Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

What are you busy with? Matchmaking for a nine-year-old couple.

Having been in the Sengoku period for several years, Shichibei was already "desensitized" to these people. He wouldn't make a fuss over every single one he saw. It was just a pity that he didn't get to chat with Tokugawa Ieyasu for a few days this time to see if he shared the same fondness for soft, sweet older women.

I did chat with Tokugawa Nobuyasu several times, but Nobuyasu was only nine years old, so we didn't get to know each other very well. Besides, Nobuyasu's conversations were a bit incoherent; I don't know if he was genuinely "stupid and straightforward" or something else entirely.

"Hannbei has been running around, it must have been very difficult." Shichibei still had to maintain a certain level of courtesy, and couldn't just ask, "Have you decided to betray your old master, Ryūshō?"

"It's nothing more than trying to survive in chaos." Hanbei touched his nose and laughed.

You don't seem confident in your answer, bro.

"What's the big deal? A good bird chooses a good tree to perch on, and a good minister chooses a good lord to serve. Now, the governor of Mino is not capable of securing the foundation, so it's no big deal to abandon him and let him go."

Sigh, that's what Shichibei does, so he'll definitely put it nicely. If it were someone else, they'd be cursed as a two-faced villain, someone everyone would want to kill.

"We are just a small countryman, and we have no choice..." The two sat down, and the waiter brought out the wine. Takenaka Hanbei did not stand on ceremony and drank the wine down in one gulp.

"Haha, you may have forgotten, but I come from a merchant family." Shichibei deliberately followed his train of thought.

"Oh, ha, come here..." That's right, Shichibei is a small-time businessman who only cares about profit, how could he not understand such a principle?

To preserve one's family name in such times, one must be flexible and adaptable.

After a few drinks, Takenaka Hanbei opened up and talked about Ando Mori's efforts to persuade the other two families. There's no need to go into the details of how he persuaded them; we've analyzed it before. The Inaba Kazuuji family, who were also considering leaving, were just hoping someone would take the lead and scout out the Oda family's plans.

Not long after Ando Emon, Takenaka Hanbei, and Shichibei reached an agreement, the other two families learned of Oda Nobunaga's terms and the fact that each family would provide five important hostages.

Each family still needs to negotiate and contend, and the choice of who will come to Komakiyama Castle as a hostage must be carefully selected. This will demonstrate sincerity without causing serious harm if something goes wrong.

Just like Ando Morinari, he had to pack up his second son, younger brother, son of the chief retainer, and others and send them to Nobunaga's service.

After discussing for a month or so, the three families reached a basic consensus and formed an alliance privately within their own organizations, exchanging covenant agreements. Only after they were completely united did they refuse to attend the New Year's greetings at Inabayama Castle.

At the same time, this would signal their defection to Nobunaga, who would then have to make a promise. They wouldn't be able to settle down until they launched an attack on Inabayama Castle and crushed Tatsuoki.

That makes sense and is well said.

"So, after that, will Hanbei continue to follow Iga no Kami, or...?" Shichibei asked after understanding the situation.

The Ando, ​​Inaba, and Ujiie families were to become Nobunaga's direct retainers, accepting his direct leadership. This was agreed upon from the beginning, but other smaller local powerful clans were not included in this arrangement.

Either follow Mitsuji Fuwa's example and resist to the bitter end, only to have your family destroyed. Or, like Hanbei Takenaka, side with the Oda clan.

For example, Makimura Sadao (Inaba Ittetsu-son) and Marumo Kanetoshi (Marumo Nagateruko) chose to side with Nobunaga. They were immediately taken by Hideyoshi and became his retainers.

Even people from small countries need to find a reliable elder brother in the Oda clan to guide them, otherwise they will be doomed sooner or later.

“Hmm…” Takenaka Hanbei hesitated when this was mentioned.

