Chapter 261 — The Old Man's Offer 2
Yeongu tilted his head.
It had sounded like a passing remark, but the tone belonged to someone who had watched from close by.
Yeongu asked in the same way.
"Do you know him, perhaps?"
Go Hoewon seemed to realize his slip and corrected himself.
"He is very famous here. It would be stranger not to know him."
Yeongu tilted his head again.
That was not the sort of thing one said from knowing a name alone.
If he could tell whether Yelü Zhangnu revealed or concealed his feelings, it meant he had seen him from fairly close.
Yeongu glanced not at Go Hoewon, but at Okjeong.
Yeongu said, "My martial skill is a little high. Because of that, there are things I can sense from people. It is awkward to call it qi-sense, but it is usually right. I felt that you knew Yelü Zhangnu. Not as a mere guess, but quite clearly."
Yeongu said that much, then let out the breath he had been holding.
Go Hoewon slowly opened his mouth.
"That is true. Yelü Zhangnu is a Liao imperial clansman, but he is also a local magnate here. People like us must stay on good terms with him."
Yeongu looked at Go Hoewon with a gentle smile.
"You do not need to explain yourself to me. I only want to know where Lord Yelü Zhangnu is."
Go Hoewon breathed out in relief.
"In truth, people like us are called traitors by some."
"By whom?"
"There are those who say we, the descendants of Balhae, have attached ourselves to Liao and lived under it."
Yeongu nodded.
"To live on this land, one must form ties with the master of this land. That is natural."
Go Hoewon sighed.
"For the past two hundred years, descendants of Balhae have risen like wildfires in many places. There were those who tried to restore Balhae. They all failed. Each time, Balhae people split in two, cursed one another, and fought."
Yeongu said, "Loyalty to a country and personal ambition for power sometimes look similar on the outside."
"That is so. There were many who called anyone who would not follow their ambition a traitor."
Yeongu nodded.
"I understand. However, Elder Go, I have nothing to do with such theories of justice. My purpose in coming here is to meet Lord Yelü Zhangnu. So you need not judge the front and back of the matter in advance."
A difficult smile spread across Go Hoewon's face.
"I understand."
Yeongu asked again.
"Then will you tell me now? The location."
Go Hoewon said, "If you go straight up the northern road, you will come to the path leading toward North Mountain. Follow that road, and before long you will find a large estate surrounded by a long wall. In the past, the Li Family Compound stood there. Some traces of it remain even now, but today it is Yelü Zhangnu's domain."
"Ah, thank you. He must be busy these days. Will he be there?"
"He most likely will."
Yeongu leaned back and smiled faintly.
Only then did he drink a cup of tea with a relieved face.
"What do you intend to do?"
"I will meet him and try to persuade him. Of course, I have no talent for persuading people."
Go Hoewon paused for a moment.
"He is a core member of the Liao imperial clan. He is not someone who will move easily."
"That is so. I do not expect much. But if I can shake him even slightly, that will be better. War is imminent. If we face an army of five hundred thousand, seven hundred thousand head-on, victory will be difficult. If we can divide them in two and shake them in three directions, we will have a chance."
Go Hoewon looked at Yeongu.
"You say 'we.'"
Yeongu nodded.
"That is right.
Goryeo is currently supporting Jin."
Go Hoewon asked, "Then what about us?"
Yeongu tilted his head.
"Us?"
It was a short word, but its meaning was not light.
Yeongu sensed the tone of shared blood in the word.
Earlier, Go Hoewon had called himself a Balhae man.
It sounded like a question asking where the descendants of Balhae should stand if Goryeo was helping Jin.
"If you mean Balhae..."
Whatever he said felt as if it would go wrong.
The words would not come out.
Yeongu faltered, and Go Hoewon quickly withdrew the question.
"No. I misspoke. Since you said you were a Jungnangjang of Goryeo, many thoughts came to mind."
"A Jungnangjang is not a general of the Two Armies and Six Guards. I have no political capacity at all. I am a field commander. If you wish to request something, I may sympathize personally, but I cannot bring about the agreement of the Goryeo court. Rather, I am a working officer who must carry out its orders."
"No. It was a slip of the tongue. When you said Goryeo was helping Jin, I suddenly wanted to ask that you help us as well."
"I am sorry. At present, I have entered enemy territory on a mission. Even the task I have been given is already beyond me. If you send word separately, or give me a way to contact you, I will come find you later and listen carefully."
At Yeongu's courteous words, Go Hoewon turned his gaze away.
The descendants of Balhae had appealed to Goryeo many times for help on the grounds of shared blood.
But Goryeo had not sent troops.
Of course, he knew that those who defected to Goryeo had been welcomed and settled.
But that path had only been granted to some royal descendants and nobles who abandoned everything and went south.
For those who remained on the land, there was another road.
They had tried several times to build successor states, but each time they failed to endure for long and were suppressed.
Yeongu lowered his forehead and spoke courteously again.
"Will you tell me?"
Go Hoewon drew back his gaze.
"I said something unnecessary to a busy man. See to your work first. If you have time left afterward, please visit once."
Go Hoewon took a small slip of paper from his breast.
He picked up a fine brush and quickly wrote several characters.
"If you come here and show this, it will be enough."
