Taiko. Part 117

Glaring at him, Inuchiyo spoke with undisguised anger. "It is an outrageous act to whisper into a lord's ear an immoral, cowardly plan that a man should be ashamed to utter. You consider yourself a samurai, but you know nothing of the Way of the Samurai! What kind of man would sell the head of a general who had come knocking at his gate, just to profit his own clan? Much less when he's spent as many years campaigning with that general as I have!"

Leaving the trembling Murai behind, Inuchiyo went out toward the main entrance togreet Katsuie. Katsuie had come up to the castle gate still on horseback. He held the shaft of a broken spear in one hand and did not appear to be wounded, but his entire face-his entire being-was suffused with desolation.

The reins of his horse were held by Toshinaga, who had run out to greet him. The eight men who accompanied him had stayed outside the main gate. So Katsuie was alone.

"I'm greatly obliged to you." With those courteous words to Toshinaga, Katsuie dismounted. He looked Inuchiyo in the face and spoke in a loud voice full of self-scorn. "We lost! We lost!"

He was in surprisingly good spirits. It may have been that he was just pretending, but he seemed far more relaxed than Inuchiyo had imagined he would be. Inuchiyo was kinder than usual in greeting the defeated general. Toshinaga was no less concerned than his father and helped the fugitive take off his blood-soaked sandals.

"I feel as though I've come home to my own house."

Kindness makes a deep impression on a man in the abyss of destruction and causes him to abandon any suspicions and bitterness. It is the only thing that will make him think that there is still light in the world.

Apparently now quite happy, Katsuie continued to congratulate father and son on their escape. "This defeat was entirely due to my own oversights. I brought troubles onto you, too, and I hope you'll forgive me," he apologized. "I'll retreat as far as Kitanosho and put my affairs in order and without any regrets. I wonder if you wouldn't give me a bowl of rice and tea."

Demon Shibata seemed to have become the Buddha Shibata. Even Inuchiyo was unable to hold back his tears.

"Bring some tea and rice quickly. And sake" Inuchiyo ordered. He could think of few words of comfort for the man. Nevertheless, he felt that he had to say something. "It's often said that victory and defeat are the stuff of a warrior's life. If you consider today's disaster in terms of human destiny, you know that to be proud of victory is the first step toward the day of destruction, and to be completely defeated is the first step toward the day of victory. The eternal cycle of man's rise and fall is not just a matter of temporary joy and sorrow."

"Therefore, what I regret is neither my own personal destruction nor the perpetual cycle of change," Katsuie said. "I only regret the loss of my reputation. But rest a.s.sured, Inuchiyo. It is all predestined."

For him to say such a thing was a complete departure from the Katsuie of olden days. But he seemed to be neither tormented nor confused.

When the sake arrived, Katsuie happily took a cup and, supposing that it would be his farewell, poured one for father and son as well. He heartily ate the simple meal Inuchiyo had ordered.

"I've never tasted anything like the rice I've eaten today. I'll never forget your kindness." That said, he took his leave.

Inuchiyo, who accompanied him outside, immediately noticed that his mount was exhausted. Ordering a page to bring out his own beloved dapple-gray horse, he offered it to Katsuie. "Put your mind at ease," Inuchiyo said. "We will hold this place until you get to Kitanosho."

Katsuie started to leave but then turned the horse around and came up to Inuchiyo as though he had suddenly remembered something. "Inuchiyo, you and Hideyoshi have been close friends since your youth. The battle having turned out this way, I release you from your duty to me as a retainer."

Those were to be his last words to Inuchiyo. As he mounted his horse, his expression was devoid of any falsehood. Confronted with such feeling, Inuchiyo bowed with heartfelt emotion. The figure of Katsuie leaving the castle gate was black against the red of the evening sun. The tiny remaining army of eight mounted men and ten or so foot soldiers now took flight to Kitanosho.

Two or three mounted men galloped into Fuchu Castle. Their news was soon common knowledge throughout the stronghold. "The enemy is camped at Wakimoto. Lord Hideyoshi has set up camp at Imajo, so there is little prospect of an attack tonight."

Hideyoshi slept happily through the night-really more like half the night-at Imajo, and on the following day he left camp early and rode to Wakimoto.

Kyutaro came out to greet him. He erected the commander's standard, indicating the presence of the commander-in-chief.

"What went on in Fuchu Castle last night?" Hideyoshi asked.

"There appeared to be a great deal of activity."

"Are they fortifying the place? Maybe the Maeda want to fight." Answering his own question, he looked toward Fuchu. Suddenly he turned to Kyutaro and ordered him to prepare his troops.

