Chapter 63

"Even though this deep-fried clam bowl is just clams cooked and placed on rice, it's delicious."

"Let's not worry about why it's called a deep-fried clam bowl, since the person who named it is a lord. It's perfect for us busy people who can eat it casually."

"For those training in the army, something like a tempura bowl would be better."

Horiuchi Yasuharu, Fujiwara Mitsuharu, and Hino Masahisa, who are always busy with government affairs, were unusually having lunch together.

The menu was the deep-fried clam bowl, which is said to have been devised by Mitsuharu.

It was a perfect menu for the three of them, who were approaching old age, as it was easy to eat, delicious, and not greasy.

The young people were eating tempura bowls today.

In any era, young people tend to eat hearty meals, while those in middle age and beyond often prefer lighter fare.

"The lord is trying to create famous local products in various parts of the Kanto region to increase the income of the local people."

"Well, cash income is better, isn't it?"

Masahisa basically agreed with the 'local product development plan' that Yasuharu was talking about.

From his perspective, being incorporated into the new territory of Tsuda meant being inevitably drawn into a monetary economy.

If everyone spent the money they earned, it would boost the economy of the Tsuda territory.

However, if they kept buying from outside the territory, money would flow out.

The goal was to circulate money within the Tsuda territory and turn the Kanto region into a major economic zone like the Kinai.

Masahisa understood that Mitsuharu's plan was something grand like that.

"Does the lord realize this?"

"He must be aware, but he thinks it will take time."

In response to Masahisa's question, Mitsuharu expressed his thoughts.

To the three of them, who had lived in Owari and Mino, the Kanto region and beyond felt like a different country.

For the three of them, and for Nobunaga, the center of Japan was always the Kinai and western Japan, so Nobunaga was focused on securing those areas and thought he could leave the remote regions of Kanto and Tohoku to his vassal, Mitsuharu.

If Mitsuharu developed the region, the country's power would increase, but it would take time, and even if it did, the Oda family, which controlled the Kinai and western Japan, would be too strong to defeat.

The Tsuda family would be in a weaker position, and if they rebelled, they could be easily defeated like the Oshu Fujiwara clan.

This is how the three of them thought Nobunaga might be thinking.

"First, no one has a grasp of the power and population of the Kanto and Tohoku regions."

Masahisa realized that Nobunaga's perception was naive when he actually came to the Kanto region.

He understood that the Kanto region, if developed, had great potential, just as he had.

At first, he was angry about Nobunaga taking the new territory and Ise from the Tsuda family, but now his anger had subsided.

The Tsuda family might even go as far as to the Ezo and beyond.

And if that were achieved, they would not be so easily destroyed by the Oda family.

"Our lord prioritizes increasing the country's power through development over fighting in a limited area."

Then, they should support him.

No, if things go well, they might even be able to make the Oda family their vassals in the future?

There was the example of Minamoto no Yoritomo, who established the Kamakura Shogunate with the Kanto region as his base.

Thinking about this, Masahisa became excited.

"(Be careful... I hope Nobunaga doesn't regret sending us east later.)"

Masahisa, who had a rebellious spirit, had to restrain himself from saying what he was thinking out loud.

He knew that his lord was envied by most of the Oda family's hereditary vassals, including Shibata Katsuie.

Among the hereditary vassals, only a few held domains at the daimyo level.

Most had fiefs of a few hundred to a few thousand koku, so their envy naturally turned towards the outside vassals like Mitsuharu.

They couldn't direct such feelings towards hereditary vassals like Katsuie and Nagahide.

In such a situation, an unintended slip of the tongue could lead to the exclusion of the Tsuda family, so Masahisa had to be careful.

"It's been over ten years since I last went to war. Do I still remember how to use a spear?"

"Lord Yasuharu, you are in a daily battle in a different sense."

Yasuharu, the chief retainer of the rapidly expanding Tsuda family, was busy every day with the establishment of the ruling system and the organization of the vassal group.

He was worried if he was capable as the chief retainer with the territory expanding too much, but he managed with advice from Seiki and Kyouko.

He used to think that as a samurai, he would like to go to war occasionally, but now he was so busy that such thoughts had disappeared.

With the workload increasing, Masahisa and Mitsuharu had also completely shifted to internal affairs.

The territory to be governed, including the Kanto and Tohoku regions, would only expand, so they would be even busier in the future.

They had to do as much as they could while they had the chance.

"Lord Yasuharu, the current wars are rather dull, aren't they?"

"Is that so, Lord Mitsuharu?"

"Yes, my son Hikosaburo said that they only shoot matchlocks and cannons. The rest is bayonet training."

"The consumption of gunpowder and bullets is tremendous..."

Hikosaburo, the eldest son of Mitsuharu, had just come of age and was serving as a junior officer in the guard unit.

He was also serving as a retainer to Taro, but was temporarily assigned to the guard unit.

As a potential officer but a newcomer, Hikosaburo participated in rigorous training every day and returned to the mansion exhausted, according to Mitsuharu.

"Hikosaburo is more suited to internal affairs than military duties."

"My sons Yoshiharu and Ujimitsu are completely suited to military duties, so I envy them."

If Yasuharu retired, the Horiuchi family would become a military family.

Even though the Horiuchi family was a major vassal, it was a fact that he felt lonely if his children didn't take over his work.

Yasuharu thought that if they weren't suited for it, there was nothing he could do.

"Well, either way, we'll be busy for a while."

"That's true."

