Chapter 82

"Your humble servant, Mizo Shigetada, pays respects to Your Highness." Since the Sōryō family had already fallen, Mizo Shigetada, who had become a rōnin (wandering samurai), could no longer refer to himself as an outer vassal.

"Hehe, Shigetada, how is everything at home?" Masahiro asked.

"Thank you, Your Highness, for providing a proper burial for my father. His spirit in heaven will surely be grateful for your kindness." Mizo Shigetada bowed deeply to Masahiro, expressing his heartfelt gratitude. This morning, after bidding farewell to his father, Mizo Shigetada, following his father's instructions, immediately led Yuna and her mother, along with all the family members, to flee from Hira Castle and hide in a nearby forest. Due to the urgency of their escape, no one had brought any food. When everyone was starving, in the afternoon, Mizo Shigetada had to risk returning to the vicinity of Hira Castle to find food. However, he was shocked to find that Hira Castle had already been occupied by the Rō family, and the Sōryō and Bita families had been completely annihilated. Mizo Shigetada then boldly returned to his home in the town below the castle, intending to learn about his father's situation. However, he was informed by the Rō family's foot soldiers guarding the area that Mizo Shigetada's father had committed seppuku (ritual suicide) before Hira Castle fell, and Rō Masahiro had already ordered his body to be properly buried near the Mizo family's ancestral tomb. Overwhelmed with grief, Mizo Shigetada immediately went to his father's grave to pay his respects and weep. After calming down, he quickly returned to the forest where his family was hiding and brought everyone back home, then closed the doors and stayed inside.

During this period of seclusion, Mizo Shigetada, while grieving, also thought about the family's situation. Now, he was the only adult male left in the family, and the others were all elderly or weak. Additionally, there was his newlywed wife Yuna and her mother, all of whom needed to rely on him for survival. When his father was alive, they had a stipend to support them, but now that his father was gone, everything would have to depend on him. Where would the money and food come from? From the information he gathered from the townspeople while searching for food, the Rō family was organizing all the townspeople to register their families and land. According to the Rō family's laws, it was foreseeable that most of the Mizo family's ten fields would be confiscated, and the farmers working for the Mizo family would return to their own lands, making it impossible to rely on the fields. The family's stored money and food? Even if there was a lot, it would eventually run out. Therefore, the only option was to serve, to earn a stipend. But which family should he serve? Mizo Shigetada suddenly remembered the day he discussed tea art with Rō Masahiro, and then recalled his father's evaluation of Rō Masahiro in their last conversation. His father's foresight had been proven correct that very day. Finally, Mizo Shigetada thought of the kindness of Rō Masahiro in providing a proper burial for his father. Clearly, both emotionally and logically, the Rō family would be an ideal family to serve.

After making his decision, Mizo Shigetada quickly went to the lord's residence in Hira Castle to request an audience with Masahiro. Unexpectedly, he only encountered Tōgō Heiji and Ōnishi Kuniharu, who were preparing to head to Nakao Castle. Mizo Shigetada then pleaded to accompany them, and Ōnishi Kuniharu, knowing this young man who was highly regarded by the lord, readily agreed. This led to the scene where Mizo Shigetada paid respects to Masahiro.

"Your Highness, your humble servant is deeply grateful for your kindness. To repay your kindness, please accept my loyalty. I will serve the Rō family with all my heart and soul," Mizo Shigetada said, bowing solemnly to Masahiro again.

"Very well, very well. Shigetada, I understand your intentions. Now, I formally appoint you as the Rō family's Court Official and the Commander of the Foot Soldiers, responsible for all external diplomatic affairs. Your stipend will be 40 koku," Masahiro said. "Additionally, your family should move to the vicinity of the lord's residence in Yagata. Heiji will allocate five fields to the Mizo family when the time comes."

"Thank you, Your Highness. I will serve with all my loyalty," Mizo Shigetada was very moved. Although moving the family to the vicinity of the lord's residence had a monitoring aspect, it could also be seen as a treatment reserved for important vassals. The contrast between the cold treatment he received in the Sōryō family and the current warm treatment was stark.

