Famous quotes and anecdotes from Japan's Warring States Period

In fact, the history of Japan is just like the history of China, with numerous famous people

There are many Warring States periods

1 Tokugawa Ieyasu

1560 barrel In the Battle of Hazama, the Oda clan defeated the Imagawa clan, and Imagawa Yoshimoto was killed. From then on, Tokugawa Ieyasu became independent from the Imagawa clan. In 1562, he formed an alliance with Oda Nobunaga and began to fully manage Mikawa. Due to the support of Takenouchi Hataro and others and the instigation of various temples, the Ichiko clan uprising was triggered throughout the Mikawa Kingdom in 1563. After nearly half a year of fighting, he finally used psychological attacks to disintegrate the uprising and consolidate his ruling base.

In 1568, Oda Nobunaga, an ally of Tokugawa Ieyasu, entered Kyoto and took the first step towards unifying the country. At this time, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had laid a solid foundation in Mikawa, began to adopt the eastward policy. In 1570, he teamed up with Oda Nobunaga to defeat the Asai clan and the Asakura clan in Anegawa, which was known as the "Battle of Anegawa" in history. After that, he led the army to conquer Hikimano in Toe River and moved the administrative seat to Hikimano (relocation). When he lived in the city, he changed his name to Hamamatsu). But at this time Takeda Shingen also wanted to seize power across the country. In order to clear the obstacles on the road to advance, he repeatedly sent troops to Toe and Mikawa.

In October 1572, Takeda Shingen led 35,000 troops from the three kingdoms of Ka, Shin, and Shun with the intention of marching to Kyoto, but they passed by Tokugawa Ieyasu's Mikawa Kingdom. After hearing the news, Tokugawa Ieyasu led his 5,000 men and more than 3,000 reinforcements from Oda Nobunaga to fight at Mikatahara. This battle became known as the "Tripartite Original Battle". Due to the huge disparity in military strength between the two sides, and Shingen's skill in using troops was slightly superior, the Tokugawa and Oda coalition forces were defeated, and Oda's reinforcements, Hirate Nohide, died in the battle. In this battle, the Tokugawa family suffered more than 1,600 casualties. His subordinates dressed up as Tokugawa Ieyasu in four batches to attract the Shingen army. Tokugawa Ieyasu himself fled back to Hamamatsu. Although Tokugawa Ieyasu was defeated in this battle, Takeda Shingen admired the bravery and tenacity of the Tokugawa army. Takeda Shingen's fierce general Baba Nobuka (also known as Baba Nobharu) said to Shingen afterwards: "Looking at the corpses of the Mikawa Army, those who fell facing our army were all face down, and those who fell facing Hamamatsu were all face up. , which shows that these soldiers were all killed while charging forward, and none of them were executed for trying to escape." It is said that Tokugawa Ieyasu gained the reputation of "Kaido Kazuo" after this battle.

Since then, Tokugawa Ieyasu, while confronting the Takeda clan, strengthened the construction of his territory. In May 1575, Takeda Katsuyori, who inherited the Takeda family after the death of Takeda Shingen, led 15,000 men to attack Nagashino, where Okuhira Nobumasa led 500 men to garrison. The Tokugawa clan joined forces with the Oda clan, who wanted to wipe out the Takeda clan in one go. The "Battle of Nagashino" severely defeated Takeda Katsuyori. In 1581, the Takaten God Castle in Toe was trapped, and the Takeda clan was expelled from Toe. The next year, he followed the Oda clan to destroy the Takeda clan and took possession of Suruga.

Oda Nobunaga died in Honnoji Temple in 1582. After Nobunaga's death, a fierce struggle began among the daimyo over whose hands the power would fall. At the time of the Incident at Honnoji Temple, Tokugawa Ieyasu was in Sakai City (also known as "Sakai Port"). He needed to take a shortcut back to Mikawa via Ise. During this period, Hattori Hanzo, Chaya Shirojiro and others escorted him back to Mikawa safely, thus avoiding danger.

