It's Hojo Akitoshi, the Kirin of Sagami!

In Japan, a land where rites and propriety had fallen apart, daimyo were generally shameless.

Anyone who cared about shame could never become a daimyo here.

Even so, these puffed-up pretenders usually took great pains to preserve their image before outsiders.

For Takeda Shingen to openly declare that the Uesugi troops, deliberately stationed around the outer edge of the camp, should serve as cannon fodder to cover their escape...

That alone showed just how much pressure the Hojo Army's raiding force was putting on him.

After all, the higher you stood, the farther you could see.

The soldiers in the camp, already caught up in a bloodthirsty frenzy of killing one another, had not noticed. But Takeda Shingen and the other commanders standing on the raised platform saw it perfectly clearly.

Those Hojo Army horsemen emerging from the black night, their hoofbeats deafening...

They!

They were none other than the legendary Fully Armored Cavalry of the Tang People from Tōdai's golden age!

"How could such ironclad cavalry appear here?"

Already agitated, Nobushige grew even more frantic. Following behind his elder brother, his face was drenched in sweat.

Since ancient times, Japan had been constrained by its scarcity of resources. Compared with the great nation across the sea, even the physique of its people...

There was simply no comparison.

As for equipping every man with heavy armor, never mind whether Japan could even produce such suits.

Even if they acquired them, how many men could wear armor like that into battle?

They would probably die of exhaustion before cutting down more than a handful of enemies!

That was precisely why lacquered bamboo armor was so popular in Japan.

But what about now?

From what they had just seen of the Hojo Army's raiders, perhaps not every soldier was exceptionally tall and broad.

But they certainly looked much burlier than the ordinary Three-Inch Men under his own command.

Clad in heavy iron armor that covered everything but their eyes...

They could still swing their swords freely!

That alone meant there was no need for a nighttime raid. Even in a head-on battle in broad daylight...

The moment troops like these appeared on the battlefield, the morale of their allied Takeda forces would plummet!

"The men and the horses!"

Takeda Shingen was considering the same problem as Nobushige. He had his own renowned Red Armor Cavalry, after all.

He knew that a powerful cavalry force depended not only on its riders, but even more critically on its horses.

Japan's horses were scarcely larger than donkeys. Asking them to carry fully armored riders while also bearing full suits of horse armor...

At the very least, the horses used by his own Red Armor Cavalry could not manage it.

Forming Fully Armored Cavalry was therefore nothing but a pipe dream.

Yet now?

The Fully Armored Cavalry of the Tang People he had yearned for, believing he would only ever see them in his dreams...

Had actually appeared in the enemy ranks. The shock was staggering.

"I once heard that Hojo Akitoshi took in quite a few orphaned children when he was still a boy."

"He ate and slept alongside them, teaching them martial arts and military strategy."

"Once those orphans grew up, they became his trusted retainers."

"It was thanks to them that Hojo Akitoshi successfully overthrew his superiors and rose to become the head of the Hojo."

As they hurried to retreat, Nobushige suddenly recalled the unofficial accounts he had heard before.

He had dismissed them at the time, thinking that Hojo Akitoshi had barely even reached puberty back then.

How could he possibly have planned so far ahead? Everyone had been that age once, after all.

What had he himself been doing at Hojo Akitoshi's age?

Pissing in the countryside and mixing it into mud to play with!

Takeda Shingen fell silent at his words, then let out a long, despondent sigh.

"Could there truly be men born with wisdom? How else could he have harbored such ambition at that age?"

Whatever the Takeda brothers were discussing or marveling over...

Hojo Akitoshi, riding among the charging Fully Armored Cavalry, naturally knew nothing of it.

He watched the enemy camp ahead, already plunged into utter chaos, with cries of battle filling the sky.

Seeing everything unfold just as he had anticipated, Hojo Akitoshi raised his iron spear and traced a circle overhead.

There was still a moat-like ditch encircling the allied Takeda camp, after all.

Charging cavalry straight into the enemy position would be suicide.

Fortunately, the ever-considerate Takeda Shingen had already made all the necessary preparations for Hojo Akitoshi.

Outside the interconnected camps stretching for dozens of miles, the sturdy Wooden Wall that Takeda Shingen had spent so much time and effort erecting...

Became the perfect scaling ladder for the Hojo Army's raiding force!

"Follow me!"

