STW War Story II - Imagawa's Struggle

Chapter 7    Crush of the Sky

    With the gain of Kinki (near the capital) area, we, the Imagawa clan confronted Mori of Chukoku (central countries). Carrying the color of sky, we will show them the action of lightning, and the crush of thunder.

    Planning to face Mori Motonari himself, Lord Imagawa Yoshimoto marched his troop into Inaba. On the other side of the mountain range, Harima was handled by the heir, Imagawa Ujizene. The 3000 horde of Imagawa now rush into Chokoku.

1539 Summer

Inaba: Crush the Already Fragmented

We had a numerical advantage of 759 : 660 on the lowland of Inaba.

Anticipating enemy hiding in the forest, we surrounded the trees with archers and yari samurais. Once the enemy made moves and appeared on our visual, we started the attack. Two groups of yari samurai (5 units in total), forming a 90 degree angle, steadily marched into the forest. Our yari ashigarus, another 3 units, waiting at the other end for the sudden charge of back attack.

Soon the enemy was expelled out of the forest in a panic run. Mori's cavalry tried to flank us, but were stopped completely by our most left-hand flank of YS that had been waiting for a long time.

Another group of enemy was waiting on the top of the hill on the left, without joining the battle apparantly. Bearing the dishonorable name of cowards, they could not escape the fate of being surrounded and crushed into pieces.

The enemy tried several rally on their escape, but were all eventually broken by our high-honor YS (now leading by the rank 6 daimyo). Now seems the battle has been won easily - yet where is their taisho?

The enemy Taisho had acually sneaked to our back - or from the beginning they were hiding in the forests and dared not to come out. We would not let them survive - our archers killed half of this ashigaru general's men, while the horde of thunder returned and mopped it up.

The incompetent taisho was killed, and only few of his men were able to escape.

The enemy did not act as a group - some of them in the forests, some of them (YC!) charging into our YS, some of them hesitated to charge down from a well-hidden position, some of them did not show up until the end. We crushed each group of them with ease. However, we did not see their daimyo. Mori Motonoari.  Actually he had gone south, protecting the province of Harima.

Harima: Motonari's First and Last Show

    Obviously, the clan of Mori was even more conservative than Shimazu - did not expand, did not have a good horde. There were only 491 of them in Harima, led by Mori Motonari himself. The battle was a rank 3 vs. rank 3 again, the second good challege left to the new heir Imagawa Ujizene - leading 600 men.

    Being short of number, Mori camped his units on the small hill. As usual, we will surround it with archers and spears.

    Our archers pushed forward, and the 5 groups of our yari samurai closed up, each aiming for one enemy unit. We confronted the main body of the enemy finally just beneath the slope, yet the enemy lost the match due to the flanking of our right-ashigaru and left-YS. One group of Ashigaru even charged towards Mori Motonari's heavy cavalry - where the daimyo got stuck and started to lose badly.

As we prevailed down the slope, the daimyo also started to run for his life!

Another instant victory, Mori Motonari tasted the crush from the sky. He soon retreated into the castle of Harima with roughly half of the remaining army. It was a pity that the rescue did not come - also because we didn't give them the chance.

1539 Autumn

Attacking non-stop, the army of thunder now strike Awaji and Mimasaka. If the soldiers of Mimasaka rushed to rescue their daimyo, then we will take Mimasaka easily.

The enemy failed to protect their lord, nor did they attempted to save Mimasaka! The enemy army retreated into the castle, waiting for their death.

The harvest of 1939 was normal under the Imagawa-constantly-low tax rate. Even so, we again had 9000 koku to spend! The upgrades in dojos in the east are mostly done now - more armoury, more swordsmith! Also, a Fortress was started in Totomi. The four troop production provinces of Owari, Mino, Totomi and Shinano are well teched-up.

1539 Winter

With free Mimasaka from Mori, now we can take Bizen without any enemy reinforcement back into Harima. Imagawa Ujizene, now a rank 4, was responsible for this easy mission - 817 : 120!

A small nuisance: our emissary was killed by an enemy Ninja - maybe Mori, maybe Shimazu. They came from the port of Inaba. Seems we need to strengthen our shinobi defense in Sagami and Totomi as well!

Yet the weather was extremely poor - soldiers trembled the snow storm - must be fast. We had a hard time finding the enemy - although extremely outnumbered by the horde of Imagawa. Fortunately, soon we found the enemy taisho alone stood in the snow. The enemy had a greater moving speed, and finally lured our peasants in a downslope and faced his charge. Yet the horde still won - being a 6 to 1 raio.

The second enemy group was found with not too much effort as well. Surounded from 3 directions, the enemy made its last effort to charge downhill, and perished in the horde.

An easy victory - the 3rd one aginst Mori, also the last one. Mori was destroyed in two seasons, 2 decisive battles in summer. The Imagawa army delivered the crush from the sky.

Now Mori is gone - Chukoku is left in pieces for us to collect. The time of facing the final foe has come. General Nagai Ujisada had reported that Shimazu gathered around 3000 army in Iyo, probably planning an attack to Sanuki or Tosa, the latter defended by the fine general of Chosokabe Motochika (rank 5). Or, does the horde like the taste of bridge fight more?

The crush of the sky shattered Mori. The new year of 1540s started with only two major clans left on Japan. We will take not only the northern Kiushy back from Shimazu!