Tamabakomochi
The Bullet Box Carrying Servant
By
Zundon30
These bullet boxes, which we two were carrying with a pole together, have been held separately on our backs since yesterday’s skirmish. Now in the battle, I hear the sound of the ashigaru troop shooting their muskets: it is like that of scrubbing a straight spear with a grass ball.31
Normally, if the bullets are carried in a satchel on the waist for a long time, then the gunpowder in the Hayago cartridge is wet and stiff, and people put these cartridges straight into the musket and shoot. This means that some gunpowder is left unused at the bottom of the cartridge and the bullet does not go as far as 5 ken – which is a very short distance – but just drops out of the end of the gun and rolls around.
Therefore, you had better shake the cartridge before loading it into the gun. On top of that, when putting gunpowder into a cartridge, you should not pack it to the full but leave a little room. If you apply too much glue on the paper to cover it, the bullets will be stuck onto the paper, almost like it is wearing paper clothes, and sometimes the paper will not break. That means that after shooting it two or three times, the bullets will get stuck in the barrel and when you put a cartridge in it, it will only reach 2 or 3 sun [1 sun equals approx. 3cm] down the muzzle – which is not far at all – and then if you try to remove it by thrusting it with a cleaning rod, it will get stuck and you will not be able to budge the blockage an inch. You cannot get it to go deeply into the barrel, even if you beat or hit it. And so, if you shoot it as it is, the bullet will reach only 4 or 5 ken ahead, making the musket worth less than a mere stick. Even those bullets that are not covered with glue, small ones will go deep down the barrel, but when shot they only manage to reach 4 or 5 ken again. This means that hordes of bullets, gunpowder and cartridges were spent for nothing – what a waste!
Tapeworms are going around these days and they are even more common in a battle camp; many people suffer from them, making people even more flustered.
I will tell the ashigaru troops about this next point! If the bullets are too small, you should bite them with your back teeth before you use them and also remember to take good aim, then it is ok for you to use up all the bullets in your satchel at once if you have a good aim, but if you shoot at speed and just waste the bullets? As orders go, with arrows or muskets, you should take good aim at the enemy and release very calmly. By repeatingly loading and shooting their muskets quickly without break, they wasted bullets and gunpowder by shooting in ‘rapid fire’, without killing a single enemy. What a shame it is!
Now I gave out all the spare ramrods I had on my waist at first, which means I am burdened with empty leather sheaths and an empty bullet box. An arrow box can be used as a water bucket while this bullet chest can serve for nothing else. I want to throw it away, but it has been left in my keeping so I cannot. I have no sword, the burden is so heavy and the empty box is useless, my job of carrying the bullet box is not so good as the ones carrying the arrow boxes at all and I envy them.
There was one ashigaru who used up all the bullets and gunpowder in his satchel. He then took out the ramrod and put it on his waist, drew his sword and struck an enemy on his helmet and the sword bent, so he then drew his Wakizashi short sword and stabbed the enemy in his stomach. Just while he was going to take the head, we had an order from our lord to withdraw. He was half way through the beheading but we were told to get back right away, so he had to give up and leave the head. This means that he had his sword bent and had abandoned a head as well, this must be a great disappointment to him. However, the troop commander said he would guarantee his feat so it is almost as if he had taken the head, this is good proof indeed.
During a skirmish this morning I saw a strange person carrying spare bullet boxes and advancing on my left side. As the fight between ashigaru foot soldiers was getting hard, the samurai in the rear became intolerant and came to battle. The servant tried to get to the side, as the ashigaru group moved to the side at the same time, but he was carrying two bullet boxes on one pole and over his shoulder so he struggled and fell and got stuck; this meant that he could not walk any further but was stranded. Eventually, he could not catch up with the ashigaru group and became totally panicked. However, at least he was lucky he was not stripped of his bullet box. Remember, as we are now carrying our bullet boxes on our backs we do not have such bad experiences – how wonderful this is. (See Fig 9)
Nizairyo
Quarter-master
By
Yagi Gozo32
What a massive horde of people! We’ve been advancing for ten days but we have not finished yet. It will last for another ten days. We, with a group of packhorses, are far behind our troops and we cannot catch up with them. Each man in our troop has rations for four or five days in the ration bag around his neck, so if we cannot get our horses to catch up for three or four more days, they will not run out of food. Whether we are in the enemy’s territory or not, you should not let your guard down, even with your allies (as they may rob you of your food as well). In such a case as this one, when rice is getting hard to come by, then even allies start robbing each other. Do not let your guard down or you will be robbed. Now we have two pack horses free from their loads, so remember not to throw away even the pack ropes or round straw lids that are at each end of a bale of rice. The ropes are made of dried stems of taro, stewed with miso, and twisted. This means that you can cut this rope into pieces and put them into water, this will make solid ingredients for soup if you need it. The straw lids of a rice bale can be used for porridge for the horses, so keep them with you for sure. Once you get in the enemy’s territory, obtain whatever you find and can get without question. Suppose you are in a famine while in battle camp. As well as any edible seeds or nuts you should take anything like roots or leaves and put them on horseback. Pine bark is edible if you stew it into porridge. Sometimes, the rice that is around your neck in the ration pack is still in its husk, and when it is soaked from heavy rain or river water it can put forth shoots; wait until the rice grows to the size where you would normally plant it, but in this situation stew it together with its roots, this will make a good meal.
