The Rebellion of Hao Yezou (Mature, Closed, See OOC)

[New Edom]

This is a thread for members of the Cornellian Empire region. Out of region players can only be involved on a case by case basis. It may contain mature content

Intelligence as to the activities in this thread are available as follows:
Members of the Hostillia Treaty can know that Edomite patrols have begun to increase beyond their range, and that a meeting took place between the Governor-General of the Edomite Territory and the Second Prince of Hostillia. This may be known to senior government officials, senior military officers or corporations that have access to high level intelligence gathering.
Region members as well as non-region members who have roleplayed in the region can know that Hostillia has internal problems with law and order and many political tensions among its rulers, and that the Treaty powers protecting Hostillia’s trade and borders (New Edom, Chaco, Adiron, Novitera and the Shrailleeni Empire) are exploiting/helping with this and enormously restrict trade with Hostillia.
Out of region players will know little of the above save if they demonstrate trying to gather information diplomatically, through journalism or intelligence gathering.

Tongu, Waifo District
Shanmei Province
Hostillia

When Hao Yezou, a minor official in Waifo District of the Province of Shanmei, went insane with fever his family gathered to mourn him and pray over him. They paid priests and monks to burn incense, howl and beat drums, and they also got doctors to examine his urine and spit and sweat. Wise men gathered what they could from his pulse and examined the hour and day he was born, and yet he writhed and sweated and moaned gibbered in his bed so that his children were afraid he was possessed by an evil spirit.

When he woke up from his fevers, diminished in weight and bright of eye, it had all become clear to him: he was the rightful Emperor of Hostillia. It was clear: the Celestial Emperor in the Heavens had declared him so, the proper Yu Emperor. Many of the Miyo people of the south were discontent with things as they were. Taxes were too high, the opportunities for advancement too rigidly controlled, crime on the roads and in the cities too rife,. It was clear to Yezou that life must become just again.

At approximately the same time, Tai Wen, Second Prince of Hostillia, had made a secret deal with the New Edomite government that Edomite army patrols should extend into territory beyond the Treaty agreements. It would, of course, not remain secret for long.

---

The day was warm. The sky was a clear blue with a few wisps of clouds here and there. The humidity was thick enough to cut with a knife. The dirt road was dusty. There was opposing foot traffic, both human and animal dodging its way on the road; foot traffic, bicycles, oxen laiden with baggage or pulling carts, donkeys and occasional horses. Going down from the road on the right was a near sheer drop of nearly 1000 feet. On the left was a near sheer cliff that went up at least 500 feet. The road was crooked as a snake's back. Rock falls were always a worry.

The truck that Zhang Wei, a junior officer of the 1st Imperial March Guards Regiment, was riding in kept grinding along at something less than 30 miles per hour. The road was decent but the convoy could only go so fast on the twisty mountain road in some of the remotest mountains in Shanmei. The convoy stopped for ten minutes approximately every hour. There were local people on the road with animals heading to or from market. Most of the people were women, old men and children. The older boys and working age men apparently had been corralled by the governor either for work up north or drafted into the largely illiterate and ill-organized army. Lieutenant Zhang and his platoon of truck driver/guards had made two round trips previously. This was the third round trip in about six months. Mostly they stopped for the night in official rest stops where they could park the trucks inside a fence and sleep with some assurance that the trucks would still be there in the morning. This trip had turned into a slog. There had been lots of rain and a few washouts that slowed progress. Tonight they still hoped to make the regular rest stop but they might be late. Their radio was useless in these deep valleys.

Ahead he could see a land rover with an officer and three military policemen in it. The smart looking officer, in neat tropical battle dress, was sitting in the front seat. As the convoy got closer the officer unwound from the seat and flagged them down to a stop. Zhang signaled for a halt. After the break they would start up a long and steep grade. Then they would drop down along a valley with a village in the middle and some springs. They had never stopped there but this time it might be a good place to bivouac for the night. There was ample water and Zhang had sensed a hot spring from the odor of rotten eggs on previous trips.

He approached the officer and saluted him. The other officer was also a lieutenant, but he was an Edomite. He was a staff officer attached to Expeditionary Force HQ..

"Lieutenant, I have a message from up the road. There is a bridge out from flooding and no detour yet. You are to stay in the next village until the bridge can be repaired and the road reopened." The officer passed over the written order to Zhang.

"Thank you, sir. We will move up to the next village and wait for the order to resume. One question. Is the village friendly? As you know, some are not. We want no trouble."

"Lieutenant, I believe you will be safe. There are no bandits." The Lieutenant replied.

They exchanged salutes and the Edomite officer turned around and got into his land rover, which went up the road. He wanted to get back to his base before dark if possible. The people in this region with Miyo, and he was Haklo, as were his men. Friendliness could not be counted upon.

[Kamohaeng Phet]

Kamohaeng Phet

“Ahahahahaha, What a fine beast!” King Prajadhipok declared happily as he laughed at the large bull elephant. The animal was using his trunk to aggressively grab at the chest and groin of women that were trying to sweep the court yard.

“Mr. Prime Minister, every time this good animal knows what he wants and goes for it. If he were a general, the whole world would fear him!” The King announced.

Prime Minister Phraya Manopakorn Nititada looked stressed and was jerking his head around the courtyard looking for something that was clearly not there. He looked at the king who was waiting for a response and began scratching his arm violently, “Hmmm?”

“Phraya, what is wrong with you today? I must have my Prime Minister functional!” The king said.

Phraya bowed, then looked at the king with blood shot eyes “One thousand pardons your majesty. My servant did not place the order for my thinking herbs. I had him beaten severely as a result, but I am not of proper mind to advise you today, and for that I fall on my knees and beg for your mercy!”

The king folded his arms and cocked his head, “Servant! Bring my royal cousin some thinking herb from the royal reserve!”

“To hear is to obey!” The servant said and ran off.

The king put his arm around the Prime Minister, who jumped at the touch, “Mr. Prime Minister, calm yourself by observing my fine beast at his work!”

A line of large breasted women were brought out into the yard. They wore only a silk loin cloth and were made to stand with their legs at shoulder width. The elephant sauntered over and began smelling at the women then started touching them with his trunk and grabbing at their breasts. The women tried desperately to cover themselves up with their hands but the elephant was too persistent. They cried and flinched, but knew better than to leave the line. The king laughed hard until he wept, and only tried to compose himself when the servant returned with a pipe for the prime minister who lit it as fast as he could and took a puff. He sighed with relief as if he was a drowning man who had been thrown a life preserver.

“Now my dear Phraya, what do you think of this magnificent elephant?” The king asked.

The Prime Minister, between panicked puffs got out a, “Such a magnificent animal, though he looks troubled by the heat your majesty.”

“Hmm, there is wisdom in this. Perhaps we should send him on a vacation to the northern provinces to bath in the holy lake of Sinakharin. I shall have all of the arrangements made at once!” the king said.

---

Three days later Tangpanitharn the elephant was loaded onto a lorry and dressed in ceremonial silks with his head and ears painted in red. A large crowd lined the road and threw flower petals ahead of the truck. Musicians banged on drums and made cries, while priests said sacred prayers and threw colors on the passing lorry and elephant for luck. The king appeared bare foot and bare headed before the truck and with his palms together bowed as the elephant passed.

“I wish you good fortune Tangpanitharn! May the sacred waters comfort you through the summer heats, and may the blessings of buddha go with you on your travels!” The king cried as the elephant went down the road and out from view.

[Republica De Gran Chaco]

Kingdom of Gorkha

The roads had been cut. Large stones had been rolled across it to block the entrance to the pass on the main route into the towns of Gorkha during the night. The smaller dirt roads had also been similarly blocked. Vehicles that were forced to wait were inspected. Any Han officials were taken prisoner, Han civilians were robbed and then told to walk the other way. Any supply trucks were inspected and confiscated. Kinsmen found in the cars were told to move on into the Kingdom to join their brothers in the fight. Check points were being set up, and men armed with rifles and machine guns took positions in the hills around the make shift blockades of the roads.

The province was being closed to the rest of the country. Only the roads into Dongying had been left open, perhaps in the hope that their cousins would join them, or perhaps in the hope that the foreigners would send them aid. After all it was the foreigners who had organized their cousins into a force that had so effectively killed the Han at Tu Long Ba. Either way a shell had been set up around Gorkhaland that prevented the Han from casually entering or leaving the province.

The morning had been silent in the provincial capital of Ilam. No one had dared leave the work, the windows were shuttered, the streets empty. The silence screamed tension, as the morning went on. The Han locals wondered what was happening as they tried to go about their business only to find the market and shops closed. What was happening? Were the Gorkhas celebrating some banned holiday? Had they all made for the hills, or was this some kind of strange protest. The Han peasants had no idea what it could be.

Quietly the Gorkha people gathered in back gardens and alley ways. They had armed themselves with khukuris and firearms that had long been hidden or smuggled into the country. As the crowds grew there was no hiding them now. Leaders began making speeches of all the years of tyranny and wrong that had been forced upon them by their cursed overlords. They began chanting and yelling, singing songs that had long been declared illegal. The mobs took on a life, and began moving, marching through the streets to municipal buildings, police stations, the homes of the magistrate and other officials. When they met a Han, the mobs cut them down and hacked them to pieces. They dragged their bodies with them. Other Gorkhas who had no knowledge of what was taking place, were enticed by the mobs, and came running to join them.

Soon the town was in chaos, killing and raping of the Han that were there, the looting of their businesses. Some were left alive as prisoners, or slaves. Most were cut down. The magistrate was taken alive with his family and brought before the town hall, where he was read his list of crimes, and had to watch on as his children and wife were beheaded. His head rolled last to the joyful cries of the locals.

The Gorkhas rubbed the blood on their faces, and began moving unorganized through out the small city, looking for new victims. Their blood lust could not be sated. They moved into nearby local towns and carried it on there. Someone along the line had cried that the bodies should be hacked to pieces and then sent back to the Son of Heaven. Bamboo baskets were filled with hacked flesh. The heads of the magistrate and his family were kept whole, and put into their own basket to be sent to the imperial city itself. Across Gorkhaland similar purges were taken place, and there was no place safe for the Han.

