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

Chapter 132 Lightning Capture of the City
Outside Jiayue Valley, in the main camp of Yamana Yufeng, looking at the temporarily unconscious head of the Yamana clan, the remaining three "kings" had a fierce dispute over whether to go or stay.

As his home castle Tsurumine Castle had been conquered and his second son Kakiya Tsunari was killed in battle, Kakiya Tsunari advocated withdrawing his troops and returning home. Yagi Toyonobu supported him, as his home castle Yagi Castle was surrounded by the Inaba Yamana Army. If he did not return, he would suffer the same fate as Tsurumine Castle.

However, Tanaka Shojiro held a different attitude. He believed that withdrawing troops now would not only waste all previous efforts, but would also give the Takeda army a good opportunity to pursue the victory. If they were not careful, the retreat would turn into a rout, and the situation would worsen.

In his opinion, it would be better to concentrate all efforts on capturing Jiayue City first. This would not only eliminate the threat of pursuit by the Takeda army, but also boost morale.

In the fierce quarrel between the three, Yamana Yufeng finally came to his senses. At this moment, he was still immersed in fear and despair. His hometown was robbed, so how could he care about attacking Jiayue Castle? This was the first time he did not stand on the side of Tanjie Shojiyoshi - he immediately decided to withdraw the entire army to Tajima and return to fight Takeda Kuninobu.

However, Mitsunari Kakiya, who stayed behind on Mount Ara, did not know why Tanjie Shoyoshi was called back down the mountain, and he did not know that Yamana Yutoyo had decided to withdraw his troops. Faced with another night attack by the Takeda army, he was furious and immediately organized his troops to counterattack.

A part of the Takeda army pretended to retreat to lure the enemy deeper, and then used ambushes to cut off the retreat of the Tajima Yamana army. At the same time, the special forces ambushed on both sides of the road rushed out of the woods to attack the flank of the Yamana army. It was dark and windy, and the Yamana army was in chaos, with many casualties. Kakiya Mitsurumoto himself was also injured in many places. Fortunately, his retainers covered him with all their strength and he escaped death.

After finally returning to the base, Mitsunari Kakiya had not even had time to catch his breath when he received an order from Yamana Yufeng to withdraw his troops. Unwilling to give up, he wanted to delay until daytime before making another charge, but the "Three Kings" kept urging him, so he had no choice but to order a withdrawal.

Shirai Mitsutane saw that there was some movement at the Tajima Yamana Army's garrison and thought that they were preparing to withdraw their troops back to Tajima. In order to buy as much time as possible for Yoshishige, he ordered Oniwa Masaaki to lead his troops to pursue and harass, delaying the withdrawal of Kakiya Mitsunari. Although the latter was very angry, he had to retreat while fighting due to Yamana Yutoyo's order, and finally returned to the main camp before dawn.

Just as Yamana Yutoyo was preparing to return to Tajima, Takeda Kuninobu, who was besieging Yagi Castle, encountered a tough opponent.

As mentioned before, although Yagi Toyonobu agreed to send troops this time, to a certain extent, he was "working but not putting in any effort". The army he led was the smallest among the "Four Heavenly Kings". Relatively speaking, the number of troops left behind in the castle was also the largest, reaching nearly 500 people.

Although Takeda Kuninobu's morale was boosted by his successive capture of important towns, when he reached Yagi Castle, his total force was only about 1,800 men. How could it be easy to attack a strong castle with 500 men stationed there with such a large force?
After a day of fierce fighting, except for a few fortifications on the mountainside that were breached at the beginning of the battle, the Inaba Yamana army could no longer advance a single step.

Under such circumstances, Takeda Kuninobu tried to persuade the garrison commanders in the castle, but it did not work. In desperation, he could only stay at the foot of the mountain and sent people back to Tenjinyama Castle to ask Yamana Makoto for reinforcements.

At noon on the 27th, Yamana Yufeng led his troops back to the country, heading directly for Yagi Castle.

Earlier, the 3,600 men led by Yoshishige had joined forces with the 1,200 men led by Kumagai Takanao and Shirai Kiyotane at Yoshisaka Pass, with a total of 4,800 men, and they were advancing rapidly towards Kayue Valley.

On the evening of the 28th, the famous army of Tajima Mountain arrived at the outskirts of Yagi Castle and fought with Takeda Kuninobu for the first time, with no clear winner.

