Chapter 249 — Persuasion IV: The Junior General
The junior officer sprang to his feet like the wind.
The fellow who had been lounging only moments before became a soldier in an instant.
He straightened his back, tucked in his chin, and placed both hands properly at his sides.
It was enough to make one wonder whether he had always been that sort of man.
The junior general was a large man.
His shoulders were broad, but his belly was broader.
His stomach bulged like a hill, and his belt dug into his flesh.
Whenever he walked, the metal fittings on his leather belt shook.
He stood before the cell door and looked down at Yeongu.
"Is it you?"
Yeongu raised his head.
"Mm. Yes."
The junior general's brows twitched at the unexpected casual speech.
"Why did you come?"
"To explain that you will have a hard time winning the war as things stand."
"Do you always cut your words short like that?"
"Usually no. But this is my first time in this sort of situation, so I do not know what to do."
The junior general snorted.
"A prisoner is a slave. From now on, speak as a slave speaks to his master."
Yeongu's eyes brightened.
"Really? I really may do that?"
"Mm. Why did you come?"
"I will speak like a slave, you dog bastard."
The junior general's face hardened.
"You little..."
"You told me to speak like a slave."
The junior general's face turned red and purple.
Yeongu continued calmly.
"I came to warn you of Liao's crisis. You did not read the letter, did you? Seeing as you are asking again. I told the junior officer you might not be able to read it, and he said that could not be true. He said you merely found it bothersome. I told him it was because you could not read."
The junior general looked at the junior officer standing rigidly beside him.
"Why is this bastard's mouth so rude?"
The junior officer answered at once.
"He appears to be like that by nature. He does not listen."
"Then beat him until he becomes human."
"His kicking and striking skills are beyond ordinary. More than ten men rushed him, and they were the ones who were beaten."
The junior general's eyes widened slightly.
"So what did you do?"
The junior officer cleared his throat, as if he had found a chance to show off his excellent handling of the situation.
Pride rose on the face that had been idling until a moment before.
"When he had knocked down the tenth man, I called the archers. As you can see, they are waiting behind us now. When they aimed for direct fire and I was about to give the order to shoot, he surrendered."
The junior general looked back.
On one side of the yard, archers were still standing in line.
Their bowstrings were not fully drawn, but arrows were already nocked.
They were positioned so they could shoot at once if Yeongu moved even slightly inside the cell.
The junior general nodded.
"Hm, hm. Well done."
The junior officer answered loudly.
"Loyalty."
Yeongu looked back and forth between the two in disbelief.
"Well done? You called the archers after ten men were beaten down, and that is well done?"
The junior general glared at Yeongu.
"Shut your mouth."
"No, tactically speaking, calling the archers first would have been right. If ten men went down even though the prisoner's hands were tied, that is not good command. That is poor judgment from the start."
The junior officer flared up.
"This bastard."
The junior general raised his hand to stop him.
"Leave him. He talks a lot, but he is inside the cell anyway."
Yeongu tilted his head.
"So did you read the letter?"
The junior general's face reddened a little.
"I read it."
"Then you would not have asked why I came."
"I read it roughly."
"You read it roughly, so you did not grasp the meaning. That letter is something you must show to someone above you."
"What is so great about a letter written by you?"
Yeongu leaned his back against the wall.
The loosened rope still rested over his wrists.
From a distance, he still looked bound.
He deliberately relaxed his body and sat.
"It is not a great letter. But it is not a letter you can handle. Send it upward."
The junior general's belly shook once.
It was hard to tell whether it was laughter or anger.
"How far upward do you want it sent?"
"To someone of the Yelü clan or the Xiao clan. At minimum, it must be someone of that level. If possible, it should reach General Yelü Zhangnu."
The junior general's eyes changed.
The junior officer also turned his head sharply toward Yeongu.
Yelü Zhangnu was not a name to be carelessly spoken inside this prison.
The junior general asked in a low voice,
"How do you know General Zhangnu?"
Yeongu answered as if it were nothing.
"He came to the Jin camp twice carrying state letters. If I did not know such a man, I could not do this work."
"So you are a spy."
"I told you I came to defect. You were the ones who bound me, beat me, and locked me up. If I were a spy, would I have come in this noisily?"
The junior general could not answer.
Yeongu's words sounded forced, yet strangely, they were not wrong.
Yeongu spoke again.
"Your task is not judgment. It is reporting. Send the letter upward. Let a higher man see it and judge."
The junior general tightened his lips.
"What if that letter contains words of rebellion?"
"That is exactly why a higher man must see it. If you judge that yourself, your neck will be the first to fly."
The junior officer swallowed softly beside him.
The junior general could not immediately refute that either.
Yeongu pressed the opening.
"What stands before you is not one prisoner. I am the head of the Goryeo military support mission attached to Jin. If I die here, you will not be the man who killed one prisoner. You will be the man who blocked and killed words passing between Goryeo, Jin, and Liao. Is that within your authority?"
The junior general's face grew even redder.
It was impossible to tell whether from anger or calculation.
He stared down at Yeongu for a long while, then held out his hand to the junior officer.
"Bring that letter."
The junior officer ran off at once and brought the paper from the sealed letter case.
The junior general took the paper and unfolded it.
His eyes moved along the characters, but slowly.
After reading about two lines, he returned to the beginning.
Yeongu watched him and clicked his tongue inwardly.
"Call a civil clerk."
The junior general folded the paper.
"No need."
"Call one. If you read it, dawn will come."
For a moment, the junior officer held back laughter.
When the junior general glared at him, he stiffened again into a rigid posture.
The junior general ground his teeth and said,
"Call a civil clerk."
"Loyalty."
The junior officer ran out.
Yeongu leaned his back against the wall and closed his eyes.
Only now had he finally crossed the first threshold.
In the end, the civil clerk read it aloud.
From time to time, Yeongu cut in and added comments.
"That's right. You people think the same, don't you? You know nothing can be done like this."
"That is exactly what I mean. The opinion is that it would be better to change now."
"There is no need to think of it as rebellion. You are not changing the country, only the emperor. And the emperor in question is the very person the late emperor once intended to appoint."
Yeongu kept jumping in between the civil clerk's reading with frivolous remarks, and oddly enough, the two fit together very well.
When the reading was over, a deep crease in the shape of the character 川 had formed on the junior general's forehead.
"That is all?"
The civil clerk answered,
"Yes, Junior General. That is all."
"Does this make sense?"
No one could answer.
Yeongu answered instead.
"How is it? A stunning masterpiece, is it not?"
The corners of the junior general's eyes rose toward the sky.
"We need to shut that bastard's mouth."
Yeongu put on a frightened expression.
"No, that would be terrifying. I do chatter a little, but I am not saying anything wrong, am I?"
"Open the door, go in, and beat him a little."