Nobunaga that ordinary people couldn’t deal with him. Otherwise, someone might have already rallied thousands of people to cause him trouble.
Mikurō’s situation wasn’t much better. Anyone with eyes could guess what Oda Nobunaga intended to use him for. The Owari local lords were quite wary of him. Even with Oda Nobunaga present, they dared not do anything to him in secret, but during private encounters, sarcastic remarks were unavoidable.
Especially the heads of the great families like Shibata Katsuie and Sassa Narimasa, who would occasionally cause him trouble. Either they would put someone forward to compete with him for opportunities to prove themselves, or they would secretly sabotage him while he was carrying out his duties, leaving him in a sorry state.
The methods were varied, leaving him with no recourse.
In fact, Oda Nobunaga sent him to the Kiso River area in advance and entrusted him with the Kawana Group as his support because, during the siege of Inuyama Castle, due to the lack of cooperation from his subordinates, he made a major blunder while defending Miyagoshi Outpost, inexplicably allowing over a hundred Mino reinforcements to enter Inuyama Castle, nearly leading to him being held accountable to the point of having to commit seppuku.
It wasn’t that he didn’t try hard or wasn’t diligent during his defense; it was that he genuinely couldn’t distinguish which of his subordinates belonged to the Owari local lords. Or rather, anyone operating in Owari, regardless of their background, had some connection to the Owari local lords, making it impossible to guard against.
Therefore, he understood Yuan Ye’s bad reputation very well. After all, he was “Yuan Ye’s second,” and his reputation among the Owari local lords wasn’t good either, even worse than Yuan Ye’s. At least Yuan Ye was over 1.8 meters tall, had fair skin, neat teeth, and a handsome appearance, clearly indicating noble birth. No one attacked his lineage or gave him a nickname like “country rat.”
In short, regarding Yuan Ye, the Owari local lords thought he was mentally ill, that as an outsider he showed no respect to the Owari local lords, and that his actions were too unrestrained. They disliked him with a hint of fear. As for him, it was outright contempt; looking at him for an extra moment felt disgusting, like wanting to cover one’s nose.
Nakamura Mikurō defended Yuan Ye with a few words, then thought about his own situation, feeling a sense of shared destiny. He felt that in the future, he could get closer to Yuan Ye, after all…
They were both unfortunate souls, essentially the same kind of people, and served a similar purpose: tools for Oda Nobunaga to balance, restrain, and stimulate the Owari local lords into obedience.
However, Yuan Ye had made a desperate gamble nearly three years ago, forcibly seizing the Chita Peninsula, and had successfully weathered two consecutive years of famine without collapsing. His foundation was now established, and he could now exert his influence. But he, Mikurō, had stumbled through these three years, achieving nothing.
This time, instigating the local lords in the Kiso River area was probably his last chance to earn merit. If he failed again, and Oda Nobunaga became disappointed, then he…
Back then, Oda Nobunaga had the highest hopes for Hiyoshi Maru, the “Head of the Horse Department,” and was even preparing to give him an opportunity to earn merit. However, Shibata Katsuie and others had already detected this early on and secretly assassinated Hiyoshi Maru.
If he failed again, his fate would be the same as that senior Hiyoshi Maru: to be silently killed by people like Shibata Katsuie and Sassa Narimasa, using his tragic end as a warning to others about the consequences of opposing the local lords.
He absolutely could not let this happen; he had to distinguish himself and become a lord of a castle and a province!
Upon thinking this, Nakamura Mikurō’s good mood vanished, and a sense of urgency surged back into him. He wished he could immediately fly to the stronghold of the Kawana Group and prepare warships to begin his operations. He had two tasks: instigating the local lords in the Kiso River area was one, and he also had to build a bridge over the Kiso River to facilitate troop supply after crossing. However, building the bridge didn’t require Yuan Ye’s help, so he hadn’t mentioned it.
He hurried back to his temporary camp with his new subordinates. After much persuasion and encouragement, he managed to get the former river pirates, who were full and unwilling to move, back on the road.
