Okay, I guess I'll post some very rough summaries for the first 2 volumes, based on the Chinese translations of the novels.
Again, since my Chinese is very basic, this is going to be very rough, and I wouldn't be surprised if I missed some details here or there.
Volume 1:
Spoiler:
I actually didn't read the parts already covered by the anime, so I'll be skipping those portions here as well. With all the spoilers already given, I think it should be enough either way.
For those who missed the posts above me discussing the differences between the anime and the novel, the biggest difference that mattered is that the Asai pretty boy did not show up in volume 1. In the novel, while Nobuna and friends were discussing Dousan's situation, his messenger arrived (no Mitsuhide Akechi yet) with his letter. Scene follows as per the anime, and Katsue knocks Nobuna out as she was about to give the order to march on Mino. Events follow the anime, in which our MC sets out with Goemon to rescue Dousan, ending with them getting rescued by Nobuna who came anyways and news of the Imagawa invasion.
Now for the new stuff.
Basically, what happened then was the MC taking advantage of his historical knowledge to replicate the Battle of Okehazama. Stuff happened as it did historically: a sneak attack while the Imagawa forces were unprepared and off balance right after a thunderstorm. In the confusion, the Imagawa forces scattered and the Oda forces overran and trapped Imagawa Yoshimoto before she even knew what happened. Unlike historically, however, she was then forced to surrender at sword point instead of getting killed in battle.
There's a bunch of stuff that the MC had to do to prep for the battle though, but I'm not too confident in my initial read-through, so I'd have to carefully reread through the whole thing again later to be sure of his exact actions...
Anyways, the volume ends with news of the battle spreading. With that, Nobuna is now far more famous and is considered an actually serious contender in the war rather than just as The Fool of Owari or the Foolish Princess.
Volume 2:
Spoiler:
Now is where Azai Nagamasa enters. With Nobuna now known as an actual contender in the war, he's entering the scene and proposing an alliance between Oda and Azai, sealed with a polical marriage between Nobuna and himself. Events are similar enough to the anime that I won't rehash them. In the end, the marriage talks are held off until Nobuna retakes Mino from Saitou Yoshitatsu.
The campaign is underway. Here we are introduced to our newest character: Takenaka Hanbei, the niece of one of the Mino three (they defected from Dousan to join Yoshitatsu) who is said to be a brilliant strategist comparable to Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms era. Her supposed genius is shown when the Oda forces walk into one of her stratagems: "Ambush From Ten Sides" (which, apparently, was from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and only the MC knew about it), where she sent a massive amount of her troops into hiding in an area, and then used a small amount of troops to engage the Oda forces, fake defeat, and retreat, luring the Oda forces into the ambush. With that, the Oda forces were in trouble from constant and continuous ambushing forces. Finally, the MC had Goemon and her ninjas use their smoke bombs to obscure the battlefield and cause confusion. This, combined with a relief force that came (This part I'm not entirely sure on), allowed the Oda forces to break out of the ambush.
Next strategy from Hanbei is another Three Kingdoms classic: the "Stone Sentinel Maze", a massive maze of stone slabs arranged by the Chinese concept of Ba Gua. Of course, being Japanese, none of the Oda forces knew enough to navigate the maze and got hopelessly lost. Then things went from bad to worse when the Mino forces diverted a river into the maze, aiming to basically drown the entire Oda forces. MC to the rescue, again: he basically organized a makeshift engineering corp on the spot and had them dig out the bottom of the stone slabs and knock them over. That not only gave them higher ground to avoid the waters, but also eventually destroyed the maze and released the Oda forces.
Somewhere in the middle of this, Nobuna declared to her entire force that whoever takes Mino will get one request from her, which she will fulfill no matter what it is. The MC jumps on it (he wants Nobuna to reject the marriage proposal from Azai Nagamasa), leading to some interesting scenes where Nobuna's privately freaking out over the possibility of the MC requesting her hand in marriage. A matter to note is that, while she's freaking out over it, it's all over the fact that their statuses are too different, and there wasn't one word about how she doesn't want to marry someone she doesn't love. This bit, I think, is rather telling...
