Odawara Castle.
Afternoon.
The banners on the castle walls flapped in the sea breeze. The three-scales crest was particularly vivid in the sunlight.
Hōjō Ujiyasu stood on the highest floor of the tenshu.
She was looking north.
The Echigo army camp to the north was still hundreds of miles away in Musashi Province. Scouts galloped back with reports every half day, hundreds of miles separated north and south; even the fastest horses took over half a day.
The latest report was from last night, no unusual activity there.
Everything was normal.
So normal it made her restless.
"Those bastards, why aren't they doing anything? Just sitting there?"
She muttered to herself, her brow furrowed.
After the Takeda returned her, she had immediately set about reinforcing the northern defenses. The Echigo "Bi" banner was planted at the border a hundred miles away. She didn't dare let her guard down.
But these past few days, nothing had happened.
The Echigo camp to the north neither advanced nor retreated, as if rooted to the ground.
Normal.
Too normal.
She hated normal.
Because normal often meant that something abnormal was happening where she couldn't see.
"My lord—" A messenger scrambled up the tenshu, practically rolling. "A large number of figures approaching outside the city!"
Hōjō Ujiyasu spun around.
She quickly walked to the tenshu window.
Then she saw it.
On the distant hills, dust rose. A large number of figures poured out of the mountain path. Roughly two to three thousand.
At the front of the column
A white banner with blue characters unfurled in the wind.
"Bi."
Hōjō Ujiyasu's face went white.
"How is it possible… the camp to the north—?"
"According to the latest report, received yesterday, the northern camp is still there! No unusual activity!" the messenger confirmed.
This was definitely not that northern force. It was another.
Another Echigo force appearing from a direction she had never expected.
"That madwoman—she actually split her forces in two?!" Hōjō Ujiyasu punched the window frame.
The wood cracked.
Her hand trembled.
Anger.
And the humiliation of being played for a fool.
She had been back from the Takeda just a few days? Her wounds weren't even healed, her defenses weren't fully stabilized and Uesugi Kenshin had just appeared at her back door?
Where had the Uesugi gotten so many mobilizable soldiers?
Though the territory ruled by the Uesugi was considerable, spanning Echigo and Kōzuke, those two provinces, while larger than average, were not fertile. Their population was low. After subtracting the necessary local garrison, the mobilizable soldiers were only about three or four thousand.
In this era, when Japan was fragmented, each castle or province could be considered a domain, and after nearly a century of war and strife, population was scarce, three or four thousand was not insignificant.
But now, Uesugi Kenshin had "produced" another two or three thousand soldiers.
Where had she gotten them?
Regardless, Hōjō Ujiyasu could only face the reality before her.
"Full city alert! Pull patrol guards from within the city to the southern wall!"
Her orders came fast and urgent.
But she knew, the main force of Odawara Castle was in the north. Only fewer than five hundred defenders remained within the city.
Five hundred defending a city.
Facing an assault of two to three thousand.
Though Odawara Castle was called the strongest fortress in Kantō, that was under the assumption of a full garrison, at least a thousand, filling all sides.
Now
"Someone! Immediately send word to the Musashi defense line to the north! Recall half the forces to reinforce!"
"But my lord, the Echigo camp in Musashi—"
"That was a diversion! This is the real one! Go!"
Yes, since the force before her was real, the Echigo army to the north must be the fake.
The messenger rolled out.
Hōjō Ujiyasu gripped the window frame, watching that "Bi" banner draw closer, her teeth grinding.
Then the earth shook again.
Not from the north this time, from the west.
A heavy, rhythmic shaking, like the heartbeat of a giant beast.
A sound she had heard twice before.
Iron hooves.
The iron hooves of heavy cavalry.
A blood-red banner rose from the hills to the west.
Fūrinkazan.
Takeda Red Guard.
Here they came again.
The appearance of the Takeda Red Guard once again drastically changed the battle situation.
Just as Uesugi Kenshin had anticipated.
Takeda Shingen had been monitoring the war situation. At the first sign of trouble, she moved.
