Having returned to his room, Ekei had been writing in his travel journal, but now he suddenly stood up.
"Master Koroku?" Ekei said, looking in at Koroku"s room, but the man was not to be seen. He went to the chapel and peeked inside, and there was Koroku, seated before the mortuary tablet of his ancestors, with his arms folded.
"Did you give an answer to Lord n.o.bunaga"s envoy?"
"He hasn"t gone yet, but the more I talked to him, the more troublesome it became, so I"m just going to leave him where he is."
"He probably won"t just go away." Ekei finished speaking, but Koroku remained silent. "Master Koroku," Ekei finally said.
"What?"
"I"ve heard that the envoy today used to be employed here as a servant."
"I only knew him as "Monkey" and had no idea where he was from. I picked him up around the Yahagi River and gave him a job."
"That"s no good."
"No good?"
"The memory of the time when he served you has become an obstacle, and you can"t see the true form of the man today."
"Do you suppose that"s true?"
"I"ve never been so surprised as I was today."
"Why?"
"Just looking at the face of that envoy. His features are what the world would call quite unusual. Studying people"s features is merely a hobby, and when I judge a man"s character by looking at him, I usually keep my conclusions to myself. But in this case I was shocked. Someday this man is going to do something extraordinary."
"That monkey-face?"
"Yes, indeed. That man may move the entire country someday. If he were not in this Empire of the Rising Sun, then perhaps he might become a sovereign."
"What are you saying?"
"I thought you wouldn"t take his request seriously, so I"m telling you this before you decide. Put away your preconceptions. When you look at a man, look with your heart, ot your eyes. If that man leaves with your refusal today, you"re going to regret it for the next hundred years."
"How can you say such a thing about a man you"ve never even met before?"
"I"m not saying this just from looking at his face. I was surprised when I heard his explanation of the way of justice and righteousness. And his refusal to give in to your derision and threats, while refuting you with sincerity and good faith, shows him to be a pa.s.sionate, upright man. I believe without a doubt that he will one day be a man of great distinction."
Koroku immediately prostrated himself in front of Ekei and said firmly, "I submit humbly to your words. Quite frankly, if I compare my own character with his, mine is clearly inferior. I"ll discard my petty egotism and immediately give him a positive answer. I"m extremely grateful for your advice."
He went off, his eyes gleaming, as though he himself had witnessed the birth of a new era.
Hours after Tokichiro"s arrival in Hachisuka, two riders hurried through the night toward Kiyosu. As yet, no one knew that the riders were Koroku and Tokichiro. Later that night, n.o.bunaga talked to the two men in a small room in the castle. Their secret conversation lasted several hours. Only a select few, including Tenzo, knew the reason for their visit.
The following day Koroku called a council of war. All those who answered the call were ronin. They had been under Koroku"s command for many years, and they acknowledged his authority in the same way the great provincial lords obeyed the shogun"s decrees. Each leader headed a pack of warriors in his own village or mountain stronghold, and waited for the day when they would be needed. Every one of them was surprised by the presence of Watanabe Tenzo of Mikuriya, who, ten years before, had rebelled against their leader.
When the men took their seats, Koroku told them of his decision to abandon his alliance with the Saito clan and switch his allegiance to the Oda. At the same time, he explained the circ.u.mstances of his nephew"s return. At the end of his address he said, "I imagine some of you will disapprove, and others have close ties with the Saito. I am not going to force you. You may leave without hesitation, and I will not bear a grudge against anyone who crosses over to Mino."
No one, however, got up to leave. In fact, no one showed what he really felt. At this point, asking Koroku"s permission, Tokichiro spoke to the men.
"I have received instructions from Lord n.o.bunaga to build a castle at Sunomata. Until now, I imagine that each of you has lived as he pleased, but have you ever occupied a castle? The world is changing. The mountains and valleys where you can live freely are disappearing. If this were not so, there would be no progress. You"ve been able to live as ronin because the shogun is powerless. But do you think the shogunate will be able to survive much longer? The nation is changing; a new era is dawning. We will no longer be living for ourselves, but rather for our children and our grandchildren. You have a chance to establish your own households, to become real warriors following the true Way of the Samurai. Do not let this moment pa.s.s you by."
When he had finished, the entire room was silent. But there were no signs of discontent. These men, who ordinarily lived without giving much thought to the future, were reflecting on his words.
One man broke the silence: "I have no objection."
He was followed by the others who made the same reply, and all the voices in the room were raised in agreement. They knew they were risking their lives by committing imselves to the Oda, and a fierce resolution burned in their eyes.
The sound of an ax cutting a tree... then a splash as the tree falls into the Kiso River. A raft is lashed together and pushed out into the current, where it flows downstream to meet the waters of the Ibi and Yabu rivers coming from the north and west, and then comes to a broad sandbar crisscrossed by waterways: Sunomata. The boundary between Mino and Owari. The site for the castle, on which Sak.u.ma n.o.b.u.mori, Shibata Katsuie, and Oda Kageyu all had met with identical failure.
"What a stupid waste of time. They might as well be sunk in a stone ship under the sea!" From the far bank, the soldiers of the Saito looked across the river, shading their :s with their hands and joking.
"This is the fourth time."
"They still haven"t learned."
"Who"s the General of the Dead this time? It"s kind of sad, even though he is the enemy. I"ll remember his name, if nothing else."
"He"s called something like Kinos.h.i.ta Tokichiro. I"ve never heard of him."
"Kinos.h.i.ta... 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 pa.s.sed. 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 pa.s.sed, 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, Kinos.h.i.ta, 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sistance?"
"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 a.s.sured 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 sh.o.r.e 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 n.o.b.u.mori 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."
Fuwa held his belly and laughed, ridiculing Osawa for overestimating their opponents. Although they were allies and fighting on the same side, the two men were not of one mind. Osawa clicked his tongue loudly beneath his tiger"s whiskers.