Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 150: Those who are stunned are afraid of being stunned, and those who are stunned are afraid of losing their lives.

Imagawa army, camp.

Toba Hiromichi, Asahina Yasunaga, and Sakai Tadashi sat together in silence.

They had just interrogated the captured Wanjin auxiliary soldiers - this was the first time they had captured Wanjin soldiers since the war began, and the interrogation situation was quite bad. The enemy had actually blocked their own retreat and was ready to fight to the death in this barren land where no chickens would fly, no dogs would jump, and no rabbits would shit, completely disregarding the survival of the Nohara family.

This is definitely not something that an ordinary wealthy family can do.

What’s even more outrageous is that the enemy had already made preparations for the loss of a large area in the front, and had built a large number of defensive buildings in the rear. If they continued to pull out the nails one by one...

Just taking down the Sheep Wall by force was enough to make them sad. Unlike before, this time they mostly took the people of the Chita clan to fight, so they didn't feel anything even if there were heavy casualties. However, the most powerful attack last night was delivered by the Imagawa and Matsudaira families themselves, and the number of casualties made their hearts stop.

Even if there are "casualty targets" and even if it concerns "family affairs", such casualties cannot be tolerated a second time.

Morale is an even more serious problem. The Chita clan was forced to attack the city and are already full of resentment. If someone is willing to take the lead and make a call, they will start killing each other in the camp. After this period of continuous attacks, the rebels of the Imagawa and Matsudaira families have also begun to waver. Even if a large number of rewards are issued, it will be difficult to calm people's hearts. If they are pushed further, they will probably start to find ways to escape.

Toba Hiromichi originally thought that a powerful blow would be enough to make Hara collapse, and Hara would flee to the sea if he didn't die. However, he would rather be trapped and die in the city than escape, and he had to fight the Imagawa family to the death...

Toba Hiromichi really wanted to go over and slap him twice and ask him what was going on in his mind!
The current situation is different from what he expected. He suffered heavy casualties but failed to achieve victory in one fell swoop. He really has nothing to say. Not to mention Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadashi. They have been in the army for so many years, but this is the first time they have experienced such a brutal siege. They really don't want to go through it again - the last time the Imagawa family stormed Ansho Castle and captured the eldest son of Oda Nobuhide, the "Tiger of Owari", alive, it was not so tragic. This is simply outrageous.

Even now that the enemy has no way to retreat, they are still fighting like a trapped beast. I'm afraid the severity of the attack will reach a new level.

Asahina Taicho was disheartened. Seeing that no one spoke for a long time, he slapped his thigh and said angrily, "Since he is not afraid of death, then we will trap him to death!"

No one responded. After a while, Toba Hiromichi whispered, "Send an envoy to ask him if he is willing to surrender. If he is willing to surrender, the Imagawa family is willing to treat him as the lord of the city. He can choose any daughter of the important officials of the Imagawa family to marry. The size of the daughter can also be discussed. If he is unwilling... If he is unwilling, then we want to talk to him in person."

After a pause, he added, "Be more polite and show proper etiquette."

"Promise him the position of city lord? And you can also choose any noble lady to marry him?" The Imagawa family is of high status. In a sense, they are the reserve of the Shogun. The daughters of the Imonshu are naturally valuable, and the attached political significance is also great. Asahina Yasunaga was shocked and said in disbelief, "Your Highness, he just killed so many of us..."

Toba Hiromichi raised his hand to stop him from speaking, and said calmly: "I will write a letter to Master Xuezhai, and I believe Master Xuezhai will not object. If he had not killed so many of us, how could he be worthy of marrying the noble lady of the Imagawa family, and how could he be worthy of talking to us?!"

"But now we have beaten him for a while..."

"But he neither fled nor surrendered. What are you going to do next?"

"We'll trap him to death!"

"how long?"

"Three months..." Asahina Taishou said, but felt unsure and changed the subject, "Let's stay here for half a year and see how things go."

Toba Hiromichi pressed on, “Can we stay here for half a year?”

