Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 161 Wedding
Oda Nobunaga responded promptly to the death of his uncle Oda Nobumitsu.

A few days later, Hara received further news that the assassin Sakai Magohachiro and more than a dozen accomplices who covered him in sneaking into Naguno Castle, attempted to leave the country by boat through Atsuta Port when the land route was blocked and they could not go to Mikawa. However, they were tracked down in time by Oda Nobunaga's ninja unit "Keidanshu".

A fierce battle broke out between the two sides on the streets of Atsuta Port, and Sakai Maguro was killed on the spot by Shinshumaru, which was considered half of the revenge for Oda Nobumitsu.

At the same time, Oda Nobunaga officially announced that he would marry one of his sisters to his cousin Oda Nobunari, and took Aichi as his "adopted daughter" and solemnly introduced her to all the Owari nobles. He also gave her personal treatment ten times better than that of his own sisters, to show his importance to Nobumitsu's family. The relationship may seem a bit messy in the eyes of modern people, but it was very normal in medieval Japan.

These measures have achieved certain results. The voices saying that Oda Nobunaga assassinated Oda Nobumitsu but put the blame on the Kiyosu Oda clan have become a little quieter. People have started to discuss when Nobumitsu's children will meet with misfortune. After all, Oda Nobumitsu made an oath before the gods with his descendants, and theoretically none of his descendants will have a good end.

Yuan Ye watched the drama from across the sea, and seeing this, he was somewhat relieved of a previous doubt - after Oda Nobunaga died, his important ministers began to divide up his inheritance, and the fight for the pretty widow Aichi was particularly fierce. In order to get her, Shibata Katsuie gave in to the monkey in many places. It seemed a bit weird, after all, Oda Nobunaga had a lot of sisters, and there was nothing special about Aichi.

As for the rumor that Shibata Katsuie had a crush on her, that's a bit exaggerated. The two had an age difference of more than 30 years. Shibata Katsuie, who was in his 40s, had a crush on Aichi, who was in her early teens. Then, Shibata Katsuie, who was 61 years old, had to marry Aichi in order to fulfill his youthful... middle-aged secret love... This is totally unreasonable and hard to convince people.

Now, Yuanye understood a little bit. Aichi's official identity in Oda Danmasatada's family should be Oda Nobunaga's "adopted daughter", or the "first daughter" and "personally raised eldest daughter" with a superior status. Her identity in Oda Nobumitsu's family is Oda Nobunaga's cousin.

Well, if someone could marry Aichi, in a sense, he would have the direct right to inherit part of Oda Nobunaga's legacy. At least that's what Oda Danjotada's family thought. Many people would support this person for this reason, so she and her daughters were particularly popular. As a result, after Shibata Katsuie had snatched them all, Monkey had to rush to pick up the leftovers and shamelessly marry Chacha.

But then again, having this special identity, I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing for them…

Yuanye sighed a few times in his heart and watched from across the sea for a while. Seeing that the situation was slowly calming down and the impact of Oda Nobumitsu's assassination seemed to have gradually passed, he was just about to refocus his attention, but perhaps it was because Oda Nobunaga was unlucky. Just as Oda Nobunaga's incident was over, his biological brother Oda Hidetaka (Kirokuro), who had the same father and mother as him, was shot to death.

This matter was also related to Oda Nobumitsu. Oda Nobumitsu broke his oath and captured Kiyosu Castle, and then moved to Naguno Castle. However, his original Moriyama Castle could not be left empty, so it was handed over to Oda Nobunaga's other uncle Oda Shinji, who was a member of the Oda family and was garrisoned. This laid the foreshadowing of the tragedy - Oda Nobuji went to Matsukawa hunting, and met Oda Hidetaka who was also going to Matsukawa for a trip. His retainer Suga Saizo was responsible for clearing the way, and shouted at Hidetaka from a distance to pull over and make way. As a result, Hidetaka was still a teenager, and he was arrogant, so he ignored him at all, and continued to ride his horse in front, raising dust. Suga Saizo was furious and drew his bow and shot Hidetaka off his horse with one arrow.

When Oda Nobunaga arrived, Hidetaka was already dead. He was so frightened that he peed his pants on the spot, and didn't even dare to go back to the city, but fled directly, fearing that he would be killed by Oda Nobunaga.

