The listening area filled quickly, and as it did,’ the council came and took their seats on cushions brought by slaves. Finally Kaidu Long Nose stood up—he was the council’s leader—and called for silence. When he had it, he spoke again in a strong voice. His mode of speech was formal but not repetitive; the council had much to discuss and hopefully settle in the three days left to them.
“Yesterday,” Kaidu said, “we listened to complaints between tribes, and settled them justly. Today we shall speak of others matters, matters of broader scope.” He paused, looking the crowd over. “Including a matter of which we have not spoken before.”
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That got their attention; they expected him to bring up an invasion of the Yakut-Russ.
“A year ago we also held a great congress here. At that time I proposed that we unite to seize the forest region below Baikal. Since then I have come to see matters differently.” He gestured toward the front row of listeners, where for the first time Fong Jung Hing sat among bodyguards and keepers. “The emperor’s ambassador has been here for almost a year—since a single moon after our last congress. He has made an offer which we all need to consider. Also I have had four ambassadors in China, traveling widely. Their reports have confirmed and enlarged on what my spies had learned for me earlier.”
Baver could feel a tension in the crowd, a restlessness, an uncertainty.
“I will tell you what my ambassadors have seen,” Kaidu went on, “before I tell you what the emperor proposes, and what I believe we should do. We have always known that China has a vast multitude of people. The emperor’s ambassador says thirty million, which is a thousand thousands, and then thirty times that. More than all the Mongol people—the Buriat and Khalkhaz and Kalmuls—and also their horses and cattle and sheep.
“Of that multitude of Chinese, more than six million are Goloks—a thousand thousands, six times. The Goloks are good soldiers; many of them are warriors. They rule the empire, and the emperors have been Goloks from the beginning.
China has many towns, each with its garrison, each garrison with its troop of Golok cavalry. And every town, every district, has young men who, at the emperor’s call, will put aside their work and muster with their swords and bows, their halberds and spears. Also, the country is full of people growing food and making all manner of things, including weapons and clothing and armor for the soldiers.”
Kaidu looked his audience over. “Much of this I told you before, but it is worse than I knew then. Couriers on swift horses ride daily throughout the empire, and in
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many places there are signal towers within sight of each other, with men who know how to speak with a flag on a long pole. Also on these towers are men with far-seers, made with the hollow stems of certain saplings, with wizard glass set in the ends, which make distant things look near. Thus soldiers and other armed men can be gathered quickly from whatever towns and districts the emperor wishes, into armies small or large.
“Beyond all this, the emperor has large and dangerous ogres who fight for him. We had heard of them before, and doubted. They sounded like stories told to naughty children, to frighten them, but they are real. My ambas-sadors have seen them. They are far taller than men, stronger than the bear, more savage than the tiger. And they wield their great swords with the skill of masters.
‘ I would not wish to fight the empire. Our forefathers fought and drove away the armies of earlier kings and emperors, and we are not lesser men than our forefathers. But the army of this emperor is far more dangerous than earlier armies. Even in the depths of the Yakut-Russ forest, I would not wish to fight the emperor’s army.”
A voice rose from the crowd then, a voice impatient and angry. “What do you wish to do then? What do you propose?”
Kaidu took the gauntlet without a pause. “In the empire are great districts covered with leafy forest; land where the summers are long, with much rain, and the winters short and soft. Land well suited to growing the food the emperor’s people eat. Every year his people clear more or those forests, and it grows abundant food. The emperor does not care to possess our land, where the soil is often bitter, and even in the memory of young men the winters have grown longer.