This is a tl where the Uesugi clan against all odss defeats their rivals and unites Japan. The key POD is that in otl Uesugi died of sickness and his sons started a civil war which weakened the Uesugi clan and caused it to crumble. here such a thing does not happen and Uesugi survives and at the battle of Tedorigawa shortly before this POD Oda Nobunaga and his two generals Shibata and Toshiee.
Chapter I: The Dragon Makes his move
Echigo Kasugamaya Castle 1576
Uesugi Kenshin returned with his retainers triumphantly after winning and seizing Etchu which was held by his rival Shiina Yasutane. As he entered the palace a messenger was awaiting to meet him. The messenger had come from none other than a monk from the ikko ikii.
Kenshin was not at all pleased.
"what business does the ikko ikki have with me hurry yup and answer for my patience wears thin.
Recently the ikko ikki had been at odds with Kenshin but had successfully held him off numerous times.
The monk smiled " My dear Kenshin we come in peace. Yes it is true that we are enemies but we of the Ikko Ikki are facing an even greater threat Oda Nobunaga". Kenshin laughed
"So dont you know Iam an Oda ally and would love to see your group be beaten."
"Yes but for how long. DO you know of the Azuchi caslte Oda is building in Omi. Plus both Shingen and Hojo are dead. As such what is to stop Nobunaga from turning on you. Think about it Kenshin Oda has had designs as you must have noted for your wealthy Echigo. As of now you are the last remaining threat Nobunaga faces before he unites Japan aside from of course us of the ikko ikki. Therefore we two should ally and destroy the Oda clan."
Kenshin smiled " you old geezer you think I don't know about the threat Nobunaga poses to me. of course I know but I have been unable to act for the time being because my two rivals Hojo and Shingen have always blocked my moves. But now as you say they are dead and so my allaince with the oda no longer holds. For I only allied myself with the Oda to get rid of my rivals. Now that my rivalls are gone I shall indeed destroy theOda but I dont have a valid cause as of yet to declare war."
The monk replied " I can give you the casus belli. Once Oda launches an attack on us simply declare that you wil mobilize your forces to stop the tyrant nobunaga from destroying Honan Ji."
Kenshin thought and nodded in agreement. " Tell your head priest if Honan Ji is attqacked I Kenshin will come to his aid."
The priest smiled and left.
However a strange event would occur in the following year that would cause Kenshin to mobilize his forces against the Oda. The culprit Cho Shigetsura.
Shigetsura had formed an allaince with Oda nobunaga and rose up in revolt against his lord Hatekiyama Yoshinori. This caused a civil war as fighting broke out between the Katekiyama family members. Kenshin made his moves and soon sent an army which defeated and captured the new head Hatekiyama Nanao. Soon afterwords he prsonally lead his forces and beseiged Cho in Anamizu Caslte. Once the castle fell Shigetsura was slain.
Nobunaga heard the news and furious at Kenshin assembled a massive army of 50000 and marched on Kenshin. Kenshin however was ready and met Oda's assault head on with his own army of 30000. The two forces met of the Tedorigawa river in Kaga. Kenshin placed his army in Matsuo castle to the opposite of the river where Oda had massed his armies. In order to confuse Nobunaga Kenshin sent a small force up the river at night.Nobunaga analyzed the troop movements and decided Kenshin had split his army and in the light of the moon Oda's armies rushed across the river to assault the caslte. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Kenshin had his forward units take the full impact of the Oda's charge and with brilliant flanking maneuvers and feigned retreats devastated Nounagas armies and then the unthinkable happened. As Nobunaga was retreating from the battlefield he came across a site that horrified him. The ikko ikki had recieved words of Kenshins movements and convinced their last ally the Mori clan to attack Oda's forces. With Mori's forces closing in and cutting off his escape route and Kenshin's forces laying waste to his main army. Oda realized he had been had. He fought bravely and slew many a soldiers but in the end he was killed by an archer whose arrow pierced Nobunagas throat and the venerable Daimyo fell. His loyal retainer Ranmaru fought desperately but against the numbers was slain as well. To make matters worse both Shibata and Toshie fell on the battlefield.
The next morning Kenshin shook hands with Mori Terumoto the grandson of the famed Motonari and the new Daimyo of the Mori Clan holdings. When asked why he helped out Terumoto replied he had been called to aid by the Ikko Ikki who wanted him to help out their ally Kenshin.
Shortly thereafter Terumoto left for Koriyama Caslte.
In 1578 Kenshin married off his eldest daughter to Terumoto's brother Kobayakawa Takakage thereby securing a lasting alliance with the powerful Mori clan and more importantly their formidable navy.
Soon trade ships from the Mori navy travelled to and for from the Ikko Ikki and Kenshin domains unnoposed as the sides traded for supplies and soon all three grew very wealthy. However Kenshin realizd he still had a formidable task laid before him. Although Nobunaga was dead. His most powerful generals were still alive. AKechi Mitsuhide, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi took command of the Oda armies now nominially headed by Nobukatsu Nobunaga's son and based themselves in the area surrounding the capital Kyoto. However this was to be a foolish mistake.
With most of the Oda forces based near the capital given Ieyasu believed that Kenshin would move on the capital to quickly secure influence, the home provinces of the Oda Omi and Owari were left with fewer number of troops.
