CHAPTER 257: CHAPTER 188: A NEW LEADER OF THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO EMERGE!

In later generations, there were countless records in Japan about the Battle of Okehazama—after all, this was the pivotal battle where Oda Nobunaga transformed from a country bumpkin into a man of the realm. But the details become murky, steeped in the flavor of embellishment. It’s as if Oda Nobunaga just squatted in Qingzhou City, faced Imagawa Yoshimoto’s overwhelming offensive, fell into utter despair, then suddenly grabbed his folding fan, danced a rendition of "Atsumori," and with death in his heart, charged out of the castle—miraculously finding Imagawa Yoshimoto, who was coincidentally resting away from his main force, and before anyone knew what happened, Nobunaga cut him down.

In those stories, it seems like Oda Nobunaga only succeeded by luck, and Imagawa Yoshimoto is cast as an unlucky clown, abandoned by heaven, existing solely to highlight Nobunaga’s brilliance—a pathetic footnote, making the Imagawa family look weak, practically collapsing at the first blow, devoid of even a trace of a first-rate daimyo’s presence.

But Harano has been down and out in this era for quite a while now, and after many dealings with Oda Nobunaga, he knows he’s not just a simple "Oddity." Or rather, the maverick persona is just a façade—many things people consider to be his "nonsense," "spur-of-the-moment whims," or "that idiot acting up again" are, in fact, calculated moves.

What’s more, the Imagawa family has coveted Owari for over half a century—Nagano Castle was even built by the Imagawa. Even starting from the Battle of Azukizaka, the Imagawa and Oda Danjo Chonosuke houses have been clashing head on for over twenty years. If Oda Nobunaga had even two ounces of brains, or just a few more folds on that cerebral cortex, there’s no way he’d underestimate this mortal enemy.

So, the Battle of Okehazama was absolutely not a stroke-of-luck ambush. It wasn’t Oda Nobunaga gambling everything in sheer desperation and somehow winning by luck, but a calculated, premeditated action.

While Imagawa Yoshimoto was preparing to march on the capital, Oda Nobunaga was already making preparations to kill him.

Which brings us to this very moment—the Battle of Okehazama has actually already started. Historically, the Monkey quite likely participated and made his mark here, using the opportunity to emerge from obscurity, and after the battle, leap up to become a mid- to advanced-level warrior, winning command over the Kawamata Group, becoming the vanguard in the campaign against Minoh, and slowly growing into a man of the realm.

Based on "Monkey No. 2’s" movements, Harano seemed to glimpse a corner of history that would never make it into the records. He realized the Monkey was waiting for the Imagawa and Oda families to come to blows—except Oda Nobunaga had already struck first. But now, Harano couldn’t work out what job Nobunaga had sent Mi Jiulang to do.

Of course, even if he knew, it would make no difference—right now, he was immobilized. Otherwise, when Imagawa Yoshimoto moved west, odds were he’d make a detour at Bai Chuan Pass to take Harano out first. All Harano could do was instruct the "Life-saving Group" to shift focus and start actively probing along Bai Chuan Pass.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Harano watched the situation carefully—he had to seize the brief opening after the Oda and Imagawa clashed, to grab as much territory as possible. Otherwise, if all he had was this tiny New Wanjin fief, mustering this many troops was already pushing it to the limit.

If he missed this window where nobody’s watching, he’d likely just die trapped on the Chita Peninsula—trying to build up even a speck of strength after that would be next to impossible.

At the very least, things on land would be grim. He’d probably have to dismantle some of his field armies and retrain and redevelop a navy—see if he could grab a patch of land in the Seto Inland Sea.

But that path would be costly—shipbuilding was both a technical and labor-intensive industry, and after years of effort he’d made little headway. His navy was mostly just a transport force. To actually fight naval battles in the Seto Inland Sea against those seasoned water thieves? He wasn’t confident at all.

Waiting drove him insane. Even knowing this battle was inevitable, he still grew anxious with every passing day. Meanwhile, Ah Man flooded him with updates—so much so that "Monkey No. 3," "Monkey No. 4" and others appeared—Oda Nobunaga was discreetly sending more people, some of them quite capable members of the Oda Lang Faction, all looking like the Monkey’s "successors."

Most likely, even historically, Oda Nobunaga didn’t put all his eggs in one basket. He sent many promising men for all kinds of covert operations—the Monkey probably only stood out after ruthless competition.

Anyway, by the time Nobunaga had churned things up, Harano couldn’t even tell which was the Monkey’s "successor." He could only wait until the Battle of Okehazama ended, and see who Oda Nobunaga intended to marry Ningning to—she was probably the ultimate prize Nobunaga had up his sleeve. Whoever married Ningning was the grassroots warrior Nobunaga had chosen to promote.

At the same time, besides these "monkeys," Ah Man’s "Life-saving Group" also repeatedly spotted signs of the "Banquet Circle"—Oda Nobunaga’s "Ninja Squad" suddenly growing active along Bai Chuan Pass, seemingly plotting some scheme. But Ah Man couldn’t verify what. New Sakemaru was an old hand, and the "Banquet Circle" had its roots in bandit and river pirate gangs. The "Life-saving Group" didn’t have the standing to mess with them yet. The two groups had different styles—the "Life-saving Group" were pure intelligence agents, while the "Banquet Circle" were more like special ops teams that could handle combat as well. In a real fight, the "Life-saving Group" would suffer heavy losses.

In this surface-level calm, with currents swirling beneath, a new year quickly arrived.