In the late afternoon Jang Rana arrived in the back of a black Mercedes-Benze. He stepped out in traditional garb and sunglasses and walked up the steps to the town hall building. He turned and faced the crowd that was cheering in a frenzy. One of Jang’s advisors followed and opened up a wooden box. Jang took out a crown and placed it upon his own head to the screams of the crowd. He was handed a can of beer by someone and he took a sip then motioned for the crowd to be silent, “Today your King has taken back his throne! The Kingdom of Gorkha has been remade!”

The people erupted and began chanting his name. Jang smiled and reveled in the cries. He waited for a while then quieted the crowd again, “We have taken back our land, but the Han will wish to unmake our work and put us under the boot heel again. Now we must look to our own defenses. We must gather all weapons we can poses and take from the Han, we shall kill the small military posts, the warlords who harassed the border peasants, and take their guns. You men must present yourself to be warriors in our new army. My General, Purna Chandra Thapa, has assured me, that we have the strength to remain free! They shall never conquer us again, and we shall live under our ancient rule!”

The crowd began cheering and chanting again. Jang drank his can of beer then tossed it on the steps. He left men that he had already chosen to organize things in the town. Jang entered his car again and drove off to his estate in the hills. He was king again.

[New Edom]

Lochan
Capital of Shanmei Province

The lovely female musicians were all of a similar beauty.

They had been chosen by the governor with the care and vanity of a teamster assembling a match-set of chariot horses. Dark-haired, ivory-skinned, large-eyed and full-lipped. Each dressed in flowing silken red robes, with gold hems. As they played their strings, cymbals, and pipes from their golden shell alcove up in the mezzanine of the governor’s private chambers, below them the governor of Shanmei, Mo Feng, slapped his hands to the soft jiggling flesh of the girl's rear and squeezed the bountiful rump as he buried his face in her belly.

The governor’s favorite concubine laughed in unrestrained wanton joy as she threw back her head, her long black hair swirling wildly about her head and shoulders, and rotated her wide hips, enthusiastically grinding her body down on the face of the ruler who lay on a pile of satin pillows and silken cushions. The governor was young, strong, and handsome. He was a man of prodigious conquering appetites, as the women of his perfumed seraglio could well attest. A night breeze blew in off the tropical night, gently bellowing the long lengths of green silk curtains draping the floor to ceiling windows of the pleasure dome.

The other women in the room, lounging on pillows of their own, or wading in the lotus-petaled waters of the vast bathing pool, cast sultry glances toward their master. Each fervently hoped to be taken in her turn by the governor. Aside from any carnal gain, to be rutted by the governor was to obtain high status within the rooms and gardens of the extensive harem. Betimes, he thought, tis good to be the Governor.

It was in such a blissful state that he was informed, by a hesitant and visibly shaken messenger who intruded upon the rather salacious proceedings, of the uprising of the Ghorkali people in his province. The incident so disturbed the young man that it put him off his harem activities for nearly a week. He had to interrupt his lovely party and send other messengers to get his advisory council in to deal with the matter.

Once they were assembled, they stared, grimly, as the heads were unveiled of the magistrate and his officers and family.

“What barbarians,” at last said a Scholar, shaking his head, ashen.

“Jang Rana has proclaimed his independence, and his intention to close the borders of the district,” said Colonel Lu, the senior military advisor present (as the senior general was on a tour of inspection to the north). “And they did not spare man, nor woman, neither the aged, nor the pregnant, nor the child, nor the babe in arms....”

“What barbarians,” said Governor Mo with a sigh. “And on such a lovely night too. But there have been considerable omens. Colonel, what troops do we have available to send to put down this rebellion?”

Colonel Lu said, “We can send two regular rifle companies and a regiment of militia, Your Excellency. It should not present a difficulty, but it is shocking that they would do this.”

“But are not these Ghorkali the same kind of people used as mercenaries by the Chaco barbarians?” said the Scholar. “They are very dangerous, barbarous people themselves.”

“The Chaco barbarians use rapid fire rifles and artillery,,” said Colonel Lu. “I do not see why this should present difficulty. IThe Ghorkali are merely armed with knives. t is because of the disruption of harmony within the Empire that this rebellion has taken place. They merely need a demonstration of authority, a reminder that none can prevail before the might of the Middle Kingdom. At the sight of the dragon banners, they will remember their place, and yield. Governor, I beg the honour of leading the expedition myself.”
Governor Mo stroked his small neat chin beard. “Do you have repeating rifles and artillery?”

“It is difficult to bring the artillery into that region. However we have fine rifles and we have three machine guns,” said Lu proudly. “Moreover we have our dedication, our duty, and our superior civilization. This audacious, vile action will be punished, depend on it.”

The Governor clapped his hands. “Let it be so then. I will look forward to writing a report to Shenjing of your inevitable victory.”

[Kamohaeng Phet]

Lake of Sinakharin, Kamohaeng Phet

The holy lake of Sinakharin was a still and peaceful place. Only the pilgrims of a most devout nature were allowed to make the trek to bath themselves in the clear waters. The Kings of Kamohaeng Phet had long maintained a cabin on the western end of the lake to come to in times of great contemplation, where the sought out the wisdom of the ancients for guidance. They would meditate on the banks of the water beneath the many pine trees to seek answers to difficult questions about the governance of their people.

The water of the lake itself was said to have healing powers if the heart was pure and sought it for the use of others. It was in this water that the elephant, Tangpanitharn, happily splashed and swam in. The creature made a trumpeting sound after spraying a trunk full of water at the care takers. He clearly enjoyed the lake and the cool water pleased him so in the hot weather. The elephant stamped around the edge creating a mud pit, then rolled in it. He rested for a while before getting antsy and moving around clearly looking for something. During the day the elephant was allowed to wander the grounds of the royal estate at his will and had a foot chained at night to prevent him from leaving.

Tangpanitharn moved around the buildings and paused to eat some of the hay that had been put out for him. That did not satisfy his desire and the great beast moved on until he saw some servants tending to the garden. He shocked one by coming up behind her as she was pulling weeds and grabbing at her groin with his trunk. The girl, unused to the elephant screamed and ran, afraid that it was trying to hurt her. Tangpanitharn followed slowly trampling the flowers. He was able to corner her and get in a few grabs before she ran into a building leaving the elephant alone.

Pleased with his work he scratched his side on the corner of a bamboo barn damaging the structure before walking back to the lake shore for a nap under the trees.

[New Edom]

Lake of Sinakharin, Kamohaeng Phet

After night fell, four nearly naked men with brown skin, wearing kerchiefs around their heads and loincloths around their waists moved through the underbrush stealthily. Two paused and watched the cabin by the lake, while two others began to carefully advance to the area where there elephant’s tether was kept.

One of the men had a leather strap around his shoulder that bore several key tools, which included a thick bush knife and an ankus (elephant hook). This man, whose name was Pang, also held some long fibrous strips in his belt.

“I fear the beast,” murmured the other. “We have not handled him. He is a bull. What if he is in musth?”

“When we are done I’m going to bed you like a woman,” Pang, the bolder mahout, murmured to him with a glare in the darkness.

“What? Why?’ exclaimed Deng, the more wary.

“Because you talk like one. Be silent. To fail is death, remember.”

The two men moved quietly forward and to where the elephant was tethered, and Pang held up some of the long strips of bark.

The elephant seemed to stir, and its trunk moved forward inquiringly. It had no fear, for humans had never posed a threat to it. The bark chosen was particularly tasty to elephants, and it reached out and snatched some.

“Excellent Tangpanitharn, such a fine and wise beast!” whispered Pang. “I have more, much more for such a fine elephant!”

As the elephant advanced, Deng moved in stealthily and cut the chain with a set of heavy chain cutters, and then picked up the heavy chain at the end so that it did not rattle too much. It was heavy and he involuntarily grunted, gathering it to him like the body of a huge metal python.

Pang smiled in the shadows as Tangpanitharn advanced, breathing deeply, reaching out. “Aha, what is this I have? A delicious mango? Yes, all for you, Tangpanitharn the magnificent…”

The other two sentries, seeing that no one was aroused by their presence, moved in, one to help with the chain, the other to act as a scout, as they moved the elephant towards the junction point where the guards waited to move the beast to its destination...

[Republica De Gran Chaco]

Kingdom of Gorkha

Jang Rana lay on a couch out on the balcony oh his estate deep in the hills and dozed. He had an open beer on the ground next to his dangling hand and a lit cigarette hanging from his lips. The warm morning sun had put him in a stupor. His advisors had been advising him that the people of the kingdom were happily working to defend their king from the wicked Han backlash that was bound to come. Jang had a meeting scheduled, but had decided to let his advisors come and find him and inform him of what was happening on his balcony where he lay.

A fly landed on his face and began tickling him to the point that he could not pretend to ignore it. Jang gave a lazy swipe, and the fly moved. He settled back into his position, but just as he began to doze again the fly landed. He swiped at it with his eyes closed but more vigorously this time. Again, the fly returned so he sat up and began searching for the little monster to try and kill it. When Jang sat up, he noticed his advisors all waiting around him. They bowed and sat in their chairs.

“Your majesty, we have several items for your approval and updates for you.” His chief advisor said.

“Very well, begin.” Jang said as he found the cigarette that had fallen and burned a hole in his trousers. He flicked it away and groped for his beer.

The Chief advisor began, “The first matter of business is to approve the sale of the Han women and children to the warlord Bo Chen. He has agreed to give us 3 rifles for every child and 5 for every beautiful woman. Ugly women will be bought at 5 rifles for every three or one machine gun for every 8. Those are the prices that we negotiated with him, we just need approval to send the slaves that we have taken.”

“Yes, yes, that will be fine, just keep the three most beautiful for myself. I shall colonize their wombs and make their children Gorkhas.” The king said searching for his sunglasses.

The advisor bowed, “As your majesty wishes.”

“The next order of business is the establishment of diplomatic ties with the outside world. I propose to send emissaries to Dongying City, and Beihe, to open up consulates in order to gain relations with the treaty powers.” The Advisor said.

