CHAPTER 325: CHAPTER 232 ARTIFICIAL GENIUS MILITARY ADVISOR

Wars in the Middle Ages moved at a slow pace. After Harano caused quite a bit of trouble toward the Ise Peninsula, as expected, the Saito family’s main force still hadn’t shown up. The ones stirring up trouble at the border were still just Igi Seibei and Ozawa Masahide.

These two had increased their forces a bit, but not by much; they still didn’t have the power to drive the Wanjin army back in one stroke. Instead, as the Wanjin army grew more familiar with the surrounding areas, even their small raiding squads found it more and more difficult to cross the river and harass.

The Saito family never fully mobilized, which was honestly a little strange.

Maybe Saito Ryuko was just an idiot?

Or maybe, after the Saito family had fought Oda Nobunaga so many times in the field, the "Six Minoh Elders" were reduced to "Three Minoh Elders," and now they’d grown timid and didn’t dare enter Owari territory to fight Oda Nobunaga?

Harano couldn’t figure it out. He suspected Oda Nobuaki had outlived his usefulness and had been abandoned by the Saito family, but that had little to do with him—less pressure was always welcome. After all, he didn’t want to show too much of his own army’s strength and risk making the Oda and Matsudaira families put up their guard even more—right now around the Dagao River, both Oda Nobunaga and Matsudaira Mototaka had stationed some troops. Even though they were both busy fighting other enemies, they almost never pulled troops from that area.

Actually, the same went for Wanjin. Under normal circumstances, over half of the Wanjin Army would be stationed at Dagao City and along the Dagao River, staying put. And Wanjin hadn’t invested much in developing that area either—they were ready for a major battle to break out any time, prepared for it all to end up in ruins.

In these times, even allies held each other in check. While Harano plotted over the Ise Peninsula, he didn’t dare send everything he had, and his inability to act was largely because of these two so-called allies.

So, as long as he could, he’d keep his head down—after all, there was no direct interest for Wanjin in this area.

Harano just hunkered down at Matsukura Castle, playing the bystander. Most days, he read with Aki, played chess, and held hands—living a rather carefree life.

Oda Nobunaga, on the other hand, was grinding away. With barely any interference, his offense was fierce as a tiger; he charged straight ahead like a wild boar, sweeping all the manors and rock forts around Inuyama Castle. In just two months or so, he’d advanced all the way to the walls of Inuyama Castle, and even took down the last supporting castle—Little Kuchiyama Castle, at Kuchiyama Mountain. The City Lord, Kojima Zuomen, surrendered with his whole family, coming over under Oda Nobunaga’s banner.

At this point, Inuyama Castle was completely cut off and isolated. Still, it was a big stronghold, and the Oda Nobuaki faction had deep roots there; a full assault would surely mean heavy losses.

Oda Nobunaga was actually quite protective of his army. Mostly, it was because he was pushing for a more professional, career-military force, with a big group of full-time, paid Lang Faction warriors under him. The pension for wounded soldiers was high. He didn’t want to pay out extra compensation, so he ordered the construction of rock forts encircling Inuyama Castle to trap Oda Nobuaki inside and starve them out.

But the siege wasn’t all that tight. Other than cutting off the grain route, they didn’t stop the defending troops from leaving on their own. If Oda Nobuaki was willing to get lost by himself, Oda Nobunaga didn’t care to chase him to the end—the two were family, after all, not sworn enemies. They’d even been allies before; it was just a falling-out over splitting the spoils.

And so, both sides settled into a waiting game. Oda Nobunaga would occasionally try probing attacks on the castle, or send out the "Oda Iron Cannon Team" to take potshots and whittle down Inuyama Castle’s defenders.

But things inside Inuyama Castle only got worse. In recent years, the East Sea Road coast had been struck by disaster and famine. Though Inuyama Castle wasn’t hit as badly as the Chita Peninsula, it still suffered large-scale crop failures. Their stored grain wasn’t much; by the start of the next year, they’d barely hung on, and already some defenders were sneaking out at night, fleeing into the wilds.

By this point, not only had Saito Ryuko failed to lead all of Minoh to the rescue, he actually made a quick escape out of Inaba Castle, running off to hunker down for safety in Uisai, Yuko, and Ibi.

This was really out of left field. When Harano heard the news, he was honestly surprised. No wonder Oda Nobuaki had endured two months of beating, then been besieged for another two months with almost no help—the guy he pinned his hopes on was too busy saving his own skin.

Oda Nobunaga’s luck was truly off the charts. He didn’t even have to fight his greatest enemy; the enemy stabbed himself three times first, just to be modest.

That kind of luck—who could compete?

If only the Hokitate Family, Hosokawa family, Miyoshi family, and the Rokkaku family could all fall into civil war together too. Let them all fight and turn their own kin into a blood gourd, then he could just casually cross the sea and pick up the spoils, taking country after country without losing a single man. Too bad it’s just not happening. These families, never mind in-fighting—things are peaceful even between each other. Doesn’t look like a big free-for-all is about to start.

Harano was envious of Oda Nobunaga for a moment. Then he turned to "East Factory Temporary Director, Western Palace Dame-in-Waiting-in-Reserve, Personal Ninja Guard and Mount combo" Aki and asked, "What’s going on at Inaba Castle, exactly? Was it... Takeda Hanbei who took the castle?"

Takeda Hanbei Shigehide is quite famous in later literature, anime, and TV dramas. Mention Japan Warring States Period genius military advisors, and he’s the first name to come up—nicknamed the "Warring States Zhuge," said to have wits to match Zhuge Liang. His two most famous feats are "Outmaneuvering Oda Nobunaga with a Tenfold Ambush" and "Taking Inaba Castle with Sixteen Riders."

Harano, of course, knew about this guy and these stories, even took an interest for a while. But he had no idea what year or month that stuff happened in, and he also knew Oda Nobunaga couldn’t possibly die this early, nor would Takeda Hanbei occupy Inaba Castle for long. So he really couldn’t be bothered to spend time and effort worrying about it. He had no desire to make early contact—just wanted to watch the show.