Chapter 49: Entering Tsunishima Town

  Tsushima Town is a city that developed around the Ushita Tenmangu Shrine, located between Owari, Mino and Ise provinces. To the southwest lies the Kuwana District of Ise Province, to the northwest lies the Kaizu District of Mino Province, and it is situated at the confluence of the Tenmangawa and Sumikawagawa rivers, which are tributaries of the Kiso River, forming a separate triangular area from the mainland. The port of Tsushima has a width of over 650 meters.

  Northeast of Tsu Island is Shobata Castle, the former residence of Oda Nobuyuki. At that time, Oda Nobunaga was born, and Oda Nobuyuki was only one of the three Oda samurai. As a vassal of the Oda Yamato no Kami family, he served as the Daigakuji (a high-ranking official) of the Lower Four Counties. Later, he was able to overthrow the Oda Yamato no Kami family and seize power over the Lower Four Counties because his castle, Shobata Castle, was close to Tsu Island, allowing him to easily control the port of Tsu Island, making Oda Nobuyuki's finances abundant, and enabling him to easily recruit a large army.

  On August 30, Kira Masamotomaru led the Kira army into Tsushima Town. After entering Tsushima Town, he received news from Mikawa Province that the Suruga and Totomi armies of the Imagawa clan, totaling 12,000 men, had marched out of Okazaki Castle. What was most unexpected was that almost all of the people in Mikawa Province were supporting the Imagawa clan.

  Regardless of the transcendent upper and lower Yoshino, or the neutral Nakajo, Suzuki, and Miyake, all joined forces with the Imagawa army to besiege Anjo Castle. Unbeknownst to them, the Imagawa family had formed a powerful army of 18,000 men, whose influence extended far beyond the Battle of Azukizaka.

  Oda Nobuhiro seems to have given up hope, he no longer sends people to contact the Mikawa countrymen, and even in Anjo Castle, he does not allow the Mikawa countrymen to be stationed, but only drives them to various branch castles as cannon fodder. Can the Oda family still hold on under such circumstances? Almost everyone can affirm that the Imagawa family will win without a doubt, and the Oda family will certainly face another disastrous defeat.

  This news seems to be encouraging, but it's not necessarily a good thing. For example, Oda Nobushige finally remembered that the Kamishimo family of Upper Lo was still staying in the territory, so he immediately sent someone to intercept them at Tsu Island. However, the people of Tsu Island were not pushovers either. As a strange hybrid of a commercial and agricultural community, they didn't care much about what Oda Nobushige thought, the ruler of the lower four counties of Owari.

  Moreover, Oda Nobehide has been defeated in Mino and Mikawa for two years, losing the little prestige he had accumulated. In the previous year's Battle of Kanagasaki, 10,000 to 20,000 troops were killed by Saito Toshimasa (who was still a layman and not yet a monk) at Ikeda-cho, and another 2,000 drowned while fleeing. This means that in an instant, 5,000 people died. Such a high mortality rate would be considered a grave crime worthy of beheading the commander in any era, showing how far Oda Nobehide has fallen.

  In Ghana, Oda Nobushige, who had suffered a defeat, was eager to regain his reputation and restore his crumbling image. As a result, there was the small bean hill battle last year with 4,000 against 10,000, where he was ambushed by Taiyuan Xuezhai with superior forces, suffering a near-disastrous defeat in exchange for minor losses, with over 2,000 people killed on the spot.

  This string of disastrous defeats suddenly knocked the spirit out of the Oda family, and since that defeat, Oda Nobuhide retreated back to Kowataguchi Castle with his remaining soldiers. In order to save the precarious family business, he had no choice but to make peace with his old enemy Shiba Yoshimune, which led to the story of his eldest son Oda Nobunaga marrying Shiba Yoshimune's daughter Nohime.

  The Oda family is now in a state like a phoenix that has lost its feathers, not even as good as a chicken. The prestige of Oda Nobuhide has already fallen to a pitiful level. This time, it seems that the Oda family will be defeated again at Anjo Castle. The 15 families of Tsushima would be afraid of him only if they were ghosts. The 300 troops sent by the Oda family also knew their situation and retreated after confronting each other with the Tsushima forces outside Tsushima town for several days, thus ending this small-scale conflict.

