Chapter 1671: The City Is About to Fall

Under Zhou Pu's orders, the Han army resolutely carried out its battlefield-supervision duty. After warnings proved useless, they opened fire directly on their own retreating assault troops. Only after a batch of men had been killed or wounded were their retreating steps finally halted.

The roar of the firearms jolted this group awake. They looked around hesitantly, only to find themselves caught between the supervisor troops and the enemy's citadel — both sides were firing at them.

Because the Han army's fire was fiercer, they were pushed back toward the city walls and slowly returned to the foot of the walls. They finally understood that everything the Han envoy had said earlier was in deadly earnest: he was determined to take this city and would permit no one to retreat.

Trapped in this dilemma with neither advance nor retreat possible, the already chaotic assault force grew even more disordered. Yet most of them had the brute stubbornness in their blood roused; they picked up their weapons again and charged howling back into the city.

The Han envoy had made it perfectly clear earlier: if they staked their lives fighting beneath the walls, merit would bring rewards and titles, and even death would bring a pension for their families. But if they were shot down before the lines as defeated troops by the supervisor squads, they would get nothing — only leave this world bearing the infamy of cowards.

Zhou Pu had been observing the situation through his telescope from the front all along. Seeing that these routed soldiers had resumed their assault under the Han army's bombardment, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief — but when he saw how utterly disordered their formation was, he frowned slightly again.

These men's morale was already shattered, and even their unit structures had been broken apart. It went without saying that even now that they had resumed the attack, they were unlikely to cause the defenders much trouble. In all likelihood, this group would soon be swallowed up by the defenders in a pool of blood.

Still, that was not an unacceptable outcome for him. He now had plenty of cannon fodder to expend; it did not matter if this entire wave was used up. At the very least, a portion of them had already fought their way into the city.

It was time to prepare the next wave of attack.

"Lord Ufu?" He turned his head toward Nijō Yasumichi, who had been standing beside him the whole time. "Please have Lord Hashimoto prepare at once. Have his troops advance immediately and attack the city!"

"Wha… what?" Nijō Yasumichi raised his head blankly to look at Zhou Pu, clearly in a daze. "My lord…?"

He had been terrified by the scene he had just witnessed. As a court noble — and one born into the highest-ranking go-sekke regent families — he had been raised in comfort and privilege since childhood. Although the Nijō family estate was not large and could not provide him with an especially lavish lifestyle, it had at least allowed him to grow up safe and secure until now.

He had heard others speak of the cruelty of war before, and had heard the elders talk of the horrors that befell Kyoto in years past. But only today, when he witnessed such a scene with his own eyes, was he truly shaken. As far as the eye could see, there was black smoke and rubble everywhere, and countless mangled corpses strewn among them — rivers of blood. And not a few men had died right before his eyes, killed by the fire of their own allied troops.

A young man like him had been full of hot blood before, sparing no effort to overthrow the shogunate, and had even daydreamed of shining brilliantly in battle and striking down Tokugawa Iemitsu. But now that he had truly witnessed the face of war, the terror welling up from the depths of his heart made his hair practically stand on end. Had he not feared losing face, he would probably have covered his face and fled long ago.

"Lord Ufu, form up your troops at once!" Seeing him in such a dazed state, Zhou Pu commanded again impatiently, his words no longer polite. "Attack immediately!"

"My lord…" Jolted by this shout, Nijō Yasumichi finally came back to his senses, but he looked hesitantly at Himeji Castle before him and wavered for a moment. "My lord… the front is extremely chaotic. Perhaps… perhaps we should wait a little longer?"

"The battle at the front is desperate — how can we wait!" Zhou Pu frowned and stared coldly at him. "Our troops just now managed with great difficulty to open a few breaches and break into the city. If we do not send reinforcements at once, are we not giving the enemy a chance to catch their breath?"

"But… but most of Hashimoto's troops are newly recruited soldiers. Their fighting strength and morale are still far from ideal. If… if they are sent in amid all this chaos, I fear… I fear they may not achieve much, and will only sacrifice lives in vain…" Nijō Yasumichi still hesitated. "In my humble opinion, my lord should first send elite troops into the city to expand the gains, and then let us make our assault afterward…"

Earlier, when Zhou Pu had stirred him up, his blood had surged and he had assured Zhou Pu that he would press the army to speed up the assault. But now that he had seen the gruesome scene beneath the walls with his own eyes, he wavered again and wanted other troops to take the brunt of it first. After all, the troops now under Hashimoto Sanemura were the first army in centuries to be directly subordinate to the Imperial Court, and Nijō Yasumichi truly could not bear to see this family asset squandered for nothing.

Yet his painstaking concern won no approval from Zhou Pu at all. Zhou Pu instead gave a cold laugh.

"Lord Ufu, you spoke with such fervent passion before us earlier — can it be that now you shrink back at the brink of battle? Is Lord Ufu now going to worry about a few casualties? Once we take this city, the Kinai region lies with its gates wide open. We can then drive straight in and let the Kinai fall into your honorable court's hands. At that time, with a population of a million households, are you still afraid you won't be able to recruit soldiers to replenish the losses?"

