Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 196 - 135: Building a City Overnight is Not Impossible!

Chapter 196: Chapter 135: Building a City Overnight is Not Impossible!

Stone Bodhisattva made it back to the barracks without a hitch, and saw the four-man team of Pot, Bowl, Pan, and Ladle just returning from training, each busy with their own stuff, waiting for dinner.

Guotai Lang saw him coming back so soon and asked curiously, "How come you’re back so early? Didn’t they blow the return whistle yet?"

Stone Bodhisattva grinned sheepishly and answered bluntly, "Came back to eat."

"Saving money is a good thing." Guotai Lang totally got it. When he had leave before, he hadn’t splurged either, had to save up for a piece of land to settle down one day, so he quickly agreed, "Coming back early’s not bad, too. Saves you from coming back late and getting stuck hauling the crap cart."

But Wan Ci Lang wasn’t the saving type. He chimed in from the side while doing laundry, "Good, my ass. You finally get a chance to go out and have fun, pinching pennies now is pointless."

He’d had a proper binge last time he went out. The army only made sure you were full, but taste-wise, everything tasted like pig slop. He splurged on two good meals with all the fixings, and even got himself a good jug of wine to relax — finally felt decent for once. But any more and he wouldn’t have dared. If he got drunk and didn’t make it back in time, he’d get stuck cleaning out the crap pit and hauling that wretched cart, the shittiest job in camp.

After saying his piece, he turned to Stone Bodhisattva, concerned, "So, what’d you get up to today? See anything interesting?"

Pot, Pan, and Ladle also looked over, all eager to hear if anything fun had happened, just in case they wanted to try it out on their own next leave.

Stone Bodhisattva didn’t keep anything from them—he told in honest detail what he’d done all day, which stunned the Pot, Bowl, Pan, and Ladle gang for a while. They’d pretty much forgotten about that Achi and her daughter.

After a long silence, Pan Silang gave a scornful, cold sneer, mouthing something clearly calling Stone Bodhisattva an idiot, and Piao Sanlang said in disbelief, "You spent half the day working your ass off and came back after a single bowl of noodles?"

Stone Bodhisattva chuckled, "Yep!"

Wan Ci Lang mulled it over, then suddenly slapped his thigh hard, full of regret, grabbed Stone Bodhisattva’s shoulders and shook him hard, moaning, "Why didn’t you say so earlier? Heck, I could’ve gone to do the work too. I built houses back in the day, and was damn good at it! So where does that widow live? I’ll look her up next time I get leave!"

Guotai Lang kicked him right in the ass, cursing, "Get the hell out, you perv! You wanna die, go ahead!" Then he turned to Stone Bodhisattva and reminded him seriously, "Why’d you help her out? Don’t go stirring up trouble — White Stick isn’t someone you want pissed at you."

He meant well. If Stone Bodhisattva screwed up while on leave, it wouldn’t affect him, nothing to do with him at all. But after living, eating, and suffering together so long—their group of five, fighting and getting punished side by side, even charging together into battle—of course, there was some camaraderie there. He definitely didn’t want to see Stone Bodhisattva’s head posted on public display one day.

Stone Bodhisattva wasn’t overthinking it. He answered honestly, "She reminds me a bit of my mom."

Pot, Bowl, Pan, and Ladle all paused. "Like your mom?"

Stone Bodhisattva smiled again. "Yeah, a lot like her. If you swapped Achi for a boy, it’d be just like before, my mom with me. I just wanted to help her out, so she could have a better life."

The four looked at each other. They all remembered that Stone Bodhisattva’s mother had died of illness and starvation early on. Then thinking about it, they themselves were loners too, with family either dead or lost, so they immediately looked somber too.

After a moment, Wan Ci Lang spoke up first, sighing, "Forget what I just said, consider it me talking crap. Got any dirty laundry? I’ll just wash it now while I’m at it."

Pan Silang immediately went to Stone Bodhisattva’s locker, yanked out a couple shirts, and sneakily bundled his own dirty clothes in with them before tossing the whole pile to Wan Ci Lang. Wan Ci Lang picked out the extra clothes and threw them on the floor, swearing, "Get lost, damn you, you think I’m stupid? You wash your own!"

The two of them started bickering, while Piao Sanlang just sighed quietly on the side. He was from Minoh, got caught and sold to Owari, then on to Wanjin, and now he was thinking about how his mother was doing back home, drifting off for a while. Guotai Lang patted Stone Bodhisattva on the shoulder and sighed, "Bodhisattva, take care of yourself, alright!"

He was the oldest of the five, about twenty-eight or twenty-nine, had seen a lot more, and believed Stone Bodhisattva, unlike Wan Ci Lang, had no dirty motives, wasn’t up to anything shady — probably just trying to relive a childhood wish, or felt sorry for the mother and daughter. That widow, though, might not be a good person. But such things aren’t easy to talk someone out of, so he could only leave it at that.

Hope nothing bad happens!

......

Harano hadn’t expected that trying to boost the economy a bit and help some new immigrants earn a little extra for the New Year would lead to his men skipping out on feasting and going straight into civilians’ homes. At the moment, he was still in his office, puzzling over where he’d set up his future territory, frowning at the report Ah Man had just handed in. Finally, he sighed, "Not a single place is good? Are you sure you checked everywhere properly?"

