Mount & Blade: Warband in the Sengoku period of Japan

Although Nobuko's naginata was much shorter than Chen Daoyuan's, and her physique and strength were far inferior, her agility and skill made today's sparring result no different from usual. Nobuko quickly cut into Chen Daoyuan's inner circle and used her naginata to suppress Chen Daoyuan's spear.

After the sparring session ended, before Chen Daoyuan could say anything, Xinzi spoke first: "Lord Daoyuan is indeed the gifted man praised by Master Bu Chuan. Your spear skills are improving noticeably every day."

"You flatter me, Your Highness. Your naginata and swordsmanship are indeed more exquisite," Chen Daoyuan said politely.

Nobuko smiled slightly: "My naginata has been practiced for a long time after all... By the way, I really like the sword that Lord Dogen gave me."

"As long as you find it easy to use, that's fine. Besides, didn't you already give me a thank-you gift before?"

Right now, the sound of hammering is constant at Mikabori, with water-powered forging hammers running at full capacity, and the craftsmen led by Mitsushiro working around the clock.

Of course, thanks to the properties of eutectoid steel, Chen Daoyuan's plan to make 1000 knives and some other weapons was completed in just a few days. Now, the main task is to forge manganese steel armor plates.

These swords were all modified based on Chen Daoyuan's drawings and did not follow the traditional Japanese sword design.

The reason why Japanese swords have that shape is not because this shape is particularly scientific in terms of chopping. To a large extent, the reason why Japanese swords maintain this shape is a compromise with the material Tamahagane.

As a high-carbon steel smelted at low temperature using iron sand, even after repeated forging and slag removal, Tamahagane's texture is still not uniform enough and its toughness is poor. Only by making it into a "steel rod shape" with a thick back and narrow blade can it be prevented from easily breaking when chopping.

Therefore, from Qi Jiguang to modern hacking enthusiasts, when imitating Japanese swords, they all make certain optimizations to the blade shape. The solution is readily available: widen the blade, increase the width from the traditional one inch to one and a half inches, reduce the thickness of the blade, move the center of gravity forward, and finally make a reverse edge at the tip, roughly creating a "sword-shaped blade".

This modern, most common hack-and-slash style was named the Three-Day Sword by Chen Daoyuan, who took several carefully selected, polished, and decorated ones by Guangshilang and gave them to people in Takasui-ji Castle.

The Shiba family naturally each received one. The one given to Nobuko was specially crafted with Chen Daoyuan's personal assistance. It was a size smaller, with a straighter curve, and the blade also featured a unique flat tip (Tanto). It was given to her a couple of days ago along with a naginata that was also specially made for her. I guess she must be very comfortable using it, which is why I specifically mentioned it to express my gratitude again.

"Actually, I'm quite... surprised by this gift," Nobuko said again. Chen Daoyuan noticed that when she said this, she deliberately turned her gaze away slightly, avoiding Chen Daoyuan's direct eye contact.

Chen Daoyuan remained silent, and Xinzi continued to explain, "I am deeply loved by my grandfather and father, and my brother is also very kind to me. Therefore, I have received many gifts since I was a child. But this is the first time that a sword has been specially made for me."

Chen Daoyuan smiled and said, "Princess Ji's martial arts talent is excellent, which has left a deep impression on me. That's why I specially prepared these for you."

"Is that so..." Nobuko's lips curled up slightly, but Chen Daoyuan could tell that the smile wasn't smug, but rather more like a hint of helplessness: "I also find the major and minor military strategies more interesting, but Father and the others don't seem to care. They only care about my calligraphy, tea ceremony, and flower arrangement. Only Grandfather dotes on me, and when he hires a famous military strategy teacher for my brother, he lets me learn along with him, and he also takes the time to teach me some major military strategies..."

"That's good," Chen Daoyuan said with a smile. "It's always good to have more skills."

"Hmm?" Nobuko looked somewhat puzzled. "Don't the people of Ming say that a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent?"

