Even though Harano was cursing Ah Man in his heart, calling her a brat with a stinky mouth and no manners—a proper wild child—he still thought she was a treasure. Only a "professional" like her could describe a family's situation in such detail—The Maeda Family controls three castles, nine villages (three of which are under joint administration, so they only get part of the revenue), a chunk of Shrine Territory, an official kokudaka of about 5,000 koku, but the real power is more like 7,000-8,000 koku. They have over a dozen Household Samurai, nearly a hundred Lang Faction branch members, and if they really went all-in, they could arm more than five hundred Ashigaru.
This kind of strength isn't much across all of Japan, but in Haidong County, Owari Province, it's already pretty powerful.
Before, he'd thought the Maeda Family were just some ordinary small-time landlords, but looking at it now, he'd definitely underestimated them.
What's more important—he'd finally gotten the inside scoop on the future "Million-koku Daimyo of Kaga," Maeda Toshie, the fourth son of the Hosokawa Maeda Family, aka Maeda Sonshiro Toshie. Right now, the guy's only about fifteen or sixteen years old, probably hanging around Hosokawa Castle getting all childhood-sweetheart with his cousin/sister/fiancée Ah Matsu.
This guy managed to survive all the way into the Tokugawa Shogunate period, and his morals were actually not bad, considering all the double-crossing of the Japan Warring States Period. At least he was a world-class fence-sitter—really knew how to pick a team. So, if he couldn't get back to modern times, maybe by copying this guy's playbook, he'd avoid stepping on a lot of landmines.
Harano jotted all this down on paper, then looked hopefully at Ah Man and asked, "How about the Oda Family, then?"
The Oda Family of Owari Province—that's the real big show. Gotta make sure to understand them well.
"The Oda Family is way more complicated. They've probably been in Owari Province for a good hundred fifty or sixty years, and boy have they multiplied." Ah Man got really into it when there was chicken to eat. She gnawed her nails, frowning as she thought hard. "From what my grandpa told me, the Oda Family started out as local bigwigs in Echizen, kind of like the Maeda Family now, with a power base of about 7,000-8,000 koku. But their family was higher-ranked—they were Priest Clan of the Sword God Palace (the one enshrining the Thief-slaying Sword possessed by Susanoo)—and they always served as Manor Officials for Oda Manor in Shrine Territory. If you count Oda Manor, they're pretty much real Lords of a City, with 10,000–20,000 koku of power, way stronger than the Maeda Family."
She paused, then asked Harano, "You know who the current Guardian daimyo of Owari Province is, right?"
"Uh, it's Shiba…," Harano honestly wasn't too sure, just had a vague impression, probably picked up from playing Taiko 2.
"It's Shiba Yoshinori," Ah Man finished for him, looking contemptuous. "That guy's basically a puppet now—not even as useful as a dung beetle. But his ancestor, Shiba Yoshimasa, was badass. Like, a hundred fifty, sixty years ago, he became the Guardian of Echizen and took over Owari Province too.
Word is, back then the Hoshina family treated Echizen as their home base—the local big families there had all been brought to heel. So they sent the heavy-hitting Oda Naomatsu to Owari as their Guardian to manage things and, you know, skim the cream off the top.
Later on, when it was Shiba Yoshimasa's turn to go to Kyoto as Kanrei, Oda Naomatsu followed him there. The Guardian spot was filled by his younger brother, Oda Chotake, as the junior Guardian in Owari, while Echizen's Guardian was handed over to the Asakura Family."
Ah Man took a breath, picked up her tea bowl, and gulped down a big mouthful, soothing her throat before she blurted out, "This is tea from Ming Country, right? You really live it up, huh?"
"That's right, green tea from the Great Ming." Harano hadn't expected green tea to already exist back in Ming times, let alone be imported to Japan. But honestly, his tea-drinking wasn't about luxury; he just wanted to get his vitamins and take care of his stomach. Gotta keep healthy, after all.
Ah Man finished the whole tea bowl in one go, licked her lips, and her eyes darted around, those little bean eyebrows of hers wiggling up and down.
Originally, she'd been super mad at Harano for beating her up after her righteous black-eats-black scam failed. She'd even been thinking of getting even later, maybe spreading some dirty rumors about Harano or something—she wasn't about to let herself get ripped off for nothing.
But with Harano splashing out like this—no, wait, with him being so generous, eating and living so well—if you pass up a bargain, what are you, an idiot? Maybe she should find a way to stick around a few extra days. Her grandpa went off to Nagami Castle, and either the Imagawa Family or Matsudaira Family might attack—or maybe not—no telling when they'd show up, and he probably wouldn't be back soon. So, if she stayed here, drinking tea and eating chicken and rice, it'd be hundreds of times better than begging for food or busking out there.
As for getting intel—well, Nagano Castle didn't look much different, and Shoban Castle, Gudu Castle, and Mosen Castle were probably about the same. When the time came, she could just make something up based on what she used to know—just bluff her way through and call it a day.
While her brain was running through all her sneaky little schemes, her mouth stayed perfectly serious: "Then, maybe seventy, eighty years or a hundred years later—I'm not totally sure—the Ashikaga Family had that uncle-and-nephew fight over who got to plant their butt on the shogun's throne (the Ōnin War). The Three Kanrei and the Four chief officials each picked a side, split into East and West armies, and turned the whole country into a pile of crap. The Hoshina family split too—two guys fighting over the inheritance. Shiba Yoshimoto joined the East army, Shiba Yoshikiyo joined the West. So they started duking it out themselves.
At that time, the Guardian in Echizen, Asakura Takakage, followed Shiba Yoshikiyo and joined the West army. Word is, he was pretty badass—the Asakura Family had real depth, and a bunch of times they beat the East army so bad they pissed themselves. Then the East army just bought off Asakura Takakage, promising to officially make the Asakura Family Guardian daimyo of Echizen if they'd turn traitor."
At this point, she couldn't help but sigh: "The Asakura Family's nothing like the Oda Family. The Asakura Family was a branch of the Hoshina family, their most loyal retainers, considered core trusted followers. But in the end, just so they could drop the 'substitute' label and call themselves daimyo, they betrayed their Lord Shiba Yoshikiyo without a second thought—tied him up, even stormed Shiba Yoshimoto's castle, tied them both up, and shipped them off to Kyoto, then totally took over Echizen. Talk about losing all morals, worse than animals—my grandpa's words, not mine."