The Conquests

[choxorn]

By the powers of my thread-necromancy, I command you to ARISE, OH LONG-DORMANT THREAD, AND HAUNT THE FORUMS THAT ONCE KNEW YOU WHEN YOU LIVED!

On a more serious note, currently writing Chapter 54. Should be done some time soon.

The sad part about this is that I actually played all the turns I'm writing about months ago, then didn't have time to update, then forgot I played the turns, and only recently realized "Oh, yeah, I should probably write something about this"

Quick recap of my current situation, in case you've forgotten in the long time it's been since I've said anything in this thread:

-I'm the Miyoshi
-It's the 1480's, about 70 or so turns into the game as of the end of Chapter 53 (Chapter 54 will take me forward a bit)
-I have a few cities, have met a few people, interacted with the Ainu lots (some of them gave me tech!). Near the end of the first age right now.
-Fought a short war with the Oda a while ago that just had me kidnapping a worker of theirs, and more recently the Matsunaga attacked me and we basically fought to a standstill.

 

[Toxicman007]

Woo! Chox hasn't forgotten this

 

[Lord Bigfoot]

This lives!!??

 

[choxorn]

Chapter 54: The Feudal Age

With the War against the Matsunaga getting farther and farther behind them, the Miyoshi generally decided that they preferred more peaceful endeavors, while at the same time making sure that they were fully prepared for the next time they inevitably had to fight. After all, they'd gotten into two short wars with their neighbors recently, and they'd only really been interacting with their neighbors at all for the past 30 years or so.

One such peaceful endeavor was technology, either from the fruits of their own research or that of other clans. And, by other clans, they meant "The Ryuzoji, the only one of our neighbors who apparently aren't total nincompoops," who were generally the only other clan who knew anything they didn't. Maybe something about being separated from everyone else on their own island made them smart.

Anyway, in 1487, the Ryuzoji's shiny new technology that nobody had but them were some religious ideas they referred to as the Precepts of Shinto. The immediate benefits of this technology weren't huge, but it enabled the construction of a Shrine that was apparently pretty amazing [Specifically, the Izumo Shrine Small Wonder, which is basically, for a coastal city, Harbor + Offshore Platform (like a harbor, but for shields instead of food) + Commercial Dock (like a harbor, but for gold instead of food) + 2 content faces)]. The Miyoshi liked this shiny new technology, but the Ryuzoji weren't yet willing to share it, wanting to have their shiny new technology all to themselves for a bit before letting anyone else touch it.

Another peaceful endeavor that the Miyoshi were fond of was exploring. Right now, all they really had doing that was the Galley they'd sent East in 1487, though that was more than the nothing they had during the war, and in 1488 it had gone far enough East to start showing the Miyoshi previously known features of the Honshu coastline, like the Tokugawa capitol of Hamamatsu.

A few months later, the Miyoshi naval exploratory capacity was doubled when the city of Kasuga finished construction of its own Galley and sent it West. It immediately ran into a similar ship built by the Ainu, and following a brief battle, the Ainu Galley was sunk.

Around the same time, the Miyoshi got to enjoy the fruits of another peaceful endeavor they looked favorably upon: city-building. Some settlers had reached a location on the coast Southeast of Nara near some fishes and the border with the Matsunaga that looked like a nice place for a city- one of the last few places in the immediate vicinity that there was actually room for a city. They got to work, and in July, 1488, the city of Otsu was founded:



With no more real room to build new cities, the work being done by peasant workers and citizens to improve either the cities themselves or the surrounding terrain, and technology taking a long time to research, most of the Miyoshi's attention was focused on the things their exploring Galleys were doing.

The Western one was doing quite a lot. In October, 1488, some Ainu Galleys tried to avenge the loss of the Galleys that had been sunk a few months prior. Emphasis on "tried"- the Miyoshi Galley repelled the attack without so much as scratching the paint on its sails.

In 1489, it reached the source of the Orange borders that had been just at the edge of the Miyoshi's maps for many years now: The island of Shikoku. It wasn't a big island, but it couldn't be called a small one, either. The Orange borders belonged to a clan that called itself the Chosokabe, after its leader, Chosokabe Motochika. As with most of the other clans the Miyoshi interacted with, they found little interesting about the Chosokabe, other than that they were pretty backwards. They were inclined to blame that on their isolation to Shikoku, but the Ryuzoji were on their own on Kyushu and that never hurt them. On the other hand, Kyushu looked a bit bigger than Shikoku. Maybe. They'd know when they actually had good maps of the islands.



A bit after first meeting the Chosokabe, the Galley ventured into Chosokabe territory to sink another Ainu Galley. The Chosokabe, despite not having to deal with the Ainu Galley anymore, didn't seem particularly happy that there was now a Miyoshi Galley in their territory. Bunch of ingrates...

The Galley proceeded to continue mapping out the coastline of Shikoku, while the other Galley continued east along the coastline of Honshu. In July, 1490, it finally passed the territory of the Tokugawa and Imagawa and ran into a new clan, the yellow-wearing Hojo, led by Hojo Ujiyasu. As with most of the other clans the Miyoshi had encountered, they found little interesting about them, or really anything different about them at all other than their colors.



Shortly after this, the Galley was attacked from the South by an Ainu Galley, which ended very badly for the Ainu Galley.

In between all of the news of exploration that was going on, the Miyoshi noticed some Matsunaga and Urakami settlers heading Northeast, sometimes through their territory. They thought little of it, as there didn't appear to be any actual locations anywhere near them for the settlers to settle, and if they went really far to the Northeast to grab something, it would be pretty useless to them.

Over the course of mapping out Shikoku, the exploring Galleys quickly realized it was larger than they expected: In fact, it was large enough that the Chosokabe were able to exist comfortably on it despite, as they would discover in 1491, sharing it with another clan, the brown-wearing Ichijo, and their leader, Ichijo Kanesada.



They wondered if Kyushu was also large enough to house more than the Ryuzoji. It might explain how they researched so quickly, if either they had some unknown trading partners or they had more space than the average clan. Then again, size didn't seem to be helping some of the larger Honshu clans, like the Urakami and Mori.

