In the twinkling of an eye, its stone walls were scaled, its moat was filled, fires were set, and the sun was blotted out with black smoke. At that point, the castle's commanding ral came out fighting and was killed in battle. The castle's soldiers were all killed with the exception of one man, who escaped and raced to Mount Komaki to inform Ieyasu of the emergency. During the short battle, Nagayoshi's Second Corps had put a good distance between itself and the First Corps. The men now rested and ate their provisions.
As the soldiers ate their meal, they looked up and wondered what the reason for the rising smoke might be. Very soon, however, a runner from the front lines informed them of the fall of Iwasaki Castle. The horses nipped at the grass while laughter reverberated across the plain.
Upon learning the same information, the Third Corps naturally stopped and rested both men and horses at Kanahagiwara. At the very rear, the Fourth Corps also reined in the horses and waited for the corps in front to start advancing again.
Spring was departing in the mountains and summer was near. The azure of the sky beautifully clear, deeper even than the sea. Shortly after stopping, the horses became drowsy, and the high-pitched songs of the skylark and bulbul could be heard in the barley fields and forests.
Two days before this, during the evening of the sixth day of the Fourth Month, two farmers from the village of Shinoki had crawled through the fields and run from tree to tree, avoiding the lookouts of the western army.
“We have something to tell Lord Ieyasu! It's very important!" the two men yelled as they ran into the main camp at Mount Komaki.
Ii Hyobu led them to Ieyasu's headquarters. A few moments before Ieyasu had been talking with Nobuo, but after Nobuo had left, Ieyasu had taken the copy of the Analects of Confucius from the top of his armor chest and began to read silently, ignoring the sounds pf distant gunfire.
Five years younger than Hideyoshi, he was forty-two years old this year, a general in his prime. His appearance was so mild and good-natured—and he had such such soft and pale skin—that an observer might have doubted that he had been through every extremity, and had fought battles in which he had rallied his troops with nothing more than the look in his eye.
“Who is it? Naomasa? Come in, come in."
Closing the Analects, Ieyasu pulled his stool around.
The two farmers reported that on that very evening, some units of Hideyoshi's army had left Inuyama and were heading in the direction of Mikawa.
"You've done well," Ieyasu said. "You'll be rewarded!"
Ieyasu's brow tightened. If Okazaki was attacked, nothing could be done. Even he hadn't thought that the enemy would leave Mount Komaki and strike out for his home province of Mikawa.
"Summon Sakai, Honda, and Ishikawa immediately," he said calmly.
He ordered the three generals to guard Mount Komaki in his absence. He would lead the bulk of his forces himself and go in pursuit of Shonyu's army.
At about that time, a country samurai had come to report to Nobuo's camp. By the time Nobuo brought the man to speak with Ieyasu, Ieyasu had already summoned a conference of his field staff.
"You come too, Lord Nobuo! I think we can say that this pursuit is going to finish with an impressive battle, and if you're not present, it's going to lack significance."
Ieyasu's forces were to be divided into two corps, and would total fifteen thousand nine hundred men. Mizuno Tadashige's four thousand troops would act as the army's vanguard.
By the night of the eighth day of the month, the main corps under Ieyasu and Nobuo had left Mount Komaki. Finally they crossed over the Shonai River. The units under Nagayoshi and Kyutaro were bivouacking only two leagues away in the village of Kamijo.
The dim white light on the water-covered rice fields and little streams showed that the dawn was near, but black shadows lay all around, and dark clouds hung low to the earth.
"Hey! There they are!"
"Get down! Lie down!"
In the rice paddies, in the clumps of bushes, in the shadows of the trees, in the hollows of the ground, the figures of the men in the pursuing army all bent down quickly. Straining their ears, they could hear the western army moving in a long black line along the single road that disappeared into a forest in the distance.
The pursuing troops divided into two corps and secretly trailed behind the tail end of the enemy, which was composed of the Fourth Corps of the western army led by Mikoshi Hidetsugu.