"Congratulations, Your Highness," Tōgō Heiji and Ōnishi Kuniharu immediately congratulated Masahiro.

Masahiro waved his hand, indicating that there was no need for formalities, and then said, "Everyone, our family has been through several major battles in the past half month. Although our territory has expanded, due to the urgency, we need to quickly integrate the newly occupied territories. Now, let Kuniharu and Heiji give their reports first."

"Your Highness, the territory around Hira Castle has been completely stabilized. All the male members of the Sōryō family have been executed, and the women have been properly settled. Ichi is currently leading 50 foot soldiers to implement our family's laws," Ōnishi Kuniharu reported first. "As for the 20 scouts in the territory, most have already infiltrated the territories of nearby powerful families to gather information, as per your orders, while a few remain to monitor the situation in the territory."

"Your Highness, apart from the territories of the Bita and Sōryō families that were just occupied today, the population and land of the other territories have been fully registered," Tōgō Heiji also reported. "Apart from the territories occupied today, there are a total of 2,183 people. Due to the increased speed of land cultivation, the expected land revenue is about 1,950 koku. According to the records, including the 820 people from the Sōryō family's territory, 148 people from the Bita family's territory, and 133 people who fled to our territory from Yuno Castle, the total population of the territory is now 3,284. In terms of land revenue, excluding the Bita family's territory, the total is about 2,300 koku."

"Hmm, the people from the Bita family's territory and the new refugees should be uniformly resettled in Fujihira Castle. As for other displaced people, they should be resettled in Yagata Village," Masahiro thought for a moment and said. "The land of the Bita family's territory should be cultivated by the foot soldiers responsible for guarding it." As the army grew larger, the daily expenses of the army, in addition to the stipends, increased significantly, and the pressure on the territory's food supply also increased. Masahiro decided to adopt a military farming system, similar to what he had seen in the future, to achieve a certain degree of self-sufficiency for the army.

Tōgō Heiji bowed to accept the order and continued, "In terms of supplies, after several battles, the 2,000 koku of military reserve food has been consumed by about 150 koku, leaving 1,650 koku available for allocation. The 4,500 koku of food reserved for territory construction has been consumed by about 100 koku due to the increase in population, leaving 4,400 koku available for allocation. This time, we seized 850 koku of various grains from the Sōryō and Bita families; 35 swords, 103 spears, 20 wooden bows, 5 sets of crude armor, several dozen pounds of copper and iron, 145 strings and 231 coins of copper, 5 ounces of gold, and 230 shō of silver."

"The seized food should be added to the military reserve. The rewards for this battle should be distributed immediately according to the territory's laws, directly from the military reserve," Masahiro calculated that the territory now had a total of 6,900 koku of food available for allocation. Although war was a great drain on resources, the current strategy of using war to sustain war was basically able to maintain a balance. The stockpile of weapons was even sufficient to equip another army of the same size as the current territory, which now had 40 medium-ranking samurai (cape-wearing samurai), 160 regular spear foot soldiers, 40 regular archer foot soldiers, 20 regular scouts, and 20 newly recruited regular rōnin (temporarily receiving the same stipend as foot soldiers). In terms of currency, after converting all the gold and silver, the territory now had nearly 3,000 strings of copper coins.

(PS: Working during the day and writing at night, maintaining two updates a day, it's really tiring. Everyone, please recommend and collect to comfort me! The new book has been released for a month, already signed A, and has been updated with over 240,000 words, with no plans to stop, at least 1.5 million words. Running naked for two weeks, ranking on the Sanjiang Potential List in the third week, on the New Book Recommendation List in the fourth week, on the Strong Recommendation List for the History Category in the fifth week, and on the New Book Selection List for the History Category this week. Everyone, after reading, don't leave in a hurry. Even if you don't have votes, add it to your bookshelf. I beg you, my dear readers. My goal is to write at least 1.5 million words, even if it means a spectacular failure. Enjoy writing, enjoy solitude. The homepage introduction has a discussion group, welcome to join.)

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