Chapter 761: Great Elder Ukita, Come with Us!

The Solon cavalry under Oboi, by Western classification, were what were called dragoons — not cavalry that rode dragons, but a kind of mounted infantry that could fight on horseback and also dismount to fight. And the weapon they used when fighting dismounted was a three-shaku, six-monme matchlock made in Satsuma Province.

This type of matchlock had been very common in the Oda-Toyotomi era, and the Shimazu clan, famed for its skill with matchlocks, naturally possessed a large stockpile, which it had preserved into the mid-seventeenth century, when Spanish merchants bought them up. Because the guns were for export, no one in the Shimazu clan imagined they would ever be "re-imported for domestic sale," so they had not ground off the Shimazu family crest, the "Maru-no-Jūji," from the barrels.

And the Spanish, looking at the "Maru-no-Jūji," thought it was fine too — a cross, the common emblem of Catholic countries, perfect for passing the guns off as genuine Spanish-made goods.

By the time this batch of matchlocks reached the Great Qing, even less did anyone think of grinding off the markings — who had the leisure for that? And so Maruhashi Tadayoshi had seized a three-shaku Satsuma six-monme matchlock.

Kusunoki Masayuki took the six-monme matchlock from Maruhashi Tadayoshi and examined it carefully. It was indeed a product of Satsuma Province, and the "Maru-no-Jūji" on it also looked original.

Still, a single matchlock did not prove anything — the Shimazu clan had taken part in the Joseon campaign, and had fought with great zeal and suffered no small losses, so it was only natural that many matchlocks had been lost in Joseon. And that some of those matchlocks had passed through many hands into Qing army possession and could still be used today was not implausible either.

Kusunoki put the matchlock away and turned back to look at the battlefield ahead.

The samurai who moments ago had seemed on the verge of victory were now locked in a bitter fight!

Qing cavalry had circled around behind the samurai and were launching repeated charges. Some Qing cavalrymen had even dismounted outright and were firing at the surrounded samurai with matchlocks, inflicting heavy casualties.

Yet the samurai, attacked from front and rear, were fighting stubbornly, putting on the stance of men resolved to fight to the death. Though their formation was in chaos, and they were being charged by Qing cavalry and shot at by dismounted Qing cavalrymen with matchlocks, for the moment there was no sign of collapse.

By this time, a number of men had gathered around Kusunoki Masayuki again. They were the remnants of the samurai unit that had been the first to charge and had been driven back by Qing cannon and matchlock fire — about two or three hundred men, all clustered around Kusunoki. Together with the dozen or so mounted samurai who remained, they once again formed a small force.

Kusunoki wanted to lead them in another charge to rescue the trapped main force. But the Qing side had spotted them too, and sent out two more squads of Solon cavalry, along with the cavalry squad that had clashed with Kusunoki's men earlier — more than 140 riders in all — to keep watch nearby.

Kusunoki Masayuki already knew how formidable these cavalrymen were, and did not dare be careless. He had no choice but to have the two or three hundred men following him form a square and stand off against the Qing cavalry.

The two sides faced each other for no one knew how long, when suddenly a great uproar erupted from the Qing encirclement. It turned out that the already very loose ring had been "burst" open by samurai attempting to break out!

The samurai who moments before had sworn to fight to the death now began scrambling over one another to flee. The samurai armies of Japan in this era were not the later Imperial Army; though their individual martial skill was great, they were not stubborn to that degree.

Moreover, the men under Kusunoki were merely rōnin — brave enough in single combat, but their ability at group warfare could only be called mediocre.

Now that they saw a "way out," of course some were the first to waver and break for it — and once the flight began, the formation fell into complete chaos!

"Baka! This is a trick of the Qing bandits!" Kusunoki Masayuki shouted at once. "No retreat! We must fight to the death!"

Oboi had deliberately opened the encirclement to give the Japanese a "way out." He had already seen the fighting power of the Japanese bandits; if it came to a head-on fight to the finish, the outcome was far from certain!

