As mentioned above, Ito's family has been in the house for twenty years and finally took the fertilizer.
In the third year of Eiroku, Hinata Makoin Kitahara and Mori died of illness, without a queen. Ito Yoshisuke had long had the intention of annexing Makoin, and at this time he used his status as his father-in-law to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kitahara clan. He married Kitahara and Mamoru's widow Aso to Masekida, the lord of the Sanzan castle of the Kitahara clan, and established him as the head of the Kitahara clan, which was actually his behind-the-scenes control. However, Kitahara retainers supported Kitahara Kanmoru's uncle and Takashi as his successor. An angry Yoshisuke kills Kantaka and occupies Makoin. The Satsuma Shimazu clan did not want the Ito clan to monopolize Makoin, so they supported the fleeing Kitahara Kanshin as the new governor of the Kitahara clan.
However, the prestige and ability of the kinship were simply not enough to convince Kitahara's widows, and the cities of Makoin fell to the Ito clan and the Shimazu clan. Shimadzu Takahisa sends Shimazu Yoshihiro to the main Iino Castle. At this point, all the east of the three mountains belonged to Ito, and the west of Iino, to Shimadzu. The Kitahara clan, which ruled Hyuga Makoin for more than two hundred years, survived in name only.
In September of the fifth year of Eiroku , Obi Castle , Dai Fukunaga Palace, and most of the Ito retainers in the city set out to return to the capital , the defense of the city was empty, and Shimadzu Tadashi led his army to raid Obi Castle. Caught off guard, the Ito army was unable to return to heaven despite the death battle, and Tsuneki Tsuneki had no choice but to abandon the castle, and Shimadzu Tadako re-entered Obi Castle.
Toyoshu Shimadzu's counterattack made Ito Yoshisuke angry, but Makoin had just started, and Yoshisuke, who was not firmly established, was not prepared to fight on two fronts. After basically stabilizing the situation in Shinyuin, he finally sent troops to attack Obi for the fourth time. From the sixth year of Yonglu to the ninth year of the same year, both armies had their own victories and defeats, regardless of land and naval battles. Shimadzu's general Kashiwahara Miyauchi Shaosuke was also killed by an iron cannon fire from the Ito retainer Yamasamon while defending the castle. For this merit, Yoshiyu personally received the mountain minister Zuoemen and bestowed it with the bronze mangaku. On May 1 of the same year, the two armies fought fiercely in Mimita, and Ito minister Nagakura Yu Masajin beheaded the enemy Haojie Qingyin Survey by Zuo Wei Men Lieutenant, and later called himself the Survey Solution, so for the battle merits, Yoshisuke gave him the surname Ito, so he changed his name to Ito Survey Solution.
At this time, the news suddenly came that the Satsuma Shimazu clan was about to send troops to Shinkoin. Shimadzu's storming of Miyama Castle led to the failure of Yoshisuke's fortification plan. In the tenth year of Eiroku, in order to deal with the Ryokari clan of Northern Sa, Shimadzu Nisinsai sent an envoy to the Ito family and reached a peace agreement with Ito Yoshisuke. However, less than half a year later, Shimadzu Takahisa led his army to capture the Ryokari clan's Magoe Castle, and then set his sights on Hinata again. The three brothers Shimadzu Yoshihiro, Tosehisa, and Iehisa (these three brothers were super fierce) commanded the Shimadzu army to attack Miyama Castle in a big way. The Shimadzu army once broke through the outer guo. The castle lord Mira Tsukugo Morikata and his brother Mino Shouji led the Shimazu army that had entered the city to the Takenomaru, and led the apostles to fight to kill the enemy who landed on the castle, and those who fell fell into the deep trenches, and the Shimadzu army suffered many casualties, and even Shimazu Yoshihiro himself was seriously wounded, and could only lead the army to retreat.
