Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 72: Confidant!
"Master Maeda, what are you doing..."

When Yuanye rushed to the front, he saw that the lord of Araki Castle, Maeda Toshiharu, was indeed kneeling on the side of the road. He was still wearing a coarse linen robe, his hair tied in a bun with a linen strip, and his feet were barefoot wearing straw sandals. He was accompanied only by the family elder Okumura Iefuku and a horse. He looked honest and respectful.

When Maeda Toshiharu saw him coming, he smiled bitterly and said, "This is the way the world is, Lord Nohara. I'm sorry to have embarrassed you."

Before, when Oda Nobunaga passed by Inaba, he hid in the city, feeling uneasy and trying to think about what he should do if Oda Nobunaga came to his house to ask for people and rice and asked him to send troops to help in the war. However, Oda Nobunaga passed by the house without entering and didn't even pay any attention to him.

This made it even more difficult for him to make a decision. Theoretically, even if Oda Nobunaga did not ask him to send troops to help, the battlefield was not far from his castle. He should have taken the initiative to attack upon receiving the news and fully assisted his "lord" in winning victory and fulfilled his minimum feudal obligations. However, he felt that Oda Nobunaga would most likely be defeated and flee back. He did not want to waste the lives of people in Arako Castle in vain, and he was not sure who would have the final say in the four counties under Owari in the future, so he did not want to get involved in this muddy water.

So he did nothing.

As a result, Oda Nobunaga was to win the battle, and he committed a crime without doing anything, and he committed the crime alone, without even a companion to disperse the firepower. The previous collective complaints and requests for a postponement of the mobilization were a tacit understanding among all the powerful families. Oda Nobunaga could not be blamed by the law, and he had no choice at all. However, the battlefield happened to be more than ten miles away from Araki Castle. Others could pretend to be dead afterwards, saying that they did not expect Oda Nobunaga to go there on his own, but he had no reason to pretend that he didn't know.

He even found out yesterday that even though the head of the Sakuma family in Inaba Castle was not there, they were still vaguely affiliated with Oda Nobuyuki's faction. They had already volunteered seven or eight armored men and fifty or sixty miscellaneous foot soldiers. In comparison...

He was in even greater trouble.

He regretted it very much. As soon as he learned that Oda Nobunaga had won, he rushed to Inaba to congratulate him with a lot of wine. However, he didn't even get to see him. Oda Nobunaga threw an inkstone from the tent, which almost hit him on the head, and told him to get out.

So, he could only roll back and kneel here, waiting for Oda Nobunaga to pass by and beg for forgiveness.

This is how the world is. You must have a sharp eye and follow the strong, otherwise you will be at risk of death and annihilation at any time.

But he couldn't explain this to Yuanye, so he could only smile bitterly.

Yuanye could probably guess some of it. After all, the unfinished Araki City had left a deep impression on him. The Araki Maeda family was indeed very poor, and he could fully understand that they didn't want more people to die. But understanding was one thing, and he couldn't help with this kind of thing. He could only say some comforting words and prepare to wait for his ox team to catch up before leaving together.

As expected, his ox caravan had the slowest movement speed in the world. Before they could move this short distance, Oda Nobunaga arrived on horseback with his horsemen and his retainers.

Oda Nobunaga stopped his horse in front of Maeda Toshiharu and looked at him with disgust. He was too lazy to talk to him any more. Without waiting for him to beg, he said directly: "Okay, Aquan has pleaded for you. For Aquan's sake, I will spare you this time."

After a pause, he looked up at the distant Arashi Castle, then lowered his head to look at Maeda Toshiharu, and said meaningfully: "Remember this, I only spared you this time for Aquan's sake!"

Maeda Toshiharu heaved a long sigh of relief, and quickly put his face to the ground, not caring about the dirt staining his gray hair, and choked up and said, "Thank you, Your Highness, for your magnanimity!"

