Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 17: The Big Fool of the Oda Family

Aman is an excellent "original ninja", or her grandfather is definitely an excellent representative of the Koga clan. He is an old and sophisticated information dealer who knows the situation of the countries in Tōkaidō like the back of his hand. He is an absolutely excellent practitioner, but their judgment...

Oda Nobuhide beat up all his neighbors, and was beaten up by his neighbors in turn. According to Aman, the rule of Oda Danmasatada's family in Owari was already shaky, his family and retainers suffered heavy losses, the local powerful families and local samurai began to have ulterior motives, and his enemies had already begun to prepare for the victory party.

Even these people didn't expect that Oda Nobuhide had a very powerful son...

Yuanye shook his head: "That may not be the case."

Ah Man also sneered at his "judgment" and said disdainfully: "Don't talk nonsense, you are a foreigner and you still don't understand Tōkaidō!

The Oda Danmasatada family is completely hopeless. There have been countless such incidents in the past. It is normal for a small local powerful family to suddenly rise and then suddenly perish. You just have too little experience - a middle-level deputation family that has been a guardian for generations, a lord of a city, has been lucky enough to suppress Owari for more than 20 years. Now that their luck has run out, can they still defy fate? If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense, you will make people laugh!"

As she was talking, she suddenly became excited, sat up straight, stared at him with her bright eyes and said, "If you don't believe me, let's make a bet! My grandfather said that Oda Nobuhide will die soon, and once he dies, Oda Danmasatada's family will surely fall. This is something that anyone with eyes can see. If you don't want to admit it, do you have the courage to bet with me?
As long as Oda Nobuhide dies, Oda Danmasatada's family will be destroyed!

If I lose, I will give you my head. If you lose, just give me ten strings of cash... no, eight strings of cash, no, five strings of cash will be enough!"

She was afraid that Yuanye would not be willing to bet with her, so she took the initiative to lower the price again and again.

"I'm not interested. I don't like betting." Yuanye is not a kindergarten kid. He is not so childish as to bet his head.

"You don't dare, do you?" Ah Man's eyebrows twitched, and he directly used the method of provoking him, wanting to get his five strings of cash for free. He said with disdain, "You are such a coward. Five strings of cash is nothing to you. Even if you lose, you still have ten strings of cash. Don't you have even this little bit of courage?"

"If you don't like it, you don't like it."

Ah Man failed to get a free girl and was very disappointed. He tilted his head and muttered softly, "You really don't have the spirit of a real man at all. You have grown so big for nothing. I guess you will never achieve anything in your life."

Yuan Ye glanced at her. Even though he didn't like this playful bet, he decided to teach her a lesson. He then changed his mind and agreed, "If you don't want your head, you can give it to me!"

Anyway, it's a dog head that comes right to his door, so he should not miss it. If he wins, he will just play it for fun.

Ah Man had not expected that the situation would turn around and the cooked duck would fly back. He was overjoyed and said, "Then it's settled! As soon as the Oda Danjotada family is destroyed, I will come to you to collect the money!"

"What if it's not over?"

"Don't worry, my A-man is an absolutely first-rate gambler, and no one has ever questioned me. We, the Koga clan, are trustworthy, and our good reputation has lasted for almost a hundred years! If Oda Nobuhide dies, the Oda Danmasatada family will still be able to keep most of their territory within five years, no, within three years, no, within two years - if they are lucky, they can retreat back to Katsubata Castle, and if they are unlucky, they will even lose their ancestral property - then no matter how far away you are, I will send my head to you!"

"What if you don't come?"

"If you don't come, then let me, no, let me and my grandfather, no, let our whole family be struck by lightning when it rains, drown when we fall into the river when we cross the mountain, be buried alive when we encounter a mudslide when we climb over the mountain, or choke to death when we have no water to drink!" Ah Man was fighting for the five strings of money. His eyebrows stood up excitedly, made an "eight" shape, and said excitedly, "I can swear anything, anyway, I won't lose, and the Oda Danzhengtada family will definitely be finished!"

"That may not be the case. Oda Nobuhide still has an heir, and the Oda Danjotada family may not face the worst situation." Yuanye still couldn't agree with her words. After all, even people who didn't know much about Japanese history must have heard of the name of "The Sixth Heavenly Demon King" Oda Nobunaga, and had confidence in his ability to revive the family business.

