A/N: Yay I got chapter 12 out also We reached over 3,000 views WOO so 3,000 people out of 7 billion that live on this planet have read my story :D and that's about what .000000000428571 of the population of the world so yea... Hope you enjoy the full chapter. Also, shout out to btrxscopez for helping with my grammar mistakes, thank you man!
The sound of marching echoed down the road as 800 men marched along it. Their muskets shouldered and in the middle of the line were carts filled with supplies. You see I have been given orders to hold/delay the Imagawa forces coming in from the Eastern border while Nobuna and some of the others head north to help Sagara who left 3 days ago to get Saito Dousan out of Mino.
We have been marching for around 2 days and we were currently surrounded by grassland a few trees scattered along the landscape, but then two of my men come riding up on horseback. I order the troops to halt as the two riders approached they stop in front of me "Sir!" He salutes "Imagawa forces have been spotted down the road, sir!"
"How many are there and how long until they reach our position?" I ask the rider.
"Sir, I estimate around 1,500 maybe a probing unit, and I'll give around 3 hours give or take at the speed they are moving." I simply nod at them.
"MEN!" I yell to get their attention "AN IMAGAWA FORCE IS HEADING OUR WAY MEN WE MUST SET UP DEFENSIVE POSITIONS MEN GRAB AS MANY SHOVELS AS YOU CAN FROM THE CARTS AND SWITCH OUT EVERY 20 MINUTES GET TO IT!" A chorus of "yes sirs!" were heard from the line of men as the orders were repeated to those who did not hear me. We had around 540 shovels in the carts to dig foxholes and trenches.
The men got to work digging small trenches that could fit 5 men and foxholes that could hold 2 on either side of the roads, the cars were moved further back with 250 men in reserve while the rest get to work digging in. I helped out with what I could as time passed the trenches and foxholes were mostly done in 2 hours and we just needed to put the finishing touches.
I look out to the horizon with binoculars and see Imagawa banners begin to rise over the horizon "IMAGAWA FORCES APPROACHING MAN YOU POSITIONS MEN!" The men scramble into their trenches and foxholes and load their rifles, within 30 seconds most of them are done loading. I look back to the horizon with my binoculars and start to see the first men start marching over the horizon if I had to estimate I'd say they were approximately 3,500 yards away.
I will maybe take them a good 1 hour or so to get to our position markers were put out ahead of our trench line for 700,500,400,300, and 200 yards. At around 600 yards we will begin to fire.
Imagawa forces currently 3,000 yards away
I simply watch their forces they began to spread into a line formation, they must have spotted us by now. The men are anxious and I don't really blame them for most of them it will be the first time firing a rifle and for others, it will be their first time in combat. I chose to grab people from spear units because they will have prior training to use spears which are what a musket with a bayonet is a spear that can shoot people.
Imagawa forces currently 2,000 yards away
I simply slip myself into the trench to the left of the road and continue watching them grow closer and closer.
Imagawa forces currently 1,000 yards away
I can make out the force better I can see some archers, in the back the front line was made up of spears except in the middle were samurai armed with swords.
Imagawa forces currently 800 yards away
"MEN MAKE READY!" The men fully cock their rifles.
Imagawa forces currently 700 yards away
"MEN, BLANKET FIRE! AIM!" 550 rifles were aimed at the enemy force and they slowly approach the 600 marker.
Imagawa forces 600 yards away...
"FIRE!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa forces 1,245 left
The volley fire was devastating as most of the first line of the enemy troops fell to the ground dead some still writhing on the ground but they are soon run over by the remaining advancing Imagawa forces, they are currently 500 yards away. Most of the men are ready and taking aim I bring my sword down.
"FIRE!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa forces 835 left
This volley was as deadly as the last one if not more so, as even more Imagawa forces fall to the ground just to be trampled by the rest running. It sickened me how they just disregarded their wounded comrades. They were now 450 yards away the dead bodies slowing their advance slightly.
"FIRE!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa forces 526 left
How are they still going after taking such heavy casualties I will never know but they just kept running at us. This will end up being the last mistake they make in their lives. "Heh…" They were mere 300 yards away from our line of trenches and foxholes and they just kept running at the 550 rifles pointed at them.
"FIRE!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa forces 128 left
They were 200 yards away when I climbed out of my trench and I pull out an improvised loudspeaker which is just a piece of paper shaped into a cone. "SURRENDER NOW OR WE WILL FIRE UPON YOU!" The remaining men just ignore my warning and continue running at me, I simply unslung my rifle and aimed at the commander who was in front, I was honestly surprised he was still alive. I simply take aim at the commander while the rest of the men climb out of the trenches. I was aiming for center mass. I pull the trigger causing the cock to spring forwards hitting the frizzen sending sparks into the powder pan.
