Mount & Blade: Warband in the Sengoku period of Japan

From the dispatch of troops to the capture of Shengbao, everything proceeded smoothly and without incident.

The three-day march through the mountains went smoothly, and on the second night, when they passed Kunimi Pass, the entire army was even able to take turns bathing in the nearby hot springs.

As for the inner city of Shengbao, its terrain is indeed very treacherous, situated right at the exit of a mountain pass, with steep slopes on both sides. If it were properly developed and a great general were stationed there, it would undoubtedly be a formidable pass that one man could hold off ten thousand.

But that was just hypothetical. The Tozawa clan clearly did not have the ability to manage such a pass. The defenses of the inner castle of Isabo were still just wooden palisades, and there were not even any moats dug. There were no generals or elite troops stationed in the castle, only three or four hundred foot soldiers.

Chen Daoyuan released A Xue, who led twenty axemen to charge forward under a sparse rain of arrows and hacked away. They easily broke through the wooden gate of the inner city of Shengbao. The foot soldiers inside the city scattered like birds and beasts, some running away and others surrendering.

"Tsk, the Tozawa clan defended such a strategically important location so casually," Chen Daoyuan said disdainfully. "It seems the Tozawa clan is nothing special after all."

Quanzhen chimed in, "The Tozawa clan's mountain militia are still quite fierce. It's not that the Tozawa clan is negligent in defending this place. In another month, it will be the snow season. At that time, the inner city of Shengbao and the mountain roads in front and behind it will be covered with several feet of snow. Even if they want to defend it, the supplies from the rear will not be able to be delivered, and not many people can stay in this city."

Quanzhen was stationed in Shizukuishi for many years and had the most encounters with the Tozawa clan, so he was very familiar with the situation there.

Chen Daoyuan nodded and ordered his troops to rest in the inner city of Shengbao, while he himself, along with Xinzi, Quanzhen, and Quanyi, continued to scout ahead.

Crossing the valley plain where the seibo-nei is located, and standing at the entrance to the downhill path, one can directly overlook the Tozawa clan's castle, Monya Castle.

Having seen the entire city, Chen Daoyuan immediately abandoned his underestimation of the Tozawa clan.

The Monya Castle, nestled in a funnel-shaped terrain, is backed by two high mountains to the north, with a river flowing between them and through the castle. The entire Monya Castle is quite large, with three long wooden fences enclosing the southern part of the funnel-shaped terrain, forming a castle that includes the main fortress and two or three village settlements.

With rivers and farmland, and a commanding viewpoint... If the Tozawa family had cement bricks and upgraded one of the three wooden walls to a brick and stone structure, Chen Daoyuan would probably turn around and leave.

After all, cities with water sources and farmland like these can't be trapped and will only be destroyed by force.

It was just past noon, and the scattered foot soldiers hadn't had time to spread the news down the mountain. The castle at the foot of the mountain was still peaceful, and the two or three villages behind the walls and the castle town next to the main castle were bustling with activity and densely populated.

"There must be several thousand people in this city, right?" Chen Daoyuan frowned.

Nobuko affirmed from the side, "Most of the Kitaura Seven, led by the Tozawa clan, are here. According to ninja intelligence, there are probably eight to ten thousand people in this castle, and four thousand foot soldiers can be mobilized in wartime."

"Four thousand people..." Quan Yi muttered, turning his gaze to Chen Daoyuan.

Chen Daoyuan thought for a moment and then instructed, "After the formation is complete, we will divide the warriors into two teams. I will lead the hesitant men, and Quanyi Hall will lead the remaining three hundred armored soldiers. We will take turns attacking. If we attack one side, there is not much difference between three hundred and six hundred armored soldiers when facing four thousand people in the city. They will not be able to cause us much damage. What we should pay more attention to is the stamina of the armored soldiers."

Quanyi nodded, while Xinzi pointed to the city below the mountain and suggested, "Then Uncle Quanzhen and I will have the foot soldiers and porters cut down trees to make rafts to attack the water gate and divert the enemy's attention."

The river that flows through the city in the funnel-shaped terrain is not straight through the center. After flowing out of the mountain pass, it turns to the west side of the mountain wall and flows out of the city along the mountain wall. Therefore, the three walls of the gatehouse city have water gates on the west side of the mountain wall. Although they are called gates, they do not look like sluice gates or similar entrances from a distance. Instead, they are made of what appears to be a rope net or something similar that is strung up on the river as a barrier. It is obviously a defensive gap.

However, the Tozawa clan was clearly aware of this, and built several arrow towers near the water gate.

Chen Daoyuan pointed at the arrow tower: "Foot soldiers don't have iron armor, so a direct assault on the water gate would likely result in heavy casualties, wouldn't it?"

Nobuko smiled and shook her head: "A feint attack will suffice. Our main force is still heavily armored warriors. We're just diverting some of your frontal forces. To break through the city, we still need you to break through the main gate."

Chen Daoyuan nodded, then observed the terrain outside the city before returning to reorganize his troops.

After having lunch at the seihoku-nei (a type of military facility), the Shiba army marched down the mountain. Following a straight downhill path, the entire army quickly arrived outside the Kadona Castle.

After all this commotion, the people inside the castle had obviously received the news. The castle gates were tightly closed, and behind the thick wooden fence stood a densely packed group of foot soldiers.

