The Elders' Predicament
"You oppose it?"
At the unexpected answer, Dang Un-sang tilted his head, and Hwiyeom explained his reasoning.
"A harsh punishment would only make them feel cornered and bind them more tightly together."
"Bind them together, you say? Then wouldn't it be better to just sweep them all away at once?"
"As the Art of War teaches, it is better to win without fighting than to win a hundred battles."
"Sun Tzu's Art of War."
"Yes."
Hwiyeom continued his calm explanation.
"There is a saying like this.
'When the Jurchen raided the border pastures,
I remained silent.
For I was not a herdsman.
When next they plundered the farms,
I remained silent.
For I was not a landowner.
When word came that they were crossing the frontier,
I remained silent.
For I was old and no longer bound by military duty.
And when at last they came for me,
there was no one left to fight on my behalf.'"
"Truly a weighty saying."
Dang Un-sang stroked his chin and nodded.
Hwiyeom's words were a Central Plains twist on the maxim of Pastor Martin Niemöller. At its root it rebuked the silent majority, yet it also laid bare the classic corporate method of splitting a minority of workers apart.
"I will strike them in pieces so they cannot unite. Some I will swallow, others I will cast out, and set them to hate one another.
Do not worry. A voice that cannot become one is no different from the lowing of cattle.
They were originally the main line's cattle, so I will make them know their place and put the leash back on themselves with their own hands.
This son of yours will sow the seeds of uisim-amgwi—that dark suspicion that doubts everything and frets without end—among them.
With money and power, with interests and losses, with the terror of abandonment and the desperate conviction that only I must survive, I will make it so."
As he spoke, Hwiyeom's hands trembled finely, just as before.
I was assassinated in my previous life and now again? Just you wait. I'll keep you close, wring every last drop out of you, and leave you neither dead nor alive.
It was pure rage.
Dang Un-sang wore a subtle smile as he spoke.
"…Yeom-ah."
"Yes, Father."
"There has never been a time I felt more fortunate that you are my son."
"I have always been grateful to be Father's son."
At Hwiyeom's gentle smile, Dang Un-sang smiled back and stroked his son's head.
"Hahaha."
The father and son traded compliments and shared a warm moment of affection—then both put on sly smiles and began discussing how to deal with Ma Jeonggu's faction.
"Very well. That is part of it. For now, go and bring Ma Jeonggu's lot splendidly under your thumb."
"I already have a method in mind."
"Ho, already?"
"When one reports a situation, one reports the solution one has devised together with it. Is that not the first principle of a proper report?"
When Hwiyeom tilted his head as if genuinely puzzled, Dang Un-sang felt a faint chill.
"You competent little monster."
"? Thank you for the praise?"
"That was not praise. You brat—have you cut into your already scarce sleep again?"
"There is no more sleep left to cut. I merely worked it out in my head while traveling the road. Please do not worry."
"Ugh… You must eat well and sleep well if you are to grow properly."
"Yes. I will engrave Father's golden precept upon my heart."
"Very well, let us hear it. What is the plan?"
"Yes. First…"
And so the father and son's night grew deep.
Meanwhile, while Hwiyeom was meeting with Dang Un-sang, the elders of the Elder Council had secretly gathered to discuss the present crisis.
With grim faces the elders hurled recriminations at one another.
Hong Ilgon in particular looked as if he had just smashed his little toe against a chair leg; his face was contorted in pure fury.
Every calculation he had been turning over in his mind—all the concessions he might have wrung from the Family Head by yielding the ironworks, every plan for a strike—had crumbled into dust.
Unlike his usual rational self, he let foul language spill from his mouth.
"Damn it all! An assassination attempt—what madman did this?!"
"…."
Not a single elder answered.
Even Elder Ma Jeonggu, who had instigated the affair, merely looked pale and pretended to notice something else.
After a brief, awkward silence, Ma Jeonggu stammered,
"W-well… from what I heard, only the assassins' corpses were found, yes? It may not have been aimed at the Young Family Head at all…"
At the lame excuse, Hong Ilgon snarled.
"Ha! On Sichuan soil, not far from the Dang Family itself, a band of assassins tailing the Young Family Head's procession? Anyone with eyes can see it was an attempt on the Young Family Head!"
"…Ugh…"
Possessing only suspicion and no hard proof, Hong Ilgon glared at him and continued.
"Whoever did it, this was a grave blunder. Now that an assassination attempt on the Young Family Head has occurred, the Family Head's wrath is justified, and he can put a blade to our throats whenever he likes!"
"…."
"The strike is finished too. If we try to strike now, who knows what the Family Head will do! Why? Because it would be no different from confessing that we attempted the assassination ourselves!"
Had they struck before the assassination attempt, it might have been accepted as the desperate plea of small merchants whose livelihoods were threatened.
But after an attempt on the Young Family Head had already failed, a strike now?
There was a reason for the proverb about the crow flying and the pear falling.
