Okabe Motonobu stands resting his arms and leaning on the rails of the top level of Sunpu castle observing the enemy camp the morning after the surprise naval bombardment, Okabe like the Takeda clan was completely caught off guard in seeing the naval bombardment coming from the ocean last night. From what he could observe it appears they did some significant damage although not enough that the Takeda would retreat and break camp. His observers in the castle stated that somehow the Takeda had managed to destroy four ships despite having no navy of their own and as a result the Shimazu navy withdrew from the area. The old general was grateful for the assistance by their ally's navy in at least trying to engage and damage the enemy. It at least helped sap some of the enemy strength and the over confidence that was brewing in the Takeda clan camp because of the successful campaign they have waged against his people and had definitely given them pause after the surprise naval bombardment. Okabe realized he should not expect any more help from anyone else after this point and it was now up to him and the remaining 1,000 Imagawa samurai in the castle to force the Takeda to terms to save the remaining people and Lady Keisho the daimyos mother. A plan now had begun to form in his mind, and it would be a night attack into the camp with the sole purpose of destroying some of the artillery emplacements and inflicting casualties on the enemy without losing to many casualties on his side. His daily observations observed the long ditch being dug day and night from opposite ends of the camp. Since they have not connected with each other yet and there was still a large gap between them, he would exploit it and have his samurai pass through the gap and hit the exposed artillery behind the barricades not protected by the ditch yet. His men would be dressed in black and remove their armor to avoid making any sound and creep up to the lines as quietly as possible. If they are discovered the mission would be over and his men would be quickly cut down by the overwhelming numbers of the Takeda army. He would have his men sleep and rest through the day and would attack at 3am when most of the camp would be asleep and not much movement around the northern camp at that time of the night. Having finalized his plans in his mind Okabe scratched his chin and then turned around from the rail on the top level of the castle and made his way down to his officers in the meeting hall to let them know of his plan and to prepare for the night attack. Once he told his plans and gave instructions to his men he then went into his quarters for some rest to renew his strength for the attack tonight.

  Several hours later Okabe having awakened and rested and then was informed by one of his castle servants it was nearly 2 am and he got up from his desk and exited his private quarters and made his way down to the outer wall on to the top of the gate house leading to the northern camp. Along the way he observed his men all clad in black clothing with their katanas at their sides and each samurai helping each other put ash from fire pits on their faces to further darken their appearance in an effort to conceal themselves from the enemy. As he neared the gate house door his officers leading the charge into the enemy camp bowed to him and they had the look of grim determination and focus on the task at hand. This pleased Okabe as he made his way into the gate house and up to the top level of the gate house where he would observe the engagement. He had placed on the outer walls several archers whose job would be to cover his men retreat once they completed their mission and to keep the enemy from trying to follow into the castle. Once he reached the observation post he scanned the landscape, to his left he could see the line of torches lit from the west and he could see the activity building the ditches of workers moving dirt out of the ditches and the sound of shovels and picks clanging at the earth and likewise he could see the same activity on the eastern side of the camp as well. In front of the workers was a group of guards keeping a vigilant guard observing the castle lines. At the speed they are working he expected the enemy to be done within the next four or five days and have Sunpu castle completely surrounded. In between these two lines was the northern camp and the large gap between the two lines with guards patrolling and the artillery emplacements beyond behind the barricades. If he could destroy some of the guns, it would definitely help his people being able to withstand the siege until some favorable terms could be granted in the surrender negotiations. He finally felt everything was ready to begin and the wicket gate (small secret door on the castle iron gate used to open for concealment or emergencies) opened as quietly as possible. Once the guard opened the door he peered into the darkness and the torch light from the enemy camp and he could not see any movement from the enemy lines. He then went back inside, and a message was sent to Okabe that all was clear. Okabe gave the order to go ahead with the mission.

