CHAPTER 261: CHAPTER 191: IMAGAWA YOSHIMOTO HAS FALLEN INTO THE TRAP_2

Right now, someone was sneaking out of the bushes near the "Barrier." He looked awfully like an assassin, instantly putting Aqing on high alert. That person, startled by Aqing’s low shout, ducked back right away—but after a moment, as if realizing something was off, he poked his head out again for a peek. It turned out to be none other than Maeda Toshie, who’d been exiled after making a huge blunder.

Harano was speechless for a moment, then laughed and waved, "What are you up to? Playing the thief?"

Maeda Toshie was just as speechless. Right now, everyone else was crammed in front of the Divine Palace, cheering. He’d figured nobody would be out here—only to find this oddball Harano, who, even when war is about to break out, doesn’t bother asking for divine protection, and instead just lurks outside for god-knows-what reason. And now he’d been caught red-handed.

Fortunately, Harano wasn’t really an outsider—he was Oda Nobunaga’s brother-in-law, after all. If he ever decided to join the Oda Family, he’d at least get a place as a family retainer. So Maeda Toshie came out, dressed in coarse hemp kimono and hakama, a sword at his waist, beard unkempt, looking every bit the roughneck.

He ignored Harano’s teasing and glanced about before asking Harano, "Sir Saburo, are you also getting ready to follow the lord... to follow the Lord of Upper General on a sortie?"

Harano didn’t press further; the commotion earlier was probably this guy playing at being mysterious, so there was no need to call him out. Plus, judging by his words—"sortie," not "reinforcement"—this guy probably had a task other than going to be a spy at Katsuyori Shibata’s side later on. At the very least, he must’ve known about the plan to ambush Imagawa Yoshimoto well in advance.

Historically, he was tight with the Monkey—maybe they’d worked together on the early intelligence for the "Battle of Okehazama," the whole sharing-a-battlefield kind of bond. No wonder they got along so well.

Harano’s mind was racing, thoughts flying all over the place, but he just smiled and said, "No, I just came to... check things out. You know, I’m bound by a shrine oath—I can’t attack the Imagawa family or the Matsudaira family right now."

He was being upfront. Though he didn’t really believe the gods could bind anyone, in this era, breaking a shrine oath was a serious black mark—Oda Nobuaki was a prime example: even after dying, people talked crap about him all day. So... better to keep some political credibility, lest he ends up like some India Sui guy, having to pay upfront for everything because no one trusts him to deliver.

Maeda Toshie already knew about this; Harano mentioning it brought it back. He nodded right away, and Harano asked with concern, "What about you? Are you... going too?"

Maeda Toshie straightened instantly and nodded. "No way I’m missing a battle this big!"

"But your current status..." Harano probed—after all, Maeda Toshie was now a Ranger, no reason to keep risking his life for the Oda Family.

Maeda Toshie paused, hesitated, and said a bit awkwardly, "If I must, I’ll follow Lord Shibata... Either way, I’ve got to go."

Harano nodded lightly. Looks like this guy really was off to play spy.

He didn’t bring up the "identity" issue again but instead asked with concern, "Got armor, weapons, a horse? If not, I’ll have my men give you a set."

"No need to worry, I already... packed everything."

Maeda Toshie was genuinely touched—not everyone down-and-out gets friends like Harano. He was about to express more gratitude when a fast horse came galloping from afar. Near the Divine Palace, the rider jumped down—a young man also dressed in coarse hemp, in his twenties, sporting a chonmage, and pretty handsome—if you ignored the hair, anyway.

The not-bad-looking youngster hesitated from a distance after dismounting, and Maeda Toshie also looked a little awkward. Harano, perceptive as ever, smiled at him and said, "Go handle your business, we’ll catch up later."

"Sure!"

Maeda Toshie was clearly in a hurry; he didn’t waste words with Harano and rushed off to the young man. The two whispered for a bit, then the young man rode off, and Maeda Toshie dove back into the bushes toward the Divine Palace.

