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Volume 2 Chapter 2 Part 5

「We underestimated Mino. Battling us with small amounts of soldiers and retreating repeatedly was all a means to trap us here at 「Nagamori」! This place is most likely the center of the ambush, and because of the mist, Nobuna did not notice that she was heading right into a death trap! 」

「 Ahhhhhhhhh! 」

「My ears hurt from all that shouting! Oi, don’t shout suddenly at my side, Nobusumi! 」

「This is a habit of the Oda clan! If we don’t report to Nobuna-nee-sama now…! 」

「No, it might be too late for that. it seems like the troops are being decimated. 」

The enemies were coming from all directions without stopping. All they could hear was the sound of beating drums. Being scared and frightened, the Owari soldiers dropped their spears and started running away.

「Ahhhh! Unbelievable, the Owari army that crushed Imagawa Yoshimoto is being stomped so easily now! If… if I don’t rush to Nobuna-nee-sama and protect her, then she will…! 」

「Calm down! I’m going over to Nobuna’s side now! Nobusumi, try and think of a way to group the soldiers together, and do your job of being the rear army’s support properly! Also, be careful of any ambushes and ensure that the path for a potential retreat is going to be safe! 」

「I will lead Nubuna-nee-sama’s troops over to the river, Monkey-kun! 」

「Let’s go over to the Nobuna-sama’s side now, Sagara-sama. 」

Goemon straddled the horse and galloped away with Yoshiharu still sitting behind her. As expected of a ninja, her ability to see through the night was nothing short of outstanding. Thanks to that, even on such a misty night she could still find the position of Nobuna’s troops and dash over towards them in a perfectly straight line. But while Yoshiharu tried to reach Nobuna, the troops were still being decimated at an alarmingly fast rate.

「What the hell is going on? And what is with this disgusting mist, so troublesome!「

「Nobuna, we fell into Takenaka Hanbei’s trap! If we don’t retreat now, we will be trapped and killed off one by one! Please give the order to retreat, now! 」

「This level of ambush is nothing to us! it will be all over if we finish all of them off before they can finish us off! 」

「No, it won’t, because the numbers of soldiers ambushing us keep on increasing! 」

「What? So you’re saying that the ambush Isn’t it over already? 」

「No, because Hanbei set up heavy ambushes at different spots! And because of this mist, your decision making skills have become slowed down too! 」

Even before Nobuna’s voice faded, more waves of ambushing soldiers revealed themselves following the drum sounds around them

「*Tsk!*…I, I don’t believe in such a superstitious thing like onmyoujis! This mist is just a coincidence, nothing but a coincidence! 」

「You can be stubborn all you want, but wait with it when we are back in Aoshuu! 」

「No…I… I’m not stubborn at all! You damn monkey, which side are you on!? 」

The way Mino’s army chased Nobuna could only be described as opressing. Just when Nobuna managed to painstakingly brake through the third wave of the ambush, the fourth and fifth waves of the ambush charged at them through the white mist. Shibata Katsuie and Inuchiyo’s bamboo spears were piercing them up and down, left and right, until finally they managed to open up a bloody path in the swarm of enemies. But just when they thought they had reached somewhere safe, with just a short signal from the drums, the sixth and seventh waves of the ambush charged straight towards them seemingly out of nowhere.

「Nobuna-sama, this is an ambush from all sides! If this goes on, we will be decimated for real. 0 points! 」

The usually demure and gentle Niwa Nagahide shouted, her armor splattered with drops of enemy blood as she swung her Naginata at them

「Ambushed from all sides? 」

「This is a favorite ambushing technique of Chen Li, a famous strategist from China. It revolves around laying lots of ambushes around a single area and using a tiny amount of troops to lure the enemy straight into it… 」

「Again with the Zhuge Liang’s traps!? This is getting boring!「

Nobuna snorted, not realizing that they were now talking about someone else entirely.

