Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 148 Never Leave!

A large number of soldiers and foot soldiers were sweating profusely and digging desperately with shovels and pickaxes, constantly piling up rubble and soil in front of the ditch to form a low wall. Suddenly, a whole row of white smoke spurted out from above the sheep wall, and silvery-white lead bullets flew diagonally downward in the air, hitting the low wall in front and behind, causing soil and rubble to splash everywhere. Several soldiers and foot soldiers screamed and fell into the ditch.

A conch shell sounded, and countless white feather arrows immediately rose into the sky from behind the earthen hill not far away, followed by two waves, and then these three waves of feather arrows turned around and fell from the sky, directly attacking the front and back of the sheep wall. Intensive "puff, bang, bang" sounds rang out continuously, and the arrow-proof bamboo fences and bamboo sheds on the sheep wall were full of feather arrows. A large number of light arrows also hit the hard wall and flew away, accompanied by a few muffled groans and screams.

A little further south, there was also a fierce exchange of fire. A huge cannon roared, and the huge projectiles fired hit the wooden wall heavily, knocking half of it down. The flying wooden splinters and debris caused screams, but the rest of the soldiers and foot soldiers ignored them and continued to push the wooden wall forward. Behind them followed more soldiers and foot soldiers with numb expressions. Under the urging of the Samurai Boys, they quickly filled up the trap holes, until several wooden walls were hit by the enemy's oil tanks and caught fire, and they were forced to retreat into the trenches.

This kind of attack and defense was repeated in front of the entire Sheep Wall until it gradually stopped at sunset. Then the battle broke out suddenly again at night, and was even several levels more intense than during the day.

After a whole day of recuperation, a large number of Imagawa clan members jumped out at the sound of the conch shell and swarmed towards the Sheep Wall along a path cleared by the miscellaneous soldiers and foot soldiers during the day.

Arrows immediately rained down from the sheep wall, and cannons also opened fire one after another. The small swing-arm catapults behind the wall also continuously launched cans of gunpowder and kerosene, knocking down and overturning the enemies who rushed up and burning the enemy's siege equipment. The samurai party behind the enemy responded with an even more violent rain of arrows, which was mixed with a batch of flaming arrows from time to time, making the Wanjin army on the wall also pay the price in blood.

From time to time, the Imagawa army successfully erected ladders and rushed onto the city walls under the leadership of heavily-armored samurai. The two sides then engaged in a bloody hand-to-hand fight around a small section of the sheep wall until the reinforcements of the Wanjin army arrived. They retreated when they could no longer hold on.

When the Imagawa family stopped the attack, it was almost dawn and a new round of shooting was about to begin. As long as the Wanjin army relaxed a little, the Imagawa family would try to send carts loaded with a large amount of soil to a section of the sheep wall, hoping to build a soil slope leading to it.

At the very least, raise this place so that you can climb fewer steps next time you attack.

The Wanjin army could not relax. As long as they found the enemy's carts approaching the city wall, someone would pour oil down and burn them, risking being shot to death on the spot. The enemy would produce as many carts as they burned every day, and it seemed like there would be no end.

This kind of day has been going on for five days. The offensive has gradually become stronger. Once the Imagawa family no longer cares about the number of casualties and starts to desperately exchange casualties with Harano, Harano has no way to stop them.

This was not what he expected. Based on his observations over the past two years, the daimyo and powerful families cared a lot about casualties. After all, their men were also their productive forces, and too many casualties would seriously affect the harvest next year. However, the Imagawa and Oda families were different. They occupied three countries and seemed to have too many people. In order to pull out this iron nail that suddenly appeared, they didn't care how many people died.

At least, they seemed to be able to accept the death of one or two thousand people, and did not think it was an unbearable loss - their strength was at least six times that of Oda Danjotada's family, so perhaps they really had the confidence.

This put a lot of psychological pressure on Yuanye, and he began to waver several times. Emotions such as annoyance and regret surged into his heart many times, attempting to erode his determination and reason.

Maybe this is a mistake. Maybe I should just follow Oda Nobunaga and be his retainer. It's okay. Many modern people traveled through time and space to ancient times and fell into trouble. They also kowtowed and were scolded like grandsons. They could get through it if they endured it.
Maybe he was too impatient. It would be better to wait for another year or two. Then the troops would be more sufficient. Oda Nobunaga might not care much about Wanjin's expansion of power and would not feel threatened.

