Madman's Strategy
What kind of nonsense is this…
At first, Hyeondeok Daesa could only manage a hollow laugh of pure disbelief.
A moment later, the absolute sincerity he felt in Hui-yeom’s ice-cold face forced another awkward chuckle out of him.
“Young Brother, so what you’re saying is that the Dang Family is prepared to risk total annihilation and go to war with the Qingcheng Sect?”
“That is correct.”
“Even if I mediate?”
“Would it make any difference no matter who under heaven tried to mediate?”
“Ha.”
Hyeondeok Daesa shook his head.
“You’ve lost your mind!”
Baekhyeon Jin-in, who had been listening in silence, rebuked Hui-yeom with a slightly flushed face.
“Young Brother, even for a joke there are things one may say and things one may not!”
“Then was sending Qingcheng disciples to kill me also a joke?”
“Wha—that is…!”
“Do I look like such a thoughtless fool that I would say something like this as a joke?”
Hui-yeom continued in a flat, even tone.
“The Family Head has already ordered the Hwamangdae, the Dokwadae, and the Heukjudae to prepare for deployment. If you doubt me, send people into Seongdo and check for yourselves. By now the Dang Family’s warriors will be delivering a curfew order to the populace. Here—this is the final ultimatum.”
Hui-yeom drew a red silk pouch from his robes and held it out to Baekhyeon Jin-in.
Baekhyeon Jin-in took it, glared at Hui-yeom as though he meant to kill him on the spot, then unfolded the contents and began to tremble violently.
“These bastards dare….”
The message was brief.
You die so I may live.
This was bad.
This was very bad.
Whether the Qingcheng Sect could actually win a war against the Sichuan Dang Family was a secondary issue.
Of course, the Dang Family’s prestige had recently revived and now towered over Sichuan like a spear thrust at the heavens—but whether they had truly recovered the terrifying martial power of their former glory was an entirely separate question.
Baekhyeon believed the Qingcheng Sect could defeat the Sichuan Dang Family. Having lost their hidden weapon specialty, the Dang Family was like a bird with only one wing. Moreover, the pure true qi of a renowned Taoist sect like Qingcheng was highly resistant to poison; the power of poison arts alone would never be enough to overcome them. Above all, the Dang Family was so closed off—refusing to pass their martial arts even to branch members out of fear—that even if they gathered every direct descendant, their numbers would barely reach half those of the Qingcheng disciples.
If it came to a fight, Qingcheng would suffer, but Baekhyeon was certain they would still win without question.
But….
The problem is that even victory wouldn’t count as victory.
The people of Sichuan practically deified the Dang Family—only a slight exaggeration. Waterworks construction, massive job creation through the state-run ironworks, the birth of a delivery-food culture, excellent cosmetics and ointments, high-quality iron… As the Dang Family raked in fortunes, the quality of life for the people of Sichuan rose day by day in equal measure.
And that was not all. The Emei Sect—longtime comrades within the Nine Sects and One Gang—had grown so warm toward the Dang Family after the cholera crisis that they seemed ready to leave the Nine Sects and One Gang altogether and join the Nine Great Noble Families… or rather, make it the Ten Great Noble Families.
Nor did it end there. There was not a soul in Sichuan who did not know that the Provincial Governor doted on Hui-yeom so much he wanted to keep the boy tucked in his sleeve.
To not merely clash with such a Dang Family, but to lock into a death struggle so absolute that annihilation of the clan was on the table?
Even if they won, could the Qingcheng Sect continue to pride itself as a great orthodox faction on Sichuan soil?
Could a righteous sect that had lost the people’s hearts still call itself righteous?
And under the doctrine of non-interference between officials and the martial world, did the government truly have no influence over Jianghu?
What the hell is wrong with these lunatics…
Even granting that there had been an assassination attempt on their beloved Young Master, this was excessive. Normally, those who led sects of this caliber would suppress boiling rage with ice-cold reason, weigh the political gains and losses, and come to the negotiating table.
Yet the man who sat as Family Head of the Sichuan Dang Family was charging in for mutual destruction like a wild boar that had been poked once? Impossible!
Hyeondeok Daesa laughed lightly.
“There is nothing to gain by bluffing like this.”
“Bluffing?”
