The Negotiation
Once he concluded that he would approach the matter not from personal likes or dislikes, but from the perspective of an imperial command, the work ahead became simple.
Meet them. Deliver the Emperor’s secret order. Force a choice.
Would they fight the imperial army to the last man — or abandon their identity as river pirates, hand over the heads of a few notorious criminals as examples, and move thereafter under the Emperor’s command?
Put like that, it was an extremely simple story.
Hui-yeom immediately wrote a letter to the chief of the Yangtze River Eighteen Strongholds.
Of course, because it was a secret order, he could write nothing that would leave official evidence.
So the content of the letter was simple.
On such-and-such day of such-and-such month, at such-and-such hour — request a working-level meeting at the pavilion near the uppermost ferry landing on the You River.
“Will anyone actually show up?” Ye-eun asked, studying Hui-yeom’s letter with open doubt.
“It’s far too dangerous, Gaga!” Sama Yun opposed him, her face full of worry.
Hui-yeom only smiled, easy and unconcerned.
“They’ll come. Right now, they’re the ones who need this.”
Frankly speaking, the Yangtze River Eighteen Strongholds had to be twisted up with rage over how thoroughly their accounts had gone sideways.
In a way, they had every right to feel wronged.
They had raided a merchant convoy under the Provincial Military Commander’s orders — so in a sense, they had been doing the state’s work when disaster struck them. And now the state was clamping its mouth shut and, if anything, looking ready to suppress them. How could they not be stunned?
But so what? They were only river pirates.
Unless the chief of the Yangtze River Eighteen Strongholds was some master of the Realm of Profundity who could single-handedly grind down tens of thousands of government troops, there was no way out of this.
Martial arts were like weapons.
Martial arts could turn the person who mastered them into a monster of mass slaughter — a self-aware tank, a machine-gun nest, a strategic bomber.
But no matter how powerful a strategic bomber was, one bomber could not win a war against a nation.
Second: the other side had bombers of their own.
Was the imperial court truly without masters?
In other words, the Yangtze had no choice but to obey Beijing’s secret letter.
On the day of the negotiation named in the letter, Hui-yeom went to the meeting place with Dang Su-jeong as his escort.
Of course, not far from the pavilion, Hwamangdae and Dokwadae had already taken position and were watching the site — but that was another matter.
Watching Hui-yeom sit first in the pavilion and wait for the chief of the Yangtze River Strongholds, Dang Su-jeong sighed.
“At this rate I’ll die of worry long before my time. Why do you always stick your head into the most dangerous work you can find?”
“Because Aunt will protect me, won’t she?”
“Honestly, you never lose a verbal exchange.”
Dang Su-jeong snorted a short laugh.
“Fine. So don’t flinch — say everything you want to say. I’m right behind you.”
“That’s reassuring.”
Martial strength mattered, of course — but so did the leadership to quiet the discontent of one’s subordinates. That meant the political skill to hold river pirates who might rebel at any moment in the palm of one’s hand, to divide them, soothe them, and steer them.
And such political skill always required the ability to read a situation and find something worth eating.
The negotiation would not be difficult.
A short while later, a small skiff came drifting down along the riverbank.
It pushed through the reeds, moored at the landing, and the man aboard strode up to the pavilion and sat down.
If the Green Forest King looked like Ma Dong-seok, this man looked like Park Sung-woong from New World.
A lean, tall frame. A face that carried killing intent, yet unexpectedly neat in appearance.
“You actually came.”
“Of course I did. Naturally.”
The man stared steadily at Hui-yeom, who sat in the pavilion as if nothing were wrong even after his arrival, then shifted his gaze to Dang Su-jeong standing behind him.
“You’re the Poison Phoenix?”
“That’s right. And you? Judging by your presence, you’re no nameless river pirate.”
“Ha Tae-ryong, King of the Yangtze.”
“You came in person? I asked for a working-level meeting…”
“Sending someone with no authority to decide anything only multiplies the back-and-forth of messages in the middle. After that last clash with your side, our situation on the Yangtze is hardly something to speak of lightly.”
Ha Tae-ryong flicked a wary glance over Dang Su-jeong, then spoke.
“I’ll be direct. With the way you smashed our Jiaolong Stronghold last time, shall we call the grudge between us settled?”
