Negotiations (1)
It went without saying that the Green Forest King was no mere county clerk; one could hardly expect to meet him at the drop of a hat.
When Huiyeom declared that he wished to meet the Green Forest King in person and negotiate, Dang Un-sang and every senior officer of the Dang Family nearly flipped the table.
"Absolutely not!"
"Come on, Father. What would the Green Forest King gain by killing me? The bitter enmity of the Sichuan Dang Family?"
"Even so!"
"And even if things go well, won't we be handing him a weakness to exploit? If he ever threatens to expose that our family has been dealing with them…"
"Who do you think people will believe—the words of Green Forest bandits, or the word of the Dang Family?"
"What if they just take our money and stab us in the back later…"
"That's exactly why. What reason would they have to earn the Dang Family's lasting hatred over a few coins? They'd rather refuse the money outright."
The conference room was pure chaos, yet as the questions and answers kept flying, silence finally settled over them.
Having watched Huiyeom for so long, the people of the Dang Family had learned one hard truth:
When the Young Family Head gets like this, there is no stopping him.
If you tried to hold him back, he would simply force the issue anyway—so Dang Un-sang's mood was closer to, Fine, then at least pull your stunt where I can see it.
"…For now, before you contact the Green Forest King, obtain the yamen's permission first. Cooperating with criminals without the state's blessing could bring who knows what trouble later."
"Yes, sir!"
Surely if the Provincial Administration Commissioner, the Surveillance Commissioner, or the Provincial Military Commander has any sense at all, they won't play along with this insanity.
Dang Un-sang settled on that killing-with-a-borrowed-knife approach to break Huiyeom's resolve and finally breathed a little easier.
But then again—when has the world ever run exactly according to plan?
"Hmm…"
The Provincial Military Commander, supreme local commander of Sichuan's military authority, first looked utterly dumbfounded at Huiyeom's proposal. Then he carefully read through the planning document the young man handed him, and his expression changed.
"There are limits to administrative power and military power," he said, as if swallowing bitter medicine. "Ever since dynasties first arose on this land, countless kings and lords have tried to wipe out the mountain bandits and horse thieves and usher in an age of peace. Not one has ever succeeded. The continent is vast, the mountains are deep, and people are many. No matter how thoroughly you comb the ranges with troops, the bandits reappear like mold that sprouts of its own accord. They never truly vanish."
"Exactly. That's why the principle of official non-interference with the martial world came into being, isn't it? To recognize the people's right of self-defense in the security vacuum that neither central nor local administration can fill."
The yamen could not dispatch troops to every remote mountain village and stand guard there forever. Even if local forces were stationed nearby, they could not remain solely for that one village. Who would shoulder the grain and wages required for a permanent garrison?
Thus the state tolerated, within certain bounds, the private soldiers of powerful clans and the armed monks of temples and Daoist monasteries, letting them protect themselves from bandits. That was the core of official non-interference—and those armed temples and monasteries became the seed of the martial sects.
Under the Great Jing Code, murder was a capital offense, yet killing a bandit in self-defense brought no legal punishment.
Huiyeom spoke.
"Even if we raise an army and sweep them clean, another pack simply takes their place before long. In that case, why not dangle a carrot in front of them and put them to work as security for the mountain roads?"
"You think that makes sense?"
"We already recruit the pirates of Hainan as privateers and use them as an extension of our naval strength. Why should mountain bandits be any different? That, if anything, is what puzzles this humble one. Your Excellency must know of the Fake Wokou of Wu-Yue?"
"Mmm…"
Fake Wokou—false Japanese pirates. It referred to the pirates of the Wu-Yue region dressing themselves as Wokou from Dongyeong, Japan, and raiding under that guise.
In the days before the realm was unified, the people of Wu and Yue had hired actual local pirates as privateers to strike the merchant ships of rival states. A regular navy attacking a neutral vessel would give casus belli; better to order pirates to do it and then wash one's hands. To erase any remaining trail of responsibility, they even had the raiders disguise themselves as Wokou.
