Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 102 - 63: It Seems Like It’s Going to Gurgle_2

Chapter 102: Chapter 63: It Seems Like It’s Going to Gurgle_2

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Because it was an interior line campaign, Nobunaga’s army didn’t need to bring much in the way of supplies; plus, spirits were high, and they moved fast—just half a day’s march brought them close to East Tsubono, where they could already see the East Tsube Stronghold from afar. The Matsudaira family came to raid a few times every year, and the Oda Family wasn’t stupid either—they had long ago built two strongholds on this road, namely East Tsube and East Wood, each stuffed with over a hundred men inside for good measure.

In the past, whenever the Matsudaira family came to loot and harass, they always had to think twice because of these two strongholds; they didn’t dare go too far in, to avoid getting pincered front and back. Plus, with the "Tiger of Owari" looming over them, they never dared linger during their hit-and-run raids, and had never been able to do anything about East Tsube and East Wood.

But now the "Tiger of Owari" was dead and the "Big Idiot of Owari" had taken over. With much less to worry about, they seemed to have come specifically to remove these two thorns this time. They’d surrounded East Tsube Stronghold and already launched several probing attacks—though they hadn’t taken it and didn’t want to pay a high price in casualties, so now they were busy building "siege engines," hoping to break the stronghold with brains, not brawn.

They weren’t stupid either. From a distance, they saw Nobunaga’s force closing in fast, immediately loosened the siege on East Tsube, but didn’t retreat directly. Instead, they pulled back to their camp to wolf down some food and drink, seemingly ready to accept an invitation to a field battle—a little practice with the Oda Danjo Chonosuke clan’s new Family Head, deep inside Oda territory, to see what he was made of.

When Oda Nobunaga heard the report from the front, he immediately ordered a halt to make camp and told his troops to eat and rest, recuperating their strength; he himself took the Returning Horse Group and some pages to personally scout out the lay of the land on the battlefield.

When he got back, he gathered the Household Samurai for a quick meeting, then gave an order—at once, the Lang Faction’s spear ashigaru and bow ashigaru squads donned their armor and marched straight out toward the Matsudaira camp.

Harano, of course, didn’t need to fight. He was just a hired "battlefield doctor," and all he had to do was stay in camp and prepare to patch up the wounded. As he saw the fight about to start, he too began assigning tasks—sorting stretchers, medicine, bandages, prepping firewood and the stove, and setting up a small tent to get ready for "surgery"—no doubt quite a few would come back with arrow wounds, so surgery was a given. He’d always been a forward-thinking guy like that.

He had a much bigger crew now: thirty ashigaru under his orders, plus Maeshima Shichiro, a low-level magistrate, to help supervise and manage things. On top of that, Yayoi and the Momoi brothers, after so long running the "Black Clinic" with him, were seasoned nurses by now, perfectly capable of helping out. Once he finished handing out the work, he was finally free, so he beckoned Ah Man and Ah Qing over, and said, full of anticipation, "Let’s go, let’s get a closer look!"

They weren’t going to lose anyway—he wanted to check out the excitement. He’d been here so long but hadn’t yet seen how wars were fought in the Japan Middle Ages; he was at least a little curious.

Ah Qing didn’t have an opinion—she usually didn’t. She always just followed Ah Man and Harano. It was Ah Man, normally the first to dive into any excitement, who actually hesitated a bit before agreeing.

The three of them saddled up their trio of speckled mares and rode out of camp, trailing Nobunaga’s force at a distance. No need to catch up; they were just there to watch the show. Harano was decked out in top-tier armor and looked every bit a big shot. If they got too close, someone might mistake him for a general and all start aiming for him—or some enemy military general might get interested in his head and try to kill him for a promotion. Now that would really be a joke.

Of course, they were fully armed. If they ran into a few stragglers and needed to scrap, the three of them wouldn’t be scared—Ah Man and Ah Qing had ears and eyes sharp as blades, no way the enemy could sneak up without them noticing. And as long as they didn’t let anyone get close, nothing to fear; with their pulley bows and iron cannon, a few enemies could be chased off from a distance easily enough.

Let’s be real: as cautious and suspicious as he was, if there were any serious danger, he absolutely wouldn’t have come to watch the fun.