I'm a little fuzzy on the next part, but basically the MC and Goemon went deep into Mino territory to try and get Hanbei to change sides. There, after some difficulties and a confrontation or two with Azai Nagamasa, who I think was there to do some double dealing and was secretly helping Yoshitatsu despite his supposed aim at marrying Nobuna (I think he's secretly allying with Yoshitatsu to obstruct Oda so as to make Nobuna have no choice but to marry him for an alliance with Azai if she wanted to take Mino. He was also trying to seduce Hanbei as well), they finally meet Hanbei. It turns out that Hanbei is actually this frail and timid little girl, who was so scared of other people and being bullied that she would normally send out a familiar (shikigami?) pretending to be her to feel out strangers first (this is where a great deal of those difficulties from earlier came from. The familiar, which I think is some kind of kitsune? has a penchant for some cruel practical jokes). In the end, the MC befriends her and eventually convinces her to follow him and change sides (I think Hanbei basically falls for him at that point).
There's a bunch of stuff in that whole bit that I'm unclear about, but I think the jist of it is that Hanbei's uncle, Andou of the Mino Three, was imprisoned (possibly due to the machination of Nagamasa? I know in the end it was Nagamasa that moved him and held him captive), and the MC promised Hanbei that he'll save Andou.
Although by converting Hanbei, the MC managed to take Inabayama Castle (the last major castle in Mino that needs to be taken for victory), he had to give it up and retreat (I think to protect Hanbei from being labeled a traitor? I'm really unclear on this part, have to reread, but I think the gist of it is that if Hanbei is declared a traitor, that'll spread to her uncle, Andou. If that happens, Andou, who's currently imprisoned by Nagamasa, could be executed without repercussion. Thus, to save Hanbei's uncle, the MC couldn't have Hanbei just hand over the castle, and so he instead gave it up?)
Nobuna basically declared to the MC that if the campaign to take Mino fails, she'll marry Nagamasa for an alliance with Azai against Mino (This was in no small part caused by her jealousy at MC giving up Inabayama for Hanbei's sake). Though the argument between the two that this declaration caused, Nobuna basically told the MC to take Inabayama in three days if he wants to stop the marriage.
MC's new strategy is to follow history and construct Sunomata Castle (the castle is located deep in enemy territory and, if constructed, will make taking Inabayama Castle much easier). Of course, to Nobuna, something like that is impossible, especially since Yoshitatsu will definitely send troops to interfere once he gets word.
On the construction of Sunomata: Day 1 goes perfectly, Day 2 Yoshitatsu attacked, and while they repelled the attack, all the workers got scared and ran away. Thus, the MC decided to repeat the old legend about Sunomata Ichiya Castle (Ichiya means one night, following the legend that the castle was literally built over a single night). The plan basically boiled down to these points;
1. Build the castle in one night by himself and Goemon and her lolicon followers (Nobuna won't be sending soldiers to help him with that).
2. Yoshitatsu will attack the castle, not knowing that it'll be mostly empty, leaving Inabayama Castle mostly undefended.
3. Nobuna will take all her troops and quickly take Inabayama in one day.
Cut to the MC's plan to build the castle in one night: his "two-by-four" method, which is basically this: The current time period's method for construction is to go to the place of construction and start building there from scratch. The "two-by-four" method is to make all the parts needed for construction ahead of time elsewhere, then just assemble the parts together on the spot, which cuts a ton of time needed to stay in enemy territory.
The plan is carried out mostly successfully, but Yoshitatsu's army arrives before they could finish. Goemon basically rushes out by herself to buy time, although the MC immediately follows after her. In the end though, Nobuna arrives to save the day, much like in volume 1 with the rescue of Saitou Dousan, forgoing her original objectives in order to save the MC. Yoshitatsu retreats back to Inabayama and readies for a siege.
With only one day left to take Inabayama and Mino with it before Nobuna agrees to the marriage with Azai Nagamasa, the MC undertakes a risky plan: He will sneak into the castle and open the gates from within, letting in the Oda troops, this way, they can definitely still take Mino within the time limit. Before he leaves for the mission, Nobuna gives him her gourd (as a keepsake or good luck charm?) in typical tsundere fashion.
The battle begins. MC opens the gates as planned, and the battle is won in a single day. He waves the gourd (it's bright gold and shiny) on the end of a spear to signal the Oda army. This lead to Nobuna deciding to make the MC's banner the picture of a gourd.
