The night remained deep.
The previous silence was abruptly shattered by the army approaching from the north.
Uesugi Kenshin's pupils narrowed.
The three-scales crest.
The Hōjō.
The moment that banner unfurled in the night wind, she understood, the force coming from the north was not her three thousand.
It was the Hōjō's army.
Then what of her three thousand?
The answer spoke for itself.
Almost simultaneously, a cavalryman carrying the Bishamonten command banner rode in, a scout Kenshin had sent earlier to contact the northern army.
He practically rolled from the flank, kneeling on one knee, his voice trembling.
"My lord—the northern camp… completely routed with heavy casualties! The four divine artifact lords have withdrawn north with the remnants. Lord Naoe… whereabouts unknown!"
Whereabouts unknown.
On a battlefield, what these words meant was clear to anyone.
Naoe Kanetsugu did not have the power of divine artifacts.
But Kenshin did not immediately answer the scout.
Her gaze passed over the three-scales banner, over the thousand-man line of the Hōjō, to the grey-clad figure standing on the gentle slope beyond.
Shinji still stood there.
His crimson demon mask glared in the moonlight.
He hadn't moved, hadn't even assumed a fighting stance.
Just stood.
But in that instant, Uesugi Kenshin understood, the situation before her was completely different from what she had envisioned.
Ahead of her, the three thousand she had deployed to the north had been scattered. The Hōjō forces, which according to her plan should have been consumed by her army after being divided, had instead marched south and, at this moment, exactly blocked her path back north.
Behind her was the Hōjō's home province, Sagami.
And the temporary encampment of Takeda Shingen's Red Guard.
Before and behind.
All enemies.
Or rather all waiting for her to make a mistake.
She, who was supposed to be surrounding the enemy and cutting off Musashi Province, had instead been surrounded!
The five hundred elite personal guards had already risen from the ground. The "Wheel and Hanging" formation tightened again, spearmen pointing outward, archers drawing arrows.
But their faces were full of bewilderment.
Not fear, the Echigo elite knew no fear.
Confusion.
They didn't understand.
Weren't they supposed to be surrounding others?
Why did it seem like they were the ones surrounded?
Before the personal guards' confusion could last long, another scout arrived.
Not from the north, not from the south.
But from the northeast, from Echigo, the Uesugi clan's home province, traveling through Kōzuke, circling here.
Bringing an urgent message relayed by fast horses from Echigo itself.
The rider's armor was stained with sea salt, his face ashen.
"My lord—urgent message from Lord Sentōin, our deputy in Kantō—"
"The northern coast of Echigo has been hit by a large-scale landing! The enemy flies the Imagawa banner. Estimated strength over five thousand!"
"Kasugayama Castle is on alert, but the garrison is less than a thousand, my lord, please return immediately!"
"!?"
…
At the same time.
North of Kōzuke Province, north of Musashi.
Echigo Province, northern coast. The night was vast, the grey-white fog like a natural curtain, separating the coastline from the open sea.
Then the curtain parted.
One ship, two, ten....
Dozens of ships of various sizes emerged from the fog, riding low in the water, their decks crowded with fully armed samurai.
No clan crests on the sails deliberately.
But the shapes of the ships were typical of Suruga.
Flat-bottomed, wide-gunned medium atakebune and small sekibune mixed, suitable for coastal navigation. Their bows were iron-plated, their sterns fitted with temporary bamboo flagpoles.
The cloth strips on the flagpoles unfurled in the sea breeze.
One character on them.
"Imagawa."
Imagawa.
The Suruga Imagawa's fleet.
The largest naval power in the Tōkaidō.
As the first ship hit the beach, a dull grinding sound came from its hull, the collision of wood and sand shaking the entire vessel.
The gangplank dropped.
Armored ashigaru poured from the ship, stepping onto the wet sand, quickly deploying.
No war cries, no trumpets.
Only the dense sound of footsteps and the light clatter of armor.
The second ship landed.
The third.
More ships emerged from the fog, one after another, as if rising from the sea floor.
More and more people gathered on the beach.
Three thousand, four thousand.
Finally stopping around five thousand.
Imagawa Yoshimoto had mobilized almost every available soldier, combined levies from Suruga, Tōtōmi, and Mikawa, plus ships borrowed from nearby minor lords.
Five thousand people, dozens of ships, departing from Suruga's ports, sailing north along the inland sea, rounding the southern tip of Sado Island, finally reaching Echigo's northern coast.
The journey had taken nearly a month.
This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision.
It had been planned from the day Shinji reached his agreement with Imagawa Yoshimoto at Yajirōgen.
One of the conditions he had set for Imagawa, that the Imagawa army would unconditionally follow his orders in battles involving the supernatural.
And the first command was this.
Organize a fleet, sail north along the inland sea, circle behind Echigo, and await his signal.
The signal transmission was not complicated either.
Among the Imagawa army were a few small demons.
Three of the twenty-three demons had been deliberately left behind, a kappa that could dive into water, a one-eyed little monk that could fly (though not high or far), and the tanuki as their leader.
The tanuki could receive Shinji's commands through "Fear" and relay them to the Imagawa generals.
Not precise, sometimes messages got garbled, but the general direction was fine.
This was a plan laid nearly a month in advance.
From the moment he agreed to Imagawa Yoshimoto's terms, this piece had already been placed on the board.
…
Suruga Province, Imagawa main castle.
Imagawa Yoshimoto sat on the throne in the highest room of the tenshu.
