The Beginning of Change
"I would like to read a concrete proposal for this matter."
"Here—I prepared it in advance."
Hwiyeom had spent the past several nights without sleep finishing the proposal he would present to the Provincial Governor. As he drafted the plan and organized the thick stack of supporting materials that went with it, he rubbed at eyes gone black with exhaustion and muttered under his breath.
"There's no one I can dump the heavy paperwork on, so I'm the one getting ground to dust. As expected—I need to cultivate talent."
The Provincial Governor faced the proposal heavy with that quiet resentment and broke into a smile.
"You're well prepared. Good. Then let us look at this proposal and talk."
What Hwiyeom had brought was thicker and far more extensive than expected. The moment the Provincial Governor turned a few pages, he understood why.
"Hmm? Besides the existing Hwieon Comprehensive Finance matter, there are several other proposals as well?"
"Yes. As Your Excellency previously noted, I reinforced the content out of concern for the principle of non-interference between officials and martial artists. Of course most sizable enterprises already maintain ties to both the martial sects and the government, so Jeong Pansu being connected to both the authorities and the Dang Family is hardly strange. Still, having government troops stand guard would place a certain burden on Your Excellency, so I expanded the scale of the enterprise until the common people themselves would find it only natural."
"Indeed—truly remarkable foresight. I shall read it at once and give you my answer."
Impressed by a proposal more vast yet more tightly constructed than he had imagined, the Provincial Governor remained seated and read without pause for several hours. At last he closed the final page with a long sigh and looked at Hwiyeom.
"You truly conceived every part of this yourself?"
"I did. Do you find it hard to believe?"
"No. I believe you. The idea itself is far from ordinary. Un-sang may be whatever sort of martial artist he is, but watching how he runs the family, he is not a man who would think of something like this. And those so-called elders of the Elder Council certainly could not produce it either."
The Provincial Governor gave a wry smile.
"Anyone who received a proposal of this magnitude and simply ignored it would be a fool. Let us try it."
"Thank you."
"But about Hwieon Comprehensive Finance—you intend to make the owner your father rather than a fictitious person as before? Will that not expose that all the other Hwieon affiliates belong to the Dang Family?"
"By now the businesses have grown large and stable enough that the Elder Council can no longer check them even if nothing is hidden."
"True enough."
"It also serves to publicize that the enterprises stand under the protection of the Grand Patriarch, and above all, if Hwieon Comprehensive Finance is to play a major role in Sichuan hereafter, the Dang name will be an asset."
"Hmm. Very well."
The Elder Council would of course throw a fit when they learned of it—but what could they do? Like the Dragon King tricked by the rabbit and sent back to earth to fetch his own liver, they would merely pound the ground in futile regret.
After the meeting, Hwiyeom returned and affixed his seal, transferring full ownership of Hwieon Trading Company from its paper owner, Jeong Pansu, to his father, Dang Un-sang. When everything had been explained, Dang Un-sang nodded.
"It is certainly a fine thing, yet I cannot help worrying, Yeom-ah, that our Dang Family is gradually losing its identity as a martial house. Moreover, is this not a breach of the martial world's unwritten law—non-interference between officials and martial artists?"
"Please set your mind at ease, Father. Non-interference between officials and martial artists is merely the principle that the government will not meddle in every private quarrel among the martial world. It has nothing to do with the present matter."
How had that principle arisen in the first place? Official administrative power never reached every corner of the provinces, and lawless crimes flourished in the gaps. By tolerating private justice administered by those who had trained in martial arts, the authorities effectively said, "Protect your own bodies," and that was the origin of non-interference between officials and martial artists.
It's like the modern American Castle Doctrine. The right of self-defense.
If other martial factions ever raised the banner of non-interference against them, it would only be because Hwiyeom had used government troops to attack another sect.
"Even if our Dang Family performs good works for the land of Sichuan, and even if the Provincial Governor who supports those works lends a few government soldiers and offers political backing, that does not violate non-interference between officials and martial artists."
"…Hearing it put that way, you are right."
Dang Un-sang's expression eased.
"Now that a foundation has been laid, I can push my long-cherished project with real force."
"That… the hidden weapons that use gunpowder?"
Dang Un-sang's tone was skeptical.
"We already possess explosive poison. Must we create something else?"
"Yes. Gunpowder hidden weapons, unlike explosive poison, can be used by anyone. They can be fired even when internal energy is completely spent. Even a third-rate martial artist will be able to kill a first-rate master with the flick of a finger."
"Then is that not an even greater problem? It is a catastrophe that reduces the very value of us martial artists."
If a third-rate fighter could slay a first-rate master with one finger, the ones who would suffer most were martial families exactly like the Dang. Yet Hwiyeom shook his head.
"Father, the future battlefield I envision looks like this. We detonate several weapons that blanket a radius of dozens of jang with a mist of mountain-dispersing poison. Then, against martial artists whose internal energy has been stripped away and who stand powerless, our Dang Family warriors open fire without mercy using gunpowder weapons. Once their internal energy is gone, even the greatest demonic masters of famous sects will be unable to hold their ground. Our own people may have breathed the same poison, yet by the superiority of our weapons they will still win the fight. Because our family is built on blood kinship and therefore faces hard limits on how large it can grow, the only path to becoming the greatest house under heaven is to face the entire world with a small, elite force."
