Meanwhile, because the daimyo's and shogunate's suppression forces had to defend the cities where the nobility lived in concentrated numbers, they found it difficult to effectively reach the countryside. As a result, their sphere of rule was gradually squeezed back into the cities.
The cities of the major nations became the last strongholds of the daimyo and nobles, while the surrounding areas gradually fell into the hands of the Resistance Army, forming one relatively independent liberated zone after another.
The people within the liberated zones began governing themselves, freeing themselves from the oppression of feudal lords. The once chaotic and impoverished rural regions became orderly and well-organized under the Resistance Army's rule.
Though the suppression forces dispatched by the shogunate were powerful, they began to struggle when faced with a Resistance Army ten times their number.
The Resistance Army no longer relied solely on cold weapons and ninjutsu for its equipment. They combined firearms and rudimentary artillery with the "Way of Great Peace" cultivation method taught by Ying Yue.
Some talented ordinary people gradually mastered simple sage arts or thunder arts and other attack methods through cultivating the Way of Great Peace, greatly enhancing the Resistance Army's combat strength.
Though the Resistance Army still could not match well-trained ninja in individual strength, it held an overwhelming numerical advantage.
Especially when facing elite jonin, the Resistance Army often employed concentrated firepower suppression, even combining it with sage arts to place immense pressure on those jonin.
The Resistance Army's morale was high and its will to fight unwavering. As liberated zones continued expanding throughout the Ninja World, the people's thinking was awakened as well.
The ninja clans, noble bureaucrats, and lords were losing their control over the people by the day, while the liberated zones formed a positive cycle of independent production