Monopolizing Fortunes (226)
Monopolizing Fortunes (226)
Uldark dismounted and walked toward Do Tong-dal. He tried not to step on the corpses, but he could not close the distance to Do Tong-dal without stepping on them.
Each time a Mongol cavalryman's body was trampled, pain came as though living flesh were being torn.
Uldark forced his heavy steps forward and stood one jang in front of Do Tong-dal. It was a distance at which Do Tong-dal could kill him with a casual swing of his blade.
"You came looking for me?"
As befitted a khan, he showed no sign of fear.
"First, why don't you greet the lady here?"
Uldark's gaze turned to Ju Seo-in.
"Who is she?"
"You proposed marriage without even knowing her face?"
Uldark could not help being startled.
"You mean that woman is the Second Imperial Princess?"
Drenched in blood from head to toe, Ju Seo-in looked less like an imperial princess than a demon.
"She's also my wife."
At Do Tong-dal's words, Ju Seo-in smiled with satisfaction, but the sight only looked more horrifying. The thought came to him unbidden that he was fortunate not to have married her.
"What is it you really want to say?"
"It seems the time has come to ask whether you intend to keep fighting or negotiate."
"Do you have the standing to negotiate with me, a khan?"
"I am the Prince Consort, entrusted with full authority by His Imperial Majesty. I am also the man who has killed the most of your Mongol cavalry. And I have no desire to have my standing acknowledged by you. A victor's name alone is power enough."
"I still have more than thirteen thousand cavalry. It is too early for you to be certain of victory."
"I don't mind continuing the fight. This is a chance to pull the weeds out by the roots."
"Insolent words."
"Coming here with a mere twenty thousand cavalry was an insult to us."
It was not a mere twenty thousand. In the past, ten thousand alone had been enough to lay waste to the Central Plains. So much so that the emperor had sent enormous tribute every year, begging them not to invade.
Of course, it was dressed up as bestowals upon a vassal state, but the whole world knew that was a name only.
A war that had been possible with ten thousand had brought twice that number, and now they were about to turn back without even setting foot on Central Plains soil.
And after losing more than ten thousand horses—their most precious asset—and subordinates who were like brothers.
"Do not forget that I am khan. If I resolve to bury my bones in this Sapung Valley, you will die as well."
"Twenty thousand against three. That's not a losing trade."
Do Tong-dal did not retreat a single step. If Uldark truly fought to the end, he would have to brace for mutual destruction. Jang Yu-seom and Ju Seo-in were already drained to the bottom of their stamina, and if even one of them collapsed, the entire shape of the battle would change.
Uldark, with his wealth of war experience, saw through that as well. But the reason he could not continue this fight was that there was no possibility of victory at all.
Even if he could kill Do Tong-dal, Jang Yu-seom, and Ju Seo-in, a hundred thousand soldiers were still encamped.
Even if they were a rabble, the surviving Mongol cavalry, having suffered enormous losses, were not a number they could contend with.
No matter how he calculated in his head, things could only flow as Do Tong-dal said.
Uldark carefully cleared the corpses around his feet, then slumped down onto the blood-soaked ground. The cooling blood of his kin soaked up through his trousers.
"Is my head what you want?"
At that question, Barka, far away, shouted.
"Khan! What are you saying! Come over here at once!"
But Uldark did not take his eyes off Do Tong-dal. Do Tong-dal, rather than a pool of blood like Uldark, sat down on a horse whose head had been severed.
"If I wanted your head, Khan, I would already have cut it off. What we want is here."
"What do you mean, here?"
"Sapung Valley. Hand this land over to us."
"Not a single span of Mongol land can be given to you!"
Do Tong-dal shouted to a soldier behind him.
"Bring me a map!"
A soldier moved quickly and brought a map drawn with Heuksu Fortress at its center. In the meantime, Do Tong-dal dragged over a horse and placed it between them to serve as a makeshift table.
