STW War Story Part III - Western Uprise
Chapter 14 Net
1549 Summer
The former Uesugi horde was now left with Mutzu, Hitachi, Shimozuke (where the 13,000 is), Shimosa, and Kasuza. It shouldn't be a big problem for Mori to prevail in Shimozuke, but the enemy might ended up in Shimosa, which will become a big trouble. Yet Mori did not have enough extra army to take Shimosa first. Musashi has been attacked for 7 seasons in a row, and the chance is the horde will keep coming back. The Kozuke army had only 4 units of Samurai Archers, and were not very good for the defense of a bridge province like Mosashi. For the same reason, the half-archer Musashi army of Iezane might not be very effective to attack Shimosa.
So the responsibility finally came to Mori Motonari himself - invade from Dewa - Mutsu - Hitachi - then finally Shimosa. The defense of Echigo will be moved to Mutsu, and later Hitachi. The province of Mutsu, Hitachi, Kozuke, Musashi, and Shimosa will form a net to surround the horde - and finally destroy it in one shot, on this flat province of Shimozuke.
Well the hordes really like to repeat the mistakes. They assaulted Kozuke and Musashi again!
Kozuke (2D) : Ronin (870) vs. Mori (821)
The second defense of Kozuke - the horde only brought 870 men. Facing the famous general Kikkawa Motoharu, the horde had little chance to win, even though they picked a foggy day...
The army of Kikkawa had be long waiting when the enemy Taisho bumped into the arrow of rains. Without any hesitation, Kikkawa Motoharu ordered a full attack - get the enemy taisho!
It was too late when the enemy taisho tried to stop his men from marching forward. The Mori emerged from three direction, totally surrounded them!
Another great victory by Kikkawa Motoharu. Looks like Kozuke will soon become the second wall of steel. No wonder people call Kikkawa Motoharu the most furious general in the west countries (a R4 general with his own H5 monk when he came out).
Musashi (D8): Ronin (11709) vs. Mori (836)
The eighth defense of Musashi - still much the same. The enemy taisho came across - himself forming a unit.
Not long after, he perished with his single-man unit, under our arrows. His corpse was lying with his bell banner - which fell down in a few seconds because nobody was holding it.
However, the enemy taisho brought down one men before he died. The only kill made by the largest-ever invasion of Musashi. The rest of his army retreated in a hurry - 12000 men left the battlefield in a rush..!
1549 Autumn
The defense of Mutzu was weak enough for Mori Motonari to occupy it without any resistance. As planned, now general Saito Toshimasa is assigned to the defense of Mutsu, and Motonari himself attack Hitachi.
Kozuke (D3): Ronin (1195) vs. Mori (948)
The hordes are back again - the 3rd Kozuke defense took place. This time the horde tried to rush to the right flank, but their trick was soon discovered by Kikkawa Motoharu. The left wing of Mori wrapped up swiftly under the aid of cavalry - and the enemy was totally flanked!
Another big disaster for the hrodes - the Mori cavalry performed an excellent job chasing down the enemy!
Musashi (D9): Ronin (9562) vs. Mori (995)
The 9th defense in a row - surely the hordes' size was reduced over these seasons. This time Iezane took a more aggressive appraoch as it was raining, making our arrows not very effective. Iezane ordered a total charge as long as all enemy archers came onto the bridge.
Losing only 7 men, Mori Saigo Iezane kept the name of Musashi the wall of steel. The 9th victory!
1549 Winter
The harvest of 1549 was again a steady normal. With around 4000 army still, Mori had just enough men to form the net around Shimozuke. With the surrender of Hitachi, Mori Motonari now advanced into Shimozuke. The defense of Mutzu was now taken by Mori Takamoto, the first son of Mori Motonari. Hitachi was defended by Saito Toshimasa.
This time the horde tried something new. They switched the attack of Kozuke to Hitachi. The 2000 ronin soldiers surely post a larger threat on the flat land of Hitachi.
Musashi (D10): Ronin (8303) vs. Mori (948)
The 10th defense of Musashi now. Same arrangement of archers - the enemy had no way to advance. Their efforts of depleting our arrows were fruitless.
Iezane ordered another charge soon. The stream of Mori soldiers flooded the plain of Musashi. The hordes again ran back to Shimozuke!
The enemy archers fired some arrows when they were packed on the bridge -- causing a slightly larger deaths of Mori. But this by no means affect the invincibility of Mori Saigo Iezane in Musashi.
Hitachi: Ronin (1870) vs. Mori (832)
A day of heavy fog in Hitachi. The weather has caused more trouble to Mori's archers, for they will have trouble aiming at the enemy until they were really close. Also, there was no way to know if the enemy has hidden units in the forest - if they do, then the reinforcement will surely arrive before the first wave all routed and Mori will have a hard time.
Just when Saito Toshimasa thought the large horde had been all routed, on the back 2 groups of enemy archers survived the morale brake. Our own archers had been shut for a few minutes without knowing where the arrows come from. The monks that Saito dispatched to rescue also suffered great losses...
Leaving half of the army near the battlefield exit to watch for the enemy reinforcement, two groups of archers and monks were called back. The original monk unit had been rallied - and assaulted the back of the enemy while they were busying in an archery duel with us. Finally the two survived enemy archer units were eliminated.
With the completion of the net, Mori Motonari ordered a total assault on Shimozuke, while a small number of army from Shimosa was sent to Kansuza for the easy job.
The final battle of Shimozuke involves all famous generals of Mori:
Rank 6 (Daimyo) Mori Motonari, from Shimosa
Rank 5 (Musashi Taisho) Mori Saigo Iezane
Rank 4 (Hitachi Taisho) Saito Toshimasa
Rank 4 (Kozuke Taisho) Kikkawa Motoharu
Rank 3 (Heir) Mori Takamoto, from Mutsu
Rank 3 (Heir) Mori Yoshinari, from Mutsu
The total number Mori reached 2000!