Ah Man was stunned for a moment, staring blankly at Yuanye for a while, then he fell backwards and laughed out loud: "Hahaha, I am dying of laughter. You, a foreigner, really don't know anything. You actually count on Oda Nobunaga, the 'big fool of the Oda family'."

This was truly the best joke of the year in the past 20 years of Tianwen. If she hadn't been injured, she would have rolled on the ground laughing.

Yuan Ye was not angry, but rather wondered why Oda Nobunaga had such a nickname. In the Japanese Warring States Period, there were many "gods, Buddhas, reincarnations of Bodhisattvas", "tigers", "ghosts", "fierce", "something", etc., but "big fool" was unique and had a fresh flavor.

He couldn't help but ask Aman: "Why do you call him the big fool of the Oda family?"

Aman forced herself to hold back her laughter, sat up and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, snatched the pen from his hand, and drew a "papaya pattern" on the paper.

This is an auspicious pattern introduced to Japan during the Tang Dynasty. Because it is often used on the brow of bamboo curtains in shrines, it was originally called the "bamboo curtain brow pattern". However, because this pattern resembles the cross-section of a papaya, and also resembles the plane of a "nest (a bird's nest built on the flat ground or on the river surface, or on trees or mountains)", the ancient pronunciation of "nest" is similar to "papaya", so this pattern is also commonly known as the papaya pattern.

After she finished drawing, she said: "This is a papaya pattern, which is very common in Echizen. Many families related to shrines in Echizen use papaya patterns, including papaya snow wheel, papaya corner cut, papaya two-lead, papaya two square, papaya four square, ring papaya, vine papaya, vine papaya, silk wheel peeping papaya, sword papaya, sword papaya four square... Anyway, there are many families in Echizen that use papaya patterns as their family crests.

The Oda family moved from Echizen to Owari, so they often used papaya square and papaya two-square patterns in sacrificial ceremonies. Oda Nobuhide also used it, but he used the Taira clan's flying feather butterfly pattern more often - he wanted to cut off ties with his former lord, the Kiyosu Oda clan. Anyway, he no longer recognized the master-servant relationship and considered himself a descendant of the Taira clan. But it made sense, because his second wife was the daughter of the Tsuchida family, and the Tsuchida family was a descendant of the Taira clan, which everyone recognized. "

Yuanye looked at the "papaya pattern" and found it looked like a four-petal flower. Anyway, he couldn't see how it looked like the cross section of a papaya, so he said in confusion: "What does this have to do with the fool Oda?"

"Don't be impatient!" Ah Man reached out and drew a five-petal papaya on the paper again, "This is the new family crest of the Oda Danjotada family created by the big fool you have high hopes for, or in other words, his own family crest - the five-petal papaya.

That big fool just wanted to be different from others. Other members of the tribe all had four-petal papayas, but he insisted on using five-petal papayas. Then, this fool liked to ride his horse recklessly in the castle town of Kuno with this family crest on his head, causing a lot of trouble. When the people of the castle town of Kuno saw this family crest, they would quickly hide to avoid being knocked away by him.

So, there were often children shouting, 'Five papayas are coming, five papayas from the Oda family are coming, run!' After a long time, everyone naturally called him the big fool of the Oda family."

Yuanye was totally confused and didn't get this clichéd ancient joke.

A-Man was laughing out loud. Seeing that he didn't understand, he said unhappily, "You are really not funny at all. You don't understand this? Read 'Five papayas are coming, five papayas of the Oda family are coming' faster and with a more urgent and heavier tone." "The Oda family's 'Hachiyagou' is coming... The Oda family's 'Hachiyagou' is coming... The Oda family's 'Baga' is coming?" Yuanye read it several times before he reacted. He was very speechless and said, "Just because he changed his family crest, he becomes a big fool?"

He originally thought that "Owari's Big Fool" had some hidden meaning, such as being wise but appearing foolish, or being born with a strange appearance, but it turned out to be a bad homophonic joke...

