CHAPTER 326: CHAPTER 232 ARTIFICIAL GENIUS MILITARY ADVISOR_2

In the end, he never got to see the "Ten Sides Ambush, Crushing Defeat for Oda Nobunaga", but instead, "Sixteen Riders Easily Take Inaba Castle" happened first. Now that’s a bit odd.

Qing pulled out her little notebook, flipped through the compiled intel, frowned in brief thought, and quietly dismissed Harano’s idea: "It’s related to Takeda Hanbei, but the one who took the city wasn’t him— it was his father-in-law, Ando Shouji."

"Ando Shouji? One of the Three of Minoh, Saito family’s Family Elder, Ando Shouji?"

"Yes. Takeda Hanbei is the City Lord of Bodhi City. His younger brother is living in Inaba Castle as a hostage. Takeda Hanbei entered the castle under the guise of visiting his sick brother. That night, he led his Household Retainers to set fire and attack the gates. Afterwards, Ando Shouji led more than two thousand people into the city, attacking the internal garrison and creating huge chaos.

Saito Ryuko, because the situation at night was unclear, withdrew from Inaba Castle under the protection of Family Elders and Senior Households like Hirano Hongyou, Takekoshi Shogun, and so on, and moved to the Yuji, Youxiang, and Ibi areas."

Qing finished explaining the facts succinctly and didn’t go off on a lengthy commentary like Ah Man, but after pausing to think, she flipped through the intel again and added: "This happened the night before last. Right now, all of Minoh is in an uproar, denouncing Ando Shouji, calling him shameless, without honor, and a traitor to his oath. Hardly anyone mentions Takeda Hanbei."

After she finished, she started flipping through her notebook again to look up Takeda Hanbei’s personal intel.

"So that’s how it is." Harano nodded lightly, more or less understanding the situation.

Pretty standard stuff—the only reason Takeda Hanbei became famous was probably because his descendants rode his coattails.

His descendants apparently managed to stay around until the Tokugawa Shogunate collapsed, always serving as Banner Men. So, during the Edo Era, as was the custom, his later generations started writing books to pretty up their ancestors: they omitted Ando Shouji, left out the main force of over two thousand that stormed the castle, and made Takeda Hanbei—who was just the inside man opening the city gates—the protagonist. He and a dozen Household Retainers, by some miracle, took Inaba Castle, the largest city in Minoh.

In other words, Takeda Hanbei and a dozen samurai Household Retainers scared off hundreds of Household Samurai and thousands of Household Retainers from Minoh’s great clans—the Saito family, Hirano family, Takekoshi family, etc.

This really makes no sense, even in the dead of night. You think a dozen men could chase thousands of pigs out of a city, let alone a bunch of warriors trained from childhood, hardened by years of battle. How could they be such cowards? How could they not even figure out how many enemies there were?

To speak of Takeda Hanbei in the same breath as Marquis Wu—well, that’s really doing Marquis Wu dirty.

And that "Ten Sides Ambush, Crushing Defeat for Oda Nobunaga"...

Ninety percent chance that was also made up, probably a plot point in some storybook. Harano always paid close attention to Oda Nobunaga’s clashes with Minoh—sure, it’s undeniable that Oda Nobunaga suffered some setbacks around the Kisogawa and Changliang Rivers due to the terrain: got lost, drowned, or crossed the wrong river by mistake, that kind of goofy mishap happened, and yes, some of his kin and Household Retainers died. But as for a major crushing defeat, getting ambushed on all sides, fleeing back to Owari like a whipped dog—Harano really never heard of that.

In all the battles, it was the Saito family that usually lost more often, burning through their strength far worse. The Minoh elite weren’t so excited anymore—now, at the mere mention of fighting Oda Nobunaga, they started to balk, sometimes even whining a little in protest.

As for that story about "Oda Nobunaga promised half of Minoh to Takeda Hanbei in exchange for Inaba Castle," well, even though it hasn’t happened, it still sounds pretty nonsensical.

Takeda Hanbei didn’t capture Inaba Castle; the city rightfully belongs to his father-in-law, Ando Shouji. If Oda Nobunaga wants to negotiate, he’d negotiate with Ando Shouji—the major Minoh clan head. Why would he go to Takeda Hanbei, who’s just taking orders?

Now, if you say Oda Nobunaga promised Ando Shouji half of Minoh, that’s at least partly reasonable. After all, Oda Nobunaga can be pretty loose-lipped—he’d promised his uncle, Oda Nobuaki, half of Owari before, so promising half of Minoh to Ando Shouji isn’t out of character. At most, it just means Ando Shouji isn’t likely to die happily in the end.

