Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1569 1541.Preparation
"Sure enough." Under the sunset sunlight, Lan En looked at the black smoke column floating up from the Taling Mountain not far away, "The big forge has never stopped!"

After muttering to himself, the demon hunter waved his hand and said, "Everyone, rest in the woods. Do not light a fire."

The sound of weapons colliding is unavoidable, but it is harmless in the current situation.

After all, the entire Ta'er Mountain is a gathering place for blacksmiths, and the sound of metal colliding is just like daily background noise, which people even habitually ignore.

What's more, this area is a forest specially selected by Lan En.

The branches and leaves are dense and the sound absorption effect is very good.

"Monsters can't supervise the swordsmiths to work overtime to maintain production." After the soldiers, exhausted after a day's forced march, sat down to rest, Lan En gathered with a few people and held a small discussion.

Wuming and Axiu were of course there, and there were also two old hatamoto samurai who followed them.

One of them is a samurai monk who wears Buddhist beads around his neck even when wearing armor.

After all, even if it is considered from the perspective of maintaining the military system, the general still has to be accompanied by two hatamoto samurai to demonstrate his status.

What's more, they are all veterans who have fought with Saito Dosan for decades.

When there is a shortage of manpower, it is still possible to take on the responsibility of commanding a single type of soldier, such as the Archery Commissioner or the Spear Commissioner.

"So now, it must still be humans who maintain the Great Forge."

Lan En spoke methodically.

Given his prestige in the army, even the most senior hatamoto samurai had to listen respectfully and attentively.

And he is also very adapted to this situation, and can even be said to be accustomed to it.

"Judging from the terrain of the mountains here, the main role of the monsters is probably to patrol the pass to prevent the craftsmen from escaping, and to supervise the human soldiers to carry out Yoshitatsu's orders faithfully."

In just a few words, Lan En had already drawn a map of the terrain of Mount Ta'er on the ground with just a few strokes.

The military proficiency demonstrated by this one move alone immediately made the faces of the veteran hatamoto samurai become serious.

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, General Ma Yuan explained the military situation to the future Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu. He collected rice to make a map and pointed out the rivers.

With just a few strokes, he was able to describe the mountains, rivers, and topography of a large area and its corresponding military significance in a simple and profound way. Emperor Guangwu saw his ability just from this one incident and regarded him as a great talent.

Although Ta'an Mountain is a small place, Lan En's paintings are more detailed.

The terrain of Mount Ta'e is complex, but the distribution of demonic energy on the mountain is planned in different ways, which is completely different from the previous situation where the demon army was densely packed yet scattered.

Using [Spiritual Vision] to observe, those black smoke-like evil spirits are moving in limited areas.

Combined with the terrain analysis conducted by Mentos.

Within half a minute after Lan En came into view, he had already roughly outlined the military map in his mind.

"Your Highness, what should we do?"

The monk warrior raised one palm in front of his chest and bowed to Lan En.

It is true that they are veterans, but they have never fought this kind of battle before.

To rescue people in the form of an army.
The two old hatamoto warriors looked at each other.

The army is a violent organization. In the context of the feudal era, it is a violent machine that is even more terrifying and ruthless than bandits.

The purpose of the operation must be to destroy or kill something.

It is inevitable that they will rob or steal something, and it is not uncommon to even commit rape and looting.

If you take out a ruthless bandit and a soldier who is considered qualified in this era, and separate them without their equipment, it would be difficult to tell the difference between their professional characteristics.

In fact, the efficiency of conversion between the two professions is also terrifyingly high.

"I understand." Lan En was not surprised by their concerns. "So you don't have to do those jobs."

"I need you here," Lan En drew three horizontal lines on the map of Mount Taling, blocking three openings, "to put pressure on them."

"Exert. Pressure?" the monk repeated hesitantly.

Lan En immediately changed his words: "It's just a feint attack. But we have to make the defenders feel enough danger."

"The moment you are exposed, they will feel that they can't hold on at all. Then, in order to protect Mount Taliang, they will remove the things that restrict the loose movement of those monsters and guide the monsters to the front line, at least some of them."

"But this is enough. Without those monsters, the swordsmiths' evacuation will be much safer. It is very important to save every death. These swordsmiths and knowledge are what Mino needs to preserve the most right now."

So all the effort and wisdom were put in just to preserve Mino's national strength?

Thinking of this, the two old hatamoto warriors' eyes were first filled with realization, then gratitude and emotion.

His eyes first focused on Lan En, and then naturally moved to Ah Xiu behind Lan En.

As a son-in-law who has not yet officially signed a marriage certificate, he has already cared so much about Mino and the Saito family! It seems that His Highness Hidechiyo's wandering in the wilderness is not a complete tragedy!

