STW War Story VI

One of the Horde

 Vote for the Future of Hojo (click here) !!

Welcome back noble lords. This is Miyoshi Tadayoshi, your humble narrator of the war story. 

The meeting of Summer 1535 was carried out smoothly. Out of the 23 nobles who attended the meeting, nine of them suggested that Hojo should start their campaign on the northern lands, including Dewa, Sado, etc. Also, an additional five said we should not only make attack to the north, but also grab the southern river province of Mikawa before Oda does it. Besides this, another six thought we should take the former Takeda's lands. Two suggested that we should forget the sword dojo plan in Shimosa but to build Buddhist temples in Sado for its potential armoury. 

However, nobody agreed with my opinion that we should sleep and do nothing over the coming two years!

Summer 1535

As the wish of the noble lords, armies started to gather in Echigo, preparing for the assault to Dewa - under my command!

On the east, Hojo Ujiyasu, the formidable heir of Hojo, has prepared a group of elite soldiers to invade Mikawa - taking it before Oda does!
Mikawa Hojo 164 Hojo Ujiyasu (R4)
Ronin 60 Nagatsuka Ujisada (R0)

Mikawa was defended by only one group of ronin archers - but they are among the most elite of the whole nation (H3!).

Hojo Ujiyasu ordered the yari samurai to cross the bridge first. If the enemy attempts to block the bridge, then Ujiyasu will feed the enemy with Hojo's sharp arrows. If the enemy gives up the bridge and moves back, Ujiyasu will also cross the bridge and attack the enemy along with the first group of Hojo (yari) samurai.

The enemy decided to move back! The yari samurai chased over, but Ujiyasu had ordered them to be careful not to fall into the trap of the enemy. The smart enemy archers was trying to climb up a small hill. If Hojo's men chase over, the enemy archers will simply turn around and charge down the little hill!

This childish trick has no chance to deceive Hojo Ujiyasu. He makes the yari samurai to go left first, while Ujiyasu's archers go right... 
The enemy discovered Ujiyasu's plot and attempted to stop our troops by their arrows - but they were doomed at this stage. Soon the yari and archery samurai are in the position of charge!

Although the enemy is cunning enough to stay on the peak of the small hill, now they are going to face the complete back attack of Hojo's men!
Here it goes!
Ujiyasu obtained another beautiful victory. Only 2 of the enemy archers made their way out of the battlefield - the best archers in the nation were defeated.

Mikawa is ours - mission 1 accomplished.

Autumn 1535

The preparation in Echigo is finally done. With almost every available men nearby, we launched the attack to Dewa with a total of 662!

 
Dewa Hojo 662 Miyoshi Tadayoshi (R3)
Rebel 480 Koteda Yoshisato (R0)

We arrived Dewa in the afternoon. The sky was cloudy yet there was no evidence of shower. Soon we spotted the enemy near the border, spreading out their formation on the not-so-high mountain. Hmm... sorry the enemy is not very obvious in your view. (Can we have a larger picture? )

Anyways, I ordered my men to go right, so we can fight the rebels on roughly the equal height.

All right! Here we go.

However, as soon as we moved right, the enemy marched towards the hill on the left. This way, even if we make it to the other side through the passage on the right, the enemy will still occupy the high grounds. The only solution is -- grab the hill before them! This job of course belongs to the fast-running yari ashigaru of Hitachi!

The plan is, once we grab the higher ground, the ashigaru of Hojo will charge down and engage with the enemy ashigaru, while the yari samurai of Hojo will attack their back.

Let's go!
We made it to the enemy's back! The enemy ashigaru were totally occupied by the movement of our yari samurai. Their archers were stupid enough to release their arrows from the woods - making very little kill from there.

On the other hand, our archers are doing a much better job shooting their men down!
Charge! The 6 units of yari troop coordinated the attack on the enemy ashigaru together - and without any struggle these peasants ran for their lives!
Hey that's me! I was running in front of my men - better show them what a brave general is like! However, I failed to stab down any enemy in the chase...

At the same time, the enemy archers emerged from the forest. It is time to face these much more skilled fighters!
600 men of Hojo, chasing the fleeing ashigaru, now charge into the enemy archers. I was again standing on the front line!

The infamous Hojo horde has arrived! The enemy collapsed within seconds!
Yeah a great victory!

Although I killed nobody, my courage of fighting at front had earned me the trust of my men. Dewa is reclaimed by us finally. Mission 2 accomplished.

