Iron as Tribute, A Wife's Tears
Meanwhile, Lee Go-nap-hap was burning with vengeance, chewing over the humiliation he had suffered at the hands of Hong-wi and Tung Jugang at his own stronghold.
Temusi'i. Tung Jugang. Those two, I will never forgive.
And yet Lee Go-nap-hap was in no position to breathe a word of the affair to anyone.
It was a matter of prestige.
Among the wild tribes, prestige was life itself. To be shamed before a crowd, to yield to a threat, or to let a grudge against oneself or one's clan go unavenged — any of these cost a man his standing, and the tribe would cast him out. Whatever the circumstances, if word spread that he had buckled under coercion, Lee Go-nap-hap's prestige would suffer a devastating blow.
He was the eldest son of Lee Man-ju, recognized even by the Ming court — but his ambitious younger brothers were forever eyeing his position. Let him show a single weakness, and he could just as easily fall out of the line of succession.
By good fortune, Tung Jugang, Temusi'i, and Wolyeong had so far kept silent about that day's business, but Lee Go-nap-hap was racked with unease all the same.
There was another problem too.
Had his father Lee Man-ju not commanded him to win Wolyeover somehow? Having fumbled the very first stitch, Lee Go-nap-hap was utterly miserable.
I never should have listened to that fool Irongha. Kidnapping the woman for nothing — all I got for it was disgrace.
Lee Go-nap-hap regretted it again and again, but what was spilled was spilled.
"Dudu. A visitor has arrived."
At Olanggamokya's report, Lee Go-nap-hap shrugged with a look of irritation.
"A visitor? Who?"
"A man called Hwang Ga. He said that if he gave you his name, you would know him."
"Ah... that fellow."
Lee Go-nap-hap understood at once. A few days earlier, Temusi'i had paid him this secret visit.
The shame Temusi'i had dealt him still rankled to the bone, and he had been reluctant — but the man held a card over him, and that meant he could not be treated carelessly. Yet the request, unexpectedly, had been nothing more than to grant an audience with a single person. Lee Go-nap-hap had no particular way to refuse, and meeting one man was hardly a great burden, so he had consented.
Olanggamokya asked, "What are your orders?"
"Show him in."
Lee Go-nap-hap sighed. Olanggamokya seemed a little surprised.
"Did you not hear me? Bring him here at once."
"Yes, Dudu."
Before long, escorted by Olanggamokya, Hwang Ga entered. Lee Go-nap-hap gave him a sidelong glance.
Hwang Ga was dressed in the garb of the wild tribes, and it suited him better than expected. There was none of the usual awkwardness of a Joseon man in Jurchen clothing.
With a glib tongue, he performed the greeting proper to the tribes before Lee Go-nap-hap.
"I pay my respects to the Dudu of the Jianzhou Guard..."
"The greeting is done, and I've heard the story well enough."
Lee Go-nap-hap answered with half an ear. Still, being received with the courtesy due the Dudu of the Jianzhou Guard did not displease him.
"You say you wish to meet my father?"
"I do."
Hwang Ga replied with perfect calm, and Lee Go-nap-hap felt a flicker of well, let's see this. His father Lee Man-ju was a man even he himself found daunting to face. What business did this half-Joseon merchant have, asking for an audience with Lee Man-ju?
"And what message shall I carry to him as your reason?"
"Tell him I have come to present tribute."
"Ho — tribute?"
Lee Go-nap-hap answered lazily. "Tribute is fine, I suppose. And what, pray, is the offering?"
"Jianzhou itself."
"What?"
Lee Go-nap-hap's mouth fell open for an instant. Has this Joseon whelp gone mad?
"What did you say?"
"Exactly what I said. I have come to lay Jianzhou at your feet."
Lee Go-nap-hap was so dumbfounded that not even laughter came. There was no doubt about it now — that Temusi'i was truly trying to make a fool of him. Take a lunatic like this to my father?
"Are you mocking me right now?"
"I am not."
Hwang Ga's bearing was utterly composed. "Your lordship will know well enough what I do for a living."
"I've heard. Smuggling, is it? But Jianzhou is a bit beyond what one can sell on the sly."
