STW War Story Part III - Western Uprise

Chapter 15    Disband

1550 Spring

The last battle of Mori has come - the elites of the entire Mori army, led by their great leaders, are all heading for Shimozuke!

However, the hordes also made their last try to survive -- they emptied Shimozuke again to attack Kozuke, Musashi, and Hitachi at the same time! Therefore, Mori Saigo Iezane, Kikkawa Motoharu, and Saito Toshimasa were forced to return to their original province for the defense. The last one it should be!

Kozuke (D4): Ronin (2049) vs. Mori (838)

    The fourth defense of Kozuke - this time the ronin horde tried the left. Therefore, the right wing of Mori came forward and flanked... the ronins had no chance to hold the ground!

    Killing another 500, Kikkawa Motoharu is indeed the "killer general" of Mori army!

Musashi (D11): Ronin (5474) vs. Mori (838)

    The last defense of Musashi, the enemy number had much reduced because the split in Kozuke and Hitachi.

    Iezane followed the same method, again killed the enemy taisho, 11 out of 11.

    The last victory of Mori in Musashi. In the successful 11 defenses in a row, Iezane faced the hordes numbered from 5500 to 11700, took the life of 3056 from the enemy, losing 215. Averagely losing only 20 per battle, and a large portion of them were friendly kills.

Kazusa: Mori (284) vs. Ronin (120)

    The attack of Kazuasa was led by a new general Kurushima Kageie. He joined the Mori army only a few seasons ago, and because of his faith to budda, he was appointed the commander for Kazusa assault. With almost 2.5 times of men of the enemy, soon Mori surrounded the forest and started the massacre.

    The battle was intense, but finally the enemy collapsed by their inferior numbers. Most of them fought till the last moment - which was truly honorable.

Hitachi: Ronin (1613) vs. Mori (750)

    The last hope of the horde came to Hitachi - probably the easiest to attack among their five choices. Saito Toshimasa arranged the archers in a long line, covered by yari samurai from behind. When the enemy apprached, he ordered the yari samurai to charge down.

    The enemy was smarter - now they concentrated all strength on the right. Saito soon ordered the left flank to move forward. Can they make it before the right flank was outnumbered?

    Finally, the Mori yari samurai and the ashigaru on the right routed before the enemy! Our right flank collapsed under enemies' arrows, but the Mori archers who were told to hold their position at all cost had resisted to flee with their comrades and keep shooting at the enemies that advanced uphill!

    Just before the enemy yari samurai were about to broke into our samurai arhcers,  they also routed -- and the once-routed right flank of Mori had regained their confidence seeing the bravery of their comrade archers. Now they returned and charge down!

    The turning was probably because Mori's furious warrior monks had broken into the back of the enemy, drawing attention and arrow fires. Without the arrow coverage, the enemy soon lost their numerical superiority (in terms of arrows).

    The left flank was moving slowly as the heavy armour of yari samuri  as well as the long-line formation of archers blocking at front. But the right flank themselves were enough to break into the panic hordes. The monks started the massacre!

    With truly honorable warrior monks, the final victory of Mori was achieved. 

    Shimozuke was taken without any resistance. The ronin disbanded on the battlefield of Kozuke, Hitachi, and Musashi. The generals of Mori now celebrates their victory!

    After this 20 years plus 1 month of struggle, Mori Motonari united the whole Japan. The final troop count of Mori was around 4300 - defeated the 15000 of Uesugi. Japan was united with no fortress completed. The Mori clan used to live in poverty and had no will of building luxurious castles.

    Mori Motonari wisely used his tricks in diplomacy. By allying with the east clans, Mori were able to concentrate their power on the south, exterminating the potential threats in Ise, Yamashiro, Shigoku, Kyushu.  However, it is up to individuals to judge whether the constand alliance-breaking of Mori was truly honorable.

    Mori Saigo Iezane was of course the most respected taisho besides the daimyo himself. Here comes the statistics:

Red color: counts averaged in each real battle (recorded as log files).

Orange color: counts for all battles (recorded as log files)

Honor: The honor of the general himself when the campaign finishes.

General's Kill: The number of enemy that was killed by the general himself.

Kill Total: The total kill of enemy in the battles.

Loss Total: The total loss of the Mori army in the battles.

Kill / Loss ratio: computed as (Kill Total) / (Loss Total). The higher the number, the more effective the general is. However, this does not mean this general really kills more or lose less. Also, some generals only fought a few battles, which makes the numbers not so accurate (same reason when we rank baseball pitchers' EA).

Mori Motonari surely is the bravest man. Averagely he took 6.6 heads from the enemy in each battle! That was truly amazing for a daimyo. 

Brining back the heads of 5 different enemy daimyos, Mori Saigo Iezane was actually the general who fought the most battles in Mori family (24), 2 more than Mori Motonari (22). His army also killed the more  enemy than any other general.  And of course, the 11 "Steel-wall" defenses of Musashi (a kill ratio of 16.3) had made Mori Saigo Iezane much more efficient thant Mori Motonari. 

Kikkawa Motoharu, with all his five victories in Kozuke, had an excellent kill ratio of 5.20 - and a very high kill in average as well. The same is true for the older son of Mori Motonari, Mori Takamoto. His two defenses in Shinao and Kai gave him the highest average kill.

The worst general appeared to be Saito Toshimasa. But he was unlucky enough to be assigned to all kinds of tough situation, including the struggle in Hitachi's flat land and the assault of Echigo. 

Of course, we still remember Miyoshi Hideyasu, who was promoted to rank 1, 2, and 3 almost the same time as Iezane, yet he was assassinated in Suruga, 1542...

The land of Japan was again united. Mori Motonari soon announced his retirement and enjoyed his hermit life possibly in a temple of Aki. The three sons of Mori Motonari (Mori Takamoto, Kikkawa Harumoto, and the youngest one Kobayakawa Takakage) managed the country well.

On the other hand, Mori Saigo Iezane had no taste for political power. He also retired as the no. 1 taisho of Mori, returning to his hometown of Hoki with honor and memory. He lived an old age of 79, and passed away peacefully in a quiet morning thirty years later.

So that's the end of the Mori's war story. Hope you have enjoyed it ! :)