Chapter 17

Maybe I could’ve been content just gloating about unifying one prefecture, but alas, I wasn’t that kind of man. My designs on the northern counties had also been preparation for attacking Nagurry Prefecture. All the arrangements were in place. I could go into Nagurry anytime now. There were many counts who had one prefecture, but there were far fewer with two or more. In other words, this would be a big step toward being king. And for that reason, I needed to attack far sooner than my enemies would ever expect. “First, we’ll use an advance party to capture Fort Saura in the prefecture’s heartland. The fort is situated in the valley of a mountain. It’ll come down to a decisive battle nearby.” I gave the conscription order to the whole prefecture, and before all the troops were even assembled, I went north with just a portion of them, including my personal guard. On the way, I went to the north hill castle that Noen ruled, located at the northernmost tip of my prefecture. “You’ve come with an awfully small number… You’re attacking the neighboring prefecture. I thought you’d come with your whole army…” Noen seemed a bit confused. “More troops will come gather here as a staging point anyway. We don’t need a huge force to take down all the smaller forts. In fact, if we take our time, they’ll bring reinforcements.” We wouldn’t need a lot of troops until later. First we had to go take down their forts, or none of this would work. Meissel Wouge, basically second-in-command of Holai Castle, came along, too. “Thank you very much for taking a liking to my sister.” Seeing his face so full of determination, it was obvious he was fighting for his clan’s revival. I could tell he really wanted to produce results. “Your sister helped make this possible. There is no question we will win this war. Come help the advance party; Noen can take care of this place himself.” We invaded Nagurry Prefecture with about seven hundred men, capturing a few forts along the way. They were all just small forts meant to defend against invasion by the small northern lords of Fordoneria; most of them had essentially been left wide open. Some of them were completely empty shells. Obviously abandoned forts weren’t able to stop us. The enemy had never imagined someone with a whole prefecture would come attack in the first place. It struck me that these forts hadn’t been repaired or rebuilt. That must’ve meant they had no intention of defending against us on the fringe of their territory. As we went on, troops who had been lagging behind joined up, making our total count about a thousand men. With that, we captured Fort Saura deep in central Nagurry. The fort was on a low mountain, but its soldiers also fled without much of a fight. Now the real showdown was set to begin. I held a meeting with my imperial guard. “Now, once we cross a few mountain passes, we’ll be in the flatlands of northern Nagurry. We can then thrust straight to their main stronghold, Molkara Castle.” Molkara Castle was part of a seaport town. Nagurry Prefecture, with its north end bordering the ocean, had lots of port towns. “However, there are many forts before we get through the pass. We’ve definitely never seen so many forts so close to each other before. They seem to be undergoing extensive repairs, as well. You know what this means, don’t you?” Everyone, including Leon and Orcus, nodded. “It means the enemy wants to isolate and destroy us here. If they flank us from behind this fort, we’ll be caught in a pincer maneuver.” “Leon is correct,” I said. “If you read the history books, the same sort of tactic was used here hundreds of years ago.” “If we try to force our way through now, we’ll be weakened by each of the forts, and once we’ve made it out to the plains, exhausted, their main force will hit us hard. Then even if we retreat, another flanking force can lie in wait for us from behind,” Orcus said, holding his hand to his face. “Exactly. Well, they probably thought we’d have a lot more soldiers in this fort, but still.” This area gave a large army nowhere to run. That was why I sent a lot of troops to support our rear. That way, they could take out any separate flanking force. I, too, was using my head. I’d destroy the enemy all at once. You seem awfully excited. Well, their lord’s castle isn’t inland, so I’m sure you can handle it. It’ll be easier than my attack on Mino. You might be right. I’ve got you on my side, so I’ll eliminate my neighbors faster than you did, I said to Oda Nobunaga. “By the way, how’re we gonna attack them? Things’ll probably get worse the more we wait around.” Orcus had a habit of touching his beard when he was thinking. “If we go down the valley road, we’ll get hit by the enemies in the forts ahead. We can’t just ignore them and force our way through, so it’s gonna be a bit rough.” Yes, this fort, Fort Saura, was right inside of the valley. The enemy was hoping to close us in and destroy us in an encirclement. Just looking at the situation, they must’ve assumed we’d fallen right into their trap. The enemy lord, Colt Rentrant, was a smart enough man. He could muster more troops than I could, so he was probably