Proclamation to All Under Heaven: Recruiting Defenders for the Great Wall!
The heart of the Yan Empire, its imperial capital Gye-seong.
Atop the roof of the grand Geunjeongjeon Hall at its center, thousands of red banners—imbued with the sun's fierce intensity—flapped wildly in the north wind.
The Yan Empire revered red as its national color because it venerated the blazing crimson vital energy emitted by the imperial secret art, the Yangjo Singong.
Yet today, beneath that glorious crimson glow, the faces of the assembled ministers and nobles were ashen.
“Herald of Great Wall Supreme General Ak Wi, Adjutant Gwak Su enters the hall!”
The eunuch's shrill cry, laced with metallic timbre, echoed off the hall's vaulted ceiling.
The heavy bronze doors creaked open.
A man glided into the throne room's center and prostrated himself on the floor.
He was Adjutant Gwak Su, one of the Great Wall Army's finest horsemen, renowned for wielding the metallic qi of the Five Elements.
He had already surrendered all weapons at the gate, even his armored chest protector.
After ten days and nights racing through the jaws of death, Gwak Su's face was caked in dirt.
His body reeked of horse sweat and the acrid smoke of the northern wilds.
But his eyes gleamed like those of a starving wolf.
“Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand times ten thousand years! Sovereign of Yin and Yang, pinnacle of the Five Elements, Your Imperial Majesty, bask in the blessings of the Heavenly Gang!”
Gwak Su bellowed from the hall's entrance, offering obeisance to the empire's sun.
Daring not to lift his gaze to the dragon's face, he pressed his forehead to the floor and crawled forward to perform the nine kowtows.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
The cold, hard marble floor rang with the heavy impacts in the deathly silence.
When the nine kowtows ended, blood oozed from Gwak Su's forehead, staining the floor.
Yet he held his prostrate pose without a flicker, raising both hands high to present the sealed dispatch bearing Supreme General Ak Wi's tally.
The chief eunuch approached and took the case.
Silver needles tested for poison.
Silk wrappings were undone to confirm the document's integrity.
Throughout the inspection, a suffocating silence gripped the hall.
At last, the dispatch reached Emperor Heiun's jade throne.
Heiun, just twenty-one, had been personally tutored in martial arts and strategy by Supreme General Ak Wi since childhood.
Unlike his master's stern, soldierly script, he read the desperate plea within, pinching the bridge of his nose.
As Heiun unrolled the dispatch, crimson vital energy like heat haze surged from his body.
“Adjutant Gwak Su, raise your head. Answer my questions with utmost truth, without omission! Is the omen of the Three Calamities Union foretold by Supreme General truly real? Can you stake your life on the claim that the northern portents have twisted and the three calamities converge?”
Gwak Su clenched his fists, his cracked voice replying.
“It is true, Your Majesty! I stake not only my life but the honor of the Great Wall Army's hundreds of thousands! First, the fifty-year beast wave cycle has arrived—demonic qi rages across the northern wilds! Starving beasts can no longer endure the wastes; they claw at the Great Wall, and we've found thousands of excavation marks up to thirty cheok beneath its base! The recent slaughter of a slave transport by five hundred snow wolves inside the wall is irrefutable proof!”
“Second, the hundred-year tribal unification cycle! Northern nomads gather under one banner, just as in the Xianbei Great Invasion of old! Tens of thousands of refugees from their brutal consolidation flood the gates, wailing. Those denied entry infiltrate inside via beast tunnels, already paralyzing the empire's northern administration!”
“Finally, the three-hundred-year great ice age cycle! When these three disasters merge into the Three Calamities Union, millions of beasts and hundreds of thousands of nomadic cavalry will crash against the wall. Fail to stop them, and the Central Plains will be sealed in eternal ice, unseen by the sun for a decade, as Supreme General warned! Your Majesty, fortify the empire's shield!”
The hall fell corpse-still.