The Shimadzu Four Brothers
At the end of the same year, the Hefu clan sent an envoy to Ito, hoping that Yoshisuke would send troops from Makoin or Obi to support the Hefu clan against Shimadzu. Yoshiyu summoned the generals to discuss countermeasures. During the deliberation, Yiyu Li ruled out the crowd and decided to still take the conquest of Wonfei as the primary goal at present, and not divide the troops to help. This incident actually shows that Yiyou's strategic ability is limited, and he does not understand the truth of his lips and teeth. The Ryokari clan attacked the Shimadzu army under the castle of Oguchi, and the Shimadzu clan was defeated. In the eleventh month of Yonglu's eleventh year, Yiyou, who temporarily relieved his worries, personally led an army of 20,000 and went on five expeditions to fertilize.
Yoshisuke ordered the general Ito Yuki to build a castle bridge on the spot and build the main formation. After that, the Ito Army successively conquered Nakao, Johor Bahru, Yokohei, and Chaowei, and surrounded the castle of Ofui. The Ito army failed to break the city in one day and retreated to the Shinoling Array.
At this time, the Shimadzu messenger suddenly arrived. It turned out that in the battle of attack and defense, Itoka's fierce general Ochiai Right Guard Daifu was killed in battle. Dr. Ochiai was only twenty-seven years old at this time, and the generals of Ito all wept when they heard of his death, and even the rival Shimazu clan regretted the death of Dr. Ochiai.
In February of the eleventh year of Yongroku, the 13,000-strong Shimadzu-Kitago coalition army with Tsuchizu Mori Yoshitsuna as the general transported military food and prepared to enter Obi. The generals of Yidong hurriedly held a deliberation and decided to suspend the siege of the city and deal with the reinforcements with all their might. The Ito Army, spearheaded by Kiwaki Echizen Moryutake, took the lead in launching the offensive. In the fierce battle, the lord of Katsuoka Castle and the young suke of Minbe were taken by the great hero of Idong, Yamada Munemasa.
Subsequently, Ito Nagakura and other rear troops joined the battle, and the Shimadzu-Kitago coalition collapsed. The Ito Army took advantage of the situation to pursue and returned triumphantly to the Sakura Racecourse under Sakaya Castle. In this battle, 65 famous men of the Beixiang family and more than 800 miscellaneous soldiers were killed. Ito also lost Ochiai Kazaburō, the brothers Yoshiji Bow, Matsuoka Hikotaro and others, but the casualties were much lighter than those of the coalition. The Battle of Koetsu ended with the complete victory of the Ito clan. This battle not only annihilated the last remaining strength of the Kitago and Shimadzu families, not to mention the rescue of Obi Castle, even Sakaya Castle is now in danger.
After the Satsuma Shimazu clan's reinforcements returned from a crushing defeat, Shimadzu Takahisa negotiated peace with Itoku. The two reached an agreement, and the result was that the Shimadzu clan would unconditionally cede Obi Nango to the Ito clan, and Kushima to the Hefu clan, and Shimadzu Tadaji and Kitago Tokihisa would retire to the capital.
Twenty-eight years later, Ito Yoshisuke finally fulfilled his father's unfulfilled wish and took Obi Chimachi under the ownership of the Ito clan. Yoshisuke ordered his three sons to enter Obi Castle, and the five deacons of the family elder Shouyuryo stationed in Imajo, Kiwaki Echizen Mamoru, Sadohara Yuga, Inazu Shigenobu, Nagakura-awaji Mamoru, and Kawasaki Suruga Mamoru served as deacons to govern the land of Ofu. At this time, among the Ito generals, there were a total of forty-eight people who were the lords of the city, so the Ito outer city system, also known as the forty-eight cities of Hinata, spread throughout the five counties of Hinata, and the Ito clan established its supremacy in the Hyuga Kingdom. The Hinata Ito clan entered its heyday. At this time, Yoshisuke Ito was fifty-six years old.
