Courtesy Name Gongming, Given Name Liang
“On a fine day like this! We can’t possibly leave out the wine!”
Yeom Gilsan raised his cup as he spoke. As if in answer, the bandits all lifted their own cups at once and roared.
“Ahem…”
Jegal Hyeok clearly found the whole situation distasteful; he never brought the cup to his lips and sat alone with a thoroughly uncomfortable expression. It was hardly surprising. The moment Jegal Hyeok and Yeom Gilsan first laid eyes on each other, they had pressed the air around them with the clear intent to fight. Im Seha and Jang Pilsen had soothed the two of them as best they could and somehow managed to paper things over—and this awkward gathering was the result.
Even so, Yeom Gilsan seemed determined to salvage the mood in his own way, booming out a toast with open-handed cheer. Jegal Hyeok still refused to touch his wine.
“Say… does the head of the Jegal Clan have no friends?”
Apparently unable to endure Jegal Hyeok’s behavior any longer, Yeom Gilsan struck first.
Jegal Hyeok’s eyes twitched. At the same time Im Seha and Jang Pilsen looked back and forth between the two men in open panic.
“Chief, what exactly are you saying?”
“What I’m saying is this: if a man had friends, he wouldn’t be this blind to the atmosphere.”
Once more their auras turned murderous.
A single spark would set everything off!
“My lord, please… calm yourself. I’m sure the chief didn’t mean it that way.”
Jang Pilsen hurriedly tried to restrain Jegal Hyeok, yet the clan head still glared at Yeom Gilsan without bothering to hide his displeasure.
In that instant—
Clap!
A sharp clap that seized every eye, and Im Seha began speaking in a rush.
“We already have a promise that the hostages will be released tomorrow morning. What good could come of starting a fight here and now? Why don’t we set that aside and listen to an interesting story instead? Wouldn’t you agree, Chief?”
He finished the sentence as though seeking Yeom Gilsan’s permission.
“Hmm… Fine. Hearing the tale again wouldn’t be so bad.”
Once he confirmed Yeom Gilsan’s consent, Im Seha turned to me with a face that screamed please, I’m begging you. I had been sitting quietly in the back, nursing my cup—after all, the best spectacle is a good fight—and the sudden appeal caught me so off-guard that I choked and started coughing.
“Cough! Cough!”
Im Seha was asking me to somehow defuse the two of them. I wasn’t even a martial artist; how was I supposed to break up a clash of auras between two men of the jianghu?
“You mean me?”
I asked again just to be sure. Had he really meant me?
“Brother Lee, from the skill you showed earlier it’s clear you’re no ordinary man. How about lifting the mood of this place once more with another of your stories?”
“A story, is it…”
True enough, nothing lifts a room like a good tale. The trouble was that being asked so suddenly left me with nothing ready to hand.
While I hesitated, Im Seha edged closer and murmured in a low voice.
“If this ends well, I’ll reward you handsomely the moment we return.”
Money.
The instant I heard that, my mind began to race. A story that could salvage this mess flashed into place. I rose from my seat and approached the nearest bandit.
“By any chance, does this stronghold have a guqin?”
It wouldn’t be fatal if they didn’t, but for the perfect telling I needed one.
“A guqin? Why d’you want that? Planning to play for us? Well, nothing beats music with wine, I suppose.”
I only asked on a whim, and they actually have one?
“That’s right. But I need the guqin for the story I’m about to tell.”
“Huh? What’s a guqin got to do with a story? What a bother… Hey, youngest! There’s a guqin gathering dust in the storehouse, isn’t there? Go fetch it!”
At the bandit’s order the youngest sprang up, looking put-upon even as he scrambled toward the warehouse. What he brought back was a guqin that looked nearly new.
“It’s in excellent condition.”
“Of course it is. We took it off a merchant caravan that was hauling it to sell. Heh-heh, those fellows made us a tidy profit.”
His words reminded me of something I had momentarily forgotten.
These men were bandits.
“Ahem… Very well. Allow me to recite a story.”
