Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

"Hehe!" the three of them quickly responded.

Of course, orders aren't that simple, because of the concept of battle merit. While a soldier can be captured openly in front of everyone, taking heads is another matter entirely. It's not entirely impossible for a samurai to take thirty or even fifty heads in a single battle, but the probability is extremely small.

This is because the total number of heads taken by his entire squad would often be attributed to this one samurai. It makes sense, considering his servants, foot soldiers, and even grooms theoretically wouldn't be eligible for a reward. It's better to collect all the heads on one samurai; when he's rewarded for his service, and if he gains new knowledge, all of them will benefit.

If a nameless peasant were to obtain the head of a famous general and present it to him, the reward he would receive might only be a bushel of wheat chaff.

Since the claim of a severed enemy head could be "faked," it needed to be verified by a military inspector. Therefore, Nobunaga added a supplementary clause: he would dispatch a military inspector to Akechi Mitsuhide's camp to personally witness Naoharu take the enemy general's head or be the first to breach the enemy castle.

Nobunaga personally directed the operation; are you convinced of that?

clothes!

At this point, who would dare disobey Nobunaga's personal deployment? After Nobunaga's decision was relayed to both sides, they both indicated their acceptance. The Tanba campaign immediately commenced, and Naoji was incorporated into the vanguard.

The choice of military supervisor? It certainly won't be Shichibei. Shichibei is only temporarily helping to adjudicate a samurai lawsuit at Gifu Castle; why would he go all the way to Tanba to be a minor military supervisor?

Tsuda Nobharu.

I don't recognize him. Judging from the name, he's probably from Owari, but Shichibei definitely doesn't know who he is. I know even less about Sato Toshiharu and Matsui Tomokazu; one is from Mino, and the other is from the shogunate.

It doesn't matter, as long as someone goes. Besides, it's people from Owari who are going. Being born in Owari is a prestigious title now, just like the Mikawa Five Hundred Cavalry half a century later.

Although the matter of military supervision was entrusted to Tsuda Nobuharu, Shichibei still needed to make a trip to announce Nobunaga's imperial decree. After all, Shichibei was assigned to handle this case, so he accompanied Saito Toshizo to Sakamoto.

Rizo was quite pleased, saying that Naoharu was the one he introduced to Akechi Mitsuhide, and that he was definitely a brave samurai who could easily take his head.

Your Highness is truly wise and powerful; your judgment is perfectly appropriate.

Sigh, Nobunaga definitely has some bias towards Akechi Mitsuhide in his heart. Now, Akechi Mitsuhide has mobilized all available forces, plus his own troops, and can muster almost 20,000 men to fight. 20,000 men against Naito Joan, who can only mobilize a mere 2,000 or 3,000 men, is absolutely a sure thing.

In such a favorable situation, it's certainly easier to establish a reputation than to fight a battle against adversity. Once you've achieved merit, the matter is considered settled.

You should really advise Akechi Mitsuhide to stop recruiting these random samurai. Nobunaga might help him out once or twice, but if it happens too often, he'll get annoyed.

Moreover, right now, it's because Akechi Mitsuhide is favored, appointed Sakamoto, and tasked with conquering the San'in region. But favor doesn't last forever. Is Sakuma Nobumori not favored now? Absolutely, he's extremely favored; he was the first high-ranking retainer in the Oda clan to be appointed a daimyo.

Speaking of banishment, there was indeed such a thing in history.

Look at Hideyoshi, constantly trying to please Nobunaga. He renamed Nobunaga's son Nagahama and adopted Nobunaga's fourth son, Ujimaru, as the heir of the Hashiba clan. Basically, he always followed in Nobunaga's footsteps, doing everything he could to maintain his favor with Nobunaga.

Mitsuhide, Mitsuhide, you still have a lot to learn.

Upon arriving in Sakamoto, Mitsuhide was recruiting soldiers within Sakamoto Castle, preparing for the complete subjugation of Tanba and Tango. Once he conquered these two kingdoms, he would likely be assigned command of various powerful clans in Tajima. He might even be responsible for the subsequent campaigns against Mimasaka, Bizen, and Harima.

That's all for later. Right now, we need to deal with Naito Joan and a few other troublemakers in Tanba. As Tanba is a territory northwest of Yamashiro, Nobunaga needs to completely subdue it. Otherwise, some other force might emerge and threaten Yamashiro and Kyoto.

