Chapter 207 - 144: Both the Battle Plan and the Battle Itself Are Fine

At dawn, wisps of blue smoke curled before the "Stone City," the fields were littered with corpses, severed arms and legs scattered everywhere. The bodies of soldiers, lying on their backs or stomachs, some piled together, their faces frozen with fear, unwillingness, and pain. Vast quantities of blood had flowed unchecked, staining the originally gray-yellow wasteland with patch after patch of filthy blackness. The air was thick with a pungent, bloody stench, mingled with the reek of gunpowder, nauseating to the point of making one retch, while flocks of black crows arrived, circling overhead, occasionally trying to land, their harsh cawing echoing across the scene. This was what the battlefield looked like just after the enemy retreated. Harano, armor fully donned, stood atop the wall of the "Stone City," gazing at the post-battle "scenery" in silence. At his side, Wanjin Army soldiers were busy hauling away corpses and wounded men. A courier with a small flag stuck on his back raced up the wall, knelt on one knee, and presented a letter: "Lord, news from Lady Ah Man." "Well done," Harano replied politely, turning to accept the document. He unfolded it and read—it was the North Mountain Rock Fortress casualty and situation report. The defender has both strengths and weaknesses, but generally is more passive and finds it hard to determine the enemy’s main assault direction right away. Last night his forces here made a great racket and fought fiercely, but the bloodiest combat had broken out at the North Mountain Rock Fortress. At the time, Ah Man led troops south, using the "National Collapse Type One" large iron cannon to support the main battlefield, bombarding the enemy’s flank from the hilltops. As a result, the northern wall was ambushed and nearly lost; had it not been for the defenders’ tenacity and timely reinforcements, there likely would have been another round of fighting for control of the Rock Fortress. The defenders benefit from fast interior support lines; last night, when Harano realized something was amiss at North Mountain, he had already hastily ordered a reserve force to march in support, but by the time they arrived, the enemy’s raiding unit had already collapsed. Still, the defenders at North Mountain Rock Fortress suffered heavy losses. His gaze swiftly scanned the lists of the fallen, calculating silently, though his expression betrayed no emotion. If this had been him just after his misfortune brought him to this era, he would most likely have sighed at the damn brutality of war, lamented the worthlessness of human life; but after more than two years and having seen too many dead, now he felt nothing at the sight of corpses. When reading casualty reports all he did was calculate the exchange rate, consider how to replenish his losses for the next round of attrition. Perhaps it’s true that environment changes people, or maybe anyone stuck long enough in this damned age, anyone who spends enough time on the battlefield, will find it impossible to keep a soft heart. He never wanted to fit in with this era, nor could he, but he couldn’t dodge contamination either... He didn’t want to be like this, but there was no choice—he just wanted very much to keep living, and to live with dignity. After scanning the report for a while, he folded it up and handed it to Ah Qing nearby, telling her to archive it later. To the courier, he ordered: "I understand. Go tell Ah Man to clean the battlefield thoroughly and collect as much enemy armor as she can. Leave the rest for her to handle as she sees fit." The courier responded with an "Yes, sir!" immediately rose and hurried back toward North Mountain. Meanwhile, Harano issued orders on the "Stone City" side to dispatch troops and collect enemy armor, then send it to the port camp for repair. Outfitting the support soldiers with it would be excellent. Men and women both in this era could mostly use bows; as long as you had armor you wouldn’t get killed by stray arrows so easily. Even support troops shooting from the battlements could inflict serious trouble on the enemy. The fighting had been fierce, but the after-battle mess was even more troublesome. He currently lacked a general staff altogether. After all, his officers were still green and clumsy, and picking decent mid-ranking officers was hard enough, let alone staff officers. He could only manage in person, turning to arrange all manner of trifles: tending the wounded, recording battlefield achievements, distributing rewards, repairing city defenses, mustering new soldiers. Finally, he also sent an envoy to the enemy to again raise the prior proposal—if the Imagawa family would let him settle on the Chita Peninsula, publicly recognize his domain, and refrain from attacking him, then he’d promise not to strike the Bai Chuan Pass line from the rear; he also pledged not to attack any of Imagawa’s feudal vassals as long as they still held Chita Peninsula. Warfare in this era adhered to ritual, and even if both sides had bashed each other’s brains out, you still treated each other with basic courtesy. So the envoy went safely there and back, bringing a reply from Asahina Taisuke—no, the Nozawa family must depart from here. Still, Asahina Taisuke made some concessions, raising the price for withdrawal to six hundred taels of gold, and hinted aloud that if Harano wanted to rob the local clans on his way out, he would turn a blind eye. The price was actually quite good. When the Takeda family bought over the Uesugi Family’s local noblemen and had them betray Uesugi on the battlefield and strike a fatal blow, even then it was only five hundred taels of gold per family. If Harano was just here to make a quick profit and walk away, it wouldn’t be out of the question, but his purpose this trip wasn’t the money. He had to seize this land. There was nothing to discuss. Harano did not send another envoy to haggle, but directly summoned a few officers, ordered them to take several detachments, and immediately begin harassment operations—taking advantage of the enemy’s recent defeat and exhaustion, when their vigilance was low, to sneak out with iron cannons and hammer those bastards again, sowing further chaos in their camps. After all, his troops were well-fed, well-drilled professional soldiers, with far more grit than the Lang Faction on the enemy’s side who alternated farming and soldiering. His weaponry, too, was far more advanced than the Imagawa family’s. In short, if the enemy still refused to acknowledge him as lord of this place, then let the fighting go on! As long as he created enough trouble for the enemy, as long as he kept killing their men, sooner or later they’d relent! ...... Harano’s defensive fortifications had endured their first ordeal—the results were if barely, still passable—and he began to tackle the post-battle headaches. Meanwhile, the Imagawa family, Matsudaira family, and the Chita local lords all suffered a heavy defeat, their camps shrouded in gloom. For Harano it was his first time organizing a large-scale defense operation, and he hadn’t done great, but just holding the line counted as a win and a passing mark for now. The Imagawa and Matsudaira families, on the other hand, had thrown everything in—even their last reserves—but still couldn’t dislodge him, and lost so many men; by any measure, it was an undeniable defeat. Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto struggled to keep up appearances as they saw off Harano’s envoy. Then they sat down face to face in silence. Last night had already been their most powerful blow. With the cover of darkness, they’d lessened the enemy’s iron cannon advantage and been able to approach the walls more closely for the assault. Their plans had been careful and thorough—a pincer attack in both open and covert waves—yet they still failed to take the city. Even if they tried again, they could not muster better or fresher troops; odds were, the outcome would not change. The two men sat in silence for a long time, each pondering how he would explain this defeat to headquarters—this failure, the Imagawa family (or Matsudaira family) would surely have to bear the greater blame! The battle plan had no real flaw, but five hundred elite members of the Lang Faction, together with a contingent of powerful heavily armored warriors, launched a surprise assault while the enemy’s attention was elsewhere, yet failed even to break into a single rock fortress, barely made it atop the wall before being shoved off by the enemy, losing over three hundred men in the process. The problem must be with the Matsudaira family’s fighting ability—or so thought Asahina Taisuke. The battle plan itself was sound, but the grand general was seriously at fault: he’d arrived early and watched as the enemy reinforced their defenses day after day, but made no attempt to attack sooner, just sat and let those mistakes harm his allies. Not only that, the plan itself was flawed—the enemy’s elites obviously manned the rock fortress, but they’d chosen that as the assault target; and after all this time, still hadn’t discovered the enemy’s strange, massive iron cannon, which could flatten seven or eight men in a single shot. With this kind of grand general, it was impossible not to lose—or so thought Yakai Chiyomoto. They both needed to shift the blame; otherwise, the risk to themselves was far too high. The core force Matsudaira stationed in Kasugai District was these seven hundred Lang Faction warriors, and in one night, half of them were dead. Over a hundred more managed to retreat, most of them wounded, and several dozen of those might soon die as well. Yakai Chiyomoto couldn’t imagine how to account for this to Okazaki Castle. If he couldn’t come up with an explanation, the loss might not require seppuku, but it would certainly be enough to have parts of his landholdings stripped away. Asahina Taisuke was no better off. He’d led two major assaults on the "Stone City" wall last night, sent men repeatedly to try burning down the wall, and to pin down the defenders had lingered in front of the city in a fierce firefight, burning through three hundred more lives. Counting the Chita lords’ Lang Faction, another hundred plus deaths must be added. Such huge casualties for no results—if he didn’t find someone to blame, it’d be hard for him to report back to Shimizu Castle. His reputation might plummet, even his domains be cut. So Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto just sat there, racking their brains, worrying how to explain away this defeat and dump as much blame as possible elsewhere, right until sudden, intense musket fire erupted outside the camp and snapped them out of their reverie. They rushed outside to a high vantage point, only to find to their shock that several detachments of Nozawa family’s "Lang Faction" were firing iron cannons from a distance at their encampment. The range was far, the aim poor, and their own defenses solid, so after dozens of rounds with no effect, the attackers withdrew; but it still sowed confusion around their outer camp. Some panicked at the sounds shouting, "Nozawa family’s coming!" and fled, sending their own samurai to hacking and slashing fleeing men to suppress the chaos. "Harano Saburou..." Asahina Taisuke’s face darkened, squeezing the growled words through his teeth. If Harano weren’t two meters tall, he’d have sent a challenge for "single combat" to teach him a lesson. Yakai Chiyomoto, for his part, was unbothered; his own men hadn’t been hit. Besides, the Matsudaira family’s patriarch had already been taken away by the Imagawa family, and as their vassals, his own capacity for endurance was great. He felt no shame or resentment toward the enemy’s opportunistic harassment. He merely said seriously to Asahina Taisuke, "My lord, let’s request reinforcements again." With the troops they had on hand, he doubted they could suppress the other side—so requesting reinforcements was the only solution left. The Matsudaira family no longer had any powerful forces nearby, so he wasn’t worried they’d be called upon for more troops themselves. As for this turning into a meat-grinder war of attrition, that was not his concern. Asahina Taisuke’s expression grew uglier. He never expected a mysterious, seaborne nobleman could be so stubborn, forcing him to beg for reinforcements not once, but twice. But driving them out was imperative—otherwise, if these people gained a foothold on Chita Peninsula, even putting aside the threat to the Bai Chuan Pass defenses from a rear attack, it would be a catastrophe if they ruined every local clan and left the defensive line starving. Besides, calling in another person to share responsibility could only help! He pondered for a moment, then nodded slowly. To Yakai Chiyomoto he said, "That’s all we can do now. Lord Yakai, let’s jointly petition for reinforcements!"