Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 246 Silk

A desolate beach in the central part of Ise Province has now been transformed into a huge construction site.

The coastline on the east side of Ise Province is mostly submerged landforms, which are unique geological phenomena formed when the original land was submerged into the sea for various reasons. This results in poor sea conditions, with many original mountain peaks turning into isolated islands and reefs. The valleys and canyons that have sunk to the seabed have formed a large number of undercurrents and whirlpools, making it extremely easy for maritime accidents to occur.

This is mainly due to the Ise Mountains, which are shaped like the Chinese character "人" (ren, meaning person). One of the slant-like ...

When Yuanye led the Wanjin Army across the sea from the Chita Peninsula, the first problem they faced was the terrain.

There is a lack of good harbors here that can accommodate large ships. Even though fishing and maritime transport were prosperous here for a period of time before the 14th century, and it was known as one of the "three great ports in the country" during the Nara period, with the change of the natural environment and the development of Japanese shipbuilding technology, it became unsuitable for large ships to travel here. Business was taken over by places like Shimazu, and the ports here declined one after another in less than a hundred years.

It will probably take another three or four hundred years for the bays at the base of the Ise Peninsula to disappear naturally—then the area will become land, and maritime activities in the central part of the Ise Peninsula will become frequent again.

This is taking too long. Wanjin obviously can't wait any longer and has no choice but to build its own landing point. Now, the Wanjin navy has brought over a large number of construction workers to work with the Wanjin engineers to repair the pier and start unloading people and cargo.

Subsequently, a city was to be built here to echo the new port of Shinwanjin across the bay, making it the administrative center of the Shinwanjin regime on the Ise Peninsula, as well as a hub for the transshipment of goods.

Well, over the past year or so, a large number of small boats have come from Wanjin to trade (smuggle). Even though the sea conditions here are complicated, they have probably figured out the sea conditions. This desolate beach is the result of selecting the best of the best after considering all aspects, even though it is still a bit garbage.

Aman watched as a large "horse boat" cautiously backed towards the shore, then rammed against the wooden pier that stretched far into the sea. The lock was opened, revealing the cargo in the open hold. Immediately, a large number of workers, soldiers, and sailors rushed in, began to lead the horses out, and shouted slogans as they dragged the heavy "carts" out and carried them ashore along the wide pier.

It's a bit slow, it can't be fast at all. After all, amphibious operations are a super problem even in modern times, let alone in the 16th century. Unless you want to send a large army here for a long-term operation, you can only do it slowly like this.

It was even slower than when Yuanye led his men to forcibly land on the Chita Peninsula back then. After all, the sea conditions in the middle of the Chita Peninsula were much better than here, and the Wanjin Army didn't have so many people or so much cumbersome equipment back then.

At that time, the Wanjin army didn't even have many horses, but now, just packhorses, the Wanjin army wants to transport nearly two thousand. To be honest, it's a bit dangerous.

Aman could understand all this, but she forced the sailors to take turns rowing back quickly in small boats, not to watch the construction work, but to join the battle.

The main reason is that this was a desperate attack by Wanjin. She not only used all her resources but also mortgaged a certain part of her future to launch the attack. Even though she was no longer the "head of the Nohara family", she was still very worried. She was afraid that Nohara would squander the family business in one fell swoop, so she had to come back and take a look no matter what. But when she came back, this was all she saw.

It's been three days already, and they're still here building piers and fortifications. Shouldn't things be going as fast as possible?

Even if we don't go straight to Okouchi Castle, take that fortified city, and decide the outcome in one battle, we should at least take proactive measures, seek open-field battles with the enemy, and try to eliminate their manpower.

She had only recently returned, and after calculating the number of troops that had already landed in Wanjin, she felt it was enough for a battle. She asked Yuanye, who was standing on a mound on the shore looking at construction plans, "It's not really okay to just wait like this, is it? Should I take some men out to harass them? Or maybe we can seize some supplies and kidnap some people to work with?"

