3 bar menu

Volume 2 Chapter 2 Part 2

Becoming a daimyo of a province had taken most of his life away, however. After giving his ambition to the foolish princess of Owari, Oda Nobuna, he was betrayed by his son who was indignant about his decision to give Mino over to Nobuna, and almost died in on the battlefield.

The one who saved Dosan, whose life was supposed to have ended there, was Yoshiharu. Originally, Yoshiharu thought that with Dosan on their side, Mino would be as good as theirs , but then Dosan showed a very troubled face and kept opening and closing the paper fan in his hand while saying something about how badly he wanted to retire.

Dosan had been showing signs of old age ever since coming to Owari. His body’s condition has been worsening lately, and it was definitely not good to force him to do anything against his will. But though his body no longer matched his name of 「The Viper of Mino」, he behaved like a grandfather who loves and dotes on his own granddaughter. Nobuna. He will most likely be defending Aoshuu castle in this battle, or at least that was what Nagahide thought.

「The owner of Japan’s strongest cavalry army, 「The Tiger of Kai」, Takeda Shingen, invaded the Suruga province surprisingly quickly. Now is not the time to dilly dally and be twiddling our thumbs. If there was ever the time for us to act, then that time is now. 」

And last, we have the head of the Oda clan who was controlling Owari, Oda Nobuna , whose childhood name is 「Kichi」.

Though she often wears a very bizarre and strange outfits, when she wears her formal attire, it would shock anyone lucky enough to witness it. saying she was Owari’s number 1 beauty was very fitting for her. After defeating Imagawa Yoshimoto at Okehazama, Oda Nobuna’s name had rung out through the whole country, and she became the most striking of all the Sengoku era’s daimyo.

After Nobuna’s father, Oda Nobuhide, died, she succeeded him as the head of the Oda clan while everyone around her called her 「The Fool of Owari」, and had been trying to push forward with her ambition of conquering the world. As a fan of all things that came from overseas, she had been treating the globe she obtained from a Christian missionary as a treasure and the arquebus she was carrying in her hand never left her side.

If she was able to pacify all of the other Sengoku era daimyo, she would begin to develop Japan to be a country that could stand up to all the other foreign countries, and begin her adventure to tour the world to see everything it has to offer with her own eyes.

Nobuna was the only one in her time who had this kind of dream, one that could never be understood by anyone other than the modern high school student such as Yoshiharu, and as for her favorite food, it was braised chicken wings.

However, after being proposed to by Azai Nagamasa of the Omi province, she began showing a troubled face even when eating her favorite chicken wings, and whenever Yoshiharu, whom she considered her personal rival, was around her, she would bring up the topic of marriage to Nagamasa in order to antagonize him.

「She must be hoping that Yoshiharu-dono will stop this marriage. 」

Nagahide commented.

But Yoshiharu seemed not to care abiut this as a result of his pride, as he had already made up his mind about this. Before he managed to achieve any substantial feat on the battlefield, he will not say a word about the marriage. And after looking at such a non-caring Yoshiharu, Nobuna started getting angrier while thinking: 「Why is this damn monkey still acting like this? Don’t tell me he thinks that it’s not his business whether I marry Azai Nagamasa or not? 」 Anyone could see that her mood was getting worse by the day because of it.

Just like that, the important retainers and generals of the Oda clan had now assembled (Though Yoshiharu was still placed at the back), waiting for their master to give the order to invade the Mino province. While eating her enormous braised chicken wing and using her legs to spread the map of Mino, Nobuna finally announced to her followers:

「The time to conquer Mino has come! Justice is with us, the Oda clan! In our hands we have「The Handover of Mino」, a document signed personally by The Viper of Mino, and so we have the duty to return my godfather, Saito Dosan, to his rightful place at the Inabayama castle. Saito Yoshitatsu is just a usurper who banished his own father for his own personal gain! 」

「But Mino has officially recognized Saitou Yoshitatsu as its next daimyo. Now that they are united, it seems that things won’t go easily for us. 20 points, 」

Nagahide remarked. While sipping his tea, Dosan said with a voice full of weariness,

「Mino was originally stolen by me from its rightful ruler. Although Yoshitatsu was brought up by me, he is the rightful heir of Mino. In the eyes of the Mino people, I’m the one who was always in the wrong. You won’t be able to break through their defensive lines that easily. 」

This is the heart of the issue. Saito Yoshitatsu is the heir of the owner of Mino whom Dosan banished. When he conquered Mino, to appease the people, Dosan appointed Yoshitatsu as his own heir after he adopted him. But this cunning plan was given up by him along with his plan of conquering Japan.

「From the moment I’ve chosen to give Mino to my cute Nobuna-chan, me being banished by Yoshihatsu is nothing strange at all. Yoshitatsu and I go back a long way. He is totally different from me when I was young; he has no sense of beauty at all, and with his short height and plump physique, he looks just like a sumo wrestler. The old me loved beautiful people, and I still do, so I definitely won’t give the position of Mino’s daimyo to anyone but Nobuna-chan! 」

「Geezer, that you still have the nerve to say that is a sign that you’re not as senile as you claim to be. If only you had maintained a good relationship with Saito Yoshitatsu, the situation now wouldn’t be this troublesome. 」

Yoshiharu said quietly with his face showing no emotion at all.

「Viper, height is not important right now. What’s important is that due to Saito Yoshitatsu’s actions Mino is now united and well taken care of. 」

「That is because during my reign, I put across many controversial policies and my popularity had hit rock bottom. If you stop these policies to appease the people who are against them, anyone will say that you are a wise ruler, Nobuna-dono. 」

「Oh, controversial policies. Didn’t Nobuna-sama conduct a similar experiment of planning to create new towns across Kiyosu? 」

「Yeah, the Rakuichi-Rakuza, the policy of free markets and open guilds. In fact, this policy was inspired by you. Viper. However, it was not as successful as I had planned it to be.
「Yes. I had abolished the old trading privileges of 「Za 」because I wanted to build a free trade environment for the people. I was a merchant before I became a daimyo, so I easily recognized that commerce is the foundation of a country’s development and the prosperity of the people. 」

「But after the abolition of the 「Za 」, the taxes and exchange rates would be severely reduced, causing those who used these methods to gain wealth to slowly lose heir source of income. 」

「Yes. With this, the people who were constantly embezzling money from these 「Zas 」couldn’t do that anymore, and that is why they were so angry at me. Anyone who’d be in their place would do the same. 」

「That’s why once Yoshitatsu started his reign over Mino, 「Za」 was re-introduced to gain the support of the people who were already against me. Because of this, the economy that was starting to get back upon its feet has declined again, slowly turning lively cities into ghost towns, 」

Dousan said with a grave expression. It seems like he was deeply angered by his successor’s uselessness and short-sightedness.

No matter the era, a revolution in policies will always create troubles and opposition. Actually, if one wants to unify this country that is torn apart by different warring states, protecting the trading economy and allowing the people to trade freely is a necessary measure! And one can’t just eliminate those money embezzling individuals. One should even waive off any trading taxes between provinces.