The Lunar New Year itself was uneventful—Harano even managed to enjoy a comfortable holiday. But barely more than a month into the new year, Ah Man came rushing to deliver the latest news: "Yamaguchi Keiji might be dead."

"Yamaguchi Keiji?" Harano froze for a second before recalling who that was. "The lord of Nagami Castle?"

This guy was something of a talent—in the past, he was a dependent aristocrat under the Oda Danjo Chonosuke house. After the "Tiger of Owari" Oda Nobuhide died, and Oda Nobunaga had just taken power, he killed the Yoriki Warrior sent by Danjo Chonosuke, and switched allegiance to the Imagawa family.

His defection directly led to Chita County falling entirely into Imagawa hands, and more than a third of Aichi County was lost, putting the Oda Danjo Chonosuke house’s lifeline Atsuta Port under direct threat from the Matsudaira and Imagawa families.

In simple terms, this man would easily rank among the top five on Oda Nobunaga’s shit list.

Ah Man immediately nodded: "That’s him. The rumor is he was summoned by Imagawa Yoshimoto to Shimizu, and then something happened—Imagawa Yoshimoto ordered him to commit seppuku. At the same time, his successor, Yamaguchi Kyosuke, also died—supposedly killed while trying to escape."

"So what about Nagami Castle?"

This was the key node controlling the Bai Chuan Pass defense line, and the gateway to the root of the Chita Peninsula. Harano didn’t care much about Yamaguchi Keiji’s fate, but he was very concerned about the castle’s ownership.

Ah Man flipped through her little notebook and answered, "We haven’t fully confirmed yet, but it looks like the Imagawa family took over. The new garrison commander is Okabe Motonobu (Danbo Guardian). All the other branch castles controlled by the Yamaguchi Family were also seized by the Imagawa and Matsudaira people. The whereabouts of Yamaguchi’s clan are unknown."

She paused, then added, "My guess is they probably killed them all. I’ll confirm later."

Harano wasn’t too concerned about the Yamaguchi Family’s survival either—he just muttered, "So the local snakes are dead, huh..."

The Yamaguchi Family, same as the Hosokawa Family, were local bullies—sometimes more influential than the daimyo themselves. Now that the Imagawa suddenly wiped them out, the Imagawa’s actual control over the root of the Chita Peninsula actually went down, not up. With the death of the rabbit, the fox grieves—hard to win local support now.

After thinking it through, Harano asked Ah Man, "Was this Oda Nobunaga’s doing?"

Ah Man shook her head. "Not sure. We’re pretty weak in the Jumogawa region, and we can’t react that fast. Right now, we just can’t say what happened in Shimizu... Maybe Nobunaga was involved? Could’ve been a trick to sow suspicion?"

Harano thought so too. Nobunaga had sent in the "monkeys" to infiltrate Bai Chuan Pass, collaborated with the "Banquet Circle" to stir up strange movements, secretly reached out to Yamaguchi Family members, or just seeded rumors, making the Imagawa suspect Yamaguchi wanted to switch back to Oda’s side. To make sure there were no obstacles on the road to Kyoto, Imagawa just tricked Yamaguchi Keiji and his son into coming to Jumogawa and killed them to seize their land.

Of course, maybe Imagawa Yoshimoto simply wanted to head to the capital, and the key positions along the way weren’t occupied by his own most trusted men—so to feel secure, he took out the Yamaguchi Family first. That too is possible.

The real story is hard to unravel. On this, Oda Nobunaga’s camp was airtight—none of the Lang Faction sons Ah Man had sent inside could gather any intel about it, and the Imagawa base was too far off. Even just sending messages back and forth was risky, let alone planting a spy at Imagawa Yoshimoto’s side.

Harano mulled this over, got nowhere, and shelved the question. Speculating about it was pointless—it only mattered that the situation had changed.

So, all signs pointed to the Battle of Okehazama happening this year. Whether he feasted or starved—it’d be decided this year!

Harano made up his mind without much hesitation, turned around and started calling all sorts of meetings, mobilizing New Wanjin from a peacetime to war footing, ramped up training for peasant soldiers, organized peasants to replace the Wanjin Army at defensive positions, put together support soldier units, and began stockpiling vast amounts of provisions, gunpowder, horses, and wagons.

These changes would be gradual, to avoid major upheaval in New Wanjin—strict controls would only come at the end. And just as he was preparing for war, Oda Nobunaga wasn’t sitting idle either.

With the Yamaguchi Family inexplicably wiped out by Imagawa Yoshimoto, Oda Nobunaga sprang into action, deploying a large force to—build up the Rock Fortress and encircle Dagao City. Dagao City was close to Atsuta Harbor, like a dagger pointed at the harbor itself. It seemed Oda Nobunaga intended to use the sudden fall of the Yamaguchi to pull out this thorn once and for all.

He really went all in, sending a huge number of men. In barely over a month, the Jiuzhen and Marune fortresses were thrown up, garrisoned with a lot of Lang Faction and Ashigaru, and using them as a base, he started trying to sabotage Dagao City’s defensive works.

Almost simultaneously, Imagawa Yoshimoto made his move too—appointing Ii Naomasa as vanguard general, leading 5,000 men west along the main road, opening the path to the capital;

Two days later, Imagawa Yoshimoto ordered his son, Imagawa Shizuma, to garrison Shimizu. He personally led 20,000 troops in palanquins, staggering their way out—thus, the march on the capital officially began, sending shockwaves through the land.

All eyes turned to the coming storm—after all, a new man of the realm was about to emerge!