The Ming army broke into the Kanto region from the combination of Kanto and Kansai, and it was originally part of the Shinano Province during the Warring States period, and it produced good horses and was able to build powerful cavalry, so it has always been a place of contention for many samurai.

However, throughout the Warring States period, Shinano did not have any outstanding daimyō, so the neighboring Kai Takeda clan and Echigo's Uesugi clan fought against each other for dominance.

The two forces fought five battles in Nagano, the fourth of which was the most intense and one of the highest casualty rates for both sides during the Sengoku period.

The winner of the battle was the Takeda clan, but unfortunately the Takeo clan suffered too much loss in several joint battles, which directly led to the defeat of the Takeda clan.

After the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, a shogunate-exclusive horse farm was set up in Nagano, and the shogunate's cavalry horses mainly came from Nagano Racecourse.

Unfortunately, the war horses of Nagano, including all of Japan, originated from Mongolian horses during the Tang Dynasty in China. At that time, because of the backward navigation technology, the ship was not suitable for the ocean, so every time Japan sent an envoy to the Tang Dynasty, it was gambling on his life, and therefore the number of Mongolian horses brought back to Japan by the Tang envoy was very scarce, and in the end most of them were inbreeding, so that the overall height of the Japanese horse declined, and the weight shrunk, which was at least one-third worse than its ancestors. ”

Although the cavalry units of the Imperial Army also suffered heavy losses from war horses across the sea, and the number of available war horses was less than two-thirds of the original, they were not at all interested in using Japanese dwarf horses as military horses.

Ironically, before the war, the shogunate had always thought that Nagano Baba was of great significance to the Ming army and was particularly attractive, so Tokugawa Hidetada personally ordered his younger brother, Tokugawa Yoshinao, the lord of the Owari domain, to lead the army. In order to enhance Yizhi's strength, Xiuzhong also transferred the only remaining more than 4,000 square soldiers under his command to Yizhi.

Tokugawa Yoshinao was wise enough to give all the responsibility of Nagano's guards to his master, who was also one of the sixteen gods of his father's time, Watanabe Moritsuna.

Watanabe Moritsuna, who has the title of "Hanzo of the Gun", combined the lessons of the defeat in the battles of Nara and Kyoto, and made the Ming army's firearms sharp and the castle explosion was quite powerful, so it was not necessary to concentrate military forces on the castle, but to deploy it outside, and take advantage of the large number of cavalry of the clan to fight a mobile battle with the Ming army.

Watanabe's plan was undoubtedly correct, since the Ming army attacked, there were few cavalry, and the cavalry strength of the so-called wing was only more than 2,000 soldiers with horses to ride, and the rest were all on their legs.

Watanabe was able to command more than 7,000 cavalry, and unlike the previous Battle of Nara, where the cavalry was dispersed, it could be condensed into a fist to attack, and the certainty of victory would be greatly improved.

In mid-to-late May, Scouts and Hosaku sent a clear signal to Nagano that the final Ming offensive was about to begin.

Xiuzhong's strict military order was also issued quickly.

Hidetada hoped that his younger brother would hold out for a month or two, so that he could gather all the troops of the entire Kanto region.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Ming army is very strong, but their soldiers are too few after all, according to intelligence, in order to make up for the lack of military strength, the commander of the Ming State on the one hand vigorously co-opted the forces dissatisfied with the shogunate, as well as the downfall of the shogunate; On the other hand, propaganda tactics were used to co-opt ronin who had lost their samurai status due to the "abolition of the military order".

These forces, which the shogunate firmly called the puppet army, already accounted for as much as half of the Ming army. Such a situation would certainly be extremely unfavorable to the shogunate.

In order to redeem the disadvantage, Xiuzhong could not let the Ming army break into the Kanto, so his plan to integrate the Kanto region would be in vain.

Hope, all pinned on Yizhi.

The Battle of Nagano broke out, and at first the battle was as Watanabe had judged, and the Ming army broke through the pass and headed straight for the Baba area, which was suitable for large-scale cavalry operations.

