Taiko. Part 129

"Well, your mother said, 'That boy will be heading for Mount Komaki again the day after tomorrow,' and she strictly ordered me to apply the usual moxa to your shins and hips before you leave for the front."

"What! She said to apply moxa ?"

"She worries that the lingering heat of autumn will still be over the battlefield, and if you drink bad water, your liable to fall ill. I'll apply the moxa and give you a cup of sake after that."

"That's ridiculous. I don't like moxa!'

"Whether you like it or not, those are your mother's orders."

"Well, just for that I'm staying away from your room. Of all the people watching my performance this afternoon, you were the only one who didn't laugh. You looked so serious."

"That's my nature. Even if you tell me to behave like the pretty girls, I can't." Nene showed a little anger. Then, suddenly, tears welled up in her eyes as she recalled the old days when she herself was Chacha's age and Hideyoshi was the twenty-five-year-old Tokichiro.

Hideyoshi looked curiously at his wife and asked, "Why are you crying?"

"I don't know," Nene said, looking away, and Hideyoshi turned to face her directly.

"Are you saying that it's going to be lonely when I go to the front again?"

"Since the beginning of our married life, how many days have you spent at home?"

"There's nothing to be done until we put the world at peace, even if you don't like war," Hideyoshi replied. "And if the unforeseen hadn't happened to Lord n.o.bunaga, I'd probably be in charge of some countryside castle, sitting out my life and forced to be at your side exactly the way you like it."

"People are going to hear the nasty things you're saying. I understand exactly what's in a man's heart."

"And I understand a woman's heart too!"

"You always make fun of me. I'm not speaking out of jealousy, like some ordinary woman."

"Any wife would say that."

"Will you listen to me without making this into a joke?"

"All right. I'm listening with great respect."

"I resigned myself a long time ago. So I'm hardly going to tell you that I'm lonely taking care of your castie when you're on a campaign."

"A virtuous woman, a faithful wife! This is why the Tokichiro of so long ago put his mark on you."

"Don't carry your joking too far! That is why your mother spoke to me."

"What did my mother say?"

"She said I was so submissive that you were going to get carried away and become dissipated. She told me I should speak up to you from time to time."

"Is that the reason for the moxa?" Hideyoshi laughed.

"You don't have a thought about her worries. Your self-indulgent intemperance has led you to be unfilial."

"When was I intemperate?"

"Weren't you making a lot of noise about something in Lady Sanjo's room right up until dawn two nights ago?"

The attendants and actors drinking in the next room pretended not to listen to this rare-well, perhaps not so rare-argument between husband and wife. Just at that point however, Hideyoshi raised his voice and yelled, "Hey, now! What does the audience think of this couple's performance?"

One of the actors answered, "Yes indeed, it looks to me like a game of kickball between blind people."

"Even a dog wouldn't nibble at that," Hideyoshi laughed.

"Come on. There's no end to such winning and losing."

"You there, the flutist, what did you think?"

"Well, I was watching it as I might my own business. Who's to blame, who's to fault Blame! Fault! Blam! Foom! Blam! Foom!"

Hideyoshi suddenly s.n.a.t.c.hed Nene's over-kimono and threw it out as a prize.

On the following day Hideyoshi's family was unable to get even a glimpse of him, even though they were in the same castle. Throughout the day Hideyoshi was pressed with the work of giving instructions to his retainers and generals.

On the twenty-sixth day of the Eighth Month, Ieyasu received an urgent report that Hideyoshi was coming. He hastened from Kiyosu to Iwakura with n.o.buo, and set up a position opposing Hideyoshi. Ieyasu again took up a totally defensive position and warned his men not to initiate any movement or challenge on their own.

"This is a man who doesn't know the meaning of enough."

Hideyoshi had already found Ieyasu's patience difficult to deal with, but he was not completely without such resources himself. He knew that it was impossible to open the wreath sh.e.l.l's cap, even with a hammer, but if the tail end of its sh.e.l.l was roasted, however, the meat could be taken out easily. It was this sort of ordinary reasoning that now occupied his thinking. Quietly sending Niwa Nagahide to see about concluding a peace agreement was like heating the wreath sh.e.l.l's tail.

