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

Since the Tamba Road runs from north to south across the entire Tamba Province and passes through the spheres of influence of many people, Yoshiaki regarded the cooperation in building this road as an important indicator of whether one was willing to make friends with the Wakasa Takeda clan or submit to the Hatano clan.

What made Yoshishige quite satisfied was that this street passed through the three counties of Helu, Funai and Taki successively. The people passing through it basically supported the construction of the street. Even the Akai clan, who occupied the central and southern parts of Helu County, acquiesced to this matter. This surprised Yoshishige a little. After all, the Akai and the Hatano clan did not get along well, so there was no need for them to provide convenience to the Hatano clan.

But on second thought, Yoshishige could understand it. After all, Hatano Hidetada was the largest force in Tamba, and the Wakasa Takeda clan was a companion of the shogunate, and had good relations with the imperial court and the kanrei. Although the Akai clan occupied two Tamba counties, they were not as qualified as the above two clans either politically or militarily.

Moreover, Hosokawa Harumoto had to rely on Hatano Hidetada to help him stabilize Tamba internally, and Yoshishige to help him contain Asakura, Amago and other daimyo externally. Naturally, he did not want to fall out with these two families just because of building a street. Therefore, the Akai family, as a Tamba native who supported Hosokawa Harumoto, did not dare to go against Hosokawa Harumoto's wishes and make enemies with the two families over this matter.

Therefore, with the cooperation of various forces, the Tanba Road was officially completed in March of the 1543th year of Tenbun (), which halved the time from Tango Atagoyama Castle and Miyazu Castle to Tanba Yagami Castle and Yagi Castle. And with the secret support of Hatano Hidetada, the influence of the Wakasa Takeda clan on the western and northern parts of Tanba began to increase.

Having discussed the situation in the east of the Wakasa Takeda clan, let's look at the battle in the west. The Ouchi army, which had previously swept into Izumo with overwhelming force, had lost its edge at this point, and the balance of the battlefield began to swing back and forth between the two armies.

Since the Ouchi army lost two generals at Akana Castle in June last year, Ouchi Yoshitaka decided to surround Akana Castle and launched a fierce attack at the end of July. However, under the tenacious resistance of the castle lord Akana Mitsukiyo, even powerful generals such as Tao Takafusa and Yoshikawa Okige were defeated, and the Ouchi army had to withdraw for a time.

Unfortunately, Akana Mitsukiyo was killed by a stray arrow during the defense of the castle, and the defenders who lost their leader had to surrender on the condition that they would let him return to Tsukiyama Tomita Castle. After that, the Ouchi army successively captured several castles, and many Japanese people in the "Ten Banners of Amago" such as Misawa Castle Lord Misawa Tamekiyo and Mitsouya Castle Lord Mitsouya Hisafu also defected to Ouchi Yoshitaka.

On the 1543th day of the first lunar month in , Ouchi Yoshitaka held a military meeting in the camp and wanted to move the main camp to Kyoramatsu, under Gassan Tomita Castle.

However, the gradualist school represented by Mori Motonari objected to this, saying that Kyo-Ragiyama was too close to Tsukiyama Tomita Castle. In the event of danger, there would be no time to organize a retreat and defense. It would be better to set up the main camp at a slightly farther location, gradually compress the outer positions of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle in a step-by-step manner, and eventually complete the full encirclement of the castle.

This view was contrary to the opinion of the urgent war faction represented by Tao Takafusa, and a fierce verbal conflict broke out between the two sides. In the end, Ouchi Yoshitaka gave face to Tao Takafusa and announced that he would enter Kyoto Romu Mountain two days later and choose the time to have a decisive battle with the Amago clan.

However, the Ouchi army that marched into Izumo Province, like the Amago army that had previously surrounded Yoshida-gunyama Castle, was caught in a protracted war.

On March 14, the Amago army repelled the attacks of generals such as Naito Norimori and Mori Motonari.

In late March, the brothers Amago Seihisa and Amago Keihisa led more than 2,000 members of the Shingu Party and defeated the invading Ouchi army at Tokoji Temple.

In April, Mori Motonari led his army to attack Shioyaguchi on the west side of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle, but under the tight defense of the Amago army, the Mori army returned empty-handed.

