"Kinoshita… he's the one they call Monkey. He's just a low-ranking officer. He can't beworth more than fifty or sixty kan."

"A low-ranking fool like that is their general? The enemy can't really be serious, then."

"Maybe it's a trick."

"Could be. They could have a plan to draw our attention here, and then cross over somewhere else."

The more the soldiers of Mino looked at the construction on the opposite bank, the less seriously they took it. About one month passed. Tokichiro led the spirited ronin of Hachisuka, who had begun to work as soon as they had arrived. It had rained heavily two or three times, but that made it all the easier to float timber rafts. Even when the river overflowed the sandbar one night the men rallied as though it were nothing. Would the rain clouds come before they could finish the earthen enclosure? Would nature win, or would man?

The ronin worked as though they had forgotten how to eat or sleep. The two thousand who had departed from Hachisuka had swelled to five or six thousand by the time they reached their destination.

Tokichiro hardly needed his general's baton. The men were alert and hardworking, and day by day the work advanced right before his eyes.

The ronin were used to traveling through the mountains and plains. And they unstood the laws of flood regulation and earthwork construction far better than Tokichiro did.

Their aim was to make this place their own. With this work, they took a leap away from their former lives of debauchery and indolence, and felt the satisfaction and pleasure of knowing that they were doing something real.

"Well, this embankment is not going to budge, even if there's a flood or the rivers flow together," one of the ronin said proudly.

Before the first month had passed, they had leveled an area larger than the castle grounds, and had even built a causeway to the mainland.

On the opposite bank, the men of Mino looked over toward the site.

"It seems to be taking shape a little, doesn't it?"

"They still haven't put up any stone walls, so it doesn't look like a castle, but the foundations have come right along."

"I can't see any carpenters or plasterers."

"I'll bet they're still a hundred days away from that."

The soldiers looked lazily across the river to relieve their boredom. The river was wide. When it was sunny, a thin mist rose from the surface of the water. It was difficult to see clearly from the other side, but occasionally there were days when the sounds of stone being cut and voices yelling from the construction site were lifted on the wind and carried from the opposite bank.

"Will we make a surprise attack this time? Right in the middle of construction work?"

"It seems not. There's a strict order from General Fuwa."

"What's that?"

"Not to fire a single shot. Let the enemy work to his heart's content."

"We've been ordered just to watch until they finish the castle?"

"The first time, the plan was to crush the enemy with a single surprise attack when he began work on the castle; the second time, to attack when the castle was half-built and smash it to smithereens. But the command this time is just to stand here and watch with our arms folded until they've finished the job."

"Then what?"

"Take the castle, of course!"

"Aha! Let the enemy build it, and then take it over."

"That seems to be the plan."

"Hey, that's clever. The other Oda generals were a bit tough, but this new comman­der, Kinoshita, is nothing more than a foot soldier." As the man wagged his tongue and prattled on happily, one of the others gave him a rebuking look.

A third man hurried into the guardhouse. A boat that had been poled down the river landed on the Mino bank. A general with bristly whiskers stepped onto the bank, fol­lowed by several attendants. A horse was led off the boat after them.

"The Tiger is coming!" one of the guards said.

The Tiger of Unuma, here!" Whispers and quick glances passed between them. This was the lord of Unuma Castle, upstream; known as one of the fiercest generals in Mino, his name was Osawa Jirozaemon. So frightening was this man that the mothers of Inabayama said, "The Tiger is coming!" to quiet their crying children. Now Osawa came strid­ing up in person, with his eyes and nose thrusting out of his tiger-like whiskers. “Is General Fuwa here?" Osawa asked.

"Yessir. At the camp."

“I wouldn't mind calling on him at his camp, but this is a better place for a talk. Call him over here immediately."

"Yessir." The soldier ran off.

Very soon, Fuwa Heishiro, followed by the soldier and five or six officers, walked briskly toward the riverbank.

"The Tiger! What does he want?" Fuwa muttered, his ill-humored strides indicating how tiresome he thought this interview was going to be.

"General Fuwa, thank you for taking the trouble to come."

"It's no trouble at all. How can I be of assistance?"

"Over there." Osawa pointed to the opposite bank.

"The enemy at Sunomata?"

"Indeed. I'm sure you're keeping watch on them day and night."

"Of course! Please rest assured that we are always on guard."

"Well, although the castle I am in charge of is upstream, I am concerned with more than just the defense of Unuma."

"Yes, of course."

"Occasionally I board a boat or walk along the shore to see what conditions are like downstream, and when I came today, I was surprised. I suppose it's too late, but when I look over this camp, it's rather carefree. What do you have in mind at this point?"

"What do you mean, 'too late'?"

"I'm saying that construction of the enemy's castle has advanced to a surprising extent. It appears that, as you've sat watching nonchalantly from this bank, the enemy has been able to build a second line of embankments, rope off a foundation, and finish about half of their stone walls."

Fuwa grunted, annoyed.

"Couldn't the carpenters already be fitting the timbers for the citadel in the mountains behind Sunomata? And couldn't they have already finished almost everything from the drawbridge to the interior fittings, not to mention the keep and walls? This is my view of the situation."

"Hm…I see."

"These days the enemy must be tired at night from the construction work they've done during the day, and they've neglected to set up defensive positions of any kind. Noto nly that, but the workers and craftsmen, who would only be an impediment during a fight, are living together with the soldiers. Now if we made a general attack, crossing the over under cover of darkness, and attacked from upstream, downstream, and straight across, we should be able to rip this thing out by its very roots. But if we're negligent, we're going to wake up some morning soon and find that a very solid castle has suddenly sprung up overnight. We should not be taken off guard."

"Indeed."

"Then you agree?"

Fuwa burst out laughing. "Really, General Osawa! Did you really call me all the way here because you were worried about that?"

"I was beginning to doubt that you had eyes, so I wanted to explain the situation to you right here at the riverbank."

"Now you've gone too far! As a military commander, you're remarkably shallow. I’m allowing the enemy to build his castle this time exactly as he wishes. Can't you see that?

"That's obvious. I suppose you plan to let them finish the castle, then attack, and use it as a foothold for Mino to gain supremacy over Owari."

"That's right."

"I'm sure those were your instructions, but it's a dangerous strategy when you don't know whom you're up against. I can't just stand by and watch the destruction of our own troops."

"Why should this mean the destruction of our troops? I don't understand."

"Clean out your ears and listen carefully to the sounds coming from the far bank, and you'll realize how far the castle construction has got. There's enough activity there for all the soldiers to be working as well. This is different from Nobumori and Katsuie. This time the baton of command has spirit. It's clear that the command has fallen to a man of real character, even if he is from the Oda."