"Thank you for your trouble, Shichibei." Seeing Shichibei, Mitsuhide Akechi was quite pleased.

Mitsuhide also owes Shichibei several thousand kan.

"It's alright, it's alright." In fact, Nobunaga's decision had already been sent to Sakamoto through the Hikatsu postal system established by Shichibei.

By the time Shichibei and Risa arrived in Sakamoto in two days, Mitsuhide had already fully allocated the troops and weapons assigned to Naoji.

There's no way we can invade Tamba this year. Although Tamba is further south and has fewer snowy days in winter compared to Echizen or Kai, it's surrounded by mountains, almost entirely mountainous terrain interspersed with habitable areas like plateaus, basins, and valleys. Trying to break in during winter would be suicide.

Instead, we should take advantage of the fact that many of Oda's troops are already off-duty and can be mobilized for combat during the spring planting season. We can wait until the snow melts in spring and then invade Tanba.

In addition, in the spring, the lords and daimyo probably don't have much food stored in their castles, so even if they fight a siege, the enemy castle might run out of food and open its gates in one or two months.

This is the advantage of the military being demobilized and having ample external financing channels. Mitsuhide could easily ask Shichibei for a loan of several thousand kan, then mobilize ten thousand men to kill Naito Joan and Utsu Yorishige. After that, he would acquire tens of thousands of koku of land, collect a wave of taxes (both dan and bubetsu), immediately recover his losses, and even be able to install samurai.

Their power expanded like a snowball, eventually completing the conquest of the entire San'in (Shield) Road, allowing the Oda clan's influence to directly border the Mori clan.

It sounds wonderful, but I wonder if Hideharu Hatano will rebel in this life. If Hideharu Hatano does turn against us, Mitsuhide will be stuck in the mountains of Tanba for five or six years.

"Is everything alright in Gifu, my lord?" After everyone was seated, Mitsuhide asked Nobunaga first.

"Naturally, everything is fine." Nobunaga can eat and sleep well, and he has had two more babies this year.

He's doing well, with a bunch of wives and kids every year. Shichibei had just started thinking about having a couple of younger ones when Shichibei was given two "big babies" by him.

"Then, then young master..." Sure enough, almost everyone was focused on the handover between Nobunaga and Nobutada.

"Hmm..." Shichibei quickly reached out his hand, signaling Mitsuhide not to ask anymore.

Our relationship isn't that close enough for us to sit down and talk about this kind of thing. Oda Nobuhiro and Sakuma Nobumori are Shichibei's father-in-law and old friends. Hideyoshi and Shichibei are related by marriage to Hidenaga and were colleagues who rose from humble beginnings, so they can also talk about this.

As for Mitsuhide, well, he's fine talking about money, but it's a bit difficult to talk about anything else.

“Otsu Sakamoto, where the Kinai Pass is located, Shichibei and I have been working together seamlessly.” Since only Saito Toshizo and Mizono Shigeaki were nearby, Mitsuhide continued speaking even though Shichibei called for a halt, but in a different direction.

"Thanks to you." That's true; Mitsuhide did indeed entrust many of the commercial rights within his territory to Shichibei.

If we only consider their commercial cooperation, including the exclusive distribution of the annual tribute rice and large-scale military financing, Mitsuhide and Shichibei had a very close working relationship.

But as for the other aspects...

"After the San'in region is pacified, we'll have to rely on you, Shichibei, both domestically and internationally in the west." Hmm? It seemed like Akechi Mitsuhide was just making empty promises to Shichibei.

"This……"

Suddenly, Shichibei seemed to realize something. Aside from Oda Nobuhiro naturally treating Shichibei as one of his own, as a member of his inner circle, Hideyoshi was very openly and directly trying to recruit Shichibei into his group.

The person in front of me, Mitsuhide, seemed to share this idea. And she expressed it quite boldly, only revealing it through a thin veil. Anyone with half a brain could tell.

No, why are you all touching me like this?

Of course, it's for your money.

The senior retainers of the Oda clan have all become lords of a country and a castle. They each have many brave samurai, but they are in great need of wet nurses who are in constant supply.

It wasn't that they were desperately short of resources, but rather that Shichibei was the only readily available wet nurse in the entire Oda clan. So much so that when allocating resources to Oda Nobutada, Nobunaga was reluctant to part with Shichibei.

To gain an advantage, a steady stream of money is essential. Although they're both Oda's retainers, getting a loan from Shichibei isn't too difficult. But that doesn't mean it won't be difficult in the future.

