Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 14 Aman
Ah Man felt that he had a very comfortable and long sleep, warm and peaceful, just like returning to his mother's arms. When Youyou woke up, he saw that the dust in the house was dyed golden, and it seemed that it was already dusk.

The afterglow of the setting sun shone obliquely on her little face, making her body limp and her head dazed. For a moment she didn't know where she was. In a trance, a familiar male voice came from beside her: "Are you awake?"

A'man suddenly remembered the bad experience of last night and was about to jump up with a somersault, but a pain in her waist and hips made her control her impulse immediately. She tilted her head to observe the environment and slightly moved her hands and feet.

This seemed to be the main house that I rushed into last night. My hands and feet were not bound, but...

She looked down at the strange mat covering her body (a thin quilt that Yayoi's mother had just made today; she had asked a group of women to sew it together, and it was very efficient). One of her hands was wrapped in a white gauze that she had never seen before, which was very soft and smelled of medicine - her hand was injured by electric shock and a piece of skin was burned.

The clothes also seem...

She lifted the quilt and took a peek inside. She instantly flew into a rage and shouted at Yuan Ye: "Asshole, how dare you...how dare you..."

She was just dressed as a boy and was actually a little girl. Now that her clothes have been changed, there is serious doubt about her innocence.

These warriors and nobles are all very perverted. She has been traveling around the world for many years and knows this very well!
Yuanye was fiddling with a bunch of small things he had searched from her at the table, and said casually, "Don't worry, the clothes are from Yayoi... um, the daughter of this family helped you change them. Your previous clothes are already smelly, so you have to change them."

It was indeed Yayoi who helped her change her clothes, but before she changed her clothes, he had already discovered the wrong gender during the body search, and the other person's shrill voice was not entirely because it was a child.

Of course, in order to avoid further irritating her, let’s not mention these things and just pretend they never happened!
Ah Man calmed down slowly, looked at Yuan Ye and asked, "You don't plan to kill me anymore?"

"No one is going to kill you, why are you in such a hurry to escape!" Yuanye really had no such plan, especially after reviewing the situation at that time, he became more and more certain that the three people were not in the same group - the two river pirates' action pattern was to sneak in to steal, and at most cut his neck by the way, while Aman rushed in without hesitation, probably wanting to quickly complete the backstab and knock down the two river pirates first, and didn't care whether it would wake him up.

Considering her expression and tone when she shouted, and the meaning revealed when she played the pipa before, her words are still quite credible. At least the logic is self-consistent and she can make sense of it.

"I don't want to hand my life over to others, and I don't need a fool to spare my life..." Ah Man said halfway through, and then stopped talking, mainly because she didn't run away. If she had managed to escape, she would have laughed at Yuan Ye for not killing her immediately after catching her, and letting her scream and twist on the ground, and secretly cutting the rope. What a big fool, even worse than a dung beetle.

but……

She turned to ask curiously: "How dare you believe that I'm not a river pirate? What if I lied?"

"Because you are a ninja!" Yuanye searched her body and found two fire starters, a bamboo whistle, a thin bamboo oil bottle, a kunai (meaning not hard, a primitive wilderness survival tool, it is said that as long as you have a "kunai", you can survive anywhere without any hardship), a stone trip wire, a piece of iron sheet shaped like a blade with a very sharp edge, a dried flat urine bladder of an unknown animal, a bag of quicklime powder, and a small bag of black gunpowder.

Her clothes were specially made, and although they were tattered, they were full of things. Even Yuanye was shocked to find so many odds and ends, and seriously suspected that she was a little ninja. This was also the biggest reason why he moved her indoors and spent a lot of money to treat her injuries - it was said that ninjas were generally more informed, and he was currently lacking systematic information about the times.

Aman looked confused: "Ninja? What the hell is ninja?"

The image of ninja in later Japan is an artistic creation of the Edo period. The so-called "ninja" described in various storybooks is more like the "jianghu people" in Chinese martial arts novels. They have similar character prototypes, but the degree of mythologization is serious and they are very far from reality.

Yuanye knew something about this, but he was not sure how to call these people in the early Warring States period. He hoped that the pronunciation of the word "ninja", which was coined in the Edo period, could be understood by Aman, but unfortunately it was not the case.

He asked directly: "Then who are you?"

A-man hesitated for a moment, but then he realized that he had already been captured and the other party had given him decent treatment, so he told the truth, "I am A-man from the Koga clan."

"Koga clan? Are you from Koga?" Yuanye was a little surprised. He thought Aman was a local "ninja", but he didn't expect that he was an imported product, and even a high-end imported product that was quite famous in later generations.