“Yes, again that is fine Amit, do as you will.” The king said getting bored, “When shall I lead the armies to battle against the Han?”

“Uh, well your majesty, the army is still organizing, but we have secured the passes with boulders and there are men armed in the hills ready to prevent the Han from taking the passes.” The advisor said.

“Good, when a sufficient force is prepared, I would like to lead a raid against the Han lands.” Jang Rana said, scratching his beer belly.

“I am sure you are prepared.” The advisor answered, “I shall inform you once the time is right.”


“Your Majesty the third matter is the selection of a wife. Now that you are king, you must produce an heir. We have several young candidates of proper birth and standing that would be excellent selections for your consort. I shall leave you with their applications.”

“Ah, I shall never be tied down, no woman shall control me!” Jang declared tossing his empty beer can over the balcony.

“Certainly not, your majesty, all the same you must father legitimate sons to carry on the Rana dynasty. You have no brothers or uncles. Your legacy is still not secure.” The advisor said.

“Oh, I shall sire heirs, but the woman who becomes my queen must know that she can never rule over me in my own house.” Jang said, “Servant, another beer!”

“What is left? I am growing bored of this talk. I am a man of action, and these meetings tire me.” Jang declared.

“That is it for now your majesty.” The advisor said.

Jang stood up, “Good, prepare the car, I wish to mingle with some of the common folk. I shall let them bask in the glory of their king.”

[New Edom]

Shanmei Province

Chariots rumble
and horses grumble.
The conscripts march with bow and arrows at the waist.
Their fathers, mothers, wives and children come in haste
To see them off; the bridge is shrouded in dust they’ve raised.
They clutch at their coats, stamp the feet and bar the way;
Their grief cries loud and strikes the cloud straight, straightaway.
An onlooker by roadside asks an enrollee.
“The conscription is frequent,” only answers he.
Some went north at fifteen to guard the rivershore,
And were sent west to till the land at forty.
The elder bound their young heads when they went away;
Just home, they’re sent to the frontier though their hair’s gray.
The field on borderland becomes a sea of blood;
The emperor’s greed for land is still at high flood.
Have you not heard
Two hundred districts east of the Hua Mountains lie,
Where briers and brambles grow in villages far and nigh?
Although stout women can wield the plough and the hoe,
Thorns and weeds in the east as in the west o’ergrow.
The enemy are used to hard and stubborn fight;
Our men are driven just like dogs or fowls in flight.
“You are kind to ask me.
To complain I’m not free.
In winter of this year
Conscription goes on here.
The magistrates for taxes press.
How can we pay them in distress?
If we had know sons bring no joy,
We would have preferred girl to boy.
A daughter can be wed to a neighbor, alas!
A son can only be buried under the grass!”
Have you not seen On borders green
Bleached bones since olden days unburied on the plain?
The old ghosts weep and cry, while the new ghosts complain;
The air is loud with screech and scream in gloomy rain.


“Up the flags!” shouted a herald. “Up the flags! The red flags, the yellow flags, the blue flags! Let the flags of the Empire, the Middle Kingdom, of the Province be lifted high! Yes, yes lift them, show your pride!”


The forest of flags that rose caught the tropical breeze and fluttered like the leaves of new bamboo.

“That’s it, boys! Lift your voices and give us a hurrah!” shouted the herald.

“HURRAH!” cried the soldiers. There they were in a great legion. The regular soldiers of the Imperial Regiment wore brocaded jackets with high gilt collars and pillbox caps, they wore curved swords and carried bolt action rifles with bandoliers of ammunition. The militia wore cotton uniforms with tunics, straw hats, baggy trousers and sandals, but they also carried single action rifles. There were five militia for every Imperial soldier, but they cheered just as loudly. They all were enthused with the idea of punishing the Ghorkali. It was well known that Ghorkali ate their rice with their fingers.

“Ten thousand years!” cried the herald.

“TEN THOUSAND YEARS!” thundered the troops.
Behind them, for about a mile, strung a supply train of ox carts, trucks, and pack mules. Every time Colonel Lu and his staff had considered the journey ahead, as they read the chronicles of wars past, they had considered another thing they might need: salt, grain, extra shoes, bullets, nails, the list went on. But he could not delay the expedition forever. It had to be now.

“Behold our great commander! Our gallant Colonel Lu, the mighty horse that will trample the Ghorkali savages! Colonel Lu!”

“LU! LU! LU!” cheered the soldiers.

Colonel Lu, driving by in his land rover, rose and lifted his hands. “Men! In the name of the Son of Heaven! Forward!”

“Forward!” the commanders began to shout. The soldiers rushed to the trucks or their animals and began to move.

Tehir pace was approximately three miles an hour.

[Kamohaeng Phet]

The Summer Palace

The King of Kamohaeng Phet stood on the balcony looking down at the court yard below solemnly as the chief caretaker of Tangpanitharn the elephant was led out by the guards to the gallows that had been constructed. The caretaker wept and kowtowed low before the king, then made his way up the steps and had the rope placed around his neck.

The king looked down sternly and then began to speak in a booming voice, “ Tulathorn Tangwongsan, formerly chief caretaker of the King’s favorite elephant, Tangpanitharn, you have been found guilty of the following crimes: Gross negligence of security of a royal estate, defiling a holy place, animal abuse, the allowance of theft to royal property, and treason. Do you have any last words before the sentence of death is carried out?”

The caretaker forced out some words between quiet sobs. He kept his head facing down, and tried to raise his voice so that he could be heard by all present, “I have failed his majesty, and I deserve this punishment in the hopes that it atones for my crimes against his royal person.”

The king heard his words and nodded in approval. He again spoke, “Very well said. If your death is honorable, then perhaps your ancestors and Buddha shall forgive you and allow you to face the 7 trials of penance. Now for these crimes in accordance with the ancient ways and customs your sentence is death and it shall be carried out now!”

At that the executioner pulled the lever and the floor dropped out killing the caretaker. The king turned and began walking inside. His prime minister followed on a litter carried by four strong men.

“Your majesty.” The prime minister said lazily, “I have dispatched the police and the army to look for the wicked culprits who stole the royal elephant. I have ordered the movement of soldier to the Hostillian border, as it must be some kind of wicked Han magic to have so easily taken the beast in such a holy place.”

“Certainly, it must be some truly wicked people in partnership with demons or other ill willed spirits. The holy lake of Sinakharin is not a place to be defiled so casually. Whoever has done this is either very bold and cares nothing for his life, or else is truly in league with evil. I want my advisors gathers, as well as my magicians. We must find what to do. I must have my elephant returned to me. I put all trust into you, cousin, to handle the initial investigation while I plan my follow up actions.” The king said.

“A great honor granted to me, your majesty.” Said Phraya taking a puff on his hookah, “I shall round up a score of suspects before sunset, and they shall be interrogated. Surely we shall lower the population of criminals in all of Kamohaeng Phet.” The prime minister said, briefly raising his head off of the cushions of his litter to emphasize his point, “I shall dispatch the royal inquisitor and a team of strong men to the north to get to the bottom of this.”

The king looked at the prime minister, “Surely you are the most loyal man in the kingdom, and the worthiest of your title. I wish you the luck of the divine forest in your endeavors for the Kingdom of Kamohaeng Phet, and your magnificent king.”

[Republica De Gran Chaco]

Dongying City

The Dongying council had assembled to discuss the news that was coming in more and more each day, about a Gorkha rebellion on the borders of the Chacano colony. There was major concern about what the Han response would be and how the Gorkha population in Dongying would react to it. From what was coming in from regional superintendents, the hill people were celebrating the uprising. Some had apparently even gone to volunteer to help defend the fledgling kingdom from the Hostillian response that was bound to come.

“Do we know for sure that there is no risk of an uprising on our own side of the border?” Héctor Semprún, the Secretary General of the Council asked the councilor for security.

“It would appear not. I got word from our border security that the new king has sent some kind of envoy to us, probably to appeal for some kind of assistance, I would imagine that they need arms and food coming in.” The security councilor said.

“Do we want to help these people? I mean it could cause trouble with the Han.” Hector asked.

Diego Arias the assistant secretary general sat back in his chair with his servant Jin Lei rubbing his temples, “Mr. Secretary General, I was just at Tu Long Ba, the Han stand no chance of standing up to us. This could be a chance to win a nice little protectorate. Isn’t that right Jin Lei.”

“Yes Mistuh Diego, let our might shine through.” Jin Lei said.

“Damn it, Arias, keep your servant quiet, she by all rights shouldn’t even be here.” Hector snapped.

“Jin Lei is a most trusted secretary, why she…” Diego said before being cut off.

“I don’t care she isn’t a council member. If she is to be here, it is to assist you, not to speak.” Hector said.

“Yes sir.” Diego said seriously and sat up. “Well sir, the fact is, our boys faced some of their finest soldiers, and came through with no problem. We could support this little uprising and then creep in and run things.”

“There’s a good way to make it look like we were behind it.” Another Councilor said, “Do we really want to look like we are just seizing this territory right now?”

“Well, so what if we did? What could happen? We aren’t in a bad spot, and I figure, there are two ways into this Kingdom of Gorkha, through Dongying, and through Hostillian territory, and they seemed to have blocked the roads. Why don’t we at least throw some guns at them?” Diego asked.

“What stores of guns do we have to throw Mr. Arias?” The secretary general asked, “Our own colonial forces are using much of yesterday’s equipment as is. Do you have a stock pile of weapons that you have just sitting around the house?”

“Well, we do have some of the stock piles that the army captured in Gavinium stored here. There was talk about moving in to Chacao but this would be cheaper.” Diego said.

“Ok, well the this is what I’ll say to that. If you want to head up the paperwork and politics of securing those rifles from the army, then I’ll think about sending them along if it proves worthwhile in my mind. No doubt the Han have already gotten a force together to try and quash this. I think it may be appropriate to just wait and see whether the little hill tribes can even defend themselves against whatever initial expeditionary force has been assembled. If they can, then it may be worth it to help them. May being the key word. We still don’t really know how our own people will react, and we don’t know that the other treaty powers will think. I don’t really want to just pop off with out direction from the government” Hector said.

