Taiko. Part 116

In the meantime Katsuie himself was shouting. "I will not retreat! Who do you think I am! I'm not running away from this place!" His fierce words came with increasing vehemence. Once again he glared and yelled at the staff officers who would not leave hisSide. "Why are you doing this? Why are you keeping me from going out to attack? While you hold me down, why aren't you attacking the enemy?"

A mount was brought up. A soldier carrying the beautiful commander's standard emblazoned with the golden emblem came and stood next to it.

"We can't stem the tide here, my lord. If you die in this place, it will be in vain. Why don't you fall back to Kitanosho and put your thoughts into a plan for another attempt?"

Katsuie shook his head and yelled, but the men around him hastily forced his body into the saddle. The situation was urgent. Suddenly the captain of the pages, Menju Shosuke, a man who had never distinguished himself in battle, ran forward and prostrated himself in front of Katsuie's horse.

"Please, my lord! Allow me to take your commander's standard."

To ask one's lord for permission to carry the commander's standard meant that one was volunteering to make a stand in his place.

Shosuke said nothing more but remained kneeling in front of Katsuie. He displayed no particular preparedness for death, desperation, or ferocity; he looked as he usually did when he appeared before Katsuie as the captain of the pages.

"What? You want me to give you the commander's standard?"

Mounted on his horse, Katsuie stared down at Shosuke's back in amazement. The generals around him, struck with surprise, also fixed their eyes on Shosuke. Among Katsuie's many personal attendants, few had been treated more coldly than Shosuke had been.

Katsuie, who held that kind of prejudice against Shosuke, must have known what effect it had been having better than anyone else. And yet, wasn't that very Shosuke now before Katsuie, offering to put himself in Katsuie's place?

The wind of defeat blew desolately across the camp, and it had been unbearable for Katsuie to watch his men wavering since dawn. The cowards who had quickly thrown down their weapons and deserted had not been few in number; Katsuie had looked warmly upon many of those men and had given them his favors for many years. As those thoughts came to him, Katsuie was unable to hold back his tears.

b.u.t.t whatever Katsuie was thinking, he now kicked his horse's flanks with the heels of his stirrups, and chased away the pained look in his face with a thundering roar.

"What are you talking about, Shosuke? Once you die, that's the time for me to die! Now move away!"

Shosuke scurried away from the rearing horse but grabbed its reins, "Then let me accompany you."

Against Katsuie's will, Menju put the battlefield behind him and hurried off in the direction of Yanagase. Both the man who guarded the commander's standard and Katsuie's retainers surrounded his horse and hurried him off in the middle of their group.

But Hideyos.h.i.+'s vanguard had already broken through Kitsunezaka and, ignoring the s.h.i.+bata warriors standing in its defense, put their sights on the golden standard fleeing into the distance.

"That's Katsuie! Don't let him get away!" A crowd of swift-running spearmen gath-Jgether and ran in Katsuie's direction.

We'll take our leave here, my lord!" Tossing off those words of farewell, the generals fleeing with Katsuie suddenly left his side, wheeled around, and dashed into the midst of the fierce spears of the pursuing troops. Their corpses soon fell to the ground.

Menju Shosuke had also turned and faced the enemy's onslaught, but now he once again chased after his lord's horse and yelled at Katsuie from behind.

"The commander's standard... please... let me carry it!"

They were just outside of Yanagase.

Katsuie brought his horse to a halt and took the gold commander's standard from the man next to him. It held so many memories-he had raised it in his camps together with his reputation as the "Demon s.h.i.+bata."

"Here, Shosuke. Take it among my warriors!"

With those words, he suddenly tossed the standard to Shosuke.

Shosuke bent forward and agilely caught it by the shaft.

He was overjoyed. Waving the standard for a moment or two, he sent his final words in the direction of Katsuie's back.

"Good-bye, my lord!"

Katsuie turned, but his horse continued galloping toward the mountainous area of Yanagase. Only ten mounted men were accompanying him.

The commander's standard had been tossed into Shosuke's hands just as he had begged, but at that moment Katsuie had also left him with the words, "Take it among my warriors!

That had been his request and it no doubt had been made in consideration of the men who were being left to their deaths along with Shosuke.

Some thirty men instantly gathered beneath the standard. Those were the only men who truly respected their own honor and who were willing to die for their lord.

Ah, there are some honorable s.h.i.+bata men left, Shosuke thought, looking happily at the faces around him. "Come on! Let's show them how to die happily!"

Putting the standard into the hands of one of the warriors, he dashed out in front, hurrying west from Yanagase village toward the northern ridge of Mount Tochinoki. When the small force of not even forty men made the resolve to go forward, they manifested a spirit far more intense than that of the thousands of men on Kitsunezaka that morning.

"Katsuie has fallen back to the mountains!"

"It appears that he's made his final resolve and is prepared to die."

As might be expected, the pursuing Hideyos.h.i.+ troops exhorted each other to go on.