*BANG*
The enemy commander falls to the ground with a hole in his chest. The men behind me standing in a 3 ranked line pull out their bayonets from behind them and attach them to their rifles with a *click* (A/N: Think of that scene from Zulu where the British soldiers that are at the drift attach their bayonets) I bring the loudspeaker up to my mouth. "THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING STOP OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!" I hear a 'Make Ready' come from the line as the men bring their rifles up and pull back the hammars on the rifles.
The Imagawa forces stop running at us upon reaching the 200 yards mark, one last volley and they would be all killed so they simply throw down their weapons and then surrender to us. I simply smirk at this "Smart move." I order the men to let them go as we cannot support prisoners with our supplies but we stripped them of their weapons and armor and let them drift towards their forces.
Battle of the Crimson Grassland
Imagawa Forces
Dead: 1,145
Wounded: 227
Combat Ready: 128
Oda Forces
Dead: 0
Wounded: 0
Combat Ready: 800
Outcome: Total Oda Victory
I was walking around the battlefield the battle had ended 2 hours ago and the 355 men we let go are still in sight, we let them have their wounded back. The grass that is not covered by the dead bodies of the enemy was instead covered by an eerie crimson, the stench of blood was prevalent, there were also others walking among the enemy dead and looting them. But I was interested in the crimson grass.
I pluck a blade of the grass from the ground and to my surprise when I tried to rub it off the crimson color of blood stayed on the grass. It seemed as though the grass would forever stay a blood red crimson as a reminder of the battle that took place here. I have decided to call this battle the Battle of the Crimson Grassland. The Crimson grass was everywhere where a dead body was so the grass extended for the 600 yards to the 200-yard line from our trenches. But the bodies were still covering a significant amount of it. Some of the bodies sustained horrific wounds: legs, arms, and jaws blown off holes in their chests that are still watering the grass with their blood.
We started to drag the bodies into the trenches and fox holes what we dug and buried them in makeshift mass graves. It took us around 1 hour with all 800 of us carrying bodies and dumping them into the foxholes and trenches. It took around 30 minutes to bury them completely, after the stench of blood was still in the air. After we were done the only thing that could tip a person off that a battle took place here were the dirt mounds, the stench of blood and soon decay, and the crimson grass that covered the field.
I marshaled the troops back into a marching column we began our march down the road as our scouts still look for the main Imagawa army by following the men we released discreetly. "MEN FORWARD MARCH!" We restarted our march down the road it was evening around 4 PM when we left the bloody grass behind us. The sound of marching echoed through the countryside.
I was told before I left that the Imagawa forces numbered 25,000 men, with the recent battle that number should be around 24,000 now. The enemies have taken the border fortress Washizu and we were marching to reinforce Marune before the Imagawa main forces reach it. I head the Imagawa clan leader was in the army Imagawa Yoshimoto as well as others Asahina Yautomo, Okabe Motonobu, Matsudaira Moyonobu, Li Naomori, Honda Tadakatsu, Hattori Hanzo, and Motoyasu Matsudaira. I had faith in my men and our rifles plus we would also get an extra company, the rest of the 4th Oda rifle company, I came up with the new name instead of the Rifles of Oda. We had what was ready of the 4th and also we will also be reviving a unit of 500 rifled matchlocks in 4 days. The 4th rifles will catch up to us in two days.
Two Days of Marching...
It's been four days since we left for Marune we were in a hilly area (A/N: I have never seen Marune fortress or have I found any images or any research material about it so I will just make up what it looks like.) The sound of gunfire reached my ears "Men double-time it!" We began to run up the hill as soon as we crested the hill we could see Marune it was under attack by a large Imagawa force which I would guess to be around 8 to 15 thousand troops. Marune has a garrison of 3,500 I was told. The Imagawa forces were led by Motoyasu Matsudaira I was told that she had green hair had what seemed to be, panda? ears on her head and was wearing glasses. Marune was a large fort with 3 tiers of defense and the first was being bombarded by matchlock fire.
There were now 1,000 of us the rest of 4th rifles caught up with us just this morning right now it is currently 12:45 PM. It is 1556 according to Sagara, he gave me a brief history lesson. The Imagawa were attacking 4 years earlier than they should have but oh well. As the butterfly effect states that the smallest action can have immense consequences on the future like a butterfly flapping in wings in Brazil can cause a tornado in the American Midwest. I like to believe that I and Sagara with our appearance caused a major change in events.
