With a Ikoma Tsanuri and a couple of other characters we've not seen very much of.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2020/2/27/cold-autumn-harvests/

Personally, I think Ujiaki knew all along, but that Anakazu is entirely behind it. Tsanuri doesn't appear to have cottoned on to the underhand side of her family at all...

I think Ujiaki knew and held off lion supplies to force the attack and provoke a war, but that he didnt know the storage were taxes. Maybe the informaton was manipulated, maybe by the sam epeople who tried to manipulate tsuko into killimg kuwanan

Wait a minute... is the Lion Clan down to banditry now? What the heck?

52 minutes ago, AtoMaki said:

Wait a minute... is the Lion Clan down to banditry now? What the heck?

That's perfectly in keeping with Ujiaki's character from the old lore.

54 minutes ago, AtoMaki said:

Wait a minute... is the Lion Clan down to banditry now? What the heck?

I believe it's called 'living off the land'. But I think that one or more of the Ikoma Lords set it up deliberately.

Gotta say, Anakazu has a real 'shadow behind the Champion' vibe going on. No wonder Toturi had such a hard go of it, what Tsanuri & Kage are the only 2 on his side? It may be a Matsu that usurped the Championship, but this is the Ikoma Lion Clan now. History will absolve them.

I love the mental gymnastics Tsanuri goes through right at the end. Anakazu could not possibly be to blame, he must be silently fighting their behalf. Surely this is a trick by Ujiaki, maybe, or Shoju, or even Tsuko. But not my lord, no. So, obviously, the only possible thing to do is double-down on loyalty, take all of the blame for the shameful actions of the army, and commit to absolute blind obedience to all further orders. She should have been born a Scorpion.

1 hour ago, Suzume Chikahisa said:

That's perfectly in keeping with Ujiaki's character from the old lore.

1 hour ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

I believe it's called 'living off the land'. But I think that one or more of the Ikoma Lords set it up deliberately.

Ujiaki just gave Tsanuri the order to get her supplies from the village. I'm sure there is a proper way for that involving talking and papers, even if the village does not belong to the Lion Clan. But raiding it right away? With Tsanuri of all people in charge?

30 minutes ago, AtoMaki said:

Ujiaki just gave Tsanuri the order to get her supplies from the village. I'm sure there is a proper way for that involving talking and papers, even if the village does not belong to the Lion Clan. But raiding it right away? With Tsanuri of all people in charge?

Tsanuri was going to wait to try and figure another way around it, but Ikoma-sama's lackey was right there saying, basically, do it now or I'll report back how you ignored your orders.

It's possible she attacked into the province with reasonable force, only for the opponent to just stick a chump out and reveal that they were in fact Before The Throne.

11 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

Tsanuri was going to wait to try and figure another way around it, but Ikoma-sama's lackey was right there saying, basically, do it now or I'll report back how you ignored your orders.

There is not a whole lot to think about this. A delegation of samurai ride down to the village, tell the villagers that they are seizing the food, they write a letter of exchange about 3760 koku plus whatever they like, they take the food, and it is all done. Not even the tax would make any difference because the letter of exchange covers it just fine. Only the Unicorn lord is screwed because they have to validate the letter on the Lion Clan and that's gonna be a tall order unless they cut their losses, give it directly to the tax collectors and let the Imperials deal with it.

I would say that Tsanuri was too hungry to think this through, but she had enough strength to think about politics, so I dunno what was happening there. And it irks me to no end because I feel like the Lion Clan is getting hosed in the new story almost as hard as the Seppun.

3 hours ago, AtoMaki said:

There is not a whole lot to think about this. A delegation of samurai ride down to the village, tell the villagers that they are seizing the food, they write a letter of exchange about 3760 koku plus whatever they like, they take the food, and it is all done. Not even the tax would make any difference because the letter of exchange covers it just fine. Only the Unicorn lord is screwed because they have to validate the letter on the Lion Clan and that's gonna be a tall order unless they cut their losses, give it directly to the tax collectors and let the Imperials deal with it.

I would say that Tsanuri was too hungry to think this through, but she had enough strength to think about politics, so I dunno what was happening there. And it irks me to no end because I feel like the Lion Clan is getting hosed in the new story almost as hard as the Seppun.

Yeah that's not how economics work in Rokugan. There is no letter of exchange that they can just leave. In theory yes the peasants can explain that the rice was confiscated by the Lion and their lord can pass that up to the chain of command, but when it comes time to pay the tax collector that letter would mean nothing.

Also the fact that the farm is an imperial tax farm means that the Lion are in effect stealing rice from the crown, and that is where the mental gymnastics come in.

As far as I'm concerned this story just more firmly convinces me that Ujiaki is working the Kolat agenda as he's primed a conflict between two of the largest military forces in the empire, and now is slowly getting one of those forces used to violating Imperial law in seizing the Emperor's due of rice.

10 minutes ago, Schmoozies said:

Yeah that's not how economics work in Rokugan. There is no letter of exchange that they can just leave.

