A/M: We will now continue the fight over Marune fortress, currently the Imagawa have taken substantial casualties on their first attack on the hill so let us continue from where we last left off. Also, shout out to btrxscopez for fixing a lot of my grammar mistakes. Anyway, FORWARD TO BATTLE!
It's been two hours since the attack on our hilltop position and the men dug in further than before, the 1st ORC was skirmishing with the main Imagawa force causing as many casualties as possible against the Imagawa forces. The sound of gunfire from both sides fills the air as I watch arrows rain down upon the 1st ORC but due to their very loose formation, there were minimal causalities among their ranks. Unfortunately, there are still a few unlucky bastards who manage to catch an arrow, I hope they are just wounded not dead.
The Imagawa forces have halted their attacks of Marune but I got a report telling me that the commander had died from a stray bullet while they were under bombardment from Imagawa matchlock fire. I was simply observing the enemy force as they were moving around and the men who were being shot at were trying their best to fire back at the Skrims. A couple of my men were running up and down to the 1st Orc's position to resupply them with ammo and carry the wounded back to our lines.
Also, I've got reports that Nobuna managed to get Sagara and Saito out of Mino and thank God they are all alive. I was worried about Sagara, can't let Nobuna lose her main love interest heh. The reports also state that they will be mustering more troops before the march out east to help me but it would take them 8 or so days, this means I went from having to hold them off for 30 days to just 8. I honestly don't think I could have delayed them for 30 days.
I watch as 2 of my men carry a crate of ammunition down the hill towards the 1st ORC's position. I am very relieved that the Imagawa don't have any artillery pieces to bombard our trenches but they do have archers luckily these are being held back by the 1st. As I was watching our opponents move towards the 1st another volley of arrows fell onto the 1st inflicting a handful of casualties.
I watched as the Imagawa began to gather an even larger force to assault our hill I order a messenger to tell the 1st ORC to move back to their trenches, one of my men runs down to the 1st's position to relay the orders to their commanding officer. I observe as he yells at the men and they start to run back up the hill to their trenches. The 1st's commanding officer runs towards me. He stops in front of me and salutes.
"Sir"
"How many dead?" I ask him
"Sir, we lost 12 to arrow barrages." He answers with a nod.
"How many wounded?" I question him further
"30, Sir, " He says
I simply nod "Get back to your men." he gives one last 'sir' and returns to his trenches. I go back to observing the Imagawa forces gathering, they don't attack us, however, instead of moving to attack the fort, a significantly smaller group of Imagawa troops move to engage us, I was thinking about my options. I could start an attack on their forces bu-
*BOOM*
My thoughts were cut off by an explosion behind our lines I look behind me to see our carts that carried our ammunition were blown up and currently on fire. How the hell did they do that?! Then I saw 5 people dressed as ninjas attack the men nearest to what used to be an ammo depot. "Ninjas behind us take them down!" The men around me turn and fire at them but with inhuman speed, they manage to avoid the hail of bullets.
Then I unsheathe my sword to block an attack from a sword wielding ninja, I swiftly unholster my pistol and shoot him in the chest, "Gah"... make that her. Her body collapses onto the ground as I look for the others only for a smoke bomb to go off causing myself and everyone around me to cough wildly. When the smoke clears the enemy ninja are gone leaving the ninja girl on the ground.
"Dammit!" I look down at her "Take her to the rear and place her with the wounded try to treat her wounds I would like to ask her some questions later." I simply let out a sigh "someone take inventory of how many rounds we have left and distribute them evenly among the men," I yell as I sigh again and mutter "this will be a lot harder than I thought." The men start running to do their jobs and to attempt to save as much ammo as they could before the Imagawa attack.
Then behind me, I hear war horns going off I look upon the battlefield at the Imagawa forces to see a large number of Imagawa reinforcements arriving, This is definitely going to be harder than I thought...
I was watching the Imagawa force of 10,000 marching to our position and the 12,000 going to attack the fort I was beginning to feel nervous, Do we have enough ammo to fight them I mean of course we could make them rout but they will just come back we need to kill as many as possible. I also see two horsemen leading from the front must be two of the Imagawa generals reported to have been with the army. Our men only have 15 rounds each so once we run out cold steel is the only option.
They were about 1 Klick away when I unsling my M4 and check for the wind, there was no wind. I smile and take aim, the maximum range for an M4 in 3,600 meters and he is only 1,000 meters away he was in perfect range I adjust for drop and slowly pull the trigger.
*BANG*
One of the enemy generals clutches his chest then falls off his horse I don't give the other one time to react as I take aim at him.
*BANG*
I miss my second shot my bullet hitting one of the men behind him and fire again.
*BANG*
The second enemy general falls off his horse as well I smile at my handy work as both generals lie on the ground in pools of their own blood, the Imagawa forces stop confused only for a man to run forward yelling at them as they start to follow him and run up the hill. I order the men to make ready and aim, we had 868 men in the trenches the 50 wounded from the 1st battle were combat ready as I can see them with the bandages covering their wounds. I look to see them 800 yards away and gaining.
"FIRE!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa Forces: 9,135
The volley was devastating I saw plumes of blood contrast against the green that the Imagawa were wearing, some of the banners were sprayed with blood as they run up the hill. Most of the men were finished loading in 15 seconds instead of the normal 30.
"FIRE!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa Forces: 8,255
The devastation and death that we are causing are just shocking. You would think after the last battle they would learn it was a bad idea to just run at us like this but it seems like that they did not.
