Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 183: This is how monkeys came about

Yuanye didn't take the failure of recruiting the "General Manager of Horse Administration" too seriously. There is no shortage of talented people in this world, but there is a lack of a stage to display their talents. As long as there is a stage, there will always be people who want to show their talents on stage. He just needs to wait slowly, so this is not his loss, but Hiyoshimaru's.

He quickly put the matter behind him and waited slowly for the next suitable candidate. The leisurely day passed quickly. Oda Nobunaga started to make trouble again after a day of idleness and sent someone to invite him to join the hunting.

Hunting activities in this era were not simple. Tracking prey required keen observation and judgment, and rounding up prey required teamwork, quick decision-making and flexible response. These skills were all connected to warfare. By the way, it could also be used to obtain leather and meat to meet military needs. It was a very important social and military training activity.

Oda Nobunaga suddenly organized a hunting activity, probably to find something to do for the nobles who were waiting for the tea party, and to test their fighting capabilities, or he was simply bored and wanted to find someone to have fun with.

Yuanye didn't care about it and turned around to hand it over to Aman. Aman was very concerned and immediately gathered the inner guards to practice archery, not wanting to tarnish the reputation of the Nohara family in such a large-scale "military exercise".

After several days of preparation, the wealthy families, along with their retainers and followers, began to head to the hunting grounds in groups, and the hunting activities officially began.

Hara no Yama followed Oda Nobunaga around and did whatever he wanted. According to the "military meeting", he went wherever he was told to go. He didn't care whether it was driving the prey or surrounding the prey. He didn't even shoot a few arrows from beginning to end. On the contrary, Oda Nobunaga was having a lot of fun. He not only hunted with eagles and dogs, but also went out in person. With the help of his retainer Xiaoxing, he personally hunted a huge wild boar, fully demonstrating his bravery and courage.

Aman and the "Nohara family team" also tried hard, but they were now more accustomed to using cannons, and their archery skills were average, so they didn't achieve much success. After several consecutive attacks, they only caught some rabbits and pheasants, and the largest prey they caught was two deer, which was not worth mentioning among the powerful families.

Well, the nobles worked harder and were very serious about participating in this kind of "military exercise", and even had a faint sense of showing off their strength, for fear of falling behind and being looked down upon by others. They also actively expressed their loyalty to the new rulers, constantly offering large prey, and even some rare hunting dogs and falcons.

Oda Nobunaga never refused anyone who came to him, and kept rewarding or giving back horses, strong bows and swords, as if it was some kind of routine. At the same time, he did not forget his brother-in-law and ally Harano, and gave him an excellent hunting dog presented by a powerful family - a Shiba Inu. The main production area of Shiba Inu is Mino. It is very likely that Oda Nobunaga saw this Shiba Inu and associated it with Aman, so he gave it to him.

This hunting activity, which included "training" during the day and "socializing" at night, lasted for six days before it was completed. Only then was Harano able to follow Oda Nobunaga back to Kiyosu Castle.

Overall, he did experience the life of a high-level samurai. Samurai have been like this since childhood, and everything is done to prepare for war.

As he had to attend a "celebration banquet" in the evening, Hara did not return to his other house, but followed Oda Nobunaga directly to his home. As soon as he arrived at the stable, Hiyoshimaru came out to greet him in person. In addition to leading the family and his men to receive the horses, he also personally took off Oda Nobunaga's "Tsunanki Mota" and replaced him with light and comfortable fine grass half-shoes - "Tsunanki Mota" is a kind of Japanese leather riding boots with a unique design. The thumb and the other four fingers are separated, similar to the shape of an ox's hoof. This split-toe design allows the samurai to better control the reins and stirrups when riding, but it is extremely heavy and uncomfortable to wear.

In addition, Hiyoshimaru also ordered people to prepare sour plum soup for Oda Nobunaga to quench his thirst and fatigue, and to help him wipe away the dust and fatigue of the journey.

Oda Nobunaga was very pleased and patted him on the shoulder and said, "You are a good guy. If everyone is like you, I will have less worries."

Hiyoshimaru lowered his head and accepted the pat from Oda Nobunaga, and whispered something. Immediately, Oda Nobunaga smiled even more happily and nodded repeatedly.