"But…" Nijō Yasumichi still hesitated.

"Our country has an old saying: mercy does not command troops. War is war — how can one waver and hesitate!" Watching the killing resume beneath the walls, Zhou Pu's patience ran out entirely. "Do not forget, my lord, that I now hold full command of this entire army. Even you and Hashimoto Sanemura's subordinates must obey my orders! If you hesitate further, you will be defying a military order, and then I will show no courtesy!"

Seeing the fierce glint in this Celestial envoy's eyes, Nijō Yasumichi involuntarily stepped backward. This envoy, ordinarily so amiable, now had a murderous look — a completely different man from usual. If he did not do as he was told now, then perhaps… perhaps even his own life would be in danger.

"Yes… my lord." Under the grip of fear, he finally set aside all other thoughts and bowed his head in obedience to Zhou Pu's command.

Then, very soon, another large mass of soldiers surged out from Hashimoto Sanemura's camp and charged toward the city opposite. Their ranks were uneven and their pace very slow; clearly they were quite fearful of that city ahead. Yet under the urging of the officers and the supervisor squads, they surged little by little toward the opposite walls, to meet the cruelest of trials and an unknown fate.

"My lord, the troops just dispatched are poorly equipped and their morale is low — I fear they will not perform well. We should make plans early and prepare the next wave of attack." After seeing this unit's performance, Tachibana Muneshige had little confidence in the coming fight, so he took the initiative to request battle from Zhou Pu. "For the next wave, please allow my troops to take the main assault! I will personally enter the city to supervise the battle and will surely wipe out the enemy within for you as quickly as possible!"

"No, just keep your troops in order. There is no need to join the attack now." Zhou Pu, however, rejected his proposal. "Let them charge first and wear down the enemy troops inside the city."

"My lord, if we send these units in wave after wave, I fear the losses will be very heavy. After all, they have not experienced many battles before and are severely lacking in experience." Tachibana Muneshige persisted in his own view. "If you let me lead my main-force troops in the attack, we can certainly fight more brilliantly. Though I am advanced in years, I have fought wars for many years after all, and I will absolutely not disappoint you, my lord…"

"General Tachibana, it is not that I do not trust you. On the contrary, I trust you too much — and that is why I intend to help you." Zhou Pu suddenly cut him off. "I mean for you to achieve great merit. How could I let you be squandered for nothing inside the city right at the start? Let them go and fill in against the enemy's outer perimeter first. When it is time to assault the inner citadel, that will be your moment to shine."

"My lord…?" For a moment Tachibana Muneshige did not grasp Zhou Pu's meaning.

But soon, seeing Zhou Pu's faint, ambiguous smile, he finally understood — and then stared at Zhou Pu in stunned disbelief.

"Wait patiently. Do not let everyone down when the time comes." Seeing that the other man had finally caught on, Zhou Pu merely smiled faintly and patted him on the shoulder.

Indeed, his plan was precisely to let the troops of the other various forces fight and bleed against the defenders inside the city first, letting them bear the initial casualties, and then at the very end send Tachibana Muneshige with his men to attack and seize the final victory.

Zhou Pu had earlier made a promise before all the commanders that he would reward the general who finally took Himeji Castle with additional lands. He did not intend to break that promise — but if it truly went to someone he did not trust, granting them so much additional territory would be rather troubling. So after making the promise, he had secretly resolved to create the conditions so that his own man would be the one to claim those lands in the end.

He was not particularly fond of Tachibana Muneshige, but these days Tachibana Muneshige had served diligently at his side, racking up no small amount of merit, and his position was very unique — he was close neither to the Imperial Court nor entangled with the shogunate or the other great daimyō. He was exactly the sort of man Zhou Pu could vigorously support.

He planned to turn Tachibana Muneshige into a great daimyō after the war, and then place him between the Court's Kinai and the Tokugawa clan's Kantō, using him and his heirs as a chess piece to check and balance the various factions in Japan.

So, having settled on this scheme, even though Tachibana Muneshige's proposal was clearly more practical, he still made the decision to keep Nijō Yasumichi's forces grinding away inside the city.

Under Zhou Pu's orders, wave after wave of troops was thrown into the city. Because of the defenders' frenzied resistance, each wave committed soon suffered enormous losses inside the city — but Zhou Pu was unmoved and continued feeding units in, one wave after another.

In this grinding attrition, the assault army's losses grew heavier and heavier, but because of the Han army's battlefield supervision, they could never retreat. They could only charge and kill their way into the city with reddened eyes, again and again.

And under the assault army's frenzied attacks, the occupied zone they held inside the city grew larger and larger. Smoke and blood began to course through the entire city; all of Himeji Castle seemed shrouded in gray-black smoke, blurring like a city that did not belong to this world.

Yet in this hell on earth, there were some who, relying on their seasoned combat skills and iron will, had gradually adapted to life here.

Tōgō Shigekata was one of them. He led his small detachment as they prowled through the alleys and houses inside the city, searching for traces of the enemy and plunging into fierce combat at any moment.