“Alright sir, I’ll get on that.” Diego said then turned to Jin Lei and whispered in her ear. The girl took some notes and then began rubbing Diego’s neck.

The Security Councilar spoke up again, “Should I put some of the regiments on standby at the border?”

“I think so, but only 1 or 2, we don’t want to look like we are preparing an invasion force, just something that would be there to defend our borders.” Hector said

The security councilor responded, “Ok, I think the 3rd Regiment of Foot and the 1st Battalion of the Rifles can be put out there no problem.”

“Ok, well I suppose for the most part then we must wait. Diego, meet with their envoy when he arrives. I don’t want to be seen doing it yet, I don’t want a controversy. Keep the meeting quiet as well, make sure that you condemn their killing of Han civilians and make no promises.”

“Yes sir, I shall not disappoint you.” Diego replied.

“I hope that you won’t, because as of right now it would be better to let this little rebellion be crushed. Don’t bite off more than you can chew before we have all of the information on these people, or else it will be your ass!” The Secretary General warned.

[New Edom]

Mountain Country
Waifo District
Shanmei Province

Lieutenant Zhang Wei called for his sergeants. They chatted and were told about the change in plans. None of them were really upset. One village was as good as another and there was water and presumably food. When they got near the small town Zhang and the senior Hostillian driver would go into the village and meet with the headmen. A bargain would be struck and the bivouac locations worked out. The important parts were safe parking for the trucks away from the river and dry ground for camping. The Miang drivers camped away from the Edomite Haklo soldiers but they worked together as a good team. One group needed the other to survive in the event of trouble.

The meeting broke up. Tentative plans had been made. They would stop at the next village and set up camp for 2-4 days. There would need to be guards at night but the days would be free except for doing maintenance on the trucks.

With a roar they rumbled down the road. They convoy ground along in low gear over the summit and then picked up speed going down the gentle grade into the beautiful farm valley. There was rice everywhere with vegetables and some fruit. Each cluster of households had pigs and chickens. Some of the chickens were enormous. They were as big as turkeys but were still chickens. Zhang was thinking some fresh eggs would be good and some good protein to mix with rice would not go amiss for the next few days. A few of the soldiers claimed they hated southern food but Zhang knew that the slop they had eaten previously was just that, slop. The real deal with good rice and vegetables would change their minds.

“They eat bugs in the south, Your Honour,” said Yang, one of his sergeants, glumbly. “That’s a fact. And they put hot peppers in everything to hide the taste.”

“I did not realize my grandmother was accompanying us,” Zhang said to him. “You old priest, you need to set a good example for the men, appreciate the hospitality of the locals. If I eat with relish, so will you.”

“And if you get a lovely case of the shits, so will I, Your Honour,” sighed Yang.

Zhang sometimes wondered if Edomite officers had to have all these conversations with their men. It seemed that Baran officers were proud and aloof. War came naturally to them, as naturally as breathing, at times leading to reckless courage. They seemed bored by peace, they seemed to crave blood as a normal man craved wine and the company of women.

He lacked such courage. He was a Haklo; a practical man of the riverlands.

The convoy came to near the edge of the village. It was bigger than Zhang had thought. It spilled across the road in both directions. The river was about 200 meters to the east down a slope that made the village just high enough that it usually wouldn't flood. On the west were several good streams coming off mountains that were less than a mile away. There were fields all around. Zhang noted an empty shelf of nearly bare dirt on the uphill side of the road that would be perfect for a bivouac. He observed that the market appeared prosperous. There was lots on offer. He also noticed, a little out of town up on a hill what appeared to be a church, a nice looking semi-Cornellian style house and a smaller building that could also be a house. He would explore that later. In the soggy warmth, old men wearing wide brimmed straw hats and brief tunics and saggy pants with a droop in the middle and thick bamboo sandals came to negotiate with them. They squatted on the ground and talked in the odd slow dialect of the southern Miang.

After much head nodding and general chit-chat they got down to business. The men deliberated back and forth. Zhang used the head driver, who was nicknamed Uncle Fang, as the middle man. The villagers, of course, wanted money. Way too much money. After much tough bargaining they agreed on a fair price. Zhang also wanted fresh food. That was possible. The buyers would be welcome in the market. Cash or selected goods could be traded. There was one firm demand though. Keep the soldiers out of the town after dark. Zhang understood there were two reasons. The elders didn't want to deal with drunken soldiers and they wanted to avoid sexual misconduct between the soldiers and women in the town.

Zhang had previously observed that there were no men of working age and no older boys. No males between the ages of 14 and 50 appeared to be around. There were no babies either. There were young children of two and more but no babies.It seemed that the region had been badly hit by bandits. Many men or older boys had been killed. A number of women had been raped. To save their family honour, he discovered, they had either aborted or killed the babies.

Zhang and his men were all 2nd or 3rd generation Christians, and they were shocked by this but not altogether surprised. Many Miang were heathens, even the recently baptized ones. They were simple folk, easily confused, and believed that Christ was just another god to appease powerful people by showing respect. He even noted a few crosses among the folk here. But they wore them like they wore other amulets.

He felt sad at this, but one saw many things, strange and terrible, and duty was the banner under which he marched. He was glad he had come with a small delegation, it would be easier to maintain discipline if the men were informed by their superiors. But it was important that they had been told. Their presence would be welcome, and maybe they would even find signs of the bandits. He felt excitement starting to edge into his sadness, a vibrant tension that urged him to action. He glanced around the area, at the terraced hills and the forests and landscape beyond. They were out there, somewhere.

Zhang, maintaining an authoritative air but also being calm and polite, agreed that his soldiers would be well behaved during the daytime and stay out of the village after dark. If there were problems they would be taken care swiftly. Smiles all around now. Old Uncle Fang was pleased and said so. He always got a bonus when these things went well. They went inside a nearby tea shop and sealed the bargain with multiple cups of tea, a bowl of rice and soup.

---

Tongu, Waifo District
Shanmei Province
Hostillia

The town was bustling; it was well stocked with grain enough to recruit many fighters to it, as well as vegetables, dried fish, dried fruit, medicine, and livestock. They had a lack of consistent ammunition for weapons, but here the Emperor, Hao Yezou, was wise. His plans always involved ambushes and avoidance of waste. Where possible, they used parangs, spears and bows, and mostly saved ammunition for encounters with Han militia. And now, with the rising of of Ghorkali in a nearby district, it was clear that others were answering the call.

Hao Yezhou ordered a proclamation sent to King Jang, congratulating him on his victory and inviting him to support him as the rightful Heavenly Emperor to teach the Han a lesson in humility. The proclamation explained his dream and the result: that the town, and soon the district, were to become fully independent and then rival the government in Shenjing, which was unlawful.

He was still often unwell, but his people saw this as further proof of his divinity. For he was too good for this world and this was why he had fevers, needed often to be wrapped in towels soaked in medicinal teas, and have herbal incenses blown over him.

He sat on the porch of the former magistrate’s house in Tongu. The former magistrate now lived in a cage in the square and raved and gobbled at people who came near him, as was fitting. But the fine house was not near the town square, and commanded a fine view of the valley below. People came bringing tribute to him, and one day he was presented with an elephant.

“These mahouts have brought you an elephant, Highness,” explained his chamberlain, his cousin Hao Ping.

“An elephant? What do I want with an elephant?” Hao Yezhou asked, baffled. Did not Ping remember that he was afraid of heights? His mortal form naturally feared heights, for he had, in the Heavenly Realm, flown high above the clouds, and his mortal form never could.

“An elephant is a kingly beast, and this one used to belong to the King of Kamophaeng Phet, who is an enemy of the Miang. You may recall that in the year of the...er...usurper Hui Dynasty...they stole the Riverland of Shu from us…” Ping offered. Ping was good at history, had done very well in the exams in the history of the Middle Kingdom, but had been cheated because he was not Han.

“That is true,” said Hao Yezhou. “It is good that this elephant was stolen from the King of Kamophaeng Phet. Is it not he who loves to play chess and plays with human chess pieces like a tyrant?”

“No, Highness, that is the King of Lodhihapura, Lodhivarman IV.” said Ping.

“That is true. The King of Kamohaeng Phet has many beautiful women in his palace, like the Tai usurper’s foul governor. And few beautiful women for me, for I am a virtuous man.” Hao Yezhou sighed. “Nevertheless, let the mahouts come forward, that I may reward them. Do they ask any reward?”

“Deng, their leader, proposes that as he commanded this fine raid, that he be made one of y our captains, Highness.” Ping replied.

Hao Yezhou smiled. “This is a fitting request. He may be made a captain, and his men lieutenants. Give them a company to command. They are worthy. But Ping, the matter f the elephant remains. What am I to do with it?”

Ping pondered a moment. “I have an idea,” he suggested. “Why not give it to the King-Emperor of the Yi Dong?”

“What?” said Hao Yezhou. “But he is an ally of the usurper!”

“Well, yes he is, but why? Do you think the Yi Dong really care about the Han? The Han recently had one of their women raped throughout the town of Yu Nan Pu or someplace like that, in every orifice, in public, and then flayed the flesh off their bones. Do you think that they love them? It is merely circumstances. Let the elephant be a gift to their King-Emperor and it will open the possibility of a treaty between you both. Then he may send his great ships and planes to help you, and you will see, in your lifetime, the defeat of the usurper.”

Hao Yezhou saw stars. “A rich and mighty gift such as only kings can possess…”

“That only a king can give…”

“And a king to another king, an emperor to another emperor, a mighty alliance.” Hao Yezhou sighed and closed his eyes. “Let it be done. Make sure the elephant receives the best care. Prepare a plan and send me my scribe, I must compose a letter to my brother monarch.”

Ping was pleased. As he left the courtyard to talk to Deng and the other mahouts, he saw the elephant standing there eating some hay rather moodily. It seemed a bit downcast, though Ping did not know elephants so he could not be sure. Then suddenly his pleasure left him.

How in the world were they going to get the elephant to the King of the Yi Dong?