“Hm?”
Hui-yeom’s eyes widened as he listened carefully to what the man intended to say.
“In truth, attacking merchant ships carrying the Sichuan Dang Family’s cargo was never the true will of our Yangtze River Strongholds. That was all the filthy scheme of the previous Provincial Military Commander.”
Ah. So that’s how he’s framing it.
Hui-yeom realized Ha Tae-ryong was slightly mistaken about the present situation.
The Sichuan Dang Family was not supposed to know that the Yangtze River Strongholds had moved under the Provincial Military Commander’s orders — and of course, Ha Tae-ryong also had no idea under whose orders Hui-yeom himself had come to this table.
Well. That’s only natural.
As Hui-yeom listened in silence, Ha Tae-ryong continued.
“Lately the government’s movements have felt off. Until a year or two ago, the authorities were pressing the martial world and indirectly striking at the Green Forest and our Yangtze forces. And now they flip their hand overnight and use us to attack the martial world instead. They seem to think we wouldn’t notice.”
A cold sneer carried a bitter feeling that no amount of contempt could fully hide.
Ignorant of how Beijing’s political board was actually turning, he had never imagined that the Provincial Military Commander’s orders were meant to check the Sichuan Provincial Administration’s monopoly and to strike at the State-run Ironworks that threatened the Ministry of War’s grip on the iron-and-steel market. He simply believed it was a cheap play of pitting the Dang Family against the Yangtze to make them destroy each other.
Hui-yeom did not correct the misunderstanding.
After a moment’s thought, he found it easy enough to answer the question of why the imperial strategy had changed.
Because of Noksan. That’s why the court’s arithmetic shifted.
Previously, the imperial strategy of pitting forces against each other had been to deliberately stir fights between the Green Forest and the martial world so they would exhaust each other — all to prevent private martial forces from growing so large that the central and provincial armies could no longer contain them.
But at some point the court realized we had taken the Green Forest in and made Noksan of them.
From that moment, the Emperor would have stopped pressing the martial world.
Because a headache that couldn’t be eliminated now had a chance of becoming imperial subjects who paid taxes and lived quietly.
When Hui-yeom still said nothing, Ha Tae-ryong went on.
“If we keep fighting like this, we’ll only be doing the government troops a favor. We admit that raiding your merchant ships harmed the Dang Family’s property and that lives were lost… but the Dang Family’s counterattack cost us a stronghold as well.”
“Stronghold Master Yi Chae-jun was one of my sworn brothers.”
“We’ve drawn enough of each other’s blood. Shall we stop here? In return, for the next five years we will not collect transit tolls from any ship carrying people of the Dang Family.”
Ha Tae-ryong’s calculation was simple.
With the government troops already turned against us, if the Dang Family piles on as well, there will be no hole left to crawl through. At least until the government suppression ends, we cannot treat the Dang Family as enemies.
Seeing that calculation as clearly as if it were written on the man’s face, Hui-yeom clicked his tongue inwardly with regret.
If this weren’t a situation where I have to talk them into becoming partners, I could have used this incident to strip them down to their underwear… What a waste.
Hui-yeom opened his mouth.
“Let me make a better proposal than that.”
“—A proposal? Speak.”
“Chief — would you care to try a business venture with me?”
Ha Tae-ryong’s face filled with open bewilderment.
After hearing Hui-yeom’s full explanation, Ha Tae-ryong said,
“…So. Let me summarize once more.”
1. This affair is tangled up with political intent.
2. Publicly, the Yangtze River Eighteen Strongholds must be suppressed.
“That’s the only way to smash the claims of the Ministry of War and the Pi clan that heads the Five Armies Command — the ones who’ve been insisting all this time that suppression was impossible — and cut deeper into their political influence.”
“Disgusting… Officials, every last one of them.”
3. But the Emperor does not actually want the Yangtze River Eighteen Strongholds truly wiped out.
“Because it’s a fact that other river pirates would simply rise up and fill the vacancy.”
“Of course. Order on the Yangtze is maintained thanks to us.”
4. Then what should become of the Yangtze River Strongholds?
“This is where the real point begins.”
5. Take down the pirate signboard, and join a government-led enterprise.
“Specifically?”