Yuan Ye was quite satisfied with the construction progress, and even felt quite proud. These days, only the Wanjin Army could do this, and dared to do it. Without excellent organization and a large number of workers, it would be impossible to complete such a large-scale operation.

He shook his head and refused, saying, "No need. We'll stay here and proceed according to plan. Ensuring our escape route is our highest priority. So as long as the Kitabatake family doesn't attack us, we'll stay here."

"This is so boring, how long are we supposed to stay here?" Aman was speechless.

“When Ise really descends into chaos,” Haruno said calmly, unmoved. “Time is on our side now. We don’t need to be reckless or take risks. As long as we can hold our ground, we’ve already won this battle.”

Aman had been living like a savage on Ezo Island and had not participated in the formulation of any related plans or contingency plans. He didn't even know much about the actual situation, so he couldn't object for the time being. He pondered and said, "Should we wait until the famine gets worse? Speaking of which, we're quite lucky. Why did an insect infestation suddenly start in Ise?"

The pest infestation came at just the right time. Just as Haruno was about to strike Ise, Ise mutilated herself. For a moment, Haruno had a fantastical feeling that fate had intervened, as if God was helping them.

Yuan Ye fell silent. These days, almost no one knew the effects of "beneficial insects and birds." Even if someone had a vague guess, they were often not sure. Even he, the instigator, was not sure if the "empty ear disease" currently spreading throughout the Ise Peninsula was related to him.

But it doesn't matter. As the saying goes, "A righteous person cannot manage finances, and a compassionate person cannot command an army." Let's just let him do it!

Now he only needs to stay here. As long as he stays here, he can tie down a large part of the Kitabatake clan's military force, preventing them from fully suppressing the peasant uprising. As more and more people go hungry, more and more people will rebel, further depleting the Kitabatake clan's strength and making it impossible for them to gather all their troops to drive him away.

It wasn't that he was arrogant. From the moment the "empty ears disease" broke out on the Ise Peninsula, he genuinely felt that he had already won the battle. Even though the Kitabatake clan was a daimyo capable of mobilizing tens of thousands of men to fight, and it was even possible that they could have more than 20,000 troops if they joined forces with the surrounding daimyo, minor daimyo, and powerful clans, he had actually already won.

The victory was certainly not honorable, but war is about winning and tangible benefits, not about saving face; whether it's honorable or not is ultimately unimportant. Of course, he did need time to gather troops and supplies. After all, he wasn't there to plunder; he wanted to occupy the area permanently, and without sufficient manpower and provisions, he couldn't succeed.

At the very least, once he takes over the territory, he should provide disaster relief. He can't just be so domineering that the starving rebel peasants will be overjoyed and surrender as soon as he arrives.

Moreover, this is also to prevent repeating the mistakes of the Imagawa family.

The Imagawa clan's initial naval raid on the Oda clan's rear, which resulted in the capture of Kanie Castle, was a brilliant strategy. However, it ultimately proved futile because while the four or five thousand men managed to land, they lacked provisions. The soldiers, starving, went off to loot the countryside, making it impossible for them to directly attack Kiyosu Castle and Shimazu Port. In the end, they had no choice but to slink back.

Therefore, in order to prevent being starving and unable to fight, Yuanye also needs to build a stable rear base before launching an attack. Otherwise, if something goes wrong and Wanjin is unable to transport supplies here in time, he will be in a bind.

Yuanye had been preparing for this battle for a very long time, so there was no need to listen to Aman's nonsense after she suddenly came back. After finishing what he was doing, he changed the subject and looked at her strangely, saying, "By the way, I've been wanting to ask you this for a while, aren't you hot?"

Aman ran back in such a hurry that he is still dressed in Ainu attire, with a large, dark purple mouth painted on. Although he no longer wears the "bear head hat," he still has a black fox fur around his neck, making him look very strange and flamboyant.