Chen Daoyuan laughed heartily: "That's right, a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent, but whether someone is talented or not depends on who they are compared to. Compared to those mediocre and incompetent people, Princess Ji is indeed very talented, but compared to me, although Princess Ji knows a lot, she still has no real talent."

Upon hearing this, Nobuko was taken aback. She instinctively opened her mouth, but said nothing. After a moment of silence, she whispered, "My lord is truly..." She stopped mid-sentence, lowered her head, brushed her clothes, and murmured in an even lower voice, "It seems... that is indeed the case... My lord's magnanimity is far beyond my reach." As she spoke, a faint blush appeared on her round face. She bowed to Chen Daoyuan, and before he could say anything more, she hurriedly left with her wooden naginata.

Chen Daoyuan didn't think much of it and dragged his wooden spear toward his temporary residence in the outer courtyard. Unexpectedly, he was stopped by a warrior just as he reached the door.

This man was a guard by Shiba Tsugaku's side. He said that the Imperial Palace had summoned him. Chen Daoyuan did not dare to be negligent. He threw down the wooden stick in his hand and followed the guard to the main hall of the Imperial Palace.

Besides Shiba Takashi, there were two other people present. Chen Daoyuan recognized them as senior retainers of the Shiba clan, the heads of the Hosokawa clan (hereditary successors) and the Nakano clan (generals).

There weren't many reliable talents among the Shiba clan. Apart from the three sons of Shiba Tsuneaki, known as the "Shiba Three Masters"—Shiba Tsuneaki, Shizukuishi Tsuneaki, and Inoki Tsuneaki—only the Hosokawa and Nakano clans, father and sons, could be considered key retainers.

Chen Daoyuan nodded to the two men, then sat cross-legged in front of Shiba Quangao, placed his hands on his knees, and leaned forward to ask, "Lord Shiba, has something happened?"

"I've received intelligence." Shiba Kenko didn't mince words: "The Hienkan clan in the south is mobilizing the local populace, and the ninjas in Kihara have intercepted communications between the Hienkan and Nanbu clans on the mountain roads."

"Hmph." The head of the Hosokawa clan beside him snorted coldly: "This Hienkan clan is indeed unreliable. They just made an agreement with us to submit last year, and this year they've hooked up with the Nanbu clan's hawk."

The head of the Nakano family also sneered, "Isn't it because he saw that Lord Chen was building a furnace and smelting iron south of Takasui-ji Castle that he felt guilty?"

Chen Daoyuan took the letter intercepted by the ninja from Shiba Tsuyoshi. The contents were clear: Hienkan was informing the Nanbu clan about the huge blast furnace belching black smoke at Takamizuji Castle and the constant clanging noises day and night on the Mikabori River beach, which suggested that the Shiba clan had developed some new weapon. They hoped to agree to launch a pincer attack on the Shiba clan from the north and south...

Chen Daoyuan curled his lip: "How many men does the Baiguan clan have? They dare to make some kind of agreement with the Nanbu clan to attack from the north and south."

Shiba Takashi's tone remained calm and composed as always: "The Hienuki clan is also the territory of Hienuki County designated by the Miyako clan. It has been about two hundred years now. If we really put all our efforts into gathering them, we can gather thirty or forty samurai from the main clan and fifty or sixty ronin. As for foot soldiers, we can probably gather five or six hundred people."

Meeting the gaze of Shiba Tsugaku, Chen Daoyuan smiled: "Lord Shiba, just tell me how many men you are willing to send."

"The grain reserves in Takasui-ji Castle are running low." Shiba Kenko paused, a hint of reproach in his gaze as he looked at Chen Daoyuan. "I'll assign you one hundred horse-riding samurai, and you can conscript two hundred foot soldiers from Mikahoshi and the nearby villages. Is that enough?"

Chen Daoyuan smiled confidently: "Wouldn't these Ma Hui warriors go to Mikabori first to change their swords and armor?"