Niwa was the most senior among the Oda clan's retainers and was a dependable and popular character. Now that Katsuie was dead and Takigawa Kazumasu was in reduced circ.u.mstances, Hideyoshi did not forget the necessity of winning over that warm, good man as his own "chessman in reserve" before the hostilities at Mount Komaki began.

Niwa was in the north with Inuchiyo, but Niwa's generals, Kanamori Kingo and Hachiya Yoritaka, were partic.i.p.ating in the war on Hideyoshi's side. Before anyone even knew it, those two generals had gone back and forth a number of times between Hideyoshi and their home province of Echizen.

The content of the letters that were being sent was unknown even to the envoys, but finally Niwa himself made a secret journey to Kiyosu and had an interview with Ieyasu.

Such talks, however, were conducted in extreme secrecy. The only men who knew about them on Hideyoshi's side were Niwa and his two generals. At Hideyoshi's suggestion, Ishikawa Kazumasa became his go-between.

Eventually, however, someone within the Tokugawa clan leaked a rumor that secret peace talks had been initiated. That set off great agitation in Ieyasu's defenses centered at Mount Komaki.

When rumors leak out, they are always accompanied by malicious gossip. In this case the name that surfaced was one that was already held in suspicion by his fellow retainers-that of Ishikawa Kazumasa.

"It's being said that Kazumasa is the mediator. Somehow there's always something that smells funny between Hideyoshi and Kazumasa."

There were some people who spoke about it directly to Ieyasu, but he rebuked whoever spoke to him and never doubted Kazumasa in the least.

But once that kind of doubt had arisen among the retainers, the morale of the whole clan began to suffer.

Ieyasu, of course, was in favor of holding peace talks, but when he saw the internal condition of his forces, he suddenly rejected Niwa's messenger.

"I have no desire for peace," Ieyasu said. "I have no hopes for a settlement with Hideyoshi, no matter what conditions he offers. We're going to fight a decisive battle here, I'm going to take Hideyoshi's head, and we'll let the nation know what true duty is."

When this was announced officially throughout Ieyasu's camp, the soldiers were d, and the dark rumors about Kazumasa were swept away.

"Hideyoshi's started to break down!"

Their spirits revitalized, they became all the more aggressive.

Hideyoshi received the bitter cup with resignation. To him, the result seemed not altogether bad. So he did not venture to use military strength that time either, but ordered his forces to occupy strategic areas. Toward the middle of the Ninth Month, he sent his soldiers back once more and entered the castle at Ogaki.

How many times was it now that the citizens of Osaka had watched Hideyoshi and his army leave for the front and then return, going back and forth between the castle and Mino?

It was now the twentieth day of the Tenth Month-already late autumn. Hideyoshi's army, which usually pa.s.sed through Osaka, Yodo, and Kyoto, suddenly changed its route atSakamoto and this time pa.s.sed through Koga in Iga and went on toward Ise. There it left the Mino Road and took the one that led to Owari.

Dispatch after urgent dispatch was sent out from n.o.buo's branch castles and spies in Ise, almost as though a dike had unexpectedly opened in a number of places and the muddy waters of a turbulent river were rushing that way.

"It's Hideyoshi's main force!"

"These are not soldiers under the command of a single general, as we've seen until now."

On the twenty-third of the month Hideyoshi's army camped at Hanetsu and built fortifications at Nawabu.

With Hideyoshi's army closing in on his castle, n.o.buo was unable to keep his composure. For about a month now he had had forebodings that the storm was approaching Which is to say that Ishikawa Kazumasa's actions-which had been kept an absolute secret by the Tokugawa clan-had been mysteriously exaggerated and discussed bysomeone, though n.o.body could quite say who.

The rumor went that the inner circle of the Tokugawa clan was not really united. It appeared that a number of Ieyasu's retainers were hostile to Kazumasa and were just waiting for the right moment.