The Solon cavalry and Sakhalin natives under his command all looked big and tall, but their close-combat ability was not strong, and their rate of armor-wearing was too low, so they could gain no advantage in melee. For now they held the upper hand only through the shock of the Solon cavalry charges, pressing the Japanese bandits hard. But after fighting for half a day, these Japanese bandits were still howling and looked full of spirit. And now that the Japanese bandits had been compressed into a single mass, it was very hard for the Solon cavalry to charge effectively. The battle was developing toward hand-to-hand fighting, and continuing this way would not do.

So Oboi ordered the Solon cavalry and Manchu cavalry to pull back slightly, opening up a tempting-looking escape route.

Tempted by this escape route, the rōnin under Kusunoki immediately thought of fleeing, completely forgetting where they were.

This was the desolate, uninhabited island of Sakhalin!

Without enough rations, and unless one was a skilled hunter or fisherman, one could not survive here for long at all!

Moreover, when they had marched north from Akasaka Castle, they had been guided by men of the Matsumae clan. Now, fleeing in a chaotic mob, where were they to find Matsumae guides?

"Regional Commander, it's no use — run!" Maruhashi Tadayoshi saw his own rōnin streaming back in disorder and knew the cause was lost. He hurriedly grabbed the bridle of his teacher Kusunoki Masayuki's warhorse, about to join the fleeing throng.

"Baka!" But Kusunoki, ungrateful for the advice, struck Maruhashi's arm hard with the back of his sword. "The house of Kusunoki has always been a family of ministers loyal to the nation, and never has it produced a coward who fled before battle! Now is the time for me, Kusunoki Masayuki, to give my life in loyalty!"

Then he dismounted and handed the reins and the Shimazu-made matchlock to Maruhashi together. "Maruhashi-kun, you must live! Take this evidence of the Shimazu clan's treasonous dealings with the Qing and leave this place. Go and expose the traitors and enemies of the court to the shogun!"

With that, he also handed his ancestral treasured sword to Maruhashi, and added one more sentence: "I entrust this to you — you must survive!"

Then he raised his lance and shouted: "Kusunoki Masayuki is here! Let all who would die for their country come to me!"

He meant to gather a band of loyal, righteous men and fight the Qing bandits to the death!

And indeed, Kusunoki Masayuki still had the power to rally men — several hundred fearless rōnin truly did gather around him.

But Oboi did not attack them. He merely led three or four hundred Solon cavalry in person to keep watch on them, while the remaining troops split into small squads of a few dozen riders or men to hunt down the fleeing Japanese bandits.

Oboi did not care in the least how many were killed. His aim was simply to drive them as far as possible, making them abandon their carried rations, armor, spears, and bows in the course of flight. These things could all be used to reward the Sakhalin natives. And on Sakhalin, where not a soul was to be seen, without rations and without bows for hunting, these Japanese were no different from dead men.

As for Kusunoki's main force, he would set it aside for now — they could not escape anyway.

The "Japanese-Qing Fur War" taking place on Sakhalin was, for Ukita Hideie — now seventy-eight years old, living on a small island called Hachijō-jima, more than three hundred li off the coast of the Izu Peninsula — almost an event in another world.

The only thing he cared about now was white rice! "If I could eat one meal of white rice, I could die content" was the catchphrase of this once-untouchable Ukita great elder.

But as Ukita Hideie grew older and older, and the figures of his generation withered away one after another, he himself had become a nearly forgotten man. His former enemies and friends were no longer in this world, so no one cared whether he had white rice to eat. Thus even so small a thing as "eating one meal of white rice" had gradually become a luxury for him. If he truly wanted it, he would have to earn it by his own labor.

So this morning, as usual, he rose early, ate a little of whatever could be put in his mouth, and began the day's work — weaving straw mats!

This was a livelihood skill he had learned after gradually falling into poverty on Hachijō-jima. He not only wove them himself, but brought his children and grandchildren into the work as well. In the original course of history, the Ukita family would have gone on living on Hachijō-jima until the Meiji Restoration.

But the old man's history changed today. He had just sat down beside a pile of straw and was about to begin work when a hallucination seemed to sound in his ears: "Great Elder Ukita, come with us!"

(End of Chapter)