[New Edom]

On the Road to Ghorkali

When the mist was on the rice-fields an' the sun was droppin' slow,
She'd git 'er little banjo an' she'd sing "Kulla-lo-lo!
With 'er arm upon my shoulder an' 'er cheek agin my cheek
We useter watch the steamers an' the hathis pilin' teak.
Elephints a-pilin' teak
In the sludgy, squdgy creek,
Where the silence 'ung that 'eavy you was 'arf afraid to speak!
On the road to Mandalay…

--Rudyard Kipling, “Mandalay”

The column of Colonel Lu of Shanmei Province was nearly 3 miles long. At its advance moved a company of riflemen from the Imperial 8th Regiment of Foot. At the second day of the march, their fine brocade coats were making them sweat; they were difficult to keep stiff and smart and the collars itched; their faces were stained with dust and seat, and they had trouble not panting like dogs as they moved along the roads between the rice paddies. They were in even staggered lines by platoon, and they stopped now and then while an officer scanned the landscape with a spyglass.

Behind them came the main body, seven companies every hundred paces, marching with their rifles, ammunition, and a satchel with their day rations and tepid tea which they sipped frequently from. The officers rode in the cars, moving up and down the line, scolding the men for not being in correct formation.

After this came the militia. These were divided into two regiments. One was moving much as the Imperial troops were, but the men were starting to loll their heads, shuffle their feet, their rifles held like garden hoes, their tongues lolling out from the intense humid heat.

Then there was the second regiment, spread out along the supply column. Slow moving rattletrap trucks and carts were increasingly jumbled up, with officers trying to work out the headache of how to keep them moving steadily. The problem was that the oxen and mules had to be halted regularly and fed or they would become finicky, sickly or just fall over. Some of the officers could not understand this, accusing the coolies of poor harmony and bad attitudes, their boots or swagger sticks lashing out angrily. Others had read of such movements in foreign issued military manuals but found the theory difficult to put into practice.

Furthermore, there were streams and muddy roads to deal with, and this would result, for instance, in the machine gun company of the Imperial 8th having trucks get stuck, ruts piling up with thick mud, and hundreds of coolies would be moved forward from the halted column to shift it while officers screamed at them to hurry. From rice paddies or nearby groves, peasants, fishermen or woodcutters gaped at this, pausing for the entertainment from their heavy work.

[Kamohaeng Phet]

Hostillia

The trucks rolled up to the village on the Hostillia side of the border in the morning just as the local peasants were waking up and preparing to head out to their fields. The Sky was beginning to lighten as the soldiers of Kamohaeng Phet began jumping out of the back of the vehicles and yelling that everyone in the town to assemble in the center of the village. The soldiers, wearing lightweight green fatigues and green pith helmets with the royal crest on the front ran around screaming with the bayonets on their SKS rifles swiveled forward.

The thin bored looking Lieutenant Chalor jumped out of the cab of one of the trucks and lit a clove cigarette. He leaned against the hood and watched his soldiers run around screaming at frightened locals. The huts were being tossed. Possessions were being thrown out into the dirt roads and alleys, pots of cooking food up ended, bed mats cut open. The soldiers were all looking for something that they could not seem to find. An old man asked what they were searching for and he was quickly hit with the butt of a rifle and told to go with the others.

Lieutenant Chalor finished his cigarette and walked over to a shop and took a coca cola out from behind the counter. He found a bottle opener and popped off the cap. Chalor took a sip and then pulled a silver whistle out of his front pocket. The wistle was connected to his epaulet with a braded lanyard. Chalor blew a command and all of his soldiers began coming out of the buildings. Some carried chickens, others trinkets form homes, they all moved around the people of the small Hostillian village.

Chalor strolled over with his bottle of coke and waived for a translator, “You people of this accursed land have sinned greatly against the exalted King of Kamohaeng Phet, Phra Pok Klao Chao Yu Hua III. Out of the holy lake of Sinakharin, the magnificent beast, Tangpanitharn, the Royal Elephant, was stolen. Not only was this royal beast kidnapped, but a holy place was defiled! All of our leads point to the wicked Han of Hostillia, with your false emperor who believes himself divine. You will tell us what you know of this crime!”

The headman of the village came forward and bowed, “Honorable sir, we know nothing of the king’s elephant. This news is news to us, please, leave us in peace. We promise to send word if we learn anything of this missing beast.”

The lieutenant took a sip of his coca cola and handed the bottle to one of his sergeants. He drew his tokarev pistol and grabbed the old man by the back of the neck. Chalor shoved the pistol into the old man’s check and held it there, “You think I can be fooled so easily? How should I take the word of a Han dog? You cannot be trusted beast!”

The old man-made noises but did not respond with words, “You shall give us one son per family, and if a family has no sons, then two daughters. These shall be the ransom for your cooperation. For every bit of news, you bring to us that is promising we will release one hostage. For great news that leads to the elephant’s location we shall release all hostages. For the elephant himself, the release of all, and a reward of 500 pieces of silver. But if we do not hear from you in one week, then we will begin to hobble your sons one by one, and defile your daughters. This if my agreement.”

The Lieutenant gave the head man a shove and knocked him onto the ground. He blew his whistle and all of the men separate the children and get them loaded into the trucks. Chalor finished the coca cola and then placed the bottle net to the shop door for the keeper to collect. He mounted back into his truck and then gave the order to move out back to Kamohaeng Phet.

[Republica De Gran Chaco]

Kingdom of Gorkha

Down at the bottom of the pass, where the main highway began its climb from Hostillia into the Kingdom of Gorkha, a small patrol of six new soldiers of the Royal Army were putting up a sign that announced the border of the Kingdom of Gorkha in both Han and their own native language. The Nailed the hand painted board to a large tree and then began digging up the road where the line would be. They worked for a few hours and dug a trench across the road about one meter deep and two meters across.

Pleased with their work, the men walked up the road a bit then began climbing up the side of the hill that flanked the road where it began the turn into its switch back to climb. The men reached the crest of one of the smaller hills that was part of a spur and settled into where their camp had been set up. They had a good view of their new border trench, and of the turn where the road bent in on itself. One of them began to build a little fire to heat their tea, while another put the shovels next to the bedrolls.

The men had their rifles stacked together. They were old bolt actions mostly, with two martini-henry breach loaders. The weapons were paid no attention now, for the men all sat on their haunches around the fire and chatted about the weather and the crops that were being grown back at home. They all took turns getting up and finding some task to do to stay busy. These men were not used to sitting in one place and just waiting. Their lookout duty was tedious, and they hoped for the moment when the Han would show up so they could be rid of their boredom.

“These slugs are taking so long, I bet the Han are afraid to face us.” One said.

Another, older man shook his head, “No, they will come. They have heard by now, and must have mustered. They will come. These things take time.”

“Surely they must be afraid though! We have sent a strong message to them. We sent the magistrates head to the governor!” another declared.

“Yes, but all the more they will be angry. The Han have grown weak and lazy, but they still have men who can wield weapons, and they will send them. There will be blood before we are truly free. It will be a struggle.” Another said.

“Bah, we shall throw them back.” One of the men declared.

The conversation carried on like this as their tea was brewed and they all drank from tin cups. The group sat and watched, and waited. They would stay on that hill until the Han came to cross the border. Then two would be sent as runners to warn the others that hid and prepared more road blocks in the pass with boulders and rifle pits in the hills. Word would be sent all the way back to the capital where the Army was being assembled and where it would move to the pass to meet the Han in time.

[New Edom]

Kamohaeng Phet

At the market, incense occasionally blew over the stalls and carpets and small shops, but mostly the smells were of peppers, ginger, the leafy scents of vegetables and fruits, the spicy smell of the perfume of fine ladies in rickshaws being pulled around while they gestured at their servants about what to bid for. These were alongside nearly naked labourers carrying gigantic bundles of bananas or lumber, people instinctively skipping out of the way as a bullock pulling a cart twitched its tail aside to excrete. All the while people loudly haggled and argued, alughed ant talked. “You call these fresh? They were harvested when my grandfather was young!” “I can get these same stuff for less down the road! Yo thief” “I don’t care what they say, it’s the best game in town…”

Here and there, the latest tech vied with the ancient. Near where an old man squatting on a mat like a monkey deftly twizzled eels out of a bubbling pot for another man to swiftly dice up on a much scored and marked wooden block, another pair of men huddled near a radio and moaned and groaned over the latest soccer scores. People sold DVD players beside crickets. Here and there were foreigners, but they all stood out: Othmanis, Han, Cossacks, and other Acheronians.

Og Geddiel stood out as an Edomite with his cotton suit and his bricklike olive tan, brush cut hair and the unconscious Baran swagger. The young Trade Attache was walking with his Miang servant who had two big baskets, and was eyeing some papayas and letting the servant argue about them when a Han man approached him, a coolie.

“Excuse me, Shansheng…” said the man, bowing but smiling almost insolently.

“What the hell do you want?” said Gaddiel, glaring at him for having the effrontery to address him directly.

“Shansheng, I apologize for dirtying your day with my presence, but I was wondering if you are interested in buying a rare and wonderful thing,” the coolie said with that same impertinent smile.
Gaddiel immediately had two possibilities in his head. One was thatthe man was wanting to lure him to some den of iniquity to roll him; the other was that he was a spy. He responded with the same disdain however, just to find out. “Wht rare and wonderful thing could a dirty low born fellow like you offer me?”

“A royal gift. Oh, an Imperial gift to be sure, Mr. Trade Advisor.”

A spy then. Gaddiel said coolly, “What gift and from whom?”

“It would be easier to show you, Shansheng,” replied the coolie.

“Would it indeed. What would be easier would be for me to hand you in as a spy at the palace. Han are not too popular right now since someone stole the King’s elephant,” Gaddiel said with a cold smile.

“Ah, yes, you are a great man, Shansheng, and could easily do this to a worm like me,” said the man with a sardonic grin. “But then the Shansheng would not be able to reap the rewards of a mighty gift. Is not the Shansheng an ambitious man? Is not his master eager to leave Kamophaeng Phet? Would a mighty gift for the King-Emperor not be such a great coup that offices might shift?”

“Who do you work for?” demanded Gaddiel, glancing around.

“I work for another monarch that wants to be your monarch’s friend,” answered the man. “For the true emperor, Hao Yezhou.”