Speaking of the Ryuzoji's rapid rate of advancement, it brought them more new technology in 1492: How to make bigger buildings with advanced Construction techniques and equipment. As with every new technology the Ryuzoji researched, the Miyoshi wanted it, but the Ryuzoji were hoarding it even more than they had hoarded their last new technology, Shinto Precepts.

But on the bright side, they also seemed to be valuing their religion less highly now, or valuing the new additions on the Miyoshi's World Map more highly, as they were finally willing to trade Shinto Precepts, even if they weren't willing to trade Construction, as long as they were given the Miyoshi knowledge of both money and the islands they were on in return.

Which was a trade the Miyoshi were perfectly happy with.



They would certainly have liked it if they could get the Ryuzoji's Construction secrets, though. Luckily, they would not be lacking for long. Towards the end of 1492, the Miyoshi's own investments in science, aided a bit by the money they had been building up and the money they had gotten from their recent trade with the Ryuzoji, allowed them to finish working out how best to mount their soldiers on Horseback for better effectiveness.



The Ryuzoji were very interested in this, and as much as they valued Construction, they were perfectly willing to teach the Miyoshi how to build better things if the Miyoshi would teach them how to ride horses, as long as they included a bit of money in the deal, a trade the Miyoshi were also perfectly willing to make.



Of course, being able to ride Horses was not useful knowledge unless the Miyoshi had any, and a quick glance told the Miyoshi that they didn't. Luckily, they didn't have to go far to find some: There were Horses just outside of the borders of Tottori, as well as on a peninsula east of Wakayama, the isolated Matsunaga city to the east of them. The easier ones to claim would certainly be the ones outside of Tottori, so they immediately had it get to work on building a temple to expand its borders and get those horses (and the nearby spices, for that matter), and, unsatisfied with the amount of time it would take, forced the citizens of Tottori to finish it in January of 1494, which had only the small, unfortunate side effect of killing a few thousand of them. But hey, priorities, and they certainly needed to claim those resources as quickly as possible.

In other goings-on, the two Miyoshi Galleys continued exploring to the West and East, respectively. The one to the west, having mapped out all but the North side of Shikoku, decided that they had a good enough idea of what it looked like, decided to head to Kyushu and map it out. In July, 1493, they started exploring the eastern coast, and made an interesting discovery: Just as Shikoku was big enough for more than one, so was Kyushu. The Ryuzoji were not alone on it, they had a dark-red-wearing neighbor, the Otomo clan. A meeting with their leader, Otomo Yoshishige, quickly established that they were not nearly as advanced as the Ryuzoji, putting to rest any questions as to whether having unknown neighbors and trading partners might aid the Ryuzoji's technological advancement. It seemed they were really just that good at research.



Continuing south along the eastern side of Kyushu, the Galley sunk an Ainu Galley in 1495, and then made an even more interesting discovery about the island in January of 1496: It was even bigger than expected, and there weren't two clans on Kyushu, but three. The third, the greenish-blue-wearing Shimazu, was by far the smallest of the three, and a quick meeting with their leader, Shimazu Yoshihisa, showed that they were even more backwards than the average clan.



However, this discovery was overshadowed by two more troubling developments in the previous few months.

The first event happened in the east. As the eastern Miyoshi Galley continued to explore, it discovered some mildly interesting things, like the point at which the Honshu coastline started going in a much more northernly direction and the Saito building a city quite far from home, but it wasn't really able to reveal anything else on account of battles it would soon have with the Ainu. In January of 1495, it fought and sunk an Ainu Galley, but another one sought revenge in October and would get it: The eastern Miyoshi Galley sunk into the depths of the Ocean, leaving the Miyoshi with only one direction they were exploring for the moment.

But the second, and far more troubling development: the Urakami city of Kakogawa attained enough culture to expand its borders. Normally, the Miyoshi didn't care about the exact borders of their neighbors, but this was different: this expansion claimed for the Miyoshi a particular stretch of land, which included Horses and Spices- the stretch of land outside of Tottori that was the reason the Miyoshi had been so desperate for that they had rushed the construction of Tottori's temple.

And to make matters more infuriating, the expansion happened almost literally right before the expansion of Tottori's borders [ONE FREAKING TURN!]. Any later, and the Miyoshi would have had the Horses and the Spices.

Understandably, the Miyoshi were not terribly happy about this. Reports emerged from the castle in Kyoto of an endless amount of curse words coming from the mouth of Miyoshi Nagayoshi, alternating with sentiments along the lines of "I'll get them for this, and when I do, their WHOLE GODDAMN CLAN WILL BURN TO THE GROUND!"

The Miyoshi certainly wanted to do something about this as soon as possible, but knew that their military was still a bit too lacking for that to be a good idea. Plus, they might be better off killing the Matsunaga first. And they'd certainly be better of waiting at least until they could restructure their government in a more efficient manner, something the Miyoshi scientists were working on.

Soon enough, the Miyoshi- for the moment- calmed down a bit about the Urakami, and returned their focus to what was now the only real interesting thing going on: The explorations of the galley in the west. The details of its mapping of Kyushu wasn't of too much interest, but its frequent encounters with Ainu Galleys were- it battled two in April, 1496 and a third in April, 1498, coming close to destruction but coming out on top each time. But it was looking bad for the Galley, and it was not clear how much longer it could last, especially not with more Ainu in the immediate vicinity.

While the Miyoshi Galley explored to expand their knowledge about the world- or at least their immediate geographical surroundings- the Miyoshi scientists worked to expand their knowledge in other ways. And in 1498, they seemed very happy about something, even more so than when they usually had a new technology to show.

Miyoshi Nagayoshi would soon see why.

"So, I take it you have finished your research on how best to organize our government? I am pleased with our fast technological progress as of late, if that is why you are here."

"Yes, yes we have. Basically, our ideas amount to being a bit less centralized, allowing the rulers of smaller individual areas to govern their own smaller territory more efficiently. We call it Feudalism."



"And there's more. Given our current rate of advancement and some revolutionary new ideas, particularly to do with this Feudalism, we think we're at a whole new age of development."



"I find this... very interesting, and very pleasing. I must agree with these ideas," said Miyoshi Nagayoshi, "and I think we'll have to get to restructuring the government into this new form... Feudalism... as soon as possible."



