Chapter 139 The attack begins!
After many days, Shiba Kiyokawa started his war plan again.
The reason was simple, because just recently, more than half a month after he came back from Loulan, Yakushi Nono sent him his first reply letter -
The Kannabi Bridge has been found!
In addition, this walking priestess exceeded her mission: she helped him explore most of the map of the Grass Kingdom, thus helping him find the iron mine that he needed most!
After taking over the dragon vein of Loulan, it can be said that Shiba Kiyokawa has grasped the key to start industrial transformation!
The energy is already unlimited, so the only things he lacks are resources.
So he has to take both the mine and the bridge!
By the way, after seeing the photos of Kannabi Bridge sent back by Yakushi Nono, Shiba Kiyokawa finally understood why this bridge was so important.
It turned out to be a stone trestle built on a cliff in the mountain stream.
This also explains why, despite the high mobility of the ninja, the supply line still depends on this bridge.
If it was just a bridge built on the river, then even if the bridge was gone, the ninja could still walk on water to cross the river.
But the meaning of the trestle bridge over the mountain stream is completely different!
No matter how good a ninja is at climbing walls and running on rooftops, he cannot easily jump over a cliff tens or hundreds of meters high while carrying a load of baggage.
That's why this bridge is so important.
At the same time, precisely because it was hidden in the mountains, its presence had not been high before, and it remained unknown before the battle broke out.
No wonder Shiba Kiyokawa couldn't find it on the map before.
Fortunately, Yakushi Nono is worthy of his title as a legendary spy. Now on the map unfolded by Shiba Kiyokawa, all kinds of detailed terrain information have been completed and can be seen at a glance.
At this moment, pointing at the map in front of him, Shiba Kiyokawa's finger moved forward little by little.
“In the first phase, our goal is to capture the two mines in the south of the Grass Country, and at the same time, clear out all the Konoha ninja strongholds on the border between the Fire Country and the Grass Country, and establish our own supply lines.
In the second stage, we will advance northward and strive to reach the mountainous area on the map within half a month.
In the third stage, we will build a defense line in this mountainous area, set traps and fortifications along the mountain roads, and cut off all routes for Konoha to approach the bridge on the top of the mountain!
Then wait for the final decisive battle!"
Finally, Shiba Kiyokawa pointed his finger at the hill where the Kanmubi Bridge was located on the map, and finally, he slapped it down heavily with his palm!
This time, he will face the established destiny and history head-on!
Now, more than two months have passed since the news of the abdication of the Third Hokage of Konoha Village, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was announced. Shiba Kiyokawa believes that Namikaze Minato must be staring at this bridge at this moment!
To this day, Minato Namikaze has not returned to the village to take over the position of the Fourth Hokage.
Excluding physical reasons, sudden illness and other neurotic reasons, Shiba Kiyokawa could only think of one reason -
Minato is waiting for a victory!
Waiting for a decisive victory to rewrite the situation of the Ninja World War, help Konoha clear the haze, so that you can stand on that high position in the most dazzling and flawless manner!
From a selfish point of view, Shiba Kiyokawa has no ill feelings towards Namikaze Minato, but unfortunately, from the perspective of the overall situation, he cannot allow Konoha to recover like this!
The rise of the Rain Country will take time. During this period, Konoha, as the number one ninja village, and bordering the Fire Country ninja village, is best to remain weak!
Same time, different space.
In the command post on the northern front of Konoha, Minato Namikaze was also looking at the map.
Just as Shiba Kiyokawa guessed, the place he was looking at was the mountainous area where the Kanmubi Bridge was located!
The next moment Minato raised his head, turned his gaze from the map to the men in front of him, and asked.
"How far is our front line from the mountainous area in the north-central part of the Grass Country now?"
The ninja under him replied, "According to the map that was just updated today, the distance is still... more than 220 kilometers."
Namikaze Minato sighed.
This distance is very ambiguous.
With the mobility of ninjas, if he gave it his all now and only brought elite jonin, it would be enough to launch a powerful raid there within a day.
But correspondingly, if they launch a surprise attack from this distance, except for himself, the other accompanying ninjas will not be able to retreat, and there is a high probability that they will all be buried in the Land of Grass.
In that case, even if the Kannabi Bridge was destroyed, Konoha would still suffer serious damage!
Minato Namikaze was still unwilling to take such a risk.
