In April 1575, there was a battle between Nobunaga Oda and Ieyasu Tokugawa and Takeda Katsuyori over Nagashino Castle in the northern part of Mikawa. This battle is called the Battle of Nagashino, and it is said that a large number of guns were used * for the first time in Japan. * There are various theories.
As a result of the Battle of Nagashino, the Oda-Tokugawa Allied Forces won, and Mr. Takeda headed for destruction in the wake of this battle.
This time, [ Battle of Nagashino ] I would like to briefly describe the cause of Takeda Katsuyori's defeat and the flow.
What is the Battle of Nagashino?
The Battle of Nagashino took place in Nagashino, Mikawa in 1575.
Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu's Allied Forces VS Takeda Katsuyori It is a battle with.
There are two main battlefields, Nagashino Castle and Shitarahara.
The first known use of guns in Japan was the battle at Shitarahara. Also, in textbooks, it has been said that the Allied Forces of Oda and Tokugawa are 30,000 and the Takeda Army is 15,000, but the actual number is unknown.
The Oda-Tokugawa Allied Forces horse fence assault by the cavalry, which is the specialty of the Takeda Army. Simultaneous alternate shooting (three-stage shooting) with 3000 guns divided into 3 stages with 1000 in a horizontal row. The story of repelling the Takeda army is famous and I think I learned it at school, but it is thought to be a creation of posterity.
Cause of the Battle of Nagashino
Originally, Mr. Tokugawa and Mr. Takeda After the death of Shingen Takeda, Ieyasu Tokugawa regained Nagashino Castle, which is a key point of Okumikawa, in order to recapture Kita Mikawa. In response to this, Takeda Katsuyori heads for the capture to use Nagashino Castle as a foothold for the invasion of Mikawa.
Ieyasu Tokugawa dispatched troops in response to a request for help from Nagashino Castle. At the same time, we asked Nobunaga Oda, who had an alliance, to send troops and confronted the Takeda army as the Oda-Tokugawa alliance.
The Takeda family was 1573 by Katsuyori's father, Shingen. Battle of Mikatagahara I was defeating Ieyasu Tokugawa. However, he died suddenly shortly after that, and Katsuyori took over the Takeda family.
Takeda Katsuyori inherits the aspirations of his father, Shingen 1574 Owari / Mikawa / Totomi Akechi Castle , the base of the invasion of In addition, Tokugawa territory Totomi, Takatenjin Castle , which Shingen could not drop The territory was expanded one after another.
The Takeda group, who had won a series of victories, set their sights on Nagashino Castle in the Tokugawa territory.
By acquiring Nagashino Castle, the Takeda army will become a stepping stone to steal the entire northern part of Mikawa from Ieyasu, and it is also realistic to invade Ieyasu's territory to the eastern part of Mikawa and the Totomi next to it, expanding Takeda's control. It will be carried.
Progress and results of the Battle of Nagashino
Katsuyori Takeda, who had achieved the feat of expanding the territory more than his father Shingen and renewing Mr. Takeda's maximum, marched to Nagashino Castle with this momentum and surrounded the castle and attacked many times. I set it up.
At this time, the owner of Nagashino Castle, Okudaira Nobumasa Managed to withstand the Takeda clan's attack with a small number of 500 soldiers and waited for Ieyasu's reinforcements. In response to a request for reinforcements from Nagashino Castle, Ieyasu sent troops with Nobunaga Oda and challenged the battle of Nagashino.
Oda-Tokugawa Allied Forces
The Oda-Tokugawa Allied Forces have begun preparing to meet the Takeda Army at Nagashino's Shitarahara.
Shitarahara is a terrain where Mt. Ganmine rises to the north and Toyokawa flows to the south. Therefore, Nobunaga and his colleagues prepared for Takeda's invasion by creating fences, moats, soil walls, and artificial cliffs with shaved slopes as measures to prevent the invasion of enemies from the side.
If you invite the Takeda army to the front with this, you can fight in the Allied army's advantage.
In addition, the astute Nobunaga secretly sent a MTF of 4,000 soldiers, separate from his main force, to Nagashino Castle the day before the decisive battle. At the same time as the opening of the war in Shitarahara, a separate corps attacked the Takeda army surrounding Nagashino Castle and rescued the people of the castle.
Mr. Takeda disagrees with his vassals
On the other hand, the Takeda army was divided among its vassals ahead of the battle with Oda and Tokugawa.
The senior vassals of the Shingen era were [ withdrawal in front of the large army of Oda and Tokugawa. ] And [ If you want to greet you, take Nagashino Castle and then greet you at Nagashino ] Insist. However, Katsuyori chose [ Meet at Shitarahara in the opinion of his own aides. 】was.
Behind this decision was the chance to beat Ieyasu Tokugawa, who couldn't even be his father, Shingen, and despite Nobunaga's "waiting" tactics specializing in shooting battles. However, there was a misunderstanding that he was holding hands in Shitarahara from himself, who said he had won consecutive battles in a row.
It is also said that he was eager to get Shingen's veteran vassals to recognize himself.
The result of the Battle of Nagashino
The Oda-Tokugawa Allied Forces dug a seemingly fragile fence made of wood called a horse fence to build a line of defense that would make it difficult for horses to break through, and devised a strategy to counter the Takeda cavalry. Nobunaga, who was familiar with the characteristics of guns that could shoot distant enemies without moving too much, countered his mobility with specialized formations and equipment against the Takeda cavalry, the greatest weapon.
This operation was a perfect hit and was able to give a big blow to the Takeda army.
Unexpected collapse of the Takeda army
The Takeda army, which was originally inferior in number, pincer movement I was taking a tactic called.