「I’m afraid the enemies’ strategist is well aware of different ancient traps and techniques. This must definitely be Takenaka Hanbei’s work. 」

「Manchiyo! Did I get overly arrogant after the victory of Okehazama? 」

「No, Nobuna-sama. If it was not for this mist, then I believe we would’ve been able to detect the ambushes in time to counteract them. This time we were just unlucky. 」

Nagahide decisively swung her Naginata while consoling Nobuna, who was shivering with anguish on her horse, tightly biting her own rosy lips.

「Ugh….! Forget it, we should retreat back to Aoshuu! 」
「Understood! 」

「Monkey, stop falling into a daze like a fool and protect me properly! 」

「Who is falling into a daze!? I beg you Goemon, use your smoke screen to fight against this mist! 」

「I got it! 」

With no concern about hierarchy at all, Yoshiharu brought his ninja right before his master Nobuna. Goemon threw her smoke bombs in all directions, creating a smokescreen to blind the incoming enemies.

And at that exact moment, there was a small troop of Nobuna’s army walking out from the south of Inabayama castle. At the sight of this new troop, the Mino army soldiers shouted:

「Not good. Nobuna’s army is counterattacking by going straight to Inabayama castle! 」

The pursuit for Nobuna stopped while all of them were panicking like that.

It looks like the Mino army was still wary of Nobuna’s lightning speed assault when she attacked Okehazama. But in fact, the small troop was actually not a part of Nobuna’s army, but the soldiers that Yoshiharu lent to Saito Dosan at his personal request. He used his knowledge of the topology around Inabayama castle to lead them over there unnoticed. This 50 people strong troop held torches and moved like they were a big army invading the area. These people under Yoshiharu who made a living by stealing and plundering were now shouting:「The festival has begun! 」and lit up the whole side of Inabayama castle with their torches, all the while making lots of noise.

The ambush stopped at the eighth wave, as the final wave that was supposed to give the final blow panicked and ran towards Inabayama castle. Because of that, he Oda clan’s army could be said to have narrowly escaped total annihilation at the hands of Mino province’s soldiers.

「What is this? Who are those reinforcements? 」

The retreating Nobuna had many questions she needed answers to, but Yoshiharu, riding behind Goemon, did not answer them. He did not want to let Nobuna know that Dosan had expected this defeat. After she boosted the troops’ morale after defeating Imagawa Yoshimoto, but was now being defeated so utterly by Takenaka Hanbei, telling Nobuna the truth now would just worry her unnecessarily and worse the situation. Grasping this opportunity, Nobuna escaped frantically towards Aoshuu.

After retreating to Aoshuu, they were able to get a grasp on the situation of Mino’s army. As expected, Saito Yoshitatsu had recruited Takenaka Hanbei and has given her commanding authority over his troops. The fearsome 「Ambush from all sides」tactic was also Hanbei’s idea. Requiring deployment of several ambushes at different areas, people who can execute this kind of complicated and delicate plan perfectly are few and far between. But in the hands of Hanbei, this 「Ambush from all sides」 was executed so easily. If not for the small troop acting out a counterattacking army and distracting the Mino’s army’s attention, Nobuna might have been surrounded and cut off from all escape routes If that was really the case, it would really be hard to predict if they would be able to return to Aoshuu safely.

For Takenaka Hanbei, the defeat of Owari’s army was as easily as as taking a candy from a baby, and knowing that was enough to have Nobuna fuming with anger.

「What kind of battle was that?! That was just playing around! I was totally being played around by her! 」

Nobuna was ranting on and stomping the ground repeatedly while being driven by humiliation and killing intent.

「We must attack again tonight!「 But after Nagahide’s 「 Everyone is still wary of Hanbei, and the fatigue from last night has not been fully recovered, we must at least let the troops rest for a week. 20 points. 」

 

Nobuna simmered down and vented her anger on her favorite chicken wings for a whole week.