Lee Go-nap-hap sneered openly.
"Quite right. To put it precisely — I intend to present the two of you, Lee Man-ju and Lord Kunaha, with something that will let you take all of Jianzhou into the palm of your hand."
"And that is?"
"Iron."
"Iron?"
Lee Go-nap-hap frowned.
"Yes. With it, you can forge farm implements to your heart's content, or any manner of tools — or weapons."
"I know perfectly well what iron is used for."
As Hwang Ga recited on and on, Lee Go-nap-hap cut him off testily. Hwang Ga merely smiled.
"Of course you do. As I understand it, Lee Man-ju has long hungered for iron as well."
Lee Go-nap-hap made no reply, but inwardly he conceded the point. Iron was the very root of a nation's power — the one thing every ambitious tribal chieftain coveted, and the hardest of all to obtain. The Jurchens had lost their ironworking craft long ago, and neither Joseon nor Ming, loath to see the tribes grow strong, imposed agonizing restrictions on its export.
"That may be so. But can you truly get your hands on iron?"
"I can."
Lee Go-nap-hap turned the matter over in his mind. This might be a rare chance to score points with his father. It was a strange feeling indeed, to think that Temusi'i of all people had handed him such an opportunity.
"You're certain of it?"
"Absolutely."
So Hwang Ga vowed. Lee Go-nap-hap stared at him in silence for a moment, then finally nodded.
"Consider me a fool who's been fooled once — I'll believe you. I'll put in a word with my father."
"My thanks, my thanks!"
Hwang Ga bowed again and again.
"I would offer the Dudu a token of my pledge."
"A token?"
"Forgive the presumption — may I call my man in? He waits outside."
Lee Go-nap-hap was puzzled, but soon granted Hwang Ga's request and summoned Olanggamokya.
"Go and fetch this fellow's man."
Olanggamokya nodded and stepped out. Presently a stubbly, bald-pated man entered.
"Mak-gae — present the gift to the Dudu."
"And what is this?"
What Mak-gae carried in was, of all things, a bundled bundle. Lee Go-nap-hap pulled it open.
"Ha!"
A cry of admiration escaped his lips unbidden. A magnificent suit of armor and a helmet were revealed.
"Armor worthy of a fine warrior such as yourself, Lord Kunaha."
At Hwang Ga's words, even Lee Go-nap-hap could not keep his face from softening.
"When the business is done, I shall present further gifts to your lordship as well."
"Now that is to my liking!"
All of Lee Go-nap-hap's earlier petulance had vanished without a trace. "I misjudged you — you're a genuinely useful man, Hwang Ga. Why did I never see it until now?"
"You're too kind."
Hwang Ga thought privately of Pushan Hadaru. That blockhead had spent years reciting his connections, name by name, and yet had never managed to open a single door like this.
"In any case, let us do well together going forward."
The two men, their interests now confirmed as one, clasped hands in a firm shake.
Once the Chuseok holiday had passed, even the air of Hanyang grew noticeably colder.
In the east of Suganggung, beneath Naksan Mountain, Nam I rose early in the morning and dressed himself carefully, making ready to go out.
The house steward announced, "Master, Lord Jo Yeong-dal has arrived."
"Good — he's here at last. Tell him I shall be out directly!"
Nam I finished dressing, rose, and took down the treasured sword that hung above the doorframe. He gazed at it for a long moment, then drew it from its scabbard.
It was said that his great-great-grandfather, Chunggyeong Nam Jae, had wielded this very blade in the days when he served General Pak Wi in the subjugation of the Japanese pirates of Tsushima. More than fifty years old now, yet such a fine sword, so scrupulously maintained, remained sharp beyond measure. The keenly honed blade flashed with a clean, cold light.
"Born a man, if I cannot grip a three-span sword and bring peace to the realm, who would call me a true man!"
Nam I could not contain the surging fire in his blood and cried aloud. Then he slid the blade back into its sheath.
"What I wish for is to cross blades with the heroes and champions of the world."
As Nam I murmured this and fastened the sword at the small of his back, the door slid quietly open.
