Chapter 59: Unexpected Setbacks
The eyes of the Miyoshi were mostly focused on the Hojo, and whatever the hell it was they were up to. It certainly didn't seem good.
As the Miyoshi thought they would, the Hojo, with their army mostly made of Samurai Archers, did indeed enter Miyoshi territory in May, 1522. But they seemed like they were heading west, along the northern coastline- a path that didn't really make sense if they wanted to fight the Miyoshi. Perhaps they were heading for Tottori or Kakogawa, the Miyoshi's cities in the north, or perhaps confusion was their goal, but it looked like there was also a fair chance they were heading for the Urakami or the Mori. Still, until the Miyoshi were sure the Hojo were heading towards one of their Western neighbors and not them, they'd keep their guard up and their northern cities well-defended.
The Urakami, meanwhile, did little in their war against the Miyoshi other than to retreat a Galley that had been hanging around near Ako and sent a lone unit of Samurai Archers into Miyoshi territory- apparently the best the Urakami could muster for a counter-attack.
For many years now, the Miyoshi had been debating about where they should build something called the Izumo Shrine that would give the best benefit (It's been a while since I mentioned what it does, so if you've forgotten, it's a Harbor+Offshore Platform+Commercial Dock and it even gives 2 content faces). They needed to build it somewhere that would have enough sea water in its vicinity to make the bonuses worthwhile, while also having enough land in its vicinity and be lose enough to Kyoto to be able to actually build the Shrine in a reasonable amount of time. Luckily, the recent conquest of Ako added a fair amount of coastal territory in the vicinity of Kasuga, enough to make it the clear best fit for the Izumo Shrine. So, they began construction of it in Kasuga in July.
The Hojo continued heading West along the Northern coast with their Samurai Archers in August, but mysteriously, the lone unit of Ashigaru turned around and headed back East, where it was joined by some more units of Ashigaru. What were they planning, exactly?
A few months later, the Miyoshi received word that, as usual, their immediate technological rivals, the Ryuzoji, Takeda, and Hojo, were still researching new technology faster than they were. Their recent new advantage was Ninjutsu, giving something of an upgrade on the Ronin that was apparently the most awesome thing ever (Ninja are 6/2/1 with a ton of abilities- Hidden Nationality, All Terrain As Roads, Amphibious, Invisibility, and the Stealth Attack ability that lets you choose which unit in a stack you want to attack- they're pretty awesome and dangerous).
The Miyoshi weren't doing a whole lot on the Urakami were front, but the Urakami weren't doing much more. They did send 2 units of Samurai Archers to occupy a hill to the northwest of Ako in November, 1522, but that was all that either side had done in months.
The large group of Hojo Archers continued its westward journey that month, and it had gone far enough West that the Miyoshi could rule out an attack on any one of their cities but Kakogawa. Still, they weren't about to let their guard down until the Hojo were past Kakogawa and into Urakami territory.
Towards the end of the year, the Miyoshi caught up a bit towards their ahead-of-them-in-technology rivals by researching Akinai, which they had all had for quite some time now. Somewhat unsurprisingly, they all had worked upon that to get a new technology, something about contact with some far-away land.
The Miyoshi thought about building the Trade Network that Akinai allowed- it had some impressive benefits (Smith's + Lighthouse), but they decided they also wanted to build the Military Academy and Izumo Shrine, and couldn't really dedicate too many of their cities to building wonders at once when they had such a dire need for military units.
The most pressing matter in January, 1523 was doing something about those Urakami Archers near Ako. Luckily, the Miyoshi had some catapults to weaken them, which then made it fairly simple for some Samurai Warriors and Hiyoshi's army of Bushi to wipe the Archers out.
The Miyoshi wanted to press forward into Urakami territory, but they knew they had to be careful with the Hojo around, just in case they were heading towards Kakogawa.
And they continued heading in that direction, and reached the city's gates in February. The next few months would tell if they were just passing through- or if they had other plans.
Also in February, the Urakami somewhat annoyingly used the great speed of one of their units of Yamabushi to run well into Miyoshi territory and destroy the road to the Horses between Kakogawa and Tottori. Well, perhaps the Urakami felt that if they couldn't have Kakogawa's Horses, nobody could. They also had a Galley bring a unit of Ashigaru to a hill to the Northeast of Ako, which was apparently the best threat they could muster.
