To Guizhou
Even after their day of making beautiful memories together, Hwi-yeom stayed in Suzhou for about a week, wandering every corner of the city.
It was both a practical survey—experiencing Suzhou’s attractions and amusements firsthand from a tourist’s perspective so he could unearth new business ideas—and, at the same time, a date for the two of them.
Walking hand in hand through Suzhou like true lovers, he and Sama Yun looked like they had stepped straight out of a painting, and they became an endless source of inspiration for the street artists of the city.
Suddenly the paint shops of Suzhou were all selling pictures titled Beauty on the Boat or The Gentleman’s Leisurely Stroll.
Wherever they went, young men who had lost their hearts at a single glance of Sama Yun leaning against a boat rail and gazing at the flowing canal trailed after them, while young women who had fallen into the fever of first love after watching Hwi-yeom approach with a soft smile and hold a parasol over her followed just as faithfully.
A few especially bold ones even tried their luck with Sama Yun while Hwi-yeom stepped away to buy street food.
“Y-y-young lady! From the moment I first saw you, I was captivated by your lovely figure! Would you grant this man the chance to share a cup of tea?”
A young man, trembling from head to toe, face flushed scarlet, squeezed out the greatest courage of his life as if issuing a challenge to a duel, while his friends watched from a safe distance, cheering him on.
There seemed to be no real malice in it, so Sama Yun simply gave a quiet little laugh.
Cute.
Just as she was about to refuse him politely—
“I’m sorry, but…”
Hwi-yeom returned with fruit skewers, stepped between them with a smile, and finished the sentence for her.
“My wife and I are about to take a stroll along Seokjeong Road.”
“Ah! Y-you’re not… her lover, but her… husband…?”
“That’s right.”
“P-please excuse me!”
The young man stared at the two of them with visibly shaking pupils, then slumped his shoulders and walked away.
Hwi-yeom turned to Sama Yun with a grin.
“My wife is so beautiful I can’t even live in peace. I might have to lock her up inside the house.”
Sama Yun accepted the fruit skewer and shot him a pretty, sidelong glare.
“That’s not something a man who received how many love letters while I was gone should be saying, is it?”
“…Ahem. No defense.”
“The flower itself is never at fault. The bees and butterflies are the problem.”
“Hahaha. When you put it like that, it sounds awfully unfair.”
Of course, Sama Yun’s beauty seized people’s attention regardless of her own intentions or anyone else’s feelings, so it probably wasn’t only the bees and butterflies to blame… or so Hwi-yeom privately thought.
Their dreamlike week of holiday ended. Having roughly mapped out the Suzhou market, Hwi-yeom announced that they would leave.
It was a pity, but the mountain of work waiting for them meant that carving out even a single week had been a major decision.
“Time to meet King of the Green Forest Im Deok-sul, as originally planned.”
“While you were enjoying your vacation, I already sent a letter to Director Im through the Sama Clan’s network. When I informed him you would be inspecting Guizhou, he said he would come find you there.”
“Hmm. Still, he’s the head of an entire organization. I wonder if I’m being a bit too high-handed, ordering him around like this.”
Im Deok-sul was the leader of the Green Forest, one of the greatest powers among the unorthodox sects. In terms of age and status in the martial world, he was a man who should be associating with Dang Un-sang, not taking orders from Hwi-yeom. The thought left Hwi-yeom a little uncomfortable, but Lee Jin-myeong shook his head.
“Quite the opposite. Isn’t it only natural for the president of a mere subsidiary to answer the chairman’s summons?”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
Hwi-yeom scratched his head for a moment, then let out a short laugh.
“All right. Let’s go.”
As long as they respected each other, there would be no problem.
To reach Guizhou from Suzhou, one first had to travel up the Yangtze to Yichang County in Hubei, then continue overland.
Ordinarily the journey upstream against the current was slow, so many chose the land route; even by water it took a long time. This time, however, things were different.
The Personal Boats manned by Blue-Badge boatmen cut through the water like salmon swimming upstream, surging forward with astonishing speed.
Ha Tae-ryong had taken special care to station several Blue-Badge-grade boatmen as oarsmen. The vessel was no longer a mere personal boat; it was the size of a Roman galley, large enough for every member of the Tang party to board.
Dozens of oarsmen were needed—just as on a slave galley—yet every one of them was a carefully selected Blue-Badge boatman who had mastered water arts.
The ship they powered sliced through the current at a speed that made it hard to believe they were traveling upstream at all. It was so fast that the wind whipping from the front made their hair stream behind them.
“At this pace it wouldn’t lose to a ship with an engine.”
In modern terms it was easily twelve knots. Hwi-yeom could not help marveling anew.
No wonder scientific progress is slow around here.
Of course a powered vessel that could run at constant speed as long as it had fuel was incomparably more efficient than martial artists who still needed rest, meals, and sleep, but still.
Thanks to the Blue-Badge boatmen’s devotion, Hwi-yeom reached Yichang County in a mere three days. The same distance overland would have taken weeks.
After praising Ha Tae-ryong and the boatmen and rewarding them with a generous bonus—leaving them bowing joyfully behind him—Hwi-yeom set out on the overland leg.
