4 Sei Returns and Gan Castle

There was a bloody battle happening inside the Royal Palace, Sei having revived an old alliance with the mountain tribes thanks to the help of Yo Tan Wa the female king of the mountain tribe people marched her army to the gates of the Qin capital.

Sei knows that his brother Kyou had only managed to raise an army of 80,000, to face off against Ryo's army of 200,000, who would soon be returning from the Wei border, because of this he needed the help of Yo Tan Wa. Sei knew he had to hurry, if Ryo managed to kill the royal family by making it look like all royal family members died in Kyou's coup attempt, he had a good chance of securing total control of the Qin armies and making himself the next king of Qin.

If Ryo returned after the battle was over and captured the capital, the border Generals would never submit to him after learning of his coup, Ryo needed to return, end the coup from Sei's brother, and then he could paint the picture of a loyal retainer who ended the conflict but was a step too late to save the royal family, leaving him as one of the highest ranking people, with few being able to blame him or find fault with him.

(Earlier)

Leading 3,000 soldiers, Yo Tan Wa marched to the capital gates and pledged her loyalty to Kyou. Once the gates were opened, they were soon escorted through the city and to the royal palace, passing many checkpoints and gates along the way.

At this point, Rinko who had received permission a few days earlier, returned and managed to sneak into the mix of marching troops, he updated Sei on his preparations, in a few minutes multiple fires would be started all over the city, and his people would spread disinformation throughout the city, causing riots and small mobs of people would start looting and encouraging others to join in.

Hopefully, the 80,000 troops stationed in the capital would be distracted by all the chaos and be slow to respond to the assault on the palace.

As they neared closer to the palace, only 50 of them were allowed to enter, eventually, the small group of 50 reached the Crimson turtle gate where they were asked to give up their weapons. Rinko taking a peek behind them could already see the sign of small smoke columns starting to rise all over the city. The chaos in the city seems to have started on time.

With no other choice and despite being outnumbered two to one, Sei led a charge against the Crimson turtle gate! Rinko couldn't allow Sei to die and kept close to him to keep him safe. It wasn't long before his sword was covered in blood and soon he was fighting multiple soldiers, the situation wasn't looking too good, if they spent too long here trying to break through the closed gate enemy reinforcements would surely arrive.

Thankfully Shin managed to climb the gate and open it from the other side, the small mountain tribe group quickly rushed in, running past a small mound of dead soldiers thanks to Shin's efforts clearing this side of the gate before he could open them. Thanks to the brave sacrifice of one mountain tribe warrior who stayed outside to delay the enemy, they managed to close the gate behind them! not having to worry about troops coming up behind them any time soon the group moved on.

It wasn't long before they ran into an ambush from Shi! a loyal retainer of the Kyou faction (Sei brothers faction). While Shin and a few others ran on ahead Sei with the remaining mountain tribe soldiers held their ground to stop any troops from coming to the aid of Kyou.

(present)

Rinko was battling two soldiers off at once in order to keep them from attacking Sei in the back, as more and more mountain tribe members died the pressure on him kept increasing, his body was already covered in wounds! he managed to kill both his opponents but soon three more took their place. It was at this moment that Shi seeing that Rinko was busy took the opportunity to attack Sei! thankfully Chang Wen-Jun showed his old skills as a powerful spear fighter and managed to hold off a mounted Shi! the old spear fighter used to be a fierce fighter who once earned the respect of Ou ki, the old man Chang managed to survive that time when Legendary hero's battled across the land. Despite being past his prime he was slowly cornering a mounted Shi.

As the duel raged on, the battle was quickly becoming more and more desperate! it was at this moment that Rinko got to witness Yo Tan Wa's prowess in battle and watched as she fought against ten enemies at once! as he fought one opponent after another he noticed the wailing of a young man! IT WAS KYOU! who was hiding near Shi! it was at this moment that General Ou Ki and his personal army showed up! Rinko was glad to see him, he knew that soon Ou Ki would switch sides and join the Sei faction, and sure enough, his personal troops quickly joined their side!

Thanks to Ou Ki troops the battle was quickly brought to an end to the battle. Rinko knowing that Sei was safe couldn't stop himself from falling as his vision grew dark and he struggled to not pass out! He wasn't sure if the blood he was covered in was his or his opponent's. He managed to make it to a healer but couldn't hold out any longer and passed out.

(One week later)

Due to blood loss and trauma from the various wounds on his body, Rinko was in a coma that lasted a week. As he slowly regained consciousness he slowly became aware of his wife (Xia Na) wiping his forehead with a wet rag. His wife started weeping after she discovered that he had woken up, relieved that he hadn't died.

