STW War Story Part V
Furinkazan - The Ambition of Takeda
Forest (1)
Chapter 4 Root on the North
Winter 1532
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In less than three
years, Takeda has established their dominance in northern Japan - swift as
wind. Many generals proposed to expand further - and reclaim the lands
grabbed by Mori as soon as possible. Some others said Takeda should attack
Oda's Mino and Owari, since these two defensible provinces are now weak in
garrison.
However, Takeda Nobutora decided to establish Takeda's root firmly first before any further expansion. Quite an conservative decision for Nobutora... But it does have the most long-term benefit. The northern lands are fertile, and once Takeda could get a hold of them, there will be little financial worries for its future campaign. Just when Nobutora announced his decision - there is a shocking news - the third wave of peasant revolted in Bitchu and was fighting Mori! |
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Bitchu : The third wave of Takeda loyalists had risen. This time they were primarily samurai archers, led by another inexperienced general called Yokota Yoshinobu. Although the samurai archers are better warriors than peasants, their arrows could not reach the enemy on the other side of the river... Recalling the old tactics, the peasants were ordered to absorbed the arrows again. Hopefully the enemy's arrows were not so accurate under the light snow. |
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The enemy's arrows were finally
depleted, and the Takeda samurai archers charged over the bridge!
The nasty fight began. The first group that charged over, those under taisho's direct command, received very heavy damage from the enemy. They were about to flee, and even the ashigaru at the far back started to waver..! Looks like the loyalists might ended up in the river of Bitchu... |
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However, with the arrival of the second and third samurai archers, the situation was altered - the enemy turned around seconds ahead! |
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Another bitter victory for Takeda. With 1/3 of the men died in Bitchu, can Yokota Yoshinobu lead the remaining 319 made their way to Aki? |
Spring 1533
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Going through the same old route,
the loyalists advanced in Hoki again.
Mori managed to generate one unit of soldiers from exactly no training facilities in Hoki, yet this underground army decided to retreat into the castle. The loyalist general, Yokota Yoshinobu, was soon promoted to rank 2. |
Summer 1533
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The loyalists followed the
success of the previous group - they marched in Bingo. If they go
Izumo, they will have to pass Iwami then Aki - taking one more season.
And luckily Mori also followed their previous reaction, the army retreated from Bingo! |
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On the east, Takeda finally
gathered enough men and started their actions. The Hitachi and Shimosa
army were made to attack Shimozuke, hoping to drive away the ronins by
their numerical strength.
But the ronins attacked Hitachi with only 1 unit at the same time. So it will be a single-unit duel in Hitachi! |
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Hitachi : The duel involved 60 yari samurai of Takeda and 60 yari ashigaru of ronins. One might say with the height advantage, Takeda should win - but it turned out that the ashigaru were winning (!) -- until their general suddenly got stumbled by a leg of his own men, and was stabbed by his own yari... ops! |
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The peasants retreated in a
hurry. Because Shimozuke was taken by Takeda, the peasants returned to
their farming life.
That's a good choice since under Takeda's rule, the peasants only had to pay minimal tax. On the other hand, Takeda Nobutora probably wanted to "buy the hearts" of the peasants, since northern Japan will become the root of Takeda... |
Autumn 1533
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The third wave of Takeda
loyalists in Chugoku were now also lacking their final step to the port of
Aki. Should the army of Iwami and Suo
merge in Aki, the peasants will have a hard time to prevail.
If the loyalists could made their way east, it would definitely be a strong reinforcement to Takeda who were extremely short of soldiers. It turned out that Mori also retreated from Aki! The third time that Aki is reclaimed by Takeda - but also the fourth time it was abandoned. |
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As Shimozuke was offered free,
the Takeda army further advanced in Kozuke. The tax rate was kept at a
constant lowest, so the folks in Shimozuke should not be too upset.
The ronins decided to defend Kozuke. They probably think Kozuke is a defensible place - but not true if they hide in the forest on the left... |
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Kozuke : The ronins did hide in the forest adjacent to the plateau on the left (of the map)...! Despite their stupidity, the enemy were not too inexperienced in fighting. They seemed to have H1 or above. The Takeda soldiers slowly marched into position. With both groups of archers opened fire, the taisho yari samurai approached the enemy. |
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The ronins rushed out the forest, and now the Takeda taisho, R2 Saigusa Hidehisa is in danger. The cavalry and samurai archers were soon ordered to flank the enemy units from both sides! |
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Even when flanking, the horse
riders were extremely poor in the forests. The
casualty started to even... will Takeda lose the battle because the CA was
about to rout?
But the enemy fled first - the losing Takeda soon regained their confidence when seeing the enemy taisho slain in the forest! |
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Losing half of yari samurai and cavalry archers, Takeda claimed the land of Kozuke - that shall be the last remnants of former Hojo. |
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With the arrival of the third
group of loyalists from the west, Takeda Nobutora were able to solidify
the defense on the west firmly. Looks like Oda is also increasing their
garrison in Mino and Owari.
With the gain of former Hojo provinces, Takeda Nobutora were finally comfortable to advance to Echigo. There was quite a large group of former Uesugi army there! (to be continued...) |
