After fighting in Morocco, then in the High Mountain of Tonkin at the frontier of China against the Annamese and the Chinese Black Flag pirates, Sergeant Karl Haz? of the Foreign Legion ended up in Darlac in the south of Indochina. There he had to go to war against the unsubdued Montagnard Djara?s, and Rhad's who refused to submit to France.
He happened to hear from his Montagnard guides that there was a Djara? king on the Laotian border, who was known for his depraved habits, cruelty, and also his fabulous wealth acquired through the traffic of opium he obtained from the cultivation of poppies in fields that extended as far as the eye could see. With a small party of six soldiers of his battalion, Haz? raided the village. Surprised by the sentries, almost everyone was killed except Karl and one of his companions. The king, Y'Siap, decided to let them live, after blinding them and castrating the soldier. Karl was allowed to keep his manhood in order to father a white son for the impotent monarch.
Haz? had to accomplish his task within three months. He succeeded in impregnating the first three Montagnard concubines, but the Chinese favorite that the king put into his hands did not show any sign of becoming pregnant. If Haz? failed with her in the time allotted to him, he would be castrated then impaled and she would be delivered to the king's soldiers.