"Lord Mitsuhide?"

"Ekei said there were some evil signs: that he looked like a man who would turn against his lord."

"If you look for that quality, you'll find it. But not just in Lord Mitsuhide."

"No, really! Ekei said so."

Hideyoshi listened with a grin. Many people would have censured Ranmaru for being an unscrupulous rumormonger, but when he talked like this, he seemed not much more than a freshly weaned child. After Hideyoshi had humored him for a while, he asked Ranmaru more seriously, "Who in the world did you hear these things from?"

Ranmaru prompdy took him into his confidence, replying, "Asayama Nichijo."

Hideyoshi nodded his head as though he could well imagine.

"Asayama didn't tell you this himself, did he? Certainly it must have gone through someone else. Let me see if I can guess."

"Go ahead."

"Was it your mother?"

"How did you know?"

Hideyoshi laughed.

"No, really. How did you know?" Ranmaru pressed.

"Myoko would believe such things from the outset," Hideyoshi said. "No, it might be better to say that she's fond of such things. And she's on familiar terms with Asayama. If it were up to me, however, I would say that Ekei is more proficient at looking into the physiognomy of a province than into that of a man."

"The physiognomy of a province?"

"If judging a man's character from observing his features can be called physiognomy, then judging a province's character by the same method could be called the same thing. I've realized that Ekei has mastered that art. You shouldn't get too close to men like him. He may look like nothing more than a monk, but he's really in the pay of Mori Terumoto, lord of the western provinces. What do you think, Ranmaru? Aren't I much better man Ekei at the study of physiognomy?" he laughed.

The gate to the Sojitsu Temple came into view. The two men were still laughing as they climbed the stone steps.

The construction of the castle was progressing visibly. By the end of the Second Month of that year, Nobunaga had already vacated Gifu and moved. Gifu Castle was given to Nobunaga's eldest son, the nineteen-year-old Nobutada.

However, while Azuchi Castle—incomparable in strength and announcing the beginning of an entirely new epoch in castle construction—towered so loftily over this strategic crossroads, there were those who were greatly concerned about its military value—among them the warrior-monks of the Honganji, Mori Terumoto of the western provinces, and Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo.

Azuchi stood on the road that ran from Echigo to Kyoto. Kenshin, of course, also had designs on the capital. If the right opportunity presented itself, he would cross the mountains, come out north of Lake Biwa, and, at a stroke, raise his banners in Kyoto.

The ousted shogun, Yoshiaki, of whom there had been no news for some time, sent letters to Kenshin, trying to incite him to action.

Only the exterior of Azuchi Castle has been finished. Realistically, the completion of its interior will take another two and a half years. Once the castle is built, you might as well say that the road between Echigo and Kyoto will have ceased to exist.

Now is the time to strike. I will tour the provinces and forge an alliance of all the anti-Nobunaga forces, which will include Lord Terumoto of the western provinces, the Hojo, the Takeda, and your own clan in Echigo. If you do not take a spirited stand as the leader of this alliance first, however, I do not anticipate any success at all.

Kenshin forced a smile, thinking, Does this little sparrow plan to dance until he's a hundred years old? Kenshin was not the kind of soft-witted leader who would fall for such a ploy.

From the New Year into the summer, Kenshin moved his men into Kaga and Noto, and began to threaten the Oda borders. A relief army was dispatched from Omi with the speed of lightning. With Shibata Katsuie in command, the forces of Takigawa, Hideyoshi, Niwa, Sassa, and Maeda chased the enemy and burned the villages they would use as protection as far as Kanatsu.

A messenger came from Kenshin's camp and shouted loudly that the letter he brought should be read only by Nobunaga.

"This is undoubtedly written in Kenshin's own hand," Nobunaga said as he broke the seal himself.

I have long heard of your fame and regret that I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting you. Now would seem the best opportunity. If we should miss each other in the fighting, we would both regret it for many years to come. The battle has been set for tomorrow morning at the Hour of the Hare. I will meet you at the Kanatsu River. Everything will be settled when we meet man to man.

It was a formal challenge to battle.

"What happened to the envoy?" Nobunaga asked.

"He left right away," the retainer replied.

Nobunaga was unable to conceal a shudder. That night he suddenly announced that he would strike camp, and his forces withdrew.

Kenshin got a big laugh out of this later on. "Isn't that just what you'd expect from Nobunaga! If he had stayed where he was, the next day he could have left everything to my horse's hooves, and along with meeting him, I could have done him the favor of cutting his head off right there at the river."

But Nobunaga quickly returned to Azuchi with a squad of his soldiers. When he thought about Kenshin's old-fashioned letter of challenge, he couldn't help grinning.

"That's probably how he lured Shingen at Kawanakajima. He certainly is a fearless man. He has great pride in that long sword of his, fashioned by Azuki Nagamitsu; I don't think I'd want to see it with my own eyes. How sad for Kenshin that he wasn't borrn during the colorful olden days when they wore scarlet-braided armor with gold plates. I wonder what he thinks of Azuchi, with its mixture of Japanese, Southern Barbarian, and Chinese styles? All of the changes in weaponry and strategy in the last decade have brought us into a new world. How could anyone say the art of war hasn't changed too? He's probably laughing at my retreat as cowardice, but I can't help laughing at the fact at his outdated thinking is inferior to that of my artisans and craftsmen."

Those who truly heard this learned a great deal. There were those, however, who were taught, but never learned a thing.

After Nobunaga returned to Azuchi, he was told that something had occurred during the northern campaign between the commander-in-chief, Shibata Katsuie, and Hideyoshi. The cause was unclear, but a quarrel had been brewing between the two of them over strategy. The result of it was that Hideyoshi had collected his troops and returned to Nagahama while Katsuie quickly appealed to Nobunaga, saying, "Hideyoshi felt it unnecessary to comply with your orders and returned to his own castle. His behavior is inex­cusable, and he should be punished."

No word came from Hideyoshi. Thinking that Hideyoshi must have had some plau­sible explanation for his actions, Nobunaga planned on handling the matter by waiting until all the generals had returned from the northern campaign. Rumors, however, came in one after another.

"Lord Katsuie is extraordinarily angry."

"Lord Hideyoshi is a bit quick-tempered. Pulling out one's troops during a campaign is not something a great general can do and keep his honor."

Finally, Nobunaga had an attendant look into the matter.

"Has Hideyoshi really returned to Nagahama?" he asked.

"Yes, he seems to be quite definitely in Nagahama," the attendant replied.

Nobunaga was provoked to anger, and sent an envoy with a stern rebuke. "This is insolent behavior. Before anything else, show some penitence!"

When the messenger returned, Nobunaga asked, "What kind of expression did he have when he heard my reprimand?"

"He looked as though he were thinking, ‘I see.'"

"Is that all?"

"Then he said something about resting for a while."