STW War Story Part III - Western Uprise

Chapter 4    Treachery

1535 Spring

The year came to 1535. With only 300 free soldiers left in Mino, the clan of Mori could not advance any further - temporarily. Our first priority was to train more soldiers, and maintain good relationship with neighbors. Diplomacy was the specialty of Mori Motonari. In history, he made lots of success by shifting between Ouchi and Amako. 

Mori Saigo Iezane (Rank 2) was still responsible for the defense of Omi - with 100 men only.

One peaceful year has past. The harvest was poor again, so the Mori clan had only 2400 Koku to spend for the following year.

Our emissary has successfully established with Hojo, Uesugi, and Imagawa. Not long after, he brought back another good news from Takeda Nobutora. Now Mori is allied with all other clans in Japan.

However, as the harvest was poor again, Mori Motonari decided not to wait any longer. This year we would not obtain too many reinforcement anyways. He marched almost the entire army of Mino to Owari, while Mori Saigo Iezane, the general also known as "daimyo's tail", will be responsible for Mino's defense - still with 100 men. Yes, Mori decided to break the alliance, and hopefully Imagawa Yoshimoto did not plan the same thing at the same time. In Sengoku, it is very common for clans to break alliance - even father and son kill each other often.

1536 Spring

 Owari: Mori (606) vs. Imagawa (408)

There are two bridges in Owari. As we approached the river, we saw only one Imagawa unit defending the left, while almost the entire army concentrated on the right. Yet, soon the enemy taisho started to share more power to the left.

Mori Motonari ordered all his yari samurai to the left, while all yari ashigaru to the right. Two groups (4 units) of archers on the left, and 1 group (2 units) of archers go right. The daimyo himself stayed on the left. So what did he have in mind?

The attack was led by the ashigarus on the right - by this time the enemy taisho has almost moved all units to the left as he observed our main power was on the left. Yet, now they were confused by our attack on the right, and soon a large portion enemy units turned around and rushed back. Our ashigaru were soon outnumbered and routed. To attract more enemies to come right, Motonari ordered another group of archers to get on the bridge, while their bowmen comrades kept shooting at the defense army that moved forward to the bridge. Although our men on the bridge were slain badly, the enemy also suffered great losses.

As the enemies were moving to the right, here came to the chance for a full charge on the left. Mori Motonari led the charge himself! The enemy taisho soon pulled back, but it was a little late.

Our army on the left soon crossed the bridge and repelled the enemy units who were numerically inferior. The Imagawa army pulled back their units on the right, preparing to cut our armies into half - our archers on the left were still struggling to cross the bridge, so Mori really didn't have enough men to defend at this very moment.

Just before some of our YS were about to waver and rout, our units on the right had crossed the bridge and assaulted the back of the enemy! Also, the enemy taisho has been caught and killed by Mori Motonari himself! The enemy were greatly shaken, and soon they turned back and retreated into the castle of Owari.

We successfully took the river province of Owari, by breaking the alliance with Imagawa. Now anyone can imagine how angry the young lord of Imagawa is...!

1536 Autumn

Owari: Mori (273) vs. Imagawa (88)

As Mori Motonari returned to Mino, Mori Saigo Iezane's new job has was decided -- to continue the siege in Owari. The Iyuyana castle of Owari lasted two seasons, and in the last (Autumn) Iezane launched an assault on the castle. After 4 years, finally it was Iezane's show time again!

Iezane has now been given four new units (his old comrades had been assigned to Saito in Nagato). Iezane now commands 2 YS, 1 YA, and 1 SA. It was a good composition for such an assault, taking place in a windy afternoon - hopefully the wind can make the enemies' arrows not as accurate.

So the soldiers rush in the gate! Yet Iezane had suddenly lost his sense of direction (not again!)!!! Being reminded by the archer leaders beside him, Iezane soon came back to reality and ran towards the real castle gate.

The absense of the army commander has added certain uncertainty to the gate assault team - especially the peasants. Finally these green peasants routed before the commander made it to the castle gate... Even by the time Iezane made it to the gate, his men were well-blocked by Mori's own men - although apparantly there are lots of space for them to go in.

However, with absolute numerical advantage, the Mori horde finally broke the castle gate defense - and now the angry yari samurais are going to butcher the annoying bowmens hidden at the back!

Although the enemy had 88 men, 23 of them were killed by their own comrades right behind -- much thanks to the wind! On the other hand, our archers killed 6 of our own men.

