The Dudu's Cold Judgment
Lee Go-nap-hap raised his voice.
"Dudu, I have just returned from inspecting the Pajeo River."
It was a voice he had rehearsed to sound resolute, yet even to his own ears it came out strangely cowed.
Dudu. That title, the Jurchen rendering of the Chinese office of Dudu, was permitted to one man and one man only within the Jianzhou Guard.
Yi Man-ju — former Vice-Commissioner of the Jianzhou Guard, who had been compelled to grant his eldest son the position in name only some ten years ago, yet who still reigned as the true seat of power in Jianzhou. That was the man.
Lee Go-nap-hap gazed steadily at his father.
Grandson of Ahachu, who had commanded the Jianzhou Jurchens alongside the hero Tung Mentemu; chieftain of the Hurigai, mightiest of the five great Jianzhou Jurchen tribes; and the paramount power among the Jianzhou Jurchens — such was Yi Man-ju.
In his youth he had been a bold warrior whom no man could stand against, and even in age his cruelty and cunning made him someone no one dared slight.
That was not to say his life had been without humiliating defeats.
As a young man he had been driven out by the Mongol forces, and in the days of King Sejong the Great he had been soundly thrashed by Joseon.
And yet he had survived, and those bitter failures had tempered a hot-blooded youth into a cunning old wolf.
In the end, by becoming the undisputed first man of the Jianzhou Guard — the foremost of the three great powers of the Jianzhou Jurchens — he had proven that the survivor was the victor.
But Yi Man-ju's ambition did not end there.
His dream was to one day unify all the Jianzhou Jurchens, win a fame to rival that of Wanyan Aguda — Onyan Akuta — founder of the old Great Jin dynasty, and become the founder of a new nation.
"Ban Village has been annihilated. The other tribes of Sahalcha have sworn to deliver the promised tribute on time."
"Is that so."
Yi Man-ju never said a thing had been done well.
His sons were no exception — if anything, they were held to it all the more strictly.
"A back that will not bend soon rises up in defiance... I suppose our example was not lost on Sahalcha. Wiped out to the last man, the last head of cattle — not one living soul left behind."
"Y-yes..."
Lee Go-nap-hap very nearly mentioned that the son of Ban Village's chieftain was still alive, then thought better of it.
Biriherimdon had received Yi Man-ju's summons and departed on some other assignment — one that Go-nap-hap had no particular desire to know about.
But what did it matter? Even alive, the man's circumstances would be a fate worse than death.
Lee Go-nap-hap kept his mouth shut.
It was then that Maguulpa spoke.
"That said, the annihilation of Ban Village will breed resentment in some quarters."
"Resentment, you say? Resentment?"
Yi Man-ju turned the words over on his tongue.
"Who dares? Sahalcha is my domain, and it lies beneath me. If I say pay, they pay; if I raise the whip, they must take the lash. The Odoli tribe? Have they the gall to pick a quarrel with me?"
Yi Man-ju fixed Maguulpa with eyes cold as sheet ice.
That killing edge made Lee Go-nap-hap flinch despite himself, but Maguulpa met the gaze with perfect composure.
"Forgive me, Dudu. I spoke of Onyan Isiha."
"Ah. Onyan Isiha."
Yi Man-ju gave a shrug of his shoulders.
"From him — well, I suppose it's possible. But even he will not manage to blow ill winds into the tribes beneath me."
"Quite right, Dudu."
It was then that Yi Agu, Lee Go-nap-hap's younger brother, who had kept silent until now, cut in.
Hot-blooded as he was, he clearly meant to catch his father's eye at this opportunity.
That fool!
Lee Go-nap-hap scowled darkly.
"All this talk of Onyan Isiha — what army can that old relic actually muster? Before you, Dudu—"
"Hold your tongue."
At Yi Man-ju's curt reply, Yi Agu, who had been angling to score a rare point, shut his mouth at once.
"How many times must I tell you that he is not to be scorned? The Wanyan clan are, after all, descendants of the old Jin imperial house. It does not do to treat him lightly. As you say, the man has no proper army to speak of — and yet with nothing but that sharp tongue of his and his insufferable authority, he brought the Jianzhou Three Guards into being. Is that not astonishing? That Tungshan and Pan-chya, each dying to devour the other, were brought to the bargaining table..."
Yi Man-ju looked down at the map of Jianzhou.
It was no Jurchen-made map but one produced in Joseon — a precious prize that Yi Man-ju's second son, Lee Du-ri, had obtained as payment for presenting himself at the Joseon court.
