Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 147 In Danger
"Your Highness Toba!"

Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadato led their retainers, samurai and Chita nobles fifteen miles away from the camp to personally welcome the Imagawa family's one-member retainer and family elder, the brother-in-law of the new head of the Imagawa family, the governor of Shita County in Suruga Province, and the deputy governor of Sunpu Castle, Toba Hiromichi (also known as Jibusuke).

This person is a powerful figure in the Imagawa family, and his status is roughly equivalent to that of Hayashi Hidetada of the Oda Danmasatada family. Before he rebelled, Hayashi Hidetada was a big shot that even the current head of the family had to be polite to.

Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadashi did not expect this person to come in person. He usually did not care about these trivial matters. He stood by the roadside like a lackey and bowed to greet them. Toba Hiromichi rode on a white horse and looked down at them for a long time. He did not ask until he saw beads of sweat on their foreheads: "What's going on? Why did it take you so long and you can't do such a small thing?"

Asahina Taicho dared to straighten his back, but he did not dare to mention the welcoming banquet that had been prepared. He hesitated and said carefully: "Your Highness, this is not a trivial matter. If possible, please take a look first..."

"Let's go!" Toba Hiromichi said and rode his horses towards the camp with his retainers, while Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadato quickly mounted their horses and followed behind.

The group quickly arrived at the camp. Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadamoto accompanied Toba Hiromichi to climb up the watchtower, and Toba Hiromichi was stunned when he saw it with his own eyes.

Hearing and seeing with one's own eyes are two different things. He had only heard that the enemy had built a fortified city in this wilderness, but he never expected it to be like this... Such a magnificent building, with a dark blue wall that stretched from the mountain all the way to the river, with two floors of varying heights; there were also towers on the walls, from which large clouds of gray-white smoke would spew out from time to time, bombarding the miscellaneous foot soldiers who were desperately digging trenches in the wilderness, taking a life from time to time, or causing a small chaos in a certain area.

"All of this was built in a month and a half?"

Toba Hiromichi instinctively didn't want to believe it. How could he believe that the city was built in a year and a half? One and a half months could be called a legend. Even if it was written into a storybook, people would say it was impossible.

Asahina Taishinaga quickly explained the magic of "turning mud into stone" and understood Toba Hiromichi's reaction. Before he saw with his own eyes that "the wall can grow one or two feet every day", he could not believe that there is a kind of "mud" in the world that can be easily kneaded and can be extremely hard after kneading, and it is difficult to break it with a hammer.

Toba Hiromichi listened silently, then looked at the gray smoke that had not yet dissipated from one of the enemy's towers and asked, "What is that?"

"A large iron cannon." Asahina Taicho had suffered enough from this thing during the ten days of waiting for reinforcements, so he answered immediately, "It's a very large iron cannon, which requires two or three people to use it together. There is also a stick under the gun body. When firing a lead bullet, it can hit very far. If it's close, it uses iron sand and many lead bullets. It can hit multiple people at the same time. It's very difficult to deal with."

Toba Hiromichi watched from a distance for a while, and sighed softly: "Firearms..." After sighing, he turned and asked: "Have you ever tried to attack in the rain?"

"We have tried, Your Highness." Sakai Tadamoto whispered, "The enemy is in the city, so they are not affected too much. Their shooting speed is still very fast. Generally, a cannon can fire once every two breaths (Zen timing method, one breath is about 10 seconds). The speed of a large cannon is slower, but generally it will not exceed ten breaths."

Toba Hiromichi nodded slowly, looked at Jiancheng and said nothing more.

After waiting for a long time, Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadashi looked at each other, and Asahina Yasunaga asked carefully: "Your Highness, what do you think now..."

"Originally, both of you should be severely punished, but..." Toba Hiromichi finally turned his gaze to the two of them. His gaze was very stern, but slowly softened. "Forget it for now. Such an enemy and such a city are indeed difficult to contend with with human power. It's not your fault."

Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadashi first breathed a sigh of relief, then showed shame on their faces and stammered for a moment. Toba Hiromichi turned his gaze back to the city wall and whispered, "Prepare for the attack!"

Asahina Taicho came back to his senses and said hesitantly, "A violent attack? Your Highness, the losses will be great..."

"We can't let him stay here, we must get rid of him!" Toba Hiromichi said firmly, but after looking at the two of them, he realized that he was not a dictatorial person, so he explained to them, "Sixteen days ago, the Three Kingdoms Alliance was completed."

"Master Xuezhai's Three Kingdoms Alliance has been completed?" The news was so sudden that Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadaki exclaimed in surprise, but Asahina Yasunaga's voice was full of joy, while Sakai Tadaki's voice was somewhat bitter.

"It's done. Sixteen days ago, our Imagawa family, Takeda family, and Hojo family held an alliance at Zentoku-ji Temple and became relatives by marriage. From now on, we have no worries and can focus on heading west." Toba Hiromichi's voice was still not loud, but there was a lot of joy in his words.

This was a strategy that the Imagawa family had been pursuing for a long time. The Imagawa family, the Takeda family, and the Hojo family were close neighbors and had been fighting each other for years, which had consumed a lot of their energy. But now they had married their princesses to each other, concluded marriage alliances, and agreed to respect each other's territories, help each other, and unite against foreign enemies. The previous hatred was no longer a problem, and the energy that had previously consumed each other could be used to do serious things:
The Takeda clan developed to the northwest and north to seize and conquer the Shinano region and strive to become the lord of Kai; the Hojo clan developed to the east to compete with the Uesugi clan for the throne of the overlord of Kanto.

