In the years leading up to the Battle of barrel narrows, the first overlord of Tokaido, Imakawa Yoshimoto, and Oda Nobuhide, the daimyō of the Oda family, had been engaged in a fierce battle over the Mikawa region, and in the midst of a long and fierce tug-of-war, Imakawa Yoshimoto, with the help of his military division Taiyuan Yukisai, finally drove the Oda family's forces out of the Mikawa region and forced the Matsudaira clan of Mikawa to submit to the Imakawa family, thus further expanding the power of the Imakawa family and forming an overwhelming advantage over the Oda family of Owari.
In 1551, Oda Nobunaga, the tiger of Owari, died violently, and Oda Nobunaga, who was 18 years old at the time, took the throne, but as soon as he took the throne, he faced many challenges:
Due to his misbehaving behavior, many people within the Oda family were quite dissatisfied with him, and the Oda family's important ministers, Hayashi Hidesada, Shibata Katsuya, and others united with Oda Nobunaga's younger brother Oda Nobunaga in an attempt to overthrow Oda Nobunaga's rule.
Externally, due to the fact that his father Oda Nobuhide was defeated by imagawa Yoshimoto in the confrontation with the Imagawa family, the Oda family was in a worse situation, and Imagawa Yoshimoto took the opportunity to cut off the Ties between the Oda family and the alliance in turn, and formed an alliance with the Kai kingdom and the Sagami kingdom to form an overwhelming advantage over Owari.
It was in this predicament that the eighteen-year-old Oda Nobunaga showed extraordinary means: he adopted the proposition that "the outside must be within the outside world", united with the Oda family's former vassals loyal to him and Oda Nobunaga for several years, eliminated Oda Nobunaga in 1557, and then unified the entire Owari; at the same time, in order to cope with the expansion of Imakawa Yoshimoto over Owari, Oda Nobunaga, who unified Owari, in order to further attack Imakawa Yoshimoto, built Marune and Hatsutsu on the edge of Narumi Castle and Ōtaka Castle on the Imakawa family's front line against Owari. The aim was to cut off the grain route where Imagawa Yoshimoto attacked Owari and further isolate the Imagawa Army.
Oda Nobunaga's actions were nothing less than provocations to Imakawa Yoshimoto, plus he had already had the intention of annexing Owari, so after the mobilization was issued, Imakawa Yoshimoto led tens of thousands of people to attack Owari at that time, and the fate of Imagawa Yoshimoto and Oda Nobunaga began.
Judging from the situation at that time, Oda Nobunaga and Imakawa Yoshimoto at that time were like the "Battle of Guandu" during the Three Kingdoms period of China, and the situation that Oda Nobunaga faced at this time was as dangerous as that of Cao Cao, the Emperor of Weiwu at that time:
Although Oda Nobunaga nominally unified Owari, there were still many internal unstable factors, such as the old department of Oda Nobunaga who disobeyed Oda Nobunaga, and at this time Oda Nobunaga's influence had not yet spread to all parts of Owari, which can be clearly seen from its mobilization power.
The Oda family had long ago begun to lay out the layout of the alliance in the form of marriage, but on the eve of the war, Oda Nobunaga's ally and his father-in-law lost aid to the Oda family due to infighting, which can be said to be a major disadvantage of the Oda family, which increased the pressure against Imakawa Yoshimoto.
In the author's opinion, compared with Cao Cao in the Battle of Guandu, Oda Nobunaga also had an extremely big disadvantage at this time, that is, his strategic depth, Oda Nobunaga nominally unified Owari, but in fact he controlled very little chassis, so this means that he can only win and cannot lose, and defeat is the end of Owari.
In terms of military strength, Imagawa Yoshimoto had 20,000 to 40,000 men (this is not a matter of concern), Oda Nobunaga only had a few thousand; Imagawa Yoshimoto had no worries, and Oda Nobunaga had many internal and external troubles. Therefore, from any point of view, at this time Oda Nobunaga's defeat was already decided, at least the early stages of the campaign were indeed presented in this situation, the Imakawa family invaded the territory of Owari, and the Owari departments could not form an effective blockade. Under this absolute disadvantage, Oda Nobunaga boldly launched a surprise attack against the headquarters of Imakawa Yoshimoto with a small number of troops, and it was this surprise attack that made Oda Nobunaga famous in the First World War and became a figure that cannot be ignored in the history of the Japanese Warring States, while the former first overlord of Tokaido, Imakawa Yoshimoto, was killed in this war, and the Imagawa family was devastated.
The "Battle of the Barrel Pan" was a more famous battle to change the pattern of Japan's Sengoku period, so many Chinese and foreign scholars studied it a lot, so under this extremely inferior situation, why was Oda Nobunaga able to defeat Yoshimoto Imagawa, one of the best in Japan at that time?
