Itsukushima Island, located in the projectile land of Japan's Seto Inland Sea, has also been a religious and tourist attraction in Japan since ancient times. The 17th-century Japanese Confucian scholar Hayashi Chunsai referred to it along with Mutsu's Matsushima and Tango Amanohashi as the "Three Views of Japan". Itsukushima Shrine with a history of more than 1,400 years. It is also often regarded as an important symbol of Japanese culture.
During the Sengoku period of Japan in 1555, Itsukushima became a crucial battlefield. At that time, the Western hegemon, the Ouchi clan, united the newly rising people of the country, with Anyi and Bungo, and fought a decisive battle for regional hegemony. The battle ended with the complete victory of the Maori Yuan and the complete decline of the Ouchi clan. Maori Yuan also turned the offensive in this way, and gradually developed into a warring states daimyo that dominated the ten countries in China.
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" > the rise of the Maori clan</h1>
The family symbol of the Maori clan
Before the Battle of Itsukushima, Maori Motoyasu had not yet become a powerful daimyō on the divided side. But from the genealogy point of view, they are also called famous queens. His family is descended from the Ōe clan of the Kamakura period and is a branch of the ancient clan Toshi clan. The Oe clan was also known for its production of singers and writers, and for this they were highly valued by the emperor's court.
After the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate, Oe Jiguang, as a major shogun of the shogunate, received Morison as a fief in Aijia County, Sagami Kingdom. His descendants took the "Maori" clan. When the Kamakura shogunate fell in 1333, Ji Guang's grandson Maori Moved his family to the Angi area to escape the wars of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Since then, Anyi has become a place where the Maori clan has been breeding for generations. By the early days of Japan's Sengoku period, the Maori clan had become a well-known group of people in Anyi.
The ancestor of the Maori family, the Oe clan
As the second son of the governor of the house, Maori Hiromoto, Maori Yuan was not originally qualified to inherit the family governor. But of course, one's fate depends on the course of history. A series of changes between father and brother made Maoriyuan eventually become the leader of the family.
In 1500, Mori Hiromoto, unable to cope with the crisis, announced his retirement and passed on the family governor to his eldest son Maori Hiromoto. He himself died of alcoholism in 1506 at the age of 40. The new governor, Maori Kogen, also died prematurely in 1516 at the age of 24. His son, Yukimatsu maru, was only 2 years old and was unable to perform his duties at all. As a result, the 19-year-old Maoriyuan had to take on the heavy responsibility of assisting his nephew. The Maori courtiers initially distrusted the young man, leading the Maori clan to a disadvantageous situation in which the lord was weak. However, maori yuan quickly reassured the courtiers with practical actions.
The grave of the early Maori family
In 1517, Maori Won succeeded in defeating the Invading Takeda clan and winning his first military victory. In the face of a great disparity, Motoyasu set up an ambush to kill the vanguard of the Takeda army that besieged Arita Castle, the fierce general Motonauna Kumagaya. Subsequently, a successful night attack was launched against the main forces of Takeda Motoharu, the governor of the Takeda family, and killed them in one fell swoop in the rebellion. After the death of the lord, the Takeda army scattered, and the Anyi Takeda clan was devastated after this heavy blow.
Since then, the status of Maori Yuan has been significantly improved, becoming the real speaker of Maori. However, The Mauri's misfortune is not over. In 1523, when the 8-year-old governor Yukimaru died, Moto and his half-brother Motozune fought a civil war for the governor. By 1524, the powerful Yuan finally won, killed Xianghe Yuangang, and began his career as a household governor.
Portrait of Maori Yuan
With the lessons of his brothers, Yuan took over as the governor of the family and acted in a low-key manner. He married Yoshitaka Ouchi and gradually consolidated his rule under the cover of being a vassal of the Ouchi clan. With the support of the Ouchi clan, Moto defeated the attack of another rival, Niko Haruhisa. Then Motoyasu also cooperated with the lord and completely eliminated the Anyi Takeda clan in 1539.
Subsequently, Yuan began to expand slowly with the help of his good relationship with the Ouchi clan. Through marriage and military assistance, he won the support of the Anyi people such as the Yoshikawa clan and the Kohayakawa clan, and gradually established the famous "Maori and Liangchuan system". By 1550, Maori Yuan had already become one of the great names of the Warring States and began to embark on the road to compete for the world.
The Maori clan (yellow) is surrounded by two major forces, the Ouchi clan (blue) and the Nizi clan (pink).
