Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 98 - 61: The Green Jade Gourd

Chapter 98: Chapter 61: The Green Jade Gourd

"The Matsudaira clan comes every year."

After Ah Man realized the enemy was the Matsudaira clan, she immediately relaxed, her confidence returning as she began pointing across the land, "A few years back, when Oda Nobuhide got thrashed in Sankei Province, he escaped faster than a dung beetle rolling a shit ball. He lost Anxiang City, the key stronghold in western Sankei, and even his eldest son was captured alive. The Matsudaira and Imagawa clans then counterattacked straight into Owari, seized several castles in Niwa and Kasugai Counties, and ever since then, the Matsudaira clan comes down Spring River to Aichi County a few times every year—snatching up some commoners, burning a few villages, messing with Dan Zhengzhong’s spring planting and autumn harvest, and grabbing a few caravans heading to Atsuta to make a quick buck. Nothing surprising about it."

Harano was leading her to Okurakiyebi’s residence—he was currently living at Takeshige Manor. Since the Manor Chief had summoned him, he had to go check out the situation. Hearing Ah Man spout off like that, he felt at ease—turns out all this was just the revenge stirred up by the "Tiger of Owari," Oda Nobuhide’s old messes, and now with Oda Nobuhide dead, all the shit got splattered on the new Family Head, Oda Nobunaga’s face.

With things like this, it probably wouldn’t turn into a real war, so he asked, "So it’s just harassment?"

"Nine times out of ten, yeah. It’s always like this these past years," Ah Man didn’t commit completely. "Matsudaira’s just a vassal to the Imagawa family now, so I’d guess they’re acting on orders—or maybe even forced to. There’s no way they’d stake everything on a serious fight. Most likely, they’ll grab a quick haul and run right back."

Harano nodded lightly, thinking the Imagawa family’s tactics were really just like how Oda Nobuhide liked dragging the local gentry into wars—wearing down their big enemy, the Oda Danjo Chonosuke family, while keeping the vassal Matsudaira clan unable to rest or grow, always stuck in a funk. Not a bad deal at all.

The two of them kept chatting, talking about old stories of the Matsudaira clan—like how Ah Man considered the capture of Oda Nobuhide’s eldest son totally unimportant; Nobuhide should never have used the Matsudaira’s hostage, Takechiyo—the Matsudaira heir—to swap back his own son. Now, the Matsudaira clan had no scruples, coming to stir up trouble every year—what a huge loss.

If she were in Nobuhide’s shoes, she’d have ordered that captured son to commit seppuku two hundred years ago—she’d never have suffered this loss!

They chatted like this as they soon arrived at Okurakiyebi’s house.

It was the same chaos as last time—soldiers in a panic, horses rearing, two or three hundred of the Oda family’s Lang Faction gathering here to get military rations, long weapons, and all kinds of banners. Unlike last time, when they just geared up to show force, this time it looked like they’d even conscripted some ashigaru—that is, ordinary conscripted villagers—to fight for real this time.

Okurakiyebi was assigning people into squads, but when he saw Harano arrive, he didn’t make him wait. After giving out a few last orders, he called Harano over and handed him a letter. "This is a letter for you from Lord Kamizuso."

"Lord Kamizuso?" Harano took the letter but was a little confused—who was that supposed to be?

Okurakiyebi, ever the old-school middle-aged samurai, hesitated for a moment, his expression sour, then sighed in a low voice, "That’s Lord Oda Sanmaru. His lordship... has switched to the Kamizuso title now."

Oh, so it was just Oda Nobunaga changing his formal name.

Harano got it now. Well, that made sense—Oda Nobunaga wasn’t just an heir with little power anymore, but a full-fledged local power broker. Time to change his formal title to a government position.

Okurakiyebi saw Harano looking unfazed and relaxed a little himself. He waited for Harano to finish reading, then asked directly, not bothering with his opinion, "By Lord Kamizuso’s order, Master Harano, you may take anything you need from the manor’s stores. I’ll assign thirty ashigaru to you too. Do you need anything else?"

"Well..." Harano had just finished reading and hadn’t decided if he should say yes or no, but since Okurakiyebi acted so decisively and just assumed he’d go, he had no choice but to run a quick cost-benefit calculation in his head. After a moment, he nodded, "That should be enough."

"Good. Thank you for your trouble, Master Harano. Please follow us now and hurry on to Nagano Castle!" Okurakiyebi, finishing, called over a junior magistrate and ordered him to gather the ashigaru for Harano and allocate supplies, then got up to return to his own business.

......

"What did that big idiot want you to do?" Ah Man followed Harano back to his house, her curiosity getting the best of her along the way.

Harano just handed her the letter, still weighing the pros and cons, and said offhandedly, "He wants me to help treat the wounded. He’ll pay me for every man I heal, and I can decide whether I want to go or not—if I agree, he’ll appoint me the Medical Magistrate and let me call the shots for all treatments."

He hadn’t expected that, after more than a month—what with Nobunaga having lost his father, fighting with his mother and brother, causing a scene at the funeral, inheriting the title, and dealing with all the clan infighting—Nobunaga hadn’t forgotten about him at all. Even with war about to break out, the guy still wrote a letter to haul him over. Probably thanks to Baldheaded Jūbei—Nobunaga must have kept tabs on that old guy, and sure enough, he didn’t die, probably recovered well, which proved this "Mongolian Divine Doctor" could even bring the "Blood Gourd" back from the dead. That must have made Nobunaga want him as a "Battlefield Doctor."

Ah Man finished reading the letter quickly and even asked about a few characters she didn’t know. Only then did she ask curiously, "So, are we actually going, or should we pack up and run for it?"