"Are you going into battle in person?" Kyutaro asked.

"Of course." Hideyoshi nodded as though he were looking out over a large level road. Kyutaro quickly communicated Hideyoshi's words to the various generals and blew the conch sh.e.l.l to a.s.semble the vanguard. Very soon the men had fallen into ranks, ready to march.

It was less than two hours to Fuchu. Kyutaro rode in front while Hideyoshi himself rode in the middle of the vanguard. They were soon in sight of the castle walls. Inside the castle, the men were naturally feeling extremely tense. Viewed from the top of the keep, the columns of men and Hideyoshi's standard of the golden gourds looked close enough to touch.

The order to halt had not yet been given. And, as Hideyoshi was in their midst, the soldiers of the vanguard were sure that he would surround the castle immediately.

Moving toward the main gate of Fuchu Castle, Hideyoshi's men-now like a rushing river-displayed the "crane wing" formation. For a moment, only the commander's standard did not move.

Just then, the entire structure of the castle spat out gunpowder smoke.

"Move back a little, Kyutaro. Move back!" Hideyoshi ordered. "Don't have the soldiers spread out or take up battle array. Order them to regroup and stand out of formation."

The soldiers in the vanguard retreated, and the muskets within the castle were silenced. The fighting spirits of both sides, however, could have exploded in an instant.

"Somebody take the commander's standard and advance twenty yards ahead of me," Hideyoshi ordered. "I won't need anyone to lead my horse; I'll be going into the castle by myself."

He had not informed anyone of his intentions beforehand, and spoke quite suddenly from the saddle. Ignoring the shocked expressions of his generals, he immediately went forward with his horse at a canter toward the main gate of the castle.

"Just a moment! Wait just a moment so I can go ahead of you!"

A samurai went stumbling quickly after him, but when he had gotten barely ten yards in front of Hideyoshi, bearing the commander's standard as he had been ordered, several shots rang out, their fire directed toward the golden gourds.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!"

Yelling in a loud voice, Hideyoshi galloped in the direction of the musket fire like an arrow shot from a bow.

"It's me! Hideyoshi! Don't you recognize me?" As he approached the castle, he took the golden baton of command from his waist and waved it at the soldiers in the castle. "It's me! Hideyoshi! Hold your fire!"

Astonished, two men leaped from the armory next to the main gate and pushed the gate open.

"Lord Hideyoshi?"

This turn of events seemed to be totally unexpected, and they greeted him with some embarra.s.sment. Hideyoshi recognized both of the men. He had already dismounted and was walking toward them.

"Has Lord Inuchiyo returned?" he asked, then added, "Are both he and his son all right?"

"Yes, my lord" one of the men replied. "They both returned without mishap."

"Good, good. I'm relieved to hear that. Take my horse, will you?"

Handing his horse's bridle over to the two men, Hideyoshi went in through the castle gate exactly as if he were walking into his own house, accompanied by his own attendants.

The warriors filling the castle like a forest were overawed as-almost in a daze-they observed the behavior of the man. At that moment Inuchiyo and his son ran out in Hideyoshi's direction. As they approached each other, the two men spoke out at once, like the old friends they were.

"Well, well now!"

"Inuchiyo! What are you up to?" Hideyoshi asked.

"Nothing at all," Inuchiyo replied with a laugh. "Come in and sit down."

Accompanied by his son, Inuchiyo led the way in to the main citadel. Expressly avoiding the formal entrance, they opened up the gate to the gardened area and led their guest directly toward the inner apartments, stopping to look at the purple irises and the white azaleas in the garden along the way.

It was the same treatment one would give a close family friend, and Inuchiyo was acting the way he had acted when he and Hideyoshi had lived in houses separated by a hedge.

Finally, Inuchiyo invited Hideyoshi inside.

Hideyoshi, however, stood looking around without even moving to untie his straw sandals. "That building over there-is that the kitchen?" he asked. When Inuchiyo answered affirmatively, Hideyoshi started walking toward it. "I want to see your wife. Is she here?

Inuchiyo was completely taken aback. He was about to tell Hideyoshi that if he wanted to meet his wife, he would call her right away, but there was not enough time for that. Instead, he hurriedly told Toshinaga to take their guest to the kitchen.

Having sent his son to chase after Hideyoshi, he himself hurried down the corridor to warn his wife.

The most surprised of all were the cooks and the maidservants. Here was a short samurai-clearly a general-in a persimmon-colored armor coat, walking nonchalantly into the kitchen and calling out as if he were a member of the lord's family.