As far as I know, this is exactly how it works. A samurai in another lord's domain can seize resources without offending that lord if they leave a letter of exchange (maybe not how the document is called exactly) that allows the lord (or anyone with the document) to regain the taken resources from the samurai's lord. That's why being ronin sucks: because they can't do this as they have no lord, so they have to earn their stuff instead of essentially loaning it.

21 minutes ago, AtoMaki said:

As far as I know, this is exactly how it works. A samurai in another lord's domain can seize resources without offending that lord if they leave a letter of exchange (maybe not how the document is called exactly) that allows the lord (or anyone with the document) to regain the taken resources from the samurai's lord. That's why being ronin sucks: because they can't do this as they have no lord, so they have to earn their stuff instead of essentially loaning it.

Its not the samurai who actually leaves a letter its the village head who records it and accounts for it in the villages tax roll for the year. The issue for the lord is getting it enforced. Its fine when you're dealing with resources being claimed by members of your own clan as you are dealing with "friendly" individuals so odds are the shortfall just gets written off or offset by claims made by your own people against that lord. The wrinkle is dealing with another clan as now you have to contend with as you mentioned the need to prove the claim is legitimate and then whatever counter claims they will make.

As to passing it along to the Imperials to collect, nope not how that works. You are responsible for your taxes and if you can't pay you have to make up the shortfall somehow, sure you can try and collect from the Lion, but you have to collect the Imperials aren't going to do your work for you.

16 minutes ago, Schmoozies said:

As to passing it along to the Imperials to collect, nope not how that works. You are responsible for your taxes and if you can't pay you have to make up the shortfall somehow, sure you can try and collect from the Lion, but you have to collect the Imperials aren't going to do your work for you.

Ah, yes, that was a mistake on my part, I guess. But even then, that's the Unicorn lord's problem if they can't collect the tax from the Lion. From her part, Tsanuri would be blameless in this, any delay in the taxes would be entirely the Unicorn's fault.

22 minutes ago, Schmoozies said:

Its not the samurai who actually leaves a letter its the village head who records it and accounts for it in the villages tax roll for the year.

I suppose the samurai have to leave something behind that identifies them and accurately records the exchange instead of leaving the paper-work to a lowly peasant. Especially if that lowly peasant is their enemy. But I recall letters specifically being mentioned somewhere in the fluff... maybe in the previous edition?

I like Toshiro in this story. A good guy caught in a bad situation. He knows this is all BS, but he can't really do anything about it. I wonder how many orders like this does it take before the dishonor of it would be too great for the loyal Tsanuri.

“Two hundred fifty-six,” Toshiro
whispered.
“Bodies?” Tsanuri asked, whirling
toward him, bewildered.
The Akodo shook his head, his brush
gliding across a slowly populating ledger.
“I was counting the koku of rice that
the peasants harvested today,”

The chess genius that wanted the rice for the 9th square is pissed.

The theme of Lion getting dumped on continues. The supposed mightiest clan struggles to maintain basic supply lines because 'something is amiss'

51 minutes ago, Eisenmerc said:

The theme of Lion getting dumped on continues. The supposed mightiest clan struggles to maintain basic supply lines because 'something is amiss'

This seems less a logistics issue and more an Ujiaki and Anakazu pulling strings behind the scenes to escalate the aggression between the Lion and Unicorn.

Yeah I got the impression from Toshiro that the Lion should be able to easily supply Tsanuri's army. They chose not to supply them to force Tsanuri into this conflict. They knew she would resist otherwise so they trapped her into it. It's easy to see that both Tsanuri and Toshiro hate that they need to do this, but the alternative's are few since they are a few days out from starvation, and their disloyalty would weaken the Lion's position.

Tsanuri seems like she would be a pro-Toturi Lion. Ujiaki and Anakazu definitely seem like they have their own agenda. One which is forcing a conflict with the Unicorn and muscling Toturi out of his Champion position. I agree that it feels like we are seeing threads of the kolat plot behind all of this though I don't think we have hard evidence yet of it.

Add: I liked this fiction because we are shown there are people besides Toturi who want to resist the current Lion agenda, but are locked into it by the system. Feels like if they had some leadership to rally behind you might see more of a fractured clan. Though the Winter Court decision didn't bring Toturi back to the Lion clan so I suppose we are unlikely to see him bring these people together to challenge Ujiaki and Anakazu. I wonder how Matsu Tsuko would feel about this deception. I wonder if she's being deliberately kept busy with her vendetta against the Crane. Feels like even that conflict was instigated through clandestine means (considering the ronin involvement). She sent Kuwanan to the capital to find all this out, but he's too busy getting his head stuck up his butt.

23 minutes ago, phillos said:

They chose not to supply them to force Tsanuri into this conflict.

I'm not sure why they would need to do that. If they want Tsanuri to attack the Unicorn village then giver her the order, end of story. Ujiaki does not have to force Tsanuri's hands in any way, he is her superior, she must follow his will through whatever it entails, as it is shown in this very story. Tsanuri herself points out that attacking the village would be alright because nobody cares anyway, so if the supply situation was fake then it was also completely pointless.