80 momme of firewood is enough for each person, if the amount for all is put together, it will make a good fire. In case you are running out of wood, use dried horse dung or anything for fuel.
People usually bury rice or clothes within their house. If they bury them outside, they put them in pots and kettles and cover them with soil. On a frosty morning you will see the frost disappear on the ground where they bury the goods and you can find them. However, if days have passed, you will not be able to see them as this works only immediately after they have been buried. Keep this in mind and dig them out.
You should not drink water from a well in the enemy’s domain. They usually throw shit into it so you will have a stomach-ache. Drink water from a river. Still water from a strange land may give you diarrhoea or stomach trouble. Be sure to take apricot stones with you and remember to pack them inside cloth, put them into a pot and boil the water. You can drink this water. Also you can dry ‘river snails’ from the rice fields of your homeland by leaving them in the shade,33 and boil them with water, so you can safely drink it.
Bumaru
Labourer
By
Bazo
Gozo-dono, Gozo-dono, you are right, we always have famine in a battle camp. What you have said sounds fair enough. As well as the great samurai people, you too are armoured and wearing a long and a short sword, looking dignified. However, you might not know about how to sustain your whole body during the battle camp as well as I do. I used to carry salted vegetables from my land to Edo every single day, in summer wearing a worn-out kimono or in winter stretching the sleeves of my cotton kimono to cover my hands. When it snowed, I took an old used rice bale and put a hole in the centre at the top and wore it with the brim around my neck, along with a torn straw hat on my head. In that outfit,
I would walk back and forth for two or three days, both day and night that is mind you. I could not feed the horse the required amount as I only had a little bit of bran in a bag, so sometimes the horse was not fed for a while, well, on nought but water anyway. However, you and the great samurai look so dignified in battle whether it is hot or cold, whether you feel weary or sleepy, and you people may not have as much knowledge as I do about how to keep up your body in such harsh conditions. The first thing you should keep in mind is, do what a beggar does to preserve your body!
Gozo: Bazo, Bazo you are quite right! As I was worrying about what you said above, so I have brought my Nunoko quilted long jacket and I am wearing it with its bottom tied up, but I have taken it off as I was so hot and I have put it into an empty rice bale.
Gozo-dono, Gozo-dono, I only hear you talk about battlefields, in the mountains, near a river or in a field, but what if you have captured an enemy castle and have to stay there and defend it? I am saying this because, though I am ashamed to say this, I used to be a samurai and have fallen to being a peasant, just as you see me now. My grandfather’s name was Bahyoe and he would always tell me, ‘when they were in defence of a castle, they would save the most important things, like food, animal feed, arms, but also stone, wood, or anything according to their uses, but the most essential thing was a water supply.’ My grandfather Bahyoe happened to be holed up in a mountain castle and they were seriously in need of water and thought they were dying as they were completely parched. As water is enormously important, you should estimate one Sho of water for each person. For food and such there is a rough indication for these things, for example, six go [1 go =180ml] of rice for each person each day, 1 go of salt for ten people and 2 go of miso for ten people. In the case of a night attack, an extra amount of rice was needed.
Remember, if quite a large amount of rice is given at once, boozers would make sake wine of it, so you should give only three or four days the amount of rice needed at most, but not any more than five days’ worth.
I just wanted to let you know this in case of the need to stay in a castle for defence, as these are old ways that were actually used. What do you think, Gozo-dono?
Gozo replies: As you say, Bazo, if you give ten days amount of rice all at once, boozers will no doubt make sake of eight or nine days worth and drink it up. And in this case they will die of hunger. Whereas, if they drink sake made of three or four days the amount of rice, then they will be able to go without food for two or three days, this is acceptable.
In a Joruri story book titled Azuma Kagami, it says that in old times, an army sent by Lord Yoritomo marched from Kanto for the Western lands and were in serious need of food on their way and sold their armour and helmets to gain it. With that money they bought and ate rice, and then led an assault without armour. If you are wearing armour but have no food, you could in no way distinguish yourself in war. In short, be patient like a tramp or vagabond while in a battle camp. For dying in combat is what we want but if you die of hunger due to the lack of rice, without fighting the enemy, it would be no better than a tramp’s death in the gutter and all would be for naught. (See Fig 10)
Wakato
The Young Followers34
By
Sasuke
Well, well Kasuke-dono, you did a good job. You did even better than the samurai as a Yariwaki35 aide, when backing him up in a spear fight and you also got a head! Thus, not only your master but also you, his retainer, achieved a great feat.
