Rokugan Local Governance:
The Transition to War
The patterns of life and governance set in place during the years of peace set the framework for family, village, and city life and the basic culture of the Empire. However, many terrible periods of warfare have beset the Emerald Empire, and the patterns of governance need to adapt to these changes.
War in the Family
For many clans, half or more of the adult samurai of age serve the clan as bushi. Though many such warriors serve as yojimbo, guards, magistrates, and duelists, many more serve their clan on the battlefield.
During periods of general peace, these battles, when they occur, would be restricted to the summer months. Unmarried soldiers, still in training, may reside in barracks, possibly even year round. However, married soldiers are mustered once the rice has been planted, leaving their families to train with their units and be prepared to go to war at their daimyo's command. Lesser daimyo, especially in clans such as the Lion, routinely engage battles between each other to keep their troops sharp, while other clans might focus more on exercises, border skirmishes with other clans, or dispelling ronin and brigands. Meanwhile their spouses maintain the villages or their familial duties while they are away and wait for their return before harvest comes.
However, when times of major interclan warfare, or war with an external threat like the Shadowlands, approach, the assurances of a summer season of war end. The bushi can be called up at any time, and will stay as long as they are required. Yojimbo, duelists, magistrates, guards and others filling alternate duties are redirected to join the armies if their current function is not considered essential. Those older than their normal soldiering years, or those who have taken past injuries, may also be called up. This leaves many families short-handed and scrambling, even if the war is not directly touching their own lands.
If the war does fall near the family lands, those who remain are in even greater danger. Villages, unlike cities and towns, are rarely defensible, and those samurai who remain in the village are often the elderly, the children, or the wounded or infirm. Many samurai families, with no bushi who remain, in this situation will abandon the village completely, seeking safety behind tall city walls. Sometimes the village will follow. For those who remain, some may join in the last-ditch defense of their villages and homes. Those samurai found in a village in the path of an enemy army may be ignored, captured, ransomed, killed, allowed to commit seppuku, or executed, depending on the demeanor and nature of the invading army.
Many a bushi has returned from a desperate war to find his home empty and his village gone.
War in the Village
During a serious war, life in the villages and hamlets is altered dramatically. The first notification, other than rumors, that war is impending, is the muster of the samurai, as the bushi of the samurai family of the village is called up for war. That samurai may also receive orders to bring a muster of his own village's ashigaru. These are the healthy young men of the village between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five. Depending on the scale of the war and the nature of the enemy, those heimin conscripted may be volunteers seeking their fortune, one man from each family, all unmarried men, all men, married and unmarried, healthy enough to wield a spear, or all men and women without children who are healthy enough to pick up a weapon. It is rare that women would be conscripted as ashigaru, but if the situation were severe enough, it could happen.
It would be the responsibility of the village samurai to perform the initial muster of their village's ashigaru. However, as the war lengthens and intensifies, it would not be uncommon for a second or third muster to go through the village, as new representatives of the daimyo arrive to demand more heimin report to support the fighting forces.
It is, however, a careful calculation that must be made on the part of the commanding samurai. Those heimin who report as ashigaru in the front lines are not able to protect their villages from banditry or bring in the harvests or plant. If too many heimin are called up, the harvests will be lost, taxes will not be able to be paid. Hunger can kill an army as readily as steel. For this reason, many farming villages support numbers of trained ashigaru who work seasonally during planting and harvest, when they need to, but are the first to be conscripted when the time for war comes. Supporting easily recruit-able ashigaru means it is less likely that those essential to bringing in the harvests will be conscripted in times of trouble.
While the village's fighting men are fighting as ashigaru, the villagers that remain are left to fend for themselves, sometimes under the care of the non-bushi samurai in charge of the village. They are expected to do all the tasks they would have done with the support of the ashigaru. This leads to long and and back-breaking hours and a general decrease in trade. Bandits freely seize the opportunity to take advantage of the weakened villages, and some villages even hire ronin not aligned to their daimyo's conflicts to protect them from such depredations. Other ronin might, instead, take advantage of the situation by running a protection racket: attacking the villagers in one village and putting themselves to be hired as protection in another. Such activities make even the friendliest heimin rarely happy when a masterless samurai comes to town.
Eventually, war can descend upon the village itself. It is customary for an army passing through a village to take advantage of that village's resources while they are in town. Villagers might be pushed out of their homes, which are taken over to lodge the officers of the village, food stores will be raided, and villagers will be required to serve the army as servants. Poorly disciplined armies with little care for honor may also make off with the villagers tax stores, take advantage of the villager's daughters, or worse. If the army passing through reports to the Champion whose clan traditionally holds that village, the villagers have recourse to take complaints about bad behavior to him. However, if it is an enemy army passing through the land, the village has no such recourse.
