Chapter 50 second quarter

On May 21 of the same year, Oda Nobunaga temporarily returned to Gifu to regroup his troops, and on June 19, nearly a month later, he led an army into Omi again to attack Asai Nagamasa's Otani Castle.The army was once again spearheaded by Kinoshita Tokichiro, who had already built a stronghold for the attack. The Oda troops quickly captured the two fortresses of Changjing and Jia'an, and pushed into Xiaogu Castle in one fell swoop.However, due to the steep mountain where Xiaogu Castle is located, the Asai family fought hard, so they failed to succeed.And later, when the Oda family suspended the siege and prepared to retreat, the Asai army actually followed, causing great casualties.

In this battle, the Kinoshita group didn't have much meritorious service, but Tokichiro used his proud skills to win over Naofa Higuchi, the defender of Chang Jing.This allowed Kinoshita Tokichiro to obtain the right to serve as the vanguard when attacking Asai in the future, which is of great significance. After suspending the attack on Otani Castle, on June 24, Nobunaga turned his spearhead to Yokoyama Castle and surrounded the castle with Tokugawa Ieyasu's troops.With the aid of more than ten thousand troops led by Asakura Keiken, Asai Nagamasa sent troops to save the critical situation in Yokoyama Castle, and launched the so-called "Battle of Anegawa".

At first, the two armies set up battle formations on the top of the hills. On the early morning of June 27, Asakura and Asai's troops pretended to retreat and advanced to the vicinity of Aechuan.So the Oda family also retreated from the hills and fought actively. As a result, it became an army of 18,000 composed of more than 10,000 soldiers from Asakura and 8,000 soldiers from Asai. A team of 19,000 people faced each other across the Ane River, preparing for a decisive battle. At this time, the two sides seemed to be forming two deep formations.In other words, on the north side of Anegawa is the combined army of Asakura and Asai, with Asakura on the right (west) and Asai on the left (east); on the south side is the allied army of Oda and Tokugawa, with Oda on the right ( east), Tokugawa on the left (west).The strength of the two sides was obviously uneven, so Nobunaga specially drew 1,000 people from the Oda army and handed it over to Commander Inaba Michitomo to support the Tokugawa army.The 6,000 Tokugawa troops had to deal with more than 10,000 Asakura troops, but Nobunaga only sent 1,000 people to support them. Perhaps he really had full confidence in the bravery of the Mikawa samurai.

Kinoshita Tokichiro or Koichiro had never participated in such a large-scale battle. Seeing a strong enemy in front, Tokichiro trembled with excitement.On that day, Kinoshita Hideyoshi's troops were in the third formation of the thirteen groups of the Oda family, with Sakai Masaka in the first formation and Ikeda Katsuzaburo Hengxing in the second formation ahead, a total of 6,000 troops. Despite this, the Kinoshita group remained fully involved in the fight.At around ten o'clock in the morning, the vanguard of Asai's troops, Masaru Isano, rushed into the enemy's formation, breaking through the first and second formations of Oda's troops in an instant.The Kinoshita group tried their best to block its advance, but the Asai troops successively dispatched Asai Masatsumi, Aguan Sadasaki, Shinjo Naoyori and others. The chief general Nagamasa also led the army to attack. The fierce offensive quickly defeated the Kinoshita group's formation.That day, the twelve groups of Oda's army were broken through to the ninth formation, and it was not until Nobunaga's main formation finally blocked the opponent's offensive.The Oda family's troops have never been good at hand-to-hand combat, and because they realized the weaknesses of their soldiers, Nobunaga started using foreign guns and ammunition so early.

On the other hand, the Mikawa soldiers led by Tokugawa Ieyasu were as expected to be brave and good at fighting.The 2,000 soldiers led by Tadashi Sakai and Nagatada Ogasawara in the first and second formations were responsible for blocking the attack of the Asakura family, while Ieyasu's main team went around to the left to take the offensive, but instead restrained Asakura's army and made it slowly leave the front .Such a result may be caused by the insufficient fighting will of the Asakura troops serving as reinforcements. At about this time, the Oda army finally came to help.Seeing that Nobunaga's main formation was in danger, the troops of Ujiie Naomoto and Ando Moriya who stayed in the defense of Yokoyama Castle rushed to the battlefield and broke through the left flank of Asai's formation.

Because of the retreat of the Asakura family, the right wing was exposed, and the left wing of the team was attacked by the Uji family and Ando. Finally, Asai Nagamasa could not hold on, and retreated into Otani Castle.It is said that the battle ended at 2 o'clock in the afternoon that day, and the death toll was 1,700 from the coalition forces of Asakura and Asai, and more than 800 from the allied forces of Oda and Tokugawa.Although Asakura and Asai were defeated, less than 10% of them died, and they did not cause devastating military trauma. Therefore, they lingered on for a long time after the battle, which made Oda Nobunaga suffer a lot.

The battle of Anegawa was successful, and Oda Nobunaga deliberately informed Ashikaga Yoshiaki and the Mori family of the result in order to exert the effect of containment.For this reason, many exaggerated rumors spread in the streets and alleys, and even vividly said that Asai Nagamasa and Asakura Keiken had all died in battle-even the well-informed courtier Yamako Gentsugu said so in his diary writes. Of course, the military situation in Omi has also changed. Due to the retreat of the reinforcements during the Battle of Anegawa and the fall of Yokoyama Castle, the southern half of the Asai Territory was occupied, and only Sawayama Castle guarded by Masaru Isano remained isolated.

In response to this, Nobunaga built a hundred hundred strongholds on the east side of it, and handed it over to Niwa Changhide to guard it. He also ordered Ichihashi Changli, Mizuno Nobumoto, and Kawajiri Hidetaka to enter the surrounding cottages and adopt a posture of encirclement. At the same time, Nobunaga also handed over the occupied Yokoyama Castle to Kinoshita Hideyoshi, and ordered him to monitor Otani Castle where Asai Nagamasa was located.Since then, Yokoyama Castle has become the base of the Oda family in Kita Omi, and Kinoshita Hideyoshi is the commander of this area. As a result, Kinoshita Hideyoshi, who was mainly in charge of administrative work such as the Kyoto administration in the past two years, once again became a front-line commander and diplomatic intelligence officer, returning to the military and political system.