That was the shape of the fate of both armies on the morning of the ninth day of the month. Moreover, the commander selected by Hideyoshi for this important undertaking—his own nephew Hidetsugu—was still unaware of the situation as dawn began to break.
While Hideyoshi had appointed the steady Hori Kyutaro as the leader of the invasion of Mikawa, it was Hidetsugu whom he designated as commander-in-chief. Hidetsugu, however, was still only a sixteen-year-old boy, so Hideyoshi had selected two senior generals and ordered them to watch over the young commander.
The troops were still tired as the sun peacefully announced the dawn of the ninth day of the month. Knowing that the men must be hungry, Hidetsugu gave the order to stop. At the command to eat their provisions, the generals and soldiers sat down and ate their morning meal.
The place was Hakusan Woods, so-called because Hakusan Shrine stood at the top of a small hill there. Hidetsugu set up his stool on the hill.
“Don't you have any water?" the young man asked a retainer. "There's none left in my canteen, and my throat is really dry."
Taking the canteen, he gulped down every last drop of water.
“It’s not good to drink too much when we're on the move. Be a little patient, my lord, a retainer reproved him.
But Hidetsugu did not even turn to look at him. The men whom Hideyoshi had sent to watch him were eyesores to the young man. He was sixteen years old, a commanding general, and naturally in a fighting mood.
“Who's that running in this direction?"
“It’s Hotomi."
“What's Hotomi doing here?" Hidetsugu narrowed his eyes and stretched up to see. The commander of the spear corps, Hotomi, approached him and knelt. He was out of breath.
“Lord Hidetsugu, we have an emergency!"
“Really."
“Please climb a little farther up to the top of the hill."
“There." Hotomi pointed out a cloud of dust. "It's still far away, but it's moving from the shelter of those mountains toward the plain."
“It’s not a whirlwind, is it? It's bunched up in front, with a crowd following to the rear. It’s an army, that's for sure."
“You have to make a decision, my lord."
“Is it the enemy?"
“ I don't think it could be anyone else."
“Wait, I wonder if it really is the enemy."
Hidetsugu was still acting with indifference. He seemed to think that it just could not be true.
But as soon as his retainers reached the top of the hill, they all shouted together.
“Damn!"
“I thought the enemy might have a plan to follow us. Prepare yourselves!"
Unable to wait for Hidetsugu's orders, all of them moved to take action, kicking up bits of grass and dust in their haste. The ground shook, the horses whinnied, officers and men shouted back and forth. In the moment it took to transform the rest period for a meal into readiness for battle, the commanders of the Tokugawa army had given the order for a wild fusillade of bullets and arrows directly into Hidetsugu's troops.
“Fire! Loose your arrows!"
“Strike into them!"
Observing the confusion of the enemy, the mounted men and spear corps suddenly charged.
“Don't let them get close to His Lordship!"
The shouts surrounding Hidetsugu were now only wild voices calling to protect his life.
Here, there, from among the trees and shrubs, from everywhere along the road, came swarms of enemy soldiers. The only force that was unable to open up an escape route was one made up of Hid
etsugu and his retainers.
Hidetsugu had been slightly wounded in two or three places and labored furiously with his spear.
"Are you still here, my lord?"
"Hurry! Retreat! Move back!"
When his retainers saw him, they spoke almost as if they were scolding him. Every one of them died fighting. Kinoshita Kageyu saw that Hidetsugu had lost sight of his horse and was now on foot.
"Here! Take this one! Use the whip and get out of this place without looking back!"
Giving Hidetsugu his own horse, Kageyu planted his banner in the ground and cut his way through as many of the enemy soldiers as he could before he was finally killed as well. Hidetsugu put his hand on the horse, but before he could mount it, the animal was hit by a bullet.
"Lend me your horse!"
Fleeing desperately through the midst of the fighting, Hidetsugu had spied a mounted warrior hurrying by close to him and had yelled out. Abruptly pulling the reins and turning around, the man looked down at Hidetsugu.
