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

Chapter 75: Red Cavalry

After discussing the relevant matters with Takeda Motomitsu, Nobushige decided that the following people would accompany him to Kyoto:
Morihisa Kagawa, Kiyonaga Matsumiya, Takanao Kumagai, Shigeyuki Yamamoto, Mitsuyuki Muto, Morinobu Yamagata, Katsuhisa Awaya, and Ryuoki Unmine.

Those who stayed at home were Shirai Mitsutane and Itsumi Masatsune from Tango; in Wakasa region, Yamagata Hidemasa was in charge of government affairs, while the military affairs were handed over to Kumagai Motonao; in Tsuruga County, Awaya Katsuie guarded Kirigiri, and Hirai Toshimasa was in charge of Kanezaki Castle.

As for the composition of the army that went to Kyoto, there were 200 people from Nobushige's Makai army, 100 people from Yamagata's cavalry, 300 people from Wakasa such as Hisamura, Kagawa, Matsumiya, etc., 200 people from Tango's Sugi Sosuke and Inatomi Yuhide, and 200 people from Tsuruga's Miyabo Nagaki and Toba Nobuniwa, a total of 1,000 people.

In addition, there were more than 600 people including attendants, concubines, maids, doctors, and laborers who followed and served.

Although the number of people going to Kyoto this time was small, in order to deter bandits and local people along the way, boost morale, and show the majesty of the Takeda clan, Nobushige adopted the suggestion of Yamamoto Shigeyuki and spent a large amount of money to purchase a large amount of cinnabar. The armor and horse harness of the Yamagata cavalry were all painted red, and the military flags and the flag objects behind them were all made of red cloth. At first glance, it looked as warm as fire, with great visual impact and deterrence.

Of course, this cavalry can only be called the "Red Cavalry", not the so-called "Red Armor". After all, "Army" is similar to the modern army, with the main force being foot soldiers, divided into various military positions such as flag group, iron cannon group, spear group, cavalry, military supervisor, mezuzaki, drum, shell, samurai general (armor commander), archery group, and small horse (mainly responsible for supply and transportation).

Therefore, given the current strength of the Takeda clan and the situation within their territory, the time is not yet ripe to form a dedicated "Red Cavalry", but being able to put together a "Red Cavalry" is already shocking enough.

In addition, Nobushige also prepared different colored jugami for the samurai and foot soldiers who went to Kyoto. Among them, the Umakai soldiers all wore yellow jugami with a flag on the back that had the "Marunouchi diamond"; the rest of the Kokuminari soldiers wore black jugami with a flag on the back that had the Kokuminari family crest and the "Four-cut diamond" of the Takeda clan.

While reorganizing the military, Nobushige also followed the advice of Sanjo Konori and Takeda Motomitsu and prepared a lot of gold, silver, copper coins, and rare treasures as gifts to the court and the shogun. Of course, a large part of these expenses came from the indemnity paid by the Asakura clan not long ago.

After everything was ready, on the sixth day of the third month of the eighth year of Tenbun, Nobushige officially led a huge team of more than 1,600 people, set out from the Takeda clan's mansion, and went south along the "Mackerel Road" through Kuchikikoshi to Kyoto.

The so-called "Sabakaido" is the general name for the streets connecting Obama to Kyoto. It was named because it was mainly a route for transporting fish to Kyoto at that time, and most of the fish were mackerel (mackerel).

Taking this road to Luo, one will inevitably pass through Omi Province, but Omi at this time is not as peaceful as it seems.

Two years ago, in 1537, Rokkaku Sadayasu defeated Asai Ryomasa again on the north bank of Lake Biwa, forcing him to become the outer lord of the Rokkaku clan and nominally unifying Omi. Shortly thereafter, he betrothed his daughter to the widowed Hosokawa Harumoto, establishing a marriage relationship with him, thereby strengthening his ties with the shogunate and kanrei, becoming a powerful ally of Hosokawa Harumoto in Kinki, and at the same time having a voice within the shogunate that could not be ignored.

But behind the infinite glory is the fact that Omi is still in a state of division.

Omi Province was divided into Hubei, Koto, Konan, and Kosei according to their relative positions to Lake Biwa. At this time, the fertile lands of Konan and Kodong were mostly under the rule of the Rokkaku clan; Asai Ryomasa of Hubei and the main family, the Kyogoku clan, were still hindering each other. As for Kosei, the situation was relatively complicated. It was originally ruled by the Takashima clan, which was a branch of the Sasaki clan like the Rokkaku and Kyogoku clans. However, with the decline of the main family, the "Takashima Kyuto" split from the Takashima clan ruled independently and established their own territory. Among them, the Kuchiki clan was the strongest, but still far weaker than the Rokkaku and Asai clans, and mainly relied on the shogun to maintain their rule. Its head, Kuchiki Uetsugu, and his eldest son, Kuchiki Harutsugu, served as the shogun's inner danshu and the honkoku, respectively, and stayed in Kyoto for a long time.

This time when he went to Kyoto, Nobushige's second stop in Omi was Kuchikidani in western Omi, which was also the birthplace of the Kuchiki clan.

As an important official of the shogunate, Kuchiki Uetsuna, upon learning from Ashikaga Yoshiharu and Hosokawa Harumoto that Nobushige was about to go to Kyoto, immediately led his eldest son Kuchiki Harutsuna back to Kuchikitani Castle and carefully prepared a banquet to welcome Nobushige and his party.

At noon on the seventh day of March, the Takeda army marched into Kuchikidani in a mighty force. The red, yellow and black troops were in neat formation and in high spirits, with flags fluttering in the wind. Nobushige was still wearing a soba hat with teeth planted in front and a black lacquered vest. Surrounded by the stable boys, he rode a tall horse with his head held high, with a solemn and dignified look on his face.

Although Kuchikidani was a must-pass place for people traveling between Wakasa and Kyoto, it was a small town after all. The people in the castle town had never seen such a large military force, and they all came to the sides of the road to stop and watch.

"Look, this is the military force of the Wakasa Takeda clan, it's incredible!" a young man exclaimed.

"That's right. Who would have thought that I would be able to see the Takeda clan's march to Kyoto again in my lifetime?" An old man with curly beard said with emotion, "Back then, Lord Yuanguang led 2,000 soldiers to Kyoto to support Lord Hosokawa Takakuni. I was one of them. Unfortunately... I was defeated in Katsuragawahara and was injured. I stayed in Kuchikidani halfway. It's been more than ten years."

Hearing the old man say this, the young man became interested and asked curiously: "More than ten years have passed. How do you think this team is compared to when you were there?"

"Haha, it's hard to compare, it's hard to compare!" The old man coughed twice, unable to hide his inner excitement and said: "Although there were 2,000 troops back then, their military appearance, armor, and weapons could not be compared with the current team. Especially their spirit, which is far inferior to the current Takeda army."

"That's not surprising." The young man was not surprised by the old man's answer, but said to himself: "I've heard that the Takeda family defeated the Asakura and Isshiki clans one after another, and annexed Tsuruga County and Tango Province. To be able to do this in a short period of time, it must be an extraordinary army."

"Defeated the Asakura clan? Was it old man Munetoshi?" the old man asked in surprise.

The young man nodded seriously: "That's right, even Master Munetoshi himself couldn't defeat the Takeda family. I heard that they later had to pay compensation and cede land. The Asakura family really suffered a big setback."

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(End of this chapter)