Yeongu examined the slip he handed over.
The black things were letters, and the white thing was paper.
It was not because he could not read, but because the place names continued in a way he could not understand even after reading them.
"Thank you. I will have to ask around to find this as well."
Okjeong said, "We are also going to Yelü Zhangnu's estate today."
"Ah. Today?"
Yeongu's eyes widened.
"This is troublesome. I was planning to kill them all. If you go today, that will be inconvenient."
Okjeong immediately asked back, "What did you say? Kill them all?"
Yeongu smiled awkwardly.
"I was thinking I would go today, persuade Yelü Zhangnu, and if it worked, good. If not, I would kill them all. Ahaha."
Yeongu was sincere, but to them it sounded like a joke.
Go Hoewon said cautiously, "Yelü Zhangnu's great residence is not merely a house. There are many martial men there. Not only his direct subordinates, but also retainers."
Yeongu nodded.
"That is why. I cannot kill them all."
Perhaps Yeongu's words sounded like excessive bravado, for Okjeong spoke as if offering advice over a game of baduk.
"You must be careful.
If you think of it as an ordinary person's house, you will be badly hurt."
"Are there many guards?"
"He has personal troops. At the smallest, dozens. At the largest, hundreds. But they are not the real problem. The real problem is the household warriors. Their loyalty is tremendous."
"They are the sort who would give their lives to protect him, I suppose?"
"Yes. A man named Cheon Manseok is the head of the guards, and his martial skill is extremely high."
"Cheon Manseok... Hmm, that is an amusing name."
"His martial art is not easy to encounter. Some say he learned at Shaolin Temple. He has very deep understanding of the sword. He uses a single flexible sword. The blade bends and whips as it thrusts at the enemy's vital points. Even if you block it, the tip bends in. If you dodge, it follows. They say it flicks and coils like a snake's tongue."
"Oh, a master of the flexible sword."
"Yes. Under him are three men known as the Three Absolutes."
"The Three Absolutes? Why not just make it One Absolute?"
At Yeongu's rustic joke, Okjeong smiled awkwardly.
"They are called the Three Absolutes of Changbai. Their frightening point is their unusual combination of weapons.
When they fight together, one uses claws to hook and strip away the sword, one uses a spear to control distance, and one breaks through with an axe.
They also throw nets to bind the body, and fire hidden weapon tubes loaded with several flying needles."
"They use every kind of strange weapon."
"They subdue enemies by matching the compatibility of their weapons. You must be careful."
When Yeongu looked down at his empty hands, Okjeong asked with curiosity.
"What weapon do you use, Jungnangjang?"
"I have a single hwando. Hmm, on the battlefield, I mainly used a banner shaped like a polearm."
"A banner? That is unusual."
"When it is wrapped, it looks like a spear or halberd. When released, long red and blue cloths flutter. Ahaha. It is useful for signals. 'Follow me.' I used it at the vanguard as a signaling tool, but it had many other uses, so I kept using it. With the pointed angle of the cross-shaped halberd head, I can hook and pull. Even if someone avoids the thrust, he gets caught when I pull back. Like a fishing hook. Ahaha. If I yank hard, the person gets dragged in. Ahaha. I attached a blade to the lower part as well. Blocking it is useless. It has length and weight, so when I strike with a bang, shields and swords break and split. Ahaha."
As the talk of weapons continued, Go Hoewon's eyes shone.
He showed interest and said, "Oh-ho. Since you have been on the battlefield, General, you must be skilled at fighting with length and weight."
Yeongu spoke as if refusing the compliment.
"No. My skill is shallow. In the past, I always closed in no matter what. I would grab the enemy, tangle with him, and roll on the ground. Back then, I hid a small knife and stabbed the enemy with it. Ahaha. But it was inefficient. I could deal with only one man that way. By the time I stood again, the battle was over. Ahaha."
He sounded as if he were boasting of dogfighting and mud-wrestling as his specialty.
Okjeong asked playfully, "What do you call such a method?"
"What method could there be? You grab on, struggle with all your might, and roll in the mud like a dog. For common soldiers, there is no method or anything like that. It is a struggle to survive. Still, one must have at least one finishing move. That is how one survives on the battlefield. Even those with no special martial arts who survive for a long time each have one such killing move."
From his words alone, Yeongu's martial skill did not sound particularly high.
Okjeong tilted her head.
"But I heard you broke out of prison, struck down the jailers, and then defeated several dozen soldiers who came to stop you, all by yourself."
Yeongu smiled sheepishly.
"Ehehe, that much is nothing. Basic."
"You cannot do that with a martial art where you simply grab and roll."
"Ah, that was my old method. Now I do not really discriminate. I use fists and kicks, and I also seize other people's weapons and use them. I cannot say I can use all eighteen classes of weapons, but I can handle most ordinary ones."
"The rumor has spread that a master appeared. Even this inn is in an uproar over it."
"Well, I did cause some trouble."
Yeongu stopped smiling and said, "More importantly, if you go with me, the two of you may be put in a difficult position. I can obtain only what I need and leave, but the two of you must go on living here. So it would be better not to go today if possible. The battle is urgent, so I must go even now."
Okjeong asked in surprise, "Now?"
"I have caused too many things to happen. There are far too many matters I have not settled."