Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 180 Lovers finally find their true love

Oda Nobunaga wiped out the Iwakura Oda clan in one fell swoop, and theoretically completed the unification of Owari. He entered a super excited state for a while, holding banquets and tea parties for several days to vent his excitement. The Oda Danmasatada family started as an ordinary middle-level magistrate family, and after three generations of hard work, they finally became daimyo. It was impossible not to be excited.

Of course, in addition to venting excitement, Oda Nobunaga's holding of these banquets and tea parties also had practical significance.

For example, accepting the formal loyalty of the four great families in the upper counties of Owari, formally accepting them as vassal, and accepting the treasures, daughters and hostages they sent;

For example, in distributing the fruits of victory, the powerful families who actively stood on the side of the Danjo Tadashi family in the previous battle and the retainers who made great contributions all need to receive due rewards.

When distributing the fruits of victory, Yuanye naturally got a share, and it was an extremely enviable share - several manors in the upper four counties and the associated lakes and mountains. In addition, the excited Oda Nobunaga greatly praised his contribution, believing that he was the most reliable ally of the Tanjo Tadashi family and that his overall merit should be ranked first.

In his daily life, he treated him much more kindly. Not only did he give him a large number of luxury goods such as famous horses, swords, fancy clothes and tea sets, he also gave him a luxurious villa in Cheongju Castle. Even the Inu Princess who stayed in Shinwanjin received a lot of "rewards", and his status in the Danjotada family was greatly improved.

This extraordinary treatment made Yuanye feel like he was being roasted on the fire, but he could vaguely understand why Oda Nobunaga did this.

The Iwakura Oda clan fell, and the Danjotada clan grew much larger, but from another perspective, the number of hostile clans under Oda Nobunaga reached a new level. Oda Nobunaga needed someone to check and balance these clans with complicated relationships, and no one was more suitable than him, a "foreign upstart" with no roots.

For example, the several manors allocated to him were far apart from each other, and were located at the junction of several powerful families. They were like disgusting nails. At first glance, it seemed as if Oda Nobunaga had deliberately arranged them to monitor those powerful families.

After Yuan Ye realized this, he didn't care much. He had his own plan. Anyway, he would just swallow up any benefits that Oda Nobunaga gave him, and didn't care about the feelings of the "locals" in Owari at all. However, this made it impossible for him to return to Shinwantsu for a while, and he could only stay in Kiyosu Castle and be dragged out by Oda Nobunaga from time to time for "exhibition", so that Oda Nobunaga could have space to express his "trust" and "love".

Theoretically, the role he is playing now should be played by a monkey, but it's strange that the monkey has not appeared yet.

Could it be that because his appearance gave Oda Nobunaga a better choice, Oda Nobunaga gave up the idea of promoting a group of grassroots samurai and foreign samurai?
Or maybe Oda Nobunaga had this idea but hadn't started to implement it yet, so he used him to push back?
After finishing the banquet, Yuanye took Aman and Aqing to the stable while his mind was wandering. When he heard some noise and looked up, he saw Maeda Toshiie talking with a group of people in front of the stable - they were all young people around 20 years old, the new generation of Oda Danmasatada's family.

Yuanye had nothing to do for the moment, so he curiously went over to take a look and found that they were discussing a horse.

Maeda Toshiie also saw him coming and immediately greeted him warmly, "Sanlang, come and see my horse."

The people around also noticed Yuanye and recognized him as the current big shot of the Danzhengzhong family. They made way for him, bowed their heads and greeted him, saying, "Master Nohara."

Yuanye nodded gently in return and looked at the horse they were discussing. It was a very majestic Kiso horse, over 1.4 meters tall at the shoulder, and it was definitely one of the best horses in this era.

But that's all he could tell. It was the little common sense he had learned from being forced to ride horses every day in ancient times. The most he could do was distinguish between "main hair" and "differential hair" - the main hair was the main color of the horse, and the differential hair was the color of the spots on its body.

At this level, it is enough to have a good eye, so he is a novice in horse appraisal. He has no ability to evaluate a "famous horse". He can only pat the horse's butt and say with a smile: "It's a good horse. Is this the one that His Highness Kamisuke just gave you as a reward?"

A short but handsome young man nearby was quite brave and said with a smile: "Yes, Lord Nohara, this is a gift from His Highness Kazusuke for Lord Maeda's wedding."

Yuan Ye was surprised for a moment. He had not received any news before. He turned to look at Maeda Toshiie and asked curiously, "Are you getting married?"

There was a low laugh from the surrounding gang members. It seemed that Maeda Toshiie had a good relationship with these gang members. Maeda Toshiie felt embarrassed, his rough face turned red, and he waved his hands around: "Alright, alright, you are the ones who talk too much, get out of here!"

The laughter of the men became louder, mixed with some parody words like "Please don't let me down", and Maeda Toshiie saw that they would not leave, so he could only pull Yuanye away, but after walking a few steps, he turned back and said, "Hiyoshi, help me take good care of 'Okurimo'!"

"Don't worry! I'll take care of it myself these few days!" The handsome man who had interrupted before responded with a smile, and then led the horse into a separate stable.

Maeda Toshiie was relieved. He turned around and saw the curious eyes of Yuanye and Aman (Aqing was not curious). His rough face turned red again and he began to rub his hands: "I am indeed planning to get married, but it was a bit sudden and I didn't have time to tell you."

