Visiting the In-Laws
The battle ended without any real resistance.
Baek Beon, who had watched the entire fight from beginning to end at Hui-yeom’s side, opened his narrow eyes wide and made no effort to hide his admiration.
“Indeed, indeed! So this is the power of the flintlock muskets the Dang Family boasts of?!”
“And now they will become a weapon of the Imperial Guard as well.”
At Hui-yeom’s words, Baek Beon beamed.
“Of course. His Majesty will remember your loyalty, and that of the Dang Family.”
The sight of a force four times larger being routed without even mounting a proper resistance was deeply shocking.
If there had been no flintlock muskets, how would the fight have gone?
No matter how superior each individual’s martial skill might have been, if the enemy had surrounded them with greater numbers, forced them to take damage from arrows at range, and then worn them down with rotating close combat, the Dang Family’s chances of victory would have been slim.
It was possible that with masters such as the Hwamangdaeju or Dang Su-jeong among them, they might still have overcome the numerical disadvantage and won.
Even then, however, the damage the Dang Family would have suffered would have been severe.
This is too much power for a single family to possess…
Baek Beon’s eyes grew deep. Yet he soon shook his head.
No matter how large the Dang Family’s forces grow, they will never exceed a few hundred to a few thousand. But if we leave the Dang Family intact, we can arm His Majesty’s tens of thousands—hundreds of thousands—of troops with these weapons.
One must not commit the folly of cutting open the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Baek Beon once again recognized just how useful the Dang Family was.
“A pity, though. It would have been better if we could have learned who was behind these fellows…”
Hui-yeom clicked his tongue.
There were no survivors. Even those they had deliberately left alive had all taken their own lives the moment capture seemed certain.
“They’re not from the Namgung Family. No—they’re not martial artists at all.”
Dang Su-jeong spoke.
“None of the Namgung Family’s distinctive footwork, movement techniques, or sword arts showed themselves. If anything, it was closer to the featureless martial arts of the military camps.
There’s a chance it was a scheme to pin the blame on them without revealing their own hand… but I doubt the odds are high.”
“Lady Dang is correct.”
Baek Beon chimed in. He poked the corpse of Gu Il-hak—who lay dead with eyes still wide in grievance—with his foot as he spoke.
“This man was originally an officer of the Xuanwu Steeds in the Central Army. His name is Gu Il-hak.
I knew he had vanished after being dismissed on charges of taking bribes… There is no way he entered the service of the Namgung Family. It seems he had become a dog of the Pi Family.”
“Can we formally make an issue of it?”
“It would be difficult. When all is said and done, everything is only circumstantial evidence.”
When Baek Beon shook his head, Hui-yeom hummed, shrugged, and said,
“Well, fine. Crushing the force the enemy sent is already as good as landing a solid blow.”
“Are we simply leaving?”
“Only this: please submit a detailed report of this battle to His Majesty.”
At Hui-yeom’s words, Baek Beon grinned as though he understood perfectly.
“If we treat what happened here as a military and public-security matter, the arrows will only fly at some unfortunate local official. The Pi Family will suffer no real harm, you know?”
“But His Majesty the Emperor wishes to use the power of the local officials to whittle away, to some degree, at the strength of the Central Army that the Pi Family holds, does he not?”
“Suppose that is so?”
“Then with this material, rather than cutting down the local forces, you will turn the local forces’ resentment toward the Pi Family.”
At Hui-yeom’s words, Baek Beon’s mouth fell open.
When a man who has committed no crime is hit with the suspicion of “This was your doing, wasn’t it?”, of course he feels wronged. His first resentment will be aimed at the superior who suspects him, but his second will certainly turn upon the party that made the sparks fly his way.
Baek Beon gave a hollow laugh.
“You said you had no intention of playing politics? Truly?”
“I’m too tired for it. I don’t even have time for my real work, so why would I…”
“Yohohohohoho!”