Breaking the silence was the head of the Confucian noble house of So, paragon of scholarly bureaucrats.
A master of his house's secret Qingyu Heart Technique, he spoke with measured propriety.
“Your Majesty, Supreme General Ak Wi's loyalty runs deep, but 'war is a dire weapon.' In an empire ruled by benevolence, opening the treasury to unverified tales of monsters and omens disrupts harmony. The wars with Song and Ji ended but half a year ago. Arms are worn, granaries empty from prolonged strife. Postwar recovery is urgent—even if the report holds, dispatching massive forces north demands caution. It risks inflaming divided public sentiment, and I fear northern warlords exaggerate to monopolize supplies.”
Then, the Minister of War, No Daegam, pinnacle of military authority grounded in Confucian administration, added in a seasoned tone.
“Lord So speaks wisely. War Ministry records show the last conflict consumed elixirs and arrows equaling a decade's reserves. Granting Great Wall's massive reinforcements now leaves Song, Ji, and Zhao borders as mere shells. Your Majesty, purging beast tunnels and intruders need not rush central forces. Mobilize local garrisons, Tiger Clan retainers, noble private troops, and militias. That's ample to seal tunnels and support the wall. Reserve the imperial and central armies for southern threats.”
Finally, Legalist noble Minister of Justice Han Daegam drove the wedge with cold eyes.
“By law's measure, this lacks justification. Moving central forces on private prophecy undermines military discipline. With Song and Ji eyeing our rear, stripping border guards on unconfirmed Three Calamities Union reports borders treason. Mobilizing locals aligns with imperial law and conserves strength—best path forward.”
The coordinated pressure from Confucian and Legalist nobles weighed the hall's air like lead.
Then, the patriarch of the Geunhwang faction—producers of imperial tutors—Lord Gwak of House Gwak stepped forward slowly.
Though herald Gwak Su was his blood kin, he maintained utmost severity.
“Adjutant Gwak Su, answer. Does Supreme General Ak Wi's report rest on a warrior's hunch, or scholarly, empirical proof? 'Prophecy' is too light for mobilizing the empire's legions.”
Gwak Su's eyes turned to his house lord.
He drew a weathered bamboo slip from his bosom.
“Not merely Supreme General's insight! Gwak Jong, house branch and Great Wall archivist, cross-referenced northern astronomy and ancient records for months! Mocked as our house eccentric, he found stellar paths match the great disaster 299 years ago perfectly—and proved ley line twists stem not from nature, but the Three Calamities Union's causality! This slip details his astronomical and ley charts!”
At Gwak Jong's name, Lord Gwak's brow twitched faintly.
A house oddity, yet astronomical genius—his meticulous wall observations carried weight.
Lord Gwak scanned the slip, then bowed deeply to Emperor Heiun.
“Your Majesty... Gwak Jong's analysis is meticulous. His warning on celestial anomalies is no mere concern, but scholarly alarm. Civil and martial evidence aligns—this can no longer be ignored.”
With Lord Gwak's endorsement, Lord Ak of House Ak—head of the imperial army—seized the moment, striding forward with heavy steps.
He raised no voice, but subtle pressure laced with his house art's earthen qi targeted Lord So and Minister No directly.
Rumble.
Rumble.
Rumble.
The hall floor vibrated faintly.
“Lord So, Minister No. Will your 'prudence' and 'containment' shield the people after the Great Wall falls? Supreme General is Your Majesty's martial tutor, fifty years devoted to the empire. While you tallied ledgers and diplomats in cozy studies, he endured battlefield gales, upholding the empire's yin-yang veins with his body. To dismiss such loyalty as supply greed or senile instinct! Do your arrogant brushes not realize they're shoving the empire into ruin's abyss? Lord So, if beasts overrun your house when the wall crumbles, will you still preach harmony and hoard central forces?”
Lord Ak's killing intent scorched the air to explosion's edge.
