Taiko. Part 127

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 bloodl.u.s.t, 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 hoa.r.s.e, yelling at the men as he rode back and forth.

"Our lord has said that those men who become so proud of their victory that they get carried away and go after the enemy will be asking for a court-martial when they return to camp. Go back! Go on back!"

Finally their blind enthusiasm ebbed away, and the men all withdrew from the bank of the river.

It was just about the second half of the Hour of the Horse, and the sun was in the middle of the sky. It was the Fourth Month, and the shape of the clouds indicated that summer was near. Every soldier's face was smeared with earth, blood, and sweat, and appeared to be on fire.

At the Hour of the Ram Ieyasu went down from the encampment on Fujigane, crossed the Kanare River, and formally inspected the heads at the foot of Mount Gondoji.

The fight had lasted half a day, and all across the battlefield, the dead were counted. Hideyoshi's side had lost more than two thousand five hundred men, while the casualties the Ieyasu's and n.o.buo's armies amounted to five hundred ninety dead and several hundred wounded.

"This great victory is nothing we should be too proud of," a general cautioned. "The Ikeda were only a branch of Hideyoshi's army, but we took our entire force from Mount Komaki and used them here. At the same time, it would be fatal to our allies if we were suffer a collapse here for some reason. I think the best measure would be for us to withdraw to Obata Castle as quickly as possible."

Another general immediately countered, saying, "No, no. Once victory is in your grasp, you should take the initiative with daring. That's what war is all about. It's certain that when Hideyoshi hears about his great defeat, it's going to provoke him to anger. He'll probably a.s.semble his forces and rush here. Shouldn't we wait for him, prepare ourselves as warriors, and then take Lord Monkey's head?"

In response to those two arguments Ieyasu said again, "We shouldn't try to add victory to victory." And then, "Our men are all tired. Hideyoshi is most likely raising the dust on his way here even now, but we shouldn't meet him today. It's too soon. Let's retire to Obata."

With that quick decision, they pa.s.sed south of Hakusan Woods and entered Obata Castle while the sun was still high.

After bringing the entire army inside Obata Castle and closing the castle gates, Ieyasu savored the day's great victory for the first time. As he looked back on it, he felt satisfied that the half-day battle had been fought faultlessly. The soldiers' and officers' satisfaction was in such exploits as taking the first head or having the first spear out to the enemy, but the commander-in-chief's secret satisfaction lay in only one thing: the feeling that his own clear-sightedness had hit the mark.

But it takes a master to know one. Ieyasu's only concern now was Hideyoshi's subsequent movements. He strove to be flexible as he pondered this problem, and rested for a while in the main citadel at Obata, relaxing both body and mind.

After Shonyu and his son had departed on the morning of the ninth, Hideyoshi summoned Hosokawa Tadaoki to his camp at Gakuden and gave him, as well as several other generals, the command for an immediate attack on Mount Komaki. After they attacked he climbed the observation tower and watched the progress of the battle. Masuda Jinemon waited at his side, looking out into the distance.

"You know, as hot-blooded as Lord Tadaoki is, won't it be a problem if he penetrates too deeply into the enemy?"

Worrying about how close the Hosokawa forces had come to the enemy ramparts, Jinemon looked at the expression on Hideyoshi's brow.

"It'll be all right. Tadaoki may be young, but Takayama Ukon is a man of good sense. If he's there with him, it will be fine."

Hideyoshi's mind was far away. How had Shonyu fared? All he could think about was the good news that he hoped would come from that quarter.

At about noon, a number of mounted men rode up, having withdrawn from Nagakute. With wretched looks on their faces, they related the tragic news: the main army of Hidetsugu had been completely crushed, and it was unclear whether Hidetsugu was alive or dead.

"What! Hidetsugu?" Hideyoshi was plainly surprised. He was not someone who could look unperturbed at hearing something shocking. "Well, what an oversight!" He said this not so much to criticize the shortcomings of Hidetsugu and Shonyu as to admit his own failure and praise the insight of his enemy, Ieyasu.

"Jinemon," he called, "blow the conch sh.e.l.l for the men to a.s.semble."

Hideyoshi immediately sent out yellow-hooded messengers to each of his divisions with emergency orders, and within an hour, twenty thousand soldiers had departed from Gakuden and hurried toward Nagakute.

That rapid shift did not go unnoticed at the Tokugawa headquarters on Mount Komaki. Ieyasu was already gone, and a small number of men had been left for its defense.

"It appears that Hideyoshi himself is at the head of his army."

