Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 251 Winning Over Others with Virtue
Nabe Taro came from an ordinary background and had mediocre abilities. In his early twenties, he was conscripted as a foot soldier and sent to the battlefield. He was subsequently defeated and captured, which was quite unfortunate.

In theory, he should be sold somewhere to continue repairing the earth. If he's unlucky, he'll be sent back to the battlefield and die a violent death. If he's lucky, he'll settle down, have a litter of children, and repeat his fate.

But fate played a cruel trick on him, and he was sold to Wanjin, which changed his destiny forever.

In Wanjin, he entered a workshop, then the army, and even a military academy. Although the competition was so fierce that his academic performance, tactical training results, and combat record were all mediocre and far less successful than his younger brother Shi Pusa, he was no longer the ignorant villager he used to be through his studies.

Later, due to a lack of grassroots management personnel in Wanjin, he was ordered to change jobs and went to work in a small town in the southern part of the city, where he began to be in charge of rural work.

In this job, he performed much better than in the army. After all, he had lived in the village since he was a child, was proficient in farm work, knew the villagers well, and loved rural life. More importantly, although he was not particularly smart and his abilities were relatively mediocre, he was very honest and obedient, and had excellent obedience. No matter how strange or unbecoming the requirements of the wilderness seemed in this era, he was happy to carry them out obediently.

Even in Songshan Village, he remained true to his nature, genuinely picking up a hoe and working alongside the villagers. His lack of success in the army stemmed mainly from a lack of decisiveness and a reluctance to take risks. However, whether he dared to work hard in the countryside was not important; rather, it was his "big brother" approachability that made it easy for him to gain the trust and goodwill of others.

During his short ten-day stay in Songshan Village, he took the lead in his work, drawing on his previous experience. He not only led the villagers in their work but also talked to them about the future, cared for the elderly and widows, and was approachable and considerate. However, he also dealt with some troublemakers by leading the villagers to fight against each other. He was ruthless and showed no weakness or vulnerability.

They were part of a working group, each with their own responsibilities. Some provided medicine and medical treatment to help villagers alleviate their pain; some opened a school to teach the village children to read and write; and some investigated local specialties in preparation for developing them next year to help the village earn some money.

They were all very rudimentary. It was as if the primary school teacher himself only knew a little over a thousand Chinese characters and could barely do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. As a result, he set up a dilapidated house and started teaching, without caring whether he would mislead the students. The doctor who treated the disease was more skilled at treating livestock than humans. He mostly used finished medicines and pills produced by the Wanjin “Death Factory”, which seemed to be very disregarding human life.

But these events still greatly shocked the villagers of Songshan Village.

They'd never seen anything like this before. They'd lived their whole lives and never seen a "samurai lord" like this. Was this even a "samurai lord" anymore?

In just over ten days, the more than two thousand people of Songshan Village were subdued and truly convinced of their authority. They worked tirelessly under the command of Guo Taro and others without any complaints.

Some people have even begun to believe in the "bright future" that Nakataro and others described. In the future, the village will not have to pay all sorts of messy annual tributes. The agricultural tax will be at most "two public and eight private taxes." Eating bitter wild vegetables will not be out of necessity, but simply because old habits are hard to break. It will be a way to change the taste of food in daily life. There will definitely be enough food to eat. In fact, by learning techniques such as "fertilizer accumulation method" and "silt burying method", the yield can be increased even more, and they can sell it to buy a lot of good things.

You have to believe it. You can't expect people like Guo Taro to travel all that way to suffer just to fool them, right?

Even if Nakataro and his ilk wanted to go to the battlefield, they could have forced them with knives; there was no need for all this trouble.

Life was beginning to show signs of improvement, and many people couldn't help but start to worry about the situation on the front lines.

Will the Wanjin army be able to hold out? Will the Kitabatake clan fight back? We can't just stand by and watch; we should at least help them out, right?

And that "Lord Nohara," I heard he's also on the front lines. Isn't that a bit too dangerous?

He can't die now! What if his good days are over? The next lord might not be satisfied with just this much!

The change of allegiance in Songshan Village was outrageously smooth, mainly because "it's not that people don't know the goods, it's that they compare them." The Kitabatake family used to be so inhumane, they would suck the marrow out of these villagers. As long as Wanjin showed even a little bit of humanity, the villagers of Songshan Village didn't even have to think, they instinctively voted, ready to follow Wanjin and take a gamble to see if they could become Wanjin people in the future.

Let whoever wants to be an Ise person be one; they can't even afford to eat, so it's better not to be one!

