The Road to Liaodong
In Liaodong, Sima Shang stared at me with an incredulous expression after I declared my intention to head there.
“So you’re really going to Liaodong?”
“Yes.”
Since I had already made up my mind, I answered without the slightest hesitation. That only prompted another question.
“Are you serious?”
There was a reason Sima Shang was reacting so sensitively to my plan to travel to Liaodong. Although the ships had been completed, we had not yet properly established the sea route to Liaodong, nor had the vessels’ safety been fully verified. Yet here I was, saying that since they were finished, I would test them myself. It was only natural that she would respond this way.
“I’m not suggesting this without any thought at all.”
The sea route would follow the coastline anyway, so there shouldn’t be any problems. As for safety, while we hadn’t taken them into the open ocean, we had already conducted test voyages. If we formed a fleet with multiple ships as a precaution, even if one capsized, it wouldn’t be a catastrophe.
“That’s not wrong, but…”
I also had a few secret measures prepared. Although the sea route would hug the coastline, I had readied compasses to determine direction in case of emergencies. Magnets were already in use during this era. They weren’t employed for maritime navigation, however; instead, they were used for finding one’s way on land, in feng shui practices, and even in superstitious folk remedies that claimed carrying one could help the sick.
But I planned to create proper compasses from magnets and use them for sailing. Thanks to my memories from my previous life, I had a general understanding of the Korean peninsula and the shape of the West Sea. Still, relying solely on that knowledge was risky. What I remembered was the coastline from more than two thousand years in the future. In this era, neither the natural sedimentation caused by the Yellow River nor the artificial land reclamation by humans had yet occurred, so the coastline differed from what I recalled. That was why I needed to bring compasses.
“Besides, the spies lurking in Changseong probably won’t expect me to move this quickly.”
Surveillance operatives had already infiltrated Changseong some time ago. Even the current magistrate of Changseong was under suspicion.
“I did think it was strange that you suddenly stopped going out as often as before.”
Sima Shang realized it would be pointless to try to dissuade me and clicked her tongue.
“And while I’m at it, I intend to clean up the inside of Changseong once and for all.”
“Clean up?”
“That’s right. If I disappear, those fellows will have no choice but to start moving. To find me, they’ll have to reveal themselves.”
Tacho gyeongsa—striking the grass to startle the snake. It was a famous tactic from the Thirty-Six Stratagems. Originally, it meant provoking the enemy to reveal their identity or true intentions. In later times, however, the meaning had shifted somewhat. It came to be interpreted in almost the opposite way: that striking the grass would make the snake flee, so one should never make such a mistake and instead act in secret. In any case, the correct usage of tacho gyeongsa wasn’t about pointing out faults, but rather, like what I was doing, creating a disturbance so that the enemies would come out on their own.
My seclusion and subsequent disappearance would draw the spies out of the grass.
“Who’s going to catch them? Yeo Hong-seong is unmatched in brute strength, but she seems completely clueless about covert counterintelligence. And the former chief steward is a civil official, so he’d be useless in matters like this.”
I listened quietly to Sima Shang’s reasoning while staring directly at her face. Perhaps feeling some pressure from my gaze, she frowned slightly and shook her head vigorously.
“No way. Do you think I know how to do everything? I can’t do it either, okay?”
“Really?”
“I’m not joking this time. Uncle is also terrible at schemes like this. He’s the kind of person who walks the straight and narrow path endlessly. If you told me to sneak out alone, I could manage somehow, but this kind of thing? I have no idea.”
“I know.”
“Huh?”
The rare sight of Sima Shang looking completely dumbfounded made me chuckle softly as I revealed the truth.
“I never planned to ask you to do it in the first place.”
“Then who? Are you going to call that person named Jing Ke?”
“Ah, Jing Ke wouldn’t be a bad choice. She has learned about this sort of work. But she has too many responsibilities in the capital, so bringing her all the way here would be difficult.”
Besides, there was someone even more capable than Jing Ke. There was no need to call for her when such a person was already available. I recalled the secret contact I had recently received. The one who had informed me of their arrival in Changseong had proposed a plan to sweep away all the spies operating within the city.
“Lord Mao Sui is in Changseong.”
“Mao Sui? The Mao Sui I know?”
“That’s right. The very same Mao Sui from the story of ‘the awl in the bag’ and ‘Mao Sui recommending himself.’”
The greatest retainer of Lord Pingyuan. A master of improvisation so brilliant that even the cunning and experienced King of Chu could not overcome him. What chance did the spies hiding in Changseong have against someone like him?
