Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 181 Hiyoshimaru

The leader of the horse team was in his thirties, about 1.65 meters tall, a warrior with a very strong physique. He jumped off his horse neatly and asked, "Are you Lord Nohara?"

Yuanye did know this man. He was Shibata (Gonroku) Katsuie. Yuanye had seen him from a distance at Oda Nobuhide's funeral a few years ago, but they had never interacted with each other. Seeing him coming to make acquaintance, he nodded politely and said, "It's me, Lord Shibata. Have you just returned from the northern route?"

"I just came back. The Saito family has retreated." Shibata Katsuie responded, his eyes swept over Aman and Aqing who were following behind Nohara. He saw Aman with a tea whisk combed into his hair, a wakizashi and a katana on his waist, dressed like a high-level samurai, but his clothes were a bit strange. He couldn't help but frowned slightly, but he quickly retracted his gaze and politely saluted Nohara, "Excuse me, it's our first meeting. I heard that Lord Nohara is trusted by His Highness Kazusuke and is very active on the battlefield. Please take care of me in the future."

Yuanye also politely responded: "No, no, I hope you will give me more guidance in the future, Master Shibata."

The two exchanged some polite words for their first meeting. Shibata Katsuie looked around and motioned for the people behind him to disperse and step back. He then said to Nohara, "I originally wanted to invite Lord Nohara to a gathering, but we just happened to meet here. So, I just happen to have something to say to Lord Nohara..."

He paused here and looked at Aman and Aqing again. Yuan Ye was a little surprised, but out of courtesy he still signaled Aman and Aqing to step back a distance. Shibata Katsuie then stared at him and asked, "I heard that Lord Nohara and Lord Miyakamibei had some misunderstandings. I wonder if this is true?"

"Lord Miyakamibei? Oh, the Miyaka family in Chita County!" Yuan Ye didn't expect Shibata Katsuie to mention this person, and asked in surprise, "Let's not talk about it first, I wonder what the relationship is between Lord Miyakamibei and Lord Shibata?"

"We are not related in any way. We were just good friends of my father many years ago." Shibata Katsuie was also very straightforward and said, "There must be some misunderstandings between the two of you, but let's forget about the past. Lord Nohara, please stop what you are doing!"

Harano is developing the territory of the Goya family. This was the condition agreed upon with the Imagawa family before. Unexpectedly, the Imagawa family acquiesced, and Shibata Katsuie jumped out instead - the relationship between the Owari nobles was really messy. The Goya family and the old patriarch Hayashi Hidetada were already related by marriage (two generations ago), and unexpectedly, they were also old friends with the new patriarch Shibata Katsuie.

But it is impossible to stop. If Xinwanjin wants to develop, it needs land and the raw materials produced by the land. It is impossible for it to work so hard to steal people outside and then transport them back to squeeze them into a small space where they can't even turn around.

Yuanye was silent for a while, then shook his head and sighed, "Master Shibata, let the Miya family come and talk to me themselves! You should not interfere in such matters."

Shibata Katsuie's face darkened and his tone began to become unhappy: "Lord Nohara, you are now encroaching on the land of Goya Castle! As a samurai, you should abide by your samurai duties and act with courtesy!"

"Isn't the Miya family the Imagawa family's nephew?" Yuan Ye did not avoid his gaze, but looked down at him and said calmly, "The Imagawa family and the Oda family are enemies. Lord Shibata doesn't know this? What's wrong with me taking land from your enemies?"

Shibata Katsuie was speechless for a moment, and at this time Aqing and Aman noticed that the atmosphere was wrong and quickly came over. Aqing's hand was even on the hilt of the knife, and he looked at Shibata Katsuie with cold and vigilant eyes.

Yuanye waved his hands to indicate that it was okay. Shibata Katsuie was only there to act as a peacemaker and was not crazy enough to openly attack Oda Nobunaga's ally and brother-in-law in Oda Nobunaga's house.

As expected, Shibata Katsuie glanced at Aman and Aqing and looked away, not taking them seriously at all. He just said to Nohara again: "That being said, Lord Nohara, it's always good to have more friends."

"Thank you, I don't need it." Yuanye was unmoved. He didn't need to be friends with the Owari clan, and getting too close to them might even be harmful.

"Excuse me." Shibata Katsuie was silent for a moment, nodded slightly in greeting, maintaining the minimum respect for the allies of the Oda family, then turned around and left with his men. He was not like the hot-tempered and rude person portrayed in "Taiko 2" - based on their performance in the game "Taiko 2", he and Sasa Narimasa were actually more like nouveau riche and grassroots samurai, but in fact, both of them were proficient in Chinese studies and had been taught by famous teachers.

Ah Man crouched down with his eyebrows and glanced at Shibata Katsuie's back, then asked Yuan Ye, "What happened?"

Yuanye asked them to mount their horses and told them what happened as they walked. Aman immediately spat on the ground and cursed, "This guy has just restored the Oda family's position and he dares to be so arrogant. He even dares to interfere in our Wanjin's affairs?"

"Maybe he thought that we had just acquired several manors in the upper four counties, and the territory was large, so we should be satisfied and there was no need to encroach on the land of the Goya family, so he came to talk." Yuanye thought about the reason why the Goya family suddenly became active again, and felt that this was probably the case, but it was also possible that he was slowly transferring the people in the new manor to Shinwanjin, and was ordering the planning of a new village there, and also planned to build a small city there as an administrative center, which stimulated the Goya family again. Ah Man didn't care what the Goya family and Shibata Katsuie thought, he just asked: "Should we send someone to keep an eye on him?"