There were still remnants of the Kanto daimyo, the Uesugi family, who were now quiet due to trade, and the chaotic daimyo of the Tohoku region, so there was no shortage of war material.

And if they won, they would have to develop and govern these vast territories.

"At least the relocation is going smoothly."

"The lord didn't refuse, did he?"

"It's impossible."

Masahisa denied the possibility.

In the end, the Tsuda family abandoned all the territories they initially obtained in Owari, Ise Shima, Iga, and Kii.

There was still some time before the relocation was completed, and currently, Masahisa, Seiki, and Kuki Sukeyoshi were working together to transfer all the facilities and relocate the willing residents.

Many of the residents had advanced skills, and Masahisa had considered the possibility that Nobunaga would prohibit the move, but he didn't.

"(If he tried to stop us, we would just escape to the Kanto region.)"

Even farmers knew that if they lost the seedlings provided by the Tsuda family, their harvest would decrease, so many people applied to relocate.

Masahisa was very interested in how Nobunaga would react, but he allowed the immigration to the Kanto region.

It was a rather anticlimactic conclusion, but the reason was this.

The land left behind by the farmers would be resettled by second and third sons of farmers from Owari and Mino, and farmers who had left the Ikkō-ikki.

The new territory was left uninhabited, but the castle and port remained.

If these could be effectively utilized, there would be no loss for the Oda family.

After all, all the territories taken from the Tsuda family would become direct territories of the Oda family.

Nobunaga placed appointed officials paid by salary and conducted new governance experiments in the former Tsuda territories.

Even without the seedlings provided by the Tsuda family, the Oda family was not foolish and was conducting rice breeding.

The yield was almost double what it used to be, so Nobunaga was very popular in the Oda territories.

"Oda Nobunaga is not someone to be underestimated, Masahisa."

Indeed, Masahisa thought, as Mitsuharu had said.

Nobunaga was the person who overthrew the Saito family, who had been in a dominant position in Mino.

"With the influx of immigrants, the development of the Kanto region, and the fact that we will be busy for a long time, we should hurry and finish eating."

"Let's eat quickly and get back to work."

"Right."

Yasuharu and the others thought that bowl dishes were perfect for such occasions.

They could eat quickly and get back to work.

"Today's three o'clock snack is supposed to be sweet potato jelly, so let's push through."

After finishing their meal, Yasuharu and the others returned to their respective tasks.

The development of the Kanto region and beyond had just begun.

Those in charge of internal affairs would only get busier.

"The pearl cultivation in Shima will remain the property of the Tsuda family for a while."

"The Oda family doesn't have the production technology."

The pearl cultivation in Shima was a technology exclusive to the Tsuda family.

They had considered relocating it, but there was no suitable sea for pearl cultivation in the Kanto region.

Pearls are cultivated in calm inland seas.

Cultured pearls were a cash cow for the Tsuda family, exported to the Nanban and Ming.

The Nanban's love for pearls was abnormal.

The Spanish had overworked the natives in Venezuela to collect pearls, nearly driving them to extinction.

Pearls, which were in such high demand, sold for exorbitant prices.

Nobunaga would be in trouble if production stopped.

Mitsuharu had been buying saltpeter with the money from selling pearls and other products to the Nanban and supplying it to the Oda family.

The Oda family was also purchasing large amounts of saltpeter but was concerned about the outflow of gold and silver, so they were also considering the selection of other products.

Of course, it wasn't that simple.

"Nobunaga didn't ask for the pearl production technology."

"He couldn't. Nobunaga is not a fool. Even if his relationship with the lord is good, he can't ignore the backlash from the now enormous Tsuda vassal group."

Masahisa thought it was only natural.

No matter how much a lord wanted to, if the Tsuda family tried to take away the golden egg of technology they had developed independently, it would lead to war.

"But the security of the cultivation sites will become difficult."

"It will have to be entrusted mainly to the navy."

In the worst case, they would need ships to evacuate the personnel and a minimum number of people to defend until the operation was completed.

The navy was also forming a landing unit, so they could be entrusted with the task, Masahisa explained to Mitsuharu.

The unit currently being formed was named the 'Marine Corps' by Kyouko.

"Thinking back, we've come a long way."

"If you say that, you'll be treated like an old man, Mitsuharu. The lord apparently plans to start pearl cultivation in freshwater. He prefers Lake Biwa, but he will develop Lake Kasumigaura for the purpose."

Masahisa thought that Mitsuharu was countering Nobunaga in a way that wasn't through war.

With his rebellious spirit and dislike of Nobunaga, Masahisa found Mitsuharu to be an understandable lord.

"We should focus on securing what Kyouko calls a 'survival zone' to make the Oda family hesitant to attack."

"That seems to be the most correct approach now."

Mitsuharu and Mitsuharu, who were originally from the Saito family, finished their conversation and returned to their work.

"Today's three o'clock snack was sweet potato jelly, but what will it be tomorrow?"

"It's supposed to be a new confection called 'dorayaki.' I'm looking forward to it."

"It's nice to be able to taste it before Nobunaga."

Just thinking about it made them feel better, and Masahisa and Mitsuharu started checking the large number of new documents that had arrived.

"Mitsuharu, I have a feeling that Mitsuharu is about to develop a new confection, but Kanto is far away..."

"Yes... (I wish he would develop a confection that keeps well...)"

At that time, Nobunaga was working on even more extensive government affairs at Azuchi Castle with Murai Sadaharu, while thinking about the new confection.