Warring States Survival Guide-Chapter 210 - 146: In Grave Danger

"Toya-dono!"

Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto led the household retainers, Samurai, and the powerful Chita clans, leaving the camp for fifteen li, to personally welcome the Imagawa family’s senior clansman and family elder, the new Patriarch’s brother-in-law, the governor of Shita County in Jumogawa Province, and Shimizu Castle Guardian, Toya Hongtong (courtesy name: Jibukei).

This person was a real power figure in the Imagawa family, a position roughly equivalent to Lin Xiuzhen of the Oda Danjo Chonosuke family—Lin Xiuzhen before his rebellion, that is, a big shot whom even the contemporary patriarch must show deference to.

Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto hadn’t expected he would come in person; this lord usually didn’t concern himself with such trifles. For the moment, they stood at the roadside docile as lackeys, bending low to pay their respects in unison. Toya Hongtong, sitting atop a white horse, lowered his head and gazed at them for a long while, watching until sweat beaded on their foreheads before finally asking, "What in the world is going on? Why has such a small matter dragged on so long without resolution?"

Only then did Asahina Taisuke dare straighten his back, but he didn’t dare mention the welcome banquet that had already been prepared. Hesitating, he cautiously replied, "Lord, this is no small matter. If possible, may I ask you to take a look first, and then—"

"Go!" Toya Hongtong barked, immediately spurring his retainers to ride toward the camp, with Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto hurrying to mount and follow at his heels.

The group soon arrived at the camp. Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto accompanied Toya Hongtong up the watchtower, where one glance left Toya Hongtong in shocked silence.

To hear of it and to see it in person were two different things. He had only heard the enemy had raised a stronghold on this wasteland, but he never imagined it would be such... such a mighty construction. The dark-green city walls stretched from the mountain all the way to the riverbank, undulating with height, at least two stories tall; on the walls were towers that every so often belched forth great clouds of gray-white smoke, bombarding the exhausted footsoldier ashigaru desperately digging trenches in the wild below—taking a life now and then, or inciting small bursts of chaos in some sector.

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

Toya Hongtong’s first instinct was incredulity. That such a fortress could be completed in a year or two, he could accept. But a month and a half bordered on legendary; even if written in a popular tale, people would call it impossible.

Asahina Taisuke quickly explained the "turning mud to stone" magic, quite understanding Toya Hongtong’s reaction. Before he saw for himself that "the wall could grow a foot or two a day," he too could hardly believe such "mud" existed in the world—clay that could be easily shaped, then harden like stone, so tough that not even a hammer could break it easily.

Toya Hongtong listened in silence, then gazed at the gray-white smoke lingering atop one enemy tower and asked, "What is that?"

"A kind of large iron cannon," Asahina Taisuke answered immediately, after suffering from the thing for more than ten days while waiting for reinforcements. "A very large sort of iron cannon, requiring two or three men to operate. There’s a supporting stick under the barrel. When firing a lead shot, it can hit from afar; at close range, they use iron sand and many lead balls, hitting several people at once—very tough to deal with."

Toya Hongtong watched from afar for a while, then sighed softly, "Firearms, eh..." His lament passed, he asked, "Have you tried attacking during rain?"

"We have, sir," Yakai Chiyomoto answered quietly. "The enemy within the walls was hardly affected; their rate of fire stayed fast. Ordinary iron cannons can shoot every two zen-sect ’breaths’ or so—one breath is around ten seconds. The large iron cannon is slower, but generally not above ten breaths."

Toya Hongtong nodded slowly, gazing at the fortress in silence.

Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto exchanged glances after waiting a long time, and Asahina Taisuke finally ventured, "Sir, your opinion now—?"

"You both deserve severe punishment, but..." Toya Hongtong finally turned his gaze upon them, sharp and severe, then slowly softened. "Let it go for now. Against such foes, such a fortress, manpower alone is helpless. The fault doesn’t lie with you."

Relief flickered across Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto’s faces, then shame quickly followed; they stood awkward and speechless as Toya Hongtong turned his gaze back upon the walls, murmuring: "Prepare for the assault."

Asahina Taisuke snapped to attention, hesitating: "A frontal assault? Sir, the casualties will be enormous—"

"He cannot be left here—we must eliminate him!" Toya Hongtong’s tone was ironclad, but glancing at the pair, he was not arbitrary in temperament, so he explained: "Sixteen days ago, the Three Kingdoms Alliance was sealed."

"Taiyuan Xuezhai’s Three Kingdoms Pact is done?" This news was too sudden; both Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto cried out. Asahina Taisuke’s tone brimmed with joy, while Yakai Chiyomoto’s was tinged with bitterness.

"It’s done. Sixteen days past, our Imagawa, Takeda, and Houjou families met at Shande Temple, became related by marriage, and forged a union. We have no more troubles behind us—now we can focus westward." Toya Hongtong’s voice remained low, yet a note of joy crept in despite himself.

This was a long-standing Imagawa strategy. The Imagawa, Takeda, and Houjou were close neighbors and constant rivals, their entanglements siphoning away enormous energy. But now—princesses exchanged, marriages formed, oaths sworn—they agreed to respect each other’s territory, to watch and aid one another, and join forces against outsiders. Past grievances no longer mattered; the power once tied up holding each other back could now be freed for serious action:

The Takeda family would advance west-north and north, to seize and subdue Shinano, hoping to become the lord of Kai.

The Houjou family would drive east, seeking to contest the Kantou overlordship against the Uesugi Family.

