Thus the Fourth Corps was routed. The Third Corps, which was led by Hori Kyutaro, consisted of about three thousand men. A distance of one to one and a half leagues was maintained between the corps, and messengers had constantly kept communications open between the forces, so that if the First Corps took a rest, the advance of the other corps was naturally halted as well, one after another.

Kyutaro suddenly cupped his ear and listened. "That was gunfire, wasn't it?"

Just at that moment, one of Hidetsugu's retainers whipped his horse into the resting camp and tumbled forward.

"Our men have been completely routed. The main army has been annihilated by the Tokugawa forces, and even Lord Hidetsugu's safety is uncertain. Turn back immediately!" he wailed.

Kyutaro was taken by surprise, but his composed brow checked the impulse of the moment.

“Are you in the messenger corps?"

“Why are you asking me that now?"

“If you're not one of the messengers, why have you come running up so upset? Did you run away?"

“No! I came here to inform you of the situation. I don't know if it was cowardly or not, but this is an emergency, and I came as fast as I could to inform Lord Nagayoshi and Lord Shonyu."

With that parting remark, the man whipped his horse and disappeared, continuing on to the next corps up ahead.

“Since a retainer came instead of a messenger, we can only surmise that our men at the rear have suffered a total defeat."

Suppressing the restlessness in his heart, Kyutaro remained seated on his camp stool for another moment.

“Everyone come here!" Already aware of the situation, his retainers and officers gathered-around, their faces pale. "The Tokugawa forces are about to attack us. Don't waste bullets. Wait until the enemy has come to within sixty feet before firing." After instructing them in the disposition of troops, he made one concluding remark. "I will give one hundred bushels for every dead enemy warrior."

What he anticipated was not off the mark. The Tokugawa force that had struck Hidetsugu’s corps with an obliterating blow was now descending on his own corps fiercely.  The Tokugawa commanders were themselves frightened by the unrelenting force of their troops' spirit.

Froth covered the horses' mouths, the men's faces were tense with determination, and the armor that was coming in waves was covered with blood and dust. As the Tokugawa forces pressed closer and closer into firing range, Kyutaro watched carefully and then gave the command.

“Fire!"

At that instant, gunfire created a dreadful roar and a wall of smoke. With matchlock firearms, the time it took to load and fire was a period of perhaps five or six breaths, even for well-practiced men. Because of that, a system of alternating volleys was used. Thus, after each fusillade, another fell upon the enemy in rapid succession. The assaulting army fell helter-skelter before this defense. Their vast numbers could be seen on the ground between the clouds of gunpowder smoke.

“They're prepared!"

“Stop! Fall back!"

The Tokugawa commanders yelled orders to fall back, but their charging soldiers not be so easily stopped.

Kyutaro saw that the moment had come and shouted to the troops to counterattack.  The victory was now clear, both psychologically and physically, without anyone having to wait for the actual result. The corps of warriors that had been so brilliantly victorious now received themselves what they had given to Hidetsugu only moments before.

Throughout Hideyoshi's army Hori Kyutaro's spear corps was famed for its great efficiency. The corpses of men who had been pierced by the points of those spears now deterred the horses carrying the commanders who were trying to flee. The Tokugawa generals escaped, swinging their long swords behind them as they fled the pursuing points of the spears.

Master Stroke

The plain of Nagakute was covered with a thin veil of gunpowder smoke and filled with the stink of corpses and blood. With the morning sun, it smoldered with all the colors of the rainbow.

Peace had already returned there, but the soldiers who had brought carnage with them were now heading for Yazako, like the clouds of an evening shower. Flight simply provoked more flight, endless flight and destruction.

Kyutaro did not lose his head as he pursued the Tokugawa troops. "The rear guard should not follow us. Take the roundabout way toward Inokoishi and pursue them along two roads."

One unit broke away and followed a different road, while Kyutaro led six hundred men against the retreating enemy. The dead and wounded abandoned along the road by the Tokugawa could not have numbered less than five hundred men, but Kyutaro's soldiers also grew fewer and fewer as they continued.

Although the main corps had advanced far ahead, two men still breathing among the corpses now crossed spears, then abandoned them as too cumbersome and drew their swords. Grappling, then breaking loose, they fell down, stood up again, and fought interminably in their own private battle. Finally one took the other's head. Yelling almost insanely, the victor chased after his companions in the main corps, disappeared once again into the miasma of smoke and blood, and, struck by a stray bullet, fell dead before he catch up with his comrades.

Kyutaro was yelling himself hoarse. "It's useless to chase after them for too long.  Genza! Momoemon! Stop the troops! Tell them to fall back!"

Several of his retainers rode forward and, with difficulty, restrained their troops.

“Fall back!"

"Draw up beneath the commander's standard!"

Hori Kyutaro dismounted and walked from the road onto the promontory of a bluff. From where he stood, his field of vision was unobstructed. He stared steadily out into the distance.

"Ah, he has come so quickly," he muttered.

The expression on his face showed that he had become completely sobered. Turning to his attendants, he invited them to take a look.

In the west, in an elevated area just opposite the morning sun, something was glittering on Mount Fujigane.

Was it not Ieyasu's emblem—the commander's standard with the golden fan? Kyutaro raised his voice in grief. "It's a sad thing to say, but we have no strategy for dealing with such a great foe. Our work here is finished."

Collecting his troops, Kyutaro quickly began to retreat. But at that point, four messengers from the First and Second Corps came together from the direction of Nagakute looking for him.

"The order is for you to turn back and join forces with the vanguard. This comes directly from Lord Shonyu."

Kyutaro flatly refused. "Absolutely not. We're retreating."

The messengers could hardly believe their ears. "The battle is starting now! Please turn back and join our lords' forces immediately!" they repeated, raising their voices.

Kyutaro raised his voice as well. "If I said I'm retreating, I'm retreating! We have to make sure that Lord Hidetsugu is safe. Besides, more than half of this section of the army has sustained wounds, and if our men come up against a fresh enemy, it will be a disaster. I, for one, am not going to fight a battle that I know I'll lose. You can tell that to Lore Shonyu and to Lord Nagayoshi as well!"

With those parting words, he rode off at a gallop.

Hori Kyutaro's corps ran into Hidetsugu and his surviving troops in the vicinity of Inaba. Then, setting fire to the farmhouses along the way, they defended themselves time and again from the pursuing Tokugawa troops and finally returned to Hideyoshi's main camp at Gakuden before sunset.

The messengers who had come seeking Kyutaro's aid were outraged.

"What kind of cowardice is it to run away to the main camp without even looking back at your allies' desperate situation?"