First Move, Second Move
After the morning court audience in the main hall had adjourned—
"Have you heard?!"
"I only just received the news and rushed into the palace!"
The Imperial Palace was seething with the report of victory from the north.
"The Eldest Young Master of the Sword Clan…"
In threes and fives, wherever people gathered, the same talk rose.
"I have been hearing the name Yeon So-hyeon a great deal of late, but…"
And among them all, there were those who reacted more sharply than anyone else.
"Truly."
They were the military officers who guarded the Imperial Palace and defended the Imperial Capital.
"Is it certain that this Yeon So-hyeon, the Eldest Young Master of the Sword Clan, was the one who won?"
When an old man with a long silver beard put the question, the middle-aged generals nodded at once.
"It is certain."
"Reports have been coming in without pause through multiple channels since earlier."
"The vanguard of Wudang and Mount Hua suffered catastrophic losses. The rolls are not yet exact, but several masters of those sects are said to have been killed or grievously wounded."
Even among fellow officers, the man with the long silver beard was treated with particular respect. And for good reason. He was the renowned commander who had once served as Grand Admiral of Zhongyuan's South Sea Fleet and had won great victories more than once against the fleets of the Western world.
Admiral Yi Yeom-ik.
"I had already confirmed the reports that his martial arts had broken through the wall, and I was impressed enough by that alone…"
The middle-aged generals clicked their tongues.
"But after politics, martial skill—and on top of martial skill, military strategy as well."
"Truly an absurd figure, that Eldest Young Master."
Listening to them, Admiral Yi Yeom-ik gave an awkward, empty laugh.
"Haha. Well now…"
Then he asked again, as if to confirm it once more.
"It is certain that the Eldest Young Master led the victory? Moyong Un-jeong, the Acting Commander of the Northern Army, was there as well, was she not? Is there any chance that she was the one who actually commanded?"
He knew well enough of Moyong Un-jeong, whom the northern tribes themselves called the Military God. An achievement of that order was entirely within her capacity; he could have accepted it far more easily.
"No, sir."
"It is said without question that the Eldest Young Master himself took command."
A middle-aged general answered at once.
"Even the official report the Northern Grand General's Office will submit later is said to state it that clearly."
Admiral Yi Yeom-ik closed his eyes and stroked his long silver beard.
"Yeon So-hyeon."
They were paying more attention to that name than to the victory itself.
"Yeon So-hyeon…"
And there was a reason for that.
"When the discussion arose of entrusting such a heavy charge to a boy of so little experience, I opposed it as strongly as anyone."
Indeed. Admiral Yi Yeom-ik, presently the Emperor's chief military advisor, had been among those who most fiercely resisted Yeon So-hyeon's appointment as commander of the northern expedition.
"…"
When the admiral spoke as if sighing, the others fell silent.
"The Chancellor earnestly begged me to lend him my strength. I refused that request with a single word."
Looking up at the sky, the furrows in Admiral Yi Yeom-ik's brow cut even deeper.
"And now… a victory."
At his words, the surrounding generals measured their speech and watched his face.
"…"
"…"
Admiral Yi Yeom-ik had opposed the Eldest Young Master's appointment as punitive commander with all his force. Therefore, if the Eldest Young Master continued to pile up merit, the admiral's own standing within the palace might grow precarious.
"…Then," one general ventured carefully, "will you put pressure on the government forces stationed in the north and make cooperation with the Eldest Young Master difficult?"
Anyone else might not have managed it—but Admiral Yi Yeom-ik possessed more than enough influence to do exactly that. There were countless other methods besides. If only the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon's campaign could be made to fail, then the very opposition Admiral Yi Yeom-ik had voiced from the beginning would be proven foresight.
"…Sabotage."
Admiral Yi Yeom-ik was famous for his upright fairness. And yet, to protect those who followed him, there were times a man had to soil his own hands. That was the fate of a leader.
"…"
While the admiral closed his eyes, stroked his silver beard, and ordered his thoughts, the generals around him licked dry lips and waited in silence for his mouth to open.
And at last—
"…No."
Admiral Yi Yeom-ik's wrinkled eyelids lifted, revealing a gaze as straight as a blade.
"We do not do such things."
At those words some faces brightened; others immediately voiced their alarm.
"But, Admiral…!"
"Your political enemies in the palace may try to drive you out over the result of this campaign."
Yet even under that concern, the admiral's will was clear.
"Are we not, every one of us here, men who once led armies in the field?"
He looked around at the generals who had complained and went on.
"Not one of us is free of the experience of having our military operations crippled by political games played from the palace."
At that, even those who had been about to argue shut their mouths.
In the northern wars of the past, bureaucracy and factional struggle had turned battles that need never have been lost into disasters. Fellow generals had been branded defeated commanders, stripped of their posts, and in the worst cases sent into exile.
"If that Eldest Young Master had been incompetent, it would be another matter."
Admiral Yi Yeom-ik put the question to the others.
"Can any of you bring yourselves to trip the feet of a young commander who has opened a hard war with a victory?"
"…"
"…"
No one dared answer.
"Haha."
Satisfied with their silence, the admiral smiled and said,
"I mean to go to the Chancellor at once and, even at this late hour, devise measures to support the Eldest Young Master from the Imperial Capital."
He asked,
"Who will come with me?"
The generals around him were all but falling over one another to join when—
"Generals who ought to be protecting His Majesty the Emperor, the Imperial Palace, and the Imperial Capital—"
An unusually androgynous voice cut into their ears.
"What, exactly, are you all plotting in a place like this?"
