Turning Swallow

Summary:

OR, One morning, four-year-old Sasaki Kojiro remembers a life not yet lived, and decides to do something about it. History changes. SI!Sasaki Kojiro. Expect general lightheartedness, but dark topics when the time comes.

CH. 19 START

Takamatsu Castle was one of the most important Castles in Japan, location-wise, given that it oversaw the central shipping route between the Japanese Islands. If captured, it would serve as the perfect staging area for Nobunaga and her armies to conquer the rest of Shikoku Island, and Kyushu Island beyond it. Just holding the place would quicken the end of the war by a year or two, such was the power that the location held. Takamatsu was a water castle, which utilized water moats as its primary source of defensive ability. Despite how that sounded, it was a sound strategy, given that Takamatsu Castle sat snugly in the center of a lake. Any who tried to approach it were more likely to die to a stray arrow, than even get half-way across. Even if one did get to the castle, a prospective invader then had to scale fifty foot walls, something that just wasn't going to happen.

Fortunately, Kojiro had an ideal plan to combat Takamatsu Castle's defense, which was to flood it with more water. See, for most of the year, Takamatsu was a perfectly impenetrable place, and a wonderful place to garrison. Most of the year, except Spring, that was. In Spring, Japan's weather tended to get rather rainy, and whenever it got so, water began to flow into Takamatsu. It was only an inch or two, nothing too extreme, since the lake wasn't large enough to contain the water. After the lake reached capacity, water would begin to flow towards the surroundings. Hideyoshi had already had to deal with a handful of floods, Kojiro had been informed of such. That was the crux of the matter, making sure that the water stayed inside the castle, rather than overflowing. If Kojiro could manage that, it would be a simple matter for Hideyoshi and Nobunaga to starve the army garrisoned at Takamatsu Castle out. Fortunately, there just so happened to be a river and an ocean nearby. And wouldn't you know, Suzue's initial surveys had informed him of the fact that Takamatsu Castle was actually in a bit of a divot.

In reality, Kojiro couldn't claim to have come up with this stratagem wholesale. That credit belonged to one of Hideyoshi's advisors, who'd come up with the plan a month or so after Nobunaga's death in what Kojiro remembered of history. The advisor had recommended using the Spring rains, along with some levees, to artificially raise the water levels. Kojiro was taking that idea and running with it by pushing all aspects of the plan to ten. Kojiro couldn't wait for a long Spring shower, since those didn't happen until later in the year and Takamatsu Castle needed to fall sooner rather than later. All he had to do to bring havoc down upon the place was raise the water level of the lake by a few feet, perhaps between six and twelve. Then, Nobunaga's armies would be able to launch attacks on the place without much issue.

A couple hours after leaving the tent for the first time and surveying the area, Kojiro returned to Hideyoshi's command tent, only to find the two still huddling over the map, locked in serious discussion.

Nobunaga brightened, asking hopefully, "Your plan?"

Kojiro nodded to her and Hideyoshi, "The terrain is ideal for it. Takamatsu will fall within the month."

Hideyoshi took in a breath, calming himself visibly before questioning, "How?"

The man's impatience was understandable, given the fact that he'd been here for a few months already. Hideyoshi was likely excited to get this part of his life over with.

Kojiro smiled and answered, "The water. How often does the camp flood after the rain?"

Hideyoshi groaned, saying, "Far too often. But what does that-!"

The general came to a sudden realization and he looked at Kojiro with wide eyes.

Kojiro nodded at the man, before explaining to Nobunaga, "I mean to flood Takamatsu Castle. The water may be to their advantage now, but it will not remain so, if there were fifteen more feet of it. We just need some infrastructure."

Nobunaga steepled her hands, eyes closing in consideration, "How many men do you need?"

Kojiro shrugged, offering, "There are three things that need to be built in three weeks. Perhaps twenty thousand."

Nobunaga shook her head, replying, "No, twenty thousand split across three projects like what I think you meant to imply will take far too long. Take all the men. The defenses against Takamatsu can be maintained with only twenty thousand. Kojiro, do what you need to. Hideyoshi, aid him."

Hideyoshi rose from the table, stretching his arms, saying, "Come then, Sasaki-san. Let us begin."

