Be strong in hard days and cautious in happy days.

- Gorky (proletarian writer of the former Soviet Union, founder of socialist realist literature)

The conversation between Bai Feng and Nanbu Nobunao in the assessment room was not kept secret, and the next morning, the retainers of the Yanhuang family in Sanhe Castle all knew the news that Oshu was about to be divided into five, which made the Yanhuang family elders such as Tanda Kantai, who had been idle for a long time, couldn't help but be excited.

The transformation of Oshu into Mutsu Kingdom, Lu Chugoku, Lu Qian Province, Iwashiro Province, and Iwaki Province not only means that the Yan Huang family's rule over Oshu is legitimized, but also means that the governor will soon appoint a group of retainers to serve as guardians of the Five Kingdoms.

Although Nanbu Shinzhi has already released a rumor on behalf of the family governor that the five countries divided from Oshu will not set up a guardian official position, but a new official position called Taishou, but this does not reduce the enthusiasm of the elders of the Yanhuang family, because even if the Taishou official position is in charge of the people and the army, it is better than not having an official position, and the elders of the Yanhuang family who have lost power for too long will not miss such a good opportunity to regain real power.

In today's Yanhuang family, there are only 11 people who can be described by the word "heavy ministers" such as Nanbu Nobunao and Tanda Kantai; even if you add the brothers Sanada Nobuyuki and Sanada Nobuyo, who are not high-ranking but have great real power, the number of important ministers of the Yanhuang family is only thirteen.

Considering that Taishou was a local civilian official position in charge of the people and the army, it was certainly impossible for Sanada Masayuki and Kunohe Yasuma to be appointed to the position of Taishou, and as a result, there would be many fewer candidates for the appointment of Taishou.

Clear-sighted people know that Nanbu Shinnao, who has always been deeply trusted by the governor, will inevitably become a national governor; as for the southern standing army that Nanbu Shinnao originally commanded, whether it will continue to be commanded by Nanbu Shinnao or choose someone else to command it in the future, that is something that the governor needs to consider.

The only remaining members of the Yanhuang family who are most qualified to take the position of Taishou are the six family elders such as Tanta Kantai, among whom Hattori Yasushi has been sent overseas by the family governor not long ago to carry out a mission, so it is four of the five family elders who are really likely to take the position of Taishou!

In his opinion, no matter whether the family governor trusts him or not, he is the nominal highest-ranking retainer of the Yanhuang family, and if the five kingdoms can't take his turn, it would be a bit too much.

Compared with Kumada Kantai, who sat firmly in the Diaoyutai platform, Numata Yumitsu and the other four people had their own ideas; Numata Yumitsu, who had served as the military advisor of the Tsugaru family, had been able to roughly determine the specific candidates for at least three of the five kingdom Taishou, and he could even speculate on the result of Kantai's overconfidence and inevitable defeat in the end.

Numata Yumitsu has never been an impulsive person, every decision he makes is the result of careful consideration, even if it is the major events that affect his life, such as serving as the military advisor of the Tsugaru family and surrendering to the Yanhuang family, it is his own conditional choice.

If it weren't for the fact that the Governor of the Tsugaru family, Tsugaru, was willing to entrust him with important tasks, he would never have agreed to serve as the military advisor of the Tsugaru family; in the same way, if he hadn't seen the unlimited potential of the Yanhuang family early on, he wouldn't have easily surrendered to the Yanhuang family.

During his years in the Yanhuang family, the observant Numata Yumitsu discovered a principle of employing people about his own family governor: that is, before reusing someone, he would always be cold to someone for a while, and he would promote someone's blood relatives while reusing someone.

Sanada Masayuki father and son, Nanbu Toshina father and son, Hattori Yasuki father and son, and Izumiyama Koyasu father and son are the most typical examples; in Kantai's view, Hattori Yashiro, who was far away from the Yanhuang family and went overseas to carry out missions, lost a lot of opportunities to make contributions, but Numata Yumitsu knew in his heart that Hattori Yasushi, who was no different from himself and others, had taken this opportunity to become a confidant of the family governor.

In all fairness, Numata Yumitsu, who knew how terrifying the development potential of the Yanhuang family really was, also hoped that he could become a confidant of the family governor, so when the family governor appointed his son as the leader of the fourth military police squadron, he not only did not prevent his son, who was a general in the army, from giving up his original military position, but instead warned his son to be wholeheartedly loyal to the family governor and do his best for the family.

His son Numata Nobutada was appointed as the leader of the 4th Military Police Squadron by the Governor, Ogasawara Nobuki's son Ogasawara Masanobu was appointed as the Captain of the 5th Military Police Squadron, and the son of Taira Tsunade was appointed as the Captain of the 7th Military Police Squadron, and the son of Mori Tsunabu Nobumoto Morioka was appointed as the Captain of the 8th Military Police Squadron.

In stark contrast, a large number of sons and grandsons of Tanda were not appointed by the family governor; perhaps, the post of commander of a military police squadron with little authority may seem to others to be a fictitious position, but who who really has political wisdom cannot see the gold content of the commander of the military police squadron?

Leaving aside for the time being whether the duties and powers of the gendarmerie are large or small, in terms of the identity of the 12 military police squadron leaders, except for Takuma Ishigaki, Kei Nakajima, and Oura Nagasawa, who were promoted because of the stability of the army, which of the other nine military police squadron leaders was not born in a powerful family?

Numata Yumitsu, who saw everything very thoroughly, didn't know why the governor abandoned the name of the pen family elder, but he knew what choice he should make, so on the night of the hustle and bustle in Sannohe Castle about the imminent division of Oshu, Numata Yumitsu brought the three elders of Oura with whom he had always had a good relationship to the residence of the governor.

Before visiting the governor in secret at night, Numata Yumitsu had already informed Kanehei Tsunade and others of all his views on the appointment of the five Taishou, and after the four of them had reached a tacit agreement to swear allegiance to the governor, the four of them had a unified action tonight.

Bai Feng, who had acquiesced to Nanbu Shinnao's spread of the news last night, had long been prepared that someone would come tonight to swear allegiance to him; even so, the arrival of Numata Yumitsu and the other four people together still surprised Bai Feng, he didn't expect that four family elders would come to the door.

In the Yanhuang family's elder group, except for Nanfang Xinzhi, who is the real real power family elder, the other six people were originally elevated with a false title of family elder with no real power, and it was not until the Yanhuang family was about to usher in a new round of external expansion that Bai Feng decided to use these family elders.

With the loyalty attribute of the Roman system, Bai Feng, who attaches great importance to loyalty, can easily distinguish the loyalty of his retainers; the loyal are reused, and the disloyal will only be refrigerated, this is Bai Feng's own principle of employing people, and it will never change for any reason.

Bai Feng still believes in the loyalty of Numata Yumitsu, Kanepei Tsunori, Ogasawara Nobuyo, and Mori Tsunade Nobugen, otherwise he would not have appointed their sons in advance, but only three of these four people are about to become Taishou, and Mori Tsunade Nobumoto has other appointments.

Previously, when Bai Feng dealt with the expansion of the Yanhuang Standing Army, he had already decided to mix 7,000 recruits and 3,000 veterans of the Yanhuang Standing Army to form a new port garrison, and Mori Tsunade Nobuyuan was the first commander of this new army, and Bai Feng did not intend to change this appointment.