Beneath the Surface: The North
The North.
Before the Great General’s Headquarters.
“…….”
The sentry gripped his spear tightly, face taut with tension.
“(Mama, I’m hungry!)”
A child’s fretting cry.
“(There, there. Just a little longer.)”
The mother’s voice as she soothed the child on her back was swallowed by the noise of the long line of refugees and barely carried at all.
It was a queue waiting to receive grain from the Great General’s Headquarters storehouses.
“(Just a little more!)”
“(How are we supposed to feed our whole family on this?!)”
Those who protested were few. Only those who still had strength left could manage even that much.
“…….”
“…….”
Most simply lifted their faces to the sky and muttered prayers in tribal tongues no one could understand, or stared with dead eyes as a single handful of grain was dropped into the pouches they had brought.
“Do not let your guard down.”
At the squad leader’s words the sentries nodded by reflex.
The tribes of the steppe had never lived under the rule of Jungwon law. Carrying arms as a matter of habit was ordinary for them. There had already been incidents of sentries wounded when refugees suddenly erupted in rage.
And so—
“Is this the Northern Great General’s Headquarters?”
When a group of travelers approached and asked that question, followed by—
“We heard that the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword House has arrived here.”
—the sentries automatically leveled their spears.
“Ah, we are not suspicious people.”
As travelers do, she tipped back the deep-brimmed hat she had worn against the scorching steppe sun.
What was revealed beneath it was, sun-darkened though it was, unmistakably the face of a young woman. Her tall frame and androgynous voice had simply kept the sentries from realizing it sooner.
“Please deliver this message to the Eldest Young Master.”
She smiled.
“Then our identities will be vouched for.”
Great General’s Headquarters, council chamber.
“…….”
“…….”
One of the generals, wearing an expression that showed he had not understood a word for a moment, finally asked the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon:
“You said you would resolve the grain problem?”
Another general followed at once.
“And that you would do it immediately?”
“E-Eldest Young Master…”
Moyong Ho, knowing full well it was impolite, still opened his mouth.
“It is true that the grain shortage is the greatest problem the Great General’s Headquarters now faces.”
As every gaze turned toward him, Moyong Ho hesitated yet pressed on.
“But it is not a matter we can afford to force through in a single reckless stroke.”
Ordinarily someone would have rebuked the discourtesy, yet the speaker was Moyong Un-jeong’s younger brother, and he had said exactly what the senior officers themselves had wanted to say. They nodded and took up his cause.
“He is right.”
“If the Great General’s Headquarters rushes to purchase grain from this moment on, we will only be played by the merchants and by the enemy.”
“That would be sinking even deeper into the enemy’s strategy.”
With the situation so transparent, a large-scale purchase by the Headquarters would make them prey for the merchants and give the enemy a perfect chance to bleed the war chest dry.
“What we need is a long-term plan.”
“We must establish measures to secure grain at stable prices from trustworthy partners…”
“Now that the Eldest Young Master is here, we should also consider transporting supplies directly from the Huabei region.”
“Or somehow from Jiangnan, even…”
It was the feeling of being forced to watch a slow-burning fuse. Seeing the dwindling stores, every man present had clearly been worrying over the problem for a long time. Anxieties and opinions poured out in a rush until—
“Everyone, compose yourselves.”
—Moyong Un-jeong, who had first raised the issue, stepped in, and only then did the chamber quiet.
“Do you imagine the Eldest Young Master spoke without knowing the situation?”
“…….”
“…….”
At that they all closed their mouths as one and fixed him with desperate eyes. The Eldest Young Master laughed and shook his head.
“To solve the grain problem starting from this moment? That is, of course, impossible.”
“But…”
One general grumbled.
“Just now you said you would resolve it at once, Eldest Young Master.”
“I did.”
When Yeon So-hyeon nodded readily, every face filled with confusion.
“What on earth does that—”
“It doesn’t make any—”
Yeon So-hyeon cut them off with a sharp smile.
“I said I would resolve it ‘at once.’ I did not say I would begin resolving it from now.”
“By that you mean—”
As Moyong Ho looked puzzled, Moyong Un-jeong took up the thought for him.
“Surely you already hold the solution, Eldest Young Master?”
Yeon So-hyeon shook his head.
“Not yet.”
“Then what—”
He raised a finger as if to say, wait.
“But by now it should be almost—”
At the very moment his finger pointed fully skyward, a heavily armored guard of the Great General entered from outside the chamber.
“I have a matter to report to the Eldest Young Master—”
When every eye turned on him, the baffled guard was asked by Yeon So-hyeon:
“Have guests come for me?”
“H-how did you know?”
The guard grew even more flustered.
“They would have given something to prove their identity, would they not?”
“Yes, sir. According to the report from the gate squad leader, they said that if this was delivered, the Eldest Young Master would vouch for them.”
What was placed upon Yeon So-hyeon’s outstretched hand was none other than a woman’s ornamental tassel. While everyone tilted their heads at the latest fashion rarely seen in the North—
“Correct. Admit them.”
Yeon So-hyeon nodded, and the guard dashed out again.
“…Eldest Young Master.”