"The greatest house under heaven…"
Dang Un-sang felt his chest swell. He asked quietly,
"Is that possible?"
"We will make it possible."
"…I understand. This father believes in you."
In the end, as he always had, Dang Un-sang placed his trust in his son and lent his full weight to the plan. With the family head's seal affixed, every project then under way received final approval.
To Elder Bak Chang-eon, who had tirelessly assisted Hwiyeom, he paid not only the previously promised thirty percent of the coal-mine sales proceeds but an additional ten percent share of Hwieon Trading Company—cosmetics, ointments, and the rest. Receiving equity on top of the original promise, Bak Chang-eon trembled with emotion and dropped to his knees before Hwiyeom.
"This Bak swears loyalty to the Young Family Head and the Family Head until the day my breath ends!"
In the Elder Council he had been kept powerless, reduced to a mere rubber stamp because of his former post as chief steward. Now he was trusted completely, given real responsibility and the reward that came with it—how could he not be moved?
Hwiyeom raised him to his feet.
"Remember this feeling. And never betray me."
His smile was gentle; his eyes were ice.
"I do not forgive traitors. Absolutely."
"Yes!"
Hwiyeom also restructured Hwieon Comprehensive Finance, using the money-house owners he had already drawn to his side together with the capital under his own control. No actual silver changed hands, yet the bonds Gong Duchan had held over those money-house owners were absorbed into Hwieon Comprehensive Finance. Overnight its scale more than doubled.
If this world had a reserve-requirement system, I could have leveraged the larger capital base to extend more credit and attract more investment. A pity.
Hwiyeom smacked his lips.
Only a few days later the Provincial Governor announced the public-private projects on a grand scale. The common people's reaction was ecstatic.
"What? The Sichuan Dang Family persuaded His Excellency the Provincial Governor to lower loan interest for us hard-pressed folk?!"
"They're going to lay waterworks with fountains springing up everywhere like the ones at the Provincial Governor's residence in Seongdo, and sewers where you just flush and the water vanishes?!"
"Education free for children of poor households? And jobs after they graduate?!"
Measured by twenty-first-century sensibility, the people's response boiled down to a single phrase:
Sichuan Dang Family—is he a god?
Once matters stood thus, the lingering questions about the government troops also melted away.
"They're running the whole project together with the authorities—of course the government soldiers should guard it!"
"Right! Leave it unguarded and those money-blind martial-sect bastards would have been drooling over it for sure!"
"But there's a rumor Hwieon Comprehensive Company belongs to the Dang Family…"
"Man, everyone knows every money house and fabric shop is set up by some martial-sect disciple or relative. Whether a Dang man founded it or not—what's it matter?"
"Exactly. Don't go spoiling the festival with nonsense."
"This… this reeks of a Gansu spy who fears Sichuan's rise!"
"Wh-what? No! I'm nothing of the sort!"
Figures of the commercial world who had been watching closely likewise began to look on the Dang Family with growing favor.
"Hmm… I knew the Dang Family was no longer the old Dang Family, but I never imagined this far."
"We had better choose our side carefully."
"Still, won't the financial structure of Sichuan tilt completely toward the Dang Family?"
"And does the Dang Family even have the silver to underwrite that comprehensive finance?"
Half worry, half goodwill.
"Every last person in Seongdo will try to borrow from Hwieon Comprehensive Finance to pay off old debts. Can they possibly shoulder that mountain of silver? I say it's impossible."
One merchant voiced the doubt; another raised a bowl of cloudy wine.
"I worried about the exact same thing the moment I heard the announcement. But the details that followed made it sound entirely workable."
"The Dang Family has that much money?"
"They aren't rolling out every loan at once. There's a three-year window: no refinancing of existing debts—only new loans. That stops everyone from yanking silver out of the Dang Family just to run off and clear other money houses."
"And then?"
"Well, the other money houses will have to drop their rates if they want to stay alive, won't they?"
"Or they can keep charging high rates and serve the people who still can't get the low-interest loans—same as the small money houses and Yeowangchae used to."
"The owners who've been in the money-house trade won't have much fun left."
"If they don't like it they can move to another province. Stay here and keep operating? Then lower the interest."
"Still leaves a bad taste. Hey, Bak—you're a money-house owner yourself. What do you make of it?"
In the corner a quiet man who had been eating pan-fried cakes with his cloudy wine finally spoke.
"I ran the abacus every which way. It's not as bad as it first looks."
"How so?"
"Think of it as thin profit, high volume. Interest falls, so the take per loan shrinks, but the threshold drops and the number of customers rises. People will drink lye if it's free—that's human nature. Folk who once refused to borrow because of the rate will now wonder, 'Interest this low… maybe I should take a loan and start a little business of my own.' In the long run the whole economy should quicken."
"Huh. Then Hwieon Comprehensive Finance played it smart."
"The Provincial Governor is no fool, and this is a national project under his own name. Of course he reviewed it. By the way—word is the idea came from none other than the Young Family Head of the Sichuan Dang Family. If that's true, it's terrifying."
