Fictional work. Any similarity to real names or events is coincidental.
Underage smoking is prohibited.
Down with the traitor!
Loyalty and patriotism!
Long live our Commander-in-Chief!
Down with the traitor!
DOWN WITH THE TRAITOR LOYALTY AND PATRIOTISM
Year 60 of the Yamato era. Spring.
After Seii Commander Ohga Wajima reclaimed her authority overnight...
WE'LL CALL THIS OPERATION
"WINTER GENERAL STRATEGY"
FUKUI REIHOKU CASTLE
...the Yamato forces under Borderland General Mitsuhide Ryumon,
found themselves at a disadvantage at Fukui Reihoku Castle.
AAARGH
Meanwhile, in Osaka,
a lone young man sought an audience with the Emperor
to carry out a mission entrusted to him by the strategist Yasuaki Kaku.
TAIRA
I, Aoteru Misumi, Auditor of the Borderland General Corps,
request an audience with His Majesty, the Emperor of Yamato!
Aoteru Misumi, age 18.
Three years had passed
since the low-ranking agricultural officer from Ehime,
passed the Toryumon, fulfilling his promise to his late wife, Saki,
and joined the Borderland General Corps.
Then, what did you come here for?
I've come to request
an imperial edict from Your Majesty ordering a withdrawal.
What exactly lies ahead for Aoteru?
OSAKA YEAR 60 - YAMATO ERA - SPRING
What?
- Withdrawal? Absolutely not! - That's right!
EPISODE 11: LIE ON FIREWOOD AND PERSUADE THE HEAVENS
Withdraw now, when our allies are struggling on the front lines?
Exactly. Send reinforcements, and the Seii forces will be crushed!
And you call for withdrawal?
That's beyond absurd, Auditor Misumi!
Wait, what? Why withdraw?
If we send the Osaka army, couldn't we defeat Seii?
Look here, isn't this ridiculous, Auditor Misumi?
You sought an audience with His Majesty to request reinforcements,
yet you make no such request.
To deceive His Majesty in a petition is a grave crime.
With time of the essence, dealing with this sort of nonsense is frankly tiresome.
Your Majesty, I propose he be put to death at once.
Put-- Put to death?
ROAR
- I agree! - He should be executed!
Please give the order!
MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS - STRATEGIST MAGURO TOYOTA
Please, everyone.
Calm yourselves.
It is true that, outside the main hall,
I explained to the guard how vital a request for reinforcements
from the Borderland General Corps would be.
However, all I said was that I had come regarding the matter of reinforcements.
I never once said I had come to request reinforcements from His Majesty.
Right. Auditor Misumi is correct.
My subordinate recorded every single word of the conversation with the guard.
But, Auditor Misumi, withdrawal is out of the question.
If Ryumon were to withdraw temporarily,
then regroup and defeat the Seii forces,
no one would object to his remaining in command.
But in the meantime, what becomes of Fukui?
The people who live there?
The more than 30,000 soldiers isolated in Seii territory?
It would take days for Ryumon to redeploy.
Do you truly expect the Seii forces to wait quietly?
And if they launch a coordinated attack on those isolated forces, then what?
My own son is among those isolated forces.
Do you believe
that as long as Ryumon's authority is preserved...
BANG BANG
...any other losses are acceptable?
Or is this your intent?
Your wife was executed on my orders.
Do you mean to repay that by letting my son die?
It is true that
if the Borderland General withdraws, your son will not survive, Lord Taira.
I see.
That's a shame.
That leaves a damn bad taste.
HE'LL BE PUNISHED!
However.
I did not come here to propose a withdrawal
HMM?
HUH?
But you just asked for an imperial edict ordering a withdrawal!
Allow me to repeat myself.
I did not come to propose a withdrawal to His Majesty.
I came to receive an imperial edict ordering one.
The aim is to lure the Seii forces in with a feigned withdrawal,
then spring an ambush using remnants of the late Japan era
and wipe them out in one fell swoop.
What? Wait, what is this? What does he mean?
A simple withdrawal could make the enemy suspect an ambush.
But by issuing an imperial edict,
the Seii forces will believe the retreat is genuine.
Then hidden troops, together with units feigning defeat,
will encircle them on three sides and crush them.
The so-called Shimazu feigned retreat.
The operation will take place
in Ota, Echizen, where Chief Clerk Kinta Moriyama was exiled.
Ota is a basin surrounded by mountains,
and since the unrest at the end of the Japan era, it has become a ghost town,
making it an ideal location for an ambush.
However, moving troops from Reihoku could expose the plan to the Seii forces.
So we will use the soldiers who escorted Chief Clerk Moriyama as our ambush force.
Yet with their numbers only around 200,
how do we form an encirclement with so few men?
The answer...
lies in an encirclement using remnants of the late Japan era. Scrapped cars.
"Scrap guards"? What even is that?
First, once the imperial edict of withdrawal arrives...
ROAR
...Borderland General Ryumon's forces will feign defeat and retreat,
drawing the Seii army in pursuit and leading them into Ota.
