"When will you be setting out for Osaka? Lord Nobutaka is there with Lord Niwa.”

"I haven't got time to go to Osaka now; that's not where the enemy is. I sent a messenger to Osaka this morning."

"Lord Nobutaka is the third son of Lord Nobunaga. Shouldn't you meet him first?”

"I'm not asking him to come here. I have asked him to take part in the forthcoming battle, which will be the memorial service for Lord Nobunaga. He is with Niwa, sco I thought it wouldn't be necessary to stick to formalities. He'll be joining our camp tomorrow for sure."

"What about Ikeda Shonyu?"

"We'll be meeting him as well. I haven't seen him yet, but he sent a messenger with a pledge of his support."

Hideyoshi was confident about his allies. Even Hosokawa Fujitaka had refused Mitsuhide's invitation. Instead, he had just sent a retainer to Hideyoshi telling him that he would not join forces with a rebel. Hideyoshi triumphantly stressed to the two generals that this loyalty was not only the natural trend of the world but also a great moral principle of the warrior class.

Finally, after talking over various subjects, both Sebei and Ukon formally delivered to Hideyoshi the hostages they had brought along with them as pledges of their good faith.

Hideyoshi declined with a laugh.

"That won't be necessary. I know you both so well. Send these children back to your castles right away."

That very day Ikeda Shonyu, who had known Hideyoshi since their early days together in Kiyosu Castle, joined Hideyoshi's army. Just before setting out that morning Shonyu had also taken the tonsure.

"What! You had your head shaved too?" Hideyoshi said when he saw his friend.

"We did the same thing by chance."

"We think the same way."

Neither Hideyoshi nor Shonyu needed to say anything more. Shonyu now added his four thousand men to Hideyoshi's army. Hideyoshi had started with an army of about ten thousand men, but with the addition of Ukon's two thousand men., Sebei's two thousand five hundred men, Hachiya's one thousand, and the Ikeda corps of four thousand, the army now numbered more than twenty thousand troops.

At the first war conference, Sebei and Ukon unexpectedly began to argue with each other, neither man giving any ground.

"It has been a matter of samurai etiquette since ancient times that the lord of the castle closest to the enemy leads the vanguard," Ukon said. "So there is no reason at all why my troops should follow Sebei's."

Sebei refused to give in. "The division between rear and vanguard should have nothing to do with how close to or how far away from the battlefield a man's castle is. The caliber of the troops and the commander are what matter."

"Well then, are you saying that I am unworthy of leading the vanguard against the enemy?

"I don't know about you. I am certain in my belief, however, that I am not going to yield to anyone. And I'm not going to hesitate in front of anyone in my desire to lead the vanguard in this battle. The order should be given to me, Nakagawa Sebei."

Sebei pressed Hideyoshi for the honor, but Ukon also bowed and looked up to him the expectation of receiving the command. Hideyoshi, seated on his camp stool, made his decision with the demeanor of a commander-in-chief.

"Both of you have spoken well, so it stands to reason that Sebei should take up one line of the first battle formation and Ukon should take up the other. I expect you both to accomplish deeds worthy of your words."

Throughout the council, scouts came in to make their reports.

"Lord Mitsuhide has withdrawn from Horagamine and has concentrated his strength in the area around Yamazaki and Enmyoji. He also seemed to be falling back toward Sakamoto Castle, but suddenly this morning he began to demonstrate a clearly offensive disposition, and a division of his army is marching toward Shoryuji Castle."

With the receipt of this report, a strained expression abruptly appeared on the faces of the generals. The distance between their camp at Amagasaki and Yamazaki was less than a lightning strike away. They could already sense the enemy in that area.

Sebei and Ukon had been given the responsibility for leading the vanguard, and they stood up and asked, "Shouldn't we advance on Yamazaki at once?"

Hideyoshi, unmoved by the men's agitation and the pressure of the moment, answered with extreme deliberation.

"I think we should wait here one more day for Lord Nobutaka's arrival. It's obvious that during the one night and half a day that we wait, this great opportunity will slip away moment by moment, but I would like one of our late lord's sons to participate in the battle. I don't want to put Lord Nobutaka in a situation that he would regret for the rest of his life, one which would make him unable to face the world."

"But what if the enemy is able to take advantageous ground in the meantime?"

"Well, there are naturally limits even to waiting for Lord Nobutaka. We'll have to start out for Yamazaki by tomorrow, no matter what happens. Once the entire army has gathered at Yamazaki, we'll be in contact again, so both of you should go ahead and advance imediately."

Sebei and Ukon made their way out. The order of the vanguard's departure was to be as follows: first, the Takayama corps; second, the Nakagawa corps; and third, the Ikeda corps.

As soon as they left Tonda, the two-thousand-man Takayama corps dashed out as though they had already seen the enemy army. Watching the dust from their horses, Sebei and everyone in the second corps wondered if the Akechi forces hadn't already got to Yamazaki.

"They're going too fast even for that," some thought suspiciously.

Immediately after entering the village of Yamazaki, Ukon's men closed off all the gates on the roads that led to the town and even intercepted travelers on the backroads in the area.

The Nakagawa corps that came up later naturally encountered these roadblocks and suddenly understood the reason for Ukon's hurry: he could not bear to be in the second attacking line. Sebei abandoned this strategic position and immediately started off for a hill called Tennozan.

In the end Hideyoshi quartered his troops at Tonda that night, but the next day he finally received the report that Nobutaka and Niwa had reached the Yodo River.

As soon as he heard the news, Hideyoshi nearly knocked over his camp stool as he jumped up for joy. "A horse! Bring me a horse!" he ordered.

As he mounted, he turned to the men at the gate and yelled, "I'm going off to greet Lord Nobutaka!" and whipped his horse toward the Yodo River.

The wide river was almost overflowing. On the bank, Nobutaka's forces were divided into two corps of four and three thousand men respectively.

"Where is Lord Nobutaka?" Hideyoshi yelled as he dismounted among the sweaty soldiers who watched him go by. Nobody realized that it was Hideyoshi.

"It's me, Hideyoshi," he announced.

The soldiers gaped in surprise.

Hideyoshi did not wait for a formal welcome. Pushing his way through the throng of men, he headed for the tree beneath which Nobutaka had set up his standard.

Surrounded by his field staff, Nobutaka was resting on his camp stool, shading his eyes from the glare of the water. Suddenly he turned and saw Hideyoshi running toward him, yelling as he came. As soon as he saw Hideyoshi, Nobutaka was overcome by a feeling of gratitude. Here was a retainer whom his father had trained for many years, and what he was doing now went far beyond the normal ties that bound a lord and retainer. His eyes shone with a light that showed he was feeling an emotion usually reserved for blood relations.

"Hideyoshi!" Nobutaka called out.

Without waiting for Nobutaka to extend his hand, Hideyoshi suddenly walked up to him and grasped it firmly.

"Lord Nobutaka!" was all Hideyoshi said. Neither man said anything further, but their eyes spoke at length. Tears flowed down their cheeks. Through those tears Nobutaka was able to express all his feelings for his dead father to a retainer of his clan. And Hideyoshi understood what was in the young man's heart. He finally released the hand he had held so tightly and at the same time knelt to the ground.