Spogong smiled and said, "Of course."

After leaving the palace, Chen Daoyuan returned to Mikabori without stopping for a moment.

A day later, the elite Shiba warriors, led by Shiba Akane, arrived at Mikabori.

Waiting here were one hundred foot soldiers mobilized by the ore-carrying laborers from Beixin'ai. In the village to the south, another one hundred foot soldiers were already ready to go.

However, in Chen Daoyuan's plan, the foot soldiers were just auxiliary troops. When he pushed open the warehouse of the riverbank workshop and let the samurai see the piles of dark and gloomy things inside, the faces of these elite samurai all changed.

Black manganese steel lamellar armor, cobalt steel cleaver, cobalt steel spear... Finally, Chen Daoyuan took out a large stack of cloth.

These days, the young maid Ichika has also been busy. She led the women of Mikabori Village to make a batch of jinbaori and kenba using a large amount of linen and dye that Chen Daoyuan bought from Takasui-ji Castle.

The feathered kimono and the banner were printed with the family crest that Nobuko had designed for Chen Daoyuan as a thank-you gift when she gave him the sword.

This family crest is the Marunouchi Three-Piece Eater crest, which should be the same as the Chosokabe clan's Seven-Piece Eater crest. Piece eater is wood sorrel, which is rich in oxalic acid and is often used in Japan for metal surface treatment. It basically represents "metal processing techniques", which is very much to Chen Daoyuan's liking.

The upper part of Chen Daoyuan's flag features the two lines of the Shiba family, the lower part features three kumi lines, and the middle part features the seal script character "Chen" written by Nobuko herself.

However, given Chen Daoyuan's aesthetic sense, the base colors of the battle robes and the flags were dyed a flamboyant, hesitant color... which caused a slight commotion among the samurai.

Of course, the small commotion quickly subsided. With such fine armor and new swords, these samurai would be willing to wear not only a bright pink kimono over their armor, but also a bright pink kimono.

I must say, the black and pink military uniform actually looks quite sophisticated and ahead of its time.

Unfortunately, this was just a trial run. Even the most elite samurai couldn't withstand long marches in full iron armor. After the trial, these samurai reluctantly took off their armor and put it on the oxcarts being transported by foot soldiers.

After getting ready, Chen Daoyuan led the way, riding Te Bie Zhou, along with Bei Xin'ai, who was riding the skinny horse they had captured, and Shiba Quanzhen, who was also riding a horse. Together, they set off south, joining forces with a hundred foot soldiers gathered in a village on the southern border. The three hundred-man army marched into the territory of the Hiedan clan.

They encountered no resistance or obstruction along the way, and did not specifically attack any villages that remained closed off. They marched straight in and arrived directly at the gates of Toritani Castle, the residence of the Hiranuki clan.

While instructing the samurai to don their armor and prepare for battle, Chen Daoyuan led Shiba Kenshin and Kita Shin'ai to a high point outside the castle to observe Toriyazaki Castle.

This castle is similar to Takasui-dera Castle, built on a high mound. Of course, it also lacks a castle tower and stone walls. The fortifications consist of deep moats, earthen walls behind the moats, and wooden fences on the earthen walls.

The Hienkan clan did not have the financial and human resources of the Shiba clan. Compared to Takasui-dera Castle, Toritani-zaki Castle only had the main keep and the second keep, lacking a moat and an outpost beyond the outer moat.

Chen Daoyuan looked at it, pointed to Toriyazaki Castle, and said to Kita Shin'ai, "Lord Shin'ai, how do you think we should attack this castle?"

Kita Nobuyasu did not hesitate: "Have the foot soldiers go up that mountain and pick a large tree to use as a battering ram, while the samurai provide cover as they attack the city gate. Our samurai are all heavily armored, so they will surely be able to easily cover our way to the city gate."

Chen Daoyuan stared intently at the wooden door of Toriyazaki Castle, then chuckled, "What need is there for a battering ram for a door like this? Let me show you some new tools."