Aman didn't understand why he was surprised, he scratched his face and told the truth: "Uh... I'm not from Koga, I've never been to Koga, but my grandfather is from Koga, so I... should be considered a member of the Koga tribe, right?" "Then what do you Koga tribe usually do, and who is your leader?" Yuanye continued to interrogate.

Ah Man was a little surprised and couldn't help asking, "You haven't heard of us, the Koga clan? We shouldn't be so unknown in Owari, right? We come here quite often!"

"I'm asking you now!"

"Okay, okay!" This was no secret, because it was not worth getting beaten up by Yuanye for this kind of thing, so Aman said honestly, "We don't have a leader, at least we don't have a recognized leader, we are all small gangs.

Take our branch for example. When I was a child... before I could remember anything, the Rokkaku family and the Asai family were at war, and our village was destroyed. My grandfather picked me up and took me with him to wander around. He and his fellow villagers - my grandfather was from Kamikoga Jiangnan. He and his fellow villagers from Jiangnan were hired to help people gather information, occasionally set fires, and spread rumors.

The same is true for other Koga clans, where people from the same hometown gather together. For example, Mizuguchi, Kosai, Ishibe, Shigaraki, and Tsuchiyama all have one or several groups of people. Some have good relationships, and some have bad relationships. So our Koga clan is just such a loose organization!"

After she finished speaking, she couldn't help but start to complain, "In fact, in my opinion, they are just a bunch of losers! Except for a few who have some skills, the others are either singing, storytelling, begging, or performing puppet shows. There are also some messy peddlers who have no food to eat and wander around every day. Mountain bandits and river pirates are too lazy to rob them. They are just a bunch of old guys who are worse than shit. Even dogs despise them. It's completely unnecessary for you to ask these questions!"

Yuanye:......

However, this may be true. The so-called "all the ninjas in the world come from Ryoga" refers to Koga County and Iga Province.

It is said that the soil in these two unfortunate places is extremely poor, it is all mountainous + colloid soil. It is not easy to make a living by farming. The whole family will starve if there is a little natural disaster or man-made disaster, so they are accustomed to going out to perform to make a living.

At the same time, these two places have a strong martial spirit. In addition, poor people are generally not afraid of death. They are excellent sources of soldiers in the Warring States Period. In the late Warring States Period, daimyos from all over the country formed many "special operations forces", most of which were recruited from Koga and Iga.

These combined are probably the prototype of the Japanese "Ninja" in later generations.

Yuanye thought about it and asked Aman, "So, you went to that Gunye City for a mission? Who hired you?"

"The viper of Mino." Ah Man had no professional ethics and sold out his employer directly. He also said maliciously, "He wants to know the defense situation of Katsubata Castle in Kaisai County, Owari, Suemori Castle, Furuto Castle, Nafuno Castle in Kaito County, and Atsuta, Gokisho Castle, and Narumi Castle in Aichi County. Moreover, he is very stingy. He is only willing to give 1,500 mon for so many places. Sooner or later, that rotten old guy will be scratched to death."

The pit viper of Mino?
Is it Saito Dosan, the current ruler of Mino Province? I'm not familiar with the place names, maybe I can consider asking her to help draw a map later...

Yuanye asked, "What is Saito Dosan's intention in finding out about this?"

Ah Man said nonchalantly, "Who knows what he's thinking. I haven't even talked to him, but I heard that the Tiger of Owari is half dead, and the Imagawa and Matsudaira families are ready to make a move. I guess that oil seller wants to see if the Oda family can still hold on and if he can take advantage of them. But it's not surprising. Those big shots are like this. They care about things far away, otherwise they wouldn't be alive today."

Yuanye nodded silently.

It seems that Saito Dosan was born as an oil merchant, and he worked his way up to become the guardian of Mino. He was considered the first "Warring States daimyo" (who came to power on his own, as opposed to the "shugo daimyo" who accepted appointments from the imperial court) in the Warring States period of Japan. But what about the half-dead Tiger of Owari?
Yuanye felt that his treatment of Aman’s injuries was not in vain. At least the information was very useful. He was worthy of being the “original ninja” and was indeed a professional intelligence dealer.

With his historical knowledge, he only knew a little about Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu and others, most of which came from games, anime and Taiga dramas. It was hard to say whether this was correct or not. He urgently needed to have a systematic understanding of this era, so he immediately poured Aman a cup of tea to prevent her from going on strike due to thirst.

Then he smiled and said, "I'm not familiar with Owari Province. I don't quite understand what you said. Please tell me from the beginning, starting from the first year of Tenbun."

(End of this chapter)