Yasuda Katsushi did not hurry back, but spent a few more days visiting the surrounding villages and farms, only to find the situation far from optimistic—plagues of insects were a common occurrence. In fact, the first small village he visited, with its relatively fertile land, had already suffered less damage than most.

The more he saw, the heavier his worries grew. After all, Ise Province was already in a difficult state!

In Ise Province's thirteen counties, mountains rose everywhere—not only were there small Daimyo each controlling their own territory, like the Nagano Family, Kobe Family, Guan family, and Chisou Family, there were also plenty of petty clans with tangled vassal ties, some with multiple "adoptive lords"; among them, the truly obedient ones were few indeed.

The de facto Family Head of the Hokitate Family, Kitahata Giyou (who had abdicated in name but not in power), was, of course, unwilling to accept this. Since the days of the "Tiger of Owari," Oda Nobuhide—just around the time Harano had fallen into hard times and come here—after securing the five southern counties of Ise Province, he had sought to unify the Northern Eight Counties. Yet after all these years, only the Nagano Family had been subdued, and even not entirely—Kitahata Giyou's second son had become the Nagano heir by adoption, making them vassals, but resistance never ceased within the Nagano Family.

There were external threats as well. In the Kinki region, the powerful Miyoshi family was growing ever more ambitious; having seized Daiwa Country, rumors spread that they now coveted Ise Province as well, and could strike hard at any moment, launching an offensive from west to east.

The eastern neighbor, Owari Province, was also far from tranquil. The "Oda big fool" had suddenly risen, and although they were currently expanding northward and distracted by Minoh Province, the strengthening neighbor was still a source of deep unease at mere contemplation.

To the south, Shimomura Province, too, was not quiet. The Kuuki Family was gradually becoming more active, and signs of their unification had begun to show. They could very well become a grave danger.

In short, though one could not yet say who the future foe would be, a great war was nearly inevitable. Preparations for battle simply could not cease—if they did, the enemy would strike at any opportunity. And just at such a time, they were hit with insect infestations, crops suffering losses on a massive scale—at least twenty to thirty percent in some places, more than half in others. This…

The more Yasuda Katsushi thought about it, the more his head ached. The shred of pity and mercy he'd felt for these commoners afflicted by disaster was steadily ebbing away.

The commoners had it bad, but the Samurai, too, were hard-pressed. Otherwise, if the enemy invaded, could those commoners really fare any better?

He couldn't tell how widespread the insect blight was—was it only Ise Province that suffered, or the whole Ise Peninsula? If it was everywhere, perhaps the situation would be slightly less dire.

He returned to Daheicheng with a chorus of heavy sighs along the way, his followers trailing behind.

Daheicheng, perched atop Mount Luling, was a crucial stronghold from which the Hokitate Family controlled the Luling Plain and the surrounding two counties. As Yasuda Katsushi neared the gates, he saw a large group of Ashigaru, led by several mounted Samurai, urgently charging out, rounding a bend, and hastening northwest along a side road.

Yasuda Katsushi looked on with mild curiosity. As he entered the city, he asked an acquaintance among the Samurai: "Lord Suijikei, what's going on?"

The Samurai replied off-handedly, "A whole village in Changshui Port's area is refusing to pay tribute. Kono and the others are going to haul them back."

"Skipping tribute?"

"Seems that way…" The Samurai wasn't part of the Magistrate system, so he only knew the bare bones, but he still spat, "A bunch of thankless wretches—years ago, when famine hit, they crossed the mountains to flee here. We took them in out of kindness, even gave them land. Now this year they run off again, and this time it's the entire village together. Had we known, we'd have just killed them then and there."

Hearing this, Yasuda Katsushi recalled: a few years ago, windstorms had struck, but the Luling Plain, shielded by the Ise Mountains, suffered only brief flooding and was otherwise not seriously affected. Refugees from other places had come here in search of food. The Hokitate Family had picked up a new labor force; naturally, they set these people to clearing new fields and building villages, turning them into serfs. Now, it seemed, these people were fleeing again?

The last time they scrambled over the mountains in flight from famine, nearly half of them had died on the way…

Yasuda Katsushi pondered, soon understanding, and pressed further: "Has Changshui Port's area been hit hard?"

"No idea." The Samurai answered casually, then after a moment's thought, hesitated and added, "Shouldn't be anything serious—I heard they made good money selling hemp cloth this year. They should be doing well, right?"

The land around Changshui Port was mostly hills, with poor, less fertile soil, but there were mountains and wetlands, perfect for hemp cultivation and processing. Word had it that, back when the appointed Magistrates first led the clearing of that area, each of them schemed to traffic more than a thousand bolts of hemp cloth out to the coast, each making a small fortune. A bitter chore had turned into a plum assignment.

Yasuda Katsushi had heard such rumors himself. He shook his head, asked no further, and proceeded directly into the city. He then climbed up the mountain road and found his superior, Hirata Fujimori, at the Samurai's house halfway up. After reporting on the disaster, he hesitated—by now he felt little pity, but he feared trouble—so on behalf of the villagers and peasants, he pleaded, "Lord Hirata, should this year's tribute not be reduced?"

"We'll see."

Hirata Fujimori was one of Daheicheng's General Magistrates, with a role similar to that of Niwa Nagahide in the Oda Family, overseeing the region's finances for the Hokitate Family. Yet the strategic situation was ever tighter: not only did they clash overtly and covertly with minor Daimyo and petty clans in the Northern Eight Counties, but also had to guard against surprise attacks by the Miyoshi. Financial pressure was immense—just a few years ago, disaster struck the Ise Peninsula and the losses had not been slight. They had only just begun to recover, and now it struck again. He could barely endure it any longer.

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