Into the Fire

Ready Steady Go

"We have twenty swords and armors from the soldiers we killed," Nobunaga said as he looked out the castle ruins, watching the busy elves working below. They had adopted the ruins as a base after abandoning the village and set up camp outside the castle. "Also, we have two horses, but they can't ride them. So, we will use the animals the strategy I came up with. Tori is working on getting that together right now, then she'll run some practice drills with the elves she thinks are best suited to the job. The armors are fine. The problem is that only one or two of them knows how to wield a sword. Talking about it, they were really motivated to try making bows. So, now Yoichi is helping them to make bows and arrows. And they are making bows and arrows like no tomorrow. It seems like they were experts in this. Though I wish for some spears. A long range weapon like a spear reduces the fear in battle. Even a peasant can kill a warrior with a long spear. Heh heh heh," Nobunaga laughed, smirking.

"Obviously you have no means to know, but  Akechi Mitsuhide was killed by poor farmers while fleeing in Fushimi," Toyohisa informed him.

"You're kidding! Hah! That kumquat-head had it coming!" Nobunaga said as his grin widened. "Long live the poor farmers of Fushimi! I exempt them from taxes for the next one million years!"

"Either way, Nobunaga. You seem to have lots of fun while plotting nasty stuff."

"The battle itself is only the consequence of what you did before. I believe that wars are actually waged, fought, and won before the battle. Although nobody except that monkey Hideyoshi understood this truth. That girl, Tori, seems to have a good grasp of it. She'd got a good head on her shoulders. She made a few helpful suggestions when I asked her if she knew any strategies from the future we might be able to use for this situation."

"Phew!" Tori said, wiping the sweat from her brow. Putting together Nobunaga's little project had been harder than she though it would be since Orte was apparently too cheap and too mean to give the elves enough proper tools for everyone. She had basically just been using a big rock to hammer in the nails, and when that shattered, she ended up having to use the flat part of her axe to finish the rest of it. It was freaking ridiculous!

"Hey, big sis!"

Tori glanced up to see the boys, whom she had since learned were actually called Mark and Marsha, jogging over to her with a bucket of water and some cups. Since they were still just kids despite being over thirty, they were helping the others get ready by carrying out menial tasks like making sure everyone had enough water while they worked, and so on.

"You want some water?" Marsha asked.

"Yeah, sure. Sounds good," she said, smiling up at them while they filled a cup and handed it to her. "Thanks."

"Hey, big sis... do you really think we can win?" Mark asked.

"I think so. After all, it's been done before. Do you remember how I said my country was really powerful in our world?" she asked taking a sip. The boys nodded. "Well, it wasn't always like that. In beginning America was just a string of several weak colonies being ruled by another country called England. Granted, the most of the colonists were originally English citizens, so they weren't treated as harshly as you all in the beginning, but soon England began imposing unfair taxes and passing laws that benefited them but things harder for the colonies to thrive—and the colonists had no say in any of the matter, even though back in England they would have had a chance of appearing before Parliament, which was a government committee that was supposed to listen to the people, in case you're wondering. They tried petitioning the King directly, but even when they sent with a live representative, their letters and the person themselves were completely ignored. Eventually, with one thing on top of the other, this taxation without representation eventually led to a rebellion. The colonists decided they were better off looking after themselves, just as they had been before England became more involved, and fought for the right to separate from England and be recognized as an independent country. Now, England of course wasn't very happy about that, because they were making money off of the colony, so they fought to keep it—and this is the important bit, the part I want you to really remember: at the time, England was considered to be a major military powerhouse, especially their navy. They were supposed to be the best of the best, but in the end they suffered major losses and were kicked out of America by a bunch of farmers with pitchforks." She paused and glanced up at the two of them. "Now, why do you think that was?"