Mount & Blade: Warband in the Sengoku period of Japan

The celebratory "banquet" was set out for Chen Daoyuan by the servants of the fortress.

Compared to the radish meeting of the previous two days, the dishes on the table were more varied, but still limited.

The radishes were still there, but now there was a dish of small dried fish roasted until golden brown, and a dish of meat that had also been air-dried and roasted.

"What kind of meat is this?" Chen Daoyuan asked curiously.

"Sir, this is a mountain whale that the villagers caught a few days ago," Liang Chuanxin replied, while also intently observing Chen Daoyuan's expression.

It turned out to be wild boar meat. Chen Daoyuan couldn't help but frown slightly. Wild boar meat, especially adult wild boar meat, has a very tough and coarse texture, and a particularly strong fishy smell. Moreover, the scene he had just experienced during the day made it really difficult for him to be interested in this dish of wild boar meat at this moment.

Having keenly noticed this, Ryokawa Shinji's eyes lit up, and he clenched his right fist and slammed it into his left palm: "Wagaremashida! As expected, such filthy creatures as mountain whale meat are completely unfit to serve a spirit like Lord Chen. I will have the villagers select a boy and a girl, along with the village's most beautiful maiden, to offer as sacrifices to the spirit!"

What the hell are these virgin boys and girls! But the most beautiful girl in the village... well, that's acceptable.

Not long after, a timid and nervous girl, wrapped in an ill-fitting white linen kimono and with her head down, was brought to Chen Daoyuan's side.

But when Chen Daoyuan saw what this "village beauty" looked like, his first thought was: maybe I should just send her to the kitchen to be roasted...

Honestly, all those "village beauties" are just legends and lies. How could a girl with fair skin and beauty possibly grow up in a place where people suffer from severe malnutrition from a young age? In Chen Daoyuan's eyes, this "village beauty" was just someone with slightly larger eyes and more delicate features, but she was thin, small, and dark-skinned. Moreover, someone had done her makeup before she came, applying heavy rouge to her face, creating two garish blushes that made her look more like a female monkey than a young girl...

Putting all these messy things aside, this time, Ryokawa Nobushige, whose expression was one of reverence and even fanaticism, no longer had the guardedness that had been hidden beneath his politeness, and directly transformed into an omnipotent being who answered every question.

First, Chen Daoyuan inquired with Liang Chuanxin about the current situation of the group of Warring States heroes that he was more familiar with.

The Kiyosu Oda clan? I know them. Owari is the territory of our Shiba clan's main branch, and the Kiyosu Oda clan were the Shiba clan's deputy governors. Oda Nobunaga? Never heard of him… Danjo-tada? Oh, you mean Oda Nobuhide of the Danjo-tada clan in Owari? That guy was certainly capable; he collected a lot of commercial taxes in Tsushima, but nominally he was only one of the three magistrates under the Kiyosu deputy governor, not a daimyo.

The Takeda clan of Koshu? I do know that, but it seems there's been some internal strife within their family lately. The old head of the clan and his heir are at odds, and who knows when they might start fighting amongst themselves.

The Echigo Uesugi clan? You must be mistaken. The Uesugi clan of Kanto refers to the Kanto Kanrei (Kanto Kanrei) Uesugi clan, right? They haven't been doing so well lately. The Hojo clan of Odawara is constantly invading, and the Kanto Kanrei's reputation is almost completely ruined. By the way, Echigo is Nagao's territory, but although they have some power, their newly appointed head is a notoriously weak person. I'm afraid the Nagao clan will begin to decline.

Mikawa Tokugawa clan? I've never heard of that either. I don't know where you heard it from. Mikawa District used to be Matsumoto Kiyoyasu's territory. It's a pity about that guy... Now it's under the rule of Imagawa Yoshimoto, the greatest archer in the Tokai region. I've never heard of any Tokugawa clan there.

Chen Daoyuan is very familiar with Taige 5, but Taige 5 starts in 1560, which is still 20 years away from now. Therefore, his knowledge of Japanese Sengoku history is inevitably somewhat irrelevant.

Liang Chuan Xinji didn't pay much attention, assuming he had misunderstood the news about the savages while wandering in the mountains. After Chen Daoyuan finished eating and chatting, he finally spoke up: "Lord Chen, do you really want to serve in the Shiba family now?"

Chen Daoyuan was taken aback. He had already helped fight this battle, so why did it sound like this guy was planning to renege on his promise?

Ryokawa Shinji blinked, his expression becoming somewhat subtle: "My lord, although the Shiba family has a noble lineage, it is now outwardly strong but inwardly weak. Why don't I introduce you to the head of my Ryokawa family? Perhaps we can work together to achieve something great in the future."

The two were in a territory owned by the Shiba family of Takasui-dera Castle.

The Shiba family is no small family. As a branch of the Shiba clan, one of the three Kanrei (chief officials), the Takasui-dera Shiba clan holds a very prestigious position. They are nominally the rulers of the northeastern region of Honshu Island, and call themselves the Oshu Kanrei.

However, reputation is one thing, actual strength is another, and the current situation of the Shiba clan is not exactly respectable.

On one hand, the Nanbu clan in the north had strong and powerful troops and fierce people, and they would occasionally invade the Shiba clan's territory to the south. Therefore, the Shiba clan placed its core forces, such as the branch families of Osato, Inogari, and Shizukuishi, as well as the Hosokawa clan of hereditary successors and the Ryokawa clan of chief retainers, on the northern side of its territory. This is why Ryokawa Nobutsugu, the chief retainer, would place his direct core members on the front line in the north of the Shiba clan's territory.