Perhaps he was too suspicious. Oda Nobunaga might not care who controlled the saltpeter production. As long as he was given enough gunpowder every year, he might not do anything to Wanjin.
Maybe they have already failed. The Imagawa family is determined to take over this place. They can hold on at this rate of consumption. Maybe it's time for them to escape.

The days of traveling through time are not easy. Maybe I made a mistake again and made a wrong decision again...

Planning is one thing, and facing extreme pressure is another. Yuanye sat alone under an arrow shelter. He did not look at the summarized casualty reports for a while. He just touched his hair silently and found that he was starting to lose hair. He could feel seven or eight hairs with just a casual touch.

The situation seemed to be getting worse. Even his hair seemed to be feeling bad and wanted to leave him...

"Master, please eat something!" A Qing walked in, knelt beside the stool, and took out two warm rice balls from his arms.

Yuan Ye came to his senses, quickly and secretly shook off the fallen hair, and asked her with concern: "Did anyone else eat it?"

"The food has been delivered from the back, and the others are taking turns eating."

Yuanye nodded in relief, then pushed the rice ball in Aqing's hand away and said with a smile: "You eat first, I'm not that hungry now."

"You haven't eaten since last night, please have some!" Ah Qing had a cold expression and lowered his eyes. He had no intention of taking the rice ball back, but put it in front of him again, insisting, rarely, that he must eat something.

"You haven't eaten since last night?" Yuanye was stunned. He didn't even feel how much time had passed. He really wasn't hungry at all. But maintaining physical strength was of course the most important thing at a time like this. He immediately took the rice ball and stuffed it into his mouth. He smiled at Aqing and said, "Thank you very much. Now that you mention it, I am actually a little hungry."

Ah Qing raised her eyelids and glanced at him, then fetched him a bamboo tube and asked him to drink some water. After he drank the water, she hesitated for a moment, lowered her eyelids and whispered, "My Lord, have you ever considered... going to the port to take charge?"

Yuanye paused, slowly put down the bamboo tube, but he was not angry. He asked softly: "Do you also think we can't hold on?"

Ah Qing lowered his eyelids and remained silent for a long while.

Yuanye was silent for a while, and was slightly tempted by Aqing's proposal, but he soon hardened his heart again and said softly: "I can't leave. If I retreat now, I can't defend this place."

In just these five days, more than a hundred people in the Wanjin Army lost their combat effectiveness, and the auxiliary soldiers who were forced to serve as archers suffered heavy casualties, with nearly three hundred people either injured or dead. This was not the most important thing. The most important thing was that the enemy took out a life-and-death posture, and the attack was uninterrupted, which created great psychological pressure on the defenders. The reason why the defenders can still hold on to the top of the city now is only because of the strict military discipline, the ability of the junior officers, and he, the first generation, is still fighting on the front line, and everyone can see him, and there is the sea behind him, and most people have nowhere to escape. If he moves to a safe place now, this line of defense may not last until tonight - the enemy counts more than 6,000 miscellaneous soldiers and foot soldiers, and the Imagawa family may call all the powerful families in Chita County, and the difference in numbers between the two sides is too great.

Ah Qing could understand the current difficulties to some extent, but he insisted with his eyelids lowered: "I will stay with your horse seal!"

Yuanye laughed in silence: "Our people are not fools. They know whether I have run away or not."

"but now……"

Yuanye held her hand. It was very rough. When he gently squeezed it, he could feel the thick calluses on it, but it was very reassuring. He smiled bitterly and said, "It's too late to say this now. We should just keep doing it! Now we have no other choice but to keep fighting."

He might indeed be wrong. He did not expect that the Imagawa family was so determined to eliminate outsiders. Their plan to occupy a piece of land on the Chita Peninsula was indeed a bit stupid. But after fighting for so long and with so many deaths, he became angry. Even though he was anxious and worried, he did not want to just run away. Reason also told him that it would be useless to run away. He would just live on an island in Ise Bay. His own value was so great and he had so many ways to make money. Sooner or later, he would be punished.

At the very least, Oda Nobunaga would definitely deal with him and force him to make some principled mistakes, and by then he would have no ability to resist at all, and no matter how stubborn he was, he would still die.

Instead of doing that, it would be better to fight to the death now and bleed the Imagawa family as much as possible so that everyone will suffer together.

After all, survival always requires fighting hard, and only fighting hard can survive! This place was not the Imagawa family's territory before. The Imagawa family could come and rob it, but they didn't let him. Even if he even swore a poisonous oath and repeatedly stated that he wanted such a small piece of idle wasteland, he still refused. Then the Imagawa family can't expect to have a good time. Let's all die together!
However, not wanting to be controlled by others and wanting to maintain personal dignity and freedom was his personal selfishness, and had nothing to do with A-man and A-qing. Now the situation was not favorable, so he paused for a moment and said, "If you and A-man want to..."