The Japanese sense of humor is really weird. They can even laugh at this. In the future, if people in China use puns on the Internet, they will be beaten to death if they don’t put a dog head on their head to save their lives!
Ah Man waved his hands and laughed, "Of course it's not all because of this little thing. The main reason is that he is a big fool. You haven't seen him. If you have seen him once, I guarantee you will think he is a big fool.

This guy often runs around Owari with a few Xiaoxing (personal attendants) and Kaimashu (also written as 廻马众, generally refers to the guards on horseback). I met him when I passed by Tsushima Shrine with my grandfather two years ago. Guess what he was doing?
He was dancing and singing, acting as Ushiwakamaru, and inviting everyone present to drink! Ha, you didn't see it, that idiot is really funny, he looks pretty in women's clothes, but he's too tall and not pretty enough, otherwise he would make a lot of money by selling his butt."

Ushiwakamaru was the childhood name of Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a tragic figure from the late Heian period in Japan. Many Japanese folk tales are based on him. In the miscellaneous plays, Noh plays, and even in the later Taiga dramas, there are plots or adapted plots of him disguising himself as a woman and fighting against the rebellious monk Musashibo Benkei. This is the part that Aman is talking about here.

Minamoto no Yoshitsune is still very famous in modern Japan, and Yuanye naturally knew that. He imagined the scene of "Oda Nobunaga playing the very beautiful Ushiwakamaru dressed as a woman, wearing women's clothes with his thighs exposed, posing and gathering people to drink and have fun", and he felt his scalp tingling for a moment - he had never seen such a scene in the 21st century, it was too wild!

but……

"I like zaju and Noh plays, and I like singing operas. These are personal hobbies. There's nothing wrong with it, right?" As a modern man, Yuanye can understand personal preferences or unique fetishes. He knows a university professor whose hobby is making clothes for action figures and dolls. His skills are quite amazing, and people around him don't think there is anything wrong with it.

"That's not all!" Ah Man was very excited and continued to reveal more explosive information, "He also hangs out with river pirates and mountain bandits all day long, often goes to the Kawanami clan and the Hosuka gang, and someone even saw him swimming naked in the Nagara River, and his butt is very white."

Do you have too close contact with idle people in society?
The lord and the bandits?
Fortunately, it wasn't the princess and the bandit...

Yuan Ye couldn't help but start to complain in his heart, and then he heard Ah Man say: "And he is just like you... well, he is also a prodigal son. He spent 160 strings of cash to buy a cannon, which he carries with him all day long and fires a few shots whenever he has nothing to do. He also recruited a lot of young men, who do nothing all day long but make trouble everywhere, and often hit each other with bamboo poles. It's all a joke."

"Purchasing weapons and increasing the number of retainers, there's nothing wrong with that, right?" Yuanye didn't understand again.

Ah Man sneered, "It's okay to increase the number of young people, and it doesn't matter if he makes trouble. He has money and time to play around, but his iron cannon has caused a lot of trouble. It didn't count the time when it killed a retainer's horse. Anyway, he has money to pay for it. But when he tested it, he killed a retainer assigned to him by his father. At that time, Kuno Castle was in an uproar, and many retainers were clamoring to arrest him."

So violent?
You have nothing to do every day, so you kill your retainers for fun?
Yuanye had never expected that such a thing would happen. The Sixth Heaven Demon King Oda Nobunaga in the game was cruel enough, but he didn't expect that he was even more cruel in real life - burning Mount Hiei was okay, after all, the two sides were enemies and there were a lot of secrets, so burning it was fine, but killing even their own people without a legitimate reason was unacceptable.

"Is there anything else?" Yuanye became alert and began to mark Oda Nobunaga as a dangerous person, preparing to be doubly cautious in the future.

"He did so many bad things that I can't finish talking about them in three days and three nights!" Ah Man really looked down on Oda Nobunaga, and even a deaf person could hear his disdain. "Just a few years ago, he was bored and insisted on changing the three-taru-1-koku ration to five-taru-1-koku ration, like a psychopath."

"Oh?" Yuanye was stunned for a moment, then reached out to add more tea to Aman, and said thoughtfully, "Didn't you hear the reason?"