Sadly, "As soon as possible" wasn't quite as quick as Miyoshi Nagayoshi would have liked- it would be a few years before everything could get fully switched over, and the Miyoshi couldn't really even work on anything until then. So, for the moment, nothing at all really happened that they could take note of, other than some of the things their workers were doing and the continued explorations of their Galley in the west as it tried as hard is it could not to get sunk by the Ainu Galley that was chasing it.

But, all bad things must come to an end, and the period of anarchy that was accompanying the Miyoshi's government switch was no exception. In 1501, the Miyoshi finally emerged with a new, better, Feudal government:



The improvements were immediate and obvious. They were making more money, they were less plagued by corruption, they could support a large military far more easily. Perhaps most strikingly, the estimated time it would take them to research a technology had shrunk by almost two thirds as compared to before their switch.

With one of the most technologically advanced societies on Japan, a growing military, and a large economy, the Miyoshi were looking pretty good.

And they were both out of space to continue growing and needed at least one resource that they lacked that was within their grasp.

Sooner or later, they would need Horses badly enough to fight the Matsunaga or Urakami, or perhaps eventually both, for them.

Sooner or later, conflict would return to them, and hopefully, they would come out on top of whatever pile they found themselves in.



But they never said it would be easy...

 

[Toxicman007]

Nicely done once again, Chox!
I'm surprised you've made it past Feudalism without murdering any fellow Shoguns yet
Although I see there isn't much space left to expand peacefully into, so I'm hoping the next update is filled with warfare

 

[MTB4884]

Glad to see that the story will continue. Go Miyoshi!

 

[choxorn]

Chapter 55: Sailing Towards Conflict

Knowing that a war with the Matsunaga was probably going to happen at some point, the Miyoshi made a point of keeping a close eye on them- both any activity near their border, and anything else they could see. They hoped that in doing so, whenever a war happened, it would be one they'd be ready for- and preferably one they'd start.

Imagine their surprise, when, early in 1502, they saw a group of Matsunaga Crossbowmen spontaneously drop dead.

That sort of thing tended to happen to military units when their home country could no longer afford them, but the Matsunaga were hardly out of gold. The sudden collapse of those crossbowmen was seemingly random.

But oh well, that was just one less unit for them to kill, and they had better things to do than speculate about what the hell was going on with the Matsunaga.

Case in point: Their barely-intact-enough-to-float Galley exploring the coastline was still being chased by the same Ainu Galley that had been chasing it for the past couple of years. All they could do was keep sailing away at full speed and hope it would eventually give up chasing them.

Luckily, in a happy coincidence, there was also a Galley belonging to the Otomo in the area, and the Ainu for some reason decided to chase it, instead. It was in much better shape than the Miyoshi Galley, so it seems kind of odd that the Ainu decided to go after the more difficult target. The Galley must have had some kind of Ainu-attracting device on it. Whatever the reason, the occupants of the Miyoshi Galley were happy to no longer be in constant danger of ending up on the bottom of the sea.

It headed east, along the North coast of Honshu, mapping out the northern edge of Mori territory. It briefly entered Mori territory in 1504, which the Mori weren't particularly happy about. The Urakami were equally irritated when the Galley briefly passed through a city of theirs that was completely surrounded by Mori territory a few months later.

While the Galley was exploring, a few of Japan's other clans took note of the Miyoshi's interest in expanding their geographic knowledge and offered a few trades for their maps, most of which were rather laughable (The Imagawa asked for a World Map trade, but also wanted to learn Horseback Riding and be given some gold as part of the deal). The Chosokabe, however, offered a fairly reasonable deal in 1505, just a straight up World Map trade. Since they likely had full knowledge of Shikoku, which the Miyoshi knew very little about, they decided to accept.

The Chosokabe's map did indeed contain all of Shikoku- and a bit of Urakami territory too, for that matter.

Over the course of updating their maps, the Miyoshi noticed that everything seemed to be getting done twice as fast as they were used to (turn times went from 6 months to 3 months)

The first thing they noticed getting done faster as a result of this was their scientific research- in September, 1505, the Miyoshi scientists announced that they had finished work on Bojutsu.



Sadly, they were not the first- the Ryuzoji had beaten them to Bojutsu by a couple of years, which also meant that the Ryuzoji hadn't researched a different technology that the Miyoshi could trade for.

While the scientists were giving their report on all the things the Miyoshi could do with their new technology (build Yamabushi Warrior Monks, 2/5/2's who treat all terrain as roads), they asked why they hadn't yet used their no-longer-new knowledge of Feudalism to write a Book about the Art of War, which would give their clan some really amazing bonuses. Miyoshi Nagayoshi, upon looking at the benefits (Sun Tzu's in this is itself, plus Heroic Epic), agreed completely, and had Kyoto begin working on it in 1506.

While he was at it, he asked why the Miyoshi's military hadn't been upgraded yet- they certainly had both the Iron and the money now to improve all of their Ashigaru to the all-around better Bushi. The apparent answer was that they hadn't quite ever gotten around to it, but now seemed like as good of a time as any, so they started upgrading their military. They knew they'd probably need a strong military sooner or later, and they wanted to be sure they'd be prepared for needing it sooner.

And they were certainly already seeing the benefits- after that round of upgrades, the Miyoshi determined that their military was now significantly stronger than the Matsunaga's. They wouldn't have to worry about any attacks from them, and perhaps could attack the Matsunaga themselves...

While all this was happening, the Miyoshi Galley continued heading east along Honshu's northern coastline, passing the Mori and Urakami. Miyoshi Nagayoshi was somewhat pleased to hear when the Saito complained about the Galley being in their territory in 1507- not so much because he wanted to piss off the Saito (though that was an added bonus) as that he was glad the Galley was finally approaching the truly unknown parts of Honshu. Perhaps they'd soon run into the few clans the Miyoshi hadn't met yet occupying the far northeast of the island.

On the subject of ships, the Miyoshi scientists, following a couple of years of research, announced a discovery of how to make better ships and better places to put their ships in September, 1507, which they called Suieijutsu.



Miyoshi Nagayoshi thought this new technology was pretty awesome, but then wondered, "Wait, you came up with technology for how to make better ships and called it 'Swimming Technique'? Seems a bit odd for something that lets you better cross water without having to swim..."

"Well... The Ryuzoji researched it before we did, ask them how they came up with the name."

Miyoshi Nagayoshi decided he'd ask the Ryuzoji how they came up with their technology names if they ever researched a technology the Miyoshi weren't researching again so he could trade for it.