"What is it, my young lord?"
"Give me your horse."
"That's like asking for someone's umbrella on a rainy day, isn't it? No, I won't lend it to you, even if it is my lord's command."
"Why not?"
"Because you're retreating and I'm one of the soldiers still charging ahead."
Flatly refusing, the man dashed off. From his back, a single strand of bamboo grass whistled in the wind.
"Damn!" Hidetsugu swore as he watched him go. It seemed that in that man's eyes, he had been less than a leaf of bamboo grass along the roadside. Looking behind him, Hidetsugu could see a cloud of dust being raised by the enemy. But a group of routed soldiers from different corps carrying spears, firearms, and long swords saw Hidetsugu and shouted for him to stop.
"My lord! If you run that way, you'll meet up with yet another enemy unit!"
As they approached, they surrounded him and then pulled him away to escape toward the Kanare River.
On their way they picked up a runaway horse, and Hidetsugu was finally mounted. But when they took a short rest at a place called Hosogane, they were again attacked by the enemy and, suffering another defeat, fled in the direction of Inaba.
Thus the Fourth Corps was routed. The Third Corps, which was led by Hori Kyutaro, consisted of about three thousand men. A distance of one to one and a half leagues was maintained between the corps, and messengers had constantly kept communications open between the forces, so that if the First Corps took a rest, the advance of the other corps was naturally halted as well, one after another.
Kyutaro suddenly cupped his ear and listened. "That was gunfire, wasn't it?"
Just at that moment, one of Hidetsugu's retainers whipped his horse into the resting camp and tumbled forward.
"Our men have been completely routed. The main army has been annihilated by the Tokugawa forces, and even Lord Hidetsugu's safety is uncertain. Turn back immediately!" he wailed.
Kyutaro was taken by surprise, but his composed brow checked the impulse of the moment.
“Are you in the messenger corps?"
“Why are you asking me that now?"
“If you're not one of the messengers, why have you come running up so upset? Did you run away?"
“No! I came here to inform you of the situation. I don't know if it was cowardly or not, but this is an emergency, and I came as fast as I could to inform Lord Nagayoshi and Lord Shonyu."
With that parting remark, the man whipped his horse and disappeared, continuing on to the next corps up ahead.
“Since a retainer came instead of a messenger, we can only surmise that our men at the rear have suffered a total defeat."
Suppressing the restlessness in his heart, Kyutaro remained seated on his camp stool for another moment.
“Everyone come here!" Already aware of the situation, his retainers and officers gathered-around, their faces pale. "The Tokugawa forces are about to attack us. Don't waste bullets. Wait until the enemy has come to within sixty feet before firing." After instructing them in the disposition of troops, he made one concluding remark. "I will give one hundred bushels for every dead enemy warrior."
What he anticipated was not off the mark. The Tokugawa force that had struck Hidetsugu’s corps with an obliterating blow was now descending on his own corps fiercely. The Tokugawa commanders were themselves frightened by the unrelenting force of their troops' spirit.
Froth covered the horses' mouths, the men's faces were tense with determination, and the armor that was coming in waves was covered with blood and dust. As the Tokugawa forces pressed closer and closer into firing range, Kyutaro watched carefully and then gave the command.
“Fire!"
At that instant, gunfire created a dreadful roar and a wall of smoke. With matchlock firearms, the time it took to load and fire was a period of perhaps five or six breaths, even for well-practiced men. Because of that, a system of alternating volleys was used. Thus, after each fusillade, another fell upon the enemy in rapid succession. The assaulting army fell helter-skelter before this defense. Their vast numbers could be seen on the ground between the clouds of gunpowder smoke.
“They're prepared!"
“Stop! Fall back!"
The Tokugawa commanders yelled orders to fall back, but their charging soldiers not be so easily stopped.
Kyutaro saw that the moment had come and shouted to the troops to counterattack. The victory was now clear, both psychologically and physically, without anyone having to wait for the actual result. The corps of warriors that had been so brilliantly victorious now received themselves what they had given to Hidetsugu only moments before.
