17 The Japanese Empire
FEUDAL JAPAN (1677)...
Heavy footsteps clattered on a Rocky ground, fourteen ronins were on the run, forging ahead and deeper into the woods, they endured exhaustion, owing to a long journey on foot, their gaits had become wobbly, but staying alive precedes over rest, for feudal soldiers were on their tail scampering into the woods with them.
Samurai's and the ashigaru soldiers scampered behind the few ronins, tacticaly they wanted to chase them till they become exhausted, the samurai's were given orders by the emperor, mastumoto takahiro, to bring the ronins to him alive at the Edo castle.
The ronins were once samurai's under a daimyo named fujikawa Eto, daimyo's are vassals of the shoguns who were powerful warlords in Japanese empir,e the shoguns had influence In Japanese politics, and are said to have more power than the emperor himself.
Every decision made by the rulers of Japan were all influenced by the shoguns, the emperor acted more like a puppet than an actual ruler.
The shoguns concerned chiefly on them selves and their advantages, they made the rules of the Empire in a way it would benefit them Majorly.
Having sworn alligance with the shoguns, daimyo fujikawa Eto became obsessed by the way the shoguns influenced the rulership in the empire, everything rebounded to them, taxes, wages and money made from exports, fujikawa in his obsession, demanded independence from the shoguns, he was granted that.
Fujikawa moved with his samurai's to a border town, called morishita, there, he and his ronins formed an uprising against the shoguns, receiving help from the ninjas of the morishita clan, who were Buddhist's, while the majority of the Japanese empire were shintoists.
Fujikawa rattled the shoguns and their criminal activities, fujikawa had three of them assassinated, and he sent the rest a warning, to deviate from their evil ways, or be deceased like their fellow shoguns.
The shoguns were very powerful, they went in conievance with emperor mastumoto takahiro, to find the ronins, with regards to tactics they sieged the Japanese empire to stop the ronins from traveling into another kingdom, samurai's and ashigaru soldiers, besieged the whole land as though they were at war.
Having sieged the whole empire, the shoguns ordered the samurai's to search the whole land, raid and rifle every household wether peasant or nobility, their houses shall be raided, the samurai's and ashigaru soldiers searched throughout the city, into the woods, beneath and over the mountains.
The ronins fled from their home morishita, and resided under a cave in the most seclusive woods in the whole of Japan.
It was a thorough search, almost like they were conducting a census, verily, escaping or not being found was an impossibility, it took seven days only for the samurai's to find their hiding place..
When the samurai's found the ronins cave, they besieged the it with an army of fifty and sent fifty into the cave.
The samurai's beheaded fujikawa Eto before his soldiers, ronins who were forty two in number and morishita Ninja's who were numerous in number, even after beheading fujikawa, the soldiers refused to surrender, rather they all fled into the woods, in the Japanese empire, honour is well regarded, to die in a war is more hounourable than surviving, and surrendering.
When fujikawa's soldiers fled the caves, the samurai's went after them, the morishita Ninja's took a different direction from the ronins for they feared it wouldn't be easy to catch them if they disperse into groups.
The ronins also decided within themselves to disperse into three groups, one would go north the other South and the rest went South east to a border town named Hattori.
Osako, fujikawa's right hand man led one of the group of ronins who headed south, there were fourteen in number and had the most samurai's chasing after them, just like the ronins who headed south east, osako's ronins headed to a southern border town, called Domen, they intend to flee from Japan into Korea, but it was unbeknown to the ronins, that Japan was sieged by samurai's, they were running into the hands of their foes, unintentionally.
"Move faster!." Osako threw away some words to his men amidst his scamper into the woods,
They were not a very big mile away from reaching Domen the southern border town, they would board a ship at the shore and sail away to Korea.
The visuals of a life of freedom kept the most of them going, while the fear of death kept a few going. within themselves, they had mixed reasons for seeking freedom, but their reasons were enough in giving them motivation and fortitude, to struggle till the end.
Amongst the fourteen ronins, was Kubo Eto, son of fujikawa Eto, he is just twelve years old, and he is experiencing an event too treacherous and ardous for his age,
Kubo lagged behind as the ronins ran, osako had to stick with him, he sliced soldiers who attempted to grab kubo, with his katana, Kubo delayed their bristle, but osako and the ronins were trying to honour their master by keeping his son alive.
Kubo was brought up by the sohei's who were Buddhist monks, he had no training about fighting, nor was he given a training about being a swordsman, the sohei's are Buddhist soldiers, but they focus more on peaceful coexistence, and dialogue, they use the two to solve most problem, rather than conflict, unlike the shoguns and daimyo's.
Fujikawa made the sohei monks teach his son to be renowned in wisdom and meditatory powers, they made him a sage, it was part of the reason the ronins were keeping him.
***************( 2 hours later)..
The ronins arrived Domen the southern border town, they ran in a union down a slope, along a well beaten path, that leads to a village in Domen,
The samurai's still was after them, but the ronins gave them quite a good distance.
Osako and the ronins arrived Murano, a village in Domen,
the whole village was bare of population as though the residents migrated due to war, there was a brooding dead silence and smokes covered the atmosphere, it seemed like a haunted land, and it gave it a bleak atmosphere.
The fourteen ronins stood, seeming marveled by the picturing, Domen was once known as the most populous towns in the Japanese empire, but what they were seeing was unlikely,
a decision was needed to be made, for in no time, the samurai's would catch up with them, but they are held on thrall by what they are regarding, a plague must have struck Domen , a good number of them thought.
" what could have happened here?." Osako asked rhetorically, he twirled around, viewing the whole houses around them, most of them had a widely open door which had breezes aiding their movement the breeze drove the doors back and forth, ramming it against the walls, a sign there was no single soul that still resides in the village.
"Master, we have to move on, said mitsuo, one amongst the ronins.
the samurai's will be here in no time." He added.
"This is a trap," Kubo intruded the moment with his words, it brought the whole ronin's attention to him, Kubo is a sage who is clairvoyant, he could visualize samurai's hiding in every Conner of the village, none of the ronins doubted Kubo, his vision being true was a normality.
They knew Kubo was clairvoyant, and his visions has never turned out to be a lie.
"All this while they were leading us into a trap.!"
Osako yelled, he slammed his katana on the ground, he was utterly frustrated,
Osako crouched, and rummaged in his mind what he could do to get his men out of the situation, they can't go back, samurai's are coming in that direction, or should they follow the beaten part that leads to the shores, soldiers might be waiting for them there as Kubo said.
"What do we do master?." A good number of the ronins asked.
"Yeah what do we do."
Questions flurried amongst the ronins, panic was making its way into all of them,
They needed an idea, osako had none but one, they will have to draw their swords.
" Draw your swords," osako ordered.
One of the ronins, takeshi, confronted osako,
"Master we can't fight them, they are too many of them." Takeshi said, calling osako's orders an identical to commiting suicide.
"I have made up my mind, we die with honour." Said osako.
The ronins, in their discipline didn't object very much, takeshi withdrew from objecting to osako's orders, the ronins went ahead with osako's orders, they all drew their swords,
The fourteen of them formed a circle , each of them stood with his sword placed in a position of use.
