3 bar menu

Volume 3 Chapter 1 Part 6

Other than her forehead, which could be said to be slightly larger than usual she looks more like an aristocrat or an actual princess, and not a warrior.

But as long as she has an arquebus in her hand, no one can match her accurate aim with it.

Leading the newly formed gunner squad consisting of fifty gunners, Mitsuhide kept conquering the Rokkaku clan’s positions one after another.

「Please be careful, if you get hit then you’ll lose your lives. 」

As Mitsuhide aimed at the enemy generals, they all thought to themselves: 「 Surely there’s no way they’ll be able to take the castle while firing their bullets at it from such a long range? 」, 「She looks like a typical sheltered daughter hailing from a rich family, so how would she even know how to handle such a thing? 」. They were all looking down on her with their noses raised high into the sky and arrogant smirks on their faces, and as a consequence of that arrogance of theirs, all of them had their shoulders blown apart by the bullets that Mitsuhide fired from her arquebus and they dropped down to the ground screaming.

「That was just a greeting. Next time, I won’t hold back or miss on purpose. 」

Mitsuhide’s cold words instantly caused the defending soldiers to panic, and gradually all of them surrendered and opened the gates of the castle of their own volition.

As an elegant, beautiful female general who could use the new weapon from Namban with such skill, Mitsuhide’s abilities even earned her the praise of Nobuna herself, who said:「As expected of Viper’s former retainer. 」.

The day after all the sections of the castle fell one by one, Rokkaku Shotei’s Kannonji Castle became just an ordinary, empty castle.

Afraid of Nobuna’s army, Rokkaku Shotei made a hasty retreat towards Kaga, and that is how the clan that loved to boast obout how it has survived from the time of Minamoto no Yorimoto ¬–the Rokkaku clan – came to an end.

Realizing that the nemesis of three generations of the Azai clan, the despicable Rokkaku Shotei that had once tried to take her virginity, was defeated in a span of a single night by Nobuna’s army, Azai Nagamasa couldn’t help but say 「 times sure have changed」. The firepower and the thundering sound of Mitsuhide’s gunner squad firing all at once burned itself deeply into her brain.

After that, the vast army that Nobuna led had finally entered the territory of Kyoto.

Starting from Gifu, the march to Kyoto took a total of 20 days, which could be said to be incredibly fast pace. Because of this quick march, Matsunaga Hisahide had no choice but to surrender, give Kyoto away, and retreat to Yamato. The Miyoshi clan who had heard rumors that Rokkaku Shotei has been defeated in a single day also escaped from Kyoto and moved towards Settsu.

The beginning of Nobuna’s stay in Kyoto was not the easiest one.

「The princess of the Oda clan is said to be a very impatient person. 」

「Isn’t this bad? 」

「She won’t start fooling around like Minamoto no Yoshinaka did, right? 」

「I’ve heard she even brought the Viper of Mino, Saito Dosan with her as well. 」

The citizens of Kyoto were all afraid of Nobuna at first, but the Oda army’s clothes, which were filled with the spirit and influence of the barbarians from the east and the fabulous clothing worn by the generals of Nobuna’s army helped to gradually warm their image up in the eyes of the local residents of Kyoto. For example, Inuchiyo was one of the most popular of Nobuna’s retainers, because the people loved her tiger-skin cloak and the fact that for someone as small as her, she was always carrying around a 6-meters-long spear that was completely disproportional to the rest of her body.

Also, from the generals to the low-ranking soldiers, all of them wore whatever beautiful clothes they wanted to wear.

While we are on this subject, although the Omi troops were rather weak, they’re the best when it comes to costumes that they wore.
However, the image of the armies of the Owari and Omi province improved not solely because of the clothes they were wearing.

When Nobuna reached Kyoto she put up a notice on the city’s main square, and the contents of that notice were spectacular.

‘Once I’ve entered Kyo, I won’t allow any violent behavior! Any soldier who attacks the people here shall be beheaded on the spot! Anyone who conducts any sort of illegal activities in the city illegal things in the city will also be beheaded without pardon! Taking money and items from the citizens of Kyoto is also going to be treated as an offense punishable by death!’

Since the Sengoku period began, in this world, there were no armies that were this well-disciplined and caring towards the people of the cities in which they were stationed. But as a matter of fact, not even are the Oda army’s soldiers are really well dressed, but they had never thought of fooling around, because every single soldier of Nobuna’s army understood that if they ever stepped out of line, Nobuna would blow their brains out on the spot with her aquebus without hesitation.

「Nobuna-sama stands on our side! 」

「With this, Kyoto will finally be at peace! 」

Ever since the Onin War, the citizens of Kyoto, who have gone through decades of war and torture, have finally gotten what they wished for: a chance to get back their normal, peaceful lives.

Amidst the cheering, wearing a Namban kabuto and a silk cape the color of red flames, Nobuna looked vastly different from the traditional image of a Japanese warrior as she led her troops in a slow march, waving her hand towards the applauding crowd.

「What a lovely Daimyo she is! 」

「I feel like I’ve already fallen in love with her! 」

「looks like the rumors were true! The Oda clan is really full of world-class beauties! 」

Azai Nagamasa and Matsudaira Motoyasu still couldn’t believe what was happening as they were saying things like 「Am I dreaming? 」 or 「To have the honor of stepping into Kyoto… I never thought I’d see the day. 」and 「Have we perhaps been caught in a Tanuki’s illusion? 」while their faces were gradually filled with smiles of joy.

Saito Dosan, who was sitting on a shaky cart looking at the silhouette of the horse-riding Nobuna among the cheering citizens of Kyoto even said 「Is this really happening? 」to himself and rubbed his eyes over and over again, almost as if he was trying to check whether the scenery of the events before him would disappear if he did so enough times.

The people of Kyo had endured many hardships, so they naturally shouldn’t be too trusting of foreign warlords stepping into their city. However, they worshiped Nobuna who made a dashing entry into the war-torn Kyoto, not only as the savior of the city, but also the savior of the world, and some even shed tears in their happiness.

Tenka Fubu: Uniting the nation by force. That was Nobuna’s motto, but it could also be understood in another way: using force to rid the world of all conflicts that plagued it.

To this claim made by Nobuna that allowed her to take Mino, people always held an attitude of: 「It’s nothing but wishful thinking and empty promises. 」, 「The Oda clan can control two provinces at most, going all the way to Kyoto is going to be impossible for them. 」 「And even if they somehow managed to get there, they’d be surrounded and quickly annihilated. 」

But now, Nobuna, never thinking about about her personal interests, led her troops to Kyoto without any real plan, and finally brought peace to this war-torn place. This reality is no different from how it went down in history, and is definitely not a dream. Seeing all that, Sagara Yoshiharu had his chest up high, silently taking in the valiant image of Nobuna on her horse and burning it in his memory.

After parading through Kyoto, Nobuna set up her base of operations in To-ji in Kujou.

It will take quite some time before they are summoned by the Imperial Palace, which has a long history and is responsible for managing the religious events concerning entire Japan, so Nobuna could only wait for them to name Imagawa Yoshimoto as the new Shogun.

Most administrative tasks were the same, since, until recently, the ruling Ashikaga Shogun’s governance had no real backbone, so hopefully the wait won’t be all that long.

Yoshiharu tilted his head and asked:

「What’s up with this period’s Kyoto? 」