Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 142 Isn’t our life a life?
After the Imagawa army launched a large-scale harassment operation that day, they became completely obedient.

They suffered too many casualties, which caused great damage to morale and was not cost-effective. Moreover, it had little impact on the enemy's city-building work. The enemy's construction team was very tenacious, and a small number of casualties did not scare them away. They resumed work not long after the fighting stopped, and there were cheers. Morale was very high. Yuanye used the tactic of throwing money, issuing bonuses on the spot, and announced that as long as they participated in the construction on the front line, they would be equivalent to combat soldiers during this period and enjoy the treatment of combat soldiers. After the war, they could be given priority in selection into the camp, priority in blind dates, and priority in exchanging the use rights of fields and houses.

Well, Yuanye is now adopting an alternative "nationalization of land", that is, the most basic and important means of production, land, is nominally all his, and he allocates the right of use to others and protects this right of use from infringement. At the same time, this right of use is not allowed to be traded. Only under certain special conditions can he redeem it at a high price or change the location after compensation. Others are not qualified.

He was not sure whether this was right or not, but for the time being, Wanjin's land policy would be implemented in this way and he would decide later.

The first day ended like this. Asahina Yasunaga suffered a great loss, so on the second day he changed his combat mode and sent out a small force of samurai who were good at archery to launch a sneak attack with cold arrows, in order to reduce his own casualties while killing as many enemy construction workers as possible.

But I didn't expect that the enemy seemed to have learned something after defending for a whole day yesterday, and they also changed their tactics at the same time. They started to concentrate their fire in five-man iron cannon teams and specifically targeted the samurai - who were very easy to distinguish. Nowadays, samurai are afraid that others will not be able to find them, so they wear all kinds of strange helmets, so even if you have poor eyesight, you can still recognize them.

The two sides exchanged fire for another day, with more than a dozen construction workers and two iron gunners killed or injured by the Wanjin army, and sixteen lower-ranking samurai of the Imagawa army alone were killed, with many more seriously injured. However, the Imagawa army quickly regained the advantage at night. Construction at night requires lighting, so one side is in the light while the other is in the dark. The Imagawa army hid in the darkness and launched a series of sneak attacks, killing and injuring several construction workers without paying any price. Yuanye was forced to urgently stop construction work in the evening and at night.

However, he was not the type to suffer loss, so he followed suit and immediately organized a counterattack. He sent a small group of troops with cannons to sneak out of the city to attack the Imagawa army's camp. They slowly lurked in a very close position before opening fire fiercely, bombarding the camp of the miscellaneous soldiers and foot soldiers with great force, which instantly destroyed their nests. They howled and collapsed, rolled and crawled everywhere, and fled all over the camp. Hundreds of them died and dozens were missing.

Asahina Yasunaga had to switch to defense and build and complete the camp first to prevent Yuanye from tasting the sweetness and coming again.

The two sides went back and forth and finally reached a temporary stalemate.

Yuanye found that the enemy did not dare to attack on a large scale and lacked the courage to fight him, so he resumed the city-building work, but the speed was reduced by more than half. After the rock fortress at the rear port was completed, he mobilized several construction teams and started construction in sections. Only then did the speed become barely acceptable again.

Asahina Yasunaga was temporarily unable to do anything about the enemies in the city. He could only watch as the enemy's sheep wall grew longer and higher. Several times he wanted to make up his mind to launch a full-scale attack, at least to destroy the enemy's construction site and the sheep wall under construction. However, he was reluctant to let so many of his own men die, and he could not bring himself to do so. He could only keep urging the Matsudaira family in the rear to bring people over quickly.

The Matsudaira clan was very obedient. Ten days later, the Matsudaira clan, which was stationed further north on the Shirakawaguchi line, arrived at the fastest speed under the leadership of the general Sakai Tadamoto, and brought the Seven Hundred More Men with them.

After all, the Matsudaira family suffered greater persecution from the Oda Danmasatada family, and were very wary of Oda Nobunaga's attempt to "recapture" Chita County. It was very convenient to rush into Mikawa from here. They really didn't want to be neighbors with the Oda Danmasatada family anymore, so they didn't hesitate much to deploy heavy troops - the Shichihyuro party was almost all the strength of the Matsudaira family outside Mikawa.

However, when Sakai Tadamoto arrived at the battlefield, he was also confused by the situation on the battlefield. After a while, he held the hilt of the sword and asked Asahina Taicho: "Lord Asahina, what's going on with this wall?"

He had heard about the enemy's situation before he came, but it was totally inconsistent with what he saw. It was said that the enemy only had three rock forts and a lonely stone city on the mountain and by the river. But when he arrived, he saw that the enemy had built a high wall to connect all of them, completely blocking the front. Even now, the construction has not stopped. From a distance, he could see a large group of enemies working hard to reinforce and raise the top of the wall.

Sakai Tadamoto could not understand what was happening at all. It was because Asahina Yasunaga was from the Imagawa family, and the head of the Asahina family was the patriarch of the Imagawa family, otherwise Sakai Tadamoto would have been unable to help but draw his sword and chop this guy directly - what an epic idiot, how did he become the general-in-chief, and actually watched the enemy build the city and let the enemy build the city to such an outrageous level!
This is simply a crime and should be punished by military law!
Asahina Taishinaga was speechless, but he didn't want to be blamed for his incompetence. After a long silence, he sighed, "Lord Sakai, you don't understand the situation. The enemy is backed by a strong city and their morale is very high. We can't stop them at all. Moreover, it is very easy for the enemy to build a wall, and the speed is very fast, so we can't stop them either."

