Chapter Summaries

Kakizaki Mitsuhiro and Kudo Shigeyasu told Takeda Nobuhiro that the Sanda Tribe’s unusual knowledge, military strength, gold, and emblem pointed to a noble Mongol origin. They concluded that the tribe was a branch of the Mongol Golden Family seeking to build a new kingdom, leaving Takeda Nobuhiro shaken by their discovery.

• Kakizaki Mitsuhiro praised Takeda Nobuhiro’s wisdom and described the Sanda chieftain’s unusual learning and command of Classical Chinese.
• Kakizaki Mitsuhiro and Kudo Shigeyasu warned Takeda Nobuhiro that the Sanda Tribe’s resources and ambitions exceeded those of an ordinary tribe.
• Kudo Shigeyasu listed the tribe’s ships, firearms, elite warriors, gold, customs, and interest in southern lands as evidence of its exceptional origins.
• Kudo Shigeyasu identified the tribe’s eagle emblem as the Mongol Golden Family’s Divine Eagle and declared that the Sanda were descended from that family.
• Takeda Nobuhiro checked the Takeda Ancestral Records and found a historical account linking the Divine Eagle banner to the Golden Family.
• Kudo Shigeyasu concluded that the Sanda sought craftsmen and farmers to establish a new kingdom in the western Sanda lands.

Takeda Nobuhiro concluded that the Sanda people were likely a Yuan Invaders' Gold Clan and warned his son Kakizaki Mitsuhiro that their gold trade carried grave risks. As Nobuhiro entered meditation near death, Mitsuhiro put away the Gold Talismans and faced the burden of his father's counsel.

• Takeda Nobuhiro weighed the evidence about the Sanda people and decided the Yuan Invaders' Gold Clan was the likeliest explanation, making trade possible but potentially drawing the shogunate's attention.
• Nobuhiro, weakened by illness, warned Mitsuhiro not to handle the Sanda gold trade personally and ordered Kudo Shigeyasu to summon Morino Kiyoshi from Kyoto.
• Nobuhiro told Mitsuhiro that desire had made him vulnerable to the Sanda chieftain's schemes and urged him to leave the trade to trusted retainers and seek counsel from Morino Kiyoshi.
• Nobuhiro feared the Kakizaki Clan might gain too much from the trade and then lose everything, and he entered meditation while murmuring Buddhist scriptures.
• Mitsuhiro watched his father fall into meditation, wiped away his tears, and carefully put away the Gold Talismans.

Zuwaro established a new Chishima Tribe settlement in southern Karafuto with support from the Buyo Cold Swamp Tribe, then sailed north to the Nivkh Dog Tribe. There, he learned of an abandoned southern tribe’s town, market, and temple upriver on the Amur River, and set out to investigate.

• Zuwaro persuaded Swamp to lend boats and sailors to transport Wajin captives and goods north to Karafuto, explaining that the Mushiyama tribe had traded them for gold.
• Swamp agreed to help establish a Chishima Tribe settlement in southern Karafuto by joining with a nearby small tribe and sending people and supplies.
• Zuwaro left iron spears and two trained warriors with the Buyo Cold Swamp Tribe, promising that their warriors could learn to fight Wajin forces.
• By late September, Shenhuatai Port near present-day Korsakov had taken shape, while Zuwaro sailed north to the Nivkh Dog Tribe during the salmon run.
• A Dog Tribe headman told Zuwaro about an abandoned town, trading market, and temple built long ago by a powerful southern tribe upriver, and agreed to guide him there.

Zuwaro’s exploration team encountered Fish-Skin-User hunters deep along the great river and cautiously opened trade with them. The hunters exchanged sable pelts for salt, warned that a powerful tribe had taken over the altar, and vanished into the forest.