On June 23 of the second year of Genkai, Shimazu Takahisa of Satsuma died. Yoshisuke saw this as a good opportunity to attack, so while contacting Higo Sagara Yoshiyō, he set up a position in Mayuki Konoha, and with Ito Yuyasu as the bandai, began to gather troops and prepare to launch an offensive. However, before Yoshisuke could make a move, Osumi's Ōsumi clan took the lead in attacking Kagoshima and Sakurajima Nojiri Village. Although the Allied offensive ultimately failed, it also affected the Shimadzu clan's defense in the Iino. As a result, when the combined forces of Ito and Sagara attacked Iino, Shimazu Yoshihiro had only more than 300 men under his command.
For the Ito clan, this was a war of disparity in strength. The nearly ten-to-one advantage made the generals of the Ito Army get carried away, and even released a bold statement: "One bamboo pole can kill the Shimadzu Army." "How I wipe here reminds me of throwing the whip and breaking the flow, and the arrogant army has always been defeated."
The Kōken Hoin of Shiratori Shrine gathered all the disciples to cooperate with the Godai Katsue Gate and beat the bells and drums in the forest, deliberately covering up the sound, so that Ito mistakenly believe that there were a large number of ambushes in the mountains. The Ito Army, which did not dare to easily go up the mountain, had to turn around and cross the Ikeshima River south of Iino Castle to reach Kinosakihara.
May in Minami-Kyushu is rainy and humid on sunny days. The Ito Army was stationed in Kinizakihara, waiting for the arrival of the Sagara Army. Yuan and the others did not know that the Sagara army had fallen into the suspicious plot of Shimazu Yoshihiro, and at this time they were frightened by the flags and fingers of the mountains and did not dare to continue marching. The soldiers of the Ito Army, who were waiting for reinforcements to arrive, were sultry, and Yuyasu, after determining the direction of the foothills of Shiratori Mountain and no Shimadzu chasing troops, ordered the whole army to unload their armor and go to the river to bathe. In the opinion of the Ito Army, there are 3,000 men and horses on its own side, and no one on the Shimadzu side should be stupid enough to hit a stone with 300 people.
However, this idea is a big mistake. The generals of the Ito Army underestimated one person, and that person was Yoshihiro Shimazu. Yoshihiro, who received the information, immediately made a decision and directly led his fifty horsemen across the Kawauchi River to launch a surprise attack on the unsuspecting Ito Army. Attacking a force of 3,000 with fifty men may be a crazy act in the eyes of the world. However, Shimazu Yoshihiro was born a "madman", whether it was more than 300 men against the 5,000 soldiers and horses of the Sagara coalition army in the Hatsukuri Combined Battle, or the later survival in the Sekigahara Combined Battle, facing the victory of the Eastern Army to complete the magnificent "Shimazu Front Retreat", Yoshihiro exuded a ruthlessness from his bones.
In the face of the sudden raid, the 3,000-strong army was forced back half a mile. Ito Yuyasu, who finally came to his senses, found that Shimazu Yoshihiro did not have many people, and ordered the two teams of Ochiai Genzoemon and Ito Shinjiro to return to attack Yoshihiro. Yoshihiro led the army to fight, but in the end, the disparity between the enemy and ours was great, and it fell into a dangerous situation. At this time, the two teams of Godai Katsuemon at the foot of Shiratori Mountain and Kamata Hirosu of Torikoshi were killed, and the Ito Army began to retreat. Yoshihiro led the army to chase, and the gun master Yuzuki San Mamoru, known as the "first shot of the Japanese state", and another warrior, Hitagi Gensai, joined forces to break the back. Teakizaki Tanhou stabbed Yoshihiro in the face with all his might, who expected Yoshihiro's mount to suddenly bend his knees, causing Tango Mamoru's killing shot to only stab Shimazu Yoshihiro in the pocket. In the end, Tezukizaki Tango Mamoru and Hitagi Gensai were both killed by Shimazu Yoshihiro himself.
