Quelling the Riot
Guizhou was vast, and the Dokwadae he had brought numbered a mere fifty.
But while unrest was flaring across the province, the only place where blood had truly been spilled was Jinsha County—so there was still time to bring things under control.
Hui-yeom assigned most of the Noksan staff to the regions farthest from Jinsha County, while the Dang family members themselves would go to the nearer counties, especially those where the unrest had grown most violent.
"I'll go to Jinsha County myself. The rest of you from the Dokwadae, with the Regional Military Commission's help, get to the other districts as fast as you can and calm the people. We have to stop bloodshed from breaking out anywhere else."
"Yes, sir!"
"Young Master, we've also received reports that public sentiment in Nanming County is quite poor. I'll take that one."
"Then I'll head to Baiyuan County."
Sama Yun and Ye-eun stepped forward.
"Hmm. I'm your bodyguard. Do I really need to go out separately?"
"This isn't a full-scale war, Aunt. And if it comes to it, I can protect myself well enough."
"Fine. Then where am I going?"
"Please go to Xiuwen County."
"Ehh? That place takes three days even on horseback!"
"Aunt, aren't you the fastest among us at qinggong? If you go all out, you'll cover it in half a day."
"...I always think this, but you really have no mercy when you put people to work. And the fastest among us isn't me, it's..."
Dang Su-jeong's gaze swung to Ye-eun, who casually looked away.
When Hui-yeom also fixed Ye-eun with a long, steady stare, she held her silence a moment longer, then sighed.
"...If I can borrow a horse, I'll go to Xiuwen County."
"Thank you, Secretary Han! Love you!"
Dang Su-jeong clasped her hands and beamed. Ye-eun quietly turned her head, lips pushed out in a pout, and muttered under her breath.
"They already know and are just pretending they don't with gritted teeth, aren't they...?"
"Then I'll take Shuicheng County."
"And he's changing the subject like he didn't hear a thing, even though he clearly did."
Once Lee Jin-myeong also declared where he would go, Ye-eun stopped grumbling.
Ivan watched them with a complicated look in his eyes.
"...Is there nothing this one can do to help?"
"Come with me, Great Hero Ivan. See Huang Jinshi's true face with your own eyes."
"...Understood."
Ivan nodded.
The moment the discussion ended, Hui-yeom mounted the fastest horse and rode straight for Huang Jinshi's estate.
He was currently at the Jinsha County office; reaching the outskirts where Huang Jinshi's mansion stood would normally take half a shichen—about an hour—on horseback.
But Hui-yeom pushed the horse until it foamed at the mouth and arrived in roughly one gak, some thirty minutes—an astonishing feat.
And the village around Huang Jinshi's estate was chaos.
"Kill the Huang family bastards...!"
"Hang the martial artists...!"
"Waaaaaah!!"
It was war.
Just as if a real war had broken out, enraged farmers charged Huang Jinshi's house with pitchforks, pickaxes, bamboo spears, and torches. Bodies already littered the ground from earlier clashes with the household retainers, and blood ran along the ditches.
Both sides had already seen blood and lost all reason. Sensing this was not a situation that would stop easily, Hui-yeom drew up his Green Dragon Divine Art.
Rather than using materialization as he did when creating nitroglycerin, he extracted only the nature of the explosive poison. He swung his arm wide, and the poison streaked like a green meteor over the people's heads—then Hui-yeom fired at it with the Hagyeongchong.
Bang!! BOOOOM!!
The instant the bullet struck the explosive poison, a tremendous blast erupted in midair. Sparks flew in every direction, and a rain of fire poured down like fireworks.
Startled by the enormous roar, people forgot the fighting, threw down their weapons, and dropped flat to the ground.
"Aaaagh!!"
"W-what was that!"
"A murim martial artist!!"
The retainers of Huang Jinshi, however, took heart.
"Reinforcements!"
"Cut down these detestable murderers!"
As one martial artist thrust his spear at a farmer lying on the ground, blue flames flashed in Ivan's eyes.
"Sto—p—!"
Ivan stretched out his hand, and from his palm a seal of pure white light shot out in a straight line like a laser, smashing into the blade of the martial artist's spear. With a sharp crackling sound, the spear shattered into fragments as if it were a rose dipped in liquid nitrogen and pulled out again.
People went pale with shock.
"Ice-White Divine Palm! It's the Ice-White Divine Palm!"
"It's Great Hero Ivan of the Ice Palace!"
Ivan's presence was peerless even among the retainers; their faces lit with delight, while despair settled over the farmers'. As everyone's attention turned their way, Ivan unleashed a great lion's roar.
"Stop the fighting at once! By order of the Surveillance Commissioner of Guizhou! The Young Master of the Sichuan Dang Family has arrived!"
The authority of the government, the authority of the Dang Family, and the authority Ivan's power carried all rode on that lion's roar, and at last people froze in place.
Hui-yeom rode forward and leaped down from his horse. Then he shouted urgently.
"Move the wounded quickly! Treatment comes first!"
"E-eh?"
The farmers and retainers who had been killing each other moments before, suddenly told to move the wounded, blinked at one another in pure cognitive dissonance. Hui-yeom shouted again, exasperated.
"You have no reason to keep fighting! I've come to mediate this dispute. Shouldn't we save every life we still can?"
"Mediate?"
"The Surveillance Commissioner of Guizhou will formally hold the landlords responsible for this incident. So you no longer need to fight.
Retainers of the Huang family—the state has already pronounced Huang Jinshi at fault. Following your code of loyalty is fine, but stop pointing your swords at weak farmers."
