"Oh? So that is how Great Ming's border troops would react? A hunting dog with its neck leashed tight and its belly growling would never let a piece of fat meat pass its mouth? That comparison is rather apt..."
"Yes, Ancestral Shaman! The Liaodong border troops are hunting dogs, and the 'barbarians' beyond the Border Wall are meat in their eyes! Great Ming's Holy Emperor is far away in the Forbidden City. He bestows generous rewards on our Jurchen tribes, and perhaps he truly treats all alike, perhaps he truly regards us as subjects of Great Ming... But those Great Ming officials who actually handle affairs all have a clear scale in their hearts. They see our Jurchen tribes as 'barbarians' beyond civilization, and they show it plainly!"
"No matter how obediently our Tame Jurchen tribes pay tribute, no matter how well we speak the Han tongue, we still cannot cross the inborn status of 'barbarian.' It is impossible for us to rise even one step in Great Ming. Even our conferred post of Assistant Regional Commander, even if it is the same rank as an office in Han Liaodong, becomes worthless in Han lands the moment someone says 'a conferred barbarian'!..."
"In truth, the officials of Liaodong have never regarded anything beyond the Border Wall as Great Ming's 'Royal Land.' They do not want to accept our Jurchen tribes, nor accept this White Mountain and Black Water that produces nothing. They are even less willing to pay a tremendous price to maintain order beyond the Border Wall..."
Inside Yongning Temple, Harman chieftain Ali wore a rueful expression as he spoke words he had long buried in his heart. The Harman Tribe had always been loyal and devoted, yet in the end, they had still been abandoned by Great Ming.