Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 201: Renewal of the Covenant
Old Wanzu was the place where Harano started his career, but after Harano forcibly landed on the Chita Peninsula, it was taken back by Oda Nobunaga.

Later, Harano provided manpower and helped a lot in the Owari Unification War, and Oda Nobunaga gave this place to him as a garrison. However, after the Battle of Okehazama, this place was taken back by Oda Nobunaga again as a warning - this place was too close to Atsuta Port, and Oda Nobunaga would not allow him to continue to station troops here, let alone allow his troops to land here again.

So, it was two years later that Yuanye returned here for the first time. When he stepped onto the dock, he found that Jiuwanjin had been completely desolate - the soil here was bad, agriculture was not good, and there was no industry or commerce. It had become dilapidated.

There were already a group of people waiting for him at the Jiuwanjin Wharf, led by two acquaintances and a stranger.

The acquaintances were Niwa Nagahide and Maeda Toshiie, and the stranger was Yakuro, also known as the "second generation monkey."

This was a formal meeting. Niwa Nagahide came to greet him on behalf of the Oda family. He followed etiquette and immediately stepped forward and bowed slightly to greet him: "Your Highness Saburo, you have worked hard."

Yuanye also bowed his head and said, "Gorozaemon-sama, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long."

Well, as his status and fame increased, Niwa Nagahide also changed his common name. He had changed it together with Maeda Toshiie. His new common name is Gorozaemon, while Maeda Toshiie's is Matazaemon.

After the two sides exchanged polite greetings, Yuanye's eyes immediately shifted to Yajiro and asked knowingly: "Who is this..."

Niwa Nagahide immediately introduced him, "This is Lord Nakamura Yakuro. This time, the lord ordered the three of us to escort His Highness to Qingzhou Castle."

Yakuro looked at Nohara carefully, and seemed to be a little curious about this ally of the Oda family and the brother-in-law of Oda Nobunaga, but he was also quite sensible. After taking a look, he immediately bowed his head and greeted respectfully: "Nohara, your highness, please take care of me in the future."

Yuanye showed a gentle smile on his face and nodded, "Thank you for your hard work this time, Master Yajiro."

Although he was unable to spare time in the past two years due to various natural disasters, he paid close attention to this "second generation monkey". This man made great contributions in the Battle of Okehazama, became a samurai in one fell swoop, and was later arranged a marriage by Oda Nobunaga, becoming the son-in-law, adopted son and heir of the Nakamura family.

The situations of the Nakamura family and the Kinoshita family were similar, both of them were impoverished families with only the title of samurai left. Originally, Oda Nobunaga did think of marrying Ningning to him and turning him into Kinoshita Yakuro, but he did not do so in the end - Ningning had been helping Harano take care of the shops in Kiyosu Castle and Nakuruno Castle, and had been polluted by Harano. Oda Nobunaga did not seem to want Yakuro and Harano to have a "relative" relationship, and finally picked out the Nakamura family, which was about to become extinct, and married the daughter of the Nakamura family who had returned to her parents' home after being widowed, to him.

This meant that Yakuro was unable to get the support of the Asano family as in history, and his personal strength did not improve as much as in history, but it did not affect the overall situation. Oda Nobunaga himself still supported him very much. Now Yakuro served in the "Kawabami Shu" and had been active in the Kiso River and Nagara River areas. From time to time, he led the Kawanami Shu to launch a surprise attack on Mino, and accumulated a lot of military exploits.

When he grows up a little more, Oda Nobunaga will probably be able to use him to contain the Owari clan, just like in history.

Now Yuanye finally got to know the "Monkey Second Generation" officially, but he didn't talk to him for long. After saying hello and exchanging a few polite words with Niwa Nagahide, these three people led a team to escort him to Kiyosu Castle. Oda Nobunaga probably knew that he was now disliked by people in Owari and was worried that he would be ambushed by the powerful families, so he specially sent his confidants to be on the safe side to avoid the scene becoming too ugly.

Harano was riding on a horse, surrounded by the guards, and soon Maeda Toshiie came rushing over.

Harano motioned for the guards to make way and said jokingly, "Long time no see, Lord Gunno Mataza. I haven't congratulated you on returning to the Oda family yet."

"Gun no Mataza" is Maeda Toshiie's new nickname.

In the Battle of Mino Moribeguchi last year, he followed Shibata Katsuie into battle as a ronin and killed Mino's famous swordsmanship master, Adachi Rokubei, known as the "Neck-Torri Adachi". He was the first to break the formation and also killed two foot soldiers of the Saito family, making great contributions again. With Shibata Katsuie pleading for him earnestly, Oda Nobunaga finally "forgave" him, took him back under his command, and increased his annual salary to 450 kan.

To outsiders, this was Maeda Toshiie's culmination of all the hard work, but what really happened was probably only known to a few people, including Oda Nobunaga - Maeda Toshiie's mission was successful, and in the past two years he had become Shibata Katsuie's confidant, calling Shibata Katsuie "like a dear father". Now that Maeda Toshiie has returned to Oda Nobunaga, Shibata Katsuie is probably happy to have placed one of his own next to Oda Nobunaga.

Therefore, Maeda Toshiie is actually a double agent now.

When Maeda Toshiie heard Yuanye mention his military exploits and his return, he couldn't help but burst into laughter. He was still very cheerful and innocent, and kept saying, "It's all the Lord's grace, it's all the Lord's grace!"

Yuanye also laughed along with his words and said, "Don't be so rough next time. If you get chased away again, you won't be able to come back."

"No, no, not anymore...not anymore."

