In Gensokyo, the four seasons have always been distinctive, and the tall trees in the forest that have not yet been cut down or set ablaze by incendiary bombs are already unconsciously sprouting fresh green shoots on their trunks and branches.

Gensokyo's environment has been reborn for some time after spring has arrived, but the killing among humans continues, even if it's only been a few hours since it began.

"My lord, our losses have been counted. "In the marching tent set up in the forest, the young daimyo Shiozukikawa and his military generals are sitting in their respective positions, listening to the report of an ashigaru clothed people," We lost more than 1,000 people, hundreds of others were wounded or missing, and less than 200 people were able to continue fighting, but their morale was worried; in addition, the losses of our Ashigaru troops were also quite heavy, the bows and arrows and iron guns Ashigaru were almost completely wiped out under the enemy's fireball and thunderbolt attacks, and the bamboo spear Ashigaru and the long knife Ashigaru also suffered a lot of losses when attacking the enemy's defensive line, and the losses of nearly 900 samurai adults were the slightest, only more than 80 people, and the vast majority of them were killed under the enemy's fireball and thunderbolt attacks, which did not do much damage when attacking enemy lines. ”

Hearing the report of the Ashigaru Cloth, Shiotsukigawa and his military generals all frowned in unison: Although the losses of the samurai were still small, the losses of Ashigaru and the new Ashigaru temporarily armed with the army and civilian workers were too great, a full 2,000 killed and hundreds of people were injured and missing, which is equivalent to a quarter of the number of battle losses is extremely fatal for any army in the cold weapon era, even if it is replaced by a modern army, the 25% battle loss rate can directly classify this army into the ranks of those in urgent need of rest and replenishment, and it can be regarded as a complete loss of combat capabilityIf it weren't for the fact that this Japanese army from the Warring States period to the daimyo Shiogetsu River and as small as any ashigaru knew that the environment here was unusual, it would not be impossible for the entire army to disperse in a hurry now.

"More than 2,000 casualties, this is already worthy of the casualties of our previous large-scale battle, and we can't even break through the first line of defense of those enemies with the banner of the Black Cross?!" After a long silence, a Japanese samurai shouted, judging from his face with his face under his helmet removed, it was estimated that he had just come of age, and even Shiogetsukawa, who had just sat on the throne of the Daimyo, looked much more mature and stable than him.

"Sit down, don't be angry, our samurai have confirmed with their lives that our enemies are not weak, and this is not something that can be solved by yelling. Shiozukigawa shook his head and said, this Japanese samurai is the son of one of his father's most trusted samurai, and he only completed the coming-of-age ceremony to officially become a samurai before this expedition, and his youth and vigor are the characteristics of his young man, "Don't you notice? Those enemy soldiers wearing the black cross on their bodies are weaker than our samurai in terms of combat effectiveness, and the sufficiency on their bodies is probably even better and stronger than the sturdy sturdy skulls on my body?"

"That's right, I remember very well that I had slashed one of them with my katana in my hand with a spear that didn't look like words, but I could only watch as he was stabbed in the waist and continued to fight, and he didn't have a wound on his waist at all, let alone break through their body. "After the Japanese samurai bowed to Shiozuki River and sat down, another Japanese samurai said in a deep voice, he removed the wound on his left arm with a full fitting, and the wound was bandaged, and the slightest trace of blood continued to ooze out," My lord, I suspect that the enemy's first line of defense is full of their samurai, and that they are highly trained and equipped with the best equipment, even if they were only the enemy's ashigaru troops, then we would face a far more formidable enemy than we had estimated before we attacked. ”

Shiozukigawa nodded heavily: although he had only just sat on the throne of his deceased father's daimyo for a short time, he had been working by his father's side when he was still alive, and he was naturally very aware of a lot of military affairs and territorial governance, otherwise he would not have been able to withdraw from his own territory in a short time before he came to this strange place inexplicably, and was ready to take advantage of the victory to pursue.

"It doesn't matter if they're samurai or ashigaru, as long as they have these equipment, With the large enemy armed with a tree and various weapons in the first line of defense, combined with the iron artillery team they arranged in the second line of defense and the enemy units suspected of being samurai wielding strange notai swords, even if we join the attack, even if we break through the enemy's first line of defense or even the second line of defense, our casualties will be quite staggering, and if the enemy has not sent other troops to the battlefield at that time, then our defeat is doomed. While Shiozukigawa was silent, his advisor said the current situation, "And according to the information of the horsemen before, they should still have a cavalry team composed of all samurai, but they have not appeared on the battlefield until now, and it is likely that they will wait for our troops to consume the soldiers in those lines of defense and we ourselves will not have many men left to continue to advance." ”

"In other words, the enemy is in an excellent defensive state, and as long as we are attacking, it is their way?" Hearing the analysis of the military advisor, Shiogetsu Chuan and the samurai and generals present woke up like a dream.