When Sakai Tadatsugu, one of the generals left in charge of Mount Komaki, heard that news, he clapped his hands and said, "This is turning out just as we expected! While Hideyoshi is gone, we can burn his headquarters at Gakuden and the fortress at Kurose. Now is the time to make the kill. Everyone follow me for a grand attack!"

But Ishikawa Kazumasa, another of the generals left in charge, opposed him directly.

"Why are you being so hasty, Lord Tadatsugu? Hideyoshi is almost divinely inspired in his military strategies. Do you think a man like that would leave an incapable general in charge of defending his headquarters, no matter how much of a hurry he was in to depart?"

"Any human being may not be up to his usual capacities when he's acting in haste. Hideyoshi had the conch blown to a.s.semble, and he departed in such a hurry one may suppose even he was confused at the news of the defeat at Nagakute. We shouldn't miss the chance now to set fire to Lord Monkey's tail."

"That's superficial thinking!" Ishikawa Kazumasa laughed out loud and resisted Tadatsugu all the more. "It would be Hideyoshi's style to leave behind a considerable military forrce to take advantage of the situation that would exist if we left our own fortificacations. And it would be ridiculous for a small force like ours to sally out now."

Disgusted with all the confusion, Honda Heihachiro stood up indignantly. "Is this a discussion? People who like discussions are just prattlers. Personally, I can't just sit here idly. P'ardon me for leaving first."

Honda was both a poor talker and a man of strong character. Both Tadatsugu and Kazumnasa had been insisting on the validity of their own arguments and engendering a controversy. They now looked in shock at Honda's indignant departure.

"Honda, where are you going?" they asked hurriedly.

Honda turned around and spoke as though he had come to some deep conclusion. "I have been my lord's retainer ever since I was an infant. Considering the situation he's in, I can do nothing but go to his side."

"Wait!" Kazumasa appeared to think that Honda was simply being hotheaded, and raised his hand to restrain him. "We were commanded by our lord to defend Mount Komaki in his absence, but we were not commanded to do just as we pleased. Calm down a little."

Tadatsugu also tried to calm him down. "Honda, will it achieve anything if you go out alone right now, of all times? The defense of Mount Komaki is more important."

Honda's mouth curled up in a thin smile, as though he pitied their narrow thinking, but he spoke politely, as the two other men were superior to him in both rank and age.

"I'm not going with the other generals. Each of you can do as he pleases. But Hideyoshi is leading a fresh army toward Lord Ieyasu, and as for me, I can't just stand here without doing anything. Think about it. Our lord's forces must be exhausted from fighting last night and this morning, and if the twenty thousand men Hideyoshi is leading join the rest of the enemy in an attack from both the front and the rear, how do you suppose Lord Ieyasu will get away safely? The way I see it is, even if I am wrong in rushing off to Nagakute alone, if my lord is killed in battle, I am resolved to die with him. That should not trouble you."

At those words, all murmuring stopped. Honda led out his own small force of three hundred men and dashed away from Mount Komaki. Infected with the man's spirit, Kazumasa also collected his two hundred men and joined the determined party.

Their joint forces numbered fewer than six hundred men, but Honda's spirit enveloped them from the time they left Mount Komaki. What was an army of twenty thousand men, after all? And who was this Lord Monkey, anyway?

The foot soldiers were lightly armored, the banners were rolled up, and as the horses were whipped, the dust from their little force flew up like a tornado hurrying toward the east.

As they came out to the southern bank of the Ryusenji River, they found Hideyoshi's army moving along the northern bank, troop after troop.

"Well, there they are!"

"The commander's standard with the golden gourds."

"Hideyoshi must be surrounded by his retainers."

Honda and his men had ridden up without stopping, and were looking over at the opposite bank, noisily pointing and holding their hands over their eyes. All of them shook with excitement.

It was such a short distance that if Honda's men had yelled out, the enemy's shouts would have reached right back to them. The faces of the enemy soldiers were visible, and the footsteps of twenty thousand men mixed with the clatter of innumerable horses' hooves crossed the river and reverberated against the chests of the men who were watching.

"Kazumasa!" Honda yelled behind him.

"What is it?"

"Do you see that on the opposite bank?"

"Yes, it's an immense army. Their line looks longer than the river itself."

"That's just like Hideyoshi," Honda laughed. "It's his skill to take an army of that size and then move it as though the men were his own hands and feet. He may be the enemy, but you have to give him credit."

"I've been looking at them for a while. Do you suppose Hideyoshi is over there, where you see the commander's standard with the golden gourds?"

"No, no. I'm sure he's hidden somewhere in the middle of another group of men. He's not going to ride out in the open where he'd be the target for someone's gun."

