Warring States Survival Guide-Chapter 212 - 147 Never Leave! _2

Harano nodded with relief, then pushed away the rice ball in Ah Qing’s hand, smiling as he said, "You eat first. Right now... I’m really not very hungry."

"You haven’t eaten anything since last night. Please have some." Ah Qing’s face was cool and quiet, her eyes lowered, but she made no move to take the rice ball back. She offered it to him again, unusually persistent, making sure he must eat something.

"Haven’t eaten since last night?" Harano was startled, realizing he hadn’t noticed how much time had passed. He genuinely didn’t feel hungry at all, but at a time like this, maintaining strength was paramount. He immediately took the rice ball and stuffed it in his mouth, smiling at Ah Qing, "Thank you. Now that you mention it, I really am a bit hungry."

Ah Qing glanced up at him, then fetched him a bamboo tube to let him drink water. After he’d drunk, she hesitated a little, eyes lowered, and said softly, "My lord, have you thought about... going to the port to take command from there?"

Harano’s hand paused, setting the bamboo tube down slowly. He wasn’t angry, and softly asked, "You think we can’t hold out either?"

Ah Qing lowered her gaze, silent for a long moment.

Harano sat in silence for a while as well, slightly swayed by Ah Qing’s suggestion—but quickly steeled himself again, replying quietly, "I can’t leave. If I retreat now, we won’t be able to hold this place."

Just in these five days, over a hundred Wanjin soldiers had lost their fighting ability. The support soldiers forced up to serve as archers had suffered catastrophic casualties: nearly three hundred more either wounded or dead. But that wasn’t even the worst part; the real problem was that the enemy was fighting with a do-or-die resolve. Their attacks came without pause, putting enormous psychological pressure on the defenders. The only reason the defenders still held the walls at all was because the discipline was strict, junior officers were capable, and he, as the first-generation leader, was personally moving along the front lines fighting, visible to all—and with the sea at their backs, most of them had nowhere to run.

If he left now for a safer location, this front line might not even last the night—the enemy, counting the Ashigaru rabble, had over six thousand men. The Imagawa family had probably summoned every clan they could find in Chita County. Their numbers were just too great a gap.

Ah Qing could more or less understand their dire straits, but she stubbornly kept her eyes down, saying, "I’ll stay behind with your seal of command!"

Harano couldn’t help but laugh, "Our people aren’t fools. They’d know if I’d run off or not."

"But now..."

Harano took her hand—it was rough, covered with thick calluses like broad beans, but reassuring. He smiled wryly, "It’s too late to talk about this. If I’ve made a mistake, then let it be all the way to the end! All we can do now is keep fighting. We have no other way out."

He might really have messed up, never expecting the Imagawa family would be so determined to root out outsiders, and thinking he could claim a patch of land on the Chita Peninsula did seem a bit foolish. But after fighting so long and losing so many people, his anger had risen too, and even though he was anxious and worried, he didn’t want to escape in defeat—reason also told him even if he ran, it wouldn’t help. If he fled to some small island in Ise Bay and eked out a living, he had so much value, so many ways to make money, that sooner or later, someone would come after him.

At the very least, Oda Nobunaga would surely come for him, force him to make some fatal mistake, and by then he’d have no strength to resist—however stubborn he was, death would come all the same.

So, better to risk everything right now, try to bleed the Imagawa family as much as possible, and let everyone suffer together.

After all, surviving always requires giving your all. Only by fighting desperately can you keep living! This land wasn’t always Imagawa territory; if they can try to seize it, why can’t he? Even though he’d sworn poisonous oaths and repeatedly stressed he only wanted this little patch of unused land and nothing more, they wouldn’t allow it—then let the Imagawa family suffer too. Everyone can die together!

Of course, the desire not to be controlled, to maintain personal dignity and freedom, was his own selfishness—it had nothing to do with Ah Man and Ah Qing. With the odds now so deeply stacked against them, he paused briefly before saying, "If you and Ah Man want to..."

