Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1568 1540. Demonized Weapons
A good leader is not picky about people, but instead has insight into the psychological state of those being led, and can better establish his or her own style of doing things.

Lan En undoubtedly understood this well.

He gave a strong command, and there was an immediate response from everyone.

"Even though Yato-shin was already worshipped, he still came out of the shrine and led a group of monsters. That must be because he was influenced by Yoshitatsu's spiritual stone. He fell from being a god to a crazy wild spirit."

After Lan En took a quick look around and saw that everyone was obedient, he continued his analysis.

"Now that we have figured out the details of those spirit stones and the leading monster, the rest will be easy to decide."

"Your Highness, do you have a way to deal with the monster army?"

Fujikichiro shouted flatteringly in a slightly exaggerated manner.

Lan glanced at him.

It is not impossible to use a mortal army to fight against monsters.

But no matter what, the weapons and equipment must be powerful enough.

Now, from a normal historical point of view, it was the time when the firearms were introduced to Japan from Europe. But because it was introduced not long ago, there could not be too many firearms in the inner areas of the Japanese archipelago such as Mino.

Of course, the power of muskets in normal history is definitely not enough. After all, a flying punch from an outsider soldier is almost as powerful as an RPG, except that there are no fragments.

Never mind the ammunition logistics.

But the muskets in this world should not be simple, otherwise they would not have wiped out the knight class on the European continent.

In this magical world, Lan En doesn't believe that the knights don't have some tough skills.

But now, there are no conditions to equip muskets on a large scale.

"The monsters are besieging Iwamura Castle, but our key target is not Iwamura Castle, but here!"

The sword of the Lady of the Lake, still in its scabbard, pointed to a spot on the map on the table.

"Here?" Fujikichiro tilted his head so that he could look at the words marked on the map, "Tailing."

"Tamon Mountain?" Akechi Mitsuhide was much more educated than Fujiyoshiro, and had a much better understanding of the Mino map. He immediately said the map markings that Fujiyoshiro stammered and was not quite sure about.

"But why here, Your Highness?"

"This is indeed important, but it has nothing to do with the current war situation."

Akechi Mitsuhide hadn't finished his words, but within the main camp, the samurai who had fought in Mino before looked at each other in bewilderment, all knowing what this meant.

It cannot be said that there is no connection at all, it can only be said that they are completely unrelated.

Mount Ta'an is a source of high-quality iron ore. As a result, many swordsmiths gathered there in Mino, and gradually formed a famous forging village.

Although the craftsmen of this era do not yet understand what "integration advantages" are, when they come together they have essentially accomplished some "integration".

They each performed their duties and developed more efficient furnaces, forges and other equipment, which in turn produced higher-level swords and weapons.

It can be said to be the arsenal of Mino Province.

But now they, as well as Saito Yoshitatsu, are fully armed, so there is no need to go. Besides, raids are about time. Who has the time to go to the arsenal during a raid?
But Lane's hand, pointed at there by Aaron Dett, did not waver.

"When marching and fighting, what is the most important thing for both the enemy and us to ensure?"

Lan En ignored the question and asked quickly in return.

Mitsuhide Akechi's orthodox military education made him answer without hesitation: "Food and supplies, Your Highness. But..."

"But you mean, the monsters don't care about food and supplies, because they don't need them at all. So the tactics used to deal with human armies, such as cutting off food supplies and logistics, are useless as long as they can't move that pile of spirit stones."

Lan En glanced at Mitsuhide Akechi, and it seemed as if his eyes went straight into his heart. Lan En knew everything he didn't say.

"But it works."

Ah Xiu walked up from behind Lan En and threw down a bundle of weapons with a clang.

Most of them are katana with missing blades and spears with broken handles.

These crude and simple weapons thrown on the ground seemed to have startled Mitsuhide Akechi.

He, who had been kneeling towards Lan En, immediately stood up with a serious expression.

"These demonic auras! Are these all demonized weapons? Otherwise, they are too weak. And these weapons are too weak. Your Highness, what are these?"

"This is the most important logistics of Saito Yoshitatsu."

Lan En kicked a katana from the ground and put it into Mitsuhide Akechi's hand.

"The monsters are brutal and bloodthirsty, but most of them are not stupid enough to not use their weapons. Haha, monkeys can even use stones to crack walnuts."

"If the ape ghosts, demon ghosts, dead warriors, and outsider soldiers didn't have weapons in their hands, their tempers would probably be twice as hot."

"Saito Yoshitatsu didn't rely on that pile of spirit stones to summon all the monsters in the deep mountains and old forests of Mino. Look at the quality of these weapons. Among the monster army, at least 70% to 80% are newly created monsters by her using spirit stones."

The weapons of monsters have always been an area that has a lot of content in the stories that have been passed down in Japan since ancient times.

For example, the [Golden Rod] of Shuten-doji, one of the three great demons of Japan.

Some of the monsters' weapons, like those of the ape demons, were found from the remains of humans in the mountains and forests.

Some, like the bull-headed ghost and the horse-headed ghost, are already fully armed when they appear.

People believe that it is the equipment they wear in the underworld of Huangquan. After all, according to Japanese legends, the Ox-Headed and Horse-Faced Demons also serve as the detainers of evil spirits in Huangquan.

