ZiShu was sitting in his study room, reading his latest book. It was about the Jin tribe. He wanted to know more about their clothing, their hobbies, their language. He usually only read about political and historical events of alien tribes. He was never interested in the everyday life aspect of other clans. It had no value to him.
But lately, he had been curious about the Jin. He read in one passage, that children did not have any sort of official education or schools. The boys followed the men around and were taught how to hunt and do men's chores. Young girls followed the women around and learned to do traditional women's work like making baskets and cooking. Unlike Song children, Jin children were seldom struck or spanked when they disobeyed. Punishment usually involved teasing and shame in front of the rest of the tribe.
They possessed their own governing systems, hierarchies, beliefs, and rituals. Among these rituals, the art of marking the body – tattooing – was prevalent. Body modifications were used as signs of their heritage and their tribal community. Tribes believed tattooing to be sacred, spiritual, and incorporated the practice into their everyday lives. However, each area's practices were slightly different. The Jin tribe alone had a dozen communities, each with their own unique methods, designs, and reasons for tattooing.
The royal Jin tribe, descendant of the Yuan Ngan family, practiced scraping in addition to tattooing – in which designs would be etched in the skin without ink, thus leaving a scarred pattern behind. This practice was reserved uniquely to the males within the royal family. The individual's first name was scraped into the skin at childhood, on the right shin. When deemed a fledgling warrior, usually around teenage years, the middle name would be added. Upon the first kill, around adulthood and generally proven by taking an enemy's body part, the last name would be scraped into the skin.
Prince ZiShu's jaw dropped.
He remembered seeing a scar tissue on Lao Wen's right shin, barely legible at the time, but now it hit him. Could it be the word Ke but written in foreign language?
When he asked Lao Wen about it previously, his lover had told him that he fell from a tree when he was little and it was just a scar from the accident.
But it would match the body marking description of the royal Jin family.
~ ~
The peace treaty between Song and Jin was supposed to remain a secret. Not to be publicized.
But prince Xi'er told the Mongolian empire about it. He convinced them that, should Song and Jin form alliances, they would certainly fight Mongol next.
Under Genghis Khan, the Mongolians were expanding so quickly they had become a threat to many rival civilizations. During the Xia battle, when the Jin and the Mongol joined forces, causing the Song to retreat down South, both had equally split half of the Song territory. But the Jin were not as well developed as the Mongol, therefore they did not take full advantage of the land they conquered.
The Mongols on the other hand, immediately made good use of the new territory, flourishing socioeconomically within weeks of the siege. Famous for their horse archers, lances, trebuchets, catapults, the Mongols could even build machinery on the spot using available local resources. Forces under the command of the Mongol Empire were trained, organized, and equipped for mobility and speed. During down time, they played hunting games to develop discipline and teamwork. Mongol soldiers were more lightly armored than many of the armies they faced, hence more maneuverable. Skillful use of couriers enabled the leaders of these armies to maintain contact with each other. Soldiers of the Mongol army functioned independently of supply lines, considerably speeding up army movement. This was also the main weakness of the Song army.
The Mongols had experience traversing large distances, even in unusually cold winters. Adept at water barges, they could cross streams in flood conditions with thirty thousand cavalry soldiers in a single night. Known for their simple yet effective military organization, great prowess with ground forces and naval power, they carried out successful land and seaborne campaigns against several neighbor tribes and gained an immense reputation for themselves in a very short amount of time. They have quickly become everybody's most feared enemy during that era.
Prince Xi'er had wanted to get rid of Wen Ke Xing for a while already, especially when he got promoted so quickly over the past year. But his brother threatened to destroy him should he make a wrong move to hurt their prime minister. Knowing that his brother and Wen Ke Xing had a strong bond, he knew that they would work together to remove him sooner or later, therefore he had to be proactive. But he needed help. Now was his unique opportunity to eliminate both Wen Ke Xing and prince ZiShu.
He informed the Mongols about the peace treaty, and told them that the best way to stop the Song-Jin peace from happening, and instead raise discord and conflict, was to assassinate Wen Ke Xing during his trip to the border. The Song would then think that the Jin did it as a way to announce war. And when his brother, prince ZiShu, goes to war with the Jin, the Mongols could then kill him too.
In exchange for that, prince Xi'er would give the Mongols a large portion of the land, and sign a permanent alliance with them, making Song and Mongol brother states with equal power.
The Mongols agreed.
~ ~
The horseback ride from the Song capital city to the Jin border was about 2-3 days.
There was sufficient time to carry out as many assassination attempts as necessary.
And they did.
~ ~