His father-in-law, Ando Mori, defected to Oda, taking a gamble on the possibility of eventually assimilating and annexing the Sainoshu, thus becoming a larger power. However, he was unsure whether this strategy was feasible or if the odds were right.

"Perhaps you will be assigned to Koichiro's older brother." Shichibei spoke the truth. Historically, Takenaka Hanbei was assigned by Nobunaga to serve as a retainer for Hideyoshi.

"As the prefect of Haidong County, have you been assigned any duties?" Banbei asked in return.

"Yes, there are twenty riders with strength." That's for sure; Nobunaga specifically assigned men to Shichibei.

Sakuma Nobumori also remarked that Shichibei was very fortunate, as Nobunaga personally sponsored the formation of a samurai corps for him. Only with a sufficient and powerful samurai corps could Shichibei further develop under Nobunaga's command.

"Then what do you think of me?"

"what!"

In fact, Shichibei heard it very clearly and understood it perfectly, but he subconsciously asked a question in return. Because it didn't make sense. Shichibei was, after all, a "magistrate" type of officer, and his main mission was definitely not to conquer cities and seize territory.

Once someone becomes a member of the army and is assigned to the Shichibei's command, they will likely only be able to follow the path of a magistrate in the future, making it difficult for them to achieve merit on the battlefield and obtain more rewards and territory.

These days, most people are just getting by, even when it comes to fighting, they try to stay in the back and cheer along. But those who openly give up on climbing the ladder, want to just be freeloaders, and don't even flaunt it are truly rare.

Just lie down and give up, and see if Nobunaga will nerf you or not.

"I simply parted ways with my father-in-law." Takenaka Hanbei held up a wine dish and looked earnestly at Shichibei.

Ando Morinari has grand ambitions and seeks further development. Takenaka Hanbei, on the other hand, seeks stability, aiming to ensure the continuation of his family name and business. This way, both sides will have a way out and opportunities for development, preventing the complete loss of both.

If Ando succeeds, he will become a daimyo with a staggering income of over 100,000 koku, and the Takenaka family will have a powerful backer. If Ando fails and the family business ultimately fails, the stable Takenaka family can become a temporary safe haven, waiting for a future comeback.

"This matter..." Shichibei had no reason to refuse.

As Nobunaga's power grows, Shichibei's businesses will only expand further, and his operations will become increasingly diversified. At that time, Nobunaga will certainly send reinforcements to assist Shichibei in his rapid expansion.

Either way, someone like Nibei, Sanbei, or Taro or Saburo will be sent. Rather than having someone like Yukichi who I don't know at all, it's better to have Takenaka Hanbei. At least he's not a fool, and he'd be quite useful for running errands.

"How about it? The Takenaka family also has two or three hundred riders."

"Your words are almost impossible for me to refuse."

79. If you have money, you have to put on airs.

Don't worry, bro.

This isn't something we can just discuss privately; it requires Nobunaga's approval. Whether the Takenaka family, along with the three members of the Western Mino tribe, will become Oda's allies, or directly subordinate to Nobunaga, depends entirely on Nobunaga's personal attitude.

Nobunaga had not yet conceived of completely conquering Mino and Owari and handing them over to Nobutada as his base. Therefore, the assignment of Yoshihiro was somewhat "arbitrary," and Niwa Nagahide was assigned to Mino and Yoshihiro by Nobunaga.

To give two well-known examples, these are the generals who appear in later games or novels and whose portraits can be specially obtained.

Ota Ichikichi, lord of Ota in Mino; Tokuyama Norihide, lord of Tokuyama in Ihigawa.

As for Aoki Kazue, who was also from Mino, he first served Imagawa Ujizane, then ran to Tokugawa Ieyasu when Ujizane didn't work out, then ran to Niwa Nagahide when Ieyasu didn't work out, then ran to Hideyoshi when Nagahide died, and then ran to Ieyasu when Hideyoshi died.