Hui-yeom tilted his head.
“Why does Your Reverence believe this is a bluff?”
“Because the Dang Family gains nothing from this course. Moreover, to send your precious son into the enemy’s midst while declaring war…”
“Haha. How naïve.”
“…What did you say?”
At Hui-yeom’s sneer, Hyeondeok Daesa’s eyes narrowed.
Hui-yeom spoke.
“It is an unwritten law among all under heaven that envoys sent into enemy territory are not to be harmed. And you think Qingcheng—who already tried to assassinate me—would kill me on their own front doorstep? Even if the Martial Alliance itself intervened, they could never cover that stain. Even if you tore off the righteous label and turned to the unorthodox path, you would still be pointed at and scorned even among them.”
“….”
“And what’s this about gaining nothing?”
Hui-yeom could not stop the soft, contemptuous chuckles.
“Then if I were to quietly poison every last direct disciple of the Sect Leader right now, would Qingcheng simply keep its mouth shut? Let me say it again: the person sitting here is the Young Master of the Sichuan Dang Family—the very man you tried to kill. The very party you intended to murder is standing in front of you! And you look that party in the face and say, ‘You gain nothing, so this is a bluff’?”
“….”
“Weighing gains and losses is something people do when they still have the luxury. A man truly driven to the edge of fury has none of that.”
“….”
“And is the grudge between our Dang Family and Qingcheng limited to me alone? For the past thirty years of the Dang Family’s decline, Qingcheng steadily swallowed our influence piece by piece. And the Martial Alliance, the Nine Sects and One Gang, the Nine Great Noble Families—all those who crowed about the solidarity of the orthodox martial world—watched the Dang Family’s fall in absolute silence.”
“That is…”
Neither Hyeondeok nor Baekhyeon could answer. It was the truth.
Hui-yeom spoke in a low, even murmur, like a wolf growling deep in its throat.
“The Dang Family has been driven to the edge for a long time. And a man whose eyes have gone red no longer calculates. He simply charges in and smashes the other bastard’s skull.”
“What kind of—”
“I have clearly delivered the Dang Family’s position.”
As if he had never been growling at all, Hui-yeom smiled brightly and offered a formal clasped-fist salute.
“Exactly one week from now, the elite of the Dang Family will ascend Mount Qingcheng. Since Mount Qingcheng is a Taoist sanctuary, you will hardly lack incense to burn. One piece of advice: purchase the hemp cloth for the funeral shrouds in advance. The price is about to rise. That is all.”
Hui-yeom bowed once and turned on his heel without the slightest hesitation.
Unable to endure it, Hyeondeok Daesa called after his retreating back.
“Young Brother! Is the Dang Family so certain it will not regret this?”
“Regret?”
Hui-yeom gave a short laugh.
“Once we’ve taken down the Qingcheng Sect’s signboard, we can regret it then—regret that we couldn’t swallow a moment’s anger and chose mutual destruction.”
“Then—!”
“But!”
Hui-yeom cut him off.
“Rather than bow and scrape to those thugs who stick their noses into other families’ business and lecture us on how to arrange our persimmons and jujubes, I’d rather smash our enemies’ skulls open and go down cleanly.”
“What…”
“Wh—what?”
When a person is truly staggered by absurdity, words fail them. Leaving the two old men standing there like mute idiots—decades of cultivation reduced to empty stammering—Hui-yeom strode out of the Qingcheng Sect’s mountain gate with his head high.
On the road back, Ye-eun asked with clear worry in her voice.
“…Young Master, do you truly intend to risk the Dang Family’s annihilation and force a decisive battle?”
“What? Are you insane?”
“Pardon?”
Watching Dang Hui-yeom round his eyes with the most natural, innocent expression—as if to say, How could anyone think something so foolish?—Ye-eun thought:
I really want to introduce you to the version of yourself from one incense-stick ago.
“Then… why did you display that reckless, all-or-nothing behavior?”
“Reckless? This is all strategy.”
“Strategy?”
“Yes. It’s called the madman strategy.”
“….”
“Come now, don’t look at me like I’m a lunatic.”
“I apologize.”
“Our Ye-eun has grown up. You used to be so demure and proper; now you even know how to roll your eyes at me.”