Receiving Hojo Akitoshi's order, Akechi Mitsuhide roared and urged his horse forward, breaking away from the main force with a dozen or so riders.

With the Takeda Army engulfed in infighting, no one had attention to spare for their small detachment.

Reaching the ditch outside the enemy camp, they raised their hands toward either end of a chosen section of the Wooden Wall.

With even spacing and unerring aim, they hurled the Oil Bombs they had once used against the monster Yura of the Hair.

The Oil Bombs struck the straw ropes and other bindings securing the wooden planks together.

They silently watched the oil burn across the Wooden Wall, but did not simply stand there waiting.

They swung their Grappling Claws and flung them hard toward the top of the Wooden Wall. Once they were certain the claws had caught firmly...

They all heaved together with a shout, knowing this was no time to spare their mounts.

Akechi Mitsuhide took the lead, whipping his horse's rump with all his strength.

Creeeeak.

Perhaps the allied Takeda soldiers had cut corners while setting up camp. Perhaps they had been too hungry to dig the foundations deep enough.

Whatever the reason, things went far more smoothly than Akechi Mitsuhide and his men had imagined. Amid a teeth-grating creak...

The Wooden Wall that had served as a defensive barrier soon toppled with a thunderous crash.

It became a drawbridge leading the Hojo Army straight to victory.

Judging its dimensions by eye, Hojo Akitoshi urged his troops forward.

"Three riders at a time! Charge through in order!"

He picked out the breach in the enemy camp, where no organized Takeda Army unit was blocking their way.

Still wary, and with room to exercise caution, Hojo Akitoshi led the charge himself. He even had the presence of mind to ensure his precious cavalry did not suffer because of the enemy's shoddy construction.

There was no reason to incur unnecessary noncombat losses while crossing the fallen Wooden Wall serving as their drawbridge.

"I am Hojo Akitoshi, the Kirin of Sagami! Takeda Shingen, get out here and die!"

Once he crossed the makeshift drawbridge and charged into the enemy camp, Hojo Akitoshi became death incarnate on the battlefield.

With the height advantage his horse afforded him, and the speed of its charge...

Hojo Akitoshi swept aside everyone in his path.

From horseback, he thrust his iron spear again and again, impaling enemy soldiers clad in Japanese bamboo armor.

Or used it like a club to smash their heads down into their abdominal cavities.

Drenched in blood and radiating murderous intent, Hojo Akitoshi brandished his spear from horseback, his voice ringing across the battlefield.

"Aah! Aah! Aah! Aah!"

"It's the Kirin of Sagami! It's the Kirin of Sagami!"

"Hojo Akitoshi has broken in! Hojo Akitoshi has broken in!"

Panic-stricken, the allied Takeda soldiers scurried about like headless flies.

They could only watch in utter terror as Hojo Akitoshi mowed through their ranks like a warrior in a hack-and-slash game.

Forget finding the courage to stop him. They fled with their hands over their heads, cursing anyone who got in their way.

Their sobbing would have broken any witness's heart. The allied Takeda soldiers could only curse their parents for giving them just two legs.

Why not more?

"Our Lord has slain a hundred men!"

And at that very moment, Akechi Mitsuhide, Hojo Akitoshi's foremost admirer, was there too.

Watching Hojo Akitoshi unleash his might and sweep through the enemy, he paid no heed to how that figure had been calculated.

He simply shouted it at the top of his lungs.

"Oh!"

The Hojo Army's morale surged again in an instant, and the raiders accompanying Hojo Akitoshi roared.

Naturally, what little morale the allied Takeda soldiers had left dropped yet again, almost disappearing altogether.

Unfortunately, there were still some stubborn fools among the allied Takeda forces.

Watching Hojo Akitoshi charge left and right through their ranks, they decided to gamble everything on a chance to strike it rich.

Some samurai of standing within the allied Takeda forces rushed toward him.

And so...

"Our Lord has slain Koizumi Meikurō!"

"Our Lord has slain Uesugi Qiong Yisheng!"

"Our Lord has slain Abe Yiqiangsi!"

"Our Lord has slain Tōjō Meirenxing!"

From that moment on, cries announcing the deaths of the allied Takeda samurai rang out one after another without pause.

They reached even the retreating Takeda Shingen, who could only cover his face and sigh.

"Why does my army have no warrior of such valor?"