At the same time, the Ouchi army had been harassed by the guerrilla warfare of the Amago army, and had been unable to fight a decisive battle. Not only did the morale of the entire army drop, but it also caused many Japanese people to waver.

In late April, the Misawa clan, the Mitsuoya clan, the Honjo clan, the Yoshikawa clan, the Yamanouchi clan, and other clans from Izumo, Aki, and Bingo provinces defected to the Amago clan and entered Tsukiyama Tomita Castle. The balance of victory suddenly tilted in favor of the Amago clan. Only a few generals, such as Mori Motonari and his son, Takeda Nobumasa, Shishido Takaie, Kumagai Nobunao, Amano Okisada, and Kobayakawa Masahiro, remained in the Ouchi army. The number of troops was greatly reduced, and morale also fell to a low point.

Without the support of many people, the encirclement of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle had many loopholes, making it difficult for the Ouchi Army to take care of both ends, and the encirclement of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle was completely collapsed. On the contrary, the morale of the Amago Army was unusually high because of the sudden reinforcement.

The situation had become very favorable to the Niwa clan, and the supply route of the Ouchi army was in danger of being cut off at any time. In order to avoid the danger of being surrounded or even annihilated by the Niwa clan, Ouchi Yoshitaka decided to withdraw his troops from Izumo immediately.

On May 7, Ouchi Yoshitaka retreated from the main camp at Kyoto Ragiyama, and was immediately pursued by Amago Haruhisa. After going through many hardships, he finally retreated to Suo via Magata, Tsuda, and Iwami, and returned to Yamaguchi Castle on May 25.

However, Ouchi Yoshitaka's adopted son Ouchi Harumichi was not so lucky. When he was retreating by water, his boat was overturned by the rebel army and he drowned in the sea.

The defeat of the Izumo army and the drowning of his eldest son forced the Ouchi clan to switch from offense to defense. Ouchi Yoshitaka lost all his will to fight and began to indulge in his interests in literature and art. He began to use the literary faction's Taketoshi Sagara and alienated the arbitrary faction's Takafusa Sue.

Taking advantage of the momentum of defeating the Ouchi army, Amago Haruhisa once again actively launched external wars, regained control of Iwami and most of Bingo, and extended his sphere of influence to Aki.

It is worth mentioning that the reason why Ouchi Yoshitaka was able to retreat safely to Suo was mainly due to the fact that Mori Motonari served as the rear guard and blocked the pursuing troops of the Amago clan.

Mori Motonari first passed through Iwasakamichi and Kumano Road, and then when he passed through Koshi and Gohama in Izumo-Bogawa County, he was ambushed by the Amago army and lost a large number of his subordinates. Fortunately, after entering Iwami Province, he was protected by the local noble family Hagen Tairen and recuperated for several days.

They then retreated to Hagen in Nima County, and while marching from Yatakimichi to Mihara Village in Ochi County, they were attacked by the defenders of Yamabuki Castle near Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine, and were chased all the way to Oesaka Nanaki, where Watanabe Heizo, Kodama Motoyasu, Kobayakawa Masahira, and several hereditary retainers were killed in the battle. Mori Motonari and his sons were also in extreme danger and were on the verge of death.

At this time, Watanabe Michi, who had a grudge against Mori Motonari for killing his father, put aside his past grudges and stepped forward, volunteering to be Mori Motonari's shadow warrior to protect him from the battlefield.

Watanabe Michi put on Mori Motonari's armor, rode Motonari's warhorse, and led six companions including Naito Kuro to attract the enemy's attention. He died heroically in battle, leaving behind the ancient ruins of "Nanakizaka". Mori Motonari thus escaped safely back to Aki.

In order to express his gratitude for Watanabe Michi's loyalty, Mori Motonari rewarded the Watanabe family with generous treatment as "the first-class retainers of the Mori family for generations."

After this battle, the Mori clan was rewarded with Tosaki Castle in Aki Toyota County, but it also became the front line against the Amago clan again. Takeda Nobumitsu, who escorted Ouchi Yoshitaka back to Suo, was rewarded with a part of Aki Yamagata and Sasai counties for this achievement. At the request of Ouchi Yoshitaka, he began to attack Yoshikawa Oki in northern Aki. (End of this chapter)