So the three of them just followed Nobunaga from afar. Nobody bothered them along the way, and they made it all the way to East Tsubono. When they got there, the war drums started pounding—slow at first, then speeding up, switching to the "urgent drum," and Dharma conchs started blowing in long and short bursts. Nobunaga’s force began to rearrange, shifting from a marching column into battle lines.

The Matsudaira family didn’t hesitate; clearly, they’d been ready for this. They weren’t about to let Oda Nobunaga trap them inside the camp, so their own drums and conchs echoed out. The armored Lang Faction and ashigaru streamed out the camp gate, forming a wide line in front without a hint of fear. They were dead set on trading blows with Oda Nobunaga head-on.

Harano couldn’t see much from behind, so he swung back up into the saddle, standing in the stirrups for a better view. But it wasn’t like the novels, where there were skirmishers and scouts everywhere between the two armies when a battle was about to start.

On the contrary, with the two armies face-to-face and just about ready to start bashing each other, all available soldiers had pulled back in, and the area all around was deserted.

He thought about it, pointed at a little grassy hill off in the distance, and said, "Let’s go watch from over there!"

That hill was to the side of the battlefield and offered a pretty good view, so the group took advantage of both sides still busy shouting "Hey! Ho!" while getting their lines in order, made a detour, and clambered up the hill to spectate.

The view from here was way better—one good look and you could take in the whole battlefield.

Harano glanced around from his prone position. Nobunaga had over six hundred men directly joining the fight, nearly all armored Lang Faction—in three tight battle lines, long spears jutting up like a forest.

Matsudaira’s force looked to be about six hundred strong as well, but only a bit over four hundred had armor, and their armor looked pretty mismatched and a lot shabbier than Nobunaga’s side, who all looked like they’d just walked out of the same catalog. The last two hundred at the back, though, didn’t bother with armor at all—not even a makeshift breastplate, just a bamboo hat with some iron stuck on top. But they weren’t lacking in spirit—they also formed up in three tight lines, long spears pointing skyward.

Harano watched for a while. Then he asked Ah Man, "The Matsudaira family really does look weaker, and they don’t even have the terrain on their side. Logically, they should’ve pulled back early. So why does it look like they plan to go all in? Didn’t you say before the Matsudaira family never risks it all for a slugfest?"

Ah Man’s bean eyebrows knitted together in thought, and she said off-handedly, "It’s probably Imagawa family orders—or maybe it’s because Oda Nobunaga the Big Idiot has such a reputation. Now that he’s shown up personally, the Matsudaira commander wants to see if he can take him down in one go—if they can bring Oda Nobunaga’s head back, losing two or three hundred guys would still be worth it. If it were me, I’d definitely give it a shot."

Harano nodded slightly. That actually made sense—Oda Nobunaga’s reputation was so rotten, everyone knew he was a "Big Idiot." Faced with an idiot—a very valuable idiot at that—it wouldn’t be crazy for Matsudaira’s Household Retainers to want to chop him down on the spot and win themselves a land grant for great merit.

But he soon noticed Ah Man’s bean eyebrows were still scrunched together, and she seemed kind of distracted, so he asked curiously, "What’s up with you?"

By rights, she ought to be bouncing with excitement, eager to see some bloodshed, not sitting there all quiet.

Ah Man herself wasn’t sure, scratched her face, took a look around, then said hesitantly: "Something feels off..."

Harano was momentarily lost, but titles like The Art of War and Thirty-Six Stratagems flashed through his mind. He turned and scanned the area, suspecting an ambush—but come on, this place was called East Tsubono for a reason; it was pretty much just open wilderness, hardly any undergrowth, the terrain was flat, and the little hill they were lying on was the highest thing around. Nowhere for troops to hide at all.

"What feels off?" Harano looked around to no avail and could only ask Ah Man.

Ah Man’s bean eyebrows still bunched up, her expression still comical, and her tone still hesitant: "I don’t know. But ever since we started marching this morning, I’ve had this weird feeling—like something’s wrong, but I just can’t put my finger on what exactly it is right now."

That’s probably a kind of professional instinct—the sharp gut sense honed by years of crouching in the weeds watching samurai hack each other up. She just had this feeling that something was up with Oda Nobunaga, like he was about to bite it.