The Heike Story (48 page)

"I have no mind to listen to your opinions on strategy. I have my own ideas. Besides, we must have his majesty make a proclamation, and he's in no condition yet to do so after those days of imprisonment in the Palace. He has hardly had any food or sleep in that time. I must see to it that he gets some steaming rice porridge before anything else. I can hardly press him with other matters just now. . . . Leave the orders until later."

"Yes, Father."

"Tell your brothers and Mokunosukй' and the soldiers this."

"As you say."

"Tell them to wait until his majesty has finished his meal. In the meantime, order our men to pile on plenty of logs and thaw out their reins and bowstrings."

Shigemori turned away. He did not doubt that the odds were now against them; his father was clearly distrait. Shigemori, who never questioned his father's judgment, made his way to the river-bank, massed with soldiers, and gave out his father's instructions.

Kiyomori did not need Shigemori to tell him of the seriousness of the situation. He quickly started toward the main house, but was stopped at the turn of the gallery by someone who apparently had been lying in wait for him.

The fellow addressed him with an elaborate bow: "Ah, Lord Harima, allow me to congratulate you on the complete success of your plans."

Kiyomori gave the man a sharp look. It was Red-Nose, the merchant who had carried messages between Korekata, Tsunemunй, and Rokuhara.

"Oh, Bamboku, my thanks for your good offices."

"Not at all, sir, I have done nothing to speak of."

"On the contrary, you've shown considerable ingenuity in all this."

"An exaggeration, sir—a small acknowledgment of your good lady's patronage."

"What of Korekata and Tsunemunй?"

"Quite exhausted, I must say, and getting some sleep in the servants' quarters."

"So. And you came with his majesty last night?"

"Part of the way, in great fear and trembling, I assure you, sir, and not much help at that. ... I came, however, to see if I might be of use in the kitchens, washing dishes, and here, quite by accident, I come on you, sir. ... A very great privilege, this, I am sure."

"You will in time hear from me. Wait a few days for your reward."

Kiyomori had no reason for not trusting Bamboku; not only did Tokiko consider him reliable, but the merchant had proved to be most useful to him in the secret negotiations of the past week.

Kiyomori made his way to an anteroom, where an official met him, saying:

"Your son, sir, has been looking for you for some time."

"I saw him a short while ago. But what of his majesty?"

"He has had some hot porridge."

"Does he seem a little more rested?"

"I do not know quite how to tell you—it moved us deeply to see him weep at the sight of food."

"Good, good!" Kiyomori exclaimed with a warm smile, "and now we must have him consent to our advancing to the attack."

"That has already been sanctioned and the proclamation will soon be ready."

"Have my son Shigemori come to me, then," Kiyomori said.

Shigemori, who had been appointed to lead the troops in his father's stead, soon appeared.

"Shigemori, his majesty consents. Set out at once for the Palace—with all speed!"

When Shigemori appeared before the men to give the command, the warriors roared their applause; gongs sounded and drums rolled as three thousand horses surged forward through the snow for the assault on the Palace.

The first rays of the sun now shot over a shoulder of the Eastern Hills, sparkled on the armored ranks, on the horses' harness, and flashed blindingly in the treetops and on the Palace roofs. All the gates of the Palace stood open in readiness for Yoshitomo of the Genji to ride out, but Yoshitomo fumed, realizing that the initial advantage had been thrown away. His plan was to attack Rokuhara before dawn, but Nobuyori's dilatoriness and his conflicting orders to the troops had delayed the start, and the enemy were already on the march.

Quickly ordering the drums to signal a change in the troops' positions, Yoshitomo reassigned his men to the defense of the three gates of the outer wall on the east. Twenty-seven gates there were in all, including those of the inner walls, separated each from the other by wide avenues and parklike stretches. And now two thousand Genji horsemen, flourishing weapons, streamed from all directions into the spacious plaza facing the Great Hall, as the drums and gongs of the Heike were heard along the eastern wall.

Under a cloudless sky thirty red standards fluttered amid a forest of bows as the Heike forces came to a standstill before the three eastern gates, which stood open to receive them.

Yoshitomo, bitterness gnawing at his entrails, groaned inwardly as he watched an ashen-faced Nobuyori finally leave the Great Hall, mount his horse awkwardly, and, flanked by armed men, ride reluctantly toward the gate that he was to command. Shigemori and his five hundred horse already waited for him there, and as Nobuyori came into sight Shigemori and his eight liegemen galloped headlong to meet him. Nobuyori looked up with a cry when he saw them, hesitated, then turned and fled with Shigemori in full pursuit. At this, five hundred mounted warriors streamed in through the gate, followed by another five hundred.

From his post at the second gate Yoshitomo saw what was taking place and called loudly to his son Yoshihira, whom he saw ride past.

"The enemy have broken through at the central gate! I cannot leave my post here, but you go assist that coward Nobuyori! Drive back the men of Rokuhara!"

At Yoshitomo's command seventeen horsemen came forward to join Yoshihira. Shigemori rode a chestnut horse, and Yoshihira recognized him by his armor and the red tunic he wore under it. While Shigemori harried the Genji with his arrows, his horsemen kept Yoshihira from approaching and engaging him in hand-to-hand combat. But when Shigemori rested his bow to take breath, Yoshihira saw his chance. His horse's tail streaming in the wind, he flew toward Shigemori, challenging him loudly:

"This is I, Yoshihira of the Genji, Yoshitomo's son! Your name?"

Shigemori turned his head long enough to stare into Yoshihira's burning eyes; then, splashing mud-streaked snow, he wheeled his horse sharply to reply: "Ah, you, Yoshihira of the Genji! I am Shigemori of the Heike, Kiyomori's son!"