  The current head of the Ohashi family, Ohashi Shigekata, is a man in his forties who is known for his kindness and hospitality. He specially set up a grand banquet to welcome the heads of the fifteen families from Tsushima Island, treating Kira Yoshinaka and his entourage with great respect. During the banquet, he expressed his willingness to purchase the 75 stones of high-quality refined salt at a favorable price, which was an easy task for the wealthy Ohashi family. In fact, after the banquet ended, someone even sent over 340 ryō of decent quality copper coins.

  Additionally, Kiryū Mantsumaru was promised that they would facilitate the smooth passage of the Kawachi troops across the Kiso River. The fact that ōhashi Shichirōdai boldly spoke out like this also had its reasons. In the Tōkaidō region, almost everyone knew about the Tsu-shima Fifteen Party. At that time, they belonged to the Southern Court faction and opposed the Shiba clan. The story of how the Tsu-shima Fifteen Party worked together in perfect harmony was widely told.

  The ōhashi family, as the number one ranked family of Tsushima's Fifteen Parties, originally descended from the Kanmu Heishi clan. Due to their affiliation with the Southern Court during the Nanboku-chō period, they received special attention from the Southern Court. As a result, Minamoto no Morofuyu, the fifth-generation grandson of Emperor Go-Toba and known as Tsushima's Great Minister, inherited the family business of ōhashi, leading to their growing reputation and becoming the de facto leader of Tsushima's Fifteen Parties.

  ōhashi family's former head ōhashi Shigekazu was actually from the Kawachi-in clan, and his father Kawachi-in Mototsuna was also the son-in-law of Tsushima no Dainagon ōhashi Nobushige. Therefore, ōhashi Shigekazu is also the nephew of Tsushima no Dainagon ōhashi Nobushige.

  In the generation of Tadahiro's son, Tadayasu, he adopted the son of ōkawachi Mototsuna, ōkawachi Shigekata, as his heir and renamed him ōhashi Shigekata. This ōkawachi Mototsuna was the uncle of the current head of the ōkawachi family, ōkawachi Nobusada. The relationship is similar to that between Kira Yoshinaka and Kira Uemon no suke. Therefore, the previous head of the ōhashi family, ōhashi Shigekata, was the uncle of ōkawachi Nobusada, making the relationship between the ōhashi and ōkawachi families very close.

  The ōhashi family, currently headed by ōhashi Shigetada, has a close relationship with the Kawahara family through marriage. In fact, ōhashi's daughter is married to Kawahara Nariyasu, making them relatives. This connection led to Kawahara Saneyasu being allowed to follow Kiriyama Masamune. There was also an ulterior motive behind this arrangement, as the ōhashi family used their wealth to provide financial support to their son-in-law each year, which was a clever move.

  After the banquet, Kira Yoshinaka decided to rest for a few days near Tsushima, as he had to wait for Oda Nobushige's army to go to Mikawa Province to rescue his foolish son. If not, even if he wanted to leave, Hattori Koheita would not dare to defeat him at the Nagakubo River. Since they were not leaving temporarily, they could only find a place to live first. The Kira family's army was arranged to camp in a wild field outside the town, while the family members and craftsmen were arranged to live inside the town. Kira Yoshinaka naturally lived in the Sunomata Castle of Oda Hidenobu, accompanied by 200 mounted samurai and attendants.

  Because Tsu Island is very prosperous, there is even a saying that it is the "Eastern Kobe", not only does it have a huge commercial district with complete facilities, but also has thousands of households living in the town, which can be called densely populated. The business in the town is booming and people come and go like a shuttle, almost every time you walk through a block, you can see a Buddhist temple, whether it is a branch temple of the Five Mountains Sect in Kinai or a new Zen sect that flourished during the Kamakura period.

  Of course, the largest among them are the branch temples of Ichimon and Hokke sects. Every day, hundreds of believers go to worship Buddha, and many rōnin, merchants, and pilgrims come and go from these two sects' branch temples. However, the relationship between the two families is extremely bad, as the Sankebetsu Brown Bear Incident made the two sects sworn enemies, and most of the conflicts that frequently occur in Tsushima Town are contradictions between believers of the two sects.