The Miyoshi military spent April dealing with these insignificant Urakami pests. A unit of Samurai Warriors killed the Yamabushi, and sent word that some of the nearby workers should try to rebuild the destroyed road as soon as they could. Some catapults combined with a unit of Bushi to take out the Ashigaru near Ako. And, for good measure, a Caravel sunk the annoying Urakami Galley.
Now would be the moment of truth: Were the Hojo planning to attack Kakogawa, or would they continue heading West?
The calendar turned over to May. The Urakami moved first, with their usual weak foray into Miyoshi territory, this time in the form of a unit of Samurai Warriors and a unit of Yamabushi. Then came the Hojo...
The advisor was in a hurry to deliver the news. Most of the things he told to Miyoshi Nagayoshi were important, but this... this was a lot more important than usual.
"Sir, I bring news about the Hojo!"
"Yes? Were they attacking us, or continuing westward?"
"They abruptly turned North, and started firing Arrows into Kakogawa! They intend to destroy us!"
"So that was their target..."
Luckily, Kakogawa was well-prepared, with many Samurai Warriors defending it. In the ensuing Battle of Kakogawa, the Hojo lost their unit of Stone Crossbowmen and 2 of their units of Samurai Archers to Kakogawa's Warriors, who took no casualties of their own, and the Hojo lost another unit of Archers when they tried to attack the Samurai Warriors who had recently killed the Urakami Yamabushi at the Horses. The remaining 2 Samurai Archers that had come with this now-devastated army decided attacking wouldn't be such a great idea, so they just destroyed some roads and killed some Miyoshi Workers that had been cutting down the jungles in the area.
The Miyoshi were glad that the Hojo had mostly been dealt with and didn't pose much of an immediate threat, but they also knew that there were probably more where those Archers came from, and fighting a two-front war was really not what they needed right now.
So, in July, they decided to enlist the help of some of the other clans. They knew at least they'd need to get the Oda in on this, to keep the Hojo from sending any more units through their territory without a fight, and they probably also would need the help of some of the other clans in the area, just to make sure the Oda didn't get destroyed. Problem was, the Oda capital of Nagoya was one of the few capitals they actually had an embassy in to negotiate these sorts of alliances. Luckily, the Miyoshi had plenty of gold- more than enough to establish embassies in the Imagawa capital of Fuji...
And the Uesugi capital of Sendai...
With two out of three of the Hojo's immediate neighbors now open to negotiation, the Miyoshi talked to all of them about getting in on an alliance. As it turned out, the Oda, Uesugi, and Imagawa were all more than willing to join the Miyoshi against the Hojo in return for some technology that they lacked- the Uesugi even threw in their recently-researched technology of Ninjutsu (And the Imagawa and Oda would have given gold, but it was decided they needed it to fight the Hojo)
With the alliances taken care of, the Miyoshi went about fighting the Urakami and Hojo units in their territory. A Samurai Archer unit killed the Urakami Yamabushi after Samurai Warriors failed to get the job done, A Samurai Warrior unit killed one of the two remaining Hojo Samurai Archer units, and the other Hojo Archers were killed by Hiyoshi's Army, who also had time to kill a unit of Hojo Ashigaru.
Unfortunately, there was a unit of Hojo Yamabushi they couldn't deal with, and in August, it destroyed the road to the Spices between Kakogawa and Tottori and then ascended a Mountain, both to make it really difficult for the Miyoshi to get rid of them and to presumably destroy the gold mine that was on the mountain.
But, in October of 1523, the Miyoshi managed to get rid of them anyway. They lost a unit of Mounted Samurai in the process, but Hiyoshi's Army managed to get the job done and save the Gold Mine, though the Mine was now littered with the corpses of Hojo Yamabushi.
They also paid close attention to the Hojo ships that were passing by them to the South and sent some Samurai Warriors to kill one of the units of Archers that was heading back into Oda territory. The Warriors were successful, but just barely.