"Looked at through the Fake Wokou precedent, the Green Forest is actually far more moderate. Compared to Fake Wokou who seized civilian ships and murdered the crews to leave no witnesses, the Green Forest only targets major merchant caravans, collects an agreed-upon toll, and rarely produces casualties. There is ample room for compromise. Corner them, and like a rat driven into a dead end that bites the cat, they will start killing simply to protect themselves."
The cartels of South America had done exactly that during their wars with the state. In ordinary times they inflicted little harm on ordinary citizens; every time the government tried to crush them, they massacred innocent locals. After a few such episodes, the people of South America came to hate not the cartels, but the government that poked a quietly prospering cartel and unleashed a bloodbath. In the end, because one cartel would murder a hundred people for every arrest, and because public sentiment swayed with the slaughter, South American governments were forced to abandon the idea of wiping the cartels out.
It was a farce born of a place where bullets were closer than the law—but the Central Plains were not so different.
"In the end, if we entrust the roads to them and let them manage them, it means the eradication of mountain bandits from Sichuan soil, an expansion of tax revenue, and a reduction of the security vacuum. Another advantage: the Green Forest strongholds we officially recognize will block other Green Forest bands."
The Green Forest already had seventy-two strongholds scattered across the Central Plains, each guarding its own territory. But the realm was vast, those territories ill-defined, and countless small, unaffiliated strongholds and Green Forest freebooters filled the gaps between them.
If, however, the tunnel works and railway construction led them to recognize the Green Forest's authority over specific "roads"—
—then the bandits of the seventy-two strongholds would defend those roads and keep out the random mountain bandits and horse thieves that sprang up without order.
"Tell the Green Forest that the roads are their territory, and they will defend their turf by suppressing the indiscriminate horse thieves and robber bands. In other words, using barbarians to control barbarians."
On top of that, travelers would naturally flock to the Dang Family's "roads" simply to avoid the uncontrolled bandits elsewhere—another clear benefit.
"Hmm… It does sound rather promising, I admit…"
"One last point. Once the Green Forest takes charge of road management, they can no longer live in hiding. That itself could become a masterstroke for sweeping them away in one stroke if the need ever arises."
The reason the Green Forest could never be rooted out of the mountains was that they knew the terrain intimately and used it with cunning. The moment they accepted the task of managing roads that ran alongside them, their locations would be exposed.
In the end the Provincial Military Commander was persuaded.
"But the Green Forest will not be ignorant of that fact either. How do you intend to negotiate?"
"Of course I'll tell the Green Forest that I've already finished talking with Your Excellency and that there's nothing to worry about. And if anything goes wrong, Your Excellency can simply wipe out a complacent Green Forest in one go."
Huiyeom grinned. The Provincial Military Commander smiled bitterly.
"You terrifying brat."
In the commander's eyes, the scheme was this: lure the Green Forest in with fine words, turn them into a profit engine, clamp a leash around their necks, and make sure they never even realize the leash is there. As long as the Green Forest remained a good neighbor and cooperative subcontractor, both sides gained. But if they ever broke their word?
The Dang Family would not even need to clash with them directly; they could kill with a borrowed knife through the Provincial Military Commander. And that would become the commander's own achievement.
A truly chilling stratagem.
"If the Green Forest ever learns of this, they'll tear you into three pieces."
"The only people who know are you and me. How would the Green Forest find out?"
"Very well. Official recognition is impossible. Tacit permission—that much I can grant."
"That is more than enough. Though I doubt it will ever come to that. I have no hobby of taking people in with betrayal already in mind. I'm only saying this so Your Excellency can rest easy. I'll keep a firm hold of the reins myself."
"I hope you do."
Once the Provincial Military Commander—the man expected to oppose most fiercely—had agreed, everything else followed like water downhill.
The Surveillance Commissioner, the judicial authority, likewise objected at first.