After Tokugawa Ieyasu returned to Okazaki, he found that the real power of the central government had been taken away by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In order to accumulate strength and prepare to compete with Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the future, he further strengthened his determination to advance eastward. Soon he sent troops to occupy Kai, and at the same time reached into Shinshu. By around 1583, Tokugawa Ieyasu had successively brought the five countries of Mikawa, Toe, Suruga, Kai, and Minami-Shinano into his sphere of influence.

At that time, the separation of soldiers and peasants in the Tokaido area was proceeding slowly, and daimyo castle towns had not yet been formed like the Ouchi clan and the Hojo clan. Retainers and their own fiefdoms were still closely connected, so retainers had to be controlled. The land must be firmly controlled. In view of this situation, Tokugawa Ieyasu adopted the form of granting fiefs to all his retainers at that time, and controlled the retainers through the bond of land.

In 1546, it was officially renamed Oda Nobunaga (Oda Nobunaga) after the Koto Castle Yuanfu. In 1548, Hirate Masahide, who was responsible for educating and taking care of Nobunaga, proposed a political marriage strategy with Nobunaga's old enemy, Saito Michizan, the eldest daughter of Saito Michizan, the Warring States Period of Mino Province.

In 1549 (some say 1553), Nobunaga met his father-in-law, Saito Dozo, at Shotokuji Temple. At that time, Dozo realized Nobunaga's true talent, which was called a "fool."

2. The succession of family governors to the unification of Owari

After the Battle of Okehazama, the power of the Imagawa family gradually declined. Therefore, Tokugawa Ieyasu of Mikawa Kingdom (whose original name was Matsudaira Motoyasu at this time), who was originally dominated by the Imagawa clan, became an independent Warring States daimyo. At that time, Nobunaga was preparing to go to war with the Saito clan for the Mino strategy. Ieyasu also had the same interests as Nobunaga because of the need to warn Takeda Shingen of Kai and Imagawa Clan of Suruga (Yoshimoto's legitimate son). So the two sides concluded the Qingzhou Alliance (=Zhide Alliance) in 1562 to consolidate their backside.

4. Mino Strategy

After the Battle of Okehazama, Nobunaga began to target Saito Yoshiryu, who had killed Saito Dozo who was allied with the Oda family and became the lord of Mino. . Yoshiryu is a brave general who cannot be defeated even by the Oda army. In 1561, Yoshitatsu died suddenly, and his legitimate son Ryuuki Saito succeeded him as the family governor. The Saito family retainers began to split internally, and Nobunaga was able to gain an advantage in the battle against Saito. In 1564, Nobunaga married his sister Aichi to Asai Nagamasa of Kitaomi to form an alliance to strengthen the containment of the Saito clan.

In 1565, Nobunaga went to war with Kitahata Goji of Ise. After fighting hard, Gujiao was still at a disadvantage, so he accepted Nobunaga's terms and surrendered. The condition is that "Nobunaga's second son, Nobuo Oda, is the adopted son of Kitahata Tomafusa, the legitimate son of a highly educated man." After that, Ise Kingdom was dominated by Oda. Nobunaga broke his promise to the personal safety of Kitahata's parents and children and sent troops to capture Kitahata Tomabusa. Tomabusa died a few years later. Kitahata Tomoko was defeated by the coalition forces of Nobunaga and Nobuo.

Nobunaga also adopted the same policy towards Kobe Gumori in Ise. After the Kobe family accepted Oda Nobutaka as the adopted son of the Kobe family, Ku Sheng was placed under house arrest.

The attack on Sumamata was blocked in 1566, so he ordered Kinoshita Tokichiro (later Hideyoshi Hashiba) to build Sumamata Castle (i.e. One Night Castle) and use the city as a stronghold. (However, there are different opinions on the actual status of Sumama Castle, and there are also arguments to doubt whether the castle actually existed). With the addition of the three people from Simino (Inaba Ittetsu, Ujie Naomoto, Ando Moriyu), their related people (Takenaka Hanbei, etc.), others such as Hachisuga Masakatsu, Maeno Nagayasu, Kanamori Nagakon and others. Nobunaga's camp finally defeated Saito Ryuuki in Ise Nagashima in 1567 and incorporated Mino Country into its territory. Nobunaga was 33 years old when he became the daimyo who ruled Owari and Mino.