"Of course!" Yuanye was willing to spend money on intelligence, and was also afraid of death. He turned around and instructed Aqing, "Add an extra team of guards when you go out next time!"

Now he brought the guards with him, but it was not convenient to bring a large group of people inside Oda Nobunaga's house, so he usually just let them wait at the door - there was no need to worry too much about safety issues inside Oda Nobunaga's house. Oda Nobunaga had no motive to murder him now, and it was difficult for others to do anything. Otherwise, with Oda Nobunaga's extremely hateful appearance, he would have been poisoned to death long ago. In fact, Oda Nobunaga cared about the safety of his home more than anyone else.

Aman and Aqing nodded together. One prepared to go back and arrange for the "Survivors" to infiltrate the Shibata family, while the other planned to transfer some more people from Wanjin to strengthen the security of the other house.

…………

The first meeting between Harano and the historical figure Shibata Katsuie was not a pleasant one, but there was nothing that could be done about it. After all, he was in the underworld and had no choice. There were some things he could not give in to, and there was no point in giving in. Now it was only because of the constraints of the Imagawa family that Harano did not dare to make any big moves in the Chita Peninsula. Otherwise, the powerful families around him would have all been gone, and all their territories and lands would have been incorporated into Wanjin. There was no need for him to waste time stealing and robbing everywhere. He was about to be forced to change his job to a human trafficker.

However, after Shibata Katsuie acted as a peacemaker, there was no more movement and everything went on as usual. When they occasionally met him, they would nod politely. Hara didn't want to have too much conflict with him, so it seemed that the matter ended like that.

More than ten days passed quickly, and Oda Nobunaga's excitement finally subsided a little. The frequency of his meetings and banquets with local powerful families decreased, but he seemed to be preparing a large tea party to allow the new host families to show up in public and communicate with each other. Hara no Yama, his staunch ally, still needed to attend, so he could not leave for the time being.

But he finally had some rare free time, and he took time out to visit his young apprentice Ningning at the Asano family, to take good status and dig a hole for the monkey for a hundred years without wavering. By the way, he took a look at the bride-to-be, Asong. As a result, he just came back and met the groom-to-be, Maeda Toshiie, who came to borrow money - theoretically he should not be short of money, with an annual salary of 150 kan, but he was used to spending money lavishly, and had too many retainers and groomsmen. He had not saved much money in the past few years, and was dumbfounded that he suddenly had to buy a lot of things to get married, so he had to come to borrow money.

And he was only borrowing from Harano, because Harano was the most famous nouveau riche in Owari. Everyone knew that he was rich. He was the only wealthy man besides Oda Nobunaga, the local tycoon, who had more than a hundred arquebusiers.

Yuanye naturally didn't care, since they were old friends, so he asked someone to get him a bag of silver coins and prepared to treat him to a meal. However, Maeda Toshiie was getting married and was very excited, so he didn't have time to pay much attention to him. He even refused to eat with him and wanted to leave after taking the money. Yuanye had no choice but to chat with him and send him off.

However, just as they arrived at the stables of the other house, they heard a commotion there. Yuanye was surprised for a moment and hurried over to take a look. A groom hurriedly reported: "Sir, nothing happened, just a few minor problems. Master Qing's horse is sick and was angry just now..."

That was indeed a small problem, and Yuanye didn't care about it. He turned around and was about to ask someone to lead out Maeda Toshiie's horse so that he could get rid of him, but Maeda Toshiie was a horse lover, and he actually went over to take a look at Aqing's horse - it was not the calico mare, that horse was too short, and would suffer a loss on the battlefield, but Aqing still kept it and let it play with the little monkey and the second-hand donkey every day, and did not bring it to Qingzhou City.

Maeda Toshiie went over to take a look and immediately found something wrong. He turned to the groom and asked, "It has an eye disease. Didn't you call a horse doctor for it?" - A horse doctor is a veterinarian who specializes in treating horses. In ancient Japan, this aspect was very detailed. In addition to horse doctors, there were also cattle doctors.

One of the horse's eyes was a little red and swollen, and there was abnormal secretion. The grooms of course noticed it and quickly said that they had given the horse medicine, but the medicine was not very effective and the condition did not improve. So the horse has been extremely irritable these two days, either kicking people or shaking its head and kicking the railings wildly.

Maeda Toshiie really likes to meddle in other people's business. He didn't care that he was getting married and asked the groom to bring the medicine to him. He took a look at it and immediately shook his head and said, "Your medicine is not good. I'll find someone to take a look at it for you."

After saying this, he did not ask for Harano's opinion and sent his close follower Murahachiro on horseback. Not long after, he brought back a man, who was the young groom named Hiyoshi whom Harano had met in the stable of Oda Nobunaga's house last time.

When Maeda Toshiie saw him coming, he quickly called out, "Hiyoshi, come and take a look. This horse seems to have the same disease as the one I had last time!" Then he turned around and introduced to Yuanye, "Hiyoshimaru is the best horse doctor in the Oda family. The horses he takes care of have never had any problems. His Highness Kamisuke admires him very much."

(End of this chapter)