Kojiro nodded, rising, before placing a hand on Nobunaga's shoulder. She looked to his hand, and then to him, before nodding at him and turning back to the map, presumably working on where to allocate twenty thousand men. As the two of them walked, Kojiro explained the basics of the plan. The Oda Army needed to build three things in order for the plan to work. First, they needed to dig a channel from the nearby river into the lake. Second, they needed to construct an aqueduct sturdy enough to transport a couple hundred tons of water into a lake from the ocean. Lastly, once those two were finished, they needed to build a levee around the entirety of the lake, which wouldn't be a small project. All three of these things needed to be done all at once, in order to make sure that the army at Takamatsu Castle had as little time to prepare as possible. As a precaution, Kojiro recommended that the levee only be built at night, in order to throw the opposition off for as long as possible. Understanding the plan, Hideyoshi went off to his men, ordering them to get to work. He did the same, ordering the army that he'd come with into action. By now, most of the reinforcements were well on their way, and once they arrived, those armies would be put to work as well.

Digging the channel was the easy part, since that was just sticking a shovel into dirt until you have a pit about six feet deep and five feet wide. From there, all the soldiers had to do was extend the pit until they got near the river, without actually connecting the two just yet. The aqueduct was handled by Hideyoshi, whose men crafted a sturdy aqueduct roughly twice as large and deep as Kojiro's channel. They'd finished earlier, since the ocean was far closer than the river. They were two weeks in now, and the levee had grown to roughly three feet around the lake. It was slow work, especially since they had to avoid the sight of Takamatsu Castle, but now, with men freed from the other projects, they could really get going on the levee. On the first day, the levee rose to six feet. The next, it was ten, and the day after, it was fifteen feet tall. The levee was a large and sloping thing, reinforced with copious amounts of wood and tightly packed together. The plan would fall apart if the levee did, so Kojiro and Hideyoshi did their best the first time. When it was done, Kojiro looked down at it from the top of the levee. If the entire thing filled up, Takamatsu Castle would end up in waters at least ten feet deep. All they had to do now was wait for a rainstorm to cover their approach. Two days later, their request was answered, and dark storm clouds began to gather overhead. The rain began to fall, and Kojiro just watched alongside Nobunaga and Hideyoshi as the water from the river and ocean rushed towards the lake. The water was rising rapidly, gaining another few inches every ten minutes. The heavy rain would distract the army of Takamatsu Castle from realizing anything was wrong before it was too late. The boats that Kojiro had ordered for the army to bring came in handy here, the soldiers ready to go on a moment's notice.

Deciding that the levee would hold for long enough, and making sure to leave plenty of men to maintain in, just in case, the trio headed towards the boats. They each got on a separate one. Kojiro was in charge of assaulting the castle from the left, while Hideyoshi went left. Like she enjoyed doing, Nobunaga was front and center, aiming to bring down the gates. The boat ride was tense, but Kojiro saw no sign of archers or lookouts, at least so far. The boat Kojiro was on had reached the walls, and was secured to the base of the wall with rope and stakes to prevent it from drifting off. A ladder was fixed into position, and one by one, the men on Kojiro's boat headed up the stairs. Kojiro had three such boats, with the rest working to make round trips after dropping their passengers off. Kojiro reached the top, and hopped into the Castle proper. There, roughly two hundred men were waiting in position, all tense. They snapped to attention as Kojiro descended the stairs.

"Half of you, the ones on the left. Find the barracks and kill as many as you can. If you are prevented, scatter and cause chaos. Go!"

They left, rushing for the barracks to take out as many enemies as possible. Though there were sixty thousand men garrisoning the Castle, most, if not basically all, of them were off-duty and relatively unarmed. A hundred full-prepared men versus a thousand ambushed ones made up the blueprint to a massacre. Even more Oda soldiers were coming, still.

He spoke again, directing his words to the reminder, saying, "The rest of you are with me. We march to the front gate to allow Oda-dono through. Cut down any who oppose you."

Suzue darted to his side, and as they made their way towards the front door, bulldozing any who tried to stop them, stragglers these foes were, Kojiro looked to the girl.

In a low voice, he said, "This is your first battle, Suzue. Kill without mercy, and regret later. You are more important than them, understand?"

The girl nodded, doing a good job of hiding her nerves, but there was no more time for conversation as Kojiro's men slammed into the back of the troops guarding the gates to Takamatsu Castle. The men at the gates had only been prepared to defend one side of the gate, not both, so Kojiro's army broke them apart like twigs. For every one of Kojiro's soldiers that fell, five enemies died. Having been penned in, the soldiers at the gate had no choice but to fight. It was useless. Kojiro's group smashed into them and broke them apart. The distraction from behind weakened the defense at the gates too, and now, it was only a matter of time until Nobunaga broke through. Kojiro was pulled from his thoughts by the thrust of a spear, and he stepped to the side, letting the spear pass through the space between his arm and his chest, before trapping the weapon with his limb. He grabbed the spear shaft, and broke the haft, using his opponent's grip as a lever to work off of. With the weapon broken, there wasn't much his enemy could do to prevent himself from being slain. It was here that Kojiro lost sight of Suzue, and though he felt the urge to look for her, he decided to trust her ability.