thinking of hitting us hard here and then attacking my prefecture for real. Speaking of, that sort of thing happened when I was alive as well. The Oouchi troops, led by Sue, were lured to and destroyed in Itsukushima by Mouri Motonari; he then went on to slowly push into Oouchi territory, wiping them out. Well, I don’t plan to let that happen. I’ll overcome this. “Meissel, the map.” What Meissel spread out was just a magnification of the surrounding mountains and valley. “I actually found a few secret passages leading from this fort to theirs beforehand. The path along the ridge is mysteriously blocked, as if you can only go back, but we can go around by going down and back up.” I’d gotten that info from my spies and Fleur. “The enemy’s strategy assumes we’ll be weakened by having to capture each of their forts. If we can take them quickly, we can burst out onto the plain with all our strength left.” I looked at their faces. “If the forts ahead are acting as a roadblock, we only need to destroy them ahead of time. Then when we meet up with the task force from behind and go out to the plain, our victory will be sealed.” “I see your intentions, but goin’ around takin’ forts is awfully reckless, too.” “You’re all perfectly capable.” These men were being affected by Conqueror’s Guidance, which gave them 50 percent more trust and focus. With that, if we attacked from the secret passages, we could capture the forts without taking much damage. Besides, I had my rappas. If I had them work behind the scenes, the situation should tip even more in my favor. “Unnerstood! If we don’t show what we’re made of, we ain’t even men!” yelled Orcus. “That’s the spirit. I’ll go with you, too, so give them everything you have.” “Surely it’s too risky for you to—,” Leon said, hesitant. As captain of the White Eagles, it was Leon’s job to stop me there. “I know all of you will protect me, so I’m not afraid of anything.” Leon put on his battle face. “The White Eagles will protect you, no matter what!” Special ability Conqueror’s Guidance has leveled up! Allies’ trust and focus will double. Additionally, their offensive and defensive abilities will improve by thirty percent. Oh, my bonus just got better, too. My troops will be nearly unstoppable now. “Let’s start with the first fort. It was built halfway up the mountain with the expectation that any attackers would come up the valley path. So we can go around and come in from higher up. We can capture it in no time if our elites go in from above. Let’s go!” The next day came, and at midday we purposely tried taking the valley path, engaging in brief skirmishes with the enemies who came down from the fort. It was all just to make them think we were following the valley. And then night arrived. We advanced up the ridge path, which was dotted with red ribbons to prevent us from getting lost—something the werewolf rappas had prepped beforehand. “Jus’ leave this to us Red Bears. Twenny people’s all we need!” I decided to leave it to Captain Orcus. Indeed, going into the fort brought risk; it’d be too reckless for me to go. “All right, see it done. There aren’t many of them, either. Crush them.” The Red Bears hung down a ladder from the ridge behind the fort and went in one after another. Immediately the air was filled with screams. By the time I descended into the fort, I could hear Orcus saying, “This ’ere’s my fifteenth head!” Honestly, my guardsmen had way more training than most troops. Even in small numbers, they showed tremendous ability. By thirty minutes later, almost all our foes were dead, and the fort commander had surrendered. “Tell us what you know about the other forts if you don’t want to die,” I threatened the commander. As soon as I had my rappas use their skills at torture, he immediately told us what we wanted. Everything he said was consistent with the information we’d gathered beforehand, so he wasn’t lying. The enemy had two forts left. “We can take down the other forts before the day’s out. Let’s keep going!” The rappas stole into the next fort and opened the gate from inside. It was the same tactic used on us back when I was sent to Fort Nagraad. A fort is only useful because it’s hard to break into. Once a larger enemy force gets in, it turns into a hellish slaughter. The ridge path from that fort to the next was blocked off, but it didn’t matter, since we took a detour. I already had a good grasp of the mountain path there. Here the rappas threw the enemy into disarray by shooting fire. Now just to overwhelm th— “Leave this to me, sir,” interrupted Meissel Wouge, the former Viscount of Holai, looking especially heroic. “Fine. Can’t get a good piece of them if they just surrender, right? Have at them.” Meissel’s troops charged in dauntlessly. The enemy tried desperately to fight back, since if they lost this fort, their plan to stall for time in the valley would fall apart entirely. I set foot inside the fort myself to inspire the men. “Listen up! If we bring this thing down, we can break through the mountain pass! We can open a giant hole in their defense! Give me this victory!” I slew three enemy troops myself. Being in the middle