.196, collective job-changing (Part 1)

One Hundred and Ninety-Six, Collective Job Change (Part 1)

Mikawa Kingdom. Okazaki Castle

An offensive and defensive battle with extremely disparity in power has been on the twelfth day.

The so-called siege means that people in the city want to go out, but people outside the city want to come in.

Accompanied by the roar of the magic snails, the roar of the tycoons and the chaotic shouts, the colorful squirming crowds were carried, the rough cloud ladders that were rushed, hitting the wood, holding a crossbow and an ancient mesh gun, and ran out of the messy and simple camp outside the city again, rushing towards the walls of Okazaki Castle like a tsunami. Their huge momentum was so great that it could make people feel the illusion that the earth was shaking.

But the crowd had already lost in shame before they rushed to the base of the wall. A fire flashed at the top of the city, and more than a dozen dark bronze cannons made a series of loud noises, shooting out many round projectiles the size of watermelons, bursting in front of this dense crowd, and instantly a terrible scorching metal storm was rolled up.

So, the siege team that was still rushing towards the rushing moment ago quickly transformed from high tide to low tide in the blink of an eye, and disappeared from the foot of the castle much faster than when attacking. However, in the wilderness around the castle, three or five broken corpses were left scattered and scattered, as well as several abandoned and seriously injured people, showing how "heavy" they had sacrificed.

Faced with the pungent smoke, the new team leader of the Akatsuki Group, the former deputy director, stood on the head of Okazaki Castle, leaning on a bamboo gun, with a slightly unhealthy flush on his face, and looked tired at the enemy's failure to pounce on the city again, and from time to time, he lowered his head and coughed twice.

Since the endless absurd internal strife broke out, he could not remember how many times he had repelled the enemy's attack. He only felt that his chest was filled with clusters of cotton, so frustrated that he couldn't even breathe.

In the first two days when tens of thousands of "official troops" surrounded Okazaki Castle, the battle situation was once quite fierce with the aura of a new arrival.

Although these soldiers were just randomly incorporated bandits and bandits, and there was not even a front-line commander-in-chief responsible for coordinating various people, they could be called an unorganized and undisciplined mob. The military equipment was extremely simple, not to mention the siege of mortars, there was not even a single earth-carrying gun. But such a vast tens of thousands of people screamed and launched a "pig sprint" offensive, the Chibao team, which had only 400 warriors left, was a little overwhelmed.

For a moment, Xiangle Zhongba, who was ordered in danger, was really worried and exhausted. He could not care about this one and that he could not care about the other one, and during the day and at night... Although the foreign guns seized in the city were very ammunition, and the bronze fixed cannons on the city were repeatedly spitting out flowering bullets and grape bullets storms like money, he was still beaten to the storm many times.

——Without heavy artillery or siege equipment, the enemy would use flesh and blood to fill the trench with sandbags and corpses, and climb up by using human ladders and scattering ropes. Even if the corpses were shot everywhere by artillery fire and rafting guns, they would still continue to rush to the city with their corpses.

When the battle was at its most intense, the enemy's vanguard suicide squad had taken advantage of the loopholes to rush to the city. It was entirely up to the chief Xiangle Zhongba, who personally waved his sword and roared and fought. He paid a very heavy price before he beat them back.

The most dangerous time, a suicide squad even buried a gunpowder barrel under the city wall, preparing to implement a high-tech and difficult directional blast. When the Chibao team discovered the crisis, it was too late to stop it... Thanks to the Chibao team's character, it seemed that the suicide squad's engineer skills were not enough to pass the test, or had misused counterfeit and shoddy products. In short, it was just a smoke but no explosion, which broke the hearts of the "official army" who were eager to try.

But despite this, Okazaki Castle still endured extremely harsh tests under such a storm-like attack. From the city walls, trenches to the fort, they were like the dying old man's mouth, and were tortured and destroyed, and even the Tianshou Pavilion was burned in chaos.

