Japan's Warring States Period: The Rise of the Wakasa Tiger

Chapter 127 Takeda Kuninobu (Please subscribe!)
After this failed night attack, Kumagai Takashi and Shirai Kiyotane began to pay attention to Itomi Masatora in Yoshizaka Fort. After discussion, the two developed two plans:

One was to imitate the rotation tactics used by the Asakura army at Iwayayama Fort, and take turns attacking the somewhat old fortifications of Yoshizaka Fort.

The second is to replace the storming with siege. Yi Jianchanghu would not carry a large amount of food and grass when he marched quickly to seize Jizaka Fort. Moreover, the fort had been abandoned for many years and was an empty city. They would not be able to hold out for more than a few days with the food and grass they carried with them.

Therefore, siege is the best option to reduce casualties, but it is relatively time-consuming and may not be able to quickly capture Suidao Mountain City, and lose support for the Shishan City battlefield.

Taking into account the current situation in Ishiyama Castle and the fierce attack of the famous army of Tajima Mountain in the area of ​​Kayue Valley, Kumagai Takanao and Shirai Kiyotane decided to adopt the first plan first, dividing the 1,200 people into three teams to launch a fierce attack on Yoshizaka Fort in turns.

On the afternoon of the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, while fierce fighting was continuing at Ishiyama Castle, Yoshisaka Pass, and Kayuetani, Yamana Masimichi of the Inaba Yamana clan, with his important retainer Takeda Kuninobu as commander, led 2,000 men through Gamo Pass into Tajima Province, intending to take advantage of the weak defense of Tajima and capture as many castles as possible, so as to gain a greater advantage in the post-war border demarcation with Yoshishige.

In fact, according to the agreement with Yoshishige, Yamana Masamichi should have led his troops to attack Tajima on the 24th, but the situation on the battlefield was not clear at that time. Yamana Yutoyoshi still had the advantage in numbers in Kayue Valley and took the initiative on the battlefield.

Yamana Masamichi was worried that if he attacked Tajima at this time, Yamana Yutoyo would quickly return to fight him. In this case, even if he won, he would suffer great losses. Therefore, he decided to wait until Yamana Yutoyo was stuck in the quagmire and unable to extricate himself before sending troops.

The opportunity soon arrived. Before dawn on the 25th, Shirai Mitsutane led 500 troops to Kayue Valley and cooperated with the Takeda army on the mountain to launch a surprise attack on the famous army on Tajima Mountain outside Kayue Castle.

As they did not expect the support from the Takeda army to arrive so quickly, Yoshiwa Kakiya Mitsunari could not hold out and was forced to retreat down the mountain and join Yamana Yutoyoshi.

At this point, the Tajima army retreated to its pre-war state, while the Takeda army relied on its advantages in terrain and fortifications to make up for its disadvantage in manpower, and the battlefield entered a stalemate.

In this situation, if Yamana Yutoyo wanted to retreat, he would face the risk of being pursued by the Takeda army. Therefore, the Tajima Yamana army lost the initiative in the war to a certain extent.

After receiving this news, Yamana Masimichi dared to send Takeda Kuninobu to lead a large army to attack Tajima.

This Takeda Kuninobu was one of the few fierce generals of the Inaba Yamana clan. Coincidentally, the Inaba Takeda clan he belonged to was a branch of the Wakasa Takeda clan. From this perspective, Yoshishige and Takeda Kuninobu were somewhat related.

However, now is not the time to make friends. As an important official under Yamana Makotochi, his goal is very clear, which is to quickly capture the three counties of Nikata, Mihama, and Nanami, as well as the land west of the Enyama River in Keta and Yafu counties, and decide whether to cross the Enyama River and seize more benefits based on the situation on the battlefield.

At first, the Inaba Yamane army that crossed the Gamo Pass did not encounter large-scale resistance. In just half a day, they captured several important towns in Nishitajima, including Oshiro Castle, Onsen Castle, and Fukusai Castle. They then moved eastward along the streets, intending to directly take Tsurumine Castle, the residence of Kakiya Tsunari.

Tsurumine Castle is located in Keta County in the central part of Tajima. It was built on a long hill extending from east to west. The castle is surrounded by tributaries of the Inaba River, the Kannonji River, and the Atase River. It is a strong castle that Kakiya Tsunesari spent many years to painstakingly build.