The map was spread over the horse's cooling corpse.
"What we want is from here to here. Honestly, aside from being a route for Mongol invasions of the Central Plains, this land is useless."
The mountains were rugged, and the land was so barren that even weeds struggled to grow. For the Mongols, a horse-riding people, it had no use except as an invasion route into the Central Plains.
In other words, if they secured Sapung Valley, they could completely seal off one of the easiest invasion routes for the barbarians.
"The Central Plains and Mongolia face each other across a very long border. There are plenty of other routes to invade besides Sapung Valley, aren't there? In exchange for giving up one of many routes, all of you can return alive and plan for the future. What do you think will happen if you, Khan, die here and twenty thousand cavalry are annihilated?"
It was an outcome Uldark did not even want to imagine. Of course, even if things went as Do Tong-dal said, Mongolia would not collapse.
Mongolia still had many strong cavalry remaining, and Uldark's successor was growing.
But the Central Plains were not Mongolia's only enemy. It was no exaggeration to say that all six nations bordering them were enemies.
If they lost twenty thousand cavalry here, a weakened Mongolia could come under attack. In trying not to lose a single span of land, they could lose the entire nation.
So Uldark's gaze dropped to the map. Even just looking at the lines drawn on it, Do Tong-dal's intent was clear.
He meant to build fortresses along the valleys between the rugged mountains. With very little effort, they could easily block invasions through Liaoning Province.
Do Tong-dal spoke.
"If twenty thousand cavalry disappear, the wolves around you will see Mongolia as tasty prey."
Do Tong-dal had precisely pierced the point Uldark feared.
"What became of Prince Yeongun?"
If Prince Yeongun had only kept his promise, Uldark would not be suffering this humiliation here. So he was curious what Prince Yeongun was doing now.
"He's dead."
The answer that came back was simple.
"As I thought."
If that greedy man were not dead, there was no way he would have broken his promise.
Uldark stared blankly at Do Tong-dal.
"You killed him, I suppose?"
Do Tong-dal did not bother to deny it. There was no reason to explain the truth at length, and it might be better for Uldark to believe that.
"So you killed Prince Yeongun and were waiting for us here. As if you had been looking down on us the whole time."
"It wasn't all that difficult."
"Arrogant bastard."
After the curse, Uldark let out a short laugh. He had no choice but to admit defeat. When was the last time he had truly felt defeated by someone? He could not remember, which meant it was the first time in his life.
"Prince Consort, you said? As far as I know, a Prince Consort cannot hold another office in the imperial palace."
"I'm just that exceptional."
"Why is it that when you gild your own face, it doesn't look shameless?"
Looking at the sight Do Tong-dal had produced, no matter how much he boasted, it was true, so there was nothing to curse him for.
Uldark's gaze returned to the map.
"From here to here, you say?"
"Then the lines on both borders roughly match up."
"It seems hastily decided."
"I didn't come here thinking about a truce, so it had to be thrown together."
Neither Do Tong-dal nor Uldark had intended to see the end of this war; neither had expected to sit face-to-face negotiating like this in the middle of it.
"I have no choice but to believe that you truly hold real authority."
"If you really can't trust me, I can summon the military commander."
"That would lend more credibility."
Do Tong-dal sent a soldier behind him to bring No Song-guk. No Song-guk, who had not been far away, appeared before one ke had passed.
He had already heard through a messenger that Do Tong-dal was facing the khan. Given the results of the fighting so far, he had wondered whether there was any need to negotiate, but thinking about it differently, negotiation was the best option.
In the first place, three people facing twenty thousand Mongol cavalry made no sense. Do Tong-dal had shown him that impossible miracle.
If they kept fighting here and something happened to Do Tong-dal or Ju Seo-in, then even after winning the war, No Song-guk might suffer the consequences.
If they could use a miracle to reshape reality and end the war advantageously, that was also the best possible method.
"You summoned me?"
