There is a description that in the end of the battle at the Kanazawa barrier the Yoshiie army which surrounded it remembered the dreadful defeat at Numanosaku in the previous year, which was written as 'Suffering from big snow, the Imperial army lost advantages for fighting and many soldiers died of coldness and hunger, or ate horse meat,' wrote a letter and sent anything which could be changed to traveling cost for their wives and children who remained at kokufu (provincial office, i.e., the Taga castle) to be able to go back to Kyoto after their death.
金沢の柵での戦いの終盤で冬になり、柵を包囲する義家軍も「大雪に遭い、官軍、戦うに利をうしない、軍兵多くは寒さに死し飢えて死す、或いは馬肉を切りて食し・・・」（康富記）という、前年の沼柵での悲惨な敗北を思い出し、自分が死んだあと、国府（多賀城）に残る妻子が、なんとか京へ帰れるようにと、手紙を書き、旅賃に変えられそうなものを送り届けるシーンがある。