Proud of Its History and Tradition
“So you’re prepared to die once, is that it?”
“Well… by this point, people usually start thinking of the easiest and fastest way to get rid of me.”
Hui-yeom still wore that sticky smile, as if half-swallowed by shadow.
“Just watch for now. When the time comes, you’ll understand.”
The Pi Clan of the military lineage was ready to die of sheer irritation at Hui-yeom.
To be fair, they had already found it galling when some washed-up local clan from the backwoods of Sichuan suddenly appeared with the State-run Ironworks and began dumping high-quality wrought iron and steel onto the Central Plains markets at rock-bottom prices like poison. But back then it had still been only that—irritating.
The Pi Clan controlled the iron-foundry trade of the Central Plains, and it was true that the State-run Ironworks had eaten into their profits. Yet the amount of iron the imperial works actually supplied to the heartland had never been as large as people imagined.
Most of the iron they produced went into the railway projects that were weaving Yunnan and Sichuan together like a spider’s web, into the construction of outposts, into the recent building boom in Angang, and into the casting of cannons in preparation for war. Consequently the volume flowing into the Central Plains itself remained limited.
In fact, many foundries that had cut production for fear of oversupply caused by the State-run Ironworks ended up making handsome profits when the actual amount of Sichuan iron proved smaller than expected and prices rebounded.
That was why, even when Pi Jae-hyeon had previously sent three hundred private soldiers to assassinate Hui-yeom, he had felt nothing more personal than the mild desire to clear an obstacle from the road. He had not yet hated the boy.
Now the situation was different.
Pi Jae-hyeon spat on the floor as he looked down at Pi Se-ha, Commander of the White Tiger Banner, who was kneeling before him.
“You useless failure.”
“…I am sorry, Uncle.”
“Sorry? Is that all? You have smeared dung across the face of this house!
The Pi Clan of the military lineage is a great house of the army. Our true profession has always been to guard the nation, the capital, and the Emperor. Yet in that very profession you have been humiliated by the Sichuan Dang Family!”
Pi Jae-hyeon felt genuinely wronged.
In his mind, if only the Sichuan Dang Family had not stuck their necks out so far, this war would have been the perfect stage for the Pi Clan to shine.
Of course they would never have moved first.
The picture the Pi Clan had painted was simple. Wait until Yunnan Province had completely fallen and Sichuan stood on the brink of disaster. Then, bearing the Emperor’s command, the Heavenly Army would descend in all its majesty, show those uncivilized barbarians the light of civilization, and force them to submit.
The more wretchedly Yunnan and Sichuan were smashed, the clearer the incompetence of the local Regional Military Commanders would become, and the more glorious the Central Army would appear before the entire realm. There was absolutely no reason to hurry.
Even if the Emperor initially rebuked the Pi Clan, once the fire reached his own feet he would have no choice but to rely on them.
After weakening the provincial forces, the Pi Clan would claim the credit for victory, then use the vacuum to extend their influence over the Five Military Commissions and fill the posts of Regional Military Commander in Sichuan and Yunnan with men loyal to the Pi. It had been a perfect plan.
Had it succeeded, the Pi Clan would also have laid hands on Sichuan itself—home of the troublesome State-run Ironworks—without lifting a finger. They could have crushed the Dang Family and seized the monopolies they held, starting with the tea monopoly of Yunnan and every other commodity the Pi had lately begun to covet…
Reality, however, had been different.
From the moment rumors arrived that the Sichuan Dang Family and those bandit-like collaborators calling themselves the Green Mountain troops were holding the barbarian advance at outposts built in imitation of the regular army, Pi Jae-hyeon had felt something was wrong. When he heard they had brought out strange new weapons and literally melted the barbarians, his blood boiled.
Scattering ashes on someone else’s iron-selling day was one thing; this was beyond the pale!
His fury at the Dang Family was one matter; his fury at Pi Se-ha was another.
“If you were going to test the waters, you should have done so just enough and then swept in with proper majesty as the savior of Qinghai Province! Look at this mess! You still had to fight, yet arrived late enough to be mocked for it!”
Pi Se-ha had his own grievances. He struck his chest with a look of pure injustice.
