Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 145: There is nothing wrong with the battle plan and the battle itself

At dawn, smoke billowed in front of the "Stone City", corpses were scattered all over the ground, and broken arms and limbs were everywhere. The bodies of the soldiers were lying on their backs, lying down, or piled up together, with faces frozen with fear, unwillingness, and pain. A large amount of blood flowed freely, staining the originally gray-yellow wilderness with patches of dirty black.

The air was also filled with a pungent smell of blood, mixed with the smell of gunpowder, which was nauseating. Black crows flew in groups, circling in the air, trying to land from time to time, making strange croaking sounds.

This is what the enemy looked like when they just retreated.

Yuanye, fully equipped with armor, stood on the top of the "Stone City", looking at the post-war "scenery" in silence, while beside him were the soldiers of the Wanjin Army who were busy carrying corpses and the wounded.

A messenger with a small flag on his back quickly climbed up to the top of the city wall, knelt on one knee, and handed over a document: "Sir, Master Aman has a message."

"Thank you for your hard work." Yuanye said politely, turned around and took the document, unfolded it and took a closer look, and found that it was a casualty statistics report and status report of Beishan Rock Fort - the defender has advantages and disadvantages, and is usually more passive, making it difficult to determine the enemy's main attack direction in the first place. Last night his side was very powerful and the battle was in full swing, but the most intense battle took place in Beishan Rock Fort.

At that time, Aman led his men to the south, using the "National Beng Type 1" large iron cannon to support the main battlefield, and bombarded the enemy's flank from a distance on the hill. As a result, the northern city wall was attacked and almost lost. If it were not for the tenacity of the defenders and the timely return of reinforcements, there would probably be another battle for the rock fortress - the defenders had the advantage of rapid internal support. After he discovered that something was wrong with the North Mountain last night, he had urgently ordered a reserve team to set out for support from the rear, but they did not arrive in time and the enemy's surprise attack force had collapsed.

But the casualties of the defenders of Beishanyan Fort were still not small. His eyes quickly swept over the names of the dead, calculating in his mind, but there was no fluctuation on his face.

If it were him when he had just fallen into this era, he would probably sigh that war is so cruel and that human life is so worthless. However, he has seen too many dead bodies in the past two years. Now he doesn't feel anything when he sees dead bodies. When he reads the casualty report, he is just calculating the exchange ratio and thinking about how to add new personnel for a new round of consumption.

Perhaps the environment can really change people, or anyone who stays in this unfortunate era for too long, or who has been on the battlefield too many times, will most likely not be able to keep a soft heart.

He didn't want to fit in with this era, nor could he, but he still couldn't avoid being contaminated...

He didn't want to be like this, but there was no other way. He wanted to live a good life with dignity.

He read it for a moment, then folded the document and handed it to Ah Qing beside him, asking her to file it later. He then instructed the messenger, "I understand. Go back and tell Ah Man to clean up the battlefield and collect as much enemy armor as possible. Let her handle the rest herself."

The messenger replied, and immediately stood up and turned back to Beishan. Yuanye also ordered the "Stone City" to go out of the city to collect the enemy's armor, and then send it back to the port camp for repair, which would also be good for the auxiliary soldiers. In this era, most men and women can shoot arrows. As long as they have armor, they will not be easily shot to death by stray arrows. The auxiliary soldiers can hide on the top of the city and shoot arrows to cause a lot of trouble to the enemy.

The fighting was fierce, and there were even more troubles after the war. He didn't have a staff department now. After all, the officers were still young and clumsy, and the selection of mid-level officers was very difficult, not to mention staff officers.

He could only take charge personally, and then he arranged some trivial matters, treated the wounded, recorded military exploits, distributed rewards, repaired the city defenses, and recruited new soldiers. Finally, he sent an envoy to the enemy to reiterate the previous deal - as long as the Imagawa family allowed him to gain a foothold on the Chita Peninsula, acknowledged that the land belonged to him, and no longer attacked him, he promised not to attack the Shirakawaguchi defense line from behind, and promised not to attack the Imagawa family's vassal families again before the Imagawa family lost the Chita Peninsula.

In this era, wars were based on etiquette. Even if the two sides fought to the death, communication would be based on basic etiquette. So the envoy went safely and returned safely, and brought back Asahina Yasunaga's answer - no, the Nohara family must leave here. But Asahina Yasunaga also gave in, raising the price of withdrawal to 600 taels of gold, and hinted that if he wanted to rob the surrounding powerful families before leaving, he could pretend not to see it.

This price was actually quite good. The Takeda family bribed the powerful families of the Uesugi family, and made them turn against them and deal a fatal blow to the Uesugi family. Each family only paid 500 taels of gold. If Yuanye really came to ask for money, it would not be impossible for him to take the money and leave, but he did not come here for money, but he had to get this piece of land, and there was no room for negotiation.

Yuanye did not send any more envoys to bargain. He directly called over a few officers and ordered them to draw out a few small flags. He immediately began harassment operations, taking advantage of the opportunity when the enemy had just retreated back to the camp, their vigilance was low and their bodies were tired. He then took the cannon and secretly bombarded the enemy, making the chaos even greater - these were professional soldiers who had enough food and trained every day. Their resilience was definitely better than that of the enemy's Lang gang who trained while farming. Moreover, compared with the Imagawa family, his weapons were also advanced enough.

In short, since the enemy still refuses to acknowledge that he is the lord here, let’s continue fighting!