It's late summer now, and the temperature is over 30 degrees Celsius. The fields are so hot that even wearing armor feels like torture, and this guy is wearing a fur coat...

Aman was hot too, but she had finally obtained this "treasure," and not wearing it back to show others would be worse than death for her. She could only wipe the sweat from her forehead and force herself to stay warm, showing off to Yuanye: "I'm not hot. This pelt isn't ordinary. It's warm in winter and cool in summer. Look at the fur... it's so black it shines, isn't it? And look at how I stroked it, it turned purple. Isn't that amazing? You don't know its value. If you ask me, this pelt could be sold for at least a thousand strings of cash in Atreta Port. Ordinary people don't deserve to wear it!"

Yuan Ye took a closer look, and even though he was a well-traveled modern man, he had to admit that the fox fur was very beautiful. It was as shiny as ink and had purple hairs that were faintly visible in the sunlight. It could be described as "shimmering and jewel-like". It would be an exaggeration to say that it was worth a thousand strings of cash, but it was definitely worth three to five hundred strings of cash!

He spoke frankly: "This leather is really good. If you have any more, bring some back."

"How could that be! I spent over a year on Ezo Island to get this one!" Aman stroked the fox fur with great care, watching it shimmer with a bright purple halo. He felt that all that time and effort, almost driving the old hunter Zhapinong crazy, and all that sweating in the heat, hadn't been in vain.

"Never mind if you don't have any." Yuan Ye didn't care. After all, Wan Jin only needed leather to make armor. He wasn't particularly interested in luxury items like fur. In a place where it rains 186 days a year, is incredibly humid, and has an average temperature of over 24 degrees Celsius, only someone like A Man would wear fur.

“I can’t give you this pelt, mainly because I only have one. But I got a bunch of beautiful women on Ezo Island, and I’ll share a few with you later!” Aman was reluctant to give the black fox pelt to Yuanye, but Yuanye was different from ordinary people, and Aman was still willing to share some benefits with him.

Yuan Ye was speechless. In a sense, he was now A Man's brother-in-law, but his sister-in-law wanted to send him a mistress... Even in ancient times, this would be a bit too bizarre.

He quickly refused: "Forget it, I... don't need it."

"You rascal, you really don't know how to enjoy good fortune, and you insist on suffering when there's no hardship!" Aman wasn't surprised. She just glanced at Yuanye's lower body, shook her head slightly, and felt that it was a waste for the tool to be on Yuanye's body. If it were on her, she would be so happy.

You're no longer a servant, you wild child, you're getting more and more outrageous! I should never have fired you!

Yuan Ye cursed Aman in his heart, but it wasn't convenient to discuss this matter with her anymore. Instead, he asked, "When you came back this time, besides a few pieces of leather and a few gold nuggets, was that all?"

"In that wretched place of Ezo, I'm lucky if I can find a few good hides and a few nuggets of gold. What more do you want?" Aman returned with a gift, and the one she gave to Yuanye was a nugget of gold the size of a human head, which she had traded for three sets of iron armor and a good knife from an Ainu tribe.

But as she said that, she immediately started rummaging through her pockets again, saying excitedly, "However, I also have other rare things. I'll show you something good."

"What good stuff?" Yuanye asked, intrigued.

Aman didn't say anything. He took out a small bamboo tube from his pocket, inserted a wide bamboo section into it, poured some broken leaves into a small leather bag, and then took out a tinderbox to light it.

Yuan Ye was dumbfounded; this scene... seemed so familiar!

Aman was very skillful; she easily lit the small piece of tobacco inside the bamboo tube, took a deep drag, and then exhaled two long plumes of white smoke from her nose. Her small eyebrows drooped, and she murmured with a dreamy expression, "Hiss~~~"

The landscape was contorted, as if people were about to split apart.

You wild child, it was already a headache with your drinking and gambling before, and now you've started smoking too?

You're quite something, you really don't learn anything good, you only pick out the bad stuff to learn!
(End of this chapter)