• Chief Dog-User warned Zuwaro about the dangers of the forests and swamps and explained that Dog-User tribes inhabited the region.
• Fish-Skin-User hunters emerged from the forest and aimed their great bows at the Longship, but lowered them after Chief Dog-User explained the team’s purpose.
• Zuwaro decided to recruit the Fish-Skin-User hunters after judging them to be formidable warriors.
• Tami-kusa placed salt and a Gold Talisman on the riverbank as a gift, and a young hunter recognized the salt as valuable to the tribe.
• The Fish-Skin-User chief traded two sable pelts for the salt and warned that a powerful tribe had taken over the altar before leading his hunters into the forest.

Zuwaro’s Longship reached the abandoned riverside market, where the heavily armed Maha Tribe mistook the visitors for attackers and threatened them. After Zuwaro ordered a cannon fired to frighten their horses, Maha Aguda challenged him to come ashore and fight.

• Zuwaro spotted the Maha Tribe’s camp and defenses around the market and judged that its people were ready for battle.
• Maha Aguda charged his horse into the river, shot an arrow at the Longship, and ordered the Ship-Users to leave.
• Zuwaro tried to explain that his party wanted to worship at the market’s altar and offered salt for trade, but Maha Aguda refused.
• Zuwaro ordered Tami-kusa to fire the cannon, startling the horses and throwing the Fish Skin cavalry into chaos.
• Maha Aguda and his warriors subdued the horses, then Maha Aguda challenged Zuwaro to come down from the Longship and fight.

Zuwaro kept the Fish Skin Tribe at bay by cooking fragrant porridge aboard the longship, while escaped war slaves caused chaos in Maha Aguda’s camp. After Maha Aguda recaptured the slaves, Zuwaro offered him a jar of porridge, leaving the hungry chief staring at the food.

• Zuwaro ordered Tami-kusa to cook fish porridge aboard the longship, distracting the hungry Fish Skin warriors during their standoff.
• A powerful Tiger Slave broke out of his cage and freed several other war slaves, who fought Fish Skin warriors in the camp.
• Maha Aguda attacked Tiger Slave with his hammer and, with help from his warriors, subdued him and recaptured the other escapees.
• Maha Aguda returned to the riverbank and angrily demanded to know what Zuwaro wanted.
• Zuwaro offered Maha Aguda a jar of spicy meat porridge, and the hungry chief stared at it as his stomach rumbled.

Zuwaro used meat porridge, rice, salt, wine, and chili to ease the Fish Skin Tribe’s suspicion and persuade Chief Maha Aguda to let him visit a settlement’s altar. As Zuwaro followed Maha Aguda through the ruined walls, he saw the remnants of the empire that had once stood there.

• Maha Aguda ate Zuwaro’s chili-spiced porridge, suspected it was bait, then watched the Ship-User tribe eat before his distrust began to fade.
• Zuwaro gave Maha Aguda a pot containing rice, salt, rice wine, and chili, and Maha Aguda ordered his warriors to test the food for poison before storing it.
• Maha Aguda said the settlement’s previous tribe had been defeated and allowed Zuwaro to visit its half-collapsed altar with only a small group of warriors.
• Zuwaro agreed to go ashore, and a cannon blast startled Maha Aguda and the camp’s animals.
• Maha Aguda led Zuwaro through a breach in the wall, warning him not to trample the nearly ripe Barnyard Millet.
• Zuwaro studied the fields and ruined wall and imagined the empire and its guards from sixty years earlier.

Zuwaro explored the Maha Tribe’s newly occupied settlement and discovered a ruined Buddhist temple containing a stone inscription that documented the Ming dynasty’s expedition to Nurgan. The inscription revealed the settlement’s former imperial history, leaving Zuwaro contemplating the lost power of that distant empire.

• Maha Aguda showed Zuwaro the settlement and its barnyard-millet fields, explaining that the Maha Tribe had seized the place and relied mainly on hunting and fishing.
• Zuwaro asked whether the Maha Tribe would stay if the climate grew colder, and Maha Aguda insisted that the tribe would defend its territory against any enemy.
• Maha Aguda directed Zuwaro to the abandoned temple, where Zuwaro examined its unusual towers, collapsed halls, and bloodstained Buddha statue before praying to the Main God.
• Tami-kusa found two stone steles, and Zuwaro recognized the Kingdom’s writing on one of them.
• Zuwaro read the inscription describing Yishiha’s Yongle-era expeditions, the establishment of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, and the construction of Yongning Temple.

