Chapter 134: You Cross the River? Then I Will Cross the River Too
The deep stillness of the night lingered, heavy and absolute.
Then, in an instant, that deep silence was torn asunder by the thunder of an army approaching from the north.
Uesugi Kenshin's pupils constricted.
The three-diamond crest.
The Hojo Clan.
The moment that banner unfurled in the night wind, she understood. The force advancing from the north was not her three thousand men.
They were Hojo soldiers.
Then where were her reinforcements?
The answer was as obvious as it was chilling.
Almost simultaneously, a cavalryman bearing the command flag of Bishamonten galloped toward her. He was the scout Kenshin had dispatched moments ago to make contact with the northern army. He rushed in from the flank, practically crawling from his saddle as he knelt before her, his voice trembling.
"My lord! The northern camp… the entire army has been routed! The four Shinki Lords were forced to retreat north with their remaining troops, and Lady Naoe Kanetsugu… is missing!"
Missing.
On the battlefield, that single word was a death sentence. One had to remember, Naoe Kanetsugu did not possess the divine power of a Shinki.
But Kenshin did not immediately answer the scout.
Her gaze traveled past the three-diamond banner, past the line of over a thousand Hojo Clan soldiers, and settled on the gray-robed figure standing on a gentle slope farther away.
Hikaru was still there.
Under the moonlight, the crimson Oni mask he wore was exceptionally stark.
He didn't move. He didn't even assume a combat stance.
He was just standing there.
But in that instant, Kenshin realized the situation she now faced was utterly different from the one she had envisioned.
Ahead of her, the three thousand men who should have been her northern pincer were scattered to the winds.
The Hojo Clan, who in her plan should have been devoured by her split forces, had instead successfully marched south.
In doing so, they had perfectly blocked her path of retreat back to the north.
And behind her lay the Hojo Clan's stronghold, Sagami Province. It was also where Takeda Shingen's famed Akazonae were briefly stationed.
Enemies to the front.
Enemies to the rear.
It was as if everyone had simply been waiting for her to make a mistake.
She, who had intended to surround the enemy and carve up Musashi Province, had instead walked into a cage of her own making.
Her five hundred personal guards stirred, rising from the ground. The Karasuma formation tightened once more; spearmen angled their weapons outward, and archers nocked arrows to their strings.
But their faces were filled with bewilderment.
Not fear—the elite of Echigo did not know the meaning of fear.
It was confusion.
They didn't understand. They had clearly come to surround another.
How had it come to this, where they looked to be the ones who were surrounded?
Before their confusion could fester, another scout arrived.
Not from the north, nor from the south.
He came from the northeast—from Echigo Province, the Uesugi Clan's homeland. He had ridden through Kozuke, circling around the main conflict to reach them.
What he brought was an urgent report relayed by a chain of fast horses.
The rider's armor was stained with sea salt, his face ashen.
"My lord! An urgent report from Lady Sentoin, the Kanto deputy—"
"The northern coast of Echigo has suffered a large-scale landing! The enemy flies the banner of the Imagawa Clan, and their strength is estimated to be over five thousand!"
"Kasugayama Castle has entered a state of high alert, but there are fewer than a thousand defenders in the castle! I implore you, my lord, to return immediately!"
Meanwhile.
North of Musashi Province, beyond Kozuke.
Along the northern coast of Echigo, the night was vast and silent. A thick, grayish-white fog hung over the sea, a natural curtain cutting the coastline off from the open ocean.
Then, the curtain parted.
One ship, two ships, ten ships—dozens of vessels of varying sizes sailed out from the mist. Their hulls sat deep in the water, their decks packed with heavily armed samurai.
No family crests were painted on the sails; the omission was deliberate. But the design of the ships was typical of Suruga craftsmanship: wide bottoms and flat sides, a mix of medium-sized Atakebune and smaller Sekibune suited for sailing in the inland seas.
The prows were clad in iron, and bamboo flagpoles had been hastily lashed to the sterns. The cloth strips hanging from them unfurled in the biting sea breeze.
On them was written a single character.
'Imagawa'.
The Imagawa Clan.
The fleet of the Imagawa Clan of Suruga.