After saying that, he waved his hand and asked his men to bring a piece of broken concrete. This was the "treasure" he had snatched back after a night raid at the cost of seven or eight lives. But now he couldn't snatch it back because the enemy's sheep wall had been closed and built to a height that was difficult for a normal person to climb over with bare hands. It was basically impossible to get this kind of "treasure" again.

He motioned to Sakai Tadamoto to check it himself, and Sakai Tadamoto walked forward with a lot of doubts and turned over the concrete. He found that it was very hard and angular, not much different from ordinary stone, but two broken bamboos could be seen in this "stone". The bamboo and the stone fit together perfectly, as if they had grown there naturally.

Taicho Asahina explained, "This is a strange kind of mud. It broke into pieces after two hits, but it became hard as stone in less than half a day after we brought it back. The enemy built the wall layer by layer just like playing with mud."

Mud?

Sakai Tadamoto pulled out a katana from a retainer next to him and chopped it down, sparks flying everywhere. He chopped a few more times, breaking the katana. The concrete was fine, but he was silent, unable to understand this... magic-like thing. Asahina Taicho was relieved to see that he finally understood the situation, and immediately made a sincere suggestion: "Lord Sakai, the enemy's tactics are strange. I think we can't wait any longer. We should make a quick decision and launch an attack immediately. What do you think?"

His tone was very sincere. After all, with the enemy's speed of building the city, if he delayed for a few more days, who knows what would be built behind the wall. So after his allies arrived, he wanted to launch a full-scale attack as soon as possible and didn't want to delay any longer.

Sakai Tadamoto understood what he meant after hearing half of his words. This meant that the Matsudaira clan was to lead the charge! But when he looked at the city, sheep wall, and rock fortress opposite, he felt that this place was even more outrageous than the Shirakawaguchi Line, except for the lack of a large river. He really wanted to stab his broken sword directly into Asahina Taicho's chest - you bunch of Imagawa family beasts arrived early, but you didn't charge when you could, and watched the other side build the city. Now that the enemy has built the city, you let us lead the charge?
Isn’t our life a life?
But he didn't dare to say it directly. Now the Matsudaira family is nominally an ally of the Imagawa family, but in fact it is a vassal. The current head of the Matsudaira family is under house arrest in Sunpu Castle (also known as Fuchu Castle or Shizuoka Castle). In fact, all matters concerning the Matsudaira family are now decided by the Imagawa family.

But he really didn't want to knock his head against such a solid defense, so he was silent for a while and said tactfully: "Didn't you talk to that Nohara Saburo?"

The implication is to ask Asahina Taicho whether he has ever tried to turn the enemy's general against him after being here for so long. There are many successful precedents for this kind of thing. As long as the benefits are enough, the local nobles can betray anyone, surrender to the enemy in battle, or even directly rebel and kill their godfathers.

Of course Asahina Yasunaga tried, and immediately said with a gloomy face: "I have tried, but no matter what the conditions are, that Nohara Saburo refused to leave, and he has no dignity of a samurai family, and refuses to admit that he is a retainer of Oda Danmasatada's family. He has been talking nonsense like he wants to move here to open up the wasteland, and he also said that he wants to live in harmony with us, and promised that as long as we withdraw our troops, he will never expand outward before the Imagawa family leaves Chita County, and will never make any small moves against the Shirakawaguchi defense line. He is simply unreasonable and has no sincerity!"

Sakai Tadashi felt that the conditions were actually okay, and it didn't matter if he gave this piece of broken land to the other party, but he was also aware of Asahina Yasushige's concerns. Even if he were in his place, he wouldn't dare to believe that the other party would really keep their promise. He would only feel at ease if the other party completely withdrew from the Chita Peninsula and gave up this place.

Then there is no more room for negotiation, we must fight!

Sakai Tadamoto had given up and could no longer refuse. However, looking at the opponent's strict defense system, he still felt a chill in his heart. He turned to Asahina Taishinaga and asked, "How are you going to attack, sir?"

If he really wants to send the Matsudaira family to die alone and bang their heads against the city wall, then don't blame him for turning against them... and don't blame them for not putting in any effort!

"Come on, Lord Sakai, let's go back and talk in detail!"

Asahina Yasunaga had a good attitude and had no intention of letting the Matsudaira family and the Chita clan fight for their lives alone. Even though he wanted the Matsudaira family to take the lead and he would follow behind and eat the fruits, he now had basically given up this idea and was ready to bleed a little himself in order to capture the enemy's city in one go.

After all, the enemy was building the city too quickly. If he allowed them to continue building it recklessly, even if he put all of the Asahina family's capital into it, he might not be able to capture the enemy's city.

…………

Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadashi talked privately for a long time and decided to launch a strong attack on the enemy city that night and decide the outcome of the battle at night.

Night battles are still feasible. The Japanese summer diet includes a large amount of fish, shellfish and snails. The frequency of eating fish and radishes in other seasons is also quite high. There is no lack of vitamin A. There are very few patients with night blindness or the symptoms are mild, at least much fewer than in northern China. There is no big problem in taking action at night. The only difference is that only well-trained foot soldiers and guards can be deployed. Miscellaneous foot soldiers cannot take to the field. These untrained guys will get lost at night or simply escape in the dark.

After the two of them had discussed it privately, they held a military meeting and informed the Chita nobles of their decision. Then, they began to prepare for war amid the bitter faces of the Chita nobles. They also sent more people to harass the Wanjin army and engage in a shootout with the Wanjin army, trying to consume as much of their physical strength as possible during the day.

After it got dark, they quieted down and rested in silence. They waited until late at night, and more than 3,000 people who had gathered early started to move. They pushed a large number of bamboo and wooden fences, carried a large number of ladders and kerosene, and quietly left the camp, heading straight for the quiet "Stone City".

(End of this chapter)