The meager forces Tetsurou had remaining assembled outside Kanazawa. On his signal, the front gate was knocked down - and the assault begun!
Charging as quickly as possible into the enemy compound, the Oni in Red paid no attention to the enemy monk spearman and naginata users, instead personally making a dash for their ranged units.
Cutting as down as many as he could reach, he then switched out to his bow and began to shoot from afar. As his troops held position on the bridge leading to the central core of the enemy fortress, he shot down the marksmen that were giving them trouble.
Then, once he and his archers shot down the monk marksmen who had line of sight of his troops, he then ordered his troops to back away.
Holding a line position thirty feet away from the central bridge, he offset his archers behind and slightly to the right of his melee troops.
Taking this solid position, they defeated countless enemies.
Tetsurou's forces defeated 300 men in this way before ultimately needing to retreat. But they did not leave without receiving substantial pain themselves.
---
As a result of this strategy, almost everybody got out alive and they inflicted substantial losses on Kanazawa's garrison.
However, nearly everybody in the party was injured. There were hardly any combat ready men left.
Tetsurou and all of his companions had sustained serious injuries. They would all recover with time, but all they could do for now was limp along on their horses.
Enrique, their medic and surgeon was injured.
Sessai, their tactician and engineer was injured.
And Hoshi, their pathfinder and spotter, was injured.
All the others were too badly wounded to enter battle, and even Tetsurou himself was in such a serious condition that he could not be expected to lead the party in battle.
This was why, when only a tiny 55 strong party of monks lead by Abbot Fukui appeared over the horizon, it almost spelled doom for the entire party!
-
"We... have to evade them. If we fight them here... we will all die... there are no combat ready men left, Brother Tetsurou..." gasped Hoshi.
Tetsurou agreed. With what little consciousness he had left, he ordered the party to ride north.
"Lord Kita is raiding the villages up north" he said. "We must... rendezvous with him..."
And so it was, that a party of over 100 elite samurai nearly came to their end at the hands of only 55 monks.
They rode across the countryside with the Abbot dogging their heels. When they were nearly upon the verge of defeat...
"That's... Lord Kita's flag... We're saved!"
Faint cheers could be heard from within the company.
Abbot Fukui was forced to retreat upon sighting Lord Kita's 110 strong army.
Safely within the protection of friendly forces, the Oni in Red and his men could relax...
---
It was four days before Tetsurou came back to Kanazawa to finish what he started.
To his slight dismay, when he had judged his army had recovered enough to go and besiege the town once again, an Oda Clan army appeared to take the town for themselves!
Bastards!!!
Oh well. What mattered more now, was that he made sure that the Kaga Ikki were defeated once and for all...
He resolved to join them. But first, he wanted to sneak inside the town himself and see what the garrison were doing.