The Landlords' Conspiracy
When Hwang Jinsa put out the word, landlords who had been nursing the same sense of crisis came flocking in.
They all sat in Hwang Jinsa's house and vented their fury.
"I simply cannot understand why those Sichuan country bumpkins are barging into Guizhou Province as if it were their own front yard and making a complete mess of things!!"
"Exactly! Guizhou is ours! How dare a pack of outsiders trample the rights of those of us whose ancestors have lived in Guizhou for generations!"
For years they had seized the choicest land, monopolized the water sources, leased out their holdings, and swallowed the plots of lesser farmers, steadily swelling their power. Given the nature of the provinces, the clerks and low-ranking officials of the local yamen were almost all their own kin or relatives. In the premodern countryside, village order often outweighed the law itself; it was very much a "little society." The Provincial Administration Commissioners had no reason to pick a pointless fight with them and waste what little administrative capacity they already possessed, so they had pocketed the landlords' bribes and looked the other way at their privileges.
And now, as if the man had taken the wrong medicine, he had suddenly joined hands with the Sacheondang Family, wiped every scrap of goodwill from his face, and set out to smash the landlords' foundations to pieces.
Naturally, the landlords' rage soared to the heavens.
"Let's order our relatives in the yamen to slow-walk everything!"
"If the Provincial Administration Commissioner's work grinds to a halt, he'll get so frustrated he'll come begging to compromise first."
Hwang Jinsa shook his head heavily.
"The Tang brat that bastard has allied with is the Emperor's Personal Lecturer."
"He's only a junior fifth-rank pup!"
"Our own family has produced a senior fourth-rank high official in the central court!"
"…I just told you that junior fifth-rank pup's title is Personal Lecturer. Do you not grasp the situation? It is a special post that lets him petition the Emperor directly at any time."
Hwang Jinsa snapped, irritation plain in his voice.
"That son of a bitch blocked the Manchu invasion, won the Emperor's favor, and on top of that he holds the right of direct petition. If we throw an open tantrum and he snitches to the Emperor, nothing good will come of it for us."
"So we're just supposed to sit here and take it?"
"If that were the plan I would never have called you all. This man has thought of a method."
Hwang Jinsa's eyes gleamed with a sinister light.
"What makes the fellow so troublesome is that, strictly speaking, nothing he says is wrong. Securing drinking water and drilling wells—you can't pick a fight over that. To any outsider, we look like the villains."
"Ahem!"
"Hrrrm!"
The landlords cleared their throats uncomfortably and stared at Hwang Jinsa with faces that said, So what exactly are you proposing?
Hwang Jinsa continued.
"His strength does not come from high rank. It comes from the Emperor's favor and from the fact that he appears to be doing something righteous. Therefore we need to shatter that premise."
"Shatter the premise? What do you mean?"
"That bastard made those damned purification jars or whatever they're called, so people can secure far more drinking water, yes?"
"And thanks to that, the water fees we collect under water-rights privileges have taken a brutal hit, and it's become much harder to keep the farmers in line by controlling the waterways."
"So what if the farmers who drink that water all fall ill together?"
"Eh?"
"If the farmers who trustingly drank the water from the jars the Tang family made and placed start collapsing one after another from mysterious disease or poisoning… wouldn't that give us the perfect pretext to denounce the Tang family's actions?"
"That's it!"
The landlords finally understood what Hwang Jinsa was driving at and clapped their hands.
"Then we can turn around and raise our voices. They'll have dirt on their hands, so they won't dare run to the Emperor either…"
"Tell some reliable retainers to put poison—or any substance that will make people sick—into the jars. Then we simply wait until people start dropping."
"Hmm… but to poison an entire village you'd need an awful lot, wouldn't you?"
"Just as a single corpse dropped into a well fouls the whole well, we dig out the contents of the jars, stuff them with rotting animal carcasses, and seal them again. That should do it."
"Yes—if people suddenly start keeling over left and right it would look far too much like poison. That method is better."
While the excited landlords chattered on, the night grew deep.
And one of the Dokwadae operatives who had been keeping continuous watch on Hwang Jinsa's house returned to Hwiyeom and reported.
"All the neighboring landlords have gathered at Hwang Jinsa's residence."
"As expected."
"What shall we do?"
At Lee Jinmyeong's question, Hwiyeom answered.
"Set the Dokwadae in ambush. We need to show them exactly how steep the price is for underestimating the Sacheondang Family."
Ga Gyu, the Black Wolf Sword, was a jianghu wanderer who had been living off the hospitality of Landlord Choi Saengwon of Guizhou for six years.
As wanderers went he was fairly skilled; by his late thirties he had reached the First-rate realm. Yet his physical prime was fading, and with his meager internal energy he could no longer force power past the aging of his body. After much deliberation he decided to become a wealthy man's retainer, secure room and board, and refine his martial arts. He returned to his home province of Guizhou, settled into Choi Saengwon's household, and received the most lavish treatment.
While enjoying that hospitality, Ga Gyu had always expected that one day he would have to repay the debt—but he had never imagined it would come in this form.
Y-you want me to fight the Sacheondang Family?
No, Master Ga. Simply approach the jar under cover of night, drop this sack inside, and leave.
They told him that if anyone was standing guard he should not force a confrontation and simply try another night. Yet the reason they were sending a retainer like Ga Gyu instead of their own servants was obvious: if the affair ever came to light, he would be the tail they cut off.