Fortunately, the almost complex terrain around Okazaki Castle effectively weakened the opponent's military strength. No matter how fierce the meat bullets are, they can't fight against artillery shells, and the mobs are also mobs after all. When these "official troops" lie down more than 3,000 dead bodies in front and behind Okazaki Castle, but never made any progress, their morale began to decline again and again. At first, the false fire that coveted the treasures of the Tokugawa family in the legendary Okazaki Castle gradually faded, allowing them to basically restore their bones to bully the weak and fear the strong.

——The vast majority of bandits and bandits enter the industry to make a fortune. They have no military literacy, nor have high morale and resilience. It is usually okay to fight a downwind battle with soft persimmons, but it is difficult to survive the cruel war of attrition. Often, they will collapse instantly when they suffer a little setback. There is basically no need to expect them to fight with all their lives.

Therefore, seeing that there was no hope of quickly capturing Okazaki Castle, many people were unwilling to continue wasting time in the city, so they simply broke up and separated, and went on their own to find soft persimmons with oil and water.

As for the rest, they basically adhered to the attitude of making soybeans. The leaders each occupied several intact wooden houses in the town of Okazaki Castle, drank and hugged women for fun all day long, and occasionally caught little boys to adjust their interests. The soldiers below devoted their main energy to going out to fight grass valleys everywhere. Unfortunately, this place was a tug-of-war between the Akatsuki Group and the old shogunate army. Then the shogunate army broke out again. The people fled to death and fled. No matter how much they dug three feet into the ground, they could not find much.

Therefore, they seemed even more indifferent, as if they had already made up their minds to be here. This is actually very consistent with the general knowledge of city offensive and defensive wars - not to mention a winter, even a war of siege for one year or even three years is everywhere in history.

In the classical era, urban offense and defense were often such a long battle between wills. Whoever has more material reserves and whoever has more vigilance can maintain longer, and whoever can survive to the end will win.

However, although the actual offensive is no longer active, many people still understand the common sense of the most siege of siege. Therefore, even though they know that they are pretending, they will drive out some people from the camp every day, make a big move, and rush towards Okazaki Castle several times. However, everyone has learned the excellence. Although the siege on the surface is very loud, they never step into the range of artillery fire on the top of the city. And often when they hear the cannons on the top of the city, they will immediately turn around and turn in, never stay for a long time. After seven or eight days of repeated struggles, the "actual combat performances" of the officials outside the city are becoming more and more proficient, and there are fewer and fewer "suplets" every time they "inadvertently injured"...

But even though the war has turned into acting, Aka Le Zhongba still couldn't feel relaxed at all.

Although the outside of the city is pretending, isn’t it a plan to play the empty city inside?

——Almost overnight, a plague broke out in Okazaki Castle

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War is a matter that inevitably leads to a large number of dead people, and a large number of dead people are piled up in the open air and let them rot. In the ten days, the plague will rage. At this moment, outside Okazaki Castle, there are countless corpses of siegemen piled up on the ground.

——If the regular army with strict discipline and experience is usually taken the initiative to clean up the remains of the comrades. This is not only a need to maintain the morale of the army, but also beneficial to hygiene and epidemic prevention. But after the group of heartless bandits and bandits join forces... Well, they seem to only rush to strip all the valuable things on the dead, and then throw the corpses that turned into pigs in place.

The Chibao team was in extremely shortage of manpower. The soldiers could not sleep well for many days and were seriously overdrawn. Naturally, they did not have the strength or spirit to risk going out of the city to collect corpses for the enemy. They could only allow these bloody corpses to be bitten by wild dogs and pecked at them. Finally, they crawled with white maggots, emitting a pungent smell of rotten smell around them.

The environment outside the city is so disgusting that the city is not much better. It has no way to discharge sewage and feces, and there is also a lack of sufficient and clean drinking water. Because the Akatsuki team sent the youngest Akara Zuosuke before, the traces of drilling out of the sewer for help were discovered. The sewer exit of Okazaki Castle was soon blocked by the enemy, and countless rotten garbage and excrement were immediately returned to the city, which was simply stinking.

