July 14th, in the 12th year of the Tenmon Era (1543),

In Mushashi Province, Tasai district, inside the Katsunuma Castle

On this day, a son was born to the Chief Vassal of the Uesugi Clan of the Yamanouchi Region, Regional Governor Tsunahide Mita. It was a son between Tsunahide and his concubine. For Tsunahide, it was his fourth son. That's why he wasn't expecting much from him, as he already had his legitimate son Jugoro, his second son Kizo, and his third son Gorotaro.

"Congratulations, Oyagata-sama. Ofuji-sama has given birth to a healthy baby boy."*

"Hmmm, I see. It would have been better if it was a girl so that she could be at least useful as I could use her as a bride to marry off to someone in the future."

"My lord, to say such a thing."

"Forgive me, I'm just mumbling to myself."

"What will be the name of the child, my Lord?"

"I guess I'll call him Yoshiro because he's the fourth son."*

"Are you really going to call him Yoshiro-sama, my lord?"

"Of course, he is my fourth son after all."

"I feel bad for him."

"Don't be, after all. I will just force him to enter a temple to become a monk."

"Hah..."

The baby that was born to the Mita Clan was then named and raised as Yoshiro. When he was five years old, he began to show signs of great intelligence, which surprised his vassals.


...


July 14th in the 16th year of the Tenmon Era (1547)*

In Musashi Province, Tasai district, Katsunuma Castle

I was surprised when I suddenly noticed my body had become increadibly smaller than before and everyone around me were all samurai wearing kimonos while speaking in a period style. I thought about what had happened to me so many times that I've lost count, but eventually I recovered all my memories, and I found out that right now I'm a child of the lord of the Katsunuma castle, my ancestor, Lord Mita.

The Mita clan! It's the Mita clan! Only the most avid Sengoku enthusiast knows about them, as they didn't even appear in Nobunaga's Ambition. And my father's name is Tsunahide Mita, I guess a lot of people don't even know his name...

The Mita clan was a vassal of the Uesugi clan in the Kanto region, and they were the owners of the Katsunuma castle in the Tamagawa District of the Musashi Province (currently the Ome District in Tokyo). However, because they had been swept away by the flow of history, they had no choice but to bow down to the Hojo Clan of Odawara. But when Nagao Kagetora, also known as Uesugi Kenshin, the one who succeeded the Uesugi family, crossed the border into the Kanto region and attacked Odawara, I don't know if he was under pressure because of the long siege or he had something pent up in his heart, but for some reason he stopped the siege of the castle, then he retreated, I don't really know what had happened, but I think it's really good that the Mita clan went under the banner of Uesugi Kenshin again.

Well, they were just like bats, weren't they? Historically speaking, even Uesugi Kenshin couldn't take the Odawara castle when he sieged it; due to various circumstances, he retreated, and due to various factors, he made Ujiteru Hojo, the lord of Takiyama castle, very angry at him, and eventually he was destroyed by him.

Damn! How can even a local government in a mountainous region win against the great Hojo clan?

One might say, why not side with the Hojo clan and not with Uesugi Kenshin? But the Moro castle of the Moro clan, which was under the Hojo clan in the north of our territory, was easily destroyed by the Uesugi clan. Moreover, that was done at the time of the incompetent predecessor of the Uesugi, and that wasn't even Kenshin. If I say honestly, Kenshin's destructive power is triple S!

I'm too scared to make an enemy of Kenshin-san! One can say that I should just apologize to the Hojo clan as soon as Kenshin returns home, but that is also impossible as Ujiteru Hojo, the lord of Takiyama castle, is the son-in-law of the Oishi family, the protectors of the Musashi Region, and he used to call himself Oishi Yui, or is it something else, but it is a fact that the Oishi's sphere of influence overlapped ours.*

Besides, Ujiteru Hojo is after the rights to the forest resources upstream of the Tamagawa River, so it's impossible for us to bow down to him without fighting for them! I'm the fourth son, and according to my retainer, I'm named Yoshiro because I'm a leftover, so there's no way that higher-ups will listen to a kid like me.*

If things continue as they are, we are heading for our own ruin. To make matters worse, in 1561, the Mita clan abandoned the Katsunuma Castle and relocated themselves to Karakai Castle in Yamashiro, but in 1563, the Mita clan were betrayed by their vassals, and the castle fell to the Hojo clan.

At that time everyone in the Hojo clan fled, but my father, Tsunahide Mita, escaped to where Takeda Shingen was. Apparently,  my father has some connections with one of Shingen's vassals, so he tried to serve Shingen, but because he fled and abandoned his soldiers, he was branded as useless. I'm not sure what happened, but it appears that he died when he committed suicide.

After that, Jugoro, the first son, and Kizo, the second son, ran away to seek help from Ota Sukemasa on Iwatsuke Castle, but it is said that Ota Sukemasa was driven out of his castle when his eldest son Ujisuke took control over the castle when he surrendered to the Hojo clan. It is said that both Jugoro and Kizo were caught and killed there; some say that they were deliberately murdered by their retainer. It seems that the third son, Gorotaro, managed to escape, but in 1572 he committed suicide in Izu.

As far as I know, Tsunahide Mita doesn't have a fourth son. I wonder what's up with this irregularity. According to what I remembered after the fall of the castle, Princess Fue the daughter of the grand princess of the castle lived there while hiding, but Ujiteru, her nemesis, fell in love with her, and because of that, Ujiteru made her his concubine, but unfortunately, she was later murdered by Hisa, the daughter of Oishi Sadahisa.