Yuanye's current status is high, so naturally he has a bowl of sour plum soup to drink, but he is always careful about what he eats outside - a lot of food in this era is cooked by stepping on it, and even if it is not, the sanitary conditions are very appalling. Unless it is unavoidable, he doesn't like to eat and drink outside.

He planned to take a bath to relax, so he went straight out of the stable, and Maeda Toshiie followed him out immediately. After they had walked a long way, he turned back and said happily: "Hiyoshi is really smart, he really deserves to be called a monkey."

Yuan Ye was rubbing the mud off his body. He was startled when he heard this. He turned around and stared at him and asked, "What did you call him just now?"

Maeda Toshiie was startled by him, but after thinking about it, he realized that he had said nothing wrong, and said hesitantly: "I didn't say anything, I just praised Hiyoshi for being smart..."

"That's not it." Yuanye had already stopped walking and continued to stare at him and asked, "What's going on with the monkey?"

"His... nickname, there was a jerk who made a joke that he was a monkey, and gradually it became popular." Maeda Toshiie was puzzled. He felt that this kind of thing was no big deal. What young people don't have nicknames? Oda Nobunaga even called him A-dog! Besides, he and Hiyoshimaru had a good relationship, so he wouldn't get angry even if he was called "monkey" to his face, but he just didn't call him that normally.

Yuanye was stunned for a moment and quickly tried to recall Hiyoshimaru's appearance, but no matter how hard he tried, he was a nice-looking young man. One could barely say that he had a handsome face. His arms were not longer than his knees, he had no hair on his face, and he didn't have ears sticking out. He didn't look like a monkey at all.

Seeing that he was stunned, Maeda Toshiie became more and more puzzled and asked carefully, "What's wrong, Saburo?"

Yuan Ye came back to his senses, and after a moment of hesitation, he smiled and said, "Nothing, I just think it's not nice to give people nicknames."

Although Maeda Toshiie disagreed, Yuanye was a few years older than him and was a "legendary figure", so he nodded honestly and said, "I am a little rude."

"It's not that serious." Yuan Ye said perfunctorily, and then immediately asked, "Who gave him this nickname? Why do you call him Monkey?"

"It was named by a bastard named Shiami around His Highness. That guy likes to act crazy and make fun of people on a daily basis." Maeda Toshiie thought for a while after answering, and hesitated, "Why is Hiyoshi called monkey? It's probably because Hiyoshi is called Hiyoshi, and he lives in the stable!" "What do you mean?" Yuanye didn't understand.

"Because of Hiyoshi Taisha, Hiyoshi just happens to have the same name as Hiyoshi Taisha, and Hiyoshi Taisha is dedicated to the monkey god... well, originally it was the monkey god, but now it is just a companion sacrifice to the Lords of Mount Hiei." Maeda Toshiie didn't know why Hara was concerned about these trivial matters, but he still tried to recall, "Also, it seems that it is because the "Beast Sutra" or some other book said that when raising horses, tying a monkey in the stable can prevent the horses from getting plague. Hiyoshi works very hard and sleeps in the stable almost every day, so Shiami laughed at him for being like a monkey tied in a stable all day long." (Note 1)

Yuanye nodded slowly. After being reminded by Maeda Toshiie, he remembered that ancient China did believe that "monkeys can prevent horses from getting sick" and there was a tradition of tying monkeys in the stable.

For example, the book “Qimin Yaoshu” mentions “often tying macaques in the stable to make the horses fearless, ward off evil, and cure all diseases.”

For example, "Four Seasons Compendium" records the sentence "Always tie a macaque in the stable to ward off evil and cure all kinds of diseases, and keep the horses from getting scabies."

For example, in the entry on "Macaque" in Compendium of Materia Medica, it quoted the sentence "Keeping female monkeys in the stable can prevent horse plague" from "The Book of Animals and Horses XII" and also mentioned "Every month, the menstrual period flows on the grass, and horses that eat it will never get sick again".

For example, there are related records in books such as "Huqian Jing" and "Yunlu Manchao", and it even influenced some vernacular novels in the Yuan and Ming dynasties. For example, in "Journey to the West", when Sun Wukong went to heaven for the first time, he was given the official title of "Bimawen", which actually meant "avoiding horse plague".

It turns out that the reason why Kinoshita Tokichiro was called monkey was not because he looked like a monkey, but because he was in charge of horses and lived in a stable, so people mistook him for a monkey and gave him such a nickname.

