Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 46: Traveling through time is so difficult!
"What a coincidence, Lord Nohara, I was just about to visit you, and I didn't expect to meet you on the road!" Maeda Toshiie also saw Nohara, and rode to his side, jumped off the horse swiftly, and took out two bottles of wine from his saddlebag, saying with a smile, "I just got two bottles of winter storage, let's taste them together later!"

"Welcome, welcome. It's really a coincidence." Yuanye didn't expect that he would come here again. He said perfunctorily and quickly looked in the direction he came from, in case he attracted the devil Oda Nobunaga again.

Maeda Toshiie misunderstood and thought that Yuanye was looking at his gangster. He immediately waved behind his horse and called out, "Hachiro, come and see Lord Nohara." Then he smiled at Yuanye and said, "His name is Mura Hachiro. He is a gangster I recruited before. He is quite skilled. If there is anything I can't come over, I will send him over."

The last time he went home was to recruit some gang members - all his money was used to buy horses and swords, so it was difficult to hire people himself, so he could only go to his father Maeda Toshiharu to get them for free. As a result, he didn't like any of the group of experienced people that Maeda Toshiharu picked for him. He had finally run away from home and got a job, and didn't want to be constrained by others anymore, so in the end he only chose Mura Hachiro, who was younger than him, from his family.

Yuanye took a look and found that Mura Hachiro was dressed in cloth, a six-circle short haori, and a katana slung diagonally at his waist. Although he was young, he looked very capable. He paid attention to him and nodded slightly in greeting - as long as this guy didn't die, he might be a retainer of "Kaga Hyakumangoku" in the future, and very likely the one with the most seniority. His status would not be too low, so it would be right to remember him.

Murahachiro also looked up and remembered Yuanye's appearance, but did not dare to look at him for too long. When he saw him nod in greeting, he immediately knelt down and saluted.

Yuanye waved his hand, indicating that it was not necessary, and then extended his hand to invite the guests, and led Maeda Toshiie and Murahachiro back to Yayoi's house. After returning home, Yuanye asked Yayoi and Ah Ping to prepare a few side dishes to entertain Maeda Toshiie, and also cooked some more, so that the Taoi brothers could eat and chat with Murahachiro in the yard, which was considered very considerate of the guests.

He just refused to drink. He had been deeply harmed by alcohol in his life and his childhood was almost ruined. He hated alcohol with all his heart. Although he had grown up and was open-minded and would not interfere with others' drinking, he would rather die than drink. That would destroy many of the things he insisted on when he was rebuilding himself.

Maeda Toshiie really thought wine was a good thing and wanted to get him into it, but after persuading him for a while, he had no choice but to drink by himself. After the five dishes and three rounds of wine, he wiped his hands on his legs and said seriously, "Does Lord Nohara have some misunderstandings about Lord Oda Saburo?"

Yuan Ye sighed secretly, knowing that he had no good intentions. Sure enough, he was still determined to cheat him again. He made up his mind and decided to refuse. He would never become a retainer of Oda Nobunaga.

It is not so easy to be a retainer. Take the current situation for example. Maeda Toshiie could still refuse. As a guest, there is no reason for Maeda Toshiie to force his master. At most, he would feel a little unhappy. But if he became a retainer of Oda Nobunaga, let alone "adoptive father and adopted son" or something like that, even if Oda Nobunaga got drunk and insisted on forcing him to drink and ordered him to drink, would he drink or not?

How many people born in the 90s and 00s have encountered similar situations? You don't want to drink, but your boss asks you to drink. Do you drink? You don't give your boss face in public and embarrass him. Do you think your boss won't make things difficult for you? In order to keep your job, you have no choice but to drink reluctantly. Is it uncomfortable? Do you feel humiliated and mentally humiliated?

It's like this now, and it would be even worse in ancient times. If Oda Nobunaga got drunk and insisted on forcing you to drink, and you refused to drink, would he get drunk and beat you up? Or he would get angry and give you a dilemma - either obey orders and drink, or commit seppuku to apologize, you choose!

If you won't even obey orders for something as small as drinking, what else can we expect you to do?
Well, I have to drink it to save my life, but what about other things?
He wants you to arrest and hang all the villagers who resist taxation. Do you obey the order? If you obey, you will go against your conscience. If you don't obey and try to find a way to get around it, you will risk your life. Life and death are completely controlled by what Oda Nobunaga thinks at the time!

Yuan Ye really traveled through time, and he would definitely encounter many similar things in the future, and it would not be as simple as in the novels where you can just brush it off with a smile. That's why I said that this retainer cannot be used, not only does he need to get used to kowtow and suffer some insults on his personality, but there are endless similar troubles, and he also needs to abandon many things that modern people need to stick to.

Of course, it would be easy if he could "integrate into the times". If he were not a modern person, he would not need to insist on so many things and could just kill and hack and kill along the way. But he just doesn't have that ability. Some of his ideas are too stubborn and he really can't integrate into it.

