They only just made it to safety before the explosion made its way to the wall. Solid stone bricks were torn apart with ease and thrown hundreds of metres away. The thick wooden gate was blasted to pieces and sections of the wall were completely erased.
The amount of gunpowder it took for such damage was not to be underestimated. Their ears rung from it. The whole world shook. They could not help but fall to their knees. It was all they could do to prevent themselves from falling flat on their faces.
A screen of smoke hung over the holes in the wall drifting up from the deep unroofed tunnel where the gunpowder had been kept. Chaos, that's what it would have caused had they not had those few minutes of preparation. Even as it stood now, it was a difficult problem to meet.
When the breeze blew away the smoke, the damage could be seen fully. Piles of charred rubble were strewn everywhere. Two men were particularly unlucky, being caught in the head by the flying debris as they ran.
Through that new hole in the castle wall they were rendered exposed. And there, on the horizon, standing battle-ready and leering several miles away, there was the Hojo army, ready to charge.
"Bastards," Morohira said, spitting the taste of chemicals from his mouth, "they had to resort to some underhanded means even when they outnumber us so completely. Pathetic."
"That tunnel must have taken weeks to dig. They would have been working all day. How did it go unnoticed?" Jikouji asked, perplexed.
"I apologize… It must have been a lack of diligence on my part," Matsudaira dipped his head in shame.
"Nonsense," Gengyo chipped in. "In all of Japan no one stands better than the Hojo at siege warfare. They've had centuries to perfect their craft. No man would have expected such an attack when there were no signs of it coming… Besides, we have a more pressing problem. Arm yourself, my comrades, and prepare to lead. We have but a few minutes before their attack will come."
The Miura generals nodded seriously. There was no cause for panic, not yet, but there would be if they stood around much longer. They began to run towards their rooms for their armour, Gengyo went with them.
Their own soldiers were already ready by now. They spilt out onto the courtyard, hastily adjusting the last pieces of their equipment, making sure their rifles were ready and functional. Gengyo barked a command at them as he went. "Form the ranks! Load your rifles!"
The men were glad of some instruction. They hastily marched themselves into a flat formation. The riflemen fiddled with their weapons whilst the Uesugi bowmen made sure their bows were strung tight and ready to be used.
Gengyo disappeared inside the barracks, heading back to the Commander's quarters for his sword. The others had raced back to their own designated rooms.
It was there, sat upon the table just as he had left it. He grasped it by the hilt and whirled around looking for his armour. He'd brought it in a bundle and left it somewhere in the corner, he was sure, but as much as he desperately searched, he could not find it.
He knelt down to look under the table, and just as he was beginning to panic, he found it. All his equipment stored in a clean straw sack. He noticed there was another sack right next to it. "Akiko's"… he realized. He stood up with both sacks in hand, wondering where his wife had got to.
"Is that mine as well?" He heard a woman's voice call out breathlessly. He turned around to see Akiko at the door naginata in hand.
"It is," he tossed it to her.
They tore their equipment from the bags and through their armoured dou over their torsos, reaching back for the leather straps to secure them in place. "Here," Akiko said, "it'll be quicker if we do each other's."
Gengyo wordlessly let her do as she pleased. A strange calm fell on the room as a silence fell, the only sound being that of leather against leather as Akiko's fingers did their work.
With a tug here and a twist there, Gengyo felt his armour tighten against his chest, secure and fluid, like an extension of his own body. It was always a shock when he felt the weight of it, but he quickly grew used to it.
It was Akiko's turn next. She dr.a.p.ed her black armour of her torso and turned around for Gengyo to tighten the straps, lifting her long hair up out of the way so that he could see what he was doing. He carefully made sure it was tight around the shoulders and then the chest and the back.
"You didn't have time to wrap your chest," Gengyo pointed out. "Will you be alright?"
Akiko turned to look at him as though he was stupid. "Worry about yourself, silly. You still have one hand, remember?"
"I suppose I do," Gengyo chuckled. "We'd better hurry; the others are probably done by now. Where's your helmet?"
"Here," she slid it onto her head, having to rearrange her hair inside of it, not having the time she needed to properly tie it back. Gengyo strapped his own under his chin and quickly put his greeves in place.
"I'm done," he said. He wasn't quite as well armoured as he normally might be. There was a looseness to some of his pieces that wouldn't normally be in place, but given the circ.u.mstances, it was still rather good going."
"Me too," Akiko said, checking her sandals to make sure they weren't going anywhere anytime soon.
Together they ran from the commander's room, Akiko with her naginata and Gengyo with his sword.
They made it to the outside just in time to here the Hojo sound their horn. Their charge began a moment later, the ground pounding from their thousands of feet.