Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 77 - 46: Crossing Over Is So Difficult!_2

Chapter 77: Chapter 46: Crossing Over Is So Difficult!_2

"As expected of Lord Nozawa, your intelligence is truly unmatched!" Maeda Toshie downed a cup of sake, gave a word of praise, and went on, "There are so many misunderstandings about Lord Oda Sanmaru in the world, like that business with Lord Kinoshita. Most of it is just baseless rumors."

At this point, he paused a little, then asked with concern, "Lord Nozawa, have you heard about that matter with Lord Kinoshita?"

"Well, I really haven’t heard about it."

"Hmm, is that so..." Maeda Toshie felt a bit regretful, thinking that if he’d known, he wouldn’t have brought it up, but since he already mentioned it, he could only continue, "Everyone out there says Lord Oda Sanmaru shot Lord Kinoshita dead with an iron cannon for no reason, but it’s actually someone deliberately stirring up trouble and spreading rumors!"

At that, Harano recalled that Ah Man had mentioned Oda Nobunaga fatally playing with an iron cannon and killing a supporting household retainer, so he curiously asked, "So that’s a rumor? Lord Kinoshita isn’t actually dead?"

"Uh... Lord Kinoshita is indeed dead."

"He wasn’t shot dead by Lord Oda Sanmaru with an iron cannon?"

"Uh... He really was shot dead by Lord Oda Sanmaru with an iron cannon." Maeda Toshie was clearly not a good negotiator—his eloquence in Taiko 2 had only one star, and it seemed that was accurate. He looked incredibly awkward as he explained, "It was an accident. At the time, Lord Oda Sanmaru was practicing with the iron cannon on the training field, and Lord Kinoshita happened to also be on the field practicing archery. Somehow—no one knows how—it happened, but Lord Kinoshita got hit by a shot. He didn’t die right away, though; just took a shot in the thigh, then went home and stayed in bed for over twenty days before... dying of illness."

Harano silently sipped his tea, momentarily lost for words.

This is still just Oda Nobunaga shooting someone dead with an iron cannon, isn’t it? Doesn’t seem all that much like a rumor! They just called it an "accident"—although that does sound a bit better than "blasting a retainer for fun with an iron cannon." Before, he’d thought Oda Nobunaga had purposely aimed at someone, killing a household retainer just for kicks.

Maeda Toshie also felt he was making a mess of the explanation, but honestly, it truly was an accident. Even Oda Nobunaga himself didn’t really know how the iron cannon suddenly fired, and one of the bullets even veered wildly, hitting Kinoshita—who was just pulling arrows out of the archery target—right in the thigh, blowing a huge bloody hole. They weren’t even using the same target! There were more than ten paces between targets—technically, he shouldn’t have gotten hit at all!

Maeda Toshie sensed this opening move hadn’t gone well—couldn’t even clear up the first rumor—so he quickly skipped the topic and moved on to clumsily explain other rumors. "And, a lot of people say Lord Oda Sanmaru likes to hang around with bandits, but that too is just slander!"

Harano had heard Ah Man mention this as well, so he immediately asked, "So Lord Oda Sanmaru actually doesn’t associate with bandits, always keeps himself clean?"

"Uh... he did associate with some bandits." Maeda Toshie was awkward again, but hastily added, "But Lord Oda Sanmaru befriended those people purely to study iron cannon techniques! There’s a... a man in the Kawamata Group named Hashimoto Ichibashi, who’s skilled with the iron cannon. Lord Oda Sanmaru would often go over just to train with him, and he also wanted to reform them—take them in for himself. In recent years, the Kawamata Group and the Hosokawa Faction have hardly been robbing anymore, entirely thanks to Lord Oda Sanmaru’s merits."

He paused, then added, "Lord Oda Sanmaru cares deeply about iron cannons and thinks this weapon will be brilliant on the battlefield in the future. He has a lot of ideas about iron cannons, so he just had to go learn."

Maeda Toshie’s story was a bit all over the place, but Harano got the gist. Oda Nobunaga had a sharp sense for military things—or, from his perspective as a Lord of a City, he reckoned iron cannons were perfect to equip his troops with. He even had the idea of recruiting some river pirates and mountain bandits to form an iron cannon unit, which was actually pretty impressive.

Only, iron cannons had really gotten Oda Nobunaga in trouble—most of the rumors about Oda Nobunaga were all about iron cannons...

Harano stroked his chin, pondering this. Maeda Toshie seemed to see hope, having thought it through—after all, what young samurai wouldn’t want to pursue a career? Maybe Harano was just scared off by Oda Nobunaga’s bad reputation, so Maeda decided to give it an extra push and try to clear things up.

Seeing some effect, he hurriedly added, "As for the rumor about Lord Oda Sanmaru being idle all day, that’s also someone making trouble on purpose! Lord Oda Sanmaru regularly trains horsemanship and archery, swims in the river to strengthen his body, leads us in practicing battle formations—he doesn’t spend much time enjoying himself at all. As a leader, he works very hard!"

Harano knew about this—Ah Man had said Oda Nobunaga would swim in the Changliang River, even mentioned his butt was very white, and said he often led a bunch of young retainers to run around with bamboo poles, apparently as physical exercise and to drill military tactics.

Thinking of that, Harano suddenly remembered another thing Ah Man mentioned, and his gossiping heart was piqued. He curiously asked, "I heard that Lord Hirata’s eldest son was once grabbed in a sack and beaten up in the street—um, about that..."

"Uh..." Maeda Toshie was stunned for a moment, his gaze dodgy as he quickly picked up his sake bowl to cover and mumbled, "That matter, I’m not too clear on either. Back then I hadn’t yet followed Lord Sanmaru, and haven’t heard much about it."

Harano gave a dry cough, raised his teacup in a toast, and drank along with him, fully understanding now—it really had been Oda Nobunaga who sent people to beat him up. Oda Nobunaga was a bit petty, keeping grudges for later—Hirata Masahide’s eldest son just obeyed his father’s order to tie up Oda Nobunaga and send him home, but somehow ended up getting a nasty beating. Talk about unfair!