Gwon So-yul, Nam I's wife and the fourth daughter of Gwon Ram, the most powerful man at court, stepped inside. She looked long and steadily at her husband, and a shadow of worry lay upon her lovely face.
"You are going out with your friend again."
"I am. Jo Yeong-dal has come and is waiting. I'll be off, then."
sword at his side, Nam I was on the point of stepping out when Gwon So-yul called after him.
"Husband."
"What is it?"
"Must you not stop going out like this, at some point?"
"Wife — what do you mean, all of a sudden?"
Nam I asked again, as though he could not fathom her meaning. Gwon So-yul sighed.
"About your going out to match skills with the idle rogues of the marketplace."
"Wife."
Nam I was treating Gwon So-yul the way one handles a child — though, in truth, she was older than he.
"I know well enough that a woman cannot easily grasp the ambitions of a man. But..."
"I know perfectly well that a man's bitter longing lies in rising in the world and making his name!"
Gwon So-yul's cry came out sharp and strained. For an instant even Nam I was taken aback, staring at her. Never once in her life had Gwon So-yul, steeped to the marrow in the education of the inner chambers, ever shown such force.
"Forgive a woman's presumptuous words, but if it is advancement you desire, you may have it whenever you please. You could prepare for the civil or the military examination as much as you wished — or enter official service through the privilege of your birth. What good ever comes of squandering your skill in pointless contests with street rogues? Should you not treasure yourself a little more?"
Gwon So-yul poured out all the words she had held back for so long in a single breath.
On their wedding night, she too had felt her heart flutter at Nam I's sturdy, manly presence. When his hands caressed her gently, she could only blush and breathe in and out, wordless before the fine muscles that rippled with such masculinity. For a while after their marriage — that is, before the rose-tinted film fell from her eyes — everything about Nam I had seemed dashing.
But now... ever since she learned that his so-called sparring matches were sometimes fought with live blades, Gwon So-yul had been inwardly terrified. The days stretched on, and each time Nam I failed to return until late in the night, she trembled with dread that something had gone wrong, until at last she had grown weary of it. Could he not take a little more care of his own body, a young master of a noble house?
"Wife — useless, you say?"
"Pardon?"
Gwon So-yul abruptly returned from her thoughts, and was startled to see that Nam I's expression had hardened into stone.
"I only meant..."
"Wife, I will speak frankly. I am deeply disappointed in you."
"Pardon?"
Gwon So-yul could hardly believe her ears. Nam I went on in a voice sunk low.
"Woman's understanding though it may be — how can you not know that this country is no peaceful age? On the northern border, the wild tribes who threaten the very altars of this nation swarm like hornets. Did the traitorous horde behind the Prison of Kyeong not rise up but lately? In times like these, even a woman ought to give some thought to the martial arts — and yet how short-sighted can you be? And you call yourself the mistress of a military household?"
There was real conviction in Nam I's words. Gwon So-yul barely held back the tears that threatened to spill over.
She had spoken only out of worry for her one and only lord's safety. How could he respond like this?
"You are too cruel. Your humble wife only..."
"I know very well why you say such things. That is precisely why I say this. A soldier, by his nature, counts it the glory of his generation to march to war, fight with valor, and fall in noble sacrifice, his body wrapped in horsehide and borne home. If you know yourself to be a warrior's wife, you must accept that — so why do you behave so poorly?"
Gwon So-yul had nothing left to say. She could only feel, keenly, the great wall that stood between them.
Nam I looked at her with cold eyes.
"If all you desire is a man steeped in the comforts of life behind safe walls, then all I can say is — that is not my path."
"Husband..."
Without waiting for an answer, Nam I shook himself and strode out.
Gwon So-yul stood rooted to the spot for a long while. Her maid, who had been at a loss where to put herself, finally ventured to speak.
"My lady..."
Only then did Gwon So-yul come back to herself. She hurriedly dabbed at the tear stains spreading across her cheeks with her sleeve.
"I am quite well."
She squeezed out the answer as befitted a noblewoman's dignity. But though she said it, she felt shriveled beyond all measuring — as lonely as if she stood alone in all the wide world.