Faced with the gravity of the situation, the elders began to murmur among themselves.
"Then what are we to do?"
At Elder Gong Duchan's question, Hong Ilgon clicked his tongue and finally withdrew his glare from Ma Jeonggu.
"We endure."
"Endure?"
"Fortunately no assassin was taken alive, so the sparks will not fly our way—small mercy in misfortune.
But we cannot know when Dang Un-sang will start dancing with his sword, so for the time being we have no choice but to match our words to the Family Head's.
We should only enter negotiations once this assassination affair has quieted somewhat and Dang Un-sang's anger shows signs of cooling."
"Negotiations for what?"
Hong Ilgon's face twisted as if to ask whether they really needed him to spell it out.
"We yield the ironworks and extract other benefits in return. Do you have a complaint, Elder Ma?"
"…If I have a complaint, I have said so from the beginning."
"Is that so? And that is why you attempted the assassination?"
"Do not pin a crime on an innocent man!"
Ma Jeonggu leapt up in protest.
Yet the majority of the Elder Council was already casting black looks of suspicion at him.
"Innocent? Elder Ma Jeonggu, the moment the steelworks matter set fire to your feet, you dragged the ironworks elders into your faction as well, did you not?"
"What?! Are you suspecting us now?!"
"If you were going to do it, you should at least have done it properly!"
"You lit a fire under a blind bull's arse!"
As the Elder Council's internal chaos swelled, Elder Hong Ilgon slammed the table hard and roared,
"Enough!"
At his shout the noisy atmosphere fell silent at once.
Hong Ilgon spoke in a heavy voice.
"The meeting ends here."
Immediately after the Elder Council meeting ended, Hong Ilgon convened a separate gathering that excluded Ma Jeonggu and the ironworks elders.
Already unsettled, the elders all wore uneasy expressions when a second meeting was called so soon.
"So… what exactly is this about?"
"Calling us aside like this suggests something important, I presume."
As the elders murmured, Hong Ilgon quieted them and spoke.
"There is one thing we have all overlooked.
Namely—who stopped the assassins?"
At the unexpected topic the elders looked blank.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Were we not going to discuss securing the remaining interests after yielding the ironworks?"
"It may be more important than that. Listen carefully."
Hong Ilgon began listing the points he had been unable to raise earlier because of the scuffle with Ma Jeonggu's faction.
"Those escorting the Young Family Head at the time were ordinary outer-hall martial artists, and they never even encountered the assassins. Is that not so?"
"That is true, but…?"
"Then who exactly dealt with the assassins?"
It was indeed a strange matter.
One of the elders who had been nodding offered an opinion.
"Could it not have been some passing outsider? Unlucky righteous heroes who happened to be traveling by…"
"The Family Head tried to keep it quiet, but I casually asked the inspection team. Goose-feather needles were used to kill the assassins.
Which means that, in some form or other, the person is connected to our Dang Family."
"……!"
The startled elders' gazes all poured toward one particular elder.
"Come to think of it, Elder Sa Jung-hyeok—you confirmed that no Dang Family forces left the estate at the time, did you not?"
Elder Sa Jung-hyeok, whose role was to monitor movements within the clan, nodded.
"I did look into it discreetly.
While the incident was occurring, there was no noteworthy movement inside the Dang Family.
The Poison Bee Unit was, as always, guarding the research facilities and the Family Head's residence, and the Flame Net Unit only moved after the incident had already taken place."
Hearing the answer, Elder Hong Ilgon slapped his knee.
"That is why it is suspicious. A master capable of dealing with a professional assassination squad of several men—not a lone expert—or an armed force of equivalent strength is protecting the Young Family Head. Is that not so?"
"Hoo…"
"And most important of all is that the Family Head ordered this fact sealed.
In other words, he wishes to conceal the direct force that is guarding the Young Family Head."
"Does that mean that besides the Poison Bee Unit and the Flame Net Unit, there is yet another armed force under the Family Head's direct command?!"
Hong Ilgon nodded.
"This elder suspects the existence of the Samyo."
The Three Great Demons of the Tang Family.
A term referring to the legendary demons said to protect the Sichuan Dang Family.
It was said that the founding Family Head of the Sichuan Dang Family met three demons—Butterfly, Spider, and Mantis—and formed a contract so that they would guard the clan for generations.
The elders' faces filled with absurdity.
"The Samyo are just beings from stories, are they not?"
"I turn seventy tomorrow or the day after, and I have never once seen the Samyo in my life."
Of course it was only a legend handed down by word of mouth; no one had ever actually witnessed the Samyo.
Naturally Hong Ilgon had not brought up the tale merely to talk of demons.
"Do you think I convened this meeting just to ramble about monsters?
What I suspect is that there may be a group of martial artists under the Family Head's direct command who go by the name Samyo."
"Hoo!"
"Surely not…!"
"At least three, or more, highly accomplished martial artists forming a direct force under the Family Head.
