CHAPTER 341: CHAPTER 238: THE MORE EFFORT, THE STRONGER

Igi Mountain City was located not far from the north bank of the Kisogawa River. The primary purpose for building this Ping Mountain City was to guard this spot, which was ideal for crossing the river.

So, not long after the Wanjin Army began crossing the river on a large scale, Igi Mountain City became alert. However, as the Wanjin Army moved swiftly, crossing in a neat and orderly manner, Igi Seibei quickly abandoned the idea of "striking the enemy mid-crossing."

Just as Harano was reluctant to attack the Minoh people’s castles, Igi Seibei also had no wish to engage the Wanjin people in large-scale battle.

The entire Minoh province was mired in chaos. Ando Shouji and Takeda Hanbei, the father-in-law and son-in-law, had launched a surprise attack and seized Inaba Castle, and now confronted Saito Ryuko, the lord of Minoh, in a standoff neither could break.

For a frontline Grand General, this was no good news at all.

During this period, not only did he fail to receive any support from the rear, but even the assistance originally promised to him—that is, the minor Minoh clans and Earth Warriors sent to reinforce his position—many of them left without a word, taking their men back to the vicinity of Inaba Castle to take sides in the new struggle.

Some supply convoys that should have arrived long ago also vanished en route. No one knew whether they had joined the new lord at Inaba Castle or had gone to pledge their loyalty to Saito Ryuko.

With instability in the rear and both troops and provisions running extremely low, fighting any battle became impossible. If he could at least hold the city, Igi Seibei would have done right by the Saito family; asking him to take his retainer household and Lang Faction out to risk their lives in a field battle against Harano was simply too much.

Harano thought the same. For the Wanjin Army, this operation was more like a real-combat exercise. Risking lives was never the intention. He merely ordered a few volleys of iron cannonfire at the city walls as a show of threat, then left it to Yajiro to perform, since after all, it was all for Oda Nobunaga, and the one eager for merit was Yajiro. Harano would see any additional deaths here as a pointless loss.

Of course, the main issue was that Igi Mountain City was rather small, and not a good target for training exercises; he had no interest in it.

Nakamura Yajiro had long cast aside concern for his own life. After Harano finished displaying his strength, Yajiro, accompanied by Hosokawa Shigekatsu and Maeno Nagakane, rushed to the foot of the city walls, indifferent to the fact that a hail of arrows from the enemy could have turned him into a pincushion.

Fortunately, etiquette still held in these times, and envoys were generally not killed. The three of them shouted up and down for a while, and soon someone on the wall lowered a basket, hauling them up one by one.

Harano waited for more than two hours, beginning to suspect that Yajiro’s eloquence did not measure up to the original, had failed to earn a five-star rating, and that Igi Seibei had already chopped off his head. Suddenly, a commotion broke out inside Igi Mountain City, accompanied by vague cries of battle and killing.

Not long after, the disorder gradually subsided, and the first city gate of Igi Mountain City opened. Nakamura Yajiro and his companions emerged, bloodstained, carrying more than twenty severed heads. Igi Seibei, with his son and retainers, followed behind. Evidently, Yajiro and the others had persuaded Igi Seibei to "abandon darkness and seek the light," slaughtering all the Yoriki Warriors that Saito Ryuko had sent, severing ties with him, and turning into foster vassals under the Oda family.

Still, perhaps afraid that the guest army of Harano would seize the chance to loot Igi Mountain City, Igi Seibei, even after "switching sides," had no intention of letting the Wanjin Army inside. He simply came out to pay his respects, and presented a shipment of food supplies along with gold, silver, and tea utensils, as a token of thanks to Harano for the trouble of firing a few shots at him.

Harano did not mind, brought Igi Seibei and Yajiro together, then followed cavalry scouts’ reports, heading west along the river, preparing to confront Ozawa Masahide, the lord of Tinuma Castle.

Ozawa Masahide, known as the "Tiger of Eastern Minoh," gave off an impression as a cut-rate "Tiger of Owari." He was leading more than a thousand men straight toward Igi Mountain City, perhaps having heard it was under attack and rushing to its aid, though a little too late.

He was not without sense, however. Even though reinforcements should be as swift as fire-fighting, he did not act rashly. Halfway there, he realized Igi Mountain City had already surrendered, and the enemy main force was coming right at him. Without showing any "tigerish valor," he promptly turned tail and retreated to Tinuma Castle, closed the gates, and prepared for a siege to resist to the bitter end.

His resistance was genuine—he refused any communication at all. Though he did not shoot Yajiro or Igi Seibei’s son when they took the risk of calling out below the walls, he did not let them in, nor did he offer any answers. He wanted no dialogue whatsoever, leaving Yajiro helpless as a mouse before a turtle.

Yajiro returned in defeat. By this time night had fallen, and after reporting to Harano, he returned to his own camp for food and rest. Fresh attempts at persuasion would need to be devised.

Harano had no intention of resting. That very night he launched an assault on Tinuma Castle—this was his exercise target, the place where he would accumulate experience for overcoming strongholds in the future.

There was quite a difference between castles in Japan. A place like Hosokawa Castle—a mere three thousand square meters, surrounded with mud and logs and no larger than half a soccer field—was called a "stockade," and it counted as a castle. But Tinuma Castle, occupying an entire mountain, with branch castles and rock fortresses built from the base to the summit, was also called a castle.

The difference was as great as calling both an old man’s scooter and a luxury car "cars."

Their structures differed, too; Hosokawa Castle was essentially a "bandit stronghold," not even as good as some. Meanwhile, Tinuma Castle was a standard Japanese major castle, serving as a key stronghold for the Saito family to control the north bank of the Kisogawa River.

Japanese castles had distinct characteristics.

Of course, those characteristics were not the ornate tenshu towers that people think of in later ages. In this era, castles with tenshu towers were, in fact, rarely seen.