Monopolizing Fortunes (85)
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Monopolizing Fortunes (85)
But that month also included the time needed to enter the Southern Barbarians and obtain the go poison. It was an absolutely impossible plan.
However, since Do Tong-dal had made the plan and guaranteed its success, Namgung Seol-rin believed that guarantee.
They truly did not rest for a single moment. They slept in the carriage, took only the minimum rest, and then switched to the fastest horses.
It was a forced march that drove mind and body to their limits. A light sleep in the carriage was worse than sleeping for one shichen in a bed.
They departed Anhui Province, passed through Hubei, crossed Hunan, and entered Guizhou Province. No matter how steel-like their stamina was, both Do Tong-dal and Namgung Seol-rin had become walking corpses.
Even so, neither of them suggested stopping to rest. The horse they had swapped at the military horse station two shichen ago snorted roughly as it climbed the mountain.
"Don't you ever think we came here for nothing?"
Do Tong-dal asked as a joke, but Namgung Seol-rin answered with a serious face.
"We came for a good reason. If we hadn't come, I wouldn't have known you were suffering this much. So if we failed to get the go poison...... I might have resented you."
Even if they failed to obtain the go poison, since they had done their best like this, she would have no regrets.
"We won't fail. No matter what happens, we'll get the go poison."
After crossing the mountain and traveling for about another shichen, the Ganggu military horse station in Guizhou Province appeared.
The Ganggu military horse station was quite large, with four carriages and thirty-two horses.
When Do Tong-dal showed the military horse token, the soldier immediately snapped to attention. The four-horse military token was a token that could not be carried unless one held a fairly high office.
"Bring the fastest carriage."
They had spent a full day on horseback, so it was time for rest. While the soldier who had answered that he understood was gone, Namgung Seol-rin pointed at a stable about five jang away.
"That carriage is unusual."
The carriage decorated in red and blue looked like a civilian flower carriage, not a military one. Namgung Seol-rin approached the carriage and peeked inside through the window.
"Tong-dal! Look at this!"
"What's all the fuss about?"
It was worth the fuss. With a soft bed laid on the floor and even silk bedding, her mouth watered as if delicious food had been placed before her.
"Sir! I've brought the carriage!"
The soldier who had received Do Tong-dal's order came pulling a two-horse carriage. It was an ordinary carriage found at any military horse station.
Having seen the silk-bedding carriage, an ordinary carriage could not possibly catch their eye. Moreover, the silk-bedding carriage was a four-horse carriage pulled by famous steeds.
Do Tong-dal tapped the silk-bedding carriage.
"We'll take this one."
"Pardon? That one is already reserved."
Of course it was. And it was of no importance whatsoever.
"We'll take this one."
When Do Tong-dal repeated the same words, the soldier expressed his discomfort with his entire body.
"Th-that carriage is something the Provincial Commander of the Right Army Governor's Office prepared and decorated starting half a month ago."
A Provincial Commander was a powerful figure of the senior second rank who commanded all the troops of a province.
"Is that so? Good."
"What do you mean, good?"
"If it's a carriage for such a high-ranking gentleman, it must be well made. Hey, you!"
The person Do Tong-dal pointed at was the coachman sitting on the driver's seat of the ordinary carriage.
"M-me?"
"Switch over to that one."
Since he was the coachman assigned to Do Tong-dal, he faithfully followed the order.
"You cannot do this."
"If you have a complaint, tell them to come find me at the Censorate."
"Pardon? The C-Censorate?"
At the mention of the Censorate, the soldier stiffened with a flinch and could not even stop Do Tong-dal from boarding the carriage.
"If you say Left Censor Yang Su-pan took it, no trouble will fall on you."
When Do Tong-dal closed the door, the carriage departed, and the soldier had no choice but to watch.
"Wow! Look how soft this blanket is."
Namgung Seol-rin pulled the red blanket over herself completely. Do Tong-dal also laid his body on a soft bed for the first time in ten days.
The well-made carriage had little shaking, so it could not have been more comfortable.
