The trigger for the duel between the Tiger of Kai and the Dragon of Echigo

The classic showdown between Takeda Shingen, known as the Tiger of Kai in Japan's Sengoku period, and Kenshin Uesugi, who is known as the Dragon of Echigo, occupies almost half of the excitement of this era, so how did they get to the battlefield? This has to start with Takeda Shingen's becoming the lord of Kai.

Takeda Shingen's reign as lord of the Kai kingdom faced an unusually tense surrounding situation: the Hojo clan of Sagami had been strained with Takeda since the time of his father, Nobuhō; Imagawa of Suruga was Takeda's only ally but had always been ill-intentioned; and some powerful forces in the neighboring Shinano kingdom had been temporarily at peace with the Takeda family during the Shintori period, but they also began to oppose Takeda after Shingen came to power.

Shinano Kingdom is now Nagano Prefecture, and the first to fight Takeda Shingen was the Suwa clan of Shinano Province. During the Takeda Nobunaga era, Shinano was the target of the expansion of the Takeda clan of Kai, and the Suwa clan was the first to bear the brunt. Suwa Uehara Castle Suwa Raimah unified Suwa during the civilization and began a war with the invading Takeda Nobuho. In 1528, Takeda Nobuho attacked Shinano, only to be defeated by Suwa Raiman at Kobe Kyō on the border. Unable to conquer Shinano by force, Nobuhtomi married his daughter to Suwa Raishige, Suwa's grandson and suwa's heir, in the ninth year of astronomy (1540), a political marriage that allowed the Kafi Takeda and Shinano Suwa families to temporarily maintain peace for a year.

Since Takeda Shingen had exiled his father Takeda Nobuhō and seized power, Suwa Raishi, who had succeeded Suwa as governor of the house at this time, accused Shingen of acting as Shinho's son-in-law for betraying his father's unfilial behavior, and of course, under this grand-sounding banner lurked Suwa Raishige's ambition to take advantage of the chaos to take advantage of the chaos to take kai. In 1541, Suwa Raishige invaded Kai when he joined forces with Shinano to guard Ogasawara Nagashi, but was defeated by Takeda Shingen. Although this time it was Suwa Raishige who took the initiative to provoke, in fact, Takeda Shingen had long had the heart to open up the territory, and Suwa Raishige actually provided him with an excellent excuse to counterattack Shinano. Compared with his father, Takeda Shinho, Takeda Shingen is more shrewd—on the Shinano issue, he does not intend to use force to conquer, nor intends to adopt a political marriage strategy, but uses a knife to kill people.

The Suwa clan had a tributary of the Takato clan: in the course of the suwa-manchu unification of the suwa clan, the Takato clan was forced to surrender, but in fact, the Takato clan had always been grumpy about this, and had been forced by the situation to be helpless, and now Takeda Shingen sent an olive branch to the Takato clan in time. In the eleventh year of astronomy (1542), Takato Raiji of the Takato clan, at the instigation of Takeda Shingen, rebelled against Suwa Raishige. This time, the Suwa family caused a disaster against the Xiao Wall, and Takeda Shingen was happy to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, and finally Takato Laiji successfully destroyed Suwa Lai-shige. At this time, Takato Laiji's confidence exploded--he didn't know how many pounds he had in an instant: he wanted to replace Suwa Laishige as the new master of the Suwa family, but could Takeda Shingen, who was already ready to take over Suwa, get him to get his wish? Takato Raiji, who was refused, took the initiative to attack Takeda Shingen, only to be beaten to the head by Shingen during the Battle of Ankokuji Temple. In the twelfth year of astronomy (1543), Takeda Shingen conquered Nagashiro Castle, and then in the fourteenth year of astronomy (1545), Takato Reiji was forced to make an unconditional surrender agreement with Takeda Shingen: after surrendering Takato Castle, he was sent to Kai to live in seclusion.

In the leap july of the sixteenth year of astronomy (1547), Takeda Shingen invaded Shinano again, this time targeting Shiga Castle near Ueno. Ueno Kuni was the domain of Uesugi Kensei, the Kwantung Governor, and The Lord of Shiga Castle, Kasahara Kiyoharu, who was surrounded by the Takeda Army, asked for help from the Kanto Lord, and Sugi Kenmasa sent reinforcements on the principle of cold lips and teeth. On August 6, the Takeda army besieged the city, separated itagaki Nobukata and Ganli Totayasu to lead a mobile force to meet the battle and defeated the Uesugi reinforcements in Ueda Ihara, beheading more than 3,000 people. Takeda Shingen exhibited more than 3,000 first-class exhibitions under the castle, and the morale of the city immediately collapsed. After the destruction of the castle, Shingen reduced all the men to slaves, all the women were adopted as official concubines, and even the lady of the city lord was rewarded with a concubine of Koyamada Nobuyuki who had made meritorious contributions to the siege. This barbaric conquest caused uneasiness among the lords of Shinano, and someone stood up against Takeda Shingen's invasion by a man named Murakami Yoshiaki.

