Strategist Kanbe Episode 9

“Speed is the essence in war.”

For now, I feel a bit lacking if I don’t write down a few notes after I have watched each episode of this taiga drama, so I guess it will take a while for me to finish it. ^^

An important note about Lord Nobunaga is that he wanted everyone to keep busy. Slackers were either ousted or beheaded.

Takenaka Hanbei and Kuroda Kanbei finally met. Hanbei tested Kanbei and provoked him. He made Kanbei enraged, which was a rare thing. That was fun to witness lol.

Kanbei promised Hanbei to persuade the major clans in Harima to side with the Oda, then the smaller clans would follow them and support the Oda. Those major clans included the Kodera, which was the clan the Kuroda was serving, Bessho and Akamatsu. This task wouldn’t be easy, because the Akamatsu were the Kodera’s mortal enemy. At first, The Lord of Kodera agreed with Kanbei to go meet Lord Nobunaga if Kanbei could persuade both the Bessho and Akamatsu to go, which everyone thought was impossible. But Kanbei succeeded, and that also impressed Hanbei.

This is the first lesson in episode 9, coming from Kanbei: “Thou shall not allow his vassals to govern.” Lords should not lend the power of governance. Kanbei wrote a letter to the young Lord of Bessho and convinced him to stop letting his two uncles interfere with the governance in the clan. The young Lord realized it was time to fully take responsibility as a Lord and as I mentioned above, he agreed to side with the Oda.

After Kanbei had succeeded in persuading the other two Lords, his Lord changed his mind and refused to go meet Lord Nobunaga. He even lied to Kanbei that his wife didn’t let him go. It turned out that he got pissed off because Kanbei was so fast in arranging the meeting with Lord Nobunaga, and got jealous just like a kid. He took it as the Oda was more important to Kanbei than the Koreda. When Kanbei still hadn’t figured out how to deal with this issue, a huge army led by Lord Araki Murashige who was Kanbei’s friend and he was serving Lord Nobunaga, came to Gochaku Castle. Hanbei begged Lord Nobunaga to send him to help Kanbei scare and threaten his Lord a bit, after hearing that he was reluctant to meet Nobunaga.

Araki Murashige told Kanbei that he had to keep on fighting to have Lord Nobunaga acknowledge him, because he wasn’t as clever as Hideyoshi. He was heading to Ishiyama Hongan-ji temple to fight against the Echizen uprising (Echizen Ikko-ikki). The temple’s central figure was the 11th generation Abbot Kennyo. With the Mouri’s support, they would start a battle against the Oda to get revenge for Nagasima and Echizen riots. The thing is, this temple had many disciples, including some of Teru’s maids. They decided to leave the Kuroda clan when Kanbei chose to side with the Oda. There was nothing that they could have done because they had put their stakes on Oda Nobunaga for the sake of survival.

In October of 1575, the three great powers of Harima Province including the Kodera, Bessho, and Akamatsu met Nobunaga in Kyoto. The Lord of Kodera got pissed off again because he considered Nobunaga as an arrogant upstart.

As Kanbei predicted, the meeting between Nobunaga and the three major clans in Harima Province influenced most clans there to side with the Oda. Nobunaga now acknowledged Kanbei as a useful tool.

Anyway, after the brief meeting, Kanbei and Hanbei met again. Kanbei seemed upset and said he wanted to persuade his Lord on his own if he had a little more time. Hanbei used Sun Tzu's words from “The Art of War” to tell Kanbei: “Speed is the essence in war”. This is the second lesson in this episode, coming from Hanbei towards Kanbei. In battle, one must be swift in order to win against their enemy.

The next episode would be the start of a battle between the Oda and the Mouri.

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