This is a pinch-and-shoot tactic in which the armies at both ends are placed slightly ahead of the center, and while the enemy army is attacking the central army, either or both ends poke behind the enemy army. This tactic is still used today as an army tactic, as the army, which is inferior in number from ancient times, defeated the enemy army.
The Takeda army was an operation to wrap the armies at both ends behind while the Oda army was attacking the central army, but what happened unexpectedly before the armies at both ends surrounded central part. Collapse was.
The central part of the Takeda army is Katsuyori's uncle, Takeda Nobukado . And his cousin Shin Anayama However, he was not on good terms with Katsuyori and fled in front of the enemy, ignoring the commander's instructions, leaving the armies at both ends behind and suffering great damage.
Takeda's famous generals were placed in the armies at both ends that pierced behind, and as a result of the retreat of the central part, many of them died in the war, leading to the destruction of the Takeda family later. By the way, it is ironic that most of the central army that fled in front of the enemy lived and fled.
In this way, Takeda Katsuyori lost the famous generals and senior vassals who had supported the Takeda family and many soldiers due to the operations of Nobunaga and Ieyasu and the internal collapse.
On the other hand, the day before the decisive battle, 4000 soldiers, including Nobunaga Guards and a part of the Ieyasu army, were secretly sent from the detour to Nagashino Castle, and almost at the same time as the start of the war in Shitarahara the next day, Nagashino Castle was saved from the siege of the enemy.
As a result, the rescue of the chief Shinojo , which was the original purpose of the Oda-Tokugawa Allied Forces, was achieved. In addition, Shitarahara also has a devastating blow to the Takeda army He also mentioned the results of the war.
After the Battle of Nagashino
After the Battle of Nagashino, the power of the Takeda family declined.
1582 seven years after the Battle of Nagashino , Nobunaga, Ieyasu, Hojo Ujima and others have started to conquer Takeda in order to destroy Mr. Takeda.
Katsuyori, who was cornered, tries to escape to Iwadenyama Castle, a vassal of the Takeda clan, Nobushige Oyamada, but he is betrayed by Oyamada. Katsuyori, who was prepared for the destruction of the Takeda clan and his death, died in Mt. Tenmoku, a land related to the Takeda clan.
After that, Nobunaga Oda succeeded in surrendering the anti-Nobunaga forces in a peace with Ishiyama Hongan-ji by Echizen Ikko-ikki Heisei, and the de facto [ Tenkajin ] As 1582 [ Honnoji Incident ] Will rise.
In addition, Ieyasu Tokugawa took full control of Mikawa and captured Suwahara Castle and Futamata Castle, which are important bases of Totomi, and strengthened the tightening on Takatenjin Castle.
New facts about the Battle of Nagashino
Regarding the Battle of Nagashino, in recent years [ Nobunaga Kouki ] And verification is carried out based on the results of the excavation survey in the field, and it is said that the interpretation is different from the past.
3000 gun theory
The conventional wisdom is that the Oda-Tokugawa Allied Forces repelled the Takeda Cavalry with 3000 guns, but this theory has become suspicious. This content was written in the early Edo period Hoan Oze " Nobunaga It was written in.
Since this is not a record written at the same time as the Battle of Nagashino, it has come to be considered unreliable.
Currently, he was a vassal of Nobunaga Oda [ Gyuichi Ota ] [ Shincho Kouki ] However, as a reasonably reliable historical material, local excavations have been conducted and new interpretations have been made.
As one of them, in the excavation survey of Nagashino and Shitarahara, which became the battlefield, for some reason, few gun bullets were excavated, and it is doubtful that 3000 guns were really used.
In the first place, 3000 is the story written in Nobunaga, and it is stated in Nobunaga that he gathered gunmen little by little from each general and formed a temporary gun corps of about 1000 people.
There was no simultaneous alternate shooting by three-stage shooting
Assuming that 3000 is a gaseneta, the gun " three-stage shooting The episode of "" is also considered to be a creation based on the story written in the novel Nobunaga.
Nobunaga [ Do not shoot guns until the enemy approaches against the assaulting Takeda army. When he draws to one town (about 100m), 1000 fires are fired first, and then he shoots one step at a time. ], And this content has taken root.
Even with reliable historical materials, there is no mention of three-stage shooting, and even in Shincho Kouki, the gun is sanzan . There is only one that I shot.
Maybe [ 1000 gun corps ] Is [ 1000 people in 3 steps ] Isn't it? Am I the only one who thought?
The Takeda cavalry may also be created ...
Unified in vermilion [ Takeda's red preparation It seems that the number of soldiers who actually fight on horseback was about 10% of the entire Takeda army, and it is thought that the scale and power of the Takeda cavalry was not large enough to be called a cavalry.
By the way, at that time, the native horses in Japan were small in size and had a system similar to that of a pony of about 120 cm.
Shitarahara is not a vast plain
The main battlefield of the Battle of Nagashino [ Shitarahara ], Imagine a plain from the place name Hara, but there is a vertically long flat land of about 2km from north to south and about 200 to 300m on average from east to west, and the river divides the center, making it difficult for horses to run through. It was a great location.
The Oda-Tokugawa Allied Forces and the Takeda Army were stationed on a tongue-shaped plateau that stretched behind along the flat land that continued from north to south.
On the Allied side, a few days before the Takeda army's main corps came from Nagashino Castle, this plateau was skillfully set up as a base, and when an empty moat, earthworks, and a cliff were built, the entire fence was turned around and the Takeda army took advantage of the height difference. I was prepared for.
From the perspective of the Takeda army, this location is closer to a castle attack than a plain field battle, and is considered unsuitable for horse battles.
There are various theories about the number of guns and how to use them, but since the Battle of Nagashino, the main weapon on the battlefield has been [ guns . ], And there is no doubt that the way the battle should be has changed significantly.