After Oda Nobunaga learned about this, he was naturally furious, but before he had the time to get angry, Oda Nobuyuki, who had been autistic in Suemori Castle and was his second brother who had failed in the last rebellion with Shibata Katsuie, took advantage of the fact that Hidetaka was killed for no reason and attacked Oda Shinji first, attempting to take over the castle directly.

Although Oda Nobuji had escaped, his retainers remained in the city, closing the gates and refusing to surrender. Oda Nobuyuki failed, and he became angry and began to attack the city, and the two sides started fighting directly.

Because of this incident, Oda Danmasatada's family began to become turbulent again, and the four lower counties of Owari began to be in chaos again, but this had little to do with Harano, and it didn't even delay his marriage.

In late autumn, when the sky was clear and the weather was cool, the Dog Princess, her maids and attendants, and a large amount of dowry were loaded onto the ship and began to sail towards Xinwanjin.

…………

The wedding party boarded a medium-sized ship with a stiff sail and a "five-papaya pattern" flying high. After traveling for most of the day, they slowly approached the pier of Xinwanjin and began to unload cargo and people. The dog princess was wearing a Gofu with a lucky rhombus pattern, a multi-layered white gown, a white "kakuin" on her head, white powder on her face, and white tabi cloth on her feet. She was very small and knelt in the cabin without moving. She would not get off the ship until notified by the attendants.

Her outfit is the bridal makeup of that era. In this era, even marriages had to follow styles. The one used in Owari was the "Ise-ryū marriage style", and even dressing had to follow the rules.

The lucky rhyme pattern is shaped like a coin hole and has four stable corners, representing wealth and prosperity, as well as the tenacity and strength of the daughter of a samurai family. The multi-layered white gown is the predecessor of the later "white muku", representing the purity of the bride, and also implying that the bride is a "blank sheet of paper" without any bad habits from her parents' home, and can immediately take on the color of her husband's family and successfully integrate into the family.

As for the white "horn hidden" on the head, it has a similar meaning, representing that the bride will restrain her temper, be low-key and humble, and also hide herself to avoid being kidnapped by evil spirits on the way to the wedding. It can be regarded as a special "magic tool" for marriage.

Although the dog princess was wearing bridal makeup, there was no joy or shyness on her face. Instead, she kept biting her lower lip and was very nervous inside - she was locked up in the house and was not favored, so she could not receive any useful information. Until now, she still didn't know what kind of person Yuanye was, let alone what he looked like or what his temper was like. She couldn't help but feel nervous.

Her two little maids had no interest in talking either. They were equally nervous. They and their own princess were two different sides of the same coin. If the dog princess didn't end up well, they would only be more miserable.

The three of them waited silently in the cabin for more than an hour. Only then were the dowries unloaded and an attendant finally came to inform them that they could get off the ship. When a princess gets married, she must have an entourage. She brought more than seventy people with her, including warriors, groomsmen, and servants. However, she was an unknown person before and didn't know any of these people. She met them for the first time the day before yesterday.

She had lived cautiously all year round, always under the terrifying shadow of her stepmother, Lady Tsuchida. She did not dare to offend the maids who came to invite her, and quickly got off the boat with the help of A-zhong and A-xia, dragging her heavy multi-layered gown, and with their support, she got on the "Phoenix Carriage" - this thing used to be a human-powered sedan chair used by the emperor when he attended court in the Heian period. There was a gold-painted phoenix statue on the top and gauze curtains around it, where people could kneel and sit. But now it is the Muromachi period, and the Muromachi shogunate is so weak that it can't take care of local affairs. Therefore, this human-powered sedan chair that used to be only enjoyed by the emperor has become a means of transportation during weddings, and no one cares whether it will violate the rules.

Now the Inu Princess was placed in such a small "Phoenix Chariot" and carried by eight families. The samurai party raised the "Five Papaya Flags" and led the way or guarded on both sides. The family servants followed behind carrying various dowries and began to move towards the "Nohara family's" residence.