  The lead officers then exited the wicket gate following closely behind were the rest of the men and very quickly the lead elements of about 100 men began to move silently toward the northern camps lines. The first guard walking the perimeter near them was quickly killed by four samurai as they were camouflaged by the darkness of the night the guard never even realized they were next to him until the first blade stabbed his neck and he never had time to scream out in pain. Then in a line of succession at least ten other guards were all being quickly cut down as they neared the barricades to the artillery. No torchlights were lit near the cannons because of the gunpowder near them and the lead officer with several of his men quickly and quietly killed the sleeping guard that was supposed to be awake guarding the three lead cannons pointed at the castle. Once they were in control of the cannons. Another element of samurai moved past the cannons and began to enter the tents of the sleeping soldiers and begin to kill them in their sleep. Finally, a Takeda soldier patrolling the camp sounded the alarm by banging the bell he carried when he spotted several black cladded men run out of a tent they had just been in there killing the sleeping samurai. Then a fire began to spread among the tents that were set ablaze by the Imagawa samurai and chaos and confusion began to spread among the camp until Katsuyori rallied his men as fighting between samurai started and quickly the camp was waking up to the sounds of fighting in the camp as black clad samurai fighting the Takeda samurai filled the camp. At the same time guards from the ditches being construct began to run to where the fighting in the camp was happening and were quickly cut down on both sides as a few hundred Imagawa lay in wait for them in the darkness to protect the flanks of the samurai in the enemy camp. Very soon the numbers of Takeda samurai began to swell and outnumber the Imagawa samurai very quickly. Then the lead commander seeing the disadvantage in numbers blew a conch shell which signaled the retreat and as they began to fall back from the enemy camp several Imagawa began to be killed by Takeda. Once most of the samurai had run past the artillery emplacements running toward the castle, the group of Imagawa samurai stationed at the cannons lit three fuses that were set to explode all three cannons at the same time and quickly made their way back to the castle as well. Amidst the burning tents and screams of agony from dying soldiers Katsuyori was quickly moving with his men to chase the Imagawa samurai back to the castle and they made their way past the edge of camp; an enormous explosions rocked the area with a large fireball lighting up the entire plain around the castle with a concussive wave from the explosion knocking Katsuyori and his men onto the ground and vaporizing the Takeda samurai in the vicinity of the cannons as they were chasing the Imagawa samurai. What seemed like an eternity but only a couple minutes later Katsuyori regained consciousness and sat up seeing the large fire with a crater at the center from where the cannons had been and seeing many dead samurai laying the around the large crater. Despite the shock of the explosion Katsuyori angered by the damage and loss rallied his remaining men to follow him to try to chase down the Imagawa samurai.

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  Okabe standing at his observation post was observing the fighting in the camps and then the retreat of his men and then he was blinded for a second or two by large fireball from the explosions where the cannons were placed and once he could see again he then ordered the iron gates to open completely to allow his samurai entrance as quickly as possible and commanded his archers to be ready to fire if any sign of the enemy was following behind his samurai. The sounds and creaks of the giant iron gate doors opened with a thunderous noise and once fully opened a steady line of black clad warriors appeared and began to pass through the gate and followed closely behind the Takeda samurai could be observed chasing them as well. Thanks to the large explosion and the resulting fire the plain leading to the castle was extremely well lit and allowed Okabe to see when the enemy was in range and ordered the archers to fire at will.

  Katsuyori and his men could see the enemy samurai in black and ran hard to chase them down and hopefully get into the castle before the gates closed. Katsuyori enraged by another surprise attack was blinded by his furor to not anticipate the arrow volley raining down on him and his men from the castle walls. As they neared the castle gate and the bridge over the moat, he felt a sudden pain in his collar bone and realized it was an arrow and before he time to react another pierced his right hand and he dropped his katana and a third arrow pierced his samurai helmet rendering him unconscious and several of his men were also killed or wounded and began to retreat once they realized there lord had fallen and retreated back to their camp.