Amid this trend, and during the winter off-season, the village's labor force was easily organized to take over transportation work and widen and expand roads. Even the militia was organized, with more than a hundred people starting to train to provide security for the village and its surroundings. They even unexpectedly captured two spies from the Kitabatake family—reported by the villagers themselves. When Nabetaro received them, the two spies were almost beaten to death.

Similar incidents occurred frequently on the land between Shikazu Port and Yasutsu Castle. Dozens of working groups, large and small, similar to Nabetaro's, were dispatched by Wanzu and were already snowballing, transforming the Kitabatake clan's power into Wanzu's power.

This is winning people over with virtue.

…………

Northwest of Songshan Village lies Anong City.

Kitabatake Gukyo, dressed in a monk's robe and holding a Bodhi rosary, sat cross-legged, showing no trace of a "swordsman." In front of him was a group of samurai who had come to greet him, but their expressions were far from enthusiastic; they all looked dumbfounded.

Nozu Castle has fallen. As a branch castle of Anno Castle and an important barrier in the southeast, it was breached in less than twenty days.

This was even with the enemy moving relatively slowly, and the result was that they split up their forces to sweep through the enemy.

If the enemy disregards everything and charges straight at Nozu Castle, the castle's defenses and the surrounding rock fortifications alone will only last for two days at most.

However, the Kitabatake clan's losses were not too great, with only a little over a thousand dead, and their main force successfully withdrew to Anno Castle. Well, Nozu Castle was a branch castle, and although its defenses were strong, it couldn't hold the Kitabatake clan's six thousand troops. Originally, the Kitabatake clan planned to use Nozu Castle to block the Wanjin army, leaving most of their troops to the flanks and rear to wait for an opportunity to strike. However, the Wanjin army was a bit slow on foot, but incredibly fierce in battle. After arriving, they leisurely knocked down the nearby rock fortresses and launched a large-scale night attack that very night.

By the time the Kitabatake clan realized what was happening, Nozu Castle had already become a giant furnace. The fire was so intense that it was like a beacon in the night, illuminating the area for miles. The troops that rushed to the rescue were ambushed by the Kawazu army. In the dim light of the fire, a fierce battle broke out between the two sides. In the end, the Kitabatake clan suffered a crushing defeat and fled, leaving behind more than 300 corpses and all the wounded.

By daybreak, Nongjin City had changed hands, or rather, been destroyed. The more than 1,000 garrison inside was almost entirely wiped out, with only a few dozen lucky ones managing to escape in the darkness while familiarizing themselves with the terrain.

This battle situation was far beyond the expectations of everyone in the Kitabatake family. Originally, Haruno was hiding his head in Shikazu Port, looking like a big turtle. Unexpectedly, the turtle bit people so fiercely. He slowly and steadily moved over, and suddenly poked his head out and bit off such a big piece of flesh from them, causing them excruciating pain.

The tide had already turned between the two sides, and now the situation has taken an even more dramatic turn, causing some of their plans to completely fall through.

Originally, the Kitabatake clan planned to hold off the Wanjin army in the Nozu area for a few months, so that they could spare some men to turn back and wipe out the "Ikkyu" in various counties. However, the Wanjin army is now slowly moving towards Anno Castle like a giant tortoise, and they have no way to leave.

Even Kitabatake Tomonori couldn't care less about the peasant uprisings that were raging in the other four districts, which were in complete chaos, and could only urgently dispatch several hundred bannermen to take charge of the overall situation.

After all, Anong Castle is the center and fulcrum of Kumagawa County under the rule of the Kitabatake clan. If it is lost, Kumagawa County will fall into ruin in no time.

This is something the Kitabatake clan could never accept. The Kasuga and Shimogura districts are the Kitabatake clan's vital territories, and they absolutely cannot afford to lose them.

Kitabatake Tomokyo couldn't understand how these fools, who commanded more than half of the Kitabatake clan's military force, could fight like this. He could understand that the rear was unstable, morale was wavering, and the frontline soldiers didn't want to risk their lives to break through the Kwantsu people's fortifications. But it was unbelievable that they couldn't even hold their ground after retreating and having strong fortifications.

Wanjin was merely a vassal of Oda Nobunaga, yet he couldn't even stop a vassal?

If Oda Nobunaga personally attacked, would the Kitabatake clan simply surrender?
However, he was, after all, a man of the "Tiger of Owari" generation, and being old, he was able to remain calm. He did not get angry when he saw his subordinates who came to greet him. After sitting down, he played with his prayer beads to calm his mind and asked in a deep voice, "What happened? Why was Nozu Castle lost so easily? I need an explanation!"

