Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 111 - 69: Is It Fixed Thinking?

Chapter 111: Chapter 69: Is It Fixed Thinking?

The ox carts moved far too slowly, with the slowest marching speed in all the land. As Harano was overtaken by others along the way, by the time he finally reached Inaba Land after more than an hour, Oda Nobunaga had already finished resting and led his troops out again, not bothering to wait for him at all.

He asked the samurai who had been left behind to guard the temporary camp, but Oda Nobunaga hadn’t left him any orders. After probing a bit further about Nobunaga’s troop movements, he discovered that Nobunaga’s forces had already split into three: two detachments had gone to demolish the newly established Songye Fort and Samben Wood Stronghold, while Oda Nobunaga and the Shoushan City Lord, Oda Nobuaki, led the main force toward Haijin, seeking a decisive engagement with the Qingzhou army’s main force.

Harano hesitated for a moment, ordered Maeshima Shichiro to set up a "battlefield hospital" on the spot, gnawed on some rice balls, and got ready to receive the wounded. He himself took Ah Man and Ah Qing ahead to have a look—ever since his little "trial run" last time, he’d realized that as long as he kept his distance on open ground, even a small squad of the enemy was no threat to him. His courage grew ever fatter, and it started to seem to him that as a modern man galloping across the battlefield, he might not be so out of place after all.

Buoyed by his boldness, he went off to gawk again, and on the way he asked Ah Man, "How strong is the Qingzhou Oda Family, anyway?"

"Not too shabby, I guess. They’re the main branch of the Oda from the Lower Four Prefectures after all, and Qingzhou City is a major city, with loads of old manors left from before. If they rally everything and really go for broke, they can field a little over three thousand men, but most of those are just ashigaru conscripts—only five or six hundred are proper samurai or lang faction types."

Harano nodded slightly, feeling that the overall strength of the Qingzhou Oda couldn’t compare to the Oda Danjo Chonosuke’s branch. No wonder that when the "Tiger of Owari" was alive, they didn’t even dare to fart in protest. But now, with the Dan Zhengzhong branch splitting apart and turning on itself, most of the vassals wouldn’t answer the call, so with only Nagano Castle left, the outcome became less certain—and seeing as Oda Nobunaga just got done taking a beating in East Tsubono, things looked even shakier.

If Oda Nobunaga lost another battle, he reckoned Nobunaga would have a hard time holding on to the family head’s seat.

With this on his mind, he and Ah Man, Ah Qing spurred their horses—Harano rode a big horse, while the two of them shared a skewbald horse. With three people and two horses, they quickly reached the area near Haijin. From afar they could already hear the blare of the Dharma Conch, war drums, and shouts of "Heiyo!" It looked like both main forces had met up, and the Qingzhou army wasn’t choosing to hole up in the city for a defensive siege, but instead came out to meet them, hoping to decide victory in one fight.

Ah Man squinted into the distance, then stood up in the stirrups to check the lay of the land. Pointing diagonally, she shouted, "Let’s go over there!"

At a time like this, of course, she was in charge. Harano followed them in a circle to one side of the battlefield. Just like at East Tsubono, he found a high place to watch the show, but this time it wasn’t some anti-harassment counterattack like before—both sides had made full mobilization, dragging farmers from the fields and swelling the numbers on the battlefield.

A quick glance showed about five hundred armored troops in the Qingzhou army, with total numbers near two thousand; Nobunaga’s army also had around five hundred armored men, for a total strength of about thirteen or fourteen hundred.

The core battle strength on both sides was still long spear ashigaru, but this time, with more men involved, Oda Nobunaga deployed three rectangular spear formations, while the Qingzhou army tried to make use of their numbers, stretching out into a large horizontal array, with both wings and the center equally thick.

Ah Man lay down next to Harano, once again taking up the role of battlefield commentator: "Big idiot’s using the Crescent Array, and the Qingzhou army is using the Balance Yoke Array. One is about launching an offensive and breaking through on both wings; the other plans to contain those breakthroughs and counterattack diagonally in the gaps—quite a methodical response."

Harano looked closely and saw Nobunaga’s three spear formations slightly separated, the wings parallel and the center set a bit further back—looking indeed like a bent moon. The Qingzhou army’s formations, by contrast, were packed tightly together, looking like an unevenly thick wall—classic infantry combat from the pre-modern era. When the numbers get big, even foot soldiers have to talk about formations.

As he watched intently, Ah Man, ever eager to show off, launched into an enthusiastic lecture, listing the pros and cons of classic formations like the Fish Scale, Crane Wing, Flying Goose, and Square, and recounting a few famous battles where changes in formation ended up screwing someone over. But as she spoke, she suddenly went, "Eh?" and pointed at Nobunaga’s two wings. "Wait, look at big idiot’s two wings—they’re all his lang faction, the ones from East Tsubono..."

Harano quickly peered in, wishing he had time to make himself a telescope. But after watching carefully for a bit, even he could detect something odd: the two wings really did seem to be packed with Oda Nobunaga’s band of young lang faction—just check the little banners behind them. The front rows of the armored men in both wings all carried "Yongle Copper Coin Banners", while the center-rear spear formation was mostly "Sifang Mokua Flags", meaning Oda Nobuaki’s armored lang faction was in the center, reinforced by assorted ashigaru conscripts.

Ah Man confirmed it too, and said incredulously, "Could it be that big idiot sent all the other household retainers off with the detached forces, and is really going to gamble everything on this group of greenhorns? Didn’t he learn his lesson from last time?"

Harano was surprised too, but felt that even the hardest of heads wouldn’t be this hard-headed. He fell silent, mulling it over.

By now, both armies were within bow range and archers began exchanging fire. This time, though, it was Nobunaga’s side getting the worst of it—the Qingzhou army had a lot more ashigaru archers, and their Ashigaru Infantry General was a competent commander. It wasn’t long before they had thoroughly suppressed Oda Nobunaga’s archers, pushing their casualty rate up much higher.

Of course, the Qingzhou army suffered plenty of dead and wounded too. This time, most of the rear ranks in both sides’ long spear ashigaru columns were ashigaru with nothing but battered iron-laced straw hats—no proper armor and all kinds of random gear—so the bows and arrows showed their value, taking a bloody toll in wave after wave.