The Axe Mask (1)
From the perspective of the Waegwan and the Naesang merchants, this was hardly a desperate or nerve-racking matter.
After all, it was only a matter of smuggling out two people.
The only difference was that the people being brought in were not men, but they were doing it every day already. The covert sex trade that the people of Choryang arranged by funneling poor widows and the like into Waegwan had already sunk to the level of “just don’t get caught” even in Joseon.
The duel between Itkyu and Taesu was the same.
To Park Chang-su and the first Chinese interpreter, it was nothing more than a fistfight between muscle-headed underlings.
So the first interpreter moved on to the more important matter.
“In any case, we’re not so shameless as to use this one skirmish to demand the world. We’ll need your help more often in the future. As for those agents, once they’re inside Waegwan, Tsushima can handle them on its own, so please take good care of the Dongnae side.”
Tsushima’s plan to receive people first before the bakufu inspector could touch Joseon documents and break the spell of complete hypnosis required Dongnae magistrate’s consent.
And the Dongnae magistrate, if Katsu Kaishu and Sakamoto Ryoma had already gone into Waegwan, would probably not want to make a scene.
At times like this, it was still the “rule of no action.” Dongnae had done nothing, but since Japanese were in Waegwan all the same, the expulsion would be recorded.
The Naesang merchants’ job was to bring back the post hoc paperwork certifying that the return had been handled “normally.”
Park Chang-su, the first interpreter, emphasized his own usefulness again at that point.
“The current Dongnae magistrate will be heading to Seoul soon. Thanks to the court’s delay, the handover hasn’t been properly completed. We’ll finish everything before some ignorant new magistrate arrives.”
“That’s reassuring. I’ll trust you, O-won.”
While the negotiations dragged on, Hwang Do-won, the head of the Waegwan inspection squad and one of the Naesang four heavenly kings, spoke up.
“But monk Il-hyu hasn’t returned.”
The first interpreter waved it off.
“It would be inconvenient if rumors got out that he assaulted a Joseon man or something. I told Itkyu to see it through to the end without making a mistake. He’s probably in the middle of beating the whole group senseless and tying them up.”
Park Chang-su let out a quiet sigh.
This case had put him in debt to Waegwan without mercy.
He’d probably have to squeeze money out of that axe bastard Park Dokki to make up for the losses. Park Dokki was useless to Waegwan anyway, so they’d hand him over readily enough. After that, it would be Park Chang-su’s to do with as he pleased.
I should take his ginseng trade network too.
He had only failed to pay attention because his aim lay elsewhere, but the quantity and quality of the medicinal herbs Park Dokki had brought this time were enough to make even Park Chang-su uneasy.
He checked with the Song merchants, who of course had dealings with him as well, and learned that the work was being handled by someone named Cha Un-hong.
Since Park Chang-su had never heard of him, he was probably a junior nobody. If he crushed Park Dokki, then soothed him with a mix of threats and sweet talk, the man would come over to his side in no time.
Park Chang-su drew a steadying breath like the seasoned merchant he was. He had to forget the sunk cost already lost and focus on the new negotiation.
Then, just as he had finally calmed himself, a noise from outside shattered his composure.
“T-there’s trouble!”
* * *
The first interpreter barked at his attendant.
“What is all this noise!”
Usually, a line like that would be followed by unbearable shock. In a strange way, the first interpreter was being very faithful to period drama.
“T-the Joseon men are climbing over the wall!”
“What? Are they soldiers from the ambush camp?”
But the first interpreter quickly corrected his hasty conclusion.
There was no motive, for one thing.
The common-sense assumption that the military had entered because it sensed Waegwan’s crimes was something only modern people, and not just any modern people but the modern people of advanced countries, would make.
The military was not an institution that prevented crime. It was one that committed it.
In that sense, Japan’s military was no different from Joseon’s. It would almost make more sense if, after Park Dokki lost to Itkyu, his convoy had hired the Joseon army to storm Waegwan……
“No way! That crazy bastard!”
