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A bit on the Uesugi war of succession (Otate no Ran) after Kenshin died; Uesugi and Tokugawa moved to new territories by the Toyotomi; why moving help Tokugwawa Ieyasu
- Discussion of Hojo: https://steamcommunity.com/app/392470/discussions/0/351660338721811041/
Some background on the Early Hojo (Hojo-shi) from the 13th/14th centuries vs the Later Hojo (Go-Hojo-shi) who are in NA:SOI; their big family; the Triple Alliance.
- Edit: discussion of the Miyoshi, Ouchi, Imagawa, Amago/Amako, Satomi, Mogami, Yoshihime: https://steamcommunity.com/app/392470/discussions/0/4164121860557257148/?ctp=2
Mostly beginning on page 2 some small discussion of the above and the Amago Restoration Army. Reference to the greatly underrated (in my opinion) Yamanaka Shikanosuke. Also something on the "Honganjii", Mogami, Date, Ikko Ikki...and touching on the Miyoshi and Maeda Kenji. Lots on Yoshihime, Demon Princess of Ouu (from attempted child murderer to repentant protector?).
I'll add more if I find them but I didn't see any historical information discussion in the forums for any of the other "new-ish" Sengoku games of any substance.
Yeah, I've kinda thought Shingen may be a bit overrated at times myself but I don't have the ability to read the original sources to see. I think he was excellent, but so were some other generals who didn't have the setbacks he did.
He inherited Kai and took the fragmented clans of North and South Shinano. He had the famous 24 Generals of the Takeda, but never really broke out of his home area. How does that compare to what Mori Motonari, Hojo Soun, Amago Tsunehisa and some other who created larger, more powerful clans out of absolutely nothing. Amago Tsunehisa was homeless, the Mori were relative nobodies between two of the most powerful clans, etc.
Or with Shimazu Yoshihiro and his brothers taking all of Kyushu temporarily before all of Japan (Toyotomi control of the nation) pushed them back and left the Toyotomi in fear of them. Or the Chosokabe Motochika doing something similar, taking the might of the Toyotomi alliance to subdue him as well.
As I said above, I don't agree with everything in the thread but I do think Koei games tend to slightly inflate Shingen. He's great, but so were some of the others.
I would too, I'd love more on the Date and Mogami. Or what was going on with the Ainu people (that had a massive revolt against the Japanese a few years before the Sengoku period started). But that region spent most of the Sengoku period fighting among themselves and being mostly irrelevant to the major events so there's almost nothing in English I've found.
Date Masamune is such a fascinating figure politically, culturally, and militarily. For example, there's a lot of interesting things about his protection of the Christians after the Toyotomi and later Tokugawa make it a death sentence to convert. But Masamune's daughter converted and he took steps to protect them during his life in his area. There's some question if he converted as well, but Christianity was illegal.
He even sent a delegation from the Date Clan to Rome. It may have been the first Japanese ship to circumnavigate the globe, we know it went to Mexico, Spain, and Rome and that it returned by way of Mexico as some of the Japanese stayed there. He was one of the daimyo most interested in learning western ideas, technologies, and economics. He did what he could to "bend the rules" after the Tokugawa closed the nation to make his lands relatively free and open.
Just some interesting examples of how he could ignore the central government and revitalize the economic and cultural aspects of this lands. (The Tokugawa later destroyed his home castle as an area of potential threat to their regime.) But generally all you see on him is the military aspects and the "cool eyepatch guy with the half moon helmet".
Regarding Nagashino, I don't know on the number of guns.
Volley fire was possible and I suspect it was very likely. It was used as early as the 2nd Century BC in China (and Japanese culture was heavily linked to China throughout it's history). There were illustrated war manuals on how crossbowmen were to conduct volley fire by 759 AD by Chinese strategists. This included formations, where both shooters and reloaders were to stand, how to coordinate the speed with drums, where the commander needed to be to ensure everything was going correctly. I mean, volleyfire was very well developed and understood for 800 to 1700 years before Nagashino.
The Chinese also developed volley fire techniques specifically to counter cavalry charges by, at latest, the 9th Century. After all, the primary threat for China in much of their history was "barbarian" horse tribes, so they had manuals on how to deal with cavalry charges directed at the volley line and histories detailing the successes of volley fire against mounted charges.
The idea of dispersing your firearms (or archers) throughout your formations instead of concentrated fire goes against competent military strategy going back to at least 200 BC in Asia (and likely further back). It's long been understood to both ancient and modern military commanders that concentrated fire/force is one of the most important factors of success in battle (in modern warfare probably #1).
Ancient histories are full of stories about concentrated force breaking the enemy, that's usually how battles were won. The Greeks for example, would generally put their best men on the right flank and their weakest on the left, the idea being that having all your best men together would break a section of the enemy and flank them. This would win a battle more quickly, more decisively, and with less casualties than spreading your good warrior throughout the front lines.