Since they possessed a bit more gold than they did a few months ago, they decided to build an embassy in the Takeda capital, Nagaoka, and see if they were willing to join in the fight against the Hojo.
Although the Takeda appreciated the embassy and the Miyoshi comments about their defenses (Nagaoka had 12 Yamabushi, 3 Samurai Warriors, 1 Samurai Archer, and 1 Samurai Spearman in it!), they weren't willing to join in the fight against the Hojo- not for any price the Miyoshi were willing to pay, anyway.
So the Miyoshi decided to just try to keep the Takeda friendly, and the two clans agreed to let each other pass through their territory. The Takeda even gave the Miyoshi a bit of gold and a map as part of the agreement.
The map showed the Miyoshi a great deal of the roads passing through the clans to their East, which weren't terribly good- that was probably a good thing, as it meant the Hojo were unlikely to be able to get any significant reinforcements headed their way, if they could even get past the Imagawa and the Oda.
And the Hojo still had a few units trapped in the middle of hostile territory on the Oda-Miyoshi border, though the Miyoshi observed them having some success against the Oda in November.
The Urakami did much more against them than the Hojo did, though, sending another unit of Yamabushi in to destroy their roads- this time, it managed to cut the Miyoshi off from their lone Iron source in the vicinity of Tottori. The Miyoshi resolved to do something to stop these incursions from pillaging any more of their needed resources and to get the Iron re-connected as soon as they possibly could.
They didn't really have the strength to easily dislodge the Yamabushi from the Mountain, unfortunately, so they just surrounded it in January of 1524 to make sure it didn't attack anything else important. Miyoshi Nagayoshi himself even contributed to the blockade, for lack of any better options more than anything else.
The Yamabushi obviously lacked the offensive strength to break out of this blockade, so in February, the Urakami sent two units of Samurai Warriors to help them out by attacking the Miyoshi Samurai Warriors to the West. The Miyoshi Warriors held the Urakami Warriors off and the Yamabushi remained surrounded, though they now had time to fortify themselves on the mountain.
It wouldn't save them, though. Though they avoided taking much damage from the Archers and Catapults that bombarded them and even managed to bring down a unit of Samurai Warriors that attacked them in April, they finally perished before the might of Hiyoshi's Army. Workers immediately headed to the mountain to ensure that the Miyoshi would have access to Iron again as soon as possible.
On the southern coastline, there was still the problem of a Hojo Caravel and Galley going... somewhere. Wherever it was, the Miyoshi didn't think it was good, so they sent some of their own Caravels to send the Hojo ships to the bottom of the sea. They were partially successful: The Hojo Caravel found its way to the ocean floor when it was attacked, but the Galley held off an attack and instead the Miyoshi found one of its Caravels sunk.
The next few months were a bit less eventful- The Urakami, apparently no longer capable of sending 2 units every 3 months towards the Miyoshi, sent one lone unit of Samurai Warriors to attack a Miyoshi Samurai Warrior unit near the border, a battle that the Miyoshi won. In July, the Miyoshi regained access to Iron, and swore to defend it better from the Urakami's marauding Yamabushi. Other than that, the Urakami-Miyoshi War continued to be largely uneventful.
At least until things picked up again in August. Not because of anything the Urakami army did, no- but because the citizens of Ako, having long struggled to return themselves to the rule of the Urakami, had finally succeeded.
Obviously, this could not be allowed to stand. The Miyoshi would make the citizens of Ako pay- at least as soon as they could get their military there. In October, they sent some of their forces towards the city, but the hills slowed them down enough to keep Ako's citizens alive for a few more months. The Miyoshi were able to send some Yamabushi to destroy a section of road to the west of the city, though, preventing the Urakami from reinforcing Ako with anything but their own Yamabushi.
Those Miyoshi Yamabushi were attacked by the Urakami in November, as they thought they might be. They didn't manage to do much to the Samurai Warriors that attacked them, but they did manage to retreat with their lives, at least.
A few weeks later, the Miyoshi received news that the Tokugawa had joined the war on the side of the Hojo, declaring war on the Uesugi. At least, they think the Hojo were involved in this- the Tokugawa are tiny and weak, so it makes no sense for them to declare war on the Uesugi of their own accord.
