Suddenly the shrubs directly in front of him began to shake.
“Who is it!" Shonyu's eyes shone with rage. "Is it the enemy?" he called out. His voice was so calm that the approaching Tokugawa warrior unconsciously stepped back in shock.
Shonyu called out again, pressing the man further. "Are you one of the enemy? If you are, take my head and you'll achieve a great deed. The man who is speaking now is Ikeda Shonyu.”
Tle warrior crouching down in the thick undergrowth raised his head and looked at Shonyu sitting there. He shuddered for a moment and then spoke in an arrogant voice as he stood up.
“Well, I've encountered a good one here. I am Nagai Denpachiro of the Tokugawa clan. Prepare yourself!" he shouted, and thrust out his spear.
In response to his shout, quick resistance from the sword of the famous fierce general have been expected, but Denpachiro's spear slid deeply into his opponent's side without any trouble at all. Rather than Shonyu, whose side had been pierced through, it was Denpachiro who tumbled forward from the momentum of his excessive force.
Shonyu fell over, the spearpoint protruding from his back.
"Take my head!" he yelled again.
He did not have his long sword in his hand even now. On his own he had invited his death, on his own he was offering his head. Denpachiro had been in an arrogant trance, but when he was suddenly aware of the feelings of this enemy general and the way he was meeting his final moments, he was struck with a violent emotion that made him want to weep.
"Ah!" he cried out, but then was so beside himself with joy at his unexpected great achievement that he forgot what to do next.
Just then he heard the rustling sounds of his allies fighting to be the first to climb up from beneath the crags.
"I'm Ando Hikobei! Prepare yourself."
"My name is Uemura Denemon!"
"I'm Hachiya Shichibei of the Tokugawa clan!"
Each announced his name as they competed to be the one to take Shonyu's head.
By whose sword had the head been taken? Their bloody hands grabbed the topknot and swung it around.
"I took the head of Ikeda Shonyu!" yelled Nagai Denpachiro.
"No, I took it!" cried Ando Hikobei.
"Shonyu's head is mine!" Uemura Denemon shouted.
A storm of blood, a storm of violent voices, a storm of selfish desire for fame. Four men, five men—a growing cluster of warriors, with the single head at its center, set off the direction of Ieyasu's campstool.
"Shonyu has been killed!"
That shout became a wave that went from the peaks to the marsh and caused the Tokugawa forces all over the battlefield to bellow with joy.
The men of the Ikeda forces who had managed to escape did not shout at all. In a moment, those men had lost both heaven and earth, and like dry leaves they now searched for a place to go where their lives might be spared.
"Don't let one of them return alive!"
"Chase after them! Run them down!"
The victors, driven by an insatiable bloodlust, slaughtered the Ikeda wherever they found them.
For men who had already forgotten about their own lives, violently taking other lives very likely felt like nothing more than playing with fallen flowers. Shonyu had been finished off, Nagayoshi had been killed in battle, and now the remaining Ikeda formations at Tanojiri were scattered by the Tokugawa.
One after another, the generals brought the stories of their exploits into the camp that spread out under Ieyasu's golden fan.
"There are so few of them."
Ieyasu was troubled.
This great general rarely displayed his emotions, but he worried about the warriors who had gone out in pursuit of the defeated enemy. Many had not returned, even though the conch had been blown several times. Perhaps they had been carried away with their victory.
Ieyasu repeated himself two or three times.
“This is not a matter of adding victory on top of victory," he said. "It's not good to want to win still more after you've already won."
He did not mention Hideyoshi's name, but no doubt he had intuited that that natural-born strategist had already pointed a finger in this direction in reaction to the great defeat suffered by his army.
“A long pursuit is dangerous. Has Shiroza gone?"
“Yes. He hurried off some time ago with your orders."
Hearing Ii's answer, Ieyasu gave out another order. "You go too, Ii. Reprimand those have gotten carried away and order them to abandon the chase."
When the pursuing Tokugawa forces reached the Yada River, they found Naito Shirozaemon's squad lined up along the bank, each man holding out the shaft of his spear horizontally.
“Stop!"
“Halt!"
“The order has come from our lord's main camp not to make a long pursuit!"
“With those words from the men along the bank, the pursuers were halted.
Ii galloped up and nearly made himself hoarse, yelling at the men as he rode back and forth.
“Our lord has said that those men who become so proud of their victory that they get carried away and go after the enemy will be asking for a court-martial when they return to camp. Go back! Go on back!"
Finally their blind enthusiasm ebbed away, and the men all withdrew from the bank of the river.
It was just about the second half of the Hour of the Horse, and the sun was in the middle of the sky. It was the Fourth Month, and the shape of the clouds indicated that summer was near. Every soldier's face was smeared with earth, blood, and sweat, and appeared to be on fire.
At the Hour of the Ram Ieyasu went down from the encampment on Fujigane, crossed the Kanare River, and formally inspected the heads at the foot of Mount Gondoji.
The fight had lasted half a day, and all across the battlefield, the dead were counted. Hideyoshi's side had lost more than two thousand five hundred men, while the casualties the Ieyasu's and Nobuo's armies amounted to five hundred ninety dead and several hundred wounded.
“This great victory is nothing we should be too proud of," a general cautioned. "The Ikeda were only a branch of Hideyoshi's army, but we took our entire force from Mount Komaki and used them here. At the same time, it would be fatal to our allies if we were suffer a collapse here for some reason. I think the best measure would be for us to withdraw to Obata Castle as quickly as possible."
Another general immediately countered, saying, "No, no. Once victory is in your grasp, you should take the initiative with daring. That's what war is all about. It's certain that when Hideyoshi hears about his great defeat, it's going to provoke him to anger. He'll probably assemble his forces and rush here. Shouldn't we wait for him, prepare ourselves as warriors, and then take Lord Monkey's head?"
In response to those two arguments Ieyasu said again, "We shouldn't try to add victory to victory." And then, "Our men are all tired. Hideyoshi is most likely raising the dust on his way here even now, but we shouldn't meet him today. It's too soon. Let's retire to Obata."
With that quick decision, they passed south of Hakusan Woods and entered Obata Castle while the sun was still high.
After bringing the entire army inside Obata Castle and closing the castle gates, Ieyasu savored the day's great victory for the first time. As he looked back on it, he felt satisfied that the half-day battle had been fought faultlessly. The soldiers' and officers' satisfaction was in such exploits as taking the first head or having the first spear out to the enemy, but the commander-in-chief's secret satisfaction lay in only one thing: the feeling that his own clear-sightedness had hit the mark.
But it takes a master to know one. Ieyasu's only concern now was Hideyoshi's subsequent movements. He strove to be flexible as he pondered this problem, and rested for a while in the main citadel at Obata, relaxing both body and mind.