With the Ogigayatsu no more, we must now contemplate our next course of action. To the west lie the Imagawa. With their mere two provinces, and with Suruga being a particularly rich province that is renowned for its learned scholars, they are a tempting target. Unfortunately, they are allied with the powerful Takeda whose thundering cavalry are feared throughout all of Japan. To the north are the Yamanouchi, the erstwhile allies of the Ogigayatsu. They are weak and crushing them would be child’s play. However, reaching their home province of Kozuke would involve a long trek across the length of Musashi province and holding onto it once it is ours will prove troublesome. Furthermore, they seem to have lost the heart to fight and are unlikely to be a threat anytime soon. Perhaps it would be better to leave them as a bulwark against the more powerful clans farther north.
To our east are the Satomi. They control three provinces but have no allies. Promisingly, they are already engaged in a war with the Satake clan. Their two southernmost provinces Shimosa and Kazusa will be easily defended once they are ours. We decide to make them our next conquest. To that end, we send diplomats to the Imagawa and the Yamanouchi to sign trade agreements with them. This should send them a signal that we have no aggressive motives towards them. We already possess a trade agreement with the Takeda. Not only will these agreements improve our relationship with these clans over time, they will also generate a modest income. To the Satomi, we maintain our silence and let them read what they will into it.
As spring of 1546 arrives, we decide to make Sagami province, with its blacksmith specialists, our primary troop recruiting grounds. Much koku is invested in expanding the armorer works. This will allow all troops recruited here to be equipped with much better armor. We will not waste the lives of our loyal soldiers unnecessarily. Izu province of course will be where we raise the koku needed to fund our military campaign. As soon as construction of the market in Izu is complete, we recruit a Metsuke there, our very first agent. The Metsuke are secret police, tasked with ferreting out enemy ninja and overseeing the cities. Like all agents, they can be sent into territory held by other clans with no consequence, making them valuable scouts. While the Metsuke are not as effective at spying as the Ninja, for now, he is the best we have so we send him eastwards as soon as possible towards the Satomi lands.
In autumn, with our troops recovered somewhat from their earlier battle, we declare war against the Satomi and take Shimosa with the defenders offering only token resistance. At the same time, we learn that the Satomi’s own war with the Satake is going well as they successfully take a province from them, leaving the Satake with only one province left. We cannot spot the main army of the Satomi and can only surmise that it is somewhere to the north.
Of course, all this maneuvering in the east means that our holdings in the west are almost completely undefended. We eye the Imagawa forces nervously. So it is with relief that we hear the news that the mighty Oda clan has gone to war against the Imagawa. Their Damiyo Oda Nobuhide himself leads their forces. While this means that our western flank is safe for now, we also know that we will have to deal with the Oda one day. Shortly after this we take Kazusa province and still there is no sign of the Satomi army. We do hear the news that the Satomi has completely destroyed the Satake and taken their last province from them.
With the conquest of the two Satomi provinces, we now control five of Japan’s provinces. This achievement brings our clan to the attention of the Shogun at Kyoto. We are not as yet a threat but neither will we be ignored from now on. We must be careful. Expand too quickly and all of the other clans will unite to fall upon us before we are ready.
In 1547, the last Imagawa province falls to the Oda. Since the Oda immediately move their forces away from us, we presume that they are not an immediate threat and negotiate a trade agreement with them. Still, it pays to be cautious and we spend a great deal of koku both to expand the fortifications at Sagami province and to build a sword dojo there. The Katana Samurai that we can train there will henceforth be the mainstay of our forces. We Hojo are castle builders and masters of siegecraft. Therefore we expect most of our battles to be centered around fortifications rather than on the open battlefield. This means that we have little need for cavalry while Katana Samurai will slaughter the spearmen and archers we expect to encounter.
With five provinces under our control we pause to replenish our forces and develop our lands. We need time to pacify the peasants in our newly acquired provinces and to allow our notoriety to die down somewhat. Our first priority is to expand rice production. Our second priority is to improve our roads to enable our forces to be repositioned more quickly in the event of an attack from an unexpected direction. In the meantime, our Metsuke enters deep into Satomi lands and finds their main army in Hitachi province just to the north. It appears that they are building up their forces to mount a campaign against us. Since we are much larger and wealthier, dragging out the confrontation is to our advantage so we continue to train new troops of our own. Then just as we enter the spring of 1548, we learn that the Takeda has finally gone to war against the Oda. This is excellent news. We can only hope that these two mighty clans will bloody each other for as long as possible.
Later that year, we train our first Ninja just as the Satomi army starts moving south towards us. Our own Daimyo Hojo Ujiyatsu is prepared to receive the attack in Shimosa province. Our Metsuke reports that our own army is somewhat larger but the enemy army contains four generals, with the cavalry that entails. Unfortunately, our Metsuke’s skills are insufficient to provide a complete report of their army’s composition. We hope that the enemy will attempt to directly assault our castle, allowing us to fight a defensive battle under favorable conditions. Finally, we are about to have a battle worthy of a Daimyo!
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