Gaddiel considered, then laughed. “You mean that bandit who is controlling Blossom Pass? He claims to be an emperor?”

“The great Shansheng may laugh,” the man said with a shrug. “But of humble beginnings come great things. The Middle Kingdom is weak, but there are those who hate your people and the other Treaty members. The Viceroy is very sick. Responses to rebellions and local excesses of authority hesitate, as the foxes try to conserve their power for an inevitable struggle to control the throne. Who knows what can happen?”

“You are a rascal,” said Gaddiel, “Holy scripture says that blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

“Yet, Shansheng, did not the Children of Yisroel profit from the betrayal of Jericho by Rahab the harlot?” said the Han fellow. “Surely the godly shall gain from those who betray the wicked.”

“That is so,” mused Gaddiel. He strongly suspected that this man did not work for Hao Yezhou alone. “What is your name?”

“Oh, I am only Shazi, Shansheng,” said the man airily. “But I come second in consideration of these matters, which are princely.”

“Aha,” said Gaddiel. So the man came in the name of the Second Prince. “Very well. You will show me this rare and wonderful thing. But I warn you: I am armed and so is my servant, and I will die before I am taken prisoner.”

“You Yi Dong are eager for death,” observed the Han with amusement. “Ou run after death, eager to meet your maker and to know that your rulers have told your descendants that you died in their service. Yet what is life but to be profited from and enjoyed?”

“You are a foul heathen,” Gaddiel told him, “And I will end your life in a moment if I desire to. Then where is your profit? Lead on.”

It turned out it was not too far away, in a warehouse that immediately smelled, strongly, of elephant, and Gaddiel was impressed. “I will say this for you,” he informed the informant, “For a Han, you have stones in your pouch.”

The man chuckled. “Unlike you Yi Dong, we tend to keep ours tucked away decently and so they often surprise. Can this gift be arranged to be placed on the Monkey Ship then?”

“Yes,” said Gaddiel. “That can be done. What’s wrong with it? Is it sick or something?”

“It is unhappy because it is not in the presence of royalty,” replied Shazi.

“You’re a lying scoundrel,” said Gaddiel with annoyance. “There’s something wrong with it. I want it healthy. I’m not shipping the King-Emperor a dying elephant. Get it healthy or no deal.”

The man, for the first time, frowned and glared. “What do you expect me to do?”

“Oh, you’re the much admired product of an ancient civilization that puts the rest of us to shame,” smirked Gaddiel. “Figure something out.”

With that, he strolled out and then warned his Miang: “You speak of this to anyone and I’ll whip the hide off your bones, got it? Keep it a secret and you shall have a bonus.”

“Yes, Your Honour,” said the Miang.

[New Edom]

The Ghorkali Border

Colonel Lu had made sure to dab water from his canteen on his neck, temples and forehead, but nevertheless the moisture beaded his face as he stood at the foot of the hill road that began the ascent to the land of the Ghorkali. Staff, aides, runners stood around him, all too hot, all with sweat staining the backs and armpits. The convoy had halted. The men were eating, drinking, urinating, defecating, gambling, arguing and fidgeting impatiently.

“As we know, the land hereabouts has roads that wind around the hills like snakes, and lead up towards the mountains. There are few of these roads. Therefore, it is an easy matter for the Ghorkali, savages though they are, to hold these passes.” Lu explained. He tapped the map with a compass. Colonel Lu said, "As the Sage said, Men all say, "We are wise"; but being driven forward and taken in a net, a trap, or a pitfall, they know not how to escape. Men all say, "We are wise"; but happening to choose the course of the Mean, they are not able to keep it for a round month."

“Colonel, sir, then how shall we overcome them? They might ambush us on the trail ahead…” observed Captain Chao.

“Yes. But our scouts see nothing ahead,” pondered Lu. “Either the enemy are well concealed or our scouts have not advanced far enough. But if we send too few scouts and they are ambushed, then we shall have no information. So what I shall do is send a reconnaissance in force. Captain Chao, will you lead this force?”

“I shall,” said his deputy chief of staff. “It would be an honour.”

Chao looked tired and somewhat unhappy though. How dare he! Lu stared at him until the embarrassed Chao was forced to smile and look brighter.

“Assemble the company. And lead with one of the trucks bearing a machine-gun. That will intimidate them,” said Lu with a smile.

Chao brightened at this. The truck he had in mind had a machine gun on a tripod on top of the cab on a wooden reinforced platform so that two men, surrounded by sandbags, could sit there and move it around if they had to. (Though it was a bad idea to drive at full speed and move the machine gun to another position, as they had found). It was a fine machine gun, shaped like a tube with a big flat pan on the top. The other two vehicles would carry a platoon of men each, and there would be another platoon in the machine gun truck. They were all Imperial Soldiers in their brocaded coats, pill-box hats, with rifles and swords.

Captain Chao rode in the front. Captain Lo was in the rear vehicle. Chao was a tall, thin officer who aspired to demonstrate his usefulness through his service like the Heavenly Commander, his hero. Captain Lo was the son of a magistrate deemed too stupid for magistracy exams or to be a teacher, but smart enough to be in the Regiment. He was thickset and was blubbery strong and sweating like a candle into his brocade jacket.

When the vehicles were assembled Captain Chao nodded to his runner, who leaned out of the cab and waved a signal flag up and down, and the recon vehicles began to advance at a steady pace up the pass. The soldiers in the cabs kept their eyes peeled for any sign of the enemy. They no sooner came around the corner when the driver screeched the machine gun truck to a halt. There, just at the start of the road, was a big trench blocking the way.

"Back up, back up!" shouted Chao. And they had planned so well, too. They would have to get a bunch of the coolies up with the officer of engineeers to direct them and build a bridge. But wait...he leaned out of the truck, binoculars in hand. It almost looked like it had been dug!

[New Edom]

Southern Hostillia

When Lieutenant Zhang arrived at the camp he checked the guards. They were all in place. They were working three hour shifts until six o'clock in the morning. He heard some noise in one of the tents. When he went to investigate he saw two sets of feet on top of each other. He decided not to investigate further. He checked some of the other tents and found 3 of them either empty or occupied by couples fucking themselves senseless.

He went to find Sergeant Yang, who was speaking to a couple of the corporals near the trucks.

“Sergeant Yang,” he motioned to him to approach.

“Your Honour,” said the grizzled NCO.


"This morning reveille will be at 06:15. Wake the men up and get the women off the camp before assembly."

"Women, Your Honour, in this camp?"

"I heard a rumor that there might be one or two women on the camp sergeant. If there are any they won't be by 06:15 when we assemble."

“Such a thing would be unthinkable, Your Honour. If, indeed, there were women.” Yang said stoically.

Zhang nodded and went to his own tent.

In the morning, the platoon rose, and they got a radio message from the Company. Apparently there was some kind of incursion in some village on the border. Many of the militia and regular troops were already trying to put down the Ghorkali uprising that had just taken place. No one knew what the numbers or anything were there. The platoon was to rendezvous with the rest of the company and proceed towards the village, which was on the Kamohaeng Phet Border.

[Republica De Gran Chaco]

Kingdom of Gorkha

“Look down there!” one of the lookouts said, “The Han have arrived.”

The group put out their camp fire and lay down taking cover in the rocks. Their leader looked to the youngest member, “Go and spread the word that the Han have finally sent their forces.”

The young man took off down the back side of the hill and them headed off into the pass to warn the other outposts and roadblocks. The army would be sure to hear about this now, that the Han had finally arrived to try and subjugate the people of Gorkha once more. One of the men made to raise his rifle at the truck down below, but was halted by the leader, “Wait until they attempt to cross the border or fill in the ditch. Let us spread out to different positions, then I will fire and signal all of you should they violate our territory.”

The five remaining men all nodded and began moving to different positions on the hill side where they could find cover and concealment. Upon reaching his position one of the younger watchmen could barely hold his enthusiasm for what was sure to come. The vehicles below surely were meant to come and violate the Kingdom of Gorkha and had only been stopped by the ditch that had been dug there. What then was the reason for the wait except that the old man could take glory for the first shot.

The young man shouldered his old Mauser rifle and took aim at the small column below. His heart was pounding as he lined up his sights and pulled the trigger. The rifle crack echoed through the valley and caused the others to begin firing their own shots down at the men below. The two Gorkhas with Martini-Henrys caused puffs of white smoke when they fired. The action to defend the Kingdom had begun.

[Kamohaeng Phet]

Southern Hostillia

Lieutenant Chalor and his men returned to the Hostillian village that they had made the agreement with over information of the Elephant, Tangpanitharn. The trucks rolled in to the village and the men dropped the tailgates and ran in the same manner as before. Yelling and forcing all to come to the center of town.

Chalor yawned as he watched the chaos of his men gathering the villagers from the front seat of one of the trucks. He ordered a sergeant to go and find him some hot tea and soup for breakfast. The sergeant returned and he ate as the villagers and solders slowly gathered. Chalor took his time finishing his meal, and then downed the rest of his tea. He handed the dishes back to the sergeant who returned them from where he came. Chalor walked to the little shop nearby and helped him self to a package of Halls and began sucking on one of the cough drops, so that his breath would not smell of the cheap soup he had just consumed.

Lieutenant Chalor finally decided that it was time to address the group and walked in front of the villagers, “One week ago I made a deal with this village to receive information on the whereabouts of the ever wise and holy elephant Tangpanitharn, that was taken from the Holy Lake of Sinakharin. This great sin needs rectifying and I have given this village the opportunity under the wisdom and benevolence of the all mighty King Phra Pok Klao Chao Yu Hua of Kamohaeng Phet. Now the time is finished, and I am giving you one last opportunity before I hobble one of your sons. Come now and speak!”

[New Edom]

Kingdom of Ghorkali Border

Captain Chao heard the wind of the bullet’s passage and heard the rack of the report, and then an instant later ducked back into the cab, Just then dust kicked up on the road around the convoy. Chao, realizing they were sitting ducks, shouted, “Everyone out! Find some cover!”