Most likely, this is just some creative rearranging—Takeda Hanbei’s descendants writing stories to glorify their ancestor, moving all of Ando Shouji’s deeds onto Takeda Hanbei’s head.

Harano shook his head, losing interest in this so-called "Artificial Genius Military Advisor", and didn’t care about the fate of Inaba Castle either.

If you go by serious historical documents, Ando Shouji took Inaba Castle simply as a standard "lower replacing the upper" move—he wanted to be Lord of Minoh, but faced too much opposition and could never get rid of Saito Ryuko, the Hirano family, the Takekoshi family, those powerful local clans. So he was forced to cut a deal and back off, withdrew to his own territory, and gave Inaba Castle back.

Honestly, this is perfect: internal strife in Minoh, the Ando family fighting the Saito, Hirano, and Takekoshi houses. No way they’ll unite and come to the rescue of Inuyama Castle any time soon, so the Wanjin Army is under zero pressure. Hell, Harano could even start thinking about a river crossing counterattack, just lock Igi Seibei and Ozawa Masahide up in the city so they behave and stop making trouble about sending reinforcements to Inuyama Castle.

Inuyama Castle is done for—no reinforcements outside, there’s no such thing as a city that must be held. This Minoh infighting is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. Oda Nobuaki really ought to be thinking about the most dignified way to surrender.

This campaign helping Oda Nobunaga turned out to be a lot easier than expected. The supposed "all-out" Minoh mobilization never happened; Harano really lucked out—according to the plan, Saito Ryuko was supposed to bring ten thousand troops to the fight. Oda Nobunaga wasn’t certain of victory, that’s why he called Harano and Matsudaira Mototaka to help. But now that Saito Ryuko obviously can’t come, those grain, lumber, artisans, etc. that Oda Nobunaga promised—well, it’s as if Harano got them for free.

Getting a good deal, Harano was in a great mood. Seeing Qing still flipping through the intel for Takeda Hanbei’s info and not finding it, he pulled her hand gently to sit down beside him and laughed: "No need to look—there’s no need to care about that guy, just another regular clan leader."

Qing stopped, and let out a soft, long sigh.

By nature she was cool and a bit slow. Being this "East Factory Temporary Director" in charge of intelligence in and out of Wanjin was really a stretch for her. She wasn’t used to it, not like Ah Man with her freakish memory—whatever Harano asked, she could rattle off for days on end.

The truth is, she felt this spy work just wasn’t for her. Even though she was also from "Original Ninja" stock, she just couldn’t do this job well. She wasn’t much at picking out intel, separating fact from fiction, compiling and analyzing—she sucked at all of it. She also couldn’t bear to punish her subordinates when they delayed or messed up; these last few months had crawled by, more exhausting than fighting on the battlefield.

If possible, she’d rather just keep being a simple human shield. As long as she could make sure Harano didn’t get shanked out of nowhere, that was the real easy, happy kind of work.

She squeezed Harano’s hand in return, helped pour him some tea, and lowered her eyes as she softly murmured: "I wonder how Ah Man is doing..."

She missed Ah Man and wanted her to hurry back, resume her Factory Director role, so the three of them could get back to their normal life.

"Ah Man, huh..." Harano took the cup and sipped. He was missing Ah Man a bit too.

Back when that girl was around, it always felt like she was kind of a bastard—coming and going like the wind, everywhere she went was chaos, always scheming for money, or spinning yarns. She’d saved Harano’s hide one hundred eighty times at least, making it seem like he was some villain bullying men and women, lording it over commoners, with a long line of people queuing up to assassinate him every day.

But now she’d gone to Ezo on assignment, and without her daily racket, without her constant complaints, Harano was feeling a bit lonely.

Honestly, at this point in his life, the only one who dared treat him so casually, reach right into his pocket for cash, was this wild child Ah Man.

Qing didn’t cut it—she was quiet and could barely utter a word if you hit her with a stick. Being with her was peaceful, but not lively. Princess Dog didn’t work either—soft-tempered, raised by the book, always respectful to him. They got along politely enough, but "lively" was nowhere to be found—not even close.

If we’re talking friends—someone you could trust, who could move and shout and call you names—Harano only really had Ah Man.

Who knows how she’s doing now? It’s almost spring here in Owari, the weather warming up, but in Ezo the latitude’s even higher—it must be the coldest time of year right now. No idea if that wild child’s frozen to death yet.

Probably... not, right?