No Song-guk was deferential to Do Tong-dal. Although he was the Provincial Commander, in reality the post was no different from one appointed by Do Tong-dal. And since Do Tong-dal was the Prince Consort, showing full courtesy cost him no face.
Do Tong-dal relayed what he had discussed with Uldark.
"What does the Provincial Commander think?"
"If the Prince Consort has decided, then I must naturally follow. On this battlefield, is not the Prince Consort's command the very command of His Imperial Majesty?"
Since Do Tong-dal was negotiating, No Song-guk's job was to lend him as much weight as possible. Once No Song-guk spoke to that extent, Uldark had no choice but to acknowledge Do Tong-dal's standing.
"It seems the Central Plains emperor truly trusts you."
"There is a possibility that your side might break its word, but why would we break ours? The only way we would break our word is by invading Mongolia. Surely you don't think the Central Plains would actually launch a conquest of Mongolia?"
With the emperor having only recently changed, the possibility of the Central Plains invading Mongolia had to be regarded as nonexistent.
Do Tong-dal drew a straight line on the map with a brush. Then, without even receiving a definite answer from Uldark, he wrote the terms of the peace treaty on the back of the map.
His calligraphy was so skilled that he set the brush down in less than half a ke.
Do Tong-dal wrote No Song-guk's name instead of his own. That was because No Song-guk was the one actually leading the army.
Uldark stared blankly down at the place where his own name was written. Giving up territory was one of the most humiliating forms of surrender.
He ought to have felt so wronged that he wanted to bite through his own tongue and die, but strangely, he felt no such thing.
It was probably because of Do Tong-dal, who guided the mood as naturally as flowing water, as if it were nothing at all.
"I would like to meet you somewhere other than a battlefield someday."
"If it's a place with good liquor and beautiful women......"
Under Ju Seo-in's sharp gaze, Do Tong-dal hastily added, "Minus the beautiful women."
Uldark pressed his palm into the blood on the ground and stamped it as his seal. No Song-guk stamped his official seal, which he took from his waist, next to his name.
And so, in the middle of a blood-soaked battlefield, a document was created that was called a peace agreement in name but was in reality Mongolia's surrender.
"Today's meeting is our first, but you know it won't be our last?"
"I'm looking forward to that talk of meeting somewhere other than a battlefield."
Uldark, who had been staring at Do Tong-dal for a moment, turned his body.
"We would like to recover the bodies."
"We could help."
"Just give us time."
"Very well."
And so the Mongol cavalry withdrew. They would return tonight or tomorrow with carts to carry the corpses, but the war was over as of this moment.
Watching the Mongol cavalry recede into the distance, No Song-guk asked.
"Will they really keep their word?"
"The Mongol khan is not a man with so little pride that he would break a promise."
"Then we really have won."
"You have worked hard, Provincial Commander."
At Do Tong-dal's praise, No Song-guk waved both hands.
"What have I done? This is all the merit of the Prince Consort, Her Highness the Imperial Princess, and Commander Jang."
Jang Yu-seom approached and spoke.
"Isn't it a shame? We could have decisively weakened the Mongol army with this opportunity."
"The life of any one of the three of us is worth more than all the Mongol cavalry. I'm not a soldier—I'm a thug."
Ju Seo-in came squelching over, avoiding the corpses.
"If the fight's over, let's go quickly. I need to bathe in warm water. You need to wash too, dear."
Somehow, that last remark sounded suggestive. Do Tong-dal spoke to No Song-guk.
"It will be troublesome, but please recover our fallen soldiers' bodies. Every single one. And see that the wounded receive the best treatment."
"Of course."
"Then inform the soldiers that the war is over. And let them know that they have expanded the territory of the Central Plains."
At No Song-guk's order, news of the negotiation spread quickly through the entire army. Among the soldiers at the very front, there had been some casualties, but most had done nothing more than loose a few arrows or stand in the rear, and victory had simply rolled in on its own.
"We won without even fighting?"
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