Nohara was playing dead, not wanting to talk about Oda Nobunaga. He drank his tea silently without nodding or shaking his head, which made Maeda Toshiie misunderstand him and think that he really had a deep misunderstanding of Oda Nobunaga. He quickly said, "There are indeed many rumors about Lord Oda Saburo in the world, but rumors stop at the wise. With Lord Nohara's wisdom, you can't really believe it, right?"

Yuan Ye had no way to stop him from talking, so he had to talk even if he didn't want to. He sighed and said, "I have indeed heard some... rumors. The words are ridiculous and hard to be convincing."

"As expected of Lord Nohara, you are indeed very wise!" Maeda Toshiie drank a glass of wine, praised him first, and then said, "There are many misunderstandings about Lord Oda Saburo in the world, such as the incident with Lord Kinoshita, which is mostly based on rumors."

At this point, he paused for a moment, then asked with concern, "Lord Nohara knows about Lord Kinoshita's incident, right?"

“I’ve never heard of this.”

"Well, I see..." Maeda Toshiie felt a little regretful. If he had known, he would not have mentioned it. But since he had already said it, he could only continue. "People outside are saying that Lord Oda Saburo shot Lord Kinoshita with a cannon for no reason. In fact, someone is deliberately doing bad things and making up rumors to cause trouble!"

Yuanye remembered that Aman had said that Oda Nobunaga killed a retainer with a cannon, so he asked curiously, "So this is a rumor? Lord Kinoshita is not dead?"

"Uh... Mr. Kinoshita is indeed dead."

"Wasn't he killed by Lord Oda Saburo's cannon?"

"Uh... it was definitely killed by Lord Oda Saburo with a cannon." Maeda Toshiie was obviously not a good talker. His eloquence in "Taikou 2" was only one star, and it seemed that his evaluation was correct. He said very embarrassedly, "It was manslaughter. Lord Oda Saburo was practicing cannons in the training ground at the time, and Lord Kinoshita happened to be practicing archery in the training ground. I don't know how it happened, but Lord Kinoshita was hit by a cannon, but he didn't die at the time. He was only hit in the thigh. He went back and lay down for more than days before... he died of illness."

Yuanye drank his tea silently and was speechless for a moment.

Wasn't it Oda Nobunaga who killed him with a cannon? That rumor wasn't that much of a rumor! It's just that it was changed to "manslaughter by mistake", which does sound better than killing a retainer with a cannon. Before, I thought Oda Nobunaga deliberately aimed at people and fired, deliberately killing retainers for fun. Maeda Toshiie also felt that this story was a bit confusing, but it was really an accident. Afterwards, Oda Nobunaga himself didn't understand why the cannon suddenly went off, and one of the bullets flew out and was crooked like that, breaking Kinoshita who was pulling the arrow from the target, and making a big bloody hole on the side of his thigh - they didn't use the same target, and the targets were more than ten steps apart, so theoretically they shouldn't be able to hit it!

Maeda Toshiie felt that he had started off badly, as he had not explained the first rumor well, so he quickly skipped over it and continued to explain other rumors dryly, "Well, there are also many people who say that Lord Oda Saburo likes to make friends with bandits, but that's actually a rumor!"

Yuanye had also heard Aman mention this, and immediately asked, "Then Lord Oda Saburo has never made friends with bandits and has always kept himself clean?"

"Well... I did make friends with some bandits." Maeda Toshiie began to feel embarrassed again, but immediately said anxiously, "But Lord Oda Saburo made friends with these people without any intention of going along with them. He just wanted to learn the art of arquebus. There was a thief among the Kawanami clan... There was a man named Hashimoto Iktomo who was good at using arquebus. Lord Oda Saburo often went there just to practice arquebus skills with him, and he also wanted to make them turn over a new leaf and recruit them for his own use. In fact, the Kawanami clan and the Hosuka gang have rarely robbed in the past two years. It's all thanks to Lord Oda Saburo."

After a pause, he added, "Lord Oda Saburo was very concerned about the iron cannon. He believed that this weapon would shine on the battlefield in the future and had many ideas about the iron cannon. That's why I had to learn it."

Maeda Toshiie's words were a bit confusing, but Yuanye understood the general meaning. Oda Nobunaga was very keen on military matters, or in other words, from the perspective of the lord of a city, he believed that the new weapon such as the arquebus was very suitable to equip his troops. He even had the idea of recruiting some river pirates and mountain bandits to form an arquebus unit. This was actually quite remarkable.

However, the iron cannon really caused a lot of trouble for Oda Nobunaga. Most of the rumors about Oda Nobunaga were actually related to the iron cannon...

Harano was stroking his chin and thinking. Maeda Toshiie seemed to see hope. He went back and thought about it, and felt that it was impossible for a young samurai to have no idea of becoming an official. It was estimated that Harano was just scared by Oda Nobunaga's bad reputation, so he tried hard to explain it.

When he saw the effect, he quickly added: "The rumors about Lord Oda Saburo doing nothing all day are also deliberately spread by someone! Lord Oda Saburo trains in horse riding and archery every day, goes swimming in the river to strengthen his body, and takes us to practice formations. He doesn't have much time to enjoy himself. As a superior, he is very hardworking!"