He had passed the hurdle, otherwise this matter would have been a big deal and Oda Nobunaga would have gone mad and ordered him to commit seppuku to apologize or simply attack Araki Castle and kill most of his family. The other local powerful families would not have been able to say anything.

After all, it was he who failed to be loyal to the emperor and filial, so he was at fault first.

“That’s enough!” Oda Nobunaga waved his whip impatiently, and was about to tell him to get out. But when he saw Okumura Iefuku handing a horse with a large package to Ikeda Terumasa, he probably spent a lot of money. The word “get out” rolled around his lips for a few seconds, but he didn’t say it out loud. Instead, he said something more gentle, “Go back and reflect on your behavior. I won’t let you off easily if you do it again!”

After that, he said to Maeda Toshiie and another young man, "It's just right. You have been working hard during this period. You can go home and take a look!"

He was nice to his own people and quite humane. Maeda Toshiie and the young man thanked him in unison, then left with their father Maeda Toshiharu.

Oda Nobunaga looked up at the sun again, told his followers to rest for a while, water their horses and then continue on their journey. He then dismounted and waved to Yuanye: "You come too!"

It didn't matter what happened in the wilderness, since he still had to wait for the ox cart, so he went to the shade with him to rest for a while. Oda Nobunaga's rest was also quite unique. Ikeda Terumasa brought a horse with him. There was only a huge saddlebag on the horse's back. He pulled it over and started to put out all kinds of things such as stools, folding small square tables, wine bags, teapots, etc.

Oda Nobunaga dragged a stool over and sat down, and motioned for Yuanye to sit down as well. Then he picked up a cowhide wine bag and was about to throw it to him, but suddenly remembered that he was a hypocrite and didn't drink. Seeing Aman staring at the wine bag and swallowing her saliva, he threw it to her, which was very generous.

He raised his head and took a few sips of wine to moisten his throat, then looked towards Huangzi City in the distance, disgust appeared on his face again, and asked, "What do you think we should do with these guys?"

Actually, Yuanye is not very good at chatting. As an engineering graduate, he is very good at hands-on work, but not so good at talking. I just thought he was talking to himself and didn't respond at all. He just smiled politely at Ikeda Terumasa who brought him warm tea, and Ikeda Terumasa also responded with a kind smile. He was very gentle and seemed to have a good personality.

Yuanye prefers to get along with people like Ikeda Terumasa, but he has no chance to make close friends with them. Oda Nobunaga is still looking at Arashi Castle, and it seems that he has seen other places through this unfinished castle. The disgust on his face is even stronger. "They are all vulgar people who can only see the inch in front of them. What should I do with them?"

Previously, he asked the local nobles to build the road, but no one responded. He called for everyone to mobilize and go to war, and there was another round of complaints. Only his uncle came. At this time, he had already hated these local nobles to the core, thinking that they were all a bunch of short-sighted people - Owari was obviously full of manpower and materials, but he couldn't mobilize them. The old retainers and local nobles refused to listen to him and obstructed him in various ways.

He even wanted the common people to have enough rice to eat and grow stronger so they could fight in future wars, but he couldn't even do such a small thing!
Those guys were reluctant to spit out even a mouthful of rice, just like Maeda Toshiharu, who was both stingy and afraid to make any decision. He was a complete coward - if Maeda Toshiharu dared to join forces with the Kiyosu Army to attack him, he would still look up to him, but Maeda Toshiharu didn't have the courage at all, so he only deserved a "get out" from him.

Yuanye could guess what he was thinking, but still didn't respond and just drank his tea - Oda Nobunaga couldn't tell these things to anyone else, as he was surrounded by children of powerful families, so they could only talk to him, who had nothing to do with Owari, and he just had to be a good listener.

