Battle of Snow Plain (TCG)

The Battle of Snow Plain was a strife erupted in 820 between the Lion and the Unicorn over possession of Snow Plain. The Scorpion Clan claimed they had aided the Unicorn, who promised the ownership of a diamond-rich mine. Fields of Victory (FFG Web)
== Preambles ==
In the year 820, the Lion Clan realized that nearly half of its lands had just been given to the returned Unicorn Clan. The Lion Clan Champion Ikoma Kojima pressed his claim to many of the outlying towns and villages the Emperor had assigned to the Unicorn. He ordered his most skilled general, Matsu Sakura, to marshal an army to strike for the Snow Plain, one of many regions the Lion had governed in the centuries since the Ki-Rin Clan left. Fields of Victory, p. 42
== Preparations ==
Sakura had studied the cavalry tactics of the Unicorn in great detail and carefully prepared her army throughout the summer to defeat them. In the fall, Sakura launched her offensive. The Unicorn commanding the defenders, Shinjo Kamu, struck back at the Lion army with a succession of small cavalry raids. Sakura drove onward, pushing Kamu's forces ever westward. By the middle of the autumn, it seemed that Sakura would be fully in possession of the Snow Plain. A large Unicorn force appeared and established a strong defensive position among rice paddies, based on spear-armed infantry, throwing the Lion into confusion and the first Lion attack was repulsed with heavy losses. The battle raged for the next several days, amid periodic snowstorms and generally worsening weather. The Lion made steady gains, but at the cost of ever-mounting losses. Eventually, Sakura realized she might win the battle, but lacked sufficient force to reliably hold the Snow Plain for her clan. The battle ended in a tactical stalemate, with Lion facing a winter on the plain without actually having secured it. The Unicorn had sought aid from the Scorpion in exchange for rights to several defunct mines. Blood of the Lioness, p. 7 The Scorpion emissary Shosuro Amane agreed to negotiate between the Unicorn and the Lion. Blood of the Lioness, pp. 13, 18
== Battle ==
The first day skirmishes happened between the Lion army, the Blood of the Lioness and the Unicorn one, the Army of Ten Thousand Needles. On the second day Sakura attempted a surprise attack during a snowstorm, but the Lion were forewarned by a spy in Sakura's camp. Using the cover of the snow, a small unit of Unicorn cavalry slipped through the Lion Clan lines and attacked Sakura and her command staff directly, killing some of their members. On the third day Unicorn reinforcements arrived. On the fourth and last day of battle, Kitsu Yū summoned a ghostly army to help Lion claim final victory over the Unicorn. An Imperial envoy, Miya Momoka, arrived and changed the course of the battle. Blood of the Lioness, pp. 13, 21-23, 26
== Aftermath ==
Thanks to intense lobbying from the Crane, who considered the Unicorn their allies, the Emperor quietly issued a decree: the Lion would surrender the Snow Plain to the Unicorn in perpetuity, while in return, the Unicorn would give most of the region's food production to the Lion Clan for a period of ten years, and which would be supplemented by half of all food produced from the Osari Plains for five years. Ikoma Hideri was the historian assigned to Matsu Sakura's army, but she left no records behind, assassinated by the Scorpion The Scorpion wanted the battle recorded as a Unicorn win that was accomplished due to Scoprion aid, so that when memories had faded in the future, the Scorpion could claim a diamond-rich mine in the mountains nearby. Kamu challenged Sakura to a duel to the death, but a trusted advisor took her place, because her sword arm was damaged. Blood of the Lioness, pp. 7, 10, 20, 26-27
== True History Uncovered ==
In 1123 a group of samurai exposed the Scorpion manipulation of the battle records, to advance their allegations over the diamond-rich mine. Blood of the Lioness, p. 30
Snow Plain