Journals of Cpt. Hugh Banneker: The Boshin War

[RobHumph]

A little story based off a multiplayer campaign me and a friend are going through in Shogun Total War 2: The Fall of the Samurai.
This is not in any way historical or meant to reflect any views of mine. It is purely having a bit of fun novelising the dicking around me and my friend do.

Journal of Cpt. Hugh Banneker.
Concerning the Japanese Civil War, also known as the Boshin War.
1865 -

Entry One
January 1865

Yours Truly

It was suggested to me by my brother in his last letter that I perhaps write down what happens during this particular job. Apparently accounts such as this can be quite easily adapted into literature. I have my doubts, but I figured that it might be useful for keeping track of everything, give me some company in this place as well.

Where to start off? Suppose the ideal place would be what landed me in this part of the world. Well, to cut a somewhat long story short, me and my good friend Cpt. Gregory Last are old East India Company lads, Presidency Army officers as it happens. At least until the Mutiny that is. We both got drummed out after that cock-up. Didn't feel like returning back to Blighty though, not after getting fired from the army, doesn't look good you know. Well anyway, after that we both did odd jobs around the colonies, a stint at some warehouses in the Opium Trade, you don't spend two decades in the Honourable East India Company without picking up some tricks or contacts.

Dare I say our lives were getting mighty dull until mid last year. You see, the yanks had opened up Japan to the world back in '53 and that just set the whole island chain into a downward spiral. So typical yank work at the end of the day. Their little tiff over slavery is still going on as well, couldn't happen to a better lot of tea sabotaging bastards I say. Getting slightly off track I know, but some things just have to be said you understand. Anyway, Japan, or Nippon I believe the natives call it, has some issues with their form of government. You see, the silly blighters have both an Emperor, which is something I can completely understand, the Chinese have one and that's all straightforward if a bit up it's own crevice, but they also have this chap called the Shogun who is something of a Cromwell without first killing the monarch. I'm sure I'll understand it the more I'm here.

Well, these issues have gotten a tad serious. Civil War serious, as in the Emperor and the Shogun having a shouting match while everyone around them fights about who's correct, which means jobs for both me and Greg, excellent.

You see, these Japs are mighty behind on the times. Even more than the Chinese were before the First Opium War. Barely have any guns and fewer have the training to use them well. They have warriors, entire damned country of the flowery nitwits with their armour and their spears. So they need good honest chaps with actual training, and perhaps more importantly, contacts with people who can acquire more guns, to help them out. All for a fee of course.

We're not deployed in the same area, however, though we did make efforts to end up on the same side during this tiff, specifically the side supporting the Emperor. Would be more than awkward to have to explain to Greg's sister how I may have stabbed her brother with a bayonet, again.

Gregory "Greg" Last

No, while I've found employment with a noble chap by the name of Mori Takachika, the very same chap responsible for annoying literally every western power in the area back in '63, Greg has set up with Nabeshima Naohiro of the Saga lot who own the port of Nagasaki, the one the Dutch were allowed to trade in before the rest got opened by the Yanks. They're both something called Dimyu, which I'm fairly confident is not the correct spelling or pronunciation, hard to tell when your translator can barely pronounce anything correctly anyway. Basically they're local kings under the Emperor I think, maybe entirely wrong but oh well, none of them can read this anyway.

Officially my job here in the Choshu is relatively simple. I am to "provide mediation towards the goal of bettering the military forces of the Choshu Domain in the name of the Emperor". All very simple and legal on paper, and also technically what I'm actually doing at the same time. After all, smuggling in hundreds or perhaps thousands of rifles is at the same time very illegal and bettering the military forces of the Saga Domain. Of course, it was not exactly easy finding thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition for them as well as bayonets fit for the same model. But as I said you don't spend the better part of your life in the Company without picking up a few things.

So I cashed in some favours, greased a few hands with some lovely Japanese silver, and simple as that, a shipment of .557 calibre Minie-type Enfield Pattern 1853 Rifle-Muskets with accompanying ammunition and bayonets were en route to Hagi. Of course, these rifles were meant to go to the United States, Confederates like the 1853 and can't get enough of them so they're buying in bulk. Too bad their shipment mysteriously vanished somewhere along the route only to, by pure happenstance, show up in Japan. A real shame that.

As for the shipments. Well, Greg has gotten to know a Scotsman in Nagasaki who's more than happy to ship them over.

Overall, a good start to the job. But I shan't jinx it just yet.