Chapter 88 – Turning Merit Over
At last, the battle was over.
Yeong-u, the commander who had cut through the very depth of the enemy host from the very front, seemed busy with something else and hurried to return to his quarters.
"What is it? What happened?"
So Cheollyong stuck close to him and asked, but Yeong-u was too intent on getting back quickly.
"It's not that something happened. I just want to check something right away."
"Check what? It's all over."
"No, it's just… during the battle, I had a small realization."
So Cheollyong looked unimpressed.
To one who studied, that might be important. To him, it was not.
"What do you mean, some little daily realization? What's so important about that?"
"Really? Do you have realizations every day, then?"
"Yes. Small ones, maybe, but isn't it those little moments of 'Ah, so that's how it is' that gather together and make people like us into complete human beings?"
"You mean adapting to society?"
"That's adaptation. What I mean is—"
Yeong-u noticed it was turning into useless rambling and changed the subject.
He knew well that once this man started talking, he could keep talking nonsense forever.
He was solid gold as a person.
His words were not.
"Come on, it'll only take a moment."
So Cheollyong was disappointed.
There was much to be gained at the end of a battle like this.
Everything the defeated enemy had thrown down was now theirs.
If things went well, he could secure a good share for himself.
If you picked things up quickly and hid them well, they became yours entirely.
The opportunities were endless.
Gold was best, of course, but even good iron weapons could fetch a proper price.
"Hey, this is when you gather up spoils and slaves. How can you leave the field now?"
Yeong-u clicked his tongue softly.
"Ah, so that's what you meant by a small realization. Don't you know the saying about regarding gold as stones?"
"I don't know any such saying. Whoever said it must've already been rich and important."
He snorted.
"Let him try living like us low-ranking soldiers. You waste away day after day like a starved horse, and after wandering with nothing, you grow old and return home with nothing in your hands. Try having no money. Who wants an old, sick soldier? You need something. This is when you take your share."
Yeong-u smacked his lips.
"Hm. The Great Khan said he would distribute things fairly. If that's the case, then even if we wait and take what is given, it should be fine."
So Cheollyong's mouth stretched long with displeasure.
"And what about the things others have already taken? All the good stuff is gone."
Yeong-u tried to persuade him carefully.
"I keep thinking about the word fairness. And I think that if they cannot do even that, then the Jurchens will not last long either. Right now they rise like fire, but before long they will collapse. To keep that from happening, I said they must be fair."
So Cheollyong beat at his chest.
"Ah, and we're supposed to live following a lieutenant who talks like Confucius himself?"
"Wait and see. More than that, it wouldn't look good if Goryeo troops attached here as staff officers were running around with their eyes glazed over, gathering spoils."
Nothing but frustrating words.
So Cheollyong stamped his foot.
"Then if we'd just left it, we could at least have picked up something ourselves. Why drag us away and make us lose such a precious chance?"
Yeong-u smiled a little.
"I have high expectations of the word fairness. We decided that was how it would be. Let's wait and see."
"What did the lads do wrong, then? They fought with their lives on the line, and if they get nothing…"
So Cheollyong turned away sharply and looked back toward the battlefield not far off, full of regret.
Anger rose in him.
A hot flare of resentment climbed the back of his neck.
Thinking of how things had been ruined because of this foolish lieutenant made it feel as if his chest would burst.
"Ahh…"
He lowered his head without a word, and Gyeongtaek tried to comfort him.
"I'm sure the lieutenant has his reasons."
"He only cares about his own study. What reasons would he have…"
Horses, armor, weapons, daily necessities, grain—everything was piled high like a mountain.
War consumes enormous sums.
Even if it cannot repay all that was spent, perhaps it is the largest economic activity in human history.
Aguda secured the spoils carefully, even meticulously.
War captives were made into slaves.
Weapons and armor were kept as equipment for the next war.
Food was first set aside as reserve provisions, then distributed fairly.
An order was issued demanding that privately taken items be surrendered.
Anyone discovered later would not be forgiven.
Yeong-u, who had won the greatest merit in this battle, returned to his quarters.
And he said something—what was it?
That he expected a fair distribution.
He said it several times.
In truth, he had not thought very deeply about it.
Would it not be enough simply to divide things equally?
Yeong-u sought out Wanyan Eunga separately, the man in charge of integrating the tribes.
He emphasized that everything had to be divided fairly and everyone's strength gathered in one place.
Only then, he said, would more tribes join them.
At the same time, he went to Aguda and stressed the need to found an empire.
If, after battle, the army scattered and each man filled his hands privately with loot, then how was that any different from tribal plundering?