In the end, Nobuna decides to spare Yoshitatsu and just kicking him out. She gives the usual awards and stuff to her generals and sees to the captured enemy commanders, who she generally treats fairly gently (for the time anyways). All the while, Nagamasa's breaking out in a cold sweat over the possibility of his double dealing coming to light, which it does. Nobuna ignores it for the moment, however. Finally, it comes down to the last 2 issues that need to be resolved: the matter of her promise to grant anything to the one who conquers Mino and the Azai marriage proposal. The MC is obviously the one who is credited for taking Mino, and his request is, of course, for Nobuna to reject the marriage proposal. Nobuna basically uses the MC's request as the perfect excuse to reject the marriage (If she rejected it herself, it would constitute as a lose of face for the Azai, which would definitely sour relation when she needs the alliance). She then turns around and offers an alliance without marriage. Nagamasa replies that his father won't accept an alliance that isn't sealed by a marriage, but Nobunaga offers a princess of Owari for that. She also decides to overlook Nagamasa's double dealing, although it's heavily implied that she's using it as leverage to make him behave (work under her, no more seducing other notable females, etc...).
There's also a humorous bit where it's revealed that there is no other princesses of Owari other than Nobuna, and while everyone was panicking over it the MC asked about Oichi, who was historically Nobunaga's sister who was married to Azai Nagamasa. Of course, said person doesn't exist here, but at that moment, enter Nobuyuki. Cue "are you thinking what I'm thinking" and evil smiles, and they basically told Nobuyuki (while tied up via ninjas): from now on you're Oichi, princess of Owari and future wife of Azai.
Now, the draw for future volumes: Akechi Mitsuhide finally shows up with news. Matsunaga Hisahide and the Miyoshi Triumvirs tried to assassinate the current Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, and usurp power. Unlike in history where they succeeded, this time Ashikaga managed to escape and were trying to make for Ming China (this hammers in for the MC that history is changing and his knowledge might become obsolete). Mitsuhide had a plan for Oda to take advantage of the situation though, which centers on using Imagawa Yoshimoto(remember her, from volume 1? She was basically kept in the same style she was used to since her surrender at the end of the volume). I'm not too sure due to the terminologies at this point, but I think they're planning on having her declared as Shogun (she does have the right blood relations for legitimacy), although she'd just be a puppet under the control of Nobuna. There's also a bit of Akechi fangirling over the MC and his accomplishment of Sunomata Ichiya Castle (so cute).
Finally, we end with the renaming renaming Inabayama castle/mountain to Gifu, as was done historically.
Okay, I guess I'll post some very rough summaries for the first 2 volumes, based on the Chinese translations of the novels.
Again, since my Chinese is very basic, this is going to be very rough, and I wouldn't be surprised if I missed some details here or there.
Volume 1:
Spoiler:
I actually didn't read the parts already covered by the anime, so I'll be skipping those portions here as well. With all the spoilers already given, I think it should be enough either way.
For those who missed the posts above me discussing the differences between the anime and the novel, the biggest difference that mattered is that the Asai pretty boy did not show up in volume 1. In the novel, while Nobuna and friends were discussing Dousan's situation, his messenger arrived (no Mitsuhide Akechi yet) with his letter. Scene follows as per the anime, and Katsue knocks Nobuna out as she was about to give the order to march on Mino. Events follow the anime, in which our MC sets out with Goemon to rescue Dousan, ending with them getting rescued by Nobuna who came anyways and news of the Imagawa invasion.
Now for the new stuff.
Basically, what happened then was the MC taking advantage of his historical knowledge to replicate the Battle of Okehazama. Stuff happened as it did historically: a sneak attack while the Imagawa forces were unprepared and off balance right after a thunderstorm. In the confusion, the Imagawa forces scattered and the Oda forces overran and trapped Imagawa Yoshimoto before she even knew what happened. Unlike historically, however, she was then forced to surrender at sword point instead of getting killed in battle.
There's a bunch of stuff that the MC had to do to prep for the battle though, but I'm not too confident in my initial read-through, so I'd have to carefully reread through the whole thing again later to be sure of his exact actions...
Anyways, the volume ends with news of the battle spreading. With that, Nobuna is now far more famous and is considered an actually serious contender in the war rather than just as The Fool of Owari or the Foolish Princess.