He wanted to be a good listener and drink some tea. Oda Nobunaga was very good at enjoying tea. He didn't know where the tea came from, but it was so fragrant and sweet that it was better than the ones he bought at a high price. It would be a waste to give it to Oda Nobunaga. But Oda Nobunaga would not let him go. He turned his eyes to him and asked repeatedly, "What do you think I should do?"

"I don't know." Yuanye stretched out his hand to signal Ikeda Terumasa to add more tea for him. He had no intention of showing off. After so many bad things happened to Oda Nobunaga, he had some ideas. Now he wanted to sort out his thoughts. He stroked the soft beard that had just grown on his chin and asked, "What do you think about moving them all to live in that Furuno Castle?"

Yuan Ye glanced at him, and seeing that he couldn't avoid it, he told the truth: "Separating soldiers from farmers is a good idea."

"Separation of soldiers and farmers?" Oda Nobunaga couldn't help but ponder upon hearing this. He felt that this word was very appropriate and perfectly matched some vague but difficult to determine ideas in his mind. He became serious for a moment and leaned forward to ask, "Do you think this is feasible? Will they be willing to go?"

This "兵" refers to warriors, not soldiers.

He wanted to get all the people in the hands of the local powerful families into his own hands. Recently, he was thinking of moving all these local powerful families to live in the castle town of Kuno Castle. This way, he could keep an eye on them personally and call on manpower when something happened, making it impossible for them to shirk their responsibilities.

But this was just something he could think about. How could he get these local wealthy families to move to the castle town of Kuno Castle without forcing them to rebel? He had never thought of a good idea. Now he suddenly discovered that Yuanye could actually follow his ideas, and he couldn't help but want to communicate with him.

Well, it wasn't a sudden discovery. He had always felt that Yuanye was quite talented, persistent, unique in character, and elegant in style. He was very much like him. He was also an outstanding "strange person" with very clear and strange ideas. He could see the future that vulgar people could not see. He was an abnormal human being in the eyes of others.

Now that we have discussed it in detail, it is indeed true. His vision is never wrong!
It's just that Yuanye himself didn't have much knowledge, and he was not a student of history. He just knew a few terms. However, he was still happy to help Oda Nobunaga a little. After all, the sooner Oda Nobunaga cleaned up the mess in Owari, the sooner he could do business safely and the sooner he could move freely.

This was also beneficial to him. He thought about it seriously for a while before shaking his head and saying, "It's very difficult now, almost impossible."

"Really?" Oda Nobunaga was not too disappointed. After all, he had been thinking for a long time and couldn't come up with any good ideas. He only had some vague thoughts. It was normal that Yuanye couldn't think of it for a while. Even if he was a little irritable, he would not get angry because of it. He just concentrated on thinking alone.

"Maybe, we can start by separating farmers and soldiers." Yuanye was still thinking, organizing his thoughts as he spoke.

"Separation of farmers and soldiers?" Oda Nobunaga was indeed quick-witted. He immediately understood the meaning by simply changing the order of the words. He pondered and said, "Recruit more Lang party members?"

"Given the situation in Owari, the only way to make them hand over power is to use absolute strength to subdue them. There is no other way." Yuanye drank his tea again. This time, Ikeda Terumasa immediately refilled his tea, looking at him with bright eyes. Yuanye took another sip and continued, "Most of the Lang party members also need to farm. There is not much point in recruiting more Lang party members. It is better to recruit some... people who only fight in battles."

Oda Nobunaga pondered for a moment and thought this was a great idea. With the mobilization speed of the local nobles, it would take two or three days just to pull the farmers from each village, organize them into teams and distribute weapons. If there was a team that could go into battle at any time, they could be caught off guard at a moment's notice, and they could also be trained for a long time to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army...

He had vaguely had this idea before, otherwise he would not have recruited such a group of young men and sent them to train whenever he had nothing to do. Now, with Yuanye's reminder, the more he thought about it, the more certain he became. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Yuanye was his confidant. They could actually think of the same thing and they were like close friends.

