In those eight years between the crowning of the new Golden Master and Seonggu’s ‘Mad Decree’, as it was called by those around him, not much can be said about Yujin. Indeed, she appears to have disappeared from official records during this time; yet her hidden hand can be identified in the lull of hostilities following the fall of Makam. 

Even though she had risen to the leadership of the Golden Path, Yujin’s rulership was not absolute. Her power, limited only to remote highland villages and hamlets hidden in inaccessible crags and perilous gullies, stemmed only from the Auric Council and the small circle of ardent followers that were taken by the spell of the Black Tongue in Yakotan. Many other highlander clans remained unconvinced of Yujin’s power; the lowlands were still far beyond her reach, much less the wider body of Golden Path followers in the south of Nanwian. Therefore her early years as Golden Master were focused on four things. First, the unification of the whole Chwanjeou. Second, the constant harassment of Sindeok troops rather than pitched battles and sieges, until she had strengthened and perfected her own armies. Third, the establishment of law and state institutions throughout the Chwanjeou. Fourth, the recognition of her divine mission and place as the LORD’s mouthpiece in this world. 

Her first check was of course in the first objective. Constant inter-tribal and inter-clan feuding often flared up, equally due to old vendettas and new ones inflamed by Sindeok agents, costing lives and distracting from their true interest: freedom from the infidel. Her most loyal followers in the beginning hailed from the Nakh tribe, whose territory was located Yakotan, but Yujin relocated her headquarters to the even more remote and twice-fold treacherous fortress of Nu’an, a name steeped in blood and drama. It was an eyrie perched atop a conical peak known as Giant’s Spear, five hundred meters above the Blood Gate guarding the only approach up the mountain. All around was desolation: bare rocks and gorges, howling winds, circling vultures and falcons. Nu’an was constructed by the Hindh renegade Arjun Singh Rathore ‘the Winged Devil’ to be his base of operations during his reign of terror over the surrounding region sixty years ago; local tradition held that Arjun had enlisted the help of hellish devils to construct this impregnable lair. The Blood Gate was named such as it had been the site where fifty-five of the choicest Nakh champions were slaughtered singlehandedly by the Winged Devil, so strategic was its location on the zig-zag path from which two or three men could hold off an entire army. In the end it was the ultimate foe of all besieged — starvation — which killed Arjun. 

Nu’an was a natural fortress, therefore Yujin made it her headquarters. Here she began work on her second objective, going about reorganising the ranks of her warriors. Chwanjeou warriors were valiant and strong, but lacked any sense of the discipline and professionalism that enabled the Sindeok to ultimately triumph over them. Her army in its early days was identical to all other tribal hosts, formed from a collection of warbands led by champions, chieftains, and veterans, wont to take their own courses of action whenever it suited them. They were a far cry from the organised armies that she desired, but with them alike she gained the submission of several tribes: the Jino, De’ang, and Premi being the most prominent among them. These were isolated mountain tribes which had been left largely unscathed by the depredations of Hwanseong, and therefore received Yujin with honour and enthusiasm. In their territories the Golden Path remained strong, albeit not driven to the maddening fervour that embodied the bloodlust of the Nakh. Besides, they were peaceable in the face of confrontation with the warlike Nakh that practiced Nanwian methods of brutality like impalement and roasting on fires; better to submit to the Golden Master with little violence than to invite fire and slaughter. Still, certain clans such as the Lu clan of the Premi resisted her; their village was stormed by force and brutally sacked. 

In those years Yujin proved herself to be a greater legislator, diplomat, and administrator than a warrior. She was the creator of state institutions for the rapidly centralising federation of tribes and clans under her control and the founder of a permanent court of law based on the Five Sacred Books. This was undoubtedly because of the influence of Song Hayoung, a failure of the civil service examination (through no fault of her intelligence, but her lack of connections among the examination officials) who had also been an adherent of the Ashul sect. Returning to her hometown in Nanchwan after failing the examination, Hayoung had been captured in a raid and passed around among several clans as a slave until the defeat of the Lu clan, when all the slaves of the family became Yujin’s property. Hayoung’s talent was quickly discovered and, despite the misgivings of the Auric Council at a heretic being so close to their Master, became Yujin’s chief minister and lawmaker for the rest of her life. With Hayoung’s expertise in law Yujin enforced a code of war among the tribes and regulated their conduct in the field. Harsh fines were imposed for failure to obey the new code and these, together with the spoils of raids, went to the swelling of a central treasury in Nu’an. Some of it was redistributed as pensions to the families of wounded warriors; some was used to bribe wavering tribes into alliance with the Golden Path; some to purchase war materials and build industry; some to reward bravery and feats of arms. During the Great Crusade Yujin was often accused of avarice, of stocking up enormous hoards of gold and jewels in her mountain castles. But this was untrue. Yujin had no personal use for piles of gold; her life was that of austere self-discipline. If she hoarded wealth it was because she understood the immense cost of war, especially a war on the scale of the Great Crusade. 

Yujin imposed the death penalty for murder, treachery, and in many cases disobedience, for she could tolerate nothing other than total submission to her will. Cowardice, regarded by the tribals with disgust, was punished mercilessly. Those who fled in battle were branded on their faces, so that every person could know their grave crime against the life-blood of their people. However, this did not happen often, for there were very few cowards among Chwanjeou natives, fighting and honour being their entire life’s purpose. Since fatalism was the ading philosophy among them, few men failed in their first duty as warriors. 

One of Yujin’s most innovative reforms was the establishment of permanent salaries for unlanded warriors, paid directly from the central treasury of Nu’an. Many of the Chwanjeou warriors belonged to families and clans who lived in villages and towns, and were therefore fed and paid for with booty and the bounty of the land, being self-sustained in their own right. But after the fall of the lowlands to the Sindeok, many fighters of the lowland tribes who refused to submit to the monstrous Hwanseong roamed the ruined countryside looting and harassing travellers and farmers. Men without purpose, whose hearts were once filled with martial vigour, were now masterless and abandoned by a world that was changing faster than them. To these wandering fighters Yujin extended her offer of service and called them to her banner, promising them a place in Paradise, but more importantly a master to serve under and new homes and livelihoods. Many of the highlander chiefs resisted the entrance of the lowlanders into the warbands, but Yujin emphasised their importance to the effort against the Sindeok, stemming from their skill in riding and lightning raids. In the end it was the threat of violence from the Nakhs, who were unconditionally loyal to the Golden Master, that put an end to the tensions. 

But it was no warlord state that Yujin aspired for. Having read the chronicles of history and the holy books, Yujin was painfully aware that creating a state from the disunited tribes of the Chwanjeou, who hitherto had been i