Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 154 His Highness Nohara
With Oda Nobunaga's earnest instructions, Niwa Nagahide and Maeda Toshiie set out immediately, bought gifts separately, and each took their retainers to meet up at Wanjin. They first inspected the place and made arrangements, then took a Guan ship from the pier and headed south along the coastline, looking for wilderness.

The voyage was boring, and the two had nothing to do, so they just sat in the main arrow cabin. Maeda Toshiie still hasn't realized that Nohara, a guy who had nothing in his hands and shamelessly opened a "black clinic" in the villagers' homes, was able to marry the princess in less than three years. From now on, if others are polite, they can call him "Nohara".

This is an upgrade speed as fast as a rocket. It can be incorporated into various drama stories and sung for hundreds of years.

He pondered for a while, but couldn't figure it out, so he asked Niwa Nagahide, who was sitting with his eyes closed, "Master Niwa, what's going on? Why... why did the lord suddenly plan to marry Princess Inu to Master Saburo?"

If possible, he also wanted to marry a princess from the Oda family. After all, the princesses of the Oda family were all very beautiful.

Niwa Nagahide was having a headache, unsure if he could complete the task. He opened his eyes and sighed, "It's all because of the gunpowder!"

His main work was in internal affairs and logistics. Unlike Maeda Toshiie, who was mainly responsible for fighting and killing, he knew the inside story very well. When Hara had rented the land in Manzu before, it was agreed at the beginning that he had to pay more than 2,000 kilograms of saltpeter a year. Then, within a few months, he paid several hundred kilograms of saltpeter to the Furuno Castle. Oda Nobunaga felt that it was too troublesome to only take saltpeter, so he changed the annual tribute of Manzu to 3,000 kilograms of gunpowder a year.

If you don't hand over enough gunpowder, he will take back the territory. He said this himself, maybe it was a joke, maybe not.

After there was enough gunpowder and he had no worries, Oda Nobunaga continued to train arquebus foot soldiers and expand the "Oda arquebus team". Whenever there was a shortage of gunpowder, such as when the gunpowder was used up after the battle of Anshoku Shinganji, he would immediately ask Niwa Nagahide to replenish it. Niwa Nagahide could only continue to search everywhere, sending people to scrape manure pits and look for saltpeter in the mountains, sending people to Sakai town to look for "imported smuggled saltpeter" and begging wealthy merchants to sell some, and sending bugyo to Wanjin to buy it - after all, Wanjin was on their own territory, and under the banner of Oda Nobunaga, they had to sell it even if they didn't want to. They were much easier to talk to than those wealthy merchants in Sakai town who looked down on others, and the price would be much cheaper.

Therefore, Wanjin has actually become an important gunpowder supplier for Oda Danjotada's family, providing more than 60% of the gunpowder needed by Oda Danjotada's family in one year.

But this also consumed a lot of the wealth accumulated by Oda Danmata. After all, during this period, saltpeter was really too expensive, and Oda Nobunaga was fighting endless wars, which was like burning money. Niwa Nagahide suspected that if Yuanye did not run away, Oda Nobunaga would find a reason to take away the saltpeter production process sooner or later, so that Oda Danmata's saltpeter could be self-sufficient and save a huge amount of expenses every year.

Of course, given Oda Nobunaga's generous character, he would most likely not treat Harano unfairly. He might even marry a sister to him and make him a member of Oda Danjotada's family to compensate for his losses.

It’s just that Yuanye ran so smoothly and efficiently that there’s no need to mention all these.

In addition, there was another reason besides the gunpowder supply.

It should be beyond Oda Nobunaga's expectation that Harano suddenly became so powerful that even the Imagawa family could not defeat him. If Harano could cross the sea from Aichi County to attack Chita County and forcibly gain a foothold today, would he be able to counterattack Aichi County from Chita County tomorrow and successfully gain a foothold?
No one can say for sure, no one can guarantee it!
Especially since he had reached a peace agreement with the Imagawa family, but the specific terms were unknown. If he became the vanguard of the Imagawa family's surprise attack on the Oda Danjotada family, and could penetrate into the heartland of the Oda Danjotada family at any time and hold their ground, or even stab the Shirakawaguchi defense line in the back, then the problem would not be as simple as a lack of gunpowder, and the Danjotada family would be at risk of destruction at any time.

From this point of view, even Niwa Nagahide agreed to marry a princess to Yuanye. After all, keeping a princess at home would only be a waste of money, and she should play some practical role.

Maeda Toshiie didn't understand all this. He was only eighteen or nineteen years old. In modern times, he would be qualified to be called a "baby" at this age. He also lacked experience and had a relatively simple mind. He had never thought about this. Niwa Nagahide explained his guesses to him as best he could - he only mentioned that Arano supplied a large amount of gunpowder. Danjo Tadaya didn't want to lose such an "excellent arms supplier" and said that if Arano was gone, Danjo Tadaya would have to spend an extra 10,000 or 20,000 kan on purchasing gunpowder every year.

Even with so much money, it was not possible to buy enough gunpowder, because behind the wealthy merchants in Sakaimachi who could communicate with overseas were major temples. For example, the largest merchants had close ties with Ishiyama Honganji. Oda Nobunaga was implementing the "Rakuza" policy and would soon go a step further in Kiyosu Castle and implement the "Rakuto Rakuza" policy, gradually abolishing the industrial and commercial privileges of the temple families in the four counties under Owari.

This caused widespread vigilance and disgust among the monks. Those wealthy merchants relied on the monopoly of the temples, so naturally they would not give Oda Nobunaga a good face. If they wanted to buy large quantities of gunpowder, they had to either pay a high premium or bow their heads first.