Unlike other cities, this city is divided into "West City" and "East City", of which the east of Guanyin Temple Village is called East City, and the west of Guanyin Temple Village is called West City. Although the two cities are not connected, they are both built on high mountains, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and gradually formed a set of mutually supporting defense systems.

This "twin city" guarded the main road leading to the ferry crossing of the Maruyama River. By taking this place, Yamana Makoto's goal would be more than half achieved. After Takeda Kuninobu led his army to Kannonji Village, considering that it was getting late, he ordered the soldiers to set up camp next to the village and capture the two cities one by one at dawn the next day.

However, worried that the defenders in the city would attack at night, Takeda Kuninobu sent several troopers to the mountain to investigate the distribution of the defenders' forces. The final news was that there were less than 100 people in the west city and about 200 people in the east city. The defenses of the two cities were strong. If they wanted to force their way through the city, they would suffer huge casualties.

After receiving the news, Takeda Kuninobu pondered for a long time, and after discussing with other generals, he finally decided to take a strong attack to break the city as soon as possible. After all, he had to take over Yangfu County as soon as possible, and there was no time to delay.

The next morning, Takeda Kuninobu personally led his army to attack Tsurumine West Castle. Compared to East Castle, the hill on which West Castle was located was lower in terrain and had a gentler slope, and there were fewer defenders. After about three hours, it was breached by the Inaba Yamana army.

The attack on the east city was not so smooth. The defender of the city was Kakiya Tsunari's other son, Kakiya Tsunari, who was young but very brave. Under his leadership, the Kakiya army repelled many charges by Takeda Kuninobu.

But the strength gap was too great. Under the continuous attack of more than 2,000 Inaba troops, by the evening of that day, several of the outer kirigami of Tsurumine East Castle had been captured, and the Inaba Yamana troops had already reached the edge of Dobori outside the Honmaru. As the sky filled with flaming arrows flew into the Honmaru, the small mountain castle was engulfed in flames.

"Put out the fire quickly! Quickly!" Kakiya Tsunukuni looked around at the burning houses and weapons, and could not help feeling sad. He ignored the advice of his retainers and insisted on leaving the city to fight a decisive battle with Takeda Kuninobu.

Although the Inaba Yamana army was not elite, it was not an ordinary mob. Under the command of Takeda Kuninobu, this army still showed high morale and combat effectiveness, especially the consecutive capture of several castles in Tajima, which gave these soldiers more morale boost.

Most of the soldiers on Kakiya Tsugano's side were peasant soldiers. Although they showed certain combat effectiveness at the beginning of the war, as the saying goes, "when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter; when the wall collapses, everyone pushes it down." With the fall of Hefeng West City and the outer positions of East City, the morale of these peasant soldiers suffered a great blow.

The flaming arrows that fell from the sky were the last straw that broke the camel's back for these peasant soldiers. Faced with the burning Honmaru, many of them began to flee the city, so that when Kakiya Tsunaga summoned his soldiers to fight outside the city, he only had 30 to 50 men left.

Kakiya Tsunukuni, who had already despaired of the situation, fearlessly led the charge into the enemy camp with a spear in hand. After a fierce fight, he was eventually captured by a samurai under Takeda Kuninobu.

The main general was dead, and those soldiers of the Kakiya army who were fighting stubbornly either gave up resistance, committed suicide, or fled secretly. In the city of 200 people, three out of ten were killed or wounded in the end.

"After taking down Hefeng Castle, the next step is to advance to Yagi Castle." Takeda Kuninobu's face was covered in soot and blood, but this could not hide his excitement at all. "After taking down Yagi Castle, the mission of the main transportation department will be basically completed."

By the way, on the same day that the Inaba Yamana army invaded Tajima, that is, on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, the main force of the Takeda army led by Yoshishige, 3,600 people, set out from Obana, marched westward, and finally arrived at the east bank of the Saburi River at noon that day.

In addition to the large army continuing to advance towards Ishiyama Castle, Yoshishige ordered Kumagai Motonao to lead 600 Wakasa troops to cross the river to capture Hongo-kan and Tatsu Castle in order to break Itsumi Masatsune's fantasy of ruling across the river.

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(End of this chapter)