A bit after pondering that, he received word that a couple of wonders the other clans had been working on for a while had been finished. The Otomo finished work on one they called the Oracle in their capital city of Beppu, and, somewhat disappointingly for the Miyoshi, the Urakami built a Great Wall in Kobe that looked like it would do a pretty good job of keeping the Miyoshi away from those resources near Kakogawa that they had long coveted.



In October, the exploring Galley, somewhat happy about the news that the Miyoshi had better sailing technology but unhappy that they had a lot of sailing to do if they wanted to actually get home and access that technology, continued pressing north, and for the first time in a while, introduced the Miyoshi to a new clan. Well, sort of new- the Miyoshi had seen their Green borders further to the east on their maps before. Which made their appearance look a bit weirdly located- it appeared that whatever was here was cut off from the rest of the Green Clan's land by the Saito. They also found out the Green clan had an actual name, and didn't really like being called "the Green people"- they preferred going by their actual name, the Takeda, after their leader, Takeda Shingen.

They reminded the Miyoshi a bit of the Hojo- like the Hojo, they had 8 cities in the North, a fair amount of money, and every technology the Miyoshi had other than Suieijutsu.

Finding they had nothing to talk about in trade, the Galley continued heading east. It got a better look at Mitsuke, the city that was at the center of the borders they'd found. As they thought, it was on a peninsula that the Saito controlled the entrance to. They were also surprised to find that some Ainu also occupied the peninsula, and they had a strange military unit they'd never encountered before. The citizens of Mitsuke informed the crew of the Galley that they were called Ronin- wandering mercenaries who had no clan or master. Why they would serve the Ainu but not anyone else at this point was anyone's guess (The technology to build Ronin is like, at the end of this age, and I know nobody has it yet, or is even close!)

Strangely, the Ronin weren't bothering to attack Mitsuke, even though, as far as the Miyoshi could tell, they could have easily overwhelmed the city's defenders. (looked like one regular Ashigaru, which is a lot weaker than even a barbarian Ronin)

Shortly after answering the Miyoshi's question about the Ronin, the Takeda grew irritated at the fact that they hadn't left quickly enough, just like every other clan whose territory the Galley had passed through.

While walking around Kyoto in July of 1508, Miyoshi Nagayoshi noticed that the citizens of the city were a bit happier than before, and also seemed to have a greater variety of color among their clothes. When he asked one where they were getting all of this color, they told him that it was coming from the area around Maizuru, which had just accumulated enough culture to overwhelm Nagoya's influence and claim a bit more territory for the Miyoshi- including a source of Dyes.

Miyoshi was always happy to see his clan happy- and considering that despite the small size of their territory, they had 5 different resources that they considered luxurious (Dyes, Gems, Sake, Furs, Incense), a lot of his people were happy.

They had long been coveting a source of Dyes, and this was as good of a way as any to get one. There was another one in Western Matsunaga territory, near the city of Gobo. Getting it was always considered a good reason for going to war with the Matsunaga. Now, though, that was more of a bonus.

However, there were other reasons for going to war with the Matsunaga, like avenging their losses in their earlier war, and getting that source of Horses by Wakayama- a much easier target than Kakogawa now that Urakami had their Great Wall.

And it was also reported that year that the Matsunaga had just finished research on Feudalism and were in the process of switching governments- meaning now they'd be totally unprepared for a war. If the Miyoshi struck now, weak and barely capable of putting up significant resistance, they could easily defeat the Matsunaga in short order. It wasn't like there would ever be a more opportune time to attack them.



Miyoshi Nagayoshi conferred with his advisors and they were all in agreement: Fighting the Matsunaga would be a great idea. They could get Revenge for the Matsunaga's attack on them 30 years ago, acquire several resources they desired, eliminate an opponent, and only have to worry about enemies on two borders instead of three.

So it was decided. A few days later, the Matsunaga government- or rather, the lack of the Matsunaga government- were sent a message telling them to prepare themselves.



It's hard to say what they saw first- the Miyoshi's message or the groups of Bushi heading towards Kishiwada and Wakayama, but either way, they probably got the message that they were now at war.

And, given the Miyoshi's technological, economical, numerical, not-being-in-anarchy, and many other advantages, it wasn't looking good for the Matsunaga.

 

[Toxicman007]

Smash those Matsunaga!

 

[choxorn]

I've actually already played a bit longer than this, I just ended up stopping here because adding in the next bit (me fighting the Matsunaga) looked like it would make the last chapter take too long, so I ended up splitting it in two. That was the first half.

I'll have the second half shortly.

 

[choxorn]

Chapter 56: Revenge of the Miyoshi

It's safe to say that the Miyoshi's invasion of the Matsunaga caught them completely off guard. Embroiled in the anarchy of their attempted switch to Feudalism, they could barely mount any response to the fact that they were now at war at all. The only movement spotted by the Miyoshi before they were ready to continue advancing was a lone unit of Stone Crossbowmen venturing out of Wakayama into the surrounding hills in August, 1508.

It was a move that would prove totally fruitless, as those Crossbowmen were utterly wiped out by attacking Miyoshi Bushi in October.

"Pathetic," some of the Bushi were quoted as saying.

To the West, the Bushi outside of Kishiwada attempted to build on that success. The Battle of Kishiwada didn't exactly start out well for them, as the first unit of Bushi to attack suffered some heavy bombardment from Crossbowmen in the city and then was unable to inflict any casualties at all upon the Ashigaru in the city, but the other two units of Bushi avenged the death of the first unit, killing both of the units of Ashigaru garrisoning the city. Only the Crossbowmen remained.

The Crossbowmen sent an urgent message to Osaka to see if they could get some reinforcements, knowing they couldn't hope to hold the city on their own. The response was one lone unit of Crossbowmen heading towards the city in November- and thanks to the lack of adequate roads in Matsunaga territory, it wouldn't even come close to getting to Kishiwada in time.

And so, in January, 1509, the Miyoshi Bushi attacked again, killing that last remaining unit of Crossbowmen defending Kishiwada, and captured the city, as well as the Settlers that the Matsunaga had built for some reason, even though there clearly wasn't any available land left anywhere.



