"Keep your head, Ujiie!" Hideyoshi shouted, striking the man's hand with his whip. “Mosuke can follow me if he wants to come with me that much. But he should come after the army has left. And for that matter, we can't just leave you. You should come along too."

Almost insane with joy, Ujiie turned toward the staff headquarters and called out in a loud voice, "Lord Mosuke! Lord Mosuke! We've received permission to go! Come out and show your gratitude."

The two men prostrated themselves on the ground, but all that remained was the sound of a whip in the wind. Hideyoshi's horse was already galloping off in the distance. Even his attendants were caught off guard and had to scramble to catch up.

The men on foot, as well as those who quickly mounted their horses, chased after their master all at once without any formation or order.

It was the Hour of the Ram. Not even two hours had passed between the arrival of the first courier and Hideyoshi's departure. During that time, Hideyoshi had turned a defeat in northern Omi into an opportunity for victory. He had created a new strategy for his entire army on the spot. He had instructed couriers and sent them out with orders along the thirteen-league road to Kinomoto—the road that would be his path to all or nothing.

He had been resolved in both body and mind.

With the impetus of that resolve, he himself and a force of fifteen thousand men sped straight ahead, while five thousand men remained behind.

Hideyoshi and his advance guard entered Nagahama that afternoon at the Hour of the Monkey. One corps followed another, and the last men and horses to leave Ogaki must have been departing just about the same time the advance guard was entering Nagahama.

Hideyoshi was not negligent when he arrived at Nagahama, but immediately made preparations for taking the initiative against the enemy. In fact, he never even dismounted. After eating rice balls and slaking his thirst with a ladle of water, he quickly departed from Nagahama and hurried on through Sone and Hayami. He arrived at Kinomoto at the Hour of the Dog.

It had taken them only five hours to travel from Ogaki, because they had come the entire way without stopping.

Hidenaga's fifteen thousand men were at Mount Tagami. Kinomoto was actually a post station on the road that skirted the eastern slope of the mountain. A division of the army on the peak was stationed there. Just outside the village of Jizo, the men had constructed an observation tower.

"Where are we? What's the name of this place?" Hideyoshi asked, pulling his galloping horse to an abrupt halt and holding on tightly.

"This is Jizo."

"We're close to the camp at Kinomoto."

The answers came from some of the retainers around him. Hideyoshi remained in the saddle.

"Give me some water," he ordered. Taking the ladle offered him, he swallowed down the water in one gulp and stretched for the first time since he had left Ogaki, then dismounted and quickly walked to the base of the watchtower and looked up to the sky. The tower was unroofed and had no stairway. The soldiers simply climbed up by stepping on roughly spaced wooden footholds.

Suddenly Hideyoshi seemed to recall his days as a young foot soldier. Tying the cord of his commander's fan to the sword he was wearing, he began to climb to the top of the tower. His pages pushed him up by his hindquarters, and a sort of human ladder was formed.

"This is dangerous, my lord."

"Don't you need a ladder?"

The men below called to him, but Hideyoshi was already well over twenty feet from the ground.

The violent storm that had passed over the plains of Mino and Owari had abated. The sky was clear and full of stars, and Lake Biwa and Lake Yogo were like two mirrors thrown onto the plain.

When Hideyoshi, who had seemed weary from the journey, stood on the tower—his resolute figure outlined against the night sky—he was far more happy than tired. The more dangerous the situation and the deeper his hardships, the happier he became. It was the happiness that arose from surmounting adversities and being able to turn and see them behind him, and he had experienced it to greater and lesser degrees since the time of his youth. He himself claimed that the greatest happiness of life was to stand at the difficult border between success and failure.

But now, as he gazed out over nearby Shizugatake and Mount Oiwa, he looked like a man who was confident of victory.

Hideyoshi, however, was far more cautious than most men. Now, as was his habit, he fully closed his eyes and placed himself in a position where the world was neither enemy nor ally. Extricating himself from earthly inconsistencies, he himself became the heart of the universe and listened for the declaration of heaven's will.

“It's just about finished up already," he muttered, finally displaying a smile. "That Sakuma Genba came out looking so fresh and green. What could he have been dreaming of?”

Descending the tower, he immediately climbed halfway up Mount Tagami, where, he was greeted by Hidenaga. As soon as he finished giving Hidenaga his orders, Hideyoshi once again descended the mountain, passed through Kuroda, crossed over Kannonzaka, went along the east of Yogo, and arrived at Mount Chausu, where he rested for the first since departing Ogaki.

He was accompanied by two thousand soldiers. His persimmon-colored silk armor coat was covered with the sweat and dust of the day. But it was in that dirty coat, and the steady movements of his military fan, that he gave out the instructions for the battle.

It was already late at night, somewhere between the second half of the Hour of the Boar and the first half of the Hour of the Rat.

Hachigamine lay to the east of Shizugatake. Genba had brought up a single corps there during the evening. His plan for the attack on Shizugatake the following morning was to act in concert with the vanguard at Iiurazaka and Shimizudani to the northwest and to isolate the enemy fortress.

Stars filled the entire sky. The mountains, however, covered with trees and shrubs, were as black as ink, and the path that wound through them was nothing more than a narrow woodcutters' trail.

One of the sentries grunted.

“What's going on?" another man asked.

“Come here and take a look," yet another man called from a little farther off. The sound of men rustling through the undergrowth could be heard, and then the figures of sentries appeared on the ridge.

“There seems to be a sort of glow in the sky," one of them said, pointing toward the southeast.

“Where?"

“From the right of that big cypress all the way to the south."

“What do you think it is?"

They all laughed.

“It must be the farmers near Otsu or Kuroda burning something."

"There shouldn't be any farmers left in the villages. They've all run away to the mountains."

“Well then, maybe it's the bonfires of the enemy stationed at Kinomoto."

"I don't think so. On a night when the clouds are low it would be different, but it's strange to see the sky colored like this on a clear night. There are too many trees blocking our view here, but we should be able to see if we climb up to the edge of that cliff."

"Hold up! That's dangerous!"

"If you slip, you'll fall all the way into the valley!"

They tried to stop him, but he climbed out onto the rock face, clinging to the vines. His silhouette looked like that of a monkey on top of the rocky mountain.

"Oh no! This is horrible!" he suddenly called out.

His exclamation startled everyone below.

"What is it? What do you see?"

The man on the ridge stood silently, almost as though he were in a daze. One after another, the men below climbed up to where he was. When they reached the top, they all trembled. Standing on the rocky clifftop, they could see not only Lake Yogo and Lake Biwa but also the road to the northern provinces that wound its way south along the lake. Even the base of Mount Ibuki was visible.