Days of continuous slaughter had left his eyes threaded with bloodshot veins; the skin of his body was caked with grime; even his once-bright clothes were now in complete disarray, revealing wounds everywhere — some scabbed over, some still dripping blood. In the gloomy, choking smoke, he who had once been rather handsome now looked like some demon crawled up from the underworld.

But right now he had no leisure to worry about his personal appearance. He had just been through a bout of slaughter; in the acrid smoke, his mouth, nose, and throat all burned with discomfort, and his entire body ached dully from overexertion. He was exhausted; his eyelids were terribly heavy, as though they might slam shut at any moment.

He had suffered many wounds these past days, and most of his original subordinates had already fallen in battle inside the city. Many of the men now following behind him were scattered survivors he had gathered along the way — their own comrades had also mostly perished inside this citadel.

By now he could no longer remember anything about honors or riches; he had even gradually forgotten the fact that he was still alive. The only thought turning in his mind was to kill the enemy, kill the enemy, and take this city that had buried so many of his comrades and subordinates.

He had lost count of how many enemy lives he had taken. All he knew was that his sword now bore many notches from the previous bouts of fighting, and no longer bit so keenly when he hacked into an enemy's body. He now carried several swords on his person, some of them taken from the enemy's hands.

The unending slaughter had worn away most of their emotions and attention. Had fresh replacement troops not kept pouring in from outside the city, he would almost have thought that those outside had forgotten them entirely.

Fortunately, with these reinforcements flowing in endlessly, they had been able to push deeper into the city bit by bit. The fighting ability of these reinforcements was truly nothing to boast of, but they paved the road of advance into the city with their own flesh and blood. In any case, they had now taken the outer enclosure of the Western Bailey, and controlled a large area within the inner citadel.

Fires burned everywhere; visibility was very low, and he could not make out things in the distance. He and the soldiers behind him were all silent, trudging forward with a slight sway, as though they were a pack of walking corpses that had lost all consciousness. From time to time someone would fall to a distant musket shot or arrow, but no one paid them any mind. Everyone simply pressed forward along the narrow alleyway, as if the end of everything lay just ahead.

Yet this numb state ended the moment several blurred human figures emerged ahead. Tōgō Shigekata tightened his grip on his sword, then crouched slightly like a leopard, ready to launch a charge at any moment. Seeing his movement, the subordinates behind him also assumed combat stances one after another, waiting to charge forward with him.

In just a few short days of slaughter, they had transformed from the clueless, ignorant recruits they had been before into vigilant, seasoned veterans indifferent to life and death — a transformation bought at the price of countless men's blood.

Bowed low, Tōgō Shigekata slowly advanced along the alley toward the other side, gauging the distance between them while raising the sword in his hand. When he judged the moment right, he suddenly straightened up, let out a great roar, and charged at the enemy with his sword raised.

Though the alley was narrow and rugged, and filled with choking smoke, Tōgō Shigekata's entire attention was focused on the enemy before him, and his speed was heart-stoppingly fast. His subordinates, just like him, followed behind with wild howls, charging at breakneck speed.

He swiftly crossed the short distance and threw himself before the enemy troops. These enemies had clearly just been dispatched here as reinforcements from elsewhere; their clothes were still quite clean. When they saw the ferocious faces of Tōgō Shigekata and his men bursting out of the alley, they were so shocked they stood dumbfounded, barely managing to raise their weapons to meet the attack.

Yet it seemed they had never experienced battle before. In their nervous state, their movements were extremely clumsy; even the motion of swinging their swords was stiff and halting. Tōgō Shigekata did not waste such a fine opportunity. He closed in directly on one man who appeared to be a leader, raised his sword, and brought it down with a heavy chop.

The blade struck the man squarely on the shoulder, carving a massive wound from the shoulder down to the abdomen. With a soft splat, the enemy's blood suddenly gushed out, and he collapsed straight to the ground, twitching faintly.

The gray-black figures, the ferocious expressions, and the ghost-like assault nearly frightened this group out of their wits. A few men plucked up their courage and came forward to fight back, but they were immediately killed by Tōgō Shigekata and his subordinates. The rest seemed to have lost all nerve and fled for their lives back the way they had come.

Dongxiang Shigekata did not pursue. Leaning on his sword, he stood where he was, panting heavily, using this rare respite to recover his strength. Those people would die sooner or later — if not by his hand, then by someone else's.

Only, a flame seemed to burn in his belly, searing his sinews and bones, making him feel unbearably wretched. His already aching limbs grew terribly heavy, as if they might drop to the ground at any moment.

I really want… really want to eat a rice ball…

The thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

Too hungry.

When he had entered the city, he had brought some dry provisions, but over these past few days they had either been lost or already eaten. Though he had scavenged some food from the corpses of allied soldiers, it was never enough — he had gone nearly a full day without eating.

He lifted his head, widened his bloodshot eyes, and parted his swollen, parched lips slightly, as if to let out a breath.

And before him, the outline of Himeji Castle's great white main keep had already dimly emerged through the haze.