Chapter 81

"Having heard that the land of Ezo is vast, we will conquer it all and this time, defeat Tsuda Mitsuteru!"

After being defeated by Mitsuteru and exiled to Ezo, Date Masamune and his followers discussed their future plans in the castle they had captured from the Kakioka family.

It was necessary to give clear hope to the nearly ten thousand retainers and their families who had followed Masamune, to keep them from deserting.

The campaign against the Kakioka family, including the defeat of Kakioka Kikumasa and his son, and the seizure of their castle and territory, had gone smoothly, but many problems now piled up.

First, rice could not be grown in Ezo.

They had no choice but to buy it from the mainland with money earned through trade.

Moreover, it was winter.

While the Tohoku region was also cold and snowy, Ezo was even worse.

People were beginning to die from the cold, and Masamune had to urgently address this issue.

"You, such a remote place is not good for Sosuke's health."

Disputes also arose within the household.

Although he had retired, Masamune's father, Terumune, still actively supported him.

However, his wife, Yoshinaga's sister, Yoshihime, complained about life in Ezo.

She often said that they should return to Tohoku rather than stay in Ezo, because Sosuke, Masamune's younger brother, was weak.

"Return? How do you plan to return?"

"The Date family is a prestigious clan. If we explain the situation, Tsuda will surely return us to Yonezawa."

Terumune was exasperated by Yoshihime's words.

If such an argument would work, the Date family would never have lost their territory to the Tsuda family in the first place.

Terumune inwardly cursed Yoshihime, wondering what she had been seeing all this time.

"Do you understand the position of your brother-in-law?"

"As the head of the Yoshinaga family, he has been given a castle, hasn't he?"

Terumune was exasperated by Yoshihime's lack of understanding of the Tsuda family's governance.

At the same time, he thought that this was to be expected from a woman.

In the Tsuda family's governance, no retainers were given land; they were all hired with money.

The head of the family, Mitsuteru, owned all the land, and retainers were appointed as magistrates, castle commanders, and military leaders.

Hereditary succession was allowed for retainers who had proven their worth, but only to a certain level of stipend.

Beyond that, they had to earn their positions through their own abilities, which would add to their stipend.

Hereditary retainers were treated with a certain level of respect as long as they had a successor, but if they lacked ability, they were not given important roles.

Terumune was impressed by this well-designed system.

Even Oda Nobunaga was gradually adopting a similar system to control his retainers.

However, the Date family could not implement this system immediately.

They would face resistance from temples and local samurai who were attached to the land.

The Tsuda family had achieved this by using their vast wealth and unique technologies to crush any resistance with overwhelming military force.

While the Tsuda family was supported by the majority of the people due to their excellent governance, they did not hesitate to carry out bloody purges against those who opposed them.

Even religious forces like the Ikkoshu had been crushed by the Tsuda family, leaving mountains of corpses.

Despite this, the Tsuda family did not receive much bad press because they had overwhelming support from the majority of the people.

Terumune had come to fully understand this only after many failures.

In the war against the Tsuda family, he had tried to incite uprisings in the territories they had lost, but it was a complete failure.

Few people followed the Date family's prestige, and the uprisings were easily suppressed by the Tsuda family.

In the end, the retainers he sent were captured or killed and handed over to the Tsuda family.

Terumune realized that the Date family had almost no chance of returning to prominence in Tohoku.

"(This woman...)"

Most of the retainers who followed Terumune and Masamune to Ezo understood this.

Some who had seen the land of Ezo and returned to Tohoku were seen as a good way to weed out the weak.

Such people might have hindered the Ezo pacification campaign.

But the real problem was this woman, who did not understand the reality before her.

"Your brother-in-law has only been given the position of Sendai Castle Commander. He has not been granted the land."

After losing the war and his territory, Yoshinaga surrendered and was given the position of Sendai Castle Commander by Mitsuteru.

This was the same treatment as Satake Yoshihiro.

First, they would observe his ability and loyalty in governance, and if there were no problems, they would also be given military authority.

Yoshihiro had met Mitsuteru's expectations and was now treated the same as the Horio, Yamauchi, Hino, and Fuji families.

He had effectively used his prestigious background.

"We, the prestigious Date family, cannot lose to such a lowly person!"

"Whether you like it or not, the Date family has no chance of defeating the Tsuda family at this point. The Ezo pacification is to build up our strength."

"I never thought you would be such a loser!"

Yoshihime stood up, clearly unwilling to continue the conversation with Terumune.

Terumune thought she needed some time to cool off, but she took an unexpected action.

She left Ezo with Sosuke and the retainers who agreed with her, returning to Tohoku.

"We will gather the forces of the great families destroyed by the Tsuda family under the name of the prestigious Date family and reclaim our territories!"

Reading the letter she left behind, Terumune could only be exasperated, but she was still his wife and child.

He wrote to Yoshinaga in Sendai, asking him to handle the situation.

"Please, at least save the lives of my sister and nephew."

Yoshinaga, who was busy as the Sendai Castle Commander, was shocked by Terumune's letter and hurriedly went to bow before Mitsuteru.

"(Is this man just destined to suffer?) If she wants to become a nun, that's fine."

"Thank you for your kindness!"

A week after Yoshinaga prostrated himself on the tatami, an uprising led by the Date family's remnants broke out in Yonezawa.

Centered around Nakano Munetoki and his son, the uprising was led by Date Sosuke, but it had been detected by the spies under Fuma Kotaro before it began and was quickly crushed by the Tsuda army.

As promised to Yoshinaga, Yoshihime and Sosuke were forcibly made to become nuns and sent to a temple, after which uprisings by the remnants of the former Tohoku daimyo largely ceased.