Chapter 12

"What are you doing here, Takubobu?" demanded Buntaro as the ships cast off and he found himself beside Akiko.

"I am my father's bodyguard to prevent sharp-shooters taking him down at the cannons" said Akiko serenely. "Why sensei! Would you have me miss the only opportunity I am likely to have of battle? It would almost be a waste of your efforts in teaching me!"

"I don't like my betrothed wife being at risk" said Buntaro; then sighed. "And I would not think less of you if you had not come; but I do think more of you that you have. After all, Mariko risked herself many times; and she was not trained as I have trained you."

"I do not do it to be compared to the all-wonderful Mariko, sensei" said Akiko in a hard little voice. He shot her a look.

"Do the Anjin-san and I hold her up too much as an example, chibi?" he asked.

"No my lord; but I tend to have the feeling that she is in the background, someone I am supposed to live up to. I do not wish to be a version of anyone else but to be myself; so sorry."

"You aren't sorry in the least" said Buntaro "And no reason you should be. And it is merely that your bravery and wit recall the memory of Mariko to those of us who knew her. The comparison is in no wise one that you are held up against."

Akiko bowed.

"Then I apologise for misunderstanding" she said. "I had found it oppressive that to please you I must measure up to another."

"There is no measuring up; and you, Akiko-san, in your own right, please me very well" said Buntaro.

That might almost have been an expression of jealousy were she not so young still... he thought.

"Can you explain to me, sensei, what was the business of the bell that so angered our lord?" asked Akiko "Father did not, I think, perfectly understand it."

"It was when Yaemon's clan started rebuilding Osaka castle" said Buntaro "Which needed to be watched in any case; and at the same time they sponsored refurbishments of a shrine in Kyoto. A great bronze bell was commissioned; all well you might say; and the auspicious words cast into it However the choice of the kanji meant that it was possible to read them in another way, as an insult to our lord and as a declaration that the clan would rise again."

Akiko considered. There could be hidden meanings in poetically arranged kanji. However equally it might be an excuse manufactured by Toranaga to bring things to a head. Best not to enquire too closely into that.

"I see" she said. "And then Yaemon – or his mother – began to muster ronin to him and those who were still not true vassals of our lord to arm the castle too."

"Indeed; disaffected Christians too who will not foreswear their faith; and our lord could not permit that" said Buntaro "Which is why he moved swiftly to encircle the castle, destroying and burning small forts; and we have our orders to bring him cannon. I shall be glad to be back on land; winter at sea is notpleasant."

"Nor would it be safe were my father not the great pilot that he is" said Akiko. "He has spent many days with charts and writing notes on wind and tide so we are not driven onto a lee shore as might easily happen."

"I am glad he is with us" said Buntaro. "His knowledge is prodigious; he will be a key factor in Osaka I think. But so too will you and I, with our mighty bows that some say are outmoded."

"To paint a ship takes some skill, a lot of paint and large brushes" said Akiko "And to define a line of poetry and a sumi-e painting needs a lot of skill, much harmony and a fine brush. So too it is between cannon and the arrow fired by the master. I am pleased to sit at the feet of the master and learn delicacy of touch."

oOoOo

The cannon were unloaded on a bitterly cold day as midwinter was less than two Japanese weeks away; seventeen European cannon and the three hundred wrought iron ones made under Blackthorne's directions. Casting them was too risky; cast iron was inclined to honeycomb and this led to the barrel exploding. Japanese wrought iron was however unsurpassed; and Blackthorne had declared himself quite satisfied.

Toranaga Iemitsu had rode out to come and help with the unloading; he was a year or so older than Akiko and his enthusiasm and energy were boundless.

"Hello Akiko-dono!" he said cheerfully "What, you ride to war too? You are your father's daughter! I wish now I had asked my grandfather to arrange a marriage with you before your father made other plans!"

"Oh with all respect my lord, my father's plans suit your grandsire's dynastic arrangements too" said Akiko "Besides Iemitsu-sama, whilst I will be a duly respectful vassal when you are shogun one day, I think you would find me too forceful as a wife and there would be those who would whisper that I controlled you. It would not be true but there would be those who would say it, as there were those who spoke of Lady Ochiba controlling the Taiko. Because there will be those who will recall that we have played together when we were small and that I have pushed half a mud pie down your kimono while you were trying to make me surrender when you made me be Ishida and you were your grandfather."

Iemitsu laughed, flushing slightly.

"And glad I was that it was your father who caught us being such disreputable objects not mine! Your father merely cuffed us both and sent us to bath; mine would have whipped me for fighting with a girl!"

"Which as he's now at war with Lady Ochiba holds an irony" said Akiko. "We are all agreed are we not that it is she who is the one behind this?"

Iemitsu shrugged.

"She's the one behind it being a well run opposition" he said "Yaemon was a pawn all his childhood; I think I would in his shoes want to take back what was promised me when Toranaga-sama was one of the regents. From his point of view we are all traitors."

"But only until we win, neh?" said Akiko. "What's the situation? Buntaro-sama and my father will wish to know how to deploy the cannons. Is Kasigi Omi-sama here to help with their dispositions?"

"Yes; Lord Kasigi asked for the cannon almost immediately it became obvious we had a problem" said Iemitsu.

"What is the problem, Iemitsu-san?" asked Buntaro.

