he was governing a castle. But he's still the same. I imagine he's going to earn an even larger domain."

Hideyoshi had just before then leisurely shown his face in camp before luring Nobunaga away with a few simple words, and they were both climbing up toward the mountains.

"How impertinent!" Shibata Katsuie exclaimed as he and Sakuma Nobumori went out beyond the barracks.

"That is why he's so disliked, even when he doesn't have to be. There's nothing more unpleasant than listening to someone who rattles on about his own cleverness." Almost spitting out their words, they watched the figure of Hideyoshi thread his way through the far-off marsh in the company of Nobunaga.

"He doesn't tell us anything—doesn't consult with us at all."

"First of all, isn't that awfully dangerous? It may be broad daylight, but the enemy could be lurking anywhere in these mountains. What would happen if they started shoot­ing at him?"

"Well, His Lordship is His Lordship."

"No, it's Hideyoshi who's at fault. Even if a large crowd accompanies His Lordship, Hideyoshi fawns all over him until he catches his eye."

There were other commanders besides Katsuie and Nobumori who were unhappy with the situation. Most of them assumed that Hideyoshi was off with Nobunaga in the mountains, planning some battle strategy with his usual glib tongue. This was the pri­mary source of their discomfort.

"He's ignoring us —the inner circle of his generals."

Whether Hideyoshi did not understand such inner workings of human nature or simply chose to ignore them, he led Nobunaga off into the mountains, occasionally laughing with a voice that would have been more fitting for a holiday excursion. With his and Nobunaga's retainers combined, their small force was made up of no more than twenty or thirty men.

"A man really sweats when he climbs mountains. Shall I give you a hand, my lord?"

"Don't be insulting."

"It's just a little farther."

"I haven't climbed enough. Aren't there any mountains higher than this?"

"Unfortunately no, not in this area. But this is pretty high!"

Wiping the sweat from his face, Nobunaga looked down into the neighboring valleys. He saw that Hideyoshi's troops were hiding among the trees, standing guard.

"The men accompanying us should stay here. It wouldn't be good for us to go in a large group past this point." This said, Hideyoshi and Nobunaga walked thirty or forty paces the crest of the hill.

There were no longer any trees. Tender grains and grasses that would have made good fodder stretched along the surface of the mountain. Chinese balloon flowers rustled among the pampas grass. Blooms of beggar's purse clung to the scabbards of their swords. The two of them advanced in silence. It was as though they were looking out to sea, with nothing before them.

"Stoop down, my lord."

"Like this?"

"Hide yourself in the grass." As they crawled to the edge of the precipice, a castle appeared in the valley right beneath them.

"That's Odani," Hideyoshi said softly as he pointed toward the castle.

Nobunaga nodded and looked on silently. His eyes were shrouded in some deep emotion. It was not simply that he was looking at the enemy's main castle. Inside this castle that was now besieged by his own army lived his younger sister, Oichi, who had already borne four children since becoming the wife of the castle's lord.

Both lord and retainer sat down. The flowers and the ears of the autumn grasses came up to their shoulders. Nobunaga stared unblinkingly at the castle beneath them, and then turned toward Hideyoshi.

"I daresay my sister is angry with me. I was the one who married her into the Asai clan without even letting her speak her own mind. She was told to sacrifice herself for the good of the clan, and that the match was necessary to protect the province. Hideyoshi, I feel as though I can still see that scene today."

"I remember it well myself," Hideyoshi said. "She had an enormous amount of baggage and a beautiful palanquin, and she was surrounded by attendants and decorated horrses. It was a splendid event, the day she went off to be married north of Lake Biwa."

"Oichi was only an innocent girl of fourteen."

"She was such a small, pretty bride."

"Hideyoshi."

"Yes?"

"You understand, don't you? How painful this is for me…"

"For that very reason, it's hard for me too."

Nobunaga motioned toward the castle with his chin. "There is no difficulty in the decision to destroy this castle, but when I think about trying to get Oichi out of there without her getting hurt…"

"When you ordered me to spy out the lay of the land around Odani Castle, I guessed that you were planning a campaign against the Asakura and the Asai. I probably sound as though I'm flattering myself again, but if you'll allow me to speak frankly, I think you're somewhat reserved about showing your natural feelings, and certainly the cause of your distress, my lord. It's rude of me to say this, but I think I've discovered one more of your iter qualities."

"You're the only one." Nobunaga clicked his tongue. "Katsuie, Nobumori, and the others look at me as though I've been wasting my time for the last ten days. Their faces show that they don't understand me at all. It seems that Katsuie especially is laughing at me behind my back."

'That's because, my lord, you are still confused about which way to go."

"I can't help but be confused. If we were to pulverize the enemy bit by bit, there's no doubt that Asai Nagamasa and his father would drag Oichi down with them to the bottom of the flames."

"That's probably the way it would be."

"Hideyoshi, you say you've felt the same way I do from the very beginning, but you're listening to this with extraordinary composure. Don't you have some sort of plan?"

"I'm not without one."

"Well, why don't you hurry up and put my mind to rest?"

"I've been doing my best not to make recommendations recently."

"Why?"

"Because there are a lot of other people in the staff headquarters."

"Are you afraid of other people's jealousy? That's annoying, too. But the main thing is that I am the one who decides everything. Tell me your plan right away."

"Look over there, my lord." Hideyoshi pointed at Odani Castle. "What makes this castle special is that the three enclosures are more distinct and independent than in most other castles. Lord Hisamasa lives in the first enclosure; and his son, Nagamasa, and Lady Oichi and her children live in the third."

"Over there?"

"Yes, my lord. Now, the area you see between the first and third enclosures is called the Kyogoku enclosure, and that's where the senior retainers, Asai Genba, Mitamura Uemondayu, and Onogi Tosa are quartered. So, in order to capture Odani, rather than hitting the tail or striking the head, if we can first get our hands on the Kyogoku enclo­sure, the other two will be cut off."

"I see. You're saying that our next move is to attack the Kyogoku."

"No, if we storm the Kyogoku, the first and third enclosures will send reinforcements. Our men will be attacked on both flanks, and a fierce battle will ensue. In that case, would we try to break our way through or retreat? Either way, we cannot be sure of Lady Oichi's fate inside the castle."

"So what should we do?"

"Of course, it's clear that the very best strategy would be to send a messenger to the Asai, explain the advantages and disadvantages of the situation clearly, and take posses­sion of both the castle and Oichi without incident."

"You should know that I've already tried that twice. I sent a messenger to the castle and informed them that if they surrendered, I would allow them to keep their domains. I made sure that they knew that Echizen had been conquered, but neither Nagamasa nor his father is going to budge. They're only going to show off how tough they are, just like before. Their 'toughness,' of course, is nothing more than using Oichi's life as a shield. They think that I'll never make a reckless attack as long as they have my own sister in the castle."