STW War Story VI

One of the Horde

Autumn 1530

Miyoshi Tadayoshi speaking. Let's continue the story...

The year was 1530 A.D. As Uesugi was destroyed by us in two seasons, Lord Hojo Ujisuna decided to quickly do a land grab of the previous Uesugi provinces. 

Lord Hojo has ordered me to inform the peasants of undefended Dewa that the tax rate of this year is going to be very low. Of course, this is just an excuse of extending Hojo's territory further north.

Also, I received a letter from my parents in Hitachi! Besides the family stuff that you are probably uninterested in, they also told me that Lord Hojo did initiated a castle construction there back in spring. Wow if I work hard enough, maybe one day I will be given this castle to rule... just my personal dream.

Despite the good news we brought, all we could see in Dewa when we arrived was withered rice field... The little rainfall in spring made the crops growing poorly.

Same was true for many other provinces of Hojo. After counting the harvest, we found that this year we only obtained half as much as expected. The landlords are worrying that the store houses will be emptied before spring.

Winter 1530

That's not the end of bad news. Our emissary has failed his mission of proposing a treaty to Takeda.

Instead, the ignorant emissary irritated the competent master of cavalry! Takeda Nobutora ordered an assault to Musashi!

Musashi Takeda 251 Takeda Nobutora (R3)
Hojo 191 Hojo Ujisuna (R3)

A battle of two daimyos! Takeda Nobutora has mobilized the elite cavalry (60 CA, 60 YC) of his land, plus some peasants recruit (120). While Lord Hojo Ujisuna's army was consisted of 60 samurai archers and a group of new trained yari samurai.

With the numerical and unit inferiority, can lord Hojo hold the bridge?... 

There is no time to think. The enemy has emerged from the heavy fog! The archers released their arrows!

Lord Hojo knows if the enemy could make to our side, the battle will be over. With their mobility, Takeda could easily run to our flank. 

Therefore, Lord Hojo Ujisuna immediately ordered all yari samurai to charge forward, regardless of the arrows from the enemy cavalry archers.

Lord Hojo commanded the defense in the front line!
With some successful blocking - primarily because our spears were very effective against the mounted enemy, Takeda Nobutora has decided to come to the front himself.

Our archers will soon deplete their arrows - now the fight becomes a purely hand-to-hand on the bridge - over the frozen river of Musashi...
The archers finally ran out of arrows! As planned, the archers changed their formation to a box and rushed to the front!

The battle on the bridge was very intense! The two daimyo were only separated by several men. Only the elite soldiers could survive!
The Hojo army was gradually pushing back Takeda's men onto the bridge! The casualty kept increasing on both sides - and finally Takeda's men lost their confidence to their lord and fled first!

It is a perfect chance to capture the lord of Takeda!
However, Nobutora was a famous warrior. Although he lost badly under the yari of Hojo's samurai, he could still perfectly defend himself on the bridge.. 

Soon his men was encouraged by his skills...

Now they rallied and charge back! Oh no!

That didn't last too long. Soon Nobutora realized he is going to be exhausted - and he also ran for his life!

Let's get him!

Lord Hojo announced anybody who took the head of Takeda Nobutora would be rewarded for 100 koku!
Unfortunately, our yari samurai could not match the speed of Takeda Nobutora's horse.

Nobutora escaped...

Both sides suffered a large loss in this battle. Under the leadership of Lord Hojo himself, we successfully held the bridge of Musashi. But we also lost 70% of the men, killing 83% of Takeda's.

It was a truly bloody battle...

Spring 1531

With only 66 men left, now the defense of Musashi needs to be further strengthened. Lord Hojo ordered a new recruit of another 120 yari samurai to join the defense.

On the other hand, our emissary, who failed his mission of making peace with Takeda, was assigned a new mission. He was heading to the port in Sagami - lord Hojo asked him to make treaties with the western clans such as Mori and Shimazu.

That might be an easier job for this moron.

Summer 1531

Meanwhile, I was trying my best to accommodate the refugees in Dewa who were forced to sell their properties due to the poor harvest. Our budget was extremely limited - and men power was not enough. The best we could do was to promise the peasants that the tax rate will be the lowest for the coming year.

But the peasants still decided to revolt! They recalled the good times when Uesugi was ruling Dewa - and look at now, what a mess as Hojo comes.

This is not entirely of our fault, but I can understand what the peasants feel. We reluctantly withdrew from the land of Dewa...

 

As soon as we lost Dewa due to the revolts, Lord Hojo has organized a meeting among the major figures in the clan. I feel very honored to be one of the invited.

In this meeting Lord Hojo revealed several bad news that we already knew - the harvest was very poor under the lowest tax rate, the budget was slightly smaller than last year, and our army size was severely reduced due to the warfare against Uesugi and Takeda. Although we gained victory in all three of them, the Hojo clan might need a long time to recover from the losses.

My next mission will be to comfort the peasants in Mutsu as much as possible - hopefully I can do well this time!