CHAPTER 275: CHAPTER 202: THE CHIEF ENGINEER HAS ARRIVED

The Oda, Matsudaira, and Nozawa families’ alliance was officially established. After dealing with the hunting event—where the Matsudaira family took first place—Matsudaira Mototaka looked honest enough, but without making a fuss, he quietly showed off his strength enough that no one in the Oda family dared to underestimate them.

Well, the overall military level of Japan’s Warring States was pretty backward—they’d been closed off on the island for years, not great at military tech or organization—but when it came to individual Samurai skills and tactics, they were surprisingly impressive. In the "Ming Chronicles" there are accounts of Wokou "pillaging like the wind, leaping several zhang in one bound," and "catching arrows with their hands, stunning the armies into rout."

A lot of those Wokou were just wandering Samurai who had scattered after losing battles. These Samurai didn’t do much else growing up—just trained their Martial Arts all day and learned how to cut people down. From their early teens, when they came of age and went to war, they’d spent most of their life hacking and slashing. In close combat with cold weapons, you really couldn’t take them lightly—Wokou loved to use wandering Samurai to spearhead charges, and back in the day the people and armies of Great Ming’s Jiangnan took heavy losses from them.

Among those Samurai, the Sanhe samurai were a famous group in Japan’s Warring States, known for outstanding individual Martial Arts and fearlessness in battle—nothing like the peasant rabble who broke at a touch.

But Nozawa wasn’t too worried about all that. The decline of cold weapons was an inevitable trend—these days, pure Martial Arts just didn’t cut it anymore.

After seeing out the hunting event, he went straight to Maeda Family’s land at Shimo-no-Isshiki to check in on his fool son, Meng Ziqi.

Yeah, after the Battle of Okehazama, his relations with Oda Nobunaga were tense. He didn’t dare leave his idiot son in Hibi Village, so he secretly cut a deal with Maeda Toshimasa to move Meng Ziqi to the south side of Shimo-no-Isshiki Castle, near Okinoshima by the sea. That way, it was easy for him to visit and, if needed, have someone take Meng Ziqi to escape onto the water at any time.

The main point was, Meng Ziqi couldn’t be too far from the Ise Mountain range or his health would slowly worsen, so even if it was risky, he couldn’t move him back to New Wanjin or he’d die anyway.

Oda Nobunaga probably knew about all this, but Nobunaga had some heroic spirit—certainly more than Nozawa. He wasn’t the scheming type who’d harm a "vegetable," or maybe he figured that kidnapping one would just infuriate Nozawa enough to have him torch Atsuta port—so, he just pretended not to see it.

Of course, maybe it helped that the alliance hadn’t fully broken down. The various manors in Kasugai and Niwa counties that Nozawa gained during the Owari unification war were still untouched by Nobunaga—the grain and cash crops grown there were still allowed to be shipped to New Wanjin.

Now that relations between the Nozawa and Oda families had recovered, Nozawa naturally had to make another trip, move Meng Ziqi back to Hibi Village, and also get the team searching his original transmigration site up and running again.

Once all that was squared away, he hurried to Old Wanjin to catch his boat home—and found a massive crowd waiting for him at the dock.

Leading them was a man who looked to be in his forties, a bit over 1.5 meters tall, stocky, dressed in a rough gray komon and wide hakama. His head looked huge—it was already round and big, but with his bald scalp it was even more so.

His hands were big too—like those "fan-sized hands" you’d hear about in wuxia novels, covered in calluses, rough as gravel, littered with fine scars. At a glance, you’d think he’d trained Iron Palm or something equally weird.

This was none other than the future Oda Family "Chief Engineer"—Okabe Iyayama, a renowned architect in Owari and at Atsuta Shrine.

At the same time, he was also one of the compensations Nozawa got for giving up entering Sanhe—Oda Nobunaga and Matsudaira Mototaka had promised to help Nozawa build his navy. Okabe Iyayama and the entire Okabe family were part of Nobunaga’s support, while the artisans from Matsudaira Mototaka would come directly by land to Dagao City, then head down to New Wanjin.

The moment Ah Man saw Okabe Iyayama, she beamed and, without a word, smacked him hard on the back three times. Her "bean-sprout" brows danced, and she laughed, "Okabe, what the hell! When I offered you money, you never came—now that there’s no money, here you are! You really are a big dummy!"

She did it on purpose—she’d been snubbed by Okabe plenty of times this past year, always getting stonewalled or rebuffed, so now she had every reason to mess with him, get a little revenge, make him squirm.

Okabe Iyayama looked like he’d swallowed a turd. Nozawa had a terrible reputation in Owari—greedy, lecherous, and lately, downright bloodthirsty, having seized lands from over a dozen big and small families by force. Three or four resisted, and Nozawa wiped out their whole clans. Okabe really hadn’t dared serve such a "tyrant," unless Nozawa bribed him with perks he couldn’t refuse—a Samurai’s status, plus a fief with at least 500 koku income, and recognition of his faith as a devotee of Atsuta Shrine.