“But Uncle! His Majesty himself laid out the board for those people and told them to do their best!
If the military command token had been given to me from the beginning, I would never have had to wait until the Qinghai Regional Military Commander’s spirit was completely broken and then miss the moment!”
The military command token the Emperor had bestowed on Hui-yeom was originally a tool that invested a Central Army general with authority to mediate conflicts when the central forces entered a province. It should never have been handed to some washed-up local clan playing at banditry; it should have gone to Pi Se-ha, Commander of the White Tiger Banner!
Therefore, in order to avoid the tiresome struggle for command with the Qinghai Regional Military Commander, Pi Se-ha had intended to wait until Qinghai was truly desperate before riding to the rescue. The Dang Family had simply stepped in first and ruined everything—that was his excuse.
And because Pi Jae-hyeon could not believe that the proud heir of the Pi Clan had hesitated out of fear of mere horse-riding barbarians, he accepted the explanation as truth.
He pressed a hand to his forehead.
“…Whatever your circumstances may have been, the rumor circulating in the capital is different. ‘A mere hundred-man flying column from the Sichuan Dang Family crushed five thousand enemy cavalry in the Qilian Mountains and delayed the enemy advance, while the White Tiger Banner, though it brought a hundred thousand Central Army troops, hid in the rear because it was afraid of the barbarians’—that has become the accepted version…!”
“That is not true! Those people simply stuck their necks out for no reason and—”
“Whether it is true or not does not matter! You have risen as high as Commander and still do not understand so simple a principle?”
In politics, reality itself mattered less than how one could twist a neutral reality into something useful. This war had shown the great whale that was the Pi Clan a gap to the circling sharks.
Worse, the Dang Family had not stopped there. With brazen faces they had petitioned the Emperor for some new business concession.
Pi Jae-hyeon was certain the Dang enterprise would not be unrelated to weapons production, and he was more or less correct. Quite apart from the joint-stock company scheme, Emperor Sungui intended to place large orders with the Sichuan Dang Family for the new-model rockets and flintlock muskets used in this war, then issue them to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Imperial Guard, and the provincial armies loyal to the throne.
If that happened, the Pi Clan’s influence over the military would inevitably shrink.
No longer could they dismiss the Dang as a petty local clan. They had become a pack of reckless bandits who had dared to smear dung on the Pi Clan’s face and reach for its granary.
Ought they not to be executed at once, and even one ten-thousandth of the damage they had inflicted recovered?
Pi Jae-hyeon roared, then clutched his spinning head.
“…We have already crossed a line that cannot be uncrossed. From now on they will continue to serve as the Emperor’s blade and oppress our Pi Clan.
The other Seven Great Families have no intention of uniting to crush these insects that challenge the citadel of the Eight Great Families; instead they are already calculating how to carve away our power and swallow it themselves.
There is only one way to resolve this.”
“What is that?”
“Dang Hui-yeom. That one must disappear.”
Pi Se-ha looked troubled.
“But last time we mobilized three hundred private soldiers and still failed. To use any larger force…”
If Hui-yeom had been an ordinary member of a local clan, there would have been no need for hesitation. Private soldiers disguised as mountain bandits or horse bandits could simply have wiped out the entire household.
Yet even Pi Jae-hyeon, who worked so hard to belittle the Sichuan Dang Family, could not entertain the delusion that one or two thousand private soldiers could overrun a stronghold that had just held off three hundred thousand Chagatai troops.
Assassinating Hui-yeom on the road back to the Dang estate would be no easier.
Pi Jae-hyeon, however, was not worried.
“There is no need to mobilize private soldiers. Their combat strength is real enough, even if they rely on cowardly weapons.”
“Then what shall we do?”
“Is it the way of men to roll in the mud and bite each other just to kill a dog?
All one needs to do is unleash a hunting dog and tell it to tear the other dog apart.”
Pi Jae-hyeon spoke coldly.
“You will find hunting dogs among the ruffians of the murim—especially those who already have bad blood with the Sichuan Dang Family.”
“Murim men! Truly the method of fighting poison with poison!”
“Exactly. Those creatures have always delighted in tearing one another apart over territory.