of battle activated my special ability Conqueror’s Might, which boosted my combat skills twofold. Sorry, but you can’t win with this pathetic lot. In this clash of wills, our side won out. Around the time I began to think the enemy had been mostly suppressed, Meissel came back. “We killed their commander.” “Well done. Once I take Nagurry, I shall grant you more land.” By the time we’d captured the last fort, it was already fully daytime. We must’ve actually fought for over twelve hours. Even though I’d been alternating which troops went in, with the travel included, everyone was dog-tired. Nevertheless, taking down three enemy forts in less than a day was a really big deal. Now that valley path is wide open for us. After letting the men get their fill of rest, I had them build a camp fortress right at the spot where the mountain pass let out onto the Rentrant Plain, so the enemy could see it. A camp fortress was a temporary staging camp on just a mere earthen embankment. Since we were going to stay for a bit, I did order them to build a sort of shack with an actual roof. Here, we’d meet up with our troops coming from the rear and then go smash into the enemy’s main force. It was as if we held a knife to their throat. They needed to do something to drive us off, but we were ready to go out onto the plain. If word of this plan of ours spread, they’d probably panic, as if a swarm of bees had been let loose in the room. Finally, Kivik’s rearguard unit arrived. “Some of the enemy tried to flank from behind, but we destroyed them. We had more men, though, so it’s nothing to boast about.” Kivik was quite old, but when it came to war, he was positively bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. “Well done. Everyone, we have a big fight ahead, but since we’re all here, let’s come up with a plan.” Since I’d broken through the mountain pass, word that Alsrod Nayvil was coming must have begun to spread along the coast, including to Nagurry’s capital, Molkara. With Nagurry’s situation getting far worse in a short time, the mood there must have been growing increasingly more tense. I’d take advantage of this. And I had the perfect connection. I summoned Meissel Wouge. “Under your name, I want you to call for the surrender of any generals you have connections with. If they surrender, I’ll guarantee you land. I’ll sign all the letters you send, too.” “Understood. There are a number of generals I know from when I was a hostage in Nagurry.” “They’re more afraid than I’d thought. It should work. We received another secret letter today.” I showed him the letter I’d gotten from the overseer of one of the river-port towns, in which he begged us not to loot. Money and valuables had been sent along with it. Ah, this is like our prohibition of temple looting. Asking the enemy to forbid looting can be perceived as siding with them. I’ll bet your enemies were already in disarray. If Oda Nobunaga said it, it had to be true. “This’ll all be over if we can get someone in a northern port town to dissent. Know anyone who might fit the bill?” “Vard Rentrant in the northeast—he may be a Rentrant, but I don’t think he’s on good terms with the other members of his clan.” “Great, I’ll send a messenger right away. Tell him he’ll get two extra counties on top of his current territory.” It was faster to take action than to think this through. If even one place switched over to our side, it’d give us an advantage. “There is some risk, however, in delivering a letter by messenger. Will it get there safely…?” “Don’t worry about that. I’ll use the rappas.” “Rappas?” “The ones who work in the shadows of our army.” The plan worked as I thought it would, albeit gradually. Lords with territories far away from the enemy capital at Molkara Castle started surrendering to me little by little. They must’ve been frightened by the merciless attacks I’d been carrying out. According to spies, Colt Rentrant was having unexpected difficulty gathering troops. One reason might have been that it was the wheat-harvest season, but obviously more and more vassals were afraid because my attack had gone faster than expected. As an overall principle, I let any generals who didn’t fight me directly live. Conversely, ever since I attacked those three counties in my prefecture, it was my practice to kill anyone who pointed a spear at us, with only a few exceptions. They didn’t want to cross swords with me directly, thinking of what would happen when they lost. Some of my men thought I should strike in the meantime, but I instead chose to wait for the enemy to come to me. But that didn’t mean I was going to do nothing. I built small castles along the hills creeping toward the plain. They may have been small, but we ensured they were many. There needed to be enough to meet the enemy’s attack. And finally, Colt Rentrant came before us, leading 4,500 troops—right up to the very middle of the Rentrant Plain, where my forces were now extended. By now I felt confident in my victory. After all, an amazing piece of info had come to us the day before. Vard Rentrant had notified us that he was on our side and would attack Molkara Castle. Thus, in