Baek Beon clutched his belly and cackled. He ordered his confidants to select roughly a hundred of Gu Il-hak’s subordinates whose faces they recognized, sever their heads, and pickle them in salt.
When Hui-yeom frowned at the gruesomeness of it, Baek Beon soothed him in a gentle tone.
“Leave the savage political strife of Beijing to this Baek Beon. Young Master, you need only continue exactly as you have been.”
There was no reason to refuse Baek Beon’s offer to handle the dirty work on his own. Hui-yeom silently nodded.
The absence of survivors also meant that no one had successfully fled. Thus it was only much later that the Pi Family learned of the ambush’s failure.
When the Pi Family’s general manager received word that the Dang Family party had repelled the attack and safely boarded a ship on the Grand Canal, he gave a bitter smile.
“It seems we took the strength of a martial family far too lightly.”
“What shall we do? If we mobilize more private soldiers…”
At his subordinate’s words the general manager shook his head.
“No. Last time as well we could have used more troops, but we did not—precisely for the sake of secrecy.
At this stage, sending a larger force against people coming up the Grand Canal would be no different from going about proclaiming that it was our doing.”
As the military texts say: when your forces are ten times the enemy’s, surround them; when five times, attack; when double, divide them; when equal and capable of opposing them, fight bravely; when fewer, flee if you can; when there is no prospect of victory, avoid battle.
The enemy had numbered seventy; the private soldiers they had sent were three hundred—a little more than four times as many—and still they had lost. Without inflicting any damage at all.
Would adding another one or two hundred soldiers be enough to destroy such an enemy? At the very least they would need to send twice as many as last time to inflict meaningful harm.
And a force of six hundred would find it extremely difficult to move without witnesses—especially now that they were closer to Beijing.
In the end the general manager abandoned any thought of dispatching additional troops. An “unfortunate accident” could just as easily occur on the return journey; he would wait for another opportunity farther from the capital.
After disembarking at Wuhan, Hui-yeom’s party traveled a short distance overland and transferred to a ship on the nearby Han River.
From the confluence of the Yangtze and the Han they continued upstream northward for several more days, passed Nanyang, and at last reached Luoyang.
Luoyang was one of the Grand Canal’s important junctions, the capital of Henan Province, and the headquarters of the Sama Clan.
Hui-yeom left the ship and paid a formal visit to the Sama Clan to offer his respects to the elders of the family that would soon become his in-laws.
Sama Sang, head of the Sama Clan and father of Sama Yun, welcomed his future son-in-law warmly.
“Yes, I have heard a great deal about you from my daughter and from my father.”
“I am but a flawed and faulty youth, so I feel deeply ashamed.”
“If you are a mere youth, then more than half the promising juniors of the Central Plains ought to hang themselves.”
Sama Do, Sama Yun’s grandfather, who already knew Hui-yeom, greeted him with a hearty laugh.
Sama Sang looked at his father with somewhat weary eyes and nodded.
“…Ever since Father met you and returned, the expectations he places on the young men of the Sama Clan have risen considerably…. Haha….”
Ah.
When Hui-yeom instinctively scanned the surroundings, he saw the eyes of the young and middle-aged men wearing polite expressions flicker with heat. Sensing the unspoken grudge and anger, he offered a bitter smile and gave them a slight bow of the head.
Well… sorry about that.
In short, he had been cast in the role of the perfect other people’s son. Moreover, through Sama Yun the dazzling developmental history of the Sichuan Dang Family—and Hui-yeom’s own role and achievements in it—would have been relayed to the Sama Clan. How much pressure must the young men of the Sama Clan have felt when they were measured against that?
“Yes, since you have come all the way to Henan Province, you will stop by the Provincial Administration Commissioner’s office as well, will you not?”
“Yes. I also plan to visit Shaolin Temple… though it would be better to stop there on the return journey.”
“Shaolin Temple?”
“There is no real need to fight the Namgung Family directly, is there? If the Namgung Family are the wealthy farmers of Anhui, then Shaolin is likewise the rich farmers of Henan.”
