The scouts were growing more frequent the closer they came to home. They were able to cover the distance in under a day, if they truly pushed their horses. The reports were not favourable. Not favourable at all. They did nothing to set Gengyo at ease and only served to increase his fear.
A fortress had fallen. They had shattered its walls and breached it and killed every single man inside. The scouts said that the Imagawa and Hojo army covered the horizon for as far as the eye could see, they were like the ocean.
It was a wonder that Matsudaira was holding on at all. He had three fortresses still standing against an army of fifty thousand men. His own numbers were far fewer – barely five thousand by now, though these men were the elite.