They could have gone up into the mountains to deal with the Matsunaga "Reinforcements" but decided it would be wiser for them to come out of the mountains.

They also got a clear view of the tiny Ainu-occupied island a bit off the coast, and found that it had a rather impressive number of Ronin (14!) on it. Must be some sort of Ainu/Ronin refuge, or something.

Emboldened by the Miyoshi's many recent successes, the two units of Bushi now camping on a hill outside of Wakayama decided to charge into the city, fully expecting the Ashigaru in Wakayama to go down as easily as the ones in Kishiwada had. They underestimated the advantage that the hilly terrain gave to the city's defenders. Both of the Bushi units were easily struck down by Ashigaru defending the city.

"Sorry, what was it you said 3 months ago? Pathetic?"

Unfortunately, at this point, that meant that there wasn't a whole lot the Miyoshi could do to keep up the attack... at least until the survivors of Kishiwada healed, and they got some more units together to replace the ones that had died.

The Matsunaga were certainly happy for the reprieve- the "reinforcements" that originally were heading towards Kishiwada decided that staying in the mountains rather than face certain death at the hands of the Bushi in Kishiwada was a great idea, and more importantly, the brief stop in the action gave them enough time to reorganize their government- in June, 1509, the Matsunaga emerged as a Feudalism, following nearly a year of anarchy.

"Well, that makes things a bit harder for us..." said Miyoshi Nagayoshi upon hearing the news, "but it doesn't matter. We're still bigger, stronger, and more technologically advanced than them."

As an example of their technological advancement, in July, the Miyoshi sent their first unit of Yamabushi up into the Mountains where the crossbowmen had been camping for the past few months with orders to kill them all. As an example of why technology only meant so much, those Yamabushi retreated and ran as fast as they could, having failed to so much as touch the Crossbowmen, who were fortified up there pretty well. You'd think that having "Mountain" in their name would make Yamabushi a bit better at fighting in them, but apparently not.

But, well-fortified or not, it wasn't like the Crossbowmen could do much to keep three now-full-strength units of Bushi from heading out of Kishiwada to attack Gobo.

Inexplicably, the Crossbowmen responded to this by... leaving the mountains, chasing after the retreating Yamabushi. As if they had any hope of actually catching them...

The Bushi began attacking Gobo in October. This time, the feeble Matsunaga defenses could barely even scratch them as the three Bushi units cut down an Ashigaru unit, then another Ashigaru unit, and then finally a unit of Crossbowmen, and Gobo became Miyoshi.



Only Wakayama and Osaka remained among Matsunaga cities the Miyoshi actually cared about taking. If only the bumpy terrain around Wakayama wasn't making things so difficult, they could be done with this war sooner...

While the war was happening, news of it periodically reached the Galley exploring the coast of Honshu to find new people. They celebrated, and sent back news of their own explorations: In January, 1510, they found two new colors of borders to the north of the Takeda's land, one a pale yellow and the other a gray. The Gray Clan was too far inland for them to make contact even if it was close enough to make out, but they could easily see the Pale Yellow clan on the coast- the ones who called themselves the Uesugi, after their leader, Uesugi Kenshin.



The Uesugi were about as large as their neighbors, the Takeda and the Hojo, but not as wealthy or technologically advanced.

Speaking of the Hojo, a bit after the Miyoshi learned of the existence of the Uesugi, an emissary of the Hojo appeared in Kyoto, with what he referred to as a "humble request" and the Miyoshi referred to as an "arrogant demand"



"Destroy us?" asked Miyoshi Nagayoshi, "There's quite a bit of space between the two of us, in case you haven't noticed. Or are you just going to spend a few years marching your army through a couple of other clans and then try and kill us?"

The emissary didn't seem to have much of a response to this, and headed back to Hojo territory to report his unfortunate failure.

In February, the Matsunaga once again responded to the continuing Miyoshi onslaught the only way they knew how: By sending a single unit of crossbowmen at them.

The Miyoshi responded by killing said crossbowmen with their own in April, and immediately after, they sent some Bushi to kill the crossbowmen that the Yamabushi had had so much trouble with earlier. The Bushi had no such trouble, though not fighting in mountains perhaps had something to do with it.

In June, the Miyoshi researchers announced another scientific breakthrough, in the form of something called Bujutsu. Miyoshi was somewhat amused to find they couldn't come up with technology names that didn't involve "Jutsu" somehow, saddened that it didn't have any immediate military applications, and irritated that once again, the Ryuzoji had beaten them to a new technology by a few months. If only he could spend some more money on research...



With the Bushi all far away from being able to actually do much to Wakayama, the Miyoshi decided to send their Yamabushi to engage in some hit-and-run attacks on the city to weaken its defenses in preparation for the arrival of some Bushi- or maybe even take the city themselves. In July, 1510, they killed one of the units of Ashigaru defending the city.

In August, the Matsunaga continued their patented "Send one unit of Crossbowmen at a time" strategy, and although this time they switched it up a bit by having their Crossbowmen attack rather than wait for the Miyoshi to come to them, this strategy still failed, as the Crossbowmen they sent to attack a unit of Bushi near Osaka were easily crushed by said Bushi.

To the far North, the Galley continued its journey to seek out new clans, hoping to find the Gray-bordered one they'd seen in the distance earlier. After a few months of sailing past the Uesugi, they finally found the Gray borders again in October, 1510, and were able to make contact. They learned that the Gray-wearing people, the Mogami, were led by Mogami Yoshiakira, and other than that they didn't have much to say about these people- unlike the other clans of the far north, they weren't large, or wealthy, or technologically advanced.



In sending home news of their discovery, they also pointed out that the Hojo had recently researched a technology, and would probably be willing to trade it. The Miyoshi immediately contacted the Hojo to talk about this.

"Yeah, we've researched a new technology. We'll happily teach you our new technology if you teach us yours. We call our new one Calligraphy, we use it to make our writing better. Among its other uses, we can use it to help clans who haven't found each other yet contact each other. We see you haven't yet met one of the clans we know of- would you like us to introduce you?"

"How about you just give us your map, and we can go talk to them ourselves?"

"Fair enough."



The Hojo World Map was rather impressive- it seemed they had taken as much interest in geography as the Miyoshi. The Hojo World Map contained not just a full map of the North, including themselves, the Takeda, the Uesugi, the Mogami, and the purple-bordered clan that the Hojo had spoken of...