On the other hand, the biggest problem for the Shiba clan was the loss of support from the Osaki clan in the south.

The Takasui-dera Shiba clan was not actually the main branch of the Owari Shiba clan that was sent to the Tohoku region. The true direct line of the Oshu Tandai Shiba clan was the Osaki clan in the south, which had already changed their surname. Even the current head of the clan, Shiba Takashi, was the adopted son of Osaki Norikane, who was adopted by the previous head of the clan, Shiba Takashige.

With the support of the Osaki clan, Shiba Takashi defeated the Nanbu clan to the north and took over Iwate County, and drove out the Tozawa clan to the west and occupied Shizukuishi County, making him a true restorer of the dynasty.

However, in the past two years, the Osaki clan has been somewhat unstable internally and has stopped providing external support. As a result, the Shiba clan has also lost its momentum and has shifted from offense to defense.

After listening to Liang Chuanxin's long introduction and analysis, Chen Daoyuan remained unmoved. As a transmigrator, he already had some vague plans for the future. What he needed now was simply a foothold. As for whether that foothold was strong or weak, he didn't care much. After all, although he didn't have a system, he had enough cheat codes in his mind and pocket. As long as he had some leverage, he could gradually unfold his plans. Then, what would become of the Shiba clan, the Nanbu clan, the Osaki clan...?

As for the recruitment intentions that Liangchuan Xinji implied on behalf of his own Liangchuan clan... Chen Daoyuan had absolutely no interest in them.

The Liangchuan family's branch at Takasui-dera Temple wasn't even a lineage holder. Even the main family in the south was just an ordinary member among the many lineage holders of the Date family.

Knowing his own limitations, Liang Chuanxin stopped the topic after saying a few words, and the banquet ended in a joyful and peaceful atmosphere.

Over the next two days, Chen Daoyuan did two things.

The first thing was to take in a village beauty named Ichika, whose kanji was unclear—whether it was written as 一花, 一夏, 一华, 一果, or 一香—as her maid.

So finally someone tidied up Chen Daoyuan's room in the side courtyard of the fortress, cleaned his armor and maintained his weapons... It was as if he had finally settled down in this world.

The second thing was that, under the pretext of investigating the movements of the Nanbu clan in the north, Chen Daoyuan returned to the basement on the mountain and retrieved some things.

According to Yanakawa Nobushi, he has already reported the news of this battle to Takasui-ji Castle. If nothing unexpected happens, the two of them will probably be summoned by the head of the family, Shiba Senko, at the upcoming end-of-month assessment meeting.

The things Chen Daoyuan brought back were preparations for this audience.

Sure enough, the day after Chen Daoyuan returned from the mountain, a messenger sent by Gaoshui Temple arrived in the village.

Just as Nobutsugu Ryokawa had predicted, Shiba Takashi personally wrote a letter to Chen Daoyuan. However, although it was written by the head of the family, the content was not very substantial. After a series of flattering and polite remarks, he invited Chen Daoyuan to Takasui-ji Castle to meet at the end-of-month assessment meeting.

Chen Daoyuan received the letter, packed his meager belongings, and, along with the little maid he had officially named Ichika, followed Ryokawa Nobutsugu to Takasui-dera Castle.

According to Nobushige Ryokawa, the Oshu Shiba clan was sent by the Owari main family to build and defend this place more than 130 years ago. After several expansions, Takasui-dera Castle has become the most magnificent and prosperous castle in the Oshu region.

However, after setting off early in the morning and traveling for most of the day, when he finally saw Takasui-ji Castle, Chen Daoyuan's assessment in his mind was: a decent-looking town.

Contrary to stereotypes, Takasui-dera Castle did not have the tall stone walls and keep that arose during the later Azuchi-Momoyama period. The entire "castle" was built on undulating hilly terrain, with deep moats and ditches dug around it. Behind the moats were earthen platforms, topped with heavy wooden fences and numerous watchtowers and arrow towers. Moreover, this "ditch-platform" structure was not a single layer, but rather consisted of at least three layers that were interlocked and nested within each other.

Even from a modern military perspective, if the wooden fences were replaced with metal panels, machine guns and searchlights were installed on top of the watchtowers and arrow towers, and barbed wire was strung around the trenches to add a few forward positions, then this city would be a competent defensive fortification in modern times.

The castle town, located on flat land outside the castle, was not small in size. At first glance, it was at least four or five times the size of the Ōbō fortress, and the residents were bustling about, making it seem quite prosperous.

Instead of taking Chen Daoyuan directly to the city to see the head of the family, Liangchuan Xinji took him to his own home.

As the second son in the family, Ryokawa Nobutsugu's home was in the castle town. In fact, according to the custom of the samurai class in the Sengoku period, since Ryokawa Nobutsugu had been granted the fief of Ōbō, he should have moved his family to Ōbō. The castle town was where the lower and middle-class samurai without fiefs lived.

However, since Daibo Fortress was ultimately the front line and not safe, Nobushi Ryokawa settled his wife and children in his old house in the castle town of Takasui-dera.

Liangchuan Xinji's house was a courtyard that was slightly smaller than the fortress of Dafang Fortress, but it still had a decent side room for Chen Daoyuan to stay in temporarily.

After exchanging greetings with Liangchuan Xinji's wife and children and settling Yixia and his luggage, Chen Daoyuan decided to take advantage of the early hour to stroll around the castle town.