Zuwaro deciphered the two Yongning Temple steles and learned that the distant southern empire was Great Ming, which had repeatedly sent troops and officials to Nurgan before eventually leaving. He ended with questions about the empire’s departure, the distance to its lands, and what had happened since the Xuande inscription.

• Zuwaro studied the first stele and learned that Great Ming troops had arrived by ship, built Yongning Temple, and established authority in Nurgan.
• He read the second stele’s account of the region’s distant waterways, local peoples, and Yishiha’s repeated expeditions to pacify them.
• Zuwaro wondered why Great Ming had forgiven the people who destroyed the temple and given them gifts instead of exacting revenge.
• The later inscription described the tribes submitting as subjects, while Zuwaro questioned whether Great Ming had collected taxes or established lasting rule there.
• Zuwaro reached the inscription’s date, the eighth year of Great Ming Xuande, and recognized the empire named in his king’s prophecy.

Zuwaro learned from Maha Aguda that tribes driven south by the worsening cold were locked in a long cycle of migration and slaughter, while Great Ming’s territory had steadily contracted. The chapter left Maha Aguda threatening Zuwaro with his hammer after Zuwaro kept asking for guides to the southern river.

• Zuwaro prayed at Yongning Temple, then asked Maha Aguda where the great river led.
• Maha Aguda warned Zuwaro that the southern waterways and forests were dangerous and described generations of tribes migrating south and fighting.
• Zuwaro realized that the cold had driven widespread migrations and that Great Ming had repeatedly retreated from its northern territories.
• Zuwaro continued urging Maha Aguda to provide guides to the river’s upper reaches, prompting Maha Aguda to accuse him of plotting against the Maha Tribe.
• Maha Aguda raised his hammer and demanded that Zuwaro explain himself.

Zuwaro’s mission south nearly ended in a fight with Fish Skin chieftain Maha Aguda, who mistook him for a rival until he learned Zuwaro sought southern artisans and trade. Maha Aguda offered him a guide but warned that the journey would bring death and demanded he leave behind a child and his goods before going.

• Maha Aguda attacked Zuwaro with a Stone Hammer, then stopped when Zuwaro insisted he had no designs on Fish Skin territory.
• Zuwaro explained that he was following his ruler’s prophecy to trade gold with southern tribes for artisans and techniques, and Maha Aguda accepted his explanation.
• Maha Aguda gave Zuwaro a tiger’s whip and kidneys as an apology, but Zuwaro rejected the gift.
• Maha Aguda offered Zuwaro a tribal guide on the condition that he eat the gift, sleep with a woman, and leave the next day.
• Maha Aguda said he wanted Zuwaro to leave a child who could inherit his legacy, then warned him not to go south because the tribes there would kill him and seize his goods.

As the first snow fell, Zuwaro decided not to risk sailing south toward Great Ming and instead negotiated with Maha Aguda for captives and supplies. When a migrating tribe appeared near Maha territory, Aguda pressured Zuwaro into joining a raid, promising him the strong Tiger Slave as his guard.

• Zuwaro recalled a rumor of a powerful southern tribe bearing a red sun on a yellow flag and chose to return north rather than risk contact with Great Ming.
• Zuwaro offered grain, wine, and ironware to Maha Aguda for Jurchen horses, but Aguda refused; Aguda then considered trading away his captured Tribal Slaves.
• Scout Qimai reported fresh human footprints northwest of the camp, and Maha Aguda declared the approaching migrants enemies who threatened the Maha Tribe.
• Maha Aguda demanded that Zuwaro bring forty warriors to attack the migrants, threatening a duel and refusing to let him return to his ship if he opposed him.
• Zuwaro agreed to fight alongside Aguda on the condition that the strong Tiger Slave become his guard, and Aguda accepted before mobilizing the Maha Tribe.