Her twelve-layered kimono was layer upon layer. Today, she wore a magnificent style woven with deep purple and gold, its collar tightly binding her slender neck. The gold butterfly hairpin in her hair glinted in the candlelight.
In her hand, she held a folding fan painted with pines and cranes, tapping it against her knee.
Before her knelt a samurai messenger, just returned from the north.
"…All five thousand have landed on Echigo's northern coast. Beachheads are being established. Disturbances have already been reported in the direction of Kasugayama Castle."
"Dismissed."
The messenger withdrew.
The paper door closed.
Imagawa Yoshimoto put down her fan and closed her eyes.
Silence for three seconds.
Then
"Haha."
She laughed once.
Very softly, in her throat.
Those five thousand were the absolute limit of what she could mobilize. The defenses of her own territory were almost completely hollowed out; the remaining garrison was barely a thousand.
If Takeda took advantage of the situation, she had no means to resist.
The provisions for five thousand, the ships, the supplies along the way, they had cost the Imagawa half a year's reserves.
And to go such a long way.
And to let those few grotesque little demons accompany the army
She, Imagawa Yoshimoto, the lord of Suruga, hegemon of the Tōkaidō, was being ordered around by a demon.
Even the timing of the deployment wasn't hers to decide.
"Damn demon god."
She cursed again.
But the corners of her mouth were upturned.
Because she also saw the other side
That Echigo woman who called herself the incarnation of Bishamonten, that God of War who had once left her helpless on the battlefield, her rear was now being trampled by her army.
Uesugi Kenshin.
Look at you now.
Imagawa Yoshimoto picked up her fan again and covered her mouth.
She couldn't suppress her smile.
"Uniting the realm… though it's annoying to be manipulated by that guy," she spoke to the empty room.
"But well, at least the direction is right."
…
Imagawa.
Five thousand.
Landing in Echigo.
These three pieces of information were like three blades, each stabbing into the hearts of every Echigo soldier present.
Not only surrounded.
But their home base, even had enemy troops at its gates!
Kasugayama Castle was the foundation of Echigo, the Uesugi's main castle, the rear base for all of them.
And now, the five-thousand-strong army of the Suruga Imagawa was at their doorstep.
The personal guards' formation finally showed a slight loosening.
Not routing, just… shaken.
The wavering of human hearts.
But that was enough.
The faith-momentum condensed by five hundred, that force field, concentrated enough to rival thousands of ordinary soldiers, had, in this instant, developed cracks.
Uesugi Kenshin felt it.
She stood in the moonlight, her silver-white hair tousled by the wind, the hem of her white monk's robes flapping like waves.
Surrounded front and back.
Three thousand routed.
Naoe Kanetsugu captured.
Echigo attacked.
Everything pointed to the same source.
She turned her head again to look at the grey-clad figure standing on the gentle slope.
Moonlight stretched his shadow long, from the top of the slope down to her feet.
"The Imagawa fleet… was that your doing?" she spoke, her voice still without inflection. "Judging by the distance, starting from Suruga, sailing north along the inland sea, you must have sent them at least a month ago."
Shinji did not deny it.
"Yes."
"The day you made your agreement with Imagawa Yoshimoto?"
"Yes."
"It seems you've been on guard against me from the very beginning."
"Also yes."
Shinji's answers were so crisp they didn't sound like battlefield conversation, more like checking accounts.
Kenshin's gaze lingered on him for a long time.
A month ago, the Battle of Yajirōgen, Shinji's agreement with Imagawa Yoshimoto, that was public knowledge. Her spies had long since reported the general content.
She hadn't paid attention then.
Thinking it was just a demon seeking a patron.
But looking back now
That agreement had been designed to deal with her from the start.
Mobilizing the Imagawa fleet north along the inland sea, circling behind Echigo, this required a clear understanding of the inland sea routes, calculating the direction of tides and seasonal winds, knowing whether a month's sailing time would reach the Echigo coast before her southward encirclement, and also required… supernatural assistance, like the kappa among the small demons secretly helping the currents.
She had skipped intermediate nodes to strike the Hōjō's rear, thereby cutting off Musashi Province.
He had, instead, turned the tables, skipping her front line, having the Hōjō strike her rear, and long ago prepared to have the Imagawa strike her home base.
This was also island-hopping.
The true island-hopping.
And he had jumped farther, harder, more completely.
She had jumped one step, from Musashi to Sagami.
He had jumped two, from Musashi to Echigo, from Musashi to her rear.
Of course, besides this, Uesugi Kenshin cared about another thing.
"You deliberately suppressed this information, waiting for this moment… to shake my morale?"
Multiple pieces of information.
Each highly significant.
Yet they all arrived at once.
Clearly not a coincidence. Shinji had intentionally blocked the channels of information, preventing Uesugi Kenshin from discovering it earlier.
Of course, blocking information channels is itself a form of information.
But the Dragon of Echigo had been too confident in her own planning.
So confident that only now did she realize.
So confident that at this moment,
On her delicate face, the indifferent expression finally cracked.
Surprise.
Complete, utter surprise.
"You truly planned so far in advance."
Yes.
This was undoubtedly Shinji's doing.
Turning the tables, with prior preparation.
He had known from the start that Uesugi Kenshin would return. From the very beginning, when he made the agreement with Imagawa Yoshimoto, part of it had been to guard against Uesugi Kenshin.
How could he not have prepared anything?
Now.
"You lose."
"You can island-hop. So naturally, I can too."
When it came to so-called grand strategy, Shinji, coming from a later era, was no less than anyone!