Chapter 264 — The Li Family Compound, Yelü Zhangnu's Estate 2
They rode north, and it took less than half an hour.
With someone who knew the road leading the way, they arrived quickly.
The yellow loess road pierced through the woods, and the moment they rounded a few low hills, the view suddenly opened.
That was when the Li Family Compound appeared.
Rising in the middle of the Liaodong plain, the estate was not a house but a kind of dominion.
The wide field before it lay cleared, and the woods, fields, and roads all seemed arranged toward that place.
When it first appeared in the distance, it was quiet and orderly like a fortress in a childhood painting.
Beyond the yellow-brown field and the deep forest, it stood in straight lines, clear as something from a tale, and the closer they came, the more that clarity revealed a dignity that pressed down on people.
The outer wall surrounding the estate was too much to be called a mere wall.
A thickly rammed earthen rampart and stone foundation first held the ground, and above it a high wall stretched straight.
The wall, touched by light, had a pale grayish-white color, but the exposed earth and stone at the lower foundation and corners gave it weight.
The wall rose tier by tier along the slope of a low hill, so to one looking up from the flatland it seemed even grander.
Because it had been built with the hill at its back, it did not end with one wall. Farther back, another wall and another roofline overlapped.
So the entire estate looked like a small walled city set upon the plain.
At the east and west corners, watchtowers rose high.
From below, only their rooflines seemed to float gently, but the closer they came, the clearer the columns, railings, and upturned eaves became.
They had surely been built for surveillance and defense, yet their use alone did not fully explain them.
Those towers overlooking the roads, fields, and woods in every direction felt less like a statement that they watched this land and more like a statement that they ruled it.
Anyone standing up there would not merely observe passersby, but confirm with his own eyes the reach of his power stretching to the edge of the plain.
The atmosphere before the gate was also far from ordinary.
The tall gate tower at the center seized the eye first.
Red pillars and dark tiled roofs rose in layered order, and the eaves stretched long in lines one might see at a great monastery or official compound of the Central Plains.
The ornamentation was splendid, yet it was not frivolous.
Along the walls on both sides of the gate tower, enemy towers and battlements were set closely enough that soldiers with spears and bows would have no difficulty moving along them.
The form was beautiful, and the structure was solid.
The eye of the one who shaped the appearance and the experience of the one who set the defenses had been joined together.
Inside the walls, the depth was greater still.
Even from outside, two- and three-story halls raised their heads one after another.
Red-painted columns, blue-green tiles, white walls, and deep eave shadows stood neatly aligned from left to right.
There was a clear Central Plains scheme in its images and arrangement, and the buildings extended in order along a central axis.
Yet that order did not end in the clean neatness of a scholar's study.
It was an arrangement made to display power in the middle of the plain, to overwhelm outsiders, and to carve the master's authority into those inside day after day.
As they rode closer, the estate's scale could be felt through the body.
It became easy to believe that within the walls there would be wells, warehouses, stables, servants' quarters, detached halls, and even fields and orchards in the back.
Once the gates were closed, it seemed capable of enduring for days, and even if the outside world grew turbulent, a small world of its own would continue turning inside.
It was someone's residence and, at the same time, his domain.
It was a place of daily life and a military stronghold.
Yeongu sat on his horse with his mouth open, staring for a long while.
The plain was wide, the sky endless, and in the middle of it the Li Family Compound stood like the will of a ruler.
Roads gathered toward it, people slowed their steps before its gate, and the eye could not help but look once more at the high watchtowers and gate tower.
In that sight lingered the long desire of one who had built power while facing the winds of Liaodong.
"Wow, this is not a villa. It looks like an imperial palace."
Yeongu added admiration upon admiration and could not close his mouth.
The front gate had three entrances.
The scale was large enough to allow five gates, yet there was only one large gate in the center and two smaller gates on either side.
It seemed like a gesture of modesty shown toward the emperor.
The size could imitate an imperial palace, but the form had taken one step back.
As the party approached, gate guards came out from the main entrance and blocked the way.
Their clothing was that of soldiers.
It was not the dress of private retainers.
It was the uniform of Liao imperial guards that Yeongu had seen in several battles.
The gate guard raised his undrawn sword horizontally, still in its scabbard, and held it out before them.
"Who comes, and from where?"
"I am a man called Go Hoewon of Liaoyang."
Go Hoewon held out his visiting slip.
The guard in front quickly received it and passed it to the guard captain.
The guard captain opened the slip, read it, and bowed toward Go Hoewon.
"Oh, it is Master Go."
"I was invited."
"So it is. And who are those accompanying you?"
"My daughter and her husband, escorting martial men, and maidservants."
The gate guard looked over each member of the party one by one.
He examined their horses, baggage, waists, and the positions of their hands in order.
When Yeongu's turn came, Yeongu raised his head and looked at the guard.
Then, as he had learned, he split his lips and smiled broadly.