Kojiro continued to attack and move, mowing through the army almost lazily. A circle had formed around him, as his allies gave him breathing room and his enemies ran. An angry bellow reached his ears, and he searched for the source, before finding it. The source of the noise was a large and heavy-set man, with his hair done up in the chonmage style of top-know. The man's eyes were stern, and his features tight with tension. With the sideburns on his face, Kojiro recognized the man with a glance, even through the obfuscation of armor. This was Shimizu Muneharu, who's description had been given to him on a list of enemies to take note of. He was the leader of the entire army. If he was dead, the army would collapse. Kojiro darted forwards, before stopping his forward momentum with a heavy downwards cleave. The man wasn' quite ready for how heavy Kojiro's blade was, and thus had to brace after the fact, leaving him low to the ground. With Muneharu's sword held up in an overhead block, he was unable to react properly to Kojiro planting a foot in his stomach and shoving. The kick blasted the wind out the Muneharu instantly, but to his credit, the man kept his sword. The man stumbled back, but despite this, maintained eye contact with Kojiro. How-, no! Behind.

Kojiro spun instantly, then threw himself down and to the left, into the water and mud. The spear drove through where his spine had just been. The man didn't have time to regret his miss before he was falling over, gutted. Kojiro pulled the man's spear from his cold hands, before stepping forward and launching the spear like it was a javelin. It barreled towards Muneharu, but the man managed to bring his shoulder into the way to prevent it from actually hurting him. The spear only gouged out a chunk of armor, before falling to the floor. Kojiro refused to let up, and darted forwards again, bringing his sword sweeping up from the bottom right as he did so. The enemy avoided the blow by leaning backwards and letting the blade fly past him. Arms high above his head, Kojiro couldn't bring his sword to bear to defend himself from the next attack, so instead, Kojiro rammed his shoulder into the man, unbalancing him again. As the man reeled, Kojiro sliced in from the left, and their blades clashed again, before he attempted to cut from the right. Muneharu retreated slightly, and Kojiro took the opportunity to lunge forwards, blade crashing down, only to be a few inches short, cutting hair rather than flesh. Time stilled, and Kojiro saw the sentence of death flash across Muneharu's eyes, as the man's sword came flashing down. His blade was still slicing down, but he needed it. Kojiro flexed every muscle in his body, managing to stop the blade's momentum, before he flipped the blade and threw all of its former momentum back into an upwards cleave.

The cut passed perfectly in-between a small gap in Muneharu's helmet and his chestplate, decapitating him neatly. Muneharu's body collapsed, and Kojiro retrieved the head, before rushing out into the battle again.

"Men of Takamatsu, your leader is dead!" he cried.

The morale of the enemies in range of sight of the skull seemed to crumble almost instantly, and Kojiro's fellows took advantage of it to slay them. The effect continued, until the fighting at the gates came to a close. Through the crowd, a person rushed at him, and Kojiro nearly stabbed them, before realizing it was Suzue. The girl's sword was coated in blood, and her eyes held a new coldess that hadn't been there before. Suzue was shivering, and Kojiro brought her close, and the trembling stilled.

"Good job," he whispered, "you can relax now."

Around him and Suzue, the battle was drawing to an end, as more and more Oda soldiers rushed through the gates to join the battle, before rushing off to aid Hideyoshi and eliminate the rest of the Takamatsu garrison. Suzue began to cry, for perhaps a minute or two, before her tears dried and she straightened herself.

The moment Suzue pulled away, Nobunaga stepped through the gates and walked over to him.

She leaned on his shoulder, saying with a teasing tone, "What a present, Kojiro! Not a month into our relationship and you've already gotten me a castle. You sure know how to treat a woman."

He grinned back at her, ignoring her comment but answering, "You owe me a castle now, too, by the way."

Nobunaga simply raised an eyebrow, before rolling her eyes. They rejoined the battle, and by the time it was over, the sixty thousand men stationed here with Shimizu Muneharu were dead, killed to the last man. When Mori Terumoto arrived a week later, saw an army still about one hundred thousand strong, and realized that Takamatsu Castle had been taken without any visible casualties, he got obedient, real quickly.