He too would have to make a desperate gamble, learning from Yuan Ye. This mission, if it failed, he would die trying. He was determined to obtain his own fief!
…………
Two days later, he returned with the former “Kawana Group,” now the “Oda Inland River Navy,” numbering over five hundred men and more than sixty ships of various sizes.
They were all inland river vessels, none of them large. The largest ships could carry only twenty to thirty people, while some small boats were essentially household fishing boats that would sink with just three to five people. Moreover, regardless of size, all ships were primarily designed for boarding combat, with virtually no additional protection or firing points. After all, the Kawana Group had only robbed scattered traveling merchants on the Kiso River and Nagara River in the past, so they had no need for large-scale frontal engagements.
This was the full strength of Owari’s renowned river pirates, the “Kawana Group.” Sixty-odd ships flowing downstream, placed on the river channel, would certainly make an imposing sight, regardless of their combat effectiveness.
Nakamura Mikurō commanded the inland river navy to stop near Matsukura Castle. Soon, his subordinate, who had been sent ahead, returned with a report: “Lord, Lord Yuan Ye says they can cross the river themselves and only require us to provide cover.”
“They don’t need our help?”
Nakamura Mikurō was slightly surprised. He hadn’t seen any Wanjin navy arrive earlier. He had originally planned to use the Kawana Group’s ships to transport the Wanjin army across the river first, but Yuan Ye didn’t need it?
He was momentarily bewildered. How would the Wanjin army cross the river? And how would they exert pressure on the Igi family and Osawa family if they didn’t cross?
Could it be that he was being blamed for not personally inviting them?
While he was on the ship, filled with suspicion, he suddenly noticed the Wanjin army moving. A large number of soldiers poured out of the city and began to gather along the riverbank. They moved with extreme speed yet were remarkably orderly, as if they had practiced hundreds of times. Before the gathering was complete, a group of soldiers in leather armor had already begun driving piles along the riverbank, and other soldiers were using foot-operated blowers to inflate oxhide rafts. Once inflated, they were quickly rowed towards the opposite bank, pulled by chains and ropes.
Overall, the leather-armored soldiers working were also very fast and possessed a unique aesthetic of having practiced dozens or hundreds of times. Furthermore, both the leather-armored soldiers working and the rapidly gathering soldiers in black lacquered armor remained silent. If one excluded the “clang” of pile driving and the occasional bamboo whistle commands, it was like a unique silent play, subtly chilling the heart.
Nakamura Mikurō, standing on the ship, was momentarily stunned. However, the Wanjin army clearly didn’t want them to be idle. Soon, a low-ranking officer with a gourd flag on his back rode over. Without politeness, he shouted sternly from a distance, “His Highness orders you to deploy on the north bank. Obey immediately!”
“Uh, alright!” Nakamura Mikurō snapped back to reality. Yuan Ye clearly didn’t want his subordinates to cross the river in their various ships in a chaotic manner; he wanted to build his own bridge. So, let him have his way; he couldn’t control Yuan Ye anyway.
He immediately ordered the Kawana Group’s ships to dock on the north bank and form ranks, to prevent surprise attacks by small enemy units from Mino that could harm the Wanjin engineers driving piles during the initial crossing.
In reality, they weren’t needed much. After the Wanjin engineers pulled the ropes and chains, the vanguard of the Wanjin army had already crossed on rafts and established defensive positions. It was likely that they were asked to come over first to prevent the Kawana Group from causing chaos by moving around randomly in the river.
In fact, the initiative for this operation had inexplicably shifted to the Wanjin army. Nakamura Mikurō and his over five hundred men became mere spectators, with nothing to do.
However, in this era, might made right. Yuan Ye’s status and position were far higher than Mikurō’s. Nakamura Mikurō, Maeno Nagayasu, Hashiba Masakatsu, and others had no objections. It was just that Maeno Nagayasu, watching this scene, hesitated and said, “Is this going to be enough time? Should we, as previously agreed, connect our ships now to form a pontoon bridge for Lord Yuan Ye to use?”
