Retreat
When Tokugawa returned to Hamamatsu Castle, he was accompanied by only five men. The town was on verge of panic as rumor had already reached Hamamatsu that the battle had gone badly. Nevertheless, Ieyasu commanded that the castle gates remain open, and that braziers be lit to guide his retreating army back to safety. Sakai Tadatsugu beat a large war drum, seeking to add encouragement to the returning men of a noble, courageous retreat. This tactic is called the "empty fort strategy". When the Takeda vanguard, led by Baba Nobuharu and Yamagata Masakage heard the drums, and saw the braziers and open gates, they assumed that Tokugawa was planning a trap, and so they stopped and made camp for the night.
In the night, a small band of Tokugawa ninja led by Hattori Hanzo attacked the Takeda camp, throwing the vanguard of the Takeda army into confusion. Uncertain of the remaining strength of the Tokugawa forces, and worried that reinforcements from Oda Nobunaga and/or Uesugi Kenshin were on their way, Takeda Shingen decided to withdraw his forces back to his own territories and to try again the following year. However, for Takeda Shingen, there would be no following attack on Hamamatsu, as he would be fatally wounded in January 1573 at the Siege of Noda Castle.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Mikatagahara
Famous quotes containing the word retreat:
“Men seem anxious to accomplish an orderly retreat through the centuries, earnestly rebuilding the works behind them, as they are battered down by the encroachments of time; but while they loiter, they and their works both fall prey to the arch enemy.”
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