"Noyan, my lord! I kowtow to you, my lord... This lowly one is Amao, a herding slave of Aolahala, tending sheep for the lords of the tribe... I don't know which Tumen lord sent you, my lord? Are you here to levy cattle and sheep, levy soldiers, or only passing through?..."
The Heilongjiang flowed slowly, rolling waves wetting the black earth, while the lush long grass fattened the herds. This was the best season on the steppe; the cattle, sheep, and horses were all at their plumpest and strongest. The herding slave Amao buried his head deep against the ground, smelling the raw tang of soil, not daring to look straight at the "Ulus" cavalry on horseback. He was so nervous he almost pissed himself.
The so-called "Aolahala" meant "riverside tribe." "Aola" meant "riverside," and "hala" meant "tribe." This was actually Daur, from the Mongolic language family; in later generations, they would generally be classified as the Daur people. But in this fifteenth-century Tatar era, there was no doubt that they were counted among the Mongol tribes. Just like the Evenk people, farther northeast by the Sahaliyan Ula River, who fished and hunted in the forests; because they spoke Tungus, they too were regarded as part of the Jurchen Tribes, the Wild Jurchen of the northern mountains coming south.
"???... Aguda, what is he saying?"
"This isn't Jurchen. I don't understand it. Brother Ali?"
"Priest, Brother Aguda, I didn't understand either. He seems to be saying something like 'chief,' something like 'tumen'? It seems like he's taken us for a force sent by some tumen chieftain from the south? Mm, the size of our armored force really isn't something a local tribe could field. I'm afraid only the Three Guards of Duoyan to the south, or the Uriankhai Tumen to