Is he really this violent?
Does he kill household retainers for fun when he's bored?
Harano never expected such things would happen. The Sixth Celestial Demon King Oda Nobunaga in the game is already brutal, yet the real-life counterpart is even more so—burning Mount Hiei might be understandable with all the internal conflicts between opponents, but to kill his own people without any legitimate reason is simply unacceptable.
"Is there anything else?" Harano was on high alert and began marking Oda Nobunaga as a dangerous person, preparing to be extra cautious in the future.
"He's done so many rotten things, I could talk for three days and nights without running out of stories!" Aman really disrespected Oda Nobunaga, her disdain was so evident that even a deaf person could sense it. "Just a few years ago, out of sheer boredom, he insisted on changing three sacks to five per stone like some lunatic."
"Oh?" Harano was momentarily stunned, reaching out to refill Aman's tea, thoughtfully asking, "Didn't you hear any reason for this?"
"What reason could there be? He was simply bored and enjoyed making people suffer! What's the difference between packing a stone of rice into three bags versus five? No matter how you pack it, it's still a stone. Aside from making farmers twist more straw ropes, what use could it have?" Aman finished her tea and smacked her lips, her expression still full of disdain.
"There is still a difference," Harano said fairly, but didn't elaborate on the nuances between volume and weight.
When packing water, the difference is negligible, but with granular goods like rice, the larger the container, the more pressure the upper layers exert on the lower ones, making them more compact and dense. Compared to smaller containers added up to the same volume, the weight could be 4% more; even simply pressing the straw bag down on the ground could increase the weight by 8% to 15%.
8% isn't an insignificant number, even without pressing, at 4%, adding it to taxes would mean the land-owning families could squeeze significantly more grain out of farmers. The larger clans like the Hosokawa Family could scrape out one to two hundred extra stone of grain annually, sustaining more Lang Faction members or acquiring more armor and weapons, strengthening their power considerably.
As for supporting retainers, this means that the Lord's grain support to retainers (similar to wages, used for the household retainer without direct land holding to support their families) would actually decrease the amount of rice the retainers and their families could consume.
Therefore, aside from easing the burden on farmers, enabling them to save a few mouthfuls of rice to sell for some money, none of the land-owning families, Earth Warriors, or retainers without direct landholdings would be happy—if anyone understood, they would realize their interests were being harmed, and when it comes to personal interests, most people are usually mindful.
No wonder household retainers and land-owning families were full of opinions against him, "Big Fool" is probably a nickname that these people frequently used...
Aman, without personal interest involved, neither farmed nor received grain support, never thought deeply about it, and was puzzled: "Is there a difference? What difference could there be!" Then she became indifferent, "In any case, he didn't succeed. His Head of the Family, Lin Xiuzhen, tattled on him to his father, Oda Nobuhide. Rumor has it that Oda Nobuhide wrote a letter scolding him thoroughly, demanding that he focus on proper tasks instead of fooling around, listen to his teacher Hirata Masahide more often, learn skills properly, and avoid becoming a waste.
In response, he became even crazier. On the same day, he got drunk, stripped naked, and rode a horse around the town, creating a drunken scene, complaining nonsensically that the horse traders smelled too bad, insisting on banishing them to a remote corner, attracting a large crowd. Hirata Masahide sent his eldest son and over ten Lang Faction members to forcibly bind him and bring him back.
Of course, now it's impossible because after this incident, he recruited over thirty small surnames one after another and maintained over a hundred members of the Returning Horse Group. Unless Hirata Masahide openly fought him, there's no way to discipline him, and recently it's been heard that Hirata Masahide's eldest son got beaten up in town, severely injured, and everyone says he ordered his small surnames to do it."
Lastly, she concluded: "Hardly anyone likes this Big Fool, even the household retinue sent by his father to support him dislike him. If it weren't for his teacher Hirata Masahide's age and good relations, along with his loyalty, going all out to support him, plus the fact that he's Saito Dosan's son-in-law, moving him carelessly might trigger a major conflict involving Nongwei, his position as the successor would have long been unstable. Oda Nobuhide has more than just one son; he has over ten!
There's an elder son named Oda Nobuhiro, a second son named Oda Hideyoshi, both born to the maid of Oda Nobuhide's first wife. His current wife, daughter of the Tsuchida Family, has birthed him four legitimate sons, plus there's a jumble of illegitimate children and bastards numbering six, seven, eight, or nine, the Oda Danjo Chonosuke family doesn't lack individuals to become the Family Head."
"So that's how it is!" Harano sighed, gaining a rough understanding of Oda Nobunaga's situation.
In simple terms, Oda Nobunaga's behavior is bizarre, his class position is chaotic, he doesn't appear like a ruler, and he hardly fits the image of a "Crown Prince."
It's no wonder that from top to bottom, nobody favors him, all believing that once his father dies, the Oda Danjo Chonosuke family would inevitably collapse. Even as a transmigrator, had he not known some history, listening to these rumors and hearsay, he would probably believe that Oda Nobunaga was indeed beyond help, just a pure family wastrel.
Honestly, Japan's history is truly peculiar. Who would dare to believe that such a person nearly unified Japan, becoming the most famous and popular historical figure in Japan's later generations?