I highly doubt a successful military commander like Nobunaga, especially considering the military advice had at this point, would have broken up his firearms. I suspect he would have had focused, concentrated fire on key points of the battlefield. It would make sense to funnel enemies into strong points in your formations and away from weak points with a mix of tools including firearms. I'd think they used the field fortifications to funnel men into "kill zones" for the firearms units. The Sanada did this frequently and built their castles specifically for this purpose.
In the Sengoku period there were specific firearms units. We know that some officers/retainers were specifically recorded by sources at the time as leading specifically trained firearms units. Here's an article that mentions that, while there is no direct evidence of volleyfire at Nagashino, it was recorded in records as a common tactic shortly thereafter: https://gunbai-militaryhistory.blogspot.com/2018/07/sengoku-period-warfare-part-3-infantry.html
If its recorded in contemporary records as a "common tactic" for Nobunaga shortly after, and there's historically evidence of it going back centuries in the area, I don't think it's crazy to say volley fire may have used. In my mind, I think there's a very good chance they used it.
Back to Nagashino, field fortifications have been a component of warfare since the beginning of time. I do agree with the Reddit poster that thing like palisades, mud pits, broken terrain and whatever else were understated in the Extra History video.
But I think this is true for most battles in general. Even the famous Siege of Vienna, which was almost entirely about field fortifications, is overshadowed by the legendary charge of the Polish Winged Hussars. The Siege was 2 months, the charge was 15 minutes (?) and the battle was over less than 3 hours after the charge. Lots of the talk about the Siege is focused on approximately 0.2% of the siege timeline despite the amazing back and forth of engineers and soldiers that occurred for months.
Specifically trained firearms units and commanders includes female commanders like Ikeda Sen who led a 200 woman firearms unit in several of the biggest battles of the era such as Yamazaki (Hashiba/Toyotomi Hideyoshi vs Akechi Mitsuhide), Shizugatake (Hideyoshi vs Shibata Katsuie and Oda Nobutaka), and at Komaki and Nagakute (Hideyoshi vs Tokugawa Ieyasu).
At Shizugatake, the Ikeda clan was a core part of the politics in this battle and Sen was very well rewarded.
At Komaki and Nagakute, the Ikeda was at the core of the whole situation (they basically instigated it) and Sen's father and husband were killed. Sen herself was only 20 years old at the battle in which she commanded a firearms unit.
Interestingly, her son later married an adopted daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu. She really was at the top of society.
Regarding the battle of Tedorigawa, I checked the Japanese wiki which the Reddit poster claimed to have used as their source. Turns out both the English and Japanese wiki agree that the battle happened, but they differ on the exact events of the battle. The English wiki claims the Oda army attempted to hold off Uesugi forces with cannons, but a night raid forced them into a charge, which led to a lot of troops dying in the flooded Tedori river thanks to Kenshin opening the river's floodgates. The Japanese wiki instead says that the Oda army tried to retreat when they heard that Nanao castle had fallen, but Kenshin attacked their rearguard, and in the confusion, many soldiers died, with quite a few drowning in the overflowing Tedori river. Both seem to agree on the number of casualties inflicted on the Oda, roughly a 1000 dead.
It wasn't just the Mori, however, in the invasion. Pretty much all the daimyo of Central Japan, Western Japan, and Shikoku were mobilized for the invasion. The Chosokabe, Ukita, Mori, Todo, Kato, Kuroda, and many other clans large and small were involved to some degree. When you include clans from Kyushu that joined like the Otomo, Ryuzoji, Nabeshima (all beaten down but still with resources) there was a massive disparity in power.
The only significant clan to join the Shimazu were the Akizuki in northern Kyushu (in NA they tend to be a 1 fortress clan in earlier scenarios). And the Akizuki were tiny compared to most of the Toyotomi aligned clans.
Estimates I've seen had the Toyotomi at 100,000 - 200,000 men, the Shimazu at 30,000 (+/-). Basically the Shimazu clan was trying to "solo" about half of Japan. Valiant effort, but they basically knew they couldn't win. They were fighting both local clans with local support (Otomo, Ryuzoji, etc.) and one of the largest armies of the Sengoku period at the same time.
And because of the conquest of Shikoku and the peace with the Tokugawa, the Toyotomi could throw their best people at the Shimazu.
Men like Kato Kiyomasa, Kuroda Kanbei (and family), Ukon Takayama and many other top/talented samurai led some of the attack forces.
It also validated the argument that Hideyoshi was the legitimate successor to lead the nation. That he was upholding the decisions passed down through the generations by the previous leaders of the nation.
All the clans that lost land to the Shimazu (basically everyone) wanted their lands back and the Toyotomi were the only way to do that. So the Kyushu clans gave Hideyoshi their allegiance and backed his rule in return for his support in reclaiming their lands.
Hideyoshi was going to claim power over Kyushu anyway at some point, the Shimazu just gave him the "righteous defender" cover he needed. He could claim he was helping others instead of grabbing power.
And who knows what Hideyoshi truly thought in his own heart, but it probably was a bit of both to him. Most people with power want to believe they're doing good. They may be wrong about it but I think many of them truly thought they were justified.
Later Hideyoshi, once his health declined in his last few years and he reportedly became mentally unstable and vicious, is a different story.