After spending a couple of days being nursed by his wife, and having learned from his wife that her uncle had already been buried, he was summoned to the palace, and as promised Chang Wen-Jun kept his word and had him promoted from a 300-man commander directly to a 1,000 man commander. Sei even rewarded him by raising his social rank and bestowing upon him a small fortune that even made him a bit surprised, the gift was more than all his income for the next couple of years combined.

Unfortunately, Sei took this opportunity to order him to stop all his illegal activities, as he was now a 1,000-man commander in his faction. Rinko couldn't refuse him and vowed to end all "his" illegal activities, but he never promised that his wife would also stop all her illegal activities.

Sei pleased with himself, ended their meeting by gifting him a better home closer to the palace and then left to deal with other important matters.

Riding in a brand new carriage to his new home, he sent quickly sent word to his family to meet him there. He then started to think about his current situation, now a 1,000-man commander but he now couldn't live his life in a shady way anymore, thankfully his wife was already handling most of the illegal businesses and he could leave it to her, he now needed to maintain an upright and noble image to the public and king.

Sei only ordered him to stop his illegal activities, he could still invest in becoming a merchant and open a few restaurants, using some of his wealth he managed to secure himself a decent amount of land to grow food on. For now, he could use it to help supply his restaurants and in the future, as he expands it he can trade off the excess.

Knowing that soon The Keiyou Campaign into Wei would start, he hoped to gain some merits and request from Sei some more land to farm. If he performed well, he already knew that Chang Wen Jun was a man of his word, and he would likely promote him to a 5,000-man commander.

He didn't really have much of a need for Ten at the moment and after seeing how the young girl looked at Shin, it was obvious that she had developed a crush on him and would likely soon be leaving with him. Rinko didn't mind, she needed to follow Shin in order for her to become a great strategist in the future. Shin also needed her around or he would end up dying early on! Rinko felt a bit bad for Shin, thanks to being corrupted by his wife, Ten was sure to cause a headache to the young Shin.

(a couple of months later)

Rinko was currently watching his men train and practice their formations, he had been pushing the soldiers hard recently, knowing that any day now the Wei campaign would start. He had started training the Go's to work together on a larger scale.

Instead of working in just 5 men Go's, led by a squad leader who listens to the commands of their 100-man commander, he instead added an additional step, he grouped five Go's (squad) together and under command of a 25-man commander who would command the 5 squad leaders under him. These five squads would move together at all times and would practice supporting each other on a larger scale.

They practiced working together with other 25-man commanders and would practice swapping the front line with fresh troops in the rear, once the 25-man commander felt their troops were tired or suffered too many losses he would signal a 25-man commander sitting in reserve behind him to switch out, the troops in front would then rotate to the back and be in reserve, get tended to and rest and recover. There they would also form random new Go's and then into larger 25-man groups.

To practice this, Rinko would observe the soldiers practice and would suddenly give the order to the army to form new Go's, all current squad leaders and commanders would sit down and be considered dead, and the troops would now need to quickly form new Go's as quickly as possible and decide on a new temporary 25 man commander, the last group to form new groups would be punished in front of the rest of the troops, having to do extra training and punished to watch the others enjoy dinner without being able to eat, any shit odd job needed to be done around the camp would also be delegated to these troops.

Soon it wasn't long before he was once again assigned to the border with Wei, and over the last few weeks there he spent the time having his 1,000 troops practice. Sei must have pulled some strings as all the men were well equipped and had seen combat before. Thanks to Sei defeating his brother before Ryo returned he now had a better relationship with the border generals and was able to transfer troops around, the capital now had troops more loyal to him securing the place.

Finally, the time had come and he received orders to move out and head to a forward supply base. Rinko was horrified once he heard the name of the supply base! it was Gan Castle! he was ordered to reinforce the newly promoted General KokuGou often called the star-eyed black dragon. KokuGou was known for being very aggressive and preferred to attack than defend.

There must have been a mistake from the higher-ups, why would they assign KokuGou in a defensive role guarding an important supply base? to make matters worse, Rinko remembered that the newly promoted General would end up losing Gan Castle and his life.

(a few weeks later)

Rinko and his 1,000 men have just arrived outside Gan Castle, his army had arrived outside the closed castle gates, and yet so far, no one has shouted down to verify their identity, Rinko also failed to spot anyone on top of the walls! it wasn't until after he started shouting that he heard a surprised voice from the top of the wall.