...But it also contained an almost-full map of the island of Kyushu, as well as a couple of tiny islands just off of Kyushu's coast that had small villages under the control of the Ryuzoji and... the Matsunaga???



"How the hell did the Matsunaga even get people on that island?" the Miyoshi asked

"Your guess is as good as ours."

Whatever, thought the Miyoshi. The Matsunaga weren't long for this Earth anyway. And they were certainly happy that they now had a basically full map of all three of the big Japanese islands that mattered (Hokkaido doesn't count, it's not in this scenario!), and a lot of smaller ones as well.

The next couple of months were spent waiting for the bulk of the Miyoshi's forces to arrive to take Wakayama, and for the Galley to reach the purple borders. To pass the time, the Miyoshi military continued playing its favorite game, which they called "Kill the pitiful Crossbowmen the Matsunaga sent to 'counter-attack.'" They were rather good at this game, killing a unit of Crossbowmen in January, 1511 and another in April.

Also in April, the Miyoshi were finally ready to attack Wakayama. 4 units of Bushi and the Yamabushi waited outside the city for the order to charge.

"Wait for it... NOW!"

The Second Battle of Wakayama can only be described as a massacre. The city was well-defended by 3 units of Ashigaru and 2 of Crossbowmen, and its position on a hill had served it well in the First Battle. All of that defense had about as much effect on the attacking Miyoshi as a pebble would have on an avalanche. The Bushi stormed into the city, barely affected at all by any of the Crossbow bolts or swords that tried to hurt them. The first, then the second, then the third unit of Ashigaru all fell the horde of Bushi, then some more Bushi killed one of the two units of Crossbowmen.

Finally, the Yamabushi came in to finish the job. They swiftly and effortlessly eliminated the remaining crossbowmen defending the city, and that was it for a city that had been a thorn in the Miyoshi's side for months. Better yet: 4 groups of Workers were in the city, and now they were also theirs.

The leader of the Yamabushi, Hiyoshi, who had commanded the entire battle, was praised for his expert leadership that no doubt was a major factor in making the Second Battle of Wakayama turn out a lot better than the first, and given a big promotion. He would soon lead a massive Army of Bushi.





It was somewhat disappointing that the borders of Wakayama weren't quite enough to claim the Horses to the East of the city, but no matter. The Miyoshi would simply rush the construction of a temple as soon as they could to bring the Horses within their borders.

In July, 1511, the Galley finally finished the mission they'd been on for decades: They met the final clan. Their leader, Date Masamune, informed the Miyoshi that they called themselves the Date. They reminded the Miyoshi a lot of their neighbors, the Mogami.



"So, 18 clans there are... well, soon to be 17, but who's counting?"

But, though the Miyoshi continued their advance towards Osaka to finish off the Matsunaga once and for all, they would not go down without a fight, even though the Second Battle of Wakayama had all but destroyed their military. They could still send out their one-unit-of-crossbowmen-every-once-in-awhile attack in August, 1511, and this one was more effective than the ones they had sent out in the past.

This one was headed towards the city of Gobo- which, in their haste to reach Osaka, the Miyoshi hadn't actually left any defensive units in- or any defensive units anywhere close enough to to actually reach it before the Crossbowmen did.

And there was also no way they could take Osaka before the Crossbowmen reached Gobo.

So, in October, 1511, they did the only thing they could about it: Ensure that by the time the Crossbowmen reached Gobo, there was no "Gobo" left for them to take. It wasn't like it would survive being attacked by them anyway.



If nothing else, this "attack" meant that the Crossbowmen would be unable to get back to Osaka before the Miyoshi were ready to start attacking it.

It tried, but in January, 1512, it was still pretty far away from Osaka- and the Miyoshi were beginning their attack on the city.

Matsunaga Hisahida knew that he was in danger, but he understandably insisted on remaining in Osaka- better here, surrounded by many Ashigaru and Crossbowmen, then out in the open.

Unlike with the previous cities they'd attacked, they expected Osaka to be very well defended, and prepared accordingly- with plenty of Crossbowmen and Bushi, including Hiroshi's new Army, and they even brought along some Catapults, which bombarded the city to start off the Battle of Osaka, weakening the city's defenses so the rest of the military could have an easier time.

Hiyoshi went in first, with his army of Bushi, knowing that it was by far the strongest of the attackers, and wanting to test out his new army's battle prowess. The Army performed about as well as could have been hoped, taking down 2 of Osaka's Ashigaru units with ease. 2 Down, a bunch more to go.

The Bushi outside of Hiyoshi's army were quick to follow. Osaka's defenders were numerous and tenacious, but they could only delay the inevitable. The Bushi killed a third and then a fourth unit of Ashigaru, and yet still another appeared to fight them off. Finally, the third Bushi attack killed Osaka's fifth Ashigaru unit, and the only Ashigaru that remained in the city had been injured by the catapults earlier.

So the city's two units of Crossbowmen went out to try to keep the invaders out, but they too could do little. A combination of Bushi and Crossbowmen destroyed them both.

Only one unit of Ashigaru remained standing between the Miyoshi and Matsunaga Hisahida. Injured from the earlier Catapult bombardment, they could do little but cower helplessly as their lives were ended by Miyoshi Crossbowmen.

Finally, with nothing else standing in their way, another unit of Miyoshi Crossbowmen entered Osaka's Palace, and fired their weapons at Hisahida. He tried to fight back, but there was only so much one man could do against a hail of crossbow bolts. He soon died, and with him, the Matsunaga.

The Miyoshi watched the smoking ruins of Osaka, and smiled as they heard reports that the other two remaining isolated Matsunaga cities appear to have spontaneously disappeared.



They were even more pleased by a report that the Miyoshi had the strongest military in Japan, by a large margin.

1 down, 16 to go. Who would be next?

 

[choxorn]

Looking back through my old chapters of this and my previous story, it appears a good number of my pictures have spontaneously vanished.

Screw you, Imageshack.

I'll have to re-upload them at some point, I'll try to get to that fairly soon.

 

[Quintillus]

Nice job taking down the Matsunaga! My guess is the Oda are next, with the improved Urakami defences.

Looking back through my old chapters of this and my previous story, it appears a good number of my pictures have spontaneously vanished.

