Chapter 176 — Camp
Before they had gone far, Youngwoo pointed toward the foot of a mountain.
"That place looks good."
"For what?"
"It looks good for making camp."
Cheolun looked up at the sky.
Then he looked at Youngwoo's face.
There was still a long while before sunset.
"It is still early. We should go farther and look again. There may even be a travelers' inn somewhere."
"Ah, I find it truly painful to squeeze into a narrow room with several other men."*
At the time, rooms at travelers' inns were narrow, and several people often slept packed together. In exchange, they were cheap and sometimes barely charged a fee.
"That is true, but it is still early."
"So we will not do it?"
Youngwoo stopped speaking and looked at him quietly.
He had resigned, but the aura of a jungnangjang still remained.
"No. We will do it."
Cheolun hurried ahead and picked a place.
Youngwoo tied the reins of the packhorse and spare horse, then walked lightly around the area.
He found water nearby and filled the leather waterskins.
In that short time, a small tent had already been raised.
A fire had been lit, a place had been prepared, and food fit for a meal had been laid out.
Cheolun had quick eyes.
"Something is going on, is it not?"
"Hm. Someone has been following us since earlier."
"Who?"
"I do not know. They are keeping their distance."
"So that is why you went to look around?"
"I made a circuit."
"There is nothing strange, is there?"
This fellow was capable, but he tried to solve everything with his mouth.
Even matters he should check himself, he tried to settle by asking.
And when something was troublesome, he steered the answer toward, We do not need to do it.
"I stopped because something is strange."
"Hyu. Then must we make traps again and prepare against a surprise attack?"
"Of course. I suggested making camp early so we could do it while there is still some light. Is this not a fine place?"
"Hyu. I thought nothing much would happen once we crossed Noksu."
"The allies behind my back frighten me more than the barbarians I know."
Cheolun understood what he meant.
They could not be seen.
They made life difficult with attacks from unexpected places.
"What will it be this time?"
"Would it not be Kim Baeksu?"
"We accepted his drink and passed by well enough."
"He smiles in front and thinks other thoughts behind."
"I know that well, but…"
"If I had not known, it would be one thing. But now I know. He knows I know that he is hiding there. It will trouble him for a long time. Would he not want to remove me?"
Cheolun clicked his tongue.
Youngwoo was almost like a fortune-teller now.
He had an uncanny sense for when such things would happen.
It was because he had suffered several times and learned the ways of such men painfully, down to the bone.
"Why do they act like that?"
"He is afraid I will go to Gaegyeong, report him, and have him removed."
"How do you know that?"
"Those fellows consider keeping their posts almost the same as keeping their lives. They live for nothing but that. He must know what he has to do to keep his position in the border garrison. He tested me while giving me a drink. And he must have decided there was no other way."
Youngwoo left space in his words, and that manner made the atmosphere grave.
At some point, the flow of his speech had gained seriousness and weight.
The light, trivial, worthless chatter that had always marked him now carried weight.
"Kill you?"
"Probably."
"Hyu. Following you around, even Cheolun will die."
"That is true. You may go back."
"No. Then Brother Cheollyong will beat me to death."
Youngwoo gave instructions.
With his hand, he drew a large circle.
"Set a defensive line out there."
Was there a reason he had chosen a slightly higher place?
The ground below lay clearly in view.
Approaching men could be intercepted from far off.
"With bows?"
"Hm."
"Are they not assassins?"
"I do not know. I am curious too."
"If it is Kim Baeksu, will you kill him?"
"I want to. When I think of the boy who died back then, I truly want to…"
Youngwoo held back the rest.
It sounded as though he would at least not kill him, but he would not simply leave him be.
They made camp not far from Noksu.
The two began work from about fifty jang out.
There were not many of them, so they could not make much.
They dug shallow pits here and there, deep enough for a horse's ankle to sink into.
As they had done in a military camp, they stubbornly made traps.
They twisted cords so they could catch horses' legs.
"Will this stop them?"
"It will only keep them from charging straight in."
"How long are we going to keep doing this?"
"The garrison has quite a few men, so it bothers me."
"We are fighting the garrison?"
"The Kim Baeksu I know will use everything he can mobilize."
Cheolun recalled the troops he had seen at the ferry station.
There had been more than a hundred just from what he saw.
The men under punishment were not two hundred, but they were more than one hundred.
The men on duty would likely number about the same.
His thoughts would not continue.
"Would they do it just because he orders them?"
"He is a man who might lie about anything. If he calls us Liao spies and orders them to find and kill us, the soldiers will do it."
"We cannot die."
"Right. But we cannot kill the soldiers either."
"Let us just run away. Hiding quietly seems like the better way. I do not understand why you are making this so visible. That is your problem, Jungnangjang. You do not avoid things you could avoid. You make trouble."
"That is true. That too is my nature."
"Your nature is not very good."
"I know. I am not trying to hear from you people that I have a good nature."
"How nice would it be to hear that you are a good person?"
"That works in a society where people live like people. Among rough, vicious men, it is easy to look soft. When you look soft, worthless men rush at you."
"It seemed as if things were going rather smoothly."
"Hold that line over there."
"Yes."
They tied kudzu vines between tree trunks at the height of a mounted man's neck.
If a rider hit it, he would be thrown.
If he fell badly, he would suffer a concussion.
They dug in several places, calculating even the routes the enemy might use to avoid the first traps, and dug only as deep as a horse's ankle.
Youngwoo knew exactly how deep a pit had to be for a horse to fall.
He cut soft wood, sharpened the ends, and drove them into the ground.
"What is that?"
"Deer-horn stakes."
"Are there deer-horn stakes this low?"
"That is true. But we should do even this."
"Would it not be better to ride far and fast away?"
Youngwoo did not answer at first.
Then he spoke slowly.
"He killed his subordinate."
Cheolun bit his lip.
Youngwoo was now trying to avenge the young soldier.
In one place in his chest, thick tears seemed to flow.
Who would remember the tears of a nameless soldier?
Cheolun knew this man was like this because he had begun as a common soldier.
He could no longer say they should just leave.
A bastard who killed his subordinate while trying to achieve results through grinding people down—perhaps he deserved to die.
Emotionally, that felt right.
Yet it was still illegal.
Because the young soldier had taken his own life, it appeared entirely as his own fault.
Youngwoo found judgment difficult.
Social and ethical judgments were quite difficult for him.
He found it hard to decide questions of loyalty, propriety, right, and wrong.
At the same time, as he prepared the defense, he suppressed the urge to kill the man.
No, should not a bastard like that be handled by the army and the state before we even agonize over such things?
Could they later say they had not known?
Could they say no report had come up?
What should be said of the sin of protecting the man who buried the report in the middle?
What should be done with the one who filled the command with men who suited his own taste?
What should we do with those who exclude men full of the desire and wisdom to protect the state, then say it is natural because they hold appointment authority?
Youngwoo thought of killing him secretly.