It is said that "whoever gets Meinong can get the world." After Nobunaga acquired Mino, he changed the name of Inoguchi, the stronghold of the Saito clan, the Toki clan, the former owner of Mino country, to Gifu, based on the story that the Chinese Zhou Dynasty established in Qishan and overthrew the Yin Dynasty to unify the world.

At this time, the "Tianxia Buwu" seal began to be used, and the official goal was to unify the world.

5. Kamira

In 1565, the people who controlled the Kinai with Kyoto as the center were in charge. The deacons of the Hosokawa clan were the Miyoshi clan's powerful generals Miyoshi Choitsu, Miyoshi Masayasu, and Iwanari. Yutong and other three people and Matsunaga show. The 13th shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru, who intended to resurrect the power of the Muromachi shogunate, became increasingly hostile to the Miyoshi clan and was eventually assassinated. Then the Miyoshi clan supported Yoshiteru's cousin Ashikaga Yoshie as the 14th shogun as his puppet.

Hisahide and others further attempted to assassinate Yoshiteru's brother Ashikaga Yoshiaki. With the support of his staff such as Hosokawa Fujitaka and Wada Yamasa, Yoshiaki escaped from Kyoto and defected to Asakura Yoshikage of Echizen Province. Yoshiaki lost his patience after seeing no movement from Yoshikage to attack the Miyoshi clan. He began to approach Nobunaga of Mino in July 1568. While Nobunaga promised to fight against the Miyoshi clan for Yoshiaki, he married his adopted daughter Yukihime to Shingen's fourth son, Katsuyori Takeda, thereby becoming a Sengoku daimyo from Kai who was adjacent to Mino country. Takeda Shingen forms an alliance. However, Yukihime died after giving birth to Takeda Nobukatsu. For this reason, Nobunaga asked his legitimate son Nobutada to enter into a marriage with Shingen's sixth daughter, Matsuhime, to maintain a friendly relationship. This practice was also applied to surrounding forces to consolidate the country at home and abroad.

Then in September, Nobunaga supported Ashikaga Yoshiaki as the 15th general in the name of the great cause of military deployment in the world and began to go to Luo.

The Minami Omi Warring States Daimyo Rokkaku Yoshiken and Rokkaku Yoshiharu and his son who fought against Nobunaga Kamiro. Under the fierce attack of the Oda army, Kanonji Castle was captured and they fled to Iga. At this point, the Rokkaku clan was destroyed. After that, the Rokkaku clan launched a guerrilla war against Nobunaga. Seeing Nobunaga's operation to Kyoto, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, Matsunagahide and others who were the leaders in central politics learned about Nobunaga's strength and surrendered. Most of the other forces belonging to the Miyoshi trio fled to Awa. The remaining people such as Ikeda Katsumasa, Shinohara Nagafusa and others also surrendered to Nobunaga. At this point, since Miyoshi Nagakei, the Miyoshi Matsunaga regime, which was the political leader of the central government, collapsed in just half a month in the face of Nobunaga's electric shock to Kamiro, and supported the Oda regime established by Nobunaga, Adachi Yoshiaki, the 15th shogun. Birth. At this time, Yoshiaki persuaded Nobunaga to serve as deputy general, but Nobunaga saw through the general's plan and declined.

In January 1569, when Nobunaga led the main force of the Oda army to return to Mino, the three Miyoshis, together with Saito Ryuuki and other Mino ronin, plotted to attack Ashikaga Yoshiaki Imperial Palace. The Rokujo Honkokuji Temple (Rokujo Battle) where it is located. Nobunaga's march was extremely fast in the heavy snow. It took only 2 days for the reinforcements to arrive in Kyoto (it took 3 days to get from Gifu to Kyoto at that time). Before Nobunaga arrived, due to the fighting of Asai Nagamasa's reinforcements and Akechi Mitsuhide, they were repulsed. Miyoshi Saito Army.