"The enemy soldiers are moving quickly, but they're all looking over here with suspicion."

"What we must do here is delay Hideyoshi on the road along the Ryusenji River, even if just for a few moments."

"Should we attack?"

"No, the enemy has twenty thousand men, and our own forces only number five hundred, so if we attacked them it would take only an instant for the surface of the river to be dyed red with our blood. I'm resolved to die, but not pointlessly."

"Ah, so you want to give our lord's army in Nagakute enough time to be fully prepared and waiting for Hideyoshi."

"That's right," Honda nodded, striking his horse's saddle. "To buy time for our alliesin Nagakute, we should do our best to get a firm grip on Hideyoshi's feet and slow down his attack-even if just a little-with our own deaths. Act with that in mind, Tadatsugu."

"Good. I understand."

Kazumasa and Honda turned their horses' heads to the side.

"Divide your gunners into three groups. As they hurry along the road, each group can alternately kneel and fire at the enemy on the opposite bank."

The enemy moved quickly along the opposite bank, seeming almost to keep pace with the quick-running current. Honda's men had to do everything with the same rhythm but in double-time and constantly on the run-whether it was an attack or the reorganization of their units.

Because they were close to the water, the musket fire echoed far more loudly than it ordinarily would have, and the gunpowder smoke spread over the river like a vast curtain. As one unit leaped in front and fired, the next unit readied its muskets. Then that unit jumped forward, taking the place of the first unit, and immediately fired toward the opposite bank.

A number of Hideyoshi's troops were seen to tumble over in rapid succession. Very quickly, the line of marching men started to waver.

"Who in the world can that be, challenging us with such a tiny force?"

Hideyoshi was surprised. With a look of shock on his face, he unconsciously stopped his horse.

The generals riding around him and the men close by all shaded their eyes with their hands and looked at the opposite bank, but no one could give a quick answer to Hideyoshi's question.

"To act so bravely toward an army of this size with a little force of less than a thousand men, that must be a daring commander! Does anybody recognize him?"

Hideyoshi asked the question repeatedly, looking around at the men in front and behind him.

Then someone at the head of the line said, "I know who that is."

The man who spoke was Inaba Ittetsu, the commander of Sone Castle in Mino. In spite of his venerable age, he had joined this great battle for Hideyoshi's sake and had been at his side as a guide from the very beginning of the campaign.

"Ah, Ittetsu. Do you recognize the enemy general on the other side of the river?"

"Well, from the antlers on his helmet and the white braid on his armor, I'm sure it nust be Ieyasu's right-hand man, Honda Heihachiro. I remember him clearly from the battle at Ane River years ago."

When Hideyoshi heard this, he looked as though he were about to shed tears. "Ah, what a brave man! With one small force he strikes at twenty thousand. If that is Honda, he must be a stalwart fellow. How touching that he would try to help Ieyasu escape by nomentarily obstructing us here and by dying himself," he muttered. And then, "He's to be sympathized with. Our men are not to shoot a single arrow or bullet in his direction, no matter how much of an attack the man might make. If there is some karmic relation between us, I'll make him one of my own retainers one day. He's a man to be loved. Don't shoot; just let him go."

During that time, of course, the three groups of gunners on the other bank busilycontinued to load their muskets and shoot relentlessly. One or two bullets even came close to Hideyoshi. Just then, the armored warrior upon whom Hideyoshi had beenstraining his eyes-Honda, the man wearing the helmet adorned with deer antlers-went down to the water's edge, dismounted, and washed his horse's muzzle with water from the river.

Separated from him by the width of the river, Hideyoshi looked at the man, while Honda gazed steadily at the group of generals-one of whom was clearly Hideyoshi-who had stopped their horses.

Hideyoshi's gunners' corps began to open fire in response, but Hideyoshi once again reproved his entire army. "Don't shoot! Just hurry on! Hurry on ahead!" With that, he urged his horse on with all the more speed.

When Honda observed that action on the other bank, he yelled out, "Don't let them go!" and doubled his speed. Moving ahead on the road, he once again made a fierce musket attack on Hideyoshi's troops, but Hideyoshi would not take up the challenge and soon took up a position on a hill close to the plain of Nagakute.

As soon as they arrived at their destination, Hideyoshi gave orders to three of his generals to take the same number of light cavalry units and ride out quickly. "Do what you can with the Tokugawa forces that are withdrawing from Nagakute to Obata."

He made his headquarters on the hill, while his twenty thousand fresh troops spread out beneath the red evening sun, demonstrating their intention to take revenge upon Ieyasu.