“Working day and night like a madman under someone tends to drive a person to the edge.”
“Heh heh heh. Exactly. When someone is driven to the edge, they do things no one would ever dare imagine. This strategy is the same. You plant the fear in the other side—‘This bastard might actually do something insane’—and with that fear you seize the initiative in negotiations.”
Surprisingly, the madman strategy—more precisely known as the Madman Theory—was the name of a real strategy that had existed in history. Whoever first employed it was unclear, but the man who made it famous was the thirty-seventh president of the United States, Richard Nixon. At the time, in order to extract concessions from the Soviet Union during the Vietnam War peace talks, he had behaved even more unhinged than Hui-yeom was behaving now. In a word:
Fine, let’s just go to World War III, you bastards. If you’re scared, drop dead.
And the strategy had succeeded in dragging the Soviets to the negotiating table. In modern times, North Korea’s habit of firing missiles whenever it wanted rice could be seen as operating on the same principle. When the other side truly believes “he might actually go through with it,” the strategy is highly effective.
Yet the strategy had one major flaw, and Ye-eun pointed it out.
“What if Qingcheng actually accepts the war?”
“They absolutely cannot.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because every circumstance is forcing them into that corner.”
Hui-yeom ticked off points on his fingers.
“First: Baekhyeon Jin-in, who has only just become Sect Leader, has not fully consolidated control inside the Qingcheng Sect. Even at his inauguration the votes were almost evenly split, remember?”
“That’s true.”
“And the first thing he does after taking office is commit the sect’s very fate to total war with the Sichuan Dang Family? Unless every elder has had his skull cracked open, they will oppose it in horror. If Songhak Jin-in were still in charge it might not have been completely hopeless—but he isn’t.”
A company did not revolve around the will of a single CEO. The Dang Family itself had suffered enough from the Council of Elders constantly dragging its feet. The Qingcheng Sect would be no different.
“Second: they have no just cause. In the eyes of the world, the Sichuan Dang Family has a clear casus belli against Qingcheng—I nearly died. What parent can simply endure an attempt on their child’s life?”
“That’s true enough.”
“By contrast, the Martial Alliance’s justification is ‘peace in the martial world.’ To ordinary people that is nothing but vague, floating rhetoric. Now, if in this situation the Martial Alliance takes Qingcheng’s side and pressures the Sichuan Dang Family? The third problem erupts immediately.”
“The third problem?”
“Regional sentiment.”
Hui-yeom folded his third finger.
“Sichuan is one of the wealthiest regions on the continent thanks to Shu brocade, rice, and iron production. But the rugged terrain has always made expansion into the Central Plains difficult, and as a result Sichuanese have historically suffered discrimination from the people of the Central Plains.”
“That’s true.”
“It’s not as extreme as the Miao tribes of Yunnan, but there is a basic sense of grievance toward the arrogant Central Plains folk who strut around claiming to be the center of the world. Now, if the Martial Alliance—coming from the Central Plains—oppresses the Dang Family, the martial clan that represents Sichuan… what do you think will happen?”
“…Ah!”
Hui-yeom grinned.
“Of course the Martial Alliance knows that. And as long as they claim the role of ‘mediator,’ they cannot project military force into Sichuan while knowing it. Doing so would go beyond revealing an ambition to dominate the realm through their own strength and arms—it would be spun as oppressing the innocent common people of Sichuan. If the Dang Family had bared its teeth at the Martial Alliance first it might be different, but we will fix our jaws exclusively on Qingcheng. ‘This is an internal quarrel among Sichuanese. Outsiders stay out.’ That’s the line.”
“Ahh…”
“In the end, Qingcheng will have to fight a lonely war on Sichuan soil against a Dang Family that enjoys the absolute support of the Sichuan people. Internally they have no consensus, the newly appointed Sect Leader’s authority derives from the Martial Alliance, and that Martial Alliance cannot lift a finger in this affair. Oh, what a splendid war that would make. Right?”
Once she understood the full picture Hui-yeom had drawn, Ye-eun stuck out her tongue with an expression of genuine goosebumps.
“You… you thought all the way to this and still deliberately provoked them?”
“Of course.”
Hui-yeom smiled.
“A man who leads an organization must never open his mouth without calculation—even for a single sentence.”