Not the Green Forest—It's a Tollgate
"It's not the Green Forest—it's a tollgate."
What Hwi-yeom had originally intended was to lay tracks so that trains could run—but a few adjustments had been made at the planning stage.
"In the early phase we won't lay the rails themselves. We'll just secure the right-of-way for them, and first pave the carriage roads and footpaths that will run alongside. We don't have a proper locomotive yet, after all."
There was a considerable difference between the model train racing around inside the Innovation Hall and a full-scale locomotive that would actually travel between cities. More importantly, several problems still had to be solved before any track could be laid.
"Time to get started, don't you think? The Green Forest pacification."
While the tunnel-boring work had been under way, the Green Forest bandits had not dared to show so much as a whisker. And for good reason: any bandits stupid enough to stick their heads into a construction site where two of the Sichuan Dang Family's three major combat units were deployed on Sichuan soil would never have lived long enough to become a problem.
But now that the blasting was finished, continuing the work with only Dang Family personnel for the sake of secrecy was a waste of both time and manpower. If they were to expand this into the large-scale public-works project they had originally envisioned—creating jobs across Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces and pouring money into the local government offices and common people—the Dang warriors would have to step back and civilian labor would have to step in.
And the moment it became a civilian worksite, the odds of Green Forest bandits sniffing around for something to steal would skyrocket. On top of that, the rails themselves would be made of wrought iron. Pry them up and sell them and you had cash; take them to a forge and you could turn them into steel. With money literally lying on the mountainside, what bandit would leave it alone?
Dang Un-sang spoke.
"We could keep the warriors posted and simply hold them off… but if we don't clean out the Green Forest scum, they'll strip the rails the moment we lay them, and we can't keep guards there forever. I think the time has come."
"The Elder Council is of the same opinion."
At Un-sang's words every senior officer of the family nodded as one. Then Hwi-yeom, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
"I've been thinking about this for a while. Is there any chance we could bring the Green Forest over to our side instead?"
"The Green Forest? Why? Those bastards make their living preying on honest commoners. We aren't some unorthodox sect—if we take the Green Forest's hand, the entire orthodox martial world will be up in arms."
"I looked into that a little already. Ye-eun?"
"Yes, Young Family Head."
At Hwi-yeom's order, Ye-eun stepped forward and offered a formal bow.
"Han Ye-eun, Director of the Minjeongwon and First Secretary to the Young Family Head. After the Yunnan trip, the Young Family Head ordered an investigation, so I conducted a brief survey of the Green Forest bandits active in Sichuan, Yunnan, and the surrounding regions."
Ye-eun gave a sharp clap. Her junior secretary promptly distributed prepared reports to everyone present with a soft rustle of paper.
"Please look at the first page. It is a summary of civilian property damage and casualties attributed to Green Forest bandits over the past ten years."
"…That's all?"
"Yes. And this already includes every incident merely suspected of involving the Green Forest. If we further exclude cases of people taken by wild animals or attacked by ordinary mountain bandits who never joined the Green Forest, the actual harm inflicted on ordinary commoners by true Green Forest groups is negligible. In plain terms, it is almost nonexistent."
"How did you arrive at a result like this? Can we trust it?"
"We conducted direct surveys of the populace through the Minjeongwon and, with the cooperation of the Provincial Administration, examined the government records as well. It is certain."
Ye-eun's firm reply drew a low murmur from the elders, the senior officers of the Family Head's hall, Dang Un-sang, and even Elder Bang Un.
Hwi-yeom continued.
"Simply put, the Green Forest gains more loss than profit by touching civilians. Their main income has always come from stopping merchant caravans of a certain size and demanding road tolls."
The seventy-two mountain strongholds of the Green Forest occupied fixed positions—strategic chokepoints that traffic simply had to pass. Their usual method was not to seize people for the slave markets and strip every scrap of property, but simply to collect a modest toll and let the travelers go. Under ordinary circumstances, open clashes rarely occurred. It was a form of mutual accommodation.
From the Green Forest's perspective, a direct fight with a well-armed escort agency or friction with merchants would cost them men and, worse, give the imperial army an excuse to move. From the merchants' and escort agencies' perspective, earning the lasting enmity of bandits who lived in the forests and could wage guerrilla harassment would be ruinously expensive; paying a "protection fee" and moving on was simply better business.
Compared with the tolls extracted from caravans of that scale, a few ordinary travelers on the mountain paths were like fry that slipped through the net—left alone. "Robbing a handful of commoners on a mountain trail doesn't even cover the cost of the arrows," Hwi-yeom said. "And how often do private individuals travel those roads in the first place?"
That, too, was true. In this age, ordinary people almost never traveled. There were no formal travel bans, but farmers who lived off the land they tilled had nowhere to go, and the mountains were full of beasts that made free wandering unwise. At best one might cross a single pass to the next village.
"The bandits who actually rob those few travelers are usually the half-baked sort who never managed to join a real Green Forest stronghold—or starving commoners who turned outlaw out of desperation."
"Hmm…"
"I'm not trying to claim the Green Forest are secret saints. They're still thugs who block ownerless mountain roads and demand money. But they are not the sort of scum who slaughter innocent civilians for no reason."
"Go on."
"Now look at their revenue structure. They live off tolls demanded from passing caravans. Suppose we offer them a contract: a fixed monthly sum in exchange for supervising and maintaining the roads and rail lines we're about to build. Is that really so different?"
"…What?"
