Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 72 - 43 Record of the Introduction of the Iron Cannon to Seed Island_2

Chapter 72: Chapter 43 Record of the Introduction of the Iron Cannon to Seed Island_2

The four of them sat down on the earthen floor inside the house, each taking their seats according to status. Yayoi nervously brought in tea, while Ah Qing followed in, sitting quietly in a corner of the earthen floor pretending to be a maid, ready for any emergency. Ah Man, meanwhile, was pretending to boil water on the mud floor, her arms bulging with something hidden inside her clothes, who knows what she was carrying.

As for Oda Nobunaga, though he said he was seated, he was actually lounging lazily on the mat, looking very casual. Ikegami Keisuke sat beside him, picked up the tea to check the temperature, tasted a sip, discovered it was Great Ming loose tea, thought the taste was alright, acceptable, and placed it back within reach.

Maeda Toshie formally introduced them, speaking to Harano: "This is my lord, Lord Oda Sanmaru; and this is Lord Ikegami Shinkirou, like myself, a close household retainer of our lord."

Harano nodded politely, his gaze glancing swiftly over Ikegami Keisuke.

He remembered this man; he was quite famous even in later generations. His mother was Oda Nobunaga’s wet nurse, making him Nobunaga’s milk brother. His father died early, so he grew up alongside Oda Nobunaga from childhood. He should be Nobunaga’s first confidant.

Then his gaze landed on the iron cannon set beside Maeda Toshie’s hand, and only then did he realize why Oda Nobunaga’s outfit looked so eccentric, like a disciple of the Beggar Gang—those fabric pouches slung on Oda Nobunaga were likely loaded with lead bullets, gunpowder, and ignition powder, all part of a matchlock gunner’s gear.

Oda Nobunaga noticed Harano’s gaze, casually picked up the iron cannon and tossed it over to him. He wasn’t stingy; after all, he had rummaged through Harano’s belongings earlier and didn’t mind letting Harano fiddle with his treasure. He propped his head up with one hand and asked nonchalantly, "I heard you’re from the Western Country. Have you used an iron cannon before?"

Harano reached out and steadily caught the iron cannon, turning it over in his hands, finding it rather novel. This was his first time handling a matchlock gun in person, so he did toy with it a little—a rather rough matchlock gun, not a great imitation: flat wooden stock, iron flashpan and priming pan, brass serpentine fire clamp, buttplate fixed with bolts, a primitive mountain-shaped sight, no rain guard, a small round trigger without a guard, overall length of over ninety centimeters, roughly 4 monme caliber (about 3.759g per monme), thick and short, not light in weight—by later standards this would’ve counted as a Satsuma-gun.

As he fiddled with it, he replied offhandedly, "You could say I’ve used one before!"

Back when Meng Ziqi’s dad sneaked him and Meng Ziqi into the militia training at the factory, he really had fired a few shots—just not with a matchlock gun.

Oda Nobunaga sat up a bit straighter, his interest piqued, "Oh? Then what do you think of my iron cannon?"

"This one? It’s pretty average," Harano didn’t say outright that it was junk—that’d have been too rude.

Oda Nobunaga froze for a second, sat up a bit more, brows drawing down with some annoyance, and asked in a low voice, "This iron cannon...is just average?"

He’d spent 160 kan for this high-priced item, after all!

Ah Man, eavesdropping from the mud floor, got nervous too, cursing Harano for not even knowing how to flatter people. She couldn’t help reaching into her clothes and started giving Ah Qing meaningful looks—if things went wrong, they’d create a smoke screen and drag him out. But Harano didn’t care and said directly, "It’s true the imitation is pretty average, but that’s not really the craftsmen’s fault."

Maeda Toshie glanced at Oda Nobunaga and saw his face darkening. Knowing his lord’s temperament, he hurried to smooth things over with curiosity on the side, "Why is it not the craftsmen’s fault?"

Harano looked at him, nodded slightly in thanks, and said indifferently, "That’s a long story. In the twelfth year of Tenbun, some Nanban—as the Japanese call Westerners—were blown by a storm to Seed Island, eighteen li south of Kyushu Island. There were two Portuguese among them, who, with the help of Great Ming translator Wang Zhi, demonstrated matchlock guns to the local Seed Island chieftain, who found them amazing and bought two at the high price of two thousand kan, then sent his household retainer Sasagawa Koshiro to learn how to make bullets, gunpowder, and firing cords."

Harano paused here, sipped his tea, and his eyes swept over Oda Nobunaga’s face—seeing him intrigued, he continued slowly, "The next year, the thirteenth year of Tenbun, those Portuguese sailed over again, wanting to sell more matchlocks. But the Seed Island family was broke and couldn’t afford more, though they really wanted a few more guns, so they sent household retainer Jin Bingwei to learn the production techniques for matchlocks. From then on, Seed Island started making matchlocks and began presenting them as tribute to the Shimazu Family."

When the news spread, a merchant from Izumi Province named Tachibana House Uemaro hurried to Seed Island to learn, spending two years mastering the craft of matchlock guns. When he returned to Kinki, the locals were amazed by the matchlock and asked what it was—he told them, ’It’s an iron cannon!’ From then on, matchlock guns came to be called iron cannons."

So, by this calculation, it’s only been five or six years since iron cannons reached the Kinki region, and compared to the originals, these imitations are average at best. You can’t really blame the craftsmen; after all, they need time to refine the technology, and this is probably the best they can do at the moment."

The reason Harano knew this much was thanks to the anime film Five Centimeters per Second. The movie was set on Seed Island, and while watching, he’d looked up Seed Island’s situation and ran into the "Record of the Introduction of the Iron Cannon to Shikoku" as well as the infamous "honeytrap caper" of later generations—Jin Bingwei was sent to learn how to make matchlocks, but the Portuguese didn’t want to teach him. After all, a single gun could sell for a thousand kan—more profitable than robbing people. They weren’t stupid and had no desire to hand over the manufacturing methods.

Jin Bingwei was desperate, facing censure and possibly even death, so he hatched a crooked plan: he sent his daughter to seduce the Portuguese. The Portuguese fell for it, entranced by Jin Bingwei’s beautiful daughter. And since the Seed Island family steadfastly refused to pay a thousand kan per gun, the Portuguese had no choice but to teach them the manufacturing process in exchange for Jin Bingwei’s stunning daughter—at least they got something out of the deal.

But Jin Bingwei’s daughter was quite slippery herself; claiming to be sick and homesick, she tricked the Portuguese into visiting Seed Island again the next year. The night she arrived, she "died suddenly," and was "buried" the next morning. In the end, only the Portuguese, cursing all the way, left alone, spreading tales everywhere that they’d fallen for a Japanese "honeytrap."

The descendants of the Seed Island family also found the whole thing embarrassing and kept it quiet. When carving the "Record of the Introduction of the Iron Cannon to Shikoku" stone tablet, they left out the story, merely saying the Portuguese had taught them on their own initiative, claiming they were very kind and charitable. They also included the name of the later Great Ming pirate fleet master Wang Zhi, as a way to thank him for helping bring iron cannons to Japan—and also to share some of the heat.

Harano didn’t care whether the Seed Island family found it embarrassing or not; he just told everything as it was. Oda Nobunaga, the more he listened, the straighter he sat, utterly absorbed. In this era, information spread painfully slowly. He loved iron cannons but knew little about their origins. Now Harano spoke about it so clearly and in such an interesting way, Nobunaga was utterly enthralled.