< h1 class="ql-align-justify" > Ouchi's decline</h1>
The family crest of the Ouchi clan
Compared with the Maori clan, the Ouchi clan is obviously much stronger. Since the time of the Muromachi shogunate, the Ouchi clan has maintained firm control over Shōho, Nagato, and the northern part of Kyushu.
During Yoshitaka Ouchi's tenure as governor, the ouchi clan reached its peak in strength. Yilong eliminated the Anyi Takeda clan, defeated the Ōtomo and Nizi clans, and took advantage of the monopoly of the Ming Dynasty's kanhe trade to rapidly develop foreign trade, winning considerable profits. He was also one of the first Warring States daimyo to carry out the "Southern Barbarian Trade" and imitate the Western European arquebusier. It was with his support that the Jesuit monk Francis Xavier was able to establish the earliest missionary base at the pass, promoting the spread of Western European culture in the Kitakyushu region.
The Kanhe trade and the Southern Manchuria trade made the Ouchi clan very rich for a time
Ironically, Yoshitaka Ouchi was both the founder of the heyday of the Ouchi clan and the culprit that led to the decline of the Ouchi clan. In 1543, Yoshitaka's Izumo Expedition against the Niko clan was a crushing defeat, and his favorite adopted son and heir, Harunoshi Ōuchi, was killed in battle. Yilong, who had never suffered such a heavy blow, failed to withstand the blow and began to abandon government affairs. At the age of 36, he lost the courage of a young man, recruited a large number of public secretaries from the Kyoto area, and spent all day drinking and meeting, indulging in public culture. In times of peace, Yoshitaka Ouchi's graceful behavior may not be a big deal. However, in the chaotic world of the Warring States, this kind of melancholy sound and light song and dance is obviously out of date.
In addition, Yilong also unwisely alienated the spectral regents represented by the "arbitrary faction" Tao Longfang, and instead reused the foreign minister "Wenzhi faction" Xiangliang Wuren, who was not in harmony with the spectral generation, resulting in the division of the regime. As a result, the disgruntled Tao Longfang began to co-opt Naito Kosei, Sugi Shigeru and other important ministers to prepare for revenge.
Portrait of Yoshitaka Ouchi
Apparently, Yoshitaka Ouchi underestimated the power of the Toron House. Tao Longfang, known as the "First General of the Western Kingdom", was also one of the important ministers of the Ouchi regime. He served as the general of the Great Inner Army, and after Yilong retired, he held real power in the army and had a strong political influence. At the beginning of the loss of power, Tao Longfang still advised the lord many times, but this made Yi Long even more disgusted. Dissatisfied with the loss of power and resentful of Yilong, Tao Longfang agreed with other ministers in 1550 to depose Yilong and replace Yilong's son Yizun with a plan to make Yilong's son Yilong the governor of the house. This plan was also tacitly approved by Maori Yuan.
In September 1551, when Tao Longfang saw that the time was ripe, he led his troops to create the famous "Daning Temple Change", forcing Yi Long and Yi Zun father and son who fled to Daning Temple to commit suicide. Subsequently, Tao Longfang changed the nephew of Ouchi Yoshitaka to Ōtomo Harumi as the governor of the house, and changed his name to Tao Qingxian after taking the "Qing" character in the name of the new governor, becoming the de facto ruler of the Ouchi regime.
The tomb of Yoshitaka Ouchi in Danin Temple
As the son-in-law of Yoshitaka Ouchi, Maoriyuan was extremely dissatisfied with Tao Qingxian's act of killing the lord and decided to break with Tao Qingxian. In order to prevent himself from being attacked by his fierce enemy, the Nizi clan, Moto had to suppress his anger temporarily, ostensibly still allegiance to the Ouchi clan and waiting for the opportunity.
He was well aware that the Ōuchi clan warlords who were dissatisfied with Yoshinaka's depravity supported the coup, but there were also many opponents of Harumi among the Ouchi clan's courtiers, and the new power of the Ouchi clan was extremely unstable. When the anti-Tao Qingxian forces are in turmoil and make him anxious, it is the best strategy to win people's hearts and minds by using the banner of revenge for his father-in-law to recruit Tao Qingxian. Of course, the timing that Yuan just longed for didn't wait too long.
MaoRiyuan soon met with Tao Qingxian
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" > the first battle</h1>
First of all, he raised an army against Tao Qingxian's Ōuchi clan minister Yoshimi Masayoshi
Perhaps overwhelmed by a momentary success, Tao Qingxian began to become increasingly arrogant after successfully seizing power. He kills Sugi Shigeru, a Ōuchi clan minister who had helped him rebel but was at odds with him. Subsequently, in order to increase the control of the territory, the armament was developed and the "Wenzhi faction" vassals were further excluded. This increased the already fierce factional struggle of the Ouchi regime.