Yeah, becoming a devotee of Atsuta Shrine was mainly about keeping himself safe. In secular society, his status wasn’t that high—just a bit better than Lang Faction. But in religious circles, he was decent enough. If Nozawa became a devotee too, then no matter how bloodthirsty he was, he’d be less likely to kill Okabe.

Nozawa, though, was tight as hell, never agreed to any of it, just sent this "bean-sprout brow" concubine over to pester him endlessly, trying every trick to lure him to New Wanjin. So Okabe couldn’t be bothered to be polite and kept dodging them—if not for Nozawa’s fearsome reputation (he was afraid Nozawa would send someone to chop him up in the night), he’d have kicked Ah Man out ages ago.

But now, well—Nobunaga dropped a "Black Seal Judgment Document" straight to the Priest Clan Matsuo Family at Atsuta Shrine, and the Matsuo patriarch, Matsugao Susumu, packed him, his wife, his kids, his apprentices, and hired workers all off together to work for Nozawa for free for years—and they had to do it well, or the whole Matsuo Family would pay. He had no way to refuse.

If he’d known it would come to this, he should have agreed to Nozawa earlier. Even if he never scored land or Samurai status, at least he could’ve earned a thousand kwan a year—for him, his sons, apprentices, and workers, enough for everyone to make a good living.

Now all they could count on was a bite of rice, if they were lucky—maybe not even enough to fill their bellies.

Just thinking about it made him miserable. Having Ah Man pound him and mock him now made it even worse, but since he couldn’t fight back, he could only hold his ugly old face and take it.

And this was just the appetizer. Nozawa Saburou’s bean-sprout-browed favorite had endured a ton of humiliation before, so she was sure to dish out ten times as much in return.

His future looked bleak—and that Nozawa Saburou was famously lascivious; his wives and his little daughter were all pretty good-looking...

Doomed. He was totally doomed. He’d worked hard for the Matsuo and Oda families, and now ended up like this!

Nozawa was always respectful towards technical talent. He had no idea Okabe Iyayama was already busy imagining himself being treated like a dog or pig. Dismounting and seeing Ah Man drumming on Okabe, he hurried to stop her rude behavior and politely said to Okabe, "Master Okabe, I’m truly grateful you could come to help. Once we’re in New Wanjin, consider it your home—if you need anything, just say the word. Anything I can manage, I’ll do my utmost."

This was the first time Okabe had actually seen Nozawa in person.

Nozawa had rarely dealt with the Matsuo Family before, and after things went sour with Nobunaga, he couldn’t well go to Atsuta port either. All his correspondence was handwritten letters and sending the bean-sprout-brow concubine to run errands. Mostly, Okabe’s impression came from street gossip—none of the Owari bigwigs liked Nozawa. Privately they all ridiculed him, slandered him, and it grew more outrageous with every retelling. Give it a few more years, and Nozawa would probably be eating three children per meal.

Okabe Iyayama looked up and snuck a glance at Nozawa. Maybe it was just first impressions, but he still thought Nozawa seemed pretty sly and scheming. He hesitated, decided that "you have to bow your head where the roof is low," and immediately knelt and gave a grand salute, stuffily replying, "I don’t deserve such words from Your Highness. Please just call me Xing Zhizhu—it is this humble one’s...this humble one’s honor to serve Your Highness."

Ah Man’s bean-sprout brows twitched at the side, and she let out a weird "heh heh" chuckle. She’d planned to sneak a few kicks to his backside to vent her grievance, but seeing how aggrieved he already looked, she decided to drop it for now. Nozawa quickly pulled Okabe Iyayama to his feet, remaining very courteous. "No need for that, Master Okabe. Someone of your ability choosing to help us is a great honor for Wanjin."

"I don’t deserve, I don’t deserve, truly don’t deserve..." Okabe Iyayama kept his head far down, terrified of offending Nozawa and getting his whole family axed.

"Well then...Master Okabe, if your people are ready, shall we board the ship? Once we arrive in New Wanjin and you’re all settled, we can discuss the details."

Nozawa noticed Okabe Iyayama didn’t seem too good with people, kind of shy—though he didn’t mind much. Tech nerds, after all, aren’t great with strangers; once they warm up, it’s fine—he was half a tech nerd himself, hated small talk with anyone except Ah Qing...and maybe Princess Dog and Ah Man too.

Yeah, he preferred to just get to the point. Couldn’t stand all that beating around the bush. Maybe all engineers are that way?

Okabe Iyayama still kept himself guarded. When he saw Nozawa turning to look at his family, probably checking out his main wife, concubine, and young daughter, his heart tightened and he tried to shift his body to block Nozawa’s view (he was just 1.5 meters—no way he could), and hurriedly reached out. "Your Highness, please—after you."

"Let’s all go together!" Nozawa, still wearing his Yuan Xuande hat, was playing the role of a magnanimous recruiter—if Okabe Iyayama hadn’t looked so ugly, he’d have invited him to sleep in the same bed tonight.

With this guy here, he was set. The day the "Nozawa Navy" sailed the seas was surely just around the corner!