"Let's try to push the front line forward a little further." At this time, a young ninja dressed as an Anbu, wearing a black vest but no mask, walked in and looked at Minato Namikaze with a slightly impatient expression.
"Minato-sama, how long do you plan to delay this?"
The ninja dressed as an Anbu who spoke was named Sarutobi Shinnosuke, the current captain-in-chief of Konoha's Anbu and also the eldest son of Sarutobi Hiruzen.
After Sarutobi Hiruzen embarrassingly announced his abdication more than two months ago, Nara Shikaku was forced to return to Konoha Village to help stabilize the chaotic situation in the village.
It was from that time that Sarutobi Shinnosuke succeeded Nara Shikaku and came to serve Namikaze Minato, becoming the new staff member on the northern front.
However, Sarutobi Shinnosuke's wisdom and scheming are far inferior to Nara Shikaku's.
Two months on, he is becoming more and more irritable.
"Minato-sama! It's been two months! How long are you going to wait?
The position of Hokage has been vacant for two months! Are you really not in a hurry at all? What exactly are you guarding against?"
Minato Namikaze was helpless and didn't understand why this guy wanted to improve so much.
This is even more anxious than him, the Hokage candidate himself.
“Shinnosuke, you’ve been working in the village for too long and you don’t know enough about the situation on the front line. We can’t be impatient now!
The situation here does not allow us to be so foolish as to gamble everything!
What's more, there has been no movement from the Rain Country so far, and we need more intelligence."
Unlike other people's opinions, Minato Namikaze has always attached great importance to and been wary of the Akatsuki organization in the Rain Country!
He still remembers how the young man named Shiba Kiyokawa defended against his Flying Thunder God perfectly.
He always had a vague feeling that the ambitious young man would not let Konoha go so easily!
But Sarutobi Shinnosuke seems to have a different opinion on this.
"The Land of Rain? What's so great about such a small country? Even Salamander Hanzo is gone, what can a few young men accomplish?
It has been several months since they declared war on us, and there has been no movement at all. I think they were just arguing for the sake of pleasure!"
As the captain-in-chief of the Anbu, Sarutobi Shinnosuke, like his father Sarutobi Hiruzen, has not left the village for quite a long time.
As a ninja from a large ninja village, he is extremely confident and arrogant!
Especially as an Anbu ninja, he also holds many intelligence channels, and at this moment he is even more disdainful.
"According to the latest intelligence, the Akatsuki leader named Shiba Kiyokawa went to the Wind Country Desert and brought back a princess from Loulan City.
Now the princess has moved into the capital of the Rain Kingdom with great fanfare, without any intention of hiding anything.
What is there to be wary of, a leader like this who still indulges in his own desires during war?"
Shiba Kiyokawa probably didn't expect that his move of bringing Sarah back to the Rain Country as a hostage would unexpectedly become a trick to confuse the enemy.
After all, very few ninjas have the vision and pattern to revitalize the real industry.
Not to mention that in this timeline, Konoha had no idea about the magic of the dragon veins.
Although Sarutobi Shinnosuke's suspicion contained some contempt, it was also in line with the ninja's consistent cognition.
Even Namikaze Minato, although frowning, could not guess the real purpose of Shiba Kiyokawa bringing Sarah back.
So at that moment, the entire front-line command post fell into collective silence due to Sarutobi Shinnosuke's questioning.
Many people began to waver.
Could it be that Lord Minato is really being too cautious?
Until the next moment, a ninja rushed into the room and reported loudly and anxiously.
"Minato-sama, it's bad! The Akatsuki organization is launching a massive attack!
Our first line of defense has just been breached! The average quality of their attacking ninjas is very strong! Not inferior to ours at all!! "
At that moment, Sarutobi Shinnosuke, who had just been talking for most of the day, felt like he was slapped hard in the face and stood there in a daze.
A second ago, he was still laughing at the recklessness of the Akatsuki organization and the lack of wisdom of Shiba Kiyokawa, and he argued at length that the Rain Country was nothing to be feared.
The next second, I heard the result: they called, and with unstoppable force!
"How is this possible? How is it possible that the average quality of ninjas from small countries is not weaker than ours?"
Sarutobi Shinnosuke still refused to believe it.
But he couldn't help but believe the facts!
The suffering in the north of Konoha has just begun!
(End of this chapter)