Murakami Yoshiaki owned large tracts of land to the north and east of Shinano: as lord of Katsuo Castle, he was already the uncrowned king of Shinano after inheriting the Murakami clan. In the Battle of Kaino, he drove out Shinano's Hao clan, Umino Tokuni, and encroached on Kogun County. Sanada Yukitaka, who had lost land in this battle, defected to Takeda Shingen. In February of the seventeenth year of the Astronomical Age (1548), Takeda Shingen led about 5,000 men to invade the small prefecture and ordered Itagaki Nobukata to send troops from Uehara Castle to join him; Murakami Yoshiaki deployed at Toshi Castle to meet him. At this time, Takeda was superior in strength, so the Takeda Army took the initiative to attack from the beginning , with Itagaki Nobukata as the forward force successfully defeated murakami's army. The sudden victory made Itagaki Nobukata feel lightly hostile- thinking that he had the right to win, he conducted a ceremony to inspect the first rank in front of the battle, and Murakami Yoshiaki took advantage of this opportunity to launch a counterattack, breaking the hastily fought Takeda army in one fell swoop and killing two members, Itagaki Nobukata and Ganli Toratai, the takeda family generals. Murakami Yoshiaki then took advantage of the victory to pursue and break through Takeda Shingen's home front, and Shingen himself escaped wounded. This was the first defeat of the Kai Tiger in his lifetime, and after this battle Shinano had already surrendered to Takeda, the local magnates rebelled one after another.

In April of the same year, Shinano guarded Ogasawara Nagashi and raised 5,000 troops to kill Suwa. Takeda Shingen secretly sent troops from Kai into Uehara Castle and raided Ogasawara's army on the same day. Ogasawara fled Suwa after losing 1,000 men. In the nineteenth year of the Astronomical Age (1550), the Takeda army invaded the territory of Ogasawara Nagashi, frightening Ogasawara Nagashi to abandon his own Forest Castle and go to Murakami Yoshiaki, where Nakasino fell into the hands of Shingen. Murakami Yoshiaki became the only banner of Shinano's resistance to take takeshi's invasion: in September of the nineteenth year of astronomy (1550), Nakashino Shinano's Shingen was again dueled against Murakami Yoshiaki: this time the village chose to defend the castle - murakami Yoshiaki guarded the castle called Toshi Castle (also known as Toi Castle), which was built on a mountain, and the east and west were cliffs, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The Takeda army had about 7,000 men, while the city's defenders numbered less than 500, but more than half of the defenders were survivors of the fall of Shiga Castle and had a feud with Takeda Shingen. Shingen also wanted revenge for his defeat at Uedahara by Murakami Yoshiaki, so both sides resorted to eighteen martial arts duels: on September 9, takeda's army, Yokota Takamatsu, led an attack and was killed on the spot by flying stones falling from the castle. On the eleventh day, Shingen ordered Oyamada Nobuyuki to lead his troops to attack the city, but was confronted with a head-on blow, and Koyamada Nobuyuki was seriously wounded and died two years later due to the recurrence of old wounds. Because the attack on Kenjo castle by the Angry Xing army was a taboo for the soldiers, Takeda Shingen, who had always been good at using soldiers, also unconsciously committed this taboo - the Takeda army with superior troops was helpless in the face of the small and strong Stone Castle, and Murakami Yoshiaki took the opportunity to lead 2,000 reinforcements. Takeda Shingen was forced to withdraw, but was pursued by Murakami Yoshiaki, who was eventually able to escape under the cover of a stand-in.

Takeda Shingen, known as the Tiger of Kai, was defeated by Murakami Yoshiaki twice in a row, so he decided to avoid a head-on confrontation with Murakami Yoshiaki and instead used wisdom to win, a task entrusted to Sanada Yukitaka. Under the planning of Sanada Yukitaka (1551), Yazawa Raitsune (Yukitaka's younger brother) became the Uchiha of Tsukishi Castle, and take take the stone castle that had not been obtained during the bloody battle. In the twenty-second year of astronomy (1553), osuka Hisabei became the Uchiha of the Takeda family under the planning of Sanada Yukitaka, and Fox Fall Castle fell. Since then, the Takeda family has adopted a comprehensive infiltration of the Murakami family: Ishikawa, Muroga, Yashiro and other Murakami clan vassals have rebelled. Takeda Shingen, who could not defeat Murakami Yoshiaki on the battlefield, succeeded in completely isolating Murakami Yoshiaki through the infiltration behind enemy lines, and Murakami Yoshiaki, who was in an isolated situation, made a major decision that not only had a major impact on Murakami Yoshiaki's own life, but also directly became the fuse for the duel between the two heroes of the Sengoku period, the Tiger of Kai and the Dragon of Echigo, and this decision was to go to Echigo to defect to Uesugi Kenshin.