If he could completely win over Shichibei to his side—not to make him a retainer or vassal, that's completely impossible. Nobunaga used Shichibei so easily, no one would give him up for free.

Simply forming an alliance is incredibly beneficial.

With Shichibei by my side, money will flow in, arsenals and weapons will be endless, and recruiting ronin will be a piece of cake. Forget about 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers; even 50,000 wouldn't be difficult.

Consider the numerous ronin samurai who had lost their masters and the foot soldiers who were hired everywhere throughout Japan, as seen in the Battle of Osaka in history. The moment the Toyotomi family pulled out their money, 100,000 soldiers immediately rallied.

While this was certainly related to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's formidable reputation, it also illustrates the sheer number of ronin (masterless samurai) in Japan at that time. They were practically starving; if a daimyo were to raise an army, offer generous contracts, and promise to grant them fiefdoms after the war, the number of responders would undoubtedly be substantial.

Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that during Hideyoshi's time, there were too many daimyo families that had perished, resulting in a large number of ronin (masterless samurai). A few years later in history, Nobutaka was ordered to lead generals such as Niwa Nagahide, Tsuda Nobusumi, Miyoshi Yasunaga, and Sogawa Masayasu on an expedition to Shikoku.

Nobunaga directly intervened, handing over a large amount of military equipment and money he had stockpiled to Nobutaka on the spot. With this money, Nobutaka quickly recruited an army of over 16,000 men.

With the help of his comrades, 40,000 men would be amassed in no time. Of course, an army recruited in this way could only fight when things were going well. If Nobunaga hadn't died, and money had been continuously bestowed upon them, they would have certainly fought fiercely against Shikoku and wiped out the Chosokabe clan.

Unfortunately, Nobunaga died, and his tens of thousands of troops collapsed completely in the blink of an eye. Only a handful escaped, leaving Nobutaka to watch from the sidelines in Osaka, utterly powerless to launch a campaign against Mitsuhide.

As for Xinxiao, well, he just didn't have that kind of luck.

"Please do me the honor of staying in the castle tonight and sharing a bed with me." Akechi Mitsuhide was quite hospitable, not only inviting Shichibei to dinner but also asking him to share a bed.

"No... Ah, it would be impolite to refuse." Shichibei instinctively wanted to refuse, but he had no reason to.

"Angel," sent by Nobunaga to deliver the imperial decree. So it's only natural that Akechi Mitsuhide would treat him to dinner; it can't be said that Shichibei made the trip and didn't even get a hot meal.

We've already eaten dinner, and it's dark. If we don't sleep in Sakamoto Castle, are we supposed to rush to Gifu Castle tonight?

It's not about giving face to Akechi Mitsuhide; everything is reasonable and appropriate. It would be strange if Shichibei refused.

Eat and drink as you please, don't let things bother you. Let Akechi Mitsuhide try to win him over; Shichibei isn't someone you can't appease, just maintain a polite facade. Historically, Hosokawa Fujitaka and Tsutsui Junkei were good friends with Mitsuhide, and Hosokawa Tadaoki was even Mitsuhide's son-in-law.

As a result, during the Honnoji Incident, these two betrayed Mitsuhide. If they had joined forces, Mitsuhide would have had at least 35,000 men at the Battle of Yamazaki.

It's kind of funny to think about. Shichibei was the big spender that Nobunaga had fully supported, so if he were to pass the torch to Nobutada, it would definitely go to him. Shichibei doesn't need to get involved with them at all. You can't expect these people to start preparing for the Honnoji PUBG tournament right now, that's just a joke.

Chapter 325 Oda Mori Divides Western Provinces

Spring, the third year of Tianzheng (1575).

Shichibei, who had returned to Gifu from Sakamoto, was busy with the annual rice tribute matters for a while, and only had a moment of leisure as the year drew to a close.

Then what happened was that they started receiving and sending gifts all over the world, attending banquets and being invited to meals. All the commanders of the Oda army, including Azai Nagamasa, sent New Year's greetings and local gifts from their respective territories.

For example, Hanawa Naomasa prepared six Kyōri kosodes for the young general and a lacquered saddle for Shichibei. Echizen's Asai Nagamasa sent fifty rolls of mulberry paper and a pair of large lacquered plates with carvings. Otani's Hideyoshi sent a pair of large bronze mirrors, as well as several sacks of dried sweetfish and dried mushrooms.