"Hey! Is Lady Maeda here? Where is she?"

No one knew who he was. Everyone looked puzzled, but upon seeing his golden baton of command and formal sword, they all quickly knelt and bowed. He had to be a general of high rank, but no one had seen him among the Maeda before.

"Hey, Lady Maeda, where are you? It's me, Hideyoshi. Come on, show your face!"

Inuchiyo's wife was preparing food with some of the servants when she heard all the commotion. She came out wearing an ap.r.o.n and with her sleeves tied back. For a moment she simply stood and stared. "I must be dreaming," she murmured.

"It's been a long time, my lady. I'm glad to see you're well as always."

When Hideyoshi started to step forward, she roused herself and, quickly loosening the cord at her sleeves, prostrated herself on the wooden floor.

Hideyoshi artlessly sat down. "The first thing I want to tell you, my lady, is that your daughter and the ladies in Himeji have become good friends. Please set your mind at ease about that. Also, although your husband saw some trying moments in this last campaign, he showed no confusion about whether to advance or retreat, and you could say that the Maeda camp came away from the battle undefeated."

Inuchiyo's wife placed the palms of her hands together beneath her bowed forehead.

At that point Inuchiyo came in looking for his wife and saw Hideyoshi. '

"This is no place to receive you properly. Before anything else, at least please remove your sandals and come up off the dirt floor."

Husband and wife did everything they could to persuade him to step up onto the wooden floor, but Hideyoshi declined, speaking to them as informally as before. "I'm in a hurry to get to Kitanosho and really can't spare the time right now. But may I take advantage of your kindness and ask for a bowl of rice?"

"That's an easy request to fill. But won't you come in just for a moment?"

Hideyoshi made no move to untie his straw sandals and relax. "We'll do that on another day. Today I have to move fast."

Both husband and wife knew the good and bad points of Hideyoshi's character. Theirs had never been a friendship that placed great value on obligations or pretense. Inuchiyo's wife retied the cord holding up her sleeves, and she herself stood in front of the cutting board in the kitchen. It was the kitchen for the entire castle, and a great number of maidservants, cooks,and even officials were working there. But Lady Maeda was not a woman who did not know how to prepare a savory meal on short notice.

Both on that day and the day before, she herself had looked after the wounded and helped with the preparation of their food. But even on uneventful days, she would come to the kitchen to prepare something for her husband. Now the Maeda clan governed a large province. But in the poverty of their days in Kiyosu, when their neighbor Tokichiro was no better off than they, the two families would often go to each other to borrow a measure of rice, a handful of salt, or even an evening's worth of oil for the lamp. In those days they could see how well off the neighbors were by the light shining in their windows at night.

This woman is no less a good wife than my own Nene, Hideyoshi thought. In that short interlude of reflection, however, Inuchiyo's wife had finished preparing two or three dishes. She led the way from the kitchen, carrying the tray herself.

In the hilly area that stretched toward the western citadel, a small pavilion stood in a copse of pines. The attendants spread a rug out over the gra.s.s next to it and set down two trays of food and flasks of sake.

"Can't I at least serve you something better, even if you're in a hurry?" Inuchiyo's wife asked.

"No, no. Won't your husband and son join me?"

Inuchiyo sat down facing Hideyoshi, and Toshinaga held up the sake flask. There was a building here, but the guest and his hosts did not use it. A wind blew through the pines, but they hardly heard it.

Hideyoshi did not drink more than one cup of sake but hurriedly ate up the two bowls of rice that Inuchiyo's wife had prepared for him.

"Ah, I'm full. I'm sorry to impose, but might I ask for a bowl of tea?"

Preparations had already been made in the pavilion. Inuchiyo's wife quickly went inside and served Hideyoshi a bowl of tea.

"Well, my lady," Hideyoshi said as he drank, looking at her as though he were about to ask her advice. "I've given you a lot of trouble, but now, on top of that, I'd like to borrow your husband for a little while."

Inuchiyo's wife laughed cheerfully. "'To borrow my husband?' It's been a long time since you've used that phrase."

Hideyoshi and Inuchiyo both laughed, and Hideyoshi said, "Listen to that, Inuchiyo. It appears that women don't easily forget old grudges. She's still talking today about how I used to 'borrow' you to go drinking." Returning the tea bowl, he laughed again. "But today it's just a little different from the past, and if my lady doesn't disagree, I'm sure your husband won't either. I would definitely like him to go with me to Kitanosho. It would be fine if your son stays here to take care of you."