"Why else do special pardons and judicial deals exist? By showing His Imperial Majesty's mercy to the Green Forest bandits, reforming them, and guiding them into becoming subjects who commit no further crimes—would that not take precedence over simply punishing them?"
The prospect of finally eliminating criminals who had never been eliminateable proved irresistible.
As for the Provincial Administration Commissioner:
"A Road Management Corporation that collects road maintenance fees will of course pay taxes."
Mountain bandits who had never paid a single coin of tax transforming into diligent taxpayers? There was no reason to refuse.
Having secured the unofficial consent of all three provincial offices, Huiyeom set about contacting the Green Forest. He had notes hung on trees near the construction sites.
"We're boring through the mountains. If they aren't interested in that, they aren't the Green Forest. The sites are already under surveillance. Leave a letter there saying I wish to meet the Green Forest King."
Under his orders, warriors of the Flame Net Unit hung letters in Huiyeom's own hand all over the tunnel works.
A few days later:
"Young Family Head, a gentleman named Im of Green Mountain requests an audience."
A guest had arrived.
"I am Im Wi, chieftain of the Great Tiger Stronghold of Sichuan, ranked forty-second among the Seventy-Two Strongholds of the Green Forest."
A middle-aged man with the face of Zhang Fei straight out of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms boomed out his greeting in a voice like rolling thunder.
"I am Huiyeom, Young Family Head of the Sichuan Dang Family. And the gentleman beside you?"
"Ah, pay me no mind. I am merely a lowly scholar who freeloads meals at the Great Tiger Stronghold."
A frail-looking young man offered a cupped-fist salute with a loose, easy smile.
"This one's called Deokrim. The only ink-stained fellow in our entire stronghold. Skinny as a dried anchovy and just as fragile, but still the brains of the Great Tiger Stronghold."
"Is that so. Then may I take him for the man who handles practical affairs?"
"Well… nothing so grand as 'practical affairs.' Think of me as someone who listens and then offers advice to Chieftain Im. Hehe."
Deokrim rubbed his hands together and bowed and scraped.
"I see. In any case, a pleasure. The Sichuan Dang Family sincerely welcomes you both. I suggested a quiet teahouse so as not to trouble you with a long journey all the way to our main estate… yet you have come in person. It is truly an honor."
"Hahaha! When else would a lowly Green Forest bandit like me ever get a look at the great Sichuan Dang Family? I've heard plenty about how your house soars like a dragon these days, and I wanted to see with my own eyes all the marvels you keep pouring out."
"What a magnanimous spirit. You are a true man among men, Hero Im."
"Wahaha! Not a bad thing to hear!"
Huiyeom's words could be read as: I said if you wanted to meet, come to the place I named—yet you stroll right into my house? Are you carrying your guts around outside your body?
Im's reply amounted to: Figured I'd drop by and tour your place while I was at it. You're not actually going to kill me, are you? The size of his liver alone marked him as a man who could claim lordship over the mountains.
Huiyeom smiled and raised his teacup.
"It's only a house where people live. Still, thank you for taking an interest in our family. But your coming in person… may I take it that you have looked favorably on the proposal in the letter I sent?"
"Ah, leave the complicated talk to this one. Hey, Deokrim."
"We received the letter safely, but… I couldn't quite grasp what it was actually saying. So… the words written there—do they mean exactly what they appear to mean?"
"Yes. Exactly that."
"I don't understand."
Deokrim scratched his cheek with a smile.
"Even now the Green Forest guards the mountain paths and collects a modest toll from travelers as a token of sincerity. Why on earth would we need to manage the roads and railways belonging to the Dang Family and collect tolls on those instead?"
"If you truly believed there was no reason, you would never have come to this table."
"No—your family's proposal was so preposterous we simply wanted to hear the reason for ourselves."
"Hahaha. Then by all means listen. It won't turn out to be quite so preposterous."
Huiyeom smiled faintly.
It was time to start talking in earnest.