The greatest maritime power of the Tokaido.
When the first ship struck the beach, its keel emitted a dull, grinding crunch. The impact of wooden planks against sand and gravel sent a shudder through the entire vessel.
The gangplank was lowered.
Armored ashigaru swarmed from the ship, their feet splashing onto the wet sand as they quickly deployed into formation.
There were no war cries, no blaring horns.
There was only the sound of dense, marching footsteps and the faint, metallic clatter of armor plates.
The second ship docked.
Then the third.
More ships sailed out from the fog, emerging as if from the very seabed, one after another.
The number of soldiers on the beach swelled.
Three thousand. Four thousand.
Finally, the tide of men stopped at around five thousand.
Imagawa Yoshimoto had pulled out almost every movable force she possessed—a joint levy from the three provinces of Suruga, Totomi, and Mikawa, supplemented by ships borrowed from nearby minor lords.
Five thousand men and dozens of ships had set out from the ports of Suruga, sailing north along the inland sea, rounding the southern tip of Sado Island, and finally arriving at the northern coast of Echigo.
The journey had taken nearly a full month.
This was no spur-of-the-moment decision.
This was a plan that had been set in motion the day Hikaru reached an agreement with Imagawa Yoshimoto at Jentaigahara. One of the conditions he had offered the Imagawa Clan was that their army would unconditionally follow his command when encountering supernatural battles.
And the very first command he gave was this.
Organize a fleet, sail north along the inland sea, circle to the rear of Echigo, and stand by.
Wait for his signal.
The method of transmitting that signal was not complicated.
Mixed within the Imagawa army were a few minor spirits. They were three of The Twenty-three Demons he had specifically left behind: a Kappa that could dive into the water, a Hitotsume-kozo that could fly—though not very high or far—and a Tanuki Spirit that acted as their leader. The Tanuki could receive instructions from Hikaru through the network of 'Fear' and then relay them to the generals of the Imagawa army.
The messages were not always precise, and sometimes they were even garbled, but the general direction was always correct.
This was a gambit planned nearly a month in advance.
From the moment he struck his deal with Imagawa Yoshimoto, this chess piece had already been moved into position.
Suruga Province, the Imagawa main castle.
Imagawa Yoshimoto sat on the throne on the highest floor of the tenshukaku. Her twelve-layered kimono was piled in luxurious folds around her. Today, she wore a magnificent style interwoven with deep purple and gold thread. The collar was bound tightly around her slender neck, and a golden butterfly ornament in her hair shimmered under the candlelight.
She held a folding fan painted with a pine and crane motif, tapping it idly against her knee.
Kneeling before her was a messenger samurai who had just returned from the north.
"...The five thousand men have all landed on the northern coast of Echigo and are currently establishing a beachhead. There is already commotion in the direction of Kasugayama Castle."
"Understood. You are dismissed."
The messenger withdrew. The paper shoji doors slid shut.
Imagawa Yoshimoto set down her fan and closed her eyes.
The silence lasted for three seconds.
Then, she let out a laugh. It was very light, suppressed deep in her throat.
Those five thousand men were the absolute limit of what she could mobilize. The internal defenses of Suruga, the province she actually controlled, had been almost completely hollowed out, with fewer than a thousand men left behind. If Takeda were to take this opportunity to attack, she wouldn't even have the forces to resist.
The provisions, ships, and supplies for five thousand men on such a long journey had cost the Imagawa Clan half a year's reserves.
And to have to take such a long, circuitous route.
And to have to let those few sorry-looking minor spirits tag along with the army…
She, Imagawa Yoshimoto, the dignified Lord of Suruga, the hegemon of the Tokaido, was being led around by the nose by a single demon. Even the timing of the troop deployment wasn't her decision to make.
"That bastard Demon God," she cursed under her breath.
But the corners of her mouth were upturned.
Because she also saw the other side of the coin.
That woman from Echigo who claimed to be the incarnation of Bishamonten, that god of war who had once rendered her completely helpless on the battlefield, was now having her own home trampled underfoot by her army.
Uesugi Kenshin.
So, you too have a day like this.
Imagawa Yoshimoto picked up the fan again, covering her mouth with it. She couldn't suppress the smile no matter how hard she tried.