It had to be collected in an organized way and distributed fairly.
Was that why?
A considerable amount of material was carried into the Goryeo camp.
Each man was allotted more than two slaves.
First the grain arrived on carts.
Then weapons and armor.
Last came the slaves, and among them were some who could read and write.
Some insisted they were merchants rather than soldiers, and there were maidservants who had once attended high-ranking figures.
Only afterward did So Cheollyong's mouth fall open like a basin, and he apologized for his earlier fury.
But once words are spoken, they are hard to gather back.
That is why one must be careful with speech from the beginning.
He could not say it to Yeong-u himself, so he sent the others, asking them to help smooth things over after the harsh things he had said.
Gyeongtaek came and delivered So Cheollyong's position, asking for understanding.
"Why are you doing this? Why are you the one apologizing?"
"Well, he kept telling me to come and say it."
"People really can't see one step ahead, can they?"
"That's right. I don't understand why they always say things they'll regret right away."
"It's because they don't know what comes next."
But the words sounded strange.
It sounded less like he meant one step ahead and more like he meant he could see the future.
Dogeongtaek cleared his throat and, as if asking casually, said,
"Then do you know what's coming, Lieutenant?"
"Rather than know… I think they'll found a state."
"The many states raised in Liaodong did not even last ten or twenty years."
That was comparatively recent history.
Dongdan, the puppet state established using Prince Dae Gwanghyeon of Balhae, did not last five years. It was absorbed by Liao.
Jeongan lasted a little longer. Even so, not fifty years.
Later Balhae, the Xingliao state founded by Da Yanlin, was crushed by Liao in a single year.
The states of Liaodong built on Balhae refugees had all been short-lived.
Everyone thought in roughly the same way.
These people, too, would be no different.
"This time it will be different."
"What do you think will happen afterward?"
"Perhaps Liao will fall. It's only hope, but…"
"Are you a fortune teller?"
"No, it's not that. It's just that I have a strong feeling that it will happen."
Dogeongtaek only laughed.
Liao was vast.
A great empire.
It would not collapse because it lost one or two battles.
The lieutenant, having grown close to the Jurchen leadership, had begun to hope too much.
"That will be difficult."
"That's true. It's just belief. They are healthy, they are strong, and they fight well."
Dogeongtaek spoke again.
"I worry that once they gain strength, they may invade Goryeo again."
"They returned Gueseong. And they said they would not invade Goryeo hereafter. That is the kind of promise that does not break. Never."
"You believe that?"
At first, Yeong-u had worried about that as well.
No—even now, he still worried about it.
At first, people act as though they would give you even their liver and gallbladder, but when circumstances change, their attitude changes with them. Was that not human nature?
"I want to trust the Jurchens."
"There are other things in this world more worth trusting."
Yeong-u repeated what he had heard from the sages.
"Well… they say these people are of the same stock as us. That they share the same history."
"Liao too, then. Liao preserves the old laws of Joseon."
"I don't know. But the sage said that things became troubled only after Balhae fell, and that they are our brothers."
Gyeongtaek scolded him for his poor knowledge.
"Brothers? Is that why they invaded us all the time?"
"No, really. They seemed to know. There's even talk that they are of the same family as the real power at the Goryeo court. There were the northern expansion faction and the peace faction at court, and the head of the peace faction was supposedly from the same Kim line."
"But these people are not Kim. They are Wanyan."
"They say Wanyan is Kim."
"What, Gyeongju Kim?"
"Something like that. They say they're from that branch. What was it… descended somehow from Prince Maui, son of King Gyeongsun, the last king of Silla…"
"That was hundreds of years ago. Don't believe it."
"Anyway, I'll make sure they can't invade Goryeo."
"They'll start thinking differently once they gain power. We should go back while it's still moderate."
Yeong-u shook his head.
"No. I don't think we'll be able to leave."
"We were only sent here temporarily as a military support group. We led this battle to victory. We've done our part."
Yeong-u was no longer certain.
The world, which had once seemed so clear, had begun to blur.
That had started when he met the sages and began to study.
Back in Seonchun Ridge, right and wrong had been clear.
Friend and foe were distinct.
After suffering the absurd schemes of foolish commanders, he learned that the world was not so simple.
How furious he had been when he realized that those above did not fight for the country, but for their own advancement.
With the help of the sages, he learned that the world as men ordinarily imagine it is not one in which interests alone govern all things.
He learned that there are values more precious than that, and that when one gives oneself to them, one can change.
He had become trapped in a strange world where, the more he knew, the harder judgment became.
The only truth left to him was that his own strength, his own martial power, had to deepen.
Because only then could he resolve these difficulties.