"That's right, my lord, from the fact that they started building their positions earlier, they had this idea. The military advisor nodded, he was almost fifty years old, he had followed the father of the young daimyo in front of him to fight for so many years, no matter how old and dizzy, his sense of smell for war had not yet failed, "The most important thing is that they obviously have their own stable supply sources and soldiers, and we don't know if all the current enemies that appear on the battlefield and are detected by the horsemen are all of them, there are too many unclear situations, once you take a wrong step, you will lose everything." ”

"It's a pity that our spies and ninjas have already been sent into the heart of the guy who dared to attack my territory to spy on intelligence and sabotage, otherwise we would at least know the general situation of the enemy now, instead of blinding us. Shiozukigawa slapped the table in front of him helplessly, "Then what should we do next?" The enemy's ordinary soldiers are not as good as the samurai in terms of combat effectiveness, but they can still defeat our Ashigaru troops, and the samurai who have participated in the battle below have reported that those trebuchets and other strange devices on the enemy's hillside seem to be filling with something again, once we attack, we will definitely be smashed by their terrifying fireballs and thunderbolts or other things, so don't worry about the morale of the samurai, But I don't think that the ashigaru, who has already launched an attack under one of our men, would be happy to be suppressed by the enemy's terrifying fire and attack the near-invulnerable enemy lines. ”

Shionzukikawa's words silenced everyone present, but anyone who had personally been on the battlefield saw the tragic situation of those who were hit by the fireballs and thunderbolts fired by the enemy's catapults, and those people screamed while tearing off their own skin as easily as tearing window paper, this is just those who were baked by the waves of fire, and those who were ignited by the flames were even more pitiful, the whole person would be burned into a charred dry corpse, and even if they died, they would continue to burn until the skin and flesh on the corpse were completely dried up compared to this terrible way of deathIt is much better to be nailed to the ground by the enemy's huge arrows or to be electrocuted by the lightning caused by the huge arrows engraved on the shaft of the arrows similar to the patterns on the runes, either the pain lasts for a short time or dies immediately, it is better than screaming for a long time before dying slowly.

"The only way is for them to attack us, not for us to attack them. After another long silence, the military advisor stroked his beard and said slowly.

"Let them attack us? will they do it?" everyone in the room looked at each other, "they have an excellent defensive advantage, why would they give up this advantage to attack them? They don't have to attack, just besiege us for a few days, and we will lose our combat ability or starve to death because of lack of food, and then it will be easy for them to attack us again?"

"It's not that you're wrong to think that, it's just that you don't see much more. The military advisor shook his head, it was too much to tell these things to this group of samurai who were full of thoughts about winning the glory of themselves and their respective families by killing enemies on the battlefield, that is, Shiongetsugawa, the daimyo who was his new lord, could understand what he meant, "They can do this, but they must also consider many issues, such as the consumption of their military expenses and the many problems of whether their troops can continue to fight- Although the morning and noon do not seem to play much role in the offensive of their first line of defense, they are definitely not as difficult as they were at the beginning, and if we really have the heart to attack, the enemy commander will definitely not let his troops be consumed in this kind of battle in vain, so they will definitely prepare to attack us next, we just need to be prepared for a short battle and the psychological preparation for the enemy to continue to inflict some casualties on us with fireballs and thunderbolts. ”

"But why are they attacking?" asked several of the samurai in the room, unrelentingly.

"Uh" The military advisor stroked his beard helplessly, and the group of samurai would not understand what they were saying if they didn't break it open and crumple it, giving him a sense of powerlessness trapped in a sea of retarded minds. To put it simply, it will definitely cost them a lot of money to build the current defensive line, and the same is true for the daily cost of maintaining this defensive line, if we really squat in the forest and not attack, if they don't attack us, it means that they will have to pay a considerable amount of financial expenditure every day, unless the town they own is so rich that they have maintained it for a long time, otherwise they will definitely start attacking us this afternoon or tomorrow. ”

Although the military advisor's explanation was still a little rough, for a large group of Japanese samurai in the big tent, whose main duty was to cut people, they could basically understand a general idea, so most of them nodded in a sudden understanding, and some of them whispered to their fellow samurai around them if they hadn't figured out the situation, so as to understand what was going on.

"Then I will announce the future of the army. Shiozukigawa nodded with satisfaction, he knew very well that he was still inexperienced in marching and fighting, so when he was unsure of his own ideas, he would listen to the advice of this military advisor who gave advice when his father was still alive, and a considerable part of the credit for the battles he won before coming to this ghost place was due to this old minister, "The samurai are ready for battle, so that the samurai on horseback find a good place before they arrive at us and be ready to charge head-on, and the samurai on foot are responsible for forming a solid defensive line." As for the civilian workers and the rest of the ashigaru, let all the ashigaru workers collect as many wild vegetables and wild fruits as possible, and the ashigaru who are not too badly injured in morale but are not suitable to continue on the battlefield are responsible for protecting them and going hunting, so that our military ration reserves can last as long as possible It is ironic, originally we were very worried about the military ration problem, but now that we have lost a full quarter of the people, this problem is not so urgent."

"Understood, my lord!" shouted the Japanese warriors in unison, saluting Shiogetsu Chuan solemnly, and then withdrawing from the marching tent and proceeding to their respective work and preparations.

After the Japanese samurai had withdrawn from the marching tent, the strategizing expression that the military advisor had been maintaining suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a worried look, "You say, will they really attack us?"

"Haven't you always been confident, and you have analyzed so concretely, how can you still come to ask me, this young master, who needs to consult you from time to time. Yan Yuechuan shook his head helplessly, and then continued: "They should come to attack us, although I am not as good at analysis as you are, but my intuition tells me that there is no concrete evidence that the enemy will definitely attack this afternoon, but I feel like this. ”

"Even if your feeling is wrong, my lord, our army will not be able to continue attacking the enemy today, otherwise with the losses of the order of magnitude from the morning and noon battles, our ashigaru troops and accompanying civilian workers are likely to disperse in a hurry, even if they have little hope of survival after breaking away from our army. The military advisor let out a long sigh, "If the enemy doesn't attack, it's just a good time for our army to breathe a sigh of relief - those enemy ashigaru troops with more luxurious weapons and equipment than ordinary samurai are too terrifying in combat power, and we can only rely on the terrain advantage of the forest to find a way to solve them, otherwise it will be too much strategy to attack their defenses" (To be continued.) )