"So, we're outnumbered. Any ideas of how we might win?"
This question contained no hope at. It was spoken by a man that was seemingly resigned to his fate.
"How badly are we outnumbered?"
Gengyo posed the question, having known nothing about the two villages' military affairs.
"By 200 mounted mercenaries."
The old man responded without looking his way.
"And we have what? 100 men?"
"Correct."
"Can we not afford to hire any mercenaries either?"
The old man sighed slightly at that, clearly not seeing the point in educating this young man.
"No child, that Toda has been involved in all manners of nefarious dealings. His coin far outweighs our own. Even if we were to tax the peasants so heavily that they were all but starving, we would still not be able to afford even twenty."
"I see. So he has around three hundred men in total then, matching our 100 and then the mercenaries on top."
"That is correct."
"How much of their numbers and our numbers will be made up of bow ashigaru?"
He sent a glance toward Nakatane, wondering whether he really had to keep answering these questions, but the master merely nodded slightly, causing the old man to sigh once more.
"10 archers from the guards. 10 archers from the peasantry. There will be 40 peasant yari ashigaru, and 40 guard yari. The enemy's numbers will be similar, only they will have 40 mounted archers on top of that."
"Hoh…"
'This is rather grim.'
Gengyo thought to himself. But the odds were not impossible. They were only outnumbered 3 to 1. In two weeks' time the Oda would win a battle where they were outnumbered 10 to 1. If thought of like that, it was well within their grasp.
"Well, then, let us continue. First off the field of battle needs setting, least even if we win we'll have more damages than we can suffer."
The master nodded.
"Good. Where do you propose the field of battle, then?"
The old man brandished a detailed map of the surrounding area that included the location of all the houses in the village, the forested area, and the rice fields. It continued all the way to the border of Tobishima lands.
It was well labelled in kanji, and it was easy to distinguish one feature from another.
He pointed to an area of land just north of the rice fields. Judging from the scale of the rest of the map, it seemed to be about 1km wide, and 2km long. On its eastern side it was bordered by an area of the forest.
There were no houses in the direct vicinity of the field. It was a good location.
"Good."
The lead guard agreed.
"Yes, by positioning there we're blocking the only road into town, so we can force them to fight on that field."
"What of strategy, then?"
Jikouji continued.
"Well, it's basic, but cavalry is always burdened by trees. If we can bait them into chasing us into the forest, then we will have the advantage."
"How do you propose we do that?"
"Toda is not known for his intelligence. If we train the villagers, and get them to feign desertion upon seeing the enemies numbers, and get them to run into the forest. We'll leave like 30 or so 'loyal men' behind, who stand firm, until the cavalry start to charge, before they route too upon your orders."
Nakatane frowned.
"Will they really fall for that?"
"I cannot say, but in my mind it is the only possible road to our victory."
He looked towards Gengyo.
"Any thoughts, lad?"
"It is a good plan, but-"
"But?"
"I fear we will not be able to execute it without Toda finding out our intentions beforehand."
The old man chipped in.
"Your meaning?"
"Well, he certainly has informants positioned within the village. Else he would never have found about the death of his men so quickly. He likely learned of it even before you did, Niwa-san."
"That's easy enough dealt with then, we simply capture the spies before leading the training."
His fingers stroking his chin, Gengyo proposed something else.
"What if, we leave them to their spying. We train all the villagers as one, without care, to execute a strategy – one that Toda will spare resources in acting to counter. And then, on the night before the battle, we imprison all the spies – for we can identify them through the course of the five days – and then inform the men of our true battle plan."
The three men ran it over in their heads, before finding themselves nodding.
A smile broke out on Nakatane's face at the idea.
"Good! That plays with that arrogance of his perfectly as well. He likes to think of himself as clever. If he believes that he's already outwitted us, simply by countering that strategy he already knew of, then he will let his guard down and be more vulnerable to the real one."
"And what might this false strategy that we propagate be?"
The old man turned to look at Gengyo for the first time.
"I'm sorry, I haven't thought that far yet. Ideally, it would be something that would force a portion of his men to position themselves in a certain location, to counter an ambush or something of the like, but in reality, we're in a different location and can overwhelm their forces before reinforcements have time to arrive."
"I see…"
The rest of the room went into thought for the while, as they let their imaginations take over, and envisioned a strategy that Toda would find believable.
It was Ishiyama, the guard, who came up with an idea first.