The two exhausted people fell into a deep sleep the moment the backs of their heads touched the bed.
They could tell they had slept quite a long time by looking at the window. The window, standing at the boundary between day and night, was filled with a red glow.
Do Tong-dal, feeling refreshed and about to get up, could not move at all. It was because Namgung Seol-rin, who had burrowed into his arms, was sleeping soundly.
Her hair, unwashed for days, smelled, and it was so tangled that a comb could not pass through it, and it was even full of oil.
Her face, blackened from dried sweat, looked like a beggar from the marketplace. Even so, she was pretty. Sound asleep, she was even smiling faintly, as if dreaming of something.
"Why did you follow me into this hardship? Tsk, tsk, tsk......."
As he clicked his tongue, the smile at the corner of Namgung Seol-rin's lips disappeared. She still had her eyes tightly shut and did not move a muscle.
About one ke passed like that, but Namgung Seol-rin remained in the same position.
"I know you're awake."
"......."
"Aren't you going to get up?"
After hesitating, Namgung Seol-rin answered with her eyes still closed.
"Let's stay like this a little longer."
Like a cold piglet, she burrowed deeper into Do Tong-dal's arms.
"This girl has no fear of men."
"Then eat me."
"Hey, what are you......."
"Underworld thugs talk like this normally. Heh heh heh......."
Do Tong-dal ended up chuckling. Before long, the carriage arrived at the next military horse station. Namgung Seol-rin lightly smacked Do Tong-dal's butt as he got off the carriage.
"What a shame. If we'd had a little more time, you could have eaten me."
"This girl has no shame."
Thanks to having slept soundly for the first time in a while, their bodies felt refreshed. They mounted the fastest horses again and began to ride.
Once they passed Guizhou Province, it was Yunnan, which bordered the Southern Barbarians.
* * *
He had thought it was a damn fight since five years ago. He had said, over drinks, that the fools fighting in the pit of heat were pitiful.
But now he had become that fool.
Centurion Hwang Tae-min asked the four men who had returned from the jungle again.
"Six were taken prisoner, and only the four of you returned?"
"There was no helping it."
Decurion Song Ji-bong's answer was confident. Since the Southern Barbarians was a place where too many things could not be helped, it could serve as a perfectly good excuse.
Hwang Tae-min finally exploded at that excuse, which he felt he had heard a thousand times—ten times a day for the three months since he had been posted to the Southern Barbarians.
"You bastard of a decurion abandoned your men and came back, so why are you so confident? You fucking bastard!"
Fists rained down ceaselessly on Song Ji-bong's face, stomach, legs, and sides. If those around him had not stopped him, he might have beaten him to death.
"Form a rescue squad immediately! I will go rescue them myself!"
It was time to cast off the sense of helplessness, as heavy as the jungle's humidity. The war had started over nothing more than a diamond mine, but whatever the cause of the war, they had to win.
It was called a rescue squad, but it was no different from a suicide squad.
The person with the most experience in the Southern Barbarians was Song Ji-bong, whom Hwang Tae-min had just beaten, and even he had only been there a little over a year.
During that year, the number of times they had entered the jungle to carry out operations could be counted on one hand.
All they did was prevent the Miao tribes from pushing beyond the boundary line. And the occasional attacks were the share of the penal soldiers who had been sentenced to military exile.
When there were no penal soldiers left to die, they stopped attacking, and when reinforcements arrived, they launched reckless attacks again.
This absurd war the country was fighting in the Southern Barbarians was worse than a back-alley brawl.
"Centurion, entering the jungle to rescue our allies is suicide."
Song Ji-bong had been beaten until his nose bled three times, but he still said what he had to say.
"So? Are you saying you will disobey orders? Disobeying orders on the battlefield is summary execution."
At that moment, a man in his mid-thirties with thick eyebrows and unusually large eyes stepped forward. He was Decurion Seol In-seok, who had caused trouble on another battlefield three months ago and drifted here.
"Fuck! Rather than go into that jungle and die, I'll just die right here!"
No sooner had those words fallen than Hwang Tae-min drew his sword.