Volume 2:
Spoiler:
Now is where Azai Nagamasa enters. With Nobuna now known as an actual contender in the war, he's entering the scene and proposing an alliance between Oda and Azai, sealed with a polical marriage between Nobuna and himself. Events are similar enough to the anime that I won't rehash them. In the end, the marriage talks are held off until Nobuna retakes Mino from Saitou Yoshitatsu.
The campaign is underway. Here we are introduced to our newest character: Takenaka Hanbei, the niece of one of the Mino three (they defected from Dousan to join Yoshitatsu) who is said to be a brilliant strategist comparable to Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms era. Her supposed genius is shown when the Oda forces walk into one of her stratagems: "Ambush From Ten Sides" (which, apparently, was from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and only the MC knew about it), where she sent a massive amount of her troops into hiding in an area, and then used a small amount of troops to engage the Oda forces, fake defeat, and retreat, luring the Oda forces into the ambush. With that, the Oda forces were in trouble from constant and continuous ambushing forces. Finally, the MC had Goemon and her ninjas use their smoke bombs to obscure the battlefield and cause confusion. This, combined with a relief force that came (This part I'm not entirely sure on), allowed the Oda forces to break out of the ambush.
Next strategy from Hanbei is another Three Kingdoms classic: the "Stone Sentinel Maze", a massive maze of stone slabs arranged by the Chinese concept of Ba Gua. Of course, being Japanese, none of the Oda forces knew enough to navigate the maze and got hopelessly lost. Then things went from bad to worse when the Mino forces diverted a river into the maze, aiming to basically drown the entire Oda forces. MC to the rescue, again: he basically organized a makeshift engineering corp on the spot and had them dig out the bottom of the stone slabs and knock them over. That not only gave them higher ground to avoid the waters, but also eventually destroyed the maze and released the Oda forces.
Somewhere in the middle of this, Nobuna declared to her entire force that whoever takes Mino will get one request from her, which she will fulfill no matter what it is. The MC jumps on it (he wants Nobuna to reject the marriage proposal from Azai Nagamasa), leading to some interesting scenes where Nobuna's privately freaking out over the possibility of the MC requesting her hand in marriage. A matter to note is that, while she's freaking out over it, it's all over the fact that their statuses are too different, and there wasn't one word about how she doesn't want to marry someone she doesn't love. This bit, I think, is rather telling...
I'm a little fuzzy on the next part, but basically the MC and Goemon went deep into Mino territory to try and get Hanbei to change sides. There, after some difficulties and a confrontation or two with Azai Nagamasa, who I think was there to do some double dealing and was secretly helping Yoshitatsu despite his supposed aim at marrying Nobuna (I think he's secretly allying with Yoshitatsu to obstruct Oda so as to make Nobuna have no choice but to marry him for an alliance with Azai if she wanted to take Mino. He was also trying to seduce Hanbei as well), they finally meet Hanbei. It turns out that Hanbei is actually this frail and timid little girl, who was so scared of other people and being bullied that she would normally send out a familiar (shikigami?) pretending to be her to feel out strangers first (this is where a great deal of those difficulties from earlier came from. The familiar, which I think is some kind of kitsune? has a penchant for some cruel practical jokes). In the end, the MC befriends her and eventually convinces her to follow him and change sides (I think Hanbei basically falls for him at that point).
There's a bunch of stuff in that whole bit that I'm unclear about, but I think the jist of it is that Hanbei's uncle, Andou of the Mino Three, was imprisoned (possibly due to the machination of Nagamasa? I know in the end it was Nagamasa that moved him and held him captive), and the MC promised Hanbei that he'll save Andou.
Although by converting Hanbei, the MC managed to take Inabayama Castle (the last major castle in Mino that needs to be taken for victory), he had to give it up and retreat (I think to protect Hanbei from being labeled a traitor? I'm really unclear on this part, have to reread, but I think the gist of it is that if Hanbei is declared a traitor, that'll spread to her uncle, Andou. If that happens, Andou, who's currently imprisoned by Nagamasa, could be executed without repercussion. Thus, to save Hanbei's uncle, the MC couldn't have Hanbei just hand over the castle, and so he instead gave it up?)