“So when you inherited Lord Pingyuan’s seal, you also took over his retainers. That explains the previous matter with Master Chu. Wait… you don’t mean to say that Feng Keqing is also a spy you planted in Zhao, do you?”
“That’s not the case. However, Lord Feng does occasionally send me messages.”
I had maintained such a close relationship with Feng Qi that I had even instructed the old man at the Lu Valley in Handan, Zhao, to contact me if anything happened and to consult with Feng Qi first. While he didn’t reveal every secret detail of Zhao’s internal affairs, Feng Qi was a valuable source who sent me information that was otherwise difficult to obtain.
“I really wonder what Lord Pingyuan was thinking, lending so much power to a foreigner… Well, never mind. If it’s Mao Sui, he’s definitely someone I can trust with the task. So that’s why you were in such a hurry. You had a reliable card up your sleeve. Using the cleanup of Changseong’s spies as bait while the real objective is to go to Liaodong. It’s certainly not a bad plan if you want to meet Jin Kai in secret.”
As expected, Sima Shang’s mind worked quickly. She immediately connected the dots: my journey to Liaodong to meet Jin Kai, and having the newly arrived Mao Sui handle the purge of spies inside Changseong.
“Then would you explain why you called me separately to tell me all this? There must be a reason you summoned me without Yeo Hong-seong or the former chief steward present.”
This was why talking with Sima Shang rarely required much deliberation. I began to speak about the task I wanted to entrust to her. It was the final matter to settle before departing for Liaodong.
The road to Yangpyeong—Liaodong’s central city and the location of its administrative seat, as well as a vital military stronghold at the end of Yan’s Great Wall—could be taken by two routes. The first was the waterway route: entering through the Bohai Sea, following the course of the Liao River upstream, then branching off into its tributary, the Taizi River, to reach Yangpyeong. The second was the overland route, crossing either the Yiwulü Mountains to the west or the Qian Mountains to the south.
Of the two, the path Ji Dan chose was the former—the waterway. One might worry about the disaster of mistakenly entering the Daliao River instead, but since the Daliao River appeared first and the Liao River came afterward, following the coastline carefully would prevent such an error. In contrast, the overland route was surrounded by the Yiwulü and Qian mountain ranges, making the journey to Liaodong an extremely arduous undertaking.
Yet there were people actually traveling to Yangpyeong via that very overland route. They had not come from the west but from the south, crossing the Qian Mountains into Liaodong territory. Their appearance was quite different from that of the Central Plains, yet there were subtle similarities as well. It seemed they had taken their original native style and incorporated elements of Central Plains culture.
Clothing was said to be the most visual means of revealing one’s status and origin. Just as the saying went, one could tell exactly where these people came from simply by looking at their attire.
Joseon.
In the past, when its national power had been at its peak, Joseon had been bold enough to launch preemptive attacks against Yan—one of the Seven Warring States. But after suffering a devastating defeat in a war against Yan less than forty years ago, its power had been greatly diminished. Back when Yan had been plagued by both internal strife and external threats, and when Joseon had first claimed the title of king rather than mere marquis, the two nations had been roughly equal in strength. That balance of power had persisted until the time of Joseon’s third king, during whose reign a great war with Yan had broken out. Unfortunately, the man sitting on the Yan throne at that time had been none other than King Soyang of Yan—the very ruler who had transformed a crumbling Yan into a dominant hegemon in a single stroke.
In the end, Joseon suffered a tragic loss at the hands of Jin Kai, the sword held in King Soyang’s left hand, and was forced to cede all territory west of the Qian Mountains. Had it ended there, they might have dreamed of a comeback someday. But to Joseon’s horror, the very man who had driven them east of the Qian Mountains—Jin Kai himself—had taken root in Liaodong. Plagued by the constant fear that Jin Kai might one day cross the mountains and invade again, Joseon had kept a vigilant watch on his movements. At some point, they realized that Jin Kai was keeping his distance from the Yan court. The party they now negotiated with was no longer the Yan royal court, but Jin Kai.
Thus, under the pretext of trade, Joseon began sending diplomatic missions to Yangpyeong, the heart of Liaodong, on a regular basis. This particular mission, however, was special. Because—
“Will it be much longer?”
“We will arrive soon. Since we have already crossed the Qian Mountains, Yangpyeong is practically within reach.”
“That’s a relief. By the way, is this person named Jin Kai truly so fearsome?”
“…Yes, he is a terrifying man. However, if it is you, Princess, I believe you will be able to face him without difficulty.”
After all, the leader of this diplomatic mission was none other than the current crown princess of Joseon—the heir to the throne.