Maha Aguda’s force raided the Fish Skin Tribe’s camp, killed its chief, and captured the remaining defenders. After witnessing the power of the cavalry charge, Zuwaro asked Aguda to trade him the wounded tribal cavalrymen.

• The Maha warriors and Kingdom Warriors surprised the Fish Skin Tribe, killed its chief with arrows, and attacked with blunt weapons to take captives.
• Tami-kusa formed a shield line while the Fish Skin fighters resisted and hoped their cavalry could turn the battle.
• Maha Aguda led more than ten riders into the Fish Skin cavalry, knocking the riders from their horses, though Wuzhu accidentally killed one horse.
• Zuwaro watched the cavalry charge through his Divine Eye Lens and realized how decisively it could turn a battle.
• Maha Aguda’s cavalry struck the Fish Skin fighters from behind, ending their resistance and forcing the survivors to surrender.
• Zuwaro asked Aguda to give him the wounded Fish Skin cavalrymen in exchange for something valuable.

The Maha Tribe and the Kingdom Warriors captured a southbound tribe, and Zuwaro tried to trade potatoes for the captives. Maha Aguda rejected the crop after realizing its labor demands and high yield could make his tribe vulnerable by tying it to the land and attracting stronger enemies.

• Maha Aguda and Wuzhu led the allied force in a dawn raid that killed more than a dozen defenders and captured the remaining eighty members of the southbound tribe.
• Zuwaro persuaded Maha Aguda to take all the captives, including the old and wounded, by promising valuable goods in exchange for the horses and captives.
• The nearly two-hundred-person party returned to the guarded market settlement with the captives, dogs, and horses.
• Zuwaro offered Maha Aguda potatoes, claiming they could yield at least five times as much food as Barnyard Millet.
• Maha Aguda crushed the potato and refused the deal, arguing that cultivation would tie his people to their fields and draw powerful tribes to attack them.
• Maha Aguda roared that Zuwaro had trapped him and swung his stone hammer at him as Zuwaro stood frozen.

Zuwaro learned that Maha Aguda feared his small tribe could not defend crops or wealth amid relentless intertribal warfare. He offered the Maha Tribe supplies, weapons, training, and political support in exchange for captives and horses, then tried to convert Aguda and make him a chief chosen by the Main God.

• Maha Aguda smashed the mud house wall in anger while Zuwaro was pulled out of the way.
• Maha Aguda apologized and explained that the Maha Tribe lacked the strength to protect potatoes or settle safely among hostile tribes.
• Zuwaro recognized the region’s violence and resolved to build the Kingdom’s northern foothold through patient alliances and trade.
• Zuwaro promised the Maha Tribe rice, iron weapons, armor, military training, and help governing in exchange for captives and horses.
• Zuwaro tried to place a golden Main God amulet on Maha Aguda and urged him to convert and unite the tribes as a divinely chosen chieftain.

Zuwaro and Kuihuo staged a sacrificial rite that crowned Maha Aguda as a god-chosen chieftain, winning the Fish Skin warriors’ submission. After Aguda’s powerful bow shot impressed the tribe, he swore an alliance between the Maha Tribe and the Ship-Sending Tribe.

• Kuihuo and Zuwaro performed a dramatic sacrifice before the Maha Tribe and declared Aguda chosen by the Main God.
• Aguda climbed the altar, accepted Zuwaro’s ritual, and knelt while Zuwaro carved a hummingbird emblem into his forehead.
• Zuwaro proclaimed Aguda the God-Chosen Chieftain, and Maha Qimai and Wuzhu led the Fish Skin warriors in kneeling to him.
• Aguda demonstrated his strength by shooting through a wine jar and tiger skull with his heavy bow, earning the warriors’ heartfelt cheers.
• Aguda declared the Maha Tribe and the Ship-Sending Tribe unbreakable allies and called for a blood-and-meat oath.