In history, Oda Nobunaga did bow his head. In order to realize his idea of forming a battalion of iron cannon foot soldiers, after receiving an official position in Kyoto, he went to Sakai-machi in frustration and became a disciple of a wealthy merchant as his tea ceremony teacher. He also stopped promoting the "Rakuto Rakuza" policy for a long time until he burned down Mount Hiei, the sacred site of the temple family, and began to attack Ishiyama Honganji, which delayed the policy for more than ten years.

But now with Yuanye's involvement, the situation has changed. Oda Nobunaga is very tough and has no intention of bowing his head from beginning to end. Forget about it if he wants to come to see him in person. Now he would rather marry his sister to the emperor than to try to persuade the merchants to surrender. He is just angry at Yuanye, not hateful. Compared with the temples and merchants who laughed at him from a distance, calling him a country bumpkin and trying to force him to stop the "Rakuza" policy, he still hates those monks and merchants more and vows to punish them sooner or later.

"So that's it!" Maeda Toshiie finally realized that Aragaki had run away, causing the Oda Danmata family to lose a lot of money, and it was also related to the expansion of his master's power and personal dignity. He now began to think that the princess should be married off. Ten or twenty thousand strings of money were close to three times the annual income of the Aragaki Maeda family. It was completely worth using a princess to recover the loss. Princesses were not rare in the Japanese Warring States Period. At present, there are more than 3,580 princesses at the beginning of the Warring States Period. If you publicly auction one, it may not be able to sell for 10,000 strings of Yongle money.

Niwa Nagahide sighed slowly, still worried about whether Harano would be willing to marry him. After all, Harano seemed to be the same kind of person as Oda Nobunaga. Both of them had some problems with their brains, and they did things beyond other people's expectations. They also liked to be arbitrary and act on their own accord. It was really hard to say whether they would be willing to become relatives.

He closed his eyes again, put aside his worries and sorrows, and began to rest.

The main reason was that he felt a little seasick. He was too young, had seldom gone out, and was not used to traveling by sea. The more worried he became, the more he wanted to vomit.

…………

Yuanye was still unaware that Oda Nobunaga was planning to treat him as his brother-in-law, and was still worried that Oda Nobunaga would go crazy and come after him to settle the score. After all, in his mind, Oda Nobunaga was similar to Aman, a guy who acted on his whim and it was not surprising that he would do anything.

In the ten days after the Imagawa family evacuated, he reorganized the team and prepared for a small-scale raid at sea. He also personally led people to collect the remains of the dead in battle and built a public cemetery on the north mountain. Aman personally played the role of "little monk" and held a grand burial ceremony. He also publicly announced generous pension conditions to appease people's hearts. Aman is proficient in the "art of staying alive" and can play Buddhist roles such as "the monk of nothingness". Currently, she is the only one in the territory who can recite "The Sutra of the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva". Without her, the funeral cannot be held.

Afterwards, Yuanye took the lead himself, led the way, dug the ground and cut trees, and began to work hard to build the new territory in an attempt to quickly restore strength. Now he believes the legend that Mori Motonari only ate half a bowl of bean rice a day and went to the fields to farm. It is estimated that Mori Motonari was also beaten badly at that time and had to take the lead in working to boost morale, just like he is now.

By the way, he named this nameless wilderness "Xin Wanjin", which means "the new home of Wanjin people".

His naming ability was a bit poor, but he was the leader of the territory and no one dared to object to him. Except for Aman muttering a few times, the name was officially decided.

In Xinwanjin, everything had to be started from scratch. Now, apart from fortifications, there was not even a decent house. But Yuanye did not regret it. He managed it carefully and worked hard, doing everything from building houses to reclaiming fields.

His subjects were also very cooperative. Perhaps the working people had strong endurance. As long as they could still have food to eat, even if they could only make a living, they would not think about rebelling or overthrowing their superiors. They did not care at all that Yuanye insisted on his own way and got them into this situation.

On the contrary, because Yuanye had owed a lot of debts in the past (starting from Takeuchi-sho), this "Battle of Shinwanjin" promised him many rewards for military merits. In addition, this territory already truly belonged to him, and he was eligible to distribute the houses that had been built and the fields that had been reclaimed. It was very likely that he would redeem the debts and rewards and let the land fall into the hands of the people. A large part of the land was even top-quality land that had been exempted from rent and labor service for many years, so the collective burst out with great enthusiasm for construction.

After all, nothing is more reassuring than farmland these days. Even if the workshop workers used to eat in the canteen every day and never went hungry, they still hope to have a piece of land at home to grow crops. It doesn't matter what they grow, it's best to have a piece of land at home. In this way, men can continue to work in the workshop to earn money, and the elderly, women and children at home can grow crops and vegetables. They think this is perfect and reassuring.

Yuanye did intend to compensate the subjects and soldiers for their efforts. After all, they had proven their loyalty, and loyalty should always be rewarded.

During these ten days, Yuanye was also worried about this matter. He led people to work during the day and planned personally at night. It was not much easier than before the war. He lost a little weight and had two dark circles under his eyes. At first glance, it looked like the Pandaren had walked into the wrong portal and inexplicably came to the Japanese Archipelago.

The only good news is that although he is tired, he is no longer anxious, the psychological pressure is not as great, and he no longer loses hair in clumps. The most tragic situation probably will not happen, and he will not become bald and strong at a young age.

He was in a good mood because he was able to keep his hair, until he heard news from the port that a Guan ship flying the "Five Papaya Flags" was circling at the entrance of the bay.

(End of this chapter)