As house lords and ministers' shouts loomed, the hall's rear doors creaked open once more.
Creeeak—
The sound was soft, but the overwhelming weight of ages emanating from within silenced all tumult instantly.
One by one, elders from noble houses emerged—retired from office, devoted to cultivation and meditation.
Living witnesses who had served the current emperor's father and grandfather.
White-haired and frail, yet their eyes held the pure sharpness of those transcending worldly strife.
Leading was So No-gwi, former head of House So and uncle to the current lord.
He tapped his cane on the floor as he advanced; even the sitting lord bowed in fluster.
“Nephew, does your 'benevolence' dwell merely on granary grains? When we rolled through battlefields with Supreme General Ak Wi, inhaling blood's reek and spending our youth, the empire's fate hid not behind abacuses.”
Beside him stood Legalist House Han's elder and House Gwak's former tutor.
Figures current lords and Six Ministries—even War and Justice—dared not challenge.
Veterans who had transcended ambition and house glory: old generals, officials, scholars.
“We've seen it already. Even without 300-year records, those eerie howls beyond the Great Wall speak clear. Supreme General Ak Wi's senses aren't dulled—they're keener. He peaked on warfields; now he guards the empire's end at the wall. He sees our tomorrow none of us can.”
House Han's elder glared coldly at Minister Han.
“Law existsfor existsprotecting existspeople. existsPeople existsperish, existslaw existsmeans existsnothing. existsEmpire existsbecomes existsice existswastes, existslaw existsbooks existsfirewood existsnothing existsmore. existsThose existshere existshaggling existsnumbers existsempire's existsfate existsmust existsstep existsaside.”
The elders' stern rebuke sealed lips of Lord So, Ministers No and Han.
Their logic was refined, but mere parlor tricks before the old growth sustaining the empire.
Only the elders' quiet authority filled the hall.
Emperor Heiun rose from the throne, offering light salute in respect.
The elders returned imperial bows or prostrations.
He sat again, slamming the throne's armrest.
Boom—!
Yangjo Singong's crimson true qi swept the hall with his roar.
With elders' backing, his majesty became absolute, unchallengeable.
“Enough! I trust my master's word, House Gwak's wisdom, and our sustaining elders' warnings! Fearing Song and Ji while yielding the Great Wall uproots the empire ourselves! As you bicker politics, the wall erodes this instant!”
Heiun's crimson gaze swept the hall.
Chill killing intent and imperial dignity laced his voice.
“Mobilize local garrisons and Tiger Clan retainers near the Great Wall immediately—seal tunnels, secure supply lines! Assemble all noble private troops at the wall! Expand Supreme General's tally authority to all nearby commanderies and counties. Delay or defy my command... and they are traitors defying yin-yang order. I will deploy imperial guards to exterminate their clans! Understood?”
Ministers No, Lord So, Minister Han, and sundry nobles paled, bowing heads.
“We receive Your Majesty's command!”
Heiun rose not stopping, ascending the hall's highest dais.
His gaze pierced not just distant north, but the empire and all Central Plains beyond.
“Moreover, proclaim this openly to all under heaven! To other Central Plains empires, all common folk: The surge from the north threatens not just Yan, but the Plains' very fate! Though we vied for hegemony, blades at throats, before beasts menacing humanity's survival, we must unite in vertical-horizontal alliances! As Yan's emperor, I declare: All volunteers and foreign aid defending the Great Wall are welcome. I open our gates, spare no supplies! In this crisis, all with Central Plains spirit, gather at the Great Wall!”
“We receive Your Majesty's command! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand times ten thousand years!”
Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand times ten thousand years!
The emperor's decree spread instantly across Yan.
Borne on couriers' hooves, it crossed borders to other empires—slowly, inexorably.
Yan’s imperial guards, central armies, and border forces left minimal garrisons, converging on the capital's outskirts for reorganization against the crisis in one year.