At that moment every head in the Family Head's hall tilted roughly forty-five degrees toward Hwi-yeom. Had they just heard what they thought they heard? What was he proposing to do with the Green Forest?
Ye-eun's expression said, I knew the moment he made me write this report that the brat would come up with something like this—but seriously? She let out a hollow little laugh while Hwi-yeom beamed and flipped to the next page of the report.
"The biggest problem with the Green Forest's 'business model' is that it depends on irregular caravan traffic. Income swings wildly. So they have to stay on edge every day waiting for the next caravan. If a caravan is late they worry their rice bowls will be empty. Then if they're unlucky enough to tangle with martial artists, employees start dying, and in the really unlucky cases an entire 'branch office' gets wiped out and has to close. From a manager's point of view, it's a pretty miserable way to run a company."
"…I never thought I'd live to hear someone call a Green Forest King a 'manager.'"
Dang Un-sang laughed in disbelief.
"The truly absurd part is that it actually makes sense. I seem to have been infected by you. Continue."
"A deal can be struck in any relationship so long as both sides have something to give and something to receive. The Dang Family can offer the Green Forest a stable, fixed income—and a clean identity."
"A clean identity?"
"Having the outside world know that we handed railroad security to the Green Forest would do us no favors, so laundering is necessary for our sake as well. We set up a company and hire every last one of them as employees. Something like the 'Hwieon Road Management Corporation' should do nicely. While we're at it, we can work with the Regional Military Command and create a few cushy post-retirement posts for their officials. That way we get official cooperation into the bargain. Perfect."
A Korean Expressway Corporation staffed by bandits and local garrison troops—what kind of absurd hidden-camera comedy was this? In modern terms it was the feeling of driving a mountain road out of Mexico City, stopping at a tollbooth manned by cartel soldiers who make change for the toll, then high-fiving the Mexico City territorial-defense troops who arrive for the shift change. Of course, no one in this world except Hwi-yeom would understand the comparison.
Then again, if you think about it, our own Sichuan Dang Family—maintaining a private army while waving the banner of 'martial artists do not interfere with the court'—isn't so different from a cartel once you set aside the fact that we're diligent taxpayers who don't harm the neighbors.
They cultivated toxic herbs on a massive scale, manufactured acids and poisons, and now even developed gunpowder. At this point a cartel almost looked cute by comparison. Hwi-yeom shook his head to clear the digression and continued.
"On our side, we obtain a ready-made external workforce for stable railroad maintenance. Honestly, if we can't persuade the Green Forest, we'll have no choice but to wipe them out completely. Otherwise the rails simply won't survive. Money lying on the road—who's going to leave that alone? So before we prepare a full pacification campaign, wouldn't it be worth trying negotiation once? They might surprise us and listen to reason."
"Hmm…"
Something about this felt like they were being gently led by the nose—yet none of the family elders could find a way to cut short Hwi-yeom's silver tongue. Still, experience told, and Elder Bang Un raised one clear objection.
"Even if we negotiate with the Green Forest, Young Family Head, whether the government will tolerate it is an entirely different matter. Under current law, turning a blind eye to Green Forest activity could easily be seen as serious misconduct. No official who cares about his career will want to shoulder that risk. How do you propose to handle this? I do not believe we can simply deceive them."
"Of course we must not deceive the yamen—and we couldn't even if we wanted to. We will submit formal explanations and request approval from the Provincial Administration, the Surveillance Commission, and the Regional Military Command, all three."
"You believe that is possible? If I were still Surveillance Commissioner I would have opposed it on principle."
"Everything depends on the packaging, Advisor. Think carefully. The Emperor's law is stern and his armies are strong, yet they have never managed to root out every bandit and pirate under heaven, have they?"
"True enough."
"And now we propose to reform those very bandits into honest guards who protect the roads merchants travel. If it succeeds, not a single soldier's life is lost, and a latent threat is transformed into taxpaying subjects. Is there really any reason to block it out of hand?"
"That is sophistry. Bringing them in as taxpayers is fine, but the crimes they have already committed still require judgment. Otherwise, what is the law for?"
"There is such a thing as a judicial bargain. These are people the state's power never managed to arrest or try in the first place. Rather than set ourselves against them on the principle that they must be judged, wouldn't it be better to accept them under a judicial bargain so that they commit no further crimes going forward?"
"…It has a certain logic. But that premise only holds if the bandits calculate that receiving a road-maintenance fee from the Dang Family is enough, and they stop collecting tolls. How do you intend to stop them from shaking down travelers?"
"Huh? Why would we stop them from collecting tolls? Of course they keep collecting them."
"What?"
Faced with the stunned faces around him, Hwi-yeom grinned.
"Do you have any idea how labor-intensive railroad maintenance is? Weeds have to be pulled, rocks cleared, animals driven off, and local residents stopped from prying up the rails for scrap… They won't be collecting tolls as bandits. They'll be collecting them the way garrison troops collect tolls at a provincial gate. At the tollga—no, no—at the road-management station."
Not extortion, but wages for labor. Not crime, but legitimate corporate activity. And step by step, they would be drawn into the light of day. Whether this was a strategy of coexistence that would make both government and people smile, or a capitalist scheme so brazen that even the demons of hell would flee barefoot, no one could yet say.
But for the moment… wait, why does this actually sound reasonable?
Watching Elder Bang Un's wavering eyes, Hwi-yeom cheerfully secured the Family Head's official seal on the half-baked proposal.
Next step:
"Tell the Green Forest King to come out."
Time for sales.