As a result, Watanabe immediately left to lead the cavalry corps to meet the battle, and the two sides opened up a fight in the area east of the racecourse. Both in terms of the size of the force and the terrain, the Japanese army had the advantage.

The battle soon began, but Watanabe did not expect that his planned plan of mobile operation of the cavalry group to outflank the Ming army would quickly collapse.

The medicine bags fired by the Ming infantry with iron tools made it difficult for the Japanese army to reach the Ming defense line on horseback, and after the Japanese army's war horse hit the tall war horse of the Ming army, the battle was like a child's house.

After paying more than a thousand casualties, Watanabe's department collapsed, and the rout fled everywhere.

The important town of the Kwantung Pass fell into the hands of the Ming army, and then the Ming army quickly advanced to the Kwantung region in two ways.

All the way along the Inazawa, Toki, Kiyonai, and the upper line to Edo;

Along the way, they marched along the Yamagata, Majority, and Kiso to the Kanto domains.

The unfavorable situation forced Tokugawa Hidetada to lead the remaining main force of the army north to meet the battle. On the 14th, Tokugawa Hidetada set out from Nogicho in Edo and entered Okano six days later.

The Hidetada army hesitated to act in order to wait for reinforcements from the Kwantung domains to arrive. In view of the heavy losses of the shogunate's standing army in Nara and Kyoto, Hidetada intended to let the Kwantung feudal domains engage the Ming army first, so as to play a role in containing the Ming army.

On the 19th, more than 20,000 soldiers from the Kwantung feudal domains arrived in Okano one after another. The remaining feudal domains were either unable to raise troops due to the threat of the Ming army and the rebel feudal domains, or they were persuaded by the Ming secret service to stop supporting the shogunate.

The Minister of Internal Affairs of the New Kingdom, Hirayoshi, personally wrote to the lords of the Sawa and other domains, persuading them not to join Tokugawa Hidetada's camp.

Under the pressure of the cabinet, after the Japanese government came to power, His Excellency Mizuo personally wrote to some former courtiers, asking them to participate in the rebellion.

At the same time, Edo was under increasing pressure.

Two days later, knowing that no more reinforcements could be obtained, Hidetada held a ceremony at the shrine in Oshino to resist the Ming invasion.

On the 24th, the shogunate coalition attacked Xiaogucheng, which was only garrisoned by more than 3,000 Ming troops, because of the fortified city originally built as an important town and the stubborn resistance of the Ming army in the city, the coalition army attacked for several days without success.

On the 27th, the Ming army launched a landing in the waters of Edo, and the battle quickly burned to Edo, the old nest of Hidetada.

Tokugawa Hidetada received an urgent report from Edo, and had no choice but to give up the attack on Kogujo and lead the main force south to Edo. Hidetada's withdrawal led to the rapid collapse of the coalition forces, and under the persuasion of Shimazu Tadashi, the commander of the 1st Mixed Brigade of the Ming Imperial Army, the feudal domains abandoned Hidetada one after another and turned their allegiance to the new Japan.

By July, Tokugawa Hidetada, who had withdrawn to Edo, was dead, with no reinforcements and no way out.

In the direction of the Ming army, affected by the domestic rebellion, the pressure on the front line is increasing day by day. The commander of the First Army, Cao Wenyao, at the suggestion of the monk Torimoto, ordered a plan of fire attack on Edo.

As a result, Edo Castle was set on fire, with a conservative estimate that about two-thirds of the buildings were burned.

On the 26th, the shogunate's insightful men who responded to the call of the new Japanese state and the imperial army launched a rebellion in the castle, and the insightful men opened the castle gates, and the Ming army rushed in, and Tokugawa Hidetada died.

At this point, the Tokugawa shogunate came to an end, and Japan officially ushered in the "Meiji era".

After hearing the news, Wei Liangchen, who was far away in Kyoto, was delighted with the inscription - "A new era has arrived!" ”