I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Qingdeng sighed silently.

“If the villagers were still here, I would have spent money to hire them to help us build fences and dig trenches.”

"Pay up?"

Sagawa Kanbei looked puzzled and asked in return.

"Lord Ju, why should we pay? If these villagers didn't run away, why not just order them to come and help? They can't possibly disobey our orders!"

Having said that, he patted the sword at his waist.

As if amused, Qingdeng chuckled softly.

"You ask me 'why'? The reason is simple—if you don't contribute money, it will become increasingly difficult for us to find ordinary people who are willing to help us without complaint in the future."

After casually leaving those words behind, Qingdeng turned the ox around and returned along the same route.

Sagawa Kanbei paused, his bewildered expression perfectly capturing the phrase "completely baffled."

Finally, he snorted coldly, muttering, "What's going on... Did I say something wrong? We're here to quell a rebellion. Isn't our mission more important than farming? It's only natural for the farmers to help us," as he spurred his horse to catch up with Qingdeng...

……

……

Although the surrounding scenery was still shrouded in the desolation of late winter, it did indeed have the feel of a changing season.

The gentle, peaceful time slipped by, giving one the illusion of being on a spring outing.

Walking under the lush green trees lining the path, Qingdeng looked up at the sky—the dense branches blocked out the sun, but through the gaps, one could glimpse the clear blue sky. The sun had begun to set, and in another hour, the night would arrive as scheduled.

—We should be there soon...hmm?

Suddenly, Qing Deng's ear tips trembled slightly—"Wind Perceiver +1" activated—he suddenly heard the faint sound of flowing water.

As the procession moved forward, the sound of flowing water became clearer and louder.

Finally... after passing through a large area of ​​mixed forest, a flat, open field came into Qingdeng's view like a painting.

All around... including the land beneath Qingdeng's feet, are steep, towering mountains.

Only this land, surrounded by high mountains, is a plain and open field.

Gazing at the magnificent scene before him, Qingdeng unconsciously tightened his grip on the reins.

—We've finally arrived!

This place is the Ueno Basin, located in the center of Iga!

The sound of rushing water drifted from afar.

Qingdeng followed the sound and soon found a clear stream flowing from the mountaintop not far away.

"follow me!"

Qingdeng gave brief orders to the soldiers around him, and then, leading an ox, he climbed up the mountain along the stream to the summit.

After trekking through the mountains for an unknown amount of time... with the added blessing of his talent "Sharp Eyes +5", Qingdeng finally caught a glimpse of the view from the summit of the mountain.

The mountain peak was not steep. Although it was messy, with bushes and lush trees everywhere, a small flat area could be cleared out with careful management. The source of the mountain stream was located deep within this flat area.

Qingdeng squinted, raised his head, and looked around.

Located atop a mountain, with a steady stream flowing through it, the water source is right there on the mountaintop, so there's no fear of the water supply being cut off. More importantly, it offers a panoramic view of the Ueno Basin below...

Upon realizing this, Qingdeng raised the bullwhip in his hand without hesitation, pointing it directly at his feet.

"Let's set up camp right here!"

……

……

Before leaving Kyoto, Aoto specifically instructed Iwasaki Yataro to urgently purchase a batch of axes, hoes, hammers, shovels, and a large number of bamboo baskets and hemp ropes.

With a mere two hundred men lacking cavalry, archers, and arquebusiers, facing an army of tens of thousands... the best strategy for winning is undoubtedly to build fortifications, that is, to construct field fortifications!

With their strong field fortifications, they blocked the enemy's advance and wore down their strength and morale.

Once the enemy's morale has weakened, charge out of the camp and launch a full-scale attack! Rout them until they are routed!

Throughout history, both in China and abroad, the person who mastered this classic "defense and counterattack" tactic the most was none other than Li Shimin, the Heavenly Khan of the Tang Dynasty.

Whether it was pacifying Xue Rengao, defeating Liu Wuzhou, or capturing two kings in one battle at Hulao Pass, Li Shimin always followed this pattern: the entire army would hold their ground and wait for the enemy's momentum to weaken. When the time was right, he would take the lead and launch a lightning-fast offensive against the enemy, taking them down in one fell swoop.

At first glance, this tactic seems clumsy and lacks any technical sophistication; it's simply a matter of "defense, defense, defense, then attack, attack, attack, and finally victory, victory, victory."

In reality, however, it would be enough to stump more than 90% of the military commanders in history when it came to actually doing it.

The very question of "how to build an impregnable fortress in the wild that the enemy cannot take no matter how hard they try" is enough to leave countless people at a loss.

Under Aoto's command, the Shinsengumi soldiers instantly transformed into construction workers!

Some were digging, some were chopping wood, and some were splitting branches.

It not only clears out suitable open space for setting up camp, but also saves up materials for building the city, which is a win-win situation.

