Chapter 146: Betting Everything, No Retreat!
After Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadamoto agreed to jointly request reinforcements, they felt they couldn’t just idly wait for them. Otherwise, they wouldn’t look good when the reinforcements arrived, so they decided to continue their attack, or at least make it appear as though they were.
However, a direct assault on a strong fortress was too difficult, and it became doubly so if the defenders had a tenacious will to fight. They didn’t want to throw their lives against concrete again, but in this era, Japan’s siege warfare methods were limited to a few options such as “fire attack,” “water attack,” “earth attack,” and “buying off an insider to break the city.”
A fire attack was clearly impossible. The enemy’s defenses were not like the simple wooden palisades of ordinary local lords. Whether they shot in a large number of fire arrows or directly poured oil and set it ablaze, at best, it would only burn some non-essential things like arrow-blocking bamboo sheds, and would be of no use against the enemy.
A water attack wouldn’t work either. Although there was a river nearby, even if they stored water and let it flow to impact the city, it wouldn’t reach the enemy’s fortress. Even if it somehow reached it, how high would the water flow need to be to flood their tall city?
Buying off an insider was even out of the question; they didn’t even know who to buy off. There were so many people on the enemy side, and after asking around, they only knew the name of one samurai, Yuan Ye himself. There was no way they could bribe him to personally open the city gates.
If they could have bribed him, they would have just let him leave, and there would be no need for all this trouble.
After much discussion, they couldn’t come up with anything new and could only plan to attempt an “earth attack”—digging a trench all the way over to see if they could collapse the enemy’s city walls, or if they could build a ramp in front of the opposite city wall to charge over the ramparts.
Of course, they had decided on this, but they didn’t hold much hope for this tactic, feeling the chances of success were very slim, and they just didn’t want to be idle.
Furthermore, it wasn’t their fault for not being able to think of a solution. Before the advent of large-caliber artillery on the battlefield, anyone attacking a city would have a splitting headache. Even the Mongols suffered bloody noses against the strong fortresses of the Southern Song Dynasty, and even their Great Khan died once. The actual fighting strength of the Imagawa Family and the Matsudaira Family couldn’t even compare to a single hair of a Mongol, or perhaps was barely equivalent to a single hair. Fighting against Yuan Ye was truly painful.
It cannot be said that they were foolish or lacked wisdom; this was a misfortune of war.
After resting in their camp for a day, they urged the rookie ashigaru brought by the Chita local lords to dig trenches. First, they dug a trench horizontally to shield the camp, then they dug vertically step by step, all the way to the enemy’s city walls.
Yuan Ye didn’t rush when he discovered this. The distance was currently too great for him to interfere. Moreover, since the other side was willing to engage in earthworks, that was perfect. On the sheep wall on the side closer to the “Stone City,” he opened a small gate. This “Stone City” was designed specifically for seizing territory and was not intended for habitation in the future. It only had a very small gate at the back, making entry and exit inconvenient.
Therefore, he opened another gate on the sheep wall next to the “Stone City,” allowing the construction team to exit from there and build another sheep wall directly against the city wall. Once this sheep wall was completed, he could then consider building a barbican between the double walls.
He also planned to dig several deep trenches in front of the city and cast concrete in advance, to give the enemy some excitement and let them dig to their heart’s content.
Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadamoto naturally could not allow this. While urging the Chita local lords to continue their earthworks, they dispatched small teams to stop them. The two sides devolved into their initial combat mode: the Imagawa Family and the Matsudaira Family fired from a distance, while Yuan Ye’s matchlock gunners, positioned at a height with a significant advantage in range and field of fire, concentrated their fire in groups of five or ten matchlock gunners to snipe at the enemy’s low-ranking samurai.
Sakai Tadamoto watched for two days and was numb. He finally understood why Asahina Yasunaga couldn’t stop the enemy from building walls before. For every enemy killed or wounded, they suffered three to four casualties, and these were all highly skilled archers, low-ranking samurai, and followers. He couldn’t afford such an exchange ratio either.
Asahina Yasunaga was even more numb. He discovered that the enemy personnel who slipped out to work were also armored. They had also copied their bamboo and wooden fences, building a large number of them. They would drag them out in the morning as cover and drag them back at night. Even if they were forcibly burned, the enemy didn’t care; they could still drag out new ones the next day. The exchange ratio between the two sides was even worse than before.
