Mount & Blade: Warband in the Sengoku period of Japan

Military strategy? Chen Daoyuan couldn't help but think to himself, "Back then, I was just a 92A (quartermaster) in an S4 (US Army battalion-level logistics department). I've only seen some PPT slides in ROTC courses, I'm really not familiar with combat command..."

Therefore, Chen Daoyuan did not directly answer Shiba Tsuneaki's question, but instead turned his gaze to the sword at Shiba Tsuneaki's waist: "Lord Wakagosho, may I have your sword?"

Siba Keiichi frowned slightly, touched the hilt of the sword at his waist, a plain white wooden sword: "This one won't do."

However, he still turned his head and had the guards take a more ordinary samurai sword from the sword rack next to him and hand it to Chen Daoyuan: "This one is a Mino Denkensei purchased the year before last. It was specially ordered by the Owari main family's merchant from Seki City."

Chen Daoyuan drew his sword and couldn't help but purse his lips. Kanesada, like Osafune and Muramasa, was a famous sword from the Sengoku period. However, in Chen Daoyuan's eyes, who was used to modern hack-and-slash games, this fine sword, which was carefully crafted by the Mino craftsmen, was still very rough.

The biggest flaw of this knife is its unevenness.

The uneven blade pattern formed by the hand-clay tempering was one thing, but upon closer inspection, the gray iron exposed at the edge had an uneven color, and the blade itself had fine ripples due to the varying grain sizes...

"Yanlong!" Chen Daoyuan called out towards the door, and one of Nobuko's bodyguards walked in.

Chen Daoyuan, carrying his sword, approached Yan Song and, with a swift motion, struck the manganese steel armor plate on Yan Song's chest with a clang.

When he raised the sword again, the blade of the Mino Kanesada had already developed many chips and cracks. Chen Daoyuan casually stuffed the hilt into Iwataka's hand, drew the sword from Iwamatsu's waist, and with a flick of his wrist, the Mino Kanesada was completely broken in two with a muffled "crack". The broken half of the blade spun a few times in mid-air before "thudding" into the floor.

Sheathing his sword back in Iwataka's scabbard, Chen Daoyuan turned to look at Shiba Tsuneaki. Wakagosho's face remained expressionless, but clearly, the expression on his face was no longer cold and hard, but rather blank.

Chen Daoyuan smirked and shrugged. "These armors and swords, each of the samurai I brought will have a set. There are also five hundred sets on the carts I escorted; you, Lord Wakagosho, can arrange that… Oh, by the way, the rear guard of samurai you brought from Takasui-dera Castle will also be changing into their uniforms at the Kurikawa-kan. With these armored soldiers, what kind of military strategy do you plan to devise, Lord Wakagosho?"

Shiba Tsuneaki ignored Chen Daoyuan, stood up and walked over. He first examined the destroyed Mino Kanesada, then touched the armor plates on Iwataka's chest, and finally drew Iwamatsu's sword to examine it carefully: "These are the Mikata and Dogenmaru's body?"

The name "Three Days Blade" was given by Chen Daoyuan, but the name "Daoyuan Marudo" was Shiba Senko's idea... Chen Daoyuan protested, but to no avail.

Nobuko nodded in agreement: "Exactly. Father, these armored soldiers have already been proven effective in the previous battles in the south..."

"Yes, I've seen the previous battle reports." Shiba Tsuneaki interrupted Nobuko, let out a long sigh, handed his sword back to Iwamatsu, and sat down, glaring at Chen Daoyuan and Nobuko: "If you have a sword like that, why didn't you send me one?!"

"Uh..." Chen Daoyuan was speechless. He had selected a batch of specially chosen swords and sent them to Takasui-ji Castle, but he didn't expect that Shiba Senko wouldn't send one to his own son...

Chen Daoyuan had no choice but to take the blame for the old man. He apologized repeatedly and asked Yansong to fetch two brand-new, specially selected steel swords and a three-day sword made by Guangshilang to present to Shiba Tsuneaki.

Shiba Seiken's expression softened considerably, and his gaze towards Chen Daoyuan became more...kind?

"Since we possess such formidable troops and armor, the key to our battle against the Southern Clan lies not in how to win, but in how to initiate the war." Shiba Tsuneaki took out a map and explained to Chen Daoyuan, "The Southern Clan has established six fortresses in the area from Takizawa to Shibumin in the north. However, after the autumn harvest, most of the troops in these fortresses were withdrawn back to Numamiya Castle in the north. It will be difficult to capture Numamiya Castle as the Lord Gosho envisions. At present, there are probably over a thousand troops gathered in Numamiya Castle. Even if three hundred men are left in the six fortresses in the south, there are still about a thousand foot soldiers in Numamiya Castle."

Chen Daoyuan had studied map reading, but it was a modern military map. The map that Shiba Tsuneaki had taken out was undoubtedly somewhat abstract to him. After studying it carefully for a long time, he finally roughly understood the situation on the map: "There are three hundred people in the Takizawa area, and there are several people from Iwate Kawaguchi to Numiya Inner Castle. And here, how many people are there in Hachimantai?"

"There are probably five or six hundred. It used to be difficult for our people to reach Hachimantai. However, half of the more than one thousand people in Numamiya were transferred from Hachimantai. The Nanbu clan only transferred about five hundred foot soldiers and samurai from the main clan of Kusabe. So there are at most five or six hundred people on Hachimantai's side."

It must be said that the Nanbu clan is indeed quite powerful. Their main clan's territory, consisting of the Sanba Plain (that's the real name, named after the Sanhebe and Hachihebe clans of the Nanbu clan) and the Kamitaki Plain, covers a considerable area. The Tsugaru Plain, which extends westward across the Ou Mountains, is also nominally under the Nanbu clan's control. Furthermore, they occupy a large area north of the Shizukuishi Basin, namely the Hachiman-daira region. No wonder they can have nearly two thousand men scattered along the Oshu Corridor alone.

