Mount Hua Will Grow Stronger (5)
Maehwado had become a bustling hub, crowded with merchants so numerous that the island was in a state of constant commotion from dawn to dusk.
When Mount Hua first built Maehwado, it had already been no small undertaking, but year after year it had grown larger, until now it was a place that no ordinary merchant caravan could hope to match in scale.
It was only natural.
Maehwado had all but monopolized logistics between the south and the north.
Whether the orthodox factions and the unorthodox factions were at war, whether they drew a line and snarled at one another, people still had to eat to survive and wear clothes to step outside.
Southern merchants trying to supply goods to the north and northern merchants trying to purchase goods from the south all made Maehwado their first choice, to the point that even ten ships were starting to feel insufficient.
“We can make money this easily—so why did we ever bother living as bandits?”
“...Do you really think this will last forever?”
“First Elder, you’re far too negative.”
“A caterpillar should eat pine needles. These days, the Green Forest’s dignity is in a terrible state.”
“Forget dignity and focus on the work you’ve been assigned.”
“Mmph.”
“And the task we were preparing?”
“...It’s nearly finished. But is this really something we should be doing? We’re the Green Forest. And now the Green Forest is going to escort merchant caravans...?”
“If it makes money, there’s nothing we won’t do. Weren’t we collecting tolls under the same pretense from the start?”
“Still, there’s such a thing as our roots... ”
“Change, or you don’t survive.”
Im So-byeong smiled crookedly.
As the Sapa bastards grew more and more reckless, even those who crossed Maehwado for trade were suffering the consequences with increasing frequency. Large caravans could hire escorts, but small ones could not do that so easily.
So they were preparing a new arrangement: gathering the caravans that crossed Maehwado and organizing them into fleet convoys, which the Green Forest would then escort for a fee.
“Once this is in place, more money will come in. These days, there are more and more men sitting around doing nothing because they can’t go bandit hunting anymore. Are we supposed to miss an opportunity to make money by putting those idle fools to work?”
“...There’ll be a lot of complaints.”
“Kill a couple as examples and the rest will quiet down.”
At those calm words, the First Elder swallowed dryly.
Outwardly, the man smiled and laughed like that—but in moments like this, it became painfully clear that, at his core, he was still undeniably the King of the Green Forest.
“Still, Maehwado will be on much firmer footing for it.”
“It’s only a temporary gain, until Saperyeon starts making its move.”
“And so what? We just have to milk it for all it’s worth before then. Do you know how much money we’re making in a single day?”
“That’s exactly why there are complaints. We’re the ones doing all the work, but we only get a fraction of the profit.”
“Tsk, tsk. How foolish. Do you really think merchants would even come near Maehwado if we alone had built this? It’s because of Mount Hua and the Heavenly Alliance that they trust us enough to come. No, before that—if we’d swallowed Maehwado all for ourselves, the Water Bandit Sect and those Maninbang bastards would never have sat still for it.”
The First Elder let out a long sigh.
“I know that. I do. But even so... aren’t those people making money too easily? Wouldn’t it be fine if we took just a little more than we do now...?”
“First Elder.”
In an instant, Im So-byeong’s voice turned cold and bleak. The First Elder straightened as if a blade had been pressed to his spine.
“S-sorry, King of the Green Forest.”
“Do you know why people die?”
“...I’m not sure.”
“Because they let greed outgrow what they deserve. Just like the fools sinking into the riverbed today.”
“...”
“I’d like to believe the First Elder isn’t that stupid.”
“O-of course not.”
“You’re a bandit too, so I suppose some greed is only natural. But... there are things in this world you just can’t touch.”
Cold sweat trickled down the First Elder’s back.
“...I’ll remember that.”
“It’s always best to do things in moderation. Moderation.”
Im So-byeong’s face returned to its usual smiling mask.
“Still...”
His gaze drifted to one side.
Beyond the window set in the wall, the great river flowed on, and Maehwado came into view.
“...Like the First Elder said, I don’t know how long we can keep doing this.”
The situation was becoming worse by the day.
And the plum trees growing on Maehwado were especially hard to look at.
“It isn’t Maehwado because there are plum blossoms here. It’s Maehwado because there are people like plum blossoms here...”
A faint trace of longing flickered in his eyes. With a low sigh, he said,
“Hurry along, then, Mount Hua. I’m at my limit too.”
The voice was far too small to reach all the way to distant Shaanxi.
* * *
“I report.”
Tang Gun-ak, seated in the place of honor, gave a quiet nod.
Under ordinary circumstances, the place where he would receive reports should of course have been the governor’s office at the Sichuan Tang Family. But the room he occupied now was a large chamber in a country estate—not the Tang Family proper.
Seated in the seat of honor, Tang Gun-ak stared ahead with a hardened face.
Anyone who knew him would have been able to tell, even from his expression alone, that he had become more solemn than before.
“Another clash between Sapa and the orthodox factions has broken out in Liu’an.”
Tang Gun-ak’s brow twitched.
“Again...”
“Yes. This time, it looks like it will spread a little more widely.”
Tang Gun-ak slowly drummed his fingers against the table. His expression did not change much, but the sound itself spoke for the discomfort he was feeling.
After sneaking a glance at him, Tang Pae let out a small sigh and said,
“Since Liu’an is in Anhui, it should ordinarily be the Namgung Family that steps in to mediate, but...”
That Namgung Family was still keeping its gates locked and living in seclusion.
They had not officially declared seclusion, but there was little difference. The only distinction was that the Namgung Family did not exactly refuse visitors from outside. As for everything else, they were effectively cut off from the world.