The gate guard's eyebrows moved very slightly.
He looked at Yeongu a moment longer, then lowered his hand.
"Pass."
The party entered through the gate.
The inside of the gate was deeper than it had appeared from outside.
As soon as they passed the thick gate leaves, a wide courtyard opened before them, and the side corridors and inner paths branched again to the left and right.
An attendant soon attached himself to them.
He lightly mounted a horse and took the reins.
"Follow me."
Go Hoewon looked back at Yeongu.
"I feel this every time I come here, but every passage through the gate makes my heart pound."
"They are showing authority. They do it deliberately so you feel that way."
"Is that so?"
"We use that trick often too."
Perhaps Yeongu's words reached him, for the attendant riding three or four horse-lengths ahead glanced back.
He said nothing else.
With an indifferent expression, he exerted pressure.
Once they entered through the gate, the estate's size changed again.
He had thought that once they crossed a wall, the inner residence would appear right away, but inside, another road and another wall continued.
They could not dismount yet.
It would take quite some time to walk.
A broad garden appeared first.
The trees had been planted in rows, and between them paths of rammed yellow earth and paths paved with blue stone branched apart.
Willows stood beside a pond full of clear water, and behind them pines and cypresses blocked the low wind.
A stone bridge crossed the pond, and although the water beneath the bridge looked shallow, the stones along the edges had been piled with precision.
It was a garden made for viewing, yet the paths seemed designed with horses and carts in mind before the feet of people.
On both sides of the road, halls stood in rows.
Red columns rose on plinths of the same height, and behind them white walls and dark lattice windows repeated themselves.
The eaves continued at measured intervals as though they might interlock, and the roof tiles shone dark blue under the sunlight.
Broad blue stones had been laid on the ground.
Each time the horses' hooves struck them, a hard, clear sound rang out.
That sound bounced between the walls and halls and rolled forward.
There were walls even farther inside.
At first, they looked like walls dividing the garden, but as they approached, gates and guard posts stood together with them.
Gate guards stood on both sides, watching those who passed.
They seemed to know Go Hoewon's face, yet they checked the visiting slip again.
The mounted attendant first handed over the slip, and the guard matched the slip to the number of people.
Only then did the gate open.
After they passed one gate, the road narrowed a little.
In the outer area, even the escorts and maidservants had moved together, but the farther inward they went, the sharper the gazes became.
Before the second wall, the guard raised his hand and stopped the horses.
He asked the attendant a few quiet questions, then looked at Go Hoewon, Okjeong, and Yeongu in turn.
The escorting martial men were ordered to wait there.
The maidservants could not follow in either.
Okjeong spoke softly to Yeongu.
"From here onward, only certain people may enter."
At the word "certain," Yeongu's gaze narrowed.
"Is it the same for those who live here?"
"Yes. The servants are restricted, and only some of the soldiers may enter."
Yeongu nodded.
It was what he wanted.
If access to the inside was limited, then even the soldiers they needed in an emergency would be unable to enter.
There were many halls, yet the farther inside they went, the quieter it became.
In the outer garden, the sounds of hooves, people, and water had mingled, but here only the sound of hooves on blue stone was clear.
Beyond the walls, there were signs of people moving, yet few were visible.
It meant many eyes were watching from unseen places.
When they reached the third gate, the atmosphere changed again.
The gate was not large, but the walls to either side were high, and a small tower was attached above it.
Two soldiers looked down from beneath the tower railing.
The gate guard before the door held his sword upright in its scabbard without drawing it.
The posture was the same as at the first main gate.
Only the eyes here were colder.
The attendant dismounted and bowed.
Go Hoewon also dismounted.
Okjeong naturally followed, and only then did Yeongu dismount as well.
The blue stone floor supported his feet firmly.
It gave the sensation of a military parade ground mixed with the front courtyard of a government office.
The gate guard said, "From here, only the three of you will enter."
Go Hoewon handed over the visiting slip again.
The guard opened it, read it, and gestured to someone inside.
Another person came out from within the gate and confirmed Go Hoewon's name.
The same procedure was repeated, yet the repetition did not feel tedious.
It felt like a ritual showing how many layers the master of this house used to filter people.
Yeongu clicked his tongue inwardly.
They had crossed the main gate, passed through the garden, crossed another wall, and then passed yet another gate.
If even entering the house required this much, getting out would not be easy once someone decided to block the way.
The broad garden was beautiful, the halls were straight, and the blue stone road was clean.
Yet a clear defensive intention hid inside that beauty and order.
Defensive positions had been built here and there, and there even seemed to be mechanisms that would operate on their own.
Almost invisible cords, seemingly for activating traps of some kind, were hidden throughout the place.
The inner gate slowly opened.
Beyond it waited an even quieter courtyard and a higher hall.
Across the blue stone floor under the sunlight, the shadow of the hall lay long.
The sound of hooves stopped there.
From here onward, only the sound of human footsteps was allowed.