In the end, the Kai army could no longer stand its ground.
'Retreat!" screamed four or five mounted commanders, pulling back their horses, the command somehow wrung from their throats even in their panic. One fell, covered with blood, while another was thrown from his whinnying horse as it went down under a hail of bullets.
No matter how badly they had been beaten, however, their spirit was not broken.
They had lost almost one-third of their men in the first charge, but the instant they retreated, a fresh force once again hastened toward the palisade. The blood that had spattered the thirty thousand stakes had not yet dried.
The gunfire coming from the palisade answered their charge directly, as if to say, We've been waiting.
Glaring at the palisade dyed red with the blood of their comrades, the fierce soldiers of Kai screamed as they charged, encouraging one another, vowing that they would never retreat a single yard.
"It's time to die!"
"On to our deaths!"
"Make a death shield so the others can leap over us!"
The "death shield" was a last-ditch tactic in which soldiers in the front rank sacrificed themselves to protect the advance of the next rank. Then that rank in turn acted as a shield for the troops following, and in this way the troops pressed on step by step. It was a terrible way to advance.
These were, indeed, brave men; but surely this charge was nothing more than a futile display of brute strength. And yet there were able tacticians among the generals leading the assault.
Katsuyori, of course, was at the rear, urging his men to go forward, but had his commanders known that victory was an absolute impossibility, there would have been no reason to ask for such an immense sacrifice and repeatedly to push the troops too far.
"That wall must be broken down!"
They must have believed that it could be done. Once the guns of that period were fired, reloading the ball and repacking the gunpowder took time. Thus, once a volley had been fired, the sound of gunfire would stop for a while. It was that interval that the Kai generals considered a window to be taken advantage of; thus the "death shield" was not begrudged.
Nobunaga, however, had considered that particular weak point, and for the new weapons he had devised new tactics. In this case, he divided his three thousand gunners to three groups. When the first thousand men had fired their weapons, each man would quickly step to the side and the second group would advance through their ranks, immediately firing their own volley. They, too, would then open their ranks and be quickly replaced by the third group. In this way, the interval the enemy so hoped for was never given to them throughout the entire battle.
Again, there were openings here and there in the palisade. Measuring the intervals between the tides of charges, the Oda and Tokugawa spear corps would dash out from inside the palisade and quickly strike at both wings of the Kai army.
Obstructed by the protective palisade and the gunfire, the Kai soldiers were unable to advance. When they attempted to retreat, they were harassed by the enemy's pursuit and the pincer attack. Now the Kai warriors, who took such pride in their discipline and training, did not have even a moment to exhibit their courage.
The Yamagata corps had retreated altogether, leaving behind a large number of men who had sacrificed their lives. Only Baba Nobufusa had not fallen into the trap.
Baba had clashed with the troops of Sakuma Nobumori, but as Nobumori had only been there originally as a decoy, the Oda troops feinted a retreat. The Baba corps chased after them and took possession of the encampment at Maruyama, but Baba's orders were to go no deeper, and he did not send a single soldier beyond Maruyama.
"Why don't you advance!" Baba was repeatedly asked by both Katsuyori's headquarters and his own officers.
Baba, however, would not move. "I have my own reasons to ponder over for a moment, and I'd better stop here to observe what is occurring. The rest of you should go ahead and advance. Win some glory for yourselves."
Every commander who got near enough to attack the palisade met with the same overwhelming defeat. And then Katsuie and Hideyoshi led their battalions far around the villages to the north and began to cut off the headquarters of the Kai army from the front lines.
It was almost noon, and the sun was high in a sky that promised the end of the rainy season. It now burned down on the earth with an abrupt heat and with a color that announced an intense summer.
Hostilities had begun at dawn, at the second half of the Hour of the Tiger. With the continual change of new troops, the men of the Kai army were by this time bathed in sweat and breathing hard. The blood that had been shed in the morning had dried like glue on the leather of their armor and on their hair and skin. And now there was fresh blood wherever one looked.