After telling the gate guards who they were, they immediately shrugged and opened the gates, Rinko was a bit shocked, they opened the gate far too easily! what if they were Wei troops! they didn't even try to verify his identity. As his 1,000 troops marched into the castle, he observed all civilians still loitering around, he saw many women and children, Gan castle was now a supply base, and a prime target for the Wei armies, having civilians wandering in and out was asking for spies to slip in, it was better to have these people relocated.

All these people were just extra mouths to feed and it would be better if most of them were pulled back from the front and away from the battle. They could keep a few men or able-bodied ones to help with physical labor but the bulk of them weren't needed here.

Rinko quickly made his way to the command center and introduced himself to the commanding general. Rinko could easily see that KokuGou was in a bad mood and was enjoying a drink, and was a bit tipsy. After he reported for duty, the general talked a bit about the castle and the situation and then sent him on his way so that he could get back to enjoying his drink.

Rinko knowing that everyone in Gan castle was destined to die, went about checking out the condition of the castle, the walls were high and sturdy but the patrolling soldiers were far too relaxed, and almost all were neglecting their duties! Gan castle was an important supply base for the 4th army that would be arriving in a week.

KokuGou wasn't taking the defense of Gan Castle seriously enough and Rinko decided to head back to the command center and see if he could get his men assigned to guard duty, and see if he would be allowed to start preparing the castle in case of an enemy attack. The General mostly brushed him off and tried to ignore him but eventually allowed him to do what he wanted.

Rinko then assigned 400 troops to guard duty, another 400 were ordered to rest early and would be assigned to guarding the walls at night. He sent out about 50 men in all four directions to scout out the area, if the enemy attacked he wanted to be warned as soon as possible and instructed the men to carry a week's worth of rations with them. The rest of the men started collecting large rocks to throw down from the castle walls. They collected sand and any pots so they could heat the sand up, once scolding hot sand was dumped at the enemy it would slip inside the enemy's armor burning them.

He met with local blacksmiths and ordered the construction of multiple large pots to boil water in, they would be able to pour boiling water and sand down upon the enemy if they tried to use ladders to climb the castle walls.

Gan castle had a garrison of 1,000 troops at all times, there were currently 5,000 troops who came with KokuGou and his 1,000 men, in total Gan castle was guarded by 7,000 troops. Rinko thinking about the strength of Gan castle knew that the bulk of the 4th army's supplies was being stored here, in less than a week now, around 20,000-30,000 troops of the 4th army would be arriving here.

(two days later)

Rinko was walking around the top of the castle walls, it was a good night and he could see far away from the castle thanks to the strong moonlight, suddenly he saw a soldier running towards the castle!

He made his way towards the top of the gate and waited, eventually the man arrived and started shouting, thankfully his men were now assigned to the castle walls and gates and they didn't open the gates until they verified the identity of the man and received the secret code word.

The news the man brought was shocking, around 20,000 troops were less than a day away! Gan castle only had 7,000 troops! they were almost outnumbered 3 to 1! He quickly informed the General of the situation and also sent out messengers to the 4th army requesting reinforcements. Soon the castle was full of movement and riders were sent out to verify the position of the enemy army.

It was around noon the next day when the Wei army arrived, Rinko expected them to attack right away, instead, they set up camps on all sides of Gan castle. Rinko watched as Wei troops rested and fed their troops, he even spotted a few constructing ladders that they would use to assault the castle walls. He figured that if they attacked this day, it would either be late in the evening or at night.

The attack came suddenly and intensely late in the day! it lasted a few hours before it started becoming dark and the Wei forces reluctantly pulled back to their camps. KokuGou who had been eager for a fight had joined the battle early on and now his body was already covered in wounds, despite this, he was in a great mood, and seeing how the enemy was beaten and retreating he was eager to launch a night attack to raid them.

Rinko and the two other 1,000-man commanders tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted, especially when the rest of his 1,000-man commanders were just as eager as him. With no one being able to stop the General about half the troops prepared to raid the enemy camps. Half of the troops would remain and protect Gan castle while the rest all left one gate and raided the enemy camp.

Luckily Rinko was assigned to guard Gan castle. He watched as the troops left the castle to raid the enemy camp. From atop the wall he watched as KokuGou led the attack, from the looks of it, Wei wasn't expecting them to attack and the battle seemed to be going well, eventually, the Wei forces reacted to the attack and started shifting around forces to reinforce their camp.

Rinko could only watch as the General's troops slowly started getting attacked from three sides! any moment now he expected to see the Qin forces start a retreat. Instead, if he wasn't mistaken it almost looked as if they instead made a push towards the enemy command tents. Eventually, the attack stalled and then they slowly got pressured from all sides! it wasn't long after that the troops started to flee from the battle.