Maeda Toshiie seemed to be still in shock. The life of a ronin over the past two or three years had taught him a lot about the fickleness of human nature. He responded a few times and then whispered, "Thank you, Saburo."

He was down and out, wandering around, and even his wife, Song, had to be left with Shibata Katsuie. However, Yuanye still remembered Song, and from time to time he sent people to deliver money and property to her. He also wrote letters to send Ningning to teach Song how to do business, and helped Song open a "weaving house" to buy cloth and resell it to Ningning in Qingzhou City, as well as sell high-end printed and dyed cloth from Xinwanjin. In the past two years, he made a lot of money, making Song a small rich woman without suffering any hardship. I didn't know all this until Maeda Toshiie took Song back to Qingzhou City. I felt that Yuanye was a very considerate guy.

"With our friendship, there's no need to say this." Yuanye did it casually, mainly because he felt sorry for Asong who was cheated so badly, but he immediately looked at Maeda Toshiie and asked, "Ningning wrote me a letter, is that true?"

Maeda Toshiie's face immediately turned awkward, and he said with a dry cough, "That... I've already taken care of it."

"You guy..."

Yuan Ye was speechless. He originally thought it was fake. After all, the free love between Maeda Toshiie and Osomatsu was something that was often praised in Taiga dramas. It was an example of a love that was stronger than gold. But...

Maeda Toshiie cheated on his wife. While he was a guest at the Matsuoka family, he had an affair with Matsuoka Sukenaga's widowed sister Otofuku and even made her pregnant.

Well, that was almost two years ago. Now the child is born and named Kuchiyo.

Maeda Toshiie had been keeping this a secret, but there is no such thing as a wall that is impenetrable. A widow who suddenly gave birth to a child could not hide it even if she wanted to. The news spread from Atsuta to Kiyosu Castle, and then to Kasugai County. It was said that Osong cried miserably, and Ningning, as a good girlfriend, scolded Maeda Toshiie in a letter to Yuanye, basically equating Maeda Toshiie with a dog.

Maeda Toshiie looked even more embarrassed and sighed, "It is true that I am sorry to Osomatsu, but...anyway, I have already confessed to Osomatsu, and the...child has also been arranged. He is now the adopted son of Mr. Matsuoka. Osomatsu also gave the child a sum of money. This matter...is over."

"Okay, this is a matter between you and Asong anyway."

Yuanye did not dwell on this matter. In his estimation, the child was most likely a "letter of allegiance" submitted by Maeda Toshiie, and he was probably getting together with Otofuku for the purpose of a mission - if he did not sell himself and hand over a hostage to the powerful families, why would the Owari powerful families treat him as one of their own and trust him?

Being a spy is not easy. Maeda Toshiie devoted himself to his lord Oda Nobunaga.

Yuanye did not mention the bloody incident between the couple again, and asked instead: "I heard that Lord Kamisuke is going to move his residence to Komakiyama?"

Maeda Toshiie didn't want to talk about his illegitimate son, so he quickly followed his words and said, "That's right, Inuyama Castle rebelled, and it was in conflict with Mino. The lord planned to move the castle to the Komakiyama area in the Hirano area to avoid being caught off guard. But many people opposed it. Later, the lord said he planned to move the castle to Ninomiyayama next to Inuyama Castle, and more people supported moving it to Komakiyama. Now it has been decided to build a castle on Komakiyama. The lord probably hopes you can help."

"It's fine to help, but can't cope with it in time?" Yuan Ye was very concerned about this matter and asked immediately, "Is Inuyama Castle under a lot of pressure?"

Maeda Toshiie did not hide the fact that he came here to inform Oda Nobunaga and Harano in advance. "The pressure is not great, but it is very troublesome. If we send troops directly to Mino, our backs will be exposed to Inuyama Castle once we cross the Kiso River, so the lord intends to eliminate Inuyama Castle first."

Yuanye nodded slowly. No wonder Oda Nobunaga was no longer angry with him and took the initiative to ease the relationship with him. It seemed that after Oda Nobumasa and Saito Tatsuoki joined forces, Oda Nobunaga began to have a headache and planned to ask his brother-in-law to help in a group fight.

This is also expected!

Harano also wanted to ease the relationship with Oda Nobunaga, otherwise Oda Nobunaga had stockpiled heavy troops along the Ohtaka River, and he would be under a lot of pressure.

He then asked in detail about the details of the battles between the Oda army and the Nobumasa army and the Saito army during this period, as well as the attitude of the Owari clan towards participating in the war. At this time, Niwa Nagahide also came over, and after chatting with him for a while, he said that the task of building Komakiyama Castle was given to him by Oda Nobunaga, and he hoped that Yuanye could provide some manpower and cement to quickly build Komakiyama Castle and related branch castles.

It would be best if it could be done in a month or two. Oda Nobunaga could no longer wait to deal with Oda Nobumasa, but to deal with Oda Nobumasa, Mino would definitely have to be harassed from behind, so the city defense fortifications on this line must be built quickly.

Well, volcanic ash cement has basically no technical content, after all, it is a technology before the Common Era. But how to make concrete and how to use concrete to build a city still have technical content. And according to Niwa Nagahide, Wanjin needs to send part of the army to assist in guarding to ensure that Oda Nobunaga can attack Inuyama Castle with all his strength.

This should be Oda Nobunaga's request, but Niwa Nagahide asked it first to test the waters, to avoid an awkward situation if Haruno refused outright.

Yuanye knew what was going on, and immediately started discussing the matter with Niwa Nagahide and bargaining.

In a sense, this can be regarded as the renewal of the alliance between the Oda and Nohara families.

(End of this chapter)