Chapter 71. North Ghost
Although parts of the Northern Plains region had been recovered through victories over the past few years, the Hetao Plain area where Guisui lay was still the world of the northern tribes.
The reason Lee Ja-song had come to Datong as the Northern Grand General this time was to reclaim Guisui.
However, it was not something he had come by his own power.
Which rat would hang a bell on a cat's neck?
After years of dragging on, this issue finally turned into a political struggle, and Lee Ja-song was designated as the executor.
Not only the opposing faction, but even his own patrons turned their backs on him.
Throughout history, pushing someone else to their death in order to live was a virtue of the court and the very basis of politics.
It was unlikely, but if Lee Ja-song succeeded, good.
And if not, the one who would fall was Lee Ja-song, not them.
Having been completely pushed out in the power struggle at the imperial palace, Lee Ja-song was finally assigned the mission of retaking Guisui Fortress.
It was practically impossible, and Lee Ja-song knew that well himself.
But like anyone else, he did not want to die, so he had to succeed in the Guisui expedition no matter what.
And yet, while throwing him the difficult problem of reclaiming Guisui, the support the court gave him was merely twenty thousand hastily conscripted farming corps.
If he did not even have a few consolations, Lee Ja-song would have already fled hundreds of times.
The fact that the troops stationed in Datong were the very elite who had fought countless battles.
The mercenaries he had hired by emptying his private funds were difficult to control, but in some ways their martial strength was formidable enough to surpass even elite soldiers.
And.
Above all else, that man named Ear Ghost, whom he had seated as the mercenary captain.
Ear Ghost was a very peculiar man.
No, calling him peculiar was not enough to explain him—he was outstanding, and ... frightening.
After the Guisui expedition began, Lee Ja-song entrusted him with the role of opening the way, the vanguard.
Fengqian, Xin'an Manor, Tiancheng Village... he brought down all such villages and fortresses with only fifteen hundred mercenaries.
Thanks to that, the elite force of fifty thousand suffered no losses at all.
This was proof that the first button of Lee Ja-song's final gamble had been fastened properly.
***
"General. The mercenaries have occupied Tianchi."
The adjutant entered the command tent and delivered Ear Ghost's victory report, which was no longer even surprising.
"Just call me general. What is this 'Your Excellency'? But did you say Ear Ghost has taken Tianchi?"
"Yes, General."
Tianchi was a lake located on the way from Datong to Guisui, rich in fishing resources.
In common terms, half water, half fish.
It was located roughly midway between Guisui and Datong, and if supply lines were ever cut by enemy rear harassment, they could procure food directly from Tianchi, so it was one of the places that absolutely had to be taken before attacking Guisui.
But for that very reason, it was also one of the main strongholds of the northern tribes.
Lee Ja-song had entrusted the attack on such an important place not to the main army, but to Ear Ghost and the mercenaries.
He had thought they would succeed, but expected they would have some difficulty this time.
Honestly, with only fifteen hundred troops, it would already be excellent if they could just draw the enemy's attention.
... Yet they had captured Tianchi in only two days.
When he had given that order, Lee Ja-song and the main force were bypassing Tianchi and attacking Liangcheng.
That a mercenary force of fifteen hundred broke through the enemy lines faster than the expeditionary main force of fifty thousand was deeply suggestive.
Even considering that Liangcheng was surrounded by walls while Tianchi was open ground formed by several villages, it was truly an astonishing achievement.
Tianchi was a region so vast it was called Dai Lake, as wide as the sea.
Even riding a horse at full speed, it took half a day to circle it.
And they finished the occupation in two days?
'Ear Ghost is the real deal.'
There was no more room for doubt.
The corners of Lee Ja-song's mouth tore upward lightly without him realizing.
Perhaps, perhaps...…..
After muttering in a low voice repeatedly, Lee Ja-song looked at the adjutant and said.
"Send five thousand troops to Tianchi to build palisades, and tell Ear Ghost to head to Yinshan Mountain immediately."
Yinshan Mountain.
The base of the northern mountain bandit group.
If you take the term literally, the northern mountain bandit group meant a bandit group made up of northern barbarians.
That was the name the Central Plains people used for them, but in truth they were not really bandits.
In reality, they were an extra-territorial Murim sect with the rather impressive name of the North Ghost Group.
But to Central Plains expedition forces and merchant caravans, they were no different from bandits.