If Dao San saw this scene, he would probably feel relieved.

The two old warriors suddenly looked at him with a look of great relief. Although Ah Xiu was very sensitive, he still didn't understand what was going on.

Weren't we just discussing military intelligence very seriously?
What's the meaning of this expression of 'elders seeing the happy life of the younger generation'?
However, the old warriors who followed Dosan all the way to the end of the war to steal the country were indeed veterans, and they only showed their gratified and moved emotions for a moment.

Soon, the seriousness of the military was restored.

"Please rest assured, Your Highness!" No, when the monk spoke in a deep voice, it was not even something that could be described as 'serious', it was almost as if he was ready to die.

"We will definitely live up to your trust! Even if we are like moths to a flame, our bodies will definitely be paved on the road of your plan to preserve Mino's national strength!"

The old monk warrior spoke passionately, and even pretended to take off the Buddhist beads from his neck, as if he was going to entrust a relic to Wuming, and raised his hand to hand it to Wuming.

Lan En blinked his eyes and said, "I said you are...what do you mean?"

"Ah?" The monk showed a bewildered expression under his helmet. "But Your Highness, didn't you ask us to launch an offensive to 'directly break through the opponent's defense'? We only have so many people. How can we force the opponent to start summoning monsters and hold on?"

"Half an hour."

Before the other party could even utter the word 'unlikely', Lan En interrupted him.

"what did you say?"

"I said, if we really want to fight, it will only last half an hour."

Facing the monk's mouth that slowly opened uncontrollably, Lan En spoke simply.

"Our main goal is to bring the swordsmiths out of Mount Taling. Without them, the big forge will be useless and the production of weapons will naturally stop."

"At the same time, we also have to take their casualties into consideration. All in all, this is a time-sensitive rescue operation. Half an hour is the maximum. If it takes more than half an hour, the casualties will be out of control. It is equivalent to directly declaring the operation a failure."

"So, if a real fight breaks out, it will take half an hour. I want you to suppress them with the force of 'destroying all the weapons they carry within half an hour'."

"We didn't consider logistics and combat time, nor did we consider the number of waves of attack. We just went for the first wave. All the arrows were shot, and the ten muskets and ten kilograms of lead bullets brought from Lushan City were all used up."

"Are there any questions now?"

"Understood, Your Highness!" The monk stuttered, and hung the Buddhist beads around his neck again. "If all resources are invested in the ultimate attack within half an hour, it can be done!"

More than possible, it is safe!

After half an hour, the archers were asked to shoot arrows as much as they wanted. However, their arms became weak and they might not have shot all the arrows yet, so they had to give up their equipment and let the next group continue shooting.

Not to mention muskets.

The muskets stored in Sagiyama Castle were originally gifts from Owari daimyo Oda Nobunaga to give to his father-in-law as a rare southern barbarian item.

The musketeers were put together on the spur of the moment, and they had little training on a daily basis. In addition, loading the muskets was cumbersome and difficult at that time.

There is a high probability that they cannot finish firing ten kilograms of lead bullets in one hour.

By this calculation, even the long-range output rhythm is probably not over in an hour. Maybe the melee soldiers like the spearmen haven't even reached the space yet, so how dangerous can they be?

"If there is no problem, then we will attack at dawn tomorrow." Lan En looked at the two old warriors and gave an order, "When I give you the signal, start the full-scale attack."

"Follow your orders!"*2
After making the arrangements in a concise manner, Lan En and the others immediately rested on the spot.

The two old warriors had to turn around and make specific arrangements with the soldiers for Lan En's battle plan for tomorrow.

There was still a bit of confusion in the eyes of both of them.

After all, even if he had accomplished the act of stealing the country together with Saito Dosan, the battlefields they had experienced over the past few decades, big and small, were basically nothing special.

But this was only Lan En's first battle, and he had already acted so unconventionally.

This made the two of them wonder if they were really getting a little old.

But anyway, as the soldiers ate and rested in the woods.

In the silent but slightly noisy atmosphere, at around four in the morning, Lan En woke up directly to the alarm clock set by his Mentos.

He called A Xiu, Wu Ming and Rong Bu Qiu, and asked Qilin to get ready, then they started to move towards Ta Ling Mountain.

The two old warriors who had not slept all night began to calculate the time and arranged the ammunition reserves according to the time, as they would be used up within half an hour.

The two of them communicated with the archers until very late last night, and then they selected a team from the spearmen to serve as a reserve force.

Be prepared to use bows and arrows crosswise to avoid a fire gap after the archer becomes exhausted.

(End of this chapter)