The Sengoku Festival (An Oda Nobuna No Yabou fanfic)

Chapter 34

In the morning, it was an impressive sight truly to see so many marching out at once with the total forces of 200 of my men split up into 40 Cavalry, 60 Archers, and 100 Yari ashigaru.

But that was a bit overshadowed by the 500-man army under Katsuie and 400-man army under Nagahide but nonetheless it was a force of its own as even 200 men could do a lot of damage if done right.

Still, we would be joining the Anno Clans new army to go across the rivers or through the mountains to attack the Dates cities of Naragata and Furukita. Being cities, they were going to be likely be well defended considering but what had surprised me was that they held the only Big City around, called Shirahoma. And from what people had been saying around, Shirahoma was practically impregnable in its defenses and that its garrison alone was enough to take on any and all comers of armies, regardless of the armies size.

Still, we likely would be leaving that city lone until later on, maybe when we've destroyed one of the other clans but I soon decided that as the time to get to the city of Minakonai slowly went along, I would soon skip on thinking too much about that and simply focus on keeping my men in order and in line.

I mean even though half of them were veterans and could easily keep the other 100 newer recruits in line like me, I also knew it wouldn't take much at the moment to create a problematic situation and thus I kept a hefty eye on all of them as we marched along to our staging ground for the attack against the Date.

Still, when I wasn't keeping an eye on them, I was noticing a few glances and look from Nagahide as she was on horse whereas I was still on foot, which I preferred to riding as riding may have been faster but I liked being with my troops and feeling what they had to deal with when we marched. All of these looks I would only get a glimpse of as I went along, simply seeing her look away just as I would see her eyes.

But these days of us marching would simply stretch on as we went to the area to prepare for our invasion but about halfway, we would come across an old face as we neared the mountain pass where my previous battle took place.

It was maybe day 4 of the March, we were nearing the Anno Clans city of Minakonai with our over 1100-man total army between myself, Nagahide, and Katsuie but while we marched along I then saw more of the Oda nobori and sashimono flags up ahead, a great many in fact, as I quickly watched a familiar figure on a horse come riding up as the Oda Retainer Dosan Saitou smiled at me and the others as Nagahide and Katsuie had come up to join me in the front of the formation apparently to greet the man.

As I watched him trot his horse slowly over, I then got to see the other small General and Retainer on her horse behind Dosan as Mitsuhide Akechi as she had some basic armor on over her body and a bit of a neutral look on her face as she looked over me just as Dosan said, "Bloody Handed... now that is an army you lead."

"It's quite a sight, isn't it?" I asked him before I then heard Nagahide say to him, "Is everything ready for the March ahead into Date lands?"

"It is... I have 300 men under me ready to help take on the enemy." Said Dosan with a slight bow. Even in simple armor, his whole self seemed to radiate a aura of respect and credibility that was often in turn given back to him.

"Then let us go on.. to Naragata and Furukita. To victory!" Said Katsuie.

Dosan nodded and as he led to get his army moving and as the main force I was with began to move as well to join with them and then move on, I then realized Mitsuhide was riding next to me and I turned to her and asked her, "Need something, m'lady?"

"I just want you to know that I don't think highly of you still." She said and I simply gave a chuckle with a slight roll of my eyes, saying softly, "Oh boy, I'm soooo popular..."