"Come now—he's only twelve."
"It could still be true. Look at everything they've already done…"
While the merchants talked, the owner emerged from the kitchen carrying a bowl of lajiaoji—spicy fried chicken—set it on the table, and said,
"How great is our Young Family Head? Of course it's true."
"Eh? Ah—this place is a Baekga-jaengsik franchise, isn't it?"
Park Sun-sim, proprietor of the second branch of the Baekga-jaengsik chicken specialty restaurant Phoenix Banquet, snorted.
"Curious about the Young Family Head? Ask me. I met him at the franchisees' gathering and even spoke with him."
"Well? Is he really what the rumors say?"
"More. One sentence and you know—you're not talking to a child; you're talking to a seasoned elder!"
"So that's how it is…"
In the rising murmur the merchants sensed that from now on the commercial world of Sichuan would revolve around the Sichuan Dang Family. Park, who ran a modest money house in Seongdo, thought to himself,
I should go ask to join Hwieon Comprehensive Finance as a franchisee.
At that very hour, Hong Ilgon—elder of the Elder Council and leader of the anti-family-head faction—was meeting the sect leader of the Qingcheng Sect in secret.
"How can His Excellency the Provincial Governor treat us this way?"
For thirty years the Provincial Governor had quietly dismantled every interest the Sichuan Dang Family once held, parceled those interests out to the Qingcheng Sect and the Elder Council, and lined his own sleeves. Now he had turned his face away and sided openly with the main line. Hong Ilgon's teeth ground together.
"Gong Duchan's death is also suspicious. They claim Yeowangchae killed him, yet every last one of those Yeowangchae dogs was poisoned. Anyone can see the main line's hand in it!"
In truth Song Hoejang had murdered Gong Duchan out of naked greed, and Dang Su-jeong had merely cleaned up Yeowangchae at Hwiyeom's request; yet the circumstances invited exactly this misunderstanding. Convinced the Family Head's residence had at last drawn the sword, Hong Ilgon had come trembling with fear.
"Master! They can kill me next. One night that bitch Dang Su-jeong may simply appear in my bedchamber!"
Songhak Jin-in, long silent in the seat of honor, stroked his beard and clicked his tongue. That Hong Ilgon, head of the Dang branch families, was a secular disciple of the Qingcheng Sect Leader was a secret known to almost no one.
"…If they truly meant to kill you, of course we would strike first. Assassination is not out of the question; I shall give it thought. Yet looking at the present board, the likelihood seems low."
"Why?"
"Had they intended your death, there was no reason not to cut you down together with that Gong fellow. They were already spilling blood."
"That… is true, yet—"
"They likely felt the burden. Gong Duchan they can justify even if word leaks: 'We punished traitors who, though of an orthodox branch, ran Yeowangchae!' You, however, offer no such handle. For the moment you may rest easy."
"Mm…"
"Their aim is probably to dry up the capital line by removing Gong Duchan, then slowly tighten the political noose."
"…I see."
The situation had arisen by coincidence, yet the reasoning held. Seeing his disciple accept it, Songhak Jin-in continued.
"When the enemy's momentum is strong, meeting them head-on is folly. Withdraw for a time, wait for the chance to strike back, and choose the proper moment."
"But if the initiative keeps slipping away bit by bit, later there may be nothing left we can do."
"Ilgon-ah. What I have learned leading a great sect such as Qingcheng is this: when the scale of any human organization doubles, the difficulty of its work does not merely double—it multiplies tenfold, twentyfold. Problems no one foresaw come boiling out."
"…"
"Even if the boy Hwiyeom is a genius as you claim, shouldering a provincial national project is not something brilliant wits alone can solve. Without the ability forged over decades, building an organization from the ground up, he is certain to create every kind of disaster. We need only remain silent, watch for those disasters, and topple him with them."
Songhak Jin-in spoke with absolute confidence.
"You take that project. Qingcheng will support you from behind."
The counsel of a man nearly one hundred and ten who had guided a great sect for almost fifty years soothed Hong Ilgon's nerves.
"Hearing Master say so, I feel truly secure."
"Haha. Yes. No matter how gifted that Hwiyeom brat may be, unless he is living a second life—and unless in that previous life he already ran an enterprise of this magnitude—this project will certainly produce enormous problems. Rest easy. Hahahaha…"
"Hehehehehe…"
Songhak Jin-in was indeed wise; his reasoning was rational and entirely commonsensical.
The difficulty, of course, is that the world does not always follow common sense.
Exactly one month later—
"?"
Disciples thronged before the blankly standing Songhak Jin-in and bowed. They were the young aspirants still in the entrance process and the secular disciples. Offering farewell greetings, they cried out:
"Thank you for everything you taught us!"
"Though the bond of master and disciple is now severed, we will still pray for Qingcheng Sect's prosperity!"
"We will write often from the Hwieon Scholarship Corps!"
Watching the backs of those who had been disciples stream out of Qingcheng like a herd of water buffalo, Songhak Jin-in stood with his mouth open.
"…?"
Just what on earth was happening?