Nobuna basically declared to the MC that if the campaign to take Mino fails, she'll marry Nagamasa for an alliance with Azai against Mino (This was in no small part caused by her jealousy at MC giving up Inabayama for Hanbei's sake). Though the argument between the two that this declaration caused, Nobuna basically told the MC to take Inabayama in three days if he wants to stop the marriage.
MC's new strategy is to follow history and construct Sunomata Castle (the castle is located deep in enemy territory and, if constructed, will make taking Inabayama Castle much easier). Of course, to Nobuna, something like that is impossible, especially since Yoshitatsu will definitely send troops to interfere once he gets word.
On the construction of Sunomata: Day 1 goes perfectly, Day 2 Yoshitatsu attacked, and while they repelled the attack, all the workers got scared and ran away. Thus, the MC decided to repeat the old legend about Sunomata Ichiya Castle (Ichiya means one night, following the legend that the castle was literally built over a single night). The plan basically boiled down to these points;
1. Build the castle in one night by himself and Goemon and her lolicon followers (Nobuna won't be sending soldiers to help him with that).
2. Yoshitatsu will attack the castle, not knowing that it'll be mostly empty, leaving Inabayama Castle mostly undefended.
3. Nobuna will take all her troops and quickly take Inabayama in one day.
Cut to the MC's plan to build the castle in one night: his "two-by-four" method, which is basically this: The current time period's method for construction is to go to the place of construction and start building there from scratch. The "two-by-four" method is to make all the parts needed for construction ahead of time elsewhere, then just assemble the parts together on the spot, which cuts a ton of time needed to stay in enemy territory.
The plan is carried out mostly successfully, but Yoshitatsu's army arrives before they could finish. Goemon basically rushes out by herself to buy time, although the MC immediately follows after her. In the end though, Nobuna arrives to save the day, much like in volume 1 with the rescue of Saitou Dousan, forgoing her original objectives in order to save the MC. Yoshitatsu retreats back to Inabayama and readies for a siege.
With only one day left to take Inabayama and Mino with it before Nobuna agrees to the marriage with Azai Nagamasa, the MC undertakes a risky plan: He will sneak into the castle and open the gates from within, letting in the Oda troops, this way, they can definitely still take Mino within the time limit. Before he leaves for the mission, Nobuna gives him her gourd (as a keepsake or good luck charm?) in typical tsundere fashion.
The battle begins. MC opens the gates as planned, and the battle is won in a single day. He waves the gourd (it's bright gold and shiny) on the end of a spear to signal the Oda army. This lead to Nobuna deciding to make the MC's banner the picture of a gourd.
In the end, Nobuna decides to spare Yoshitatsu and just kicking him out. She gives the usual awards and stuff to her generals and sees to the captured enemy commanders, who she generally treats fairly gently (for the time anyways). All the while, Nagamasa's breaking out in a cold sweat over the possibility of his double dealing coming to light, which it does. Nobuna ignores it for the moment, however. Finally, it comes down to the last 2 issues that need to be resolved: the matter of her promise to grant anything to the one who conquers Mino and the Azai marriage proposal. The MC is obviously the one who is credited for taking Mino, and his request is, of course, for Nobuna to reject the marriage proposal. Nobuna basically uses the MC's request as the perfect excuse to reject the marriage (If she rejected it herself, it would constitute as a lose of face for the Azai, which would definitely sour relation when she needs the alliance). She then turns around and offers an alliance without marriage. Nagamasa replies that his father won't accept an alliance that isn't sealed by a marriage, but Nobunaga offers a princess of Owari for that. She also decides to overlook Nagamasa's double dealing, although it's heavily implied that she's using it as leverage to make him behave (work under her, no more seducing other notable females, etc...).
There's also a humorous bit where it's revealed that there is no other princesses of Owari other than Nobuna, and while everyone was panicking over it the MC asked about Oichi, who was historically Nobunaga's sister who was married to Azai Nagamasa. Of course, said person doesn't exist here, but at that moment, enter Nobuyuki. Cue "are you thinking what I'm thinking" and evil smiles, and they basically told Nobuyuki (while tied up via ninjas): from now on you're Oichi, princess of Owari and future wife of Azai.