"Unifying the world or whatever… even though being manipulated by that man is deeply unpleasant," she muttered to the empty room. "But… hmm, at least the direction is correct."
Imagawa.
Five thousand men.
Landing in Echigo.
These three pieces of information were like three daggers, stabbing one by one into the hearts of every Echigo soldier present.
It wasn't just a counter-encirclement.
Their home, their foundation, had been directly besieged. Kasugayama Castle—that was the heart of Echigo, the main house of the Uesugi Clan, and the great rear that supported them all.
And now, the five-thousand-strong army of the Imagawa Clan was at their very doorstep.
The formation of the personal guards finally showed a trace of loosening.
It didn't collapse, but it… wavered.
A wavering of morale.
But that was enough.
The Momentum of Faith gathered by five hundred men—that bulwark of collective will, condensed to the point where it could rival the presence of thousands of ordinary soldiers—cracked at that instant.
Uesugi Kenshin felt it.
She stood in the moonlight, her long silver hair blown into disarray by the wind, the hem of her white monk's robe rolling like waves.
Surrounded front and back.
Three thousand men routed.
Naoe Kanetsugu captured.
Everything pointed to the same source.
She turned her head, her gaze once more falling upon the gray-clad figure standing on the gentle slope. The moonlight stretched his shadow long, extending it from the top of the slope all the way to her feet.
"The Imagawa Clan's fleet… that was your doing?" she spoke, her voice still devoid of any tremor. "Judging by the distance, they must have departed from Suruga and traveled north along the inland sea. You had them set off at least a month ago."
Hikaru did not deny it.
"Correct."
"Was it the day you reached an agreement with Imagawa Yoshimoto?"
"Correct."
"It seems you were guarding against me from the very beginning."
"Also correct."
Hikaru's replies were so blunt they didn't sound like a conversation on a battlefield; it was more like an auditor checking off entries in a ledger.
Kenshin's gaze lingered on him for a long time.
At the time, she hadn't paid it any mind. She had assumed he was just a monster looking for a powerful backer.
But looking back now…
That agreement had been forged to deal with her from the very start.
Mobilizing the Imagawa fleet to sail north and circle behind Echigo required a clear understanding of the inland sea's shipping routes, the calculation of tides and monsoon winds, and the knowledge of whether a month's sailing time would allow them to reach the Echigo coast before she marched south. More, it required the assistance of supernatural powers—like the Kappa among his lesser demons, secretly churning the ocean currents to speed their passage.
She had skipped over the intermediate nodes to strike the rear of the Hojo Clan, thereby severing Musashi Province.
Yet he had countered her scheme by skipping over her front line, letting the Hojo attack her rear, while having long since prepared for the Imagawa to strike at her very foundation.
This was true island-hopping.
A textbook execution of the strategy.
And he had jumped further, harder, and more thoroughly than she had.
She had only jumped one step—from Musashi to Sagami.
He had jumped two—from Musashi to Echigo, and from Musashi to her own rear guard.
Of course, beyond that, Kenshin was more concerned about one other thing.
"You intentionally suppressed this news just to wait for this moment… to shatter the morale of my army?"
Multiple pieces of devastating news, each of immense weight, arriving all at once. This was clearly no coincidence. It was Hikaru, intentionally blocking the channels of information so that she would have no advance warning.
Of course, a blocked information channel was, in itself, a form of information.
It was just that this Dragon of Echigo had been too confident in her own plans.
So confident that only now did she suddenly realize her folly. So confident that, at this moment, a crack finally appeared in the indifferent mask she wore.
Surprise. Complete and utter surprise.
"You actually planned this so far in advance."
Yes. This, without a doubt, was his handiwork. Countering her scheme, combined with his prior preparations—he had known from the start that she would return. From the very beginning, when he signed the agreement with Imagawa Yoshimoto, there had been an element of guarding against her.
How could he possibly have made no preparations?
"Now," Hikaru's voice cut through the night, flat and final. "You have lost."
"If you can cross the river to burn my bridges, then naturally, I can too."
When it came to so-called strategic vision, Hikaru, hailing from a later era, was truly not inferior to anyone.
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