  Okabe seeing that all his samurai had made it back into the castle, the gates were then immediately shut and barred and from his observation post he could see several fallen samurai on the plain near the moat and the surviving soldiers carrying the wounded back to their lines. Okabe judged the mission a success even though he lost over two hundred samurai out of the 1,000 sent out to attack he felt it was small price to pay for destroying those forward cannons pieces and he guessed his samurai inflicted more casualties on the enemy especially from the resulting explosions and arrow volleys. All in all, this was a good start in this opening gambit of this siege, and he had thought of many other plans to inflict more pain on the Takeda army. He then left his observation post and ordered sake be brought to all his men as a reward for the successful mission.

  At the same time Okabe and his men are celebrating their success with sake, Katsuyori is being carried in a wagon to Shingen Takeda tent where his physician is awaiting his arrival. Once they arrive at Shingen tent, they then carry him out of the wagon and into the tent and he is then placed on a large wooden table. Shingen dressed in his night clothes for bed sees his son with the arrow protruding from his head, hand, and collar bone shows no emotion only to say to the doctor, "Help him or you will also die and be buried next to him" in a very serious and threatening tone that the doctor shakes with fear at this threat which he know his lord will carry out if he fails to save the daimyos son. Shingen then leaves the tent and goes to await of news of his son health in his meeting tent. Carefully his armor is removed and his helmet his cut open to see the arrow just barely sticking into Katsuyori forehead. To the physician relief it appears the helmet prevented the entire arrowhead from entering into his forehead and only half of the arrowhead is buried into his forehead. However, it is still very serious wound, and the arrow must be carefully removed but luckily the physician recently received a translated roman medical text on how to treat headwounds from a Portuguese merchant and has been studying how to treat headwounds with these new medical techniques to heal them. He carefully and successfully removes the arrows from his forehead, hand, and collarbone. The patient is still breathing but he must stop the bleeding and orders a hot iron poker to cauterize his wounds on his collarbone and hand. Thankfully Katsuyori is passed out and does not feel the burning sensation as they cauterize his wounds. His forehead is different matter, and he carefully cleans it and with a candlelight sees no visible brain damage and then places a small silver coin with holes and stiches his wound on his forehead and then bandages his forehead and the rest of his wounds. Then has his patient carefully placed on a bed to rest and assigns a servant to watch him and inform him if anything changes.

  Shingen is then informed by the doctor that his son is still alive, and the next few days will be crucial to see if he will live. Then Shingen removes the threat to the physician's life and dismisses him. It is now past 6 am and Shingen is informed that an additional 350 Takeda samurai have been killed and 200 have been wounded including his son, and the forward cannons have been destroyed. Shingen then by himself in the tent begins to think in his head, "I never would have guessed that Brat from Imagawa was such a good tactician already I have lost almost 900 men to this siege in less than four days. Then I must return his boldness with another move of my own. I will show this brat why I am called the Tiger of Kai" Despite all the loss including his son being wounded the old tiger was smiling because he had finally found someone worthy of fighting on the Imagawa side and he swore to himself he would win this battle and personally congratulate the Brat of Imagawa on his successful defense before he had his head removed from his body.

  Ryuzen hearing of the news of the attack as he lay on his bed still recovering from what he had done yesterday with his time marker could only grit his teeth in frustration as he feels he has failed to help his protect his friend and lord Katsuyori but as his body is still recovering from using the time marker and he cannot use it to fix the situation with Katsuyori and must allow his fate be judged by the three weavers of fate and pray his thread has not been cut so soon that he will pass from this world. Ryuzen personally swears to himself that he will avenge this setback and make the Imagawa feel the pain for this daring action. He does respect this move and Enkai even remarked the person who planned this knows strategy very well and he must play a game of go with him soon. Very soon Ryuzen would recover and the Takeda would finally be the ones on the offense soon and will make moves of their own to counter what has already happened them. The siege continues and now it is the Takeda clan turn to strike back.