<<Swords Sharpened in Peace<<

It is not known if it was the Horse who were the most disgusted by the spiritual degradations of the time, but it is sure that they heaped scorn and punishment onto the Frog Clan, their forward-thinking vassal Minor Clan shared with the Crane and Scorpion. The Frog, created to run the ridiculously wealthy port City of the Golden Frog for the Great Clans, had sought relentlessly to advance their ship-building technology, to update their trade practices and otherwise keep up with the swiftly moving Crane and Spider ports. To answer a request to innovate like this a Horse magistrate might have lashed a fat Frog samurai to her horse and dragged the offender along the ground around the city.

The Frog Clan daimyo had finally had enough. The Frog had more ambassadors to other clans than the Horse, their trading allies were many, and, they thought, their army even outnumbered the scattered Horse. The Frog Clan rulers took matters into their own hands and, historical records tell us, honorably challenged the Horse governor of the City of the Golden Frog to a duel. He won handily, and all the other Horse bureaucrats committed ritual suicide in shame.

Fortunately, just the week before, the Frog Clan had petitioned the White Orchid Empress for Great Clan status and had it granted. If the Frog daimyo had not been a Great Clan daimyo, his challenging the Horse’s rule would, of course, been a great and dangerous affront to the Celestial Order.

>>Blood Flies Swiftly on Hot Wind>>