Taiko. Part 84

Moreover, the timetable that Hideyoshi had imposed was extremely tight. Urgent messages reached him night and day. The forty thousand troops of the Mori had split into three armies under Kikkawa, Kobayakawa, and Terumoto, and they were getting closer to the provincial border by the hour.

Kanbei watched the laborers. Exhausted by working all hours of the day and night, some hardly moved at all. They had only two weeks to complete the project.

Two days. Three days. Five days pa.s.sed.

Kanbei thought, Progress is so slow that we won't be able to complete the dike in fifty or even in a hundred days, much less in two weeks.

Rokuro and Kyuemon were going without sleep, supervising the workers. But no matter what they did, the men were disgruntled and insolent. To make matters worse, some laborers intentionally sabotaged the schedule by persuading even the comparatively submissive workers to hinder the project with deliberate slowness.

Kanbei was unable to watch pa.s.sively. He finally began to visit the construction site himself, staff in hand. Standing on a hill of fresh earth at a section of the dike that had finally been completed, he looked down, with eyes aflame, at the thousands of workers. When he discovered someone showing the least bit of sloth, he would dash up to the laborer with a speed hardly befitting a cripple, and beat him with his staff.

"Get to work! Why are you being lazy?"

The laborers would tremble and work frantically, but only while Kanbei was watching them.

"The crippled demon warrior is looking!"

Kanbei finally made a report to Hideyoshi: "It's going to be impossible to finish on time. Just to make sure we are prepared, I'd like to request that you decide on some strategy beforehand in case the Mori reinforcements arrive while the construction is only half done. By the G.o.ds, it's more difficult getting these laborers to work than it is getting troops to maneuver."

Uncharacteristically nervous, Hideyoshi counted silently on his fingers. He was being informed hourly of the approach of a large Mori army, and he received the dispatches just as he might watch the clouds of an evening squall approach the mountains.

"Don't be discouraged, Kanbei. We still have another seven days."

"The construction is less than a third finished. How are we going to complete the dike in the few days we have left?"

"We can do it." This was the first time Hideyoshi had contradicted Kanbei so strongly. "We can finish it. But it won't be done if we only get the strength of three thousand men from our three thousand workers. Now if one man works like three or even five men, our three thousand workers will have the strength of ten thousand. If the samurai supervising them act in the same way, one man will be able to muster the spirit of ten men, and we should be able to accomplish anything we want. Kanbei, I'm coming to the construction site myself."

The following morning, a yellow-robed messenger ran around the construction site, ordering the laborers to stop their work and gather around a banner set up on the dike.

The workers from the night shift who were on their way home, and the men just now coming on, all followed their bosses. When the three thousand workers were a.s.sembled, it was difficult to differentiate the color of the earth from the color of the men themselves.

Prompted partly by uneasiness, the wave of blackened men moved forward. They had not lost their false show of courage, however, and continued to joke and banter. Suddenly the crowd became hushed as Hideyoshi moved toward the stool set up next to the banner. His pages and retainers were to his right and left, and stood back solemnly. The demon warrior, Kuroda Kanbei, who was the target of their daily malice, stood off to the side, resting on his staff. He addressed them from the top of the dike.

"Today it is Lord Hideyoshi's wish that you tell him your thoughts. As you all know, the time allotted for building the dike is more than halfway through, but the construction is going slowly. Lord Hideyoshi says that one of the reasons for this is that you have not been making a real effort. He has commanded you to gather here so that you can frankly explain why you are dissatisfied or unhappy, and what it is that you want."

Kanbei stopped for a moment and looked at the laborers. Here and there, men were whispering.

"The bosses of the various groups must understand the feelings of their men well. Don't miss this opportunity to tell His Lordship exactly what you want. Five or six men should come up here as representatives and speak out about your dissatisfactions and desires. If they are legitimate, they will be addressed."

With that, a tall man, stripped to the waist and with an insubordinate expression, came forward. Looking as if he were trying to gain favor with the herd of men, he climbed aggressively to the top of the dike. When they saw this, three or four more laborers swaggered up after him.

"Are these the only representatives?" Kanbei asked.

As they approached Hideyoshi's camp stool, each of them knelt down on the earth.

