Chapter 132: The Walls of Uesugi Kenshin
Odawara Castle. Afternoon.
The sea breeze rustled the war banners lining the castle walls, making the three-scale crest of the Hojo clan shimmer under the afternoon sun.
Hojo Ujiyasu stood on the highest floor of the Tenshukaku, her long, silver-white hair whipping about in the wind. She wore light armor over her deep purple kimono, a proof of the state of constant readiness she found herself in.
Her gaze was fixed on the north.
The main camp of the Echigo Army was still hundreds of miles away in Musashi Province. Her scouts returned on horseback every half-day, and even the fastest steed would take more than that to cover the distance. The latest report, from the previous night, stated that there was no unusual movement.
Everything was normal.
So normal, in fact, that it set her teeth on edge.
"Why aren't they doing anything?" she muttered, her brows knitting together in frustration. "Are they just going to stand there?"
Ever since the Takeda clan had sent her packing, she had thrown herself into reinforcing the northern defense line. The sight of Echigo's 'Bi' character flag planted on the border a hundred miles away was a constant, unnerving pressure.
But for the past few days, nothing had happened. The Echigo camp to the north neither advanced nor retreated, as if it had taken root in the earth.
It was too normal. And Ujiyasu hated normal. Normal often meant that something deeply abnormal was happening just out of her sight.
The frantic scrambling of footsteps announced an arrival. A messenger burst onto the top floor of the Tenshukaku. "A large number of figures have appeared outside the city!"
Hojo Ujiyasu spun around, her expression hardening. She strode to the window of the keep and looked out.
And then she saw it.
Dust and smoke billowed from the distant hills as a massive column of people emerged from the mountain path. A quick, rough count put their numbers at two or three thousand, at least.
At the very front of the column, a white flag emblazoned with a blue character unfurled in the wind.
The blood drained from Hojo Ujiyasu's face. "How is that possible? The northern camp—?"
"According to the latest news from a day ago, the northern camp is still there! No unusual movement!" the messenger confirmed, his voice trembling.
This wasn't the army from the north. It was another one entirely, appearing from a direction she hadn't anticipated in the slightest.
"That crazy woman actually split her forces?!" Ujiyasu slammed her fist into the wooden window frame, the wood groaning and cracking under the impact. Her hands trembled, not with fear, but with the sheer humiliation of being played like a puppet.
How many days had it been since Takeda had sent her back? Her wounds hadn't even fully healed, and her defensive lines were still being stabilized—and now Uesugi Kenshin had appeared at her back door?
Where did the Uesugi clan even get so many troops to mobilize?
While the territory they ruled was not small, spanning the provinces of Echigo and Kozuke, those lands weren't particularly fertile or populous. After accounting for the necessary local garrisons, their mobilizable force should have only numbered between three and four thousand. In an era where Japan was fractured into countless warring domains, where a single castle could be a country, this was already a considerable number. After a century of conflict had thinned the population, it was a formidable host.
Yet now, Uesugi Kenshin had somehow 'conjured' another two or three thousand soldiers. Where had she pulled them from?
Regardless, Ujiyasu had to deal with the threat before her.
"Full alert! Deploy the city patrols and guards to the southern wall!" Her orders were swift and sharp, cutting through the tension. But she knew the grim truth in her heart—the main force of Odawara was stationed in the north, leaving fewer than five hundred defenders in the city itself.
Five hundred men to defend a city against an offensive of two to three thousand.
Odawara was renowned as the strongest fortress in the Kanto region, but that reputation was built on the premise of a full garrison—at least a thousand men to man the walls on all four sides.
"Someone! Immediately send word to the Musashi defense line! Order them to redeploy half their troops back for reinforcements!"
"But My Lord, the Echigo camp in Musashi Province—"
"That's a feint!" Ujiyasu snapped. "This one here is the real attack! Go, quickly!"
Yes, if the army before her was real, then the Uesugi force in the north had to be a diversion.
The messenger scrambled away. Hojo Ujiyasu gripped the splintered window frame, her teeth grinding audibly as she watched the 'Bi' banner draw closer and closer.
Then, the earth shook again.
This time, the tremor came not from the south, but from the west. It was a heavy, rhythmic vibration, like the heartbeat of some colossal beast—a sound she had heard twice before.
The thunder of iron hooves. The charge of heavy cavalry.
A banner as red as blood crested the hills to the west.
Fūrinkazan.
The Takeda Red-Armored Corps. They were here again.