Japan is a small country, and the distance from Ise to Iga is not far.

Even if the bandit army was poorly organized and lacked livestock to transport supplies, no matter how slow their march was, they could still reach Iga in 5-7 days at most.

There's simply not enough time to build something so complex and massive.

Towering watchtowers, city walls several meters high... forget about those things.

Therefore, Qingdeng only planned to build two things: fences and moats!

Use them to slow down the enemy's advance and divide the battlefield!

Don't underestimate fences and moats... especially the latter.

In the era of cold weapons, whether in the East or the West, trenches were the most important defensive fortifications in field battles and siege warfare, without exception!

The trenches here are not the shallow, narrow ditches that you can easily cross with a big step, like drainage ditches.

It was a deep and wide ditch that a person who fell in could not climb out!

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Please vote with monthly tickets! Please vote with recommendation tickets! (Leopard crying.jpg)

P.S.: The claims in this chapter that "the Aizu cavalry were very elite" are completely made up by Leopard. In historical fact, none of the feudal domains at the end of the Edo period had particularly strong cavalry units (Leopard is silly.jpg).

Before the introduction of Western horse breeds, the average height of native Japanese horses was only around 1.2 meters... Cavalrymen riding these horses could only show off their power within Japan.

Chapter 638 Artistic Talent Activated! Enemy Attack! [4300]

In modern films and television dramas about warfare using cold weapons, there is often a scene where a large group of soldiers carrying long ladders rush towards a city while shouting "Wah-ya-ya!"

One long ladder after another was erected on the city wall, and hordes of soldiers surged up the walls like ants, all vying for the honor of being the first to scale the wall and change their lives in an instant.

Although long ladders were indeed used extensively in siege warfare during the era of cold weapons, the most mainstream and effective siege equipment were still large machines such as siege towers, catapults, and heavy ballistae.

Long ladders and the like... aside from being cheap to manufacture and easy to transport, they have no other advantages and are not the best choice for sieges.

A single ladder can only transport one soldier at a time, making it extremely inefficient.

As long as the defending side has sufficient manpower, abundant supplies, and high morale, these soldiers climbing up the long ladder are simply throwing their lives away.

Buy one, get one free; buy two, get a pair free.

Therefore, the best and simplest defensive fortification to defend a city is to dig trenches.

A wide and deep trench can effectively prevent large machines such as siege engines and catapults from getting close.

Without the aid of these things, unless some ingenious strategy is used, such as a "Trojan horse" or "cutting off the water supply," the attacking side must pay an extremely heavy price to capture a city.

Therefore, in order for the large machinery to function, the attacking side had to spend a lot of time slowly filling in the trenches.

During this period, the defenders can leisurely shoot arrows and throw stones, using ranged weapons to gradually weaken the enemy, reduce their numbers, and wear down their morale.

In conclusion, when the enemy attacks, the first thing the defenders should do is cut down the nearby trees.

Road conditions were terrible in the era of cold weapons, and transportation capacity was extremely limited.

Flat roads, fast trains and trucks... none of these things were there.

Large machines such as well baskets are too bulky to be transported from afar and must be manufactured on-site.

Cutting down the trees around the city can greatly slow down the enemy's production of siege equipment.

Then, they frantically dug trenches, digging as many as they could.

If there is still extra manpower and time, lay as many fences as possible.

The fences of the cold weapon era were similar to the barbed wire of modern times. They may seem inconspicuous, but they can make things very difficult for the attackers. Destroying them is not difficult, but it takes a lot of time. During this time, many of your comrades will be taken down by ranged weapons flying from the opposite direction.

This is why ancient military strategists, both in the East and the West, did not advocate siege warfare.

The reason is simple—the cost of attacking a city by force is simply too high.

Those cities only became vulnerable after artillery was invented and deployed on a large scale.

Of course, cities also evolved with the advent of artillery, and the emergence of formidable defensive systems such as bastions is another story.

Scenes in films and television dramas about modern warfare involving cold weapons, such as "the attacking side only has long ladders" and "the city is surrounded by a smooth road without a single trench," are entirely fabricated by screenwriters to speed up the story's pace.

As for field battles, that goes without saying.

Wide and deep trenches and layers of palisades could effectively hinder cavalry charges and infantry advances.

If fences and trenches are used in combination properly, the vast battlefield can be divided into countless small pieces, greatly weakening the enemy's numerical advantage and slowing down their attack speed.

In conclusion, given the current "time crunch" situation facing Qingdeng, adopting the strategy of "only building fences and trenches" is undoubtedly the most correct course of action.

Fortunately, there are plenty of healthy trees around here, so there's no shortage of materials!

……

……

That night--

Following the natural rhythm of the seasons, it gets dark early, just after 18 PM.