He gave his affirmation directly: "You are right! It is indeed time to separate farmers from soldiers, and then separate soldiers from farmers!"

Of course, this also requires a large amount of money and materials. It is not easy to organize a standing army, and it is even more difficult to keep thousands or even tens of thousands of people trained for combat without doing any production. Otherwise, the local tyrants would not directly capture farmers to fight, so the money he has is definitely not enough.

But this was not a problem for him. Dan Zhengzhong's family had been good at making money since their ancestors. Moreover, after being enlightened by Yuanye, some of his previous vague ideas about how to make money could be directly determined. He did not need Yuanye to sort out his thoughts for him.

His eyes softened when he looked at Yuan Ye. The more he looked at him, the more handsome he looked. He couldn't help but want to bring up the old topic again, but the topic was very jumpy. "Oru Seibei was injured. Did you know that?"

"I know." Yuanye responded casually. Oruki Seibei was in the front during the charge on horseback in the "Battle of Kaizu". His horse was knocked over in the chaos, and he broke his head and an arm. It was he who bandaged them with splints. However, he wanted to continue the topic and talk about the "Rakuza Rakuichi" and supporting large workshop owners for their development, but Oda Nobunaga changed the subject, which was a bit regrettable.

"Then you can go and be a village head!" Oda Nobunaga had just been defeated last time, and he was embarrassed to ask Harano to bow down to him. He even made it awkward to invite him to drink. The scene was very embarrassing. But this time was different. He had just won a big victory and felt that he had the "appearance of a wise leader", so he began to think about taking Harano into his pocket again.

In fact, because Harano had been tough and didn't give him any face last time, he was willing to make some concessions. He thought Harano didn't like being a junior officer, probably because he had a noble character and didn't like fame and fortune and interpersonal communication. In that case, it would be fine for him to be a village head first. It just so happened that he could get rid of Oruki Kiyohei, the old-fashioned and argumentative retainer who always argued with him. He couldn't get rid of him before because there was no one to replace him. Most of the junior officers he recruited were very young and had never experienced anything. He wouldn't feel at ease if he was really sent to Takeuchi Manor to be the village head, controlling the Ersanbai clan and a large amount of production.

Now that Yuanye is here, it is just right. He can serve as the village head for a while, and then he can bring him to his side to sleep on the same bed and discuss important matters together.

Yuanye still didn't want to go. It wasn't like he couldn't make money, so why should he manage a shabby farm to make a little money? He said directly: "I don't want to kowtow to others, so...thank you very much!"

After saying that, he felt that it was a bit too blunt. He would have to do business on someone else's territory in the future, so it would not be good to be too blunt. He added, "Your Highness, please forgive me."

Oda Nobunaga did not look upset this time. It was possible that Hara no Yamada had always been ignoring him and he was a little used to it. He also began to think that Hara no Yamada was indeed a "noble and elegant man" who loved neither fame nor profit, and even less lust... He should not be lustful. Looking at the funny appearance of the maids around him, he could tolerate it and there was a 99% chance that he was not lustful.

If a person does not care about fame, wealth or sex, then he is a true gentleman. He cannot lose his temper with such a person. Moreover, he regards Yuanye as a confidant, and people are always willing to be more tolerant towards their confidants, and he is no exception.

He hummed and said nothing more, then stood up and prepared to leave. However, he was also a generous and magnanimous person, and did not want to take advantage of Yuanye for nothing, so he took off the gold and silver inlaid wakizashi from his waist and threw it to him.

But since the wakizashi had already taken it out, he was worried that Yuanye was too stubborn to accept it and would not give him face, making it difficult for him to back down. After a slight hesitation, he threw it to Aman and left.

He had to go back and think carefully about how to make money to complete the "separation of farmers and soldiers", and then do another "separation of soldiers and farmers" so that he could control all the useless nobles in Owari and make Owari a place where he could have the final say.

(End of this chapter)