"We'll have Katsuie's head!"

Each one fought to take the lead as they started to climb Mount Tochinoki. Flas.h.i.+ng the golden standard on the mountaintop, the s.h.i.+bata warriors watched breathlessly as the numbers of enemy warriors-who were scrambling up even in places where there was no path-increased moment by moment.

"There's still time to pa.s.s around a farewell cup of water," Shosuke said.

In those few moments, Shosuke and his comrades scooped up and shared the water that trickled from between the crags on the mountaintop and calmly prepared themselves for death. Shosuke suddenly turned to his brothers Mozaemon and Shobei.

"Brothers, you should escape and return to our village. If all three of us achieve death In battle at once, no one will be able to carry on the family name or take care of our mother. Mozaemon, the elder brother is supposed to carry on the family name, so why go now?"

"If the younger brothers are cut down by the enemy," Mozaemon replied, "can the elder brother face his mother with the words 'I'm home now?' No, I'll stay here. Shobei, you should go."

"That would be horrible!" ?"

"Why?"

"For me to be sent home alive at a time like this would hardly be a pleasure for our mother. And our dead father must be looking at his sons from the other world today as well. It will not be my feet that walk back to Echizen today."

"Well then, we'll die together!"

Their souls united in a pledge of death, the three brothers stood unwavering beneath the commander's standard.

Shosuke made no further mention to his brothers about wanting them to return home.

The three brothers took their farewell drink from a scoop of clear spring water and, as a refres.h.i.+ng spirit pa.s.sed through their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, all turned in the direction of their home.

One can imagine the prayers that were in their hearts. The enemy was approaching from all sides, close enough now that the individual voices of enemy soldiers could be heard.

"Guard the commander's standard, Shobei," Shosuke said to his younger brother as he put on his face guard. He was pretending to be Katsuie, and did not want the enemy to recognize him.

Five or six musket b.a.l.l.s snapped past his head. Taking that as their cue, the thirty men invoked Hachiman, the G.o.d of war, and struck out for the enemy.

They divided into three units and attacked the advancing enemy. The men coming up from below were breathing hard and could not stand up to the desperate figures running down at them. Long swords poured down on the helmets of Hideyos.h.i.+'s men, spears pierced their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and their wretched corpses fell everywhere.

'Let no one be too eager to die!" Shosuke shouted suddenly as he withdrew inside a palisade.

As the commander's standard followed him, so too did his remaining men.

'It's said that the slap of five fingers is not as strong as the blow of a single fist. If our little force scatters, its effects will be weakened. Stay beneath the standard whether we advance or-retreat."

Given that caution, they leaped out once again. Whirling one way, they cut furiously into the enemy; whirling another, they pierced him with spears. Then, like the wind, they withdrew to their ramparts.

Thus, they sallied forward six or seven times to fight.

The attackers had already lost more than two hundred men. It was close to noon, and an intense sun shone high overhead. The fresh blood on the armor and helmets dried quickly, giving off a black l.u.s.ter like that of lacquer.

There were fewer than ten men remaining beneath the commander's standard, and their fiery eyes hardly seemed to see each other. Not one man was uninjured.

An arrow pierced Shosuke's shoulder. As he looked at the fresh blood flowing over his sleeve, he pulled the arrow from his body with his own hand. Then he turned in the direction from which the arrow had come. The tops of a great number of helmets could be seen approaching, rustling through the bamboo gra.s.s like wild pigs.

Shosuke used the time he had left to speak quietly to his comrades. "We have fought every way we could, and we have nothing to regret. Everyone choose a respectable enemy and make a splendid name for yourself. Let me be the first, dying in our lord's stead. Do not let the commander's standard fall. Carry it high, one man after another!"

Those blood-smeared warriors so prepared to die raised the standard toward the enemy coming through the bamboo gra.s.s. The warriors moving in their direction must have been uncommonly fierce men. They came on unflinchingly, demonstrating the oaths they had made with their spears. Shosuke faced them and yelled out to dampen their spirits.

"How discourteous of you! Low-cla.s.s n.o.bodies! Are you thinking of putting your spears into the body of s.h.i.+bata Katsuie?"

Shosuke looked like a demon, and in fact no one was able to stand in front of him. A number of men were speared down almost at his feet.

Observing the man's ferocity and fighting desperately with men who were willing to defend their commander's standard to the death, even the most violent braggarts of the attacking troops broke their encirclement and opened up a path to the foot of the mountain.

"Here I am! Katsuie himself is coming! If Hideyos.h.i.+ is here, have him meet me mounted and alone! Come on out, monkey-face!" Shosuke yelled out as he went down the slope road.

Right there he pierced an armored warrior with a mortal wound. His elder brother, Mozaemon, had already been struck down; his little brother, Shobei, had crossed long swords with an enemy warrior, and each had struck the other dead. Shobei had fallen to the base of a nearby crag.

Beside him, the gold commander's standard lay abandoned, now completely red.

