The Tiger-Headed Horseman Read Online Free Page A

end no guest who had been entertained at the House of Fun had ever wanted to leave because they were ‘having so much fun’, or at least that was what was written in the letters received by the families of ‘guests’.
    Khad secretly admired the city his cousin had constructed. He privately adored wonderful architecture. He harboured feelings of adoration for open public parklands, particularly the flower beds. He even felt inwardly positive about the wide avenues that were lined by busy shops and businesses; even the statues of his deceased cousin were in his view sculpted magnificently. He refused to have any of the buildings that had been constructed during the time of Chinggis destroyed. After all, good builders were hard to come by when you needed them and there was no guarantee they would do the job you wanted even if you did find them. Instead, Khad determined to change the meaning of Chinggis's city. All schools and places of study were closed; when they reopened the interiors had been ripped out and replaced by enormous vodka and karaoke bars complete with a labyrinth of ‘private rooms’. History and geographywent out the window and teachers were instructed to teach people a set of altogether more carnal lessons instead.
    Indeed, Khad completely overhauled the education system. Libraries were emptied of the classic texts and theological tomes to be replaced by thinner, more photographically oriented publications that had until then been kept under the counter or on the top shelves of less savoury shopping establishments. He pardoned all of the non-dangerous prisoners that Chinggis had put away. Mostly they were burglars, bank robbers and fraudsters, just the sort of people who would be loyal to him and help him re-educate his people. Given their understanding of how to get from A to B with minimal effort and without attracting attention, burglars were appointed as neogeography teachers, bank robbers were selected to instruct their pupils in arithmetic and business studies. Courses in faith, drama and politics were to be given by the fraudsters. Khad knew that, within a generation, two at the most, he would rule people so ruthlessly mercenary that everything his goodietwo-shoes cousin had stood for would be rendered despicable.
    The number of bureaucratic buildings quadrupled. They absorbed all of the splendid palaces built by Chinggis and many of the larger private homes. The wealthy families who had lived there were deemed not to have laughed enough and sent to the House of Fun accordingly. The number of bureaucrats employed by Khad increased six-fold. Khad knew the surest way to slow a system down and make it far more ineffective was to employ more bureaucrats. There were now three people employed to check every application made for anything by anybody. Three times as many checks were made for anyone applying to start a business to ensure that they were credit-unworthy enough. It took three years to apply for a passport so as to discourage any cross-border movement. Khad instigated monthly censuses so that he could keep tabs on exactly whateveryone was doing at any particular time. The results were inscribed on hefty stone tablets and kept in a cave that was guarded by fifty burly Fun Brigade members. Khad had inadvertently invented the world's first database. He would later lose various versions of the database as they were transported between the secret cave and his office in Baatarulaan. Although the lost tablets showed exactly how much money the city's inhabitants had in savings, and where it was stored, he was able to ensure that his incompetence was soon forgotten; in a large part due to threats made to anyone who mentioned it. Khad was an insecure little man. His view was that this knowledge he was creating would lead to power. Observers wondered how he had any time to do his day job what with all this silly and pointless bureaucratic posturing.
    Faith was not outlawed. Instead, Khad set about altering