They were still unable to prevent the enemy from adding new defensive fortifications, and could only watch as a low sheep wall appeared in front of the enemy’s city. Even the sheep walls on their flanks, which already existed, were being expanded, with several towers added on top. Meanwhile, they had only managed to advance their trenches by a few dozen ken, and had not yet entered the enemy’s optimal firing range. The enemy simply ignored them.
They were truly ignored, not even harassed a few times, which felt incredibly insulting.
For a moment, they wished they could slap themselves. They felt the “earth attack tactic” was incredibly stupid, utterly foolish. The enemy had spent over a month building a solid city on barren land and had constructed an outrageously effective, genuine defensive system. This person was clearly a “super castle construction master,” and calling him the world’s number one castle construction master wouldn’t be an exaggeration. What were they doing comparing digging dirt and trenches with him? They were insane!
At the same time, they were even more confused. Why had Oda Nobunaga sent such a “super castle construction master” to the Chita Peninsula? Wouldn’t it be better to send him to the frontline at Shirakawa Entrance?
With this person’s miraculous ability to “turn mud into stone,” if he were at the Shirakawa Entrance frontline, he might have already filled in the Shirakawa River by now. Further ahead, by building these strange yet sturdy rock fortresses, he might have been able to march all the way into Mikawa Province.
Why didn’t Oda Nobunaga do that?
These two men truly felt like they were banging their heads against the city walls, knowing that these cities and rock fortresses were not just for show. Realizing this, they began to recall Yuan Ye’s previous words, suspecting that the “Yuan Ye Family” might indeed exist independently of the Oda Danjō no Chū family’s system, or at least have significant autonomy, and that Oda Nobunaga couldn’t simply command him.
Out of curiosity, Asahina Yasunaga sent another envoy, asking Yuan Ye to swear that he was not a vassal of the Oda Danjō no Chū family. Yuan Ye didn’t mind and swore in front of the envoy. Coincidentally, it was lunchtime, so he even had the envoy take back two grilled fish, once again expressing his willingness to coexist peacefully with the Imagawa Family.
Asahina Yasunaga was slightly swayed, but after discussing it with Sakai Tadamoto, they still didn’t dare to fully believe him. After all, the Oda Family had just produced someone who betrayed a sacred covenant. Perhaps people from the Oda Family treated oaths as mere wind and didn’t care about future retribution.
They didn’t mention the matter again, but maintained communication channels with Yuan Ye and sent envoys with return gifts. Then, they continued to be troubled by the fact that the enemy clearly wasn’t afraid of earth attacks and wondered what to do next. In the end, they still had no good solution and could only grit their teeth and continue digging, continuing to gamble on that slim chance of success, and waiting for reinforcements to see if they could launch another direct assault.
…
While Asahina Yasunaga and Sakai Tadamoto were suffering, Yuan Ye was also in distress.
The small contingent of military police he had left in Wanjin Town, along with a labor team left for transport duties, suddenly escaped on fishing boats belonging to the islanders. Oda Nobunaga had sent people to take over Wanjin.
He was helpless upon receiving the news. He had been as careful as possible and waited for a good opportunity to act, but luck was not on his side. He hadn’t expected Oda Nobunaga to take Kiyosu Castle so easily. As a result, he had only managed to conceal it for a little over a month before Oda Nobunaga discovered him, and his family hadn’t even finished moving their belongings.
He rushed to the port and first appeased the laborers and military police who had escaped, crammed together like sardines, and then asked the leader of the military police, “Were you attacked?”
The leader of this military police contingent was Qi Sanlang, who had followed Yuan Ye in the Battle of Takeuchi Manor and had seen his share of storms. Despite fleeing in panic all the way, he remained relatively calm and immediately replied, “No, Lord! We were discovered by the Oda Family when they entered Wanjin Town. As per Lord A Man’s orders, we immediately withdrew. It’s just… there weren’t many ships carrying cargo at the time, so we had to abandon all the goods to get the people here.”