Thus did a young Genji and a Heike come face to face in front of the Great Hall. At one side of the wide stairs leading up to the hall grew a cherry tree, on the other a tree of the bitter orange, and here on the plaza the two combatants crossed and re-crossed each other's paths, pursuing each other.

With a cry to Yoshihira, who carried no bow, Shigemori suddenly aimed a shaft.

"Coward!" came back the shout. "You stoop to arrows when I carry none? Dare you cross swords with me?"

A second arrow sped on its way, but as Shigemori's hand reached toward his quiver a third time, he found Yoshihira on his heels. The chestnut swerved sharply as the jet horse cut across its path and drew up beside him.

"So you, a Heike, thought to escape me?"

Another arrow whined; as Yoshihira ducked, Shigemori quickly drew his sword. Steel flashed white against steel; stirrups grated against one another. Whirling, dodging, feinting, and charging in a spectacle of brilliant horsemanship, pursued and pursuing, the two youths rode furiously seven times and then eight round the cherry and orange trees. Their swords grazed, slashed at the air, and seemed to clash in a shower of sparks.

Shigemori's eight liegemen were engaged with Yoshihira's seventeen at other places on the plaza, where the trampled snow was churned with mud and streaked with blood, and Shigemori flew to join the melee, until the arrival of more Genji horsemen forced him to fall back and retreat toward the gate by which he had come.

Mokunosukй, who had been directing the withdrawal, approached Shigemori, whom he found resting at a crossroad.

"Well done!" he cried, "if only your father could have seen you!" adding: "but remember his orders and let the enemy claim the victory now."

"Old One, there's no need to be anxious for me."

With a fresh company of horsemen, Shigemori rode back toward the plaza. There Yoshihira came out to meet them, facing a shower of arrows, and with a welcoming wave.

"Come, you Heike of Rokuhara! Surely, I am a worthy foe, or is it possible that you fear me?"

Shigemori spurred his horse forward. "Dare you boast? You shall yet have cause to fear me!"

"When did I ever turn my back to you?"

Once more the two charged furiously round the snowy plaza, until Shigemori, spent, turned and fled outside the Palace walls, followed by his wildly shouting soldiers.

Yoshihira, his eyes fixed on the glossy chestnut, continued to gallop after Shigemori, shouting: "Turn back, turn back, coward!"

The snow frothed like smoke under their horses' hoofs as Shigemori fled with Yoshihira in pursuit. Shigemori flattened himself against his horse's shoulder, whipping it forward, while his two liegemen kept pace with him; at a shouted warning, Shigemori's mount vaulted effortlessly across a narrow canal and was followed by the other two. Arrows whistled about them. One struck Shigemori's armor with a dull thud, and a second snapped and hung down as it pierced his shoulder-piece.

"Wait, wait, have you no shame?" cried Yoshihira almost at Shigemori's ear, when his horse shied and stumbled at the canal's edge and threw Yoshihira onto a raft. As he rose to his feet, he called to one of his soldiers who had safely cleared the canal: "Don't wait for me—see that Shigemori doesn't escape."

The rider nodded and set a third arrow on the nock; he aimed it at Shigemori just as the latter's horse reared at a pile of snow-covered lumber in its path. An arrow dug into its belly, a red stain spurted across the snow, and horse and rider crashed sideways to earth. Shigemori's helmet flew from his head; as he sprang to retrieve it, he looked up wildly and saw one of his pursuers bearing down on him. When the soldier's horse also shied at the sight of the lumber beside the canal, the rider leaped down from his saddle and rushed at Shigemori. Shigemori swung his bow sideways with all his strength in his adversary's face, forcing the soldier to fall back a few steps to unsheathe his sword; then one of Shigemori's soldiers leaped between them with outstretched arms to shield Shigemori and closed with the enemy. Like angry bulls with locked horns the two wrestled until both men rolled to the ground.

Yoshihira, who made his way out of the canal, saw his father's favorite retainer fall and ran to his rescue with drawn sword. Meanwhile, Shigemori's other companion arrived at the scene and quickly dismounted; setting Shigemori on his horse, he urged his master to escape and then turned to assist his fallen comrade.

Heavy fighting ensued at the gate that Yoshitomo guarded, as Kiyomori's half-brother Yorimori returned to storm it with a fresh force of mounted bowmen, and when both sides finally exhausted their supply of arrows, the Heike broke through and poured into the Palace grounds. In the fierce skirmish that followed, only the red and white standards and the strips of cloth in their armor served to distinguish friend from foe. Four times were the Heike repelled and forced to retire by the gate through which they had entered. Back and forth the tide of fighting rolled until the Heike were forced to retreat as far as the Gojo Bridge.

As Yoshitomo and his three sons swept the main avenues of straggling Heike, Yoshitomo chanced to look back toward the Palace and cried out in dismay at the sight of Heike banners waving over the gate-houses and above the Palace roofs. A hidden force of Heike had invaded the undefended Palace and taken possession of it.

Yoshitomo was dissatisfied with the course the fighting had assumed. Something told him that all was not well. His troops were not performing with their usual spirit. "There is little chance for victory," he told himself, realizing as he did so that it was unlike him to have such doubts. Reflecting thus, he also admitted to himself that he alone was responsible for this predicament. Kiyomori had again outmaneuvered him in a move that was child's play and cut off his retreat. The odds were now heavily against the Genji; the only course open to him now was to pursue the enemy to Rokuhara, abduct the Emperor, and challenge Kiyomori in single combat, Yoshitomo resolved unhappily. Annihilation— or that one chance in a thousand—this was the last throw of the dice. But Yoshitomo took heart when he saw his captains spiritedly repulsing the enemy and began massing his troops from the Gojo Bridge and northward along the river.