To be honest, Yuanye had never thought of this before. He was wandering around Oda Nobunaga's house all day, looking for someone with hair on the face, arms below the knees, and a monkey-like appearance. Even after chatting with Hiyoshimaru, he never thought of him - Hiyoshimaru seemed to be very capable and motivated, and he even wanted to be a samurai, but there were really a lot of people who were capable and wanted to be samurai these days. If Yuanye suspected every one he saw, then he wouldn't have to do anything else all day and could just make blind guesses.

Of course, now that we have the nickname "Monkey" as evidence, there is a 99.99% chance that Hiyoshimaru is the future Kinoshita Tokichiro, Hashiba Hideyoshi, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

God took pity on him. After years of suffering, when Oda Nobunaga unified the eight counties of Owari, he finally found the monkey. Or rather, the monkey finally appeared and was now a Lang party member of Oda Nobunaga, and had not yet become a samurai.

As long as the person is found, it will be easy. Yuanye didn't rush to turn around and ran back to the stable to stab Hiyoshimaru with a knife. Without any expression on his face, he severely criticized the rude guy named Juami, and then followed the topic to ask about Hiyoshimaru's origins. He really couldn't remember the monkey's origins. He only remembered that he came from a grassroots family, but it seemed that it didn't make sense at the moment. It was unlikely that a simple commoner's son had studied in a temple school, let alone served as a "planning magistrate" in a powerful family. Even after leaving, he could smoothly enter Oda Nobunaga's house and quickly be promoted to the head of the horse hall.

Maeda Toshiie was very clear about all this, and was very happy to see Harano's interest in Hiyoshimaru, and immediately said, "Hiyoshimaru's background, his father was a friend of Lord Nobuhide, known as Chikuami, and was deeply trusted by Lord Nobuhide, but now he has retired and lives in Nakamura not far from Hibitsu Village.

Hiyoshimaru also went out to explore for a while, but I heard that the result was not good. Because of his good ability, he aroused the jealousy of some people in the Matsushita family, and finally had to leave. After leaving, he stayed in Mino, Omi and Kyoto for a few years. He only came back last year. When he came back, he was recommended to the lord by his father. "

Is that so?

Yuan Ye felt that this made sense and nodded slightly: "So his father is a friend of his..."

The main job of the dōpon-chō was to accompany the daimyo and provide them with entertainment and social services. For example, in the daily life of the daimyo, the dōpon-chō would accompany the daimyo to play chess, karuta, and cuju to help the daimyo relax and relieve the pressure brought by government affairs and military affairs. In some important social occasions or banquets, the dōpon-chō would also participate, livening up the atmosphere and promoting social exchanges by performing talents and telling jokes.

During this period, Yuanye has watched Oda Nobunaga's friends perform their talents a lot, but he never expected that Monkey was from an "artistic family" - in a sense, it is not wrong to say that Monkey was from a grassroots background. Many of his friends are like playthings and are not worthy of being on stage. Their status is far inferior to that of the samurai.

Maeda Toshiie felt that something was wrong with Yuanye today, but he couldn't tell what it was, so he could only follow his words and say, "It was his friends, that bastard Shiami seemed to have been making fun of Hiyoshimaru because Hiyoshimaru's father had made fun of him before, but Hiyoshimaru never took it seriously."

Yuanye nodded again, and criticized Shiami for being petty-minded. Then he said a few more words of gossip and said that he was tired and wanted to take a bath to relax, and then he drove Maeda Toshiie away.

But he didn't really go to take a bath. He was not in the mood for that now. He called Aman, who was yelling at the maids of the Oda family to bring the bathtub quickly, and drove the maids of the Oda family out. He whispered to Aman and Aqing: "I plan to kill someone. Can you help me figure out how to kill him?"

I have no experience in murdering him, so I still need to consult an expert.

Aman and Aqing were both stunned. Yuanye had always had a very mild temper, and he had never shown mercy even on the battlefield, but this was the first time he had said he wanted to "kill someone" in his daily life.

…………

Note 1: This is just my guess. I looked at many portraits of Hashiba Hideyoshi. Although they all looked wrinkled like a pickled radish, they did not look like a monkey at all. Later, I searched for information but couldn't find anything. So I made a guess. If there are other explanations, follow those explanations.

(End of this chapter)