It was also being widely rumored that the Tokugawa had been negotiating with Hideyoshi, that Ieyasu was trying to make peace quickly, before news of the rupture of his inner circle leaked out, but that negotiations had been broken off because the conditions set by Hideyoshi were too severe.

n.o.buo was frankly pained. What, after all, would happen to him if Ieyasu made peace with Hideyoshi?

"If Hideyoshi changes direction and heads out on the Ise Road, you had better be resigned to the fact that there is already a secret understanding between Hideyoshi and Ieyasu to sacrifice your clan, my lord."

And, just as n.o.buo had feared, Hideyoshi's army suddenly confirmed his worse nightmares. There was no plan he could follow other than to report the emergency to Ieyasu and call for his help.

Sakai Tadatsugu was in charge of Kiyosu Castle during Ieyasu's absence. When he received the urgent report from n.o.buo, he immediately had a runner relay it to Ieyasu, who raised all his forces on the same day and marched to Kiyosu. He then quickly sent reinforcements under Sakai Tadatsugu to Kuwana.

Kuwana is the geographical neck of Nagashima. n.o.buo also took soldiers there and placed them facing Hideyoshi, who had set up his headquarters in the village of Nawabu.

Nawabu was on the bank of the Machiya River, about one league to the southwest of Kuwana, but the mouths of the Kiso and Ibi rivers were close by, and it was an excellent place from which to threaten n.o.buo's headquarters.

Late autumn. The numerous reeds in the area concealed several hundred thousand soldiers, and the smoke of the campfires spread out thickly over the riverbank, morning and night. The order for battle had still not been given. The relaxed soldiers even went fishing for gobies. At such times, when the lightly armored Hideyoshi made a tour of the encampments and suddenly appeared on horseback, the fl.u.s.tered rank-and-file would quickly throw away their fishing rods. But even if Hideyoshi noticed this, he would just pa.s.s by smiling.

The fact is that if it hadn't been this particular place, he too would have wanted to fish for gobies and walk barefoot. He was still, in some ways, a boy at heart, and such scenes called forth the pleasures of his childhood.

Across this river was the earth of Owari. Under the autumn sun, the smell of the earth of his birthplace tantalized his senses.

Tomita Tomon.o.bu and Tsuda n.o.bukatsu had returned from a mission and were waiting impatiently for his return.

Leaving his horse at the gate, Hideyoshi hurried along at a pace unusual for him. He himself led the two men who had come out to greet him to a hut in the middle of a heavily guarded stand of trees.

"What was Lord n.o.buo's answer?" he asked. His voice was low, but there was an extraordinary expectant light in his eyes.

Tsuda spoke first. "Lord n.o.buo says that he understands your feelings very well and gives his consent for a meeting."

"What! He's agreed?"

"Not only that, but he was extremely pleased."

"Really?" Hideyoshi expanded his chest and let out a tremendous sigh. "Really? That's really what happened?" he repeated.

Hideyoshi's intentions in advancing along the Ise Road at this time had been based on a gamble from the very beginning. He had hoped for a diplomatic solution, but if that failed, he would strike at Kuwana, Nagashima, and Kiyosu. That would open Mount Komaki to attack from the rear.

Tsuda was related to the Oda clan and was a second cousin to n.o.buo, to whom he explained the advantages and disadvantages of the situation, and from whom he finally elicited an answer.

"I'm not the kind of person who likes war at all," n.o.buo replied. "If Hideyoshi thinks that much of me and wants to hold a peace conference, I would not be indisposed toward meeting him."

From the very first battle at Mount Komaki, Hideyoshi had seen that Ieyasu would be difficult to deal with. After that, he had studied the inner workings of the human heart and had manipulated the men around him from the shadows.