They had a plan to connect these sixty-odd ships into a pontoon bridge, which Mikurō had proposed. However, it wasn’t for the initial phase of the operation but after they had dealt with Ikuyama Castle and Unuma Castle.
Otherwise, if the Mino forces refused to surrender and decided to fight them head-on, and they lost, but had already connected their ships, they would have nowhere to run.
As a result, Yuan Ye wanted to build a bridge over the Kiso River from the start. Would there be enough time?
When Igi Seihei and Osawa Masahide organized their troops and led their armies, they would have at least three to five thousand men. How long could they, with their over five hundred unarmored soldiers and the hundred-plus Wanjin soldiers who crossed on rafts, hold them off?
Fighting with their backs to the river wouldn’t be easy either. With no retreat route behind them, panic would set in, and there would be no room for maneuver. No matter how they thought about it, there was no chance of victory!
“Wait, that’s not right, the Yuan Ye Family’s people are so fast…”
Nakamura Mikurō, Maeno Nagayasu, and others hadn’t yet decided whether to connect their ships early to form a pontoon bridge, lest Yuan Ye make a fuss. But Hashiba Masakatsu, who had rarely spoken, quickly noticed something unusual. These leather-armored soldiers of the Yuan Ye Family seemed to be specially trained. With their tools and construction materials, they were already prepared.
They used rafts to pull the ropes, then pulled the ropes back, attached pulleys to both ends, and were already easily transporting prefabricated piles, beams, crossbeams, and planks to the opposite bank, beginning to horizontally install the first layer of cantilever beams from the pier towards the center of the river.
One end of the cantilever beam was inserted into the reserved hole of the pier and secured with nails, while the other end extended out into the air.
Below each layer of cantilever beams, supporting diagonal beams were installed diagonally, with one end resting on the cantilever beam and the other fixed to the supporting structure below, forming a triangular support system.
Thus, layer by layer from both banks, guided by iron cables, they advanced towards the center, with the tensioned iron cables providing auxiliary support. There was no need to spend time and effort building bridge piers in the river. Even before the bridge was completed, its outline was already discernible—a suspension bridge made of iron cables, nearly two meters above the river.
Moreover, the construction speed was extremely fast. All the cantilever beams, crossbeams, and diagonal beams were prefabricated with pre-drilled holes. Once inserted and reinforced with nails, and with the tensioned iron cables providing pre-support, agile soldiers could attach ropes and hang from the iron cables to work in sections. They watched blankly for a while, and one-third of the bridge was already taking shape.
Nakamura Mikurō, Maeno Nagayasu, and Hashiba Masakatsu finally understood the difference between regular troops and irregular forces. It wasn’t just in armor and weapons, but more so in training. If these leather-armored engineers were building this kind of bridge for the first time, it was impossible. They had likely built and dismantled, dismantled and rebuilt, countless times, and perhaps each step had been repeatedly improved. Otherwise, such astonishing speed would be impossible.
Of course, the cost must have been considerable. Just looking at the prefabricated lumber and specialized tools of various types that were already prepared, they wouldn’t doubt it if someone said Yuan Ye had spent tens of thousands of koku on these people.
Yuan Ye was also satisfied with the speed of the Wanjin engineers, even somewhat surprised himself.
Although this was a subject he had requested, he was too busy with various matters, constantly devising schemes or launching expeditions, and couldn’t keep a close eye on the training of any single unit. He truly didn’t expect the Wanjin engineers to have evolved to this extent on their own; they likely had a lot of internal competition.
Perhaps it was due to troop reductions during the famine? Those who didn’t compete or performed poorly were transferred to become security officers or militia training officers?
Competitive selection indeed had its benefits. In the future, he would have to periodically reduce the ranks and weed out those unwilling to advance, so as not to let the army develop a complacent mindset.
Of course, this was also because the Wanjin army’s benefits and treatment were good enough that many people didn’t want to lose this respectable and well-paid job. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so competitive.