I mean the story is pretty explicit about this though. That is what Ayano is doing there. She's not just delivering an order. She's ensuring that Tsanuri follows the order because Ujiaki doesn't believe she would otherwise. Tsanuri would find a way to stall or get around the order. That's all on page one with Ayano betraying Ujiaki's intention and then Toshiro's reaction on page 4 ,which suggests there's more going on here since it doesn't add up.

1 minute ago, phillos said:

I mean the story is pretty explicit about this though. That is what Ayano is doing there. She's not just delivering a command. She's ensuring that Tsanuri follows the order because Ujiaki doesn't believe she would otherwise. She'd find a way to stall or get around the order.

That still doesn't explain why they had to make up the supply situation just so that Tsanuri can follow an order that turns her into a bandit. It just looks really counter-productive from Ujiaki: "I don't trust this commander to execute my questionable order so I put her into a situation that makes my order even more questionable... seriously, what can possibly go wrong?"

I think it's explicit that they did. If you want to have a discussion about why then I think we are meant to have that exact conversation coming out of this fiction.

They need Tsanuri to attack this town, when otherwise Tsanuri would never attack this town due to it being a dishonorable action. It seems they want Tsanuri to escalate the conflict, and then take the blame (like she did). Ujiaki clearly wants open war with the Unicorn. Why he does is not certain to me, but if he is kolat I'm guess he wants to weaken imperial rule and somehow this conflict achieves that. Maybe Tsanuri was also meant to seize the supplies meant for the Imperial taxes thus challenging the imperial family or Shoju to take action and Ujiaki knows they can't currently given the situation in the capital (where Ujiaki is IIRC).

2 minutes ago, phillos said:

They need Tsanuri to attack this town, when otherwise Tsanuri would never attack this town due to it being a dishonorable action.

Tsanuri herself says (thinks) that attacking the village just for the sake of it would be a-ok:

Quote

It is my duty to follow orders, even if it leads to war. Only through perfect obedience will the Lion armies remain united and strong enough to face such challenges.

The village below was legally off limits to any direct assault, and this immunity meant that there was no Unicorn army nearby to defend the farming lands. But with Lion villages under attack by the Unicorn, it seemed that such laws had apparently lost their weight. There would only be a meager peasant militia to defend Onon.

Her problem is how the situation makes her resort to what is basically banditry.

I actually think the supply problems are real and there is something wrong with the Lion harvests and/or someone is siphoning away Lion supplies.

But I don't think we are told that in the story. Especially considering we know Ujiaki is scheming (against elements of his own clan in Toturi's case). Tsanuri is backed into a corner here. Yeah she'll attack the town if she needs to, but she doesn't just need to attack the town. She needs to also take the town's supplies. I feel that's why her army was forced to starvation, and the order was given at the point where she literally has no other option.

Add: I also think Ujiaki needs people like Toturi and Tsanuri out of the way for a particular reason. This might also have been a way to get Tsanuri in trouble and therefore keep her out of Ujiaki's business or otherwise occupied. She does assume the blame here. Toturi was busy being Emerald Champ, Tsuko is busy with her vendetta. Tsanuri is now potentially a scapegoat for escalating war with the Unicorn. it feels like Ujiaki is culling the herd a bit.

The quote is Tsanuri picking duty over honor, which I don't think was easy for her. Her next quote clearly states there's no honor in this conflict. As does this one "Beiona knows about the village. She and her comrades would sacrifice much to avoid such a one-sided raid against peasants. there is no honor in attacking farmers." Her loyalty to her troops and to the clan outweighed the importance of her honor. We are still given indication if she could not weaken the Lion and still preserve it's honor she would. She can't find a way to do that.

Also remember on page 7 where Tsanuri rereads the letter from Anakazu. The way it's worded leads her to believe they knew this was a tax holding and they talked around the subject. That's what causes her to question the order and blame Ujiaki in her head.

2 hours ago, phillos said:

The quote is Tsanuri picking duty over honor, which I don't think was easy for her. Her next quote clearly states there's no honor in this conflict. As does this one "Beiona knows about the village. She and her comrades would sacrifice much to avoid such a one-sided raid against peasants. there is no honor in attacking farmers."

Yeah, her problem is the raiding aspect. If Ujiaki had ordered a normal attack like Hisu Mori Mura then Tsanuri would have had zero problems. Messing with the supplies - if it was just a setup - was pointless, not only because it was obviously stinking but because with a little forethought Tsanuri could have diplomacy'd her way around it. This makes no sense, unless the supply situation is real and the Lion Clan is getting hosed.

EDIT: Okay, after giving it a thought, I can see how it can make sense. Ujiaki has a Scorpion game in mind. A company of starving Lion soldiers raiding a defenseless village like common bandits and putting up a great deal of shameful display would not only cause a huge uproar among the Unicorn but also imply that the Lion Clan is so weak they can't even feed their own troops. It is a fake act to goad the Unicorn into war, and considering how the Lion wants to be on the defensive, this is actually a pretty good move. The reason Ujiaki did not tell Tsanuri the actual plan is because he did not trust her idealism, as this plan is really darn un-Lion-y, and she is too young and inexperienced to foil the plan even as it unravels in front of her.