Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 138: It was basically a death in vain!
Nakajo Heijiro and Maruhashi Gomon stood at the side of the ship, staring in amazement at the long stretch of pitch-black mudflats and the wilderness in the distance. They were all stunned.

The two of them were invited on board, and when they went out to sea, they were told that the location of the castle had been changed, and the Nohara family would move to the Chita Peninsula and would no longer stay in Wanjin. They couldn't believe it for a moment, and they suspected that Qing had misrepresented it, but now they had arrived at the place, and there was a simple pier for temporary unloading. It seemed that Nohara had planned for a long time, and had sent a small team to sneak in early, and was ready for a quick landing. It was definitely not a sudden whim, and they couldn't help but believe it.

But, isn't this close to rebellion?

Moving the territory privately without the Daimyo's order, building a castle somewhere else, and attempting to break away from control is definitely considered rebellion. At least in their understanding, Oda Nobunaga would never agree to such a thing, and would never agree to Harano moving the "saltpeter factory" away from the sphere of influence of Oda Danjotada's family.

But it doesn't seem right to really say that he rebelled. Harano was not a retainer of the Danzhengtada family and had a high degree of freedom. If he really ran away, it would be difficult to accuse him of betrayal. But Wanjin was finally built, so why didn't he want it anymore?

They were confused for a moment, their minds were a mess, they couldn't figure out what Yuanye was trying to do, and why he had to give up his good life and come here to make trouble. But they also knew that Yuanye was definitely not up to good, otherwise he wouldn't be so wary of them and send them here at the first opportunity, obviously worried that they would go to Guye City to tip off the situation and cause him unexpected trouble.

The two of them looked at the landing point for a while, then looked at each other, with bitterness on their faces. After all, Yuanye was not wrong, they really had the task of reporting Wanjin's latest situation at any time. Yuanye wanted to build a city in Wanjin and they were the first to report to the Guye City. As a result, now Yuanye has transported them here, and it is impossible for them to report, at least not in the short term - before they got on the boat, they heard that Wanjin had been under full martial law, and anyone who dared to step out of the designated area without authorization would be shot immediately. They thought that when the next fleet arrived, they would be able to see their direct subordinates.

It was impossible to tip them off, and now they even had to worry about their lives. If there was any misunderstanding, it would be normal for Yuanye to turn his back on them and just kill them and throw them into the sea.

They had bitter looks on their faces, and Endo Chiyo, Maejima Juichiro and the foremen of the Internal Affairs Department who were not far away from them were not much better than them, all of them looked confused.

They only knew about the construction of the castle on the Chita Peninsula a little earlier than Nakajo Heijiro and Maruhashi Gomon, and they also had no idea why Hara no Yamada did this, and why he was unwilling to be a local noble under the banner of the Masatada family. After all, a few thousand kilograms of saltpeter a year was only tens of thousands of strings of cash, which was nothing to him and he could afford it.

As for the fact that making nitrate is too profitable and will arouse envy, aren't there already five or six hundred Lang gangs? It is enough to protect Wanjin, and ordinary people will definitely not be able to defeat it.

But things have come to this point, and there is nothing they can do. Everyone has been sent by Yuanye to... this unfortunate place that doesn't even have a name. There is nothing they can do except to do their part.

Endo Chiyo was the first to react. He picked up the minutes of the meeting and flipped through them. He turned around and sighed, "Everyone, after the troops have landed, we will get off the ship and start working! According to the plan, we need to build three more piers and a camp within two days. Then we will gather manpower and build whatever is required according to our individual tasks!"

"Uh, yes, Miss Chiyo." Maejima Jiro and other officials of the Internal Affairs Department responded sparsely, sounding weak. It's not that they were unsure, the construction of the city had been prepared for several months, with sufficient materials, various drawings, and even the process had been discussed repeatedly. Everyone knew it, but... the location was changed too suddenly, and they were a little uncomfortable for a while.