In the past, during several expeditions, they had taken money from the Northern Plains tribes and attacked the rear of the expeditionary forces multiple times.
Because of that, there had even been times when expeditions had to return without managing a single proper attack.
They were few in number, but as martial artists, they were not easy opponents.
Especially the longer an expedition dragged on, the more gaps inevitably appeared in the expedition route.
Stopping them as they struck those gaps and withdrew was no easy task.
To stop them, you either had to completely overwhelm them with force, or buy them off with money.
But the latter was impossible.
Because Lee Ja-song did not have that kind of money.
Even the money he had to pay the mercenaries as ear payment after the war might only be secured if Guisui was captured.
In such circumstances, how could he possibly have money to pay bandits in advance?
For him, there were only two choices: go himself, or send Ear Ghost.
And the choice had already been made.
"Yes, General. However, they are ones even the Eastern Depot had trouble with. Can the mercenaries alone really handle them...."
At the adjutant, who was uncharacteristically hesitant, Lee Ja-song let out a small laugh.
"Didn't you just say so, Adjutant?"
"Yes?"
"That the mercenaries captured Tianchi."
"......"
"Do you think even if the main force had gone, they could have taken Tianchi in two days?"
"Ah ..."
"Go. And tell Ear Ghost to wipe out all the bandits of Yinshan Mountain within three days."
"Yes, sir!"
The adjutant saluted and left the tent.
Even he could no longer argue.
It was hard to believe, but everything Lee Ja-song said was true.
"Ear Ghost versus North Ghost... I wonder which ghost will win...."
Lee Ja-song muttered quietly, while still smacking his lips in between.
***
"Hahaha! Boss! Look at this! Ears, money, they're all piled up everywhere!"
"U, uaaagh!"
"S, spare me!"
"Who said we're killing you? Just hand over your right ear. You've got two anyway, right? Huh?"
The victors plunder the defeated.
Cruel, but it is the law of the jungle that clearly applies in the animal world.
Huu—.
White breath mixed with the stench of blood, losing its original taste.
Dong Bong-su stood quietly at the entrance of the village.
The mercenaries were all busy cutting off the villagers' ears, and the villagers were frantically running around to escape them.
Dong Bong-su alone was leisurely standing at the entrance.
There was no helping it—killing these people did not give experience, nor did it increase proficiency.
To him, plundering in a 'low-level hunting ground' like this had no meaning at all.
He was simply lost in thought.
Can skills be canceled?
What happens if someone kills me right before I level up?
Will my death also be converted into experience?
If a living creature is completely sealed, can it be put into the inventory?
Can I take out a box bigger than my body from the inventory and wrap my body with it?
What exactly is the system's standard for a "living creature"?
Then where do insects fall on the line of living creatures?
When taking an item out of the inventory, is partial manifestation possible?
Also, how tightly bound does something have to be to be considered one object?
Would two objects weakly connected by something like a grain of rice be considered one object?
Is it really impossible to put a moving object into the inventory the moment it touches my body?
Is it really impossible to open the settings window or the system window?
And so on ....
Countless questions were swirling in his head.
He had resolved many of them, but still many doubts remained, wandering through Dong Bong-su's mind.
And from time to time, new questions would join that repertoire.
When would he be able to resolve all of these doubts?
Dong Bong-su did not really know.
What was certain, however, was that the more his understanding of the system increased, the stronger he became—and that would surely continue.
If you can't change it, use it to the fullest.
This, too, was Dong Bong-su's instinct.
Whether it was people or the system, whatever it was, it was the same.
If it was something that could not be fixed, then he had to understand it completely and use it to the utmost.
Even now, he was honing techniques born from understanding the system.
Five-Item Insertion and Withdrawal.
Before, he could only do two items at the same time, but now he could freely insert and remove five items at once.
Using the space formed by the folds of his clothes, he repeatedly took out and put in small objects.
If he trained like this for a long time, eventually Six-Item Insertion and Withdrawal, Seven-Item Insertion and Withdrawal... would also become possible.
How much time had passed like that?
Pagrak, pagrakh!
The sound of a horse's hooves stepping on sand, slightly distorted, came from behind.
Dong Bong-su stopped thinking and turned his body.
From far away, a single horse with a yellow flag stuck into it was approaching this way.
'A messenger, perhaps.'
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