Now, the draw for future volumes: Akechi Mitsuhide finally shows up with news. Matsunaga Hisahide and the Miyoshi Triumvirs tried to assassinate the current Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, and usurp power. Unlike in history where they succeeded, this time Ashikaga managed to escape and were trying to make for Ming China (this hammers in for the MC that history is changing and his knowledge might become obsolete). Mitsuhide had a plan for Oda to take advantage of the situation though, which centers on using Imagawa Yoshimoto(remember her, from volume 1? She was basically kept in the same style she was used to since her surrender at the end of the volume). I'm not too sure due to the terminologies at this point, but I think they're planning on having her declared as Shogun (she does have the right blood relations for legitimacy), although she'd just be a puppet under the control of Nobuna. There's also a bit of Akechi fangirling over the MC and his accomplishment of Sunomata Ichiya Castle (so cute).
Finally, we end with the renaming renaming Inabayama castle/mountain to Gifu, as was done historically.
Thanks for sharing spoilers on volume 1 and 2
Who is Nobuyuki?
would it be possible to get a link for those chinese translations
>.< dying to know what happens
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechatrill
Okay, I guess I'll post some very rough summaries for the first 2 volumes, based on the Chinese translations of the novels.
Again, since my Chinese is very basic, this is going to be very rough, and I wouldn't be surprised if I missed some details here or there.
Volume 1:
Spoiler:
I actually didn't read the parts already covered by the anime, so I'll be skipping those portions here as well. With all the spoilers already given, I think it should be enough either way.
For those who missed the posts above me discussing the differences between the anime and the novel, the biggest difference that mattered is that the Asai pretty boy did not show up in volume 1. In the novel, while Nobuna and friends were discussing Dousan's situation, his messenger arrived (no Mitsuhide Akechi yet) with his letter. Scene follows as per the anime, and Katsue knocks Nobuna out as she was about to give the order to march on Mino. Events follow the anime, in which our MC sets out with Goemon to rescue Dousan, ending with them getting rescued by Nobuna who came anyways and news of the Imagawa invasion.
Now for the new stuff.
Basically, what happened then was the MC taking advantage of his historical knowledge to replicate the Battle of Okehazama. Stuff happened as it did historically: a sneak attack while the Imagawa forces were unprepared and off balance right after a thunderstorm. In the confusion, the Imagawa forces scattered and the Oda forces overran and trapped Imagawa Yoshimoto before she even knew what happened. Unlike historically, however, she was then forced to surrender at sword point instead of getting killed in battle.
There's a bunch of stuff that the MC had to do to prep for the battle though, but I'm not too confident in my initial read-through, so I'd have to carefully reread through the whole thing again later to be sure of his exact actions...
Anyways, the volume ends with news of the battle spreading. With that, Nobuna is now far more famous and is considered an actually serious contender in the war rather than just as The Fool of Owari or the Foolish Princess.
Volume 2:
Spoiler:
Now is where Azai Nagamasa enters. With Nobuna now known as an actual contender in the war, he's entering the scene and proposing an alliance between Oda and Azai, sealed with a polical marriage between Nobuna and himself. Events are similar enough to the anime that I won't rehash them. In the end, the marriage talks are held off until Nobuna retakes Mino from Saitou Yoshitatsu.
The campaign is underway. Here we are introduced to our newest character: Takenaka Hanbei, the niece of one of the Mino three (they defected from Dousan to join Yoshitatsu) who is said to be a brilliant strategist comparable to Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms era. Her supposed genius is shown when the Oda forces walk into one of her stratagems: "Ambush From Ten Sides" (which, apparently, was from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and only the MC knew about it), where she sent a massive amount of her troops into hiding in an area, and then used a small amount of troops to engage the Oda forces, fake defeat, and retreat, luring the Oda forces into the ambush. With that, the Oda forces were in trouble from constant and continuous ambushing forces. Finally, the MC had Goemon and her ninjas use their smoke bombs to obscure the battlefield and cause confusion. This, combined with a relief force that came (This part I'm not entirely sure on), allowed the Oda forces to break out of the ambush.
Next strategy from Hanbei is another Three Kingdoms classic: the "Stone Sentinel Maze", a massive maze of stone slabs arranged by the Chinese concept of Ba Gua. Of course, being Japanese, none of the Oda forces knew enough to navigate the maze and got hopelessly lost. Then things went from bad to worse when the Mino forces diverted a river into the maze, aiming to basically drown the entire Oda forces. MC to the rescue, again: he basically organized a makeshift engineering corp on the spot and had them dig out the bottom of the stone slabs and knock them over. That not only gave them higher ground to avoid the waters, but also eventually destroyed the maze and released the Oda forces.