The first interpreter shot to his feet.
An unprecedented crisis in centuries of Waegwan history.
An organized attack on Waegwan by Joseon people.
* * *
Of course, Park Dokki’s convoy had not hired the Joseon army.
Buying the Joseon army as a mercenary force would be worse than leaving your wife in the care of a Frenchman and setting off on a journey.
At least then nobody would die. They might multiply, but they wouldn’t die.
The ones who had actually charged into Waegwan were members of Park Dokki’s convoy, or more precisely, people from the Gyeongsang-do Baekimbang.
If we rewind a little, Hyun Hak-ro and Song Gwang-rak, both of them still aimed at by Ha Jeong-il’s latest imported Colt pistol, drew in a breath.
“What in the world do you think you’re doing!”
This was not, however, a case of being overwhelmed by superior Western weaponry.
That Colt Patterson pistol had a notorious habit of breaking down.
The speed of nineteenth-century technological development was astonishing. Ten years later it would all be very different, but for now, there were hardly any pistols whose reloading was faster than disassembly, which was why Colonel Ogl had even bothered to carry one.
But Ha Jeong-il had no need for pinpoint accuracy or superior firing speed.
If he had, he would naturally have used his specialty, the bow.
What he needed from the firearm was its more traditional function.
Bang!
As the thunderous shot burst forth with a flash of fire, debtor Hyun Hak-ro and Song Gwang-rak, the King of Sea Cucumber, could not collect their wits.
The ones behind them were no different. By then, the quick-witted Baek Seol-chae and his “Gyeongsang-do Baekimbang comrades” — in other words, the Namsadang troupe — had already rushed out en masse and surrounded them.
Yi Ha-eung had slipped back into his secret royal inspector mode. It seemed he had taken a liking to it.
“How dare merchants and interpreters meddle in the affairs of the state! Now I see why Dokki has not returned since sunset. It must be that you wretches plotted some scheme!”
The Namsadang troupe was less outraged by the usurpation of state affairs than by the insult done to their own dobansu. Every last one of them declared that they wanted to dress Hyun Hak-ro, Song Gwang-rak, and the rest in women’s clothes and turn them into jokes on the spot.
Baek Seol-chae said, “Shouldn’t we hurry and rescue them?”
“We should rescue them, all right.”
Yi Ha-eung added, “Waegwan, that is.”
Baek Seol-chae, who had fought Park Dokki before, understood. The thing they had to protect was Waegwan.
If they rampaged through Waegwan swinging axes and hacking everyone to death, they’d truly become a state-level target for extermination. They had to stop it before that happened.
“Damn it all! Hey, you idiots, peel off and tie those bastards up, and the quick-footed young ones come with me!”
The idiots began binding the captives in women’s clothing, preparing to receive them as new recruits. In the meantime, Baek Seol-chae sprinted like a gale toward Waegwan.
* * *
For a long time, Joseon had replaced Waegwan’s wall with stone and raised it higher.
It was to seal away the Japanese men’s lustful energy. Every time a sex-trade incident broke out, renovations were carried out to stop the advancing pimps.
But with the inner and outer walls of the fortress sharing one heart, there was nothing to be done. Sexual steam was observed day after day.
Still, to the Namsadang troupe, that had little meaning in the physical sense.
The Gyeongsang-do Baekimbang peddlers invaded Waegwan as though they were walking across open ground.
Baek Seol-chae, who rushed in first as the Yeongbansu, explained their purpose with utter clarity.
“If that sea cucumber bastard and the Waeyo trade bastards are right, then the dobansu is to the east. Hurry up and find him, and bring him out!”
The Namsadang troupe had also donned masks here, just as they had in Tongyeong. Dongnaeyaryu, too, had a derivative form of the Okwangdae performance.
Baek Seol-chae remembered that women came and went here often, so he had prepared an Gaksi mask. It was the kind of joke that worked in both the nineteenth century and the twenty-first.