"FIRE!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa Forces: 7,125
They were 600 yards away from us and if I'm correct our men only have 12 rounds left each. I see some of the men at the back of the Imagawa force turn back and run away and down the hill and I smirk at their Smart move
"FIRE!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa Forces: 6,055
Even more, men start to retreat from our fire as the sound of hooves reaches our ears, I blink and look to see Imagawa horsemen as they began to close in I frown before yelling "FOCUS FIRE ON THE CAVALRYMEN FIRE!"
*FWOOM*
Imagawa Forces: 5,645
I quickly realized the enemy cavalry were closing in too fast for another volley "MEN BRACE YOURSELVES FOR CAVALRY ATTACK!" I yell I prepare my M4 and bring it to full-auto I aim in the cavalry's general direction and hold down the trigger. My fire takes down a large amount of the enemy horsemen but not enough as my gun clicks empty and I pull out my K-bar and attach it as a bayonet. I also eject the empty mag and place it into a pocket before grabbing another one and shove it into my rifle. I bring the firing pin back to the chamber, I only have around 4 mags left.
The Imagawa clashes against my men in the trenches who are stabbing at their horses. There were around 200 of them. I climb out of my trench deflecting a spear thrust at me from a horseman to my right. I shoot him off his horse with a single shot and then look around to assess the situation, our men are currently fighting the enemy cavalry while enemy infantry continues to charge up the hill.
We could not hold our position so I order a retreat and have then burned the hwachas during our fight with the Imagawa "MEN WERE GETTING OUT OF HERE RETREAT COME ON LET'S GET OUT OF HERE BURN THE HWACHAS AND ANY WEAPONS WE DON'T NEED, DON'T LET THEM FALL INTO IMAGAWA HANDS!" The men, not busy fighting follow my orders as I take down another horseman with a bullet to the chest, the guns we did not need and the hwachas were set to the torch. The rest of the men start to retreat and run the rest of the cavalry are gunned down as everyone on the hill began to retreat from the hill.
2nd Battle over the Hilltop*
Imagawa Forces
Dead: 4,038
Wounded: 483
Routed: 800
Combat Ready: 5,645
Oda Forces
Dead: 345
Wounded: 50
Routed: 601
Combat Ready: 551
Outcome: Costly Imagawa Victory
One Day Later
We managed to escape from the Imagawa forces and we were currently on route to a village named Coda* it was set as our rallying point if we were ever to go on a full scale retreat like at Marune Currently there are only parts of the 1st and 4th with me the 2nd and 3rd are somewhere out there hopefully making their way to Coda I had a messenger ride to the unit of rifled matchlocks to inform them to link up with us at Coda. So combined I only have 231 men with me. I was carrying the wounded ninja girl on my back. I noted that from both the battles there were around 100 wounded we only had 65 of them with us.
I watch as my men supported each other as we marched to the rally point, we were currently in a forest and the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and birds chirping reached my ears as the soft breeze is felt. It was peaceful which is a huge contrast to the battles that occurred yesterday. I allow out a soft sigh and listen to the music of nature around us as we reached a dirt road that led to Coda.
5 Hours Later
Coda Village
I was talking to the village elder "What do you mean you are going to stay?!"
I can't help but sigh the elder did not want to let our forces camp in the village center because he is afraid the Imagawa might find out they were housing Oda troops, if they find out they might send a raiding party to burn the village to the ground and he was not willing to take the risk. "Look I understand where you're coming from," I cross my arms and stare at him "but this is the only rally point that was set in the event of defeat and around 700 troops are making their way here and I don't think they will be as kind as I am so I will ask you one more time let us stay here," He opens his mouth "before you answer that I with ask Lord Oda to pay for any supplies we ask of you village at a reasonable price of course and we will also protect this village from any bandits or Imagawa troops is the acceptable, Sir?" I ask him a calm and firm voice.
The elder concedes and lets our men camp in the village center. Coda is a quaint village as only around 500 people live here. I had 2 man patrols looking for any imagawa forces or bandits that approach the village, I walk out of the elder's house and duck under the door frame as I tell the men to make camp in the village center which was very large for some reason about 150 feet in each direction if you stand in the middle.
In one day the unit of matchlocks will link up with us, we just have to wait for the rest of the men to make their way here and I just hope they don't desert and turn into bandits, most of the bandits I've seen were deserters from the Oda and Imagawa armies. As soon as that thought left my mind a soldier runs up to me his rifle in his hands. "Sir, a group of our men has been spotted sir but it looks like they ran into some trouble in the way here."
"How many are there?" I ask as I follow him.
"From what we've seen there are around 100 of them, also sir," He looks at me, I raise my eyebrow "your boots untied." I blink and look down to see my boots were not untied I then hear the sound of running and look up to see the person I was following running away.
..."What the fuck?" I just stood there silent then I just continued to walk thinking that was weird. So a group of 100 of our men is approaching so now there are 331 men to defend this village and an extra 500 arriving tomorrow.
7 days till Oda troops are mobilized
May 21st, 1556
1:45 PM
Estimated amount of Oda soldiers to be mobilized 15,000
Imagawa soldiers 17,000
The Imagawa have taken the two border forts of Marune and Washizu
Current position: Worrying
A/N: Now that's chapter 13, we have suffered our first defeat and lost half of our men. Anyway thank you guys for all the support and yes I do live in Temecula. In the next chapter, we shall rally our forces and take the initiative from the Imagawa and attempt to stop their advance to Kyoto Caio! Also, does anyone object to Salvador "Finding" some weapons from any era from Victorian to modern sent to this era the same way he was?
*Did anyone get the reference I hope so if not then it's a reference to Coda village from GATE and thus the JSDF fought there! (In this case, it's the ODF (Oda Defence Force) ... I should totally use that name later...