英語訳
[Header] Toyohashi City Historical Discussions - (The Komaki Campaign and Makino Narisato) - 142
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...but they watched each other's movements and neither side moved their forces. However, Nobuteru and Nagayoshi frequently urged taking advantage of this opening to strike at Mikawa, and they pressed Hideyoshi to implement this plan. Hideyoshi finally gave his permission, which became the cause of the Battle of Nagakute. In the end, the western army repeated the same mistake made by the Shibata forces at Shizugatake.
Now, Ikeda Nobuteru had shaved his head by this time and was calling himself Katsuiri, and Mori Nagayoshi was his son-in-law as mentioned before. To these was added another son-in-law, Miyoshi Hidetsugu, and furthermore Hori Hidemasa, who had been sent by Hideyoshi as something like a military supervisor. They divided this force into four units: the first unit led by Katsuiri himself as overall commander with about 6,000 troops, the second unit led by Mori Nagayoshi with about 3,000 troops, the third unit led by Hori Hidemasa with about 3,000 troops, and the fourth unit led by Miyoshi Hidetsugu with about 8,000 troops. Thus organized as a detachment, they began their march on the night of the sixth day of the fourth month, departing from their positions around Oguchi and Gakuden with the objective of secretly entering western Mikawa and attacking Okazaki. On the seventh day they reached the Shinogi and Kashiwai areas from Sekida, built fortifications, and each unit made camp.
On the eighth day, early in the morning they transmitted orders that on the bright ninth day they would circle far around the right flank of the eastern army - that is, the Tokugawa-Oda forces - and secretly infiltrate western Mikawa from the vicinity of Nagakute and Fujishima. Around ten o'clock that night, they all broke camp, divided the entire army into two columns, crossed the Shōnai River respectively, then reformed into single file starting with the first unit, passed Suwagahara, crossed Hirakoyama, emerged at Inba, crossed the Seto highway, and forded the Yada River.
Now, at the western foot of this Hirakoyama, not far north of the Seto highway, there was Obata Castle, where Honda Hirotaka and others had moved from Komaki to maintain defense. This was positioned at the rear of what could be called the extreme right wing of the Tokugawa forces. Therefore, Katsuiri's detachment proceeded with care not to be detected by them, crossing the Kanare River, and the first unit passed through Nagakute at dawn on the ninth day, advancing toward the Fujishima area.
However, to the northwest there was a castle called Iwasaki Castle, where Niwa Ujishige, younger brother of Niwa Ujitsugu, was maintaining guard for the Tokugawa side. The garrison numbered only 239 men including Katō Tadakage, lord of Nagakute, and others. The castle lord Ujitsugu was at Komaki in the field...
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[Header] This Toyohashi City Historical Discussion is published once weekly (Tuesdays) and presented to readers of the San'yō Shimbun
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...but Ujishige, seeing the enemy troops advancing below the castle, decided he should not stand by as a mere observer and suddenly launched an attack. Initially Katsuiri had intended to advance without concern for such matters since he had a great objective ahead, but the castle garrison's attacks were so fierce that he became greatly angered and decided to destroy this castle. He ordered his vanguard to attack it, and between about 4 AM and 6 AM the castle garrison, being vastly outnumbered, had Niwa Yoshitsugu report the situation to Komaki while almost all the rest died in battle.
Thus this castle fell into Katsuiri's hands in a short time, but considerable time and effort were required in the process. While dealing with Iwasaki Castle, all units halted their advance and remained in column formation: the first and second units at Fugyūbara, the third unit at Kanehagibara (both south of Nagakute), and the fourth unit at Hakusanrin (north of Nagakute), stationed across from Nagakute.
Meanwhile, on the eastern army side - that is, the Tokugawa-Oda forces - around 4 PM on the seventh day they received reports from farmers in Shinogi that enemy troops were encamped there, but Ieyasu did not immediately believe this. However, as such reports continued to arrive, by the morning of the eighth day Ieyasu finally realized that the enemy's objective was to threaten the Okazaki area. He immediately decided to pursue them, first leaving Sakai Tadatsugu, Ishikawa Kazumasa, Honda Tadakatsu and others as guards at Komaki along with Oda forces totaling about 6,500 men. He himself led about 9,300 troops together with Nobuo, with Ii Naomasa as vanguard, secretly departing Komaki at 8 PM that day via Katsugawa, and by midnight had already entered Obata Castle.
Ieyasu had separately sent Mizuno Tadashige and others with 3,000 troops to depart Komaki one hour ahead of him. They reached Obata Castle around 10 PM, immediately consulted with the defending general Honda Hirotaka, sent out scouts to investigate the enemy situation, and learned roughly their route of advance and strength. Ieyasu decided to first have this Mizuno unit attack the enemy's rear guard while he would strike at the enemy center to divide their forces in two, then engage their leading units. Having arranged these plans, around 2 AM that night he had the Mizuno unit depart first. The Mizuno unit was further divided into three units, with the right wing unit under Ōsuga Yasu...
[Header] Toyohashi City Historical Discussions - (The Komaki Campaign and Makino Narisato) - 143