Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 173 Beaten Again
Izumi Heiji felt that he had discovered some kind of plan or "conspiracy" of Harano, and vaguely sensed that he had some deep malice towards the imperial court, the shogunate and even the samurai group, but he was not sure and suspected that it might be some kind of coincidence. After all, he couldn't understand why Harano did this.

In addition, he was a man who was thinking about establishing an autonomous village, and he also had some anti-imperial court and anti-shogunate tendencies. In addition, "nationalism" had not yet emerged in this era, and the concept of "nation" was not perfect. So he said nothing, did not further clarify the truth, and just quietly lived in Shinwanjin.

Yuanye had not expected that the old man was so sensitive and had such rich associative ability. He was unaware of this and, together with his newly-married wife, Inu Princess, he hosted a family dinner to warmly welcome him and Aqian and Ayu, which was considered as his best act as a good host.

Then, he arranged for Quan Pingci and the other two to continue recuperating from their injuries, and he shifted his attention back to work.

There was no problem in settling the new immigrants in Meinong. Xinwanjin was a brand new city made up of immigrants. Everyone was accustomed to the addition of newcomers and held a welcoming and inclusive attitude. Xinwanjin's internal affairs system also gained more than a thousand strong men, and finally built the first village based on agriculture.

Everyone was very happy about this, except the Miya family, because the village was built on their territory, which was like a thorn in their throat. However, facing the covetous eyes of the Wanjin army, they had no intention of fighting against stones with eggs, and could only endure it silently, hoping that Yuanye would die soon.

Life was peaceful for a while. Yuanye accumulated strength step by step, continued to secretly discipline the Wanzu people, and implemented his "evil plan" until the messenger of Oda Danjo Tadashi crossed the sea again and delivered a new request from Oda Nobunaga - he received news that Saito Yoshitatsu had made unusual moves and was gathering troops to prepare to march south. He hoped that the Wanzu army could meet up in Kiyosu Castle to assist Danjo Tadashi in resisting the invasion of the Saito family.

According to the alliance, whenever Oda Nobunaga was beaten, except when he was beaten by the Imagawa and Matsudaira families, Hara had to go to help. He had no choice but to gather his troops again, order Aman to look after the house, and with the voice of the Inu Princess bowing and wishing him "good luck in military affairs", he led his army to Kiyosu Castle again.

When he arrived at the place, he attended a military meeting and reconnected with Maeda Toshiie before he found out what was going on.

Saito Dosan gave the whole province of Mino to Oda Nobunaga as a dowry of Nohime in the "State Letter", and Oda Nobunaga immediately announced it to the world. This act completely angered Saito Yoshitatsu, who not only publicly denied that Saito Dosan was his biological father, but also changed his name to Isshiki (it is said that his mother was the daughter of Isshiki), and immediately organized an army of tens of thousands to attack Oda Nobunaga, the "false lord".

Of course, this was just a nominal statement. In reality, he just wanted more land. It was very likely that Saito Yoshitatsu wanted to recover his foothold on the south bank of the Kiso River in order to begin preparing for the invasion of Owari. Before the Oda Danmasatada family and the Saito family became marriage allies, the two sides had repeatedly fought for the Kiso River and Nagara River areas. Even the Sunomata Castle was built by the Saito family. This was just a repeat of the old events after the alliance was broken.

After hearing the details from Maeda Toshiie, Yuanye was speechless. If he had known earlier, he might as well have thrown the "letter of state" directly into the toilet. However, after giving it to Oda Nobunaga, he couldn't bear it and took it out directly, causing him to waste so much time. Fighting such a war was not good for him. If he fought in Owari, he couldn't "force to immigrate" the subjects of the Oda family. It would be pure consumption.

He sighed silently there, and then asked Maeda Toshiie curiously: "Saito Yoshitatsu rushed over here in such a hurry. Has he sorted out the internal affairs of Mino?"

He originally thought that Saito Yoshitatsu would have to stay stable for a year or two to consolidate his rule, but he never expected that he would be attacked so soon.

"It's probably been sorted out." Maeda Toshiie, as a member of Oda Danmasatada's family, was more concerned about Mino's situation than Harano, and answered immediately, "I heard that Saito Yoshitatsu absorbed a large number of powerful families into the Saito family, and appointed six powerful families such as Ando, Hinogen, and Takekoshi as family elders. When encountering major events, these six family elders will lead the retainers and powerful families to discuss countermeasures together. If they vote against something, even Saito Yoshitatsu, the head of the family, cannot insist on his own way. So now it is said that everyone in Mino is united, saying that Saito Yoshitatsu is a great leader who will never be seen again."