"It's not necessary to kneel," Kanbei told them. "Today His Lordship has cordially asked you to explain your discontent. You've come up here before him representing all of the laborers, so speak your minds freely. Whether or not we finish this construction on time depends on you. We want you to tell us the reasons for the resentment and dissatisfaction you have hidden inside yourselves until now. Let's start with the man who came up here first, on the right. Speak up now." Kanbei's tone was conciliatory.

When Kanbei urged them to speak a second time, one of the five men representing the laborers spoke up.

"Well then, I'll take you at your word and speak, but don't get mad, all right? For one thing... well, all right... please listen to this...."

"Speak."

"Well, you're paying us one sho of rice and a hundred mon for every sandbag we haul, and the fact is that all of us-a couple of thousand poor folks-are real happy to be employed. But, well, we all think-and me, too-you might go back on your word because we're all just laborers, anyway."

"Well now," Kanbei said, "why should a man with Lord Hideyoshi's reputation go back on his word? Every time you carry a sandbag, you receive a branded strip of bambooo that you can exchange for pay in the evening, don't you?"

"Yes, Your Honor, we get the bamboo strips, but we only get paid one sho of brown rice and a hundred mon even if we've carried ten or twenty sacks in one day. The rest is military stubs and rice tickets to cash in later."

"That's right."

"So it troubles us, Your Honor. What we've earned would be fine in either rice or money, but without the real thing, a poor day-laborer like me can't feed his wife and children."

"Isn't one sho of rice and a hundred mon a living far better than what you usually earn?"

"You shouldn't joke, Your Honor. We're not horses or cows, and if we worked like this all year, we'd be done for. But, well, we've agreed to it, following His Lordship's orders, and we've been working day and night. Now, we can do unreasonable work if we get our wants filled along the way, and thinking that afterward we can drink sake, pay back our debts, and buy some new clothes for the wife. But if we get paid in promises, we just can't continue putting our hearts into the work."

"Well, you're pretty hard to understand. Lord Hideyoshi's army has made it a principle to rule benevolently and has done nothing despotic at all so far. What, really, do you have to complain about?"

The five laborers laughed coldly. One of them said, "Your Honor, we're not complaining. Just pay us what we've earned. We can't fill our stomachs with waste paper and rice tickets. And, more important than that, who is going to give us real money for that waste paper on the day Lord Hideyoshi loses?"

"If that's what it is, you have nothing to worry about!"

"Ah, but wait. You say that you're going to win, and you and all these generals have staked your lives on this gamble, but I wouldn't put a half share on a bet like that. Hey, everybody! Isn't that right?"

As he waved his arms from the top of the dike, asking for the thousands of workers' agreement, a shout arose instantaneously in response, and a wave of human heads undulated back and forth as far as the eye could see.

"Is that your only complaint?" Kanbei asked.

"Yeah. That's what we'd like to settle first," the man replied, looking to the crowd for support but not showing the least bit of fear.

"Absolutely not!" Kanbei spoke in his true voice for the first time. That instant, he threw down his staff, unsheathed his sword, and sliced the man in two. Turning quickly to another who had started to run away, he cut him down too. At the same time, Rokuro and Kyuemon-who were standing behind Kanbei-wielded their swords and finished off the other three men in a shower of gushing blood.

In this way Kanbei, Kyuemon, and Rokuro divided up their work and cut down five men in the instant it takes lightning to strike.

Struck by the speed and unexpectedness of the action, the laborers were as hushed as gra.s.s in a graveyard. The dissatisfied voices had been hushed in an instant. The faces that had been so impudent up until then-the defiant looks-were gone. Nothing was left but countless faces the color of earth, cowering in fear.

Standing over the five corpses, the three samurai glared ominously at the laborers, their blood-soaked swords still in their hands.

Kanbei finally shouted with all his ferocity, "These five men who represented you- we called them up here, listened to what they had to say, and gave them a very clear answer. Someone else may have something to say, too, however." He paused, waiting for someone to speak up. "Surely there's someone down there who wants to come up. Who's next? If there's anyone who thinks he wants to say something for everyone, now's the time to speak up!"

Kanbei was quiet for a moment, giving the men time to reflect on the matter. Among those numberless heads, there were very clearly men whose expressions were changing from fear to regret. Kanbei wiped the blood off his sword and returned it to its scabbard. Softening his expression, he lectured the laborers in a dignified manner.