Even our adoptive father-in-law, Oda Nobuhiro, sent twenty bolts of colored silk, saying he wanted to make several sets of clothes for Shichibei's family for the New Year. Shichibei had no choice but to return the favor, adding even more to show his respect.

By the way, Lady Oichi, who remained in Gifu, gave birth to another daughter for Azai Nagamasa, who is now known as the "Fourth Princess of Azai." It's unknown whether she will become the Fifth or Eighth Princess in the future.

The child was born at the end of the year and is said to have inherited Mrs. Oichi's fair skin, making her a delicate and fair-skinned little girl.

That's good. Shichibei even gave him twenty slivers of colored thread, so he can knit something for the child later. The young general took them with him when he went to the city to visit him.

After that, it was all about feasting. Nobunaga would invite his retainers to eat, and his retainers would invite Nobunaga to eat. Everyone arranged their own dates during the New Year's greetings on the first day of the new year. Anyway, that's all there is to the New Year celebrations, and nothing beats the joy of feasting and drinking.

Eat as much as you want; nobody can resist these days.

During the banquet, Shichibei bumped into Niwa Nagahide. Just before the New Year, Niwa Nagahide finally finished his diplomatic mission to the Mori clan and returned to Gifu.

Shichibei married his daughter to Chosokabe Motochika's son. Although it was Oda Nobunaga's order, now that the person in charge has returned, it must be explained clearly.

Niwa Nagahide is in charge of the Shikoku area, and Shichibei will never overstep his bounds.

Niwa Nagahide had heard about his daughter's situation from his family as soon as he got home. Since it was Nobunaga's order, he certainly wouldn't object. So be it; marrying the eldest son of the Chosokabe family, the lords of Tosa Province, wouldn't be a bad deal.

However, Niwa Nagahide still had something to ask: Kuwayama Shigeharu and Todo Takatora have been in Tosa for almost three months now, and they haven't returned yet?

No.

They needed to settle Ashikaga Princess in Sakai before they could take a boat to Urado. Just getting to Tosa would probably take a month or two. After all, back then it was people waiting for boats, not the other way around. It wasn't like later times when you could just go to Nagoya or Itami airport and get to Kochi in an hour or two.

Well, we'll just have to wait. We don't know Chosokabe's offer, and Niwa Nagahide can't really negotiate. But since we're on the topic of diplomacy, what about the Mori clan?

With the mediation of Niwa Nagahide and Inaba's governor, Yamana Toyokuni, the Mori clan finally concluded a peace treaty with Yamana Hirotoyo of Tajima, historically known as the "Gedan Peace Treaty." Yamana Hirotoyo promised that he would never again support the Amago's re-establishment of the army, and the Mori clan also confirmed the status quo that Tajima Province, led by Yamana Hirotoyo, was the domain of the Oda clan.

However, figures like Tajimada Yushoji still maintained contact with Yamanaka Yukijin, Amago Katsuhisa, and others, and the Amago Re-establishment Army continued its activities in the Inaba and Tajima areas.

After saying all that, Niwa Nagahide then moved on to the part that Shichibei wanted to hear, namely, Mori Terumoto and his two uncles, Yoshikawa Motoharu and Kobayakawa Takakage, their attitudes toward Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

Yoshikawa Motoharu, who had initially been a supporter of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, angrily denounced him as a "hysteriac" and a shameless coward after learning that Yoshiaki had betrayed Hoida Motochika and fled alone. He thus completely sided with the faction opposing support for Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

Kobayakawa Takakage was quite friendly to the Oda clan, and he also maintained the Oda-Mori alliance. With two important figures in the clan holding this view, Mori Terumoto naturally shared the same opinion.

Ow...

That's alright, at least the Mori clan has figured things out. While everyone was laughing and joking at the banquet, Shichibei leaned close to Niwa Nagahide's ear and said, "The Mori clan has always had the ambition to unify the western provinces. Now that it's confirmed that Tajima is Oda's territory, they can't possibly refuse any benefits, can they?"

Of course not, otherwise why would a high-ranking official like Niwa Nagahide be entrusted with diplomatic affairs?

First, the Mori clan defeated and destroyed the rebellious Mimura Motochika last year. Mimura Motochika's rebellion was actually the result of pressure from both inside and outside the clan. Mimura Motochika's father, Mimura Iechika, was supported by the Mori clan and was originally very close to the Mori.