The Imagawa family would move west, striving to unify the East Sea Road, and perhaps ultimately reach Shangluo—to grasp dominion over the land.

This was the design of their "Military Advisor"—the patriarch’s own tutor, Taiyuan Xuezhai the Grand Monk, who had carried his disciple all the way to the patriarch’s seat and shouldered the family’s strategy. The Imagawa had pursued it for years, actively courting Takeda and Houjou, making major concessions at times—only then did they succeed.

Unification was now close at hand. Yet the joy on Toya Hongtong’s face vanished in a breath, and he turned once more to the wall and said, "Thus, anyone who may affect the family’s grand ambitions must be cleared away at once. The western passage has to be secure."

"Yes, sir!" Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto now had no doubts. The importance of the Bai Chuan Pass line was further heightened. There must be no chance for the Nozawa family to stir up trouble—they bowed together in affirmation. This was about Shangluo, about the land itself. Even if it cost a thousand lives, the Nozawa family had to be beaten back to their ancestral home!

"Good. I am no general compared to you. I brought 1,500 men, but command is still yours." Toya Hongtong nodded lightly—his eyes never leaving the walls—then hesitated: "I’ll give you five days... fifteen days... say, one month. Take this place, and best leave Nozawa Saburou behind as well!"

"Yes, sir!" Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto replied once more, full of confidence. Now they had nearly three thousand Lang Faction men; adding the Chita clans’ retainers and large numbers of ragtag troops, there would be no issue launching a great assault again.

Toya Hongtong said no more, still gazing at the dark-green "Stone City," thinking this fortress was quite beautiful, with an aesthetic that did not seem to belong to this era; the location was excellent as well—linking northward to Atsuta Port, eastward blocking the peninsula, forming a situation of shutting the door to beat the dog, intimidating the powerful Chita clans in the south. Perhaps, in the future, he could send his own son here as City Lord, and the clan would gain a new stronghold.

In these times, such an odd "Stone City" would be considered an extremely respectable residence, perfectly fit to be a lord’s seat.

And it could prevent Harano from returning as well, if he didn’t die here—for he’d likely come back to build trouble otherwise.

......

Toya Hongtong’s status was high, true, but his main duties lay in overall coordination—diplomacy and logistics. He wasn’t counted as a "famous general." In this era, Japan boasted thousands of "famous generals"—every county had three or five. He hadn’t even earned such a title, nor was he skilled in war, so he was content to sit in camp as "military supervisor," leaving the fighting to Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto, the real "famous generals."

With a "military supervisor" watching and the outcome tied to the clan’s overall strategy—with a generous "casualty quota" granted—Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto threw themselves wholeheartedly into the effort. Yet they did not immediately rush to a general assault; the enemy fortress was simply too solid, and after more than ten days’ additional construction, it was ever more daunting. Even with reinforcements, a direct storming wasn’t guaranteed. Thus they kept excavating toward the walls, hoping to combine earthworks and a headlong assault—they had already been digging for more than ten days while awaiting reinforcements, so why waste that effort now? freēwēbnovel.com

They threw in fresh troops, pressured the Chita clans to go all out, indifferent to their casualties, drastically improving the speed and quality of excavation, creeping closer to the walls day by day.

Harano hadn’t expected the Imagawa family to be so willing to spend—you’d think they’d sent another one or two thousand men. The two waves together likely surpassed the regular garrison forces of the Bai Chuan Pass line. The Imagawa, barely holding on to a Three Kingdoms territory, might at full mobilization muster seventeen or eighteen thousand fighting men; for them to send a sixth of that here just to hit him—this was almost inconceivable.

But now he had no way out—he could only see this battle through to the end. Construction could no longer continue, so he immediately converted all able-bodied men on the work crews into support soldiers, gave the few suits of the enemy’s armor he’d scavenged to those he could, and for those without, "bamboo mahjong armor" would have to do. Each got an array hat, then he posted them to the walls and towers as archers, doing everything possible to bolster the defense.

He himself stayed constantly atop the battlements, keeping a close watch on the enemy, all the while boosting morale, ever ready for a major attack.

On the fifth day, the enemy pressed on despite iron cannon and arrow fire, sacrificing three to four hundred ashigaru to dig trenches all the way to the city wall—no further, for even iron cannon accuracy at that range was high, and Harano’s defense was tight. Any enemy found moving about recklessly was sure to die.

In this state, Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto personally led their retainers to the front and, day and night, launched several probing attacks. They attempted their original plan, sending "suicide squads" to tunnel under the city wall, only to discover that the enemy’s foundation was equally absurd, apparently made of the same material as the wall itself—thicker and tougher still.

Trying to dig out the wall just led to soaring casualties. From over the battlements rained exploding ceramic jars, followed by cascades of boiling oil, or worse—fiendishly, even boiling excrement and urine. Huge logs and rubble were simply tossed down like a monsoon, wiping out the suicide squads—ten went, hardly one came back. The plan to breach the wall by tunneling utterly failed.

Yet Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto had anticipated this; unfazed, they ordered the men to keep a set distance and start excavating trenches sideways, extending toward both flanks of the defenses to expand the attacking front and bring numbers to bear. Meanwhile, masses of earth were bagged and stacked into earthen hills for sharpshooting duels, further exhausting the enemy’s strength.

For a time, sheer numbers and bow-fire gave them the upper hand: the "Stone City" was in grave peril, and casualties soared.