Attack and Defense

Autumn, 1016.

Led by the Abe clan's army, the forces advanced simultaneously along thirteen routes. Every small group of Barbarian People they encountered was beheaded, with not a single survivor spared.

Seven days later, the army surrounded Mount Onanjiyama.

"Chief, bad news! The Emperor's army is here! They've surrounded the entire mountain and are ready to march up at any moment!"

Mount Onanjiyama was the stronghold of the biggest bandit chief in central Japan. Together with the leader of the Barbarian People, he had built defensive fortifications there.

"Hahaha! Perfect timing! Now I can test the strength of the new god I've invoked!"

The barbarian chief's face lit up with excitement.

The barbarian chief had been different from ordinary people since childhood: he could see ghosts and gods! Those beings were hideously frightening, though, and enjoyed killing his parents and family.

More importantly, he could invite some of those beings to possess him. Though the price was the lives of his blood relatives, that power had helped him become chief.

And now, he still had a daughter...

"Everyone, get to the tops of the blockhouses! Attack the Emperor's army with me!"

At the bandit chief's shout, a vast, dark mass of people surged out of the mountain stronghold, numbering several thousand.

All the trees around the summit of Mount Onanjiyama had been felled and turned into sturdy wooden blockhouses. To guard against incendiary oil, they even drenched the blockhouses with water every day.

Mount Onanjiyama's slopes were also extremely steep. Though it was not as tall as Mount Fuji, Japan's highest mountain, the many smaller peaks around it formed a distinctive mountain range, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Not to mention all the hot water, rolling logs, and enormous boulders they had prepared.

For a group of simple-minded Barbarian People born with short arms and legs, building such fortifications so quickly was already quite an accomplishment.

Fortunately, someone had secretly delivered iron weapons back then. Otherwise, they would have had to fight with stone axes and wooden clubs.

"Commander, our men have completely surrounded this place. The Abe clan's army has moved on to other locations, and two other clans remain here with us to encircle Mount Onanjiyama. We'll wipe them out this time."

A Shandao warrior clad in heavy armor spoke respectfully to the commander, who sat astride a horse barely a meter tall.

"I see. Then let's attack them outright. There are only a few thousand men on that mountain, while we have a full twelve thousand. It'll be no harder than beating dogs."

With the Shandao clan attacking from the front and the Yemenjia and Togawa clans attacking from the flank and rear respectively, all three armies advanced at once.

With remarkable agreement, all three commanders hid behind their armies, directing these so-called Japanese warriors into battle while grandly claiming they were staying back to cheer them on.

They soon passed through the dense forest at the foot of the mountain. Just as they were wondering why the bandits and Barbarian People had not set an ambush there, they looked up and saw the blockhouses on the mountain.

"Quick, quick! Pour water on them! Keep pouring! Watch out for their oil-soaked fire arrows!"

The bandit chief kept ordering the people inside the stronghold to pour water over the defenses. The clan armies below saw this too, of course, and immediately unleashed volley after volley of flaming arrows.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! The arrows filling the sky quickly terrified the people inside the stronghold so badly that they forgot to keep pouring water.

Only after the chief and bandit leader repeatedly cursed them did they snap out of it. "You idiots! You didn't water them this morning? Are you trying to get me killed by doing it now, right before battle?"

They poured water quickly, but the arrows came even faster. Soon, fierce flames were blazing at the stronghold's entrance.

Just as the fire was about to reach the blockhouses, the barbarian chief suddenly shuddered. With a gentle wave of his hand, the flames before him were pressed down like blades of grass bent beneath a weight.

"It's the Deity Invocation Technique! The chief has summoned a god from Takamagahara! We're sure to win this time!" The dim-witted savages howled incessantly.

In a corner of the stronghold, a girl of only five or six lay in the arms of another girl, seven or eight, who gently stroked her head.

"Be good, little sister. Be good. Once this battle is over, Daddy will bring you something to eat."

The little girl was the tribal chief's daughter and his only remaining relative. The slightly older girl was a child abducted from below the mountain, waiting to grow a little older before she could be made to serve the bandits.

By a twist of fate, these two unfortunate girls had met. From then on, they hid together in this corner, where someone occasionally brought them food.

The tribal chief did not want his daughter to die, after all. She was his trump card.

Though he was the tribal chief, his intelligence was clearly no better developed than anyone else's. Despite having a trump card, he had used it during the very first wave of attacks.

"The chief has invited a god to possess him! This time, we'll slaughter them!"

Soon, the Barbarian People actually opened the stronghold's gates from inside and charged downhill, wildly waving their weapons. The bandits could only stare in bewilderment.

"For the chief! Kill them!"

