"Hand over the guard post's banner and bronze seal, and twenty Battle-Ready Serfs who can ride. Join the tribute party and head south with us! The Yi'erguli Guard must stand together with the downstream guards!"
"Impossible! Chief Shangtuha will never hand the guard post's banner and bronze seal over to you! At most, we can let go of the livestock and Barnyard Millet you plundered! But you must return our horses!"
"Ha! We already showed mercy by not eating your milk-producing cattle and sheep! We're demanding tribute people and tokens, and we'll also bring back a share of the Great Emperor's rewards for you!"
"Chief Shangtuha has said it! Next year, he will personally go south to offer tribute! No lies are spoken before the Sky God! The tribe's final bottom line is to give you twenty Battle-Ready Serfs and enough grain and fodder for two hundred men for one month!"
"No! We need more supplies! Hm, we can trade Salt and Iron Pots for them!"
"?! What, Salt and Iron Pots?! Is that true?"
"Yes! Before the Sky God, liars will have their tongues fall out! We have Salt, and Iron Pots too. We'll trade them for two months of supplies!"
The Heilongjiang churned with weeping and wailing, and the tribute party's "grave-crying" at the Yi'erguli Guard lasted a full four days. The horsemen ate all the big pigs in the guard post's pens, took away twenty horses, and cut down half the Barnyard Millet fields. The hearts of the Yi'erguli Guard's people wavered; Chief Shangtuha weighed things over and over, and in the end lowered his head to the tribute horsemen, handing over twenty Battle-Ready Serfs who could ride, along with a batch of precious supplies. And what lay beyond his expectations was that this tribute horseman party,