On the other hand, when the old shogunate army gave up the city and fled in a hurry, they did not forget to poison the only well in the city. Therefore, the people of the Chibao team could only rely on a reservoir and the fish pond in the city lord's small garden. After so many days, it had been turbid and smelly, but because God had not rained, everyone could only squeeze their noses and drink stink water, and even had to limit the amount - there was not much water left.

Extremely bad hygiene, severe overdrawn weak constitution, psychological pressure of life and death, and the trauma accumulated in frequent battles... so many unfavorable causes are all superimposed, which naturally leads to the outbreak and spread of the epidemic.

What made Xiangle Zhongba even more scratched his head was that in this castle that had just been seized, although there was no shortage of food or ammunition, there was no sacrificial or witch who could cast spells and treat them. The two monks who kidnapped as military doctors on the way to march had already lost their magic power and became waste because of the fall of the Buddha - even they themselves fell ill

After taking a last look at the enemy troops retreating to the town town, Ao Le Takahara walked down the city wall dejectedly and came to the evaluation room at the bottom of the castle. Since the battle broke out, it has been changed to a temporary hospital.

In order to cook and boil water (I really dare not drink raw water in this situation), and to repair the walls, many houses in the city were demolished and fired, so all the wounded and sick people could only gather in this place, which was convenient for care and care. At first, it was fine for a few days, but with the emergence and spread of the plague, the number of patients who fell down had reached more than 200 people. The room, which was about 100 square meters (1 square meter = 3.3 square meters) was filled with tidy tatami. The originally neat tatami was covered with pus, blood, phlegm, semen, urine and stains. You could smell a pungent smell of blood and rot from a distance, and you could hear a painful moan like a miserable resentful spirit.

In order to avoid being infected, Xiangle Zhongba just stood at the door and looked at it for a few times, then summoned the person in charge to come out and ask, "...How is the situation today? Is anyone better?"

"...I'm afraid not. The president had four more brothers who were plague last night and couldn't stand it. This morning, a person with a syphilis attack secretly cut his wrist and committed suicide. Two others suffered from typhoid fever and were just sent in to lie down."

The hospital manager shrugged his shoulders, took off his homemade coarse mask and smiled bitterly, "...Typhoid fever, measles, syphilis, plague, smallpox, and sepsis caused by wound infection. No matter which of them, they are now incurable. But the conditions in this place are simple and cross-infection has been created... To be honest, I have neither treatment nor Western medicine, so I have no way to save them."

Looking at the wounded and turned and groaning on the tatami, many of them were still covered with yellow-green pus. Some of the most serious ones had even lost consciousness, incontinence, and smelly shit and urine flowed all over the floor. Xiangle Zhongba couldn't help but sigh deeply.

The third brother of Xiangle, you are loyal to you. This is the evil created by the "saint king" you are dedicated to.

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The person who was in this dangerous place to take care of the wounded and sick was a distant nephew of his distant place. He had been a little novice monk in the temple for several years and helped the old monk in charge of practicing medicine, so he recognized the symptoms of so many diseases.

But the problem is that just recognizing the symptoms does not mean you know how to treat them. Because Buddhism, which monopolizes the path of life and death, almost covers the sky in this country, the medical market of the Japanese island country has been the world of Buddhist magic since ancient times, and herbal medicine is very underdeveloped. Even if someone knows a few very unreliable rural earth prescriptions, they cannot go out of the city to collect medicinal materials, and there will be no medicine reserves in the city...

In a word, it is hard to cook without rice, not to mention that the person who cares about this matter is still a half-baked person.

"......The cursed broken city really cannot be kept, and more people die of illness than those who die of battle."