"Worried about their neighbors, I see?"
"I would imagine so, the Uesugi are clearly winning. They recently destroyed the city of Ota, on the border between the Hojo and the Uesugi. Actually, according to our records, that happened at least a year ago, but we somehow didn't notice it until now."
"That's good to hear..."
"It also appears that our military is now significantly stronger than the Hojo's again. It appears these wars are taking a toll on them."
"That's very good to hear..."
Even better news came a month later, when Kyoto finally finished the Military Academy it had long been working on. They could now build bigger, stronger armies, and Hiyoshi's Army would be a little bit better than it already was.
Not that it helped them much in the battle of Ako. In January, 1525, the Miyoshi charged into the city. It did not go as well for them as they had hoped. First, a unit of Mounted Samurai attacked the city. It fought well, but the Samurai Spearmen the city had mustered for defense were too strong, and the Mounted Samurai fell. Then, Hiyoshi's Army attacked.
To say it did not go well would be an understatement. The Army was completely annihilated, down to the last man, while the Spearmen suffered not so much as a scratch. (Oh, come on! I know Ako had hills and Walls, and it was a Bushi Army against a Spearman, but the Army had 13 HP! And it didn't do a single point of damage!)
Now they would need that Military Academy's Armies...
Luckily, the unit of Samurai Warriors that the Miyoshi had brought along with them to Ako did much better than the Mounted Samurai and Hiyoshi did, finally killing these annoying Spearmen and taking the city. As vengeance for both their revolting and the death of Hiyoshi and the rest of his army, the Miyoshi reduced Ako to a pile of dust.
The Urakami again sent a few units of their military in the general direction of the Miyoshi in February, now greatly slowed down by the lack of roads. A unit of their Yamabushi did get all the way to Kyoto, but didn't have time to pillage anything or attack Miyoshi Nagayoshi in the city (not that that would have ended well for them). They never did get the chance, because the Miyoshi quickly descended on it in April. Following some bombardment from Catapults to weaken them and an attack by Samurai Archers that almost killed them but that the Yamabushi managed to retreat from, the Yamabushi were killed by some Miyoshi Samurai Warriors. The Miyoshi would have none of that "Yamabushi-runs around and wrecks all our stuff" that had been happening far too much for the past few years of their wars against the Urakami and Hojo.
In less interesting news, a Caravel sunk a Hojo Galley, specifically the one that had earlier emerged victorious in a battle against a Miyoshi Caravel.
The Urakami continued their slow "send one or two or three units of our military towards the Miyoshi with no real direction in mind" tactics in May. The Miyoshi questioned what their strategy was.
For a couple of years, several of the other clans had a technological edge over the Miyoshi in the form of contact with a far-away nation. The Takeda, Hojo, and Ryuzoji had all contacted a ship of explorers from this country first, and the Uesugi had also gotten it recently. The Miyoshi were hoping they could meet soon, too.
Finally, in June 1525, the Miyoshi were able to meet this nation themselves: They called themselves the Portuguese, and they were from somewhere far away indeed- their continent of Europe was almost on the direct other side of the world. The Portuguese had recently taken to exploring said world and their journey had now taken them to the islands of Japan. They seemed to have some interesting ideas about technology (well, they had to, to build ships capable of going that far) and religion.
One of their other technological ideas was weapons coming from an explosive called Gunpowder, which the Takeda, Hojo, and Ryuzoji had all recently developed from their contact with these strange people. The Miyoshi hoped to get this weapon soon before the Hojo could use it to terrible ends. They at least hoped the Uesugi could get it soon...
In July, the Miyoshi went about their tri-monthly business of dealing with the small bits of the Urakami military that had come their way two months ago. Three Miyoshi Samurai Warriors were more than sufficient to kill all three of the Urakami units heading their way- one of Samurai Warriors, one of Samurai Archers, and one of Ashigaru.
The Urakami tried to avenge their losses by attacking the Miyoshi Warriors in August with their own Samurai Warriors, but only succeeded in getting two more units of their own men killed without causing any significant harm to the Miyoshi.