Under the white mask that covered him to the cheekbones, Baek Seol-chae shouted, “Don’t fight! Scatter and move! If you find the dobansu, blow the horn and signal!”
As he ran, Baek Seol-chae felt something strange beneath the Gaksi mask.
As the first interpreter had thought, an “organized attack on Waegwan” was unprecedented in Joseon history.
And yet Waegwan’s “organized attack on Joseon” had happened quite often. The matter under King Hyeonjong came to mind at once.
So the Japanese have no reason to throw a new fit, do they? They’re always the ones stirring up trouble.
Come to think of it, that was Park Dokki’s way.
I can beat you, extort you, insult you, and leave, but how dare you do the same to me?
The primitive pleasure of Hammurabi’s justice washed over Baek Seol-chae.
He couldn’t bear it and leaped into the air. Spinning his body like a top midair, flipping himself completely over, Baek Seol-chae landed again like a cat and ran on.
* * *
Still, it would be a stretch to call this a “clash between Joseon and Japan.”
Japanese men were taking part in the raid as well.
“If our benefactor Dokki has been put in danger because of us, then as warriors we cannot stand by!”
“Besides, this means Tsushima has openly shown hostile intent toward the bakufu. How could we possibly ignore that!”
It was Sashimi and Wasabi, who had stubbornly followed after being told not to come.
Anyone who knew the circumstances could understand.
If they pulled off a score here, the mission would be a complete success.
The connection with Park Dokki had been achieved, or so they themselves believed, but even that had only been “despite failure.”
But now Tsushima’s scheme had been fully exposed.
Which meant the reason for their failure had also been exposed.
It wasn’t that we were idiots who got lost and drifted around for no reason! It was those lying bastards on that island who interfered!
The bakufu was currently struggling, as all dying regimes do, to control its rising domains. This was more than enough to be worth a report that upper officials would covet.
On top of that came the invaluable bonus effect of “reputation gain.”
Sashimi and Wasabi, who had originally been nothing more than practical scouts, would now rise overnight as important figures in diplomacy, with the powerful Tsushima clan’s Fuchū domain stepping in to obstruct them and eastern axe-wielding Joseon actively cooperating.
The difference was greater than that between an exploration robot and a high-ranking knight.
Only the worn-down freelance souls of the samurai of the Warring States era, who had to be willing to do anything insane just for the sake of their portfolio, descended upon these two men.
Katsu Kaishu hurled Suishinshi Masahide in a flash of light.
“You Tsushima hillbillies! Do you want a taste of the true essence of the Jikishinkage-ryu of the mainland!”
This future Minister of the Imperial Japanese Navy had apparently forgotten why he was even wearing a mask.
If Itkyu had been here, a dream match between old schools of martial arts might have unfolded, but he was currently tied up in body, while his mind, freed from all worldly desire, was being kicked by Cha Un-hong.
Sakamoto Ryoma also twirled the pistol that only fired once.
“Um, but…… where’s Dokki?”
“We have to grab anyone we can and ask!”
That was precisely why Baek Seol-chae had also allowed this utterly pointless intrusion by Sashimi and Wasabi’s master-disciple pair.
They were Japanese, so they could speak Japanese. Ha Jeong-il couldn’t come because he had to assist Heungseon-gun in handling Joseon matters.
The Park Dokki convoy soon found someone who knew where their boss was.
“Grrh! You shameless, violent Joseon bastards. Your chief has already been beaten into a bloody paste by monk Itkyu!”
After silencing the bastard’s objection by smashing his bald head with a sword hilt — no hair meant weak defense, after all — Katsu Kaishu looked troubled.
“I’ve heard of that monk, Itkyu. As the inheritor of Kurama Yoshin-ryu, his unmatched strength and valor are such that, if he fought without a sword, even I could not guarantee victory.”
Sakamoto Ryoma wisely held back from saying, Then why are you a standard for combat power when you got beaten by Park Dokki even with a sword? A disciple should not say such awful things to his master.
