The Ledger That Grew on the Road
"And there was something I was saying earlier before it slipped my mind—soon enough I'll have to ride to Anchuunbugu and raise that marriage proposal we've been pushing for ages…… I hear the Onyan girl will be coming of age soon?"
"That's my understanding as well, though I can't say for certain. They've raised her like gold and jade from birth."
"So I'd imagine."
At Maguulpa's words, Lee Man-ju snorted through his nose in agreement.
"Rearing some girl all prim and proper—what good does that ever do…… But no matter. The day can no longer be put off on account of her age. I'll send an envoy around autumn."
After several matters of business had been discussed, Lee Man-ju turned to Lee Go-nap-hap and the council of elders.
"That will be all for today. Has anyone anything more to say?"
No one spoke.
Lee Man-ju nodded.
"Then let us withdraw."
Stepping outside, Lee Go-nap-hap felt as though a knot in his chest had finally come loose.
Irongha and Olanggamokya approached him carefully. Sharp-eyed as they were, they had already read their master's mood.
Lee Go-nap-hap affected a bold, ringing voice.
"We go to Hwangseongpyeong! Who stands at the very top of the merchants there?"
"In Hwangseongpyeong, that would be Pushan Hadaru, surely?"
"Then we seek him out."
Irongha tilted his head at Lee Go-nap-hap's brusque reply.
"Pushan Hadaru? You mean to visit him in person, my lord?"
It was hard to believe, after all—Lee Go-nap-hap, who held in name the post of Vice-Commissioner of the Jianzhou Guard, personally calling on some lowborn trader?
Lee Go-nap-hap bristled with irritation.
"Yes, in person!"
"As you command, Lord Kunaha."
For no good reason, Irongha shrank his neck like a chastened turtle.
Iron, was it…… Iron, of all things. Iron would serve well enough in building my own army, too. Now then……
Two and a half months after setting out, Hong-wi's party returned to Hwangseongpyeong and headed straight for Hwang Ga's warehouse. The pelts they had carried back had to be handed over, their profits settled, and the next trading expedition prepared.
As it happened, Jang Hui-sun was there.
"Well now, back safe and sound, are ye?"
Jang Hui-sun greeted them as warmly as one welcomes men back from the dead.
"I was half afraid somethin' had gone wrong for the lot of ye."
"Ah, come now, Elder, what an ill-omened thing to say. Why would anything have happened to us?"
Cha Gyeong-yeon jested lightly in reply.
"What d'ye mean, why? Word's all over the roads that that devil Biriherimdon descended on Sahalcha and left it a field of weeds. Don't tell me ye hadn't heard?"
Hong-wi's party exchanged wry smiles. Rumor, they say, travels a thousand li on no legs at all—and this one had reached Hwangseongpyeong ahead of them.
"Well, as it happens, we did cross paths with him."
"Good heavens above. Ye met that thing face to face and still walked back with yer heads on yer shoulders?"
Jang Hui-sun went pale.
"A monster of pure malice, he was. Never in my days have I seen his like."
"Aiyo, say no more. I'd not put stock in every whisper, mind ye…… but the tales say he kills the women and abducts the men, which seems too foul to be true. Even takin' only half of it, it's enough to make a man's blood run cold. Comin' back alive after meetin' him—that's fortune of fortunes."
Jang Hui-sun shook his head slowly.
"Master Hwang's been fretin' over ye somethin' terrible. And that Pushan Hadaru must have known full well too. Knew it, and sent ye to the slaughter all the same. Master Temusi-i, even if ye'd come back with no profit at all, don't let it weigh on ye. Trade's hard in Jianzhou at the best of times. For a greenhorn on his first run, just comin' back alive is a blessin'. Ye ran straight into a war zone on top of it all!"
Hong-wi's party looked at one another and smiled in a way that said a great deal.
"Well, who's to say—but the accounts must be settled regardless. Is Master Hwang about?"
"He's gone back to Manpo for the time bein'. Anyway, let's settle up. Let's see here now…… Wait, what in the—"
Jang Hui-sun turned his gaze to the packhorse train, stood blinking for a moment, then tilted his head. He rubbed his eyes and looked again.
"……Is somethin' wrong with my eyes? The packhorses—there's more of 'em than when ye left."
"You see rightly, Elder. But it's not just the horses that have grown. Look here."
Hong-wi walked toward the first packhorse. Jang Hui-sun followed, and Hong-wi lifted a hand to touch the load on the animal's back.
"Look. Black sable and marten pelts from the Sahalcha mountains."
"Good heavens!"
Jang Hui-sun's mouth fell open. He swept his stunned gaze across the line of packhorses.