They also sent a Caravel eastward, probably to put a lone unit on a hill near what used to be Ako, and some Settlers escorted by Samurai Spearmen, presumably to re-build Ako. The Miyoshi certainly weren't about to let that happen. Some catapults and Samurai Warriors descended upon them in October, with the satsifying result of some dead Urakami Spearmen and some new slave workers from the settlers.
The Miyoshi were starting to feel pretty good about the western war front for the first time in a while- they were easily turning back everything the Urakami threw at them, they had all their resources hooked back up and well defended against any Yamabushi that might try to do something to them, and they were starting to have some military to spare to go attack with.
They also now felt fairly secure in having two sources of Horses. Secure enough, in fact, that they decided to see what the Oda might offer for one of them. The Oda were fighting the Hojo, after all, and the Miyoshi really would like it if they did well.
The Oda offered a fairly substantial amount of gold in return, and the Miyoshi were happy to take that gold- they could always use more gold. The Miyoshi and Oda wished each other luck in fighting the Hojo.
The Urakami finally managed to mount a somewhat substantial counter-attack in November of 1525, with 4 units of Samurai Warriors and Archers being spotted on the Urakami-Miyoshi border. That was actually a little bit scary. A bit less scary, and a bit more odd, was the Urakami Caravel, which continued to go South.
"Bad News: The Hojo got another ally into the war, and this time it was against us!"
"Well, that sucks, who was it, exactly."
"That's the Good News: It's the Shimazu."
"The Shimazu? The guys on another island, with about 4 cities and a weak, backwards military? Do the Hojo have any idea what they're doing?"
"It would appear not, sir."
The Miyoshi, for whatever good it did them, at least tended to be coherent and have some idea of what they were doing, way more so than the other clans. Stupid other clans.
One of those things they had been doing for a long time was building the Izumo Shrine in a city where it would do them a lot of good: Kasuga, which finally finished it in December, 1525. Heck, it might even be more useful now that Ako wasn't crowding it. The Miyoshi decided that when they rebuilt that area, they'd move the city a bit to the southwest.
The Miyoshi couldn't really do much about those Urakami Warriors in January, 1526, but they could easily get rid of the Urakami Samurai Archers with some of their Mounted Samurai, and they could also sink the Urakami Caravel with their own. It would never reach its destination, wherever it was going...
They also thought about where to send a recently-built Settler group in Kyoto. They thought about sending it West, but the Western front was still very lively and they weren't sure they'd have the ability to defend a city they built there. They decided to instead send it East. It reached its destination, a small gap in territory where there was just enough room for a city on the eastern coast, and built the city of Suzuka there in April:
Another advantage of not re-settling the area around Ako was that the Urakami would continue to try to- in March, they had sent their own settler group escorted by Bushi to that area, which the Miyoshi saw as more free slaves for them.
They couldn't really attack them in April, though, and also couldn't safely do anything about the Samurai Warriors that were smartly staying on the high ground, so they just hunkered down and waited to see what the Urakami would do.
What they did in May was go and attack a unit of Miyoshi Samurai Warriors that had been guarding some Workers re-building roads in the vicinity of what used to be Ako. Outnumbered 3 to 1, the Miyoshi didn't really have a chance, although they did take 2 of the Urakami Warriors down with them and caused some injury to the third. The workers were lost, sadly. Mysteriously, the Urakami killed some of them and had others retreat (maybe the ones they killed were mine and the ones that retreated were theirs?)
Because they had retreated to an area with no Urakami military units, it was quite simple for the Miyoshi to take them back in July with some Yamabushi. It was also quite simple for the Miyoshi to kill the Samurai Warriors who had captured them and another unit of Samurai Warriors with two Samurai Warrior units of their own, and the Bushi and Settlers were quite easy prey for a unit of Samurai Archers. Two more slaves for the Miyoshi.
Following this series of battles, Miyoshi Nagayoshi's military advisor proudly reported that they were now much stronger than the Urakami, for the first time in a while (I was average compared to them for quite a bit, and only just now became strong again).
Well, it was about damn time things started going their way again. The Miyoshi had had enough of these setbacks and wanted to get back to pushing forward into the Urakami, and finally getting that Jade they so desired.