Screw you, Imageshack.

I'll have to re-upload them at some point, I'll try to get to that fairly soon.

I vaguely recalled the ImageShack deletes images that aren't viewed in a certain amount of time; Wikipedia indicates that period of time is one year. That's part of the reason I went with Photobucket. So far that seems to have worked, although there was a close call at one point when Photobucket decreased its free limit from 1 GB to 0.5 GB, which I was slightly over at the time. They didn't delete the excess, though, and by deleting unimportant images I was under again and able to add to stories.

Wikipedia also indicates that ImageShack no longer accepts free uploads, which may be a contributing factor as well. I see you're using Imgur now; that might be why?

 

[choxorn]

Yeah, I used ImageShack for a long time but then switched to Imgur a couple of years ago when they stopped allowing free images.

Imgur for the win.

 

[choxorn]

Chapter 57: Gold, War, and Peace

No sooner than the news spread that the Matsunaga had been destroyed that the Miyoshi began their plans to resettle the area they once occupied.

At the same time, they knew that the other clans would likely also seek to claim that area if they could, so to keep them from getting any ideas about that, they had the many military units they had down there occupy every square inch of the coastline to keep anyone else from getting a foothold down there. In the meantime, they started putting together some settlers in their bigger cities. It looked like there would be room down there for about 3 cities, so 3 settlers they would build.



It took them until July of 1512 to get that blockade fully set up, though, and even when it was mostly there, it didn't exactly stop the other clans from trying- a few by land, and a few by sea, as evidenced by the ones they could see coming and the ones that they saw getting attacked by Ainu Galleys (The Ainu lost)

A bit before they fully set the blockade of the coast up, the Miyoshi scientists announced the completion of yet another technology that had "Jutsu" in its name: Kyujutsu, which apparently meant something like "The technique of Shooting Arrows at people" judging from the benefits it gave the Miyoshi- now, rather than leaving all their ranged-attacking needs to weak stone crossbows, they could make big bows. And, for some reason, those big bows made attacking from the sea easier. (Samurai Archers in this are 6/3/1's with Amphibious, for some reason)



Having researched a new technology, they wanted to see if they could trade it around anywhere. They saw that the Hojo, Ryuzoji, and Takeda all had their own new technology, something to do with books- but the Hojo and Ryuzoji all also had Kyujutsu. Luckily, the Takeda didn't, which made for a perfect trade opportunity between the Takeda and Miyoshi, which both were fairly happy about:



Though the blockade of the coast seemed to make most of the Galleys in the area go away, the Urakami and the Saito had settler pairs heading towards the area on land, and neither seemed deterred by this blockade, as there were still a few unoccupied spaces they could get to if they just went through Miyoshi territory. The Miyoshi could have told them to get the hell out, but didn't really feel in a good position to be threatening right now with most of their military keeping up the blockade, and they also knew that they had no chance of getting their settlers into the unoccupied area before the Miyoshi could settle it, and even if they could, they could have some of their other military units get in their way anyway.

The Miyoshi also became aware of some more... interesting developments elsewhere in November of 1512, which prompted a few quick meetings with Miyoshi Nagayoshi and his advisors.

"Well, one has to deal with the Ryuzoji..."

"Did they beat us to a tech again?"

"No, they might be involved in a war with the Otomo."

"Might be?"

"Well, we don't have any embassies to tell us if the other clans decide to fight each other, but we can see that the Ryuzoji now own the formerly Otomo city of Saiki. That doesn't necessarily mean they're at war, but it's pretty likely."

"Hmm... Interesting. Anything else?"

"The Hojo are building a wonder. Kabuki Theatre, they call it. Nothing too interesting, just makes some people in the city they build it in happier." (It's Shakespeare's Theatre, basically, minus the ability for the city that builds it to grow above size 12, because that can be done without any buildings in this scenario)

In better, domestic news, they noted that the workers outside of Wakayama had finally finished the road to the Horses outside the city they'd been building since the city had been captured.



And, even better: in March, 1513, they finally finished work on the wonder they'd been building for a long time in Kyoto: Sun Tzu's Art of War, giving them a huge number of benefits, the big ones being Barracks in all their cities and improved that studying the Art might give them more leaders of Hiyoshi's caliber...



...and also one they hadn't expected when they started it: that knowing all about war would spur their entire clan to improve at, well, everything, at least for a little while...



It also forced the others who had been also trying to learn more about the Art of War to redirect their efforts at something else, like the Takeda, who switched their efforts over to collecting as many books as they could in one place to learn more technologically, immediately finishing this Great Library in their capital, Nagaoka:



Since they were already one of the most technologically advanced clans, knowing anything by default that at least 2 of the others knew wouldn't help them as much as it would help some of the other clans out there, but it would certainly help them every time the Ryuzoji, Hojo, and/or Miyoshi beat them to a tech.

On account of Kyoto's size, it immediately decided to start helping out with the re-settling of former Matsunaga territory by gathering some settlers. Maizuru had just finished its own group, which headed south in April towards the vicinity of what was once Osaka.

It was followed by a group from Kyoto in July, and another group from Kyoto in October, which headed to the Southeastern edge of former Matsunaga territory and what used to be Gobo, respectively.

In the meantime, the Takeda, Ryuzoji, and Hojo continued researching faster than the Miyoshi were, all researching the technologies of Heihojutsu and Kenjutsu in the span of a few months. Well, rather, a combination of research, trading, and the Great Library, more like it, but it was still annoying to the Miyoshi, especially since they were almost about to research Heihojutsu themselves, finishing it in December, 1513.



On the bright side, they did have the satisfaction of beating someone just barely to something themselves in January, 1514: their Settlers beat the Urakami to the former location of Osaka. Well, actually, to a location near the former location of Osaka- they decided a move to the coast would be a good idea. They also didn't want to name their new city after the capital of their great enemy, but weren't feeling terribly creative, so just decided to change a few consonants and ended up calling their new city "Obama"



It made the Urakami very sad, as even though they knew they had little chance of actually getting there in time, they almost where there. Dejected, they turned around and went home. A bit to the North, so did the Saito.

The founding of Obama was followed shortly thereafter (specifically, in April) but the founding of Takatsuki on the coast to the Southeast...



...and the founding of Yokkaichi on the ruins of Gobo, in July.



