Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 100 - 62: Going to Watch the Fun Tomorrow!

Chapter 100: Chapter 62: Going to Watch the Fun Tomorrow!

Not long after Okurakiyebi led the Lang Faction Ashigaru from Takeshige Manor out, Harano also packed up his things, brought his whole family, Maeshima Shichiro, and thirty Ashigaru, raised the Cyan Jade Gourd Banner, and set out in an ox cart. But the ox cart moved very slowly, even slower than going on foot, so they could only crawl toward Nagano Castle at a snail’s pace.

On the way, he saw many small groups also heading to Nagano Castle to gather—generally twenty or thirty or forty or fifty people at a time. Judging by the banners, almost all bore the Five Melon Patterns, so they were basically all Oda Nobunaga’s direct subordinates. It looked like the Matsudaira family’s raids this time had really pissed him off, and he was dipping into his reserves, ready to rush out and have a proper brawl with the Matsudaira family.

Riding on horseback, Harano watched as another squad of Oda Nobunaga’s Lang Faction overtook their slow-moving ox cart, and waved over Ah Man, wanting to ask what war was really like—he had never actually fought in a war in modern times, though he’d seen a bit of Taiga drama, but those always felt fake, full of artistic license, so he figured a real battle must be completely different.

Ah Man was standing on the ox cart, looking around as she took the opportunity to be lazy and avoid walking. She seemed confused by his question, scratched her face, and said, "There’s not much to say about fighting, really. First you shoot at each other with bows and arrows for a while, then you charge and start hacking and stabbing each other. Whoever can’t hold out loses—simple as that."

"That’s it?"

"That’s it! What else do you expect?"

Harano fell silent. Could it be that all the stuff online about ancient Japanese battles not just a stereotype, that it really was almost like two village mobs brawling?

He thought for a bit, felt that kind of chaotic fighting seemed way too haphazard, and asked, unwilling to let it drop: "And that’s all? There must be some tactics, right?"

For example, he knew about "Wilderness Ambush"—that was the Shimazu Family’s signature tactic along the West Sea Road, and in Taiko 2 it even became a skill, super handy. Surely the Oda Danjo Chonosuke clan surviving this long must have some tricks up their sleeve?

"Oh, you mean that!" Ah Man finally figured out what he was asking and said, "That’s the Military Magistrate’s job! I’ve never been a Military Magistrate—how would I know?"

Harano was getting confused again, pondering: "Military Magistrate...is that like a Military Advisor?"

"About the same!" Ah Man was used to this ignoramus and explained patiently: "In big battles, the Grand General doesn’t actually bother with all the details—he just decides whether to fight or not, or to hold out or retreat if things go south. The ones who do the work are his Deputy Generals, Military Magistrates, Horse Guards, and Military Payrolls.

The Military Magistrate is the one in charge of formations and battle arrays—your so-called Military Advisor;

The Horse Guards are the Grand General’s direct henchmen. When fighting starts, they block up the rear, beheading anyone who runs away or retreats without orders. Sometimes they’re sent to deliver urgent orders or replace struggling samurai on the front lines;

The Military Payroll is responsible for recording achievements and errors during battle, arresting and guarding people who break military discipline or orders during a fight, and after the battle, they’re in charge of verifying heads taken, as well as writing out reward and punishment notices and whatnot;

The Deputy Generals manage all the odds and ends like the transport division and the Banner Men (the headquarters guard unit)—usually the Grand General’s closest and most trusted people."

Harano nodded slowly. So there really were "Military Advisors" in ancient Japanese warfare! He’d thought Taiko 2 was just making stuff up, stealing from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but it turned out to be historical fact.

After thinking a moment, he asked, "So who actually leads the troops in the field?"

Ah Man replied immediately, "That’s the Samurai Generals. For example, the Spear General, Archer General, Ashigaru General—these people are also Advanced Warriors. They lead from the front, giving direct orders, because the battlefield can be scattered and they can’t always receive signals from the Military Magistrate. At those times, they have the authority to make moment-by-moment decisions for their units."