If this had been the old days, no one would have dared to let Sapa and the orthodox factions clash in Anhui, where the Namgung Family stood—especially near Hefei.
But the world now was far removed from the world of the past.
“Searching for those who aren’t there won’t produce an answer.”
“Quite so.”
“Send people to mediate.”
“...The situation is not so simple. It doesn’t look like something that can be settled with words.”
“Then send the family retainers and suppress them by force if you have to.”
“Yes, understood.”
Another sigh slipped from Tang Pae’s lips.
However much the Namgung Family might not be engaging in outside affairs, Anhui was still clearly their territory. To send an armed force there and attempt suppression was bound to be a burden.
But this was no time to weigh such things one by one.
Things are moving far too urgently.
The world had changed too much.
Above all, what had changed most clearly was that a great many of the Sapa factions, who had previously been based mostly in the south, had moved north.
The Sapa factions that crossed north and settled there collided not only with the existing orthodox factions but also with the older Sapa groups who had survived by reading the room between the orthodox sects.
If you were going to seize territory in someone else’s domain, at the very least you should show some restraint and attempt to respect the existing order—but if they were capable of that, would they still be Sapa?
“...We should have stopped this from the beginning.”
“There was no helping it.”
Tang Gun-ak shook his head with a grave expression.
The reason they had not barred the Sapa factions when they crossed the river, even though they knew such incidents would occur, was simple.
“How could we stop people who are merely trying to survive? Even if they are Sapa, they are still human.”
“...That may be true, but...”
If they had come to invade the north, they would of course have been stopped. But the Sapa factions who had migrated now had not crossed over to strike the north. They were people who had crossed the river simply to survive.
Saperyeon, which had swept through the south, demanded only submission.
Kneel and come under Saperyeon’s banner, or else be destroyed.
Most of the Sapa factions chose to kneel and submit, while a small number resisted and met tragic deaths.
And the rest chose neither, instead fleeing north.
“I understand their circumstances, but... then at least they should keep quiet, shouldn’t they?”
Yet Tang Gun-ak slowly shook his head again.
From the start, those who lived by the blade were no better than beggars who could not produce even a single grain of rice on their own. If they could not secure territory and seize the money that flowed from it, they were nothing more than vagabonds with swords.
So the Sapa factions who had crossed north had no choice but to secure territory somehow if they wished to survive.
“In any case, we must ensure the common people are not harmed.”
“We will do so.”
“Anything else?”
Tang Pae glanced at Tang Gun-ak and then continued.
“...Family Head. In the past month alone, there have been more than seven major and minor disturbances we’ve had to intervene in.”
“Yes.”
“In the past, there were only one or two a year. It’s too much for us to bear all of this.”
“I know.”
The main places the Sapa factions had concentrated their settlements were Hubei and Anhui.
Those two places had once been where the Sapa factions could never fully stretch their limbs. They had been governed by the Heavenly Sword Sect and the Namgung Family, after all.
But now that those two sects had shut their gates, those regions had, paradoxically, become the best places for Sapa to settle. There was food everywhere, but no one truly ruled the land.
With only the branch families and the smaller and medium-sized sects to rely on, it was difficult to deal with them. That was why the Tang Family had to run itself ragged, rushing from place to place to mediate.
“How much longer are we expected to keep this up...?”
“It is for the reputation of the Alliance.”
“I know that, Family Head. But resentment within the family is growing by the day. Call it an alliance all you like, but the Beast Palace and the Ice Palace don’t even show their faces in the Central Plains, so all the real work falls to us, doesn’t it?”
“...”
“Mount Hua stirred up the trouble, and we’re the ones left to clean up after it. At best, the Green Forest men lend a hand, but... if we’re going to be saddled with thankless work like this, people are saying we shouldn’t have come to the Yangtze in the first place.”
As he spoke, Tang Pae bit his lip hard.
“And... I think the same way myself. How many years has it been since we’ve properly seen Sichuan? Why is it only us...?”
“Enough.”
“Family Head.”
“If we were only chasing profit, we would never have stood here to begin with. Do you wish to become just another greedy profiteer like them?”
“...No.”
“And furthermore.”
Tang Gun-ak spoke with a hardened face.
“Those suffering the most right now are not us. It is Mount Hua.”
“...”
“Let us endure a little longer.”
“...Understood, Family Head.”
“Good. You may go.”
The moment Tang Pae stepped outside, a deep sigh escaped Tang Gun-ak’s lips.
This is not easy.
The world was tightening around them little by little.
After finishing the unification of the south, Saperyeon had turned inward to reorganize, and once that was done, it could push north at any time. Knowing that, the chaos in the north was growing all the more severe. Everyone felt the same way when they stood before an unavoidable war.
And in such a situation, the factions that should have been stabilizing the north had shut their gates one after another, making the vacancy unbearable.
Even the Tang Family found it difficult to endure that absence.
More than that...
Even matters that would once have been resolved with ease had now become major problems. The voices of dissatisfaction rising within the Tang Family were growing louder as well.
Tang Gun-ak lightly rubbed between his brows.
It has been a thousand days already. Do I still need more time?
Weariness flashed across Tang Gun-ak’s face. He could not help but feel, once again, the limits of his own capacity. If he could not even fully manage the unrest within his own family, how could he possibly bear the Heavenly Alliance?
He let out a long breath and cast his gaze far to the north.
Mount Hua.
Tang Gun-ak murmured softly.
“Hurry a little more. Just a little.”
And in that place where plum blossom fragrance would soon be thick in the air... there was still no news at all.