In this world, many things happen at every moment, and it can be said that everything can change the course of history, but it seems irrelevant, and it is necessary to look at it from a historical point of view; but in Japanese history, there is indeed a "small thing" that affects the course of history, because it is precisely because of this "small thing" that the later Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified Japan.
Some people may say, isn't it the "change of Honnoji Temple"? In other words, the change of Honnoji Temple is not a trivial matter, because the change of Honnoji Temple was originally destined to be a major event that could affect the history of Japan, and the killing of Oda Nobunaga by a generation of tyrants is not a big deal, so what is a big deal? The little thing I want to talk about here is one thing that happened after the change of Honnōji Temple.
In other words, after Oda Nobunaga broke the "Nobunaga Encirclement Network" and eliminated the Takeda clan, the strength of the Takeda clan was no longer comparable, and in order to quickly unify Japan, he formed six major legions, namely the Higashiyama Province Army led by Takikawa Kazuyoshi, the Hokurikudo Army led by Shibata Katsuya, the Nankaido Army led by Kobe Nobutaka, the Sanyo Province Army led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Yamanami Province Army led by Mitsuhide Mitsuhide, and the Tokugawa Ieyasu Army led by Oda Nobunaga's most trusted ally.
Each legion had its own clear objectives of battle, and they targeted the strongest daimyōs of the time, such as the Hojo clan, the Uesugi clan, the Nagamasa Ibu clan, the Maori clan, etc.; among these many daimyōs, the Maori clan was the greatest threat, not only because the Maori Huiyuan was strong, but also because the Maori Huiyuan's territory was close to the Gyeonggi region, and if the Maori clan was not eliminated, it was always the greatest threat to Oda Nobunaga.
At that time, the main attack on the Maori clan was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and before the Honnōji Rebellion broke out, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had already sent troops to surround Takamatsu Castle, which was garrisoned by the famous general Shimizu Muneharu under Mori Keimoto. Maori Keikina, apparently unwilling to see Takamatsu Castle destroyed, dispatched a large number of troops to the rescue; in the face of the surging Maori reinforcements, Toyotomi Hideyoshi dug up the nearby Echigawa River to cut off Takamatsu Castle from the outside world.
Mitsuhide's target was also the Mori clan, and after pacifying the Kingdoms of Tanba and Tango, he took over the military of The Three Kingdoms of Taema, Inaba, and Hoki from Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After the defeat of the Takeda clan, Mitsuhide was ordered to plan the "Sasuke Yoshinaga" fire festival and the Imperial Palace Inner Temple Military Horse Drill Conference, and the two meetings were held very successfully, Oda Nobunaga was very satisfied, so he prepared to let Wise Mitsuhide plan the activities for the twentieth anniversary of the Tokugawa Ieyasu Alliance.
However, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi besieged Takamatsu Castle for a long time, and a large number of reinforcements from Maori Keigen were approaching, Toyotomi Hideyoshi wrote to Oda Nobunaga for help, Oda Nobunaga, as a generation of tyrants, naturally knew the priorities of the matter, so he ordered Wise Mitsuhide to gather his army as soon as possible and reinforce Toyotomi Hideyoshi to the west; this was the background before the change of Honnōji Temple.
Just when Oda Nobunaga was happy, feeling that the world was determined, and letting down his vigilance, Mitsuhide, who had long been rebellious, suddenly led an army of 13,000 people from Kameyama Castle in The Tanba Kingdom, and the soldiers pointed directly at the Gyeonggi area, surrounded the Honnoji Temple where Oda Nobunaga was located after the rapid march, and issued an order to the soldiers to attack Honnoji Temple; and in the case of Honnoji Temple, Oda Nobunaga's guard was less than a hundred people, and when he was defeated, Oda Nobunaga chose to set himself on fire; then Wise Mitsuhide swung his troops to Kyoto. Oda Nobunaga's eldest son, Oda Nobunaga, knew that he was invincible and died by cutting his abdomen.
After Wise Guangxiu led his army into Antu City, the imperial court sent envoys to visit Wise Guangxiu, and it can be said that the overall situation will be determined. However, before deciding to rebel, Mitsuhide did what he thought was very clever, he felt that of the several generals under Oda Nobunaga, only Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the most threatening, so he wrote a confidential document and sent someone to the Maori army, asking the Maori army not to surrender.
Unfortunately, before the secret letter was delivered, Takamatsu Castle had already fallen, and this messenger was even more funny, and when he could not enter the city, he accidentally broke into toyotomi Hideyoshi's camp, and the result was naturally arrested, and all the things of The Wise Mitsuhide were naturally known to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi not only did not send someone to inform Oda Nobunaga, but instead discussed what to do next with the military master Kuroda Rumizu, which shows that Toyotomi Hideyoshi is also an ambitious person.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi then quickly made peace with Mori Keimoto, and then led his troops straight to Kyoto overnight, and when Wise Mitsuhide knew, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army was already close to him, and Wise Mitsuhide had no time to gather troops. In the end, the two sides broke out in the Yamazaki area, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's soldiers and horses totaled 35,000 people, while Wise Mitsuhide had only 16,000 men, a huge difference in strength, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi was prepared, and Wise Mitsuhide was in a hurry to meet the battle, so the end was obvious.
Poor Wise Mitsuhide, a generation of wise generals, painstakingly planning, at the time when the great achievements are about to be accomplished, but because of their own cleverness, they have lost everything; in fact, writing secret letters and sending letters is only a small thing, but unfortunately, after many extremely small probability things have happened, it has become a major event that changed history, and it has achieved the legendary deeds of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a pariah, who came to power and controlled Japan; it is indeed a wrong to say that Wise Hikari Hideyoshi was wronged, but this is also his own doing.