Commanding his armored soldiers to form ranks, Chen Daoyuan felt for the first time that his troops were somewhat weak.

The cities and fortresses we had attacked before were at best just villages of varying sizes. But this gatehouse city in front of us truly had the scale and character of a town. Compared to that, our few hundred men, lined up at the gate, looked incredibly small.

Nobuko and Akisada have already led their foot soldiers and auxiliary troops to the west to cut wood and make rafts. Chen Daoyuan plans to fight for a while first to assess the true strength of the Tozawa clan.

Chen Daoyuan summoned Ah Xue, who was wearing armor specially made for her. It was not the kind of one-piece leather-lined woven armor that was commonly worn by the general public, but a true full-coverage infantry armor.

This suit of armor was quite sturdy. Even though it used manganese steel plates, which were much thinner than ordinary iron plates, the whole set weighed more than five strings of cash. However, Ah Xue walked over with light steps, even skipping around a bit, making the armor plates on her body clang loudly.

"Ah Xue, you'll have to lead the axemen to chop down the gate later." Chen Daoyuan pointed to the gate of the gatehouse, then waved his arm, his finger sweeping over the densely packed foot soldiers standing behind the wall: "Aren't you scared with so many people on the other side?"

"Afraid? Afraid of what?" A hint of confusion flashed across Xue's face, then it was replaced by a faint excitement: "Boss, there are so many people this time, I'm definitely going to have to chop a lot of them, so you can't skimp on the extra food you promised me."

Chen Daoyuan was speechless: "Fine, fine, you were watching when we were collecting the grain, weren't you? There's plenty of grain in Xinyu City, how could I possibly renege on your debt?"

"Okay, boss. So when should I make my move?"

Chen Daoyuan looked up at the sun, which was already setting in the west. However, there was still some time before they descended the mountain. He then looked at the warriors beside him. Despite having just walked down the mountain, they were still full of energy and showed no signs of fatigue after putting on their armor.

Looking again at the foot soldiers cutting down trees in the distance, Chen Daoyuan considered for a moment: "Let's do it now."

"Alright!" Ah Xue shouted in response, hoisting her greatsword and running back to her ranks with a clang: "Men! Charge with me!"

Chen Daoyuan also ordered, "Hesitate, all troops, charge!"

Three hundred heavily armored warriors marched in unison, their combined armor clanging like rolling thunder as they charged toward the gatehouse castle before them.

Crossing the already harvested farmland outside the city, the heavily armored phalanx was met with a hail of arrows from within the city.

A volley of arrows, numbering about one or two thousand, rained down from the sky. Although they didn't yet form a dark cloud, they were quite dense. The arrowheads struck the armor, creating a continuous clanging sound.

Chen Daoyuan was also in the formation. He looked around and saw that none of the warriors had been injured by arrows.

In those days, armor-piercing heavy arrows were not yet common. The foot soldiers' arrows were thin "willow leaf" arrows or equally thin, triangular, sharp "guts." When they were thrown from a distance and hit the armor plates, it felt like being poked with a fingertip; there was practically no sensation.

However, everything depends on probability. As the second volley of arrows fell, Yan Long, who was beside Chen Daoyuan, let out a soft hum, and an arrow with a willow leaf tip pierced the gap in the plate of his shoulder armor.

The unfortunate fellow immediately pulled the arrow out. Fortunately, only the tip was stained with a little blood. Yan Long quickly smelled the arrowhead and then casually tossed it away. Seeing Chen Daoyuan looking at him, Yan Long continued walking briskly while uttering two words: "Not poisonous."

Chen Daoyuan looked away and withstood two more waves of arrows; the city gate was now within reach.

"Scatter. Ah Xue, it's your turn." Chen Daoyuan shouted the order as he rushed to the city gate.

The formation immediately shifted, with most of the armored soldiers forming the left and right flanks. They drew their three-day swords to deal with the spears that were thrusting through the gaps in the wooden fence on the sides of the gate. Meanwhile, the axemen led by Ah Xue charged straight toward the city gate, swinging their broadswords and heavy axes to frantically break down the particularly large gate.

Chen Daoyuan also joined the group that was cutting down the spears. His four-sided greatsword was much more effective at slashing down the spear shafts than the three-day sword. He cut down twenty or thirty spears in one go, and then stabbed two foot soldiers who were too close to the wooden fence to death.

After a fierce battle, Chen Daoyuan suddenly sensed something was wrong. He turned his head and looked at the city gate, only to find that the axemen were still hacking away. Two large craters had appeared on the city gate, but only one of them had a few axe cuts that allowed light to pass through, while the other had not even been hacked through.

"Ah Xue, what's going on?" Chen Daoyuan shouted.

"This door is so thick!" Ah Xue shouted back.

As Chen Daoyuan was pondering the matter of the door, he heard a clear "click-click-click" sound of mechanical operation echoing across the noisy battlefield.

"MOFU!" Chen Daoyuan's eyes widened as he uttered a curse. With a mechanical sound, the heavy wooden door collapsed from top to bottom. It turned out to be a sliding door; Shiba Jun had been fooled by the fake door gap on the door panel.

There were still a dozen or so axemen hacking at the door, about to be crushed by the falling door. Ah Xue, who was also standing in front of the door, reacted quickly, dropped her greatsword, and raised her hands to hold up the heavy wooden door!