Kenshin moved not for kyoto rather he sent a small token force that gave the impression he was planning on attacking Kyoto but had his main armies march for Omi. In Kyoto Ieyasu received words that Kenshins armies had marched on Omi not Kyoto he was stunned. Mitsuhide was to have rebuked Ieyasu for falling for such a ploy. Toyotomi took control of the two and soon the three assembled a vast army and hastily moved to confront Kenshin. However they were too late.
Kenshins assault came like lightning it was said. The remaiining Oda army based in Moi was destroyed by Kensin's large 40000 strong army. He soon siezed the rest of the province and destroyed the not yet finished might Azuschi castle. Meanwhile Kenshin had sent word of an alliance proposal with none other than Takeda Katsuyori the lord of Kai. Katsuyori had in 1575 been devastated with the loss of his main armies at the battle of Nagashino to Nobunaga. When his fathers rival Kenshins sent word that he should ally with the Kenshins to destry the remaing forces of the Oda clan he accepted for he remembered the old phrase the enemy of my enemy is my friend and in this case he realized that if he allied with Kenshin he could restore the Takeda clans influence and power.
Therefore wile Omi was being taken by Kenshin a combined army headed by Mori, the Ikko Ikki, and the Takeda forces that survived Nagashino invaded Owari. The attack on Owari came as a surprise to the Oda generals. If they relieved Omi, Owari was sure to fall. if they moved on Owari Omi would fall. They were placed in a predicament bu finally at the urging of Hideyoshi they moved to relieve Owari.
In Owari the Oda armies met the second anti Oda alliance. The battle was a pyyrhic victory for the Oda forces and Mori, Ikko Ikki, and Takeda retreated but at a great cost. As the Oda forces were regrouping under the head of the big three as they came to be known scouts reported a unlucky fact to Tokugawa, Hideyoshi, and Mitsuhide. Kenshin had arrived.
Stunned the three had their exhausted army march to confront Kenshin at Kiyosu casltle. But the move weakeaned evren further the Oda soldiers and during the battle that followed was a decisive vctory for Kenshins armies. His armies overwelhmed and destroyed the Oda armies and on the battlefield both Ieyasu and Mitsuhide had died. Hideyoshi fled with a small force but died shortly afterword. Historians today deduce that the cause of his death was most likely due to being assasinated by Kaga ninjas hired by Kenshin to take the head of any Oda general that escaped the battlefield.
Kiyosu castle was taken by Kenshin and now he controlled both Owari and Omi. The Tokugawa clan fell into civil war with the sudden death of Ieyasu and collapsed.
In 1579 Kenshin approached a small monastery where a man named Sho0-San resided. it was the last Ashikage shogun Yoshiaki.
Kenshin informed Yoshiaki that the Oda-Tokugawa allaince had been defeated and he was wiling to restore Yoshiaki to the shogunate in Kyoto as a puppet if he announced his support for Kenshin. Yoshiaki realized he had been given a second chance jumped at Kenshin's offer and soon left the monastry resuming his title as Shogun. The Ashikage's were not yet wped out after all. With Yoshiaki under his control Kenshin and his armies marched for Kyoto with the purpose of restoring Yoshiaki as Shogun. But first his armies moved on Mino which was taken after a bitter siege in 1579. From Mino he marched on the homeland of Ieyasu Mikawa which fell to Kenshin who restored the remnants of the once mighty Imagawa clan to its former domains and made them his retainers.
In 1580 Kenshin defeated the allied Daimyo armies who had moved to Kyoto to oppose Kenshin and in that same year marched triumphantly into the imperial capital having won victory.
However during the parade Yoshiaki had died shortly after hsi last daughter was married to Kenshins son Kagekatsu in the winter months of 1580. Therefore Kenshin declared his son Kagekatsu as the new shogun claiming that since his son was married to Yoshiakis daughter they had a claim from her side to the Shogunate. However the Shogunate was renamed Uesugi.
In 1581 to placate his older son he granted his own direct lands and made him the new daimyo. kenshin had done this because he ahd been sufering from illness and knew he had not much longer to live. Shortly before he died he called his two sons to his deathbed. he told them " my boys when I die it is you who who will uphold the Uesugi name and please dont fight each other. One is the shogun the other is the new Daimyo so please stick together. For my work is not done. To the North and to the South their still remain powerful Daimyo who have not recognized our claim to the Shogunate. However our allies the Mori, Ikko Ikki, Imagawa, Takeda, and so on will prove to be your greatest asset. Therefore do not misuse them. With these parting words Kenshin died.
In 1582 Kagekatsu became SHogun and was recognized as such by the Emperor of Japan.
His brother took command of the Shoguns armies and marched South. The southern Daimyos. It was simple those southern Daimyos who refused to recognize the Uesugi Shogunate would be destroyed. At the same time at the urging of the head priest of Ikko Ikki, Kagekatsu imposed a ban on foreign missionaries and ordered them to be removed from his territories.
Mori Terumoto had his spies kidnap Portuguese shipbuilders in Japan who had landed to trade with the frendlier Daimyoand soon from them learned the art of Western Shipbuilding. The Mori's would soon rise to becoming the right hand and most powerful and loyal allies of the Uesugi. Popular notion held that while the Uesugi were the masters of land. The Mori ruled the seas.
Kagekatsu was informed by Terumoto of what was occuring and Kagekatsu allowed it to happen. Therefore Mori and his ships came to be a plague on the various non aligned Daimyo. However this meddlesomeness of the Mori's were caught on by the Protuguese who were greatly angered and ordered Mori to stop his actios. Mori agreed but by then he had already aquired the knowledge and trained his own shipbuilders in portuguese ship building.
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