the worst-case scenario, we might be pushed back the first day and have to hold out in a fort in the mountain pass. In the ensuing battle of attrition, with Molkara Castle under attack, Colt would find himself deep in crisis. Now all I had to do was raise my men’s morale even higher. Before the final battle, I rallied my soldiers: “Listen up. I’ve led you all this far as Count of Fordoneria. On the other hand, the enemy stands against me as the Count of Nagurry. I’m sure you all know perfectly well which count is worth giving your life for.” I gripped the three-jarg spear in my hand. Perhaps because of my Oda Nobunaga profession, I felt more charismatic than ever before. “The enemy is already as good as defeated—therefore your goal is not to win, but to raze the enemy to the ground! Make the name of Fordoneria resound throughout the world!” My troops cheered wildly. I planted the spear into the ground. “Now’s the time to show them what you can do with these three-jarg spears!” The second cheer was even greater than the first. I had mustered three thousand men, which honestly was fewer troops than the enemy had. Even so, my men felt as if they couldn’t lose. And they wouldn’t, as this next battle would soon demonstrate. The fighting began. Putting their numbers to use, the enemy charged in. Perhaps they’d already heard there was a turncoat in their clan. If so, they needed to defeat me as soon as possible. They couldn’t be waiting around to see what move I’d make. On the other hand, our troops maintained their high ground. We’d built little offensive castles all over the place. Our units needed only wait for the enemy to come to them. And when they did, my men swung their spears. “What the hell are these spears?!” “They’re too damn long!” Beaten over the head by our spears, the enemy soldiers fell one after another. The men holding up inside the castles had been training with the three-jarg spears for a long time. We’d completely taken the wind out of the enemy’s sails. This was no longer their territory; I’d rebuilt this land for my own purposes. Of course, I had other tricks up my sleeve. I’d built each forward castle with attack routes that let us easily pick the enemy off with arrows. According to Oda Nobunaga, this was called yokoya-gakari. Making the path to the castle entrance twist and turn in a zigzag pattern created more openings in the enemy’s defenses, which then allowed our side to reliably shoot them with arrows from multiple locations. Even if they knew it was a trap, they had no choice but to go in, because if they couldn’t oust us from here, they’d be in big trouble. Of course, a desperate brute-force attack had no chance of working. It just played even more into our hands. Unable to capture any of the countless forward castles, the enemy’s body count rose and rose. Their general was forced to call a retreat. Now’s the time. “Red Bears! White Eagles! Battalions under Noen, Kivik, and Meissel—all of you, charge! Skewer each and every one of our foes with your spears!” ““Haaaaah!”” My men shouted like barbarians as we swarmed the opposition. The Tri-Jargs worked wonders in their first real field battle. It was for this day that we’d mass-produced and continuously trained with these spears. With these men, I could even take the kingdom. The results were instant: We decimated our enemies in the blink of an eye. I could see enemy soldiers fleeing one after another. Neither peasant nor mercenary troops wanted to die. Their leader, Colt Rentrant, narrowly escaped with his life. We killed many of the enemy commanders, so it was a total victory for us. Even from a propaganda point of view, our victory would have enormous consequences. The Rentrants’ subjects who were still unsure would surely forsake their masters. Not letting up the chase, I continued to pursue Colt Rentrant, and although he had holed up in an old castle, he probably had only about three hundred men. The ones who realized they had no hope of winning must have gotten the hell out. Ever since the old days, getting destroyed on the battlefield had led to the death of even the greatest powers. Once you took a heavy blow in a large-scale battle, recovery was extremely difficult, and all the more so when it happened in your own territory. Most likely, he’d already heard the report that his capital was being attacked by one of his relatives. “It’s a bit sad for such a prosperous family as the Rentrants to be wiped out so easily, even if it is their destiny,” Kivik said thoughtfully, his men surrounding the old castle. “To think these old bones would live to see the end of the Rentrants…” “I’m going to build my own kingdom while you’re alive, you know. Of course, once I conquer another prefecture, I’ll have enough work to do that our foreign expeditions will stop for a while. You should rest in the meantime.” “When we’ve been fighting so long, resting might be the hardest thing of all.” Colt Rentrant, along with the rest of his clan and his top vassals, was too proud to surrender, and most of them committed suicide. I went on with my troops to their capital, Molkara Castle, but one of the Rentrants there had already