ground, still holding the reins. Hyakudan, Nagayoshi's favorite horse, reared up and whinnied in grief.
A shout like a great sob rose up from his men as they quickly rushed to his side. Carrying his corpse on their shoulders, they withdrew to the top of Gifugadake. Men from the Tokugawa forces ran after them, fighting for the symbol of their deed, shoutin 'Take his head!'
The warriors who had lost their leader were close to tears. Wheeling around with frightening expressions, they turned their spears back on their pursuers. Somehow they were able to hide Nagayoshi's body. But the news that Nagayoshi had been struck down blew like a chill wind across the entire battlefield. Along with the other tides of war that had been turning against their position, yet another disaster had befallen Shonyu's forces.
It was as though boiling water had been poured onto a hill of ants: everywhere warriors were fleeing in confusion.
“They're hardly worth calling allies!' Shonyu shouted as he climbed toward higher ground and, in contrast to the peaceful surroundings, sputtered in rage at the few soldiers he encountered. 'I'm right here! Don't make a disgraceful retreat! Have you forgotten what you learned every day? Go back! Go back and fight!'
But the group of black-hooded men around him did not stop their own flight in the general collapse. On the contrary, only a pitiful young page of fifteen or sixteen approached him falteringly.
Leading up a stray horse, he offered it to his lord.
In the battle at the bottom of the hill, Shonyu's horse had been shot and he had fallen to the ground. He had been surrounded by the enemy, but had desperately cut open a path and climbed up.
“I don't need a horse anymore. Set up my camp stool here.'
The page set up the camp stool behind him, and Shonyu sat down.
“Forty-eight years end here,' he muttered to himself. Still looking at the page, he talked on. 'You're Shirai Tango's son, aren't you? I imagine your father and mother are waiting. Run as quickly as you can to Inuyama. Look, the bullets are coming! Get out of here fast! Now!'
Having chased the teary-eyed page away, he was alone and felt free from care. Calmly he took his last look at the world.
Very soon he could hear a noise like the fighting of wild animals, and the trees shook in the crags directly beneath him. It appeared that some of his black-hooded warriors still remained and were brandishing their weapons in mortal combat.
Shonyu felt numb. It was no longer a matter of victory or defeat. The sorrow of parting from the world made him reflect on the faraway past, tinged with the scent of his mother’s milk.
Suddenly the shrubs directly in front of him began to shake.
“Who is it!' Shonyu's eyes shone with rage. 'Is it the enemy?' he called out. His voice was so calm that the approaching Tokugawa warrior unconsciously stepped back in shock.
Shonyu called out again, pressing the man further. 'Are you one of the enemy? If you are, take my head and you'll achieve a great deed. The man who is speaking now is Ikeda Shonyu.”
Tle warrior crouching down in the thick undergrowth raised his head and looked at Shonyu sitting there. He shuddered for a moment and then spoke in an arrogant voice as he stood up.
“Well, I've encountered a good one here. I am Nagai Denpachiro of the Tokugawa clan. Prepare yourself!' he shouted, and thrust out his spear.
In response to his shout, quick resistance from the sword of the famous fierce general have been expected, but Denpachiro's spear slid deeply into his opponent's side without any trouble at all. Rather than Shonyu, whose side had been pierced through, it was Denpachiro who tumbled forward from the momentum of his excessive force.
Shonyu fell over, the spearpoint protruding from his back.
'Take my head!' he yelled again.
He did not have his long sword in his hand even now. On his own he had invited his death, on his own he was offering his head. Denpachiro had been in an arrogant trance, but when he was suddenly aware of the feelings of this enemy general and the way he was meeting his final moments, he was struck with a violent emotion that made him want to weep.
'Ah!' he cried out, but then was so beside himself with joy at his unexpected great achievement that he forgot what to do next.
Just then he heard the rustling sounds of his allies fighting to be the first to climb up from beneath the crags.
'I'm Ando Hikobei! Prepare yourself.'
'My name is Uemura Denemon!'
'I'm Hachiya Shichibei of the Tokugawa clan!'
Each announced his name as they competed to be the one to take Shonyu's head.
By whose sword had the head been taken? Their bloody hands grabbed the topknot and swung it around.
'I took the head of Ikeda Shonyu!' yelled Nagai Denpachiro.
'No, I took it!' cried Ando Hikobei.
'Shonyu's head is mine!' Uemura Denemon shouted.
A storm of blood, a storm of violent voices, a storm of selfish desire for fame. Four men, five men—a growing cluster of warriors, with the single head at its center, set off the direction of Ieyasu's campstool.
'Shonyu has been killed!'
That shout became a wave that went from the peaks to the marsh and caused the Tokugawa forces all over the battlefield to bellow with joy.
The men of the Ikeda forces who had managed to escape did not shout at all. In a moment, those men had lost both heaven and earth, and like dry leaves they now searched for a place to go where their lives might be spared.
'Don't let one of them return alive!'
'Chase after them! Run them down!'
The victors, driven by an insatiable bloodlust, slaughtered the Ikeda wherever they found them.
For men who had already forgotten about their own lives, violently taking other lives very likely felt like nothing more than playing with fallen flowers. Shonyu had been finished off, Nagayoshi had been killed in battle, and now the remaining Ikeda formations at Tanojiri were scattered by the Tokugawa.
One after another, the generals brought the stories of their exploits into the camp that spread out under Ieyasu's golden fan.
'There are so few of them.'
Ieyasu was troubled.
This great general rarely displayed his emotions, but he worried about the warriors who had gone out in pursuit of the defeated enemy. Many had not returned, even though the conch had been blown several times. Perhaps they had been carried away with their victory.
Ieyasu repeated himself two or three times.
“This is not a matter of adding victory on top of victory,' he said. 'It's not good to want to win still more after you've already won.'
He did not mention Hideyoshi's name, but no doubt he had intuited that that natural-born strategist had already pointed a finger in this direction in reaction to the great defeat suffered by his army.
“A long pursuit is dangerous. Has Shiroza gone?'
“Yes. He hurried off some time ago with your orders.'
Hearing Ii's answer, Ieyasu gave out another order. 'You go too, Ii. Reprimand those have gotten carried away and order them to abandon the chase.'
When the pursuing Tokugawa forces reached the Yada River, they found Naito Shirozaemon's squad lined up along the bank, each man holding out the shaft of his spear horizontally.
“Stop!'
“Halt!'
“The order has come from our lord's main camp not to make a long pursuit!'
“With those words from the men along the bank, the pursuers were halted.
Ii galloped up and nearly made himself hoarse, yelling at the men as he rode back and forth.