FUKUI REIHOKU CASTLE OTA
Meanwhile, Chief Clerk Moriyama's ambush unit will line the flanks
of the Seii army's expected route with large numbers of scrapped cars.
YAMATO
Once the Seii army enters Ota,
General Ryumon's forces will turn and counterattack.
The ambush unit will then drop the scrapped cars from the cliffs,
striking the Seii army below.
If we also cut off their retreat,
then, in the truest sense of the phrase,
we can wipe out the Seii army in one fell swoop.
ZING
Right.
It's an impressive plan.
Credit where it's due,
the Borderland General Corps laid the groundwork well in advance.
But an ambush against mere Seii forces is soft.
What matters is making them understand that Yamato cannot be conquered.
And for that, don't you think we should
deploy reinforcements and crush them completely?
I do not.
Because if we deploy reinforcements,
Buo in the east is far more likely to enter the war.
Bu-- Buo?
As you all know,
many key officers in the Borderland General Corps
are currently committed to defending against the Seii army,
leaving Aichi, our border with Buo, poorly guarded.
YAMATO - BUO
In other words, Buo is very likely to seize this opportunity to enter the war.
And one more thing.
Many of those who founded Buo,
including its first emperor, Momokuni Hojo,
and its first military strategist, Juro Musashikami, are now old.
It's highly likely they see this as their last chance to destroy our country.
Should reinforcements be sent to Fukui,
not only Aichi but even Osaka would be left exposed.
We could find ourselves facing enemies
on both the Seii and Buo fronts, risking a three-way war.
What? Isn't that bad? Like, really bad?
- A three-way war? - Now you're talking!
Bring it on!
Enough!
You sit in safety, far from the border, and fail to grasp how serious this is.
Do you think war is a game, or something out of a manga?
If this becomes a three-way war, it is likely to drag on.
And if it does, not only will costs soar,
but the land will be ravaged and farming will grind to a halt.
When people can no longer farm,
more people will starve, conflict will erupt at home,
and countless lives will be lost.
What do you take human life for?
ZING
Your Majesty, if I may.
Huh... What?
The essence of war
does not lie in settling victory through direct force,
but in thwarting the enemy's intent.
What? What's that?
To force an enemy nation to submit through sheer numbers
is the poorest form of war.
As Sun Tzu teaches,
"In war, the best policy is to take a state intact, to ruin it is inferior."
"To capture the enemy's army is better than to destroy it."
"To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."
You mean win without fighting?
Three years ago, Buo seized an opening
while Minister Taira toured the country in Your Majesty's stead.
They broke through our border defenses and invaded Nagashino.
YAMATO - BUO
If Buo enters the war,
and Seii has a large-scale operation planned with our reinforcements in mind,
we risk losing a vast part of our army.
If this is a ruse by Seii, we will lose a vast part of our army!
Reinforcements or an ambush.
In the broader view, which serves our nation?
Which spares needless loss of life?
Your Majesty, I ask for your courageous decision.
Honestly, I don't understand any of this!
And the Japan-era "scrap guard" plan... What's that even supposed to mean?
And where the heck is this frog he mentioned?
But...
I ignored Ryumon's warning
to handle Muuton Nagao's something-something stratagem with caution
and sent our standing forces to Kanazawa anyway.
And this is the result.
I won't let any more lives be lost because of my decisions!
All right.
I've decided!
- I-- - Your Majesty.
Have you already forgotten what I told you then?
Your Majesty's only allies are...
the Tairas alone.
I issue an imperial command!
Auditor Aoteru Misumi of the Borderland General Corps,
deliver the edict of withdrawal to Ryumon without fail!
GASP
Misumi, take it!
I humbly accept!
Misumi!
Onward!
At once!
This is my courage.
AM I GOING TO BE PUNISHED?
I-- I should probably think up an excuse...
Just in case.
THE OTA SCRAPPED CAR AMBUSH
A feigned withdrawal?
It was the advice from Strategist Kaku.
"Lie on firewood and persuade the heavens."
The phrase comes from the Spring and Autumn period in China,
when a king slept on hard firewood
so he would never forget his enemy.
I took it to mean that I should persuade the Emperor of Yamato
to achieve our goal.
Yikes.
What kind of eccentric advice is that?
And as for that goal, drawing on his earlier line,
"only a rare few become frogs,"
frogs undergo metamorphosis, giving the phrase a dual meaning.
I took "firewood" to refer to alternative fuel for automobiles,
and "lie" to mean lying to wait for an ambush.
No normal person would think that!
You are definitely one of the rare few!
So you tracked down where Chief Clerk Moriyama was exiled,
and that's how you figured out the real meaning behind the advice.
Still, he could have just made it clearer.
An answer given to you by another cannot persuade the Emperor.
You must arrive at it yourself.
That is likely what Strategist Kaku...
Though it's possible I'm completely off.
Hey, come on!
If we go all out to Fukui
and it turns out you got it wrong, that's no joke!
No, but...
I wrote out every possible double meaning,
considered each scenario, examined every pattern,
and arrived at the most plausible answer.
