Mounted on his horse, Katsuie stared down at Shosuke's back in amazement. The
generals around him, struck with surprise, also fixed their eyes on Shosuke. Among Katsuie's many personal attendants, few had been treated more coldly than Shosuke had been.
Katsuie, who held that kind of prejudice against Shosuke, must have known what effect it had been having better than anyone else. And yet, wasn't that very Shosuke now before Katsuie, offering to put himself in Katsuie's place?
The wind of defeat blew desolately across the camp, and it had been unbearable for Katsuie to watch his men wavering since dawn. The cowards who had quickly thrown down their weapons and deserted had not been few in number; Katsuie had looked warmly upon many of those men and had given them his favors for many years. As those thoughts came to him, Katsuie was unable to hold back his tears.
Butt whatever Katsuie was thinking, he now kicked his horse's flanks with the heels of his stirrups, and chased away the pained look in his face with a thundering roar.
“What are you talking about, Shosuke? Once you die, that's the time for me to die! Now move away!"
Shosuke scurried away from the rearing horse but grabbed its reins,
"Then let me accompany you."
Against Katsuie's will, Menju put the battlefield behind him and hurried off in the direction of Yanagase. Both the man who guarded the commander's standard and Katsuie's retainers surrounded his horse and hurried him off in the middle of their group.
But Hideyoshi's vanguard had already broken through Kitsunezaka and, ignoring the Shibata warriors standing in its defense, put their sights on the golden standard fleeing into the distance.
"That's Katsuie! Don't let him get away!" A crowd of swift-running spearmen gath-Jgether and ran in Katsuie's direction.
We'll take our leave here, my lord!" Tossing off those words of farewell, the generals fleeing with Katsuie suddenly left his side, wheeled around, and dashed into the midst of the fierce spears of the pursuing troops. Their corpses soon fell to the ground.
Menju Shosuke had also turned and faced the enemy's onslaught, but now he once again chased after his lord's horse and yelled at Katsuie from behind.
"The commander's standard… please… let me carry it!"
They were just outside of Yanagase.
Katsuie brought his horse to a halt and took the gold commander's standard from the man next to him. It held so many memories—he had raised it in his camps together with his reputation as the "Demon Shibata."
"Here, Shosuke. Take it among my warriors!"
With those words, he suddenly tossed the standard to Shosuke.
Shosuke bent forward and agilely caught it by the shaft.
He was overjoyed. Waving the standard for a moment or two, he sent his final words in the direction of Katsuie's back.
"Good-bye, my lord!"
Katsuie turned, but his horse continued galloping toward the mountainous area of Yanagase. Only ten mounted men were accompanying him.
The commander's standard had been tossed into Shosuke's hands just as he had begged, but at that moment Katsuie had also left him with the words, "Take it among my warriors!
That had been his request and it no doubt had been made in consideration of the men who were being left to their deaths along with Shosuke.
Some thirty men instantly gathered beneath the standard. Those were the only men who truly respected their own honor and who were willing to die for their lord.
Ah, there are some honorable Shibata men left, Shosuke thought, looking happily at the faces around him. "Come on! Let's show them how to die happily!"
Putting the standard into the hands of one of the warriors, he dashed out in front, hurrying west from Yanagase village toward the northern ridge of Mount Tochinoki. When the small force of not even forty men made the resolve to go forward, they manifested a spirit far more intense than that of the thousands of men on Kitsunezaka that morning.
"Katsuie has fallen back to the mountains!"
"It appears that he's made his final resolve and is prepared to die."
As might be expected, the pursuing Hideyoshi troops exhorted each other to go on.
"We'll have Katsuie's head!"
Each one fought to take the lead as they started to climb Mount Tochinoki. Flashing the golden standard on the mountaintop, the Shibata warriors watched breathlessly as the numbers of enemy warriors—who were scrambling up even in places where there was no path—increased moment by moment.
"There's still time to pass around a farewell cup of water," Shosuke said.
In those few moments, Shosuke and his comrades scooped up and shared the water that trickled from between the crags on the mountaintop and calmly prepared themselves for death. Shosuke suddenly turned to his brothers Mozaemon and Shobei.
"Brothers, you should escape and return to our village. If all three of us achieve death In battle at once, no one will be able to carry on the family name or take care of our mother. Mozaemon, the elder brother is supposed to carry on the family name, so why go now?"
“If the younger brothers are cut down by the enemy," Mozaemon replied, "can the elder brother face his mother with the words 'I'm home now?' No, I'll stay here. Shobei, you should go."
“That would be horrible!" ?"
“Why?”
“For me to be sent home alive at a time like this would hardly be a pleasure for our mother. And our dead father must be looking at his sons from the other world today as well. It will not be my feet that walk back to Echizen today."
“Well then, we'll die together!"
Their souls united in a pledge of death, the three brothers stood unwavering beneath the commander's standard.
Shosuke made no further mention to his brothers about wanting them to return home.
The three brothers took their farewell drink from a scoop of clear spring water and, as a refreshing spirit passed through their breasts, all turned in the direction of their home.
One can imagine the prayers that were in their hearts. The enemy was approaching from all sides, close enough now that the individual voices of enemy soldiers could be heard.
“Guard the commander's standard, Shobei," Shosuke said to his younger brother as he put on his face guard. He was pretending to be Katsuie, and did not want the enemy to recognize him.
Five or six musket balls snapped past his head. Taking that as their cue, the thirty men invoked Hachiman, the god of war, and struck out for the enemy.
They divided into three units and attacked the advancing enemy. The men coming up from below were breathing hard and could not stand up to the desperate figures running down at them. Long swords poured down on the helmets of Hideyoshi's men, spears pierced their breasts, and their wretched corpses fell everywhere.
‘Let no one be too eager to die!" Shosuke shouted suddenly as he withdrew inside a palisade.
As the commander's standard followed him, so too did his remaining men.