The convoy’s men scattered from the vehicles, tumbling out like ducklings from a bucket, and ran to find cover in nearby tree groves or tall grass. Chao resented, deeply, the indignity of running from unseen attackers, as he crouched in the grass. An insect tickled his nose and he brushed at it angrily.

“Should we return fire, sir?” asked a young lieutenant, crawling towards him through the grass.

“Return fire at what, Lieutenant?” Chao snapped. “Can you see anything?” The young man blinked and drew his head back like a turtle.

Chao considered a moment. The two men on top of the machine gun truck’s cab were crouched behind the sandbags. He considered the angle up to the hills, forcing himself to see it as geometry and not what they felt like an insurmountable wall that death lurked behind. He decided on an experiment.

“Corporal Tenzing!” he shouted. “I want you to fire two bursts, one 40 degrees right, one 40 degrees left. Understood?”

“Yes, Captain!” called Corporal Tenzing. Gritting his teeth, the young Imperial soldier double checked to make sure the pan was in place, nodded to his assistant gunner, pulled back the bolt, and the sharp hard bang of the rounds went off. Sparks flew around the wide muzzle. Then he switched directions and fired another burst.

“The rest of you listen up: platoon commanders, pick spotters. If you see any smoke or movement, you may order fire at will. They will probably simply try to control the road.” He glanced around. “I want,” he told Captain Lo, “You to radio the main column, and we need to get a bunch of coolies and workmen up here to fill in this ditch.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Captain Lo, who had his radio operator bring the radio over to him.

Shortly after this, a reluctant group of a hundred or so coolies, in damp cloth shirts, droopy shorts, sandals and straw hats came up the road and dismounted from another truck at the rear, tools in hand.

[New Edom]

The Convoy

The convoy halted, and Lieutenant Zhang got down from the cab and approached the small collection of vehicles where one of them had an awning stretched out attached to poles. A foldable table sat there, and there were maps upon it. A huge man, giving Zhang the impression he was eight feet tall and four feet broad, stood there, wearing the field dress uniform of the regiment. This man was Captain Efraim Spode.

Zhang hated the child like feeling he had when he was faced with his company commander. Was not simply a giant, he was a man of towering ego who was always right. But why was such a man in the colonial infantry? No one knew. No one, not even the regimental commander, dared to ask him.

“Lieutenant Zhang,” growled Captain Spode. “You will take your platoon to this village,” he pointed a gigantic finger on the map. “You will find out if there has been a foreign incursion. If it is of troops from Kamohaeng Phet, you will be polite, gather information, and report on it. You will gather information about the status of the village, and then report back to the bivouac. You will take no other action. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” said Lieutenant Zhang.

“And be clear about this: do not mess this up. If you mess this up and cause some incident that embarrases the regiment or worse, the nation, I will kill you.” he looked at him with menace. “Don’t think that this is some metaphor either. I will. I have killed lots of my own troops before, and I will not hesitate to do it again to preserve the honour of the regiment. Now go.”

Zhang, sweating, dry mouthed, saluted and left.

[Kamohaeng Phet]

The Summer Palace, Kamohaeng Phet

Crowds had come from far and wide and pressed in on the sides of the road. People wore their best ceremonial cloths and all had painted red marks on their foreheads in respect for the procession that was to come through the town and up the hill towards the palace. Police and soldiers lined the road pressing back to keep the crowd from blocking the road. Vendors were out selling street food, from simple things like roasted corn, to spiced meat on sticks, to bowls of rice, soup, or noodles. The day had been declared a holiday across the kingdom, a time for people to celebrate and pray thanks for the wonderful event that had taken place.

People pressed in to see what was coming, and as the procession approached, they all kowtowed on the dirt and the concrete foundations in front of the buildings of the city. Screams of cheers erupted from those that rose again after the procession passed causing a ripple of jubilation that moved through the city to the palace.

The King of Kamohaeng Phet, Phra Pok Klao Chao Yu Hua, led the way up the street. He was dressed in white with golden sandals. Bareheaded, the king walked straight spreading flower pedals on the road from a basket that bowed servants ran up and replaced at need. Behind him the great Elephant, Tangpanitharn, strode slowly behind the king up the street. He was greatly decorated in red paints and colorful silks that draped off of his neck. His toes had been painted in blue, pink, red, and yellow. On the elephants back sat the princess, Abha, strait back and regal she looked, sternly looking down on those on the street. She wore a dress of gold with her arms, calves, and feet bear. She called a warning in her tongue every 40 feet, for those to beware that the God’s would punish those that transgressed against the royalty of Kamohaeng Phet. Behind her, her esteemed husband, know known as Count Tophek the Wise was seated on a great gold and red throne that had been strapped to the elephant.

Behind the elephant came many people, Buddhist monks who chanted blessings, then came dancers who jingled with their brightly polished brass jewelry. A squadron of cavalry followed, in dazzling uniforms, riding small thick horses barely above 14 hands they stood, but they were the tough hill pony’s from where the holy lake was. They were now part of the Elephant security detail. They rode with their curved swords bare as a threat to any who now toyed with the idea of insulting the holy ancestors. Finally, in chains, marched 100 Han villagers from across the border who had been brought as a holy sacrifice to the forest.

The entire party made their way through the main road of the city, and then up the long hill to the palace. They were followed by the crowds who wished to see the final ceremony. At the top of the hill before the great royal gates a platform had been erected. On it the prime minister sat in all black. He lounged back in his seat, his shoulder length hair and wispy beard looked particularly limp today. His eyes hidden by large mirrored aviator sunglasses he only moved to puff on a long pipe. The elephant was led to a spot next to the platform, where the great hero Count Tophek the Wise and his Princess wife sat atop the great beast to look on to the ceremony and the crowd. As the king approached and stood below the platform looking up, he stirred and with great effort sat up in his chair. He called out, “Has his Royal Majesty, retrieved the most holy Tangpanitharn?”

The king stopped before him and stood straight, “He has!”

Cheers erupted from the crowd. The prime minister lazily held up his hand for silence, “And has his Royal Majesty brought the necessary sacrifice?”

The king lifted his chin and shouted back, “He has!”

Again, cheers erupted from the crowds. People were becoming hysterical in their enthusiasm. Police needed to assist the Prime Minister in again quieting them. The prime minister stood on uneasy feet, “Then by the ancient laws and the holy books, proceed, your holy majesty, and cleanse the stink of barbarian wickedness from out most holy Tangpanitharn!”

The crowd was allowed to roar this time as the king marched up the steps and drew from a richly jeweled scabbard the ancient sword, Khwām yutiṭhrrm. He held it above his head as servants stripped the king to his waist revealing his muscled and toned body. The first Han, an old man was brought up before the king and forced to kneel. The king loudly declared, “I King of the blessed realm of Kamohaeng Phet, who am descended from the Goddess of the river that feeds the earth, that births the trees, do not rectify the stink of the Han on the great and holy elephant. With their blood, we shall wash clean the demons that have infested our land.”

With that and a great stroke the head of the first victim was removed. One by one the king beheaded the Han prisoners, and soon glistened with sweat, and was spattered with blood. When the last prisoner fell, the king breathing head stood with his feet apart and his left hand on his hip, while he held aloft the ancient sword. The priests came upon the now soaked and dripping platform and chanted a ceremony before declaring that the wickedness had been removed and that the land was clean and favorable again. The crowd rished forward to kowtow before the king and to rub the blood of the sacrifiesed on their foreheads. They wept and celebrated and that evening, feasting, drinking and dancing in the streets took place until dawn when the population either went home or were pulled up out of the gutters and dragged to their beds to sleep off the merry making.

For his role in retrieving the elephant Count Tophek was declared to be a high councilor and was granted a seat at the Kings Council. Princess Abha, received a blessing from the priests and was prophesied that she would bear the Count many great sons and daughters, and she was honored by the king as an official favored princess of Kamohaeng Phet.

[New Edom]

My old friend's prepared a meal of chicken and millet,
And invited me to join him at his farmhouse.
The village is surrounded by green trees,
Blue hills slope up beyond the city wall.
The window opens onto the vegetable garden,
Where holding wine, we talk of mulberry and hemp.
We are looking forward to the autumn festival,
When I'll return to see the chrysanthemums bloom

--Visiting An Old Friend On His Farm: Meng Haoran


The harvest was in. It was a decent one, neither great nor small, and the auspices had been taken at the Temple of Mu, and though Zhang was a Christian and properly despised heathen superstition, yet he listened with half an ear to the tolling of the bell in its rhythmic order, and something in his spirit was satisfied. “It is but a custom, and it comforts me in its familiarity, for I grew up hearing it. And the number of tolls of the bell assures that the year will end well.”

Zhang, like most soldiers, also held property, in his case a solid farm that provided the goods that gave him income for his uniform, weapons, and a horse which he had to keep in good conditions for parades but never rode. His father deplored the expense of the horse while privately proud that his son rode one from time to time.

When he was at home, the first noise he heard was his father’s croupy coughing and spitting in the morning. That cough wsa something he listened to, and when it told him his father was properly awake, he went to draw on his blue trousers, and went to heat water for bathing. The house had a fine kitchen, with an oven made black with many years of meal preparation, of earthen bricks, on top of which was a deep cauldron. Since his mother was a widow, and his sisters married off, he had to do this work, but he was granted permission to marry at last, due to his promotion, and would have a wife to heat the water and prepare the meals. He had to marry, for his uncle was already slyly contemplating the land and the house.

As he washed, he reflected upon his preparations. He had sent a boy, a reliable neighbor’s boy, to buy pork, pond carp, chestnuts, bamboo sprouts, a little beef, ginger, soya, honey, and even wine. There would, of course, be tea, cabbage, carrots, green onions, and rice--not cracked wheat gruel--rice! For the wedding supper. He had been promised a female retainer of a noble family, grateful for the friendship of the military families of the valley and the protection they offered, and she would run his household, bear him sons, and satisfy his wicked lusts in fruitful, blessed marriage.

As his father slurped tea and cracked wheat for breakfast, scooping eagerly into his mouth with his chop-sticks, he mumbled, “And what does my son do to-day? Does he supervise the last of the harvest? For in my day all farmers did this themselves!”