As long as you cause enough trouble to the enemy and keep killing their men, the enemy will give in sooner or later!
…………Harano’s fortifications withstood the first test and barely passed the test. They began to deal with post-war troubles, while the Imagawa family, the Matsudaira family and the Chita clan suffered a major defeat, and the camp was gloomy and gloomy. It was the first time that Harano organized a large-scale defensive operation, and he did not fight very well, but as long as he could hold on, he would win and at least pass. However, the Imagawa and Matsudaira families fought with all their might, and even used up their entire capital, but they still failed to defeat Harano, and so many people died. No matter from which angle you look at it, it was undoubtedly a defeat.

Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadashi barely maintained their composure as they sent Hara's envoy away, then sat face to face in silence.

Last night was already their most powerful attack. They used the cover of darkness to reduce the power of the enemy's cannons, and were able to get closer to the city wall than during the day to launch a better attack. They also made proper plans and arrangements, attacking from two fronts, one in the light and one in the dark, but still failed to take it down. Even if they try again, they currently cannot bring out a stronger and more elite force, and the result will most likely not change.

The two of them sat there in silence for a long time, each thinking about how to explain to their own family - the Imagawa family (Matsudaira family) must bear greater responsibility for this defeat!

There was nothing wrong with the battle plan, but five hundred elite warriors, plus a group of highly skilled heavily-armored samurai, suddenly launched an attack when the enemy's attention had been drawn away. They couldn't even break into a single rock fortress, and after barely climbing onto the top of the wall they were pushed back by the enemy, killing more than three hundred people. There was definitely something wrong with the Matsudaira family's combat effectiveness - this was what Asahina Yasunaga thought.

There was no problem with the battle itself, but there was a big problem with the general. They arrived early and watched helplessly as the enemy continued to reinforce their fortifications. They could have charged earlier but chose not to, leaving them to harm their allies. Moreover, the battle plan was also inappropriate. The enemy's most elite forces were clearly in that rock fortress, but they chose that place as the main attack point. Even after arriving for so long, they didn't realize that the enemy had hidden a strange giant cannon that could knock down seven or eight people with one shot. With such a general, it was impossible not to lose - this was Sakai Tadamoto's idea.

They have to shirk responsibility, otherwise the risk is too great.

The core fighting force of the Matsudaira family stationed in the Kasugai County area was the Shichihyuro gang, but half of them died overnight. Most of the more than 100 people who escaped were injured, and perhaps another 20 to 30 would die. Sakai Tadashi couldn't think of how to explain to Okazaki Castle - if he couldn't explain, even if the loss was not enough for him to commit seppuku, it would definitely be enough to reduce Chixing's territory.

The same goes for Asahina Yasunaga. He tried to attack the walls of "Ishi Castle" twice last night, and kept sending people to try to burn down the walls. Later, in order to contain the defenders of "Ishi Castle", he forced himself to stay in front of the city and shoot at the enemy, losing more than 300 lives. If the Chita clan's gang members were included, there would be more than 100 lives lost.

There were so many casualties but no results. If he didn't find someone to take the blame, it would be difficult for him to explain to Sunpu Castle. His reputation would plummet and there was a risk of his Zhixing territory being reduced.

Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadamoto sat face to face, racking their brains to think about how to explain the defeat to the rear and how to reduce their responsibility, until they heard fierce cannon fire outside the camp, and then they came to their senses.

They hurried out to climb up to have a look, and were shocked to find that several groups of Nohara clan's "gangsters" were bombarding the camp from afar with cannons. Although the distance was far, the accuracy was poor, and the camp was well protected, they fled after firing several rounds without achieving any results, but this caused chaos outside the camp. Some people heard the noise and screamed "The Nohara clan is attacking" and started running back, which allowed their own warriors to start hacking and killing, beheading the fugitives one after another to forcibly suppress the riot.

"Nohara Saburo..." Asahina Taicho had an ugly look on his face and squeezed out half a sentence from between his teeth. If Nohara was not two meters one meter tall, he would have sent an envoy to issue a challenge and demand a "one-on-one fight" to humiliate the other party.

Sakai Tadamoto didn't care. His men didn't get beaten, and the head of the Matsudaira family was taken away by the Imagawa family. The Matsudaira family was acting as a vassal in the capacity of an ally. He had great endurance and had lost much sense of shame. He had no feelings at all about the enemy's harassment that took advantage of the situation.

He simply said to Taicho Asahina sternly, "Sir, please ask for reinforcements again!"

With the power they have at hand, they may not be able to defeat the other party, so the only way out is to request reinforcements. Moreover, the Matsudaira family does not have any strong forces nearby, so he is not worried that the other party will ask the Matsudaira family to send more people.

As for whether it will become a tactic of adding fuel to the fire, that is none of his business.

Asahina Yasunaga's face became even uglier. He didn't expect that a powerful family who came across the sea for no apparent reason would be so difficult to deal with, forcing him to ask for help twice. But it was certain that the other party had to be driven away. Otherwise, if such a person was allowed to gain a foothold on the Chita Peninsula, not to mention a sneak attack on the Shirakawaguchi defense line from the side and rear, even if he brought disaster to the powerful families on the Chita Peninsula and caused the Shirakawaguchi defense line to lose more than half of its rations, it would also be a huge trouble.

Besides, it would be nice to have someone else to share the responsibility!
He thought for a moment, nodded slowly, and said to Sakai Tadamoto: "This is the only way now, Lord Sakai, let's jointly ask for help!"

(End of this chapter)