"Oh, the retainer's collective system?" Yuanye was thoughtful after listening. He didn't expect that Saito Yoshitatsu would be willing to give up power and come up with such a thing. This was somewhat beyond his expectations. Whether it was the old generation overlords such as Oda Nobuhide and Saito Dosan, or the new generation of daimyo such as Oda Nobunaga and Imagawa Yoshimoto, they were all fed up with the local powerful families. They were always thinking about cleaning them up and concentrating power in their own hands. Now Saito Yoshitatsu was unique.

I just don't know if this will sow the seeds of disaster... Maeda Toshiie savored the term "retainer collegial system" and couldn't help but nodded: "Yes, that's right, it's the retainer collegial system."

Yuanye looked up at him and asked with a smile, "What do people in Owari think? Does anyone also think that he is a great leader who will never be seen again?"

"Of course there are, those people!" Maeda Toshiie was familiar with him and didn't shy away from talking in private. He laughed and said, "Yesterday someone mentioned this matter to His Highness, and His Highness scolded him for a long time, telling him to go live in Mino if he didn't like Owari."

Yuanye couldn't help but laugh. He estimated that if he were a member of the Owari clan, he would probably be yearning for the "retainer's collective system". With his strength, he might even have an important vote and could sell votes at internal meetings of Oda Danmasatada's family.

They chatted for a while and finally waited for Oda Nobunaga to come out. Oda Nobunaga was not afraid of Saito Yoshitatsu's challenge, and even his eyes were red with excitement. He slammed the table and cursed Saito Yoshitatsu for killing his father and being worse than pigs and dogs, calling him a beast. He then boosted the morale of his allies, retainers and powerful families, and then, regardless of the fact that the enemy had more people, he ordered not to give up an inch of land, took the initiative to attack, and resolutely stopped Saito Yoshitatsu north of the Kiso River.

Oda Danjotada's family did not practice the "retainer consensus system". In the past few years, those who dared to go against Oda Nobunaga had been tormented by him. Whatever he said was the truth. They were quickly assigned their tasks and were required to set off immediately and go directly north to establish a defense line. Just because Yuanye had the title of "ally" and had some human rights, Oda Nobunaga could be more polite when speaking to him, but he still had to do his job.

After the military meeting was completed in Kiyosu Castle, teams of samurai foot soldiers began to leave Kiyosu Castle and head north, arriving at the Kiso River first, waiting for Saito Yoshitatsu to come and fight them - the Oda Danjotada family was fighting on the inside, and there were also powerful families in Mino who were allied with the Danjotada family. The news was received before Saito Yoshitatsu sent out his troops, so they could be fully prepared.

The combined forces of Oda and Wanzu had more than 6,000 people. They waited at the Kiso River for several days before they discovered that Saito Yoshitatsu was leading an army of 10,000 people slowly approaching. They took a long detour, slowly crossed the Nagara River, and entered the "Kawabami Land" between the Nagara River and the Kiso River. Then they began to slowly set up camp, without showing any urgency. It actually felt like they were on a spring outing.

Everyone found it very strange. Oda Nobunaga kept sending people to search both wings, suspecting that it was some kind of trick and that the enemy might suddenly cross the river from a shallow ford somewhere. However, after searching for a long time, not a single human was found. It seemed that the Saito army was really building a camp.

After waiting for a long time for the Saito army to repair the camp, there was still no sign of an attack. It seemed that they came here just to compete with Oda Danmasatada's family for who had more rations, and wanted to wait until the other side had eaten up all the rations before retreating.

Hara was forced to do nothing but stare at the other side by the river until urgent news suddenly came from the rear that Oda Nobunaga's eldest half-brother Oda Nobuhiro had suddenly rebelled and started a riot in Kiyosu Castle.

After receiving the news, Yuanye felt nothing, not the slightest bit surprised, and was even relieved - it was not the first time that Oda Nobunaga's brothers had rebelled, it was normal.

Perhaps he had finally begun to adapt to this era and no longer got easily alarmed.

(End of this chapter)