After the Maha Tribe and Ship-Sending Tribe swore an alliance, Maha He-nu forced Zuwaro to promise she would be his last wife and took him hunting. Tami-kusa and Kuihuo revealed they had allowed the affair to unfold as part of a plan involving High Priest Chimer and the priests arriving in the Western Sea.

• The Nivkh headman watched the tribes celebrate their new alliance as snow signaled the coming winter.
• Maha He-nu embraced Zuwaro, rode with him, then tied him to a tree and demanded he swear she would be his last wife.
• Zuwaro swore before the Main God, and He-nu bit his shoulder and paraded him around the camp as her future husband.
• He-nu took Zuwaro out of camp to hunt and told everyone not to follow them.
• Tami-kusa and Kuihuo agreed that their plan had gone well, leaving the next step to High Priest Chimer as more Kingdom priests came to the Western Sea.

Zuwaro traded supplies for warriors, horsemen, and horses from the Maha Tribe, then sailed for Shenhuatai Port with Maha He-nu. Priest Kuihuo stayed behind with Maha Aguda to help organize the tribe and spread the Main God's faith, setting the Maha Tribe on a path toward greater unity.

• Zuwaro gave Maha Aguda weapons, provisions, armor, and an amulet in exchange for forty-four tribespeople, four horses, and furs.
• Maha Aguda warned Maha He-nu to treat Zuwaro well and promised to gather more tribespeople, slaves, and horses before the Kingdom's next visit.
• Zuwaro and Maha He-nu boarded the Longship and departed for Shenhuatai Port, discussing the Kingdom's plans to develop its western stronghold and trade network.
• After the Longship left, Maha Aguda questioned Priest Kuihuo, who offered practical advice and promised to establish an altar and spread faith in the Main God.
• Maha Aguda welcomed Kuihuo into the Maha Tribe and arranged for someone to teach him the tribal language.

High Priest Chimer received Losanda and learned that His Majesty had promoted him to Chief Priest of the northern missionary region. Losanda also explained that the region’s four permanent Chief Priest positions had already been assigned or pre-appointed, leaving no openings.

• Chimer rode his Jurchen Horse across the snowy pasture while Sukeichiro struggled to catch up.
• Samurai squad leader Fushan told Chimer that two Wind God Shuttle Ships had reached Great Whale Port under High Priest Losanda’s command.
• Losanda presented His Majesty’s King's Order promoting Chimer to the kingdom’s third fourth-level Chief Priest in the northern missionary region.
• Chimer asked about His Majesty’s southern campaign, and Losanda reported that the fulfilled prophecy had strengthened His Majesty’s standing in the Alliance.
• Losanda explained that the northern missionary region would have four permanent Chief Priest posts and that all four had already been assigned or pre-appointed.

Chief Priest Chimer and Losanda discussed the new coastal archdioceses, the gold Xolotl had entrusted to secure the northern sea route, and the growing kingdom presence among the Miwok. Chimer recognized the political calculations surrounding Losanda’s appointment and learned that Miki was expected to return to the kingdom as a Priest Elder when a seat opened.

• Chimer explained that Xolotl’s twenty thousand jin of gold would fund northern missions, trade for Artisan techniques, and sustain the northern route even if it lost support.
• Losanda outlined the West Coast Archdiocese, centered on prosperous West Mountain Port and supported by converted Miwok communities and their growing farms and industries.
• Losanda described how Cedar Shaman declined a princely title and helped secure noble enfeoffments for Miwok chiefs, including the North Bay Tribe’s new chief, Lefeng.
• Chimer inferred that Losanda’s dangerous northern assignment reflected his uncertain standing among the Priest Elders, but that success could make him an important Tecos representative.
• Losanda said Chief Priest Miki oversaw the West Coast Archdiocese and would likely become a Priest Elder when a vacancy arose.