Battle of Mimikawa (2/2)The strongest Shimazu clan in Kyushu shows its true potential and defeats the Otomo clan

In this way, Otomo's army attacked Takajo three times, but because the Franchi cannons were located far away and because they were not able to use them well in the first place, they were not very effective, and in the end they were not all that useful.

While the Otomo army was attacking Takajo, Iehisa, the fourth son of the Shimazu brothers, secretly entered Takajo with reinforcements. Iehisa, along with Yamada Arinobu and others, led a total of 3,000 soldiers and desperately defended Takajo, and Otomo's army was unable to capture the castle. Therefore, I decided to switch to a food offensive. At this time, Sourin Otomo was taking command from the main camp in Mushika, but he never appeared at the scene.

Perhaps because of this, the morale of the Otomo army was not so high. In the first place, among Otomo Sorin's vassals, there were some military commanders who said they could not go along with the goal of building a Christian paradise. Not all of the vassals were Christians, and it seems that some of them were dissatisfied with having their temples and temples, which they believed in, destroyed on Sorin's orders. Furthermore, the military commanders who had come all the way from far away places like Chikuzen (northwest Fukuoka Prefecture) and Chikugo (southern Fukuoka Prefecture) to participate were tired. Documents from the time also show that anti-Otomo military commanders were trying to make a secret response to Shimazu.

Battle of Mimikawa ② The Shimazu army's "fishing field" is torn apart

On the other hand, the main force of the Shimazu army leads reinforcements and heads to the relief of Takajo. On October 24th, Yoshihisa Shimazu led 30,000 soldiers and arrived at Sadowara Castle. They joined up with the Shimazu army in Hyuga, and on November 9, they entered Takarabe Castle (Takanabe-cho, Koyu-gun, Miyazaki Prefecture) to hold a military council. Here, there was a discussion about Shimadzu's specialty, ``Tsurinobushi''.

What is fishing nobushi? It is said to have been devised by Yoshihisa Shimazu, and is a Shimazu clan's signature strategy. Simply put, it is a siege strategy using decoys. Divide the unit into three parts: left, center, and right, and the center unit acts as a decoy and fights the enemy head-on, then pretends to be defeated and retreats. "Fish" the enemy. Then, the ambush soldiers on the left and right, or "nobushi", attacked the pursuing enemy, and the decoy army also turned around. This is how you encircle and annihilate your enemies.

This time, the army is divided into four, with the decoy unit consisting of 300 people and the two ambush units each consisting of 500 people. The main force's 3,000 soldiers also lay down as ambush soldiers. Furthermore, a detached force led by Yoshihiro Shimazu and others was set up south of the Komaru River.

The target of the fishing expedition was the Otomo army stationed in Matsubara. The Shimazu army crosses the Komaru River (Takagi River), which flows south of Takagi. First, the decoy troops attacked the Otomo army. When the Otomo army chased the decoy troops, the decoy troops retreated to the location where the ambush troops were, and in response, Shimazu Iehisa of Takajo also sortied and camouflaged the operation. The Otomo army chased after the enemy, unaware that it was a decoy, but before they knew it, they were defeated by the ambush troops and fled. Thus, the Shimadzu army achieved victory. Part of the Shimazu army was able to enter Takajo, and the rescue operation was successful.

Battle of Mimikawa ③ Major defeat of Otomo army

Due to the Shimazu army's victory on November 11, Otomo's army suffered heavy losses. For this reason, Chikakata Tahara, a member of the Otomo army who favored peace, dispatched a messenger to the Shimazu army and offered to make peace. However, no peace was held that day. Furthermore, that night, at the Otomo army's military council, the main war faction opposed Shinken's insistence on peace. Soten Saeki requests reinforcements from Sorin Otomo in Mushika and urges him to wait for enemy attack and move cautiously. On the other hand, Tahoku Chinshu is enthusiastic and says, ``Is it still a samurai to be weak just because the opponent is strong?'' He rejects the idea of reinforcements, saying it would be embarrassing, and insists that they attack aggressively.

It was early in the morning on the 12th, after a chaotic meeting where no consensus could be reached. Surprisingly, Chinshu Tahoku and Soten Saeki, who felt that Chinshu had insulted him by calling him a coward, attacked the Shimazu army's vanguard unit without permission. The advance guard of the Shimazu army was destroyed by the surprise attack, and the armed forces continued to attack the Shimazu army. Other Otomo military commanders followed the advance team and attacked Shimazu. This is how the final battle begins.

Speaking of the Shimadzu army that was attacked by surprise, they were actually preparing to go fishing again. The commander of the ambush unit was Yukihisa Shimazu. A total of about 1,300 people from the two units hid along the Komaru River as ambush soldiers. Yoshihisa Shimazu, Toshihisa and others set up their headquarters on Nejirasaka with 10,000 soldiers and took on the role of suppressing the battle.

The Otomo army defeats the vanguard, crosses the Omaru River, and attempts to attack the Shimazu army. As soon as they crossed the Komaru River and were about to attack Shimazu's main camp, Yoshihiro Shimazu and other Shimazu troops attacked the front of Otomo's army. Furthermore, at a signal from Yukihisa Shimazu, the ambush troops of the Shimazu army attacked the Otomo army from the side all at once. The Otomo army attempts to retreat, but is unable to cross the river. Moreover, Iehisa Shimazu of Takajo and others responded and attacked the Otomo army. Retreating to the rear was difficult.

The Otomo army, now in a state of disarray, began to retreat northwest toward Mimikawa, but the scene was in great confusion. During the retreat, some soldiers wandered into the river and drowned. Some of them headed for the Mimi River, but the pursuing Shimazu army caught up with the Otomo army before they could cross the river. There, both sides thought a battle would begin, but the soldiers of Otomo's army, perhaps in a state of extreme fatigue and panic, jumped into the Mimi River and drowned. The river had been swollen due to rain over the past few days, causing a lot of damage. Thus, the Battle of Mimikawa ended with the Shimazu army's victory. On November 13, the Shimazu army moved further north and killed the remaining soldiers of the Otomo army.

Meanwhile, Otomo Sourin, who was in Mushika, heard the news of his army's rout and immediately fled Mushika with only the clothes on his back. Although they had a hard time in the cold winter, they managed to escape to Bungo. In addition, while heading to Bungo, I asked for help from temples and shrines, but they refused to hide me, perhaps because I had persecuted many temples and shrines for the sake of Christianity.

Otomo Sourin cries for Hideyoshi ~ and goes to conquer Kyushu ~

In this way, the Otomo clan's power was greatly diminished in the Battle of Mimikawa. 3. The 1st corner that was in a frozen state has weakened, so we are in a big pinch! However, the Shimazu clan was at war with the Ryuzoji clan, and they managed to rebuild their system. However, in March 1584, the Shimazu clan defeated Takanobu Ryuzoji in the Battle of Okitanawate on the Shimabara Peninsula and took control of Hizen (Nagasaki Prefecture) and Higo (Kumamoto Prefecture), and then moved north. They continued to expand their power to the point where they unified almost all of Kyushu.

What stood in the way of the Shimazu clan was the central government led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In fact, Otomo Sorin relied on Hideyoshi of Osaka Castle in order to prevent the Shimazu clan from unifying Kyushu. In response to Sorin's request for support on the condition that he come under Hideyoshi's control, Hideyoshi issues a cease-fire order to both sides. However, Shimazu naturally does not follow this. Hideyoshi decided to subjugate the Shimazu clan, which continued to rebel. Thus, from July 1586 to April 1587, the Toyotomi Allied Forces and the Shimazu clan fought against each other to pacify Kyushu.