6. As part of a state enterprise, we will purchase twenty-two large and small shipping companies that operate on the Yangtze, nationalize them, and run them ourselves.
Until now, a handful of ships had moved only according to merchants’ schedules. We will increase the number of vessels and expand fixed regular routes, revitalizing Yangtze water transport.
“Until now, even when I was in a hurry, I had no choice but to wait until a ship filled with passengers or cargo. That dragged down the efficiency of water transport.”
“Naturally. Moving a ship that isn’t full of customers only means a loss.”
“But the beauty of a regular schedule is precisely the certainty that you can board at a set time whenever you need to. That certainty can pull in a great deal of hesitant demand. Profit from that demand can, in practice, cover a fair portion of the loss from ‘empty ships.’”
“And if it doesn’t cover it?”
“It’s a state enterprise, isn’t it? Of course you operate even at a certain loss — for the people’s convenience.”
Even in the twenty-first century, why did direct flights still run to small islands that never turned a profit? Because the shipping companies were charities? No — because that was the work of a state.
“Hmm. So. The country will run water transport — and us? Do we become that water transport company?”
7. The Yangtze River Eighteen Strongholds will be put into various support businesses for the increased vessel traffic.
“New construction, expansion, and management of docks and ports where the increased ships can berth. Lighterage — small boats that approach larger vessels to transfer goods and people to and from shore. New construction, expansion, and management of intermediate logistics warehouses for the goods that will grow with the expanded freight. Inns, restaurants, and lodging for the passengers who will increase accordingly. The work is endless.”
And once such facilities appeared and the users grew, they would eventually become something like villages.
In other words, the profits of the Sichuan Dang Family — which would, in practice, hold the authority over these facilities from behind the scenes — had the potential to grow without limit.
But Ha Tae-ryong struggled to grasp that part.
The businesses Hui-yeom was proposing seemed rather hard for a man who had lived his whole life as a river pirate to understand.
Hui-yeom patiently, carefully made him understand.
“…I understand.”
A strange wonder sat on his face.
“Truly — by the Emperor’s order?”
“I drafted the detailed plan myself. The Emperor’s words were closer to: find a way to make use of the Yangtze rather than raze it to the ground.”
Well — according to what Hui-yeom had heard through Baek Beon, the moment this proposal went up, the Emperor had clapped like a seal and been delighted. But that was another matter.
“In the end, a proposal is only a proposal — better for everyone if it works out. If you refuse, there’s nothing to be done.”
“If we refuse, the suppression begins, doesn’t it? That’s nothing short of a threat.”
“So you dislike it?”
“No. We have no choice but to take it. But does everything in the world ever resolve so neatly? This is a story that is one-sidedly good for us.”
“Now tell me. What do you want?”
“Heads.”
Hui-yeom’s tone was cold.
“We need proof that the Yangtze River Eighteen Strongholds have been suppressed. The river pirates with the worst crimes and the most public notoriety — mid-level officers, most likely. Or one or two of stronghold-master rank as well.”
“…The head the government would want most is mine, isn’t it?”
“We’re negotiating. You make proposals within a range the other side can accept.”
If I did as I pleased, there wouldn’t even have been room to negotiate with you. The Sichuan Dang Family, together with the government troops, would have blown your shabby strongholds apart with bombs and soaked them in poison.
Hui-yeom did not bother to say it aloud, but Ha Tae-ryong let out a low sound as if he had received the message all the same.
“…May I choose for myself who will be offered as examples?”
“I know nothing of individual river pirates’ names, so I’ll leave that to you… but you understand it won’t go well if you play games, yes? Men of high infamy among the people, and several of stronghold-master rank, must be included.”
“…Understood. I’ll return and send an answer within a few days.”
“I hope you’ll make a wise decision.”
The list of river pirates who would “soon be deceased” arrived at the Sichuan Dang Family ten days later.
The amusing fact was that at the very top of that list was written the name “Ha Tae-ryong, King of the Yangtze.”
“Looks like he wants a thorough identity wash.”
Hui-yeom gave a short laugh.
Whether it was morally correct or not, peace on the Yangtze had been preserved by a method that at least spilled less blood.
So now…
“Time for the cleanup, I suppose?”
A joyful hour for an entrepreneur.