"It's so good that you have come. There is no time to say anything more, and there's really nothing else in my heart. I'm just grateful to be with you now, and firmly believe that in heaven your father's soul will be pleased by this action. I feel as though I've finally been able to pay my respects to you here and have fulfilled my duty as a retainer. I'm happy for the first time since Takamatsu Castle."
Later that day Hideyoshi invited Nobutaka to accompany him back to his camp in Tonda, and together they turned toward Yamazaki.
They arrived at Yamazaki at the Hour of the Monkey, the ten thousand men of their reserve army adding to the eight thousand five hundred men of the three vanguard corps. Now there was no place in the mountains or village where horses and soldiers could not be seen.
"We've just received a report that an Akechi army has attacked the Nakagawa corps in the foothills east of Tennozan."
Now was the time to strike. Hideyoshi gave the command for the entire army to attack.
On the morning of the ninth, when Hideyoshi was leaving Himeji, Mitsuhide returned to Kyoto. Less than a week had gone by since Nobunaga's murder.
On the second, at the Hour of the Ram, while the ruins of the Honno Temple were still smoldering, Mitsuhide had left Kyoto to attack Azuchi. But on his very first step outside the capital, Mitsuhide ran into an obstacle at the river crossing at Seta. That morning he had sent a letter demanding the surrender of Seta Castle, but its governor had killed the messenger and set fire to the castle and the Seta Bridge.
Thus the Akechi troops were unable to cross the river. Mitsuhide's eyes burned with indignation. The fire-gutted bridge seemed almost to be mocking him. The world does not see you as you see the world.
Forced to return to Sakamoto Castle, Mitsuhide spent two or three fruitless days waiting until the bridge was repaired. By the time he rode into Azuchi, however, the town was deserted, and its huge castle housed neither master nor men. In the town, there were no goods or even a shop sign left to be seen. Nobunaga's family had fled, but in their haste they had been forced to leave behind Nobunaga's hoard of gold and silver, and his collection of works of art.
Mitsuhide was shown these things after his troops secured the castle, but he did not feel wealthier for it. Somehow he felt beggared.
This is not what I was looking for, he thought, and it's mortifying if people think it was.
He had all the gold and silver in the treasury distributed as rewards to his men. Common soldiers received several hundred gold pieces, while the highest-ranking generals recieved three to five thousand gold pieces.
What do I want? Mitsuhide asked himself time and again. To rule the nation! came the answer, but it had a hollow ring to it. He had to admit to himself that he had never embraced such lofty hopes, having neither the ambition nor the ability. All along, he had had only one motive: to kill Nobunaga. Mitsuhide's desires had been sated by the fires of the Honno Temple, and now all that was left was a passion so devoid of conviction that it seemed nothing more than frenzy.
According to a story circulating at the time, Mitsuhide had tried to kill himself soon as he heard that Nobunaga was dead. His retainers had forcibly stopped him. In instant that Nobunaga had been turned to ashes, the hatred that had frozen Mitsuhide’s heart had dissolved like melting snow. The ten thousand soldiers who served him, however, did not share his attitude. On the contrary, they hoped that their real reward was to come.
"From this day on, Lord Mitsuhide is the ruler of the country," the Akechi generals announced with a conviction Mitsuhide lacked. .
But the lord they looked up to was no more than a hollow simulacrum of his former self. He differed in appearance and disposition—even in intellect.
Mitsuhide remained in Azuchi from the fifth until the morning of the eighth, and during that time he took Hideyoshi's castle at Nagahama as well as Niwa Nagahide's at Sawayama. Once he had completely occupied the province of Omi, Mitsuhide re-outfitted his army and once again set off for the capital.
It was then that Mitsuhide received the news that the Hosokawa clan had refused join him. He had been convinced that Hosokawa Tadaoki, his son-in-law, would be quick to follow him once Nobunaga had been overthrown. But the response carried back from the Hosokawa clan had been an angry refusal. So far Mitsuhide had been absorbed by question of who would be his allies; he had given little thought to who would be his strongest enemy.
It was only then that Hideyoshi's existence struck Mitsuhide like a blow to the chest. He had not overlooked Hideyoshi's abilities and his military strength in the west. On contrary, he knew that Hideyoshi was an immense threat. What gave Mitsuhide a little peace of mind was his belief that Hideyoshi was pinned down by the Mori and would be unable to return quickly. He thought that at least one of the two messengers he had sent to the Mori had accomplished his mission. And, no doubt, the Mori's response would arrive soon, informing him that they had attacked Hideyoshi and destroyed him. But nothing was heard from the Mori, nor was there any response from Nakagawa Sebei, Ikeda Shonyu, and Takayama Ukon. The news that reached Mitsuhide instead each morning sounded like a judgment from heaven.
For Mitsuhide, Sakamoto Castle held vivid memories of recent events: his humiliation by Nobunaga; his departure from Azuchi in a rage; his stay at Sakamoto where had stood at the crossroads of doubt. Now there was no more doubt, no more resentment. And at the same time, he had lost all of his powers of self-examination. He had exchanged his true intelligence for the empty title of ruler of the nation.
On the night of the ninth, Mitsuhide still had no idea where Hideyoshi was, but the attitudes of the local lords made him feel uneasy. On the following morning he left his camp at Shimo Toba and climbed up to Horagamine Pass in Yamashiro, at which place he had arranged to join with Tsutsui Junkei's army.
"Has Tsutsui Junkei been sighted yet?" Mitsuhide asked his lookouts at regular intervals during the day.
Because Mitsuhide had been in collusion with Tsutsui Junkei before the attack on the
Honno Temple, he had never had cause to doubt his ally's loyalty—until now. At nightfall there was still no sign of the Tsutsui forces. Not only that, but the three Oda retainers he had hoped to win over to his side—Nakagawa Sebei, Takayama Ukon, and Ikeda Shonyu—had not responded to his urgent summonses, even though they were nominally under his command.
Mitsuhide's uneasiness was not unjustified. He consulted with Saito Toshimitsu. "Do you think something's wrong, Toshimitsu?"
Mitsuhide wanted to believe that something had happened to the messengers he had sent, or that Junkei and the others were merely delayed, but Saito Toshimitsu had already faced up to the truth.
"No, my lord," the old man replied. "I suspect Lord Tsutsui has no intention of coming. There's no reason for him to be so late traveling the level roads from Koriyama."
"No, there must be some reason," Mitsuhide insisted. He summoned Fujita Dengo, quickly wrote up a letter, and sent him to Koriyama. "Take the best horses. If you ride at top speed, you should be able to come back by morning."
"If Lord Tsutsui will talk with me, I'll be back at dawn," Dengo said.
"There's no reason why he shouldn't talk with you. Get an answer from him even if it’s late at night."
"Yes, my lord."
Dengo immediately set off for Koriyama. Before he was able to return, however, scouts arrived with reports that Hideyoshi's forces were moving eastward and that the vanguard had already come as far as the neighboring province of Hyogo.
"Impossible! It must be a mistake!" Mitsuhide burst out when he heard the news. He could not believe that Hideyoshi had been able to make peace with the Mori, and, even if he had, that he could have moved his large army so quickly.