"I see that no one is going to come up after these five men, so I imagine that means your intentions are different from theirs. If I'm right, then I'm going to have my say. Are there any objections?"

The several thousand laborers answered in the voices of men who had been saved from death. Not one of them had an objection. n.o.body had any intention of complaining. The men who had spoken were clearly the ringleaders who had instigated the slowdowns. The rest were going to follow orders and work. Would Hideyoshi forgive them?

The three thousand men were speaking noisily back and forth, some in whispers, some yelling, so that one could hardly understand who was saying what. The feeling of the entire crowd, however, was united.

"Quiet now!" Kanbei waved his hand to control them. "All right. This is the way I think it should be. I'm not going to say anything complicated, but essentially it would be best if you all worked happily and quickly with your wives and children under His Lordship's administration. If you're indolent or greedy, you will only delay the arrival of the day you are looking forward to. The expeditionary army sent by Lord n.o.bunaga will not be defeated by the Mori. No matter how large a province the Mori control, it is a province that is doomed to fall. This is not because the Mori are weak, but because of the great movement of the times. Do you understand?"

"Yes," the laborers replied.

"Well then, are you going to work?"

"We're going to work. We're really going to work!"

"All right!" Kanbei nodded strongly and turned toward Hideyoshi. "My lord, you can hear how the workers have spoken, so won't you be generous with them this time?" He almost seemed to be pleading for the crowd.

Hideyoshi stood up. He gave a command to Kanbei and the two officials who were kneeling before him. Almost immediately, foot soldiers walked over, shouldering what appeared to be heavy money bags-a mountain of straw money bags.

Facing the laborers, who were caught up in their fears and regrets, Kanbei said, "You're really not to blame. All of you are in a pitiful situation. You've been led astray by two or three bad elements. That is what Lord Hideyoshi has declared; and so that you'll work with no other thoughts in mind, he has commanded that we give you a bonus to urge you on a little. Receive, express your thanks, and get quickly back to work."

When the command was given to the foot soldiers, every straw bag there was broken open and the mountain of coins poured out, almost covering the top of the dike.

"Grab however much you can and go. But only one fistful for each man."

He said this quite clearly, but the laborers still hesitated to make a move forward. They whispered among themselves and looked back and forth at each other, but the mountain of coins stayed right where it was.

"The fastest man will be the winner! Don't complain after it's all gone. Each man should take a fistful, so the men born with big hands can account themselves lucky, and men with little hands shouldn't let anything slip between their fingers. Don't get excited and fail. Then go back to work."

The laborers no longer had any doubts. They could see that Kanbei meant what he said with his smiling face and jocular words. The laborers in the front of the crowd rushed up to the mountain of coins. They wavered a little, as though frightened by the sight of so much money, but as soon as the first man had grabbed a fistful and retreated, a chorus of happy voices suddenly arose. It sounded almost like a victory song. Almost immediately such confusion took over that coins, men, and clods of earth were hardly distinguishable. No man, however, tried to cheat-somewhere along the line they had all thrown off their craftiness and dissatisfaction. Holding on to their handfuls of coins, they seemed to have been transformed, and each man ran off to his own work station.

The echoes of hoes and spades being used with real force filled the air. With spirited yells, men dumped earth, inserted poles through the straw carrying-baskets, and shouldered sandbags away. Real spirit was being mustered for the first time. The sweat the men were now wringing out of themselves increasingly gladdened and refreshed them, and they began to shout with enthusiasm among themselves.

"Who says we can't finish this dike in five days? Hey, everybody-remember the big flood?"

"That's right. This is nothing like trying to keep the flood waters out."

"Let's do it! Let's give it all we've got!"

"I'm not going to give up!"

In just half a day, more work was accomplished than in the previous five.

The overseers' whips and Kanbei's staff were no longer needed. Bonfires were lit at night, the dust from the earth darkened the day, and finally the work was almost finished.

As the landlocked dike neared completion, the related work of diverting the seven rivers around Takamatsu Castle also advanced. Nearly twenty thousand men had been put to work on that project. Damming up and drawing off the waters of the Ashimori and Naruya rivers were the construction projects considered to be the most difficult.

The official in charge of damming the Ashimori often complained to Hideyoshi, "The level of water is rising every day with the heavy rains in the mountains. There just doesn't seem to be any way of damming it."

