The Chūshin Revolt
3rd of Hachigatsu, 3578 (22nd of April, 1144)
When the "Edict of Loyalty" reached the central domains of the Empire, it was immediately met with anger. Fusanosuke Higuchi was naturally the loudest of all of these voices.
While he found his father to be quite agreeable, he detested the "little coward" Harumitsu with a burning passion. It is unclear where this hatred came from, but it is widely assumed that it had much to do with Harumitsu spurning the hand of Higuchi's sister in marriage years prior. He had already voiced that he would not tolerate demands from him in the past, and indeed, the Shogun expected him to fail this test of loyalty.
But what he didn't suspect was that Higuchi would have the charisma to lead a revolt nor that his "test" would provoke other daimyos from the centre. Indeed, his father's mistakes as a diplomat were haunting Harumitsu now, and he certainly had not helped matters with his own incompetence. The "Big Five", of the Centre now stood strong as one in opposition. This five consisted of the Higuchi Domain, the Hoshikawa Domain, the Yuuki Domain, the Makaino Domain and the Shiina Domain.
At the City of Ririmugawa, in the Makaino Domain, the five met to discuss their plans. The question of leadership was without much dispute, it would be the loud mouthed but inspiring Higuchi that would take the reins formally as the face of this stand. But when it came of what they should actually do, the five could not agree on what their ultimate objective should be.
Higuchi, being the leader, and in his typical "the best move is to attack head on attitude" wanted to muster all men immediately, and march on Edo. Higuchi famously saying "If the cowardly bastard wants to fight someone, I will glady oblige and overthrow his ass!" But the others thought this idea was rather brainless, given that they had no real authority to do such a thing. Chuichi Yuuki, another war based minded man, proposed taking positions blocking the central and southern passes, and fortifying them. It didn't matter that the Daimyos of those places were neutral as of now...
Ryujiro Makaino and Daihachi Hoshikawa were in favour of more wait and see approach while Yoshizumi Shiina radically proposed to invite the Western Shogun, his person friend Seiho Sasaki to sort out matters. It was clear that there was no real solution in sight, and on the First of Hachigatsu, Higuchi flat out stated if they didn't find a strategy acceptable to all of them in three days, he was going to leave and take his army to Edo.
Fortunately for the Five, a most opportune solution presented itself unexpectedly. Tatsuyuki Shizuka arrived in Hirosaki on the 2nd, and he vocally pledged that he wished to join them in their revolt. The Big Five had suddenly became Six.
Shizuka was a good friend of all of them, and though he was a bit introverted, he bluntly told all of them that their plans utterly sucked after hearing them. Instead, he proposed his own plan.
First, he reminded them that they ultimately needed to try to persuade the Emperor to support their revolt if they ever wanted to be successful and they should try to appeal to the other Daimyos, not only in the centre but across the Empire with a counter "Edict". This letter would be written, of course, by Higuchi. It would detail all of the vices of the shoguns, all of their sins, and furthermore call upon the others to join them in their righteous "stand" with Yamashita (Someone they never heard of until his revolt.) against the tyranny.
Secondly, it was decided that militarily, the strategy of Chuichi was the wisest until they got an idea of what the Eastern Shogun was going to do and who would support them. Yes, in the end, it truly didn't matter if the Daimyos of the passes were neutral. They would be given a choice to join or die.
Third and finally, they would also seek the mediation of Sasaki in some form. They, of course, didn't know that Seiho Sasaki himself already had plans in place to try to manipulate this whole situation and was acting on them as they spoke, but in the Fog of War, it was indeed a wise decision that unfortunately would blow up in their faces later.
Sente moved his pawn to F2, Gote moves a pawn forward to D2 in response... I'll make better moves when I figure out how Shogi works...