That is my guess. If so, the old tales of the Samyo, the Young Family Head's escape from assassination, and finally the Family Head's desire to conceal the discovery of the goose-feather needles all become explainable."
The elders who had been listening quietly found themselves nodding without realizing it.
Yet some among them still tilted their heads.
"But if there truly existed a Samyo under the Family Head's direct command, would they have stood by and let the Grand Patriarch and the Family Head of thirty years ago die in that bloodbath?"
"That is…"
"It is strange, I grant you."
"Perhaps the Samyo of that time also died together with the Grand Patriarch.
The present Samyo may be a newly selected set."
"Ho, that too makes a certain sense."
"But how are we supposed to uncover the true identity of these Samyo? Every retainer of the Dang Family is under our eyes.
We have never seen anyone suspicious all this time, have we?"
"If they have been operating in the shadows for decades without our knowledge…"
"…the Family Head's hidden strength may surpass even ours…"
For a moment the elders' spines prickled; they fell silent and stared at empty ceilings or out the windows.
Meanwhile, Ma Jeonggu and the ironworks-faction elders, on their way back to their quarters, decided to drown their fury at a high-class inn outside the Dang Family estate.
They poured out their rage against the Family Head, the main line, and Hong Ilgon together with the elders who followed him.
"Damn them all! So it is not their problem, is that it?!"
As Ma Jeonggu soothed the ironworks elders who were slamming back cups and venting fire, a servant he had planted to watch Hong Ilgon approached and whispered something. Ma Jeonggu's face twisted violently.
"What? That bastard Hong Ilgon convened the Elder Council again and left only us out?!"
He had belatedly realized that another meeting had been held excluding them alone.
Ma Jeonggu's blood pressure spiked so hard the back of his neck went numb.
Of course the actual content had been about the special unit under the Family Head that they suspected was the Samyo.
But those who had not attended naturally imagined something else entirely.
"Holding a meeting among themselves while leaving only us out…
This is clearly their intention to abandon us and negotiate with the Family Head!"
"Did they not already tell us to give up the ironworks because of that strike of theirs?
From the very beginning they never intended to face the Family Head together with us!"
As everyone erupted in fury, one pessimist snarled coldly,
"They may even name us as the ones who ordered the assassination."
"Surely not…!"
"Did you not hear earlier? They openly asked whether we had attempted the assassination!
They already suspect us!"
In a cornered situation, when people abandon themselves to emotion and shout, the outcome can never be sound.
Even before Hwiyeom had sown the seeds of uisim-amgwi, Hong Ilgon had already planted suspicion and division within the Elder Council.
"We cannot just die like this!"
"But what are we to do…"
The terrified ironworks elders wailed. The final moments of Jong Ri-hyeok, thrashing and melting alive in the molten steel, rose vividly before their eyes.
Then Elder Ma Jeonggu, who had remained silent, quietly murmured,
"The Young Family Head…"
"Hm? What did you say, Elder Ma?"
"We must meet the Young Family Head."
At Ma Jeonggu's sudden words the elders were appalled.
"Elder Ma, what are you talking about?"
"Why suddenly seek the Young Family Head? Even if we are going to beg for our lives, meeting the Family Head would be more proper."
At the elders' words Ma Jeonggu gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
"Why did talk of assassinating the Young Family Head arise in the first place? Was it not because of his influence?"
"…."
"Replacing the ironworks' furnaces, creating Flawless Steel, and bringing the steelworks into existence—all of it ultimately came from the Young Family Head.
Whether we speak of the ironworks or the steelworks, going through the Young Family Head will be the correct path.
And since this assassination attempt also happened to him, even if we offer an explanation, would that not be the proper side to approach?"
Indeed, Dang Un-sang was a pure martial artist, weak with numbers and slow with calculations.
Taking complicated matters of interest and politics to him would clearly lead nowhere.
The Young Family Head, on the other hand, though their political enemy, was quick of understanding, rational, and someone with whom dialogue seemed possible.
"Very well. Then let us go to the Young Family Head at once!"
Thus the ironworks-faction elders set out for the Young Family Head's residence.
When they arrived, a young girl waiting at the entrance bowed her head in greeting.
It was Ye-eun, Hwiyeom's closest attendant.
"Welcome, Elders. We have been waiting for you."
"…You speak as if you knew we would come."
At Ma Jeonggu's awkward remark she bowed deeply and answered,
"How could a mere girl fathom the depth of the Young Family Head's schemes? This girl merely received instructions to wait, for Elder Ma Jeonggu would come."
Ma Jeonggu and the elders tilted their heads.
They had known in advance that we would come?
Had they planted spies around us?
We did not plan this beforehand; we made up our minds on the spot and moved at once. For a spy's report to have arrived already, the timing is far too fast, is it not?
With such complicated thoughts they stepped inside—
"I have been waiting for you."
Hwiyeom greeted them with a bright smile.
"Please, come in. I am sure there is much you wish to say to me."