I have brought this cloth as a band to hold back my sleeves in case my master gets injured and I have to carry him on my back secured with this cloth. However, my master got the honour of the second spear achievement and yet remained totally unscathed. He had his comrades back him up with the sword as a Yariwaki support. By the time of the third spear match, all the spears from both sides of the enemy and our allies were crossed together at once and there were so many spears tangled that it was messy like salted bracken,36 a great mix. My master was in the second match and I saw your [Kasuke’s] master striking the first blow of combat with you backing him up. It really was a great achievement that you and your master made! So did my master, who was in the second match. It has been said from olden times that the first and second person to enter battle are great and that the third is of no importance. After the second person, every spearman in the troop makes an assault and all at once, so there is no need to back them up with Yariwaki support troops, so forgetting about these Yariwaki support people, think of the following problem. I was pushed and hustled badly when the two sides clashed and I had strings of my armoured skirt torn off. Black armour looks brilliant, but black strings or anything dyed black are not good for armour in general. I have brought some leather in fear that the strings of my armour might snap. I will mend these skirts with this leather. I have noticed that you are injured badly but pretend not to display any fear, that is what I have observed anyway, though you always have a good complexion and appear healthy, you now look pale, so I am wondering if it is because we have talked about the fight and you got excited and lost so much blood? However, you look almost like a green calabash. I am sure nobody would say you are a coward as you have done such a great job, so you should calm down now. I have pliers in my bag for a smoking pipe and I have brought all I need to pull out an arrowhead. Be calm, I know a little of medical treatment. As I was given this set of armour by my master, I have a pair of gloves dyed with persimmon tannin. In case I get injured, I think these gloves will serve as a blood sucking bag. Remember, wounds can happen any time, whether you like it or not. Luckily, I have not been wounded so far.
Zoritori
The ‘Sandal Carrying’ Servant37
By
Kasuke
I have carried this musket in a long umbrella bag all the way here to this battlefield. Once the battle begins, I am going to hand it over to my master to shoot. My master told me to wear it around my waist if the enemy get too close. Actually, he only used it when it was effective and when it was useless, he then gave it to me and took his spear instead. I have never heard of such a ridiculous thing! I wear it on my waist like a sword, but cannot draw it to kill the enemy as it is not a sword but is a musket. Because of this, I thought it was so bad that I was told to carry such a useless thing, even more useless than a stick, but it turned out that I successfully smashed open an enemy’s head thanks to this weapon! Here is my tale.
This is what happened. First, both ourselves and the enemy found each other and a shootout began, and bullets came over us like beans scattered in the Setsubun bean-throwing ritual. Then the arrow fighting began too. Now we had arrows and bullets all together; it was as if you had thrown a mass of chopsticks at all once, however, we were fine, even with this danger. After this noisy mess – which was like throwing a Kokirikodake38 instrument and juggling balls all at once – we got close to the enemy. My master told me to put the musket on my waist and that he should be the first one to make a dash at the enemy with a spear. Then I told him I would back him up by shooting the musket, as he was fighting with a spear, and that he should give me enough gunpowder for at least one shot. At this request he became very angry and roundly scolded me, saying I was so audacious and way out of line in thinking I could back him up while spear fighting. So I had nothing to do but just relax and watch my master fight.
He fought a good spear fight with the first enemy soldier and killed him, then cut off his head. I wondered if I should help him, but I thought that he, as such a great fighter, could defeat ten or even twenty of the enemy. Therefore, I pretended not to notice his feats but in my mind I was thinking I should hit someone with the musket, if such a chance should arise. So, I crouched on the floor with my eyes closed as if taking a nap. Then I saw a man who had a melon-head39 nearing my lord with a sword in hand, so I hit him with a good strike to the head, carefully aimed with this gun. Luckily, it hit him right on the head and the musket-sight lodged firmly in his skull and this melon-headed man kicked the bucket in an insta
nt. I took that fruit-like head for myself, like a ripe fruit from a tree. At this my master said; ‘Remember, taking just a nose in battle is banned, this is because people cannot identify the man and people may think you killed your own ally, however as lots of allies just saw you do this deed, you may just take the nose alone.’ Before getting this head, I was wavering a lot but once I got the head, I began to feel delighted. I knew it would be too heavy if I tried to take the head with me, and as just the nose was less weight, it would be easy to collect more, even bad looking heads, probably enough to fill five or even ten horse loads. So I cut off just the nose as proof of my deeds. In this situation, people normally keep a nose under their breastplate, but as I’m not wearing armour I had to think about where to put it, if I put it under my kimono I was afraid I might lose the precious nose, so I considered this and finally decided to put it into the bottom of the musket bag and put the musket on top of it. However, just as I was doing this, I had a sudden stomach-ache because of my tapeworms and crumpled over; then a bullet hit my body and went through it! I was glad it went through40 but then I hit the ground, landing on my arse. I wonder if I got this karma from me smashing the melon-headed man, but just then – after this bullet – I had an arrow pierce my head on one side. In haste I tried to remove it instantly but the shaft came out and the arrow head became stuck and would not come out. Everyone there was laughing at me and saying I looked like Ikkakusennin41 with his horn!
Samurai War Stories Page 4