Ah Qing immediately held his big hand with his backhand, shook his head gently, and stopped him from continuing.

Yuanye did not continue speaking. He put some more strength in his hand to shake Ah Qing's hand again, drawing courage from her - their relationship had long been different, and now it was basically two sides of the same coin. Talking more nonsense would only hurt their feelings.

That's it. If he can get through this, he swears that even if Ah Man eats from his mouth, he won't fart. As for Ah Qing, we have to wait two or three years. Ah Qing is still a little young, so it's not convenient for him to say some things too early...

Of course, it's not just Aman and Aqing, it's the same for everyone else. As long as they can survive this ordeal and are lucky enough not to die, their loyalty will be rewarded, and he will never be stingy with even a penny.

He and Aqing held each other's hands silently for a long time. The anxiety in his heart gradually disappeared, and his determination became more and more determined. However, the situation was critical. They were constantly beaten by the enemy. More and more combat-capable people died, and it was becoming more and more difficult to support the defense line. The influence of his father Meng Ziqi on him weakened rapidly, and the fierceness in his bones began to emerge. He just gave up and pulled Aqing to stand up and said, "Send the order for me. Block the waterway with sunken ships. All armed sailors go ashore to fill the front line. Then tell everyone that this is the new home of the Wanjin people. We will never leave until the last Wanjin person dies!"

…………

"Your Highness, we...we need to rest for two days."

Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadamoto gritted their teeth and asked to see Toba Hiromichi, hoping that this "military supervisor" would show mercy and allow them to rest before attacking again. After all, they really couldn't fight any further. The enemy's will was extraordinarily tenacious. They didn't care about casualties at all and kept charging forward, not giving up an inch of ground. They had been attacking for five consecutive days, but they hadn't even occupied the enemy's sheep wall, let alone attacking the city wall and killing or capturing the enemy's general alive.

On the contrary, they had reached their limit. The enemy had suffered six or seven hundred casualties (including a large number of unarmored auxiliary soldiers, most of whom were wounded by arrows). Their casualties would only be greater. Even though most of them were foot soldiers of the Chita clan, the losses were becoming unbearable. At least the Chita clan could not bear it. Many of them had openly refused to obey orders, and would not attack the city walls no matter how threatened or forced they were.

At the same time, the number of miscellaneous soldiers and foot soldiers who fled was also increasing rapidly, so they had to round them up and keep them under guard.

Toba Hiromichi did not scold the two of them. During these five days he had witnessed with his own eyes the enemy's madness and tenacity. He even saw the legendary "Nohara Saburo" from afar, leading his men on the sheep wall, braving the rain of arrows, and commanding the iron cannon team to launch a volley of fire. Unfortunately, the carefully selected sharpshooters failed to kill him several times as they were blocked by the samurai around him.

He was silent for a while, and could not help but ask again in a low voice: "Why is Saburo Nohara still unwilling to withdraw? What is here that is worth his fighting to the death?" He now began to suspect that there was gold buried under this wilderness, and it was a super large gold mine that no one had discovered yet. Otherwise, there was no way to explain this strange scene.

Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadamoto looked at each other and shook their heads. They still couldn't understand what Yuanye was thinking, or they still didn't believe that Yuanye just wanted to move here.

Toba Hiromichi did not continue to ask. He had asked this question repeatedly in the past five days and had never gotten an answer. However, he was only slightly shaken for a moment before rejecting Asahina and the others' proposal and said directly: "We have five times more people than the enemy. If we can't hold on, the enemy should not be able to hold on either. We can't stop attacking!"

He is now in a dilemma. If he stops now, all the people who died before will have died in vain. With such heavy casualties, even he will have a hard time explaining when he returns.

"But the casualties... and the complaints from the Chita clan..."

"I'm here to talk to the Chita clan, but we must not stop attacking!" Toba Hiromichi was also a tough guy who had come all the way through the hardships of the Imagawa family. He was very determined and insisted, "Not only can we not stop, we must continue to increase the intensity of the attack. We must take this place down and we must not give up!"

Asahina Taishinaga and Sakai Tadashi looked at each other and saw bitterness on each other's faces, but there was no room for refusal. They could only grit their teeth and obey the order: "Yes, Your Highness! Tonight we will personally lead the attack on the city and we will definitely take it down!"

(End of this chapter)