The Dog Princess knelt in the "Phoenix Chariot" for a while, bit her lower lip, and finally couldn't resist her curiosity. She gently lifted the curtain with two slender fingers and looked out secretly. She found that Xinwanjin was much better than she expected. The pier was large, the road was flat, straight and open, and the material was also very special, as if it was paved with stone slabs but it seemed not to be.

There were also quite a lot of people. A large number of common people who were busy at the dock were retreating to both sides of the road and looking around curiously, but they did not kneel down on the ground and dared not raise their heads like she did when she came out of Qingzhou Castle. Moreover, the clothes these people were wearing were also very strange. The hakama was very narrow and long, and the upper body clothes were not traditional straight or small-sleeved robes, but a strange kind of clothes tied with buttons in the middle. Even now that the weather was still warm, some people who were carrying things simply opened their shirts.

All in all, just looking at the clothes, I feel like I have suddenly traveled to a foreign country, but the feeling is not too strong. At the same time, I can vaguely feel the richness of this place. At least everyone here has clothes to wear, and you rarely see patches on the clothes.

The Inu Princess looked at her future "people" for a while, then noticed that there seemed to be a small dispute in front of the team. She was surprised and quickly signaled the only two people in her group to go and take a look. Ah Zhong carefully sneaked to the front to spy for a while, then came back to report in a low voice: "Your Highness, it seems that the common people on the roadside are rude and dared to look directly at you. Master Pingqiao thinks that the Nohara family is looking down on us and is angry!"

Hirahashi Yasumasa (Goro Jiro) was one of the samurai who accompanied the marriage. This was also a custom at the time. When Nohime married into the Oda Danmasatada family, Saito Dosan also arranged for Ando Morinari (the future leader of the West Mino Three) to bring a team of soldiers to accompany her. They stayed for a long time before taking turns to return to Mino.

The dog princess had just met Hirahashi Yasumasa the day before, and now she didn't dare to give him orders, asking him not to argue with the Nohara family over such a small matter. She was biting her lower lip and hesitating about what to do, when she found that Endo Chiyo and Maejima Juichiro, who came to pick up the bride, said something to Hirahashi Yasumasa and others, and other people intervened to persuade them, and the dispute soon disappeared - she knew Endo Chiyo and Maejima Juichiro, and there was an item in the wedding process that the groom sent someone to take a look at the bride to ensure that the bride's arms and legs were all there and there was nothing missing, and these two people came over at that time.

The dispute was resolved, and the wedding procession continued to move forward. Ah Zhong didn't expect the dispute to end so quickly, and she didn't know how Endo Chiyo and Maejima Jiro overcame Hirahashi Yasumasa and others, but when she saw the common people along the way just making way but not kneeling, she couldn't help but whispered, "The people of the Nohara family are really unruly."

The Inu Princess didn't care whether others kneeled or not, but she became more and more uneasy. She didn't know whether this was a sign of power from the Nohara family, or whether the Nohara family didn't take her seriously at all and were looking down on her.

She was daydreaming when she suddenly felt the "Phoenix Chariot" pause, and then heard the low exclamations of Ah Zhong and Ah Xia. She quickly lifted the curtain again and peeked out. She saw that they had left the dock, and right in front of them was a tall and exquisite sheep wall, and on both sides were built with their backs against earth mounds, equally exquisite but taller rock forts - really beautiful city walls and rock forts, with a very smooth blue-black surface, as if carved from a huge stone, and the "Langdang" lined up on it were also very strong.

She was surprised and confused for a moment. According to the scraps of information her two maids had gathered, Xinwanjin should have been a wasteland. How come such respectable rock fortresses and city walls had been built there?
Before she could figure out what was going on, the wedding procession had already passed through the city gate on the sheep wall. The scene before them suddenly became clear, revealing Xinwanjin - it was already a small town. From a distance, there were hundreds of square houses, fields along the river, and water wheels. On the side close to the hill, there were several large chimneys, with thick smoke rising straight into the sky, a spectacular sight.

Further away, there is a longer sheep wall and a very beautiful, dark blue stone city with a horse print of a wilderness erected on it and a huge gold-painted gourd supported on a long flagpole.

This is Xinwanjin, rich and beautiful, everything is well organized, and it has a unique beauty that is different from this era!
(End of this chapter)