It was a voice so edged it made the napes of generals tempered on the battlefield prickle. Simply hearing it was enough to know its owner.
Admiral Yi Yeom-ik turned with a rigid face and looked at the man.
"…Sari Taegam."
Sari Taegam Gongson Tae-rang.
The man who, only a short while earlier, had taken a heavy blow from the Emperor and the Chancellor, stood there now. And as if to prove his authority—
"…"
"…"
an enormous throng of eunuchs trailed at his back.
"Admiral Yi Yeom-ik."
Ignoring every other general, Gongson Tae-rang planted himself directly before the admiral.
"You appear to be confused about the situation, so I shall do you the kindness of offering a word of counsel."
As the thickly painted, chalk-white face drew near, a cloying, overpowering perfume washed over them.
"Interfere in the affairs of this Gongson Tae-rang and the Sixteen Imperial Families, and the price will be paid in full."
Admiral Yi Yeom-ik's eyelids quivered. The generals around him roared.
"How dare you…!"
"Do you threaten the Admiral of Greater Zhongyuan?!"
But to Gongson Tae-rang—current head of one of the Sixteen Imperial Families of the Capital and Sari Taegam of the Directorate of Palace Eunuchs—their outcry meant nothing at all.
"Remember this, Admiral."
Ignoring the generals, he spoke to Yi Yeom-ik as if whispering.
"The Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon received nothing but a hollow imperial edict bearing the Emperor's command."
"…"
"The man has not received a single scrap of military support from the palace. He is raising troops on the ground and fielding his own private forces."
It was true. For all the grand title of punitive commander, Yeon So-hyeon had received no proper support whatever. Everyone present knew who the culprits were without needing to name them—and one of them stood right before their eyes.
"Imagine a young general who looks up to you, Admiral, marching out without so much as a single company of men."
"…!"
Gongson Tae-rang's mouth stretched wide in a grotesque smile.
"You would not wish for such a situation to arise, would you?"
With a bizarre little laugh he patted the admiral's shoulder—exactly the manner of a superior dealing with a subordinate.
"I hope my advice has been of use, Admiral."
"…"
Smiling still, Gongson Tae-rang walked straight through the cluster of generals. The eunuchs at his heels forced their way through after him as a matter of course.
"…"
"…"
A heavy silence settled.
"…"
The moment he was out of Admiral Yi Yeom-ik's sight, the smile vanished from Gongson Tae-rang's face and his expression hardened again.
Damn it…!
The present crisis was no longer a matter of Admiral Yi Yeom-ik alone. Right now there was nowhere in the palace where Yeon So-hyeon's name was not being spoken.
When the mudfish jumps, the cuttlefish jumps as well…!
Until now, most of the ministers had not dared so much as to cross the Sixteen Imperial Families; they had served as nothing more than voting machines. Those with any real power of their own had at best hidden behind the pretty fiction of neutrality and turned their faces away.
But now a crack had appeared in the iron power the Sixteen Imperial Families of the Capital had held for so long. It was not yet visible to the naked eye—but the crack was there.
A crack named Yeon So-hyeon.
Gongson Tae-rang felt a rage so fierce he could scarcely endure it.
"…And that Sama Dae-gunsa?"
In the present circumstances he could not bring himself to speak the man's name kindly.
"Still no word?"
The eunuch attending him reported at once.
"According to the last intelligence, he has joined the Prince Gong's personal legion."
At least it was only one battle that had been ruined, not the entire war. Even that fact, however, brought Gongson Tae-rang no comfort.
"And news from inside the Moyong Clan?"
"…None."
A grinding sound came from between the Sari Taegam's teeth. His voice dropped another degree, colder still.
"And from the current heads of the other Sixteen Imperial Families?"
"Th-that is…"
The reporting eunuch broke into a cold sweat and bowed even lower.
"They are all so busy dealing with the Old Demons that no proper word has…"
The Old Demons—the previous generation of family heads who had been pardoned by the Emperor and thrown into the "Yangtze Waterway Expansion and Maintenance Project"—were tearing through the whole of Zhongyuan as if it were their own house. The present heads had to race across the realm in turn simply to hold them in check.
If only everyone had been properly present in the palace as usual…
The thought tore a curse from Gongson Tae-rang's mouth.
"Damn it! Damn it all!"
This and that—everything was because of that Eldest Young Master of the Sword Clan.
Yeon So-hyeon.
"Hah… hah…"
After pouring out his fury for a long while, the Sari Taegam turned on the eunuch.
"You."
"Y-yes! Command me!"
"Deliver this in my name to the governors of the north!"
Gongson Tae-rang ordered,
"From this moment on! If even one among them dares to cooperate with that Eldest Young Master—!"
He lifted his pale, trembling hands for them to see.
"This Gongson Tae-rang will go north himself and tear every last one of them apart with my bare hands!"
The north. Shenyang.
"You mean to summon the governors, my lord?"
When Moyong Ho—Moyong Un-jeong's younger brother and Yeon So-hyeon's deputy—asked the question, the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon glanced back over his shoulder.
"Why? Is there a problem?"
"Ah—no, of course not, but…"
Moyong Ho answered with an uneasy look.
"The pressure on them will be enormous. Will they truly answer Your Lordship's summons?"
Yeon So-hyeon gave a short, dry laugh.
"They will answer all the same. No—"
He turned fully away again, hands clasped behind his back, and looked out over the streets of Shenyang.
Traces of fire. Countless corpses. The city was still frantic with the aftermath—and yet a strange vitality born of victory ran through it.
"They will have no choice but to answer."