“Who is it? Naomasa? Come in, come in."

Closing the Analects, Ieyasu pulled his stool around.

The two farmers reported that on that very evening, some units of Hideyoshi's army had left Inuyama and were heading in the direction of Mikawa.

"You've done well," Ieyasu said. "You'll be rewarded!"

Ieyasu's brow tightened. If Okazaki was attacked, nothing could be done. Even he hadn't thought that the enemy would leave Mount Komaki and strike out for his home province of Mikawa.

"Summon Sakai, Honda, and Ishikawa immediately," he said calmly.

He ordered the three generals to guard Mount Komaki in his absence. He would lead the bulk of his forces himself and go in pursuit of Shonyu's army.

At about that time, a country samurai had come to report to Nobuo's camp. By the time Nobuo brought the man to speak with Ieyasu, Ieyasu had already summoned a conference of his field staff.

"You come too, Lord Nobuo! I think we can say that this pursuit is going to finish with an impressive battle, and if you're not present, it's going to lack significance."

Ieyasu's forces were to be divided into two corps, and would total fifteen thousand nine hundred men. Mizuno Tadashige's four thousand troops would act as the army's vanguard.

By the night of the eighth day of the month, the main corps under Ieyasu and Nobuo had left Mount Komaki. Finally they crossed over the Shonai River. The units under Nagayoshi and Kyutaro were bivouacking only two leagues away in the village of Kamijo.

The dim white light on the water-covered rice fields and little streams showed that the dawn was near, but black shadows lay all around, and dark clouds hung low to the earth.

"Hey! There they are!"

"Get down! Lie down!"

In the rice paddies, in the clumps of bushes, in the shadows of the trees, in the hollows of the ground, the figures of the men in the pursuing army all bent down quickly. Straining their ears, they could hear the western army moving in a long black line along the single road that disappeared into a forest in the distance.

The pursuing troops divided into two corps and secretly trailed behind the tail end of the enemy, which was composed of the Fourth Corps of the western army led by Mikoshi Hidetsugu.

That was the shape of the fate of both armies on the morning of the ninth day of the month. Moreover, the commander selected by Hideyoshi for this important undertaking—his own nephew Hidetsugu—was still unaware of the situation as dawn began to break.

While Hideyoshi had appointed the steady Hori Kyutaro as the leader of the invasion of Mikawa, it was Hidetsugu whom he designated as commander-in-chief. Hidetsugu, however, was still only a sixteen-year-old boy, so Hideyoshi had selected two senior gen­erals and ordered them to watch over the young commander.

The troops were still tired as the sun peacefully announced the dawn of the ninth day of the month. Knowing that the men must be hungry, Hidetsugu gave the order to stop. At the command to eat their provisions, the generals and soldiers sat down and ate their morning meal.

The place was Hakusan Woods, so-called because Hakusan Shrine stood at the top of a small hill there. Hidetsugu set up his stool on the hill.

“Don't you have any water?" the young man asked a retainer. "There's none left in my canteen, and my throat is really dry."

Taking the canteen, he gulped down every last drop of water.

“It’s not good to drink too much when we're on the move. Be a little patient, my lord, a retainer reproved him.

But Hidetsugu did not even turn to look at him. The men whom Hideyoshi had sent to watch him were eyesores to the young man. He was sixteen years old, a commanding general, and naturally in a fighting mood.

“Who's that running in this direction?"

“It’s Hotomi."

“What's Hotomi doing here?" Hidetsugu narrowed his eyes and stretched up to see. The commander of the spear corps, Hotomi, approached him and knelt. He was out of breath.

“Lord Hidetsugu, we have an emergency!"

“Really."

“Please climb a little farther up to the top of the hill."

“There." Hotomi pointed out a cloud of dust. "It's still far away, but it's moving from the shelter of those mountains toward the plain."

“It’s not a whirlwind, is it? It's bunched up in front, with a crowd following to the rear.  It’s an army, that's for sure."

“You have to make a decision, my lord."

“Is it the enemy?"

“ I don't think it could be anyone else."

“Wait, I wonder if it really is the enemy."

Hidetsugu was still acting with indifference. He seemed to think that it just could not be true.

But as soon as his retainers reached the top of the hill, they all shouted together.

“Damn!"

“I thought the enemy might have a plan to follow us. Prepare yourselves!"

Unable to wait for Hidetsugu's orders, all of them moved to take action, kicking up bits of grass and dust in their haste. The ground shook, the horses whinnied, officers and men shouted back and forth. In the moment it took to transform the rest period for a meal into readiness for battle, the commanders of the Tokugawa army had given the order for a wild fusillade of bullets and arrows directly into Hidetsugu's troops.

“Fire! Loose your arrows!"

“Strike into them!"

Observing the confusion of the enemy, the mounted men and spear corps suddenly charged.

“Don't let them get close to His Lordship!"

The shouts surrounding Hidetsugu were now only wild voices calling to protect his life.

Here, there, from among the trees and shrubs, from everywhere along the road, came swarms of enemy soldiers. The only force that was unable to open up an escape route was one made up of Hidetsugu and his retainers.

Hidetsugu had been slightly wounded in two or three places and labored furiously with his spear.

"Are you still here, my lord?"

"Hurry! Retreat! Move back!"

When his retainers saw him, they spoke almost as if they were scolding him. Every one of them died fighting. Kinoshita Kageyu saw that Hidetsugu had lost sight of his horse and was now on foot.

"Here! Take this one! Use the whip and get out of this place without looking back!"

Giving Hidetsugu his own horse, Kageyu planted his banner in the ground and cut his way through as many of the enemy soldiers as he could before he was finally killed as well. Hidetsugu put his hand on the horse, but before he could mount it, the animal was hit by a bullet.

"Lend me your horse!"

Fleeing desperately through the midst of the fighting, Hidetsugu had spied a mounted warrior hurrying by close to him and had yelled out. Abruptly pulling the reins and turning around, the man looked down at Hidetsugu.

"What is it, my young lord?"

"Give me your horse."

"That's like asking for someone's umbrella on a rainy day, isn't it? No, I won't lend it to you, even if it is my lord's command."

"Why not?"

"Because you're retreating and I'm one of the soldiers still charging ahead."

Flatly refusing, the man dashed off. From his back, a single strand of bamboo grass whistled in the wind.

"Damn!" Hidetsugu swore as he watched him go. It seemed that in that man's eyes, he had been less than a leaf of bamboo grass along the roadside. Looking behind him, Hidetsugu could see a cloud of dust being raised by the enemy. But a group of routed soldiers from different corps carrying spears, firearms, and long swords saw Hidetsugu and shouted for him to stop.

"My lord! If you run that way, you'll meet up with yet another enemy unit!"

As they approached, they surrounded him and then pulled him away to escape toward the Kanare River.

On their way they picked up a runaway horse, and Hidetsugu was finally mounted. But when they took a short rest at a place called Hosogane, they were again attacked by the enemy and, suffering another defeat, fled in the direction of Inaba.