Yuanye asked, "Is it Asong?" "It's her!" Maeda Toshiie hesitated for a moment, thinking that he had known Yuanye for so many years, so he was not an outsider. Moreover, many people knew about this matter. Even if it had not spread for a while, it would not take long for the whole story to reach Yuanye's ears. So he confessed honestly, "My father wanted to marry Asong to my eldest brother. Asong... sneaked over to find me and said... uh, she wanted to marry me. I... I didn't want to agree at first, but I happened to meet the lord, who seemed to admire Asong very much, so he agreed on my behalf."

Yuan Ye was surprised for a moment, not expecting that there was a story about Oda Nobunaga in it, but he asked curiously: "Why would your father plan to marry Osomatsu to your eldest brother?"

Maeda Toshiie is ten years older than Osomatsu, so they can almost be considered two generations apart. So if you count his elder brother Maeda Toshihisa and Osomatsu together, they can really be considered two generations apart.

Maeda Toshiie felt a little embarrassed when talking about this topic. This matter could be regarded as him stealing his eldest brother's wife. It was not easy to explain this matter. "My father and mother also like Song and have always thought that she is suitable to be the head of the family. My eldest brother used to be in poor health and couldn't even sleep well. He didn't want to get married. But after you treated him, he took care of himself for two or three years and his health was completely recovered. So my parents have been worried about his marriage recently, and they thought of Song and planned to keep her at home..."

Yuanye was speechless for a moment. He didn't expect that this matter had something to do with him. But then he thought again and felt that a similar thing might have happened in history. Even though Maeda Toshihisa had lost his fertility due to a back sore at that time, Maeda Toshiharu probably had thought about keeping Ason at home and letting her be the mistress of Araki Castle - so that she could adopt a son. In history, Maeda Toshihisa's successor, Maeda Keiji, was the child brought by Toshihisa's wife from her ex-husband's family, which was almost like an adopted son.

Well, Yuanye felt that this matter had nothing to do with him. He might have interfered with the development of history a little, but the interference was not big. At most, Osomatsu escaped a little earlier. However, Osomatsu was able to escape from Arako Castle to Kiyosu Castle to find Maeda Toshiie, which was quite courageous, rebellious, and even desperate in that era. No wonder Oda Nobunaga supported him.

He satisfied his curiosity, but felt a little regretful that he didn't get to see the scene where Atsun "confessed" to Maeda Toshiie. If he had known this would happen, he would at least send Aman to spy secretly and listen to the "live" broadcast - this is a classic scene that has been performed many times in Japan's later Taiga dramas and is a major representative of ancient Japanese love.

Seeing that he had been silent, with a look of regret on his face, Maeda Toshiie became uneasy for a moment and asked hesitantly, "Sanlang, do you think I shouldn't marry Song?"

Yuan Ye came back to his senses and asked, "Do you want to marry me?"

"I kind of want to..." Maeda Toshiie was still hesitant, as if he had never considered marriage before. "She would be embarrassed if I don't marry her, and the lord has given me an order to marry her. He also gave me a house and a horse in the castle town, so I have no choice but to marry her."

"You have to decide on this matter yourself." Yuan Ye had no intention of being a matchmaker, let alone a matchmaker, so he said directly, "Just do what you want."

Maeda Toshiie looked up at the sky for a while, as if recalling the moment when Song escaped to find him and expressed his feelings. Even though that moment was a bit like a child's mischief, after a while he still smiled and said, "I'm going to decorate my house well."

Yuanye thought it was great that lovers could finally get married, and said with a smile: "Let me know if you need any help."

In Japan these days it is not popular to hold grand banquets for weddings. Marriage is a very private matter between the man and the woman's families. However, the matter between Maeda Toshiie and Osomatsu is a bit difficult to handle, as Osomatsu is unlikely to marry from Araki Castle.

Yuanye thought of this and asked with concern, "Where is Asong now?"

"At Lord Asano's house." Maeda Toshiie had never worried about this problem and said directly, "It was arranged by the lord. Asong will marry from there, and Lord Asano doesn't mind."

At Asano Nagakatsu's place, did Osomatsu and Ningning become friends at this time? But since everything was arranged, Yuanye didn't bother to talk too much. He chatted with Maeda Toshiie and shared his wedding experience as a "veteran" who had been married. Then Maeda Toshiie went to work preparing for the wedding - and probably had to talk to Maeda Toshiharu to get Maeda Toshiharu's forgiveness for Osomatsu.

Yuanye watched him leave, then turned to Aman and instructed, "Go back to the shop and get some good fabrics and send them to Master Asano for A-Song." After a pause, he added, "Pick some new patterns for Ningning, too."

Asong fled from Huangzi City in a hurry and probably couldn't take much with him, so he gave her some cloth to make new clothes, and also gave his little apprentice some gifts to maintain their relationship.

Ah Man nodded casually, preparing to send someone to do it when he returned to the other house. He followed Yuan Ye back to the stable, sighing, "Time flies so fast. Even that dung ball Maeda is getting married, and he's marrying Ah Song."

"Yeah, time really flies!" Yuanye also sighed with her. It seemed like it was just yesterday that Asong vomited after eating spoiled candy, but in the blink of an eye, several years had passed and she was even able to get married - Maeda Toshiie was really a beast, Asong might not even be ten years old yet.

But he has no right to complain about such things now, because he has one at home. If Maeda Toshiie is a beast, he is not much better than him.

Along the way, he and Aman talked about the "love" between Maeda Toshiie and Osomatsu, and discussed how the Maeda family would react if Osomatsu ran away, what Maeda Toshihisa should do, etc. They soon returned to the stable. Just as they were leading the horse and preparing to go back to the villa to rest, a horse team came towards them. The leader's eyes instantly fell on Yuanye.

(End of this chapter)