In 1554, Yoshimi Masarai, the brother-in-law of Yoshitaka Ouchi, took the lead in rebelling under the banner of "revenge for Yoshitaka". Tao Qingxian believed that this was the best time to sweep away all the opposition, so he began to gather his subordinates to prepare for the conquest of Zhenglai, and ordered Mao Liyuan to participate in the conquest.
A diagram of the progress of the Battle of Origami Hata
However, Tao Qingxian is still a pattern after all. Seeing that the time had come, Maori yuan immediately decided to form an alliance with Yoshimi Masayoshi, openly announced his break with Tao Qingxian, and took advantage of the opportunity to expand his territory while Tao Qingxian led an army to conquer Zhenglai. Tao Qingxian is extremely angry at Yuan's betrayal and is determined to destroy the Maori clan after defeating Zheng Lai. After several months of siege, Tao Qingxian forced Zhenglai to submit in August 1554. He then sent his general Miyagawa to lead a force of 4,000 men to attack the Maori clan in preparation for retaking Sakurao Castle, which had previously been captured by Motoyasu. Thus began the first large-scale engagement between the two sides, the Battle of Origami Hata.
Although Motoyasu learned in time of the enemy's garrison at Mount Orishiki Hata in the western part of Sakurao Castle, he was influenced by misinformation and recognized this enemy army as Tao Qingxian's main force. So Yuan did not dare to be idle, and mobilized most of the 3,000 combat troops in the territory to go to Sakurao Castle to rescue. Although he mistakenly recognized the enemy general, Yuan's command was not ambiguous. He was accurately aware of the enemy's labor expedition, which had been heavily depleted in the battle with Masayoshi Yoshimi. Therefore, it is not appropriate to give the enemy the opportunity to rest and recuperate, and it is the best policy to make a quick decision.
On the night of September 14, Yuan ordered the entire army to divide into four routes and take advantage of the night to launch a surprise attack on the Miyagawa army. The unsuspecting Miyagawa army quickly collapsed due to its inability to move between the mountains, and the main general, Miyagawa, was killed by the Maori army. In this way, the Battle of Folding Shibata ended with a complete victory in Yuan, and Tao Qingxian was unfavorable and folded first.
The Battle of Origami Hata was Maori Yuan's first victory over Tao Qingxian
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" > Itsukushima Armageddon</h1>
Maori Yuan's victory provoked Tao Qingxian to personally come out
Although the Yuan won the first battle, the real test has just begun. At this time, Tao Qingxian, who had strong strength, was still able to mobilize more than 20,000 troops, which was obviously superior to Yuan's maximum combat strength of 4,000 people. In a situation where the quality of the troops on both sides is similar, frontal confrontation is not a good strategy. Therefore, Yuan learned from the experience of defeating Takeda Motoharu and Miyagawa Futama, and decided to lure Tao Qingxian to the narrow battlefield of Itsukushima for a decisive battle, and once again exerted his advantage of being good at surprise attacks to win in one fell swoop. But how can Tao Qingxian be lured from the open battlefield that is good for him to the narrow battlefield that is not good for him?
In order to make the plan work, Yuan first built a new Miyao Castle on Itsukushima, and placed the generals who had recently rebelled from Tao Qingxian in the city, in an attempt to provoke Tao Qingxian. Under yuan's instructions, the courtier Gui Yuancheng surrendered to Tao Qingxian, expressing his willingness to join the latter in attacking the Maori army. In addition, Yuan also blocked Tao Qingxian's route of attacking from land.
Maori Yuan was the first to build a new Miyao Castle on Itsukushima
After learning of the above information, Tao Qingxian decided to march from the sea to Itsukushima. His subordinate Hironaka Takahashi strongly opposed this plan, believing that the large army was unfavorable to the small island and trying to persuade Tao Qingxian to concentrate superior forces to break through by land. However, Tao Qingxian also has his own plans. In his opinion, Miyao Castle, which only had 500 defenders, was not enough to worry about, and Yuan could not fully mobilize all his forces in order to prevent the invasion of the Nizi clan. This makes the gap between the two sides widen. More importantly, as an important stronghold on The Seto Inland Sea trade routes, Itsukushima's strategic value cannot be ignored. After capturing Itsukushima, he was also able to use this as a base to directly attack the Anyi and Bigo areas controlled by Yuan.
