Morale is probably the strongest force in the game.
I apparently didn't save the screenshot, but I had a game that ended with my best general almost dying, with about four of his guard left and around 50 odd Shimazu katana samurai (down from five groups of them, and a bunch of other units being completely demolished) and the enemy with two groups of 150 men each Ashigaru spears.
When all is said and done, they should've taken me out, but the computer is dumb and decided to rush me with his general before sending in the Ashigaru, getting him torn apart as my general calmly uses Stand and Fight the entire time. Then the two Ashigaru units charge one at a time, losing around 20 men then routing afterward. I went from ~1000 men to 50 (mostly due to having been attacked by my enemy's ally the turn before) and they had around 2500 taken down to 500 (including units that simply routed), but higher morale units are boss.
Those five groups of samurai ended up merging into two, making me almost lose the city the next turn (as my five star general was the Supply job, it would've benefit me more to not have that happen; five groups regenerating 50 men a turn is much better than two) but I managed to squeeze out some matchlock ashigaru and defend it until I could capture cities and get closer. I almost felt bad for my general; the province was Bitchu, and I was a province away, with two separate enemy armies on either side of him.