Harano nodded again, signaling that he understood.

So Taiko 2 really is making stuff up then! In the game, Samurai General and Ashigaru General sound like clan rank titles, but here they’re just army positions—Taiko 2 has you "promote" from Family Elder → Subordinate General → Samurai General → Ashigaru General → Ashigaru Leader, but from what Ah Man says, the two systems don’t even match. A Family Elder could serve as a Samurai General, and a Samurai General isn’t necessarily a Family Elder; perhaps just a senior Household Retainer. Ashigaru General is even weirder, since he’s basically just a Samurai General who happens to command Ashigaru Infantry.

Thinking this through, he asked, "What about Ashigaru Leader? Are there Ashigaru Leaders?" He remembered that in the opening of Taiko 2, the Monkey started as an Ashigaru Leader.

"Of course, there are Ashigaru Leaders under the Ashigaru General—usually some lower-ranking samurai," Ah Man said, fully in the know. All this fell under her usual intel-gathering. "There are also variants like Spear Ashigaru Commander, Ashigaru Infantry Commander, and so on. They each lead their own Lang Faction directly into combat, usually suffering the heaviest casualties. But earning battlefield merit is easier for them—they just have to break the enemy lines first, or cut off enough heads."

Harano nodded away. He’d now pretty much figured out the military system of Japan’s Middle Ages. That was definitely useful; at least, if someone called out, "Lord Harano, the Military Magistrate wants to see you," he wouldn’t stand there dumbly, not knowing what a Military Magistrate was. After thinking about it, he asked, "As the Medical Magistrate, who am I under?"

Ah Man thought a moment, not very sure, and said, "Probably the Deputy General. You count as one of those odds and ends—so the Deputy General is your boss."

Feeling like one of those odds and ends, Harano finally nodded. He’d found his direct superior, and decided he’d ask later who it actually was. Then he changed the subject, starting to ask about military discipline and unspoken rules in ancient camps, so he wouldn’t get thrown in the brig by the Military Payroll for breaking some regulation he didn’t know about.

......

Takeshige Manor was only about an hour’s walk from Nagano Castle. While Harano was discussing "Both Get Punished for Fights—In the camp, no matter what the reason, whoever started a brawl gets penalized" (a default regulation) with Ah Man, questioning whether it was fair, the ox cart—slow as it was—rolled right up to Nagano Castle.

This time Harano was allowed into the castle. After verifying his identity and being announced, he entered Nagano Castle for the first time, considering how to go about reporting to the Deputy General, when Maeda Toshie galloped up, leaped off his horse from afar, and exclaimed joyfully, "Great, Lord Harano Saburo, I can rest easy now that you’re here!"

Harano squinted at him, suspecting it was not just about Jubei’s situation. It was possible this brat had ratted him out to Oda Nobunaga, which was why he’d gotten dragged out to be the Battlefield Hospital Director. But he couldn’t worry about that now. He just asked, "Why are you here, Lord Maeda Sonshiro?"

"Lord of Upper General heard you arrived and was about to send someone to settle you in, so I quickly accepted the order and came myself!"

"I see. By the way, Lord of Upper General is..." Harano recalled that Oda Nobunaga had changed his common name to Lord of Upper General, so Lord of Upper General was probably his Deputy General now; just not sure which one of the Oda Danjo Chonosuke clan this was.

Maeda Toshie’s expression turned a little awkward. He hesitated, then said in a low voice, "That’s Lord Oda Sanmaru."

Harano hesitated, feeling his memory shouldn’t be failing him, and asked, "Wasn’t it Lord of Upper Guard?"

Maeda Toshie looked even more embarrassed. Even his rough face flushed a bit as he answered softly, "Last night, His Lordship changed it again. Now it’s Lord of Upper General, but it hasn’t been officially announced yet."

Harano was silent for a moment and looked at Maeda Toshie with some sympathy—having a boss like that, who changed his name every three or five days... Kid, you have it tough!

