And so it was WAR. Really war, with the men traveling to lands unknown to fight opponents unknown. The Mothers were adamant that their husbands and sons would not just travel with big sticks, but would have proper weapons ... they said that it was important to throw the stick and make sure that it would not return against us. N'uncle arrived in Summer Camp on the back of a thunder beast (he called them horses) bringing news (and a message). He stood tall in the stirrups and said that the Mothers spoke the truth with these words. He also said that he had heard good news from the Japanese home lands ... our boys had managed to pillage their source of iron and withstood a pitched battle on Iron Hill.
Another boat, this one carrying two archers arrived from Japan but our patrolling boats where equal to the task. We later heard that this was a very touch and go battle with the sailors estimating only at 30% or so chance of victory. They bragged about the cut and thrust of the battle and how many tricks they learnt from surviving it. Every time the sailors came to camp, they had new exciting stories of battles at sea, ships sunk, treasures taken and generally victories from all directions.
Yes another boat, this time running different colours (purple) sailed past our fleet of troop transports returning from Japan. They yelled and jeered at our sailors, there was also cheers of support from the Japanese mainland when they sighted this vessel. Again, we couldn't understand their language but the message was fairly clear ... they were coming to help the Japanese. Luckily the tricks that our sailors had learnt from their earlier encounters helped them quickly send this boat to the bottom of the sea.
Meanwhile, two of our Keshik supported by an axe had been scouting the Japanese lands. They told of one night when they camped too close to the capital and were attacked by 5 archers. The Mothers were happy to hear that there was no loss of live from our side. This was the same group that reportedly captured the first Japanese camp many cycles later.
Meanwhile, back at Summer Camp, Jr returned from visiting the family that went South to found Bovina with news about the rules of righteousness and about the strong harming the weak. We all assumed he was talking about the Japanese, but he later corrected us, saying that his message was about the strong NOT harming the weak. We thought N'uncles later message about taking the sword to help others with swords perish was a much better message. On the religious front, the people started complaining to God that they didn't have a leader (or that they actually had a multitude of leaders). God decided that one ruler, one king would suit his people just find. There was much rejoicing after the usual chaos of system changes like this.
We found that our new trading camp in Japanese territory (Osaka) actually contained quite a few people that were not that happy with the trading arrangements and many people came into the streets to voice their disapproval of our trading systems.
Later, in Summer Camp, Jr sprung a trick question on the wise men and women ... something about two Mothers claiming the same baby as their own. He left them with the question of how to determine which Mother the baby actually belonged to. There was much debate about eye colour, hair colour, facial features, deoxyribonucleic acid testing but everything suggested either Jr or N'uncle were able to poke holes in. Finally, Mencius suggested cutting the baby in half. Everyone laughed but Jr asked him to elaborate. His thinking was that the real Mother would give up her baby to the other Mother rather than see her baby cut in half while the false Mother would not. Everyone agreed that this was a brilliant solution ... N'uncle decided to rename the temple after Mencius, but he declined and said to name if after his Brother instead ...
In news from the trading front, the other Japanese trading camps have been slowly converted to our system of trading. Our thunder beasts had been leading the battles and camp-site conversions. The Japanese were so convinced that their system was correct that they tried to set up new camp sites while in the process of losing their other camp sites.
picture 0092 with insert from 0094
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A local pig farmer dropped in to talk to N'uncle ... he wanted to thank him for helping him select the best location for his barn - the first 5 attempts had sunk into the mire. He said that N'uncle's knowledge of where to put the foundations was spot on, he had, without a doubt, arrived at just the correct location with no margin of error. He asked N'uncle to come to the dedication where he was going to set up the pedestal with these words "My name is Austin Powers, King of Pork, look on my queen of sows and dispair." Jr was later heard to comment that he didn't understand all this talk of pigs because we have never seen the creature ... all we have is cows, cows and more cows, oh - and some sheep, fish and now crabs too.
In trading news, the Mothers decided that going further East was pointless as all that we would find was more people that hated us ... those people that flew the purple and light blue colours. They suggested going West. And so a party of eager traders was sent West. Unfortunately, the trading prospects to the West didn't turn out much better than the ones to the East ... the first people we met decided that they didn't like our wares either and declared war on us. There were the Cushions (or something like that - these people with their strange tongues - where is Jr when you need him?).
The trading party came home with news of these Hessions and the strange new creature that they had seen - Phants. Straight off, the Mothers new that here was a new weapon that could kill their Husbands and Sons. They asked that the pillage operation that was so successful against the Japanese be used again against the Sessions. People agreed that this was, like everything else, worth it and agreed to pay for it. N'uncle agreed and this action was put into effect. He later pointed out that our land was becoming harder to manage and co-ordinate (the pillage group was up near Kyoto and had to catch two boats and suffer a long overland trip to reach the Tuscain Phants. He proposed that each trading camp would have its own rulers, responsible for their own area around their camp but they would swear an oath of Fealty to the Mothers of Summer Camp ...
"I will to my Lord be true and faithful, and love all which he loves and shun all which he shuns."
The people agreed and it was decided that this would be our legal form henceforth. A huge party was thrown to celebrate this event, with everyone bring food, wine and song from their trading camps. There was lots of singing, some very good but some very very bad. Some people commented that songs have the power to both destroy and to heal. There was so much food that people spent the night tasting some, swallowing others and, when they found something they really liked, spending time to chew and digest it. The season was good, the harvest good, everything and everyone had a purpose under heaven. To celebrate this great occasion, a soldier's epic was started in Kyoto. The thinkers epic would start much later in Moscow as it was difficult finding a suitable location for these people - most of our people wanted to trade or drink (or both).
News from our pillage party was good. They also mentioned that these Duchants had actually managed to complete their version of the Great Rock Launcher in the main trading camp Moscow. The people had a round of drinks on that old story and were very happy that we had the chance to actually own one. The first trading party was trying to convert St Petersburg ...