"Don't tell me……?"
"That very 'don't tell me,' Elder."
Cha Gyeong-yeon chuckled heartily.
Jang Hui-sun stammered, hardly daring to believe it.
"Every…… every last one of those packhorses, loaded down with black sable and marten?"
"Not every one, perhaps. But they'd fetch that much and more. All top-grade, every pelt."
Jang Hui-sun stood with his mouth hanging open, unable to utter a word. Only after a long while did he find his voice.
"What sorcery did ye work? How in the world……?"
"As you say yourself, Elder—good fortune on a first journey, nothing more."
Hong-wi smiled quietly, though part of him felt a weight settle on his heart. He could not help thinking it was thanks to the massacre at Ban Village.
Cha Gyeong-yeon cut in with a sly grin.
"Well, Elder? Is this enough to save face?"
"Save face for what, exactly?"
Jang Hui-sun was still gaping, bewildered.
"At this rate ye could quit tradin' for the rest of the year. That Pushan Hadaru's nose'll be bent clean out of shape. Can't say for certain till we count it, but a windfall like this would lightly eclipse everythin' Pushan Hadaru's crowd earned and will earn this year."
"No—truly?"
It was Hong-wi's party who was startled by Jang Hui-sun's assessment. No matter how you counted it, Hong-wi's 'trading house' and Pushan Hadaru's were not remotely comparable in size. Hong-wi's outfit had only just finished its first expedition, while Pushan Hadaru was a magnate commanding several trading houses far larger.
"Nay, no jest. Elder, how would you even know how much profit Pushan Hadaru's crowd turns in?"
"Because nobody on this river knows the volume of goods crossin' the Amnok better than I do."
Jang Hui-sun declared it with total confidence. And it was true enough. The Amnok River smuggling trade was monopolized by Hwang Ga, and Jang Hui-sun, as its Chief Boatman leading the smuggling fleet, was the man who ran the operations himself. In other words, the volume of goods supplied to Pushan Hadaru and the other merchants of Hwangseongpyeong—and the volume carried back into Joseon—was known to no one better than Jang Hui-sun.
"Pushan Hadaru inherited tradin' houses and contacts built up over generations—that's all. The man himself has no particular gift for the trade. Truth is, his houses have been slippin' steadily for years, I'd stake my life on it. Ye can see it in what flows in and out. It's shrunk year by year. He's eatin' through his capital, no doubt about it."
Jang Hui-sun looked over Hong-wi's packhorse train once more and clicked his tongue again.
"If Master Temusi-i keeps this up for a few more years, ye'll surpass the whole Pushan crowd."
"A strong first showing is no guarantee of what follows."
"Honestly, I figured if ye broke even on yer first run, that'd be doin' right well—and if ye came back safe, I'd have brought a bottle over and congratulated ye, and that'd have been that. But here ye are with this……"
"My life belongs to me, not to you, Elder."
Hong-wi laughed heartily.
"And isn't it thanks to your worrying that we came back whole?"
At those words, Jang Hui-sun's face lit up. He blurted out without thinking,
"Ah, that's the heart of a true king for ye—aiyo!"
Cha Gyeong-yeon abruptly seized him by the ear, and Jang Hui-sun's words choked off mid-sentence.
"Aigoo, this is why drunkards can't be trusted…… Elder, what in blazes do you think you're doing, letting that slip here? Keep it up and I can't cover for you either."
Stung by Cha Gyeong-yeon's prodding, Jang Hui-sun hastily backpedaled.
"My apologies. It just slipped out……"
"Just be more careful from now on."
While they were talking, two men entered. The man walking in front spotted Hong-wi's party and stopped in his tracks. As his eyes confirmed the line of packhorses, his mouth fell open in silence.
Just then Jang Hui-sun recognized him.
"Ah, Master Ugunai. And ye've come with Master Wumubin, I see?"
The man collected himself, his color returning as though he'd only just remembered where he was, and gave a short nod.
"That's right. Lord Pushan sent us to receive the goods."
Hong-wi turned and looked at them too. He remembered the sharp-featured savage-looking man who had stood beside Pushan Hadaru—a fellow named Ugunai, he recalled. Beside Ugunai was a wiry, scraggly-goated man in Ming dress.
"The goods are ready. They're in that warehouse—match them against the manifest and take them."
Ugunai nodded, though his gaze stayed fixed on Hong-wi. He gave an instruction to Wumubin beside him.
"Count them out."
"Of course."
Wumubin produced brush, inkstone, and an abacus. Ugunai turned his eyes back to Hong-wi's party.
"Hm. Master Temusi-i. It appears ye made quite a haul in Sahalcha. This is remarkable."
