Destroy Quaraqand!

Winter was going to be harsh this year. Yun-Men's troops still wore little else than ragged furs and hardened leather. Her breath visible in the chilly air, like an evaporating ghost as she rode, Yun-Men contemplated a new siege bow she planned to construct and use in the campaign against Shou Lung. They would also need new arrowheads - the ones suitable for pelting fire on lightly constructed military camps or forces on move were of little use against a garrison protected by fortifications and a sturdy masonry wall.

Yes, the campaign against Shou Lung... they would definitely need infantry and siege machines too. If all they attacked with was light cavalry, all the Shou would need to do would be to sit on their behinds and let them run out of the troops, perhaps accelerating that development with some loose half-hearted fire. Oh, Yun-Men intended to use a force of cavalry as a spearhead to penetrate the wall and lead the invasion. But that would sorely need the support of infantry and... catapults? How did one construct them? She would need to bribe or imprison a Shou siegemaster...

She shook herself and concentrated on the matter at hand. Now she needed to unite the tribes and gather a much larger troop. Both of the formerly skirmishing factions of the tribe in Haxkhun were part of T'aghurs now, but that was only the very beginning. The next stop was the Igidujin tribe located in Quaraqand, deep within the southern range of Chigidi Mountains.

- "Khan, I am sure the Igidujin will not join us without a fight," Batu said gravely. He was one of Yun-Men's generals.

- "I am sure too," Yun- Men just said. Igidujin were the most organized tribe of the area, run by the descendants of the Qajand family, and tyrannical and savage by reputation. When younger, she had envied the Igidujin for having more spirit than her own tribe. Now she was going to do something about that. She smiled.

- "They have been known to raid Haxkhun and kill everybody in the camp to the last woman, man and child," Dilanna said. She was another general. "Perhaps we should bypass their lands, gather the other tribes first and confront them only after..."

-"Do not be stupid!" Yun-Men snapped. "We do not want an enemy in the middle of our own area, able to get behind the front of our army, cutting the supplies and lines of communication. Not to mention that it would give the wrong impression. That we would be afraid of the Igidujin."

- "Truth to be told, I AM a bit afraid of them," Batu said. "Your new troops have hardly any combat experience, while the Igidujin have been rather organized for a while."

- "That," Yun-Men said, her eyes dark and intent like the eyes of a beast anticipating a kill, "is why we must give them... the right message."

As her messenger had requested, a young male Qajand approached her, sneering from the back of his horse.

- "Oh, it is you, upstart. So your sorry little troop has managed to get another bunch of ragtag bandits to join you, and now you have delusions of challenging the mighty Qajand!"

Yun-Men just continued smiling icily, collected, feral.

- "The people of Haxkhun enjoy now exactly the same privileges as born T'aghurs, and we left their businesses, property and health alone. I am offering the same for your people now. Join me, in my quest to unite the tribes, and your civilians will live only better," she said.

The man snorted contemptuously.

- "You must be joking, wench. We have ruled here for generations."

- "If you do not do as I say, we will crush you all and burn your city. I will personally carry your, and your leader's, head impaled to a pike and raise it above the flames." She didn't sneer or hiss, just spoke calmly as if stating a fact. She didn't raise her voice.

- "Bragging will get you nowhere," the man said, but he did seem a little frightened. Yun-Men rode next to him and drew her axe.

- "Die then," she said, almost as if bored. The man tried to draw his saber, but was delivered a killing blow before he had the chance to do that. His corpse slumped to the ground.

Yun-Men dismounted her steed, hacked the head off and impaled it with her spear. She mounted again, holding the severed, terrified head high, yelling, her raven plait whipping in the freezing wind.

- "My followers! Warriors! Now there are spoils to take! Fear nothing, for life gets no sweeter than this! Enjoy the horror in the eyes of a dying mouse, for we are the predators now! Kill everything you find alive! There are no rules or limits tonight! Destroy Quaraqand! Loot everything you wish! Before the nightfall we shall stand at the embers of a ghost city, carrying the heads of our enemies on our pikes, drunk on their wine!"

They cheered. They rode. She rode ahead of them, snarling, feeling a rage and joy she didn't remember feeling for years.