No more detailed map of the region existed anywhere in Jianzhou, and it was a bitter irony indeed that Joseon knew the Jurchens' own lands better than the Jurchens did.
"Someday the Wanyan clan too will bow beneath our line — but that day has not yet come. Which is why your role is so important. You do understand that, don't you, Kunaha?"
The arrow swung back around to Lee Go-nap-hap.
Yi Man-ju turned to face him with eyes of ice.
Though it was his own father, Lee Go-nap-hap felt like nothing so much as a mouse before a cat.
Damn it all — this is why I hate coming here...
"Onyan Isiha is a cunning man, but sadly he has been cursed in his children. His only living kin is a single daughter. When he dies — Kunaha — you must make that woman yours. Only then will the legitimacy of the Wanyan line settle upon our family."
Yi Man-ju's voice was cold as ice and low as a rumble in the deep.
"Y-yes..."
Lee Go-nap-hap's voice sounded like something crawling along the floor.
"I understand."
"If you understand, then you will also take care to mind what is yours."
At that, Lee Go-nap-hap's face soured.
I'm pushing thirty now — must he still treat me like a child?
He fumed inwardly.
It had been ten full years since the Ming had appointed him, in place of his aging father, as Dudu of the Jianzhou Guard.
And what did that mean? Did it not prove that even the Ming recognized the rising sun of the Jianzhou Guard as none other than himself — Lee Go-nap-hap — and not his father, a sun in its dying fall?
Yet that damnable father had withheld from him not a shred of real power — he would not even let him use the title Dudu.
Only recently had he finally been granted a branch household, along with a meager forty cavalrymen.
This was Lee Go-nap-hap's grievance.
To my father's eyes, I am nothing but a stud horse for siring foals... Just wait. Before he dies, I will see the look of shock on my father's face with these very two eyes.
So Lee Go-nap-hap vowed, biting his lip hard.
But even he understood that taking the Wanyan woman mattered for the sake of his future.
"It is only a matter of taking one woman, Dudu."
"Oh?"
Yi Man-ju gave an ominous smile.
That smile was thick with a mocking, incredulous scorn.
"So the boy has moments of confidence in him after all. How admirable."
At that, a ripple of quiet laughter spread among the elders.
Only Maguulpa did not laugh.
Humiliation curdled Lee Go-nap-hap's expression.
Yi Man-ju raised a hand, and the laughter died at once.
"A fine hunter gives his utmost no matter how small the quarry. Do not forget it. Do you understand?"
Lee Go-nap-hap did not answer.
Yi Man-ju asked again, his face showing displeasure.
"I asked whether you understood."
"Yes... I understand."
Yi Man-ju leaned back against his cushion.
"With that old tusked boar dead, the hour of opportunity has come. As it happens, Pan-chya lies sick and wasting as well — when he dies, all of Jianzhou will be plunged into chaos once more. That will be the moment."
The tusked boar was Yi Jing-ok, the late Provincial Military Commander of Hamgil, now departed this world.
In life he had loomed over the Jurchens as an object of terror, gripping them firmly in his fist — so firmly that even Yi Man-ju had been unable to stretch his limbs freely.
Several years had passed since his death, but the void he left behind remained vast.
His successor, Yang Jeong, had ability, to be sure — but he concerned himself with only two things: lining his own coffers and clawing his way back into central court politics, rather than securing the peace of the frontier.
"Kunaha — the reason I permitted your branch household was to gather military strength for what lies ahead. You must assemble warriors worth their salt, not a rabble of drifters and strays. Do you understand?"
"It is engraved upon my mind."
On this point, at least, Lee Go-nap-hap had some confidence.
Only after passing thirty had he gained the footing to stand on his own, and in his eagerness to escape his father's shadow he had thrown himself into raising troops.
Not for his father's ambition — but to achieve his own.
Yi Agu looked on at him with envious eyes.
Among Yi Man-ju's sons, Lee Go-nap-hap was still the only one permitted to found a branch household.
"That said... Dudu, there is a problem."
"...A problem?"
Maguulpa spoke up.
Yi Man-ju's brow furrowed, but he soon nodded and asked.
Maguulpa had served the Yi Man-ju house for three generations, and even setting that aside, his counsel was always worth heeding.
"What problem, Maguulpa?"
"We lack iron."
At those words, Yi Man-ju clicked his tongue shortly, clearly displeased.
This was no new problem.
When the Mongol invasion destroyed the Jin dynasty, Jurchen civilization regressed along with it.
And the trouble was that their metallurgy had vanished in the collapse.