Yuanye knew about this. Aman said that Oda Nobunaga would swim in the Nagara River, and that his butt was very white. He also said that he often took a group of small-name retainers to beat them with bamboo sticks. It seemed that he was strengthening his body and practicing the art of battle.

Thinking of this, Yuanye suddenly remembered another thing that Aman had said, and he also became curious and asked curiously: "I heard that Master Hirate's eldest son was put in a sack and beaten in the city. This..."

"Uh..." Maeda Toshiie was stunned for a moment, his eyes evasive, and he quickly picked up the wine bowl and pretended to drink, and said vaguely, "I'm not very clear about this matter. At that time, I hadn't followed Saburo-sama yet, and I hadn't heard anyone mention it."

Yuanye coughed dryly, picked up the tea bowl and drank a sip with him. He understood in his heart that it was indeed Oda Nobunaga who sent people to beat him. Oda Nobunaga was a petty person and would settle scores later. Hirate Masahide's eldest son just followed his father's orders to tie up Oda Nobunaga and send him home, but he ended up being beaten for no reason. It was really unfair!

Maeda Toshiie didn't want to talk about the city's sack trap. He finished drinking and straightened his expression and continued to work hard: "In short, many rumors about Lord Oda Saburo are not true. Lord Oda Saburo is just arrogant and has always been unwilling to explain. Lord Harano must not believe in rumors! On the contrary, Lord Oda Saburo admires Lord Nohara very much and looks forward to his activeness!"

"Oh, is it because of his medical skills?" Yuanye estimated that this was his only advantage at the moment.

"That's about right!" Maeda Toshiie didn't really understand the matter, and was mostly guessing. This lobbyist was confused and said hesitantly, "Maybe it's because you are willing to treat the common people that Lord Oda Saburo appreciates you so much? He seems to have always felt that the common people in Owari were in poor health. After being recruited as foot soldiers, they couldn't even run fast. It's impossible to gain an advantage by using them in war. He has said many times that he wants to let the common people have rice to eat and be stronger, but... it's difficult, and he has never been able to do it. Now that he sees that you are willing to give medicine and make the common people's health better, he probably... feels that he has some similarities with you?"

Is that so? Oda Nobunaga seemed to have wanted to manipulate the rice payment so that the common people could pay less rice. It turned out that he was not confused about his class position or intended to treat the common people well, but just disliked the poor quality of his soldiers? In addition, he has been practicing martial arts and riding, exercising daily, and paying attention to new weapons. Could it be that his current ambition is to become a famous general?
Nohara was thinking and analyzing Oda Nobunaga's psychological state. Maeda Toshiie felt that the time was almost right. With his one-star eloquence, it was difficult for him to come up with something new. He immediately moved back a few steps, bowed and saluted, and said loudly: "Lord Nohara, I am not good at speaking, and many things I can't say clearly, but my lord has great ambitions and is determined to become a better general than His Highness Dan Masatada in the future. I dare to guarantee this with my life! I believe that my lord will definitely achieve great achievements in the future, and will never let your ambition and talent down, so... please follow my lord, please!"

What was to come finally came. It was inevitable. Yuan Ye sighed again and asked him seriously, "So, this time, Lord Oda Saburo sent you to persuade me? Is this Lord Oda Saburo's intention?"

If so, he could only escape overnight and start over in another place. He must not give Oda Nobunaga the chance to visit him three times, as that would be a way to his death - if he still did not agree after three visits, then Oda Nobunaga would definitely kill him. This is obvious even if you think about it with your butt.

It's so difficult to cross over, it's really not that easy to pass...

Yuanye had already started thinking about how to run away overnight, who to take with him and what to bring, and Maeda Toshiie looked up and said embarrassedly: "That's not the case. Lord Oda Saburo just asked me to deliver some things. I just think I should persuade him again."

Yuanye stared at him for a while and was completely speechless - you bastard, what do you have to do with this? You are making trouble and you almost scared me to run away from home!
He was speechless for a while, then he stretched out his hand and said unhappily, "Where are the things? I really don't want to be an official. If you want to treat me as a friend, please don't mention it again. It will only embarrass me! Please!"

Maeda Toshiie tried for a long time but still failed. He was a little disappointed for a moment. He sighed and climbed up. He still didn't understand what Yuanye was thinking, but he respected his wishes and didn't insist on persuading him. He just took out a "Black Seal Judgment" from his arms and handed it to him, sighing: "That's a pity. I believe that Lord Oda Saburo will definitely make great achievements. Following him, it is not a delusion to become the lord of a city in the future. It's a pity that you don't join us!"

"I believe this too, but let's forget about me. You just work hard on your own!" Yuanye said perfunctorily and unfolded the "Black Seal Judgment". He immediately raised his eyebrows when he took a look at it.

Yes, this is the style of people like Oda Nobunaga. He would not visit him three times and be entangled in the affair!

(End of this chapter)