Endo Chiyo did not forget the two young warriors Nakajo Heijiro and Maruhashi Gomon, and turned to them and said, "Sir Nakajo, Sir Maruhashi, we are short of manpower at this time, you can come and help us!"

After the meeting on the boat, she had carefully inquired about Yuanye's intentions. Even if the new territory was successfully obtained, Yuanye had no intention of falling out with the Dan Zhengzhong family, so these two people could still be used, and they could even ease their mood appropriately to prevent them from having wild thoughts and getting hot-headed and insisting on going through twists and turns, crossing more than a hundred miles of enemy-occupied areas and the Shirakawaguchi defense line alone to go back and report the news.

If they die on the road, the blame will probably be put on the Nohara family, so let’s find something for them to do!
Nakajo Heijiro and Maruhashi Gomon were not so ruthless. They were determined to complete the mission even without risking their lives. After all, Yuanye went to the enemy's territory to build a city, which did not cause any harm to the Danzhengtada family. There was no need to make an extreme reaction for the time being. Let's leave everything for the future!

They looked at each other and nodded in unison, then came to Endo Chiyo and followed her instructions to do something. They also shed their roles as military supervisors and really did the work of warriors.

…………

The officials of the Department of Internal Affairs were confused and at a loss for a moment. This was normal and Yuanye didn't care. He just needed them to execute the plan. He didn't need them to think too much. It didn't matter whether they were confused or not.

He personally led the team ashore as soon as possible. After confirming that this temporary landing point had not been discovered, he immediately ordered A Qing to personally lead people to set up a guard outpost. Any civilians who mistakenly entered this place would be captured first, and any Lang gang members from local nobles who came to patrol would be killed directly.

In short, do everything possible to delay the time of being discovered. Even if we go back to build a large-scale project, as long as the local nobles are not blind, there will always be a day when they will be discovered, but it is better to hide it for a moment. The same is true for Wanjin. Strict control has begun to be carried out, and people will not notice the abnormality of Wanjin before all the personnel and materials of Wanjin are transported here, and there will be no interference from the city of Gunye. This time he will take out all his family assets, and he will die if he fails. All those who can breathe in Wanjin, regardless of gender, age, arms and legs, must come to speed up the construction of the city. Even the workshops have temporarily stopped work.

I don't make any money anymore. I don't have my own territory and I'm always being surrounded by others. There's no point in making more money. One day, I might become a big piece of fat meat and be swallowed up by others as a tonic.

He didn't want to become a tonic again, and he was very determined. He personally led the troops to be on guard, encouraged them gently, and issued strict orders to them to join in. It took less than two days to expand the unloading area, initially improve the small port and build a storage area, and build some simple fortifications near the port, successfully completing the first phase of the landing mission.

Then the fleet began to transport personnel and supplies here continuously, and a large amount of volcanic ash cement, concrete, molds, wood, bamboo, and food were transported here.

He led his army to expand outwards simultaneously, establishing a defense line outside the scheduled construction site. Due to the previous preparations and detailed plans, there was no problem with the construction. The construction teams had already started to build simple roads and dig foundations, but it was difficult to completely isolate him from the prying eyes of the locals. He had just left the small bay area for a day when he was discovered by the local nobles. Ah Qing tried hard, but the area was too large to defend against. If the enemy climbed up to see far away, they would see someone suddenly start to move here, take a look and turn around and run away. She had no way to deal with it.

The first to discover the Wanzu Army were Harano's old friend the Miya family, their old enemy from whom Harano had taken away more than 50% of their population. The place chosen by Harano was just south of the Miya family. To the north were his three old enemies, the Miya family, the Takeda family, and the Ebina family. As for the new neighbors further south, they were the Osha family and the Hokane family, whose strength was similar to that of the three old enemies - except for the roots of the Chita Peninsula, there had been few wars in recent years, and the strength of these indigenous powerful families was very average.

