"He's clearly lost his nerve."

"Today Hori Kyutaro showed us his true character. We'll despise him if we return alive."

They now turned toward their own isolated corps, led by Shonyu, and whipped their horses' flanks in fits of rage.

Indeed, the two corps under the command of Shonyu and Nagayoshi were now only fodder for Ieyasu. The two men were as different as their abilities. The battle between Hideyoshi and Ieyasu at this time was like a grand championship match in sumo, and each man understood his opponent well. Both Hideyoshi and Ieyasu had realized early on that the situation would reach the present pass, and each knew through his own circumspection that his enemy was not a man who could be brought down by a cheap trick orshowmanship. But pity the brave and ferocious soldier who acts with a warrior's pride alone.  Burning with nothing but his own will, he knows neither the enemy nor his own capacities.

Having had his camp stool set up on Mount Rokubo, Shonyu inspected the more than two hundred enemy heads that had been taken at Iwasaki Castle.

It was morning, just about the first half of the Hour of the Dragon. Shonyu still had not the slightest idea of the disaster that had occurred at his rear. Looking only at the smoking ruins of the enemy castle in front of him, he was drunk on the small pleasure that the warrior falls into so easily.

After the inspection of the heads and the recording of the meritorious deeds of the troops, breakfast was eaten. As the soldiers chewed their food, they occasionally looked toward the northwest. Suddenly something in that direction caught Shonyu's attention as well.

“Tango, what's that in the sky over there?" Shonyu asked.

The generals around Shonyu all turned to the northwest.

“Could it be an insurrection?" one suggested.

But as they continued to eat what was left of their rations, they suddenly heard some confused shouting at the foot of the hill.

As hey were wondering what it was about, a messenger from Nagayoshi ran up to them. "We've been taken off guard! They've come up behind us!" the man shouted as he prostrated himself in front of Shonyu's camp stool.

The generals felt as if a chill wind had blown clear through their armor.

“What do you mean, they've come up behind us?" Shonyu asked.

“An enemy force followed Lord Hidetsugu's rear guard."

“The rear guard?"

“They made a sudden attack from both flanks."

Shonyu stood up abruptly, just as a second messenger arrived from Nagayoshi.

“There's no time to lose, my lord. Lord Hidetsugu's rear guard has been completely routed."

There was a sudden stir of motion on the hill, and following that, the noise of short tempered commands and the sounds of soldiers flowing down the road to the bottom of the hill.

From the shady side of Mount Fujigane, the commander's standard of the golden fan shone brilliantly above the Tokugawa army. There was something almost bewitching about the symbol, and it sent a shiver through the soul of every warrior of the western army on the plain.

There is a great psychological difference between the spirit of an advancing army and of an army that has turned back. Nagayoshi, who was now encouraging his men from horseback, looked like a man who was anticipating his own death. His armor was made of black leather with dark blue threading, and his coat was gold brocade on a white background. Deer horns adorned his helmet, which he wore thrown back on his shoulders.  His head was still wrapped down to his cheeks in the white bandage that covered his wounds.

The Second Corps had been resting at Oushigahara, but as soon as he heard about the Tokugawa forces' pursuit, Nagayoshi roused his men and glared at the golden fan on Mount Fujigane.

"This man is a worthy opponent," he said. "The failure at Haguro that I wash away today won't be just for me. I'll show them that I'll wipe away my father-in-law's disgrace as well."

Today he intended to vindicate his honor. Nagayoshi was a handsome man, and the death attire that he wore today seemed all too desolate for him.

"Did you deliver the report to the vanguard?"

The messenger, who had returned, brought his horse up next to his lord's, adjusted himself to his lord's pace, and made his report.

Nagayoshi, looking straight ahead, held the reins loosely as he listened. "What about the men at Mount Rokubo?" he asked.

"The men were quickly put in order, and they're now coming along behind us."

"Well then, tell Lord Kyutaro of the Third Corps that we have combined our forces and are advancing to confront Ieyasu at Mount Fujigane, so he should pull back in this direction to support us."

Just as the man galloped off, two mounted messengers hurried up with the same instructions for Kyutaro from Shonyu.

But, as has already been related, Kyutaro refused that request and the messengers returned in outrage. By the time Nagayoshi received their reports, his army had already marched through a swampy area between the mountains and was starting to climb to the top of Gifugadake in search of a good position. Before them waved Ieyasu's standard of the golden fan.

The lay of the land was complicated. In the distance, an approach to one section of the open plain of Higashi Kasugai wound and bent its way along, now scissored between the mountains, now embracing smaller plains. The Mikawa road that connected with Okazaki could be seen in the distant south.

But mountains covered more than half of the field of vision. There were no steep precipices or high crags but only undulating waves of hills. As spring departed, the trees were covered with faintly red buds.

Messengers were exchanged in rapid succession, but the thoughts of Nagayoshi and Shonyu were communicated without words. Shonyu's six thousand troops were immediately divided into two units. About four thousand men headed toward the north, and then made their formation to the southeast on high ground. The commander's standard and banners clearly announced that the generals here were Shonyu's eldest son, Yukisuke, and his second son, Terumasa.

That was the right wing. The left wing was made up of Nagayoshi's three thousand soldiers on Gifugadake. Leading the remaining two thousand soldiers, Shonyu stayed with them as a reserve corps. Shonyu set up his commander's standard at the very center of this crane-wing formation.

"I wonder how Ieyasu is going to attack," he said.

Looking up at the sun, the men could see that it was still only the second half of the Hour of the Dragon. Had the hours been long or short? It was not a day for measuring time in the ordinary way. Their throats were dry, but they did not want water.

The uncanny silence made their flesh crawl. A bird cried wildly as it flew across the valley. But that was all. The birds had all flown to some other more peaceful mountain leaving the place to men.

Ieyasu appeared to be too stoop-shouldered. After passing forty he had become somewhat fleshy, and even when he put on his armor, his back was rounded, his shoulers plump; his head seemed to be almost stuffed into his shoulders by his heavy decorated helmet. His right hand, which held the baton of command, and his left were both on his knees.  Seated on the edge of his camp stool with his thighs apart, he slouched forward in a way that affected his dignity.

And yes, that was his ordinary posture, even when seated before a guest or walking around. He was not one to stick out his chest. His senior retainers had once advised him to correct his posture, and Ieyasu had nodded vaguely in assent. But as he was talking with his retainers one night, he told them a little about his past.

"I was brought up in poverty. More than that, I was a hostage in another clan from the time I was six, and everyone I saw around me had more rights than I did. So I naturally got into the habit of not going around with my chest stuck out, even when I was with other children. Another reason for my bad posture is that when I studied in the cold room at the Rinzai Temple, I read my books at a desk so low I had to hold on to them like a hunchback. I became almost obsessed by the thought that someday I would be released as a hostage from the Imagawa clan and my body would become my own again. I couldn't play like a child."