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Volume 4 Chapter 5 Part 5

But, Nobusumi could not catch up to her, even though he was doing his best.

The panicking soldiers formed a wave that blocked the road, but it was all to no avail. Nagamasa could not answer Nobusumi’s shouts; she made up her mind not to turn back, even as she bit her lips hard enough to draw blood from them.

「HOW CAN THIS BE, IDIOT, HURRY AND COME BACK! OICHI! OICHI! 」

Watching Nobusumi collapse onto the ground, Maeda and the Kawanami Group could offer no words of comfort to him.

Only Goemon spoke, stumbling across a long sentence that she wasn’t used to with a painful expression.

「Humans cannot alwaysh get what they want. When she choshe between being Azai Nagamasha and Oichi, she probably knew that ash the one who made the choishe, she would be the mosht hurt one here. That person, her heart is most likely dead right now… and it is shuch a pity. 」

* * *

A short distance to the East, in the Kai province.

This mountain fortress lacked the typical huge castle suitable for a Sengoku era Daimyo.

Tsutsujigasakikan, a frugal styled house that was left over from Muromachi era.

The 19th clan head of the Takeda Clan, Takeda Shingen Harunobu once said 「People are the castles, people are the walls, people are the trenches」, meaning, 「 My retainers are the Takeda Clan’s fortress, so I don’t need anything else. To enforce such words, she never built a castle at her own base in Kai, and never would. The people of the Sengoku era couldn’t help but be impressed by this renowned warrior, Takeda Shingen.

But the truth was… Those were all lies.

Takeda Shingen wasn’t such a person.

As a base, the Tsutsujigasakikan was enough. A huge, defensive castle needed lots of money to be properly upheld, and wouldn’t have been useful in the slightest to this warrior.

Takeda Shingen was the type of warrior who believed that the best defense is a strong offense.

「It’s meaningless to receive attacks from enemies upon your own land! Battles on other people’s land are the only true battles! Because I have a personality that favors intense, continuous attacks above anything else! 」

Yes. Though Takeda Shingen had yet to reach 20 years of age, she was born into the distinguished Takeda clan, inheriting the responsibility of protecting the Ka provincei. But at the same time, she had inherited the same abnormal fascination with war her violent father had possessed.

People frequently described her simply as belligerent.

For Shingen, it was sensible. She had no interest whatsoever with Buddhist teachings, instead engrossing herself in 「The Art of War」. In her martial arts skills, she had unsurpassable talents and had never lost a duel with anyone who dared to challenge her. Only Echigo’s Uesugi Kenshin could stand against her on equal footing.

Like the embodiment of ambition, right after banishing her own father and becoming head of the clan, she led soldiers to attack Shinano. Unfortunately for Shingen, this abnormal action provoked Uesugi Kenshin, the so-called Dragon of Echigo and an Ally of Justice, and initiated a battle at Kawanaka island. That was the first time that Shingen, with her scoreboard filled with nothing but victories, struggled to defeat an enemy. But, even in the end when Shingen was forced to retreat, she shouted, 「Kenshin, I will definitely surpass you!! I have finally met a rival worthy of me! If not for this, things would be boring! Ahahahahaha! 」, with her spirit and energy bursting out all at once.

But compared to Uesugi Kenshin, who had no desire for conquest, Shingen’s defenses were weak. After hearing that her ally Imagawa Yoshimoto was captured, she abandoned the alliance immediately and conquered Suruga, as per her 「best defense is a good offense」 mindset. Like a demon, she kept waging wars to enlarge her territory, and as a result, the Takeda clan currently controlled 1,200,000 dan worth of land.

Takeda Shingen was perhaps the strongest warrior in this Sengoku era.

Though she possessed enormous strength, Shingen also held perfect management over her retainers. With her invincible cavalry at its core, her army was the strongest no matter what other soldiers she decided to add to it.

A sudden report that 「Oda Nobuna has burned Mount Hiei to the ground」 would decide Takeda Shingen’s next move.