Well, even if you are wrong,
I'll prove you are right.
I'm just that good.
I'm really counting on you. Mr. Tsune.
What?
Did you say something?
Never mind.
Hurry!
OSAKA - YEAR 60 OF THE YAMATO ERA - SPRING 00:45, 12 DEGREES CELSIUS
Maguro, what do you make of the ambush?
It's a remarkably clever strategy.
Even more chilling is that it was already in motion
while the Self-Injury Stratagem was still only suspected.
To foresee someone like Moriyama would appear, urging surrender to Seii
and then to use that to their advantage...
That Strategist Kaku is quite something.
Truly a natural-born genius.
My lord, as long as that genius lives,
the Borderland General Corps will remain secure.
But what happens when he dies?
According to a report I've just received, it seems Kaku has collapsed in camp.
He likely knows his time is short,
and intends to entrust what follows to Misumi.
And it's true, Misumi's sharper than when I last sat with him.
Quick-witted and more eloquent.
ROOK PROMOTED ROOK
Yet, the wise speak little.
In the end, he's nothing more than a fool.
Right.
But you see, Maguro...
it's precisely because he's a fool that he can grow into something bigger.
Thanks to his persuasion,
the emperor I raised from childhood, the one I even gave my daughter to,
has started thinking like a strategist.
And that's not what I want.
KNIGHT - ROOK BISHOP - SILVER GENERAL
Why not consider poisoning him, like the late emperor?
Right.
Well, that's an option too.
But I've got a more interesting idea.
And to pull it off,
Ryumon and his corps need to win this battle.
My lord,
checkmate.
Whoa!
YAMATO
BATTLE OF DAISHOJI
At dawn, the Seii army, led by Commander-in-Chief Ohga Wajima,
began its assault on the isolated Nagamine forces at Daishoji,
carrying out the Winter General Strategy.
I'll tell you what we are after!
DAIKICHI KONOURA
Nagamine's head!
Anyone who wants glory, follow me!
Come on, move it!
ROAR
Report!
Segoe Bridge has fallen.
NAGAMINE FORCES MAIN CAMP
- The Seii army has breached our camp! - Is that true?
TONOTSUGU TAIRA
Sir!
Aterui Kura's Seii forces have taken positions at Atago Bridge!
Urgent report!
We are being pushed back at Atago Bridge by Seii reinforcements from Okuetsu!
The enemy's onslaught is brutal.
If reinforcements don't get here soon, we will be wiped out!
What should we do, Shiryo?
GOH SUGOH - SHIRYO NAGAMINE
I'm going out there too!
Until reinforcements arrive, this will no doubt be a hard fight!
We Satsuma--
No, we Yamato warriors will show them our true mettle!
ROAR
Victory is ours!
Go!
WAJIMA ARMY HEADQUARTERS
Report!
Nagamine's main force appears to have left headquarters.
They have split into two groups, heading for Daikichi's division and Kura's army.
Thanks for the report.
Until further orders, get some rest, all right?
SO PRECIOUS!!
Yes-- Yes, ma'am!
YASUKE KONOURA
As expected, Nagamine's main force has moved out.
If we keep pressing with Daikichi's unit
and drive Nagamine into the exposed northern plains,
our victory should be assured.
Yasuke, you and Daikichi did well. Everyone did.
Calling in Aterui was a sound decision.
It may be difficult for him to take command,
but his presence alone is enough to deter the enemy.
That said, Military Chief Kura insists...
ATERUI KURA
..."I've awakened after sacrificing Muuton,
Strategist Hei, and Sato of Kuzuryu Castle."
"That's why I'm strong now. Let me fight."
Those were his exact words.
Right.
Write back at once. Tell him,
"Your strength lies in your presence alone."
"That is the power you have awakened."
"Enter the battle yourself, and you will lose it all."
If we take Daishoji,
and Jien and his forces lay siege to Reihoku Castle,
Yamato's reinforcements will surely come.
And that is exactly what we want.
The Winter General Strategy, I see.
I believe we should take Reihoku Castle tonight,
before Yamato's reinforcements arrive.
This is the moment of truth!
Let us unite as one and press forward together!
ROAR
Reporting!
Roughly 12,000 soldiers under Jien Hibi are advancing to this castle.
FUKUI REIHOKU CASTLE
They will arrive in about two hours.
Where are the reinforcements?
The enemy's right on our doorstep!
Borderland General Ryumon.
We are out of time!
Order us to engage the enemy!
Give us the order!
Please, give the order!
- All right, then. - Wait!
An imperial decree from His Majesty
the Emperor of Yamato to Borderland General Ryumon!
"Ryumon and all soldiers at Fukui Reihoku Castle!"
"Abandon the castle at once and withdraw!"
"This is my imperial command!"
Aoteru and Yoshitsune.
A hope carried forward
by the young men who passed the Toryumon with lofty ambitions.
What fate awaits this war that will divide the realm?
"TO SUBDUE THE ENEMY WITHOUT FIGHTING IS THE ACME OF SKILL."
Creative Supervisor : Hideo Kimura