With that I stepped into the center of the drinking circle. Everyone except Jang Pilsen and Jegal Hyeok—who had not heard the earlier tale—watched me with interest.
“Before I begin, let me say this: the story I am about to tell actually happened.”
Half of that claim was true.
The tale I meant to tell was history itself, merely colored for the sake of entertainment.
And even if someone later raised a fuss, it hardly mattered. Most of these people would never know whether it was fact or fiction; if any did, they could simply dismiss it as a storyteller’s embellishment for the fun of it.
“Long ago, after the Han dynasty fell, the land split into three kingdoms—the Three Kingdoms era!”
What I intended to recount was an episode from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Even if these people knew little of that book, the existence of the Ming dynasty and of Joseon meant history had run its course much as I remembered. Therefore the history of the Three Kingdoms must have existed as well.
Without the Three Kingdoms there would have been neither Ming nor Joseon.
“The three kingdoms were Wei, Shu, and Wu. The story I will tell concerns the war between Wei and Shu.”
As I spoke I plucked the guqin lightly, keeping the audience’s attention.
“Wei was the kingdom of traitors who had swallowed the Han. Shu, by contrast, was the kingdom that carried on the legitimate line of the Han imperial house. Yet in those days the dominant power was Wei.”
While I talked I casually studied the listeners. When you recite basic facts everyone already knows, boredom usually shows on their faces.
Here I saw none of that. Only Jegal Hyeok looked faintly unimpressed, as though he at least knew this much.
“But Shu possessed a great chancellor.”
I glanced sideways at Jegal Hyeok.
His lack of reaction confirmed it: he truly knew nothing of Zhuge Liang’s exploits. Had he known even a little, that expression would never have appeared.
“The chancellor’s purpose was singular: to restore the Han imperial line and punish the wicked kingdom of Wei. Gathering his strength, he submitted the Memorial on the Expedition and advanced against the villainous host of Wei.”
I would have liked to explain every detail for those who knew nothing of the Three Kingdoms, but too much explanation would drag the pace. So I cut away everything unnecessary and pressed on.
“An army hundreds of thousands strong! Shu’s momentum seemed ready to pierce the heavens. Yet Wei, too, possessed a strategist worthy of matching Shu’s great chancellor.”
At the same moment I struck the guqin with fierce passion.
“Knowing this, the chancellor of Shu warned the general who led the main force to be careful. Alas, that general’s grave blunder cost Shu tens of thousands of soldiers.”
The tale of Ma Su, who loved mountains too well, and the subsequent Weeping Execution of Ma Su—those were among the greatest episodes in the entire Romance, but not for tonight.
Tonight’s story was meant to glorify Zhuge Liang’s brilliance. Anything that shifted the spotlight elsewhere had to be left out.
“Shu’s defeat was all but certain. In that moment the chancellor had to choose: reinforce the collapsing army, or withdraw the main force in safety. He chose. For the greater cause, he abandoned the routed troops.”
At those words a reaction came from Jegal Hyeok.
“Hmm… A bold judgment. Yet for the chancellor of a nation it was the only possible choice… I would have done the same.”
I smiled inwardly.
Hooked him properly.
I struck the guqin once more with force and raised my voice.
“Exactly so! Just as you say. An unavoidable choice made to save the army as a whole! Yet the most dangerous moment in war is precisely the retreat. When you turn your back on a pursuing enemy, how perilous is that?”
Now, to heighten the dramatic tension, it was time for Wei’s great strategist—Sima Yi—to appear.
“And who was it that pursued the retreating main force? None other than Wei’s great strategist and Grand Commander, Sima Yi!”
“Sima Yi?”
At the name, Jegal Hyeok reacted. For a second I wondered whether my assumption that he knew nothing of the Three Kingdoms had been wrong, and I flinched slightly.
But his next words proved the worry baseless.
“Is he by any chance connected to the Sima clan?”
“Of course. Sima Yi is a distant ancestor of the Sima clan.”
I wasn’t entirely certain, but it was close enough. When I had studied the Three Kingdoms long ago I had learned that the surname Sima was rare and that most who bore it shared a common ancestor.
