A Time Traveller's Guide To Feudal Japan

With his only hand, Gengyo raised his rifle. He couldn’t aim the way he wanted to, but it didn’t matter. When he pulled the trigger, a hole appeared in a man’s chest, as if by magic. And then when he pulled it another five times, five more men fell.

"FIRE!" Gengyo barked. His men fired as they moved into position, blasting the enemy to pieces.

There was nothing the Uesugi men could do. They had no time to slip fresh arrows onto their bow-strings. Some, in their panic, ran towards Gengyo and his men, thinking that their only option was to meet the threat head-on. They quickly died.

Others ran away. They did not last either.

Under their unforgiving rain of bullets, those Uesugi bowmen were slaughtered. The only thing keeping them from total extermination was the bodies of their dead comrades that had built up around them. They ducked to the floor, using dead meat as a shield.

But Jikouji joined in from the top of the wall a moment later. He and his men were only too glad of the opportunity to finally put an end to the irritating bowmen that they had been chasing around for a while.

With bullets from the front and from the top, there was nothing they could do. Every single one of those men were dead or dying with no hope left for them.

"CAVALRY GOING AROUND THE WALLS! THEY’RE LOOKING FOR YOUR BACKSIDE!" Jikouji shouted down to them.

It did not matter to Gengyo. They had already completed their task. Their rifles were empty, and there was no point in meeting the angry cavalry head-on. He gave the order to retreat.

"QUICKLY NOW, BACK INSIDE!"

They could soon hear the beatings of hooves as they galloped around the outer walls of the castle, chewing up mud. Gengyo made his soldiers go on ahead of him, so that he could be sure they were all inside before those angry hors.e.m.e.n hit. He reloaded his rifle as he waited. The men that had already made it inside started to do the same.

Just as the last few soldiers passed through that gap in the parted gates, the hors.e.m.e.n rounded the corner, their swords drawn and thirsty for bloody vengeance.

Gengyo blew apart the first man, as he too skipped inside the safety of the castle. But the hors.e.m.e.n were unwilling to let him get away with such a narrow escape. The hole in the gate was there and they sought to follow him through it.

A few bullets ended that attempt, culling the threat before it could even start, but by some suicidal urge, the enemy kept coming, and each time they made it a little further inside. In Gengyo’s mind, he could picture the infantry coming to support them, and he began to panic.

It wouldn’t be a problem if they had already regrouped and reloaded, but as they were, they needed time to get back into formation. The gates needed closing, and there was only one way to do that.

"ON ME!" Gengyo shouted, emptying his rifle on the enemy, before tossing it aside and throwing his shoulder at the door. His men soon followed, hundreds of them at once, pressing against the heavy slab of wood that kept the enemy at bay.

Slowly, it began to edge closed, even as the Uesugi men tried to dismount their horses and keep it open.

"FIRE!" From the top of the walls, Jikouji took the opportunity to humiliate the overly aggressive cavalry. He and his men leisurely picked them off one by one, completely immune to attack. They even had time to turn the cannons and set them in place, before they launched a few heavy lead balls on top of them.

With the door closed and Jikouji keeping the enemy busy, Gengyo turned their attention to the massive beams. As it happened, they were much harder to get up than they were to take down. It took the combined efforts of thirty men just to get it to waist height, and then another ten men to heft it over their heads.

They slotted that hefty beam upon the first bracket, and it nearly took everything out of them. A few even collapsed from the effort. They needed time to catch their breath. Looking upon that, Gengyo confirmed that his decision was the right one. It might have been possible to retaliate against the Hojo right there and then, and meet their hors.e.m.e.n head-on, but it was risky.

When Gengyo fought now, he had to keep a mind to the future. He had to keep as many men alive as possible for the future enemies that would be looking for their heads.

With that one beam in place, the door was near unbreachable. They heard Hojo hors.e.m.e.n run into it, but it barely budged. That second beam was there to fend against a battering ram, but being as that was not yet a problem, Gengyo concluded that his job was done.

"HA! RUN! COWARDS!" Jikouji jeered as the cavalrymen finally had the sense to turn and gallop away, though they had already lost half of their attacking might from that kamikaze attempt at claiming the head of the enemy leader.

"Come down, Jikouji, we’ll regroup from here," Gengyo said up to him. With the missile troops dealt with, it was now merely a question of technique, though it was in those sorts of situations when most things were bound to go very wrong.

"Aye, down we go," Jikouj signalled to his men and they slid down the ladders, grins on their faces from the carnage that they had inflicted. Chasing those bowmen had been like chasing a buzzing fly – it felt good to finally see it swatted dead.

They marched together back to the centre of the castle, where Matsudaira and the rest were defending. The enemy had their gunpowder carts in position and ready to detonate, but with their men down from the walls, Gengyo had no worries about the damage those explosions would inflict.