The Imagawa family developed westward, striving to unify Tokaido and even Kyoto and control the world.

This was a strategic plan proposed by the Imagawa family's "military advisor", the teacher of the current head of the family, the great monk Taihara Yusai, who single-handedly supported his student in obtaining the throne of head of the family. The Imagawa family also worked hard for this for many years, actively negotiated with the Takeda and Hojo families, and even made major concessions in some aspects, which led to their success.

It won't be long before they dominate the world, but the joy on Toba Hiromichi's face was fleeting. He turned his head and looked at the city wall and said, "So people who may affect the family's future plans must be eliminated in time, and the westbound passage must be guaranteed to be safe."

"Yes, Your Highness!" Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadashi no longer had any doubts. Now the importance of the Shiramizuchi line has been further enhanced. They must not let the "Nohara family" have the possibility of causing trouble. They all bowed their heads and responded immediately - it was related to Shangluo and the whole world. Even if it meant losing thousands of lives, they had to drive the "Nohara family" back to their hometown!
"Very good. I am not as good at fighting as you are. I brought 1,500 people with me, but I still have to let you command them." Toba Hiromichi nodded slightly, but his eyes did not leave the city wall. He hesitated and said, "I will give you five days... fifteen days... a month. Take this place, and it would be best if you can keep Nohara Saburo as well!"

"Yes, Your Highness!" Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadashi responded again, full of confidence. With nearly 3,000 followers, plus the retainers of the Chita clan and a large number of miscellaneous soldiers, there would be no problem in launching another fierce attack.

Toba Hiromichi didn't say anything else. He was still looking at the dark blue "Stone Castle". He felt that the castle was very beautiful, with a unique beauty that seemed not to belong to this era. Moreover, its location was not bad. It could connect to Atsuta Port to the north and cross the peninsula to the east, forming a situation of closing the door and beating the dog, which could intimidate the powerful families in the southern part of Chita. Perhaps in the future he could find a way to send a son here to be the lord of the castle, which would also leave another precious land for family inheritance.

In this era, this strange "stone city" is still quite decent and can be used as a residence.

By the way, it can also prevent Yuan Ye from coming again. If he is not killed here, he will not come to build the city and cause harassment again.

…………

It is true that Toba Hiromichi had a high position, but he was mainly responsible for coordinating the overall situation and doing diplomatic and logistical work, so he was not considered a famous general. In this era, there were thousands of "famous generals" in Japan, and basically every county had three or five. He did not even have the title of "famous general", and naturally he was not proficient in martial arts at all, so he just sat in the camp as a "military supervisor" and the battles were still fought by the two "famous generals" Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadato.

With the "supervisor" watching over them, and the family's overall strategy at stake, and with a large "casualty quota", Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadashi naturally worked very hard, but they were not in a hurry to launch a strong attack. After all, the enemy's city was too strong, and after more than ten days of reinforcements, it became even more outrageous. Even with a large number of reinforcements, a simple strong attack might not be able to successfully capture it, so they continued to dig into the city wall, trying to use both earth attack and strong attack - they had already dug for more than ten days while waiting for reinforcements, and it would be a waste if they didn't use it now.

They sent in fresh troops, which forced the Chido nobles to become more ferocious. They ignored their casualties, greatly increased the speed and quality of excavation, and approached the city day by day.

Yuanye had not expected that the Imagawa family was willing to invest so much that they actually sent another one or two thousand people. The two groups together should exceed the permanent garrison of the Shirakawaguchi Defense Line - the Imagawa family barely occupied the land of three countries, and now with a full mobilization, he estimated that they could only dispatch 17,000 to 18,000 people. As a result, one-sixth of them were sent to beat him. This is really not reasonable.

However, he had no way to retreat now and could only go forward. Besides, the fortifications could no longer be built, so he immediately converted all the men in the construction team to auxiliary soldiers on the spot, and equipped them with a small number of enemy domaru collected before. If there was really no protective gear, he would make do with "bamboo mahjong armor". He then gave them formation hats and placed them on the city walls and towers as archers to increase the defense capabilities as much as possible.

He personally stayed on the city wall day and night, keeping an eye on the enemy, constantly boosting morale, and being ready to respond to the enemy's large-scale attack at any time.

Five days later, the enemy dug a trench all the way to the front of the city, despite cannonballs and arrows, at the cost of three or four hundred casualties. They could not dig any further. At this distance, even cannonballs had a high hit rate, and the defenses in the field were strict. Anyone who dared to move around would surely die.

Faced with this situation, Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadamoto personally led their retainers to the front line and launched several exploratory attacks day and night. They also implemented the original plan and sent "suicide squads" to try to dig down the city walls, but soon discovered that the enemy's foundation was also outrageous. It was made of the same material as the city walls, and was even thicker and stronger.

At the same time, they tried to dig down the city wall, causing a sharp increase in casualties. They threw exploding pottery jars on the wall, poured boiling oil down, and even boiled feces and urine and poured it down in a vicious way. Beating wood and gravel were thrown down like rain. Not a single one of the ten "suicide squad" came back, and their forcible digging of the city wall failed completely.

However, Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadamoto had anticipated these and did not care. They ordered their troops to keep a certain distance and start digging trenches horizontally, extending them to the sheep walls on both sides, forcibly expanding the attack surface to take advantage of their large numbers. At the same time, they put a lot of soil into sacks, piled up earth hills and fired at the enemy from the city to consume the enemy's strength.

For a moment, they gained the advantage by virtue of their large numbers and bows. The "Stone City" was in danger and casualties soared.

(End of this chapter)