Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 90: Hirate Masahide's Belly Cut
"There's no hope. Give him a quick death!"

Yuanye had a tired and numb look on his face. He opened the wound on the abdomen of a foot soldier and took a few looks. He saw the wound on the lungs. He saw that the foot soldier's face was distorted, his breathing was extremely difficult, his mouth was full of foamy blood, and even pink blood bubbles were coming out. He directly issued a death sentence.

Two foot soldiers with equally tired faces carried the foot soldier out without saying a word. At the same time, another foot soldier covered in blood was carried in.

More than ten days ago, Oda Nobunaga mobilized all the troops. This time, many local powerful families could not find a reason and had no way to refuse, so they were forced to follow the troops. Oda Nobunaga gathered more than 4,000 people and rushed to the Shirakawaguchi line, wanting to launch a preemptive attack on the Imagawa family, but was preempted by the Imagawa family, and suffered extremely heavy casualties.

As a result, the number of wounded here continued to increase, most of them were seriously injured. He sent away nearly a hundred people in just one morning. His hands were covered in blood, and he could be renamed "Bloody Hand Butcher Doctor".

His "big tent" was also full of the smell of blood. Because the weather was too hot, the smell of blood was slowly turning into a foul smell. All kinds of mosquitoes and flies were flying around, and there were still some broken limbs and pieces of meat left. When you suddenly came in and took a look, you would think you had entered a human flesh inn. It was enough to be used to shoot a horror movie.

He had been there for a long time and was used to it. He couldn't smell it at all. Ah Man rushed in suddenly and was almost knocked over by the stench. He looked around and retched a few times before covering his nose and said, "Is it so miserable here?!"

Yuanye ignored her nonsense. In this era, it is already difficult for seriously injured people to survive. Coupled with the bad weather, it would not be surprising to see maggots in the wounds tomorrow. It is estimated that most of them will not survive.

He continued to work on his hands and asked her, "What's the specific situation? Have you found out?"

"It's terrible. We don't know how many were injured, but at least a thousand died. Oda Nobunaga was seriously injured again this time!" Aman stopped talking nonsense and sighed directly, "I heard that the detachment was ambushed by the Imagawa family when they crossed the Baishui River at night. The general was killed on the spot, and many samurai generals died. Only dozens of the more than 500 people escaped.

The situation on the battlefield of Shigehara Castle was also unfavorable. Oda Nobunaga personally led the main force to fight against the Imagawa clan. He had fewer people to begin with, and he did not wait for the detachment to launch a flank attack as agreed. In the end, he retreated with only four or five hundred people left. "

"Lost?"

"Lost."

Yuanye looked at the young foot soldier in his charge who had also passed away. The "Bloody Hand Butcher Miracle Doctor" record was increased by another +1. He sighed, waved his hand to signal for him to be carried away, then shook his head slowly - there must be something wrong with the place he traveled through. He had been here for so long, and he had almost never seen Oda Nobunaga win.

He fought against the Matsudaira clan raiding party and was badly defeated;

He had a minor conflict with Yamaguchi Kyotsugu and was forced to flee, which was considered a minor defeat;
Now they are fighting against the Imagawa family and have suffered another great defeat.

Overall, except for the Oda family's victory over the Kiyosu clan in the civil war, he has never won. His current record is 1:3. It seems that he is an expert in civil wars but a layman in foreign wars.

This doesn't seem like the "No. 1 person in Japanese Warring States history" at all. It's a bit too miserable!

He sighed and said nothing more. After all, he could not take care of the things on the battlefield. He could only collect money and do the work. Then he continued to perform his duties as a "medical practitioner", treating the wounded and saving lives. He was busy for a whole day and night before he managed to finish the job.

After he was so tired that he took a long nap, Ah Man came to report two pieces of news to him:

One was bad news. Shigehara Castle was breached, and the head of the Okayama family, Okayama Kohei, was killed on the spot. The Imagawa family refused to accept the surrender of the rest of the Okayama family, and the Okayama family was wiped out.

The other news is not good either. After taking over Shigehara Castle, the Imagawa family is still not satisfied and is moving towards Ogawa Castle. It seems that they intend to continue to expand their victory and besiege Ogawa Castle.

Yuanye took out the map and found that Ogawa Castle was southwest of Shigehara Castle. If it was lost, let alone Chita County - after the loss of Shigehara Castle, it was only a matter of time before Chita County broke away from the rule of the Danjotada family. Now it was not a problem of Chita County. If Ogawa Castle was lost again, the Imagawa family could directly attack Atsuta Port from the south.

If Atsuta Port is lost, it would be like cutting off half of the roots of the Dan Zhengzhong family. It looks like they will have to continue fighting, maybe even until the autumn harvest.

His bad words turned out to be prophecy, and the battle really lasted until the autumn harvest.

The Imagawa clan continued to attack fiercely, wanting to capture the western enemy Oda Danmasada clan, and even swallow up the entire Owari. Oda Nobunaga was also forced to the point of being at the end of his rope. After a defeat, he was short of troops and could only ask for help from his father-in-law Saito Dosan, who borrowed more than a thousand elite soldiers led by Ando Morinari. At the same time, he also bowed to his mother, Lady Tsuchida, and his brother Oda Nobuyuki, and borrowed more than a thousand people from Shibata Katsuie from Suemori Castle. Then the three forces joined together and fought several battles with the Imagawa clan before barely managing to win or lose.