"How many people from the Kurikawa Castle are ready to fight?" The Kurikawa Castle is nominally a castle, but as the front-line bridgehead of the Shiba clan, it is not small in size. It is even larger than Chen Daoyuan's Toriyazaki Castle, and its residents are almost all samurai and foot soldiers in a semi-production state.

"Four hundred and fifty men, about a hundred samurai, and more than three hundred foot soldiers," Shiba Tsuneaki reported, a number that surprised Chen Daoyuan.

You've been stuck here with only 450 people, locked in a tug-of-war with the Nanbu family's nearly 2,000 for over a year? This Wakagosho is truly a man of appearances.

However, this number also posed a challenge for Chen Daoyuan. Even with the manganese steel armor, there were only three hundred heavily armored warriors who could be fully equipped with it. To rely on three hundred men to attack the inner city of the Swamp Palace, which was defended by a thousand men, was a difficult task, even with an overwhelming technological gap.

The only hope is that Shiba Takashi can bring another four hundred samurai... But even if there are seven hundred men, it would still not be wise to rush up the steep valley from the Iwate River mouth to the Numiya Inner Castle.

No wonder Shiba Tsuneaki said that the key to this battle was how to start it.

If only the Nanbu family could be lured out for a field battle, Chen Daoyuan was confident that he could easily defeat the Nanbu family's more than a thousand men on flat ground with his three hundred armored soldiers.

Just then, a slender little hand reached out from the side and drew an arc on the map: "Since the inner castle of Numamiya is difficult to conquer, we can just go directly to fight Hachimantai after we break through Takizawa."

Chen Daoyuan and Shiba Tsuneaki both looked at Nobuko, who continued, "Hachiman Taira is the Nanbu clan's granary. This is a must-defend area for attacking the enemy."

Although the Nanbu clan possessed the Sanba-Kami-Kita Plain, that area was often plagued by leeward winds from the mountains and frequently suffered from cold disasters, resulting in low grain yields. The large tracts of fertile land near Hachiman-daira were indeed of paramount importance to the Nanbu clan.

"But from Takizawa to Hachimantai, it's all flat ground with no cover. If the Nanbu clan's cavalry were to charge out from the Iwate River mouth and attack our flank..."

"Let them charge," Chen Daoyuan said confidently. Light cavalry, instead of relying on maneuvering, would actively charge the heavy infantry formation... Could such a thing really happen?

Shiba Tsuneaki also realized the situation, but he still had some concerns: "Can our armored soldiers withstand the Nanbu clan's cavalry?"

Chen Daoyuan shrugged: "If they know how to ride and shoot, they might have a chance. If they don't, then charging in is just suicide."

Chen Daoyuan's benchmark for the combat strength of the Warring States cavalry was Shiba Nobuko. Shiba Nobuko's martial arts were quite outstanding. She was skilled in archery and horsemanship... Yes, there should be a comma between "archery" and "horsemanship". Shiba Nobuko's naginata was extremely sharp on horseback, and her bamboo bow shooting was also quite accurate, but she basically did not shoot on horseback.

Japanese samurai, who were once known for their "archery skills on horseback," basically lost all their horseback archery skills after entering the Muromachi period!

Since that was the case, Shiba Tsuneaki readily accepted the good advice and formulated a military strategy for the attack based on Nobuko's plan.

Another day later, Shiba Tsugaku's large force arrived at the Kurikawa-kan, bringing with him two hundred samurai and four hundred foot soldiers to the front lines.

At this moment, the battle had to be fought whether or not. The five hundred samurai and one thousand foot soldiers gathered in the Shiba clan's residence were already the limit of their mobilization. If they remained inactive, they would devour Takasui-dera Castle just by eating them.

Thus, led by Chen Daoyuan and Shiba Tsuneaki, a large force of five hundred samurai and five hundred foot soldiers set off from the Kurikawa residence, embarking on their true battle journey.

Riding on Special Zhou's back, Chen Daoyuan looked around at the ranks and couldn't help but sigh... It sounded impressive, but the sheer scale of a thousand-strong force wasn't that intimidating. The Japanese Warring States period...

Moreover, the Shiba clan's foundation was somewhat weak. The arrogant and domineering elders and generals around Shiba Tsuneaki were only capable of leading a hundred-man squad when it came to actual combat, which is why Shiba Tsuneaki was chosen to fight.

Chen Daoyuan led the armored soldiers, and Shiba Tsuneaki managed the foot soldiers. The "army" quickly marched north to the Takizawa region.

Armed with heavy armor and large axes, the six small forts built by the Nanbu clan along the Takizawa line were not even speed bumps; they were all violently demolished in a single day.

After setting up camp and resting for one night, the team turned northwest the next morning and headed straight for Hachimanpei.

When the Shiba clan appeared outside Hachimantai Castle at noon and began to don their armor and prepare for battle, hundreds of cavalrymen, along with an even larger number of foot soldiers, appeared in Chen Daoyuan's field of vision on the eastern hillside.

He immediately ordered the warriors to form a battle formation facing east, and Chen Daoyuan dismounted and quickly donned his armor with the help of his attendants.

The cavalrymen ahead descended the hillside and began to assemble in formation. On this land that was about to become a battlefield, there were no human voices, only the rumble of hooves, creating an eerie silence.

Chen Daoyuan checked his armor, touched the heavy sword on his back, and then took his spear and went to the front of the group.

The Nanbu clan's cavalry assembled quickly, demonstrating excellent training. However, Chen Daoyuan, standing within the ranks, remained remarkably calm.

Come on, after today, the master of this Iwate region will be pretty much confirmed!