The tactics she followed were the four-character mantra from the continent: swift as the wind, gentle as the forest, fierce as fire, immovable as a mountain.
And this was the "swift as the wind" phase.
Next would be "fierce as fire."
Three or four hundred heavy cavalry poured from the hills west of Odawara Castle. Hooves crushed the dry autumn soil, raising dust like a crimson wave.
The Fūrinkazan banner rippled in the wind, carrying Kai's characteristic roughness and ruthlessness.
Yamagata Masakage still led them.
Her deep red close-fitting armor wrapped around her exaggerated figure. Her red hair was tied in a thick ponytail whipping behind her. She rode a massive black horse, her short-handled stone hammer already raised.
The Red Guard did not charge Odawara Castle.
Instead, they charged directly at the approaching Uesugi army.
Three or four hundred heavy cavalry against two to three thousand infantry, in a direct clash, this many heavy cavalry could tear the enemy's formation to shreds.
Uesugi Kenshin stood at the center of her formation.
White monk's robes, light armor, white veil covering her head.
She saw the Red Guard pouring from the west, saw the Fūrinkazan banner.
No look of surprise, not even tension.
She simply raised her right hand and made a gesture.
All troops retreat.
The command was crisp.
The five hundred elite personal guards immediately turned, their formation contracting backward without any confusion.
The fifteen hundred conscripted laborers following behind were quickly guided by the personal guards to retreat to the hills on both sides.
The retreat was neither fast nor slow, not the panicked flight of a routed army, but rather a pre-rehearsed tactical maneuver.
Yamagata Masakage's Red Guard gave chase.
The massive black horse charged into the Uesugi rear guard, stone hammer swinging. Sanskrit characters lit up with golden light, sending several rear-guard ashigaru flying.
But she reined in after only a hundred paces.
Stopped.
Not because she couldn't catch up, but because she shouldn't.
Yamagata Masakage sat on her horse, her naturally upturned eyes narrowing as she watched the Uesugi army retreating in good order.
She was looking at what lay on their retreat path.
Barricades. Wooden palisades.
Simple trenches.
Those things had appeared on the gentle slopes of the hills, as the Uesugi army approached Odawara Castle, they had marched while simultaneously looting the private stores of various "lords" along the way, using the materials to build simple defensive works.
Not for siege, but to prevent pursuit.
And the placement of those works was perfect, blocking the narrow passage between two hills, exactly obstructing the charging route of the Red Guard.
What did heavy cavalry fear most?
Barricades, trenches, and narrow terrain.
All three appeared before her.
"These bastards…" Yamagata Masakage cursed.
Not surprised, she turned her horse and returned to the west side of Odawara Castle without further pursuit.
The Uesugi and Takeda, Kenshin and Shingen, including their subordinates, had clashed many times. They knew each other's tactics.
…
Inside Odawara Castle, in the tenshu.
Hōjō Ujiyasu watched the direction of the Uesugi retreat to the south and let out a breath of relief.
Only half a breath.
Because she also saw those defensive works.
The Uesugi army had retreated, but the works remained.
Those barricades and wooden palisades stood on the hills south of Odawara Castle, blocking the route for anyone attempting to sally forth from the city.
"She built a wall… while coming?" Hōjō Ujiyasu murmured.
A retainer stepped up to look, his expression also dark.
"My lord, the enemy hasn't gone far. They've only retreated to the high ground three miles away."
"They're encamping there?"
"So it seems… and most of them appear to be civilian laborers, very few actual ashigaru."
Hōjō Ujiyasu fell silent.
Uesugi Kenshin had not laid siege.
She had never even made an aggressive move toward the castle from start to finish.
She had simply marched to the south of Odawara Castle, showed her banner, and then retreated calmly after the Takeda Red Guard arrived.
While retreating, she had casually built a line of defensive works.
This was not a siege.
This was fortification.
What did she really want?
And most of the troops she brought were civilian laborers?
Hōjō Ujiyasu's brow furrowed, then her expression suddenly changed.
"Quick!" she said urgently. "Send riders to recall the scouts we just dispatched requesting the northern army to reinforce!"
Half of the Hōjō army had been called back.