Or it should be said that it was a minor defeat. Although Ogawa Castle was not lost, Yamaguchi Kyotsugu took advantage of this time to launch a surprise attack and captured Otaka Castle.

In the end, when the autumn harvest was approaching, Oda Nobunaga barely managed to keep his base, and Atsuta Port was safe, but he lost the two large cities at the base of the Chita Peninsula. He had completely lost control of Chita County, and all the local powerful families in Chita County, without exception, turned to the Imagawa family.

At this point, he had no choice but to build five rock forts near Narumi Castle and Ōtaka Castle and station heavy troops there, taking an absolute defensive stance against the Imagawa family and Yamaguchi Kyotsugu, completely losing the strategic initiative.

As a result, the influence of Oda Danjotada's family was reduced by 25%, and Oda Nobunaga's personal reputation was reduced by 500. Coupled with his previous bad reputation as the "Owari Big Fool", it might even become a completely negative number.

Fortunately, the war was temporarily over. It lasted for more than two months and nearly seventy days. Harano dragged his tired body, covered in dust and dirt, and rushed back to Takeuchi Manor without even settling the medical expenses with Oda Nobunaga. Oda Nobunaga must be in a very bad mood after losing so badly. He could talk about the medical expenses later. There was no need to provoke him during this period.

After returning to Takeuchi Village, he did nothing and rested for five or six days. However, he still felt that he had not recovered. His chest always felt heavy as if a huge rock was pressing on it, and it was uncomfortable for him to breathe.

According to Aman, this was a normal reaction after seeing too many dead people, and it would be fine after a while.

Yuanye felt that this was probably the case. Although he had shot and killed several samurai from the Matsudaira family before, the distance was too far and it didn't feel real. It was even a bit like playing a game. The number of dead bodies was far less than the number he had seen and touched with his own hands in the past two months. It was normal for him to feel psychologically disgusted - humans instinctively hate the corpses of their own kind. It was determined by their genes and he couldn't do anything about it.

Since it was determined by his genes, he just stayed at home to recuperate and continued to work on his dyeing craft. After more than a week of peace, he felt that he had almost recovered and finally felt less depressed. Ah Man somersaulted into his study, rolled all the way to him and said excitedly: "You may not believe me, but something big has happened again!"

Yuan Ye was convinced. He had just finished watching the bloody corpses for two months and had just gotten over the nausea. Are they going to fight again? Can't these people just have a couple of days of peace? At least wait until the autumn harvest is over before continuing!

He pulled Ah Man up from the ground and said speechlessly, "What happened again?"

"Well, you may not believe it, but Hirate Masahide committed seppuku!"

"Who?"

"Hirate Masahide!" Ah Man had never expected that when he habitually went to the castle town of Furuno Castle to hang out and have some fun today, he would hear such shocking gossip. He hurried back to share it with him. Now Dou Doumei almost stood up and said excitedly, "Oda Nobunaga's family elder and teacher, Hirate Nakagami Masahide, committed seppuku in his own house today! Now the news has spread all over the castle town of Furuno Castle, and everyone is talking about it!"

Yuan Ye was a little bit unbelievable: "Him? Why would he commit suicide?"

"I don't know yet, but it must be because of Oda Nobunaga!" Aman didn't get more information. After all, Hirate Masahide had just had his belly cut open and the news had just spread. Few people knew the specific situation. "Maybe he felt that Oda Nobunaga was a hopeless person who had been destroying the foundation left by the old man Oda Nobuhide, the 'Tiger of Owari'. He was always unwilling to listen to his harsh words. Finally, he was completely disappointed and felt that he was not qualified to be a teacher. He committed suicide out of shame?"

She paused after she finished speaking, and then felt that this guess was not a good idea. After all, it is better to live a miserable life than to die a good death. Anyway, she would never slit her throat out of shame. After thinking for a while, she said, "Or maybe because the Masatada family was defeated so badly before and lost such a large piece of territory, someone needed to stand up and take responsibility, so he took the responsibility for Oda Nobunaga and committed suicide by hara-kiri in advance to apologize, so as to prevent other retainers from pursuing Oda Nobunaga?"

Yuanye opened his mouth and found that Aman had guessed everything he could, and he couldn't think of any new reasons. He vaguely remembered that in history, Hirate Masahide was indeed killed by cutting his belly, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. He was cut off less than a year after Oda Nobunaga became the head of the family.

It's not surprising that Hirate Masahide cut his teeth, but I really didn't expect him to cut his teeth so early.

For a moment, he felt that he had witnessed history, but whether Hirate Masahide was dead or alive had little to do with him. After hearing the gossip, he did not take it too seriously. He just sighed that it was a turbulent time and people kept dying.

Aman was very excited. She liked to join in the fun by nature. After sharing the biggest news of the day with Yuanye, she muttered to herself for a while about how Oda Nobunaga's biggest supporter among his retainers was in danger. Then she scratched her head and could no longer sit still. She got up and ran back to Kuno Castle, ready to join in the fun and listen to what others were saying about the matter.

Yuan Ye didn't care about her, just thinking about the four elders who were left by "Owari Tiger" Oda Nobuhide to support Oda Nobunaga. Now that only Hayashi Hidetada is left, he doesn't know what will happen to Oda Danjotada's family next...

(End of this chapter)