Based on this consideration, Tao Qingxian led a main force of more than 20,000 people on September 21, 1555, and landed on Itsukushima under the cover of 500 naval warships. The Battle of Itsukushima was opened.
Tao Qingxian led a water army to attack the Itsukushima garrison
Now that Tao Qingxian had landed on Itsukushima as planned, Yuan began to implement the next part of the plan. During the period when the defenders of Miyao Castle attracted enemy troops to attack the city, they co-opted the Murakami water army stationed on Noh Island and Laijima islands, and won the sea control through water army combat. Subsequently, the navy was used to cover the army landing on the island and carry out decapitation operations.
Tao Qingxian was also well aware of the role of the water army in this war. To ensure the success of the water battle, he also requested support from Ōtomo Muneyoshi in Kyushu and tried to keep Murakami's water army neutral. Fortunately, Nomi Munekatsu, a retainer of Moto's subordinate Akira Hayakawa Takakei, was related to Murakami Takeyoshi, the leader of the Murakami Water Army. At the expense of Nami Munakata, Murakami Bukit agreed to join the Maori Army. This undoubtedly greatly enhanced the strength of the Maori Army.
The Advancing Maori Water Army
Planning is not as fast as changing. Just as Moto was preparing to wait for the Ōhakawa water army and the Murakami water army to meet before launching an attack, Miyao Castle sent an urgent report on September 27, urgently requesting reinforcements. In the urgent situation of the war, Yuan had to step up mobilization on the one hand, and urge Murakami's water army to assemble as soon as possible.
By 28 September, the Murakami Navy, with about 300 ships, had finally joined the Maori Army, increasing the number of Ships of the Mori Navy to about 400.
Join the Murakami Water Army on the Maori side
On the night of September 30, a sudden storm in the Seto Inland Sea caused a sharp decrease in visibility in the sea, creating excellent conditions for the Maori army to cross the sea and land. Therefore, Yuan ordered the 2,000 men of the Maori Army to board the ship lightly, and took advantage of the familiarity of his own navy with the local hydrological environment to land in the northeast of Itsukushima at night. He also swerved back to Tazhigang behind Tao Qingxian's main force, and was ready to surprise the enemy's home front. Meanwhile, more than 1,500 people from Kohayakawa's division swerved back to the northwestern waters of Itsukushima. Disguised as reinforcements from Kitakyushu, they landed on Itsukushima island and successfully joined the miyao castle defenders.
At dawn on October 1, 1555, Maoriyuan issued an order for a general offensive of the whole army. The Maori army headquarters, the miyao castle garrison and the Kohayakawa division launched a surprise attack on Tao Qingxian's army from three directions. Tao Qingxian, who was still asleep, did not expect that Yuan's main force would suddenly arrive. In his panic, he could not command the whole army to counterattack, and began to flee to the southwest of the island.
The attacking Maori and Murakami allied forces
In the melee, Tao Qingxian's army also became a burden due to disorderly scheduling, and the generals who fought for themselves exacerbated the chaos of the whole army. Tao Qingxian's water army was also defeated by the Maori water army, making the army units on the island completely turtles in an urn. Although Hironaka Takashi also used to cover the retreat of the lord, he still tried to reorganize the defeated army to resist the Maori offensive, but he was unable to return to heaven.
Disheartened, Tao Qingxian also did not want to become a prisoner, and after leaving a death poem of "What a grudge to go back to the original, the destiny of heaven is destined to be in this body", he committed suicide at the age of 35 in Oepo on the west bank of Itsukushima. Three days later, the Maori army also completely swept away the Tao Qingxian army on the island. Hironaka Takayuki, who resolutely opposed Tao Qingxian's landing on Itsukushima, was also killed on October 4. At this point, the Battle of Itsukushima ended in a complete victory for the Maori Motoyasu.
Tao Qingxian's troops suffered a crushing defeat in the raid
The Maori army achieved considerable results in this battle, killing 4,780 enemies and capturing more than 3,000 prisoners. The day after the war, Motoya also ordered that the blood stains inside the Itsukushima Shrine be cleaned with seawater.
The defeat at the Battle of Itsukushima and the death of his retainer Tao Haruhito led to a serious weakening of the Ouchi clan's power and the inability to compete with the Maori clan. This battle also laid a good foundation for the Maori clan to compete for the world. Soon after the Battle of Itsukushima, Maorimoto launched the famous "Defense Commander's Strategy" and completely eliminated the Ouchi clan in 1557. From a group of Ichisuke people to a Warring States daimyo who controlled the five kingdoms.