Tactical success
Oda Nobunaga was able to defeat Imakawa Yoshimoto first of all because of his tactical application, and analyzing the results of the battle, under the extremely inferior situation at that time, Oda Nobunaga did not open up and confront Imakawa Yoshimoto, but used a surprise attack to directly target Imakawa Yoshimoto's headquarters for a surprise attack, which was undoubtedly extremely correct from the tactical level. If he had used the method of confronting the Imagawa family head-on, the result would have been twofold: one would have been swallowed by whales, and the other would have been cannibalized by Imagawa Yoshimoto. Either way means that Owari will completely enter the dust of history.
Many people think that Oda Nobunaga's surprise attack was pure luck, but the author can see from this limited historical analysis that this operation was not a blind action of Oda Nobunaga, but a strict operation with a careful plan:
From his smooth avoidance of imagawa Yoshimoto's reconnaissance sentry to his accurate clarification of the location of Imagawa Yoshimoto's base camp, it can be seen that he made strict planning for this operation, and from the historical data, we can also clearly know that at the same time as his operation, he also sent a large number of spies to spy on intelligence, which can show that Oda Nobunaga's surprise attack was not achieved by pure luck, and he did strict planning and a lot of intelligence work for the success of the surprise attack. Imagine if you really rely only on luck, then how can there be so many surprise attacks in this ancient and modern Chinese and foreign history, it can be said that behind each surprise attack is a meticulous plan.
Therefore, limited intelligence coupled with calm judgment plus a little bit of luck undoubtedly copied the case of "surprise attack on Wuchao".
Opportunities in terms of timing
Of course, many people say that the Oda Nobunaga Raid relied on luck behind the raid, and there was indeed a part of the luck component behind this surprise attack, because on the day Oda Nobunaga launched the surprise attack, there was a heavy rain in the Barrel Pan area, which from the perspective of later generations was to ring the death knell of Imakawa Yoshimoto's death, and for Oda Nobunaga was the gospel:
First of all, the heavy rain covered the tracks of their march, and the sentry of the Imagawa Army was unable to clearly observe everything around them because of the heavy rain, so that the rescue troops could not arrive in time, and the defenders could not use muskets to effectively return fire.
Secondly, due to the impact of this heavy rain, which directly destroyed the mountain road around the barrel narrow room, in good condition, Imagawa Yoshimoto could have quickly assembled to resist Oda Nobunaga's sneak attack, and even if it was not good, he could have quickly retreated to escape Oda Nobunaga's pursuit, but the damaged road made it impossible to carry out both actions, so his death was already predictable.
With the help of clear tactical objectives and Tenshi, Oda Nobunaga, who was twenty-seven years old at the time, successfully attacked in one fell swoop under extremely inferior circumstances.
At the same time as Oda Nobunaga launched a surprise attack, Imagawa Yoshimoto committed the worst taboo on the battlefield: light enemy. At that time, Imakawa Yoshimoto attacked Marugen, Hatsuzu and other places, it can be said that the situation at this time was very good, and according to the information, it is known that when Oda Nobunaga launched the attack, Imagawa Yoshimoto even held a tea party, and the whole camp was in a jubilant phenomenon, so the author believes that Imakawa Yoshimoto's light enemy is also one of the main reasons for his failure.
In the face of the sudden attack, Imagawa Yoshimoto did not have time to form an effective defensive measure, at that time there were more than 5,000 people near Imakawa Yoshimoto's base camp, but these 5,000 people were actually hunted down and killed by Oda Nobunaga, who had only 2,000 people, and Imagawa Yoshimoto, who was known as the first overlord of Tokaido, was eventually killed in this battle.
The impact of the Battle of the Barrel Gap on the Japanese Sengoku period was enormous, and it can be said that it directly opened a new chapter in the Japanese Sengoku period:
In this battle, the most influential nature is the "first overlord of Tokaido" of the Imakawa family, the death of Imakawa Yoshimoto caused the Imagawa family to fall into a situation of leaderlessness, and many of the Imakawa family's famous generals were killed in this surprise attack, it can be said that the reason for the collapse of the Imagawa family is not only because of the death of Imagawa Yoshimoto, but also the lack of talents is the most important reason.
The Battle of the Barrel Panma made Oda Nobunaga famous in The First World War and laid the foundation for his hegemony in unifying Japan, and in addition to relieving the military oppression of the Imagawa family, he began the road of external expansion, ending the era of "division of the masses" between Central Japan and Western Japan, and influencing later Toyonari Hideyoshi and others.
The Impact of the Battle of barrels was not only on Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, but the Mikawa region that had been fought over earlier fell out of control after the death of Imagawa Yoshimoto, and the ruler of the Mikawa region at that time, Matsudaira Motoyasu (Tokugawa Ieyasu), after breaking away from the Imakawa family, quickly formed an alliance with Oda Nobunaga and eventually reached the Azuchi Momoyama period.