The Seventh Book of Bao Dan: The Campaign of the Tiger

In the Winter of the Year of Hsing, Jen Shu and his Hu Rang, slew Grothmak and his band and four other Gaki Warlords. So from the foot of the Pillars of Heaven to the Long River and all across the Wide Land, all who heard of Jen Shu and the Golden Tribe trembled.

When the Census was taken in the Spring of the Tiger, the Golden Tribe had eliminated 14 tribes from the Sea of Grass and there were none who remembered who they had been. They had 1100 warriors and 3000 horses in their Bataro. They had 650 women in the Ordaru. And the Golden Tribe carried the heads of

Hako the Oni

Hyun Shik of the Red Stone People

Kang Shin of the Spotted Horse

Chun Mul of the Red Tribe, slayer of a Gaki

Arog the Claw Hand

Ko the Horned

Marhen Gozu Gaki

Wunk Blue-Skin

Grothmak the Andari Slayer.

In the Fall of the Year of the Carp, the Golden Tribe took Census as they entered the valley of Miyabe and found that they had eliminated 15 tribes from the Sea of Grass of which number not even one is recalled. They had 6200 warriors and 10,000 horses in the Bataro. They had 4500 women in the Ordaru. And the Golden Tribe carried the tarred heads of

Hako the Oni

Hyun Shik of the Red Stone People

Kang Shin of the Spotted Horse

Chun Mul of the Red Tribe, slayer of a Gaki

Arog the Claw Hand

Ko the Horned

Marhen Gozu Gaki

Wunk Blue-Skin

Grothmak the Andari Slayer

Jin Huk of the White Tribe

Sungyu the Noble of the Great Grass People

And the Golden Tribe stayed in the Valley of Miyabe and many of the old and infirmed learned as such would be taught after the manner of the Great Grass People. For that people were among those who had begun to scratch in the dirt with hoes and plows. There in the Valley of Miyabe, Jen Shu divided the Golden Tribe into tens and hundreds and thousands and made Generals over each of the thousands. Each of the generals carried the tarred head of an enemy as a banner and a silent witness of the parley which Jen Shu offered to all that he met.

By the Year of the Bear, the Generals of Jen Shu were encamped around the Valleys of Chiro and had lain seige to an alliance of tribes who have been forgotten, along with the names of their Warlords. The seige lasted for until the Year of the Swan and all those that held out there were put to the sword. The men were piled and burned. The Warlords taken and scattered to the winds. The women which could not prove their usefulness were sold, but the horse were added to the Bataro of the Golden Tribe.

By this time, many of those who had ridden with Jen Shu from the first could not stay astride the horse, and many of them had since had children who had been abluted in the Lake of the Clouds and become part of the Bataro, but which could not stay astride the horse. Such as these were given the choice of remaining in Chiro to farm the land there as had others in the Valley of Miyabe. They were not counted among the Bataro in the Census of that year.

The Golden Tribe had eliminated 23 tribes from the Sea of Grass and none remember their names. The Bataro numbered 15,300 men and 22,700 horse. The Ordaru had 8,800 women not including the children and aged which remained behind with their youngest adult sons in the Valley of Miyabe and Chiro. And the Golden Tribe carried the tarred heads of

Hako the Oni

Hyun Shik of the Red Stone People

Kang Shin of the Spotted Horse

Chun Mul of the Red Tribe, slayer of a Gaki

Arog the Claw Hand

Ko the Horned

Marhen Gozu Gaki

Wunk Blue-Skin

Grothmak the Andari Slayer

Jin Huk of the White Tribe

Sungyu the Noble of the Great Grass People

Shun the Horseman of the Valley 

Yuudai the Wealthy of the Bamboo People

Taiki the Tall and his son Taikishi of the Yellow River

Aikio of the Shining People

There, at the Valley of Chiro, Jen Shu rested from his labors. For he had served other men for 25 years and been Warlord for 50 of his own. Yet he did not appear to have aged beyond his twentieth year. There were 14 generals beneath him in the Bataro and each was as wealthy as the other. Jen Shu took pains to renew his promises to those beneath him as he had sworn first on the Pillars of Heaven on the shores of the Lake of the Clouds.

Ten years he rested from his labors and the people of the plains knew peace from the Pillars to Bamboo Forests of Chiro and from the South Sea to the Ice Rift in the North. Then word came to Jen Shu that the margons were seen South of the Rift, and such as had not been seen since the days of old. So Jen Shu went forth to hunt them and there he learned of the depredations of the Kala who sweep down from the Ice Plains and make raids.