The troops' first fighting action had been approved. All of their pent-up energy was released. Two commanders each led about a thousand men and charged the castle. Even a much stronger fortress would not have been able to withstand warriors with their kind of spirit, and this castle was defended by a small force of men.
In the twinkling of an eye, its stone walls were scaled, its moat was filled, fires were set, and the sun was blotted out with black smoke. At that point, the castle's commanding ral came out fighting and was killed in battle. The castle's soldiers were all killed with the exception of one man, who escaped and raced to Mount Komaki to inform Ieyasu of the emergency. During the short battle, Nagayoshi's Second Corps had put a good distance between itself and the First Corps. The men now rested and ate their provisions.
As the soldiers ate their meal, they looked up and wondered what the reason for the rising smoke might be. Very soon, however, a runner from the front lines informed them of the fall of Iwasaki Castle. The horses nipped at the grass while laughter reverberated across the plain.
Upon learning the same information, the Third Corps naturally stopped and rested both men and horses at Kanahagiwara. At the very rear, the Fourth Corps also reined in the horses and waited for the corps in front to start advancing again.
Spring was departing in the mountains and summer was near. The azure of the sky beautifully clear, deeper even than the sea. Shortly after stopping, the horses became drowsy, and the high-pitched songs of the skylark and bulbul could be heard in the barley fields and forests.
Two days before this, during the evening of the sixth day of the Fourth Month, two farmers from the village of Shinoki had crawled through the fields and run from tree to tree, avoiding the lookouts of the western army.
“We have something to tell Lord Ieyasu! It's very important!" the two men yelled as they ran into the main camp at Mount Komaki.
Ii Hyobu led them to Ieyasu's headquarters. A few moments before Ieyasu had been talking with Nobuo, but after Nobuo had left, Ieyasu had taken the copy of the Analects of Confucius from the top of his armor chest and began to read silently, ignoring the sounds pf distant gunfire.
Five years younger than Hideyoshi, he was forty-two years old this year, a general in his prime. His appearance was so mild and good-natured—and he had such such soft and pale skin—that an observer might have doubted that he had been through every extremity, and had fought battles in which he had rallied his troops with nothing more than the look in his eye.
“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.