She realized, Uesugi Kenshin had brought mostly laborers, meaning the northern Uesugi army was not a decoy.
That meant they would almost certainly take advantage of the situation to annihilate the half of the Hōjō army on its way back.
Was that Uesugi Kenshin's goal?
Was it too late to recall them now?
Hōjō Ujiyasu's face was pale. She had no confidence.
…
Outside the city, on the other side.
The temporary encampment of the Takeda Red Guard.
Yamagata Masakage dismounted, her deep red armor stained with mud and grass. She walked to a simple tent that had just been erected and lifted the flap.
Inside the tent sat a woman.
Under twenty, her long deep red hair spread behind her like a waterfall. Her features were dignified and spirited.
She wore a loose, plain kimono, its collar open, the curves of her collarbone and shoulders fully exposed in the light.
Takeda Shingen.
The Tiger of Kai was not in armor.
She leaned back on a camp stool, a bowl of cold water drawn from a nearby stream in her hands, drinking slowly.
"Did you catch them?"
"No." Yamagata Masakage entered and knelt on one knee.
"Why?"
"She built barricades on the road."
Takeda Shingen put down the water bowl, her gaze shifting outside the tent.
From this angle, she could see the row of newly built wooden palisades and barricades on the southern hills.
A moment of silence.
"Masakage."
"Yes."
"Do you think Kenshin came here to attack Odawara Castle?"
Yamagata Masakage thought for a moment. "…Doesn't seem like it."
"Why not?"
"Two or three thousand men attacking the strongest fortress in Kantō, even if the main Hōjō force isn't there, it wouldn't fall in a few days. Especially since most of those troops are just civilian laborers. That woman wouldn't do something so uncertain."
"Then what is she doing?"
Yamagata Masakage looked up at her lord.
Takeda Shingen's gaze was not on her, but on the defensive works outside.
Barricades, wooden palisades, trenches.
Not for siege.
More like for separation.
Separating Odawara Castle from the communication routes to Sagami Province to the south.
Combined with the three-thousand-man camp a hundred miles to the north, blocking the north of Musashi Province.
At both the north and south ends, a "wall."
Takeda Shingen tapped her finger on the rim of the water bowl, making a ringing sound.
"She's not attacking the castle," Shingen stood and walked to the tent entrance, speaking deliberately. "She's encircling the territory."
Yamagata Masakage blinked.
"A scout just reported that the foolish woman Hōjō Ujiyasu, frightened by Uesugi Kenshin, immediately sent orders to recall half of the Hōjō forces in the north."
"Though she's probably realized her mistake by now, those orders likely won't be recalled in time."
"Half of the Hōjō forces will surely be annihilated by the Uesugi army. Then the remaining half will also be broken."
"The Hōjō will have no force left to defend the north."
"Yet the Uesugi's three thousand still remain, positioned just so at the northern entrance to Musashi Province."
"And these defensive works now directly cut off Odawara Castle's connection between Sagami and Musashi. She has cut Musashi off from the map of Kantō."
Takeda Shingen's voice was unhurried. Though there was no map before her, she laid out everything as if reading from her palm.
"She came here just to frighten the Hōjō. Her target from start to finish was not Sagami, not this castle."
"It was Musashi."
"The entire province of Musashi."
Yamagata Masakage's expression changed.
Takeda Shingen could only sigh.
Though she had figured it out, it was a little late.
She could come to reinforce here, but she could absolutely not make it north in time to stop it, those barricades, clearly prepared by Uesugi Kenshin for her Red Guard, this rare, even unique heavy cavalry force in the Warring States era.
With them there,
The Red Guard could not pass. Detouring would take too long.
It seemed, this time, Uesugi Kenshin had gotten the jump on her again…
Takeda Shingen thought.
But just then, a horse galloped in from the northwest, a fast rider with urgent news!
"The Uesugi northern army… completely annihilated."
Takeda Shingen: "!?"
Uesugi Kenshin's northern and southern walls… had already collapsed!?
…
At this moment, at this time,
Shinji was already within Musashi Province.
Waiting for Uesugi Kenshin to return.