STW War Story Part III - Western Uprise
Chapter 12 The Wall of Steel
The winter of 1547 has come. Faced with the huge Uesugi army, Mori could only prevail if they attack fast enough -- destroy as many troop generating enemy province as they could. However, Mori only had 4000 men left after the intense battles these days. Much of their hope were put on Mori Saigo Iezane in Musashi -- if he could hold the river province of Musashi, then probably the northern army led by Mori Motonari himself could advance into Uesugi's back through the Noto-Sado-Dewa sea route. The river province of Echugo is surely hard to penetrate.
The Uesugi clan had collected a HUGE number of troops in Shimozuke - maybed numbered more than 10000! They also continued the battle plan of Hojo. Another huge horde has advanced into Musashi. In addition, Shinano was attacked from Kozuke.
At the same time, the Rank 4 Mori general Saito Toshimasa advanced into the rather flat-land province Etchu.
Etchu: Mori (789) vs. Uesugi (737)
Saito Toshimasa waited for quite a few days, but all the soldiers could see was snow after snow. Finally, they were forced to fight in a snow shower.
As expected, soon the Mori soldiers encountered the vast archer hordes of Uesugi -- always a pain to Mori as their army were largly monks who were very fragile against the arrows from above. Saito Toshimasa ordered his men to charge -- and again the skirmish-mode enemy archers fell back. When they move they cannot shoot arrows!
Well they cannot fall back forever. Finally, the enemy taisho failed to halt his men - they retreated out of the battlefield! However, our left flank were faced with an extraordinarily large number of archers in the woods. Saito Toshimasa only sent one monk group to handle the situation as only one groups of archers was visible - now this monk group was totally destroyed.
Saito soon pulled back other units to join the battle in the woods, but they all wavered as well! - quite a mysterious demoralization but thats' the truth! Now 2/3 of the Mori army were wavering in the strange forest that only contained 2 or 3 groups of enemy archers!! The possible reason is that the later comers were affected by the 1st wavering monk unit, then they also passed down the anxiety to the later comers.
However, the peasants now have finished their job of chasing the routed enemy. They also joined the fight in the forest! And finally the enemy routed before the Mori did!
The peasants saved the day! General Saito was still unclear why his men all of a sudden wavered together... and the peasants were not affected!
p.s. Also a bold possible excuse with the rout bug. When these men were ordered to pull back from chasing and rescue the forest on the left, they were also moving away from the (fleeing) enemy - so by the time they arrive at the forest they were already greatly demoralized by the STW system. On the other hand, the peasants were not affected because they had chased the enemy to the map exit, so on their way they did not suffer the morale penalty. If it was purely bcz the wavering spreading through the soldiers, the peasants should also be affected yet they were not.
The victory of Etchu was especially expensive for Mori - this now further cuts down the total army of Mori to about 3800. Luckily the enemy had now much concentrated in Shimozuke, which is not adjacent to Etchu. It might be a good news for the north...
Shinano: Uesugi (1018) vs. Mori (900)
This was the first battle in Shinano since Mori Motonari stole this province from Imagawa 10 years ago. Shinano was defended by the first son and heir of Mori Motonari, Mori Takamoto. With a well-balanced army and a height advantage, the battle should be an easy one. Takamoto ordered a full charge down when Mori's own archers had 1/2 of the arrow supply left. Hopefully this will be just enough to rout the enemy. However, suddenly the 14 out of 16 units of the enemy, the archer horde started to shoot at Takamoto's monks!
As expected, the Uesugi army learned an important lesson. Their general was also killed in action!
Under the wise command of Mori Takamoto, 666 men of Uesugi were dead. The ashigaru and warrior monks made an excellent job chasing down the enemies in the snow!
Musashi (D2): Uesugi (4126) vs. Mori (995)
Learning from the past experience, the defense army of Musashi could be consisted of even more archers to ensure the constant supply of arrows. Iezane now had half of his army composed of Totomi archers, and others a mix of monks and yari samurai. Iezane had ordered some YC supplies from Shinano, yet Lord Mori demanded the horse even worse.
The 8 units of archers were evenly distributed on the both sides. Following the tactics used in the last battle against Hojo Ujiyasu, only one archer was firing at the time utnill the enemy launched a major attack.
The enemy general was brave enough to charge across the bridge, and soon got killed by our monks. However, the death of the inexperienced general did not cause a shock to the enemy. The enemy archers remained in position on the other side of the river. As a result, Iezane ordered the monks to come back to the original position.
Finally it came to the time - the enemy archers were all on the bridge! Another full charge of the monks!
The second defense of Musashi ended with a overwhelming victory. Losing only 11, Iezane stopped the horde of Uesugi!
1548 Spring
Musashi (D3): Uesugi (6142) vs. Mori (1044)
The horde of Uesugi soon came back the next season - this time with 6000 men! The same combination of Mori troops were deployed on the battle field. The archers obeyed the order of their general, and successfully routed the enemy ashigaru and archers group after group, until all the enemy archers came on the bridge --- the monk rush began!!!