“Let’s find him quickly.”
* * *
Of course, unlike the first interpreter’s expectations and the worries of his companions, Taesu had already beaten Itkyu and tied him up.
Cha Un-hong said to Jeong Ja-beom, “Could you have this gentleman hauled somewhere, Special Inspector? If the Waegwan people or the Naesang merchants later bring their complaints up through official channels, we’ll need someone to point to.”
“Y-yes, of course. I’ll testify as well. But what are you two planning to do?”
Taesu answered for them.
“It’s noisy everywhere. I think our comrades must have gotten worried and come to check on us.”
“Good heavens, this is going to make the aftermath a real headache.”
For all they knew, the Waegwan trade itself might be shut down. Jeong Ja-beom clutched his head.
“For now, you two should get out of here as well. Let’s think about the rest slowly later.”
But Taesu shook his head.
“I’ve got to find that bastard Chang-su first.”
Because it wasn’t the style of address used in Joseon, it took Jeong Ja-beom a little while to realize that he was talking about the first interpreter, “Deputy Commander” O-won Park Chang-su.
Jeong Ja-beom was just about to ask what nonsense this was when the words caught in his throat.
Taesu had dragged out a matter that even Jeong Ja-beom himself either didn’t know or had been trying to ignore.
The issue wasn’t some grand concern like Waegwan being shut down, trade shrinking, or international relations growing tense.
At this very moment, Park Chang-su would undoubtedly take revenge on Jeong Ja-beom.
On the other hand, Taesu could honestly say he would simply run if it came to that.
He had no foothold in Dongnae to lose. The only thing Taesu stood to lose was the payment for work he would never receive.
But Taesu didn’t do that.
Something began to take shape in Jeong Ja-beom’s heart.
“All right. I’ll help too.”
Jeong Ja-beom quickly put his mind to work.
He ordered his servants to help up the men from Park Chang-su’s faction that Taesu had knocked down earlier, then barked at them.
“Call out to your master with lies. By now, he must have rushed out because of all this commotion.”
And in fact, that was what happened. People ignored it, but if a Joseon man was inside Waegwan at this hour, that was smuggling, which was punishable by death. An emergency had broken out, so they had to separate from the gentlemen immediately.
Jeong Ja-beom did not say, “If you don’t, then……”
Even the mere thought that the attack on Itkyu might be turned on them had Park Chang-su’s underlings unable to keep their sanity. They weren’t monks; they had to leave descendants behind.
After some convincingly frantic acting, shouting that they had “captured Park Dokki,” Park Chang-su and the four heavenly kings indeed came running in a panic.
Of course they did. By tomorrow, they would have to offer a desperate explanation to Dongnae magistrate for this utter mess.
The network the Naesang had with Dongnae was useless now. The fact that Park Dokki’s gang had attacked meant Song Gwang-rak had failed. Even so, two Japanese had still come.
But because of the Naesang’s position, which required them to maintain contact with Waegwan, they could not tell Dongnae about the “Japanese agents.”
In the end, they had to pin everything on Park Dokki, the most convenient culprit and the one actually carrying out the raid.
For that, securing Park Dokki’s person was essential. And before sunrise, too.
That is, if the sun would rise for them tomorrow at all.
In the pitch-black dark, Park Chang-su found his subordinate by voice and panted, “Where is Park Dokki?”
The subordinate didn’t need to answer.
Beside the subordinate, a kind of light Park Chang-su had never seen before suddenly flashed.
It was as though a star had made a mistake and risen from the earth.
He might have exclaimed in wonder, as a premodern man would at his first flashlight.
But when that flashlight was shining up at Park Dokki’s face, civilization, science, and everything else were all swallowed by the terror of barbarism.
With his face revealed by a horror-special light, Taesu said, “Chang-su. You guys did pretty well, huh?”
Park Chang-su collapsed to the ground. He didn’t feel the slightest bit of this midsummer heat.
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