envoy, he could hardly stay seated on his camp stool. The camp was located at a temple in Kitsunezaka, and it was along the corridors of that building that Katsuie now wandered silently, looking in the direction of the temple gate.
“Shichiza hasn't returned yet?' he asked his close attendants innumerable times. 'It's already evening, isn't it?'
As dusk pressed in, he became irritated. The evening sun was now casting its light on the bell tower.
“Lord Yadoya has returned!' That was the message relayed by the warrior at the temple gate.
“What happened?' Katsuie asked anxiously.
The man delivered his report frankly. Genba had at first refused to meet him, but Yadoya had persisted. He had related his lord's view in detail, but in vain. Genba insisted that even if Hideyoshi rushed to Mount Oiwa from Ogaki, it would take him at least one or two days. Thus Genba would be able to destroy Hideyoshi's troops quite easily because they would be so fatigued from the long journey. For that reason, he had declared his resolution to remain on Mount Oiwa and in no way appeared ready to change his mind.
Katsuie's eyes glistened with anger. 'That fool!' he yelled, almost as if he were spitting blood. Then, beneath a heavy groan that shook his entire frame, he muttered, 'Genba's behavior is outrageous.'
'Yaso! Yaso!' Looking all around him and into the warriors' waiting area in the next room, Katsuie yelled out in a high-pitched voice.
“Are you looking for Yoshida Yaso?' Menju Shosuke asked in return.
“Of course!' Katsuie shrieked, venting his anger on Shosuke. 'Call him here right now. Tell him to come here right away!'
Running footsteps echoed through the temple. Yoshida Yaso received Katsuie's ordersand immediately whipped his horse toward Mount Oiwa.
The long day finally darkened and the flames of the bonfires began to flicker in the shadows of the young leaves. They reflected what was now deep within Katsuie's breast.
The return trip of two leagues could be completed in the twinkling of an eye by a fast horse, and Yaso returned in no time at all.
'I told him that this was the last you had to say and admonished him thoroughly, but Lord Genba would not consent to a retreat.'
The sixth report was the same. Katsuie no longer had the energy to be angry and would have shed tears had he not been on the battlefield. Instead, he simply sank into grief and blamed himself, regretting the blind love he had held for Genba until now.
'I'm the one who was wrong,' he lamented.
On the battlefield—where a man must act strictly according to military discipline— Genba had taken advantage of his close ties to his uncle. He had made a decision that could affect the rise or fall of the entire clan, and had insisted on his own selfish way without the least bit of reflection.
But who was it who had allowed the young man to become accustomed to that kind of action? Wasn't this morass the result of his own heedless love for his nephew? Through it he had first lost his foster son, Katsutoyo, and Nagahama Castle. Now he was about to lose an enormous and irretrievable opportunity upon which rested the fate of the entire Shibata clan.
When these thoughts came to him, Katsuie sank deep into a remorse for which there was absolutely no one else to blame.
Yaso had more to report: the words that Genba had actually spoken. In response to Yaso's advice, Genba had laughed and even ridiculed his uncle:
'Long ago, when people mentioned the name of Lord Katsuie, they called him the Demon Shibata, and said he was a general of devilish contrivances and mysterious schemes—at least from what I've heard. Today, however, his tactics come from an old head out of touch with the times. You can't wage war today with old- fashioned strategies. Look at our penetration into the enemy territory this time. At the beginning, my uncle wouldn't even give his permission for the plan. He should leave the whole thing to me and watch for the next day or two.'
Katsuie's gloom and wretchedness were unbearable to watch. He, more than anyone, knew Hideyoshi's true value as a general. The comments he had made to Genba and his other retainers had never been anything more than strategic remarks aimed at taking away their fear of the enemy. In his very bowels, Katsuie knew that Hideyoshi was a formidable adversary, especially after his withdrawal from the western provinces and his performance at the Battle of Yamazaki and the conference at Kiyosu. Now this powerful enemy was before him, and at the very opening of these all-or-nothing hostilities, he saw that his own ally was a stumbling block.
'Genba's behavior is outrageous. Never once have I suffered a defeat or shown my back to the enemy. Ahh, this was inevitable.'
The night darkened, and Katsuie's anguish turned to resignation.
Messengers were not sent out again.
Genba's Stratagem
That very same day—the twentieth of the month, at the Hour of the Horse—Hidenaga sent his first report to Hideyoshi's camp at Ogaki.
This morning a Sakuma force of eight thousand men took to the mountain trails and entered deep into our territory.
It was thirteen leagues from Kinomoto to Ogaki, and even for a mounted messenger, the courier had been amazingly fast.
Hideyoshi had just come back from the bank of the Roku River, where he had gone to observe the level of the rising water. There had been violent rains in Mino for the past few days, and the Goto and Roku rivers, both of which flowed between Ogaki and Gifu, were flooding.
The original plan had called for a general attack on Gifu Castle on the nineteenth, but the heavy rains and the floodwaters of the Roku River had obstructed Hideyoshi, and there were no prospects of crossing the river again that day. He had been waiting two days now for a chance to move on.
Hideyoshi received the urgent letter from the messenger outside camp and read the note while still in the saddle. After thanking the messenger, he went back to his quarters without any visible show of emotion.
'How about making me a bowl of tea, Yuko?' he asked. At about the time he was finishing his bowl of tea, a second messenger arrived:
The twelve thousand-man main army under Lord Katsuie has taken up its positions. It is moving out of Kitsunezaka in the direction of Mount Higashino.
Hideyoshi had moved to his camp stool in the curtained headquarters, and now he called in various members of his staff and told them, 'An urgent message has just come from Hidenaga.'
Coolly, he read the letter aloud. The generals looked alarmed as they listened. The third dispatch was from Hori Kyutaro, who clearly detailed the brave fight and death of Nakagawa and the loss of Mount Iwasaki because of Takayama's retreat. Hideyoshi closed his eyes for a moment when he learned of Nakagawa's death in battle. For a moment, a desolate look came over the faces of the generals, and they blurted out pathetic questions. Every one of them stared at Hideyoshi, as if trying to read from his face how they would handle this dangerous situation.
'Sebei's death is a great loss,' Hideyoshi said, 'but he did not die in vain.' He spoke a little louder. 'Be of good spirits, and thereby, you'll pay tribute to Sebei's spirit. More and more, heaven is prophesying that a great victory will be ours. Katsuie was entrenched in his mountain castle, withdrawn from the world and unable to find his way. Now he has left the fortress that was a prison for him and arrogantly drawn his formation out far and wide. That shows that his luck has run out. We should be able to destroy the bastard completely before he even quarters his troops. The time has come for us to realize our great desire and fight this decisive battle for the nation! The time has come, and not one of you should fall behind!'
The dire news was suddenly transformed by Hideyoshi's few words into a reason for cheer.
'The victory is ours!' Hideyoshi declared. Then, without losing any time, he began give out orders. The