Rinko watched as the survivors fled back towards the castle, by the time they arrived only around 400 men had survived! Rinko left the castle wall and went down to meet them, he was expecting to see the General but was soon shocked to learn that the General and his commanders had yet to arrive! the last any of the survivors had seen of the General was when he was engaging in a dual with the enemy General.

Gan castle now only had two 1,000-man commanders left to take command as none of the commanders who left returned. Rinko quickly called the other 1,000-man commander and all lower-ranking commanders to a meeting, where they decided that both commanders would take command of two of the four sections of the city walls.

After the meeting, Rinko set up his headquarters on the point where the two walls he was assigned to guard connected together. He had a little over 1,100 troops under his command, he put 200 in reserve in the castle down below, they would be used as a reserve to help fill any section of the wall that was struggling.

It wasn't long before Wei once again decided to attack, throughout the night both sides fought, thankfully thanks to the dark, the enemy attacks were less organized and their arrows less accurate.

Throughout the night Wei attacked Gan castle, thanks to the brave efforts of the troops they managed to hold out until morning. Rinko once again found himself covered in his own blood, a eager commander on enemies side had been eager to claim his head, and launched an attack upon his headquarters, thankfully Rinko managed to defeat him but he was wounded multiple times.

As the rays of the morning sunrise reached him he was able to get a good view of the state of the castle, his two sections of walls were about spent, from the looks of it less than 300 troops were left alive to defend both walls he was in charge of! From the looks of it, the other two walls on the opposite sides were also about spent and couldn't hold out much longer.

Wei was slowly gaining sections of Gan castle walls. Rinko had long used up his reserve and now had nothing left to send at them to take those areas back, now that it was the day the Wei assault was more organized and his troops were tired having spent all night fighting, reluctantly he ordered a retreat, he sent word to the 1,000 man commander on the other side of the castle to inform him of his retreat and suggest that they gather at the north gate, the survivors would attempt to flee out of Gan Castle from that side.

Rinko and the rest of his survivors had finally fought their way to the north gate, the Wei troops were now all over Gan castle having broken through at multiple spots atop the walls, and any moment they would be overrun here! Rinko seeing the survivors didn't spot the other 1,000-man commander and soon learned that he had fallen, having decided to hold the wall until the very end.

Around 200 survivors were left and holding the north gate. Rinko could hear the Wei soldiers butchering any civilian that they came across in gan castle. He now often heard the wailing of some poor woman being assaulted, Rinko was just about to order the gate to be opened and charge out when he suddenly heard war drums! he quickly made his way to the top of the castle gate, he was forced to kill a couple of enemies as he made his way to the top, they barely held control of this section but soon it would be lost.

Reaching the top of the wall above the gate he was shocked to see Qin cavalry charging toward the castle with infantry right behind them. Suddenly the survivors cheered as reinforcements finally arrived.

Rinko started organizing the men and attempted to hold the gate, if they could hold it, then their reinforcements could charge into the city. With a bit of luck, the bulk of the Wei troops was busy looting the castle and raping any unlucky woman that they came upon, if the troops outside could get in, then they had a chance of retaking Gan castle.

Rinko seeing that the cavalry had finally arrived outside the castle gates having charged through the enemy troops on that side, Rinko quickly ordered for the gate to be opened allowing their reinforcements to charge in.

Rinko seeing Qin troops charging into the castle, leaned against the castle wall and slumped down, he and the 30 other survivors were exhausted having fought all night, so few were left after keeping the gate secure.

Wei now outnumbered still had a chance to win the battle, the bulk of the Qin forces was still outside the castle. If they managed to launch an attack on the gate with the bulk of their forces and managed to close it! then they would secure a victory for themselves. Wei attempted to rally their dispersed troops but too many were in chaos after looting and raping, they had little organization left.

Rinko was determined that their part in the battle was over, he grouped the survivors together alongside him and they watched as the battle in the castle raged on. Eventually, the Qin forces gained a foothold in the castle. Wei seeing that they had lost, ordered their troops to retreat.

Rinko being the highest-ranking commander amongst the survivors was expected to provide a report about the battle. Arriving at the command center, he made his report and after he was done he left and climbed inside his commander's tent, his body now covered in bandages, he lay his tired body on a thin blanket and despite laying down on the hard ground he still managed to fall asleep quickly.

Before he fell asleep he couldn't help thinking about how Sei would view this battle, Wei had managed to breach the castle, and before they retreated they managed to sabotage a good portion of the 4th army's supplies, wiped out the defense force guarding Gan castle and killed their General. Rinko managed to hold Gan castle but it didn't feel like a win despite the praises he had received from the troops, but he was too tired to dwell on it now and quickly went to sleep.