The recent showing of hogosha fleets in Bretonia

[Ayem]

They are pirates, black marketeers, and smugglers who do dirty things to get money and influence. The Naval Forces turn a blind eye most of the time. But this does NOT mean they are going to turn a blind eye to the Hogosha getting in the way on the front lines of an international war between two heavily armed war machines. No Kusari Admiral would be wanting a bunch of slimy marketeers and pirates getting in the way of his conducting a naval operation. The legal lee-way the Hogosha enjoy in Kusari has been much overblown and exaggerated.

Regardless how helpful they are to Samura, or how much Samura likes them causing difficulties for foreigners, this is a war Kusari is fighting, and its one they can fight best without interference from civilians, even if they are trying to help.

I disagree with your perception of the Hogosha, who are based on the Yakuza. They are a "criminal" organization, yes, but an integral part of the weft of Kusari society. The Hogosha replace police when it is more fortuitous to those in more legal sectors to waive court proceedings, or in cases where evidence is sparse, destroyed or needs to be planted.

To the Kusari mind, the Hogosha are not "slimy marketeers and pirates", they are a cold and calculating force at the heart of their society.

They are business men. (edit before I get knifed: and women)

Before them is an opportunity for profit.

So all this mineral wealth happens to "belong" to the civilian entities of a foreign and warring power? All the more reason to interdict trade and siphon the gains (with a hefty cut) back to the Kusari economy.

I agree that the Hogosha have no place in Naval engagements. Little profit in it, on foreign soil. But there is a great deal of profit to be made in Bretonia outside the battlefields.

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