The large Miyoshi military force that had been down on the coast keeping the other clans' Galleys and Settlers away happily relocated to more helpful locations in the North, near the Urakami and Oda borders.

Sadly, in October, bad news was heard from the Galley that had long been exploring Honshu: it encountered some Ainu, and though it had time to fortify and prepare for being attacked, it could not escape. It managed to sink one of the attacking Ainu Galleys, but succumbed to the second that attacked it. And thus ended the long journey of the exploring Galley. A fun and interesting journey it was.

In other bad news, all three of the Miyoshi's technological rivals (the Takeda, Hojo, and Ryuzoji) got ahead of them technologically, researching something called "Naginatajutsu" in March, 1515. Oh well: At least this time what they beat them to wasn't what they were currently researching.

Still, that meant all three of them now had a two-tech lead on the Miyoshi, which certainly wasn't a good thing.

Luckily, that was about to end, on account of the technology the Miyoshi finished researching in September: Philosophy. It didn't give them much in itself, but it was something nobody else had- and the knowledge it gave in thinking about knowledge was enough to immediately give them another technology, in the field of diplomacy.



This new Diplomatic Finesse could lead to the creation of a War Council to talk about the many diplomatic issues- perhaps even end their long period of sort-of-civil war. Building it would be powerful, so the Miyoshi new there was no way in hell they were going to let anyone else know about this.

They didn't have any serious reservations about letting anyone else know about Philosophy, though, so they traded it to the Takeda for Naginatajutsu. They also traded with the Ryuzoji for Kenjutsu, although they unfortunately had to throw in some Dyes to get the Ryuzoji to agree to the deal. Oh well, it was no big deal...



Their new technologies mostly helped in the area of defense- allowing the upgrade of Miyoshi's weapons again (once they possessed the money to do so) and to build better Spears than the terrible ones they currently could (Samurai Spearmen, 4/7/1)

And, of course, there was the War Council, which the Miyoshi decided they had to immediately begin construction of in Kyoto.

As usual, the Ryuzoji, Hojo, and Takeda beat the Miyoshi to new technological advance in January, 1516- specifically, something called "Iajutsu". The Miyoshi continued to stubbornly refuse to trade any of them Diplomatic Finesse, especially not for something that wouldn't let them do anything but upgrade Miyoshi's weapons a bit.

A few months later, the Miyoshi gained confirmation of something they'd only suspected for the past several years: The Ryuzoji and Otomo were at war. They knew this because the Ryuzoji gained control of the Otomo city of Nobeoka- and given its location, they couldn't have possibly gotten it without military force.

The Miyoshi wondered how much long the Otomo could last. Probably not long.



In fact, the Otomo wouldn't even last to the end of the year.

In June, the Ryuzoji military overwhelmed the defenses of the Otomo capital, Beppu, and killed Daimyo Otomo Yoshishige. Beppu was burned to the ground, taking its Oracle with it. The few other remaining Otomo cities disappeared shortly thereafter.



A few months later, the Hojo finished work on the Kabuki Theatre they'd been building in their capital Tsuchiuru, for the past couple of years. Well... that seemed kind of fast...



Upon giving him this news, Miyoshi's advisors also decided to warn him of some other news from the Miyoshi's other leading competitors, the Ryuzoji and Takeda.

"Before you ask, it doesn't have to do with technology. No... it's the military. It seems we've grown weaker than them. We've been doing well, perhaps, to use our Golden Age to build lots of infrastructure, but we've also been falling behind some of the others militarily, and we should really seek to correct that."

Miyoshi decided to upgrade himself to what, by his count, was his 5th "level" of upgrades around that time, and decided he'd upgrade again once the scientists finished working on Iajutsu.

At the same time, the gaping void that used to be the Otomo attracted attention from clans all over Japan- and unlike when the Matsunaga died and the Miyoshi tried to keep them out, the Ryuzoji weren't doing a particularly good job of turning them away. The Shimazu and Ichijo both had cities on Kyushu in ex-Otomo territory by February, 1517. The Shimazu were to be expected, as the bordered what used to be the Otomo, but the Ichijo had to send settlers the (admittedly, short) distance across the water between Shikoku and Kyushu.

Back to domestic news, the Miyoshi scientists finished their work on Iajutsu in March, enabling Miyoshi to upgrade himself to his 6th level a month later, which he did.



It also enabled the Miyoshi to see that their 3 technological rivals all had researched something called Bushido, which was much more useful militarily than the many Jutsus they'd been researching over the past decade or so. Despite Bushido's apparent goodness, the Miyoshi still decided that trading anybody Diplomatic Finesse was too risky to be worth it.

Even though there was no other wonders for others to switch to the War Council from, it still was far enough in the future that the Miyoshi didn't want to trade it- and it only got farther when the end of their Golden Age sadly came in March, 1518.



They didn't want anyone else to get the War Council- not the Hojo, not the Takeda, not some random backwards clan, and certainly not the militant Ryuzoji, who were likely responsible for the destruction of the recently-built Ichijo city on Kyushu in December of 1517.

No, this was something the Miyoshi wanted to be absolutely certain that they could get for themselves.

 

[jiikoo]

A brilliant chapter

 

[choxorn]

Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.

 

[choxorn]

Going through the fix-old-pictures thing I mentioned a few posts ago. The Mesopotamia part now has all working pictures again, for anyone that cares.

It's kind of hard to tell if anyone cares when about 2 people post every time I update.

 

[MTB4884]

I suspect, choxorn, that there are a lot more folks reading this great story than posting in it, for whatever reason. I'd say go ahead and update the pictures when possible, as that can only help the story. Looking forward to reading more of the adventures of the Miyoshi!

 

[durian]

I'm a long time lurker who just wants to say that I loved reading every chapter. Please keep it up Choxorn!

 

[choxorn]

I suspect, choxorn, that there are a lot more folks reading this great story than posting in it, for whatever reason. I'd say go ahead and update the pictures when possible, as that can only help the story. Looking forward to reading more of the adventures of the Miyoshi!

Yeah, I just wish more people would post in it. It tends to get me motivated to play this better if it seems like people are eagerly anticipating the next update, and it doesn't really look like they are when I only get one or two posts per update.

It's also nice to have the update posts spread out a bit more, if there's a ton on one page all the pictures take a while to load.