A Time Traveller's Guide To Feudal Japan

The Uesugi men pressed into a sea of bodies, trying to use shear weigh alone to punish the stubborn one hundred that still dared to fight on.

"Push!" Gengyo demanded. His men were his will, and his words manifested themselves in immediate action.

"URAH!" They lashed out as a single defiant unit, using both shoulders and swords, and they managed to stagger the frontline, forcing them to step backwards. It gave them a metre of space, and they utilised that to the fullest. A sword thrust forward and then another and then another. By the time that gap was once more filled, the Uesugi soldiers were three hundred men lighter.

"Hold!" Gengyo called out, fending off the aggressors, allowing the tension to build up. More and more men joined the Uesugi attack, pressing down on them once more.

"Push!" He said again and once more they forced that space into existence and they used it to butcher all that was in front of them. They trimmed the fat of the Uesugi right wing again and again until their numbers were all but even. The Miura men did not slow. They did not falter. Not the slightest shred of weakness could be seen.

They hacked down those final men, and through a cloud of red mist, they could once more see the light of the sun. The ground around them was long since forgotten. They stood above it, three bodies high, bathed in blood, emerging from the w.o.m.b of war.

"Archers!" Kenshin called out, doing his best to avoid panic. His fan was up in the air and then it was swung downwards. Another storm of arrows took to the sky like a disease.

Gengyo looked up towards it, calmly acknowledging the threat, and then he reached down and threw the corpse of an Uesugi soldier over his shoulder, holding it as a shield. "Advance," he ordered calmly.

The men mimicked their Daimyo and in a flat line, they began to march forward, closing the gap between them and the troublesome missile units.

When the arrows hit, they paused for but a moment and braced themselves. Chunks of flesh and blood spewed into the air as dead men were pierced a hundred times over. The Miura soldiers? They continued their march forward, all but unharmed. Some arrows made it through deep enough to scratch them, but the wounds did not slow them in the least.

They chanted together fiercely. "Hoh, hoh, hoh." Every time a foot hit the floor there came that deep sound from their throats. "Hoh, hoh, hoh."

"For glory!" Jikouji bellowed from across the battlefield. His cry was taken up by the rest of the men, as they saw their Lord far in front, taking the fight to the enemy.

"For glory!" They repeated, throwing themselves into battle with renewed ferocity, for a slim hope of victory had finally presented itself.

Kenshin sent another volley of arrows into the air, fear tainting his order this time. Gengyo’s men did not even pause to acknowledge it as the arrows fell �� they knew their flesh shields would protect them.

The Uesugi bowmen discarded their bows and drew their swords. The weapons looked foreign to them. Gengyo’s soldiers fell upon the first unit heavily, throwing their corpse shield to the side. They provided nearly no resistance. It was like a steel sword through a paper wall. The ranged unit was not prepared for the hardened might of an elite melee force.

And then the strangest thing happened – those soldiers began to run. Their frontmost men were killed with such contemptuous ease that those in the back did not dare to face the enemy. It was not something they had been adequately trained for.

Kenshin bit his lip as one of his bow units – nearly a thousand men – disappeared just like that. Gengyo was charging towards the next unit, and they were already trembling in fear long before he had hit them. Kenshin reached for his own sword – it was the only way he could see to keep his men in the battle. As Gengyo charged, Kenshin led his command centre – some one hundred cavalry – to hit them in their rear.

"Turn," Gengyo ordered softly and they turned on their heels mid charge. He had expected Kenshin to leave his nest at any moment, and so when he did, he was more than prepared for him.

Five or six men had taken up spears when their own weapons had failed on them. They stood to the front of Gengyo’s unit, prepared to take the brunt of the charge. The rest of the men had their backs, falling behind them in an arrowhead, relieving themselves of the true might of a cavalry charge.

"Miura Tadakata! Face me!" Kenshin growled, spurring his horse into a gallop, grasping his sword with both hands.

"As you wish," Gengyo responded in a whisper. An instant before the cavalry hit, Gengyo sprang off his own man’s shoulder, high into the air. He looked upon Kenshin with the eyes of a lion, and an instant before his death, Kenshin assumed the terrifying visage of prey. Gengyo spun and severed his head, catching it before it could hit the ground.

Morohira and the rest of his men expertly diffused the cavalry charge, reducing them to a few fledgeling fighters that were soon put down.

Gengyo took Kenshin’s horse for himself, and he reared it high into the air. "Behold! Your Lord Kenshin is dead! Long live the Red Feather!"

"Long live the Red Feather!" His men bellowed. The Uesugi men began to flee. They had lost their reason to fight. It began first with the last of the ranged units, and then the morale of the infantry fell too. They ran away from the field of battle, completely routed, and those that did not were slaughtered on the spot.

From a pile of bodies, Gengyo saw the last of his soldiers arise. A number pitifully low. But it did not change the fact of their victory.