in order to surround the government forces, hirotsugu split his army into three units; one under his command and the others under command of his subordinates, tsunade and komaro respectively. together they advanced along different routes to northern kyushu where the kanmon straits separate kyushu from japan's main island, honshu. along the way, on 19 october, hirotsugu stopped at the headquarters of oka district to "make camp, set up his crossbows, raise beacon signals, and conscript soldiers from the province [of chikuzen]". eventually he arrived at fortifications ("chinsho") in miyako district, buzen province near the expected invasion route. but hirotsugu's plans for an organized attack were foiled as one army of several thousand men did not appear and another unit was late. the government army successfully landed on kyushu, captured men and weapons from three camps at tomi, itabitsu and miyako in buzen province. earlier the court's army had been reinforced on 16/17 october with more than 4,000 men including 40 fine soldiers ("jōhei") under the magistrate of toyoura district, nagato province. on 20 october, several of hirotsugu's allies surrendered and changed sides: four district officials defected together with 500 mounted warriors and a citizen from buzen province killed one of the rebels. later, a magistrate from a buzen district returned with several rebels' heads from battle. on 24 october, an imperial decree was distributed among the population and officials of kyushu, trying to discredit hirotsugu, and promising rewards to anybody who killed hirotsugu.