Ah Qing immediately turned her hand to grasp his, shaking her head gently, not letting him finish.

Harano didn’t say more, squeezing her hand in return, drawing courage from her—at this point, their relationship was long since different, essentially two sides of the same coin. Saying more would only hurt their bond.

So be it. If they survived this, he swore—even if Ah Man dug food out of his mouth, he wouldn’t say a single damn word. As for Ah Qing, that would have to wait another two or three years. She was still a bit young, and some things would have to be left unsaid...

Of course, it wasn’t just about Ah Man and Ah Qing. The same went for the others: if any of them survived this, their loyalty would be rewarded—he wouldn’t withhold a thing.

He and Ah Qing just sat there silently holding hands for a long time. His anxiety gradually faded, his resolve grew. The situation, however, was perilous: under relentless attack, fighting men dying in droves, it was harder and harder to hold the line. The lessons once instilled by Meng Ziqi’s father were rapidly fading; his innate ferocity began to surface at last, casting aside all restraint. Pulling Ah Qing to her feet, he barked, "Pass on my orders: block the channel with sunken ships, all armed sailors to the front lines, and tell everyone—this is the new home of the Wanjin people! Until the last Wanjin dies, we will never leave!"

......

"Your Highness... we...we need a couple days to regroup."

Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto forced themselves to beg Toya Hongtong for an audience, hoping this "Military Supervisor" might grant a reprieve, allow them to rest before attacking again. Things were practically at a stalemate: the enemy’s will was astonishing, heedless of casualties, pressing on without an inch of ground given. They’d attacked for five straight days now, hadn’t even taken the enemy’s "sheep wall," let alone the ramparts or killed or captured their Grand General.

In contrast, their own side was at the limit. The enemy had lost six or seven hundred men (mostly unarmored support soldiers, mostly hit by arrows), but their own losses were even higher. Even though most were Lang Faction Ashigaru of the Chita clans, casualties were becoming unbearable—at least for the Chita clans, who couldn’t take any more. Many had openly refused orders—and no amount of threats or coercion would get them to storm the walls again.

Meanwhile, desertions among the Ashigaru rabble soared, forcing them to guard the Ashigaru to stop them escaping.

Toya Hongtong didn’t scold the two. Over these five days, he had witnessed the enemy’s madness and tenacity with his own eyes. He had even glimpsed the legendary "Nozawa Saburo" from afar, leading from the front atop the sheep wall under a hail of arrows, directing the Iron Cannon Team’s volleys—though the handpicked Divine Archers had repeatedly failed to kill him, their arrows blocked by his personal guards each time.

He was silent for a while, then couldn’t help but quietly ask again, "Why hasn’t Nozawa Saburo retreated? What’s here that makes him fight to the death?" By now he was half convinced there must be Gold buried under this wasteland, maybe an undiscovered massive vein—otherwise, how could any of this make sense?

Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto exchanged looks and shook their heads in unison, still unable to figure out Harano’s motives—or perhaps, unable to believe Harano really just wanted to settle here.

Toya Hongtong didn’t pursue it further—he’d asked the same question over and over these five days and never gotten an answer. He only hesitated a moment before rejecting their proposal outright: "We outnumber them five to one. If we can’t hold out, the enemy even less so. The assault cannot stop!"

He was feeling trapped as well. If he halted the attacks, all those deaths before would have been for nothing. With casualties so high, he could hardly answer for it back home.

"But the casualties...and the Chita clans’ complaints..."

"I’ll deal with the Chita clans, but the assault must not cease!" Toya Hongtong was a hardened man who’d climbed up from the Imagawa family’s harshest days; his resolve was iron as he insisted, "Not only can we not stop, we must intensify the attacks. We must take this place, or everything will have been wasted!"

Asahina Taisuke and Yakai Chiyomoto exchanged glances, both seeing bitterness in the other’s face, but with no room left to object. They had no choice but to grit their teeth and answer, "As you command, Your Highness! Tonight we will personally lead the assault—we will take the fortress!"