“From here on, leave it to us.”
Ikhbayar and his men, who had joined Hwi-yeom’s party earlier and become his subordinates, had spent the journey so far trailing along like excess baggage (they had even brought their horses on the boat, all expenses coming out of Hwi-yeom’s purse). They had grown increasingly uncomfortable with that state of affairs and now burned with eagerness at finally having a chance to prove themselves.
Hwi-yeom had fretted over how to move roughly sixty people with only fifteen horses, but Ikhbayar and the Chagatai men were completely unconcerned.
“One household per horse is fine, right?”
“We have almost no household goods, so even one horse would be more than enough.”
They took the silver Lee Jin-myeong had given them, bought wagons, and promptly converted them into the mobile tents they used—gers.
Originally, Mongols loaded a few horses, a wagon, a family, household goods, and a ger, traveled until they found pasture, then simply unfolded the ger and moved the goods inside. That was a Mongol home.
People who had lived that way since childhood were born expeditionary forces.
It took them a full three days to fashion the gers out of leather, bamboo, and animal sinew, but the three days were well spent.
From the fourth day onward, Hwi-yeom’s party rode in the wagons (or rather, carriages) led by Ikhbayar and his Chagatai men.
Heavy with cargo, they were not especially fast, yet far quicker than walking, and whatever Ikhbayar had done, the wagons barely vibrated at all.
“No spring shock absorbers, yet almost no shaking. Remarkable.”
Ikhbayar glanced back at Hwi-yeom’s comment and gave a faint smile.
“You know that steppe horses have a different gait from continental horses, don’t you?”
“How is it different?”
“Continental horses move both legs on the same side together when they run. Right front and left front go out together, followed by right rear and left rear. When they walk slowly they cross their legs like a person, but the moment they gallop they always run that way.”
“And steppe horses are different?”
“Even at full speed a steppe horse keeps the crossed-leg gait. That means far less up-and-down and side-to-side motion. It’s one reason Chagatai has so many excellent mounted archers.”
“Ah…!”
New knowledge acquired.
In short, the very gait of the Mongolian horse reduced the shaking of the wagon it pulled. Of course the skill of excellent drivers also played a large part.
The moment Hwi-yeom’s eyes began to sparkle as he looked at Ikhbayar and the Mongolian horses, Lee Jin-myeong let out a sigh.
“I’ll prepare a project proposal as soon as we get back.”
“Now you’re learning how to work. Go ahead and draft it.”
“? Secretary Lee, what proposal? Didn’t we already finish talking with these people? Something about putting them in charge of an escort-agency business?”
Dang Su-jeong’s question made Lee Jin-myeong answer.
“That was the original plan. But how much commercial potential does an ‘unshakable carriage’ have? Even a sedan chair makes people motion-sick, and sitting in an ordinary wagon for even a single shichen wrecks your back and backside. If we imported steppe horses in bulk and used them as urban transport in places like Beijing, demand would be enormous, wouldn’t it? Just like the Personal Boats.”
“Aha, Secretary Lee is really clever!”
“Not at all. When you’re next to the Young Master, this sort of thinking comes naturally.”
Lee Jin-myeong laughed bashfully, and Dang Su-jeong smiled sweetly back at him.
Honey was practically dripping from the air between them.
Whether she had finally recognized her own feelings for him or had simply decided to stop hiding them, Dang Su-jeong now spent more and more time alone with Lee Jin-myeong as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
And so the peaceful journey continued. Across the open plains that stretched from Yichang toward Guizhou, then along winding mountain roads, Ikhbayar’s mobile camping wagons provided comfortable travel.
While the sun was up they rode. When they found rich pasture and the sun began to set, they halted the wagons, set up the gers, cooked the provisions they had brought, ate, and slept.
“I never knew how wonderful it is not to have to sleep rough outdoors!”
“I always took it for granted. They say leaving home means hardship, yet we’re bringing our homes with us—this is what they call a paradigm shift.”
“….”
“Hey, hey, Yun! He’s thinking about business again! Why is he already planning to sell nomad tents? Tell him to stop thinking about work!”
“Husband…?”
“Uh, right. What were we talking about? Something about Guizhou’s sugar-cane production trending upward?”
“…Husband.”
“No, sorry—really sorry. But it’s such a waste. Every trading company and escort agency in the Central Plains would want these tents. The demand would be—”
“I’m going to cry.”
“I’m sorry.”
Be that as it may, Sama Yun gained the certainty that she had completely captured Hwi-yeom’s heart.
She gazed at him with a happy expression every moment, and he returned the look in kind.
Even Dang Su-jeong, who at the start of the journey had worn a face of pure irritation at being stuck between a married couple, was now deep in her own peach-colored atmosphere with Lee Jin-myeong.
Thus, with everyone happy, the journey continued.
And at last, less than a month after leaving Suzhou, they arrived in Guizhou.
Yet the moment Hwi-yeom set foot in the province, the Provincial Governor of Guizhou met him with a grave expression.
“A serious problem has arisen with Guizhou’s sugar-cane farming.”