Seeing that the fire was doing little to them, Shandao Taizhang immediately ordered his men to charge, though he had no idea why the flaming arrows had been suppressed.

But as the Shandao clan's bravest warrior, he could not allow himself to retreat-or at least, he could not be the first to retreat.

"Charge with me and claim the greatest merit! The clan lord will reward you when we return! Even if you die, your souls will ascend to Takamagahara, where you'll become immortals, free to do as you please!"

"Kill!" Brainwashed since childhood, the clan soldiers erupted with excitement at those words and charged forward on their short little legs.

Soon, the two sides clashed. If Sukuna had been there, he could have staged a battle of the dwarfs.

Groups of dwarfs barely 1.3 meters tall swung weapons nearly two meters long in wild, utterly disorderly slashes.

The Barbarian People who had charged out were soon slaughtered by the disciplined regular troops, and the bandits shut the stronghold's gates again.

"Chief, what do you think you're doing? Opening the stronghold's gates without permission-are you trying to get us all killed?"

The bandit chief shouted angrily, but the barbarian chief before him ignored him completely. He rushed forward and grabbed the chief by his collar.

His head instantly fell to the ground. The chief had cut it off with a single stroke.

Now even the bandits dared not act rashly. They stared fearfully at the man who had killed their leader.

"All of you, attack!"

The rolling boulders and huge logs the bandits had prepared soon came into play.

The troops charging at the front were quickly pinned down. In an instant, corpses littered the battlefield, and the wails of countless wounded men rose into the sky.

"Commander, the enemy has too many defensive weapons! Should we retreat for now?"

A deputy commander hurried over, hoping to pull the clan army back first.

"It's fine. As long as we keep them occupied at the front, they'll be finished once a unit charges up from the flank or rear."

The deputy commander gritted his teeth and rushed forward again, directing the men onward.

Fortunately, they were attacking a steep mountainside. Had this been a proper siege against city walls, several times as many men might have died. Though the trees on the mountain had been felled, many stumps remained in the ground.

Whenever the bandits and Barbarian People paused, the soldiers charged uphill from below the stumps. Whenever the defenders rolled logs down, they hid behind them, reducing their casualties considerably.

Though the attack from the flank had also been held up, men secretly made their way up the undefended rear.

"Commander Watanabe is such a schemer! Looks like the greatest credit this time will be ours! Hahaha!"

As the Watanabe clan's soldiers sneaked up the mountain, they slaughtered almost all the wounded at the rear. They also killed women and children-these were all valuable trophies they could exchange for military merit.

"Boohoo... Big sister, I'm scared. There are so many people shouting outside."

The little girl huddled in the older girl's arms, whimpering. Her tear-filled eyes looked utterly pitiful.

"It's all right. Everything will be all right. Your father will drive them all away."

With that, she stroked the little girl's head. For some reason, the child had suddenly begun weakening earlier, her face turning deathly pale as though she were sick.

While she was comforting the little girl, the door was suddenly kicked open.

Without time to look back, she gave the little girl a shove. "Little sister, run!"

Then she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around a Watanabe soldier's leg, hoping to buy the little girl a little time.

"Boohoo... Big sister, no... Big sister!"

Yet the little girl rubbed her eyes and stumbled toward the soldier.

The next moment, a streak of red flashed past, and the little girl's head was severed with a single slash.

"You..."

Before the girl clinging to the soldier's leg could finish speaking, a blade plunged through her back into her heart. No miracle happened this time, because this was not an anime about saving little girls.

Whoomph!

For some reason, the flames the chief had been suppressing suddenly surged again. Soon, the entire blockhouse was ablaze.

Just as the defenders fell into panic, more battle cries rose behind them.

"Ahhh!!!! Who killed my daughter? How did my daughter die?!"

The barbarian chief cried out helplessly. Even his walnut-sized brain understood that all was lost.

Yet he could not accept it. He could not believe that someone had killed his daughter, and the god possessing him had suddenly dissipated as well.

"Everyone, charge with me! We must kill this barbarian chief here and avenge our fallen brothers!"

Seeing the flames flare up again, Shandao Taizhang was overjoyed and immediately ordered his men to charge. Terrified of the blaze, the Barbarian People actually crouched on the ground and began sobbing.

They even dropped their weapons. No matter how the chief shouted, it was useless.

"It's over. This time, it's truly over!"

The chief cast a resentful glance at the bandits and Barbarian People fleeing in every direction. With his last shred of pride, he leaped into the sea of flames and burned himself to death.

Without their leader, the disorganized rabble scattered like loose sand and were soon slaughtered to the last man. Even the prisoners had their throats slit.

"A great victory!"

The allied clan armies suffered over a thousand casualties. All four thousand bandits and Barbarian People were slaughtered, with not a single survivor.