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

On the eighth day of February, after dealing with Kusakari Hiratsugu and other rebellious people, Yoshishige and Yamana Yoshitoyo led their troops back in triumph. Local nobles also returned to their own places, waiting for the post-war evaluation.

However, before officially returning to Wakasa, Yoshishige and Yamana Yutoyo had a private meeting at Tenjinyama Castle and exchanged views on the territorial division of Inaba Province.

According to the pre-war agreement, after pacifying Inaba, Yoshishige allowed Yamana Suketoyo to use part of the existing Tajima Mikan County, Keta County, and Yabu County in his hands in exchange for the four counties of Keta, Takakusa, Yakami, and Chizu in the western part of Inaba, and the total koku was increased from 44,000 koku to 49,000 koku.

However, since the Yodoyama Castle in Chizu County was captured by the Takeda army with great effort, and the location of this castle is very important, controlling the main transportation route from Inaba to Mimasaka, Yoshishige proposed to exchange more than a dozen villages in the western part of Hatto County, one of the four Into counties, for the eastern part of Chizu County, including Yodoyama Castle.

Although Yamana Yutoyo knew that the essence of Chizu County was the area around Yodoyama Castle, after all, his Yamana Army was just following the Takeda Army. Since the Battle of Yagi Castle, they basically played the role of cheering for the Takeda Army and did not achieve many substantial results.

Moreover, the current Takeda clan has grown in strength, and its military strength is far superior to that of the past. It is even easier to destroy the Yamana clan, which has only more than a thousand troops, than to destroy the Kusakari clan. In this case, Yoshishige was able to take the initiative to sit down and discuss with him, which was already giving him enough face.

Therefore, Yamana Yutoyo very tactfully expressed his willingness to hand over the entire Chito County to the Takeda clan. As for the villages in the western part of Hatto County, he had no intention of getting involved, as long as he could retain the three counties of Kido, Takakusa, and Yakami.

Yoshishige was pleased to see that he was so aware of the current situation, and he insisted on dividing it according to his original suggestion, that is, to give Yamana Yufeng all of Kita and Takakusa counties, as well as the western parts of Chito and Hatto counties. The total koku would still remain at around 49,000 koku, accounting for more than 55% of the total koku of Inaba.

After the deal was settled, Yamana Yutoyo moved his family and retainers from Tajima Yagi Castle to Inaba Tenjinyama Castle. At the same time, Takeda Kuninobu, who became a member of the Takeda clan, also officially moved from Usagi Castle to Hashimoto Castle, and together with Nagasaka Nobumasa, who was ordered to garrison Tottori Castle, they built the western defense line of the Takeda domain.

On February 15th, Yoshishige led important officials such as Yamagata Morinobu, Kagawa Morihisa, Matsumiya Kiyonaga, and Kumagai Takanao to Tango via the San'in Kaido, and received the greetings and congratulations of retainers such as Yamagata Hidemasa, Yamamoto Shigeyuki, and Hirai Toshimasa who had been waiting for a long time at the lord's residence of the Takeda clan's new main castle, Atagoyama Castle, which was about to be built.

After this "Western Expedition", the Takeda clan's territory was greatly expanded. The westernmost part of it was from Surumine in the west of Asago County in Tajima Province to Nyudo Mountain in the northwest of Bimasaka Province; the southernmost part was from the Ikuno area in the south of Asago County to the Ryuike area in the Inishi County in Harima Province.

In terms of koku, the koku of central and western Tajima, eastern Inaba, northern and eastern Mimasaka, and western and northern Harima obtained in this battle were 50,000 koku, 40,000 koku, 100,000 koku, and 97,000 koku respectively, totaling 287,000 koku.

Of this seemingly huge territory, only about 40% actually belonged to Yoshishige's direct domain. In fact, if the Kusakari clan had not been destroyed, this proportion might have been lower than 30%. In other words, of this territory of nearly 290,000 koku, Yoshishige's direct domain only accounted for about 110,000 koku, and most of the rest were in the hands of the local nobles in Mimasaka and Harima.

Even so, these local nobles were still nominally retainers of the Takeda clan, which led to a huge change in the size of the Takeda clan's territory. The nominal land tax increased from 282,000 koku to 569,000 koku, and the actual land tax increased from 320,000 koku after the land survey to 589,000 koku. If the land tax of ports such as Obama, Tsuruga, and Maizuru is converted into land tax, it will increase by about 150,000 koku on the existing basis.

In other words, the actual land area of ​​the Takeda clan was about 740,000 koku, covering the seven provinces of Wakasa, Echizen, Tango, Tajima, Inaba, Harima, and Mimasaka.

Although more than 60% of them were in the hands of retainers, local people and powerful families, even so, the overall strength of the Takeda clan was comparable to that of the Asakura clan in Echizen, and it could even be said that it had surpassed the Asakura clan in terms of mobilization and financial resources.

However, compared with powerful daimyo such as Asakura and Rokkaku around them, the Takeda clan also had a significant disadvantage, that is, the territory expanded too quickly and the core cohesion was not strong. Many local powerful families chose to submit to Yoshishige for some special and temporary reasons, and their loyalty to Yoshishige and the entire Takeda clan was not high.

In normal times, this might not be a big problem, but once the Takeda clan was defeated or their offensive was frustrated, the local forces that had previously surrendered to Yoshishige would most likely split off or even turn against him. Just as the people of Aki surrendered to the Ouchi clan after the defeat of the Amago clan, the people of Mimasaka, Bizen, and Harima chose to establish themselves or return to loyalty to the Akamatsu and Urakami clans after the Amago clan withdrew.

After achieving a great victory, Yoshishige also clearly realized this problem. Therefore, he felt it necessary to slow down the pace of external expansion and focus on unifying the forces within the territory.

Of course, he did this not only for internal considerations, but also based on an accurate assessment of the external situation.

After this large-scale westward expedition, the Takeda clan had officially gone from being a medium-sized force in a remote corner to a powerful daimyo that all forces had to pay attention to. The Amago clan in the west, the Asakura clan in the east, the Rokkaku (Asai) clan in the south, and the Bessho clan that controlled the eight counties of the eastern part of the country would obviously not ignore the rapid growth of the Takeda clan.

In addition, although Hosokawa Harumoto's territory did not directly border the Takeda clan, it was already very close, and he also clearly felt the pressure brought by the Takeda clan's expansion.

Although Hatano Hidetada, as Yoshishige's father-in-law, had always been by Hosokawa Harumoto's side to speak on his behalf and often praised Yoshishige for his loyalty to the shogunate and the Hosokawa clan, these words could not conceal Yoshishige's edge. Especially when he realized that Miyoshi Toshinaga was also secretly developing his own power at the same time, Hosokawa Harumoto's vigilance against this pair of "brothers" reached an unprecedented level.

In order to eliminate Hosokawa Harumoto's vigilance and suspicion, Yoshishige, at the suggestion of Hatano Hidetada, returned to Wakasa and soon after, he took Kumagai Nagisa and Rokkaku Rin to Kyoto in the name of "visiting relatives".

For nearly a month, Yoshishige shuttled back and forth between the imperial court, the shogunate, the kanrei, and the Rokkaku forces, using large sums of money and generous gifts to bribe the nobles, the public servants, and other influential figures in various forces, hoping to use their persuasion to eliminate the vigilance and suspicion of the Takeda clan, including Hosokawa Harumoto, as much as possible. (End of this chapter)