The third defense of Musashi was even a greater success - only 8 men of Mori were lost, and half of them were friendly kills!
1548 Summer
Musashi (D4): Uesugi (6289) vs. Mori (893)
Well, the horde came back again the next season, this time with even a larger number -- yet they post no threat against Iezane.
This time, only 5 were dead, only 2 a result from the enemy! The fourth successful defense of the province has earned Musashi the name of the "Steel Wall". The horde of Uesugi, although growing in numbers season after season, had absolutely no hope to advance to the other side of the bridge alive...
1548 Autumn
Almost one year later, finally Mori has regained its strength in the north - the army of Etchu and Kaga were ready again for the assults! Saito Toshimasa was assigned to invade Echigo, now probably not very heavily guarded as most enemies were in Shimozuke. The daimyo Mori Motonari will follow his plan to take the seaway of Noto-Sado-Dewa. The total number of Mori soldiers has recovered to about 4500, facing the at least 10000 of Uesugi (increasing in a rate of maybe 500 ~ 1000 per season).
Noto: Mori (701) vs. Uesugi (694)
The defense commander of Noto was a quite famous R2 general called Inoue Kiyomasa. His large archery army sits on the very flat hill of Noto. Mori Motonari spread his army into two, attacking from both sides.
The rain of arrows did bring a high casaulty to Mori (as always), but their advantage were lost once engaged in hand-to-hand.
Finally, the enemy general turned around! A typical victory against the archer-majority horde.
Looks like Lord Mori's plan is successful. With the fall of Noto, Uesugi really had little defense through the seaway. Their army were all concentrated in Shimozuke, and some (talking about thousands still) in Kozuke. Lord Mori would not give away this good chance to occupy steal provinces from Uesugi!
Echigo: Mori (848) vs. Uesugi (1061)
Knowing the Mori army has advanced into the heart of Uesugi - Echigo, lord Uesugi soon sent reinforcement into Echigo. Now general Saito had the same trouble as Iezane before... how can he prevail given the enemy does not have so many reinforcement this time?
In an attempt to deplete the enemy's arrows, a group of peasants were first sent to the other side of the bridge. The Uesugi surely had an archer-majority horde waiting, and they even decided to move a group of archers forward to waste our archer's arrows!
Cannot wait any longer - Saito Toshimasa now ordered a full charge to the other side! Soon the enemy archers in the loose formation were broken up - and the monks advanced into the enemy formations!
However, things were far worse than expected. Uesugi's numerous archers soon formered a circle, surrounded all of the mori soldiers at the center. Shooting thousands of arrows at the same time, the mori soldiers fell down in an astonishing rate! They rout! General Saito immediately ordered a full withdraw! Run for your life!!!
Fortunately the Uesugi soldiers did not chase after. The Mori army was rallied on the other side of the bridge, with only about half of its original size. Now the situaion becomes much worse.. general Saito decided to wait a while first, till the men had recovered their strength.
Hey.. The pround Uesugi archers now even moved very close to the bridge, seems laughing at Mori!
Well that might be a good thing -- as they could easily shoot at our men even if we were "close" to the bridge -- why not asking the peasants to do some great sacrifice for their clan? Soon, each of the ashigaru were ordered to move forward in loose formation, just enough to be shot by the countless Uesugi archers...! They soon became uncertain about the strange order -- but the rest of Mori's army were just at the back, "supporting their morale" with weapons pointing at their head from behind! The poor peasants were forced to absorb the arrows of Uesugi!
The two reinforcement ashigaru appeared, two more arrow-sponge...
The Uesugi archers' thousands of arrows eventually ran out! Without the arrows, the Uesugi army became much weaker. The mori men had recovered their morale as well - so general Saito ordered the second total charge, this time led by the furious monks, though only numbered 80!
General Saito also charged onto the bridge himself - and the archers alsoo joined after their own arrows depleted! With the entire Mori army fighting with the furious monks, finally the Uesugi horde broke down -- they fled! The monks held the front for a good few hours!!
The battle was magically won. With the honorable yet miserable sacrifice from the peasants, Mori took the river province of Echigo in their first attempt!
Musashi (D5) : Uesugi (7816) vs. Mori (921)
Just the same time as the intense battles took place in Noto and Echigo, the fifth defense of Musashi was also showing in Musashi. This time... it was unbelivable. The enemy Taisho ordered a complete retreat of its 7800 men, after seeing the Mori army, led by its famous army general Mori Saigo Iezane, did not lose any!
What a shame to the Uesugi army - more than 7000 men, none of them dared to knock on the steel wall of Mori. This is possibly the only perfect defense of Mori's war history...!!! The 5 defenses of Musashi was done with only 46 deaths of Mori!
The harvest of 1548 was again a normal under the noraml tax rate. The steady income enables Mori to replenish their army in a rate of 5 units (300 men) / season, roughly the same rate of their losses on the north. However, with the wall of steel in Musashi, the Mori soldiers had successfully broken into the northern lands of Uesugi!