The very fact that he asked such a question showed he knew nothing of Sima Yi himself.
“Hmm… I see.”
Because the story now touched the Sima name, Jegal Hyeok’s expression turned openly displeased.
“There was no time to delay the retreat! Yet with Sima Yi hard on their heels, the chancellor of Shu chose to remain alone in the city—to hold back the oncoming enemy!”
“Alone? Did he possess some extraordinary martial skill?”
The mention of remaining alone had caught Yeom Gilsan’s interest.
“No. The chancellor of Shu was a mere civil official who had never learned a single martial art. Even so, he stayed behind in the city so that the others might withdraw.”
“Hmm… Remaining alone without martial skill… A man of real backbone. But if he knew no martial arts, how did he stop the enemy?”
“That is where the stratagem comes in. Sima Yi, pursuing the Shu army, arrived before the city gates and saw the chancellor of Shu blocking the road—exactly as I am now, playing the guqin.”
With those words I began to play in earnest.
Until now I had only plucked a few notes to pretend I could play. Truthfully I had never studied the instrument properly.
But for a play I had once needed a single piece, and I had practiced that one piece to death until I could manage it. And that piece carried precisely the atmosphere this moment required.
Fingers struck the strings.
The trembling of the strings began to fill the banquet hall—a leisurely yet flawless resonance. When the last note faded I lifted my head and spoke.
“‘A trap! All forces, withdraw!’ That is what Sima Yi of Wei declared. Watching the Wei army retreat, the chancellor’s aide asked him,
‘You merely played the guqin—why did Sima Yi flee?’ To that question the chancellor of Shu replied—”
“Hmm… He showed such an opening and they still fled? Did they suspect an ambush?”
Jegal Hyeok muttered to himself. Ignoring him, I gazed up at the ceiling as though I myself were Zhuge Liang and spoke.
“‘In all things I have been cautious and never taken reckless risks. Sima Yi knows this of me, and so he suspected an ambush and ordered the retreat. Yet how regrettable… Today Sima Yi withdrew, but he has finally read me. If we meet again, I do not know whether I will be able to stop him.’”
Words that seemed almost designed to elevate Sima Yi.
Perhaps for that reason, Jegal Hyeok’s expression was none too pleased.
But all of it was merely the foundation upon which the true hero would stand.
“That is what the chancellor of Shu said. With nothing but a single guqin he had turned back the pursuit of tens of thousands, and still he remained humble. Are you not all curious who this chancellor was?”
“Stop dragging it out and tell us!”
“That bastard’s been saying ‘the chancellor’ this and ‘the chancellor’ that without ever naming him—now he’s finally going to!”
The bandits urged me to hurry.
“Courtesy name Gongming, given name Liang.”
The moment the words left my mouth, Jegal Hyeok flinched. He must have recalled the Zhuge Liang I had asked about earlier.
“And the surname is Zhuge. It is none other than Zhuge Liang! Zhuge Kongming! Yes! The man who, with nothing but a single guqin, turned back the Sima clan’s army of tens of thousands—that man is the ancestor of the clan head sitting right here among us! Ladies and gentlemen!”
In that instant every gaze turned as one toward Jegal Hyeok.
“Now then! That a descendant of such a man is present is a great honor! I ask you all for thunderous applause!”
Every thread of the narrative had been woven for one purpose: to elevate Jegal Hyeok and put him in a good mood.
At the climax I stirred the crowd and fixed every eye upon him. Quick-witted Im Seha began clapping at once; the others followed.
“Ahem, ahem…”
Clearly embarrassed, Jegal Hyeok fidgeted and glanced around. After a moment he rose from his seat, approached me, and spoke.
“Your gift for storytelling is truly remarkable. But is it really true? That my ancestor thoroughly thrashed that Sima fellow’s ancestor?”
“Of course. And thrashing him was only the beginning. Do you have any idea how magnificent the stories that follow are?”
“What? There are more stories after this?”
Jegal Hyeok’s eyes went round; he could not hide his excitement as he asked.