Chapter 342 - 238: The More Effort, The Stronger_2

Words : 1107 Updated : Oct 11th, 2025

The reason Japanese castles are considered distinctive is that they differ from Chinese and Western castles.Specifically, the difference lies in their defensive focus; Chinese castles generally concentrate their defenses on the city walls. Because large numbers of commoners often live inside Chinese cities, and in times of chaos, those outside the walls will desperately run into the city, by Chinese tradition, the garrison has a duty to protect the people, so most of the defending force is positioned on the walls, with added structures like barbicans, horse-face towers, and sheep-walls to enhance the walls’ defensive capabilities and functions. Sometimes, to protect the walls, soldiers are even sent out to fight with their backs to the wall. At the same time, if the city wall falls, both the military and civilians usually lose all their will to fight, shouting "The city is breached!" and fleeing in all directions, thus completely declaring defeat. Western castles have a slightly smaller issue when it comes to protecting civilians. Although there are some commoners living in Western castles, their numbers are nowhere near as many as in Chinese cities, where it could be thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. Therefore, Western castles often do not allocate most of their troops, manpower, and resources to the city walls, but instead to various towers and fortresses within the castle. Even if the walls are lost and the attackers assault the civilians, the garrison doesn’t care and will keep up the fight. Similarly, since they haven’t spent so many lives and resources on the city walls, the towers and fortresses are stronger and better defended, and the defenders can hold out longer, increasing their hope of waiting for reinforcements. As for proper Japanese castles, they don’t have this issue at all, because they fundamentally do not allow commoners inside the castle—they just throw them into the castle town and whether they live or die is entirely up to them. The whole castle purely serves military purposes and is meant to protect the Daimyo and Samurai. As a result, the defensive focus is different: Japanese castles focus their defenses on the roads. Most Japanese castles are built against mountains, or at the very least, on a large hill. Take, for instance, the recently built Komaki-yama Castle by Oda Nobunaga: around the base of the mountain is a ring of trenches and thick wooden palisade walls—the trenches were originally meant to be moats, but due to rushed construction, they gave up on diverting water in and left them as dry ditches. The palisade walls are open with two gates to the north and south, allowing supplies to move from the rear and for launching attacks northwards. Then, as you head up the mountain path, more than a dozen rock fortresses and arrow towers are built along the route, supporting one another and guarding the approach, completely controlling the mountain roads. Interspersed along the way are Samurai residences, Ashigaru barracks, stables, warehouses, and other facilities. Closer to the summit, there is another trench and a castle wall, and behind that is Oda Nobunaga’s own residence—a small volcanic ash-cement fortress—as well as several lookout towers over five meters tall that stretch along the mountain ridge, to control the road to the mountaintop. Excluding castles like Hosokawa Castle, which gradually expanded from a private residence during land reclamation, most proper Japanese mountain castles look like this. Simply breaking through the first wall is useless; you still have to fight all the way up the road to the peak, attacked by defenders—both in the open and hidden—by all sorts of defenses, being whittled down the whole way. The defenders fight and retreat at the same time, slowly withdrawing into their mountaintop residence. Many times, by then, the momentum shifts: the attackers, having suffered losses and exhausted, crawl to the top only to find themselves spent, and at the brink of collapse—a counterattack could rout the entire force, making them roll down the mountain as badly as they climbed up. The same goes for Inuyama Castle of Oda Nobuaki, which has roughly the same layout. Oda Nobunaga almost completely cut off all their reinforcements through diplomacy, but kept giving Oda Nobuaki chances and never launched a full assault, simply because directly attacking these large mountain castles is too much trouble—casualties would be severe, and it would be all too easy for the defenders to turn the tables. Or you could do what Takeda Hanbei did: sneak into the lord’s residence and open the gates at night, striking straight for the enemy commander in the darkness before any of the defenses can react. But in most situations, that’s just not possible—it’s hard to find such inside traitors, and the defenders may not be as lax as the Saito family. Since Harano forcibly seized the Chita Peninsula three years ago to establish himself, he’s never attacked a large Japanese Yamashiro, because the local clans on the peninsula are mostly not even as powerful as the Hosokawa Family, just muddy, wooden stockades easily smashed—a few charges to break down earthen walls, then besiege the main residence. With overwhelming numbers, the enemy couldn’t even put up a fight. So, both he and his Wanjin officer corps have long wanted to see the real defensive capabilities of a legitimate Japanese mountain castle. They just never had the chance—now the enemy’s will to resist is weak, perfect timing for the Wanjin Army to conduct a field exercise. No real fighting, just to observe the enemy’s reactions and countermeasures; for life-and-death battles, those are for the Ise Peninsula later on. Or in other words, do a small-scale assault, keep casualties around twenty, ideally no more than thirty. At the same time, a large number of Wanjin Army Iron Gunners have been reassigned to the Wanjin Navy, and the new recruits severely lack combat experience. Now’s the perfect chance for them to get a taste of the battlefield and build up some real experience. As the saying goes: the more you strive, the stronger you become; the stronger you are, the more your freedom. Harano has stumbled all the way here, and now he’s freer than ever—no need to consider what others think, if he thinks it’s beneficial, he does it. In the deep of night, as required by the exercise, the resting Wanjin companies are suddenly roused, quietly gathering and making their pre-battle reports. Then, they quickly spring into action, one after another moving into attack positions—the Wanjin Army, thanks to good nutrition and a veteran rotation system, has completely eradicated night blindness; now, night is no obstacle but rather a friend to them.

Chapter 342 - 238: The More Effort, The Stronger_2

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