"Of course I checked properly!" Ah Man didn’t like having her competence questioned, grumbling, "You want some crazy special place—there just isn’t one like that in all of Chita County! What am I supposed to do, conjure it out of thin air? I’ve done my best. There just isn’t one!"

Harano sighed again, not too bothered by Ah Man’s annoyance. He wanted a spot close to the ocean, where you could build a dock and a shipyard, but also with mudflats for a salt factory nearby, plus at least two rivers, a forest for resources, fertile land suitable for mass farming, easy to defend, and ideally only facing the enemy on a single front. Yeah, bit of a tall order—if they couldn’t find that, he couldn’t really blame her either.

The truth was, he’d been greedy, wanting to sort everything in one move and lay the perfect foundation for the future. Reality was reality; if there was no magic land, he’d just have to narrow the criteria and pick the best spot possible.

As for the east side of the Chita Peninsula, that was out. Even if there was a small plain and several rivers for good farming, it was too close to the Shimabara Peninsula. Engyu Bay, Shiwan—there were all sorts of little bays and at least sixty islands out there, crawling with lawless islanders, soon to be the backbone of Shimabara’s navy. If he moved to the east of the peninsula, he’d never control the sea, probably couldn’t even move supplies safely.

At the very least, he’d be plagued by constant raids from water thieves, and it would be a huge pain.

So only consider the west side. The intel Ah Man gathered over half a year showed the southern tip was all mountains, lousy coastline, the tip sticking up with nothing but cliffs. No way to build a port, and there were rocks everywhere, not to mention getting in and out would be tough.

Harano took Ah Man’s notes, checked them against the map spot by spot, and still couldn’t find a suitable site even at the root of the Chita Peninsula. He had to keep lowering the bar and go back over everything, until finally, out of options, his finger landed on the south-central part of the Chita Peninsula. With a deep sigh, he said, "Guess it’ll have to be here."

Ah Man peered at the map, looked over her own "Chita County Details," flipped through it, and wondered aloud, "But there’s no town here, hardly any woods, and just the one river."

"But it’s easy to defend." Harano pointed at the map. "There’s a little bay here, perfect spot for a harbor. We’ll have no issues staying connected with Wanjin. There’s a little hill to the north. Build a fortress there, and we can hold the whole north easily. South’s got a river and a little hill, too. Build defenses by the river and another fort on the hill, and it’ll stop enemies from crossing no problem. South side sorted, too."

Overall, it’s basically a single front. Makes defense a lot less stressful."

He paused, then nudged his finger east. "East’s gonna be trickier, of course, but we can build a wall and fortress here, connect north and south, with the sea at our backs. We can keep the enemy out and wear them down for a long while."

"But that’s barely any land. We can’t do much with it."

"No way to have everything perfect at once—it’s the best we’ve got. Everywhere else is worse. At least the soil’s decent, there are large tidal flats we can use, and it’s defensible." Harano finished, then mused, "The Imagawa family won’t want a long slugfest. Once they realize they can’t get rid of us, they’ll try to box us in with a Rock Fortress. That’s when we make our move—push back, force them to build their fortress farther away, and maybe even get the neighbors on both wings to shift out. That should win us some space. Once we have it, we’ll build our own Rock Fortress, and for now, that space should be enough to farm and survive. In the future..."

In the future, after the Battle of Okehazama, when the Imagawa family crumbles, as long as he seizes the moment, expansion will be a breeze. All the local big shots on the Chita Peninsula will get kicked out, and he’ll build a defensive line at the root, turning the whole peninsula into his back yard.

But those plans weren’t suitable to say out loud—for now, he’d have to play it by ear anyway. Besides, he couldn’t remember exactly when Okehazama was. Ah Man, for her part, wasn’t thinking that far ahead. She stared at the map, her bushy brows pressed down, and asked, "But there’s nothing there right now. We have to build all that stuff from scratch—can we finish in time? The local bigwigs aren’t a big deal, we just have to chase them off. But if the Imagawa family comes fast, and the fortress isn’t ready, what then?"

The ideal plan would be to just grab some existing spot. If some local boss had already snagged a defensible place and set up a fort, Harano could sneak-attack him, kick him out, patch up the walls, and start the standoff with the Imagawa family—safest and easiest. But now, with no such position, they’d have to build their own defensive line. That really was a headache...

Harano hadn’t expected that such a big Chita Peninsula wouldn’t even have a single fortress by the sea. They’d have to build everything from scratch. After pausing to think, he finally said, "It’s tough, but this is our future on the line. We’ve got to give it a shot!"

He paused, eyes growing firm, and said softly, "We’ve come this far already. Let’s give it everything we’ve got. Building a fortress in one night isn’t impossible!"

Ah Man already trusted him in big decisions. Seeing his mind was made up, she quickly nodded, "Yes, Lord!"

Harano would handle the planning, and she would organize and supervise. If anyone dared slack off or mess things up, she’d skin them alive herself—couldn’t let down her title as a Family Elder of the Nozawa family!