In general, there is no expectation that the remaining heimin will fight to defend the village. They will try to hide from enemy armies, obey intruding samurai, and hunker down, praying that the bad times will pass quickly. If the local samurai family has won their loyalty and trust, the heimin may well endeavor to hide and protect the local samurai family, at the risk of endangering themselves and their own lives. Enemy commanders sometimes see benefit in denying their enemy the resources of the village, which could mean burning down the village, salting the earth, even killing the heimin. In such cases, the villagers are expected to flee for their lives.
Of course, if the invading army is of the forces of the Shadowlands, no measure is too great to stop their tide. The villagers may fight to the death to stop them. It is only, however, normally in Crab lands that the villagers consider this a possible occurrence, and they are permitted to keep weapons in order to do so.
War in the Cities
Cities have the great advantage of sturdy walls and strong defenses to protect those who live there, samurai and heimen alike. However, that makes them, in some ways, even more vulnerable in times of war, for while villages are ephemeral, cities are high-value targets that truly show mastery over an area.
When the clan begins on a war setting, little initially changes in the city. Ashigaru and bushi both are expected to defend the city, as a high priority target, so even when the city's ashigaru and bushi are mustered, cities remain well-manned.
However, as war goes on, refugees from the villages, both samurai and heimin, retreat to the cities, swelling their numbers with refugees. Supplies and trade routes may get cut off, causing hunger. There is no rationing system in Rokugan, so the poorest tend to suffer the most deprivation. This can lead to peasant rebellions within the stifling confines of a city, even before it falls under siege. Better managed cities able to maintain their trading routes, do better.
Once a city truly is under siege, conditions within the city grow even worse. Many heimin will flee the city ahead of an approaching army, driven away by hunger and fear of repercussions, or simply driven out by the clan samurai holding the city, who need the space and supplies for their own troops. The entire city falls under martial law, and a strict military discipline forces any rebellion to be dealt with harshly. The lower classes unable to flee again must settle in and hide as best they can. Fortunately, warfare in Rokugan does not generally lend itself to protracted sieges, and the issue can be resolved within a month or so. When the city changes hands, the heimin are expected to serve their new masters without question, and those who do not are executed. Those samurai who remain in the captured city when it is taken may be returned or ransomed to their clan, be allowed to commit seppuku, or executed, depending on the honor and inclination of the city's conquerors.
War in the Family
For many clans, half or more of the adult samurai of age serve the clan as bushi. Though many such warriors serve as yojimbo, guards, magistrates, and duelists, many more serve their clan on the battlefield.
During periods of general peace, these battles, when they occur, would be restricted to the summer months. Unmarried soldiers, still in training, may reside in barracks, possibly even year round. However, married soldiers are mustered once the rice has been planted, leaving their families to train with their units and be prepared to go to war at their daimyo's command. Lesser daimyo, especially in clans such as the Lion, routinely engage battles between each other to keep their troops sharp, while other clans might focus more on exercises, border skirmishes with other clans, or dispelling ronin and brigands. Meanwhile their spouses maintain the villages or their familial duties while they are away and wait for their return before harvest comes.
However, when times of major interclan warfare, or war with an external threat like the Shadowlands, approach, the assurances of a summer season of war end. The bushi can be called up at any time, and will stay as long as they are required. Yojimbo, duelists, magistrates, guards and others filling alternate duties are redirected to join the armies if their current function is not considered essential. Those older than their normal soldiering years, or those who have taken past injuries, may also be called up. This leaves many families short-handed and scrambling, even if the war is not directly touching their own lands.
If the war does fall near the family lands, those who remain are in even greater danger. Villages, unlike cities and towns, are rarely defensible, and those samurai who remain in the village are often the elderly, the children, or the wounded or infirm. Many samurai families, with no bushi who remain, in this situation will abandon the village completely, seeking safety behind tall city walls. Sometimes the village will follow. For those who remain, some may join in the last-ditch defense of their villages and homes. Those samurai found in a village in the path of an enemy army may be ignored, captured, ransomed, killed, allowed to commit seppuku, or executed, depending on the demeanor and nature of the invading army.
Many a bushi has returned from a desperate war to find his home empty and his village gone.
War in the Village
During a serious war, life in the villages and hamlets is altered dramatically. The first notification, other than rumors, that war is impending, is the muster of the samurai, as the bushi of the samurai family of the village is called up for war. That samurai may also receive orders to bring a muster of his own village's ashigaru. These are the healthy young men of the village between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five. Depending on the scale of the war and the nature of the enemy, those heimin conscripted may be volunteers seeking their fortune, one man from each family, all unmarried men, all men, married and unmarried, healthy enough to wield a spear, or all men and women without children who are healthy enough to pick up a weapon. It is rare that women would be conscripted as ashigaru, but if the situation were severe enough, it could happen.