On January 10, Irie Harukage, who responded to the Miyoshi Army, was attacked by Nobunaga at Takatsuki Castle. After Harukage surrendered, Nobunaga no longer condoned his betrayal and executed him. On the same day, Nobunaga took out 20,000 kan (military money) in Sakai City and asked the merchants to obey the Oda family. This action made the Sakai Association (merchants) originally rely on the Miyoshi trio to resist Nobunaga. After the Miyoshi trio were repulsed by the Oda army, they surrendered to Nobunaga.

At this time, the invasion of Ise began. In 1568, Kobe Gumori surrendered. Nobunaga sent his third son, Oda Nobutaka, to the Kobe clan as his adopted son. The following year (1569), Kitahata Gukyo of Ise Province also surrendered and sent his second son, Nobuo Oda, to the Kitahata clan as his adopted son. In this way, Nobunaga successfully expanded his power within Kinai.

6. The first Nobunaga siege

In 1569, in order to limit the power of Ashikaga Yoshiaki as a shogun, Nobunaga established the 9-Articles known as the "Tianzhong Yusuke" After that, he added 7 additional articles to declare the order to the world, and asked Yoshiaki to recognize this order. But because of this incident, the opposition between Yoshiaki and Nobunaga has already taken shape.

In April 1570, Nobunaga broke his alliance with Asai Nagamasa in order to attack Echizen daimyo Asakura Yoshikage, who had ignored the orders of Joe Luo several times, and started to attack Echizen with his ally Tokugawa Ieyasu's army. March. The Oda Tokugawa army gradually attacked various cities of the Asakura clan, and when they advanced to Kanazaki, Kitaomi's ally Nagamasa Asai attacked the Oda Tokugawa coalition army from behind. This caused Nobunaga to fall into a sudden crisis. Thanks to the fierce fighting of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (renamed by Tokichiro), Tokugawa Ieyasu and others who were in charge of cutting off the rear (this was the Kanazaki Retreat), he was finally able to escape back to Kyoto. When Nobunaga returned to Kyoto, it was said that only about 10 people were left with him.

General Ashikaga Yoshiaki took this opportunity to intensify the confrontation with Nobunaga, and issued an order to overthrow Nobunaga to various countries, including Asakura Yoshikage, Asai Nagamasa, Takeda Shingen, Mori Terumoto, and Miyoshi. The public, and even temple forces such as Hieizan Enryakuji Temple and Ishiyama Honganji Temple were recruited to form a "Nobunaga Surrounding Network."

In order to fight against the encirclement network, Nobunaga began to attack Asai Nagamasa. In June 1570, the combined forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Asai and Asakura fought in the Omi Anegawa Kawara (Battle of Anegawa). After a fierce battle, they broke through the 13th section of the 15th section of Asai's vanguard, Isono Umasagi, and finally defeated the Asai Asakura United Army. On May 6, 1570, there was an attempted assassination of Nobunaga by a famous iron gunman named Zenjubo Sugitani. In 1573, Shanzhufang was arrested and executed.

In August 1570, Nobunaga sent troops to attack the Miyoshi trio who raised troops in Settsu. The battle was difficult due to the reinforcements from Ishiyama Honganji Temple and other reasons. When Nobunaga's main army faced off against the Miyoshi trio in Settsu, Asai Nagamasa, Asakura Yoshikage, Enryakuji and other 30,000-strong combined forces attacked Omi Sakamoto. The Omi-Oda army that resisted the combined forces' offensive was defeated by numbers. Due to the disadvantage, the famous general Mori Katsunari among Nobunaga's important ministers and Nobunaga's younger brother Oda Shinji died in the battle.

For this reason, Nobunaga quickly returned to Omi from the Settsu main force in the early morning of September 23. The panicked Asai Nagamasa, Asakura Yoshikage and others formed a formation on Mount Hiei to resist Nobunaga. Nobunaga faced off against the Asai Asakura United Army in Shiga, Omi Province (Shiga Formation). However, at this time, Ise Nagashima, who was ordered by the head of Honganji Temple, Hianru, always asked the public to raise the flag of rebellion. Nobunaga's younger brother Oda Nobuki and the important minister Sakai Masanobu died as a result, and Nobunaga also fell into a dilemma of being unable to advance or retreat. In order to solve the predicament, Nobunaga asked Emperor Masachika to issue an edict. On December 13, the emperor's edict successfully reconciled with Asai Asakura's army. At this time, according to "The Tale of Mikawa" recorded by Okubo Tadakaku, it is mentioned that Nobunaga said to Yoshikage, "The world belongs to Asakura-sama, and I will no longer have delusions."