surrendered, too, so it was handed over to me by the turncoat Vard Rentrant. With the exception of those who’d previously expressed their intention to surrender, I had many of their clan beheaded. Many of their vassals had switched sides at the very last minute, practically sacrificing their friends, so I killed them for disloyalty. Also, since the women hadn’t had a hand in the war, I spared them. Thus, I took Nagurry Prefecture after securing all of Fordoneria Prefecture in an all-out offensive just two months after unifying Fordoneria. With my territory growing so drastically, the amount of administrative work I had to do was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Being on the ocean, Nagurry Prefecture had many port towns, and on top of that, I controlled Maust and several downstream river ports on Nagurry River. Simply getting a grasp of these cities took a tremendous amount of time. “Fanneria, go ahead and find out the size, production, and development potential of these cities and give me a report.” “I’m not sure even someone such as myself could manage this with any haste…” Apparently, it was quite an ordeal even for a financial officer. “Luckily, most of Nagurry’s finance officials have survived. Go ask for their help. I also need to figure out what new land I can give away…” It was a good problem to have, but nevertheless a tough one. Since I had so much more territory, I’d decided to give some away as rewards. “Captain Orcus Bright of the Red Bears and Captain Leon Milcolaia of the White Eagles: I shall grant you each a county out of Nagurry Prefecture, in recognition of your distinguished service. I shall officially appoint Noen Rowd lord of two of the three counties in north Fordoneria. Meissel Wouge, I’m afraid I can’t give you ownership of the county containing Holai Castle, but take Mennal County, the third northern Fordonerian county, as your territory.” Those were the bulk of the rewards I gave, although there were others. Meissel was especially happy to be the viscount of a county again. “Everyone I have mentioned can take the title of viscount. I’ll try to see if the royal family will allow it, too.” “My lord, with the royal family in such poor shape, I don’t think we even need to ask.” Orcus was so upfront about the royal family’s situation because he wasn’t the sort who cared much about authority. “Even now, the king and his cousin are fighting with each other for control; the royal family ain’t even internally unified.” Yes, the conflict between brothers that had begun during the previous generation was still ongoing. The younger brother had become king by ousting his older brother, that older brother’s son had taken back the throne, and now the younger brother’s son was wandering the land, trying to reclaim the throne for himself. The line of kings was split in two, and neither side seemed to tire of scheming to take down the other. “Then I’ll consult Lord Hasse about making you viscounts.” Most of my vassals present were in shock. “Who needs permission from a man who could be assassinated at any moment? That there’s an empty promise at best,” said Orcus. “Not if Lord Hasse becomes king, right?” I replied, chuckling to myself. “I plan to force my way into the royal capital to install Lord Hasse as king. And once I do that, I’ll…support him as regent, perhaps.” Oda Nobunaga was the first to react. Very good! Yes, first you have to control the capital, or you’ll get nowhere! I myself first went to the capital with the actual intention of backing the Ashikaga shogun. The thirteenth Ashikaga shogun, Lord Yoshiteru, was quite an extraordinary individual; I met the man myself. After a few years, I wasn’t satisfied with supporting the shogun, but still. Well, setting up a puppet first was standard practice when usurping a country, after all. If it was too early to take over, you could just play it safe as regent. “I think Lord Hasse’s line is better suited for the throne. The current king, Lord Hasse’s cousin, only spoils his favorite vassals and flatters the powerful nobles backing him. We need Lord Hasse to be king.” “Supporting a wanderer oughta be a lighter load for us, too.” Orcus seemed to catch my meaning. I’d taken two prefectures; now it should be possible to raise nearly ten thousand soldiers. Of course, I had to leave someone at home, so I couldn’t take as many troops to the royal capital, but I had enough to make plans with. Going east from Nagurry and then heading inland to the south, I could eventually reach the capital. I had to go through a few prefectures to get there, but it wasn’t impossible. “For now, let’s try to find Lord Hasse. I’m sure I heard he’s hiding out in a temple in Icht Prefecture, to the southeast of Nagurry. Let’s start by tracking him down and giving him protection.” East of Nagurry were Siala Prefecture on the coast and Icht Prefecture farther inland. Icht had an inland culture, and parts of it were split into smaller domains, so it was the perfect place for a wanted man to disappear to. However, before I could get started on any such political schemes, a big change happened closer to home. My child had been born.