Feeling a little sorry for him, Harano didn’t want to embarrass him any further and changed the subject, asking caringly, "So how’s the war situation now?"

Maeda Toshie was only too glad to shift off the name business, immediately replying, "All good so far. O... Lord of Upper—um, His Lordship plans to march on East Tsubono first thing tomorrow and drive out those sneaky lowlifes from the Matsudaira family."

"An assault tomorrow morning?" Harano was a little surprised—even modern armies rarely deploy for attack that quickly after orders. Was ancient troop mobilization really this fast?

He pressed, "Isn’t that a tight timeline? Can the various local clans get here in time?"

Maeda Toshie didn’t seem concerned at all and replied offhand, "We’re not drafting the local clans this time. Both Lord Hayashi and Lord Hirade—the two Family Elders—objected. They said we had to guard Mosen—er, I mean, they felt..."

He really was all thumbs at talking, stumbling over the words. He didn’t want to openly say that the old-guard Household Retainers were afraid their base would get sacked and didn’t want to send the main force; that they’d rather rely on Dongjin and East Wood, and figured the front line could hold, the Matsudaira family wouldn’t break through, and Oda Nobunaga taking the offensive was unnecessary—so they just didn’t want to send men.

He couldn’t talk too much about these internal disputes among the Household Retainers, nor comment on the splits in the Dan Zhengzhong clan, so he just muddled through, then continued, "So His Lordship plans to rely on just us for the sortie—hit the Matsudaira family at East Tsubono, stop them from raiding Chita County, and even if they already slip south, we can block them at the Chita Peninsula and cut off their retreat, wearing them down slowly!"

Harano nodded lightly. Tactically, that seemed reasonable, so he asked, "Is there enough manpower?"

If they were sending a few hundred to take on several thousand, he’d politely bow out and go worry about backup plans B through whatever.

"Plenty!" Maeda Toshie was brimming with confidence. "Matsudaira has about a thousand men this time. His Lordship also has a thousand, and out of those, nearly six hundred are Lang Faction—His Lordship has been drilling them for more than a year and spent big money on them. Crushing the Matsudaira should be a cakewalk!"

Well then!

Harano relaxed. He’d seen the two hundred-plus Lang Faction from Takeshige Manor—they were young, strong, and well-armed, genuine elite troops. He figured the Lang Faction from other manors must be similar. So even though the numbers were even, Oda Nobunaga had a clear edge and victory should be easy.

Since there was almost no chance of losing, Harano’s thoughts—for gaining fame and a little nest egg—became a lot more motivated, and he quickly asked: "Who’s the Deputy General on this sortie? Should I report to him?"

"Uh, there aren’t any military positions assigned this time—His Lordship is commanding in person," Maeda Toshie replied as if that were completely natural. "But His Lordship is praying right now and can’t meet you directly; that’s why I was sent to look after you."

Harano nodded, indicating he understood. After all, it was only about a thousand men, and fighting within their own territory, so there was no need to get too formal about command. Oda Nobunaga counted as a famous general in later times, so he should be able to command all right—at least he wasn’t liable to get totally routed by a bunch of nobodies. Personal command shouldn’t be a problem.

And as for praying, since they were going to war tomorrow, it was typical in medieval Japanese warfare for the Grand General to pray to the spirits on the night before battle, hoping for a little supernatural or psychological boost. Made sense.

Now completely at ease, Harano followed Maeda Toshie to get settled in with his company, planning to tear up some cloth that night to make bandages. And there was no need to make too many—given the style of feudal armies in ancient times, if one or two in ten on the other side were killed or wounded, they’d probably collapse. With a thousand troops on Oda’s side, there might be just a few dozen wounded. Slap a bandage or two on them and it’s done!

Still, thinking about all this, maybe he should go and watch the excitement tomorrow, see how things work?

Yeah, he probably should go—no real danger anyway, it’d be a waste to miss it!

Yeah, that settles it. Tomorrow, I’m going to watch the action!