In September 1571, after Nobunaga issued several evacuation advisories, he set fire to Enryaku Temple on Mount Hiei, which continued to resist. (Enryaku Temple is the headquarters of the Tendai Sect of Japanese Buddhism, so the letter Many Buddhists resented this behavior and gave him the title of "Demon King of the Sixth Heaven"). It is said that this action was in retaliation for Enryakuji Temple's assistance to the Asai and Asakura troops.

In July 1572, Nobunaga's legitimate son Kiyomaru (later Oda Nobutada) made his first appearance. At this time, there were continuous small-scale battles between the Oda Army and the Asai Asakura United Army. However, the battle began to turn in Nobunaga's favor, and in August Asakura army generals Yoshitsugi Maeami, Nagashige Tomita, and Yuji Toda surrendered to Nobunaga.

In October, Takeda Shingen of Kai responded to Ashikaga Yoshiaki's invitation to send troops and finally began to march to Luo. The total strength of the Takeda Army was 30,000, and the army began to invade Higashi Mino in the Oda territory and Tokawa and Mikawa in the Tokugawa territory. The Oda Tokugawa army began to resist.

However, when Takeda Army general Akiyama Nobyou attacked Iwamura Castle in Higashi Mino, the castle lord Toyama Kagehito (Naoren) died of illness. Kei Ren's widow Iwamura-don (Nobunaga's aunt) adopted Nobunaga Goonbomaru (later Oda Katsunaga) as an adopted son and resisted the invading army as a female castle lord, but Akiyama Nobuto used marriage tactics against Iwamura-don. In fact, Iwamura-don's daughter Yukihime married Takeda Katsuyori and gave birth to Takeda Nobukatsu. Iwamura-don and the Takeda clan can also be said to be related by marriage. Because of this relationship, Iwamura-don married Akiyama Nobutomo and Kaicheng surrendered, sending Shomaru as a hostage to Kai, and most of Higashi Mino fell under Takeda's control.

The Tokugawa army in the Tokugawa territory was defeated by the Takeda army in the Battle of Ichigenzaka, and then all the cities of Toe and Mikawa fell one by one, falling into an unfavorable situation. In order to save the war situation, Nobunaga sent 3,000 reinforcements to Ieyasu including Sakuma Nobumori, Hirate Hohide and others. However, in the Battle of Toe Mikatahara in December, the Oda Tokugawa army was defeated by the Takeda army, and Hirate Hohide and others died in the battle. Nobunaga was in trouble.

In 1573, the Takeda Army began to attack Mikawa from Toe, and in February began to attack Noda Castle in Mikawa. General Ashikaga Yoshiaki, assisted by Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, Matsunagahide and others, raised troops to respond to Shingen's Kamikawa operation. Nobunaga, who was besieged from the east and west, was once again in a dilemma. On April 5, he was able to reconcile with Yoshiaki through an edict issued by Emperor Masachimachi. Then on April 12, Nobunaga's greatest enemy, Takeda Shingen, died of illness (some say that Takeda Shingen was killed by a Tokugawa army in Noda Castle, but it is generally said that Shingen died of illness), and the Takeda army returned to Kai.

7. The siege network collapsed

Due to Shingen's death, Nobunaga was able to take advantage of the situation to reorganize his armaments. Then in July, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who raised the flag of rebellion and defended Nijo Castle and Makishima Castle, was defeated by Nobunaga and was exiled from Kyoto, thus ending the Muromachi period. On July 28, Nobunaga petitioned the imperial court to change the era name from Motoki to Tensho, which was officially implemented.

In August of the first year of Tensho (1573), Nobunaga ordered Hosokawa Fujitaka to attack the three Miyoshi who were guarding Yodo Castle. One of them, Iwane Tomomichi, was defeated. In the same month, Nobunaga led 30,000 troops to march to Echizen and defeated the Asakura army in the Battle of Tonezaka. After capturing the Asakura clan, they turned to attack Asai Hisamasa Nagamasa and his son in Otani Castle and defeated the Asai clan. At this time, Nobunaga's sister Aichi, who was married to Nagamasa, was brought back.