Ah Man watched with some interest and even tried to get a good look, then said to Harano, "That guy’s got a little mole on his chin. Should be Mi Jiulang—the one who’d gone missing before."

"So it’s him, huh..."

Harano glanced at Mi Jiulang’s back. So that’s what "Monkey No.2" looks like? Was he just delivering info about Imagawa Yoshimoto?

Where has Imagawa Yoshimoto reached by now?

Has he gotten to his deathtrap at "Mount Okehazama"?

......

Not long after Maeda Toshie disappeared into the bushes, the Oda Family’s "off-duty Lang Faction" started coming out of the Divine Palace to set up campfires and cook, enjoying a big meal. More and more "off-duty Lang Faction" members kept arriving.

By around 9 a.m., about 2,000 professional Oda Family soldiers had gathered near Atsuta Shrine. At a word from Oda Nobunaga, this sharply elite force instantly ditched all their baggage and long weapons like Three-Room Spears, and set off quickly, heading southeast.

First, they reached Dange Fort, and by then, Imagawa Yoshimoto’s position was basically confirmed—the operation had officially begun. Oda Nobunaga no longer bothered to hide, or maybe hiding was useless now. The "Sumptuous Talkers’" Ninja kept rushing in with fresh intel, and led the Oda army down a particularly rough and obscure path, skirting Nagami Castle to quietly arrive at the wilderness near Shanzhaosi Fort without alerting the Imagawa family.

But near Shanzhaosi Fort, the intel seemed to lag behind again; Oda Nobunaga halted, dragging everyone along with him to hide and wait.

Not long after, someone from the "Sumptuous Talkers" brought news again, causing a stir over at Oda Nobunaga’s side. Ah Man slipped over to eavesdrop and asked around with his familiar face, then came back to report to Harano, "We’ve lost Marune and Jiuzhen forts. Sakuma Shigetaka, Oda Nobuhiro, Iwao Daisuke, Iwao Shinshu—all the commanders there—were killed in action, along with every one of their troops. Not a single one escaped."

Harano was stunned for a moment. "Sakuma Shigetaka is dead?"

This was a Family Elder of the Oda Family—one of the current three great elders. And now, not only was a big elder dead, a whole string of core retainers and officials too; on top of that, maybe over a thousand Lang Faction had died—if the whole garrison really was wiped out. And if you count in Ashigaru, casualties could be over two thousand.

Ah Man was a master at digging up dirt and immediately said, "The Matsudaira family began attacking the forts last night. They went for all three sides at once. After Matsudaira Hiroshi, Obo Hisatada no Yo, and Matsudaira Shigeki distracted the defenders, Matsudaira Mototaka personally led Ishikawa Shuzo, Honjou Choji, and a whole load of clan samurai up the walls—they broke in with a single strike and cut down Sakuma Shigetaka right there."

Harano nodded to himself. He knew this tactic; when he fought for turf down on Chita Peninsula, the Matsudaira family loved this trick: send a bunch of Heavily Armored Warriors up first to smash up the enemy and grab the walls. He’d suffered plenty from that—they’d been training for this kind of up-close fighting since childhood, and once they donned armor and charged, they could take down several regular soldiers each—honestly, it was a nightmare to stand against.

But he really hadn’t expected that Old Turtle, back in his youth, would be so bold as to personally don armor and scale the walls? Going by his historical reputation, shouldn’t he be some expressionless old schemer instead?

While Harano kept pondering, things were already getting heated over at Oda Nobunaga’s side. The main uproar was Shibata, Lin Xiuzhen, and the other warlords—either not understanding or flat-out refusing to believe that Oda Nobunaga actually intended to assassinate Imagawa Yoshimoto—urging him to rush back with army. But Oda Nobunaga ignored them, holding them there and making them wait all the way till noon.

It wasn’t until then that he received urgent intel from Xinjiuwan: Imagawa Yoshimoto had walked right into the trap.