STW War Story IV : Revolution - Ronins Take Over

Chapter 4    Outnumber

The legendary commander of Tosa, Chosokabe Motochika (R5) was matured in Satsuma in spring 1532 (as a recruit leftover from Shimazu). However, it would took him quite a while to move to the front line... in the meantime, the two main generals of the rebel force: Ichijo Uchimasa (now R4) and Shima Tadoya (R2) will be responsible for all military actions.

The third harvest since the revolution started was normal. However, the store house ended up with only 3943 koku because of the large upkeep of an army size nearly reached 5000.  Since the revolution began, the rebel was joint by the previous Oda, Shimazu, Imagawa, Mori, and Takeda army. The corrupted daimyos and landlords had much upset their peasants and samurai, so the localized revolution could turn into a national authority overthrown in such a short period.

With the defeat of Hojo Ujisuna in Musashi and Shimosa, now the only clan that could barely stands in front of the "rebel" force is Uesugi.

The rebel army directly chellenged Uesugi in Mutsu and Echigo. With its number and monks, the rebel force will at least take one from Uesugi before the bulk reinforcement from the southeast.

Lord Uesugi decided to defend Echigo - this leaves Mutsu with insufficient army.

Winter 1532

Mutsu: Rebel (R2, 995) vs.  Uesugi (R0, 629)

The rebel general responsible for this action was the commander of Shigoku - Shima Tadayo, who killed Shimazu Takahisa 2 years ago. Now he just arrived the eastern front via the port in Hizen. On the contrary, with the absence of their daimyo, the Uesugi army was commanded by an inexperienced general. 

All but 60 of the Uesugi army were samurai archers - spread widely on the distant mountain. This was actually a pretty clever defense as the rebel force will suffer very great losses while trying to climb up, and there is really no alternative to access this wide mountain range.

With the cavalry of Takeda, general Shima had more choices than directly climbing up. The enemy archers are probably very strong on the center, but not as good when approached from the sides. Althought there is no monks in the army, general Shima substituted the mass numbers of yari ashigaru to be the right flank, and the Takeda cavarly to be the left flank. When the two flanks started to attack, and the enemy had to distract their arrows, the center yari samurai marched up under the coverage of rebel's own archers.

The enemy archers did not back off, but were told to hold their positions. This indeed posted more threats to the rebel army as the rain of arrows never stopped from above. As the center and right were having a hard time, the cavalry on the left flank made a complete success. On the right the rebel ashigaru was fighting hard aginst the enemy yari samurai. The rebel forces are surely depending on their numbers.

Finally, as the left flank destroyed the archers all the way to the center, the enemy collapsed at once. The chase was quite successful - the cavalry made more than 100 extra kills in the short distance. They also brought back the enemy taisho's head!

With a heavy loss essentially from all units, Mutsu was taken. The Uesugi army are now left with Dewa, Sado, Echigo (where the daimyo is), Hitachi and Kozuke (the later two were the gift from the collapsed Hojo, which happened in the next season, Spring 1533).

Summer 1533

Uesugi Tomooki is now almost trapped in Echigo. To prevent the enemy daimyo's escape, dewa was taken in spring 1533. The mass number of rebel force now headed to Echigo!

However, the Kozuke and Hitachi army at the same time launched a total attack on Mutsu. The local defense army was too weak to defend, and retreated in advance.

Mutsu: Rebel (R4, 1516) vs.  Uesugi (R3, 724)

After the victory in Shinano, Totomi, Kai, Izu, Sagami, Musashi, Shimozuke, and Shimosa, general Ichijo Uchimasa had become a famous taisho from a nobody in 3 years. He now leads the attack of Echijo - against the archer-in-majority Uesugi.

He finally waited till a rainy day. The attack was again started by the fine ashigaru, and followed by the monk rush. This time the number of monks reached 700!

The invincible rush! The enemy daimyo decided to flee long before 1/4 of the monks actually crossed the bridge...!

With only 4 monks killed, Echigo was taken. The Uesugi daimyo now also ended up in the castle. The only provinces now left to conqure are Sado, Mutsu, Kozuke, and Hitachi.

Autumn 1533

The hordes of rebel decided to take out all the provinces in one shot (actually they forgot one - Sado. This delay made them one season late for the completion of the campaign, what a pity!) Large number of armies marched into Mutsu, Kozuke, and Hitachi at the same time.

Hitachi: Rebel (R3, 587) vs.  Uesugi (R0, 208)

The only attempt of resistance of the Uesugi army was in Hitachi. The rebel force general, Chosokabe Shingemasa (who defeated Mori Motonari), was confident that he could crush the Uesugi. But the enemy fled right away... 

Winter 1533

The harvest of 1533 was poor, but that is not importnat for the rebel army right now. They were waiting for the celebration ! However, the sad news is that they've forgot Sado in the last season. 

With all available forces in Dewa, the attack to Sado was launched.

Hitachi: Rebel (R0, 174) vs.  Uesugi (R0, 60)

The final Uesugi army were 60 archers. The rebel force first started an archer duel, and at the same time the yari samurai and yari ashigaru camd forward for the attacks. The ashigaru first charged towards the loosely-formed enemy on the right flank, while soon the enemy taisho himself led the yari samurai to charged at front.

35 out of 60 of Uesugi archers were killed, while the rebels lost 18. 7 of the dead were friendly kills.

p.s. I am sorry that I accidently deleted the result picture.

By the end of 1533, the whole Japan was liberated from the hands of nasty landlords and nobles. The new year party of 1534 turned into a great celebration! Hail to freedom!

But the truth is.. Japan agains fell into the chaos of small local forces several dozens years later. There were always men with more ambition, better ability, and of course, much shameless.

Anyways, the once-strong powers of Japan was defeated by the mighty rebels in 4 years once!