Seeing that the question had already been settled between the talking and the laughing, Hideyoshi quickly made the decision on his own. "What I would like, then, is for your son to stay here and your husband to ride with me. Inuchiyo has no equal as a man skilled in battle. Then, on the happy day when we return from the campaign, I'd like to stop here again and impose on you for a few days. We'll depart tomorrow morning. I'll take my leave for today."The entire family saw him as far as the entrance to the kitchen. On the way Inuchiyo's wife said, "Lord Hideyoshi, you said that Toshinaga should stay here to take care of his mother, but I don't think I'm that old or that lonely yet. There will be enough warriors keft guarding the castle, and no one will need to feel anxious about its defense."

Inuchiyo was of the same mind. As they walked hurriedly toward the entrance, Hidyoshi and the Maeda family finalized the hour of departure for the following day and settled other details.

"I'll be waiting for the next time you drop by," Inuchiyo's wife said as she bade him farewell at the entrance to the kitchen; her husband and son took him as far as the front gate of the castle.

The very night Hideyoshi took leave of the Maeda family and returned to his own camp, two very important men from the Shibata side were brought in as prisoners. One of them was Sak.u.ma Genba. The other was Katsuie's foster son, Katsutoshi. Both had been captured during their flight through the mountains to Kitanosho. Genba had been wouned. With the heat of the summer, the wound had become infected and quickly began to fester. The emergency treatment often used by warriors was moxibustion, and Genba had stopped at a farmhouse in the mountains, asked for moxa, and applied it around the opening of the wound.

Wile Genba was busy applying the moxa, the farmers held a secret conclave in which they decided that they would probably receive a handsome reward for turning Katsutoshi and Genba over to Hideyoshi. That night they surrounded the hut where the two were sleeping, trussed them up like pigs, and carried them to Hideyoshi's camp.

When Hideyoshi heard about that, he did not look very happy. Contrary to the farmers' expectations, he punished them severely.

The following day Hideyoshi, accompanied by Inuchiyo and his son, spurred his horse toward Katsuie's castle at Kitanosho. By afternoon, Echizen's capital was filled with Hideyoshi's troops.

Along the way, the Tokuyama and Fuwa clans had already seen what was in the wind, and many men surrendered at the gate of Hideyoshi's camp.

Hideyoshi camped on Mount Ashiba and had the castle at Kitanosho surrounded so tightly that a drop of water could not have trickled through. As soon as that was done, Kyutaro's corps was given the work of breaking through a section of the palisade. Then Genba and Katsutoshi were led up close to the castle walls.

Beating the attack drum, the soldiers a.s.sailed the ears of Katsuie, who was inside the castle. "If you have any last words for your foster son and Genba, you'd better come out and say them now!"

That message was given two or three times, but the castle remained silent. Katsuie did not appear, perhaps thinking that to see the two men would be unbearable. And of course it was clear that Hideyoshi's strategy was to destroy the morale of the men in the castle.

Stragglers from Katsuie's army had arrived during the night, and now the castle was sheltering about three thousand souls, including noncombatants.

In addition, Genba and Katsutoshi had been taken alive by the enemy, and even Katsuie could not help thinking that his end had come. The attack drums of the enemy were unceasing. By nightfall, the surrounding palisades had all been broken through, andthe entire area was filled with Hideyoshi's forces to within thirty or forty yards of the castle walls themselves.

Nevertheless, inside the castle the situation remained peaceful. After a while the enemy's drums ceased; night was approaching, and generals who seemed to be envoys were going back and forth from the castle to the outside. Maybe there was a move afoot to spare Katsuie's life, or perhaps the generals were envoys for capitulation. Such rumors spread, but the atmosphere inside the castle did not seem to corroborate those theories.

As the evening pa.s.sed, the main citadel-which had been as black as ink-was cheerfully lit with lanterns. The northern enclosure and the western citadel were also lit up. Bright lamps shone at intervals even in the keep, where desperate soldiers were on watch, waiting to do battle.

The attacking troops wondered what was going on. But the mystery was soon solved. They could hear the beating of drums now along with the flowing sound of flutes. Folk songs heavy with the accent of the northern provinces drifted to within earshot.

"The people in the castle know this is their last night and are probably enjoying a farewell banquet. How sad."

The attacking troops outside the castle felt sympathy for its inhabitants. Both the men inside the castle and those outside had been soldiers under the command of the Oda, and there was not a person there who did not know Katsuie's past. For that reason alone, the situation was a deeply emotional one.