Yashima Chronicles 11. Battle Plans (Patreon)

AN: A sonae was between 300 and 800 men and typically was a small complete army in its own right. During the Sengoku period, every daimyo was expected to muster at least one sonae.

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We marched for the better part of a week. I was a little surprised at how long we took to cover such a short distance. I could have run it in a single day, if I pushed myself. Of course, the bulk of the army didn't have magic, but my best guess was that even a non-magical individual in a hurry could have cut the travel time in half. Keeping an army moving really was a whole science in and of itself.

Our destination was a fortress near the enemy army’s supposed destination. We arrived around noon and spent the whole afternoon getting settled. I was summoned together with the other prominent members of the army to dine with Lord Ota himself. I took it as a hopeful sign that I had made a good first impression.

I was nervous at first to be dining among nobility in such a formal setting. Fortunately, there was a strong custom in Yashima against talking during meals. In our household back home that principle had been honored mostly in the breach, but Lord Ota's court took it seriously. That meant that all I had to do was focus on eating without embarrassing myself. There I drew on a tactic that had served me well the one time I had showed up for what I hadn't realized was a formal dinner with the alumni association: I ate just a little bit slower than everybody else, and watched how the people around me handled their food before I took a bite.

It was a little embarrassing when Katsuie figured out what I was doing and started to exaggerate his eating motions. He even seemed to think I would need a visual tutorial of how to use chopsticks, which seemed a little much. In the end, though, I guess it was better safe than sorry. I at least appreciated the thought behind the gesture. I was ultimately able to eat my fill without getting kicked out of the room, so I counted it a success.

Once the plates had been cleared away, Lord Ota got everybody's attention by having his servants unroll a massive map of the area in the center of the room.

"According to our scouts," he said, "the enemy will be camping in a nearby valley either tomorrow night or the night after. They come with perhaps forty or fifty sonae."

Nobody was so undisciplined as to speak unbidden in the presence of Lord Ota, but I could see the impact of the number around the room as people rocked back on their heels. For my part, I just wished that I knew what a sonae was. Everybody else seemed to know, and I didn't want to interrupt the meeting. I resolved to pay close attention in case somebody let the meaning slip, allowing me to pretend to have known all along.

"We march tomorrow," Lord Ota said. "They think to camp on safe ground, but they do not know all of the paths through these mountains."

A hush fell over the room. Lord Ota's high ranking retainers all exchanged looks. It seemed they had something to say, but nobody wanted to be the first to say it. Unfortunately, I couldn't really follow the byplay as I hadn't had the time to learn everybody's name since I signed up.

It was an older, respectable looking man who finally spoke. "My Lord, considering the situation, should we not keep men here to safeguard this fortification?"

Lord Ota's expression darkened. He stared down the man who had spoken as silence fell over the room. This was my chance to get in some quality brown-nosing!

"If Lord Ota says to go kill his enemies, then we go kill his enemies," I said. "What else is there to discuss?"

In all honesty, I didn't have a strong grasp on the overall situation. I only had a vague idea of how many troops were in our army, let alone the enemy army. I did know one thing for sure, though. Agreeing with the boss is never a bad idea.

Lord Ota laughed, slapping his leg for emphasis. I smiled, happy with having completed my self-appointed mission.

"Just so," he said, before fixing the man who had complained with a serious look. "We are outnumbered too badly for mere fortifications to make a difference. We must attack."

Wait, what?

My smile was frozen on my face as I processed what I had heard. I had joined up in order to find a nice easy battle and show off. I didn't want to go to war while we were outnumbered. Much less so utterly.

"You have the right attitude, girl!" Lord Ota said, gesturing towards me. "You may fight next to Katsuie in the vanguard."

I couldn't bring myself to say anything. All I could do was clasp my hands together and bow in thanks. My dream of spending the whole fight standing around in the mobile reserve of sword saints went up in smoke, just like that. I would have liked to think that I'd be able to rely on Katsuie for protection if things went wrong, but he'd have too much to worry about during a hectic melee. It wouldn't be fair to expect him to devote his attention to shepherding a rookie through her first battle.

I was in something of a daze for the rest of the evening. My eyes took in the sight as Lord Ota outlined his plans using the map, and my ears caught the sounds as he and his generals discussed how they would approach the battle, but I could hardly say that I saw his intended strategy or heard the plans. The same thought just kept running through my mind over and over again: I was going to be in the vanguard.

All in all, I was proud of the fact that I resisted the urge to rock back and forth and repeat that lament out loud. Actually contributing to the ongoing discussion was well beyond my abilities.

Much later, as I lay in bed unable to sleep, I finally managed to put the panic away in the back of my mind and review what I'd seen of our strategy. Unfortunately, there wasn't much comfort to be found there.

Lord Ota was going against the norm by attacking a larger army with his smaller force. He was going even further against conventional wisdom by splitting up his troops before the attack. We'd be using game trails and barely-there dirt paths to wend our way through the mountains in small groups. If all went well, we would fall on the enemy unawares and run amok in the chaos.

If anything at all went wrong, we'd be slaughtered piecemeal. Lord Ota was risking everything on a single throw of the dice. It was the kind of dramatic moment that I would be much more comfortable observing from the sidelines.

Maybe I had put too much weight on that name ‘Nobunaga.’ I didn't really have any proof that this world was bound to the tracks of history as it had taken place back in my original life. If anything, the existence of magic suggested that things would have to diverge at some point.

Magic wasn't a complete wild card, though. The high hurdle of training requirements did mean that magic tended to make the rich and powerful even more rich and powerful, setting aside oddballs like me with my access to a cheat system, however limited. In general, I thought that the same people who won battles without magic would tend to win the battles once magic was introduced.

Even if that was true, there was another problem in that I didn't really know the specifics of the battles that took place in Japan. I'd played games set in the era, but in those sort of games you made your own battles. I'd never bother to read up on any actual history. It had never occurred to me that there would be a practical payoff for learning such obscure trivia. Forget stat points—if I could buy access to wikipedia from that damn fox, I'd do just about anything she asked.

Unfortunately, no such deal was on offer. If I was going to get through this battle, it would be on the strength of my own abilities.

I'd have to pay close attention to our route as we sneaked through the mountains. Worst come to worst, there was a chance I could draw on my magical abilities to flee uphill and into the wilderness to safety. If we failed to destroy this army I'd have to figure out some other way to safeguard Kana and everybody else back home, but at least if I was alive there would still be a chance.

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