“Father, to-day I go to town to get my wife and return with her. I shall visit the barber, and shave my head, and trim my beard, have my nostrils cleaned and ears, and then visit the home of the Lord of the House of Lung.”

“Ah yes, the wife, yes, good, she will keep the house warm and clean and the table full when you are gone,” muttered the old man. “And then, what does my son intend?”

“I shall feast my neighbors in a wedding feast.” said Zhang.

“It is an extravagance--an extravagance!” said the old man sharply.

“We cannot fail to feast our neighbors and relatives, father,” said Zhang with humility before his father. “Unless you say otherwise, of course…”

His father pretended it was possible otherwise, and then waved a wrinkled old hand. “No...no...it is but the old custom. It does not matter what the ancestors or gods would think anymore, for we are men of Christ! But it would be considered rude and miserly! What would they think of us? And what if we had to rely upon them in time of need? No, feast them, feast them!”

“Very well, father.”

They finished eating in silence, until his father belched his satisfaction. Then his father said, “And when the wedding is done, my son, and you have bedded your wife, and instructed her in my care, what then?”

Zhang looked out the window to the south, where the sun had fully come up over his fields and those beyond his property, the others in the valley showing, and the sharecroppers already out in the fields early with their scythes. He thought of the woman. He thought of a solemn face, not handsome but pleasant enough, with the dull eyes of a sheep, with rounded hips fit for children, and no doubt warm and comfortable when it was cold, chilly and rainy and the spirit of Sloth came over a person and made them want to huddle in the blankets.

Only a fool always looked at his woman when he had business at hand. Only those with great wealth and luxury dallied with pretty girls. Envy was a sin.

“The flag calls, father,” he said softly. “The harvest is nearly over. The rebellion is not yet over. I go to war.”

---

From his seat in the Great City Beihe, the Edomite Governor-General had commanded that the war against the rebels should be resumed, and that the regiments should answer the call to arms, assemble their men, and put their boots down upon Hao Yezhou as a man does upon an anthill. It was implied in the words sent by messengers that if they could not do what was required, that the Governor-General would be wroth with them, and they would be shamed. Then would the Governor-General send the soldiers of New Edom itself, those terrible blood handed folk who never rested, never farmed, never herded, but had their hearts upon war even in their dreams, every soldier like an ever-vigilant Imperial Guard, and the valleys would smoke with fire.

And at these words, the Governor, Mo, was most chagrined, and wrote back that it was customary to pause a campaign for a harvest season. But the Governor-General responded saying that the King-Emperor, Elijah IV, had waged a great war against several nations at once, in but a single season, and won mightily, and that the Celestial Emperor had tasked him, the Governor-General, with making sure that the Provincial Governors under his orders should carry them out with dispatch.

And what was why Captain Zhang was odered to form his company and prepare to go to war once again, but two days after his wedding day.

[Republica De Gran Chaco]

Gorkhaland

The harvest had been beneficial for the new kingdom. Not only had food been harvested, but more emissaries of the new kingdom had gone out and expanded trade with some warlords in the international zone and friendly parties in Dongying. The Chacanos had been busy with their own war in the south, but the Dongying government had decided not to inhibit food and weapons that were being bought and smuggled across the border. Crops of tea had gone into Dongying, and rice and bullets had come in.

Now the campaign season had returned and the men were gathering their weapons for war one more. A great feast had taken place in the new capital, where the king had sacrificed a buffalo for the coming campaign season. King Jang Rana wore his blue wayfarer Ray Bans and traditional costume as he swung the great blade down onto the back of the neck of the tied up buffalo. The blade sank into his neck but in a few inches only. The buffalo screamed and tried to fight its ropes while the king continued his swings. Six hacks and the head was severed to the cheers of the town who rushed forward to cover them selves in the blood. Jang Rana sat back down in his chair and popped open a can of beer and watched the mayhem.

People had praised his names and danced and sang the night away. The next day the soldiers of the capital had marched to the mountain pass on the border with red marks on their foreheads and leis of flowers around their necks, placed there by wives, sisters, and mothers. They marched in rag tag fashion singing songs of victory.

The men from the hill tribes and mountains, marched with thick coats on. Though the spring had melted the snow, it was still chill high up. They came in smaller groups first congregating in villages and towns to meet their captains before walking to meet the army. Lorries were filled with rice, coal, and other necessaries for the marching men. Goats and chickens were brought along as well to feed the men, who were preparing to go to the defense of their land.

Some smaller groups of bold young men who were eager to prove themselves were gathered to raid into Han lands for slaves and crops from the harvest. They were given blessings by priests and sent to the border in trucks cheering and waiving, holding their heads high for the honor to strike at the perfidious Han, and to win honor for their families. They held their shining kukris high above their heads, the blades glinting in the sun about the clouds of diesel fumes coming from the truck’s tailpipes.

The king had saw his army leave the capital and had bowed to them as they left. When the last boot had left the front of the new capital building, the king walked down the steps and into his waiting Mercedes. Waiting inside were two scantily clothed ladies and his chief advisor. He clicked his tongue at the young monarch who sat between the ladies and enjoyed their kisses.

The king opened up a can of beer and took a sip, “Ah, we shall destroy the Han menace.”

“Of course your majesty. Yet still, the manner of an heir remains uncertain.” The advisor said, turning around from the front seat to look at the king. “Sire, you have met all of the young candidates, and still have not chosen a single one.”

“Bah! Trouble me not with this, advisor!” Jang said waving his hand, “This is woman’s talk. I desire no more of it. I have put my seed into the bellies of many a woman including many beautiful Hans to breed the dog out of them, if that be possible.”

“Sire, you must create a legitimate heir, you do not need to see your queen or even live with her, just bed and impregnate her.” The advisor pleaded.

“So tiresome. Hand me the binder of photos and I shall look through it again tonight.” Jang said.

The Advisor handed the binder over again knowing that the king would drink himself to sleep while wasting his seed on whores again. He sighed and then paused thinking on an idea. Sir, let me hold the book for you, you are busy with your pleasure. The binder was handed back and the advisor flipped through it and scribbled notes onto a little black book.

The next day the king rose in the middle of the afternoon groaning and wearing his sunglasses. He walked otherwise naked through his house and slumped onto a couch and moaned. Servants brought asprin and water as well as another beer for the king. He waived them away for him to be in peace. One stayed behind and dabbed his forehead with a cool damp cloth.

“Welcome your majesty!” The blaring and horribly cheerful voice of the advisor screamed out.

“Ugh.” The king groaned, “It is so early.”

“It is three in the afternoon your majesty, I have formed up the documents as you requested last night and they only require your signature.” The advisor said handing the king a pen.

The king scribbled his signature on a form and then dropped the pen, “Very well sire, I have notified the family of your decision and your wedding is to be set for two weeks’ time. The palace is making all necessary preparations.

“What!” King yelled sending a shockwave of pain through his head.

“Sire, you chose your bride last night and you were quite insistant that it be a quick wedding. I believe the words were, ‘let me bed this bitch and be rid of your womanly harassment!’ I did as commanded.” The advisor explained.

The king paused trying to think in his condition was like trying to do mental crossword puzzles. It certainly sounded like something he would order. He also had little memory of the night before. Finally he spoke, “Very well, you have gotten your way, now leave me in peace. The king is not well!”

The advisor gave a very low bow and retreated from the room with a grin on his face.

[Kamohaeng Phet]

Wat Si Khom Kham, Kamohaeng Phet

“You have been a bad girl and have dishonored my carpet!” The princess Abha said standing ridged with her hands on her hips glaring at a servant being switched by another, “You thought you could hide your clumsy stain under a book shelf? Is it not the place of the servants to do a complete cleaning once a month and to make a full report to the lady of the house? Thou fool! Let the switch teach you and wash your ignorance clean!”

The girl, pretty and petite, 14 years old. Was stern on her servants, stern but fair. She took the time to have them properly instructed and was understanding with accidents. But the hiding of such a stain on the carpet of her great and lordly husband’s private study was unacceptable. The girl had even tried to lie saying the stain had already been there, “The lord of the house is due to return home today, and I shall not have his mood ruined from your slovenly attitude!”

“Chief Maid!” Abha said.

“Yes your magnificent highness?” an older woman said kowtowing.

“Give her two days to recover from her punishment wounds and then send her through reinstruction of her duties.” Abha commanded, “I leave this to you.”

“To hear is to obey.” The chief maid said.

Abha walked out of the study. Her inspection of the house and grounds was complete and she had to now prepare herself for her lordly husband. The great Count Tophek was returning home this evening and Abha had worked hard to prepare everything for him. She had even personally prepared his meal to be cooked fresh when he returned home, a recipe that she had been instructed on when she had been in New Edom. Now she went and bathed, attended by servants who washed, dried and braided her hair in a fantastic way. She was clothed in a red dress that exposed her midriff and put on golden sandals.

Attendants made her face. Seeing that they had done a good job Abha smiled and sang a little song. She was happy at Count Tophek’s return. She missed her husband. Somber and dark he seemed, yet kind and gentle. A true man of steel in the mind of Abha and a high lord in Kamohaeng Phet and New Edom. It was a blessing to receive such a match from the benevolent and wise, King Prajadhipok.

One last check around the house took place before the little princess went out to the shaded balcony that overlooked a small lake where comfortable seats and foot stools had been set. A steel washtub on a wooden table had been filled with glass bottles of wine, beer, water, and soft drinks specially imported from New Edom and covered in ice had been set out. Balcony had been screened in to keep out intrusive bugs that might disturb her lord. Servants had a platter of cheeses and meats and pita covered and in a refrigerator in preparation for any immediate needs Count Tophek might have.

Word was brought that the lord’s vehicle was approaching the manner. Abha skipped through the house singing in joy that she might finally meet her husband after his journey to New Edom. She went out to the top of the marble steps that led to her front door and playfully jumped down them. A carpet had been laid out for the count to the stairs and when his vehicle pulled up and the door opened Abha kowtowed, “Oh my husband, lordly and wise, just beyond all measure and the light of my eyes. Your home has been cared for and is prepared for your return. Welcome lord and take what is yours!”