CHAPTER 256: CHAPTER 187: NO.2 MONKEY

Harano’s guess wasn’t without basis.

He hadn’t thought about it carefully before, but the sudden incident made him realize that Ah Song and Ningning both counted as orphaned girls. Ah Song’s father died, her mother remarried, and she had a falling out with everyone at Hosokawa Castle—she really was a lone seedling. As for the Kinoshita family, all the male heirs were dead, leaving only Ningning and her sister, which was only a slight improvement over Ah Song’s lot, and they still had Asano Nagasuke to rely on.

In this era, such orphaned girls were definitely not considered good marriage prospects, yet Oda Nobunaga still chose such wives for his two trusted household retainers, Maeda Toshie and the Monkey, which pretty obviously meant he wanted to isolate them from the Owari old-guard clans. Otherwise, as their position and strength rose, they’d have been prime targets for marital alliances from those very clans—in Harano’s eyes, the purpose of this was crystal clear, but to others, they probably just saw Oda Nobunaga as "messing around." Look at Ah Song’s temperament with him—he simply married her off to Maeda Toshie.

And some historical events back this up. The Monkey later took charge of the "Kawamata Group" and the "Minoh Group," massively suppressing the expansion of the Owari clans’ power and ensuring none could become dominant under Oda Nobunaga. Maeda Toshie even became one of the "Three of the Fuchu," always acting with the Owari clan group, and reportedly even called Katsuyori Shibata "beloved dad." Their relationship was extremely close.

After Oda Nobunaga’s death, Maeda Toshie’s behavior in the Battle of Shizugatake was odd—he showed up but deliberately slackened, and then quickly sided with the Monkey, becoming one of the Monkey’s "Five Elders." It’s possible this was related—as history has it, the Monkey very likely knew in advance, and took in Maeda Toshie as a hidden asset after Oda Nobunaga’s death.

Of course, these are all Harano’s speculations. Whether they’re right is hard to say. The matter has nothing to do with him, so he just needs to sit back and enjoy the show.

He shared what he could with Ah Man, who remained unconvinced, but felt there was some logic to it and it wasn’t all wild conjecture. Stroking her chin, she mused, "So, picking up Ami was actually done on Nobunaga’s orders?"

"Probably he got too close to the local clans and Oda Nobunaga saw him as a traitor—just the right kind of ’waste utilization’," Harano added. From the start, he’d found it odd how Maeda Toshie killed Ami so decisively.

Maeda Toshie wasn’t exactly a reckless hothead; drawing the sword and killing on impulse wasn’t his style. He’d spent so long in Oda Danjo Chonosuke’s house, had decent relations with everyone, never even got in fights—suddenly going around hacking people was bizarre.

Ah Man thought about it and believed Harano a bit more, nodding: "All right, if he won’t die, then I’ll have someone keep an eye on him."

Harano didn’t object—he was curious about this too.

......

The next day, Katsuyori Shibata—convinced by someone—went to plead with Oda Nobunaga. No one knew what they talked about, or what kind of performance Oda Nobunaga pulled, but in the end Katsuyori Shibata walked out looking serious but secretly happy, and Maeda Toshie’s sentence was changed from seppuku to exile.

From that moment on, Maeda Toshie became a ranger.

His friends were relieved, but also sorry for him. Maeda Toshie seemed hit hard, looked rather disheartened, and after telling Sawaki Ryoji to thank everyone for him, he left Qingzhou City alone.

Ah Man kept having people follow him, and soon reported to Harano: "Maeda Toshie went to Atsuta Port; he’s staying temporarily at the Matsuo Family’s place—apparently thanks to Katsuyori Shibata’s help."

The Matsuo Family is the Priest Clan at Atsuta Shrine and a famous Owari noble house.

Harano nodded lightly, then asked, "And what about Ah Song?"

"It looks like he’s entrusted Ah Song to Katsuyori Shibata’s care." Ah Man reported, then said with some empathy, "So it’s true—Maeda Toshie’s really connected to Katsuyori Shibata. In the future, will he become Katsuyori Shibata’s household retainer and pass intelligence to Oda Nobunaga?"

Harano thought it over, shaking his head: "Probably not—intelligence work wouldn’t need someone like him, that would be a waste. He’ll just stay honestly at Katsuyori Shibata’s side, draw on the Owari clans’ strength to develop, and at a certain key moment in the future, do something critical. If it were me, that’s how I’d arrange it."

Ah Man’s bean-sprout brows drooped, sighing: "I suppose that works out okay, but poor Ah Song..."

Worked up the courage to marry the man she loves, and right after the wedding, her husband’s exiled, lost his annual stipend, most of his lang faction kids were forced to leave, and the "Maeda Family" was ninety-nine percent destroyed—she must be feeling awful.

"For Ah Song, this might not be a bad thing." Harano actually felt Maeda Toshie being exiled would be better for future developments, plus Ah Song was so young—it’d be better if she still kept some distance from Maeda Toshie for now.

Ah Man thought about it, didn’t understand what Harano meant, but her sympathy only stretched so far. In a flash, she forgot about Ah Song and turned back to Harano: "By the way, that thing you asked me to keep an eye on—I think we’ve noticed something."