“Oh? Indeed—that is a very fine move.”
Sama Sang’s eyes deepened.
“Then our family should also adjust our existing stance toward Shaolin Temple somewhat.”
“In what way?”
“Originally, following the principle of allying with the distant while attacking the near, we checked Shaolin Temple while maintaining exchanges with the Namgung Family.
Of course, once our relationship with our in-laws—the Dang Family—took shape, we grew somewhat estranged from the Namgung Family…”
“I see.”
“Traditionally the Nine Great Noble Families and the Nine Sects and One Gang have never been on the best of terms, have they? But now that our in-laws and we have decided to share the same boat, policy must advance as one.
If we extend a hand of reconciliation toward Shaolin and apply pressure to the Namgung Family, it will also make it easier for our in-laws to act.”
“Of course. But then… the question becomes what benefit the Sama Clan can obtain. We would need to return gains commensurate with the enmity incurred toward the Namgung Family…”
When Hui-yeom spoke, Sama Sang smiled gently.
“I shall consider it as having already received advance payment—regarding the State-run Ironworks matter.”
“Hahaha.”
The Emperor’s order to establish another State-run Ironworks in the Central Plains was almost certainly inevitable. Hui-yeom already knew that talk of the Sama Clan wishing to intervene and claim interests in the project had circulated in Beijing without so much as the Dang Family’s consent.
It was outrageous if one thought about it, yet setting the Sama Clan aside, finding another trustworthy business partner was no easy matter either. He had already decided inwardly to proceed along those lines.
Even so, he was not entirely comfortable simply overlooking the fact that this ambitious future in-law family had taken matters into its own hands. Hui-yeom smiled and said,
“Please do not do so a second time. Mutual trust is important. And please understand that the benefits I can offer the Sama Clan are not limited to that degree.”
“Not limited to that degree?”
“Yes. Only that much.”
Hui-yeom spoke with a serious expression.
“If the Sama Clan is satisfied with that much, then I have no need to offer more. But if you desire more, then from now on I ask that you move only on the premise of mutual understanding and consultation.”
“……”
At Hui-yeom’s rather presumptuous words the atmosphere cooled. Sama Sang’s gaze shifted to Sama Yun. She let out a long sigh and then spoke with a serious face.
“I am not saying this merely because he is my intended match. Looking at Young Master Dang’s capabilities, the ironworks business truly is nothing more than ‘that sort of thing.’
His ability to create unexpected lines of business, produce goods, and bind them to politics so as to forge a vast profit network that maximizes the interests of both government and people is something rarely seen even in the old histories.”
At Sama Yun’s confident declaration a small sigh of admiration passed through those present.
“Is that so.”
Nodding, Sama Sang bowed his head deeply to Hui-yeom.
“I apologize. Henceforth there will be no more such incidents.”
The head of a family had personally admitted fault and lowered his head. Both the people of the Sama Clan and those of the Dang Family murmured in flustered surprise.
Hui-yeom immediately put an arm around Sama Sang’s shoulders, raised him up, and said with a smile,
“Thank you for the apology. Now the bond between our two families will grow even stronger.”
“Yes. I look forward to the coming spring.”
Next spring Hui-yeom would turn twenty. At the implication that the promised time of marriage was drawing near, Sama Yun’s cheeks flushed faintly, and Hui-yeom laughed awkwardly.
“The Sama Clan will mobilize every resource at our disposal to support our in-laws’ advance into the Central Plains.”
“Thank you.”
Having cleared away the small lingering issue with the Sama Clan and with their full support at his back, Hui-yeom also met with the powerful figures of Henan Province—the Provincial Administration Commissioner, the Regional Military Commissioner, the Surveillance Commissioner, and others—and showed them due courtesy.
Then he transferred ships on the Grand Canal and continued north, passing through Kaifeng, Jinan, and other cities. After disembarking near Tianjin and traveling the final stretch overland, he at last arrived in Beijing.
And the once-quiet capital finally began to stir.