The appearance of the Takeda forces shifted the battlefield calculus once more. Just as Uesugi Kenshin had anticipated, Takeda Shingen had also been watching the battle unfold, ready to strike the moment an opportunity presented itself. She lived by the four-character mantra of Fūrinkazan, brought from the Celestial Empire of old: 'Swift as the Wind, Gentle as the Forest, Fierce as Fire, and Unshakable as the Mountain.'This was'Swift as the Wind.'Next would come'Fierce as Fire.'
Three to four hundred heavy cavalry surged from the hills west of Odawara, their hooves churning the dry autumn earth into a crimson wave of dust. The Fūrinkazan banner whipped in the wind, carrying the rugged, untamable spirit of Kai Province.
Leading the charge was Yamagata Masakage. Deep crimson armor clung to her powerful frame, and her own red hair was tied in a thick ponytail that lashed wildly behind her. Mounted on a giant of a pitch-black warhorse, she held a short-handled stone hammer high in the air.
But the Red-Armored Corps did not charge toward Odawara Castle.
Instead, they thundered directly toward the approaching Uesugi army. Three to four hundred heavy cavalry against two to three thousand infantry—in a frontal collision, that number of elite horsemen was more than enough to tear the enemy's formation to shreds.
Uesugi Kenshin stood at the heart of her army's formation. She wore a white monk's robe over light armor, a white veil covering her head and obscuring her features. She saw the crimson tide of cavalry surging from the west and the iconic Fūrinkazan banner.
There was no surprise on her face, not even a flicker of tension.
She simply raised her right hand and made a calm, deliberate gesture.
The entire army was to retreat.
The order was executed with crisp, decisive precision. Her five hundred personal guards immediately turned, their formation shrinking back without a hint of chaos. The fifteen hundred young laborers following behind were quickly guided by the guards to fall back toward the hills on either side.
The retreat was neither fast nor slow. It was not the panicked flight of a defeated army, but a pre-rehearsed tactical maneuver.
Yamagata Masakage's Red-Armored Corps gave chase. Her giant black horse neighed as it crashed into the Uesugi rearguard. The stone hammer swept out, its surface glowing with the golden light of Sanskrit characters, and the resulting shockwave sent several Ashigaru spearmen flying.
But after advancing only a hundred paces, she pulled sharply on the reins.
She stopped.
It wasn't that she couldn't catch them, but that she couldn't pursue.
Yamagata Masakage sat astride her horse, squinting her naturally upturned eyes at the Uesugi army retreating in perfect order. Her gaze fell upon the things they had left along their retreat route.
Simple trenches. Anti-cavalry stakes.
These obstacles had appeared on the gentle slopes of the hills. During their approach to Odawara, the Uesugi army had apparently been busy, looting the storehouses of local lords along the way to construct these simple defensive fortifications.
They weren't for besieging the city. They were for preventing pursuit.
, the positions were chosen with chilling perfection—placed in the narrow passages between hills, they completely blocked the charge path of the Red-Armored cavalry.
What do heavy cavalry fear most? Trenches, stakes, and narrow terrain. All three now lay before her.
"Those bastards..." Yamagata Masakage cursed under her breath.
But she showed no surprise. She turned her horse around without hesitation, abandoning the pursuit and returning to the west of Odawara. Uesugi and Takeda, Kenshin and Shingen—their forces had clashed so many times that they understood each other's methods intimately.
Inside Odawara Castle, atop the Tenshukaku, Hojo Ujiyasu watched the Uesugi army retreat to the south and let out a sigh of relief.
But it was only half a sigh.
Because she, too, saw the fortifications. The Uesugi army had retreated, but the obstacles remained. Those chevaux-de-frise and wooden fences now stood on the hills south of Odawara, completely blocking the route for any sortie from the city.
"While she was marching... she built a wall?" Hojo Ujiyasu murmured to herself in disbelief.
A vassal leaned in for a look, his expression equally grim. "My Lord, the enemy hasn't gone far. They've only retreated to the high ground three li away."
"She's making camp there?"
"It seems so... and it appears most of them are just laborers, with very few Ashigaru."
Hojo Ujiyasu fell silent.
Uesugi Kenshin hadn't attacked the city. In fact, from beginning to end, those two or three thousand people had never even assumed a siege posture. She had simply marched to the south of Odawara, shown her banner, and then retreated leisurely after the Takeda Red-Armored Corps arrived.
And in the process of retreating, she had conveniently built a row of defensive fortifications.
This wasn't a siege. This was... fortification.
What on earth was she trying to do? And most of the people she brought were... laborers?
Hojo Ujiyasu's brow furrowed in thought. Then, as if a bolt of lightning struck her mind, her face changed drastically.
"Quick!" she said urgently. "Recall the scouts I just sent! Stop the order for the northern army to return!"
