$ Chapter 327 17. Succession of Yamauchi Family Governors
Xiao Pingtai has a question, which is also the question of many people. It feels like half of the Warring States period is revolving around him. Whatever happens, it feels like it is related to him.
Logically speaking, in the feudal era, from Mino to Musashi, from Echigo to Suruga. Of course, the distance is not far now. You can take the high-speed rail from Songjiang to Jinling ten times a day.
A little further away, from Songjiang to Beitongzhou, it would take three months to walk in ancient times. But now, as long as you take a plane, you can make three round trips a day.
In ancient times, there were few means of transportation, and the speed was slow. Information transmission almost relied on shouting. It feels like a fairy tale that Fujikichiro of Owari Province went to Mino Province to build a city and asked Yamanouchi Yoshiharu of Shinano Province for help.
But there is a saying that a single move affects the whole body. Japan is small, but anything that happens at the level of a sub-country will definitely involve other sub-countries around it.
In the East, there are only a few powerful and powerful daimyo in the country, and if anything happens to any of them, it will definitely involve Yamanouchi Yoshiharu. And Kobayata is a middle-level or high-level retainer in the Yamanouchi family, and he can know about big and small things even if he doesn't participate in them personally.
In this way, whenever there is something happening in the East, Kobayata will definitely be involved.
It's not that Kobayata took the initiative to participate in those historical events, but historical events happened around Kobayata. People sit at home, and the pot comes from the sky, that's what it means.
That's right!
…
Because they experienced this personally, the Yamanouchi family also paid attention to Fujikichiro's castle building in Sumomatari. The secret agent that Yamanouchi Yoshiharu arranged in Mino Province sent the news a few days later.
Fujikichiro mobilized thousands of soldiers and civilians with great fanfare and suddenly entered Sumomatari in the evening. The retainers of the Saito family, such as Takewasa Naomitsu, Nagai Michitoshi, and Takei Yuan, knew about it soon.
They were not in a hurry at all. Even if Fujikichiro was given one night, he could not build a city. So they just mobilized soldiers one by one, waited for dawn, and took advantage of the force to give the tired Oda army a head-on blow.
But Fujikichiro had already ordered countless fences and wooden boards, and got the cooperation of hundreds of people from Kiso River and Minami Suga. When the sun rose the next day, a hastily built "city" was already complete.
Even a large number of chevaux de frise spears were made with long spears and lined up outside the Sumita Castle. The Saito army was dumbfounded. Fujikichiro actually built a Sumita Castle overnight.
And Oda Nobunaga also mobilized soldiers to support as promised, and the two sides had a big fight between the Kiso River and the Nagara River. Relying on the city, the Oda army clashed and fought with the Saito army. After sunset, the Saito army did not make any achievements and retreated with hatred.
This battle established the dominant position of the Oda clan in Western Mino, and the people of Western Mino saw more clearly the weakness of the Saito clan and the rise of the Oda clan.
And Kinoshita Tokichiro officially joined the ranks of the middle and senior retainers of the Oda clan because of this achievement, and was awarded 500 kan of knowledge and exercise, promoted to Sumomatari Castle Lord, and served as the attendant general of the Oda clan.
Another point is that after being given a name by Oda Nobunaga, Kinoshita Tokichiro changed his name to Kinoshita Hideyoshi.
The name of Kinoshita Hideyoshi officially debuted!
Gold can shine wherever it goes, for example, this Tokichiro took a big step in his life.
…
Because the result was expected long ago, the senior warriors of the Yamanouchi clan, including Kobayata, all looked calm. But in fact, everyone was a little anxious. After all, if Nobunaga really suppressed Mino Province, with 50,000 troops in hand, he could really beat the whole eastern country.
Only Uesugi Terutora can be completely fearless, and the others can only pull out 20,000 or 30,000 people at most, and they are afraid. Especially Yamanouchi Yoshiharu of Shinano Province, which is directly adjacent to Mino Province, is self-evidently urgent.
This also led to him being more attentive to the casting of the Portuguese gun. Like iron cannons, cannons have a service life. It is not that a cannon can be used for a lifetime. After firing a certain number of shots, it must be scrapped and re-trained. Otherwise, it will be fun to explode the barrel without hitting others.
Although the brothers Hess and William have not yet discovered that they have been tricked by Uesugi Terutora and Yamanouchi Yoshiharu, they still have their minds. They refused to stay in Yamanouchi Fuchū Castle or Kasugayama Castle, and made it clear that they would build a furnace in Ejiri Castle and cast cannons.
Not only did it reveal everywhere that the Yamanouchi family wanted to open the port quickly and allow trade, so that their subsequent trade ships and missionaries could continue to enter the East Country.
He also mocked the Japanese iron for being useless. If the cannon made of local iron cannot be fired many times, it is not their fault at all, but the Japanese iron itself is bad.
"Ha!" Xiao Pingtai laughed secretly in his heart. Japanese iron is indeed ordinary, but if you can find a place in the world with higher quality and cheaper copper than Japan, Xiao Pingtai will kneel down and kowtow to you three times.
Why play with cast iron cannons in Japan? Let's go straight to bronze cannons. One thousand catties of copper is a huge sum of money in foreign countries. It can be sold for 175 taels of silver in Da Meng, and it is not much different in Europe.
But in Japan, sorry, only 55 kanwen, and this is the market price. Uesugi Terutora occupied the Ashio Copper Mine at this time, and the one thousand catties of copper did not even want 55 kan.
Yamauchi Yoshiharu listened to Xiao Pingtai's nonsense that copper cannons are stronger and more durable than iron cannons, and he saliva about bronze cannons. The decision was made to produce bronze cannons, which blocked the two men, one a businessman and the other a priest, who were now part-time cannon makers, from making various excuses to shirk responsibility in the future.
Originally, Kobayata thought that since the Nanman brothers were going to Ejiri to cast cannons, they would definitely send him to supervise. Then Kobayata could do some private work. He couldn't even think of the six-pound or nine-pound cannons. It was just a matter of words to get himself a three-pound cannon weighing several hundred kilograms to accompany his reserve troops.
However, Yoshiharu Yamanouchi dropped a bombshell news. He would live in seclusion in Ejiri Castle and slowly hand over all the family business of Yamanouchi to Yoshikatsu Yamanouchi to ensure that he would not suddenly die, or his retainers would be in turmoil, or brothers would quarrel.
At the same time as the news was released, the samurai retainers of the Yamanouchi family all re-swore an oath to Yoshikatsu Yamanouchi. The most exciting one was Yoshimasa Kiso, who suddenly became the brother-in-law of the head of the Yamanouchi family. He was originally reluctant to come to Yamanouchi to serve the country. Now he came uninvited, ready to wait for his sister to give birth to a son, so that he could use this to plan and gain power.
With the transfer of the title of head of the family, the Yamanouchi family officially entered the era of Yoshikatsu Yamanouchi. In the future, all official documents of the Yamanouchi family will be based on the seal of Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu.
In order to provide a good retirement for Yamanouchi Yoshiharu, the first thing Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu did after taking office was to expand Ejiri Castle and renamed the castle Hamamatsu!