A Sacred Omen

The past month had seemed calm and steady on the surface, but dark waves had been hidden beneath. Under the pressure of tens of thousands of royal troops, the southern nobles, after a painful struggle, could only choose in the end to obey the reforms. They handed over their lands and households, took several hundred direct clansmen with them, and went north of the Lerma River to garrison the frontier. With the arrival of the capital's Priesthood, the more than two hundred thousand people of Purple Grass County were being registered household by household in orderly fashion, military-farming settlements were being established, and the region was gradually being brought under the kingdom's direct control. The southwestern Tecos tribes, too, would be dealt with during the southern campaign.

In early January, the seven thousand men of the Imperial Guard Legion spent a peaceful New Year in Purple Grass City—that is, Kuramo City. The king personally held the New Year sacrifice, summoned the capital priests who had arrived to take office, and also soothed the Capital Region Legion that had been put through a purge. Then the fourth batch of five thousand rebel subjects immediately set out. At this point, all twenty thousand rebel subjects had stepped onto the road north as serfs. The Crow Family was the first to head north and accept the reforms, and more than a dozen southern hereditary noble families followed them north.

At the same time, Black Wolf plunged deep into the southwestern mountains and lost contact with the kingdom's legions. After Ezpan left three thousand men in Apa City, he continued west in obedience to the royal command. He took over the five thousand men of the Guachichil Legion that Black Wolf had left behind, commanded nearly ten thousand warriors, and pursued the retreating Tecos