Kanbei had gone to inspect the site with Rokuro the day before, and he understood the extreme difficulty of the situation.

"The current is so strong that even when we pushed in boulders that took twenty or thirty men to move, they were washed away immediately."

When even Kanbei could only bring back excuses, Hideyoshi went to the river himself to see the actual situation. But when he stood there and looked at the power of the rushing current, his own human knowledge was overwhelmed.

Rokuro came up and offered a suggestion: "If we cut down trees at the upper reaches of the river and push them in with the foliage still attached, it may slow the current a little."

This plan was put into operation, and for half a day, more than a thousand workers felled trees and tossed them whole into the river. But this, too, failed to slow the current.

Rokuro's next suggestion was to sink thirty large boats loaded with huge boulders at the site of the proposed dam.

Pulling the huge boats up against the current, however, proved to be impossible, so wooden planks were set out on the land, oil was poured over them, and, with great effort, the boats were pulled overland and sunk with their loads of boulders at the mouth of the river.

In the meantime the great dike, stretching an entire league, had been completed, and the rushing current of the Ashimori was transformed into foam and spray and diverted toward the plain around Takamatsu Castle.

At about the same time, the waters of the other six rivers were channeled into the area. Only the channeling of the Naruya River had proved too difficult for the workers to complete on time.

Fourteen days had pa.s.sed since the seventh day of the Fifth Month, the day the work began. It had been completed in two weeks.

On the twenty-first day of the Fifth Month, the forty thousand Mori troops under Kikkawa and Kobayakawa arrived at the border-one day after the surroundings of Takamatsu Castle had been transformed into a muddy lake.

On the morning of the twenty-first, Hideyoshi stood with his generals at the headquarters on Mount Ishii and looked over his handiwork.

Whether one thought of it a grand spectacle or a wretched one, the swollen waters- aided by the rain during the night-had left Takamatsu Castle standing completely isolated in the middle of a lake. The outer stone walls, the forest, the drawbridge, the roofs of The houses, the villages, the fields, the rice paddies, and the roads were all submerged, and the level was rising hourly.

"Where's the Ashimori?"

In response to Hideyoshi's question, Kanbei pointed to a stand of pines that could dimly be seen in the west.

"As you can see, there's an opening in the dike of about four hundred fifty yards in that area, and we're running the dammed-up waters of the Ashimori through that break."

Hideyoshi followed the line of the faraway mountains from west to south. Beneath the sky directly to the south, he could see Mount Hizashi on the border. With the dawn, the countless banners of the Mori's vanguard had appeared on the mountain.

"They're the enemy, but you can't help but sympathize with what Kikkawa and Kobayakawa must have felt this morning when they arrived and saw the lake. They must have stamped on the ground in vexation," Kanbei said.

Just at that moment, the son of the official in charge of the work at the Naruya River site prostrated himself in front of Hideyoshi. He was crying.

"What's the matter?" Hideyoshi asked.

"This morning," the young man replied, "my father declared that he was guilty of inexcusable negligence. He wrote you this letter of apology and committed seppuku."

The official had been in charge of the difficult project of cutting five hundred yards through a mountain. Ninety yards remained that morning, thus he had not met his dead-:. Taking responsibility for the failure, the man had taken his own life.

Hideyoshi gazed down at the man's son, whose hands, feet, and hair were still covered with mud. He gently beckoned him to his side.

"You are not to commit seppuku yourself. Pray for your father's soul by your action on the battlefield. All right?" And he lightly patted the youth's back.

The young man cried openly. The rain began to fall. Stripes of white rain began to pour into the muddy lake from the thick clouds that were quietly descending.

It was now the night of the twenty-second day of the Fifth Month, the evening after the arrival of the Mori troops at the border.

In the dark, two men swam like strange fish across the muddy lake and crawled up to the dike. They triggered an array of clappers and bells that had been attached to a rope stretched along the water's edge, tied to the dwarf bamboo and brushwood, and made to look just like the brambles of a wild rose.

A bonfire burned brightly at each guardhouse along the dike. The guards came running quickly and captured one man, while the other was able to make good his escape.

"It doesn't make any difference whether he's one of the soldiers from the castle or on an errand from the Mori. Lord Hideyoshi should question this man carefully."