It was quite a legendary life experience, but it's certain that Aoki Kazue wasn't the trusted subordinate assigned to Niwa Nagahide by Nobunaga. According to historical records, he was likely currently in Kanto with Imagawa Ujizane, supporting the Hojo clan and guarding against Uesugi Kenshin's southward advance.

Takenaka Hanbei certainly understood this principle; he was merely testing the waters with Shichibei beforehand. If he didn't make contact with Shichibei and only knew Kinoshita Hideyoshi, that would be fine.

But now that he's met Shichibei, Takenaka Hanbei has already learned quite a bit about him. One thing he values ​​very much is that Shichibei comes from the Oowari Masakazuki clan.

Based on this alone, as long as Shichibei is neither a fool nor an idiot, and has no intention of rebelling, he will only get better and better in the Oda clan.

This is similar to Liu Bang leading his old brothers from Pei County, and Zhu Yuanzhang leading the Huai-Si military clique. Back then, those fellow Huai-Xi natives who followed Zhu Yuanzhang and stormed into Suzhou, the core of Zhang Shicheng's Jiangnan landlord group, all made a fortune.

Whether he's ultimately killed or not is another matter. But the fact that he enjoyed wealth and luxury for over a decade is undeniable.

That's all Takenaka Hanbei is saying. If Nobunaga distributes them to others later, remember me, brother. Just ask Nobunaga for them.

"Understood, alright," Shichibei agreed.

Anyway, Nobunaga will most likely assign someone to Riki, so there's no harm in pre-selecting someone from the Takenaka family. There's no one in Mino that Shichibei particularly cares about; anyone will do.

Three dishes and a soup, the two ate a simple meal, the matter was settled, and Takenaka Hanbei left as fast as he could. This guy's feet were also excellent; it was clear he possessed about half of Nobunaga's strength.

If you ask about Shichibei, he probably has about 30% of Nobunaga's talent. Not bad, considering Nobunaga was exceptionally gifted.

Returning to the matter of Nobuyasu, since spring hadn't yet arrived, Nobunaga couldn't take Nobuyasu to hunt eagles and geese, nor could he engage in activities like hunting rabbits with hounds, greatly diminishing the enjoyment of the hunt. At this time, they could only have the hounds scare the rabbits out of their burrows before releasing the eagles to chase them. There was none of the thrill of hunting wild boars or bears.

But Nobuyasu was still very happy and followed Nobunaga everywhere with great enthusiasm. Nobunaga was very fond of Nobuyasu, who was in excellent physical condition; he liked big, strong young men.

If it weren't for the son-in-law, the difference in status would be...

Well, that's a bit much. Right now, the father-in-law and son-in-law are sitting in the branch shop of Kawamura-ya. Nobunaga promised to make a pair of gloves for Nobuyasu from the rabbits he caught in the last two days; the rabbit skins are only big enough for this. The reason for coming to the shop is simple: Shichibei needs to allocate seventy more packhorses to Nobuyasu so that he can take them back to Mikawa.

This is a minor matter. Shichibei has already made preparations and will be able to gather enough horses to hand over to Nobuyasu in just one or two days.

Nobunaga waved his hand and said, "I'll pay for this for my son-in-law." Anyway, there hadn't been any battles since last autumn's harvest, and Nobunaga still had a few gold coins in his pocket to spare, so he could at least show off his wealth in front of his son-in-law.

Nobuyasu didn't seem to mind, even nodding and grinning. Hiraiwa Chikakichi, standing next to him, tugged at him, implying, "You should at least be polite to your father-in-law. Seventy horses are a lot of money; you can't just be happy about it."

Nobuyasu then realized what was happening and quickly thanked Nobunaga, offering a few words of refusal. Nobunaga, however, was a man of his word, the kind who would kill your entire family if he said so; why would he ask his obedient son-in-law for such a small sum of money?

On one hand, he sent someone back to the city to fetch the money, and on the other hand, he asked Shichibei how his business was doing lately.