Moyong Un-jeong spoke for them all.
“What is that?”
Yeon So-hyeon held up the tassel with a deep smile.
“It seems the first solution has arrived right on time.”
Guided by the Great General’s guard, a tall beauty entered the council chamber.
“Greetings, everyone of the Great General’s Headquarters.”
She smiled with a frankness that did not match her years, utterly uncowed.
“I am An Song-gyeong.”
At the unfamiliar name they all looked at one another until—
“Her name is better known by this.”
Yeon So-hyeon held up the fashionable tassel that had served as her token.
“Daseonrang.”
The senior officers murmured.
“Daseonrang…”
“Those who rose to fame so quickly in Sichuan, was it not?”
“The ones who deal in those ornaments?”
Officers of the intelligence line, better versed in rumors south of the Great Wall, understood a little more.
“Daseonrang… yes, they had a conflict with the Emei Sect…”
“And afterward entered the Eldest Young Master’s service, according to the reports I received…”
Yeon So-hyeon spoke across the whispering to An Song-gyeong of Daseonrang.
“Have you carried out everything I ordered?”
“I have.”
An Song-gyeong nodded with confident assurance.
“I have bought up every scrap of grain that could be gathered in the vicinity of Sanhaegwan.”
Of course, the source of those funds had been the Yeon clan’s hidden assets that she had taken with her on Yeon So-hyeon’s orders.
Several months earlier, those assets—being hurriedly moved because of Yeon So-hyeon’s scheme—had been seized by the springtime chivalrous heroes of Luoyang in a clumsy imitation of highway robbery. An Song-gyeong, who had vanished with them then, had now reappeared.
“Near the Imperial Capital, following your orders, I even invoked the Imperial guarantee to force the deals through… but…”
She asked him with a touch of worry.
“Is it truly all right to use the Imperial name so freely?”
Instead of answering, Yeon So-hyeon tossed her the Imperial edict he carried.
“As expected…!”
An Song-gyeong read the contents in an instant and could not hide her admiration.
“In the end you obtained His Majesty’s command. I need not worry about cleaning up afterward…!”
Yeon So-hyeon shrugged.
“As a bonus, every cost incurred in buying the grain will later be fully reimbursed by the Imperial Household.”
“Wonderful!”
While the two conversed, those present were doubting their own ears.
“…She has already bought the grain?”
“Did I hear that correctly? I wasn’t the only one who heard it, was I?”
An Song-gyeong laughed loudly toward them.
“You are awake, so there is no need to pinch yourselves!”
By nature she had always been earnest, yet unaccustomed to standing before others. The experience of the past few months had clearly changed her greatly.
“Even now, at this very moment, grain carts are streaming northward one after another. You may rest easy!”
Yeon So-hyeon gave a light shrug.
“I prepared for the possibility that something like this might occur.”
It was the feeling of a three-month, ten-day indigestion finally clearing.
“Ohh…!”
“Splendid…!”
As though a sinking sun had risen again, the faces of the senior officers brightened.
“One moment.”
Among the officers who were even clapping and making a clamor, Moyong Un-jeong rose to her feet and asked:
“What is the exact quantity?”
When Yeon So-hyeon nodded permission, An Song-gyeong drew a report from her robes and presented it to Moyong Un-jeong.
“…Mm.”
While Moyong Un-jeong calculated carefully, the chamber fell silent and every eye watched only her expression. Yet—
“…….”
“…….”
—guessing a conclusion from the face of the Acting Northern Great General, who rarely showed any change of expression, was nearly impossible.
“…At this level,”
she said at last, laying the report down,
“it should be more than sufficient in many respects.”
“Waaah—!”
Just as another roar that might have shaken the chamber was about to rise—
“However.”
Moyong Un-jeong continued.
“Most of these are one-time transactions. There are almost no long-term purchase contracts.”
Careful to a degree that surpassed even her father the Northern Great General, she would never have overlooked the fine print.
“If the war lengthens, we will begin to struggle from this winter onward.”
“That is…”
An Song-gyeong smacked her lips and scratched the back of her head.
“In order to remain beneath the surface, I limited the purchases to the surplus of each region. That was the upper limit that would not attract notice.”
She added:
“Concluding large advance contracts for this autumn’s harvest would inevitably draw the market’s attention…”
Moyong Un-jeong shook her head.
“No. Even this much is excellent.”
Already, sensing the storm clouds of war rising from the North, grain prices in the markets had begun to climb. As An Song-gyeong said, she had done everything possible under the Eldest Young Master’s foresight.
Yet—
“…….”
“…….”
As the saying went, “three in the morning, four in the evening.” The officers who had been rejoicing grew complicated in their thoughts the moment they heard that hardship would return precisely from the hardest season—winter.
And then—
“Eldest Young Master!”
The same Great General’s guard who had just left hurried back in.
“…Surely not?”
Every gaze turned to Yeon So-hyeon with the same unspoken question.
“It seems they have arrived.”
Pretending not to notice those stares, the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon gave a light shrug of his shoulders.
“I told you, did I not?”
he said.
“I prepared for the possibility that something like this might occur.”