In the inner circles of the Tokugawa clan, Ishikawa Kazumasa was regarded with some suspicion, due to Hideyoshi's influence. Thus, when Niwa Nagahide moved toward arbitration, the men in n.o.buo's inner circle who had former connections with him were quickly ostracized as a peace faction. n.o.buo himself was uneasy about Ieyasu's true intentions, and the Tokugawa eyed n.o.buo's army with vigilance. This state of affairs had evolved under specific orders from faraway Osaka.

It was an article of faith with Hideyoshi that no matter what kind of diplomatic scheme he used, the sacrifices involved were far preferable to those made in war. More than that, after having tried the alternatives-facing Ieyasu directly at Mount Komaki, engaging in some clever military plan, and even making a menacing bluff-Hideyoshi felt that making war on Ieyasu was having absolutely no effect and that he would have to try some other tack.

The meeting the following day with n.o.buo was exactly the realization of such deliberation and forethought.

Hideyoshi got up early and, looking up at the sky, said, "The weather's just right."

In the sky the night before, the cloud movements of late autumn had given him some anxiety; and he feared that if by any chance it became windy and rainy, n.o.buo's side might say it wanted to postpone the time or change the place, and it might then be suspected by the Tokugawa. Hideyoshi had gone to sleep concerned about how unsavory that might be, but this morning the clouds had blown away and the sky was bluer than usual for the time of year. Hideyoshi took it as a good omen and, wishing himself luck, mounted his horse and left the camp at Nawabu.

His attendants were only a few senior retainers and pages and the two former envoys, Tomita and Tsuda. When the group finally crossed the Machiya River, however, Hideyoshi had taken the precaution to hide a number of his soldiers among the reeds and farmhouses during the night before. Hideyoshi chatted amiably on horseback as though he didn't see them, and finally dismounted at the bank of the Yada River close to the western outskirts of Kuwana.

"Shall we wait here for Lord n.o.buo to come?" he asked, and, sitting down on his camp stool, he looked out at the local scenery.

Not long thereafter, n.o.buo, accompanied by a group of mounted retainers, arrived on time. n.o.buo must have spotted the men waiting on the riverbank as well, and he immediately began conferring with the generals to his right and left as he focused his eyes on Hideyoshi. He brought his horse to a halt in the distance and dismounted, apparently still quite apprehensive.

The crowd of warriors that accompanied him opened up to the right and left. Placing himself at their center, n.o.buo started toward Hideyoshi, his armor displaying all of his martial prestige.

Hideyoshi. Here was the man who, until just the other day, had been vilified to the nation as the worst kind of a.s.sa.s.sin and inhuman ingrate. Here was the enemy whose crimes had been enumerated by both himself and Ieyasu. Even though he had agreed to Hideyoshi's proposal and was meeting him here, n.o.buo was unable to feel at ease. What were the man's true intentions?

As Hideyoshi caught sight of n.o.buo standing in all his dignity, he left his stool behind him and, completely alone, went hurrying toward him.

"Ah, Lord n.o.buo!" He was waving both hands, just as though this were some unplanned and unexpected meeting.

n.o.buo was bewildered, but the retainers around him, who looked so imposing with their spears and armor, gaped in openmouthed surprise.

But this was not their only shock. Hideyoshi was now kneeling at n.o.buo's feet, prostrating himself so that his face nearly touched n.o.buo's straw sandals.

Then, taking the hand of the stunned n.o.buo, he said, "My lord, there hasn't been a day this year that I haven't thought about wanting to meet you. Before anything else, I'm extremely pleased to see that you're in good health. What kind of evil spirit could have confused you, my lord, and brought us to fight one another? From this day forth you will be my lord, just as before."

"Hideyoshi, please get up. I'm speechless at your repentance. We were both at fault. But first please get up."

n.o.buo pulled Hideyoshi up with the hand the latter had grasped.

The meeting of the two men on the eleventh day of the Eleventh Month went smoothly, and the peace accord was agreed upon. It goes without saying that the proper order of things would have been for n.o.buo to have discussed the matter with Ieyasu and to have gotten his agreement before the fact. But he responded totally to this opportune blessing, and an independent peace was established.