Most of the samurai gangs and powerful families who are besieging the Nohara family now are drawn from the Shirakawaguchi line, which is already extremely empty. If they stay here for half a year, and the Oda Danmasatada family reacts and rushes across the river to attack the Yamaguchi family, they will probably have to go back - let alone half a year, maybe the Oda Danmasatada family is already ready to make a move, but it will take time to determine the real situation.

Asahina Taishinaga remained silent, but Sakai Tadashi hesitated and asked tentatively, "Your Highness, can you transfer another thousand men from Suruga?"

Toba Hiromichi gave him a cold look and said, "And let these thousand people perish together with the Nohara family?"

Sakai Tadamamoto certainly agreed that the Imagawa family should have more casualties, as he was the most ruthless in pushing for the attack before, but he didn't dare to say it and just lowered his head and kept silent.

The three of them were arguing in the camp for a while, and they felt that after a round of fighting, it was time to negotiate again - this was how it was in medieval Japan, fighting and negotiating at the same time, and the price was raised or lowered according to the tenacity of the enemy. They were just calling the envoy to give instructions when they heard a series of muffled noises in the distance, which connected into a loud noise, giving people the illusion that the ground was shaking, followed by a panicked cry, causing a commotion in the camp.

The three of them quickly climbed up to the top of the village wall to take a closer look. They saw that the sheep wall in the distance was full of dust. Several towers on the sheep wall had completely collapsed. Even the sheep wall below was only a short section left, revealing a lot of messy gaps.

The slope of earth attached to the sheep wall was reduced by more than half, and a large amount of soil was blown away by the strong and continuous vibration, which also caused large-scale collapse - Yuanye had already given up, and if the Imagawa family wanted to kill him, he would fight to the death with the Imagawa family. He saw teams of archers from the Imagawa family entering various towers and directly igniting the fuse to blow up the wall under the tower from the inside.

There is a ninety-nine percent chance that the people in these towers are dead. If they are not killed by the earthquake, they will be killed by falling or being smashed to pieces. At the same time, there are fierce sounds of cannon fire coming from behind the sheep wall, but now the sky is full of dust and it is impossible to determine the specific situation there.

Soon, the samurai in the front sent back a message that the Nohara family took advantage of the turmoil caused by the collapse of the tower and suddenly opened the city gate at the rear and rushed out. They were wantonly attacking the Imagawa family's team between the "Stone Castle" and the port, biting whoever they caught. Now there was chaos over there, and everyone was fighting on their own, and they urgently needed instructions.

Asahina Yasunaga felt his scalp tingling again. He felt that it would be difficult to trap the enemy to death. This would most likely happen if the enemy had eaten up all the food. They would just rush out and try their best to break through. They might even blow up the passage in advance and would not be trapped to death by the sheep wall he built. Even if he could kill all the enemies by then, he would at least have to lose the same number of lives as the enemy.

The general is in even more trouble. He might be replaced one by one by the enemy. Moreover, the enemy's supplies are too abundant. They fire cannons every day, and they still have so much gunpowder. Did they find a saltpeter mine?
Judging from the fact that the other party has so much gunpowder, they must have no shortage of food and grass. Nowadays, saltpeter is said to be one ounce of gold for one ounce of saltpeter, and one pound of saltpeter starts at three strings of coins. It can be worth three or four stones of grain, which can feed a person for almost two years. With so much saltpeter, the other party must have exchanged it for enough food and grass long ago, right?
"Withdraw the people first and let the envoy leave immediately!" Toba Hiromichi left a message and walked back, ready to think carefully about how to talk to Yuanye when the time comes.

A large number of people died before they captured the Sheep Wall, but they were blown up by the enemy again. The enemy refused to give them even one day's use, and their determination to fight for their lives was clearly revealed. There is nothing more to say, so let's talk!

…………

Yuanye was no longer ready to risk his life, nor did he consider how to preserve at least half of his strength so that he could turn around and deal with the possible arrest and confiscation of property by Oda Nobunaga. He clenched his fists and focused on suppressing the Imagawa family. Even if they could defeat him and ruin his plans, they would know what it felt like to be in deep pain, just like when he fought with other kids when he was a child. He could never beat a group of people alone, but every time he could at least beat someone until he was black and blue, and they would cry and shout to go home to their mother.

