Chapter 25 first quarter

The ninth year of Yonglu (1566) is the eighth month of the lunar calendar. Kinoshita Tokichiro has managed Igiyama Castle at the junction of Mino and Owari for nearly two years.During this period, the Oda family's influence in Ise and Mino has greatly expanded.In September of last year, Oda Nobunaga conquered the Kajida, Sarupeki, and Dodo castles on the other side of the castle, and brought most of Dongmino into his territory. This made Igiyama Castle, the frontline base originally built to deal with the Mino Saito family, surrounded by many Oda family territories and defensive strongholds.This naturally changed the function of the city, from a front-line fortress to an administrative base monitoring the East Mino area, Fujikichiro must also play the role of an administrator governing the new territory at the same time.

This further improved Kinoshita Tokichiro's status and right to speak.Today, Fujikichiro's subordinates include Tsubouchi Risada of Matsukura Castle, the Osawa Family of Unuma Castle, the Kajida Family of Kajida Castle, and the Oda family generals who took over Sarupeku and Doto Castle.Although his salary has only increased by nearly 100 guan, the total amount is still around 400 guan for generals and warriors, but the strength of his troops has reached 2,000.Kinoshita Tokichiro's status is almost equivalent to the "Military and Political Commander of East Mino" of the Oda family.

The military and political commander who commands 2,000 people only receives 400 guan salaries. The gap between positions and remuneration seems to be too great, but this unconventional approach is exactly what Nobunaga is unique about.Nobunaga is born with talent and has strict requirements. He will let the capable people take on heavy responsibilities and give them command of the army, but he rarely increases their salaries generously. Balance between hereditary ministers. "Power is given to those who are capable, and rewards to those who are successful." Nobunaga was already well versed in the essentials of personnel management at a young age, and made good use of it.

The biggest victim of this system is the staff of the capable.Lots of work, heavy responsibilities, but extremely meager pay.Today Fujikichiro's younger brother Koichiro is in this situation. His work is quite heavy, such as managing the ashigaru or newly incorporated rural samurai of the Kinoshita group, monitoring the cities under his jurisdiction, collecting tribute from new territories and changing land divisions, and handling the housework and finances of the Kinoshita family itself. Koichiro carried it all on his shoulders.Because of his elder brother's extraordinary abilities, the lord often summoned him and rarely stayed at home.

However, his salary is pitifully small, only forty crowns in total.The Kinoshita family lacked manpower, so they had to spend money to hire quite a few people to take charge of commanding the retainers, monitoring the cities under their jurisdiction, and collecting intelligence, and it was impossible to give Koichiro more money. If Koichiro is willing at this time, he should be able to easily leave his brother and join the Oda family, becoming a samurai directly under the Baikan salary.At that time, those who were only a little bit clever were usually brothers who were independent and followed the lord to become direct samurai.

But Koichiro didn't think about doing that at all.Because at the beginning he gave up the leisurely farming life and joined the samurai society, not to become a samurai who dominates one side, but to assist his brother Tokichiro. (My brother needs me.) Whenever Koichiro thinks this way, he feels at ease.My brother is bright in mind, quick in action, hardworking and courageous.Moreover, he is also good at advocating and appeasing, and he also knows how to play by ear.Despite these remarkable abilities, his overly aggressive nature inevitably raises suspicions that he does not forgive the incompetent and that he is not considerate enough in small matters.Perhaps this is caused by my brother's eagerness to climb up and too busy to be distracted.But whatever the reason, the result is the same.Without him, my brother would definitely suffer in interpersonal relationships.

(Based on my materials, I must not be a great general.) Koichiro often thinks the same way.Perhaps it was because he had been with his bold, quick-witted, and full of fighting spirit for life for many years, "this person" could clearly see his own shortcomings, and thought that he was born to be only a "counselor". (Since you want to be a staff member, you should concentrate on assisting your brother, and don't expect to be the chief general in your life.) Koichiro made up his mind and reminded himself repeatedly. At the same time, despite his meager salary, he spared no effort to save. "This man" is different from his elder brother. He is neither a womanizer nor a fan of extravagance. He does not have a high need for material things and has no intention of attracting attention.Only saving money is a habit he developed when he was a farmer, and it has not changed since then.