So there's a very high chance that right now the child in the womb of my sister-in-law is that princess. If my guess is correct, right now is the sixteenth year of the Tenmon Era. Then that means that last year was the fifteenth year of the Tenmon Era, where the Uesugi clan fought the night battle at the Siege of the Kawagoe Castle. In that battle, the allied forces of the Uesugi clan and the Ashikaga shogunate, totaling 80 000 troops, were completely defeated by the Hojo clan's 10 000 troops.

Because of that, Oishi Sadahisa quickly wagged his tail to the Hojo clan, but even after that, my father was still hesitant about what he was going to do. According to what I've heard in the Daiei Era (1521–1524), we are under the influence of the Hojo clan, but when my father learned about the disadvantageous situation of the Hojo clan before the Battle of Kawagoe Castle, he switched sides to the Uesugi clan. I think that's the final nail in the coffin; after all, even if my father asked for us to be accepted under the Hojo clan again, in the end they won't be able to trust someone who betrayed them once. Well, I guess sooner or later I will need to bow my head against them. It's fine if I can solve my problems by just bowing my head; after all, I don't have that much pride to begin with.

I'm not sure if this is true, but my family claims to be the descendants of the famous Taira no Masakado. I guess they don't want to bow down to the Hojo clan from the Ise clan, who are the descendants of Taira no Sadamori, Taira no Masakado's mortal enemy.

If nothing is done, then we will be destroyed in about fifteen years from now. I have to think of measures on how to prevent that, but in our current situation, it's really hard to think of any countermeasures as we only have one vassal and the rest are servants and women; they also don't have any education at all. I want to teach them Arabic numerals, but I guess that's impossible right now.

Uesugi Kenshin is the only one who can stand up against the Hojo clan; I guess right now he's Nagao Kagetora. If I'm correct? I guess I have no choice but to make sure that the siege of Odawara Castle is successful so that Kenshin will destroy the Hojo clan at that moment. That's right, that's the only way I can survive this!
  
Then, with that, we'll definitely need guns and gunpowder, and preferably the Echigo oil and the so-called grass water. And speaking of, since we are near Okutama, we can gather a large amount of limestone. If we can make those limestones into cement, we could further fortify the castle, so it would be possible to repel any invader on the off chance that we got invaded. Those things required a lot of money, so I guess we also need to take control of some gold mines, but both the Kurokawa Gold Mine and the Tamayama Gold Mine are inside Takeda's sphere of influence. I guess those are out of the question, although at this point in time the Matanosawa Gold Mine in Chichibu, Musashi Province, hasn't been discovered yet, so I guess that's also out of the question since it's inside Chichibu's sphere of influence. Then that means that I can't mine any gold at all!*

As for coal, the Tokyo Coal Mine was located along the Nariki-gawa River. I guess at this time that place hasn't been touched yet, so I can use that spot later on to gather coal.

Anyway, since I'm still five years old, I can't do much, and all I can do now is concentrate on my studies.

And with this, my life during the Sengoku period began. At this point, I don't know if I can change history.*





Notes: 

1. This series started in 2012 and currently has 120 chapters, with the latest one being released on January 25, 2022. I know I'm just an MTL, but I will try my best to translate it as closely as possible because it's a really great story, but the Kanji on this series and how the words are arranged make me want to pull my hair out, so I will do this once in a while only because if I did this on a regular basis, I might go crazy. PS. I can do this right now because I'm heartbroken and I'm translating like a mad man right now.

2. Most of the names are based on true historical figures, so if you want to know them, just search them on Google; I won't describe them because if I did, this would turn into an historical class about Japan.

3. Oyagata-sama is closely translated to Master or Lord while Ofuji-sama is closely translated to Lady.

4. The way Yoshiro is written in this case is 余四郎 and if I roughly translate it, it will mean something like "to give away the fourth son".

5. Yes, the date is correct, and here's a trivia about this that I just learned: apparently in a traditional Japanese age system called Kazoedoshi, when a child is born he is automatically one year old, and every January he will get older, so since the MC was born in July 1543 and the current date is July 1547, that means 4 Januarys have passed and he is now 5 years old.

6. The thing is, nothing is really written about the Mita Clan that I know of. Even a wiki in Japanese doesn't exist. But in my understanding, at first the Mita clan was under the Uesugi banner, but in 1559 when the Hojo clan invaded the South Musashi Province where the Mita clan was located, they were defeated, and thus they were made vassals by them. But on the Siege of Odawara in 1561, the Mita clan went under the banner of Uesugi Kenshin again, but since Kenshin couldn't destroy the castle for some reason after two months, they were under the Uesugi banner again, since Kenshin couldn't destroy the castle for some reason, the Hojo clan, which Kenshin couldn't 

7. When Ujiteru Hojo married into the Oishi clan, Ujiteru started calling himself Yui Genzo. The MC just made a mistake because of his memory; that's why he said, or is it something else. 

8. The Mita clan controls the middle and upper streams of the Tamagawa river.

9. What you need to know about the places in this chapter is that they are mostly around the Tokyo area.

10. I'm guessing the grass water that the MC is referring to is the plant called Hedyotis diffusa, which is a kind of herb used in Chinese medicine. 

11. Sengoku Period, or Warring States Period, is the period of Japanese history where there was constant civil war all over Japan. It happened from 1467 to the early 1600s.
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