From both the top and the bottom of the slope, innumerable spears now pressed in on Shosuke's body, every warrior wanting to take the commander's standard and the head they believed to be Katsuie's.

Each man vied with the others for the prize. Beneath the confusion of spears, Menju Shosuke achieved death in battle.

A handsome young warrior of only twenty-five years, he had been held in low esteem by men like Katsuie and Genba because of his reticence, gentility, grace, and love of learning-Shosuke's innocent features were still concealed by his face guard.

"I killed s.h.i.+bata Katsuie!" a samurai yelled.

"His commander's standard was taken by these hands!" shouted another.

Then every voice was raised, one man claiming this, another claiming that, until the entire mountain shook.

And still Hideyos.h.i.+'s men had no idea that the head belonged not to s.h.i.+bata Katsuie, But to Menju Shosuke, the captain of his pages.

"We've killed Katsuie!"

"I've held the head of the lord of Kitanosho!"

Pus.h.i.+ng and shoving, their cries reverberated through the air. "The standard! The standard! And his head! We took his head!"

A True Friend Katsuie had barely escaped with his life, but his army had been annihilated. Until that morning, the s.h.i.+bata standard with its golden emblem had flown in the vicinity of Yanagase, but now only Hideyos.h.i.+'s standard could be seen. It shone brilliantly in the bright suns.h.i.+ne, impressing all who saw it, symbolizing a reality that transcended ordinary wisdom and strength.

The flags and banners of Hideyos.h.i.+'s army-which stretched out along the roads, and covered the fields presented a grand spectacle of victory. They were packed so closely together that they resembled a thick golden haze.

The army started eating its provisions. Hostilities had begun early that morning and had lasted for about eight hours. When the meal was finished, the entire army was given orders to advance north immediately.

As the men approached Tochinoki Pa.s.s, they could see the Tsuruga Sea to the west, while the mountains of Echizen opened up to the north seemingly right under their horses' hooves.

The sun was already beginning to sink, and heaven and earth burned with an evening glow encompa.s.sing all the colors of a rainbow.

Hideyos.h.i.+'s face was burnt a deep red. He did not, however, appear to be a man who had not slept for days. He seemed to have forgotten that men need to sleep. Constantly advancing, he had not yet ordered a halt. At that time of year the nights were at their shortest. While it was still light, the main army bivouacked at Imajo in Echizen. The vanguard went on, however, having been ordered to advance as far as Wakimoto-more than two leagues away-while the rear guard stopped at Itadori, about the same distance behind the central army. Thus, the camp that night stretched for four leagues from van to rear.

That night Hideyos.h.i.+ fell into contented slumber-one that even the song of the mountain cuckoo could not disturb.

Tomorrow we'll get to Fuchu Castle, Hideyos.h.i.+ thought just before going to sleep. But how will Inuchiyo receive us?

What was Inuchiyo doing at that time? He had pa.s.sed through the area at noon that same day and, while the sun was still high in the sky, had withdrawn his army into Fuchu, his son's castle.

"Thank the G.o.ds you're safe," his wife said as she came out to greet him.

"Take care of the wounded. You can look to me later on."

Inuchiyo did not even take off his sandals or untie his armor; he just stood in front of the castle. His pages were also there, lined up behind him, solemnly waiting.

Finally, corps after corps of warriors marched smartly through the gate, carrying the corpses of their fallen comrades, on top of which they had laid their banners. Next, those wounded in battle were either carried in or walked in, leaning on their comrades' shoulders.

The thirty-odd casualties the Maeda had suffered in the retreat did not compare with the losses of the s.h.i.+bata and Sak.u.ma. The bell was rung at the temple, and as the sun dipped in the sky, the smoke from cooking fires began to rise from all parts of the castle. The order was given for the soldiers to eat their rations. The troops, however, did not disperse, but stayed in their units, as if they were still on the battlefield.

A guard at the main gate yelled, "The lord of Kitanosho has arrived at the castle "What! Lord Katsuie here!" Inuchiyo muttered in astonishment. This was an unexpected development, and Inuchiyo seemed unable to bear to meet the man-now a fugitive. For a moment he was sunk in thought, but then he said, "Let's go out to greet him."

Inuchiyo followed his son out of the keep. Descending the last set of stairs, he walked to the drkened connecting corridor. One of his attendants, Murai Nagayori, followed after him.

"My lord," Murai whispered.

Inuchiyo looked at Murai questioningly.

The retainer whispered in his lord's ear, "Lord Katsuie's arrival here is an incomparable and happy opportunity. If you kill him and send his head to Lord Hideyos.h.i.+, your and Lord Hideyos.h.i.+'s relations.h.i.+p will be patched up without difficulty."

Without warning Inuchiyo struck the man in the chest. "Shut up!" he thundered.

Murai staggered back to fhe wooden wall behind him and just barely avoided falling over. Turning pale, he had the presence of mind neither to stand up nor to sit completely down.