Ga Gyu was no fool; he understood Choi Saengwon's true intent perfectly well. Still, he could not refuse. A retainer's duty, even if it cost him his life, was to repay the kindness of his host when crisis struck. Anyone branded "a man without loyalty" would be pointed at with scorn wherever he went. For a wanderer like Ga Gyu, whose livelihood was as dependent on reputation as any mercenary's, betraying one's host meant the end of his career as a free martial artist that very day.
He regretted it bitterly, but there was no other choice. He would simply have to pay the price for six years of good food and soft living.
Right. After freeloading for six years, I can hardly complain about a request like this.
Wasn't that what the retainer system had always been for?
Running away would end his life in the jianghu just as surely. So Ga Gyu, in a gloomy mood, accepted the sack that reeked of rotting corpses.
It was a moonless, starless night of absolute darkness. Ga Gyu bid Choi Saengwon a quiet farewell and slipped out.
Finish this as fast as possible and get out of Guizhou Province. If I head for Anhui, at least I won't starve.
Even if the matter later leaked, the Namgung Clan had been on bad terms with the Sacheondang Family of late; Anhui should offer at least a minimum of safety.
While those thoughts ran through his head, he arrived almost without noticing at the open lot where the jar stood. Fortunately, no guard was in sight. Judging it his chance, Ga Gyu launched himself forward, reached the jar, and was just lifting the lid when—
"Who goes there!"
The sudden shout made the hair on the back of Ga Gyu's neck stand up like needles.
Caught?!
He hurriedly checked the condition of the mask he had prepared just in case, then looked toward the source of the voice.
A wind rose; the clouds slowly parted. Moonlight spilled down and illuminated the speaker.
A martial artist who looked to be in his early thirties, dressed in a dull green combat uniform, the character "Dang" embroidered across the frog emblem on his chest.
The knowledge Ga Gyu had picked up while roaming the jianghu told him at once who he faced.
Sacheondang Family… Dokwadae.
Lately they had been going around digging wells, but they remained the armed force of the Sacheondang Family, one of the Nine Great Noble Families—normally far beyond the reach of a mere wanderer like Ga Gyu. The problem was that Ga Gyu's information was somewhat out of date. He had entered Guizhou six years earlier, and before that he had operated mainly around Liaoning and Beijing. In other words, he had no idea that the Sacheondang Family had recovered power beyond even its former peak.
Of course he had heard the rumor that they had stopped Chagatai's three hundred thousand, but the tale was so unreal he had dismissed it as empty talk. Even the Namgung Clan, called the foremost family under heaven, could never have managed that.
Thus he began carefully weighing whether he could defeat the man before him.
If he's only a Third-rate Dokwadae fighter, I can subdue him easily enough as long as I watch out for poison.
While Ga Gyu calculated, the Dokwadae operative called out loudly.
"A mask, eh? Suspicious. Sent by the landlords, are you? Planning to dump whatever poison is in that sack into this jar?"
A chill ran down Ga Gyu's spine at the realization that the landlords' scheme had already been completely read, but the water was already spilled. He drew up his internal energy.
Strike first, win first!
He hurled the sack at the operative to blind him, dropped low, and drove in at the man's lower body—swift and hard to block, like a starving wolf lunging for its prey's ankle. It was the first form of the technique that had saved his life more than once: Black Wolf's Jaw-Bite.
—Chaaeng!
His short saber leapt from its scabbard. Nearly scraping his chest against the ground, he swept the blade at the Dokwadae operative's ankle—and the man failed to react.
I win!
Then thunder rolled.
—Taaang!!
"Guaah?!"
A flash of fire burst above his head. The short saber tumbled from his grip and clattered across the dirt. Something invisible had punched clean through the back of his hand; blood pulsed out and white-hot agony flooded in. Ga Gyu's mind snapped wide awake.
R-Raemyeonghwan?! Wasn't the Tang family's Raemyeonghwan a lost hidden-weapon art?
One of the Tang family's secret techniques: flick a steel sphere with the thumb and it flies with a thunderclap, piercing even Hosin-ganggi. Hit by the gun, Ga Gyu assumed he had been struck by Raemyeonghwan and lost all hope.
Anyone who can use Raemyeonghwan is at least Peak rank! Yet this man's presence is ordinary. Could he have reached Returning to Simplicity…?
Knowing nothing of the gunpowder-powered Hagyeongchong or the Dang-chong that used explosive poison qi, Ga Gyu could only interpret the invisible projectile that had punched a hole through his hand amid a peal of thunder as Raemyeonghwan. Terror of the opponent finally crashed over him; he clutched his ruined right hand and trembled.
Damn it! How does a Tang family that was on the brink of collapse still have a master like this? And why would such a master show up to guard a worthless jar?!
What now? Run?
The thought rose unbidden and he clicked his tongue. The man opposite him was a Returning-to-Simplicity master who could launch Raemyeonghwan with no preparatory movement. The moment Ga Gyu turned his back, his skull would split like a ripe watermelon.
Shaking with fear, he spoke.
"S-spare me. I was only trying to repay the debt of gratitude I owe my host as a retainer."
"Hmm."
The Tang family "master," arms folded, answered.
"We hold no particular grudge against you. The landlords who tried to foul our work, however—we do have a score to settle with them. If you want to live, you will have to testify for us. Can you do that?"
"…Betraying the host who sheltered me is the same as ending my life as a martial artist. How… how can I…"
"Choose. Will you keep faith with landlords who exploit the farmers and die here, or will you follow your conscience, expose their crimes, and keep your life?"
Ga Gyu squeezed his eyes shut. Even if word of broken loyalty spread through the jianghu and he wore a stain of dishonor forever, honor was still not worth more than life.
"…I will cooperate. Spare me."
"Wise choice."
Thus the noisy night passed, and the next day a commotion broke out in the village.