Fortunately, so far, their combination of a bold brother and a careful brother has been working smoothly. "Koichiro, our salary will increase soon." The older brother who is always looking forward positively, often expresses his gratitude to Koichiro with this sentence.It means, I know your salary is too low, as long as our salary increases, I will definitely raise your salary. But Koichiro himself didn't have such extravagant hopes. Instead, he was worried that his brother was in a hurry to get ahead, and if he was too anxious, something would happen.If the main general collapses, the staff will of course have nothing to follow.

"Don't be in such a hurry. Now we are busy enough to plan and manage the new territory of Dongmei Nong." Koichiro always tilted his round cheeks and answered like this. Around this time, a news that cannot be ignored came from the intelligence network deployed by the elder brother, saying that the lord of the Unuma Castle, Osawa Kikon, was preparing to defect and once again defected to the Saito family. In the fall of the year before last, Kiyasu Osawa accepted the advocacy of Kinoshita Tokichiro and others to convey his sincerity to the Oda family, but news of his shaken heart continued to spread afterwards.In the siege battle last autumn, Oda Nobunaga left a very bad impression because he was reluctant to provide rice.Saito Longxing and his retainer Nagai Hayatosuke saw this, so they came to persuade.

"Master Oda Kamisuke Nobunaga has a cruel temperament and a narrow mind. Once you are suspected, you will be killed sooner or later. What happened the year before last, because you are an old minister, the lord will not pursue it. Please return to the Saito family , not only the territory of Unuma, but also the area of ​​Dongmeno." The envoy of the Saito family must have been trying to persuade him with a three-inch tongue, repeatedly.Under such circumstances, if Osawa Kikang is afraid of Nobunaga and covets the big reward in the East Mino area, he will probably be moved by him.

"It's very possible." After the elder brother received the report, he only said this sentence, and immediately took action, leading the army to Unuma City under the guise of "patrol".This large-scale "inspection" led by Tsubouchi Risada of Matsukura Castle, Sato Kiimori of Kajida Castle and others in charge of the rear line can also be said to be a preventive pre-emptive strike. Seeing the army besieging the city, Daze Jikang panicked and fled out of the city on his own without knowing where he was going. The city lord escaped, and the soldiers in the city were terrified. They didn't know what to do in a panic. Tokichiro Kinoshita took over Unuma Castle so easily.This kind of quick decision-making and action is beyond the reach of Koichiro. Fujikichiro adopted Kikaku's son Osawa Lord Mizuna as a retainer, and assigned the same family members to the Oda family as rural samurai.He put the crime on Jikang alone, not affecting the whole family, in order to avoid leaving a harsh reputation and affecting the future rule and the work of Huairou in the surrounding cities. Oda Nobunaga was very satisfied with Kinoshita Tokichiro's careful monitoring, quick action and proper arrangements afterwards, and agreed that everything should be handled according to Tokichiro Tokichiro's suggestion.In the future, Nobunaga, who will be extremely severe and harsh, has always pretended to be lenient when he racked his brains to capture Mino. "Xiaoichiro, I will leave the rest to you." When the matter reached this stage, my brother told Xiaoichiro the same way. The so-called "subsequent things" include reorganizing the Osawa family and its old subordinates, changing the land division, and deciding the annual tribute payable by the areas directly under the Oda family.These are time-consuming, thankless tasks that can lead to resentment and even rebellion.It is not an easy task to appease the Osawa family who are panicked because the lord general fled, and this is also the tug-of-war between the Oda family and the Saito family. Koichiro brought several members of the Kinoshita family into Unuma Castle and spent a few days doing these tasks.Although they belong to the Osawa family, there are many situations where their feelings are against each other or there are disputes over land.Koichiro worked tirelessly to listen to the arguments of the two parties, and sometimes even went to the scene to investigate and make a verdict.His approach is no different from that of the farmer Kotake who cultivated Gotanda in Owari Naka Village. He is still cautious and thoughtful, which reassures the former officials of the Osawa clan.Sometimes, he even paid out of his own pocket to appease the disgruntled, and at this time his generosity made it hard to imagine that he lived such a frugal life on weekdays.The tactics that "this person" will use in ruling the problem-ridden neighboring countries of Kii and Yamato in the future have been fully demonstrated in this small town at this time.