The youngest stopped walking and said she wanted to return to the castle. The samurai who had accompanied them from the castle calmed her down by putting her on his back.

“Where are we going?" the little girl asked with a shudder.

“We're going to a nice man's place," Shinroku answered.

“No! I don't want to go!" the girl cried.

The older girls did their best to calm her down.

“Mother should be coming later on. Right, Shinroku?"

“Yes. Of course she is."

Pattering on like that, they finally approached the stand of pines where Hideyoshi had made his camp.

Hideyoshi came out from behind the curtain and stood beneath a pine tree, watching them approach. He walked up to meet the girls.

“They all have the family resemblance," he said when he saw them up close.

Was it the figure of Nobunaga or that of Oichi that was conjured up within his beast? Whichever it was, he was completely charmed and could only mutter that they were good children. A tassel hung elegantly from Chacha's plum-colored sleeve. Against the middle sister's sleeve, which was embroidered with a bold pattern, was a red sash. The youngest girl was dressed no less elegantiy than her sisters. Each had a tiny satchel scented with aloeswood and a tiny golden bell.

“How old are you?" Hideyoshi asked. But none of the three would answer. On the contrary, their lips turned so white they gave the impression that if you touched them they would burst into tears.

Hideyoshi laughed lightly and displayed a smile. "There is nothing to fear, my little princesses. From now on you can play with me." And he pointed to his own nose.

The middle sister laughed a little, perhaps because she was the only one who was reminded of a monkey.

But suddenly the gunfire and war cries shook the area even more strongly than before, sweeping over the entire area of the castle. Overhead, the morning sky began to appear.

The little princesses saw the smoke rising from the castle walls and started to scream and cry in confusion.

Hideyoshi put the girls in the care of a retainer, then called vehemently for a horse and rode off in the direction of the castle.

The two moats along the outer walls that drew in the waters of the Kuzuryu River did not allow the attacking troops an easy approach.

When at last, however, they were able to cross the outer moat, the soldiers in the castle had set fire to the bridge at the front gate. The flames leaped to the tower over the gate and spread to the area of the barracks. The resistance of the defenders was furious beyond the attackers' anticipation.

At noon the outer castle fell. The attackers flowed into the main citadel from every one of the gates.

Katsuie and his senior retainers had gone to the keep to make their final stand. The mighty keep was a nine-story building with iron doors and stone pillars.

After two hours of fighting in the keep, the attacking soldiers had sustained many more casualties than they had suffered during the whole morning. The courtyard and the tower were a sea of flames. Hideyoshi ordered a temporary retreat. Perhaps because he saw that they were making little headway, he pulled back every corps.

During that time he selected several hundred stalwart warriors. No one was to carry firearms; only spears and swords.

"Now I'm going to see it done! Cut your way into the tower!" he ordered.

The specially picked spear corps immediately enveloped the tower like a swarm of wasps and soon penetrated into the interior.

Jet black smoke poured from the third floor, from the fourth, then from the fifth.

"Good!" Hideyoshi yelled when a huge umbrella of flames shot out from the tower's multifaceted eaves.

That was the flash that signaled Katsuie's end. Katsuie and the eighty members of his household held the attackers back on the third and fourth floors of the keep and fought hard until the very end, slipping in the spilled blood. But now three members of his family called to him.

"Prepare yourself quickly, my lord!"

Running up to the fifth floor, he joined Lady Oichi. After witnessing her death, Shibata Katsuie ended his life by cutting open his stomach.

It was the Hour of the Monkey. The keep burned all night. The magnificent buildings that had stood on the banks of the Kuzuryu River since the time of Nobunaga burned like a funeral pyre for innumerable past dreams and a thousand souls. Nothing, however, could be found in the ashes that in any way resembled Katsuie.

It was said that he had packed dry grass into the tower with meticulous care so that he would be burned up completely. And for that reason, Katsuie's head could never be offered as sure proof of his death. For a while some said that Katsuie had escaped, but Hideyoshi reacted with almost complete indifference to those rumors. By the following day he had already turned toward Kaga.

Oyama Castle in Kaga had been until the day before the headquarters of Sakuma Genba. When the fall of Kitanosho was reported, the people in that area could see what was in the wind and surrendered to Hideyoshi. He entered Oyama Castle without a fight. But the more victories his armies won, the more he warned them about the gravity of the situation and cautioned them against the slackening of military discipline. His aim was to overawe the solid warriors of the Shibata and their allies once and for all.

Sassa Narimasa in Toyama Castle was one of those warriors. Indeed, he was a strong supporter of the Shibata and held Hideyoshi in complete contempt. In terms of lineage, Sassa was far above Hideyoshi. He had been Katsuie's second in command during the northern campaign, and during the campaign against Hideyoshi, he had been asked to stay behind, not only to check the Uesugi clan but also to manage internal matters in the north.

Sassa is here. That is the stance he took as he glared out of the castle, standing firm in his guardianship of the northern provinces. Even though Katsuie had already perished and Kitanosho had fallen, there was a good possibility that—with his natural ferocity and professed dislike of Hideyoshi—Sassa might make a desperate effort to step into Katsuie's shoes and do his best to prolong the war. And he was indeed thinking of doing that by combining his own fresh troops with the remaining Shibata.

Hideyoshi purposely did not confront the man. The numbers of Hideyoshi's army demonstrated his power, and he decided to let their presence persuade Sassa to reconsider his position. In the meantime he approached the Uesugi clan with an invitation to form an alliance. Uesugi Kagekatsu sent a retainer to congratulate Hideyoshi on his victory and to respond affirmatively to Hideyoshi's offer.

Considering the apparently friendly relationship between Hideyoshi and the Uesugi clan, Sassa Narimasa found it impossible to plan a battle of resistance. He therefore disguised his intentions and finally declared his submission to Hideyoshi. He then married his daughter to Inuchiyo's second son, Toshimasa, and settled down with relief in his own province. Thus the area north of Kitanosho was pacified by momentum, and virtually no fighting had been required.

Having secured the north, Hideyoshi's victorious army returned to Nagahama Castle on the Boys' Festival, the fifth day of the Fifth Month.

At Nagahama Hideyoshi listened to reports of the situation in Gifu. After Kitanosho, it was chiefly Gifu Castie that continued its attacks on Hideyoshi, but after the great defeat of the Shibata, the martial spirit of Nobutaka and his soldiers was considerably dampened.  To make matters worse, there were in Nagahama Castle many retainers from Gifu who had deserted Nobutaka and joined Hideyoshi. In the end, the situation had become so extreme that a mere twenty-seven men remained with Nobutaka. Because Nobutaka had relied particularly upon the Shibata, for him their destruction was akin to cutting the roots of a plant. His men all deserted him, except for his favorites. Nobuo assembled his forces and surrounded Nobutaka's castle. He sent a message saying his brother should go to Owari.