The messenger this time had not come for simple conversation or to relay Katsuie's thoughts. Rather, he delivered formal military orders, the content of which was yet another request to retreat. Genba listened tamely, but his answer, as before, firmly upheld his own view and he showed no indication of submitting.

"He has already given me the responsibility of supervising an incursion deep into enemy territory. To comply with what he asks now would be to omit the finishing touch to a military operation that has been successful so far. I would like him to trust me with the baton of command for just one more step."

So Genba neither bowed to what the envoy had been sent to say nor submitted to his commander-in-chief's very explicit orders. He had used his ego as a shield. Standing before him now, even Joemon—who had been chosen to come here by Katsuie himself— was unable to prevail upon the man's rigidity.

"There's nothing more I can do," Joemon said, washing his hands of the whole affair. His final words were accompanied by a slightly indignant look. "I cannot imagine what Lord Katsuie will think, but I will pass your answer on to him."

Joemon quickly returned without further conversation. He naturally whipped his horse to quicken his return, just as he had in coming.

Thus the third messenger returned, and by the time the fourth arrived, the sun was growing dim in the west. The old warrior, Ota Kuranosuke, a veteran retainer and personal attendant to Katsuie, talked at length. He spoke, however, more about the relationship between uncle and nephew than about the order itself, and did his best to soften the youthful Genba's rigid stance.

"Now, now. I understand your resolve, but of all the members of your family, Lord Katsuie holds you in the highest esteem, and that's why he's so worried now. Particularly, now that you've destroyed one section of the enemy, we will be able to consolidate our position, continue to make one victory after another, and break down the enemy's weak points step by step. That is our larger strategy, and it's the one that has been decided upon in order to take control of the country. Listen, Lord Genba, you should stop here."

"The road is going to be dangerous when the sun goes down, old man. Go back."

"You won't do it, will you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"What is your decision?"

"I wasn't thinking of making that decision from the very beginning."

Fatigued, the old retainer left.

The fifth messenger arrived.

Genba had become even more rigid. He had come so far, and he was not going to turn back. He refused to see the messenger, but the man was not some minor retainer. The messengers who had come that day had all been distinguished men, but the fifth one was a particularly powerful member of Katsuie's entourage.

"I know that our envoys to you may not have been satisfactory, but now Lord Katsuie has talked about coming here himself. We, his close attendants, have urged him to stay in camp and I, as unworthy as I am, have come in his place. I implore you to think about this clearly and then strike camp and leave Mount Oiwa as quickly as possible."

He made his plea while prostrating himself outside the curtained enclosure.

Genba, however, had judged the situation thus: Even if Hideyoshi had been informed of the incident and had hurried from Ogaki, it was still a distance of thirteen leagues from there to here, and it would have taken until nightfall for the warning to arrive. It would also not be an easy matter to get away quickly from Gifu. Therefore, the soonest imaginable time for the completion of that shift in field positions would be tomorrow night or the day after.

“That nephew of mine is not going to listen, no matter who I send," Katsuie complained. "I'll have to go there myself and make him withdraw by nightfall."

The main camp at Kitsune had received word that day of the raiding army's happy success and was temporarily overjoyed. But the order for a swift retreat had not been carried out. In fact, Genba had dismissed all of the distinguished envoys with a refusal to obey and a derisive sneer.

“Ah, that nephew of mine is going to be the end of me," Katsuie lamented, barely able to contain himself. When word leaked out about the internal discord within the field staff—that Genba's willfulness was being criticized by Katsuie—the martial spirit within the camp somehow lost its cheerfulness.

“Another envoy has left camp."

“What! Another?"

The repeated comings and goings between the main camp and Mount Oiwa pained the hearts of the warriors.

For half a day, Katsuie felt his life would be shortened. During the time he waited for the return of his fifth envoy, he could hardly stay seated on his camp stool. The camp was located at a temple in Kitsunezaka, and it was along the corridors of that building that Katsuie now wandered silently, looking in the direction of the temple gate.

“Shichiza hasn't returned yet?" he asked his close attendants innumerable times. "It's already evening, isn't it?"

As dusk pressed in, he became irritated. The evening sun was now casting its light on the bell tower.

“Lord Yadoya has returned!" That was the message relayed by the warrior at the temple gate.

“What happened?" Katsuie asked anxiously.

The man delivered his report frankly. Genba had at first refused to meet him, but Yadoya had persisted. He had related his lord's view in detail, but in vain. Genba insisted that even if Hideyoshi rushed to Mount Oiwa from Ogaki, it would take him at least one or two days. Thus Genba would be able to destroy Hideyoshi's troops quite easily because they would be so fatigued from the long journey. For that reason, he had declared his resolution to remain on Mount Oiwa and in no way appeared ready to change his mind.

Katsuie's eyes glistened with anger. "That fool!" he yelled, almost as if he were spitting blood. Then, beneath a heavy groan that shook his entire frame, he muttered, "Genba's behavior is outrageous."

'Yaso! Yaso!" Looking all around him and into the warriors' waiting area in the next room, Katsuie yelled out in a high-pitched voice.

“Are you looking for Yoshida Yaso?" Menju Shosuke asked in return.

“Of course!" Katsuie shrieked, venting his anger on Shosuke. "Call him here right now.  Tell him to come here right away!"

Running footsteps echoed through the temple. Yoshida Yaso received Katsuie's ordersand immediately whipped his horse toward Mount Oiwa.

The long day finally darkened and the flames of the bonfires began to flicker in the shadows of the young leaves. They reflected what was now deep within Katsuie's breast.

The return trip of two leagues could be completed in the twinkling of an eye by a fast horse, and Yaso returned in no time at all.

"I told him that this was the last you had to say and admonished him thoroughly, but Lord Genba would not consent to a retreat."

The sixth report was the same. Katsuie no longer had the energy to be angry and would have shed tears had he not been on the battlefield. Instead, he simply sank into grief and blamed himself, regretting the blind love he had held for Genba until now.

"I'm the one who was wrong," he lamented.

On the battlefield—where a man must act strictly according to military discipline— Genba had taken advantage of his close ties to his uncle. He had made a decision that could affect the rise or fall of the entire clan, and had insisted on his own selfish way without the least bit of reflection.

But who was it who had allowed the young man to become accustomed to that kind of action? Wasn't this morass the result of his own heedless love for his nephew? Through it he had first lost his foster son, Katsutoyo, and Nagahama Castle. Now he was about to lose an enormous and irretrievable opportunity upon which rested the fate of the entire Shibata clan.