Throughout Hideyoshi's army Hori Kyutaro's spear corps was famed for its great efficiency. The corpses of men who had been pierced by the points of those spears now deterred the horses carrying the commanders who were trying to flee. The Tokugawa generals escaped, swinging their long swords behind them as they fled the pursuing points of the spears.
Master Stroke
The plain of Nagakute was covered with a thin veil of gunpowder smoke and filled with the stink of corpses and blood. With the morning sun, it smoldered with all the colors of the rainbow.
Peace had already returned there, but the soldiers who had brought carnage with them were now heading for Yazako, like the clouds of an evening shower. Flight simply provoked more flight, endless flight and destruction.
Kyutaro did not lose his head as he pursued the Tokugawa troops. "The rear guard should not follow us. Take the roundabout way toward Inokoishi and pursue them along two roads."
One unit broke away and followed a different road, while Kyutaro led six hundred men against the retreating enemy. The dead and wounded abandoned along the road by the Tokugawa could not have numbered less than five hundred men, but Kyutaro's soldiers also grew fewer and fewer as they continued.
Although the main corps had advanced far ahead, two men still breathing among the corpses now crossed spears, then abandoned them as too cumbersome and drew their swords. Grappling, then breaking loose, they fell down, stood up again, and fought interminably in their own private battle. Finally one took the other's head. Yelling almost insanely, the victor chased after his companions in the main corps, disappeared once again into the miasma of smoke and blood, and, struck by a stray bullet, fell dead before he catch up with his comrades.
Kyutaro was yelling himself hoarse. "It's useless to chase after them for too long. Genza! Momoemon! Stop the troops! Tell them to fall back!"
Several of his retainers rode forward and, with difficulty, restrained their troops.
“Fall back!"
"Draw up beneath the commander's standard!"
Hori Kyutaro dismounted and walked from the road onto the promontory of a bluff. From where he stood, his field of vision was unobstructed. He stared steadily out into the distance.
"Ah, he has come so quickly," he muttered.
The expression on his face showed that he had become completely sobered.
Turning to his attendants, he invited them to take a look.
In the west, in an elevated area just opposite the morning sun, something was glittering on Mount Fujigane.
Was it not Ieyasu's emblem—the commander's standard with the golden fan? Kyutaro raised his voice in grief. "It's a sad thing to say, but we have no strategy for dealing with such a great foe. Our work here is finished."
Collecting his troops, Kyutaro quickly began to retreat. But at that point, four messengers from the First and Second Corps came together from the direction of Nagakute looking for him.
"The order is for you to turn back and join forces with the vanguard. This comes directly from Lord Shonyu."
Kyutaro flatly refused. "Absolutely not. We're retreating."
The messengers could hardly believe their ears. "The battle is starting now! Please turn back and join our lords' forces immediately!" they repeated, raising their voices.
Kyutaro raised his voice as well. "If I said I'm retreating, I'm retreating! We have to make sure that Lord Hidetsugu is safe. Besides, more than half of this section of the army has sustained wounds, and if our men come up against a fresh enemy, it will be a disaster. I, for one, am not going to fight a battle that I know I'll lose. You can tell that to Lore Shonyu and to Lord Nagayoshi as well!"
With those parting words, he rode off at a gallop.
Hori Kyutaro's corps ran into Hidetsugu and his surviving troops in the vicinity of Inaba. Then, setting fire to the farmhouses along the way, they defended themselves time and again from the pursuing Tokugawa troops and finally returned to Hideyoshi's main camp at Gakuden before sunset.
The messengers who had come seeking Kyutaro's aid were outraged.
"What kind of cowardice is it to run away to the main camp without even looking back at your allies' desperate situation?"
"He's clearly lost his nerve."
"Today Hori Kyutaro showed us his true character. We'll despise him if we return alive."
TAIKO: AN EPIC NOVEL OF WAR AND GLORY IN FEUDAL JAPAN Page 135