All eyes turned to Yasuda (Nai-no-kami) Genkatsu, who was the garrison commander of Nozu Castle at the time. Fortunately, his retainers were also very capable and risked their lives to fight for him, managing to cover his escape. If anyone were to be held accountable, he would undoubtedly be the first person responsible.

But Yasuda Genkatsu had been terribly dazed since he escaped, looking completely lifeless. He just sat there blankly, absent-minded, with no intention of stepping forward, bravely taking responsibility, or publicly committing seppuku to atone for his sins.

It's likely that the Wanjin army was too fierce that night, wiping out his Lang faction and retainers in a swift and decisive manner. He suffered a great blow and hasn't recovered yet.

In the end, it was Hirado Tobei, who served as the chief administrator of Ōkōchi Castle and was also known as Niwa Nagahide of the Kitabatake clan, who could no longer sit still. He bowed and sighed, "My lord, our previous judgment was wrong. The Nohara clan... is very strong, a powerful army rarely seen in this world."

When Wanjin suddenly landed and began a standoff, the Kitabatake clan unanimously judged that he was there to take advantage of the chaos and probably wanted to plunder. However, the situation was clearly different now. They had already given up half of the county to Wanjin for his plunder, but Wanjin was still advancing step by step toward Anon Castle. His intention to devour the entire city was very clear, and he must have been planning this for a long time.

Hirado Tobei felt it was his duty to advise his lord and analyze the situation. After speaking, he invited Kitabatake Tomonori to the courtyard, where the body of a Wanjin soldier was already laid out.

He pointed to the body and said, “My lord, please look. This is a foot soldier from the Wanjin army. It’s really… really unexpected. They are very well equipped, and… and they are very fierce and warlike. Even when surrounded, they refused to surrender. There were five of them in total, and in the end, none of them surrendered. They all died in battle.”

This was a reconnaissance squad of the Wanjin Army, responsible for scouting the terrain ahead and clearing the way for the main force. However, during the mission, they accidentally ran into a group of enemy soldiers. The five men tried to escape but failed. They fled into an abandoned village to hide but failed and were surrounded. However, they refused to surrender. After lighting fireworks to rescue them, they relied on arquebuses, firecrackers, and long swords to hold their ground and resist stubbornly. They killed two low-ranking samurai and killed or wounded more than ten Langdang foot soldiers.

During this time, the Kitabatake clan also tried to entice and persuade them to surrender, promising them gold, silver, and land, but these five people remained silent and resolutely resisted to the end. In the end, the last one did not survive; they were all besieged and killed.

However, the Kitabatake clan's troops did not fare well either. A nearby army of over a hundred men from the Wanjin army arrived after seeing the distress signal, and the two sides clashed again in that abandoned village. In the end, the Kitabatake clan suffered a crushing defeat, losing more than thirty men before being forced to flee. However, they brought back the body of a Wanjin soldier, which was considered a rare spoil of war.

There were many similar incidents. After all, the Kitabatake clan had not yet made up their minds to fight a decisive battle with the Wanjin army. With one side intentionally avoiding war, large-scale field battles were unlikely to break out. Most of the skirmishes involved a dozen or several dozen people. The fighting spirit and tactical skills displayed by the Wanjin army dealt a heavy blow to the Kitabatake clan's lower-ranking samurai and ro-dō.

Hirado Tobei collected a lot of relevant intelligence, including reports of over a hundred Wanjin soldiers besieging local samurai homes, repeated battles for a hilltop fortress during a standoff, ambushes that killed and wounded the enemy, and ambushes that turned the tide of battle...

In short, the Wanjin Army was not only well-equipped and had extremely fierce firepower, but also had clear combat objectives and a strong desire to fight. As long as they needed to take a place, they were willing to launch a desperate charge and would not give up until they achieved their goal.

This is truly a powerful army, far superior to the general forces of powerful clans. It's not that the Kitabatake army in Shimogaku County doesn't want a decisive battle; it's just that even if their rear is stable and their morale is normal, they probably still can't stop the Wanjin army. At most, the difference will be the extent of the casualties they inflict on the enemy.

After Hirado Tobei finished speaking, Yasuda Genkatsu, the former garrison commander of Nozu Castle, seemed to recall the scene of the silent and swarming army of the Kizu army that night. He seemed to see his close retainers and vassals being knocked down one by one. Suddenly, he shuddered and let out a groan. He became more awake, as if he had just woken up from a nightmare.

Kitabatake Tomonori glanced at him but ignored him, his gaze falling on the remains of the Wanjin army. He noticed that the enemy was indeed well-equipped and couldn't help but start examining them. After a moment, he found something and asked curiously, "What is this?"

(End of this chapter)