On September 24, Nobunaga led 30,000 troops to march to Ise Nagashima with the Owari Mino Ise army as the center.

With the active participation of Takikawa Kazumassu and others, the Oda Army captured the enemy cities one by one around Nagashima in about half a month. However, due to the strong resistance from Nagashima, Nobunaga, who disliked long-term wars, began to retreat on October 25. . On the way to retreat, they were pursued by the Ichiku Army, which resulted in the Oda Army fighting hard and Hayashi Shinjiro dying in the battle.

In November, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu of Hanoi cooperated with Ashikaga Yoshiaki to start a rebellion. Nobunaga took Sakuma Nobumori as his general and sent the army to Hanoi. Three elders of Yoshitsugu's family betrayed Yoshitsugu because they were afraid of Nobunaga's strength. Yoshitsugu committed suicide on November 16, and the Miyoshi clan was destroyed. On December 26, Matsunagahide in Yamato finally had nothing to do, so he offered Tamonyama Castle and surrendered to Nobunaga.

As a result, Takeda Shingen died of illness less than a year ago, and most of the daimyo who joined Nobunaga's siege network were defeated by Nobunaga.

8. Nagashima has always been loyal

After the Asakura clan was captured in January 1574, although Echizen became the territory of the Oda family, local samurai and Honganji disciples launched a rebellion. Ichijoya killed the guardian Yoshitsugu Maeami (Nagatoshi Katsurada). Then in response to this rebellion, Takeda Katsuyori of Kai also sent troops to attack Higashi Mino. Nobunaga decided to attack the Takeda army together with Nobutada, but before Nobunaga's reinforcements arrived, Akechi Castle in Higashi Mino had been captured. Nobunaga retreated to Gifu to avoid a head-on conflict with the Takeda army.

In March, Nobunaga went to Luo and was appointed as the third-ranking councilor. Nobunaga asked Emperor Masachika to express his desire to harvest orchid (a high-grade spice). It is said that this was an action taken by Nobunaga to let other countries know that Nobunaga had a close relationship with Emperor Masachikamachi, and the Emperor also issued an edict to allow it. From this opportunity, the daimyo of various countries knew that Nobunaga's strength was recognized by the imperial court, especially the number of envoys sent from Oshu to express friendship with Nobunaga increased.

In July, Nobunaga led an army of 30,000 men to completely surround Ise Nagashima from land and water, cutting off the enemy's military and food supplies. Under the ingenious tactics of the First Army, he achieved victory over Nobunaga's half-brother Oda Nobhiro. However, after August, the Ichiki Army fell into a situation of insufficient troops and rations. Even Otorii Castle was captured by the Oda Army during a fierce attack. More than 1,000 of the Ichiki Army died in the battle. Therefore, the war situation developed in the Oda Army's favor.

On September 29, the Nagashima Castle disciples, who were short of military supplies, surrendered and asked Nobunaga to allow them to take a boat to withdraw from Osaka, and Nobunaga accepted it. However, Nobunaga's trusted brothers such as Nobuhiro and Nobhiro were killed, and the retreat of the first army was slow, so Nobunaga ordered iron cannons to shoot at the disciples who were riding on the boat at the same time. The Ichiki army was also angered, and some of them attacked the Oda army in turn. At this time, Nobunaga's brother Oda Hidenari and others were killed in the battle.

Next, Nobunaga targeted the Nagashima disciples who were trapped in Nakae Castle and Ya Nagashima Castle, surrounded them from around the castle, and finally broke through them. At this time, it is said that 20,000 people in the First Army were killed by the Oda Army. After this battle, Nobunaga successfully quelled the rebellion of Nagashima's disciples.