In my case it was the invention of the flintlock mechanism 100 years early, rifling will make combat deadlier than before. But I'm getting off topic, I estimated that the enemies were 1 Klick away(1 Kilometer if you didn't know) so about 6 miles.
"Men today we will face our first major battle men," I look at the men a few were shaking others were nervous "I you all are nervous I can see that I will not lie to you, I am too," The men look at me with shocked faces "but remember what we are fighting for, we are fighting for our homes and our loved ones, they, however, are fighting for riches and glory," I look out to all of them "this will be a hard fought battle men but we must remember that our cause is just and more honorable than theirs!" I yell at them men a cheer goes up "so fix your bayonets, load your rifles," The men do as they are told, "form up!" The 4 companies line up in a 3 ranked formation with gaps in between each company "Forward March!" We began to move forward in formations that imitated the Napoleonic forces. We had 4 Hwachas with us each could fire 400 arrows, each company had one.
We stopped on a hill and the Imagawa forces were a kilometer away from us. "Hwachas fire!" You see the Hwacha had a maximum range of 2 km (I broke my own rule about arty that can reach 850 ft only XD). The fuses are lit and one by one the arrows in the hwacha are launched at the Imagawa forces. The arrows are arching in the air with white smoke trailing the arrows. While the Hwachas were launching their arrows I order the men to dig in as fast a possible with the shovels that they had the same orders were relayed to the other companies. It would take the Imagawa forces around 2 hours to get into firing range at the speed that they are moving at. We were digging in like the last battle we fought back in the Crimson Grassland trenches that can hold 20 people and foxholes that could hold 2 people.
P.O.V Change: 3rd person
Imagawa Forces
Motoyasu Matsudaira was sitting with her subordinates with a couple absent leading the attack. Then a messenger came and went on his hands and knees before her "My lord our forces are being bombarded by some sort of arrow launcher, we are taking casualties and one of our commanders disobeyed your orders and took 3,000 men to attack the Oda forces that have arrived to reinforce the Oda castle." The messenger says.
Motoyasu adjusts her glasses "W-Well how big is the O-Oda force." She asks the messenger.
"1,000 strong" He replies
"Well he should be able to deal with them but what worries me is the arrow launches and the fact that a small force of 1,000 was just sent." Motoyasu is sitting on her horse watching the arrows start to fall onto their forces.
"He also reports that the Oda force is digging into the hill." He points at the hill that the Oda forces are on. She looks and sees them digging fortifications and watches and white trails go into the air from behind them.
"G-Give him an extra 1,000" The messenger nods and runs off.
P.O.V Change: Salvador
On the hill
The men had almost completed their task in 1 hour, an Imagawa force of 4,000 is moving to attack us the hwachas were currently reloading after the volley they fired causing some casualties to the enemy. I sent up the 4th rifles to skirmish with the enemy force that is approaching our position, the sound of gunshots can be heard easily over the sounds of shovels digging into the dirt. I was watching the skirmishers and they were doing decent against the Imagawa forces.
Armed with the OLR they can hit targets 900 yards away if they fire in volleys. A kilometer is 1,000 yards so the skirmishers were just 100 yards in front of our trenches. "Get back here the enemy is moving into firing range!" I yell "MEN GET TO YOUR POSITIONS AND FIRE AT MY COMMAND!" The 4th Oda was running back into their trench as the enemy force approached us.
It will take them around 20 minutes to get to our position on top of the hill.
Imagawa forces: 3,675
They are now 800 yards away from us the men of the 4th ORC were in their trenches are ready to fire. "FIRE!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa forces: 2,855
It was just a repeat of the last battle we fought they took, even more, heavier casualties than before. I watched as some of the men in the regiment began to run away while the rest started to run up the hill as fast as they could. At the pace they are at now it can take them 5 minutes to reach us. "FIRE!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa forces: 2,025
A lot more of the enemy troops started to rout and started to run down the hill as most of the bodies of their comrades rolled down to the base of the hill dead from the last volley. "Fire!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa forces: 1,256
This was the last volley causes the enemy force to shatter and ran down the hill as even more bodies collapsed and fell down the steep slope. The men get ready to fire another volley but I stop them. "Men at ease, we have won but strengthen our defenses and get ready for the next attack, steel your nerves this is not the end."
1st Battle over the hilltop*
Imagawa forces
Dead: 2,000
Wounded: 343
Routed: 1, 657
Combat ready: 1,324
Oda Forces
Dead: 0
Wounded: 50
Combat ready: 950
Outcome: Total Oda Victory
A/N: And that ends this chapter, 2 bloody battles against the Imagawa and more to come in the next battle and also I need a name for the last battle I will choose the one I like the most in the reviews so hope you enjoyed and leave a review! Caio.