When the Yuya family found out that he was coming again, they were scared to death the first time. Last year, they couldn't win even with three against one. This time, from a distance, they saw that Yuanye brought more people with him, and they had no intention of fighting him at all. They immediately began to gather the people and temporarily moved them to the Yuya Castle, hoping that Yuanye would find that there was no money to be made after taking a look around, and would voluntarily go and rob others.

Anyway, they are convinced, so just don't rob them.

But after hiding in the city for two days, they began to feel that something was wrong. In the past, Yuanye would usually come to rob and leave on the same day. Only in very rare cases due to lack of transportation would they camp overnight on the beach. However, this time, Yuanye came with so many people, but he didn't leave and just stayed in the wilderness. This was very abnormal.

They were not fools and were more familiar with the nearby terrain than Yuanye. Through various methods, they soon found out the truth. There were already more than a thousand people digging the ground frantically behind Yuanye, and a large amount of supplies and personnel were being transported in by sea. It seemed that this shameless guy wanted to build a city here and not leave.

The head of the Miya family was furious on the spot. Yuanye was simply an epic bad neighbor. If he was allowed to gain a foothold here, it would not just be a matter of snatching a few people. He would probably take over the land as well. There would be no way to leave them any chance of survival.

He quickly sent someone to inform his in-laws and allies, the Takeda family, the Ebina family, the Osha family, and the Hokkan family, but the last time the three families wanted to kill Harano in order to put an end to them once and for all, they failed miserably, and their strength was severely damaged. Now even if the Osha family and the Hokkan family were added, they could only gather a similar number of troops as last time, and they did not dare to cause trouble for Harano at all - if they lost the battle again and hundreds of people were killed, they would not even have the capital to defend the city, and it would not matter whether Harano lived here for a long time or not, they were finished anyway.

But this kind of bad neighbor must be dealt with, so the head of the family immediately went to Shirakawaguchi to meet with important figures from the Imagawa, Yamaguchi, and Matsudaira families and inform them of the bad news:
It's over, it's all over. The big fool Oda sent the Nohara family, the most powerful clan under his command, and their elite troops, the Oda Artillery Corps, to launch a surprise attack on Chita County via the sea. It is very likely that he wanted to achieve his evil goal of attacking the Shirakawaguchi defense line from both sides, destroying the Yamaguchi family, repelling the Imagawa family and the Matsudaira family, and regaining control of Chita County. Please send troops quickly to destroy them, or at least drive them into the sea!

They didn't dare to fight with Yuanye and just asked for help. Yuanye was not surprised by this and simply erected a lighthouse, transported personnel and supplies day and night, and urged Endo Chiyo and others to finish the work within the planned time no matter what method they used, even if it was just drinking poison to quench thirst and speeding up, so that they could have a basic defensive position before the enemy came.

This is the second worst case scenario right now. He was discovered by the enemy very early and could not achieve the best expectations. He could hide and repair for ten days or so, but he usually planned for the worst first and could accept this situation - it's okay, at least it's not the worst case scenario. He was discovered by the enemy as soon as he got ashore, and the enemy was smart and not afraid of death. He sent people to call for his father and harassed him regardless of casualties, making it impossible for him to build the city with peace of mind.

It’s not the worst case scenario, even if it goes well!
He could accept the reality, but soon Aman brought him the "worst" news. Oda Nobunaga had captured Kiyosu Castle. Oda Nobutomo, the head of the Kiyosu Oda clan, saw that the situation was hopeless and he was powerless to save the situation, so he committed seppuku in his home. Most of his retainers and retainers fled, and only a few forces around Kiyosu Castle were still resisting, struggling to survive for their own family business. It would not take long for Oda Nobunaga to wipe them out.

After hearing the news, Yuan Ye was speechless for a moment. Oda Nobutomo was the head of the Oda clan in the four counties under Owari. How could he be so disappointing? He had been running Kiyosu Castle for so many years, but he died so easily? Couldn't he just defend the castle for a few months?

I really didn't give him any time at all, his death was basically in vain!

(End of this chapter)