If you can believe it, it all started with a General in the Chinese army trying to field a world-class polo team (even including Germans) to play the other Regiments for fun and profit (the Chinese love to gamble). General Tang learns of two Mongols that are renowned horsemen, excelling in the brutal cross-country races and goat-toss games that Mongolia is famous for. The good General dispatches Sargeant Chee, his 'Dog Robber' and fixer to recruit these magnificent horsemen into his polo team, and the Chinese Army. Times are hard in Mongolia and work is hard to find. Batu and Nyam, the Mongols, do not want to assemble cars in South Korea like many of their countrymen, they want to ride horses, so they sign on with General Tang's army. Although the team was wildly successful on the polo field, the two hard-charging Mongols chafed under the military rules and regulations, and senseless boundaries, borders, and protocol. Having grown up with the headless goat-tossing games and grueling horseraces in rough terrain, their aggressive pell-mell style of play intimidated the other teams, as well as bruising the prevailing attitudes of good sportsmanship.
General Tang, a rough and tumble infantry commander, enjoyed all of this immensely. He loved his polo team. They were at the top of the heap. Then, over a period of three months, both of his Mongol players were gone. Batu went to prison for striking an officer, and Nyam got in big trouble on a reconnaissance patrol up on the Russian border. The Mongols ended up in a dead-end prison in the remote northwest corner of Mongolia, where, despite life-threatening conditions and cruelty, they find friendship and hope. An imprisoned American smuggler helps arrange their escape, making a deal with treacherous prison officials and guards. Their escape from this prison is where the story begins.