"I will show the strictness of military law by making an example of one to warn a hundred!"
Then Seol In-seok drew his sword as well.
"Even if I die, I have no intention of dying easily!"
"You wretch! Are you mocking the solemn laws of the nation!"
"The laws only exist if I'm alive!"
Hwang Tae-min shouted at the soldiers around him.
"Bind that bastard immediately!"
But among the hundred or so soldiers gathered on the training ground, no one tried to follow Hwang Tae-min's order.
They were already exhausted just from being in the Southern Barbarians. Whether they fought or not, the Southern Barbarians was a land that made people endlessly lethargic.
In such a situation, they could not fight against a comrade who was rebelling against a superior issuing a suicide order.
"Y-you bastards dare to ignore a superior's order!"
"Deputy Commander Hwang, don't get so heated."
"Who dares......!"
Hwang Tae-min, who had been turning around, hastily straightened his posture.
"Deputy Commander!"
It was No Song-guk, the Chiliarch leading the 13th Unit in the Southern Barbarians. His beard was shaggy, and his hair was a bird's nest, as if he had not washed it for days.
In fact, the person who had been in the Southern Barbarians the longest was No Song-guk. He had been the deputy commander of the 13th Unit for a full three years.
Of course, he had never once entered the jungle for combat. A chiliarch was not in such a position, nor did he have the will for it.
A commander who commands an unwinnable battle tends to become either excessively brave or helpless, and No Song-guk was the latter.
"No one wants to die."
"But soldiers must live by orders and die by orders!"
"What soldier would welcome an order to carry firewood and jump into a fire? A commander who cannot give proper orders is not qualified to be a commander."
"Are you saying I am in the wrong?"
No Song-guk turned his gaze toward the densely spread jungle.
"No one here is wrong. What's wrong is this damn war. We're fighting a stupid fight just to occupy one measly gold mine."
At that moment, the sound of horse hooves came from outside the unit, which was surrounded by a fence made of wood.
"Who goes there! Identify yourself!"
The voice of the soldier guarding the main gate rang out. A moment later, the sound of the gate opening was heard, and a man and a woman on horseback appeared.
A man and a woman who were neither penal soldiers nor replacement troops were an unusual sight.
The two people who entered the training ground looked around. A young man who looked to be at most twenty years old muttered.
"This place is still the same."
No Song-guk asked.
"Who are you people?"
The young man answered.
"I am Do Tong-dal, and this is Namgung Seol-rin. We merely stopped by on our way."
"On your way?"
"We have business with the Yeosan Tribe."
At the name Yeosan Tribe, No Song-guk frowned. The Miao tribes of the Southern Barbarians were made up of dozens of tribes.
Among them, the Yeosan Tribe was the most terrible tribe to them. They were one of the three tribes that controlled the mining area, and they were the most numerous, the most powerful, and even cruel.
The place where six soldiers had been taken hostage this time was also the Yeosan Tribe.
"What business do you have with the Yeosan Tribe?"
"It's a personal matter."
"This is a military camp. It's not a place civilians can pass through for personal reasons. If you have business with the enemy, you need to state your purpose clearly."
Do Tong-dal held out the military horse token.
"Would this be enough?"
"A four-horse token... It's certainly a rare item."
Just possessing a four-horse token made it clear that he was connected to the upper echelons of the military or government.
"Did you come knowing what kind of place the Southern Barbarians is?"
"Among everyone here, there is no one who knows that jungle better than I do."
"Well, looking at your fine, fair skin, it doesn't seem that way. But right now, I can't send you to the Yeosan Tribe. Six of our soldiers are being held hostage by them."
"If the Yeosan Tribe captured them, their lives are already over."
"You know about the Yeosan Tribe?"
"As I said, there is no one who knows the Southern Barbarians better than I do."
"If you knew the Southern Barbarians well, wouldn't you be too scared to even piss in this direction?"
"There are unavoidable circumstances. In any case, I have no intention of asking for permission."
"Interesting people. Are you from the martial world?"
* * *