One of the Horde
| STW War Story VI
One of the Horde |
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Welcome, noble lord of Hojo! 
I am Miyoshi Tadayoshi, your humble servant of the war story. It is the 17th
year of our campaign already!
In the last chapter, our lord stepped onto the land of Shigoku island, and conquered Sanuki and Awa without any battle. The competent heir of Hojo, Hojo Ujiyasu enjoyed two total victory in Tajima against the ronins and in Inaba against Mori. The latter also destroyed the eastern defense of Mori.
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Shigoku has been divided by Hojo and Shimazu. The local rule
of Chosokabe was forced to retreat into the castle of Tosa, facing the
great numbers of Shimazu. Chosokabe Motochika seemed to have won one
battle before his retreat (17 win 0 lose). Shimazu did not put a heavy
garrison in Tosa as its forced was probably concentrated in the north
(Nagato). A perfect chance for lord Hojo to take over the province! 
At the same time, our heir Hojo Ujiyasu has divided to advance to the west as much as he could before Mori's reinforcement arrived from Suo and Iwami. So he marched his army to Hoki. I was ordered to continue the siege of Mimasaka castle for one more season before the attack of Bizen. And yes! We broke the alliance with Shimazu. Let the only the strong survive! |
Summer 1546
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The enemy retreated. In Chugoku, Mori did not reinforce their east front, while Lord Shimazu himself arrived in Iyo trying to keep their last stand of Shikoku island.
Hojo Ujiyasu was instructed to advance further west to ensure our control of
the defenseless eastern Chugoku region! |
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However, Hojo Ujiyasu's advance was halted as Mori managed to get their reinforcement from the west. The two armies clash in Izumo, the mountainous province in central Chugoku. The battle became a contest of grabbing the hill. Apparently Hojo Ujiyasu won! |
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With 5 units pouring down the hill at the same time, Mori's
front was totally surrounded although they had a large number
of archers firing at us.
The yari cavalry will not let the Mori archers to escape so easily! |
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The enemy taisho sensed his defeat as routed along with all his men! | ||||||
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But not too many of them survived. Under the massacre of
Hojo's Shinano cavalry (killing 324 on their own), only 48
out of the 498 Mori's soldiers survived!
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In Shigoku, as our daimyo leads all Hojo army in the island
to Iyo, the Shimazu Lord attempted some daring move.
He decided to give up Iyo and concentrate on attack - both on Sanuki and Awa. This way he think he could trap our daimyo in Iyo! But this might as well get himself trapped if Hojo could hold Iyo against the large Shimazu army in Kyushu! |
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There was little hope to defeat Shimazu in Sanuki and Awa.
Only one unit of army was assigned to defense.
Lord Hojo ordered the unit in Awa to attempt a defense,
but unfortunately this unit was solely yari cavalry while the
enemy was largely yari samurai. They retreated knowing there
was no chance to kill any significant number of enemy... |
Autumn 1546
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So it comes to the time to decide who is in the trap! Myself, the ashigaru general received Lord Hojo's emergency order to join the battle in Shigoku. I immediately launched an attack from Hizen to Sanuki. And lord Shimazu decided to retreat try their luck in Awa! |
Winter 1546
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The traders of the southern barbarians arrived in the
province of Owari this season.
We rejected their offer as their guns has utterly no use
for the clan, who has controlled 2/3 of Japan! |
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Just as I marched all of my army into Awa, Lord Shimazu also
coordinated a total assault on Iyo.
It is the time to decide who becomes the bird in the cage! |
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Shimazu poured their entire Bungo army to Iyo. Lord Hojo camped his men on a small hill in the light
snow. Shimazu army attempted several distract ional moves,
forcing lord Hojo to adjust his position constantly. The
Hojo's army was quite tired In the snow the Hojo's archers released their arrows! |
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The enemy started their attack by charging a group of yari
cavalry uphill, attempting to flank Hojo on the right in the
later total clash. But this little trick was soon discovered
by Lord Hojo. The two units of Hojo yari cavalry rushed
right, surrounded and defeated the Shimazu cavalry.
At the same time the enemy taisho finally made their way up the hill, but the arrows of Hojo changed his mind - he was on the run! |
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Suddenly the battlefield becomes a chasing ground - Hojo's cavalry enjoyed decimating Shimazu's 1400 men...! | ||||||
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Killing 946 while losing 96, Lord Hojo obtained a total
victory!
Now Shimazu Takahisa is confined in the small province of
Awa - and it will soon be my personal show! |
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At the same time, Hojo Ujisuna broke into the Matsue castle of Izumo. This further secured our expansion to the west! |
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With a huge army that is almost 3 times of the enemy, I led the elite of Hojo into Awa, ready to catch the bird in the cage. Shimazu Takahisa's total defeat in Iyo destroyed his hope of uniting the nation. |
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| Under the heavy fog, our men had no difficulty crossing the bridge. However, the fog also provided the enemy good covers if they hide in the forest. Those who remain on the field were soon surrounded and killed by the superior numbers of us! | ||||||
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| Myself led the chase on Lord Shimazu
Takahisa. He was soon outnumbered by 200 ashigaru and routed.
The heavy fog has made our search of enemy very difficult, but finally
we discovered the last group of Shimazu's resistance in the forest on the
right. Routing them also, lord Shimazu had nowhere to run... |
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The Tsuyama castle of Mimasaka also fell under Hojo this season. General Suwa Shigemasa,, after more than 10 years of silence, obtained his third victory now! |
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Lord Shimazu and his family was forced to commit seppuku, as
he had no where to run on Shigoku.
He fell in the trap that he made for himself. |
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| Our harvest was back to normal after the havoc last year. As
Shimazu fell before us, the unification of Japan was close. There might be
a few decisive battle against Mori and the Shimazu fractions ahead, but we
should be able to crush them with our strong economy!
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Hojo 573
Mori 498
Shimazu 257