Chapter 6  Shimazu

After the dishonorable retreat of his general in Nagato, Lord Shimazu has himself come to the province of Buzen, standing against Oda Nobuhide on the other side of the straight.

Given that we had already a full 16-troop army, we did not hesitate to challenge lord Shimazu Takahisa. We encounter each other in the field of Buzen, on a sunny summer day. The battle has the largest head count in Oda clan war history so far, 839 (Oda) : 791 (Shimazu).

1539 Summer

The Massacre

Due to the nice weather we could see Shimazu army sitting on the left. Of coruse we will not charge the forest hill. The high grounds extend well to the right, and thats where we will climb up without resistance.

Lord Shimazu finally realized our plan and rotated his formation left 90 degrees. Now the armies are in roughly equal height, and our massive archers starts raining arrows on the enemy, who dares march towards us. Marching the three Yari Samurai ahead to handle enemy's attack, lord Oda ordred a massaive assualt of our numerous ashigarus, flanking every single enemy unit they could.

Soon Shimazu Takahisa's ashigarus begin to rout. One by one, finally all of them. The massacre began. As the routing path is right at the center of the two armies, our soldiers had a great time charging the routing enemy running towards them.

Lord Shimazu escaped by hiding in the back from the beginning of the battle. His men left hopelessly slain, with a lost of 623, nearly 80% of the casaulty. One of our Yari Ashigaru units skillfully took 246 heads from the enemy, writing a new record in our Ashigaru war history (but strangly they gain no honor).

Lord Shimazu retreated into Moji castle of Buzen, which falls after two seasons.  His sons were still immature, leaving the whole Shimazu clan collapse in this decisive single battle - the only one he ever fought.

The harvest of 1939 was poor, yet we managed to build another port in Owari for the approaching Portuguese. The first monk unit finally arrived at the front of Buzen. Looking forward to see how they perform.

Now Kiushu (the island of "9 states") is left with only the northern Imagawa provinces. Needless to say they will be our clan's next target. Here goes our legendary daimyo Nobuhide!