That's not the only good news. The harvest was again good for this year - that's 4 good harvests in 5 years! (despite the horror in the first year).

It seems that peasants are really happy under the lowest tax rate. Lord Hojo immediately promised that the tax rate will also be minimal for the coming year - a flat-lowest tax rate since 1530! This also lowers the chance of any more revolts in our territory. I feel much relieved.

All right, I was ordered to start a gold mine in Dewa immediately!
However, at the same time Mikawa was attacked by Oda! Although Hojo Ujiyasu was defending Mikawa with the most elite troops of Hojo, he still decided to retreat back to Totomi. The number of Oda was 3 times of Hojo - it is almost impossible to win...

I knew that moron emissary is going to fail... now he is dispatched to Shimazu.

So it turned out that Oda got Mikawa finally! We have definitely not enough men to take it back for now - all we can hope is Oda doesn't invade Totomi and Shinano too fast...

To boost the army count of Hojo, a spear dojo and archery dojo are started in Shinano and Totomi, respectively. This was also in our plan - Shinano will be the home of Hojo cavalry, while Totomi will host the fine samurai archers.

Spring 1536

Winter is over. The Dewa gold mine is well under its way now.

My next mission is to attack Sado, according to the decision of the meeting last summer.

As soon as the snow melted, the 570 men of Miyoshi Tadayoshi were on the board to Sado!  

Free victory! The enemy - mostly consisted those escaped from Dewa, decided to retreat into the Ogi castle. 

They must still remember how badly they were defeated last autumn.

Autumn 1536

So my job became to siege the Ogi castle of Sado. The 303 enemy in the castle was estimated to last for only two seasons.

However, just before it falls I received an order from Shinano. Lord Ujisuna ordered me to assault the defenders and try to preserve the castle.

My men started to complain! Why do we need to spend extra lives to capture a castle that is already about to fall? Yet Lord Hojo indicated in his letter that some noble lords suggested we should make a good use of the iron sand deposit in Sado - so finally we may have a troop production base here. By preserving the castle, both money and time could be saved.
Sado Hojo 690 Miyoshi Tadayoshi (R3)
Ogi Castle Rebel 152 Koteda Masakazu (R0)

Well ok! Finally I persuaded my men by the gold of Dewa - you know, before the mine formally opens, the miners have sent in some buffalo bags of gold samples to make their future lives easier.

With some new recruits of our home boys - Hitachi yari ashigaru, we marched towards the Ogi castle of Sado.

This time I wasn't fooled by the villagers! They AGAIN told me it was going to rain, but I knew it would stop right after our men come into enemy archers' range. So this time, we waited till the rain come down again!

Let's go!

The braves of Hojo rushed into the gate of Ogi castle! The 152 enemy peasants and archers couldn't stop the mighty horde of Hojo!

Charge! Once more I rushed to the front to encourage my men. Now they fight much better!

I stabbed down 5 enemy in total! These poor rebels are no match of my skills! (thus Tadayoshi stayed as an H3 ashigaru...)
We slain every single enemy with no mercy - maybe it is a little too cruel, but we had to teach the peasants of Hojo what is the outcome of a revolt...

Anyways, the Ogi castle of Sado is saved. Our mission has accomplished, although this cost 100 precious lives of us...

Winter 1536

As soon as we destroyed the defenders in Ogi castle, I was assigned another mission - Noto.

Noto was a neutral province with no defense. We occupied it easily, but seems the peasants were not happy about the Hojo intruders. Our soldiers are now busy comforting them.

The harvest was normal this year. With the spear dojo of Shinano and archery dojo of Totomi built as expected, Lord Hojo ordered a full-scale troop production. 480 more soldiers are going to join us two seasons later!

Well well, that moron brought back the good news! Lord Shimazu Takahisa was happy to sign a treaty with Hojo...

With his mission accomplished, the emissary returned to Totomi. I guess he would be of little use from now on.

Although Oda has declared war on us, Hojo has successfully allied with Mori and Shimazu in these years. Now Oda has to face the alliance of Hojo and Mori from both sides!

Right now, the western border of Hojo was consisted of Hojo Ujisuna in Shinano and Hojo Ujiyasu in Totomi - both with a limited army of 200 something. If Oda does not attack us in these two seasons, soon the defense on the west can be strengthened!

 

It is the meeting time again. The four major generals were again called in Fukasashi castle of Shinano. Of course, many noble lords of Hojo are also here, ready to vote for our goals of the coming year!

So what will be the outcome of the meeting?