As a result, the arrogant are afraid of the stupid, and the stupid are afraid of the desperate. He was not prepared to risk his life, but the envoy of the Imagawa family came and offered him more favorable and decent surrender conditions. He was even willing to marry the daughter of an important official of the Imagawa family. But he certainly could not accept it. If he was willing to be a foster son, wouldn't it be better for him to be a retainer of Oda Nobunaga directly? Sooner or later he would be able to become a city lord. Why did so many people have to die?

An independent territory is not only about preserving his personal freedom and dignity, but also involves a larger and long-term plan, which he cannot compromise on.

He rejected this decent surrender condition without hesitation, but did not object to Toba Hiromichi's request for a face-to-face talk.

If his basic demands could be met and he could be guaranteed to become a "small daimyo" without being constrained, he would have no intention of becoming an enemy of the Imagawa family - the Imagawa family during this period was not easy to mess with, Taihara Yukisai was still alive, and this was a family that could fight on three fronts and could beat the Oda family in the west, the Takeda family in the north, and the Hojo family in the east.

This was also the main reason why Oda Nobunaga's killing of Imagawa Yoshimoto in the Battle of Okehazama shocked the whole country and no one dared to mention the name of "big fool" anymore. At this time, Imagawa Yoshimoto said that he was the strongest guardian daimyo in Japan, and no one dared to object, otherwise he would not have been able to lead tens of thousands of people to Kyoto and regard Kyoto as his own.

In fact, if Yuanye had nowhere to go, he would not have come to the Chita Peninsula to offend the Imagawa family. Facts have also proved that it is indeed difficult to offend the Imagawa family.

The "Tiger of Owari" Oda Nobuhide attacked Inabayama Castle for nearly a month. He could not bear it and retreated after five or six hundred of his direct troops died. He was also counterattacked by Saito Dosan, and his entire army collapsed. In the end, he lost about four thousand people. Although the Imagawa family's attack was short, they definitely lost a thousand people, not to mention the people from the Matsudaira family and the Chita clan. Even so, they were still able to hold on. It is no exaggeration to say that they were six or seven times stronger than Oda Danmasatada's family.

Therefore, if we can negotiate, we should still negotiate.

Thus, the battlefield returned to silence, and the envoys of both sides came and went, and began to discuss how to have a face-to-face talk while ensuring their own safety.

This time the other party was very sincere and quickly agreed to the main conditions proposed by Yuanye - to withdraw their troops from the Sheep Wall and retreat their positions a certain distance. After all, the Sheep Wall had been blown up by Yuanye himself, leaving several large holes. If the negotiations failed and the fighting continued, they could go back at any time.

Of course, Yuanye also promised that during the period of communication between the two sides, he would never try to continue to build defensive facilities or even attempt to repair the sheep wall. He agreed to let the other party leave a small team of people to monitor and guarantee the other party's personal safety.

As for the number of other entourage members, the number and types of weapons carried, the meeting place, and the number of support personnel, these are also very troublesome. Both sides must try their best to ensure that even if the other side attacks on the spot, the important figures on their side will not be hacked to death on the spot.

The main reason for this is that Harano was constrained. He was famous for his bravery, and neither Asahina Yasunaga nor Sakai Tadamoto had the courage to fight him in a duel. At the same time, he was implicated by the Oda family. The news that Oda Nobumitsu betrayed the alliance before the gods and attacked Kiyosu Castle had spread throughout Tokaido. Now most of the people in the Oda family were on the "list of untrustworthy persons" and were on guard against. Harano ran away from the Oda family and had a puddle of stinky mud on his face. The other party was afraid that he would draw his sword and chop people when they met, and he could kill three people by himself and directly reverse the situation.

After a whole day of discussion, the details of the meeting were finally finalized. After both sides lost a lot of people, they finally officially started the first peace talks.

(End of this chapter)