Never mind that those "weak" farmers had just been pelting them in packs with sharp gravel, cracking skulls, and killing men with bamboo spears and pitchforks—the retainers could hardly claim injustice. If anything, they looked faintly relieved that they no longer had to fight.
After witnessing Hui-yeom's mysterious, spectacular explosion and Ivan's Ice-White Divine Palm, none of them had the courage left to charge Hui-yeom and Ivan. The retainers put away their weapons with faces half bitter, half relieved, and the farmers raised a victory cry.
"Alright, let's move them quick! Uh, where to?"
"For now, into Huang Jinshi's house! There should be supplies for emergency treatment there!"
Since they had been fighting right in front of Huang Jinshi's house, moving people was not hard—but there was another problem. The torches the farmers had thrown were burning Huang Jinshi's house.
"Should we split up and put out the fire first?"
"We don't even have enough water—that's why this whole mess started! What are we supposed to put the fire out with?"
"Stand aside."
Ivan stepped forward, raised both palms, and swung them with full internal energy.
A massive cold wind like a blizzard crashed over the burning walls and roof.
Whoooosh!!
The flames snuffed out as if doused with cold water. Hui-yeom's eyes lit up briefly at the sight, but he soon shook his head, scanned the retainers, and asked the one who looked strongest in aura.
"Where is Huang Jinshi? I need to speak with him..."
"A-are you Sichuan's Sleeping Dragon, Dang Hui-yeom? A pleasure. I am Song Ho-yeon, the Iron Fist of Guizhou. The... master of the house has likely fled by now through the back gate with his household."
"Fled, has he..."
Hui-yeom's brow furrowed.
Of course, Huang Jinshi was no soldier with a duty to defend Jinsha County, so there was no reason to condemn a man for abandoning his house and running when his life was on the line. But it still looked bad.
"Tch. Running away just to save his own skin."
"And we treated a man like that as the village's highest elder all this time..."
"Calling himself a thousand-seok man, a ten-thousand-seok man, a learned jinshi who passed the exams—all he ever did was strut around and exploit us... Ugh..."
"When something like this happens, a man's true bottom shows itself...!"
Isn't it a bit shameless for you people who charged at him ready to turn him into a pincushion with bamboo spears to be saying that?
Hui-yeom had a few points he could have needled them on, but he skillfully covered it with a single polite cough and spoke with a grave expression.
"It seems Huang Jinshi... has failed to repay even the loyalty of you retainers."
"...Well, what can one do?"
"Very well. In any case, there is no more reason to fight. I'll soothe the agitated farmers myself—would you bring Huang Jinshi here for me?"
"...You're trusting us enough to send us? What if we run off with him?"
Hui-yeom smiled.
"To be honest, if you did run, it would make my job easier. I could confiscate all of Huang Jinshi's property and distribute it to the people, or fold it into the Provincial Administration's official fields.
So please be sure to tell him this.
If he wants to salvage even a portion of his wealth, he should come back on his own two feet.
If he comes back bound in ropes, he won't keep so much as a single plot of land.
He'd best abandon any hope of escaping safely.
My wife's family is the Cheontong Sama Clan. Surely he doesn't believe he can slip past the eyes of the Sama Family? Pass that along."
"...I'll be sure to tell him."
It was several shichen later when the retainers returned with Huang Jinshi's family.
In the meantime, Hui-yeom directed people in the emergency treatment of the wounded and comforted the bereaved families of the dead.
The rage of those among the farmers whose families had died was not something even Hui-yeom could easily calm—but because it was Hui-yeom speaking, the man who had done so much good for Guizhou, people managed to cling to the last thread of reason and hold themselves back.
"...I thank you for your mercy."
Supported by the retainers, Huang Jinshi approached. His face looked as if he had aged forty years as he spoke to Hui-yeom.
"What do you intend to do by sparing this man? String him up on the execution ground?"
"No. I don't want this matter to grow any larger. Was it not an unfortunate accident born of a breakdown in communication?"
"...An unfortunate accident... Hahah. Indeed. Now I finally understand what kind of man Young Hero Dang is."
If Huang Jinshi were punished as a criminal, covering up the incident would become impossible. And if that happened, no matter how much Huang Jinshi had exploited the people, the farmers who had pointed bamboo spears at him would also have to be punished.
Of course, the fairy-tale ending where no one is punished at all would not come to pass either.
Having already heard of the Surveillance Commissioner's proclamation, Huang Jinshi asked Hui-yeom with lifeless eyes.
"Would offering up all my property be enough?"
"That would be no different from telling you to die. Give only as much as will reasonably comfort the bereaved families, by your own judgment.
Ah, and for reference—while the amount of property you surrender is left to your discretion, the water rights I will be taking. That has already been settled with the Surveillance Commissioner's office and will not be reversed."
Huang Jinshi squeezed his eyes shut.
All the privileges he had enjoyed like a king in Jinsha County for generations of ancestors would end in his lifetime. If only he had been a little less greedy—if only he had given a little more to the farmers in ordinary times—the thoughts crossed his mind, but as always, regret came too late.
He spoke with a sigh.
"...I will renounce the water rights. Except for the ancestral burial grounds, I will transfer all the fields I have been renting out to tenant farmers. And for households that suffered casualties, I will transfer additional fields separately.
Please leave us only the bare minimum of property so that my family may farm and live here quietly..."
"It will be so."
And so, the clash between farmers and landlord forces that had nearly ballooned into a major incident was settled.
But then, as always, the world has a way of not going according to plan.
A few days later, Hui-yeom met the farmers with a baffled expression.
"...What? You want to hand your land over to me?"