It was a shame that Iezane did not kill anybody again - his unit hid in the back until his comrade strived to break the enemy's gate defense. Much thanks to his poor sense of direction! (Hope he will become smarter after July 20th)

The harvest of 1536 was good! This brought Mori 5000 + koku to spend under the normal tax rate - hopefully the bad years were over from now on. An armoury was started in Mimasaka, and the construction of a large castle in Kii was started. A spear dojo was also started in Owari for its specialty - ashigaru.

1536 Winter

Mikawa: Mori (219) vs. Imagawa (40)

    Although Owari was conqurered without much trouble, Mori Motonari did not want to stop here. The defense of Imagawa's Mikawa was poor - and Iezane's new order was to assault Mikawa using whatever he had!

    The Imagawa army, numbered only 40, soon retreated wihtout resistance. This victory also brought Iezane to rank 3!

1537 Spring

So now Imagawa Yoshimoto is likely to attack Mikawa. It should be an easy defense - yet Mori Motonari had another plan. Instead of strenghthening the defense in Mikawa with our insufficient men, Iezane was ordered to assault the defenseless Totomi, and destroy as many Imagawa's troop training facilities as possible. Then if the imagawa attack Mikawa, Iezane can safely retreat to Owari via the seaport in Totomi. (The port in Owari was completed by Oda.)

The Imagwa army, the 40 men fled from Mikawa, had no choice but retreated into the castle. All but a tea house, an archery dojo, and the port was destroyed in Totomi. However, since Totomi men are especially good at archery, we might need to come back again...

1537 Summer

That's not the end of the tricks by Mori Motonari. As soon as Mori took Totomi out of a surprise, Motonari marched almost the entire army of Mino into Shinano! Motonari had guessed that Imagawa Yoshimoto would launch a big attack to either Mikawa or Totomi, thus the defense of Shinano will then be just weak enough for us to penetrate - and destroy another Imagawa's troop generating province.

Mori Motonari was correct - Lord Imagawa actually emptied the whole Shinano province to take back its homebase, Totomi. Outnumbered 427 vs. 708, Iezane was ordered to abandon the province and return to Mikawa. He then spent the season there, strengthening the order among previously Imagawa's peasants.

The harvest of 1537 was normal, adding another 4000 koku to our store house. The Armoury of Aki was started, and a spear dojo was bult in Shinano for the future cavalry option.

1537 Winter

We occupied Shinano easily - and now Imagawa Yoshimoto must be very frustrated. Yet this was not the end of the story! Imagawa Yoshimoto had moved most of his army to Suruga, perhaps for defending Takeda. As Totomi was not heavily garrisoned again, Mori soon launched another attack to Totomi. At the same time, the reinforcement of Imagawa has arrived from Suruga. The two armies encountered on the half-frozen field of Totomi.

Totomi: Mori (671) vs. 521 Imagawa (521)

The taisho of Imagawa was not Imagawa Yoshimoto himself - he has moved to Suruga. Facing an inexperienced general, Mori Motonari was pretty confident about the victory.

However, soon we spotted two enemy units moved into the forests at the corner - were they planning for an ambush? But it was too distant from the main battlefield.

As our archers moved closer and expected the archery duel - surprisingly we received no arrow. The enemy was entirely yari samurai and ashigaru! Knowing the weakness of the enemy, soon Mori Motonari ordered the archers to move forward and shoot at the enemies. The samurai of Imagawa started a full charge towards us, and the bloody combat began on the plain of Totomi.  Our right flank was not doing well - there was a mini hill and the enemy got it one second earlier - our ashigarus were about to rout!

Mori Motonari soon decided to rescue the right flank himself!

On the other hand, on the left Mori had an absolute advantage. The enemy taisho charged towards us, yet he was soon surrounded.

The enemy taisho has forsaken his honor! Our right flank almost collapsed, but the enemy was one step before us. Soon all of the enemy retreated in a hurry. 

But we still didn't see any movement in the forest...

The 2 units that hid in the forests were samurai archers! We really had no idea why they would stay here and watch their comrades to fight without their arrow coverage. Anyways, they were devoured by 500 of us. We reclaimed Totomi!

The year 1537 ended by our victory in Totomi. The past three years, Mori Motonari grabbed Owari, Mikawa, Totomi, and Shinano by his intelligence. Although Mori had only limited soldiers, we were able to seize Owari by a fake attack on the right wing, take Mikawa, Shinano, and Totomi by anticipating the moves of the enemy. Now the eastern Imagawa is only left with Suruga on the east!

The other parts of Japan stayed pretty much the same. Uesugi occupied Echizen, but obviously they lost a significant amount of soldiers in the battle against the monks of Kaga. Although our defense in Wakasa and Mino was minimal, Uesugi did not attack us - the chief of Kanto (just its title, not in reality) was indeed more honest than other clans, including Mori ourselves.