Somewhere in the middle of this, Nobuna declared to her entire force that whoever takes Mino will get one request from her, which she will fulfill no matter what it is. The MC jumps on it (he wants Nobuna to reject the marriage proposal from Azai Nagamasa), leading to some interesting scenes where Nobuna's privately freaking out over the possibility of the MC requesting her hand in marriage. A matter to note is that, while she's freaking out over it, it's all over the fact that their statuses are too different, and there wasn't one word about how she doesn't want to marry someone she doesn't love. This bit, I think, is rather telling...
I'm a little fuzzy on the next part, but basically the MC and Goemon went deep into Mino territory to try and get Hanbei to change sides. There, after some difficulties and a confrontation or two with Azai Nagamasa, who I think was there to do some double dealing and was secretly helping Yoshitatsu despite his supposed aim at marrying Nobuna (I think he's secretly allying with Yoshitatsu to obstruct Oda so as to make Nobuna have no choice but to marry him for an alliance with Azai if she wanted to take Mino. He was also trying to seduce Hanbei as well), they finally meet Hanbei. It turns out that Hanbei is actually this frail and timid little girl, who was so scared of other people and being bullied that she would normally send out a familiar (shikigami?) pretending to be her to feel out strangers first (this is where a great deal of those difficulties from earlier came from. The familiar, which I think is some kind of kitsune? has a penchant for some cruel practical jokes). In the end, the MC befriends her and eventually convinces her to follow him and change sides (I think Hanbei basically falls for him at that point).
There's a bunch of stuff in that whole bit that I'm unclear about, but I think the jist of it is that Hanbei's uncle, Andou of the Mino Three, was imprisoned (possibly due to the machination of Nagamasa? I know in the end it was Nagamasa that moved him and held him captive), and the MC promised Hanbei that he'll save Andou.
Although by converting Hanbei, the MC managed to take Inabayama Castle (the last major castle in Mino that needs to be taken for victory), he had to give it up and retreat (I think to protect Hanbei from being labeled a traitor? I'm really unclear on this part, have to reread, but I think the gist of it is that if Hanbei is declared a traitor, that'll spread to her uncle, Andou. If that happens, Andou, who's currently imprisoned by Nagamasa, could be executed without repercussion. Thus, to save Hanbei's uncle, the MC couldn't have Hanbei just hand over the castle, and so he instead gave it up?)
Nobuna basically declared to the MC that if the campaign to take Mino fails, she'll marry Nagamasa for an alliance with Azai against Mino (This was in no small part caused by her jealousy at MC giving up Inabayama for Hanbei's sake). Though the argument between the two that this declaration caused, Nobuna basically told the MC to take Inabayama in three days if he wants to stop the marriage.
MC's new strategy is to follow history and construct Sunomata Castle (the castle is located deep in enemy territory and, if constructed, will make taking Inabayama Castle much easier). Of course, to Nobuna, something like that is impossible, especially since Yoshitatsu will definitely send troops to interfere once he gets word.
On the construction of Sunomata: Day 1 goes perfectly, Day 2 Yoshitatsu attacked, and while they repelled the attack, all the workers got scared and ran away. Thus, the MC decided to repeat the old legend about Sunomata Ichiya Castle (Ichiya means one night, following the legend that the castle was literally built over a single night). The plan basically boiled down to these points;
1. Build the castle in one night by himself and Goemon and her lolicon followers (Nobuna won't be sending soldiers to help him with that).
2. Yoshitatsu will attack the castle, not knowing that it'll be mostly empty, leaving Inabayama Castle mostly undefended.
3. Nobuna will take all her troops and quickly take Inabayama in one day.
Cut to the MC's plan to build the castle in one night: his "two-by-four" method, which is basically this: The current time period's method for construction is to go to the place of construction and start building there from scratch. The "two-by-four" method is to make all the parts needed for construction ahead of time elsewhere, then just assemble the parts together on the spot, which cuts a ton of time needed to stay in enemy territory.