But the similarity between the two is that the weapons are either made entirely of demonic energy or are completely tainted by it. They can be said to be part of the demonic spirit.

So when they are alive, no matter how much they use those weapons, they will not break or be knocked down. Correspondingly, attacks on weapons and armor can also weaken them.

But after the monster dies, its body turns into foul air and disappears, and the weapons and armor that appear to be made of iron will not be left behind.

The [demonized weapons] that Akechi Mitsuhide mentioned earlier were partly made from materials with strong demonic energy from monsters and forged by swordsmiths.

Some of them are special circumstances caused by chance, and sometimes weapons can be seized from armed monsters and kept.

Another part is that they have killed too many people with their weapons, or have had strange encounters, and have become monsters themselves.

Lan En said that there are many newly transformed monsters in the monster army, and that’s because of these weapons.

How many monsters did they kill along the way? And all the weapons in the monsters' hands were left behind.

It is obvious that these weapons were neither brought up from the underworld nor were they completely tainted by evil spirits. They looked as if they had just been used for a short time!

That’s why they won’t be taken away when the monster disappears.

The newly created monsters were attracted by the spirit stones and the scattered weapons.

This allowed those violent and frenzied monsters to barely move in one direction and form a monster army.

Akechi Mitsuhide was also a talented person who had mastered Yin-Yang techniques and had his own insights into spiritual stones and the harmony of Yin and Yang.

After Lan En's guidance and observing the weapon in his hand, he immediately understood what Lan En meant.

"But when these monsters gather together, they will inevitably fight among themselves! The curled blades and cracks on it are the evidence!"

Akechi Mitsuhide's eyes lit up.

"Their weapons have been damaged a lot! The Great Furnace of Mount Taling is the only place in Minong that can bear these losses right now!"

It is not an easy task for monsters to completely immerse their weapons in demonic energy.

It took the ape ghost many years of accumulation in the deep mountains and old forests to complete this task. The demon ghost that broke into the Thirteen Sakura Village had to carry a palm-sized spirit stone on its body to wrap the demonic energy around the knife so quickly, but it still couldn't be considered assimilated.

How could these monsters, which have been gathered into a legion, have such conditions?
Perhaps, Saito Yoshitatsu also deliberately did not give them these conditions. After all, if they could be induced by weapons, the monsters' formation would not be too scattered.

If there were no weapons, God knows how far it could spread.

"Ah!" Fujikichiro suddenly realized and said, "If that's the case, as long as we control the transportation of weapons, even if those monsters are still led to Iwamura Castle, it will be much easier to deal with them without weapons!"

"Your Highness!" Akechi Mitsuhide immediately knelt on one knee and looked up at Lan En, "Tading Mountain is closer to us than Iwamura City! Please let me lead two thousand people to recapture the Great Forge of Tading Mountain!"

"I will allocate a thousand men," Lan En said casually, "the most elite thousand men will at least march to Mount Taling. But you will not lead them."

Akechi Mitsuhide, who was originally preparing to bow his head and accept the order, looked up in surprise when he heard the words and saw Lan En pointing at him.

"We are racing against time, Mitsuhide. So we must crush and suppress the counterattack of Mount Talingshan like a hammer hitting a walnut!"

The demon hunter calmly stated the facts: "You can't do it. I am the only one who can do it here."

"After all, as the most important baggage, even if Saito Yoshitatsu is crazy, he will definitely send a large number of troops to guard it. And the craftsmen there are all good talents. I will save as many as I can."

"But if you lead your troops to attack, I'm afraid the situation will be so tense that there will be only a few survivors left."

"But Your Highness!" Akechi Mitsuhide was very emotional. "You are a general! How can you do this?"

Lan En didn't wait for him to finish and whispered, "Isn't it because you are useless?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of armor colliding suddenly rang out.

Everyone in the main camp, except Wu Ming and Ah Xiu, even Fujikichiro, knelt down on one knee in front of Lan En with a "swish".

"My subordinates are incompetent!"
A voice of panic and self-blame was heard, and even the noise outside the camp seemed to have fallen into a brief silence because of the movement inside the camp.

Lan En didn't say much because his goal had been achieved.

No one would oppose his plan anymore.

Adopting different leadership strategies based on the different personalities and cultural backgrounds of his subordinates was something Lan En could do easily.

When Lincoln and the others saw Lan's expression when facing the Knights of Embers, they would understand what could be persuaded and what was useless.

However, when facing the magical Japanese Warring States Period, Lan En feels that applying appropriate pressure is a very effective leadership style.

Of course, becoming a stress monster like Oda Nobunaga who can drive people crazy is another manifestation of incompetence as a leader.

"You need to get there as soon as possible, Fujiyoshiro, Mitsuhide." Lan En's eyes were calm, but they couldn't help but swallow. "The monsters that gather together need to be eliminated by the army, or at least their escape range should be restricted."

"Otherwise, even if we win, it's hard to say how many people those scattered monsters can kill."

So that night no one stood up to persuade Lan En.

The next morning, the 1,000 foot soldiers who were selected broke camp and left before daybreak.

They didn't bring any baggage, no tents, cooking utensils, etc., only rations.

After all, in Lan En's eyes, they could live in a house directly after conquering the Ta'er Mountain, so why would they need a marching tent?
After marching for a whole day, they arrived at Ta'er Mountain near dusk.

(End of this chapter)