It would be the responsibility of the village samurai to perform the initial muster of their village's ashigaru. However, as the war lengthens and intensifies, it would not be uncommon for a second or third muster to go through the village, as new representatives of the daimyo arrive to demand more heimin report to support the fighting forces.
It is, however, a careful calculation that must be made on the part of the commanding samurai. Those heimin who report as ashigaru in the front lines are not able to protect their villages from banditry or bring in the harvests or plant. If too many heimin are called up, the harvests will be lost, taxes will not be able to be paid. Hunger can kill an army as readily as steel. For this reason, many farming villages support numbers of trained ashigaru who work seasonally during planting and harvest, when they need to, but are the first to be conscripted when the time for war comes. Supporting easily recruit-able ashigaru means it is less likely that those essential to bringing in the harvests will be conscripted in times of trouble.
While the village's fighting men are fighting as ashigaru, the villagers that remain are left to fend for themselves, sometimes under the care of the non-bushi samurai in charge of the village. They are expected to do all the tasks they would have done with the support of the ashigaru. This leads to long and and back-breaking hours and a general decrease in trade. Bandits freely seize the opportunity to take advantage of the weakened villages, and some villages even hire ronin not aligned to their daimyo's conflicts to protect them from such depredations. Other ronin might, instead, take advantage of the situation by running a protection racket: attacking the villagers in one village and putting themselves to be hired as protection in another. Such activities make even the friendliest heimin rarely happy when a masterless samurai comes to town.
Eventually, war can descend upon the village itself. It is customary for an army passing through a village to take advantage of that village's resources while they are in town. Villagers might be pushed out of their homes, which are taken over to lodge the officers of the village, food stores will be raided, and villagers will be required to serve the army as servants. Poorly disciplined armies with little care for honor may also make off with the villagers tax stores, take advantage of the villager's daughters, or worse. If the army passing through reports to the Champion whose clan traditionally holds that village, the villagers have recourse to take complaints about bad behavior to him. However, if it is an enemy army passing through the land, the village has no such recourse.
In general, there is no expectation that the remaining heimin will fight to defend the village. They will try to hide from enemy armies, obey intruding samurai, and hunker down, praying that the bad times will pass quickly. If the local samurai family has won their loyalty and trust, the heimin may well endeavor to hide and protect the local samurai family, at the risk of endangering themselves and their own lives. Enemy commanders sometimes see benefit in denying their enemy the resources of the village, which could mean burning down the village, salting the earth, even killing the heimin. In such cases, the villagers are expected to flee for their lives.
Of course, if the invading army is of the forces of the Shadowlands, no measure is too great to stop their tide. The villagers may fight to the death to stop them. It is only, however, normally in Crab lands that the villagers consider this a possible occurrence, and they are permitted to keep weapons in order to do so.
War in the Cities
Cities have the great advantage of sturdy walls and strong defenses to protect those who live there, samurai and heimen alike. However, that makes them, in some ways, even more vulnerable in times of war, for while villages are ephemeral, cities are high-value targets that truly show mastery over an area.
When the clan begins on a war setting, little initially changes in the city. Ashigaru and bushi both are expected to defend the city, as a high priority target, so even when the city's ashigaru and bushi are mustered, cities remain well-manned.
However, as war goes on, refugees from the villages, both samurai and heimin, retreat to the cities, swelling their numbers with refugees. Supplies and trade routes may get cut off, causing hunger. There is no rationing system in Rokugan, so the poorest tend to suffer the most deprivation. This can lead to peasant rebellions within the stifling confines of a city, even before it falls under siege. Better managed cities able to maintain their trading routes, do better.
Once a city truly is under siege, conditions within the city grow even worse. Many heimin will flee the city ahead of an approaching army, driven away by hunger and fear of repercussions, or simply driven out by the clan samurai holding the city, who need the space and supplies for their own troops. The entire city falls under martial law, and a strict military discipline forces any rebellion to be dealt with harshly. The lower classes unable to flee again must settle in and hide as best they can. Fortunately, warfare in Rokugan does not generally lend itself to protracted sieges, and the issue can be resolved within a month or so. When the city changes hands, the heimin are expected to serve their new masters without question, and those who do not are executed. Those samurai who remain in the captured city when it is taken may be returned or ransomed to their clan, be allowed to commit seppuku, or executed, depending on the honor and inclination of the city's conquerors.