Xiangle Zhongba stomped his feet suddenly and sighed helplessly, "...Since the war started, even if the wound was infected with sepsis, more than fifty people died in battle. However, in recent days, the enemy has not attacked the city, but more than sixty brothers have suffered from plague. Now, there are less than three hundred people left, more than two hundred and twenty people lying here half-deadly. Most of the others can barely walk, and they have to hold on to change shifts day and night... Such an empty city is simply broken in one attack every time I see the enemy pulling aside, and then look at the few brothers around me, I feel that this is probably the last time..."

"………………Prince, didn’t you say that the enemy is also having a plague, and the situation is quite serious?"

His nephew who cared for the patient asked curiously, "... Since both sides are so difficult, I guess I can't fight."

In response to this, Xiangle Zhongba could only shake his head and continue to smile bitterly.

Indeed, there seems to be a terrible plague spreading on the enemy side of the city these two days. Every day, from morning to night, you can see the black smoke burning corpses in the enemy camp when standing at the top of the city. But the problem is that after all, there are tens of thousands of opponents. Even if the plague is 70 to 80% dead, the remaining people are enough to launch a fierce attack on Okazaki Castle. Judging from the situation where most members of the Akatsuki team are currently holding up corpses and waiting for death, they may not even be able to withstand a turn.

After comforting his nephew for a few words, Xiangle Zhongba returned to the city wall to continue patrolling. A bit of cold wind blew, which made him breathe in pain, and tightly covered the bandage on his left arm. Due to overwork and weak constitution, the wound on his left arm that had been cut by a knife a few days ago has not healed, and pus seeped out from time to time. But since there is no doctor or medicine in this ghost place, he could only wipe it with strong alcohol, then wrap it with the bandage boiled by boiling water, and then rely on his own immunity to resist it.

Strangely, the enemy troops who had to set up their posture every day and organized three or five "performing" to storm the city suddenly seemed to have become lazy today. After the attack with heavy thunder and little rain in the morning, there was no movement. Akara Tadagata sat on the top of the city for a whole day, and waited until dusk, and saw four or five people leaving the city town, holding a white flag indicating the messenger and walking slowly towards Okazaki Castle.

And in this small team, he also saw a very familiar figure.

"…Sagata Zuonosuke? Didn't he go to Kamakura for help? How could he be in the enemy camp? Could it be that he was arrested after failing to go on a mission?"

Xiang Lezhongba smacked his lips in confusion, and for a moment he felt that he was a monk who was confused. If the boy Suo Nobusuke was caught in the accident, he could not see any signs of torture through the telescope. Instead, he was dressed brightly and looked radiant. Several followers from the enemy camp treated the boy with respect, and almost got out a sedan chair and carried him away.

And if you want to say that this kid has no energy to sell himself in the enemy, his humble status does not seem to be worthy of such courtesy from the enemy.

The men walked outside the city gate where Xiangle Zhongba was wearing the white flag and stopped. Then an archer stood up. After repeatedly greeting the defenders on the city to avoid accidental injuries, they then took the bow and shot an arrow towards the city tower.

Then, a whistlebrating crossed the sky with a sharp scream and pierced on the huge wooden oar (a fixed shield) supported by the city. The arrow feathers trembled slightly and made a buzzing sound. The frightened soldiers hurried up and pushed the wooden oar down hard, pulled out the whistleblow, then untied the small note tied to the arrow shaft, and respectfully presented it to Xiangle Zhongba.

The confused Xiangle Zhongba unfolded the note, took advantage of the afterglow of the sunset and glanced at it for a few moments, and was stunned.

"...Hmm, yes? The Western army outside the city has now lost its way and is willing to return, so he requests to surrender to the Eastern Army and attack the pseudo-Emperor of Kyoto... Therefore, I hope that my Akatsuki team will serve as an intermediary and recommend it to the Eastern Army of the Kamakura court. For this reason, I will give a good report... What's going on? Turning against you? Trying to work on the front line?"

He looked at this picture with a mysterious origin and absurd content, and felt that his reason seemed to be rapidly collapsing.
Chapter completed!