"Fortune favored us."
Ugunai silently raked his eyes over the packhorses.
"The Sahalcha folk aren't known for their warmth…… And there was a war besides."
"It wasn't easy."
"So I'd imagine."
Ugunai fell silent. Then, as though remembering something, he spoke.
"Once ye've settled yer first-journey profits, come call on Lord Pushan. Ye'll be needin' to pay the entry fee—three parts in ten of yer margin. Ye remember the terms?"
"Remember them well. Tell him we'll visit soon."
"So I shall."
Ugunai nodded, and before long excused himself on the grounds of other business and hurried off.
Ho-in smirked.
"Did you see the look on his face? The wretch—it did my heart good to see him so utterly dumbstruck."
"His Grace has returned not just alive and whole, but with an enormous profit in tow. Hardly surprising he's stunned."
Jang Hui-sun nodded along with Cha Gyeong-yeon.
"Aye, that it is. Those dogs were certain as sunrise that His—— that Master Temusi-i would come to grief."
"Still, having to just hand over a third of everything we earned to those wretches—my stomach turns, Elder. Just as you said, they meant to send us—— meant to send His Grace to the slaughter, didn't they!"
Ho-in spoke with bitter indignation, fists clenched tight.
"We can't go makin' enemies we don't need. Not now, at least."
"Why not? We owe men like that no bowing."
"Elder, we're thinking of going on to Anchuunbugu next—have you heard anything of the place?"
Instead of answering Ho-in's question, Hong-wi turned to Jang Hui-sun.
"Anchuunbugu? First I've heard of it."
Jang Hui-sun shrugged.
"Then what of a chieftain called Onyan Isiha?"
"Hm. Never heard that name either. Who is he?"
Hong-wi looked around at his companions. Cha Gyeong-yeon spoke.
"Know him or not, he's a careful one. If his name hasn't even reached the Joseon court, that tells you everything."
"Who in the world is he……?"
It was Hong-wi who answered Jang Hui-sun's question in his stead.
"They say he's a chieftain who commands great respect among the wild tribes. I've never heard of him myself, and that's what troubles me. Every kind of intelligence eventually makes its way to us—there's no reason his name alone should never have crossed my ears."
"Is that so."
Jang Hui-sun tilted his head, puzzled. For a mere smuggling boatman like him, there was no way of knowing how detailed the reports on the wild tribes flowing into the Joseon court in Hanyang actually were.
"Well…… if that's how it stands, I suppose we've no choice but to press the tribes themselves for answers."
"So it seems."
Hong-wi considered for a moment, then frowned.
"Or perhaps we already know someone who does."
"Who would that be?"
"Pushan Hadaru couldn't possibly not know. He's the foremost magnate in Hwangseongpyeong—isn't he something like the head of all the merchants there?"
Even the chieftains of Sahalcha had not known exactly where Anchuunbugu lay. It was not that no one had ever gone—men had, with the cooperation of the Hwangseongpyeong merchants—but the security was said to be airtight; from the village's edge onward, visitors were made to wear blindfolds. There was a reason it had kept its lineage alive all this time, evading the Mongols' relentless pursuit since the fall of the Jin dynasty.
Cha Gyeong-yeon agreed.
"If anyone knows, he does. Shall we go to him at once?"
"That would be fine—but first……"
Hong-wi turned to Jang Hui-sun with a smile.
"It won't be late to visit him after standing a round for Elder Hui-sun here. Elder, the porters need their wages paid as well—will you help us with that?"
"Would I ever refuse?"
At those words, Jang Hui-sun grinned from ear to ear.
"To think ye'd come to us in person, Lord Kunaha! Had I known ye were comin', I'd have……"
"Ah, spare me the courtesies."
Pushan Hadaru was in a fluster over the visit of such a rare guest. Lee Go-nap-hap shook his head with a look of distaste.
However mighty the standing of the Pushan clan, that standing existed only within the world of trade. Before the Hurigai tribe—one of the Jianzhou Three Guards—Pushan Hadaru was a trifling creature, beneath comparison.
"I've come with a request."
"Name it, and it is done."
Pushan Hadaru all but melted with deference. Even as he groveled, his mind was working. How could he turn this request to his advantage?
No matter how notorious Lee Go-nap-hap's reputation was—the foremost rake and lecher of Jianzhou—he was still the son of that Lee Man-ju, and Vice-Commissioner of the Jianzhou Guard. Not a man to be disregarded.
He resolved to seize this chance and win the young lord's favor.
Does he want a woman, perhaps? Or silks and finery—something of that sort?
But Lee Go-nap-hap's request proved greater than anything he had imagined.