User:Kamek98/Shogun 2/Choshu/Third Battle of Tsushima Fields

The Third Battle of Tsushima Fields was a battle between the armies of the Chōshū Domain and the Tsushima-Fuchū Domain during the prelude to the Boshin war. The battle was the final of the three battles known as the Battle of Tsushima Fields and was the the latter of two consecutive in August and September. The first was fought in May of 1865.

The battle concluded in a decisive Chōshū victory.

Background
After the daimyo of the Chōshū domain, Mōri Tanefusa, landed a naval force on Tsushima Island in early May in an attempt to capture the island and further expand the Imperialist influence throughout Nagasaki Prefecture he quickly defeated Shogunate-loyal forces under the Tsushima-Fuchū Domain in the Battle of Nichita Village on May 10, 1865. The army was cut short in a phyyric victory and the army available for besieging Tsushima Castle was far less in numbers than Mōri Tanefusa had expected to be leading and thus during what would become known as the Crocodile Siege ended in complete failure and despite Sō Yoshiakira being killed in action his son Sō Shinsaku was able to gun down Mōri Tanefusa following the final stages of the siege during the First Battle of Tsushima Fields. The news of Mōri Tanefusa's death quickly reached his home province of Nagato from which he launched his navy from in order to amphibiously land on Tsushima Island. With no sons of eligible age the role of daimyo was given to his wife until the young Mōri would come of age. Feeling unsuited for the role, she adopted a young military general serving the Chōshū Domain named Masakagi Korenobu. He was renamed Mōri Korenobu and he was installed as daimyo of the Chōshū Domain.

Having the eastern Chōshū army gaining much success over the early stages of the Chōshū-Tottori wars, Korenobu saw no reason in returning to Tsushima Island with another invasion force.

Transferred by Ijuin Takasaki's naval fleet, the army of 1,000 landed on Tsushima Island once again on 15 August, just a few months after the last Tsushima invasion, and engaged in the Second Battle of Tsushima Fields on the 19th of August. The battle ended in a victory for the Chōshū army but nearly half the army was wiped out during the battle against 800 Tsushima-Fuchū soldiers.

Refusing to retreat back to Nagato, Mōri Korenobu decided to remain on Tsushima Island until Sō Shinsaku surrendered the island and along with it the rest of the Tsushima-Fuchū domain.

The battle
It wasn't until the 11th of September when Sō Shinsaku made any movements. He left Tsushima Castle and brought along an army of 490 soldiers, primarily firearm units. The siege wasn't pressuring Sō Shinsaku because the Chōshū army wasn't using any siege weapons and because of this the Chōshū couldn't continuously camp outside the castle. Instead, they camped near Nichita Village (the name Mōri Tanefusa gave the unnamed village in his journal) where three battles had occurred earlier in the year. The Battle of Nichita Village occurred inside the village and near the Nichita Village woods. The First and Second Battles of Tsushima Fields occurred in between the village and the woods. Because of this, Mōri Korenobu did not expect the Tsushima-Fuchū army to advance upon the village once again.

This was not the case though. An advisor under Sō Shinsaku suggested to him that the Chōshū would try to evade conflict outside Tsushima Castle once again by camping where their enemies would not expect them to return to. Sō Shinsaku saw credit in the suggestion and led his 490 soldiers further into the center of the island toward Nichita village during the night of September 10th. It was morning and spies operating from Ijuin Takasaki's navy, which was docked near the island's main port (as the Tsushima-Fuchū's navy was decimated prior to the two invasions of 1865) had alerted the main force of Tsushima-Fuchū movement early in the morning on the 11th of September.

Unable to avoid conflict by retreating due to rapid advancement, Mōri Korenobu decided that it would be wise to avoid a direct confrontation in the fields because the Tsushima-Fuchū army contained a heavier firearm force and cavalry units. Mōri Korenobu saw this as a disadvantage for his army because they were not able to bring horses on the ships due to limited feed and other factors so there was no cavalry to use as opposition.

The Tsushima-Fuchū army under Sō Shinsaku was already advancing from Nichita village into the fields towards the woods. In response, Mōri Korenobu set up his firearm units as an ambush force inside of the woods and backed them up with melee infantry. At the same time, Ijuin Takasaki had ordered a bombarding of the Tsushima-Fuchū army during their crossing of the fields but it only managed to kill around thirty men.

Following so, Mōri Korenobu had acted as bait and drew the Tsushima-Fuchū army into a 475 man "death trap" which nearly exterminated the Tsushima-Fuchū force. Alongside the total 432 casualties suffered in the Tsushima-Fuchū army was Sō Shinsaku, who was slain personally by Mōri Korenobu during the ambush.

Aftermath
Following the battle, Tsushima Castle was besieged but it was quickly surrendered by the local resistance force (who were under no general or daimyo) alongside the island of Tsushima and the rest of the Tsushima-Fuchū domain.

The island served as a base of naval operations for the Chōshū during the remainder of the Boshin war and served as a base for military actions along the Korean Strait, and the the northern coasts of Japan.