The Dang Family, who ought to have stayed buried in Sichuan, have crawled out to Beijing and are now shitting and pissing everywhere from Angang onward. There will be no shortage of murim people who resent them.
From what I have learned, they have already quietly fallen out with the Namgung Clan, and they have already clashed once with the Qingcheng Sect. There are also the unorthodox factions. Investigate thoroughly. Incite a fight if you like, or place a commission with an assassin guild—handle it as you see fit.
Of course, take care that we ourselves are never identified when you employ people.”
“I understand.”
Only then did Pi Se-ha feel the darkness before his eyes clear away, leaving pure clarity.
Yes. If someone blocked his path, he need only remove them.
And there was no need to do the removing with his own hands, was there?
At that moment the time-honored method of eliminating political rivals—proud of its history and tradition—began to move once more in the hands of the Pi Clan.
While using Pi Se-ha to arrange Hui-yeom’s assassination, Pi Jae-hyeon also resolved to obstruct Hui-yeom’s enterprises through policy and began laying the groundwork in secret.
He first visited Bang Un-taek of the Bang Family of the Ministry of Revenue—the man who held the decisive authority.
“Minister of Revenue, do you truly intend to accept that baseborn creature’s absurd business plan?”
At Pi Jae-hyeon’s question, Bang Un-taek gave a short laugh.
“My, my. I myself have not yet heard a full report of the fellow’s plan, yet the Minister of War already knows of it?”
“Surely a man of Your Excellency’s standing has not failed to hear the rumors circulating along East and West Chang’an Streets. Why pretend otherwise?”
“I have received no official report. Am I expected to act on mere street gossip?”
The words sounded almost arrogant, yet Pi Jae-hyeon detected an ominous undercurrent.
He lowered his voice.
“Minister of Revenue, though we may check one another at times, never forget that we ride the same ship of the Empire’s glory.
This so-called joint-stock company is nothing more than a scheme born of the desire to squeeze money from the great houses and then spend it with reckless abandon without ever repaying a single coin.”
“I never realized the Minister of War was so thoroughly versed in the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue.”
“Minister of Revenue…!”
When Bang Un-taek finally allowed a crooked sneer to show, Pi Jae-hyeon’s expression hardened.
“Must I really invoke the old tale of the lips and the teeth? At present that creature is making trouble with the Ministry of War’s domain, but looking at his nature, his ultimate target is certain to be the nation’s purse strings.
From the Bang Family’s standpoint as well, there can be no benefit in leaving those people alone and allowing them to gather strength!”
“I shall carefully heed the Minister of War’s counsel.”
Bang Un-taek laughed lightly and strode away with an easy gait.
Staring at that retreating back, Pi Jae-hyeon bit his lip and kicked a stone on the ground.
He summoned every official of the Pi surname and all their collaborators, and he set about drawing neutral bureaucrats to his side.
For those ranked as high officials he went in person.
Yet every single reaction was lukewarm and strangely off-key.
“If that stock-market policy they are pushing through is enacted, the ones who will suffer most are the provincial money-lending houses. Our great houses’ sources of capital will be struck, and even the expansion of land by taking on tenant farmers will face obstacles.”
“How could I fail to understand the Minister of War’s deep concern?”
Pyeon Do-seok, Grand Academician of the Hanlin Academy, waved his fan with a deliberately empty smile.
“But this humble scholar is not well-versed in financial matters, so I have little of use to say. Moreover, my base is Beijing; I do not operate money-lending houses of my own, so the matter feels rather like someone else’s affair.”
“Then at least lend your weight to opposing the policy. Should we not speak for the interests of the great houses as a whole?”
“Hmm… the great houses as a whole, you say?”
Pyeon Do-seok gave a short laugh.
“Well. I shall think on it.”
Every response came back in the same vein—mocking, dismissive, just like Pyeon Do-seok’s.
Only then did Pi Jae-hyeon recall that Sama Seung had been busily meeting great houses and high officials, and he ground his teeth.
As expected of a treacherous minister’s descendant. I do not know how he has been wagging his three-inch tongue, but things will not go as he wishes…!