9. From the Battle of Nagashino to the attack on Echizen

In April 1575, Takeda Katsuyori launched a crusade against Okuhira Sadamasa, who betrayed the Takeda family after Shingen's death and became a retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu. , led 15,000 troops to attack Xiaocheng, the commander of the city where Zhengchang was located. However, due to the good fighting skills of the Okudai Army, the Takeda Army spent more time than expected in attacking Nagashino Castle and still could not capture it. At this time, Nobunaga led an army of 30,000 troops from Gifu on May 12, and joined 8,000 troops of Tokugawa Ieyasu's army at Noda in Mikawa on May 17.

The Oda Tokugawa Allied Forces, expanded to 38,000 troops, deployed in Shitarahara on May 18. Then on May 21, the Oda Tokugawa Allied Army and the Takeda Army went to war (Battle of Nagashino). In this battle, Nobunaga divided the iron artillery team into three teams and adopted a three-stage attack method that saved the time of loading ammunition. (Some people believe that the authenticity of this method of warfare is uncertain) The Oda Tokugawa United Army achieved an overwhelming victory in this battle against the Takeda Army. At the same time, Okuhira Sadamasa, who successfully defended Nagashino Castle under the Takeda army, received the "letter" character given by Nobunaga and changed his name to Nobimasa.

The year before last, Nagatoshi Katsuragi, the guardian sent by Nobunaga to Echizen, was killed by the disciples of Honganji Temple who captured Echizen. After that, the disciples began to split internally.

In January 1575, the disciples punished Tomita Nagashige and other local samurai who helped kill Nagatoshi, and made Echizen the territory of Ikkei. Subsequently, Yoriteru Kaima was appointed as the guardian to Echizen under the order of Kennyo. However, Yoriteru's mismanagement was even worse than that of the previous lord, Nagatoshi Katsura, and the internal divisions of the Ichikoku community continued. Seeing this as a good opportunity, Nobunaga marched to Echizen in August after the Battle of Nagashino.

Although the Ichiku army resisted the Oda army, due to internal divisions, the Ichiku army could not work together to face the enemy. The Echizen Kaga disciples, with approximately 12,250 people, headed by Umo Yoriteru, Asakura Keiken and others, were killed by the Oda army in the battle.

At this time, Nobunaga recorded the tragic situation of Echizen in a letter to Murai Sadakatsu: "There are dead bodies everywhere and no open space at all. I really want you to see this scene."

There are still stone tablets recording the actions of Maeda Toshiie who joined the army at this time. It is written: "After Ichiku rose up, Lord Maeda Zaemon captured a thousand people alive. They were punished according to the law with the following methods: torture, hot soup, and oil pan. Such things. Write it down in one note."

So Echizen once again became the territory of Oda, and when Nobunaga gave the eight counties of Echizen to Shibata Katsuie, it is said that Nobunaga instructed Katsuie to manage the rules of the Northern Kingdom.

10. The second Nobunaga siege

On November 4, 1575, Nobunaga was appointed Gon Dai Nagon, and on November 7 he was appointed Ukonoe Admiral.

On November 28, Nobunaga gave up the position of governor of the Oda family to his legitimate son Oda Nobutada. He also gave up the territory of Mino Owari and other territories and lived in seclusion in principle. It's just that Nobunaga is still in a political and military position to implement the Oda family.

In January 1576, Nobunaga began to personally direct the construction of Azuchi Castle on the shore of Lake Biwa. In 1579, the five-story, seven-storey and luxurious Azuchi Castle was completed. It is said that the interior of the castle is extremely ventilated. The missionaries of the Church of Jesus praised in the letter sent back to their home country: "Even Europe does not have such a luxurious castle." Nobunaga ceded Gifu Castle to Nobutada and moved it into his newly built Azuchi Castle in Minami Omi (now Shiga Prefecture). Nobunaga took this as his base and began to move towards the unification of the world.

In January 1576, Hatano Hideharu of Tamba, who was friendly with Nobunaga, raised a flag of rebellion. Then Ishiyama Honganji also raised troops again, and once again the anti-Nobunaga movement began to intensify. In April, Nobunaga sent generals Akechi Mitsuhide, Araki Murashige, and Harada Naomasa to lead 30,000 troops to Osaka, but they were defeated in the Battle of Weihara. More than 1,000 people, led by Harada Naomasa, died in the battle.

