"Red Feather men, to the eastwards wall!" Jikouji commanded, reciprocating the Matsudaira's change of position.
"Hah!" They lowered their weapons and began towards the eastern facing wall immediately, filling up from the furthest end first, before turning, and proceeding to stare intimidatingly at the sprawling mass that was Matsudaira's army.
"Hm… We're hung up on little games like this." Gengyo mused, stroking his chin, looking back towards the cannons. They had wheels and were moveable, but the effort and time required to do so made giving that order that much more difficult. For now, he simply waited to see how Matsudaira might conjure a new attack.
Even when commanding eight thousand men, a siege like this was still difficult. The enemy appeared to have the advantage of weaponry, and should they wish to push forward to use their own, then they would have to offer up plenty of men as sacrifices.
Yet Matsudaira was not one to send his men to their deaths so freely. He treats each life preciously, and only exposed them to what he saw to be the absolute minimum amount of danger.
Their intelligence had told them that Honkaido was a relative ruin, and so in their march toward it, they had assumed they could batter through. Yet this was like a new fortress all together. There was not a single chink in its armour. The wall that would usually be the weakest – because of its impregnation with a gate – was now the strongest, due its supporting ensemble of cannons.
Simply throwing men at walls and hoisting up ladders was not going to cut it.
"Take a dispatchment of men, and head to Okazaki forest. We will begin more adequate preparations." Matsudaira intoned, feeling neither shame nor irritation by his own lack of preparation. Such mistakes would require only minimal correction.
"As you will, my lord!" His man nodded respectfully, before spurring his horse into action, and shouting across the vast army. "FIRST AND SECOND COMPANIES! ON ME!"
At his words, a dispatchment of near a thousand cavalry spurred into action, and began to gallop in the direction of Okazaki forest. Gengyo watched their departure with an interested smile, almost impressed.
It took a great amount of restraint and clarity of mind to bow down in front of a lesser army, and admit that even with your own vast numbers, victory was not certain.
"Tunnelling team! Step forth!" Matsudaira called out to what was left of his army, invoking their immediate response. Almost half the men – it seemed – were assigned to this tunnelling team, as they stepped forth, separating themselves from the other men in their ranks. "Retrieve a shovel from the baggage train, and begin tunnelling attempts on the eastern wall."
"Hah!"
Within minutes, multiple tunnels were being dug, just out of range of the Red Feather weapons. The tunnels were being made very wide indeed, and with all the men that were available to assist in the digging attempts, it was no wonder. They organised each other in chain, as one section dug, another took away the earth, and another used the small amount of wood they had to build some rafters and supportive pillars in order to give it some structural integrity.
Matsudaira stood with his arms folded, looking up at the wall, locking eyes with Gengyo, waiting to see how he would respond.
"So that is the card you're choosing to play? Well we have time, so why not? Jikouji, take ten men and begin moving a single cannon at a time. We'll see if we can make their tunnelling efforts a little more exciting."
"Ten men eh? May as well just take us originals. Morohira, Rokkaku, Togashi. Get the rest and let's get moving."
Seeing them gallop off – with Rin and Akiko and all the rest in tow – brought a vague feeling of nostalgia, as he recalled their black armour, and how they had fought in a siege of their own all that time ago.
As reliable as always, the old pirate crew were soon dragging the colossal piece of artillery between them, with the giant Sasaki doing much of the work by his lonesome, and his face a deep red from the effort that he was employing.
They set it up and angled it outwards, before rushing off to collect another one.
Unable to see what was going on behind that arrow cage, Matsudaira was forced to guess. In his position, he would be moving the cannons as well. He tutted with frustration, because there was nothing he could yet do to prevent them from utilising the machines – not without significant casualties on his side. Still, he thought that the entrances to their tunnels were far enough out that even those bestial machines could not reach.
"Carry on digging!" He ordered, knowing that the men would be worrying about the cannons as well. He looked off into the distance. By now, the cavalry dispatchment had all but disappeared, and with the surrounding plains being so flat, such an observation paid respects to the ground that they had already covered.
'Give it a few more hours, and we should have more than enough wood to deal with this.' He thought to himself, satisfied with the progress they were making. As far as he was concerned, they had a relatively large portion of time. The food – if rationed correctly – could last at least three weeks, yet he wished to complete it in under two, else he would have to deal with Imagawa's wrath, as the man was undoubtedly eager to set out on campaign once more.
When the cannons were in place, Gengyo turned towards Morojo. "We have need of your skills, my friend."
"Aye, right on it. Come on lads!" Him and his boys were dressed in a makeshift armour of their own. They had a simple sword at their waists, but Gengyo had cautioned them against any actual fighting, they were merely here to handle any repairs that were likely to be needed.
As they were busy cutting the required holes for the cannons, the commander turned to Rin. "Any word from Isabella?" He'd put his sister in charge of overseeing the scout activity, and making sure Matsudaira did not manage to slip in some of his troops without his notice.
"Nothing yet. It seems to be all clear."
He nodded his understanding before signalling towards Jikouji.
"Alright you lazy lot! Let's get these cannons loaded with some cl.u.s.ter shot!" The old man barked. The men were on hand and ready, and with so many soldiers to spare, the cannons were loaded in what might have been a record time.
"Fire!" Gengyo ordered, swinging his arm downwards, not looking toward his men, but outwards across the field, envisioning the destruction that he would cause.
Matsudaira continued to stand unmoving, with his arms folded, seeming to be more intent on making a point than carrying out actual strategy. He had full confidence that they were precisely out of range.
The balls took to the air, forming a unified cloud of destruction, parting from their shell and spreading out, thundering across the battlefield before plummeting down towards the ground, ready to scare many a timid soldier.
With these hefty shots coming towards them, the men could not help but scarper back a distance, unwilling to suffer the kind of fate these cannons wished to deliver.
So expertly made and operated they were, that each shot travelled a similar distance, forming a solid line as they landed, just before the mouth of the tunnel, and many sweating soldiers who had avoided a gruesome death by mere metres.
Matsudaira looked at the ground, then back up at Gengyo, as though to challenge him. The man smiled in response. "He's good. He's really good." To be able to determine the maximum distance a cannon was capable of firing after a single shot? There was a man worthy of the title of genius.
Many of the soldiers had obeyed their commander, and remained underground in the tunnels, continuing with their digging, and though the heavy shots had caused some soil and dirt to fall down, the majority of them were unharmed, and when the air went silent again, they picked up their spades and resumed their labours, much to Matsudaira's approval.
"Okay men, we're going to switch things up. We'll save the cl.u.s.ter shot for later – load the heavy shot for now, and double the gunpowder. We've got to keep our guest entertained." Gengyo ordered with a sly grin. They had five cannons, and each one was set to be in line with the mouth of one of the tunnels, and thus far there were 13 tunnels in total.
"Heh, I think I know what you're aiming for lad…" Jikouji grinned alongside him, before turning to the men, and pushing them to load faster.
With the cannons loaded and set, Gengyo afforded Matsudaira a challenging look of his own, before giving the order, and covering his ears, keeping his eyes wide to enjoy the reactions of his enemy.