Due to the heavy losses in Kayetani, Yamana Yutoyo only had about 2,000 men left, seemingly on par with Takeda Kuninobu. However, there were still 500 defenders in Yagi Castle, so the situation of Tajima Yamana's army was slightly better than that of Inaba Yamana's army.

Under such circumstances, Takeda Kuninobu had no choice but to send people to urge Yamana Masamichi to increase his troops, while sending troops to Yoshishige to request support. At this time, Yoshishige had just led his army to Kayue Valley and held a military meeting in Kayue Castle.

After listening to the opinions of the generals and analyzing the information provided by Taroko Mitsuna, Yoshishige immediately decided to attack the border of Tajima early the next morning and seize as many cities and lands of Tajima as possible while Yamana Suketoyo and Takeda Kuninobu were fighting.

On the morning of the 29th, Yoshishige led almost all the troops in the country, a total of 5,500 people, and marched into Tajima Province along the Kayue Valley.

After capturing the border town of Hachiman Castle, they marched westward, conquering several other castles, and arrived at Yamana Yutoyo's main castle, Konosumi Castle, at 3 p.m. on the same day. There were only a hundred soldiers left in the castle, and under Yoshishige's threat of force, they chose to open the city without bloodshed.

After a brief replenishment in the city, Yoshishige divided his troops into two routes. The northern route, with a thousand men led by Shirai Mitsutane, headed north to attack the important towns of Toyooka Castle and Tsuru Castle (Takisho was Yoshishige's residence); the southern route, with 4,500 men, followed Yoshishige south, heading directly for Yagi Castle.

In just one day, the southern army captured the two major fortified cities of Izuishi and Arikoyama, and arrived at Takeda Castle in the northern part of Asago County that night.

This castle was the residence of Otagaki Chonobu, and there were still 200 soldiers in the castle, commanded by Otagaki Chonobu's son, Otagaki Nobunobu. Yoshishige did not attack the castle by force, but sent an envoy to deliver Otagaki Chonobu's head and sword into the castle, and said that if the Otagaki clan opened the city and surrendered, they would be allowed to keep their existing territory. After receiving this promise, Otagaki Nobunobu led his troops to open the city and personally went to Yoshishige's camp to kowtow and surrender.

At this time, the Northern Army had also completed the occupation of Toyooka Castle and Tsuruga Castle, and moved north along the Maruyama River all the way to its estuary, completing the occupation of Kinosaki County.

On the morning of the 31st, under the guidance of Otagaki Nobunobu, Yoshishige led his troops across the Enyama River and attacked the western part of Yabu County, which should have belonged to the Inaba Yamana clan according to the previous agreement. However, Yoshishige had a letter from Takeda Kuninobu asking for help, so he was able to capture the city with justification.

Outside Yagi Castle, although Takeda Kuninobu had received support from 600 men from Yamana Makotoshi, he was fighting away from home and the transportation of food and fodder was not smooth. After many battles with Yamana Yutoyo, he gradually began to lose strength.

However, the situation on Yamana Yufeng's side was not much better. Starting from the night of the 30th, he received news one after another that cities in the territory had been conquered by the Takeda army. In particular, the successive losses of Kosumiyama Castle and Tsuruga Castle caused great chaos in the army and people's minds changed. Seeing that he was about to be attacked from both sides, he could not sleep at night and had no peace of mind.

On the first day of the first lunar month in 1540, Takeda Kuninobu and Yamana Takanori, both of whom were already at the end of their strength, fought fiercely again, while Yoshishige led the Takeda army to Asakura Castle, not far east of Yagi Castle, waiting to join forces with the northern army.

In the afternoon, hearing that the Takeda army had approached Yagi Castle, the Inaba Yamana army was greatly encouraged and began to counterattack the Tajima Yamana army. Yamana Yufeng, who also received the news, was almost in despair and even had the idea of ​​surrendering.

However, Tajie Shoji was worried that surrendering to the Inaba Yamana family would make the pro-Amago faction such as Kakiya and Yagi stronger, thus weakening his and Yamana Suketoyo's status in the family. Therefore, he privately suggested to Yamana Suketoyo that instead of bowing to Yamana Seimichi and allowing Tajima to be annexed by him, it would be better to show submission to Yoshishige, perhaps there would be a chance to survive.

The progress in these chapters is relatively fast. If you have any questions or are unclear about something, please raise them.

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(End of this chapter)