"What other reason could there be? He's just bored and likes to make trouble for others! What's the difference between one stone of rice packed in three straw bags and one stone of rice packed in five straw bags? It's still one stone no matter how you pack it. What other use does it have except to make the farmers make more straw ropes?" Aman finished his tea and said while smacking his lips, still looking very disdainful.

"There is still a difference." Yuanye said something fair, but he did not explain the little trick between capacity and weight.

If you are filling water, the difference is minimal, but when filling granular items such as rice, the larger the container, the greater the pressure the upper layer exerts on the lower layer, and the lower layer will be more compact and solid. Compared with small containers of the same volume, the weight can be about 4% more. Even if you slam the straw bag hard on the ground, the weight can be 8% - 15% more.

8% is not a small amount. Even if it is not, if we calculate it at 4%, and put it into taxation, the local wealthy families can get a lot more grain from the farmers. A larger wealthy family like the Araki Maeda family can get one or two hundred shi of grain every year, which can be used to feed a lot of children and relatives, or exchange for more equipment and weapons, which can greatly improve their strength.

When it comes to the support of retainers, that is, the support rice given by the lord to the retainers (similar to a salary, used by retainers who do not have their own territory to support their families, wives and children, and generally paid out in terms of rice), the amount of rice that the retainers and their families can eat will actually be reduced.

Therefore, apart from the farmers being able to reduce their burden and keep a few more grains of rice to exchange for some money, the local tycoons with direct territories, local samurai and retainers without direct territories will not be happy - if there are sensible people, they will probably find that their interests have been damaged, and when it comes to their own interests, most people are usually sensible people.

No wonder the retainers and local nobles were full of dissatisfaction with him. I guess they called him the big fool a lot...

Aman did not involve her own interests. She neither farmed nor received subsidies. She had never thought about it carefully. She was surprised and said, "Is there any difference? What difference is there?" Then she didn't care. "Anyway, he didn't succeed. His writer, Lin Xiuzhen, reported him to his father Oda Nobuhide. I heard that Oda Nobuhide wrote a letter to scold him, asking him to do more work and less nonsense, listen to his teacher Hirate Masahide more, learn skills well, and don't become a waste.

As a result, he became even crazier. He got drunk that day, took off his clothes, and rode a horse around the town. He was drunk and crazy, saying that the horse dealers were too stinky and he wanted to drive them out of the town to a remote corner. This attracted a lot of people to watch, so Hirate Masahide sent his eldest son and a dozen of his gang members to forcibly tie him back.

Of course, it's no longer possible now. After this incident, he has recruited more than 30 young men and raised more than 100 Huima people. Unless Hirate Masahide fights him openly, he will never be able to discipline him. And recently, I heard that Hirate Masahide's eldest son was beaten up by someone in the city and was seriously injured. Everyone said that he ordered the young men to do it."

Finally, she concluded: "Anyway, few people like this big fool. Even the retainers sent by his father to support him don't like him. If it weren't for his teacher Hirate Masahide's seniority, good relationships, and loyalty, who risked his life to support him, and the fact that he was Saito Dosan's son-in-law, any rash move against him might have triggered the Nobi War. He would have lost his position as heir long ago. Oda Nobuhide had more than one son, but more than a dozen!
He has one illegitimate son, Oda Nobuhiro, and one illegitimate son, Oda Hidetoshi. Their mothers were both maids of Oda Nobuhide's first wife. His current wife, the daughter of the Tsuchida family, gave birth to four legitimate sons for him. In addition, there are six, seven, eight, and nine other illegitimate sons. Oda Danmasatada's family is not short of people to be the head of the family. "

"So that's how it is!" Yuanye exclaimed and had a general understanding of Oda Nobunaga's situation.

Simply put, Oda Nobunaga behaved strangely and had confused class positions. He did not look like a monarch and was not like a "crown prince" at all.

It was no wonder that no one from top to bottom had a favorable opinion of him. They all thought that once his father died, the Oda Danjo family would be finished. Even if he, a time traveler, didn't know a little bit of history and heard these rumors, he would probably think that Oda Nobunaga was a hopeless case and a complete loser.

To be honest, Japanese history is really weird. Who would have believed that such a guy almost unified Japan and became the most famous and popular historical figure in Japan in later generations.

(End of this chapter)