“It’s fine as long as the people are safe. Losing some goods doesn’t matter. Your judgment was correct!” Yuan Ye first affirmed his achievement, then asked for details about the situation. However, these military police had fled very quickly. Oda Nobunaga’s men hadn’t even reached the small bay pier yet when they had already gotten everyone onto the boats and rowed with all their might, fearing they would be captured. They had fled very fast and couldn’t provide much information.
Yuan Ye wasn’t disappointed after asking. As long as there was no fighting, there was still room for negotiation. He was currently facing the Imagawa Family and the Matsudaira Family in the front, and he didn’t want to fight the Oda Family in the back. Oda Nobunaga had a navy, stationed separately in Shimazu and Atsuta. Although their strength was generally weak, with only about seven or eight large Kan-sen ships, it was better not to provoke him if possible at this time.
If he were to face enemies on both sides, even just by thinking about it, the experience would be terrible. Oda Nobunaga had a unique and rebellious personality, making it difficult to predict his reactions.
Given the situation, Yuan Ye had no choice. He told Qi Sanlang and the others to go eat and rest, and then quickly summoned internal affairs officials like Endo Chiyo and Maeshima Shichiro to inventory their supplies and see how much of their fortune had been lost.
Because personnel, gunpowder, and volcanic ash cement were urgently needed at the beginning, and the city couldn’t be built or held without them, they were placed on the priority shipping list. By now, these had all been shipped, with only a small amount of minor items remaining, and their loss would not affect the overall situation.
However, because transport capacity over the past month had been primarily used for these urgent and heavy supplies, the second priority, grain, also took up considerable space and required extra care in transport. After an initial storage of three months’ worth of rations, subsequent transportation became intermittent, prioritizing frontline needs. As a result, it hadn’t been fully transported even by today, and about 15% was likely lost.
Finally, there were the high-value goods accumulated previously, such as copper coins, cloth, leather, iron sand, charcoal, guano, and processed bird droppings. These were allocated even less transport capacity. Even though they were smaller in volume, they could only be transported opportunistically. It was estimated that at least 30% would be lost, some possibly over 50%, or even almost entirely gone.
For example, a large amount of high-quality charcoal and the stored guano were still in the warehouses, as transport capacity had never prioritized them before.
After urgently tallying the supplies, Yuan Ye felt it was still somewhat acceptable. After all, the essential items for warfare had been seized and transported. As for money and other valuables, if they were lost, then they were lost!
Out with the old, in with the new. If necessary, he could rob Hayashi Hidesada’s relatives in the future and confiscate their property to make up for it, and he wouldn’t suffer too much of a loss.
Of course, it would have been better if Oda Nobunaga had discovered him a month later. All these items would have been transported. However, the Oda main family in Kiyosu was not strong and shattered at the slightest touch. He couldn’t build ships himself now, and his transport capacity was limited. It was already good that he could transport this much.
A Man, stationed at the North Mountain Rock Fortress, also quickly received the news and rushed over. Upon seeing how much wealth had been lost from her home, she was so heartbroken she couldn’t breathe, clutching her chest as if she were having a heart attack. Yuan Ye quickly directed A Qing to help her calm down before she could be rescued.
While things were chaotic here, a kobaya ship quickly rowed its oars to this unnamed small port, delivering Oda Nobunaga’s personal order, demanding they immediately return to Wanjin, at least Yuan Ye himself had to go back first. Other matters could perhaps be discussed later.
After reading the letter, Yuan Ye did not outright refuse.
He had no personal feud with Oda Nobunaga, and their relationship had always been mutually beneficial. There was no need to directly fall out. He wanted to stall for more time, so he immediately wrote a reply, stating that he was in fierce combat with the Imagawa Family and the Matsudaira Family and could not disengage for the time being. He also wrote about the benefits of him settling in the Chita Peninsula, indicating that he could at least divert a significant number of Imagawa Family troops.
Then, he sent the two warrior officials Oda Nobunaga had assigned to him, along with this letter, back on the kobaya ship. He stood on the jetty and watched them leave. At the same time, he instructed Endo Chiyo and others to make contingency plans, prepare ships, and be ready to sink them at any moment to block the waterway of this small bay.
He had no retreat. For his own selfish desires, for his freedom and dignity, he had gambled everything. He didn’t know if it was worth it.