Strictly speaking, they could still take iron that had already been smelted and work it into weapons, farm implements, and other goods — but the craft of smelting raw ore into iron itself was lost.
In the end, the Jurchens had no choice but to import wrought iron from Joseon or the Ming — and neither country looked kindly on the Jurchens regaining their former strength, so the export of iron was strictly controlled.
"That is why I sent Du-ri to the Joseon court. Has there been any word?"
Yi Man-ju had recently dispatched his younger son, Lee Du-ri, to Hanyang to pay formal tribute at the court.
For all that Yi Man-ju was the power of the Jianzhou Guard, he could not openly defy Joseon, so a two-faced policy of peace and preparation was essential.
An army needed building, and with iron in short supply, Yi Man-ju intended to coax Joseon into surrendering what he needed.
"We sent him, but there is no satisfying answer yet."
Yi Man-ju made a sour noise in his throat.
"Can it not be obtained some other way?"
"We are looking into every avenue, but I cannot promise we can meet the demand. What we hold now falls short even of forging the spears and swords owed to the warriors under your command."
Maguulpa answered with care.
In truth, Yi Man-ju had swelled his army greatly over the past few years, more than doubling his direct household troops to several hundred men.
By rights Joseon should have moved to check this — but Yi Jing-ok, who knew the Jurchen situation inside and out, had died a horrible death.
Yi Man-ju had made full use of that power vacuum.
The problem was that the weapons with which to arm these men were pitifully few.
With food and clothing running short as well, he had raised the tribute levied across the whole Jianzhou Guard to crushing levels — and even that fell short, leaving him on the verge of simply telling the tribes to fend for themselves.
And "fending for themselves," in practice, meant nothing less than tacit license for banditry and plunder.
"I hear tell that smugglers are thick on the ground at Hwangseongpyeong."
It was Lee Go-nap-hap who said it.
At once every eye in the room turned to him.
Yi Man-ju regarded him with an expressionless gaze.
Lee Go-nap-hap regretted opening his mouth at all.
"Is that true?"
"W-well..."
Lee Go-nap-hap hemmed and hawed.
"Then procuring iron at Hwangseongpyeong I shall leave to you. Can you manage it?"
Trapped by his own move, Lee Go-nap-hap could not easily answer.
Then a single thought occurred to him.
"...If you will entrust me with the management of the merchants at Hwangseongpyeong, I will do it."
"Hmm."
Yi Man-ju's eyes narrowed to slits.
Yi Man-ju, a Hurigai warrior to the marrow, was a man who regarded merchants as vermin beneath his heel.
But neither was Yi Man-ju fool enough to dismiss the usefulness of such merchants.
And he was even less fool enough to hand a source of money over to anyone — least of all his own eldest son, the heir who would one day succeed him.
He lowered his voice a register further and spoke, low and quiet.
"You take your father for a fool, do you, Kunaha?"
"What? N-no, of course not! Not the slightest such thought crosses my mind!"
A chill crawled up Lee Go-nap-hap's spine.
Yi Man-ju stared at him without a word.
"I will grant you the authority you need. No more and no less. Do you understand?"
Lee Go-nap-hap, whose scheme to line his own pockets had backfired spectacularly, nodded grudgingly.
Meanwhile, Yi Man-ju seemed to be turning something over in his mind.
"...Since Onyan Isiha came up a moment ago — as Maguulpa says, that man might well poke his nose in where it does not belong. The Sahalcha lot saw with their own two eyes what became of Ban Village, so they will not try anything foolish. But those others are simple fools by nature — the kind who never learn until they've been bitten themselves."
At that, the elders laughed.
"Which is why we must watch all who come and go from Anchuunbugu with the keenest eye... As I understand it, the road to Anchuunbugu is treacherous, and bandits swarm along it."
"So I have heard."
A cruel smile played at the corners of Yi Man-ju's mouth.
"In times like these, stepping carelessly beyond one's door can cost a man his very life. Would you not say so?"
"Quite right."
The elders agreed.
"Summon Kunuma. He is the perfect man for such an errand. If a handful of strangers should meet with mishaps on the road, who then would dare make for Anchuunbugu?"
Lee Go-nap-hap too knew Kunuma well.
The man held a Zhihui commission in the Jianzhou Guard, but while Maguulpa and Biriherimdon — Zhihui as well — were Yi Man-ju's direct confidants, Kunuma led his own independent band, closer to a guest-chieftain, and was not even a member of the Hurigai tribe.
But in sheer cruelty he yielded to no man.
Yi Man-ju found Kunuma useful as a hunting dog — set loose on the filthy work his own hand could not conveniently do.