STW War Story VI

One of the Horde

Greetings! The name is Miyoshi Tadayoshi. I will be your narrator of this war story.

Spring 1530

The year was 1530. I was one of the leaders of Lord Hojo Ujisuna's ashigaru force. Being the son of a normal farmer, I was not able to join the prestigious samurai class - but I would work hard for it!

Just after the new year celebration was over, we suddenly received an order from our lord that a total assault should be made to Uesugi's home base of Mutsu. And I was appointed the taisho (chief general) for this mission!

Growing up in the rich lands of Hitachi, this was the first time that I was assigned to join a real battle! Here came the chance to utilize our training. Oh, and thanks my lord that I was given the command power! (good my new year present really worked... ops I guess I am not supposed to reveal this)
Mutsu Hojo 360 Miyoshi Tadayoshi (R0)
Uesugi  191 Uesugi Tomooki (R3)

It was a risky move of our Lord. However, we were lucky enough to catch Uesugi off-guard. Their daimyo (leader) could only gather a small size of army to defend! Our numbers actually was about twice as many.

However, being a totally inexperienced commander, I must be careful. Lord Uesugi is cunning in tactics. Now he arranged his archers on the hill, while yari troops moving towards the left... so what should I do?

"Tadayoshi! let's go handle their yari samurai!" says Hineno Yoshitaka. Yoshitaka is one of my best friends in childhood, but his dad earned more than my old man. We haven't met too much after he became a samurai, because he must attend lots of trainings, unlike us. Guess he must be pretty good to be appointed as a leader.

"Ok you go to the left flank, and I will take it head-on!" I said.

The enemy yari samurai was brave enough to charge into our army with little support. Soon we routed them and I wouldn't give up this good chance to pursue - to collect more heads and make sure these samurai won't rally and come back in a short time!

A nice job done! In the meantime, our samurai archers had started a duel shooting with the enemy on the hill.
Yes I killed one myself! The poor guy was stabbed from behind - I guess in real hand-to-hand I have little chance to knock him off. Well... nothing matters in a war.

By the way, I kept an eye searching for Uesugi Tomooki. He was not at front commanding his men... hmm. 

While I was busy pursuing the enemy yari samurai, the enemy ashigaru has advanced to our left. I yelled for the help of our samurai archers. One of them responded, and they were ready to pick up the enemy ashigaru.

Also, our yari samurai was ready for the attack to enemy samurai archers on the hill!

 
Uesugi Tomooki's fighters were really skillful in battle. Our yari samurai suffered very heavy losses. But my good friend, Hineno Yoshitaka was able to quickly rush to the enemy's back.

Before he even arrived, the enemy started to rout!
On the left, our samurai archers had a hard time fighting the enemy ashigaru. Surely Uesugi's soldiers were better in quality.

The situation changed as soon as I pulled back from the chase and backstabbed these Uesugi peasants. They screamed and ran like hell!

Now we just need to worry about the enemy daimyo... where is he?

Well this coward was ready to run! Leaving his men hopelessly pursued and killed, the Uesugi daimyo fled for his life!
I killed another guy! Actually, I was a little reluctant to chop his head off, but if I didn't do it, probably he is going to do it to me later... guess now I am a tougher man (H1).

It was a great victory of us - everyone survived the battle became more experienced somewhat. Out of the 191 men of Uesugi, only 46 (24%) made their way back to Sendai castle.

I was promoted to Rank 1 afterwards! I wrote a letter to inform my parents, and of course I included my increased salary. The real reason that I joined the army was that my family needs money to feed my younger brothers and sisters. Hopefully they can grow up in a peaceful time...

Summer 1530

My men were on the move soon. The next order from Lord Hojo Ujisuna was that the 239 of us should assault the Sendai castle of Mutsu, and bring him the head of Uesugi Tomooki!

Some of my men started to complain: why didn't we just sit around and siege the castle? But I believe Lord Hojo has a reason to do it. Probably he was afraid that Uesugi would move a large to rescue their lord in the castle, and the 239 of us cannot prevail against the elite of Uesugi.

So again we prepared ourselves with armors and weapons. Now let's break in the gate of Sendai castle!
Mutsu Hojo 239 Miyoshi Tadayoshi (R1)
Sendai Castle Uesugi  46 Uesugi Tomooki (R2)

To minimize the damage of Uesugi's arrows, we waited till the third day, which according to the villagers should be a rainy day.

Yet they cheated us! Not long after the rain stopped, and our archers suffered from the enemy arrow fires.

But we are already here - there is no point to return. Seeing the numerous banners carried by Uesugi soldiers, we knew this is going to be a tough fight...

What a good friend of Hineno Yoshitaka, he volunteered to go first!
"Charge!" we could hear Yoshitaka's voice even on the far back.

In the blows of battle horn, the braves of Hojo have broken into the Sendai castle!
With quite a large loss of Yoshitaka's men, we eliminated the yari samurai and samurai archers in the castle. I also took two heads from the panic enemy!

Now two hundreds of Uesugi's men have surrounded Uesugi Tomooki.

Tomooki was truly a skilled warrior - he dodged dozens of spears from us easily - yet our men could not dodge his sword... already 9 fell down!

"Ahhhh!" Suddenly Uesugi Tomooki showed anguish on his face! He was hit by Yoshitaka from his back!
Lord Uesugi is dead. We then noticed some wavering Uesugi peasants outside the castle - they were handled easily.

My good friend Hineno Yoshitaka has now become a famous warrior of our clan (H6!). With a good timing, he skillfully gave Uesugi Tomooki a lethal stab on the back.

I was also promoted to rank 2 after the victory! Now my men are more willing to fight! Guess the boys in my hometown Hitachi must be proud of us.
A good news was delivered to the army. Hineno Yoshitaka has been qualified to become a sword master! I've also seen him using a katana - he is really good at it. Lord Hojo gave him a certificate of opening sword dojo in the lands of Hojo! Wow that must make him a lot of money... well I should be satisfied with my R2 general salary.

So... now Uesugi has been eliminated. Man I feel big!

Our lands are only threatened by Takeda in the west now - yet we might not have enough soldiers to even defend against Takeda... The recruits from Shimosa is probably not enough to handle the defense.

Hopefully with the rich lands of Uesugi left for grabbing, our clan can soon prosper. With more income we can surely open another training dojo - perhaps in Hitachi because it has the potential of an armoury!