Behind the central army, Katsuyori was howling like a demon. Finally he had sent every battalion, including the reserve corps usually held back for emergencies. If Katsuyori had understood the situation more quickly, he might have finished the matter with only fraction of the damage his army incurred. But instead, moment by moment, he himself turned a small mistake into a monstrous one. In short, this was not simply a matter martial spirit and courage. It was the same as if the forces of Nobunaga and Ieyasu had set snares at the hunting grounds and waited for wild ducks or boars to come. The Kai regiments that attacked so fiercely did nothing more than lose their valuable soldiers in a pointless "death shield."
Alas, it was said that even Yamagata Masakage, who had fought so well with the left wing since morning, had been struck down in battle. Other famous generals, men of great courage, went down one after another, until the dead and wounded numbered over half of the entire army.
"It's obvious that the enemy is going to be defeated. Isn't this the right moment?"
The general who spoke was Sassa Narimasa, who had been watching battle with Nobunaga.
Nobunaga immediately had Narimasa transmit his orders to the troops inside the palisade. He said, "Leave the palisade and attack. Destroy them all!"
Even Katsuyori's headquarters collapsed in the attack. The Tokugawa pressed in on the left. The Oda broke through the Takeda vanguard and made a fierce assault on the central army. Caught in the middle, the numerous banners, commanders' standards, signal flags, whinnying horses, shining armor, and spears and swords that sparkled like constellations around Katsuyori were now enveloped in blood and panic.
Only the forces of Baba Nobufusa, which had remained at Maruyama, were still intact. Baba sent a samurai to Katsuyori with a message advocating retreat.
Katsuyori stamped the ground with vexation. But he was unable to defy reality. Defeated, the central corps had retreated, covered with blood.
"We should retreat temporarily, my lord."
"Swallow your anger and think of what our prospects are."
Desperately leading the men of the main camp, Katsuyori's generals somehow extricated him from the trap he was in. To the enemy it was clear that the central Kai army was in a disorderly retreat.
When they had accompanied Katsuyori as far as a nearby bridge, the generals turned back, forming a rear guard to fight with the pursuing troops. They were heroically struck down in battle. Baba had also accompanied the fleeing Katsuyori and the pathetic remnants of his army as far as Miyawaki, but finally the old general turned his horse to the west, his breast filled with a thousand thoughts.
I've lived a long life. Or I could say it's been short, too. Truly long or truly short, only this one moment is eternal, I suppose. The moment of death… Can eternal life be anything more than that?
Then, just before galloping into the midst of the enemy, he swore, I'll make my excuses to Lord Shingen in the next world. I was an incompetent counselor and general. Good-bye, you mountains and rivers of Kai!
Turning around, he shed a single tear for his province, then suddenly spurred his horse. "Death! I won't dishonor the name of Lord Shingen!"
His voice sank into the sea of the great enemy army. It is hardly necessary to add that each of his retainers followed him, to be struck down gloriously.
From the very beginning, no one had been able to see through this battle as Baba had. He had doubtless perceived that, after it, the Takeda clan would fall and would even be destroyed, and that that was its fate. Nevertheless, even with his foresight and loyalty, he was unable to save the clan from disaster. The huge forces of change were simply overwhelming.
Together with a dozen or so mounted attendants, Katsuyori crossed over the shallows of Komatsugase and finally sought shelter in Busetsu Castle. Katsuyori was a courageous nan, but now he was as speechless as a deaf mute.
The entire surface of Shidaragahara was red—a deep red—as the sun began to sink. The great battle this day had commenced around dawn and finished in the late afternoon. No horse neighed; not a soldier cried out. The wide plain quickly sank into darkness in :omplete desolation.
The dew of night settled before the dead could be carried away. The Takeda corpses alone were said to have numbered more than ten thousand.
The Emperor had appointed Nobunaga to the court rank of Councillor of State not long before, and now he had been named General of the Right. The congratulatory ceremony for this latest promotion was conducted during the Eleventh Month with a pomp that exceeded anything seen in preceding eras.
Nobunaga's lodgings in the capital were in the shogun's former palace at Nijo. Guests crowded into the palace every day: courtiers, samurai, tea masters, poets, and merchants from the nearby trading cities of Naniwa and Sakai.
Mitsuhide had planned on leaving Nobunaga and returning to his castle in Tamba and while it was still light, he had come to the Nijo Palace from his own lodgings to take his leave.
"Mitsuhide," Hideyoshi greeted him with a broad smile.
"Hideyoshi?" Mitsuhide answered with a laugh.