Business is slow in the dead of winter; it won't pick up until spring when the Tokaido region starts to prosper again. Right now, the main thing is to take care of the horses and, incidentally, look after the fields.

field?

"How's that safflower of yours?" Nobunaga has such a good memory; he's still thinking about it now.

He almost ran off with the old man's dog. It was such a big dog, but he carried it under his arm for half a mile.

"Last year, we prepared 70 mu (approximately 4.7 hectares) of land." Shichibei reported the facts.

At first, it was only one or two mu (a Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.33 hectares). After it was successfully planted, a few more people were hired to learn how to plant it from the old man, and a ten-mu (another Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.67 hectares) embankment was built. At the end of last year, with some money in hand and the people learning to plant safflower getting the hang of it, the embankment was expanded to seventy mu (another Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.33 hectares).

However, the old man still refused to teach the skill of making safflower cakes to anyone else, only to his eldest grandson.

Or you could teach others, but you'd have to bring back all his Christian sons and daughters. And they have to be brought back without abandoning their faith before he'd teach you how to make safflower cakes.

"How much can you earn from seventy acres?" Nobunaga was considered one of the more economically savvy daimyo of the Sengoku period, and not the kind who would exploit resources to the point of exhaustion.

"One mu is twelve strings of cash, seventy mu is eight hundred and forty strings of cash." Of course, this number is a rough estimate and may fluctuate.

"That's some income, too." Nobunaga nodded, the amount not so large that he would be envious.

"It's just a supplement."

"Don't you see? These small merchants are always complaining about being poor." Nobunaga patted Nobuyasu on the shoulder, joking about Shichibei.

"I can tell, he's not telling the truth." Nobuyasu actually teamed up with Nobunaga, and they started singing in unison.

"Hahaha, Shichibei, Saburo says you're not being honest." Nobunaga certainly didn't mean to scold Shichibei; he was just joking with him.

By the way, it is quite strange that at this time, Tokugawa Nobuyasu should be called Okazaki Saburo Nobuyasu or Tokugawa Saburo Nobuyasu. However, in the documents left in history, Nobunaga actually called Nobuyasu Matsudaira Saburo Nobuyasu.

One theory is that Tokugawa Ieyasu was hedging his bets. The Tokugawa lineage he acquired belonged to the Minamoto clan, but the Matsudaira lineage could be attributed to the Fujiwara clan.

It depends on future developments. If necessary, names and surnames can be replaced at any time.

It's not impossible for the father to take the son's surname.

"Your Majesty, I am terrified." Shichibei merely lowered his head slightly; he was not truly terrified.

"Why don't you expand that safflower field?" Nobunaga then asked the question that Shichibei wanted him to ask.

"It's still about the Bantenren believers. That old man who makes those flowers wants to exchange his cake-making skills for his children's landing permits," Shichibei said sincerely.

Nobunaga was a pragmatist, and the Christians who had been allowed to come ashore earlier, because they knew how to build guns, were now not only able to maintain their faith but also built a small neighborhood church. Of course, Nobunaga did not allow them to proselytize, and no Christian clergy came to Owari.

“Hmm…” Nobunaga glanced at Shichibei but did not reply.

The matter could be considered a big deal or a small one. There are two issues: First, Tsushima-cho is the location of the head shrine of Tsushima Taisha Shrine, which does not allow for the existence of other faiths. Second, those Christians cannot provide Nobunaga with reasonable value; as for indigo dyeing craftsmen, Nobunaga did not need them.

"Since we can't place him in Owari, how about placing him in Mino?" Tokugawa Nobuyasu suddenly said.

“Saburo, this is what you don’t know. Those safflowers have to be picked in the early morning to make flower cakes. The fields are in Tsushima, and I’m in Mino. How can I make cakes?” Nobunaga didn’t mind Nobuyasu interrupting him at all and patiently explained to him.

"Fields are everywhere..."