During the Nanboku-chō War, samurai stewards frequently took the lands of nobles and converted them into private holdings ("chigyo") illegally. This revolutionary development was the harbinger for the total liquidation of the estate system that took place later. The "shugo" lords also participated in this wholesale land grab by accumulating former estates under their control by enfoeffing samurai on them. Ironically, this lawless situation created by samurai encroachments on land, at the height of the war, caused security problems for all landed interests from petty samurai to the kokujin, and provided further impetus among local samurai to seek intermediary ties to the "shugo" lords in the form of vassalage. By tying themselves to the "shugo", they were able to ally themselves to the one person in the province who could provide some form of local security.