“Good. I will record this for the engineering officers. The selection of model workers among the engineers this year will be doubled, and individual rewards will be exceptionally generous.” Yuan Ye gave the order. Such subordinates who worked diligently must, of course, be recognized and given tangible benefits to encourage them to continue competing with themselves and become increasingly excellent.
Engineers were still very important, especially in medieval Japan, and even more so.
In this era, there were local lords everywhere. Every local clan acted as a king in their own village. Oda Nobunaga, Imagawa Yoshimoto, and many other daimyo strongly disliked this and wanted to consolidate all local ruling power into their own hands. However, they were unable to do so, primarily due to geographical limitations.
Japan is an island nation with many mountains and rivers. It was normal to encounter a mountain every three miles and a river every ten miles. Conquering such naturally divided terrain was extremely difficult, especially with the transportation conditions of this era. You would walk a short distance and encounter a river with no crossing point, or walk a short distance and encounter a wetland or muddy area; sometimes, there was simply no solution.
An army is different from an individual. It was not easy for an army to cross a river. Sometimes, a small river could block an army for three to five days, which was very normal and could easily lead to supply shortages, causing the army to collapse as it marched.
The method adopted by the Japanese armies of the Warring States period was to push forward relentlessly, plundering wherever they went. They would seize rice from villages, grains, and even chickens, otherwise, supplies would be insufficient. More importantly, with so many “natural barriers” behind them, if they lost a battle, it would be difficult to escape and minimize losses.
There were precedents for this. Oda Nobuhide, the “Tiger of Owari,” led tens of thousands of men to attack Inabayama Castle. He was unexpectedly defeated by Saito Dosan and was pursued all the way to the river. However, there was no bridge, and seven to eight thousand men scrambled for a few dozen boats, resulting in over a thousand deaths on the spot—more than had died in frontal combat!
Yuan Ye’s refusal to cross the river by boat was for this very reason; he didn’t want to follow Oda Nobuhide’s path.
There were no guaranteed victories in this world. Before victory, one must consider defeat. Even if the Wanjin army was strong enough, they had to ensure their rear was clear and that there was a retreat route even if the battle was lost. Therefore, he insisted on building a bridge before leading his army across.
Fighting with one’s back to the river, launching a desperate counterattack, and achieving a great victory were things to be enjoyed in novels. If any of his officers dared to do so, he would be the first to send them to a military court, and if their execution took less than five minutes, it would be his fault.
Such people deserved to be executed without question.
Perhaps, a person like him could not become a famous general. He preferred the saying, “A good strategist does not achieve conspicuous victories,” believing this to be the true path of warfare.
Steady progress, no need for unnecessary risks, finding ways to weaken the enemy, continuously training oneself, only fighting battles with a high probability of success, and even if temporarily defeated, not suffering fatal damage.
Having served as the commander of the Wanjin army for so many years, he had developed his own tactical guiding principles. It might also be a lingering effect from the times he was forced to fight desperately during his early struggles. Under these guiding principles, the Wanjin army had not disappointed him, becoming increasingly efficient.
A little over an hour later, the wooden plank suspension bridge made of iron cables spanning the Kiso River was completed. The piercing sound of bamboo whistles echoed, and two thousand Wanjin soldiers crossed in orderly fashion, their morale high and fearless.
Construction continued. According to the plan, the Wanjin engineers still needed to build two more suspension bridges and a simple defensive position to protect the area, allowing the Wanjin army to quickly retreat to the south bank.
Nakamura Mikurō, Maeno Nagayasu, and others were completely stunned, and Hashiba Masakatsu’s expression was also somewhat grim.
Understanding the implications, he used the Wanjin army as a hypothetical enemy. Just by watching them cross the river in an orderly fashion, he felt they would be very difficult to deal with. Without a numerical advantage of two to three times, they couldn’t make them unable to attend to both ends and lose sight of one while attending to the other. He didn’t even have the courage to engage them in battle.
He had underestimated the heroes of the world. He hadn’t expected such a figure to be hidden in Owari!