* * *

Himiko-sama’s brother, the high monk of Mount Hiei, Tendai, head priest and master of Mount Hiei had travelled to Kai to negotiate with Shingen. Shingen welcomed him warmly enough, but did not even attempt to mask her ambition, blatantly stating 「If you are received by some wild monkey of Kai, the people will definitely be shocked. It’s about time you give me a higher position in court, don’t you think? 」

Even though Kai is a poor province unable to grow its own wheat, using Shingen’s technique, the province was able to procure mountains of gold by mining the area. Shingen used this gold primarily to wage wars, almost to the point of looking frivolous, though the progress it allowed her in enlarging her territory was astounding. On the conquered lands, she also allocated an impressive budget on renovating the waterworks and preparing the land for farming. With the productivity within her territories growing exponentially, masses of people gathered in it, and the taxes collected from them naturally grew. Shingen then used the money she gathered on her favorite, somewhat extravagant expanding policy, which surprisingly enough wasn’t warring. Shingen had immense interest in governing provinces too, as expected from a multi-talented warrior. In the end, because of her love for governing and desire to spar with her rival, Uesugi Kenshin, she had delayed her plans for heading to Kyoto. If not for delicately governing these new territories with huge amounts of time and money and waging war every year with Uesugi Kenshin at Kawanaka island, within 5 years from Shingen becoming the head of the clan, the world would have been conquered by her.

This is the strength of Takeda Shingen’s army.

The strength of Uesugi Kenshin was only herself. If Kenshin was to fight on equal terms with Shingen, with Shingen’s commanding skills, governing skills, the quality of her retainers, amount of the retainers under her command and their unwavering loyalty, Kenshin would be outclassed in almost every way.

It would be no exaggeration to call Shingen the overlord of this chaotic Sengoku era.
Under her wealthy governance, the people all said:「 Shingen-sama is such a good girl! 」,「We are relying on you for our village’s waterworks!」「Leave it to us for the construction of the dam of Shingen! 」 and sincerely admired her.

「This is the way money should be used. 」

Shingen wasn’t just well-liked by the people; she knew how to make the nobles happy too. When Kyoto’s monks and nobles visited Kai, she would always hold a grand party and receive them personally. When Kyoto’s Kampaku, Konoe Sakihisa sent the ominous letter with the lie 「Nobuna had burned Mount Hiei to the ground」 Kakujo was already at Tsutsujigasakikan and was attending a tea party with Shingen.

「This is a big matter. I no longer have a place to go back to. 」

「This Oda Nobuna is really worthy of the name Demon Lord of the Sixth Heaven! Hahaha! 」

「Shingen-dono, this is no time to be joking around, is it? 」

「Don’t cry about it, don’t cry. I will build a new Mount Hiei for you if need be. It will be just like Kinkaku-ji, a temple made of pure gold, ahahahaha!「

(That senseless fake Mount Hiei will be troubling to me, and having to come all the way to Kai…)

Kakujo thought, but his fear of Shingen kept his voice securely in his head.

「Anyway, Kenshin-chan is now back into her old home of Echigo, and I have finished my work on Imagawa Yoshimoto’s lands. So boring~ Ok, I will use this ‘ Burning of Mount Hiei’ as a reason to fight Oda Nobuna and conquer Kyoto! 」

Takeda Shingen stood up with gusto, unintentionally showing off fairly tall build and a bosom that would be considered big for females of this era.
Shingen had also grown her hair past her waist, revealing a demure look inherited from her Kai origins. All but ruining that affect, fierce eyes like those of a hungry tiger made Shingen look violent and fierce rather than cute.

Takeda Bishi quickly dressed up her master’s carnivore-like body. Her body was without a single bit of needless fat on it, but like a girl, her curves and even the size of her breasts could be compared to Katsuie’s.

A demure appearance, a well bosomed body rare among the Japanese women, fierce looks and Takeda Shingen’s own forceful presence… all of them made Kakujo shiver with fear.