At that point, several scouts entered with their reports. Niwa's three thousand men had joined forces with the Kuwayama corps, and together they were reinforcing the defenses at Shizugatake.
That simply threw oil on the fire of Genba's eagerness to attack. Such news will make a truly brave general want to fight all the more.
“This will be interesting."
Genba brushed aside the camp curtain and went outside. Looking out over the new greenery of the mountains, he could see Shizugatake at a distance of about two leagues to the south. Closer and below where he stood, a general was climbing up from the foot of the mountain, accompanied by a number of attendants. The defending commander of the wooden barrier gate was hurrying ahead to show him the way.
Genba clicked his tongue and muttered, "That must be Dosei."
As soon as he recognized a general always at his uncle's side, he guessed the man's errand. before meeting him.
“Ah, here you are."
Dosei wiped the sweat from his brow. Genba simply stood there without inviting the man inside the curtained enclosure. "Lord Dosei, what are you doing here?" he asked flatly.
Dosei looked as though he did not wish to say anything there and then, but Genba spoke out first.
"We'll camp here tonight and withdraw tomorrow. This was reported to my uncle already." He looked like he did not want to hear anything else about it.
"I've been informed." Dosei politely introduced his remarks with a greeting. He then conratulated Genba at length on his great victory at Mount Oiwa, but Genba was not to bear his roundaboutness.
"Did my uncle send you here because he's still anticipating trouble?"
"As you've conjectured, he's extremely anxious about your plan to camp here. His wishes are for you to withdraw from enemy territory by tonight at the latest and return to his main camp."
"Don't worry, Dosei. When my picked troops advance, they have explosive power; when they stand to defend a place, they're like steel walls. We have not been shamed yet."
"Lord Katsuie has had faith in you from the very beginning, but when you look at from a military standpoint, to be delayed when you've penetrated deep inside enemy territory is not really the accomplishment of your strategy."
"Wait a moment, Dosei. Are you saying that I don't understand the art of war? And those your words or my uncle's?"
At that point even Dosei was getting nervous, and there was really nothing he could do but stay silent. He began to feel that his role as a messenger was putting him in danger.
"If you say so, my lord. I shall report the extent of your conviction to Lord Katsuie."
Dosei hurriedly took his leave, and when Genba returned to his seat he quickly sent out orders. Dispatching one corps of men to Mount Iwasaki, he also directed a number of small reconnaissance parties to Minegamine and the vicinity of Kannonzaka, between Shizugatake and Mount Oiwa.
Soon thereafter, another voice was heard making an announcement. 'Lord Joemon has just arrived on orders from the main camp at Kitsune."
The messenger this time had not come for simple conversation or to relay Katsuie's thoughts. Rather, he delivered formal military orders, the content of which was yet another request to retreat. Genba listened tamely, but his answer, as before, firmly upheld his own view and he showed no indication of submitting.
"He has already given me the responsibility of supervising an incursion deep into enemy territory. To comply with what he asks now would be to omit the finishing touch to a military operation that has been successful so far. I would like him to trust me with the baton of command for just one more step."
So Genba neither bowed to what the envoy had been sent to say nor submitted to his commander-in-chief's very explicit orders. He had used his ego as a shield. Standing before him now, even Joemon—who had been chosen to come here by Katsuie himself— was unable to prevail upon the man's rigidity.
"There's nothing more I can do," Joemon said, washing his hands of the whole affair. His final words were accompanied by a slightly indignant look. "I cannot imagine what Lord Katsuie will think, but I will pass your answer on to him."
Joemon quickly returned without further conversation. He naturally whipped his horse to quicken his return, just as he had in coming.
Thus the third messenger returned, and by the time the fourth arrived, the sun was growing dim in the west. The old warrior, Ota Kuranosuke, a veteran retainer and personal attendant to Katsuie, talked at length. He spoke, however, more about the relationship between uncle and nephew than about the order itself, and did his best to soften the youthful Genba's rigid stance.
"Now, now. I understand your resolve, but of all the members of your family, Lord Katsuie holds you in the highest esteem, and that's why he's so worried now. Particularly, now that you've destroyed one section of the enemy, we will be able to consolidate our position, continue to make one victory after another, and break down the enemy's weak points step by step. That is our larger strategy, and it's the one that has been decided upon in order to take control of the country. Listen, Lord Genba, you should stop here."
"The road is going to be dangerous when the sun goes down, old man. Go back."
"You won't do it, will you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"What is your decision?"
"I wasn't thinking of making that decision from the very beginning."
Fatigued, the old retainer left.
The fifth messenger arrived.
Genba had become even more rigid. He had come so far, and he was not going to turn back. He refused to see the messenger, but the man was not some minor retainer. The messengers who had come that day had all been distinguished men, but the fifth one was a particularly powerful member of Katsuie's entourage.
"I know that our envoys to you may not have been satisfactory, but now Lord Katsuie has talked about coming here himself. We, his close attendants, have urged him to stay in camp and I, as unworthy as I am, have come in his place. I implore you to think about this clearly and then strike camp and leave Mount Oiwa as quickly as possible."
He made his plea while prostrating himself outside the curtained enclosure.
Genba, however, had judged the situation thus: Even if Hideyoshi had been informed of the incident and had hurried from Ogaki, it was still a distance of thirteen leagues from there to here, and it would have taken until nightfall for the warning to arrive. It would also not be an easy matter to get away quickly from Gifu. Therefore, the soonest imaginable time for the completion of that shift in field positions would be tomorrow night or the day after.
“That nephew of mine is not going to listen, no matter who I send," Katsuie complained. "I'll have to go there myself and make him withdraw by nightfall."
The main camp at Kitsune had received word that day of the raiding army's happy success and was temporarily overjoyed. But the order for a swift retreat had not been carried out. In fact, Genba had dismissed all of the distinguished envoys with a refusal to obey and a derisive sneer.
“Ah, that nephew of mine is going to be the end of me," Katsuie lamented, barely able to contain himself. When word leaked out about the internal discord within the field staff—that Genba's willfulness was being criticized by Katsuie—the martial spirit within the camp somehow lost its cheerfulness.
“Another envoy has left camp."
“What! Another?"
The repeated comings and goings between the main camp and Mount Oiwa pained the hearts of the warriors.
For half a day, Katsuie felt his life would be shortened. During the time he waited for the return of his fifth envoy, he could hardly stay seated on his camp stool. The camp was located at a temple in Kitsunezaka, and it was along the corridors of that building that Katsuie now wandered silently, looking in the direction of the temple gate.
“Shichiza hasn't returned yet?" he asked his close attendants innumerable times. "It's already evening, isn't it?"
As dusk pressed in, he became irritated. The evening sun was now casting its light on the bell tower.
“Lord Yadoya has returned!" That was the message relayed by the warrior at the temple gate.
“What happened?" Katsuie asked anxiously.