"But it's not just that. For the two years I've been at Yokoyama, I've been watching Nagamasa carefully, and he does have some talent and willpower. Well, I've been trying to think of a plan to capture this castle for a long time, to figure out the best strategy in case we ever had to attack it. I have captured the Kyogoku enclosure without losing a single man."

"What? What are you saying?" Nobunaga doubted his own ears. "The second enclosure you see over there. Our men are already in control of it," Hideyoshi repeated, "so I'm saying you don't have to worry anymore."

"Is this true?"

"Would I lie to you at a time like this, my lord?"

"But… I can't believe it."

"That's understandable, but you'll be able to hear it with your own ears soon, from two men I've summoned. Would you meet with them?"

"Who are they?"

"One is a monk called Miyabe Zensho. The other is Onogi Tosa, the commander of the enclosure."

Nobunaga could not rid himself of his surprised expression. He believed Hideyoshi, but he could not help wondering how he had persuaded a senior retainer of the Asai clan come over to their side.

Hideyoshi explained the situation as though there were nothing unusual about it at all. "Shortly after Your Lordship awarded me the castle at Yokoyama…" he started.

Nobunaga was a little startled. He was unable to look without blinking at the man who was speaking. Yokoyama Castle was situated on the front line of this strategic area, and Hideyoshi's troops were there to check the Asai and Asakura. He remembered the order posting Hideyoshi there temporarily, but he had no memory of a promise to give him the castle. But here was Hideyoshi saying that he had been given the castle. Nobunaga, however, put this in the back of his mind for the moment.

"Wasn't that the year right after the attack on Mount Hiei, when you came to Gifu to make a New Year's call?" Nobunaga asked.

"That's right. On the way back, Takenaka Hanbei fell ill and we were delayed. By the time we arrived at Yokoyama Castle, it was after dark."

"I don't feel like listening to a long story. Get to the point."

"The enemy had found out that I was away from the castle and was making a night attack. We repulsed them, of course, and at the time we captured the monk Miyabe Zensho."

"You took him alive?"

"Yes. Rather than cutting off his head we treated him kindly, and later, when I had a moment, I counseled him about the coming times and instructed him in the true significance of being a samurai. He, in turn, talked to his former master, Onogi Tosa, and persuaded him to surrender to us."

"Really?"

"The battlefield is no place for jokes," Hideyoshi said.

Lost in admiration, even Nobunaga was amazed at Hideyoshi's cunning. The battlefield is no place for jokes! And, just as he had bragged, Miyabe Zensho and Onogi Tosa were led in by Hideyoshi's retainer for an audience with Nobunaga. He questioned Tosa closely to confirm Hideyoshi's story.

The general responded clearly. "This surrender is not at my own discretion. The other two senior retainers stationed in the Kyogoku have realized that opposing you is not only foolish, but it would also hasten the fall of the clan and impose needless suffering on the people of the province."

Nagamasa was under thirty, but he already had four children by the Lady Oichi, who herself was twenty-three. He occupied the third enclosure of Odani Castle, which was really three castles in one.

Gunfire could be heard from the ravine to the south until the evening. The report of cannon sounded periodically, and each time the fretwork ceiling shook as if it were going to come loose.

Oichi looked up instinctively with frightened eyes, and held a baby more tightly against her breast. The child was as yet unweaned. There was no wind, but soot was blowing everywhere, and the light of the lamp flickered wildly.

"Mother! I'm scared!" Her second daughter, Hatsu, clung to her right sleeve while her eldest daughter, Chacha, silently held fast to her left knee. Her son, however, did not come to his mother's lap even though he was still small. He was brandishing an arrow shaft at a lady-in-waiting. This was Nagamasa's heir, Manjumaru,

"Let me see! Let me see the battle!" Manju cried petulantly, striking the lady-in-wait­ing with the headless arrow.

"Manju," his mother reproved him, "why are you hitting her? Your father is fighting. Have you already forgotten that he told you to behave during the fighting? If you're laughed at by the retainers, you won't become a good general even when you grow up."

Manju was old enough to understand a little of his mother's reasoning. He listened to her silently for a moment, but then suddenly began to cry out loud fretfully.

"I wanna see the battle! I wanna see!" The child's tutor did not know what to do ei­ther, and simply stood there watching. Just then there was a lull in the fighting, but gun­fire could still be heard. The eldest girl, Chacha, was already seven years old, and she somehow understood the difficult circumstances her father was in, her mother's sorrow, and even the feelings of the warriors in the castle.

She said precociously, "Manju! Don't say things that upset Mother! Don't you think this is horrible for her? Father's out there fighting the enemy. Isn't that right, Mother?"

Taken to task, Manju looked at his sister and jumped on her, still brandishing the arrow shaft. "You stupid Chacha!" he shouted.

Chacha put her sleeve over her head and hid behind her mother.

"Be good now!" Trying to humor him, Oichi took the arrow shaft and talked to him quietly.

Suddenly there was the sound of violent footsteps in the entrance hall outside.

"What's that? To the likes of the Oda? They're nothing but little samurai who have pushed their way from the backwoods of Owari. Do you think I'm going to surrender to a man like Nobunaga? The Asai clan is in a different class from them!" Asai Nagamasa entered unannounced, followed by two or three generals.

When he saw that his wife was out of harm's way in this cavernous, poorly lit room, he was relieved. "I'm a little tired," he said, sitting down and loosening the cords on a sec­tion of his armor. Then he said to the generals behind him, "With the way things are going this evening, the enemy may well make an all-out attack around midnight. We'd better rest now."

When the commanders got up to leave, Nagamasa heaved a sigh of relief. Even in the midst of battle, he was able to remember that he was both a father and a husband.

"Was the sound of the guns this evening frightening, my dear?" he asked his wife.

Surrounded by her children, Oichi replied, "No, we were in here, so it was all right."

"Didn't Manju or Chacha get scared and cry?"

You should be proud of them. They acted like adults."

Really?" he said, forcing a smile. Then he continued, "Don't worry. The Oda made a fierce attack, but we pushed them back with a volley from the castle. Even if they continue attacking  us for twenty or thirty, or even one hundred days, we'll never surrender. We are the Asai clan! We're not going to yield to someone like Nobunaga." He railed against the oda almost as though he could spit, but then suddenly fell silent.

With the light of the lamp behind her, Oichi's face was buried in the child suckling at her breast. This was Nobunaga's little sister! Nagamasa shook with emotion. She even looked like him. She had her brothers' delicate complexion and his profile.

“Are you crying?"

“The baby sometimes gets fretful and chews my nipple when the milk doesn't come out.”

“The milk isn't coming out?"

“No, not now."

“That's because you have some unseen sorrow and you're getting too thin. But you are a mother, and this is a mother's true battle."

“I know."