"The river, perhaps. We can train them to run to the banks of the river. The horses will find it difficult to navigate the steep banks, and we'll fashion 80 long-shafted spears, about 6 metres long, and we'll have them hidden on the banks of the river. That way, if they deem it fit to check, they'll have all the evidence they need."
Jikouji took over from there, inspired by the groundworks laid by the lead guard.
"Good. And then we'll train our men to act on the day, pretending they can't see any chance at winning, and they abandon their weapons and run to the forest. But in the forest, we'll have another set of long-shafted spears that they can rearm themselves with. Toda will likely laugh, and send his men to hunt them down, as we'll have you, lord, chasing after them, claiming that you'll take their lives yourself because of their cowardice."
Gengyo grinned.
"I like this. We can turn the forest into a mounted man's worst nightmare. We'll have the men run off in different directions, and put a good deal of thin, strong twine, at head height to the mounted men, and that'll take out a good few. We should leave the bow ashigaru out of this though."
"Hoh, what do you mean by that?"
Nakatane asked, hoping the boy was not saying that out of cowardice.
"We'll set up in position beforehand within the forest, and after the mercenaries have taken the bait, we'll start reigning fire down upon the guards and the ashigaru of the enemy. When we have their attention, and they start to come towards us, we'll make a move and regroup with you. We should try and get as many of the enemies horses as possible, and form up an improvised yari cavalry unit. With those long yari that we fashioned earlier, we can decimate them. We can probably take their bow ashigaru out in one fell swoop."
With this icing on the cake, all the men present began to feel a certain degree of excitement. Even the old heart of Jikouji started to quicken, and his palms began to sweat.
Was there truly hope?
One man though, Ishiyama, still had his doubts, and so voiced them.
"I believe this is a good plan… however, what if he decides to send some of his men out beforehand, just ten even, then whilst we do battle, the village will be burning behind us, and the women and children will be slaughtered."
Gengyo shrugged at that, not seeing the need to worry at such small numbers.
"Arm the women."
"What?"
They were shocked at his nonchalant response. What would arming the women achieve?
"Come on, it's not that crazy an idea. Give them a few days training with basic spear movements, give them some medium-sized yari that they can handle, and the mounted enemies shouldn't be a problem. They'll probably be some decent archers amongst the women too. Of course, those too old and too young should not be expected to fight. But some of the women are just as fierce as the men, you know?"
"I have this little sister, you see. And honestly, I would not like to be the man on the horse riding toward her when her spear is poised. I think other women in the town will be just as fearsome."
Nakatane ran a hand through his hair, his thoughts with his daughter. He recalled when she had mentioned wanting to be an Onna-bugeisha when she was little. Perhaps… as a sorry, for all that he had put her through. A few days of training, would that please her?
Still, the thought of her engaging in battle filled him with worry.
Gengyo continued, attempting to convince the other men. It was rare to find a female warrior. They were like a different breed. It seemed absurd to drop weapons in the hands of the women and suddenly expect them to fight.
But was that not exactly what they did with the yari ashigaru men?
"There should be at least 40 fighting women, with good length spears. Do you really think they'll be unable to deal with just 10 men? You're looking down on them too much."
"Ah, fine. The boy's right. We simply don't have the men to spare for anything otherwise."
Nakatane finally relented, feeling a certain bitterness at it having come to this.
They wallowed in silence for a while, thoughts of the plan passing through their head.
Ishiyama turned to Gengyo.
"You mentioned setting traps in the forest. Who will do this when we are unsure of who to trust?"
"My family and I can. It shouldn't be too much work."
The master nodded.
"Good enough for me."
"And the women's training. What will we say for that?"
"So that they can be closer to the men before the battle, and experience what they might."
"…That's not great, but I suppose it will do."
Seeing that there were not more questions, Nakatane began to wrap things up.
"Well, we'll start getting the preparations underway. Gather the villagers, announce what's ahead. Any work in the fields will be suspended until after the battle. We will train the 'strategy' twice a day. And let them know that the test for the bow ashigaru will be held tomorrow."
"Will I need to take that test, Niwa-san?"
"Mmm. No…"
He lapsed back into thought again, and seeing that he wasn't about to speak any time soon, Jikouji stood up and made a move.
"I will make haste with the preparations, then."
Ishiyama followed suit.
"As will I."
Gengyo looked from the retreating duo to Nakatane – whose eyes were still glazed over in thought – and wondered whether to stay or leave.
His decision was made for him, as he noticed the old man Jikouji gesturing for him to follow.
He bowed his head lightly toward the lord, and then moved towards him.
"Walk with me a while."
The old man said, as Ishiyama disappeared down the stairs.