She had ordered half of the Hojo clan's main army to return for reinforcements. But she realized now—if most of the force Kenshin brought south were mere laborers, it meant the Uesugi army in the north was not a diversion.
It meant they would almost certainly take the opportunity to move out and annihilate the half of the Hojo clan's forces while they were on the march back.
Was this Uesugi Kenshin's true objective?
Could she still recall the order in time?
Hojo Ujiyasu's face was deathly pale. She had no confidence at all.
Meanwhile, outside the city, in the temporary camp of the Takeda Red-Armored Corps.
Yamagata Masakage dismounted, her crimson armor stained with mud and grass. She walked to a simple tent that had just been erected and lifted the flap.
Someone was sitting inside.
She was a young woman, not yet twenty, with deep red hair that cascaded like a waterfall down her back. Her features were well-defined, filled with a natural, heroic aura. She wore a loose, plain-colored kimono, the collar open to expose the elegant line of her collarbones and the curve of her shoulders to the light.
Takeda Shingen, the Tiger of Kai, was not wearing armor.
She leaned against a low stool used for marches, holding a bowl of cool water drawn from a nearby stream and drinking it slowly.
"Did you catch them?" she asked without looking up.
"I did not pursue," Yamagata Masakage replied, walking in and kneeling on one knee. "She built chevaux-de-frise on the road."
Takeda Shingen set down her water bowl, her gaze drifting outside the tent. From this angle, she could just see the newly built row of wooden fences and stakes on the southern hills.
There was a moment of silence.
"Masakage."
"Present."
"Do you think Kenshin came here today to attack Odawara Castle?"
Yamagata Masakage thought for a moment. "...It doesn't seem like it."
"How so?"
"Attacking the strongest fortress in the Kanto Region with only two or three thousand men... even if the Hojo clan's main force isn't present, it's not a prize that can be taken in a few days. Not to mention, most of those people were just laborers. That woman wouldn't attempt something so uncertain."
"Then what is she doing?" Yamagata Masakage looked up at her lord.
Takeda Shingen's gaze wasn't on her, but on the row of fortifications outside. They weren't for a siege. It was more like... isolation. Isolating the communication channels between Odawara Castle and the southern Sagami region. Combined with the camp of three thousand men a hundred miles to the north, the northern part of Musashi Province was also blocked.
There was a 'wall' at both the northern and southern ends.
Takeda Shingen tapped a finger against the rim of her water bowl, the light clinking sound punctuating the silence.
"She isn't laying siege to a castle," Shingen stood, walking to the tent entrance. She spoke each word with deliberate clarity. "She is cordoning off territory."
Yamagata Masakage was stunned.
"Scouts just reported that Hojo Ujiyasu, that foolish woman, was so frightened by Kenshin's appearance that she immediately ordered half of the Hojo garrison in the north to return as reinforcements." Shingen's voice was calm, analytical. "Though she has likely realized her mistake by now, I'm afraid the order can't be recalled in time."
"With only half of the Hojo garrison left, they will surely be annihilated by the Uesugi army. Then, the remaining half will be crushed. The Hojo clan will have no power left to defend the north."
"Those three thousand Uesugi men are still there, perfectly blocking the northern entrance to Musashi Province. The fortifications here directly cut off communication between Odawara, Sagami Province, and Musashi. She has effectively sliced Musashi Province right out of the Kanto map."
Even without a map before her, Takeda Shingen explained the grand strategy as if she were reading the lines on her own palm.
"She came here just to scare the Hojo. Her target from the very beginning was never Sagami, nor this castle."
"It's Musashi."
"The entirety of Musashi Province."
Yamagata Masakage's expression shifted from confusion to awe, and then to alarm.
Takeda Shingen could only sigh. Though she had seen through the plan, it was too late. She could only come here as a reinforcement; there was no way she could reach the north in time to stop the slaughter. Those chevaux-de-frise were placed there specifically to hinder her Akazonae—the heavy cavalry that was a rare, perhaps even unique, asset in this Sengoku Period.
With them in the way, the Akazonae couldn't pass. Taking a detour would take far too long.
It seems that this time, Uesugi Kenshin has beaten me to the punch... Takeda Shingen thought with a hint of grudging respect.
But just then, a horse galloped up, its rider approaching from the northwest with an urgent report.
"The Uesugi forces in the north have been completely wiped out!"
Takeda Shingen froze. "What!?"
Uesugi Kenshin's northern and southern walls... had collapsed just like that?
At this very moment, deep within Musashi Province, Kobe Hikaru was patiently waiting for Uesugi Kenshin's return.
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