Harano perked up immediately. "Who is it?"

Previously, he’d used underhanded tactics to eliminate the Monkey, but he was worried a "number two monkey" would show up. So he had Ah Man pay extra attention to any new faces around Oda Nobunaga, to see if Nobunaga would pick out another grassroots samurai.

Ah Man took a piece of "toilet paper" from her pocket, smoothed it out and handed it over, explaining, "According to our inside sources and cross-checks, this guy’s been favored by Oda Nobunaga for the past two months. Nobunaga summoned him several times, including twice alone, though he hasn’t praised him publicly."

Harano nodded as he worked to smooth the "toilet paper," trying hard to decipher the handwriting—Ah Man’s chicken-scratch had its own innate security; even he, the one who taught her to read, could barely make it out without a lot of guessing.

As he squinted and read, he muttered, "Mi Jiulang, twenty-two, son of a Nagano Castle castle-town merchant, currently chief accountant of the household, skilled in arithmetic, some knowledge of horsemanship, swordsmanship, and the tea ceremony; quick-witted, decisive, loyal to his job..."

Mi Jiulang was one of the Oda Family’s lang faction, the kind with outstanding performance and a small position, and his background was even more grassroots than the Monkey’s—the Monkey came from "an artistic family," Mi Jiulang was just a merchant’s son.

But that made no difference to Oda Nobunaga. If Mi Jiulang rose to prominence, the only one he could rely on would be Oda Nobunaga, consciously or unconsciously pitting himself against the Owari elder clans.

Ah Man’s people had provided a sketch too. Harano glanced at it and needed no hints—the man was clearly aspiring to be a samurai: he sported a yokedai head. At this time, the yokedai hairstyle wasn’t yet the Japanese standard, didn’t look good, was even ugly. The only plus was that it made wearing a helmet (kabuto) easier.

Yup, helmet quality at this time was bad. If you had hair and wore a helmet all day, by the time you took it off, the burnt-hair stench caused by friction would make you want to vomit, never mind the others around you.

So this hairstyle was generally only worn by combat samurai; if anyone else wore it—unless they were naturally bald—they were imitating samurai, trying to get close to that class.

Mi Jiulang, just a desk-bound "accountant," wearing this style probably meant he wanted to make his mark and join the samurai ranks.

That was pretty normal—at this time, any lang faction member with some ambition wanted to be a samurai, though very few actually made it.

Harano finished reading, memorized Mi Jiulang’s features in case they met later and he didn’t recognize him, then looked up and said to Ah Man: "Keep very close tabs on this guy. Try to find out everything you can about his activities."

"Uh..." Ah Man scratched her head, a bit embarrassed. "That’s a problem—for now, I can’t do that. He’s disappeared, and I’m having people search for him!"

Harano was surprised. "Disappeared?"

"Yeah, that’s why we reported it to you so quickly. He disappeared, and there wasn’t much we could do—at Oda Nobunaga’s side, there are a few people like him, and inside Nobunaga’s residence our people can’t keep constant track. He hasn’t been seen since yesterday, and now nobody knows where he is."

"Did Oda Nobunaga give him an assignment?" Harano thought about how, right before the Monkey was poisoned, Nobunaga was planning to entrust him with a secret mission. Maybe this mission started up again—and Mi Jiulang was the Monkey’s successor, the ’Number Two Monkey?’"

"Looks that way?" Ah Man still couldn’t be sure. Just guessing.

Harano’s concern grew. He immediately ordered: "Find the guy quickly. The ’Life-saving Group’ gets a bigger budget every quarter—gotta deliver results!"

"No worries!" Ah Man slapped her small chest in assurance. "Your money won’t be wasted. As long as he’s still in Owari, there’s no way he’ll escape us!"

Harano was at ease for now, but felt that history really wasn’t so easy to change. Number One Monkey was barely dead, and a Number Two Monkey had already stepped up. The only question was—how did Number Two compare to the first in ability...

Probably similar. Most people weren’t all that different—what mattered were opportunity and circumstance.

This was not a matter to take lightly. Once back in New Wanjin, he made sure to check progress on Number Two Monkey every day, wanting to quickly figure out what he was doing and what effect that might have on history.

Ah Man kept urging the Life-saving Group to search high and low—otherwise there’d be no good excuse to beg for more funding. Soon enough, bad news came; she could only report gloomily to Harano: "He’s been found, but he’s out of our intelligence zone. Last sighting was at Atsuta Port—he seems to have gone east."

Harano was briefly stunned. "East? To the Matsudaira or Imagawa family?"

"Not sure, but it’s likely!"

Harano nodded slowly, pretty sure now what the Number Two Monkey’s mission was—and it made sense.

The Imagawa family had been planning to go to Shangluo for ages, Imagawa Yoshimoto had been consolidating the domain for a massive western expedition, and Oda Nobunaga wasn’t stupid—of course he’d make preparations. He was sending Number Two Monkey to stir up trouble with the Imagawa family!

The intelligence war for the Battle of Okehazama had already begun...