In the retreat, Ito Yuyasu, a general of the Ito Army, heard that his son Genshiro, who had accompanied the army, had died in the chaotic army, and in addition to his grief and indignation, Yuan felt ashamed of his trust in Ito Yoshisuke, and thought of death, so he turned around and killed in the Shimadzu army, and finally died in the chaotic army. The Ito Army, which lost its generals, finally collapsed on all fronts. In the battle of Kisakihara, Shimadzu lost 263 men, and Shimadzu Yoshihirobu lost most of it, which shows that the battle situation was terrible. However, Yoshihiro made full use of the advantages of location and people to create a miracle of breaking three thousand with three hundred. There were 164 famous samurai including Ito Yuyasu, Ito Shinjiro Yushin, Ito Matsujiro, Ito Yujiro, relatives Ito Genshiro, and Shigeko Yonera Chikugo Morikata, a total of 250 soldiers, either killed or captured.
Although it is felt that the casualties are not large, the great generals and ministers of Ito Yoshisuki Yori's arms and the excellent samurai of the younger generation in the domain almost all withered in the First World War. And these people are precisely the staunchest supporters of Ito Yoshisuke, and this battle became a turning point for the Ito clan from prosperity to decline.
In the second year of Tensho, the liver Fu subdued Shimadzu. Under pressure from the Shimadzu clan, the Liver Fu clan issued a notice of righteousness to the Ito clan. In a fit of anger, Yoshisuke ordered Kawasaki Suruga Mamoru to take back Yoshisuke's eldest daughter, Lady Takashiro, and the two families have since severed their righteousness.
Mino Mira was suddenly returned by the Shimadzu clan, and the Shimazu clan captured the land of Miyama and Sugi without bloodshed, completely seizing the rule of Makoin. Beginning with the betrayal of Mira Shige, the Itō clan had a series of incidents in which the lord of the branch castle was returned to bed, which eventually led to Ito Yoshisuke's defeat of Bungo. This chain of anti-flood events became known as the "Ito Collapse". Hinata is owned by the Shimadzu family.
In July of the thirteenth year of Tensho (1585), the former "Sasumi Nichi Mishu Taishou" and today's ronin Ito Saniichi suddenly deteriorated on the way to Sakai Town in Quanzhou, and the owner abandoned him on the shore, but fortunately he was rescued by kind passers-by for medical treatment, but he never fell ill, and finally died on August 5 of that year at the age of 73.
However, neither the Battle of Kisakihara nor the Ito collapse was the root cause of the Ito clan's demise. The real culprit that led to the demise of the Ito clan was none other than the three princes themselves. The "Hyuga Chronicle" records that after the establishment of the Hyuga Forty-Eight City System, the noble clans competed to congratulate them. The three dukes became more and more powerful, claiming to be the taishou of the three states, becoming more and more arrogant, and their deeds were often derailed, and most of the dissatisfied people in the country were in communication with the Shimadzu clan, and it took only ten years to the fifth year of Tensho that Ding Ugu fell in the prefecture on December 9. The book "Hyuga Chronicle" regards the growing arrogance of the Ito clan and the increasing arrogance of the Ito clan as the main cause of the Ito clan's defeat. This statement is not without reason. However, the defeat of Ito Yoshisuke began much earlier than the eleventh year of Eiroku.
Ito Yoshisuke had the nickname "Imagawa Yoshimoto of Kyushu Island" in later generations. This title is not simply to echo the phrase "Kyushu Island Barrel Narrow" that fought with Kinizakihara. Compared to Ito Yoshisuke and Imagawa Yoshimoto, both were not concubines, and both had become monks before succeeding to the throne. After assuming the throne, both men adopted an aggressive external offensive strategy, expanding the family's power to the top. The most similar, however, is their respect for public culture.
Yoshiyu did not hesitate to expend a lot of wealth and energy to build his ideal country, but the Ito lord broke out a severe famine in the twenty-first year of astronomy, and many people died in the lord. Yoshisuke attached great importance to cultural people, but he was more mean to his retainers, especially after the Ito clan's annexation of Obi reached its heyday, arrogance was often vexatious, wantonly banning and changing the position of the retainers, causing extreme dissatisfaction among the retainers. Until the Battle of Kisakihara, Yoshisuke was able to maintain the Ito clan, which was still ostensibly strong, with the support of his clans and most of the city lords under his command.