The plan is carried out mostly successfully, but Yoshitatsu's army arrives before they could finish. Goemon basically rushes out by herself to buy time, although the MC immediately follows after her. In the end though, Nobuna arrives to save the day, much like in volume 1 with the rescue of Saitou Dousan, forgoing her original objectives in order to save the MC. Yoshitatsu retreats back to Inabayama and readies for a siege.
With only one day left to take Inabayama and Mino with it before Nobuna agrees to the marriage with Azai Nagamasa, the MC undertakes a risky plan: He will sneak into the castle and open the gates from within, letting in the Oda troops, this way, they can definitely still take Mino within the time limit. Before he leaves for the mission, Nobuna gives him her gourd (as a keepsake or good luck charm?) in typical tsundere fashion.
The battle begins. MC opens the gates as planned, and the battle is won in a single day. He waves the gourd (it's bright gold and shiny) on the end of a spear to signal the Oda army. This lead to Nobuna deciding to make the MC's banner the picture of a gourd.
In the end, Nobuna decides to spare Yoshitatsu and just kicking him out. She gives the usual awards and stuff to her generals and sees to the captured enemy commanders, who she generally treats fairly gently (for the time anyways). All the while, Nagamasa's breaking out in a cold sweat over the possibility of his double dealing coming to light, which it does. Nobuna ignores it for the moment, however. Finally, it comes down to the last 2 issues that need to be resolved: the matter of her promise to grant anything to the one who conquers Mino and the Azai marriage proposal. The MC is obviously the one who is credited for taking Mino, and his request is, of course, for Nobuna to reject the marriage proposal. Nobuna basically uses the MC's request as the perfect excuse to reject the marriage (If she rejected it herself, it would constitute as a lose of face for the Azai, which would definitely sour relation when she needs the alliance). She then turns around and offers an alliance without marriage. Nagamasa replies that his father won't accept an alliance that isn't sealed by a marriage, but Nobunaga offers a princess of Owari for that. She also decides to overlook Nagamasa's double dealing, although it's heavily implied that she's using it as leverage to make him behave (work under her, no more seducing other notable females, etc...).
There's also a humorous bit where it's revealed that there is no other princesses of Owari other than Nobuna, and while everyone was panicking over it the MC asked about Oichi, who was historically Nobunaga's sister who was married to Azai Nagamasa. Of course, said person doesn't exist here, but at that moment, enter Nobuyuki. Cue "are you thinking what I'm thinking" and evil smiles, and they basically told Nobuyuki (while tied up via ninjas): from now on you're Oichi, princess of Owari and future wife of Azai.
Now, the draw for future volumes: Akechi Mitsuhide finally shows up with news. Matsunaga Hisahide and the Miyoshi Triumvirs tried to assassinate the current Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, and usurp power. Unlike in history where they succeeded, this time Ashikaga managed to escape and were trying to make for Ming China (this hammers in for the MC that history is changing and his knowledge might become obsolete). Mitsuhide had a plan for Oda to take advantage of the situation though, which centers on using Imagawa Yoshimoto(remember her, from volume 1? She was basically kept in the same style she was used to since her surrender at the end of the volume). I'm not too sure due to the terminologies at this point, but I think they're planning on having her declared as Shogun (she does have the right blood relations for legitimacy), although she'd just be a puppet under the control of Nobuna. There's also a bit of Akechi fangirling over the MC and his accomplishment of Sunomata Ichiya Castle (so cute).
Finally, we end with the renaming renaming Inabayama castle/mountain to Gifu, as was done historically.
I think it's done to change the story a bit to fit things into the anime context.
Spoiler for My twisted idea for Honno-ji:
Juubei-chan starts things off over Monkey, and in the end Juubei-chan is killed or commits seppuku. This causes not a few anguish in Monkey and his relationship with Nobuna
I think it's done to change the story a bit to fit things into the anime context.
Spoiler for My twisted idea for Honno-ji:
Juubei-chan starts things off over Monkey, and in the end Juubei-chan is killed or commits seppuku. This causes not a few anguish in Monkey and his relationship with Nobuna
tht would be interesting ^^
well.. since we cant follow the actual results of nobunaga's forced suicide (or at least i dont think we can... but one never knows...)
author san will probably have to think of something here, but i doubt fans would be happy with killing off a female harem cast >>
2012-07-24, 00:05
. She returned in time to save Yoshiharu from Hanzou's poisonous shuriken.
Artist