"There's an earthwork barbican defended by seven thousand men" said Iemitsu "They are skilled and brave; they've repulsed every attempt to break through and in fact they've made sallies and have three times pierced our lines. They are using the very weapons that have been so successful for Lord Toranaga; their arquebusiers are able to hold back our thirty thousand men. It's very frustrating."

"Siegework is supposed to be frustrating, Iemitsu-san" said Blackthorne recalling that this confident young man had been a babe in arms who had been under threat of death when Toranaga had tested the loyalty of his father Sudara, together with his three sisters. "Patience and yet more patience; it wins sieges and too it makes a good samurai – and one day, shogun."

Iemitsu bowed.

"So sorry, you are right of course, Anjin-san; I will try to learn patience. But it is all so very exciting!" his eyes glowed with a boy's fervour.

Buntaro glanced at Akiko. Was she likely to be attracted to the boy? He was near to her in age, would respect her skill for having grown up if not with her, at least fairly close to her; and one day he would be likely to be shogun. Akiko could handle the pressures of being wife to the shogun…..

Akiko was listening to her father as he asked Iemitsu for maps, looking at them and examining the terrain as Iemitsu squatted to draw out the positions in the snow with a stick – the boy drew a good sketch map - and nodding as her father gave a series of orders about how the cannon were to be taken up to deploy.

No, she was less interested in the shogun's grandson than she was in the battle, Buntaro concluded.

oOoOo

Cannon were not as much good against earthworks as they were against stone; but the bombardment kept the heads of the defenders down. It was a cold and miserable operation and Blackthorne suggested that they would do more good firing past the earthwork into the castle if he might raise the elevation of the guns.

"The sakers might not have the range, but the culverins do, Toranaga-sama" he said.

"I will consider it; however let us see if we might deal with the contumely of these seven thousand first" growled Toranaga. Blackthorne knew that when the shogun was in a vindictive mood like that there was no moving him; and shrugged and went back to what he privately referred to as 'a little gardening'. It was cold and miserable even in quilted haori; the ordinary soldiers suffered more than the samurai for not having such good clothing but everyone was fairly miserable.

It was warming however to see how the Lady Akiko was called over to fires to warm up by any and all of the men, and offered hot food and warmed sake. Akiko was holding up well and Blackthorne made sure that she checked her feet every day. She was busy on watch to protect all the cannon crew, and she was made much of by the men for her daring. That none of them would have been happy to have such a daring sister was an irony that did not escape Blackthorne; but that his daughter was the darling of his troops did no harm.

Osaka was firing back but the shots were falling short; Blackthorne had been all over the castle after Sekigahara and knew that the only ordnance held by the enemy were some ancient bronze Chinese pieces which had very little range. The dull CRUMP and screams indicated that one of the enemy cannon had become weakened and had blown up.

"Susanowo's ballocks!" said Blackthorne in an eclectic mix of eastern and western oaths "That shouldn't happen!"

"Why not, Jon-kun?" asked Omi. "Did you not say that we should not cast guns in case of explosion?"

"Yes but that's iron" said Blackthorne. "The Chinese ones are bronze, like bells; which does not suffer from honeycombing like iron does. It can become strained with age; but then the barrel will normally bulge to show that a fault has put pressure on the metal rather than the explosion of the gunpowder driving the ball out. That cannon is then useless and must be melted down. Which is something you cannot do with iron. If they used a cannon with a bulged barrel they must insane!"

"Or just unaware of what it means, Jon-kun" said Omi "I would not have known. I however would have ceased using it on the principle it was doing something it should not."

"Yes; and I forget how much cleverer you are than most" said Blackthorne. "And that you notice things rather than blindly carrying on with the next order. We are after all the only experts in Japan."

"No my friend; you are the master, and I your fairly knowledgeable pupil" said Omi, clapping him on the shoulder. "And may I say how nice it is to have Buntaro and Aki-chan keeping those archers' heads down" he added as an arrow buried itself in the earth not far short of them and a cry on the battlements indicated that Buntaro's almost casual return shot had found its mark.

oOo

"Is that the lady Ochiba on the battlements spurring them on?" asked Akiko.

Buntaro squinted, holding his breath so that the cloud of steam that was inevitable did not cloud his vision.

"Yes it is" he said.

"Shaving her head to be a nun didn't last very long" commented Akiko "See how long it has grown; I believe she is in need of a haircut."

She raised her own great bow; and at one with it and in utter peace loosed her arrow.

A female cry of horror was her reward and a dark smoky lock of hair drifted down off the battlements.

Akiko laughed.

"SHOULD HAVE STAYED A NUN,LADY THAT I DID NOT NEED TO CUT YOUR HAIR!" she yelled.

"Taku-chan you read too many stories about the Empress Jingo" said Buntaro mildly.

Akiko chuckled.

Buntaro told Toranaga of the incident later, proud that his protégé had declared the target at such distance and had succeeded in attaining it; though the still cold air had helped.

Toranaga listened.

"The Lady Ochiba?" he said. "Hmmm; I wonder… that was an excellent shot; especially for one who has only been learning what, six years. I must see to a stipend of….. twenty-five koku a year to Anjin Akiko" he halved the first figure he had thought of then halved it again.

Buntaro bowed.

"She will be honoured" he said.

A/N one koku was enough for the subsistence of one man for one year. It really was subsistence. The equivalent amount in England at the time would have been £3/12/10 or 2d per day. That's about £3000 or $4900 in money as of April 2011