Under the fierce offensive of the Ishiyama Army, the Oda Army in Osaka was trapped in the Tennoji Fortress and was surrounded by the Ishiyama Army. The Oda Army was therefore in trouble. On May 5, Nobunaga went to Wakae Castle to issue a mobilization order, but only about 3,000 people were gathered. On the morning of May 7, Nobunaga personally led the 3,000-man army from the front to attack the 15,000-man Ishiyama Army surrounding Tennoji Fortress (Battle of Tennoji Fortress). Although Nobunaga himself was injured in the fierce battle, Nobunaga's presence in the battle made the Oda Army's morale high, and they were finally able to successfully defeat the Ishiyama Army.

After that, the Oda army surrounded Ishiyama Gobo from land and water to cut off the troops. However, on July 13, after 800 Maori navy reinforcements from Ishiyama Honganji appeared and defeated Oda's navy (Battle of Kizugawa), the Maori army moved supplies and ammunition into Ishiyama.

At this time, the daimyo Uesugi Kenshin, known as the Dragon of Echigo, became hostile to Nobunaga. Nobunaga and Kenshin originally formed an alliance in 1572 to fight against Takeda Shingen, a common enemy. After Shingen died of illness, Kenshin was angered by Nobunaga's repeated actions against religious forces. Therefore, in 1576, he reconciled with Ishiyama Honganji Temple and dissolved his alliance with Nobunaga, clearly expressing his opposition to Nobunaga. With Kenshin as the leader, Mori Terumoto, Ishiyama Honganji, Hatano Hideharu, Kishu Zagazhong and other anti-nobu elders began to act in unison.

In response to this situation, Nobunaga led an army to attack the Kishu Zaga clan in February 1577. Due to the Maori navy's support of the Zaga clan and Kenshin's attack on Noto, etc., in March, Let the leader of the Zaga clan, Zaga Sunichi, surrender, but did not provide any hostages to Nobunaga. Just a formality, and maintaining peace in a formal way, Nobunaga withdrew his troops from Kii.

At this time, the Nagatsu Company in Noto Nanao Castle asked Nobunaga for reinforcements while being attacked by Kenshin. Nobunaga sent Shibata Katsuie as general to lead 30,000 forward troops, and he led 18,000 troops for the rear troops. However, Nanao Castle fell on September 15, and the former army was defeated by the Uesugi Army led by Kenshin on September 23 (Battle of Tetori River). After Nobunaga learned about the situation of the war, he returned to Azuchi to avoid a direct conflict with Kenshin.

Yamato's Matsunagahide saw Nobunaga's plight, echoed Kenshin and raised troops to rebel. After learning of Hisahide's rebellion, Nobunaga withdrew his troops from Kaga and sent Oda Nobutada as the general. The army went to Shinikiyama Castle and defeated Hisahide in October. However, Nobunaga, who was at a disadvantage in the battle against Kenshin, was once again in trouble when faced with the offensives of the Mori clan and Ishiyama Honganji.

After defeating Hisahide in October, Naito Sadamasa, who resisted Nobunaga at Kameyama Castle in Tanba, died of illness. Kameyama Castle, Monui Castle, Sasayama Castle and other Tanba castles were immediately captured by the Oda army. On March 13, 1578, Uesugi Kenshin died suddenly. Since Kenshin had no children, his adopted sons Uesugi Kagekatsu and Uesugi Kagetora began to compete for inheritance rights. At this time, the Oda army captured Noto and Kaga in Uesugi territory. Due to Kenshin's death, Nobunaga's siege network collapsed again.

11. Oda Front Corps

?Hokuriku Front Shibata Katsuie Corps

?Kanto Front Oda Nobutada Corps (Takigawa Ichimasu Corps)

?Akechi Mitsuhide Corps on the Kinai side

?Hashiba Hideyoshi Corps on the Chinese side

?Niwa Nagahide Oda Nobutaka Corps on the Shikoku side (formed in 1582)

?Sakuma Nobumori's regiment at Honganji Temple

?Tokaido suppressed Tokugawa Ieyasu

3 Toyotomi Hideyoshi Takenaka Hanbei Takeda Shingen Uesugi Kenshin Sanada Yukimura

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